Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey presented a talk at the International Conference on Photosynthesis Research (ICPR) Light-Harvesting Satellite Meeting, and a poster at the ICPR main meeting, both titled “Effects of Red Light and Native Environment on Light-Harvesting in the Diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum.” ICPR took place July 23–30 in Liverpool, UK. Dr. Massey conducted the research collaboratively with chemistry and physics graduates Yusuf Buhari ’23 and Annalina Slover ’26, chemistry graduates Meghana Nittala ’24 and Sanjana Nittala ’24, biochemistry graduate Carolyn Waldie ’26, chemistry major Jenna Visciani ’27, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Alex Klattenhoff.

Associate Professor of Physics Cody Crosby co-authored the open-access article “The Allstruder: an open syringe extruder for every 3D printer,” recently published in HardwareX. The research introduces an inexpensive 3D-printed syringe extruder designed to print a variety of materials and work with a range of 3D printers. The article can be read here.

Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum and physics majors Dominic Mashak ’27 and Brooke Ramey ’27 attended the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) in San José, Costa Rica from July 13–17. Mashak and Dr. Schrum presented their poster, “Multi-Objective Evolutionary Design of Molecules with Enhanced Nonlinear Optical Properties,” which was co-authored with Professor of Physics Steven Alexander. Additionally, Ramey and Mashak presented their poster, “Late Acceptance Hill Climbing for the Discovery of Stable Two-Dimensional Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides,” also co-authored with Dr. Alexander. Southwestern University computer science alumnus Alejandro Medina ’24 was also in attendance to present his poster, “Motif Diversity in Human Liver ChIP-seq Data Using MAP-Elites,” based on research conducted with his advisor at Baylor University as part of his Ph.D. studies. All posters have associated four-page extended abstracts published in the GECCO Companion to the Proceedings.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco-Wyner published “Recording seagrass growth in Mosquito Lagoon, Florida after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole” in Frontiers, along with physics major Dominic Mashak ’27 and environmental studies alumni Hailey Vickich ’25. The paper uses machine learning to classify seagrass recovery in Florida’s Mosquito Lagoon and can be read here.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby and two Southwestern undergraduate students attended the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) Biomaterials Day conference at Rice University. Biochemistry major Sabina Martinez Carreon ’27 presented a poster titled “Post-Print Reinforcement of GelMA+HAMA Scaffolds Via PEGDA Infiltration” and applied physics major Amanda Mejia ’26 presented a poster on her King Creativity chocolate printing project. Both posters were well-attended and generated significant interest among conference-goers. Amanda was awarded first prize for her poster!

Physics majors Brooke Ramey ’27 and Dominic Mashak ’27, along with Professor of Physics Steven Alexander, had their research, “Late Acceptance Hill Climbing for the Discovery of Stable Two-Dimensional Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides,” accepted to the 2026 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), taking place July 13–17 in San José, Costa Rica. The peer-reviewed research will be presented as a poster at the conference, and a four-page extended abstract will be published in the companion to the proceedings.

The Southwestern Mathematics and Computer Science Department had a strong involvement at the 105th Annual Meeting of the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), held at Baylor University in Waco on March 27 and 28. Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross was honored as the recipient of the 2026 Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. Ross also helped organize sessions as a co-leader of Texas NExT, a professional development service that helps early-career mathematics faculty refine their teaching practices. Atkin Junior Professor and Associate Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer gave the closing invited address, titled “Using Loops to Make Good Maps.” Garey Chair and Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr presided over the meeting as the MAA Texas Section Chair. She also sponsored a team of five students in the Math Bowl competition: biochemistry major and math and neuroscience double minor Elizabeth Ayalew ’28, biology and physics double major Linh Nguyen ’29, physics and math double major Brooke Ramey ’27, math major Joshua Rodkey ’29, and biochemistry and math double major CeCe Sullivan ’29. Sullivan also won a book through a raffle. Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton and Assistant Professor of Instruction of Mathematics Will Tran also attended. Marr and Ross also attended the Meeting of the Texas MAA Executive Committee, over which Marr presided, and the Meeting of Department Liaisons.

