Good Stewards of God’s Creation

Renewable energy. 
Clean water. 
Food security. 
Biofuel technologies.

Like puzzle pieces that fit together to reveal a more complete picture, Baylor researchers address pressing global needs alongside colleagues in departments across campus. Both individually and collaboratively, they form more complete approaches to solving multifaceted problems. At the heart of their work is a call to stewardship — being good stewards of the world God created and making the most of a distinctly Christian research platform. 

Baylor’s new strategic plan, Baylor in Deeds, provides a further roadmap for the University’s research endeavors in the years ahead. In numerous ways, the plan broadly seeks to answer the question, “What does the world need Baylor for?” 

“Broadening interdisciplinary research and impact” is one commitment the University has made for the future. As faculty from a broad range of fields are studying ways we can care for our world, several areas of expertise have emerged. Here are some of their stories.

Water Solutions for Future Generations

Communities close to Baylor’s campus in Texas, like their counterparts around the world, are finding their water supplies taxed by a variety of external and environmental challenges. Those obstacles drive researchers in Baylor’s Center for Reservoir and Aquatic Systems Research (CRASR). CRASR is a multidisciplinary partnership that collectively plumbs the depths of multiple disciplines to provide the information and understanding needed to make wise choices for future water resources.

“Here in Texas, as in many other places globally, our lakes are increasingly stressed by the unintended consequences of societal choices,” Thad Scott, Ph.D. ’06, said. “Extreme variation between floods and droughts, the growing pressure from rapid population growth, and the aging infrastructure of our man-made lakes requires a new approach to water resource management. That’s what drives us — to develop the science that helps us make critical decisions about effective and efficient use of our natural resources.”

Scott, who serves as a professor of biology and CRASR director, is a limnologist by trade. However, by nature, the approach he and his colleagues share is interdisciplinary. Their work has impacted public policy across numerous U.S. states, settled interstate water disputes and identified shared goals around the world.

CRASR research focuses on aquatic ecosystems; water quality, ecotoxicology and public health; human-environmental linkages and more. Its nationally recognized team includes an American Association of Science Fellow, researchers whose work has been on the cover of Nature magazine and leaders convening international meetings to galvanize action around water quality issues.

“Collaboration is fundamental to everything we do,” Scott said. “In CRASR, it’s an interdisciplinary collaboration between geosciences, environmental sciences, biological sciences and statistical sciences. And we’d like to expand that further.” 

It’s research for life — not only for neighbors in the here and now, but future generations whose access to water will be shaped by how well vulnerable water resources are protected today.

Transforming Waste to Energy

What if waste could be converted to energy? And what if that could take place with near-zero emissions? In short, the ability of communities and organizations to tap into renewable energy sources would be changed forever. 

Lulin Jiang, Ph.D., assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has created a pioneering flexible fuel injector that demonstrates “transformative potential” to do just that. 

“We’re blessed to be working on a project to enable clean air and clean energy with cost-effectiveness and resilience,” Jiang said. 

“Engineering is really a service major, so how can we bridge lab research to benefit the local community and even society at large?”
Lulin Jiang, Ph.D.

Jiang, who has earned multiple National Science Foundation (NSF) awards and has been published in leading fuel journals in rapid succession, is advancing a Swirl Burst fuel injector capable of burning pollutants like glycerol and methane with near-zero emissions. 

“The current research demonstrates how viscous bio-waste can be transformed to clean energy by the Baylor combustion technology.”

Jiang’s work on this project in recent years took center stage locally at the Hannah Hill landfill, where she partnered with the City of Waco to pilot test an injector over the course of a year. For a community like Waco, which experiences prolonged heat in the summer and recognizes the threat extreme cold can wreak on the community from past storms like 2021’s Winter Storm Uri, the opportunity to serve as the test site for the project promised future energy resiliency and future potential infrastructure.

Successful testing of the injector led to Jiang and her team earning a spot in the NSF’s prestigious National I-Corps, designed to translate transformative research ideas into products that could benefit society. Most recently, her creation, the Swirl Burst injector, demonstrated the ability to burn methane and glycerol — traditionally expensive and difficult to burn — and create clean energy in the process.

For Jiang and her research collaborators, the accolades point back to something more fundamental — the opportunity to use her discipline to serve others.

“Engineering is really a service major, so how can we bridge lab research to benefit the local community and even society at large?” Jiang asked. “This program is driven by civic needs locally, but is transferable to other cities and highly scalable. It could improve human health. We are motivated to help others and are excited to see where this leads.”

Chasing New Ways to Create Liquid Fuels

Time presents an inherent challenge in the creation of fossil fuels. The combination of sunlight and its absorption within plants during the process of photosynthesis provides a reliable source of the liquid fuels that have driven society for many years. That process, however, takes time — lots of time.

