Imagine if all the wood waste left over from home construction zones, furniture manufacturing, landscaping projects, or lumber mills could be turned into a substance as strong as steel. That is the goal of a research project at the University of Tennessee led by Art Ragauskas, UT-ORNL governor’s chair for biorefining and acting department head of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. The project—Waste Upcycling for Defense (WUD)—received a $2 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),…
West receives AIMBE’s highest honor for transformative contributions to biomedical engineering Jennifer L. West, Dean of the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Saunders Family Professor of Engineering, has been awarded the 2025 Pierre Galletti Award, the highest honor from the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). West is recognized for her “innovative research in biomaterials and nanomedicine, her leadership in the field, and her dedication to mentoring the next generation of biomedical…
Brian Brown, PhD, Director of the Icahn Genomics Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has been elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). He was honored for his seminal work in gene therapy and functional genomics, which has helped transform the fields and contributed to key advancements in medicine and biotechnology. Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is one of the highest professional distinctions in the…
Dr. William Murphy, a researcher at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has been named the 2025 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Professor of the Year. Murphy is a National Academy of Sciences member and the James E. Womack University Professor of Genetics in the Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences. He is also a Texas A&M University System Regents Professor and was recently appointed to lead a new Center for Comparative Genomics in animal genetics at Texas A&M….
A grant from the American Cancer Society will allow researchers to develop a comprehensive picture of the factors that may contribute to increased cancer risk in some neighborhoods. A University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health researcher has received a $1.2 million grant from the American Cancer Society to evaluate potential links between the neighborhood environment and cancer risk. “The study will give us a much more complex look at the many factors that may contribute to increased…
An Aston University researcher has secured more than half a million pounds funding to train early career researchers to tackle sustainability challenges in their home countries. The University will host nine early career academics for 12 months as part of the International Science Partnership Fund (ISPF) research fellowship programme. Fellows from Jordan will focus on energy systems, those from Thailand will work on sustainable plastics and green solvents and researchers from the Philippines will specialise in sustainability assessments. The £540,000…
Physics professor J. Ping Liu helps boost nation’s energy security and advance toward a world-class magnet research hub University of Texas at Arlington physics Professor J. Ping Liu has won the 2025 Hill Prize in Physical Sciences for pioneering new ways to design magnets that power high-tech devices. Awarded by the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology (TAMEST) and Lyda Hill Philanthropies, the prize recognizes groundbreaking innovations with the potential for real-world impact. Dr. Liu shares the award as co-principal…
An ambitious project led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators aims to use artificial intelligence technologies to generate antibody therapies against any antigen target of interest. VUMC has been awarded up to $30 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to build a massive antibody-antigen atlas, develop AI-based algorithms to engineer antigen-specific antibodies, and apply the AI technology to identify and develop potential therapeutic antibodies. ARPA-H is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human…
Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton recognized as pioneers of reinforcement learning ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, today named Andrew G. Barto and Richard S. Sutton as the recipients of the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award for developing the conceptual and algorithmic foundations of reinforcement learning. In a series of papers beginning in the 1980s, Barto and Sutton introduced the main ideas, constructed the mathematical foundations, and developed important algorithms for reinforcement learning—one of the most important approaches for creating…
UTA physicist Ben Jones recognized for pioneering particle physics instrumentation University of Texas at Arlington physicist Ben Jones has received an international honor for his contributions to developing advanced instruments used in particle physics research. Dr. Jones, an associate professor of physics, was awarded the 2025 International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) Early Career Researcher Instrumentation Award. Presented by the ICFA Instrumentation Innovation and Development Panel, the award recognizes significant advancements in the innovation and development of new instrumentation for…
The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) is honoring Yonatan Stelzer, Ph.D. with the 2025 ISSCR Outstanding Young Investigator Award. Dr. Selzer is an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. The award recognizes the exceptional achievements of an investigator in the early part of his or her independent career in stem cell research. Dr. Stelzer will present his work at the ISSCR 2025 Annual Meeting taking place in Hong…
As a member of a collaborative team led by General Atomics, SLAC will help bridge basic research programs with the growing fusion industry. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory will contribute to the DOE’s newly established Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives. These collaborative teams were created to bridge basic science research programs with the needs of the growing fusion industry. In total, the DOE announced $107 million in funding for six projects under this initiative….
University of Virginia Brain Institute and School of Medicine researchers have received an initial $9.3 million award from the National Institutes of Health for a $30 million clinical trial to determine if the powerful anesthetic ketamine can save patients from prolonged, life-threatening grand mal seizures that won’t respond to other treatments. “Status epilepticus,” as the seizures are known, are seizures that last more than five minutes or that strike repeatedly without the person regaining consciousness between seizures. These ceaseless seizures are considered…
A physics professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a heart for transfer students has received the Cottrell Scholar Award. Established in 1994, the award honors and helps to develop outstanding teacher-scholars who are recognized by their scientific communities for the quality and innovation of their research programs and their academic leadership skills. Assistant Professor of Physics Lawrence “Larry” Lee of UT’s College of Arts and Sciences will receive $120,000 over three years from the Research Corporation for Science…
Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah has received a federal contract award that will broaden access to specialized cancer care for Utah’s rural and frontier patients. “Huntsman Cancer Institute has a vast area to support across the Mountain West. Rather than having our patients come to us, whenever possible, we want to find ways to go to them,” says Kathi Mooney, PhD, RN the principal investigator, co-leader of the Cancer Control and Population Sciences Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute, and distinguished professor in the College…
Researchers are attempting to develop room-temperature superconductors, which would revolutionize energy efficiency Rice University physicist Emilia Morosan is part of an international research collaboration that has been awarded multimillion-dollar funding from The Kavli Foundation to develop and test next-generation superconductors through artificial intelligence and quantum geometry. This global initiative, spearheaded by Päivi Törmä of Aalto University in Finland, seeks to push the boundaries of quantum materials science and superconductivity. The project includes funding from the Klaus Tschira Foundation and philanthropist Kevin Wells, fueling this…
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