Research

WACO, Texas (March 1, 2023) – Often when people hear the word literacy, they think about learning to read, but literacy involves much more than reading from the printed page. Literacy encompasses the everyday ways people use language to make meaning and communicate, said Kelly C. Johnston, B.S. ’04, Ed.D., assistant professor in the Baylor University School of Education.

WACO, Texas (Feb. 15, 2023) - Smartphone use has quickly become a fixture of everyday life, including during church services. Drawing from the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Technology Acceptance Model, Baylor researchers have developed a new model to identify key drivers of smartphone use during church services.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 24, 2023) – Faith organizations have traditionally served as first responders when crisis occurs in personal lives as well as in the community. Yet, for all the good they do, faith organizations can do so much more if their efforts and resources could be better recognized and leveraged, through public-private partnerships to sustain and grow their work, according to a case study by Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 19, 2023) - Jessica Akers, Ph.D., assistant professor of educational psychology in the Baylor University School of Education, has received a $893,409 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop an innovative treatment model for children with autism and their siblings.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 9, 2023) Silicic volcanoes on the Moon, specifically the mysterious Gruithuisen Domes, are a lunar geologic mystery that still perplexes scientists more than half a century after they were discovered. Based on early telescopic and spacecraft observations, these extinct volcanoes have long been suspected to be silicic in composition, in some ways similar to terrestrial strato volcanoes like Mount St. Helens in Washington state.

WACO, Texas (Dec. 15, 2022) – Baylor University chemist Caleb D. Martin, Ph.D., and his team have developed a new state-of-art Lewis superacid – with applications in the production of most common plastics – that is more efficient to produce, safer for the environment, and could potentially save billions of dollars in manufacturing costs.

WACO, Texas (Dec. 7, 2022) – Baylor University data scientists along with colleagues from four other universities have been awarded one of the largest National Science Foundation grants to explore new approaches to engage and prepare the next generation of data scientists through sports analytics.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 30, 2022) - Athletics can occupy an ambiguous place within a university's greater mission, particularly at religious institutions. Yet, little research has been conducted - until now - to understand student-athletes connection with personal religious beliefs.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 28, 2022) – Baylor University is among the institutions participating in the inaugural Global Scientific Conference on Human Flourishing, an interdisciplinary conference organized by Templeton World Charity Foundation in partnership with leading academic and policy research centers around the world.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 16, 2022) - Remote work has its own distinct set of challenges, and businesses that help employees respond to these challenges will benefit with a more productive and healthier workforce, according to research led by remote/hybrid work expert Sara J. Perry, Ph.D., associate professor of management at Baylor.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 14, 2022) – While peer influence is the top factor that leads to Baylor University students to attain higher levels of vertical faith maturity and horizontal faith maturity, respectively, attending a local place of worship is a powerful predictor of both measures of faith maturity, according to research from Baylor’s ongoing Faith and Character Study, which tracks the long-term impact of a Baylor education on a person’s faith and character.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 7, 2022) – For National STEM Day, Baylor University is starting a new outreach project, which provides teachers, families and students with do-it-yourself projects designed to make science, technology, engineering and math come alive.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 3, 2022) – Ashley Barrett, Ph.D., BA ’07, MA ’09, associate professor in Baylor’s Department of Communication, has earned a highly coveted CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the impact of new information technologies on the communication they facilitate in healthcare settings and seek ways to promote compassionate communication and empathy in these ever-evolving patient-provider interactions.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 17, 2022) – An interdisciplinary team of Baylor University researchers in psychology, religion and bioethics will explore how to tackle the complex problems of human flourishing by training theologians to incorporate the methods and insights of the psychological sciences into their work through a $2.5 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 13, 2022) – Pablo Rivas, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science in Baylor University's School of Engineering and Computer Science, is the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation grant to use technology to identify and disrupt illicit transactions online. Baylor colleague Tomas Cerny, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science, also serves on the five-person research team.

WACO, Texas (Sept. 26, 2022) – Baptist scholars recently gathered at Oxford University for the 2022 Baptist Scholars International Roundtable (BSIR), hosted by the Baylor University Graduate School, to promote Baptist scholarship among faculty around the world.

WACO, Texas (Sept. 26, 2022) –Smartphone users will be disappointed if they expect their devices and social media to fill their need for purpose and meaning. In fact, it will probably do the opposite, researchers at Baylor and Campbell Universities found in a recently published study.