Physics major Dominic Mashak ’27, along with Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum and Professor of Physics Steven Alexander, had their research, “Multi-Objective Evolutionary Design of Molecules with Enhanced Nonlinear Optical Properties,” accepted to the 2026 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO), taking place July 13–17 in San José, Costa Rica. The peer-reviewed research will be presented as a poster at the conference, and a four-page extended abstract will be published in the companion to the proceedings.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Chelsea Massaro and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey gave talks on their research at the American Chemical Society Spring National Meeting in Atlanta, GA in March. Chemistry and physics double major Annalina Slover ’26 and biochemistry major Carolyn Waldie ’26 gave talks on their research conducted with Dr. Massey. Chemistry major Andres Garza ’27 presented a poster on his summer research conducted at the University of Arkansas. Biochemistry majors Cindy Foka ’28 and Lara Alswafta ’28 presented posters on their summer research conducted at the University of North Texas.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby and three Southwestern undergraduate students attended the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Atlanta, GA. Biochemistry major Rishi Rajesh ’27 presented a poster titled “Post-Print Reinforcement of GelMA+HAMA Scaffolds Via PEGDA Infiltration” and applied physics major Amanda Mejia ’26 presented a poster on her King Creativity chocolate printing project. Both posters were well-attended and generated significant interest among conference-goers.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby co-authored an open-access article, titled “Digital light processing 3D printing enables versatile fabrication of human engineered heart tissues,” that was recently published in Cell Biomaterials. Briefly, the authors demonstrated that engineered heart tissue (EHT) molds from inexpensive polymer resins could be deployed to fabricate heart tissue with enhanced cytoskeletal and metabolic maturity. The work can be accessed here.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby co-authored “Dynamic Regulation of Granular Hydrogels Through Guest-Host Interactions to Spatiotemporally Guide Cellular Migration” in the journal Advanced Science (IF = 14.1), along with several postdoctoral scholars and graduate students in the Burdick Lab at the University of Colorado–Boulder. The manuscript represents work undertaken during his pre-tenure sabbatical and demonstrates that printing granular hydrogels in particulate suspension paths can create a dynamic environment that can regulate cell migration. The work can be found, open access, at this link.

Professor of Physics Steven Alexander and four of his research students — Heidi Jackson ’26, Casandra Nunez ’26, Anshika Katrodia ’26, and Brooke Ramey ’27 — attended the Fall 2025 meeting of the Texas Section of the American Physical Society, held October 10-11 in Fort Worth. Dr. Alexander presented a poster titled “Using Molecular Annealing to Find Molecules with Specific Absorbance Peaks” and Brooke Ramey presented a poster titled “Verifying the Experimental Hyperpolarizabilities of Organic Molecules Using Density Functional Theory.” Heidi Jackson, Casandra Nunez, and Anshika Katrodia presented a poster titled “Analyzing Emission Spectra to Determine the Mass of a Black Hole.” All of the posters generated considerable interest and some insightful discussions.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby and three of his SURF research students — Sabina Martinez Carreon ’27, Bryan Guzman-Sanchez ’26, and Rishi Rajesh ’27 — attended the 2025 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, held October 8-11 in San Diego. Dr. Crosby moderated two sessions at the international conference, a bioprinting session and a rapid-fire talk session for undergraduates in biomaterials. Sabina presented the group’s poster, titled “Post-Print Reinforcement of GelMA/HAMA Scaffolds via PEGDA Infiltration,” at the main conference and at the separate LatinX in BME Symposium. Both posters were well-attended by other conference-goers and generated some insightful and helpful discussions. Amanda Mejia ’27 and Gabriela Nicole Hislop Gomez ’26 also attended and participated in the conference.

Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum recently attended the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference in Málaga, Spain to present his peer-reviewed paper, “A Quality Diversity Approach to Evolving Model Rockets,” co-authored with Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby. The article, freely accessible here from the ACM Digital library, describes the use of AI methods inspired by evolution to create designs for model rockets. An informative video about this joint research is also available here.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby first authored “Fabrication of Microgel-Reinforced Hydrogels via Vat Photopolymerization” in the journal ACS Macro Letters with Abhishek Dhand and the Burdick Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. The manuscript is the culmination of his pre-tenure sabbatical and demonstrates for the first time that micron-sized hydrogels can be incorporated at high densities in complex resin-printed geometries. The work can be found here.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby presented his sabbatical research, titled “Digital light processing 3D printing of microgel-reinforced hydrogels,” via a 15-minute platform presentation at the 2025 Society for Biomaterials (SFB) Annual Meeting held in Chicago on April 10. The first-author work is currently under review.

Physics majors Joseph (Joe) Dorsey ’26 and Amanda Mejia ’27 attended the Capital of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference (CTURC) hosted at the University of Texas at Austin. Joe presented platform presentations on his and Amanda’s research conducted in the bioprinting laboratory of Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby.

Associate Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum and Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby had their paper, “A Quality Diversity Approach to Evolving Model Rockets,” accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference. For this paper, evolutionary computation algorithms studied by Dr. Schrum were applied to the problem of designing model rockets, like those built by Dr. Crosby’s students in his Introduction to Engineering class. The designs evolved by Dr. Schrum’s program were simulated in a computer, and the most promising designs were built by physics and computer science double-major Kade Townsend ’25, before being launched and evaluated in the real world.

