C OR NERSTO N E academic foundation for global leadership
2014 ANNUAL REPORT
CO RNER STONE — an important quality or feature on which a particular thing depends or is based — a stone that forms the base of a corner of a building, joining two walls
“The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study has provided an avenue to bring world-renowned scholars to our campus and enable them to interact with our faculty— our faculty benefit immensely from this exchange.”
N. K. Anand Executive Associate Dean of Engineering Dwight Look College of Engineering Texas A&M University
CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study is a key initiative to launch Texas A&M University to the forefront of top-tier universities. By bringing the finest minds in the world to Texas A&M we enhance the intellectual climate and accelerate significant research of benefit to all mankind. I have strongly supported the Institute, including a commitment of $5.2 million to cover half the cost during the five-year startup phase. Through the $100 million Chancellor’s Research Initiative we are investing substantially over the next few years to attract a new wave of stars to permanent appointments on our faculty. John Sharp Chancellor The Texas A&M University System
INTERIM PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Since Texas A&M’s founding in 1876 as the state’s land-grant and first public institution of higher education, its mission has been to promote teaching, research, extension, and service to the people of the state of Texas and far beyond. Today, Texas A&M holds the triple designation as a land-, sea-, and space-grant university and is known for being effective, being efficient, and providing an excellent education for a reasonable investment. The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study brings world-class talent to the university to work with our faculty, students, and staff across and within disciplines. It is an exemplary program that, while relatively young, already has furthered our mission and enriched our state, nation, and world—and is an important part of our goal to become widely acknowledged as one of the nation’s very best public universities. Mark Hussey Interim President Texas A&M University
DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced
Three years into our five-year startup plan, we have recruited twenty-two eminent scholars. They have made positive impacts on many teaching, research, and scholarship fronts, and two have joined Texas A&M’s permanent faculty. TIAS is designed, after achieving a
Study (TIAS) was a dream of mine and several sufficient endowment, to annually faculty colleagues, and it has taken more than a attract up to twenty world-renowned decade to realize that dream. I am pleased that, scholars to the University to team with our exceptional faculty and students.
thanks to the hard work of many people, By fostering collaborative relationships TIAS is now an operational reality and is making among the TIAS scholars, faculty, and students, the Institute advances the University’s research productivity and excellence at Texas A&M. deepens the students’ educational experience. TIAS creates a catalyst for faculty in every discipline at Texas A&M Vision 2020 calls for A&M to become a to ask two important questions: “Who distinctive university measured by world are the top scholars in my field?” and standards of academic excellence. How “Which of these top scholars would do we accomplish this? We must move accelerate our programs if we could the University’s already outstanding attract them to Texas A&M?” TIAS academic quality to an even higher level. provides resources and uses a rigorous, That is precisely why TIAS was created. merit-based vehicle to identify and It was designed to identify, attract, and recruit individuals at the top of their bring National Academy- and Nobelfields who will team most effectively with caliber academic talent to Texas A&M faculty and students at Texas A&M. on an annual basis. Brilliant scholars are the foundation on The Institute is the cornerstone of Texas which great universities thrive. TIAS is A&M’s approach toward enhancing the the cornerstone of that foundation at quality of our teaching, research, and Texas A&M University. scholarship. TIAS creates a streamlined, John L. Junkins merit-based structure for moving our Founding Director academic programs to the top tier of public universities and the University to Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study global academic leadership.
significant contributions to advancing the academic
“The Institute’s potential to elevate Texas A&M’s national academic reputation, combined with its early recruitment success, will be a powerful elixir for those who want to invest philanthropically in Texas A&M’s bright future.”
Ed Davis President Texas A&M Foundation (Pictured on left with John L. Junkins)
CONTENTS
2
TIAS and Vision 2020
4
Administrative Council
6
External Advisory Board
8
Advisory Board
9
Advocates
10
TIAS Gala
12
Faculty Fellow Overview
14
2013–14 Faculty Fellow Articles
52
Incoming Faculty Fellows
62
Past Faculty Fellows
64
Financial Overview
66
Charting the Way Forward
2
TIAS AND VISION 2020 In late 1997, then Texas A&M President Ray Bowen proposed that the University strive to achieve recognition as one of the top ten universities in the nation—while maintaining the distinctiveness of Aggieland—by the year 2020. Bowen’s challenge to the University community led to Vision 2020, a strategic plan to reinforce Texas A&M’s reputation as a world-class university. Vision 2020 identifies twelve imperatives. Of these, the Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study (TIAS) is designed to accelerate the achievement of four: • Elevate Our Faculty and Their Teaching, Research, and Scholarship. • Strengthen Our Graduate Programs. • Enhance the Undergraduate Academic Experience. • Build the Letters, Arts, and Sciences Core.
As envisioned by a group of Texas A&M distinguished professors, each year TIAS invites highly acclaimed intellectuals from around the world to serve on campus as TIAS Faculty Fellows to: • collaborate with faculty and graduate students on cutting-edge research; • present classroom lectures to graduate and undergraduate students and provide opportunities for engagement that will enrich the academic environment; and • give public lectures to enhance the intellectual atmosphere on campus and throughout the community. In its first three years, TIAS has brought twenty-two Faculty Fellows to Texas A&M. With growth of the existing endowment, TIAS plans to expand to twenty new Faculty Fellows each year. With partial funding from the Academic Master Plan and generous support from Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp through the Academic Scholars Enhancement Program, TIAS currently operates across all of the University’s colleges and the Health Science Center. Authority to recruit Faculty Fellows is driven solely by the excellence of the nominations and their correlation with a college’s strategic plans, without regard to existing resources within that college.
Nominations for Faculty Fellows come from the University’s distinguished professors and college deans. After an extensive review, an advisory board of nine Texas A&M distinguished professors develops a list of nominees who are recruited to become Faculty Fellows. While not specifically intended as a recruiting tool, TIAS provides opportunities for Faculty Fellows to experience Texas A&M first-hand and in-depth and to carefully consider how the academic environment could advance their goals.