WACO, Texas (Sept. 23, 2022) – Baylor University is celebrating National Research Administrator Day today by recognizing the team effort that supports researchers across campus and helped Baylor attain Research 1 designation – three years earlier than expected – among the nation’s top R1 universities.

WACO, Texas (Sept. 15, 2022) – Baylor University announced today the appointment of Aaron Wright, Ph.D., as the inaugural James R. Schofield Endowed Chair in Biomedical Studies. Wright comes to Baylor from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, and will provide interdisciplinary research and leadership from within the Department of Biology.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 29, 2022) - Research led by Baylor University faculty and students will be explored on the national stage as they share their findings from the San Giuliano Archaeological Research Project during a Season 10 episode of the popular primetime Discovery adventure series "Expedition Unknown," which premieres Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. CST on Discovery.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 25, 2022) – Baylor University announced today the appointment of Julia Chan, Ph.D., as the inaugural holder of The Tim and Sharalynn Fenn Family Endowed Chair in Materials Science. Chan, a 1993 Baylor graduate who built an international reputation as a leading scientist focused on the discovery of new families of quantum materials, will provide multi-disciplinary leadership for Baylor’s materials science efforts.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 24, 2022) – In a first-of-its-kind study published in Frontiers of Marine Science, Baylor University marine biologist Sarah Kienle, Ph.D., and her research colleagues gathered baseline data on the ecology and physiology of the leopard seal, the enigmatic apex predator of the Antarctic.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 22, 2022) – A new review article in Science Advances co-authored by materials science researchers with Baylor University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) connects several decades of research on a family of intermetallic crystalline materials to find practical ways to design strongly correlated electronic, magnetic and superconducting phenomena.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 17, 2022) – A research team led by Baylor University chemists has taken a groundbreaking step forward in eliminating the exclusion of individuals with blindness from chemistry education and experiences by using lithophane – an old-fashioned art form – and 3D printing to turn scientific data into tactile graphics that glow with video-like resolution, enabling both blind and sighted individuals to universally visualize the same piece of data.

WACO, Texas (July 27, 2022) – Drought may have led to an increase in civil conflict followed by political collapse in Mayapan, the ancient capital of the Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula, in the 13th and 14th centuries, according to a study published in Nature Communications that includes contributions by a Baylor University archaeologist.

WACO, Texas (July 28, 2022) – Baylor University announced today the hiring of J. Brian Jordon, Ph.D., to serve as the inaugural Kenneth and Celia Carlile Endowed Chair in Materials Science. Jordon brings a highly regarded research lab to Baylor from the University of Alabama, where he established a national reputation for advanced materials research.

WACO, Texas (July 15, 2022) – After a 2020 hiatus due to COVID and a 2021 program embedded in a local summer school, Baylor University’s Mathematics for Early Learners Academy (MELA), sponsored by the Baylor School of Education (SOE), has returned to the Baylor campus July 5-28 to host students ages 4 to 6 at the Mayborn Museum.

WACO, Texas (July 12, 2022) – Baylor University chemist Bryan Shaw, Ph.D., has been awarded a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to take dramatic steps to open chemistry classes and labs to students with blindness or low vision.

WACO, Texas (April 7, 2022) – Scientists of the CDF collaboration at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory – including Baylor University researchers with the Experimental High Energy Physics group – announced today that they have achieved the most precise measurement to date of the mass of the W boson.

WACO, Texas (March 2, 2022) – Religious believers who embrace accountability to God (or another transcendent guide for life) experience higher levels of three of the four variables of psychological well-being – mattering to others, dignity and meaning in their lives, though not happiness – according to a study from researchers with Baylor University, Westmont College and Hope College.

WACO, Texas (Feb. 7, 2022) – Baylor University researchers will examine virtue formation in higher education moral communities, both secular and faith-based, with a $2.7 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 19, 2022) – Baylor University researchers Holly Oxhandler, Ph.D., and Clay Polson, Ph.D., associate professors in the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, have been awarded an $843,647 grant from the John Templeton Foundation, a subaward through the University of South Alabama for their research project within the overall Spiritual and Religious Competencies Project.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 19, 2022) – A recent National Science Foundation funded study that included Baylor University paleoclimatologist Steven L. Forman, Ph.D., professor of geosciences, evaluates current and future dust sources in central North America with consideration for climate change. These fine dust fluxes are detrimental to asthmatic and general cardio-pulmonary health for populations downwind, particularly areas of west Texas and New Mexico that have large areas of significant dust sources with dry and drought conditions in the past decade.

