News

Dr. David Music, a professor of church music and graduate program director for the Baylor School of Music, was recently named a fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada at the society's annual meeting. This meeting was a part of the society's annual conference July 11-15 at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.

Church music ministers and choir directors from all over the country will come together at Baylor University Tuesday, July 20, through Friday, July 23, with one thing in common: their love for Christian music.

Teachers have been too slow to incorporate social media -- which can be an attention-grabbing and effective teaching method -- into their courses, according to research by an assistant professor of journalism and media arts at Baylor University.

With an estimated 85 percent of women experiencing hot flashes as they approach menopause, researchers are concentrating on finding effective treatments that do not include hormonal or other pharmaceutical therapies. Now, a new Baylor University study has shown that women who specifically pictured images associated with coolness during hypnotherapy had a dramatic decrease in hot flashes.

Keep Texas Beautiful recently honored Baylor University as the first place winner of the organization's 2010 Civic Organization Award, which recognizes Baylor's efforts to enhance its community and protect the Texas environment.

Instead of sleeping in and swimming this summer, nine high school students from across the country were at Baylor University, hard at work on research projects.

Baylor University sociologists Dr. Carson Mencken and Dr. Christopher Bader lay on the ground at 1 a.m., shivering in 19-degree December weather in a Texas forest with a group of hushed men hoping to lure Bigfoot. Mencken and Bader are not in search of the paranormal, but rather in quest of people who believe in the paranormal -- and that makes for some abnormal research.

National media coverage of missing women is unequal when it comes to race, with missing Anglo women receiving more attention than black women, said Dr. Mia Moody, assistant professor of journalism and media arts at Baylor University.

Heather A. Creed, assistant dean of professional development and student relations at Baylor Law School, received the Texas Young Lawyers Association's (TYLA) President's Award of Merit at a dinner held by the TYLA in mid-June in Fort Worth. Creed received the award for her help facilitating a TYLA project that would expose Central Texas-area high school students to diversity issues.

Suzanne White thought her academic career was behind her. She had earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science a decade ago, had married and was at home in Waco raising two children. Now a graduate student at the Baylor School of Social Work, White learned this week she is one of only 10 students at Texas graduate social work programs to receive $5,000 each in special scholarship awards honoring the 70th anniversary of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.

Baylor University President Ken Starr today announced the formation of an 11-member task force that will focus for the next two months on ways to advance the university's institutional interests.

Due to the Independence Day holiday, Baylor University will close administrative offices from Saturday, July 3, through Monday, July 5, while other university facilities will modify their hours. Summer session II classes will begin Wednesday, July 7.

Baylor University will test its outdoor public address and indoor voice evacuation systems at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 6. The public is being notified so that the test will not be confused with an actual emergency.

A best-selling college guide for college-bound students and their parents has named Baylor University a "Best Buy." Baylor is one of only 45 public and private colleges and universities in the United States, Canada and Great Britain - and the only Texas Big 12 institution - to earn the designation.

A Baylor University student has been awarded a prestigious grant from the National Science Foundation. Baylor graduate Meaghan McNeill recently received a Graduate Research Fellowship grant from NSF, which covers the cost for three years of graduate school in a field related to science, technology, engineering or math.

A Baylor University researcher has been awarded an educational grant from the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). It marks the first time the university has received a grant from the organization.

A new Baylor University study has found that there are two fundamental underlying concerns when partners in a committed relationship fight.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded two Baylor University researchers a $1.46 million grant to research and test new compounds that could help fight cancerous tumors.

Baylor University's department of journalism officially became the department of journalism and media arts on June 1. The name change was approved by the Office of Academic Affairs and Policy.

Baylor University's Mayborn Museum Complex will host Medieval Merriment Wednesdays from June 16 through Aug. 18. Activities will be from 1:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.

Baylor University President Ken Starr released a statement today celebrating the perseverance of the Big 12 Conference and its historic rivalries. Starr expressed "great appreciation to our fellow Big 12 institutions for remaining committed to our partnership and the vision of this conference."

Chris Hansen, a Baylor University film professor, has combined his love of storytelling and digital media into a film career.

