Research « Baylor Proud

Points of Pride — Research

Jul

2012

WORLD magazine names Baylor prof’s ‘Triumph’ its 2012 Book of the Year

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Faith, Honors, Research

In its current issue, WORLD magazine names Baylor professor Dr. Rodney Stark’s The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion its Book of the Year for 2012.

Stark, co-director of Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion and Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences since 2004, is no stranger to such honors. The Triumph of Christianity is a sequel of sorts to a previous book of Stark’s, The Rise of Christianity, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1996. His works have also been recognized by Christianity Today, the American Library Association, the American Sociological Association and others.

The Triumph of Christianity – Stark’s 31st book in a long and distinguished career — covers how a small Jewish sect grew into the largest religion in the world. WORLDeditor-in-chief Marvin Olasky applauds Stark’s accessible writing and excellence in using “both statistics and historical testimony to shoot down stereotypes.”

Sic ’em, Dr. Stark!

Jun

2012

‘Sales for Social Impact’ class teaches students how to use business to benefit impoverished communities

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Alumni, Research, Service, Student life

Working on a well in Nicaragua Many Baylor graduates can point to one particular class that shaped their future careers. For May 2012 graduate Austin Barnes, BBA ’12, it was a unique offering he took a year ago in the Hankamer School of Business called “Sales for Social Impact.”

Funded by a generous grant from 3M and taught by faculty in Baylor’s Center for Professional Selling,”Sales for Social Impact” (SSI) teaches students about the intersection of business, marketing and poverty. Throughout the semester, SSI students demonstrate their understanding by creating a business model to bring social and economic benefit to an impoverished region.

Partnering with a couple of former 3M research scientists who developed a solar water pasteurizer, Barnes’ SSI class last fall — a group of just 12 students — crafted a feasible business plan to provide Nicaraguans with clean water in a sustainable way. Course participants traveled to Nicaragua for five days to conduct primary research (that’s a well they worked on there pictured at right) and presented their business plan to 3M executives in St. Paul, Minn.

“Sales for Social Impact (SSI) prepared me for the job market by making me a more well-rounded candidate,” said Barnes. “Through SSI, I was able to delve deeply into market research and develop a business model from the ground up, which made me an extremely attractive job candidate.”

That work paid off, as Barnes was hired just days after graduating last month; he is now the chief technology officer for Vendevor, a start-up company developing e-commerce software for underdeveloped countries. Vendevor’s ultimate goal is to help entrepreneurs in developing countries support and expand their businesses internationally.

Sic ’em, Austin, Vendevor and SSI!

Jun

2012

Baylor alums working to make interstellar travel a reality within 100 years

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Alumni, Research

Project Icarus Legendary science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, author of such classics as Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, passed away Tuesday at age 91. Bradbury often wrote of visiting other worlds; now, two Baylor graduates are working together to find the physics and engineering necessary that would make that idea a reality, allowing for true interstellar travel.

Dr. Richard Obousy, PhD ’08, and Dr. Andreas Tziolas, PhD ’09, are two of the founding board members of the Icarus Interstellar Organization, a nonprofit organization launched last year with a goal of realizing interstellar flight before the year 2100. Obousy is the group’s president and primary propulsion senior scientist; Tziolas is a vice president and project leader for two of Icarus’ eight research projects.

The volunteer-driven research group is studying various means of propulsion technologies. In a detailed interview with The Atlantic, Tziolas described the team’s approach:

“When we started up, one of our first objectives was to raise up this new generation of interstellar engineers — we wanted volunteers, anyone, whether they are Ph.D.’s or garage inventors, or just people who are passionate, people who spend every evening reading about interstellar exploration. There are several people around the world who have extraordinary technical expertise, but don’t necessarily look good on paper, and so they don’t have an opportunity to contribute to NASA or ESA or any of the other major space agencies. And so where do those people go? They end up working in I.T. or they end up working as clerks, but in their hearts they have this burning fire to do research. So what we do is corral all of those people with that fire and we organize them, and we organize the research in a detailed way, so that we can harness the power of inclusiveness in doing this kind of research.”

Icarus’ work was inspired by Project Daedalus, a British Interplanetary Society project from 1973-78 that determined that interstellar travel was indeed feasible using current or credible extrapolations of existing technology to reach another solar system during a normal human lifetime. Icarus aims to take the next step — to produce a detailed report on how that can be done, from engineering to physics to mission profile.

It’s the work of a lifetime — maybe multiple lifetimes — but it’s great to see Bears leading such efforts and dreaming such dreams.

Sic ’em, Drs. Obousy and Tziolas!

May

2012

Six Bears to continue studies abroad thanks to prestigious Fulbright Scholarships

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Alumni, Honors, Research, Service, Student life

Baylor 2012 Fulbright winners If you want to study or teach internationally after graduating from college, there are few more prestigious opportunities than the Fulbright Program. Established by Congress in 1946 and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, each year the program sends some of the nation’s brightest and most ambitious students across the world to continue their education or to teach English in countries from Afghanistan to Zambia.