TIAS also allows the academic community a low-risk opportunity to assess how each Faculty Fellow might—as a permanent member of the faculty—contribute to Texas A&M’s programs and advance its national and international reputation as a top university and a world-class research institution. Since several Faculty Fellows have agreed to extend their appointments and two Faculty Fellows have joined the faculty permanently, TIAS has clearly emerged as an important vehicle for attracting exceptional scholars to Texas A&M.
...TIAS has clearly emerged as an important vehicle for attracting exceptional scholars...
4
ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL CO-CHAIRS
...to foster and enrich the academic and research environment...
The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study (TIAS) has introduced exciting new research and educational collaborations. These alliances have proven particularly thrilling for our students, several of whom already have publications co-authored with these world-renowned scholars. Our outstanding research facilities and exceptional faculty help attract worldclass researchers for the mutual exchange of ideas. Some scholars visit for several months per year for multiple years, demonstrating their desire for a long-term affiliation with Texas A&M. On behalf of the university community, I welcome the new Faculty Fellows to campus and congratulate TIAS for its success and contributions to the quality of our programs.
By attracting the world’s leading scholars and bringing prominent individuals and their research to our campus to collaborate with Texas A&M’s exceptional faculty and students, the Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study indeed serves as a cornerstone for our future excellence. As leaders in their fields, the Faculty Fellows join forces with Texas A&M’s faculty to continually push back the frontiers of knowledge. Collaborations such as these stimulate enthusiasm, produce amazing results, and contribute to the richness of the research enterprise. In addition, the Institute enhances our ability to retain the very best among our current faculty and to recruit outstanding faculty and students for the coming decades.
Karan L. Watson Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Texas A&M University
Glen A. Laine Vice President for Research Texas A&M University
5
ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL MEMBERS M. Katherine Banks
H. Joseph Newton
Vice Chancellor and Dean Dwight Look College of Engineering Texas A&M University Director, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station The Texas A&M University System
Dean Holder, Richard H. Harrison III/External Advisory and Development Council Dean’s Chair and George P. Mitchell ’40 Chair in Statistics College of Science
Tadhg P. Begley
Michael G. O’Quinn
Distinguished Professor Holder, Derek Barton Professorship in Chemistry and Robert A. Welch Foundation Chair Department of Chemistry College of Science
Vice President for Government Relations Office of the President
Karen L. Butler-Purry Associate Provost Office of Graduate and Professional Studies
Timothy D. Phillips Distinguished Professor Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Jeffrey Savell
Professor Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Distinguished Professor Holder, Meat Science & E. M. “Manny” Rosenthal Chair in Animal Science Department of Animal Science College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Ed Davis
Thomas R. Saving
President Texas A&M Foundation
Distinguished Professor Holder, Jeff Montgomery Professorship Department of Economics College of Liberal Arts Director, Private Enterprise Research Center
Bhanu P. Chowdhary
Ricky W. Griffin Interim Dean Distinguished Professor Holder, Blocker Chair in Business Mays Business School
Niall C. Slowey
Pamela Matthews
Professor Department of Oceanography College of Geosciences
Interim Dean College of Liberal Arts
John N. Stallone
Kate C. Miller Dean College of Geosciences
Professor and Interim Department Head Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Jerry R. Strawser Vice President for Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer Division of Finance and Administration
6
EXTERNAL ADVISORY BOARD The External Advisory Board annually
Norman R. Augustine
reviews the activities of the Texas A&M
Chair, External Advisory Board
University Institute for Advanced Study
Former Under Secretary, US Army Former Chair and CEO, Lockheed Martin Corporation Former President, National Academy of Engineering Chair, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future National Medal of Technology
to provide guidance, advice, and recommendations.
Ray M. Bowen Vice Chair, External Advisory Board Distinguished Visiting Professor, Rice University Former President of Texas A&M University (1994–2002) Former Chair, National Science Board Former Division Director and Deputy Director, National Science Foundation
Anita K. Jones Professor Emerita, University of Virginia Former Director, Defense Research and Engineering, US Department of Defense National Academy of Engineering Committee Member, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future Former Vice Chair, National Science Board
7
Linda P. B. Katehi Chancellor, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Davis National Academy of Engineering American Academy of Arts and Sciences Humboldt Research Award
Herbert H. Richardson Chancellor Emeritus, The Texas A&M University System Director Emeritus, Texas A&M Transportation Institute Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University National Academy of Engineering Rufus Oldenburger Medal
8
ADVISORY BOARD TERM EXPIRES NOVEMBER 30, 2015 R. J. Q. Adams
Marlan O. Scully
Christopher Layne
College of Liberal Arts
College of Science
Bush School of Government & Public Service
TERM EXPIRES NOVEMBER 30, 2016 J. N. Reddy
Rajan Varadarajan
Stephen Safe
Dwight Look College of Engineering
Mays Business School
College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
TERM EXPIRES NOVEMBER 30, 2017 Fuller Bazer
John Gladysz
James E. Womack
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
College of Science
College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
9
ADVOCATES The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study is honored to have a distinguished council of advocates who help advance the mission of the Institute. TIAS Advocates identify others interested in ensuring the Institute’s financial foundation will continue its faculty-driven and merit-based mission in the future. Norman R. Augustine
Michael A. Hitt
Herbert H. Richardson ’48
Jason A. Blackstone ’99
William E. Jenkins
Jess C. (Rick) Rickman III ’70
Ray M. Bowen ’58
Christopher Layne
B. Don Russell ’70
Janet Briaud
Carolyn S. Lohman
Stephanie W. Sale
Jean-Louis Briaud
Joanne Lupton
Thomas R. Saving
Bill E. Carter ’69
George J. Mann
Marlan O. Scully
Jerry S. Cox ’72
William J. Merrell Jr. ’71
Les E. Shephard ’77
John L. Crompton ’77
Charles R. Munnerlyn ’62
James M. Singleton IV ’66
Edward S. Fry
Alan Needleman
Ronald L. Skaggs ’65
J. Rick Giardino
Wanda Needleman
Michael L. Slack ’73
Melbern G. Glasscock ’59
Gerald R. North
Christine A. Stanley ’90
William C. Hearn ’63
Erle A. Nye ’59
Bruce Thompson
Rodney C. Hill
Thomas W. Powell ’62
James E. Womack
“TIAS is a great thing for Texas A&M University. It brings well-known scientists and professional academics into the University to benefit students and existing faculty.�
Darren DePoy Rachal/Mitchell/Heep Endowed Professorship in Physics College of Science Texas A&M University
11
TIAS GALA Each year, the Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study inducts its new class of Faculty Fellows at a formal gala on the Texas A&M campus. The first class of Fellows was introduced to the Texas A&M community during a January 25, 2013, gala at the Memorial Student Center. The second class was officially inducted on February 7, 2014. Gala festivities begin as one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honor guards, the Texas A&M Aggie Corps of Cadets Ross Volunteers Company, performs a sabre arch salute for each Faculty Fellow and their guest to walk through.