Joseph (Joe) Dorsey ’26, Gabriela Nicole Hislop Gomez ’26, Bryan Guzman-Sanchez ’26, Sabina Martinez Carreon ’28, and Amanda Mejia ’27 attended the Texas Academy of Science (TAS) 2025 Annual Meeting hosted in Waco. Joe and Amanda presented platform presentations on their research conducted in the bioprinting laboratory of Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby. Joe was awarded first place among the platform presentations in the physics and engineering section. Dr. Crosby also contributed as one of the meeting’s section chairs.

Ashlyn Cadena ’27, Olive Forrest ’26, Andres Garza ’27, Amanda Mejia ’27, Olivia Johnson ’26, and Professor of Chemistry Emily Niemeyer attended the 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM Scholars and Principal Investigator Meeting in Chicago, IL. In addition to interacting with other S-STEM Scholars from around the country and attending workshops and professional development sessions, three Scholars presented their research in conference sessions. Garza’s poster, titled “Laser induced synthesis of cobalt oxide oxygen evolution catalysts,” described work he completed during a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at Texas State University. Mejia presented a poster, “Granular hydrogel synthesis for comparable in vitro model of brain parenchyma tissue,” which is based on her ongoing research with Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby. Cadena’s poster, “Perimeter Minimizing Rectangles in R2 with density M|x| + N|y|,” described her collaborative research with other Southwestern math students, Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross, and Adjunct Professor of Mathematics Lauren Ross.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby presented his lab’s progress via a poster presentation at the 2024 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting held in Baltimore, MD.

Physics majors Joseph Dorsey ’25 and Amanda Mejia ’26 presented their extrusion bioprinting poster at the 2024 Regional Symposium (Southwest) hosted at UT Austin. Simultaneously, Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby presented his lab’s pedagogical work on polymer modification at the 2024 Regional Symposium (Western) hosted at the University of Colorado Denver (Anschutz campus).

Dante Medina ’26 presented a poster titled “Using Molecules to Store Energy” at the Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Waco, TX. This presentation resulted from research done with Professor of Physics Steve Alexander.

Dominic Mashak ’26 presented a poster titled “Finding Molecules with Large Hyperpolarizabilities” at the Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Waco, TX. This presentation resulted from research done with Professor of Physics Steve Alexander during the summer of 2024.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby co-authored “Endometrial decidualization status modulates endometrial microvascular complexity and trophoblast outgrowth in gelatin methacryloyl hydrogels” in the journal npj Women’s Health  with Dr. Samantha Zambuto and the Harley Lab at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The work was published open-access and can be downloaded here.

Gabriela Nicole Hislop Gomez ’26, Angel Rodriguez ’24, and Sabrina Woodward ’25 gave platform presentations at the Capitol of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference (CTURC) hosted at UT Austin. Their presentations were the result of work conducted in the bioprinting laboratory of Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby co-authored “Fabrication and Characterization of Quad-Component Bioinspired Hydrogels to Model Elevated Fibrin Levels in Central Nervous Tissue Scaffolds” in the journal Gels with Dr. Dany Munoz-Pinto and his undergraduate laboratory at Trinity University. The work was published open-access and can be downloaded here.

Gabriela Nicole Hislop Gomez ’26, Noor Nazeer ’24, and Angel Rodriguez ’24 presented their research talks at the Texas Academy of Science (TAS) 2024 Annual Meeting hosted at UT Permian Basin in Odessa. Noor and Angel were awarded first place in the chemistry/biochemistry and physics/engineering sections, respectively. Their presentations were the result of work conducted in the bioprinting laboratory of Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby published a review titled “Open-source extrusion 3D bioprinters: Trends and recommendations” in the journal Bioprinting. The publication evaluates the latest syringe extruders that have been designed to extrude bio-inks and offers concrete recommendations to ensure that this technology remains inexpensive and open-source. The process involved building and testing the five most popular designs available in the literature, as seen in Figure 2. The paper can be accessed for free for 50 days here.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby, alongside three outstanding Southwestern alumni and current students (Domenic Cordova ’23, Angel Rodriguez ’24, and Nina Woodward ’24), published an article in HardwareX that demonstrated the development of an open-source bioprinting extruder for Ender-series 3D printers. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2024.e00510

Five students presented four talks at the Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (TUMC), and four more students attended. The conference was held at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, on October 27-28, 2023. Adrianna Flores-Vivas ’24 presented “Wolf Reintegration in Yellowstone National Park.” Ashley Odell ’24 and Madison Williams ’24 presented “Does Money Really Buy Happiness?”. Blue Goodson ’24 presented “The Mathematical Artistry of Portrait Making.” Johanna Campbell ’24 presented “To the Heart of the Milky Way.” The speakers gave preliminary presentations of their mathematics capstone projects under the supervision of Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton. Associate Professor of Physics Mark Bottorf co-supervised Cambell’s. Shelton also moderated two sessions of student talks. Zoe Kincaid ’24 attended, and first-year S-STEM/EQUIP students Amanda Mejia ’27, Juliana Elizondo ’27, and Alyanna Martinez ’27 also attended. The TUMC is partially supported by the National Science Foundation grant DMS-2226539. The Atkin Junior Professorship in Mathematics for Assistant Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer provided funding.

