Boutte receives $300K grant to study cell wall regulation in mycobacteria

Cara Boutte

Cara Boutte, assistant professor in biology, received a three-year, $300,000 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to create a comprehensive molecular model of mycobacterial cell wall division and regulation to better understand how mycobacteria responds to stress. Read the story here.

Castoe team publishes paper revealing insights into extreme features in snakes

Todd Castoe

Todd Castoe, associate professor of biology, led a UTA team which published a new paper in Genome Research addressing questions about how snake genomes direct the production of deadly venom toxins, and other key extreme features of snakes. The team generated and analyzed the first highly complete chromosome-level genome for a snake, the prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis). Read the story here.

Frishkoff paper finds elevation shapes species survival in changing habitats

Luke Frishkoff

Luke Frishkoff, assistant professor of biology, explores how human land use expedites biodiversity loss in a paper recently published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Frishkoff and his collaborators traveled to the Dominican Republic to take a census of the region’s Anolis lizard species along an elevation gradient affected by deforestation. Read the story here.

Grover leading UTA efforts to increase diversity in higher education faculty

James Grover, College of Science associate dean for research and graduate studies, is leading UTA’s involvement in a new nationally-funded program designed to diversify STEM faculty in higher education and improve their ability to be effective teachers. UTA is working in partnership with Tarrant Community College to encourage students in STEM majors to consider teaching science and mathematics courses at community colleges. Read the story here.

Psychology senior Grecu takes part in prestigious Archer Fellowship Program

Tristan Grecu, a UTA senior in psychology, was selected to participate in the Bill Archer Fellowship Program, a prestigious initiative which allows students to learn firsthand about government and public policy in Washington, D.C. Grecu spent last semester working as a legislative intern and taking classes with his cohort in policy, government, and persuasion. Read the story here.

Highland Park High School claims third consecutive UTA Calculus Bowl title

Members of Highland Park’s team include, from left, teacher/sponsor Andy Speir, Richard Luo, Parth Nandekar, Michael Zhan, Amy Li, and Stacy Wang.

Highland Park High School prevailed over runner-up Flower Mound High School, third-place Richardson High School and the 23 other teams which competed for the coveted championship trophy during the 19th annual UTA Calculus Bowl, held March 1 in the SEIR Building. It was Highland Park’s third straight win and denied Flower Mound the chance to add to its record five Calculus Bowl championships. The event, staged by the UTA Department of Mathematics, is a fast-paced game in which teams try to be the first to correctly answer a series of calculus problems in order to accumulate the highest number of points. Learn more here.

Wahab receives award from Chinese American Chromatography Association

Farooq Wahab

Farooq Wahab, research engineering scientist in chemistry & biochemistry, was named one of two winners of the Chinese American Chromatography Association’s 2019 Young Investigator Award. Wahab was selected based on his publication record, community service, and research accomplishments in separation science, as well as letters of recommendation. He received the award March 19 during the 2019 Pittcon Conference and Expo in Philadelphia. Learn more about CACA here.

Khaledi discusses effect of immigration policy in U.S. on international students

Morteza Khaledi, dean of the UTA College of Science, discussed how the United States’ current policies on immigration can negatively affect the number of international students who come to study and work in the U.S. in the March 4 edition of Chemical & Engineering News. Khaledi said increased competition and anti-immigrant rhetoric in the U.S. could lead top international students to decide to study elsewhere. “I don’t see what we gain by excluding people,” he says in the article. Read the C&EN story here.

Gatchel co-edits new book on chronic illnesses, rehabilitation in older adults

Robert Gatchel

Robert Gatchel, UTA Distinguished Professor of Psychology, is co-editor of a new book, titled Handbook of Rehabilitation in Older Adults, which provides a comprehensive source for understanding chronic illnesses and their rehabilitation in older adults. The book is the latest in the series Handbooks in Health, Work, and Disability. The book is published by Springer and can be purchased here.

Work of UTA High Energy Physics center is highlighted in new video by APS TV

This slide, which is included in the APS TV video, shows the various international experiments in which the UTA Department of Physics is involved.

UTA’s Center of Excellence in High Energy and Nuclear Physics was the focus of a new video by the American Physical Society’s APS TV which debuted at the APS March Meeting 2019 in Boston. The video includes UTA faculty members explaining the group’s work in a variety of large-scale international experiments aimed at understanding the mysteries of the universe and its creation. Watch the APS TV video here.

Perrotti is invited to speak at National Hispanic Science Network conference

Linda Perrotti

Linda Perrotti, associate professor of psychology, has been invited to be a featured speaker and symposium panel member at the National Hispanic Science Network’s 19th Annual International Scientific Conference in New Orleans in October. Perrotti will be part of a panel examining the topic “Addiction: The Intersectionality between Biological Sex/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity and Drug Use/Abuse.” Learn more about the NHSN here.

Dasgupta paper is cited as a landmark influence by award-winning scientist

Purnendu ‘Sandy’ Dasgupta

Ken Broekhoven, an associate professor of chemical engineering at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium who was named to The Analytical Scientist magazine’s 2019 “40 under 40” List, chose a paper by Purnendu “Sandy” Dasgupta as one of the most influential papers published in 2018. Dasgupta, UTA’s Hamish Small Chair in Ion Analysis, published the paper, titled “Flow-cell-induced dispersion in flow-through absorbance detection systems: true column effluent peak variance,” in 2018. Read the story here.

Chen nanoparticle that kills tumor cells in lab tests featured in CBS 11 TV story

Nanoparticle research being done in the lab of Wei Chen, professor of physics, was profiled in a story by KTVT CBS 11 News in late February. The story described a nanoparticle, created by Chen, which has been effective at killing cancerous tumor cells in lab tests. The particle does not appear to affect nearby healthy cells. In addition to light, Chen’s nanoparticle can be activated by X-rays, microwaves and ultrasounds, giving it an advantage over photodynamic therapies. Watch the CBS 11 video here.

Rajeshwar quoted in Chemistry World article about organic synthesis study

Krishnan Rajeshwar, Distinguished University Professor in chemistry and biochemistry, talks in the February 19 edition of Chemistry World about recent research that used iron oxide, an inexpensive and visible-light-active semiconductor, as a heterogeneous photocatalyst in organic syntheses. He agrees that the photoelectrochemical cell approach has advantages over other methods, with limitations. Read the article here.