UTA In The News — Monday, May 8, 2017
Lopez named fellow
Ramon Lopez, a UTA professor of physics, has been recognized for his outstanding contributions to physics education with a Fellowship from the American Association of Physics Teachers, Scienmag and MyInforms.com reported.
Best paper
American Scientific Publishers, a publisher of scientific journals and books in the fields of science, engineering and technology, has given Wei Chen, a UTA physics professor, a Best Paper Award for a journal article cited 364 times to date, Scienmag and Health Medicine Network reported.
Tiny houses
UTA architecture students were putting the finishing touches on two tiny houses they’re building as part of a senior design-build program called Parallel Construction, the San Antonio Express-News, the Sacramento Bee, the Washington Times, the Miami Herald and many other media outlets reported as The Associate Press ran a Star-Telegram story across the wire.
Writing award
UTA senior Frederick Tran won the 2017 Regents' Outstanding Arts and Humanities Award in Creative Writing, Short Fiction, the UT System website reported.
Pipes status
Rhode Island’s natural gas distribution system has a troubling percentage of bare steel and iron pipes — outdated materials prone to corrosion and cracking that need to be replaced for the public’s safety, the Providence Journal reported in an in-depth look at the state’s pipes. Mohammad Najafi, UTA civil engineering professor and director of UTA’s Center for Underground Infrastructure Research and Education, said the design life of a pipeline is only about 50 years and that a huge amount of work needs to be done to bring the nation’s pipes up to date.
Improved genome
New research shows a new and improved genome sequence of the water flea, providing a clearer roadmap of the organism’s genome to identify genes and pathways that make this organism so successful in freshwater ecosystems, Health Medicine Network, Science Blog and several other media outlets reported. Sen Xu, UTA assistant professor of biology, contributed to the research published and featured on the cover of G3.
HERO award
Debbie O’Brien has been named the 2017 recipient of the Bayard H. Friedman HERO Award for being selected the most outstanding secondary school teacher in all of the North Texas schools, ScoreAGoal.org reported. O’Brien, a UTA alumna, is the orchestral music teacher for Benbrook Middle-High School.
Communities In Schools
Communities In Schools has been helping students achieve better academic results for 25 years, a Star-Telegram op-ed column said. The column mentioned Thi Nguyen, a UTA social work graduate student who used Communities In Schools to attain her degree.
Nursing scholarships
Jennifer Ward and Jennifer Wood are planning to finish their nursing degrees at UTA, the San Antonio Express-News reported on the Salute to Nurses scholarship winners.
Alumna featured
Wyntress B. Ware, a UTA alumna, was featured in a Fort Worth Business feature about her life as a nurse and founding the public relations firm, Ware + Associates.
French election
Allan Saxe, UTA associate professor of political science, said even though Emmanuel Macron won the French election, the popularity of Marine Le Pen, Macron’s opponent and a far-right candidate of the National Front, might continue to increase, KLIF 570 AM reported.
Sanctuary cities
Allan Saxe, UTA associate professor of political science, said opponents of the recently approved anti-sanctuary cities legislation can either change the law or challenge it in courts, WBAP 820 AM reported.
Future Mav
Harker Heights High School in Central Texas held a senior day in which Joseph Hamilton, a future UTA student, was interviewed about his future, KXXV ABC 25 in Waco reported.