Noor Nazeer ’24 and Nicole Hislop ’26 presented their work with Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby October 20-21 at the Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium (GCURS), hosted on Rice University’s campus. Both platform presentations, entitled “Synthesizing Biomaterial Inks to Determine Significant Printing Parameters,” earned complimentary reviews from the graduate student judging panel.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby and four of his FSP research students— Nicole Hislop ’26, Noor Nazeer ’25, Angel Rodriguez ’24, and Nina Woodward ’25 — attended the 2023 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, held October 11-14 in Seattle, Washington. They presented two posters focused on the development of a novel biomaterial ink for simulating brain parenchyma tissue and the fabrication of a syringe extruder for Ender series 3D printers (the “Enderstruder”). Both posters were well-attended and generated some fascinating discussions.

Kristie Cheng ’23 and Angel Rodriguez ’24 presented their work with Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby on March 3-4 at the 2023 Texas Academy of Sciences (TAS) Annual Meeting hosted at San Angelo State in San Angelo, Texas. Cheng presented a talk entitled “Printability of biomaterial inks to mimic the blood-brain barrier,” and Rodriguez presented a talk entitled “Engineering an ultra-low-cost open-source 3D bioprinter from a Creality Ender 3 FDM 3D Printer”. Both talks were well-attended and received great questions from the audience.

Domenic Cordova ’23 and Nina Woodward ’25 presented their work with Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby on March 4 at the Capitol of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference (CTURC), hosted on UT Austin’s campus. Cordova presented a poster entitled “A Low-Cost Affordable Bioprinter Attachment for an Ender 3 3D Printer,” and Woodward presented a poster entitled “An ImageJ Script to Analyze the Printability of Bioprinted Lattices.” Both earned complimentary reviews from the judging panel.

A wonderful interdisciplinary group from Southwestern participated in the 17th Annual Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (TUMC), held this year at the University of Texas at Austin on October 29. Carson Vogel ’23 presented “Modeling Heat Transfer.” This project is a continuation of the 2021 and 2022 SCOPE projects under the supervision of Professor of Physics Steven Alexander and Associate Professor of Physics Mark Bottorf. This work is part of ongoing efforts for the eventual development of a solar energy storage cell; a problem brought to Southwestern by Coordinator of Science Facilities and Equipment Oscar Lee Fellows. Melanie Richey ’23 presented “Rats on the Run: Modeling of Hippocampal Cell Activity Using Plasticity.” Her project is a continuation of a 2022 Research Experience for Undergraduates at Southern Methodist University under the supervision of Dr. Katie Hedrick in collaboration with Dr. Brad E. Pfeiffer, Department of Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center. Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr and Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton also attended the conference. Marr chaired a student presentation session. Shelton supervised Vogel’s and Richey’s current work, preliminary results for their mathematics capstone projects. Jillian Reese ’23 and Emma Lewis ’23 joined with their counterparts from the University of North Texas-Denton in research with Shelton and Dr. Joe Iaia, funded through the Council for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics. Other students also attended: Oliver Johnson ’23, Jess Kazmir ’23, Lauren Calzado ’23, Rowan Via ’23, Kathryn Altman ’24, and Aidan Bujanda-Moore ’23. Majors and minors among our student attendees included Mathematics, Computational Mathematics, Physics, Economics, Education, Spanish, and Political Science.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby and two of his FSP research students— Domenic Cordova ’23 and Noah Pyles ’23 — attended the Great Plains Biomaterials Day in Lawrence, Kansas, on November 4, 2022. They presented two rapid-fire talks focused on developing a novel biomaterial ink for the blood-brain barrier and the fabrication of a low-cost Ender-3 bioprinter. Only 5 of the 35 submissions were selected for rapid-fire talks at the conference.

