LU News: Research and Grants

Several Lamar University faculty members have been named among the world's most-cited scientists in the latest edition of the World’s Top 2% of Scientists List, released by Stanford University and Elsevier.

Dr. Helen Lou of Lamar University has secured $1.44 million from the Department of Energy to lead a project enhancing cybersecurity for the midstream energy industry

Dr. Serdar Ilban and Dr. James Han, faculty members from the Mary Morgan Moore Department of Music at Lamar University, were invited to present their research at the 15th Pan European Voice Conference (PEVoC) held in Santander, Spain.

Liv Haselbach, executive director of the Lamar University Center for Resiliency, has joined a committee organized under the Transportation Research Board Consensus and Advisory Studies Division of the National Academies and focused on supporting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in addressing flood risk management.

Dr. Ashley Dockens, originally an audiologist with a clinical doctorate and Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and Disorders, transitioned unexpectedly into higher education over a decade ago, subsequently becoming a leading advocate and educator in generative AI integration, shaping policy, conducting research, and fostering AI literacy in academia to enhance faculty practices and student preparation for evolving workforce needs.

Dr. Jeff Forret, a history professor at Lamar University, has been awarded a State Historical Society of Iowa Research Grant to support his research on a book about the history of the Upper Mississippi River region, focusing on the dispossession of Native Americans and African American citizenship loss through the Dred Scott decision.

Dr. Helen Lou, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Lamar University, has secured a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to establish the Center for Data Analytics and Cybersecurity.

Dr. Robert Kelley Bradley, assistant professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has been awarded the Faculty Mentoring Award by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) for his exceptional dedication to mentoring undergraduate students in research endeavors.

LU’s Dr. Julie Fischer has unveiled groundbreaking insights into the role of imperial patronage and the empowerment of women in Ancient Rome through the publication of her latest book, "Power and Propaganda: Large Imperial Cameos of the Early Roman Empire."

Lamar University's College of Graduate Studies hosted its second Graduate Research Conference on March 28, focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and providing attendees with presentations, workshops, and discussions, aiming to enhance research skills and engagement among students and faculty,

Dr. Jennifer Fagen, an associate professor of sociology, along with Dr. Jeremy Shelton and Jenna Luché-Thayer, sheds light on the challenges faced by Lyme disease patients in their article titled "Medical Gaslighting and Lyme Disease: The Patient Experience.

Dr. Tilisa Thibodeaux, Dean of the Reaud Honors College at Lamar University, has secured nearly $100,000 in funding from the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) for the Innovation ColLABoration summer camp.

David J. Beck Summer Fellows Jacob Thompson and Allison Harmon undertook distinct and intensive research projects across diverse disciplines across the United States and the globe.

The McNair Scholars Program at Lamar University is proud to host the 24th Annual McNair Scholars Research Symposium on the 8th floor of the Mary and John Gray Library on Tuesday, Nov. 14.

The National Science Foundation has awarded nearly $300,000 to chemical engineering professor Dr. Helen Lou to lead an interdisciplinary project to equip the future workforce with knowledge and skills on industrial cybersecurity. 

Dr. Chiung-Fang Chang, associate professor of sociology, has been granted $131,000 from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine as part of their Gulf Research Program initiative.   

Lamar University faculty and staff joined researchers from across Texas to advance their research portfolios, taking top prizes at the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Annual Research Conference (TARC).

Lamar University professor Dr. Maryam Hamidi has been granted $173,636 in research funding by the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, for a research study titled “Gulf Intracoastal Waterway – Automatic Identification System (AIS) Application.”

Zaid Mohammed has been selected as a recipient of the highly coveted Texas State University System (TSUS) Regents’ Scholarship, while Shawn Gray has been recognized with the prestigious Regent's Staff Excellence Award.

Lamar University’s Annual Undergraduate Research Exhibition (EXPO) is the showcase of the Office of Undergraduate Research (O.U.R.) grant supported programs. This years exhibition featured over 55 speakers with students and speakers from around the globe.

College of Engineering professor Dr. Qin Qian received $105,000 federal grant funding for industry and community resilience from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Dr. Phillip Cole, Chair and Professor of Physics, received over $300,000 in grant funding from the National Science Institute under the organization's Research in Undergraduate Institutions initiative.

Dr. Xuejun Fan received the EuroSimE Achievement Award for fundamental research and industrial application in the field of thermal, mechanical and multi-physics simulation and experiments in microelectronics and microsystems.

The City of Beaumont has recently awarded the Lamar University Department of Communication and Media more than $700,000 to support the department’s plans for renovations, new equipment and relocating the widely known LUTV studio on campus.

For a decade, the Lamar University Office of Undergraduate Research has championed undergraduate research and creative activities efforts at Lamar University. As the program moves into the start of a new decade, Dr. Cristian Bahrim, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, reflects on the success of the program for the 2022 year.

In the third in a series of articles on the production of N*s for The Innovation Platform, Lamar University’s Professor Philip L Cole discusses the importance of using both high-intensity pion and electron beams for revealing the inner structure of excited protons (N*s) in the second and third resonance regions that decay through the two-pion channel.

A team of researchers at Lamar University have been awarded a $45, 000 grant to bolster the team’s outreach initiative on MIND –– mental health intervention, networking and diversion.

Junior civil and environmental engineering major Melissa Tan’s research was recently accepted into the 14th annual GCURS at Rice University.

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced that the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program has been renewed and will receive a grant in the amount of $259,198 each year for the next five years, totaling more than $1 million.

Dr. Evgeny Romashets, instructor of physics, has been awarded a $219,902 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Coupling, Energetics and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions program to study current streamlines and charged particles’ trajectories in the ionosphere, the upper atmosphere stretching from 50 to 400 miles above Earth's surface.

For the second time, the Office of Undergraduate Research will host the Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium from 2-4 p.m. on Friday, August 5 in the Reaud Executive Event Space.

Dr. Sylvestre Twagirayezu, assistant professor of chemistry, has been awarded a National Science Foundation LEAPS-MPS (Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences) grant of $249,682 to develop detection technology for long-chain fluorinated compounds for environmental trace analysis.