Baylor Proud

Baylor researchers are working to help solve the mystery of “Gulf War illness,” a chronic, multi-symptom illness that still affects at least a quarter of veterans from the first Gulf War and is not yet fully understood, even two decades after the conflict began.

The U.S. Department of Defense has been so impressed with Baylor’s work in this area that it recently awarded an additional $1.6 million of funding; those grants came on top of previous federal support of about $700,000.

Symptoms of Gulf War illness usually include some combination of chronic headache, widespread pain, memory and concentration difficulties, and digestive and other abnormalities. Medical and psychiatric diagnoses and routine laboratory tests have been unable to pinpoint the cause.

The Baylor research, directed by Dr. Lea Steele, aims to address multiple aspects of the syndrome, from studies on the biological processes causing veterans’ symptoms to development of a nationwide network that would advance health research on the issue.

Sic ’em, Baylor researchers!

You could develop the greatest product in the world — a better mousetrap, a cure for cancer, etc. — but if it never gets to market, it will never do anyone any good.

Companies utilizing the university’s upcoming discovery park, the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC), won’t have to worry about that. That’s because when BRIC opens in January, one of its tenants will be the Innovative Business Accelerator (IBA), to be led by Dr. Gregory Leman.

The IBA is a joint venture of the Hankamer School of Business and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. It exists to help new technology companies grow their business more rapidly by taking advantage of Baylor’s research and intellectual resources and will provide a broad range of business, science, legal and technical services, some of which will come from Baylor students.

“The IBA is built on a solid foundation of our successful collaboration with global industry,” says Leman. “It will become a single point of access to university and community expertise by providing a critical link between technology companies and Baylor business, science, engineering and law faculty.”

Leman, a Clinical Professor at the Hankamer School of Business and director of university entrepreneurial initiatives, had a very successful career as a chemical engineer before coming to Baylor in 2005. He is also the founding director of Baylor’s Technology Entrepreneurship Initiative (TEI), which offers courses in technology entrepreneurship and is followed by a real-world consulting engagement called i5 in either the U.S. or China.

Sic ’em, Dr. Leman!

(By the way, that’s the BRIC facility pictured above — not a rendering, but an actual, recent photo. The former General Tire plant sure cleans up nicely!)

Mechanical engineering professor Dr. Lesley Wright and several staff took a team of engineering students from Baylor – for the first time – to participate in the Baja SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) competition in Burlington, Wisc., over the summer.

The competition consisted of three regional competitions designed to simulate real-world engineering design projects and related challenges. Participants were asked to design and build an off-road vehicle that would survive rough terrain, then pitch possible production to a fictitious firm to gain real-world experience.

“I was fortunate to have been able to attend the event and was most impressed as to how the various teams worked with one another offering ideas, loaning tools and equipment, asking for help and learning from one another,” said Steve Colburn, who accompanied the Baylor team as the father of one of the students entered in the competition.

More than 100 teams participated in the competition, including several of our Big 12 brethren and even some international teams. Baylor’s car passed all technical, safety and design inspections and was very competitive against teams that have been involved in Baja SAE for years. The BU car also finished in the top 25% of two of the five events — pretty impressive for an inaugural outing!

Sic ’em, Baylor Baja Team!

[We learned of this story from a Bear who shared his Baylor pride. Do you know of an inspiring story, news item, or just a fun link that makes you proud of Baylor and the Baylor family? Let us know! Click here to submit your point of pride!]

The results of a recent Baylor study back up what Mom always said: “If you want to make things right, say you’re sorry.”

Research by Dr. Jo-Ann Tsang, an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences, found that an apology is more effective even than restitution when it comes to gaining forgiveness. Making amends can help, the study found, but an apology is often needed to repair the damage fully.

Tsang’s findings were published in the Journal of Positive Psychology, but have been picked up by mainstream media ranging from MSNBC to London’s Daily Mail to newsstand staple Cosmopolitan. (Bet you didn’t expect to find Baylor research in Cosmo!)

Sic ’em, Dr. Tsang!

In between the Independence Day parades and fireworks, you may have caught the news yesterday that an international team of scientists at CERN may have found the elusive Higgs boson particle, filling a gap in physics theory that has been pursued for decades. (Despite its technical nature, the news was CNN.com’s most popular story yesterday.)

What you may not have seen is Baylor’s connection to the findings. Since 2010, Baylor researchers in the university’s Experimental High Energy Physics group have been engaged in the experimental particle physics research being conducted at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. (The Baylor group has also been involved with similar research at Fermilab, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory in Illinois, since 2005.)

It was the scientists working at CERN who discovered this new particle that may be the Higgs boson. In short, the Higgs boson particle explains the origin of mass in elementary particles. (I know; I wasn’t a physics major, either. If you want more explanation, here’s an excellently accessible breakdown.)

The High Energy Physics group at Baylor is led by Dr. Jay Dittman and Dr. Kenichi Hatakeyama. At the same International Conference on High Energy Physics where CERN’s findings were announced yesterday, a member of the Baylor group, Dr. Azeddine Kasmi, presented the latest results of Higgs boson work being done at Fermilab. The U.S. center’s research has long influenced the work being done at CERN; Fermilab’s particle accelerator was completed in 1983, more than two decades before CERN’s came online.

“We’re thrilled to be a part of this extraordinary scientific endeavor,” says Dittmann, who still teaches at least one introductory physics course a year in addition to multiple upper-level courses. “Members of our Baylor team have been involved in the search for the Higgs boson at all levels, from analyzing data to presenting high-profile scientific seminars to composing publications for our scientific collaboration. Now, we can finally claim the observation of a new particle that could be the long-sought Higgs boson. It’s tremendous. Determining whether this new particle really is the Higgs boson predicted by theory is the next step.”

Sic ’em, Baylor physics researchers!