A wonderful interdisciplinary group from Southwestern participated in the 17th Annual Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (TUMC), held this year at the University of Texas at Austin on October 29. Carson Vogel ’23 presented “Modeling Heat Transfer.” This project is a continuation of the 2021 and 2022 SCOPE projects under the supervision of Professor of Physics Steven Alexander and Associate Professor of Physics Mark Bottorf. This work is part of ongoing efforts for the eventual development of a solar energy storage cell; a problem brought to Southwestern by Coordinator of Science Facilities and Equipment Oscar Lee Fellows. Melanie Richey ’23 presented “Rats on the Run: Modeling of Hippocampal Cell Activity Using Plasticity.” Her project is a continuation of a 2022 Research Experience for Undergraduates at Southern Methodist University under the supervision of Dr. Katie Hedrick in collaboration with Dr. Brad E. Pfeiffer, Department of Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center. Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr and Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton also attended the conference. Marr chaired a student presentation session. Shelton supervised Vogel’s and Richey’s current work, preliminary results for their mathematics capstone projects. Jillian Reese ’23 and Emma Lewis ’23 joined with their counterparts from the University of North Texas-Denton in research with Shelton and Dr. Joe Iaia, funded through the Council for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics. Other students also attended: Oliver Johnson ’23, Jess Kazmir ’23, Lauren Calzado ’23, Rowan Via ’23, Kathryn Altman ’24, and Aidan Bujanda-Moore ’23. Majors and minors among our student attendees included Mathematics, Computational Mathematics, Physics, Economics, Education, Spanish, and Political Science.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby and four of his FSP research students— Kristie  Cheng ’23, Domenic Cordova ’23, Noah Pyles ’23, and Angel Rodriguez ’24— attended the 2022  Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, held October 12-15 in San Antonio, Texas. They presented two posters focused on the development of a novel biomaterial ink for the  blood-brain barrier and the fabrication of a low-cost Ender-3 bioprinter. Both posters were  well-attended by other conference-goers and generated some insightful and helpful discussions.

Jonathan Smart ’23 presented his work with Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby titled “Quantifying the Printability of Biomaterial Inks” on April 23 at the Heart of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference sponsored by Baylor Undergraduate Research in Science & Technology. 

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby gave a poster presentation titled “Phototunable Interpenetrating Polymer Network Hydrogels Stimulate iPSC-EP Vasculogenesis” at the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society 6th World Congress, held virtually November 15–19. 

The lab of Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby was recently featured in a KXAN News story, which was picked up by NBC affiliates in Denver, Colorado, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

Business and biology major Andrew Vergote ’21 gave a talk titled “Novel Bioinks: The Gateway to Bioprinting Complex Biological Tissues” at the 2021 BBB South Central Virtual Regional Convention. The talk resulted from research that Vergote completed with Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby in spring 2021. They plan to continue this research as a funded Faculty–Student Project this summer.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby presented “Phototunable Interpenetrating Polymer Network Hydrogels Stimulate iPSC-EP Vasculogenesis” during two Rapid-Fire Sessions, which feature 10-minute talks, at the Rock Stars of Regenerative Engineering Conference and the Annual Meeting of the Society for Biomaterials, which were held virtually April 19–23, 2021.

Physics and mathematics major Gerardo Gonzalez ’22 gave a talk at the 2021 spring meeting of the American Physical Society (Texas Section) titled “Transition Probabilities for a Relativistic One-Electron Atom.” Most of the research presented during this talk resulted from a 2019 SCOPE project that Gonzalez completed with Professor of Physics Steven Alexander. They are currently working on a paper that will describe their calculations.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby  had his article “ Phototunable Interpenetrating Polymer Network Hydrogels to Stimulate the Vasculogenesis of Stem Cell–Derived Endothelial Progenitors ” accepted for publication in Acta Biomaterialia  (with an impact factor of 7.242). The preprint can be accessed at bioRxiv .

Double major in German and physics Claire Harding ’20 earned a prestigious Fulbright Award. The nationally competitive Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship will take Harding to Germany, where she will integrate hands-on science learning with lessons in American cultures and the English language. The Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Program places recent college graduates and young professionals as English teaching assistants in secondary schools or universities overseas, improving foreign students’ English language abilities and knowledge of the U.S. while increasing the U.S. student’s own language proficiency and knowledge of the host country. ETAs also pursue individual study/research plans in addition to their teaching responsibilities. Harding’s teacher and mentor, Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth, deeply appreciates Harding’s contributions to the German program as a tutor and member of the leadership team of the German Club.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards attended the Teaching Computational Thinking Skills with MATLAB Workshop at the Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College October 20–22.  Edwards served as a workshop facilitator and peer reviewer in addition to delivering a presentation titled “Adding a MATLAB Component to an Engineering Dynamics Course ” based on her experience integrating a computational component into the Engineering Dynamics course at Southwestern.  

