Recent grants & honors recognize the impact, innovation and insight of Baylor research

What kind of impact are Baylor researchers making on the world? The burgeoning number of honors and grants awarded to BU faculty and students indicates that Baylor’s impact as a Christian research university is growing.

Here are just a few recent examples:

— Top 2%: Each year, Stanford University undertakes the arduous but important task of identifying the most influential researchers in the world. They measure the citations of a researcher’s work — meaning, when they publish research, how often do other researchers cite it in their own work? It’s a measure of researcher impact, and it’s clear that Baylor is having an impact. This year, 43 current or retired faculty members appeared on the list. That impact is multidisciplinary — faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Engineering and Computer Science, Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences, School of Education, Hankamer School of Business, and Diana R. Garland School of Social Work are all represented among the top 2% of researchers.

— Sleep and Gratitude: Drs. Sarah Schnitker and Michael Scullin both serve in Baylor’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, but they focus on very different areas in their highly regarded research: Scullin on sleep, and Schnitker on virtue and character development. When a Baylor undergraduate student consulted both of them on one project, the result, not surprisingly, blended their work in a novel way. Alexander Do (BS ’24), now a first-year medical student at UTHealth Houston, found that as few as 46 extra minutes of sleep per night can lead to an array of improvements in well-being, including gratitude, resilience and prosocial behavior. His work was supported by the National Science Foundation and John Templeton Foundation while serving as his Honors thesis.

— Personalized Gut Treatment: Patients with diseases like IBS, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis and more know all too well that current treatments don’t always meet their unique needs. Because everyone’s gut microbiome (the collection of microorganisms found in the gut) is distinct, one-size-fits-all approaches don’t always address the root causes of suffering. Dr. Aaron Wright, the Schofield Endowed Chair in Biomedical Sciences, hopes to change that. Wright earned a National Institutes of Health award for innovative research endeavors to partner with colleagues at New York’s Weill Cornell Medical Center in search of personalized approaches to treatment to identify and deliver select bacteria based on the individual.

Those are just three highlights among many projects taking place now, and many more taking place in the future. With a productive research output distinct among Christian universities, we’ll have plenty more to share in areas that address needs in health, human flourishing, technology and more.

Sic ’em, Baylor researchers!