Baylor University's 2012 commitment to building strong, research-intensive graduate programs is producing impressive results in a relatively short time. The university significantly enhanced its graduate student stipends, which resulted in an increasing number of high-scoring graduate students seeking doctoral degrees at Baylor. And now, national data from Academic Analytics shows that the scholarly productivity for many of Baylor's graduate faculty - in fields ranging from physics, political science and preventive health to religion, sociology and philosophy - is among the strongest in the nation.

Baylor Director of Athletics Ian McCaw and Baylor President Ken Starr met with members of the media on Friday to discuss conference realignment and encourage the Baylor Family to get involved, stay involved and help make a difference.

Baylor University President Ken Starr said today in a message sent to the Baylor Family that the university is continuing to seek as much unity as possible among the members of the Big 12 Conference and to fight for cohesiveness among the Texas universities of the Big 12.

Baylor's Summer Piano Institute will host 40 high school piano students from Texas and South Carolina in late June, with several free faculty and student recitals to be presented.

Only 24 hours to prepare a case. Sitting state and federal judges presiding at every round. A $10,000 winner-take-all cash prize. Baylor Law School's inaugural National Top Gun Mock Trial Competition was a very different breed of tournament, and competitors, coaches, judges and witnesses had nothing but praise for the one-of-a-kind event.

The Robbins MBA Healthcare Program at Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business has achieved accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education (CAHME), the benchmark by which students and employers determine the integrity of healthcare management education and that establishes the standard of measurement for the world community.

From Plato and Augustine, through Pascal, Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci, and on up to Einstein, the greatest thinkers have bridged the gap between the sciences and the humanities, technology and art, philosophy and theology. Soon-to-be high school seniors will have the same opportunity through the Renaissance Scholar Program, a partnership between Baylor University's Honors College and School of Engineering and Computer Science.

Award-winning high school students will perform a concert of string chamber music at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 12, in the Armstrong Browning Library's Foyer of Meditation on the Baylor campus.

Baylor University junior Rachel L. Wilkerson, a University Scholar from Lubbock, Texas, has been selected to receive the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the premier undergraduate award in the United States and its territories in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

Joyce Jones will play an organ program titled "By Request" in Roxy Grove Hall at Baylor University on Tuesday, June 8, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Other organists will give recitals on Wednesday, June 9, and Thursday, June 10, as part of the Baylor's annual Summer Organ Institute.

A guest column penned by Baylor University President Ken Starr regarding Baylor and the future of the Big 12 is running in several Texas newspapers, including the Waco Tribune-Herald and The Dallas Morning News.

Baylor President Ken Starr spoke about Baylor's commitment to the Big 12 and to its ongoing relationship with the fellow Texas schools in the Big 12, at a news conference Monday, June 7, on the Baylor campus.

Baylor University's Martin Museum of Art will host the Texas Photographic Society Members Only Show from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday June 8, through Thursday, June 10.

For two months, artist Clara Dutton worked on a three-paneled image of a creature she loves - the elephant - often weeping as she painted. Through her oil-on-canvas painting "The Harvest," the Baylor postbaccalaureate student hopes to call attention to the increase in elephant poaching and the flourishing illegal ivory trade.

This has been a record-breaking year for the Martin Museum of Art at Baylor University in terms of art acquisitions and donated art done by well-known artists.

The Baylor community is saddened by the death of a faithful friend, Gene Aubrey Hargis Briscoe, who passed away May 31 in San Antonio at the age of 92. She was preceded in death by her husband, Judge Joe Briscoe. Although neither attended Baylor University, the couple took great interest in the university and gave generously of their time and resources, touching the lives of many students.

Baylor University President Ken Starr released a message today to all members of the Baylor Family about the spring meetings of the Big 12 Conference that concluded earlier today in Kansas City.

The Weddell seal is one of the deepest diving seals on earth and can hold its breath underwater for up to 90 minutes in their native habitat of Antarctica. Scientists have just begun to unravel what physiological characteristics in the seals' swimming muscles allow them to dive so deep and for so long. But now, new research from Baylor University biologists has found that there is a switching of fuel usage as this animal goes from a non-diving pup to a juvenile diver.

New Baylor University President Ken Starr wasted no time getting to work on June 1 - his first official day as Baylor's 14th president. Judge Starr started his day with a run on Baylor's popular Bear Trail, followed by a host of meetings around campus with faculty, student and community leaders.

