Research and Innovation Week Faculty Panel
Graduate Education and the Future of Research in North Texas
The North Texas region is a hub of groundbreaking research, and the faculty and graduate students of our research universities are driving this research and fueling innovation in many different areas. At this panel, faculty from five universities and five fields will discuss exciting developments in their areas of expertise and the ways in which they and their graduate students are contributing to these developments. These panelists will provide an overview of the future of research in North Texas and the role graduate education plays in creating this future.
The panel will take place March 23, 2023, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Auditorium.
Panelists
Stephen Arrowsmith, Hamilton Chair in Earth Sciences, SMU
Stephen Arrowsmith is an earth scientist who works on fundamental and practical problems using seismic and low-frequency acoustic data, advanced data science algorithms, and numerical modeling. He spent 12 years at the national laboratories, where he worked on multidisciplinary teams to address problems in national and international security. Arrowsmith came to SMU four years ago because the labs were finding it hard to find graduates with the skills needed to work on new multidisciplinary problems, and he was interested in education and working on longer-term problems that are hard to address outside of academia. He strives to have an impact that includes fundamental research but goes beyond this to include developing solutions to problems that are useful for government partners or industry.
Learn more about Stephen Arrowsmith.
Dinesh Bhatia, Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Dallas
Dinesh Bhatia is a faculty member in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and interim department head of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. He directs research activities within the iDEA Lab. His research investigations have spanned the areas of high-performance computing, health care and medical devices, and power and energy systems. He has published extensively in architecture and computer-aided design for field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). He has served on technical program committees of several international conferences related to FPGAs, field-programmable technology and system-level design using FPGAs. In the area of power and energy systems, he has primarily worked in the areas related to power converters. His recent research has resulted in breakthrough results and the founding of a startup company, Cirasys Corporation. Cirasys has received initial funding from NSF, UT System and Texas Emerging Technology Fund. He is an architect of several patient-monitoring solutions in medical devices and health care. He has served on the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Computers and as general chair for International Conference on Body Sensor Networks, and he was IEEE Circuits and Systems Society’s distinguished lecturer. He is a senior member of IEEE, ASEE, AAAS, Eta Kappa Nu and the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. He is experienced in IP litigation and has participated in technology evaluation for startups and small businesses.
Learn more about Dinesh Bhatia.
Anne T. Ginty, Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Principal Investigator of the Baylor Behavioral Medicine Laboratory, Baylor University
Anne T. Ginty received her B.S. in psychology and neuroscience from Allegheny College. She completed her Ph.D. in behavioral medicine at University of Birmingham (U.K.). She then completed an AXA Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Birmingham and a T32 Fellowship in cardiovascular behavioral medicine at University of Pittsburgh. She was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science and received the Herbert Weiner Early Career Award from the American Psychosomatic Society and the Early Career Impact Award from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. She is currently an associate professor at Baylor University and is the principal investigator of the Baylor Behavioral Medicine Laboratory. Her research is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health. Ginty is a section editor for Stress & Health and on the editorial board of Biological Psychology and Psychosomatic Medicine. She mentors graduate students from her own laboratory and hosts graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from laboratories around the world for exchange visits.
Learn more about Anne T. Ginty.
Ramon E. Lopez, Professor of Physics, University of Texas at Arlington
Ramon E. Lopez received his B.S. in physics in 1980 from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. in space physics in 1986 from Rice University. He is currently a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he leads a research group that works in both space physics and physics education. He is also a co-director for the UTeach Arlington teacher preparation program. Lopez is the author and co-author of over 140 peer-reviewed publications, as well as the popular science book Storms from the Sun. Lopez has served on numerous committees of the National Academies, such as the Committee of Solar and Space Physics and the 2012 Decadal Survey Steering Committee, as well as NASA’s Living with a Star Program Steering Committee, among other community service roles. Lopez is active in promoting science education and diversity in science at all levels. He was one of the co-chairs of the writing team that produced the Next Generation Science Standards and has served on numerous other education-related committees. Lopez has won numerous awards for his work in both space physics and science education, including the 2002 APS Nicholson Medal, the 2010 SACNAS Distinguished Scientist Award, the 2012 APS Edward A. Bouchet Award, two NASA Group Achievements Awards and the 2018 Great Minds in STEM Education Award. Lopez is a fellow of the APS, the AAAS and the AAPT.
Learn more about Ramon E. Lopez.
Floyd Wormley, Professor of Biology and Associate Provost for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies, Texas Christian University
Floyd Wormley is currently a professor and associate provost for research and dean of graduate studies at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. He received his B.S. degree in cellular and molecular biology from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in microbiology, immunology and parasitology from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. He then conducted his postdoctoral studies in infectious diseases at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Wormley is a 2019 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a 2017 Fulbright scholar and a 2016 fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Wormley’s research program aims to develop novel immune therapies and/or vaccines to treat and/or prevent invasive fungal infections and is currently supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more about Floyd Wormley.