After dinner, TIAS Founding Director John Junkins serves as master of ceremonies and introduces invited dignitaries. He calls each of the new Faculty Fellows to the stage and provides highlights of each scholar’s career. For a keepsake, Junkins presents each Fellow with a beautiful bronze replica of Rodin’s “The Thinker.” The Institute will introduce its third class of Faculty Fellows at a gala on January 30, 2015.
12
FACULTY FELLOW OVERVIEW The hallmark of a great university is that its students have access to the finest academic minds in the world, and its faculty conducts cutting-edge research for the benefit of mankind. In its first three years of operation, the Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study has brought twenty-two outstanding scholars as Faculty Fellows to the Texas A&M campus. This group includes two Nobel Prize recipients (economics and physics), a Wolf Prize recipient (agriculture), a recipient of the Hubbell Medal in Literature, and a recipient of the National Medal of Science (chemistry). Other Faculty Fellows are members of multiple national and international academies. These Fellows are helping move Texas A&M into a position of global academic and research leadership. Working with
these scholars are rising-star faculty at Texas A&M and graduate students— many funded by TIAS through HEEP Graduate Student Fellowships—of the highest caliber who are experiencing the opportunity of a lifetime that will fundamentally change their career options. Each Faculty Fellow is an example of the reality that the Institute is attracting world-class talent to the University to interact with our faculty and students. Texas A&M’s Institute for Advanced Study is not just a nice idea that might work; it is a reality that is working. During their time on campus Faculty Fellows are engaged in intense research. They establish joint research objectives with Texas A&M faculty, interact with students, and—on a selective basis—give Eminent Scholar public lectures. Faculty Fellows do not have formal teaching assignments, but they give classroom lectures, meet with students, and present special lectures in their home department and college. The impact of this annual influx of talent enriches the intellectual atmosphere for all involved, enhances the quality of our programs, accelerates the solutions to difficult research problems, and enhances Texas A&M’s reputation for excellence as a global academic leader.
“I am so excited by TIAS. It is one of the best things that has happened to Texas A&M University in the last twenty years that I’ve been here. It’s so exciting to have these scholars on our campus. TIAS has injected a whole new excitement in our faculty and students.”
Susan Bloomfield Professor and Assistant Provost Office of Graduate Studies Texas A&M University
14
Drs. Wolfgang Schleich (far left) and Roy Glauber (far right) collaborating with Dr. Marlan Scully and graduate students in the College of Science.
Dr. Christodoulos Floudas before presenting a Department of Chemical Engineering seminar.
Dr. Robert Levine answering questions after a TIAS Distinguished Lecture.
15
2013–14 FACULTY FELLOW ARTICLES The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study selects its Faculty Fellows from among top scholars who have distinguished themselves through outstanding professional accomplishments or significant recognition. These Faculty Fellows come to Texas A&M to pursue their research and to Dr. Claude Bouchard collaborating with graduate students in the College of Education and Human Development.
Dr. Peter Stang works with Dr. Lei Fang and a graduate student in the College of Science.
interact and collaborate with a diverse group of exceptional Texas A&M faculty and graduate students.
