Feb. 11 Research Bulletin (Texas A&M University)

How to Submit an Item to Research Bulletin

Send: Research-related news about Texas A&M faculty, staff or students at our colleges, schools or member agencies, including honors, publications, presentations and appearances in news media.
Note: The Research Bulletin does not publish links to scholarly or peer-reviewed journal articles. If your work appears in a journal, please first work with your college or school communications team to develop a news story, then submit the link to that story for inclusion.
Include: A URL that links directly to your news coverage, research story or professional achievement
Email: rcomm@tamu.edu

Announcements

Texas A&M University was ranked 13th among public universities and 22nd overall by the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development survey.

The Research Bulletin is now available online! Visit the Division of Research's homepage to find the current issue, along with the five most recent issues.

News-Media Coverage

Elsevier, Rebecca Seguin-Fowler (Agriculture and Life Sciences), about research findings that psychosocial and community factors are strongly associated with diet quality among rural adults, underscoring the importance of social and environmental influences on healthy eating.

Homeland Security Today, Daniel Altman (Government and Public Service), about a road map for rebuilding public confidence after federal use-of-force incidents.

Houston Public Media, David Schrank (Transportation Institute), about the 2025 Texas Top 100 Congested Road Segments list and why several Harris County roadways are included.

Infobae, Karl Kaiser (Galveston), about the development of a groundbreaking method using satellite imagery to detect and monitor oceanic microplastics, which offers a new tool to track and analyze pollution on a global scale. (Spanish)

Ipiracity, Koteswara Rao Yerra and Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato (Engineering), about combining photodynamic therapy with antibiotics to combat Klebsiella pneumoniae while reducing the need for high drug doses. (Portuguese)

Medical Dialogues, Michael Golding (Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences), about how high-dose antioxidant use in men may negatively impact sperm DNA integrity and potentially affect offspring development.

NJ Spotlight News, Emily Binks-Cantrell (Education and Human Development), about the science of reading implementation in public schools throughout the state of Texas and lessons learned as New Jersey begins to adopt similar practices with its new education commissioner.

Spectrum News, Elaine Oran and Scott Jackson (Engineering), about the development of a state-of-the-art detonation facility that aims to enhance safety and effectiveness in testing explosive materials, supporting both defense and scientific applications.

Spectrum News, Jonathan Jensen (Education and Human Development), about SSPAIN.ai, an artificial intelligence-powered predictive analytics tool that forecasts renewal and revenue from sponsorship for sports teams, leagues and events.

The Cool Down, Sam Brody (Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas), about how the Houston Association of Realtors discontinued a flood-risk scoring tool for home listings that was developed by Texas A&M researchers.

The Epoch Times, Bradley Johnston (Agriculture and Life Sciences), about how reducing saturated fat consumption is most relevant for patients with high cardiovascular risk, rather than healthier individuals.

University of Houston Law Center, Gabriel Eckstein (Law), about how legal and policy frameworks affect environmental, energy and natural resource management.

