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Stronger Together
Southwest Research Institute and UTSA’s Department of Physics and Astronomy collaborate to boost student success
Headquartered in San Antonio, with office and laboratory locations around the world, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is a nonprofit research and development organization that provides contract research and development services to industrial and government clients. They also use their knowledge to prepare the next generation of scientists: 16 employees in SwRI’s Space Science and Engineering Division teach graduate-level classes and are professor advisers to graduate students in UTSA’s Physics and Astronomy Department.
The collaborative graduate program in physics with a specialization in space physics prepares students for careers in space physics through research-focused courses and investigations with space flight missions. The program offers both master’s and doctoral degrees in physics. Graduate research assistants work on space flight instrumentation alongside their advisers through instrumental design, construction and calibration. Program alumni are now employed at various universities, government labs and research institutions, including the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands, le Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille in France, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
“The projects at SwRI are usually part of a larger mission that we at SwRI are involved with,” explains Dr. Amanda Bayless, senior research scientist at SwRI and adjoint assistant professor in UTSA’s Physics and Astronomy Department. “For example, I’m on a project called SCORPIO, which will be a new large camera for the Gemini South Observatory located in Chile. My students are working on ways to identify supernovae in the all-sky surveys and then use SCORPIO and other telescopes to observe the supernovae. One student is also working on the testing and building of the SCORPIO instrument itself.” Participating students enjoy a high level of hands-on learning during their exposure to large research ventures. “One of my students last year helped with the testing of a camera for the Lucy spacecraft launching in 2021,” says Bayless. “Students at other universities do not usually work directly on NASA flight hardware.”
Students also benefit from their adviser’s industry knowledge and subject matter expertise. Dr. Hunter Waite, a scientist at SwRI and adjoint professor in UTSA’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, is currently modeling geochemical processes in the ocean interiors of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Europa with his graduate student Christine Ray and co-adviser Dr. Christopher Glein. “The Enceladus studies use the data that was collected by the Cassini Ion neutral mass spectrometer that I was the scientific team leader for [from 1992 to 2017],” says Waite. “At Europa, we are modeling to plan for future studies of the ocean composition using the MASPEX [MAss SPectrometer for Planetary EXploration] instrument we are building for the upcoming NASA Europa Clipper mission to be launched in 2024. Christine performs geochemical modeling as well as participates in the Clipper mission planning and MASPEX calibration.”
Dr. Rob Ebert, principal scientist in SwRI’s Space Science and Engineering Division and lead adjoint professor in UTSA’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, says that the program is mutually beneficial. “It enriches the research environment of the institute by enabling collaboration between SwRI scientists and graduate students,” he explains. “It provides an opportunity for mentorship and training whereby skills and knowledge are transferred to the next generation of space scientists and space hardware developers. It brings more attention and collaboration to SwRI as our UTSA students become integrated within the space community and our alumni secure positions at other institutions.”
To learn more about the collaborative graduate program, please visit grad.space.swri.edu.
In October, Southwest Research Institute, UTSA, UT Health San Antonio and Texas Biomedical Research Institute formed the San Antonio Partnership for Precision Therapeutics (SAPPT), a groundbreaking initiative that leverages the unique bioscience capabilities of all four institutions to address San Antonio’s specific medical needs while serving as a therapy-development model to improve medical treatment around the world. San Antonio’s ethnic diversity makes it an ideal location for the development of a precision therapeutics model, as the city today reflects the future demographics of the nation. Precision therapeutics focuses on personalized interventions based on genetics, environment and diet, coupled with the complete drug discovery pathway. The drug discovery pathway includes basic research, lead compound development, formulation, testing, production and clinical trials leading to new FDA-approved treatments. The partnership’s ultimate goal is to create breakthrough treatments that can be targeted to specific patient populations.