TIAS Director John Junkins; Texas A&M Interim President Mark Hussey; Faculty Fellows Wolfgang Schleich, Christodoulos Floudas, Leif Andersson, Robert Levine, Roy Glauber, Roger Howe, Claude Bouchard; Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp. (from left)
16
LEIF ANDERSSON Professor of Genetics Department of Animal Genetics Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Professor of Functional Genomics Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology Uppsala University, Sweden
Among the world’s most renowned scholars in the genomic and molecular study of domestic animals, Leif Andersson—winner of the 2014 Wolf Prize in Agriculture—has carved a scientific niche by approaching farm animals as model organisms. As group leader and professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, Andersson analyzes interbreeding among species of farm animals— such as between wild boars and domestic pigs—to identify the genes and mutations that affect specific traits. He also investigates how the mutations may alter the function and regulation of the genes. Andersson is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
17
DOMESTIC ANIMALS A GOLD MINE FOR EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENETIC VARIATION AND PHENOTYPIC VARIATION The present time is the golden age of genetics. The reason for this is the remarkable progress in the field of molecular genetics and genomics that has occurred during the last sixty years after the discovery of the double helix. It is only a bit more than ten years since the first version of the complete sequence of the human genome was published. Thanks to the rapid development of high-throughput sequencing technologies, it is now a routine exercise to sequence the human genome. The cost has dropped to about $1,000 for one human genome, and it now requires only modest funding to sequence the whole genome of any organism on Earth. A central mission for current genome biology is to better understand the relationship between genetic variation and phenotypic variability. In the field of human genetics, the major aim is to understand the genetic basis for both inherited disorders and multifactorial disorders, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Our domestic animals constitute a unique resource to better understand the genetic basis for phenotypic diversity (e.g., growth, morphology, and behavior). This is because we have reshaped the genome of our domestic animals to make them better adapted for our needs by selective breeding during the thousands of years that have passed since domestication. Both new mutations and genetic variants that were present at the time
of domestication have contributed to the evolution of our domestic animals. The characterization of such mutations has already provided valuable insight into gene function and mechanisms that underlie phenotypic evolution.1,2
Muscle Growth in Pigs and the Discovery of a Previously Unknown Transcription Factor In the late 1980s, we started a major research program by crossing domestic pigs with the European wild boar, an ancestor of domestic pigs. The aim of the project was not only to generate a pedigree that could be used to build the first linkage map of the pig but also to start exploring the genetic basis for the striking phenotypic differences between wild and domestic pigs regarding coat color, body composition, and behavior (Figure 1). There is a major difference in muscle growth between wild and domestic pigs due to the intense selection for improved meat production in pigs. In this project we identified a paternally expressed quantitative trait locus (QTL) with a major effect on muscle growth.3 The gene encoding insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2) was identified as the prime positional candidate gene since it is a potent growth factor, and it is paternally expressed (i.e., the allele transmitted from the sire is active, whereas the copy inherited from the dam is silent). We then demonstrated that this effect is caused by a single base change in
Wild boar
Hampshire pig Figure 1. Differences in coat color, body composition, and behavior between wild and domestic pigs.
18
Figure 2. Phenotypic differences between a wild boar (top) and a hampshire pig (bottom).
intron 3 of IGF24 (Figure 2). The mutation increases muscle growth by about 3–4 percent and has a huge impact on the pig industry. Almost all pigs used for meat production in the United States carry this specific mutation. We were able to demonstrate the mechanism of how this mutation affects muscle growth (Figure 2).4 Electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed that the mutation disrupts the interaction between the DNA sequence and an unknown nuclear factor. A promoter assay in mouse C2C12 cells showed that the wildtype sequence acts as a repressor of transcription. We also showed that the mutation has a tissue-specific effect since it upregulates IGF2 expression
only after birth and in muscle tissue and the heart, but not in the liver. In a subsequent study, using highresolution mass spectrometry, we identified the nuclear factor that binds the mutated site in IGF2. To our surprise, it turned out to be a previously unknown transcription factor that we named ZBED6 and that is found only in placental mammals.5 It is a so-called domesticated DNA transposon, which means that it has evolved from a DNA transposon that first integrated into the genome of an ancestor of placental mammals hundreds of millions of years ago. Chromatin Immunoprecipitation sequencing indicated that ZBED6 not only affects the expression of IGF2 but may be important for transcriptional regulation of many genes. An obvious approach to explore the function of ZBED6 is to inactivate the gene in mice and study the phenotypic consequences. We have generated a ZBED6 knockout mouse, and these mice will now be carefully studied together with researchers at the new mouse phenotyping facility at Texas A&M University. It is very likely that the mechanism summarized in Figure 2 plays a role in the regulation of muscle growth in all placental mammals, including humans. This assumption is based on the fact that both ZBED6 and its binding site in an intron of the IGF2 gene is highly conserved among all placental mammals that have been characterized to date.
The Gait Keeper Mutation in Horses The pattern of locomotion shows considerable variability in horses. This trait has been under strong selection due to the many ways we use horses. Gaited horses like Icelandic horses, Tennessee Walkers, and Paso Fino horses are able to perform alternative gaits, such as pacing and various forms of ambling gaits sometimes referred to as a running walk. We decided to study this fascinating variation in Icelandic horses because they are divided into four-gaited and five-gaited horses. The four-gaited horses can perform walk, trot, and gallop, like all horses, and they can also toelt, a form of ambling gaits. The five-gaited horses can perform these four gaits, but in addition they can pace. That is, the horse moves the two legs on the same side of the body in a synchronized, lateral movement (Figure 3).
Figure 3. An Icelandic horse in flying pace. Photo by Freyja Imsland.
19
We carried out a genome-wide screen comparing four-gaited and five-gaited Icelandic horses, which led to the remarkable discovery that a single base change in a novel transcription factor gene (DMRT3) has a major impact on the control of gait in horses.6 The mutation causes a premature stop codon and results in the expression of a truncated form of the protein. We have recently screened 4,396 horses representing 141 different breeds for the presence of this mutation.7 We found that the mutation is widespread across Asia, Europe, South, and North America and is present at a high frequency in all
gaited horse breeds. It also occurs at a very high frequency in breeds used for harness racing. Thus, this mutation has contributed significantly to the diversification of domestic horses. A major reason for its importance is that the ambling gait provides a very smooth ride. This is because the horse always has at least one foot on the ground when it performs the toelt and similar gaits. We also have gained some insight about why this single base change has such a profound effect on the gait of horses. The DMRT3 transcription factor is expressed in specific neurons in the spinal cord in vertebrates. These
are inhibitory interneurons that make direct contact with the motor neurons implying that they are coordinating muscle contractions during locomotion. Our characterization of this gene in horses and knockout mice indicates that the DMRT3 neurons are critical for setting up the control centre coordinating limb movements in vertebrates.6 This is an important discovery and illustrates how genetic studies of phenotypic variability in domestic animals can provide new basic knowledge about important biological mechanisms.