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards helped lead a workshop held May 14–16, at St. Edward’s University, on conducting air-quality research using ozonesondes. Ozonesondes are lightweight instruments that are launched on weather balloons to measure the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere and to sample air pollutant from the ground’s surface to an altitude of 30 kilometers. SCOPE students Daniel Whitney ’21 and Jacob Fly ’21 participated in the workshop, along with several St. Edward’s students. In addition to an overview of the science of air quality, the participants learned two protocols for conditioning the instrument and then launched a balloon.

Visiting Professor of Environmental Engineering Rebecca Edwards  was invited to visit the office of the state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon at Texas A&M University on March 12 to discuss her research on the climatology of extreme precipitation in Texas over the past 100 years. The invitation was extended following a presentation of her work at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, in January.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards attended the 99th Annual American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Jan. 6–9.  While there, she delivered two presentations: “Changes in Heavy and Extreme Precipitation in Texas 1900–2015,” a statistical analysis of heavy precipitation events in Texas over the past century, and “The Central Texas Collaborative Air Quality Monitoring Experiment,” which described a course-based research experience that involved launching weather balloons from the Southwestern campus during the spring of 2018 as part of the Energy and the Environment course. She also presented a poster titled “Influences on Air Quality in Georgetown, Texas,” a preliminary study of the data collected as part of the weather-balloon project described above

Eleven Southwestern University faculty members have won Sam Taylor Fellowship grants to support their research, with award amounts ranging from $1,000 to $1,600. Sam Taylor Fellowships are selected through a competitive application process and are provided by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church. This year’s recipients are

• Professor of Physics Steven Alexander, “Generating Energy from Hot Sidewalks” (awarded $1,200)
• Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Lamiyah Bahrainwala, “The Politics of Stealth Halal: Re-Presenting the Islamic Origins of U.S. Meat Products” (awarded $1,600)
• Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth , “Nature Education in the German Classroom: Possibilities for Integration and Inclusion?” (awarded $1,400)
• Professor of Biology Romi Burks, “Unravelling the Mystery: Genetic Differentiation of Chinese and Japanese Mysterysnails Using 16S” (awarded $1,400)
• Assistant Professor of History Jethro Hernandez Berrones, “With Indigenist Spirit: Doctors on Spiritual Practices in Post-Revolutionary Mexico” (awarded $1,500)
• Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson, “Human–Jaguar Becomings and Racial Capitalism in Belize” (awarded $1,000)
• Associate Professor of French Francis Mathieu, “Research on Claire de Duras’s Avant-Garde Novella, Ourika” (awarded $1,400)
• Associate Professor of French Aaron Prevots, “Gestures toward the Sacred: Guillevic, Vargaftig, Tellermann, Michel” (awarded $1,400)
• Associate Professor of Communication Studies Valerie Renegar, “Contemporary Modes of Parenting: Disrupting the Representation of Stepmothers in Popular Culture” (awarded $1,500)
• Associate Professor of Spanish Maria De Los Angeles Rodriguez Cadena, “Cultural Memory and Historical Fiction: Women of the Past on Television and Film by Four Contemporary Mexican Women Directors” (awarded $1,400)
• Assistant Professor of Political Science Emily Sydnor, “Researching Attachments to American Political Institutions” (awarded $1,600)

Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering Rebecca Edwards attended the 2018 Teaching Computation in the Sciences Using MATLAB workshop at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, Oct. 14–16. While there, she served on a committee who peer-reviewed a collection of curricular activities featuring MATLAB.

Senior Physics and Computational Math double-major Yash Gandhi, class of 2018, has been awarded an H. Y. Benedict Fellowship from Alpha Chi National Honor Society. Alpha Chi is a national honor society that was founded at Southwestern University in 1922, and is only open to the top 10% of juniors and seniors. Furthermore, only two Alpha Chi members from each university may be nominated to be awarded one of 10 fellowships awarded nationwide. The $3,000 in fellowship money will be used to help Yash attend graduate studies in Computer Science next year. Full press release here.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards launched two ozonesonde instruments on weather balloons from the SU campus on March 30 and 31. She was assisted by mathematics student Morgan Engle, class of 2018, environmental studies students Lucas Evans, class of 2018, and Daniella De Souza, class of 2019, and alumnus Amy McKee ’96 and her family.  The launches are part of an experiment designed to evaluate the impact of the growing Austin Metro area on the air quality in Georgetown. Instrumentation carried by the balloons measures ozone, an air pollutant at the surface, as well as temperature and relative humidity. Each balloon reached an altitude of 30 km before bursting and provided valuable insight into the vertical structure of the atmosphere over the City of Georgetown.  Three more launches are planned for the month of April and all launches are open to all. This research was generously supported by a Green Fund grant.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics Rebecca Edwards attended the 98th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, January 7–11 in Austin. She presented a poster titled “Peak Over Threshold Analysis of Heavy Precipitation in Texas” based upon work done with physics student Mady Akers, class of 2018. She also gave a presentation about this summer’s SCOPE project titled “The Balcones Escarpment Environmental Monitoring Experiment” during the Educational Symposium. Edwards was joined at the meeting by mathematics student Morgan Engle, class of 2018, who presented a poster about her Capstone research, “Insights into the Influence of ENSO on United States Gulf Coast Ozone Using a Surface Ozone Climatology.”