Six Baylor students and recent graduates were selected as Fulbright Scholars this spring. Three will pursue advanced studies abroad, in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Mexico, while three others will serve as English Teaching Assistants in Indonesia, Russia and Turkey. All spoke of how well Baylor prepared them for an opportunity like the Fulbright, and in turn how the Fulbright experience will benefit them in their careers and in life.

(more…)

May

2012

Kirk, Russell join Browning as Baylor professors of the year

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Honors, Research

Dr. Roger Kirk and Dr. Richard Russell The end of the spring semester brought with it two more Baylor professor of the year awards, and the honorees highlight some of the variety found in Baylor’s faculty. Dr. Roger Kirk, the 2012 Cornelia Marschall Smith Professor of the Year, was named one of Baylor’s Master Teachers in 1993; Dr. Richard Russell, the 2012 Baylor Centennial Professor, graduated with his BA in English literature the next year.

The Cornelia Marschall Smith award each year recognizes a Baylor professor based on his or her teaching, research and service; as this year’s honoree, Kirk will receive $20,000 and present a public lecture this fall. The longtime psychology and statistics professor was named a Master Teacher — Baylor’s highest honor for faculty — in 1993.

“During his 54 years of service on Baylor’s faculty, Roger Kirk has taught thousands of students and served extensively in professional societies and in the Baylor and local community,” said Dr. James Bennighof, vice provost for academic affairs. “Perhaps even more remarkably, he has at the same time produced an extraordinary body of research, including more than 200 articles, reviews, reports, encyclopedia entries, editions of books and paper presentations, several of which have been foundational in the area of research protocols, sound experimental design and statistical procedures in the social sciences.”

The Baylor Centennial Professor award is based on different criteria; funded by the Centennial Class of 1945, each year’s honoree is chosen based on his or her proposal for a specific research endeavor. Russell will receive $5,000 to travel and study the works of poet Seamus Haney.

“I teach Heaney’s poetry, prose and drama in almost every course I conduct at Baylor, and the material I acquire from my archival research will enhance my teaching of this Nobel Prize-winning poet on both the undergraduate and graduate levels at Baylor,” Russell said.

Dr. Blair Browning, BA ’95, MA ’99, was previously announced as the 2012 Collins Outstanding Professor, as voted on by Baylor seniors.

Sic ’em, Drs. Kirk and Russell!

May

2012

Sandra Day O’Connor speaks at Baylor, studies BU students’ research on iCivics

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Photo Galleries, Research, Videos

An old friend and a new project brought U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to Baylor this week.

O’Connor’s long history with Baylor President Ken Starr is the common bond. The first female Supreme Court judge in U.S. history was Starr’s guest Monday afternoon in his continuing interview series, “On Topic with Ken Starr.” A packed Waco Hall crowd of faculty, staff, students and Waco residents listened to O’Connor share stories from her career for more than an hour. (Watch full video of the event here, or click here for a photo gallery from the Justice’s visit to Waco.)

O’Connor focused much of the conversation on her efforts to improve civic education. The Justice founded an online curriculum called iCivics in 2009 that uses games to introduce students, particularly those in the middle grades, to civic principles and ideas. (I checked the site out yesterday afternoon, and I must confess I got caught up in playing the games for more than an hour.)

Thanks to President Starr’s friendship with Justice O’Connor, Baylor was appointed last year to study the success of iCivics. Baylor Law School developed a model for using law students to lead iCivics activities in local classrooms, while the Baylor School of Education has analyzed the effectiveness of the program. A series of lesson plans developed by Baylor law students, graduate education students and undergraduate interns together make up the Baylor Model, which has been designed to be easily replicated in cities across the country. (Read more about that process here, or watch this video on the iCivics partnership between Baylor and Waco ISD.)

O’Connor is in Waco for three days to see the Baylor Model for iCivics firsthand. “I was thrilled, frankly, that Baylor, with the help of your president here, agreed that [the university] would help us evaluate iCivics,” O’Connor said Monday. “It’s been a huge help. My goal is to get people all across this country better educated in how our government works. When we got public schools in America, it was with the argument that … we have to teach it to all of our citizens, that they are part of it and how this government works.”

Sic ’em, Justice O’Connor!

Apr

2012

Fulbright, NSF awards among many for Graduate School students’ research and service

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Honors, Research

Ross Natividad The end of the school year is upon us — finals start Wednesday — and, as usual for this time of year, individual honors are rolling in. Students in the Baylor Graduate School, in particular, have been raking in the recognition over the last month or so. Here are just a few of the recent honorees:

Ross Natividad (pictured), a master’s student in Spanish, was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship through the Fulbright U.S. Student program. The Fulbright program is one of the most distinguished and competitive academic grant programs, and it is the largest international exchange program within the United States.
Zack Valdez, a doctoral candidate in geology and a TIE3 fellow, was awarded a National Science Foundation research grant for his work with switchgrass, a recognition that places Valdez and Baylor at the forefront of the alternative energy movement.
Blake McAllister, a doctoral candidate in philosophy, had some of his work deemed the best graduate student paper at the 2012 conference of the Society of Christian Philosophers.
Kyle Welty, a doctoral candidate in religion, was awarded the F. Bullitt Lowry Prize by the Southwestern Historical Association for his paper, “Evangelical Missionaries in the Slave Societies of the British West Indies, 1800-1835.”
Michael Whitenton, a doctoral candidate in religion, recently published his fourth academic journal article, “Rewriting Abraham and Joseph,” in Novum Testamentum, a journal devoted to the study of the New Testament and related subjects.