I N C O L L A B O R AT I O N W I T H : Junfeng Chen, doctoral student, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University Gus Cothran, clinical professor, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University Rytis Juras, associate research scientist, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University Mi Ok Lee, postdoctoral research associate, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University Terje Raudsepp, associate professor, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University Loren C. Skow, professor, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University David Threadgill, professor, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University James E. Womack, Distinguished Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University 1. Leif Andersson, “How selective sweeps in domestic animals provide new insight about biological mechanisms.” Journal of Internal Medicine 271 (2012): 1–14. 2. Andersson, “Molecular consequences of animal breeding.” Current Opinion in Genetics & Development 23 (2013): 295–301. 3. Jin-Tae Jeon et al., “A paternally expressed QTL affecting skeletal and cardiac muscle mass in pigs maps to the IGF2 locus.” Nature Genetics 21 (1999): 157–158. 4. Anne-Sophie Van Laere et al., “A regulatory mutation in IGF2 causes a major QTL effect on muscle growth in the pig.” Nature 425 (2003): 832–836. 5. Ellen Markljung et al., “ZBED6, a novel transcription factor derived from a domesticated DNA transposon, regulates IGF2 expression and muscle growth.” PLoS Biology 7 (2009): e1000256. 6. Andersson et al., “Mutations in DMRT3 affect locomotion in horses and spinal circuit function in mice.” Nature 488 (2012): 642–646. 7. Marta Promerová et al., “Worldwide frequency distribution of the ‘Gait keeper’ mutation in the DMRT3 gene.” Animal Genetics 45 (2014): 274–282.
20
SATYA ATLURI Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering The Henry Samueli School of Engineering University of California, Irvine
An influential figure in aerospace and mechanics, Satya Atluri conducts widely cited research that reveals the workings of complex biological and mechanical systems. Atluri is a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Mechanics, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 2013, Atluri received the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honor conferred by the Republic of India. Over the last four decades, his work has received support from the National Science Foundation, the US Armed Forces, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, the US Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, among others.
21
OVERVIEW
MLPG–ESHELBY METHOD FOR NONLINEAR SOLID AND STRUCTURAL MECHANICS AND NOVEL SOLUTION TECHNIQUES FOR NONLINEAR STATICS, DYNAMICS, AND OPTIMAL CONTROL When a car collides with another object, the damage the car sustains is highly dependent upon where it is hit and with what level of force, as well as the design of the underlying structure and the manufacturing materials. Such collisions—and the mathematics to model them—serve as subjects of intense research for Satya N. Atluri. He uses mathematics to study potential deformation in different types of structures caused by various types of impacts and force distributions. His work improves design safety in airplanes, automobiles, and other products. During his Faculty Fellow appointment, Atluri has conducted research aimed at new methods for analyzing large deformations of structures and materials. This area of research is vital in the analysis and design of aircraft, for instance, where the designers must be concerned with how structures behave when lifethreatening crashes occur. Designers of automobiles and other vehicles have similar concerns. Large structural deformations are difficult to model and analyze with previous methods. Atluri has developed methods for analyzing how materials and structures deform under large forces. These methods have diverse applications—for example, in biomechanics, where we seek to understand the deformation of biological materials by modeling and simulation (since experiments are obviously difficult). Atluri’s work has led to new “energy balance iterations” approaches that extend both his work
and that of micromechanics pioneer John Douglas Eshelby. A 2014 paper co-authored by Atluri demonstrates methods that more quickly and accurately arrive at the deformed solutions, compared to popular approaches. Atluri and his collaborators also focus on improving how structures and materials respond to initial deformation and external forces that vary over time. They study novel “radial basis function approaches” for solving the differential equations that describe large timevarying motions of structural and other dynamical systems. He uses a technique known as “collocation” to convert differential equation models into an approximate set of coupled nonlinear algebraic equations that depend on amplitudes of local basis functions, which he has also developed a method for solving. Atluri and his collaborators have shown these methods are better for computing the motion of a variety of mechanical systems over time. Their methods offer improved efficiency and accuracy and are broadly applicable. These two sets of research activities have already yielded five journal articles, and many applications can be anticipated. Texas A&M doctoral student Tarek Elgohary spent six months on a TIAS Fellowship at the University of California, Irvine, collaborating on these topics with Atluri. What follows are more detailed discussions extracted from the journal articles.
22
MLPG–ESHELBY METHOD FOR NONLINEAR SOLID AND STRUCTURAL MECHANICS AND NOVEL SOLUTION TECHNIQUES FOR NONLINEAR STATICS, DYNAMICS, AND OPTIMAL CONTROL
...computational mechanics of solid materials and structures has made tremendous strides in the past forty years...