WACO, Texas (Dec. 16, 2021) – Baylor University has been named a Research 1 university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, joining the nation’s top-tier research institutions as a doctoral university with very high research activity and elevating Baylor as a preeminent Christian research university.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 29, 2021) – A Baylor University-led study on ethical listening discovered that women and nonmanagers believe that management is not receptive to their feedback and are dissatisfied with organization listening efforts. That, in turn, has led to fewer employees sharing legitimate concerns.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 19, 2021) – Laine Scales, Ph.D., professor of social work at Baylor University’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, is among the education leaders helping launch the Consortium for Global Education’s (CGE) new Research Institute, creating a collaboration between faculty and students on topics of all disciplines that have an international component.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 17, 2021) – Decline in prospective memory — the ability to perform daily intentions — is a key driver of everyday functional impairment in dementia. Baylor University researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, led a study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, to determine if smartphone technology could help improve prospective memory functioning.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 8, 2021) – Baylor University today will host Baylor ResearchU, a new virtual program designed to showcase research opportunities to prospective high school students, in recognition of National STEM Day. Featuring conversations with Baylor researchers and mentors, Baylor ResearchU aims to encourage high school students to pursue research opportunities early in their college career that will enhance their experience and prepare them to address meaningful societal challenges.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 2, 2021) – Pinnipeds — a group including seals, sea lions and walruses — are relatively recently derived marine mammals that evolved from terrestrial carnivorans and reentered the marine environment. Their recent adaptations to an amphibious lifestyle make their evolutionary anatomy of particular interest to Baylor University researcher Sarah Kienle, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 29, 2021) – Social and biomedical scientists at Harvard University and Baylor University have joined forces to launch the $43.4 million, five-year “Global Flourishing Study” (GFS), the largest initiative of its kind to investigate the factors that influence human flourishing throughout the world. It also represents largest funded research project in the University’s history.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 21, 2021) – Pediatric advance practice registered nurses (APRN) are facing multifocal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the most difficult challenge being mental health struggles experienced by themselves and their families, according to a new study led by Jessica Peck, DNP, clinical professor at Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON).

WACO, Texas (Oct. 15, 2021) – Baylor University announced today the appointment of Henry Han, Ph.D., an international leader in the data sciences disciplines, as the inaugural holder of The McCollum Family Chair in Data Sciences in the Baylor’s School of Engineering and Computer Science.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 14, 2021) – New research led by Baylor University biology doctoral candidate William J. Matthaeus and professor of biology Joseph White, Ph.D., considers how plant freeze-intolerance affected forest cover and hydrology during the Pennsylvanian period, roughly 340 million to 285 million years ago during the Paleozoic Era, proposing improvements to climate projections for the past and future with plant function data.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 8, 2021) – A new study, led by Baylor University researcher Julie Hoggarth, Ph.D., associate professor of anthropology, evaluates the major impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on professional archaeologists, particularly women and those early in their career.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 4, 2021) – The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty (BCHP) announced today that Craig Gundersen, Ph.D. – one of the nation’s leading experts and sought-after voices on strategies to address food insecurity, with a special emphasis on publicly funded nutrition programs – has been selected as the inaugural Jim and Tammy Snee Family Chair in Food Security.

WACO, Texas (Sept. 30, 2021) – Baylor University today announced the successful completion of the Baylor Academic Challenge (BAC), a dollar-for-dollar matching program that generated significant support from alumni and donors to establish 14 new endowed faculty chairs and significantly advance the aspirations of Illuminate, the University’s strategic plan.

WACO, Texas (Sept. 28, 2021) – After a 2020 hiatus due to COVID, Baylor University’s Mathematics for Early Learners Academy (MELA), sponsored by the Baylor School of Education (SOE), returned for the summer of 2021. The program, which has helped young students ages 4-6 to achieve or exceed grade level in early math skills and number fluency, also began pilot testing its new curriculum and assessments.

WACO, Texas (Sept. 24, 2021) – As Baylor University continues substantial progress toward Research 1 recognition among the nation’s top research institutions, the University today is honoring all staff who work behind the scenes to support research across the campus on National Research Administrator Day.

WACO, Texas (Sep. 13, 2021) – Findings from the latest national Baylor Religion Survey (BRS) found that the COVID-19 pandemic has made Americans significantly angrier, sadder, lonelier and more worried.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 27, 2021) – With her latest research, Allison Alford, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor in Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, continues to draw attention to what she describes as the underappreciated role of the daughter in American society.