Articles From Colleges and Schools

Ahmed Darwish, Lorenzo Rossi and Andrej Svyantek (Agriculture and Life Sciences) led a new frontier in horticultural science by combining plant chemistry, physiology and genetics to improve crop resilience, sustainability, food security and public wellness. Texas A&M Trio Leads New Frontier in Horticultural Science
Chinelo Nsobundu and Marcia Ory (Public Health) reviewed studies of diabetes self-management programs to assess the reported effectiveness and how implementation and sustainability are addressed. Review Finds Most Diabetes Self-Management Studies Overlook How Programs Are Delivered and Sustained
Daniel Thomas III and Marcus Johnson (Education and Human Development) founded the Teaching, Research, Athletics and Community Engagement (TRACE) Lab for Global Citizenship, which blends classroom learning with real-world experiences. Bridging Education, Research and Community
Irtisha Singh (Medicine) and her team identified an RNA molecule, CUL1-IPA, that not only preserves the cellular structure of the nucleolus, but is also linked to aggressive blood cancers. Researchers Identify Novel RNA Linked to Cancer Patient Survival
James Guinn III (Education and Human Development) used evidence-based programs through the Global Youth Sport for Development Initiative to build life skills and opportunities for young athletes. More Than a Game: Texas A&M Global Initiative Elevates Youth Development Through Sport
Julie Thompson (Education and Human Development) created strategies, or “blueprints for belonging,” to help educators better support special needs students. The Keys To Creating an Accessible Classroom for Children With Disabilities
Jungjoo Lee and Junhyoung Kim (Public Health) found that certain residential environments and mentally stimulating activities lower the risk of dementia in older adults. Where Older Adults Live May Play a Big Role in Their Dementia Risk
Justin Spilker (Arts and Sciences) co-authored a Nature study using Atacama Large Millimeter Array radio telescope observations to show that a distant proto-galactic cluster contains unexpectedly hot, 10-million-degree gas, challenging existing models of how quickly galaxy clusters heat up and evolve. Astronomers Challenge Evolution of Galaxy Clusters
Meri Davlasheridze (Galveston) investigated the mental health impacts of childbirth during a hurricane, revealing how the trauma of experiencing a natural disaster while giving birth can lead to long-term psychological challenges for mothers. Life After Landfall: How Childbirth in a Hurricane Led to Postdisaster Mental Health Discoveries
Michael Golding (Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences) found that consuming high doses of antioxidants negatively influences sperm DNA, potentially leading to offspring born with defects in craniofacial development. More Isn’t Always Better: Texas A&M Research Links High-Dose Antioxidants to Offspring Birth Defects
Susan C. Alberts (Arts and Sciences) led a long-term study of baboons showing how early life adversity and social relationships shape health and survival, offering insights into human evolution due to similarities between the species. Decades-Long Baboon Study Sheds Light on Social Stress and Human Health
Weida Hu and Casey Papovich (Arts and Sciences) discovered a collision of at least five galaxies dating to about 800 million years after the Big Bang using the James Webb Space Telescope. James Webb Space Telescope Finds an Early-Universe Galaxy Collision No One Expected
William J. Baule and John Nielson-Gammon (Arts and Sciences) formed practical steps for how local governments can improve their storm-damage reporting, ensuring that reported losses are accurate and that proper recovery funding is given. Texas A&M Research Identifies Steps To Strengthen Extreme Weather Damage Reporting and Improve Counties’ Disaster Reimbursement
Zavier Ndum Ndum (Engineering) created RADIANT-LLM, an AI framework that helps nuclear engineers quickly access information and run simulations more efficiently. Accelerating Nuclear Engineering Research With AI

Accomplishments

Andrew Moodie (Arts and Sciences) was selected as one of eight fellows to receive the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's Gulf Research Program Early-Career Research Fellowship.

Audra Jones (Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences) was listed among COWGIRL magazine’s 30 Under 30 Class of 2026 honorees for her contributions to the Western industry.

Manasa Hegde, Seokyung Park, Xuemei Zhu and Chanam Lee (Architecture) received the Michael P. O’Donnell Award from the American Journal of Health Promotion for their study on how multi-family housing environments relate to the residents’ physical activity.

Mehrnaz Tahmasbi (Dentistry) was named to Incisal Edge magazine’s 2025 Top 40 Under 40 dental specialists for her excellence in dental education and radiology.

Montgomery Bohde (Engineering), a senior computer science and engineering major who works in Shuiwang Ji’s Data Integration, Visualization and Exploration Lab, was announced as one of 54 finalists for the 2025 Hertz Fellowships in applied sciences, mathematics and engineering, offered by the Hertz Foundation.

Funding

The Dementia and Alzheimer’s Research Initiative, led by the Health Science Center and the Division of Research, announced inaugural Seedling Grant recipients of $1.325 million to fund 11 multidisciplinary research projects aimed at accelerating breakthroughs in brain health.

Professional Development

Research Development Services offers faculty development programs and research funding workshops to assist in the process of applying for grants.  

Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) offers virtual workshops that meet the face-to-face requirements of University SAP 15.99.99.M0.04. Please note that it is the responsibility of each college or school (with support or information from individual principal investigators) to ensure that all student and postdoctoral researchers associated with them are compliant with the RCR training requirements.  

High Performance Research Computing offers an ongoing series of short training courses for beginning, intermediate and advanced researchers.  

University Libraries presents a series of online workshops in research-related subjects, such as managing citations, managing research data, searching databases and publishing and copyrighting.   

Events

The College of Education and Human Development will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Voices of Impact (VOI) on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. in the Memorial Student Center’s Bethancourt Ballroom. The speaker series will feature 12 researchers sharing their expertise on issues impacting society today. This year’s topics include how to prepare future teachers to use AI, a solution to address the adult literacy crisis in Texas, a breakthrough in stem-cell therapeutics that could help with life-saving treatments, and more research from the College of Education and Human Development.

Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026