Finite deformation solid-material and structural computational mechanics play an important role in many diverse applications such as designing automobiles to ensure passenger survivability during crashes and in the biomechanics of living cells. Computational mechanics of solid materials and structures has made tremendous strides in the past forty years, and commercial software such as ANSYS, ABACUS, and LS–DYNA have become available. These software programs are based on the weak-forms of Newtonian momentum balance laws and Newton–Raphson iterations for equilibrium corrections. In research done at Texas A&M through the Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study by Atluri, fundamentally new approaches have been developed for nonlinear solid and structural mechanics based on the MLPG– Eshelby approach.1,2 This radically new approach is based on a marriage of the MLPG method discovered by Atluri and the mechanics of John D. Eshelby. This new approach uses Eshelbian energy-balance iterations rather than Newtonian momentum balance iterations and is poised to make a large impact. The currently popular primal FEM, embedded in software such as ABACUS and LS–DYNA: (1) uses element-based interpolations for displacements as the trial functions,
and element-based interpolations of displacement-like quantities as the test functions; (2) uses the same type and class of trial and test functions, leading to a Galerkin approach; (3) uses the trial and test functions that are most often continuous at the inter-element boundaries; (4) leads to sparsely populated symmetric tangent stiffness matrices; (5) computes piecewiselinear predictor solutions based on the global weak-forms of the Newtonian momentum balance laws; and (6) computes a corrector solution, using Newton–Raphson or other Jacobianinversion-free iterations, based on the global weak-forms of the Newtonian momentum balance laws for a symmetric stress tensor in the current configuration. In a radical departure, the present approach1,2 blends the energy conservation laws of Noether and Eshelby with the Meshless Local Petrov–Galerkin (MLPG) methods of Atluri and is designated the MLPG– Eshelby method, which has the following characteristics: (1) it uses meshless node-based functions for configurational changes of the undeformed configuration, as the trial functions; (2) it uses meshless nodebased functions for configurational changes of the deformed configuration, as the test functions; (3) the trial functions and the test functions are necessarily different
23
and belong to different classes of functions, thus naturally leading to a Petrov–Galerkin approach; (4) it leads to sparsely populated un-symmetric tangent stiffness matrices; (5) the trial functions, as well as the test functions, may be either continuous or discontinuous in their respective configurations; (6) it generates piecewise-linear predictor solutions based on the local weak-forms of the Noether/Eshelby energy conservation laws for the Lagrangean unsymmetric Eshelby stress tensor in the undeformed configuration; and (7) it generates corrector solutions, based on Newton–Raphson or Jacobianinversion-free iterations, using the local weak-forms of the Noether/ Eshelby energy conservation laws in the current configuration, for a newly introduced Eulerean symmetric stress in the current configuration (often called the chemical potential tensor by chemists). It is shown that the MLPG–Eshelby Method converges much faster and leads to much better accuracies than the currently popular FEM and will have many advantages in nonlinear solid and structural mechanics.1,2 A large number of problems in engineering and applied sciences, such as large-deformation solid mechanics, fluid dynamics, postbuckling of structural frames, plates, and shells, as characterized by nonlinear differential equations, will lead to a system of nonlinear algebraic
equations (NAEs) after discretization. Classically, that set of NAEs can be solved by Jacobian-inverse methods such as the classical Newton method, the continuous Newton method, and various homotopy methods. On the one hand, inverting the Jacobian matrix within each iteration is computationally very expensive. On the other hand, for complex problems where the Jacobian matrix may be singular, such as near the limit-load points for geometrically nonlinear frames or in elastic-plastic solids, the iterative as well as the continuous Newton methods become problematic. Various variants of the arc-length methods have been widely used for marching through the limit-points. Post-buckling of the Classical Toggle
Figure 1. The Classical Toggle Problem.
Problem, as shown in Figure 1, is an example of such problems where at the limit points the Jacobian becomes singular and classical iterative Jacobian-inverse methods will fail to find the solution. The newly developed Scalar Homotopy Jacobian-inverse Free methods are applied to the solution of post-buckling and limit load problems of solids and structures. By using the Scalar Homotopy methods, the displacements
24
Figure 2. Load-deflection curve for the Classical Toggle Problem.
Table 1. Numerical solvers comparison results.
of the equilibrium state are iteratively solved for, without inverting the Jacobian (tangent stiffness) matrix and without using complex arc-length methods. The load-deflection curves for the Classical Toggle Problem have been generated even at the limit points as shown in Figure 2. This study opens a promising path for conducting postbuckling and limit-load analyses of nonlinear structures.3,4,5 Various explicit and implicit numerical integrators can solve the set of wellposed nonlinear ordinary differential equations, as in orbital mechanics or nonlinear structural dynamics. We consider Initial Value Problems (IVPs) for strongly nonlinear dynamical systems, and study new time-domain discretization methods to analyze short- as well as long-term responses. Dynamical systems characterized by a system of coupled secondorder nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are recast into a system of nonlinear first order ODEs in mixed variables of positions as well as velocities. For each discrete time interval, radial basis functions (RBFs) are assumed as trial functions for the
Figure 3. Nonlinear 3-DOF system.
mixed variables in the time domain. A simple collocation method is developed in the time domain, with Legendre–Gauss–Lobatto nodes as RBF source points as well as collocation points. This new algorithm is compared against the well-known second order central difference method, the classical Runge–Kutta method, the adaptive Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg method, the Newmark-β, and the Hilber–Hughes– Taylor methods. For illustration, the nonlinear 3-DOF system in Figure 3 is presented and results from all algorithms are compared. It is shown that the present RBFCollocation algorithm is very simple, efficient, and very accurate in obtaining the solution for the nonlinear IVP. Since the other methods require a much smaller step size and a higher computational cost, the proposed algorithm is advantageous and has promising applications in solving nonlinear dynamical systems as shown from the comparison in Table 1.3,4,5 Optimal control and two-point boundary values problems are classes of ill-posed problems with mixed boundary conditions. RBFs are assumed as trial functions for the mixed variables in the time domain. A simple collocation
25
Figure 4. Illustration of the Orbital Transfer Problem.
method is developed in the time domain, with Legendre–Gauss–Lobatto nodes as RBF source points as well as collocation points. The Duffing optimal control problem with various prescribed initial and final conditions, as well as the orbital transfer Lambert’s problem, are solved by the proposed RBF collocation method. As an example the classical Orbital Transfer Problem, also known as Lambert’s problem, is presented in Figure 4. The objective is to transfer the spacecraft in a prescribed time. It is shown that this method is simple, efficient, and very accurate in obtaining the solutions, with an arbitrary solution as the initial guess. A sample solution for the Orbital Transfer Problem as compared to the analytical F&G solution is shown in Figure 5.
Since methods such as the Shooting method and the Pseudo-spectral method can be unstable and require an accurate initial guess, the proposed method is advantageous and has promising applications in optimal control and celestial mechanics.
Figure 5. Solution of the Orbital Transfer Problem.