Twenty-two Southwestern students traveled to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor to attend the 120th meeting of the Texas Academy of Science (TAS), March 4–5. Collectively, Southwestern students gave four oral presentations and presented 12 posters in numerous sections of the Academy including Conservation Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, Computer Science, Environmental Science, Physics, Systematics and Evolution, Freshwater Science, and Science Education. Much of the work presented at TAS took place in past summer SCOPE programs. Several students and alumni received awards:

• Victoria Gore, Class of 2017, received the Best Oral Presentation Award in the Environmental Science Section for her work, “Extreme Precipitation: Changes in Rain Frequency from 1895-2015 in Central Texas.”  Gore worked on this project during SCOPE with her mentor Part-Time Assistant Professor of Physics Rebecca Edwards.
• Bella Ferranti, Class of  2017, received the Best Oral Presentation Award in the Physics Section for her talk, “Laser Frequency Combs and the Search for Exoplanets.”  This is the second presentation that Ferranti has given at the Texas Academy of Sciences.
• Lauren Gillespie, Class of 2019, received the Best Poster Presentation Award in Mathematics and Computer Science for her work entitled “Evolving Tetris Players Using Raw Screen Inputs,” which she worked on with Assistant Professor of Computer Science Jacob Schrum.
• Sofia Campos ’16 took the Best Poster prize in the Systematics and Evolution Section and also won 2nd place overall for her presentation, “Cryptic yet curiously common: Population genetic structure and diversity of a cryptic Pomacea sp. and its better known congeneric P. canaliculata,”  which summarized her work in Uruguay with Professor of Biology Romi Burks.
• Madison Granier, Class of 2019, received the Best Poster prize in the Conservation Biology section and also received a $1500 grant from the Academy to support her undergraduate research titled “Snail Slime in Real Time: qPCR Detection of Environmental DNA using Apple Snails.”  This work involves a collaboration between Granier, Burks and alumni Matthew Barnes ’06, now an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University.
• Carissa Bishop, Class of 2017, won two presentation awards: Best Oral Presentation in Freshwater Science, for her talk entitled “Applying Band-Aids: Challenges associated with molecular detection of Angiostronglyus cantonensis infection within Uruguayan and Brazilian apple snails,” and a Poster Award in Science Education for a collaborative project titled “Innovating molecular art: Communicating the true cost of science through repurposed materials.” Campos ’16, Shannon Walsh and Hugo Cepeda, both Class of 2018, all made contributions to the molecular art piece based on research that they have done with Burks. All of the molecular work has been made possible through a grant awarded to the Natural Sciences by the Keck Foundation.

Other TAS presenters included Alex Taylor, Renee Walker, Morgan O’Neal, Jillian Bradley, Daniel Gonzalez, Eris Tock, Alex Rollins, and Jiawen Zhang, all Class of 2017, Ramesh Nadeem, Dakota Butler, Diana Beltran, Susan Beltran, and Madelyn Akers, all Class of 2018. Additional faculty mentors included Professor of Chemistry Kerry Bruns, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Michael Gesinski, Professor of Biology Ben Pierce,  and Part-Time Assistant Professor of Biology Airon Wills.

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Physics Rebecca Edwards attended the 97th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society Jan. 22–26 in Seattle, Wash. At the meeting, physics student Oliver Sale, Class of 2017, presented a poster titled “Investigation of Central Texas Surface Ozone Concentrations 1980–2015,” which resulted from work he did with Edwards and Dr. Gary Morris of St. Edward’s University as part of the SCOPE program (Summer 2016) and as part of his capstone research with Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton.

Southwestern had a great showing at the Joint Mathematics Meeting, the largest meeting of mathematicians in the world, held Jan. 4–7 in Atlanta, Ga. Six faculty, eight students, and an alumna participated in multiple ways.

