Congratulations

u The Integrative Biology (IB) M.S. program was named a finalist in the graduate category for the 2022 Examples of Excelencia program by

Excelencia in Education. Excelencia is the nation’s premier authority in efforts to accelerate Latino student success in higher education.

u The Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology (MMI) launched a new Ph.D. program in molecular microbiology and immunology to address the critical local, state and national workforce shortage of specialists in immunology and infectious diseases.

u Janis Bush (IB) is leading a research team that surveyed the Texas landscape for milkweed, which is critical to the survival of the monarch butterfly. The team has partnered with organizations such as the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Services, the Monarch Joint Venture and the National

Butterfly Center.

u Fang Xu (Chemistry) is the co-principal investigator on a proposal to more efficiently generate hydrogen from methanol, a renewable feedstock. Xu’s co-principal investigator, Shyam Kattel, is an assistant professor in the

Department of Physics at Florida A&M University. The project received a three-year, $650,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

u Audrey Lamb (Chemistry) was awarded a $486,000 grant from the National

Science Foundation to advance her team’s research on the enzymes that produce riboflavin, more commonly known as vitamin B2.

u In July, the Department of Physics and Astronomy held an international collaboration to advance the technical readiness of high uranium density fuels (HDFs) and composites for small modular reactors. Led by

Elizabeth Sooby (Physics and Astronomy), the participants from the Los

Alamos National Laboratory, Boise State University and the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom shared their knowledge, trained students and planned an aggressive experimental scope of work to prepare for the next generation of nuclear fuel compounds.

u UTSA and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) are collaborating to improve storage materials for hydrogen fuels with a hybrid metal-carbon microstructure that combines both chemical and physical hydrogen storage mechanisms. The project is supported by a $125,000 grant from the Connecting through Research Partnerships (Connect) program and will be led by Kathryn Mayer (Physics and Astronomy), Fang Xu (Chemistry) and Josh Mangum of SwRI’s Mechanical Engineering Division.

u Chris Packham (Physics and Astronomy) experienced history as NASA shared the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful telescope in the world. Packham is a member of the select group of astronomers to whom NASA awarded time using the telescope.

u Aimin Liu (Chemistry) was awarded a three-year, $495,000

Accomplishment-Based Renewal (ABR) grant from the National Science

Foundation to advance his research on the human body’s metabolic processes using an innovative method that will improve the understanding of amino acids. u Angela Speck (Physics and Astronomy) discussed her findings regarding stardust crystallization during the semiannual conference of the American

Astronomical Society (AAS). Understanding what stardust is made of and its crystal structure is key to unlocking fundamental answers to how stars are born and how they die.

u UTSA announced the 10 recipients of the Oskar Fischer Prize, an international competition to expand society’s understanding of the causes of Alzheimer’s disease. The prize, the world’s largest of its kind, totals $4 million in gold, silver and bronze categories, with finalists receiving $500,000, $400,000 and $300,000, respectively. Launched in 2019 following a philanthropic gift to UTSA from Texas businessman James

Truchard, the Oskar Fischer Prize put forward a unique challenge by engaging the world’s brightest researchers to develop proposals to change how society looks at Alzheimer’s disease.

u Richard Anantua (Physics and Astronomy) was part of a team of astronomers who unveiled the first-ever image of Sagittarius A*, the black hole that sits at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. That team, the Event

Horizon Telescope Collaboration, is an international research group that uses its worldwide network of radio telescopes and a technique called interferometry to capture high-resolution data as if it were one Earth-size telescope. This is only the second time in history that a black hole image has been captured.

u Doctoral student Tom Varner (Earth and Planetary Sciences) was awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship for the 2022–2023 academic year. In

India, Varner will conduct field work on arsenic in drinking water, which affects an estimated 300 million people worldwide.

u Francis Yoshimoto (Chemistry) introduced innovative pedagogy by utilizing virtual reality headsets to help his students observe and analyze protein structures.

u Nine faculty members from the College of Sciences were named University

Excellence Award winners. The annual University Excellence Awards celebrates the achievements of Roadrunner faculty and staff, including exceptional teaching, innovative research, exemplary team spirit and impactful advocacy.

u Biochemistry student Samantha Oviedo (Chemistry) was named a Barry

Goldwater Scholar. The award is the most prestigious national scholarship bestowed on undergraduate students engaging in undergraduate research in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics.

u The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) named Amanda Fernandez (Computer Science) and Thomas Forsthuber (MMI) as part of its 2022 class of NAI Senior Members.

u Francis Yoshimoto (Chemistry) is leading a team that developed an antiobesity drug that blocks the effects of cytochrome P450 8B1, the enzyme linked to cholesterol absorption and obesity.