Research Highlights

Grad student wins prominent award
Laura Dobbins, a graduate student from Knoxville, Tenn., has received the EA/Jeff Black Award given by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), a nonprofit, worldwide professional society. The award is given to only one masters-level graduate student in the world and is among the highest awards presented by the society in recognition of a young scientist's research and their contribution to the field of environmental toxicology and chemistry.
Dobbins, the first Baylor student to receive the award, is currently researching the aquatic toxicology of a group of compounds called parabens, which are used as preservatives in many manmade products.

Nursing School goes high speed
Thanks to a collaboration between Baylor, Texas A&M-Health Sciences Center, Baylor University Medical Center and the Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN), Baylor has switched the Louise Herrington School of Nursing to a new computer network, which, at 100 megabytes per second, is nearly 100 times faster than the previous capability. The network will provide more reliable video-conferencing and will allow Baylor nursing researchers to transfer large datasets to other researchers across the country in a matter of minutes, instead of hours.

CSGS honors Gravagne
The Conference of Southern Graduate Schools has selected Dr. Ian Gravagne, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Baylor, as the recipient of the 2008 Achievement Award for New Scholars in Math, Physical Sciences and Engineering. 
A prolific researcher, 11 of Gravagne's 23 papers have been published since arriving at Baylor in 2002. He has been awarded three grants from the National Science Foundation and has received funding for an industrial research project and several educationally-related activities. He also has one patent pending.
"Not only is Dr. Gravagne a well-published, externally-funded researcher, he's a dynamic, enthusiastic teacher," said Dr. Randall O'Brien, executive vice president and provost at Baylor. 
Last year, the CSGS awarded Dr. Richard Russell, assistant professor of English at Baylor, the New Scholars award in the humanities.