Joyce Jones will perform a Memorial Day organ concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 31, in Roxy Grove Hall on the campus of Baylor University.

As the world's most powerful subatomic particle collider gathers data, Baylor University scientists will now be there to analyze the information.

Reconciliation between the Jewish community and Palestinians will be the focus of a briefing by Dr. Marc Ellis, director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University, at The Palestine Center in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, May 27.

Marsh Madness, a joint program between the City of Waco and Baylor University's Center for Reservoir and Aquatic Systems Research (CRASR), recently received the Environmental Education Award from the State of Texas.

While there is significant variability in water temperature, nutrient availability and plankton production in reservoirs, these bodies of water are nonetheless "hot spots" for plankton nitrogen fixation.

Stephanie Wong, a graduate student in Baylor University's department of geology, was recently awarded a $500 Farvolden Award Scholarship for her poster presentation at the 2010 National Groundwater Association Groundwater Summit, held in Denver, Colo.

Dr. Virginia Mann Sugg Furrow, an alumna of Baylor University and Baylor College of Medicine, passed away April 25, 2010, at her home in Tucson, Ariz.

Baylor Law School is known throughout the nation for its intensely rigorous trial advocacy program. Now, 16 other law schools in the nation will experience the same type of rigor during the first week in June - with one winner emerging as the nation's Top Gun.

At its spring meeting today, the Baylor University Board of Regents approved a $403.3 million operating budget for 2010-2011. Regents also approved the relocation of the Baylor School of Social Work to downtown Waco and agreed to establish a new Nurse Practitioner/Doctor of Nursing Practice (NP/DNP) degree at Baylor's Louise Herrington School of Nursing.

Trends in Christian higher education, moral dimensions of academic leadership and Baptist contributions to Christian higher education will be examined in a Baylor University seminar May 16-20.

Ashley Brown, who earns her Master of Social Work degree Saturday from Baylor University's School of Social Work, has more reason than most to celebrate her achievement. Her graduation comes just days before she undergoes her second kidney transplant in 10 years.

Fifteen students from across the country who are in the Lilly Fellows Programs in Humanities and the Arts will travel to Baylor University May 16 to 20 for the conference "Engaging Great Texts Within the Christian Tradition."

Baylor University's Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics and Engineering Research (CASPER) and the NASA Lunar Science Institute's (NLSI) Center for Lunar Science and Exploration recently conducted a pilot research project with a student team from high schools around the Waco area to help scientists in their quest to understand the Moon and prepare for future human exploration.

Dr. Phillip Johnson, 63, longtime professor of Spanish at Baylor University, died Wednesday, May 12, after a valiant battle with cancer. Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 14, at Grace Gardens Funeral Home, 8220 Woodway Dr. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 15, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 7201 Viking Dr. Burial will be held May 18 in Salt Lake City.

Baylor University will test its outdoor public address and indoor voice evacuation systems throughout the day on Thursday, May 13. The public is being notified so that the test will not be confused with an actual emergency.

A new Baylor University study looking at the different fracture properties of bones at various stages of degradation has found that bones degrade and fracture differently under certain environmental conditions like sun, shade or in water.

Baylor University will confer degrees upon approximately 2,000 graduates during

Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary will confer degrees upon the nearly 50 graduates during its commencement ceremony at 6 p.m. Friday, May 14, at the First Baptist Church of Waco.

Three members of Baylor University's music faculty will perform with Dallas Symphony Orchestra in four May concerts at Dallas' Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

Ever wonder how to best care for your family's treasured heirlooms? Whether it's a family Bible, quilt, photographs or old letters, Central Texans are invited to learn more about "Preserving Your Family Treasures: Ask An Expert" from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 13, at the Roosevelt Building, 400 Austin Ave. in downtown Waco. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. William Davis, professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at Baylor University, was honored May 1 by the Texas Institute of Letters for his book of poetry Landscape and Journey. Davis received the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Poetry at the institute's 74th annual banquet.

Pillars: A Celebration of Seniors, the first conference and retreat for senior adults held by Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary, will feature speaker Grant Teaff, Baylor's former head football coach, and workshops on missions, grandparenting, estate planning and overcoming the "evangelism jitters."