1. Zhidong Han and Satya Atluri, “On the (Meshless Local Petrov–Galerkin) MLPG–Eshelby Method in Computational Finite Deformation Solid Mechanics—Part II.” CMES: Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 97, no. 3 (2014): 119–237. 2. Han and Atluri, “Eshelby Stress Tensor T: a Variety of Conservation Laws for T in Finite Deformation Anisotropic Hyperelastic Solid & Defect Mechanics, and the MLPG–Eshelby Method in Computational Finite Deformation Solid Mechanics—Part I.” CMES: Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 97, no. 1 (2014): 1–34. 3. Tarek Elgohary, “A Simple, Fast, and Accurate Time-Integrator for Nonlinear Dynamical Systems.” CMES: Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 100, no. 3 (2014): 249–275. 4. Elgohary, “Solution of Post-Buckling & Limit Load Problems, Without Inverting the Tangent Stiffness Matrix & Without Using Arc-Length Methods.” CMES: Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 98, no. 6 (2014): 543–563. 5. Elgohary, “Time Domain Inverse Problems in Nonlinear Systems Using Collocation & Radial Basis Functions.” CMES: Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 100, no. 1 (2014): 59–84.
26
CLAUDE BOUCHARD Professor Holder, John W. Barton Sr. Endowed Chair in Genetics and Nutrition Pennington Biomedical Research Center Louisiana State University
For the last thirty-five years, Claude Bouchard has studied the genetics of obesity and the diseases commonly associated with obesity, including type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Bouchard has also documented how genetics influences the ability of humans to adapt to regular exercise in terms of cardiorespiratory fitness and the changes experienced with regular exercise in risks for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In recognition of his work and its influence, the Canadian government selected Bouchard as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2001. Bouchard also is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Heart Association.
27
GENE–BEHAVIOR INTERACTIONS AND PERSONALIZED MEDICINE There is growing interest for the development of national guidelines focused on healthy behavior and standards of care aimed at maximizing benefits for individuals as opposed to current practices that are based on average response. Evolving from a “we” to a “me” approach would have considerable implications for public health, preventive medicine, clinical care, and rehabilitative medicine. It is evident that a personalized medicine environment requires an understanding of the biology underlying the trait or behavior of interest. Personalized medicine is also heavily dependent on the availability of powerful diagnostics that are both highly sensitive and specific, such as tests that can identify those who are positive for the trait of interest as well as recognize appropriately those who are truly negative. In this regard, a first step is to take advantage of known correlates, personal characteristics, and common clinical predictors of the response to a change in behavior or to a medication. But it is unlikely that such a first step will generate sufficiently powerful predictors to implement valid and successful personalized medicine programs. The common wisdom is that genomic markers are likely to add considerable value to diagnostics. There is indeed a lot of research going on at this time aimed at finding appropriate panels of DNA sequence variants for personalized medicine applications. However, quite often, it appears that genomic diagnostics are not
sufficient even in combination with all the relevant personal and clinical data to classify people with a high degree of sensitivity and specificity. In such cases, additional information from the epigenome, gene expression profile in relevant tissues, complement of proteins and their abundance, and end products of metabolism as revealed in blood and urine may improve the predictive power of diagnostic tools and allow for successful personalized medicine applications. In this regard, my laboratory—Human Genomics Laboratory at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center—has been involved for a few decades in research aimed at defining the genomic determinants of adaptation to chronic overfeeding, caloric deficit, and regular exercise. The overarching goal is to find genomics and other predictors of why some people respond positively to a change in diet or an exercise Figure 1. A model of gene–behavior interactions. program, some do not respond at all, and— perhaps most important—why some are at times adversely affected. Our view is that personalized nutrition and personalized exercise prescription are fundamental to the advent of personalized preventive and therapeutic medicine. Our working model is illustrated in Figure 1.
28
In collaboration with Professor Timothy Lightfoot and Assistant Professor Michael Massett, we are exploring the mouse chromosomal region syntenic to a segment of a human chromosome, where our Pennington Laboratory has found multiple variants associated with sedentary behavior in a genome-wide exploration study based on a large cohort. In the laboratory of Dr. Lightfoot, differences between strains that are highly divergent for sedentary behavior (low active mice, C3H/HeJ, versus moderately Drs. Claude Bouchard (left) and Michael Massett (right). active mice, C57BL/6J) are explored in terms of expression levels of transcripts and protein abundances produced by genes encoded in the relevant chromosomal region in skeletal muscle and several brain regions. A congenic line has been established by Dr. Massett with a mouse known for its ability to be a poor responder (C57BL/6J) to exercise training in which the equivalent of the targeted human chromosomal segment has been replaced through selective breeding by the same segment originating from a strain with a high ability to respond positively
(FVB). The congenic animals are being exercised to verify whether their baseline fitness level and subsequently their responsiveness to exercise training are improved by the presence of the alleles with higher adaptive potential.
Literature Review: Weight Loss and Maintenance In another project, doctoral students Peter Jung and Brittany Sanchez were involved in a review of the evidence published thus far regarding the role of the genotype at multiple genes on weight loss induced by diet or physical activity or a combination of both as well as on weight maintenance after a weight loss regimen. The extensive literature search has generated more than seventyfive peer-reviewed papers that could provide the foundation for a first set of conclusions applicable to personalized weight loss regimens.
Dr. Claude Bouchard works with Peter Jung and Brittany Sanchez, graduate students partially supported by TIAS.
29
Data Management and Biobanking The Department of Health and Kinesiology is actively engaged in exercise- and nutrition-based clinical research. One of my aims as a Faculty Fellow was to help the leadership develop programs that can enhance the global productivity and relevance of these research activities. One proposal was to develop a master file of data generated by these research activities supported by a newly established and centralized biobank. The availability of such an organized and deliberately maintained resource would make it possible for clinical investigators to engage in large cohort studies, as well as new clinical trials requiring specific populations, and in general would offer research opportunities that are seldom accessible to a single investigator. The implementation of this data management and biobanking system is moving forward at the Center for Translational Research in Aging and Longevity (CTRAL) under the leadership of Professor Nicolaas Deutz, Professor Richard Kreider, and Associate Professor Mariëlle Engelen.