• Associate Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr was very active at this meeting.  As the Secretary/Treasurer of the IBL SIGMAA (Inquiry-Based Learning Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America), she helped organize the MAA Session on Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning; this topic needed five sessions because of its importance, relevance, and national attention. She also co-organized the MAA Panel “Perspectives on Inquiry-Based Learning: Novice, Experienced, and Master,” and helped run the first IBL SIGMAA business meeting. She also presented “Broadening the Net: Promoting Success in the Sciences for All Students” at the MAA Poster Session on Projects Supported by the NSF Division of Undergraduate Education. Poster co-authors include  Professor of Chemistry Emily D. Niemeyer, Associate Professor of Physics Mark Bottorff, Associate Professor of Computer Science Barbara Anthony, and Director of General Chemistry Labs Willis A. Weigand. She was also a co-author on a paper, “Coprime and prime labelings of ladder graphs and complete bipartite graphs,” presented in the AMS Special Session on RE(UF)search on Graphs and Matrices.
• Visiting Assistant Professor John Ross and Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton co-presented “Supermarkets, Highways, and Oil Production: Statistics and Social Justice.” This work began with participation in an ACS workshop, “Mathematics and Social Justice,” May 21–22, 2016 at Rollins College.
• Ross and Visiting Assistant Professor Linda DiLullo participated in the workshop “Preparing Students for Success in Calculus: Aligning Placement, Curriculum, and Assessment” offered through the MAA under an NSF grant.
• Shelton co-presented the MAA Minicourse on Teaching Modeling-First Differential Equations—Technology and Complete End Game Effort, attended the MAA Section Officers’ Meeting as Past Chair of the Texas Section, and organized funding and logistics for Southwestern’s student and alum presenters and attendees.
• Professor of Mathematics Kendall Richards co-organized the AMS Special Session on Complex Analysis and Special Functions.
• Alumna Julia R. Sykora ’16 presented “3D Mathematical Models For the Blind” in the MAA Session on Methods of Engaging Math Learners with Physical Impairments. This was based on her 2015–16 King Creativity Project with Allison K. Young ’16 supervised by Shelton.
• Southwestern students also presented at the AMS Contributed Paper Session on Undergraduate Research:
  • William Soller, Class of 2017, and Kristen McCrary, Class of 2018, presented “Existence, Uniqueness, and Cost-Optimizing Results of Mathematical Trusses” based on their 2016 SCOPE work supervised by Ross.
  • Morgan Engle and Penny Phan, both Class of 2018, presented “Green Math: Models of Greenhouse Gasses” from the 2016 SCOPE work supervised by Shelton.
  • Oliver Sale, Class of 2017, presented “Investigation of Central Texas Surface Ozone Concentrations 1980–2015” on work that began in 2016 SCOPE supervised by Part-Time Assistant Professor of Physics Rebecca Edwards. In Fall 2016, Sale continued the work in his mathematics capstone; Edwards continued to primarily oversee the project, and Shelton oversaw the math capstone and prepared Sale for the presentation.
  • Victoria Gore, Class of 2017, presented “Extreme Precipitation: Changes in Rain Frequency from 1895–2015 in Central Texas” from the 2016 SCOPE work supervised by Edwards.
  • Beulah Agyemang-Barimah, Class of 2017, received funding from Southwestern’s Keck Foundation grant to attend sessions on mathematical and computational biology.
  • Emma Kathryn Groves, Class of 2017, also attended the meetings.

Seven Southwestern faculty members were awarded a prestigious Sam Taylor Fellowship Grant. The 2016 recipients include:

• Professor of Physics Steven Alexander, “Creating a Wave-Powered Robot,” $1,200
• Associate Professor of Music David Asbury, “Research at the Library of Congress and the University of South Carolina Related to the Correspondence of Andrés Segovia and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco,” $1,100
• Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth, “Learning Arabic to Teach the Syrian Refugee Crisis: Inclusiveness and Diversity in the German Classroom,” $1,750
• Associate Professor of Art History Patrick Hajovsky, “Examining Excavated Aztec Sculptures and Offerings in the Templo Mayor Museum and Museo Nacional de Antropología,” $1,220
• Associate Professor of French Aaron Prevots, “Gestures Toward the Sacred: Guillevic, Vargaftig, Tellerman, Michel,” $1,500
• Associate Professor of Communication Studies Valerie Renegar, “Beyond the “Wicked Stepmother”: Representations of Stepmothers in Popular Culture,” $1,830
• Professor of Spanish Katy Ross, “Immigration in Spain: The Cultural Effects of Otherness,” $1,500

Associate Professor of Physics Mark Bottorff has had published the observation work he did three years ago on a large international ground and space satellite monitoring project in the “Astrophysical Journal.” Vince Estrada-Carpenter ’13 and Botorff are listed as co-authors on the paper.

Professor of Physics Steve Alexander and Curran Johnston ’14 had their article “Naturally Occuring Heavy Radioactive Elements in the Geothermal Microcosm of the Los Azufres (Mexico) Volcanic Complex” published in the “Journal of Environmental Radioactivity.”

At the March meeting of the American Physical Society in San Antonio, Professor of Physics Steven Alexander gave a talk titled “Calculating Properties of Finite Mass Atoms.”