The FGA Stone Symposium highlighting the career of Dr. F. Gordon A. Stone, Robert A. Welch Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Baylor University, will be held at 8 a.m., Thursday, May 27, and at 8 a.m. Friday, May 28, in the Baylor Sciences Building in Room E 125.

Dr. William D. Hillis, who serves as The Cornelia Marschall Smith Distinguished Professor of Biology at Baylor University, has been selected by this year's senior class as the 2010 Collins Outstanding Professor, an annual award provided by the Carr P. Collins Foundation that recognizes and honors extraordinary teachers at Baylor.

Baylor University's sustainability initiatives have led to several awards in recent weeks, including the Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB) first-place award for college programs; second place in the RecycleMania's Big 12 per capita classic competition; second place in Big 12 waste minimization competition; and third place overall in the Big 12 grand champion division.

A Baylor University study has found female mosquitoes prefer to lay their eggs on or close to water in which other mosquito larvae have developed, suggesting that female mosquitoes can somehow detect where other larvae have been successful.

Baylor University, the City of Waco and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of Waco were honored by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality at the 18th annual Texas Environmental Excellence Awards. The commission awards select Texans for their efforts to protect natural resources.

Research into the effectiveness of implementing Violence-Free Zones at schools continues to show improved safety and attendance rates and decreased need for police interventions, say researchers at Baylor University.

Two Baylor University researchers have published a paper on their creation of a new equation for estimating rainfall amounts in ancient ecosystems. Understanding climate and rainfall through geologic time is crucial because they relate to plant and animal evolution, ecosystem function and the hydrological cycle, including erosional and depositional events.

Baylor University will welcome several distinguished speakers and performers to campus this spring. Below is a list of the lectures, conferences, symposia, and performances that will be held during May at Baylor.

After studying, analyzing and practicing for the past month, the work paid off for Baylor University's brain bowl team. The team: Barchleigh Sandvall, Rachel Kressin, Ryan Young and Jeff Seinfeld, all of whom are neuroscience majors, came away with the win at the 13th annual Brain Bowl held Tuesday, April 1, beating the University of Texas and Trinity University.

High school students from the Waco area will be on the Baylor University campus on Saturday, May 1, to learn about the science behind drug and alcohol addiction as part of the inaugural Baylor Addiction Research Consortium's (BARC) Scholars Day.

Fashion design and visual merchandising majors will present this year's fashion show and senior work collection at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, May 1, in the Barfield Drawing Room in the Bill Daniel Student Union Center on the Baylor campus.

Baylor University's Armstrong Browning Library will celebrate the birthdays of English poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and former Baylor English department chair Dr. A.J. Armstrong during the three-day Browning Festival 2010, Thursday, May 6, through Saturday, May 8, in the library's McLean Foyer of Meditation on the Baylor campus.

John Lee Hancock, writer and director of the Academy Award-nominated film The Blind Side and a Baylor Law alumnus, will be the keynote speaker at Baylor Law School's commencement exercises at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 1, Waco Hall. While the majority of floor seats will be reserved for graduates and their guests, a limited number of seats in the Waco Hall balcony will be available to the public.

Talent and practice, practice, practice are musts for successful musicians. But what about team work? Wiff Rudd, professor of trumpet at Baylor University, has taken a hard look at that question. He learned this week that his research into collaborative warm-ups and practice has been chosen for the 2010 Baylor Centennial Professor award.

Baylor University senior Melissa Yeakley, an international studies major from Hurst, Texas, has received her second Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study in China this summer as part of the U.S. government's National Security Language Initiative to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical-need foreign languages.

Baylor University students will be the country's first graduates of a rigorous new nurse-midwifery program. The goal is to help eliminate unnecessary cesarean sections and other procedures. In recent reports, health experts say C-sections are performed far too often in the United States, needlessly exposing mothers and babies to major-surgery risks.

Baylor University senior Ross D. Irons, a double major in Russian and German from Austin, Texas, has been selected for the Fulbright Scholarship, the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Irons will teach English in Russia during the 2010-2011 academic year as part of the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships (ETA) Program, an element of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

A Baylor Law School assistant professor who studies immigration law has evaluated Arizona's recent immigration legislation and believes it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Allan McMurray, the Robert and Judy Charles Endowed Professor of Music, chair of the conducting faculty and director of bands at the University of Colorado at Boulder, will be the guest conductor for the Baylor University Wind Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 30, in Jones Concert Hall at the Glennis McCrary Music Building on the Baylor campus.