(more…)

Apr

2012

Baylor researchers release findings from first-ever scientific study of Eagle Scouts’ influence on society

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Research

Baylor Eagle Scout research One hundred years ago this month, Arthur Eldred completed the 21 merit badges necessary to earn the rank of Eagle — the first Eagle Scout in the history of the Boy Scouts of America. Plenty of anecdotal evidence gathered in the century since then attests to the benefits of Scouting, but surprisingly, no one had ever conducted a scientific survey on the impact of Scouting in fostering positive youth development — until now.

Last week, researchers with Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) and Program on Prosocial Behavior released findings from a national study that, as one would suspect, demonstrate the significant, positive impact Eagle Scouts have on society.

When the findings were announced on Baylor’s official Facebook page last week, it was interesting to read the comments from members of the Baylor family. Some were alumni who were also Eagle Scouts; others were current students who have attained the rank, or parents of such students. Each of the dozens of commenters shared a common pride in being both Baylor Bears and Eagle Scouts.

Sic ’em, Baylor researchers and Baylor Eagle Scouts!

Apr

2012

Baylor We Are: Discovering New Truths

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Baylor 2012, Pro Futuris, Research

Baylor researchers Finding balance has always been important at Baylor. Think “Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana.” “Worldwide leadership and service.” “Faith and learning.” Equally important is “teaching and research.”

Baylor has a long history of great teachers, but in recent years the university has worked to bring its research efforts to a similar level. Baylor faculty contributions to major journals have more than doubled in the past decade. Total research expenditures (both from the university’s budget and external grants) have increased dramatically. And nothing testifies to Baylor’s emphasis on research more than the establishment of the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC).

A February report in the Waco Tribune-Herald noted that BRIC officials have heard from about 100 companies interested in partnering with the Baylor and Texas State Technical College researchers who will be working out of the new facility. Baylor programs will begin moving into BRIC by the beginning of 2013, if not sooner.

Last fall, Dr. Marlan Scully agreed to move his research on quantum optics, laser physics and bioengineering from Princeton to BRIC; other programs scheduled to move to BRIC include the Baylor Center for Spatial Research, the Hankamer School of Business’ Innovative Business Accelerator, the Baylor Institute for Air Science, Baylor’s Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics and Engineering Research, and TSTC’s technical training programs.

Why is such research important? Baylor’s draft strategic plan explains the answer under Aspirational Statement Two: “Baylor will be a place… where research discoveries illuminate solutions to significant challenges confronting our world and where creative endeavors reflect the breadth of God’s creation.”

Few universities recognized as having “high research activity” also have a Christian perspective; such an approach offers unique insights on issues ranging from health care and economics to human rights and social responsibility. Research into such areas allows our professors to remain on the cutting edge in their fields, gives undergraduate and graduate students hands-on opportunities in the discovery process, and contributes to finding solutions to some of the problems facing our world.

Sic ’em, Baylor researchers!

Previously on Baylor Proud:
* Forensics prof uses skills to bring closure to migrant families missing loved ones (Feb. 2012)
* Baylor research park moving forward with construction (Oct. 2011)
* Three Baylor students awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships (May 2011)
* Baylor researchers, alumni spreading awareness of and seeking cure for PTSD (Nov. 2010)
* Baylor professors receive $1.46 million NIH grant for cancer research (June 2010)

Feb

2012

Forensics prof uses skills to bring closure to migrant families missing loved ones

Posted by The Baylor Proud Team in Academics, Alumni, Research, Service, Videos

The remains of a 12-year-old boy found along the Texas border — almost certainly a migrant from Mexico — strike Baylor professor Dr. Lori Baker, BA ’93, MA ’94, hard. His clothes and belongings held no identification, and even a DNA test found no match.

It’s for individuals such as this that Baker, an associate professor of anthropology in Baylor’s College of Arts and Sciences, has established a database that she hopes can connect unidentified bodies with their loved ones — to provide families and friends with some closure, “a place to pray,” as she puts it.

KRGV Channel 5 in south Texas talked to Baker in depth about her efforts, highlighting her work in this lengthy video report. The work is not pleasant — as Baker says, “forensic scientists are never called in because something good happened” — but it is important. After all, everyone is someone’s friend, brother, sister or child.

Sic ’em, Dr. Baker!

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