Category: Undergraduate

A team of physicists and learning scientists at Texas A&M and the University of Texas at Austin surveyed more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students involved in presenting multiple physics outreach programs at Texas A&M, determining that students gain as much from their experiences as their audiences do, namely positive effects on their identities as science professionals that can offer invaluable insight into their persistence and retention in STEM and preparation for 21st century careers in science and other areas.

After being honored as Fish Camp namesakes in 2013, Texas A&M physicist Dave Toback and his wife Katherine '88 '00 were inspired to create an endowed Toback Fish Camp Scholarship aimed at supporting future Aggies interested in participating in what for many Texas A&M freshmen is their first tradition with lifelong impact — whoop!

First-generation students are front and center as the cover story for the most recent issue of the Texas A&M Foundation's "Spirit" magazine, which features first-person perspective from Science Leadership Scholars Program academic advisor Victor Castillo '13 and Texas A&M biologist and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Student Success Dr. Tim Scott '89, as well as a profile on Texas A&M mathematics major and Regents Scholar Lizzett Tapia '23.

First-generation students are front and center as the cover story for the most recent issue of the Texas A&M Foundation's "Spirit" magazine, which features first-person perspective from Science Leadership Scholars Program academic advisor Victor Castillo '13 and Texas A&M biologist and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Student Success Dr. Tim Scott '89, as well as a profile on Texas A&M neuroscience major and Science Leadership Scholar Jaden Borders '22.

Senior applied math and statistics major Cosmas Kravaris '22 and senior biology major Ryan Rahman '22 have been selected as Texas A&M's latest recipients of $10,000 scholarships from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which seeks to strengthen U.S. leadership in science and technology by supporting the nation's best undergraduate students pursuing STEM majors.

Sophomore physics major Connor Bowerman '24 has been selected as one of two 2021-22 Texas A&M Beckman Scholars, a prestigious award intended to recognize and support exceptional undergraduate students in chemistry, biological sciences or interdisciplinary combinations thereof at selected universities across the United States.

Texas A&M sophomore chemistry major Brianna Bishop '23 and junior biology major Ryan Rahman ’22 have been named 2021 Goldwater Scholars by the Goldwater Scholarship Foundation in recognition of outstanding academic achievement and research potential. Bishop and Rahman are among 52 Texas A&M students selected to date for the prestigious honor since the initial scholarship was issued in 1989.

A team of Texas A&M Physics and Astronomy researchers analyzed both the midterm exam scores and final grades of more than 10,000 students enrolled in four introductory physics courses at Texas A&M across more than a decade, finding no evidence that male students consistently outperform female students in these courses.

The Texas A&M student chapter of the Association for Women in Mathematics has been recognized nationally with the organization's 2020 Award in Community Outreach honoring its outstanding work in reaching out to both external and internal mathematical communities.

Texas A&M biology graduate Mary-Catherine Clark '20 has been selected as the 2020 recipient of the Robert Gates-Muller Family Outstanding Student Award, one of Texas A&M’s top senior awards annually presented during commencement ceremonies.

The Texas A&M Society of Physics Students chapter has been recognized as a 2019-2020 SPS Outstanding Chapter for its excellence as a top-tier student-led physical sciences organization — a distinction awarded to less than 15 percent of the nearly 850 chapters located at colleges and universities across the US and world.

In a strange turn of events only a global pandemic could inspire, Texas A&M chemists Alicia Altemose and Edward Lee decided against giving a final exam in their "Fundamentals of Chemistry" lab, instead challenging their nearly 6,000 undergraduate students across 280 sections each to make a video explaining an everyday concept using what they learned this fall either in their lab or related lecture course.

Since 2017, Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy M. Suhail Zubairy has been bringing Texas A&M freshmen to the frontier of quantum mechanics — a fundamental theory in physics describing the behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic scale that vexed even renowned theoretical physicist Albert Einstein and typically is considered so advanced that it’s reserved for college juniors and seniors.

Senior biology and statistics double major Johnathan Lo '21 is one of two students selected as Texas A&M's latest recipients of $10,000 scholarships from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which seeks to strengthen U.S. leadership in science and technology by supporting the nation's best undergraduate students pursuing STEM majors.

Texas A&M seniors Mary-Catherine Clark '20 and Oscar Gonzalez '20 have been selected as 2020 recipients of the John B. Beckham Award in Science, the College of Science's highest mark of distinction recognizing students who best exemplify characteristics of academic achievement, character, leadership and extracurricular activities.