Baylor University graduate programs in business, law, the sciences, education and health disciplines were among those nationally ranked in the 2011 edition of "America's Best Graduate Schools," which are available in the May 2010 edition of U.S.News & World Report magazine.

The Pulse,the undergraduate journal of Baylor University, will feature a lecture by sophomore University Scholar Josh Jeffrey on "Dante, Aquinas, and Trajan: Reconciling Freedom and Orthodoxy in The Divine Comedy" hosted by the Honors Residential College at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 27, in the Alexander Reading Room on the Baylor campus.

Baylor University's department of mathematics and Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics and Engineering Research (CASPER) will co-host a seminar that features Dr. Zhimin Zhang, professor of mathematics at Wayne State University in Detroit.

After a comprehensive national search, Baylor University has named Dr. R. Brian Webb, Managing Director of UBS Global Asset Management in Dallas, as the university's Chief Investment Officer. He will join Baylor on June 1.

Former San Francisco 49ers player and Baylor graduate Tyrone Smith will be the keynote speaker at the fifth annual Kente Ceremony. The achievements of the 2010 graduates will be recognized at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 24, in Tidwell Bible Building.

Graduate student Emily Snider has been chosen for her work in hymnody to give a presentation at the annual Emerging Scholars Forum of the Hymn Society in mid-July. Graduate students were invited to submit their research dealing with an aspect of congregational song.

The Baylor University President's Concert will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 24, on the Fountain Mall, the grassy area which extends across the Baylor campus from Fifth Street to Moody Library.

A Baylor University researcher has received a $72,000 grant from the John E. Fetzer Institute to start a new research area at Baylor into the study of forgiveness.

The last place you'd expect to find a hand-written manuscript from one of the giants of 19th century British literature would be deep the heart of Texas. Yet, that is where it is, and it will be celebrated during Armstrong Browning Library's annual Browning Festival, May 6-8.

Members of Baylor University's nationally ranked debate team recently made a strong showing at the National Debate Tournament, held at the University of California, Berkeley, at the end of March. Baylor's top two individual debate teams each advanced to the elimination rounds at the prestigious, invitation-only tournament.

Dr. Peter Hartmann, Research Fellow with the Research Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, will give a seminar titled, "Collective Dynamics of Complex Plasma Bilayers," at 1:30 p.m., Friday, April 23 in Room C.206 in the Baylor Science Building on the Baylor University campus. The seminar is hosted by the Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics and Engineering Research (CASPER) at Baylor.

A silent horror film, a "mockumentary" featuring a contemporary Christian band, a documentary on a hit card game and a stop-motion film using LEGOS are some of the 15 films being featured at the 11th annual Black Glasses Film Festival at the historic Waco Hippodrome Theatre.

Dr. David Sattinger, an internationally known mathematician, will present a two-part lecture on astronomy and mathematics Wednesday, April 21, and Friday, April 23 in room 344 of the Sid Richardson building on the Baylor University campus. The titles of each lecture are "Naked Histronomy: What Did Astronomers Know Before The Telescope And When Did They Know It?"

Dr. Joyce Jones, The Joyce Oliver Bowden professor of music, professor of organ and organist in residence at Baylor University, has been named the Cornelia Marschall Smith Professor of the Year. The award was presented during the annual Honors Convocation held April 14 at Baylor.

A new Baylor University study will look at land management strategies and specifically assess fire potential and impacts on two endangered bird species within the Austin city limits.

This year, Baylor University students, faculty and staff will take a break from the spring semester to celebrate "DiaNOW: Noise of Waco," the 76th annual Diadeloso music festival, on Thursday, April 22, at Fountain Mall on the Baylor campus.

Baylor Law School's Trial Advocacy program was ranked the fourth best in the nation in the law specialty rankings in U.S. News and World Report's 2011 edition of "America's Best Graduate Schools." Last year, the Baylor Law Trial Advocacy program ranked seventh.