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Congratulations to Texas A&M University's latest National Academy of Sciences member, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Karen Wooley — the most recent faculty member to earn the prestigious accolade while at Texas A&M since fellow Distinguished Professors Marcetta Darensbourg and Ron DeVore were elected to the Academy in 2017.

In 1962, Texas A&M University’s first campus glassblower, Jack Shannon, inspired William “Bill” Merka to follow in his footsteps and take up the profession. Now, as a master scientific glassblower, Merka has been the university’s go-to man for all glassware needs for 35 years.

A distinguished professor in the College of Science, Dr. Clifford Spiegelman has used statistics to challenge forensic methods, exonerate the innocent and bring new light to the past. His expertise was even used during an investigation into President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

Congratulations to senior applied math major Clara Wietbrock '20, one of three Aggies selected to receive the Texas A&M Faculty Senate's 2020 Aggie Spirit Award recognizing students who display outstanding courage and determination in the face of adversity while attending Texas A&M.

Daren Cline, a 35-year veteran Texas A&M educator and researcher in stochastic networks, nonlinear time series and regular variations, has been appointed as interim head of the Texas A&M Department of Statistics.

As the first person to identify the experimental drug remdesivir as the only viable medicine for treating COVID-19 in a January research study, Texas A&M chemist Wenshe Ray Liu has two words to describe preliminary results from its use in a University of Chicago clinical trial: “quite exciting.”

Congratulations to Texas A&M mathematician Yalchin Efendiev, one of 28 international mathematical scientists who have earned selection to the 2020 class of Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Fellows in recognition of international excellence in mathematical science and service.

Texas A&M biologist Gil Rosenthal has been appointed as associate dean for international programs in the College of Science, where he will work to strengthen and expand the international experiences of undergraduate students and faculty members across all departments and the broader Texas A&M campus.

Congratulations to Texas A&M chemist Karen Wooley, one of seven faculty-researchers from Texas-based institutions elected as 2020 American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering Fellows, among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer.

Texas A&M chemists led by Wenshe Liu are seeking to stop COVID-19 and other coronaviruses in their cellular tracks by developing drugs capable of preventing the virus from replicating once inside its human host and also neutralizing its presence in human plasma.

Stanford University organic chemist and National Academy of Sciences member Carolyn Bertozzi — who is known for founding the field of bioorthogonal chemistry — has been selected to receive the 2020 F.A. Cotton Medal for Excellence in Chemical Research, presented jointly by Texas A&M Chemistry and the Texas A&M Section of the American Chemical Society to honor the late Texas A&M chemist Albert Cotton.

Joint work between the laboratories of Texas A&M chemists Matthew Sheldon and Dong Hee Son has resulted in a breakthrough in the decades-long global quest to identify techniques for ultrafast optical control of magnetism using a classic material, gold. Their work, published in "Nature Photonics," could lead to alternate ways to generate electricity from light and possible new strategies for solar energy.