“The buildup of CO₂ in the air is a big societal concern.”
Paul Maggard, Ph.D.

“There’s no practical way right now other than mining fossil fuels from the earth to make liquid fuels,” said Paul Maggard, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and biochemistry, who came to Baylor this year from North Carolina State University. “All the fossil fuels we currently use came from solar energy being captured by plants and wildlife over many years and buried in the ground. And they converted, over lots of time, into fossil fuels.”

Maggard is part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers pursuing a new way forward through the Center for Hybrid Approaches in Solar Energy to Liquid Fuels (CHASE). CHASE brings together researchers from a prestigious list of institutions that includes Yale, Penn, Princeton, North Carolina, Brookhaven National Laboratory and, now, Baylor. Together, they are chasing the audacious goal of bypassing billions of years of waiting and developing a reliable, artificial photosynthesis process to develop liquid fuels like methanol or ethanol.

“The buildup of CO₂ in the air is a big societal concern,” Maggard said. “Growing energy demands are a societal concern as well. We’re working to turn these to our advantage.”

While plenty of obstacles present themselves on the path from taking CO₂ and rapidly utilizing it to create liquid fuels, Maggard and other CHASE researchers are making progress — the team has successfully created a hybrid photoelectrode that makes methanol from sunlight, CO₂ and water. They continue to look for ways to ensure that the energy created delivers the right kind of activity while also being storable over longer periods of time.

“We haven’t got to the point yet of making something you can dispense from a pump at a gas station,” Maggard said, “but ultimately that would be one of the best practical advances we can target.”

Food Insecurity and Community Partnerships

Nationally, one in seven people are food insecure — meaning they don’t know where their next meal will come from. In Waco, that number is even higher — one in five. The biblical call to feed the hungry compels Baylor researchers to address an issue faced by so many neighbors. The pursuit of solutions takes place through interdisciplinary approaches to research, scholarship and education, as faculty and leaders likewise seek intentional partnerships with community organizations whose ability to address these challenges is enhanced together.

“As researchers, I think we really need to know how to combine our intellectual capital, our social capital and recognize the resources we have, because this is a problem that is truly solvable.”
Stephanie Boddie, Ph.D.

“There are plenty of resources to address food insecurity, but as researchers, I think we really need to know how to combine our intellectual capital, our social capital and recognize the resources we have, because this is a problem that is truly solvable,” said Stephanie Boddie, Ph.D., associate professor of church and community ministries in Baylor’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work. “An institution like Baylor should certainly be a part of that and partner with the city, non-profits, faith communities and businesses.”

Baylor faculty are doing that, spurred by programs like Waco’s Sustainable Community and Regenerative Agriculture Project (SCRAP Collective) or the theology, ecology and food justice program in Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. These initiatives have galvanized faculty across the humanities disciplines, who anticipate future research partnerships to bloom from the efforts. The focus remains, however, on developing an ecosystem in Waco to end food insecurity and to equip students to see the role they could play in addressing food challenges. 

“There are beautiful relationships that are growing, but also plenty that are already in place,” said Jenny Howell, Ph.D. ’16, clinical assistant professor of theology in the Honors Program and director of the theology, ecology and food justice program. “The efforts to bring these together and having support and energy from across the institution has been incredibly exciting. We’re in a unique space here at Baylor, and we have the opportunity to study the Church as well as the culture as we galvanize resources with the capacity to do good.”

“We’re in a unique space here at Baylor, and we have the opportunity to study the Church as well as the culture as we galvanize resources with the capacity to do good.”
Jenny Howell, Ph.D.

The theology, ecology and food justice program has undertaken research alongside colleagues at Notre Dame, Duke and Oxford Universities, examining the ways churches use land to serve hunger needs in their communities. Specifically, a pilot phase of the project is underway, with McLennan County as the initial subject. Researchers are mapping churches in the area that use their land to grow food or utilize their facilities to distribute food.

The SCRAP Collective, which gathers faculty from social work, education, English and other departments, recently was included as part of a $17.9 million Environmental Protection Agency Community Change Grant to Waco. Nearly $1 million of that will advance Baylor’s efforts in growing the Baylor Community Garden, developing further outreach partnerships with schools and faith communities, advancing student-led community engagement and more. 

“At so many universities that are doing similar work, it is often very siloed,” Boddie said. “We’re really interested in leaning into Baylor in Deeds in the way they are talking about in the language — interdisciplinary research and impact. We see this as touching on so many important areas, like building a caring community and centering Christian stewardship to help others flourish.”

As Baylor moves forward into the implementation of its strategic plan, the successes of previous strategic plans demonstrate the likelihood of meaningful growth in environmental health and sustainability research. As faculty build those endeavors, their current efforts demonstrate a strong foundation of care for neighbors and commitment to solving big problems on which to build.