A Study of the Bariatric Surgery Sleeve Procedure Another activity has been to plan a detailed investigation of the effects of the bariatric surgery sleeve procedure on metabolic rates; changes in nutrient trafficking in response to a standardized meal; metabolic indicators of glucose and lipid metabolism; and OMICS responses in blood, urine, and adipose tissue. This effort is the result of a collaboration involving Professors Deutz, Kreider, and Engelen with Dr. Robert Carpenter and his colleagues in their surgical practice at Scott & White Healthcare in College Station. The aim is to develop preliminary
data to submit subsequently a full National Institutes of Health application to address the issues with a more complete design and appropriate statistical power. Ultimately, we should be able to define genomic and metabolic signatures that predict, to a large extent, weight loss and metabolic improvement to be expected from bariatric surgery. All of these activities are likely to add to our body of knowledge on individuality of responsiveness to diet, exercise, and bariatric surgery interventions. They have the potential to contribute to the efforts to make personalized medicine a reality.
Dr. Claude Bouchard, Mr. John Thaden, Drs. Mariëlle Engelen, Nicolaas Deutz, and Richard Kreider. (from left)
I N C O L L A B O R AT I O N W I T H : Nicolaas Duetz, professor and director, CTRAL, College of Education & Human Development, Texas A&M University Mariëlle Engelen, associate professor and co-director, CTRAL, College of Education & Human Development, Texas A&M University Peter Jung, doctoral student, College of Education & Human Development, Texas A&M University Richard Kreider, professor and department head, Health and Kinesiology, College of Education & Human Development, Texas A&M University Timothy Lightfoot, professor, College of Education & Human Development, Texas A&M University Michael Massett, assistant professor, College of Education & Human Development, Texas A&M University Brittany Sanchez, doctoral student, College of Education & Human Development, Texas A&M University
30
CHRISTODOULOS A. FLOUDAS Stephen C. Macaleer ’63 Professor in Engineering and Applied Science A world-renowned authority in mathematical modeling and the Professor of Chemical and optimization of complex systems, Christodoulos Floudas conducts Biological Engineering research in chemical process systems engineering, which is found at
the intersection of chemical engineering, applied mathematics, and
School of Engineering and Applied Science operations research. Princeton University
During a career that spans four decades, Floudas has developed useful tools for optimization and found novel pathways for energy conversion and conservation. The scope of his research includes chemical process synthesis and design, process control and operations, discretecontinuous nonlinear optimization, local and global optimization, and computational chemistry and molecular biology.
Floudas is a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering. He is also a member of the Biophysical Society, the Operations Research Society of America, the Mathematical Programming Society, and the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
31
OPTIMIZATION FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT The research field of optimization aims at determining the most rigorous and efficient solution to a problem. Optimization has become a major discipline with applications in engineering, physics, statistics, operations research, computational chemistry, computational bioinformatics, molecular biology, economics, and management. Recent theoretical and computational advances in optimization have enabled solutions to many complex and multi-scale optimization problems arising in the areas of energy, water, environment, sustainability, product and process design, process operations, planning and scheduling, supply chain management, protein folding, molecular structure prediction, proteomics, and systems biology.
fashion. Currently, high crude oil prices, a volatile global oil market, and increasing regulations to reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compound the challenges facing the United States energy sector. These challenges should be systematically addressed through the use of a process synthesis framework, supply chain optimization, strategic planning, and optimization under uncertainty. A novel process synthesis framework capable of analyzing thousands of process designs simultaneously (Figure 1) has been developed that uses global optimization strategies to determine the optimal process topology.
This article presents examples of optimization at work in two broad but related fields, energy and environment.
Optimization for Energy: Process Synthesis, Supply Chain Optimization, and Strategic Planning of Single and Hybrid Feedstock Energy Systems Satisfying energy demands with domestically available carbon sources while simultaneously addressing CO2 emissions is imperative to strengthen US energy independence in an environmentally sustainable
Figure 1. Process synthesis framework for a single and hybrid coal-biomass-gas-andwaste-to-liquids (CBGWTL) plant.
32
A superstructure of alternatives is constructed that produces liquid hydrocarbon fuels and high-value chemicals (e.g., aromatics and olefins) from coal, biomass, natural gas, and/ or MSW by using several existing and novel process technologies. Simultaneous heat, power, and water integration is included to ensure the optimal usage of utilities in the refinery. The refineries are designed to ensure reduction of life-cycle GHG emissions. The proposed refineries can be cost competitive with petroleumbased processes. In order to integrate these diverse energy sources and produce costcompetitive fuels, it is essential to efficiently allocate resources such as feedstocks, freshwater, electricity, and CO2 sequestration sites. Therefore, the optimal nationwide energy supply chain network is determined through the use of a large scale mixed-integer linear optimization model. The results suggest that the United States’ fuel demand can be fulfilled with significant GHG reductions. The proposed network is capital intensive as the complete fulfillment of US fuel demand would require investments on the order of a trillion dollars. The strategic planning is crucial to address the supply chain model over a long time horizon to make strategic and tactical decisions. It is also essential to address the problems under uncertainty to have robust refineries and planning against the price, supply, and demand uncertainties (Figure 2).
terms. Binary variables are introduced to denote different operation modes for several production units. To solve In the last twenty years, the petroleum this large-scale nonlinear model, we have introduced a deterministic global industry has succeeded by creating optimization algorithm to obtain Îľ-global markets and supplying them with optimality. A user-friendly platform suitable products. Now, tighter has been developed to allow the user competition, strict environmental to modify the planning model by regulations, and lower-margin profits updating model parameters when new drive the petrochemical industry to data are available, product demands apply new technologies to improve and specifications, cost parameters, and their operations. At the planning many more. At the refinery scheduling level, a non-convex mixed-integer level, the focus has been on scheduling nonlinear optimization model crude oil operations, since the crude (MINLP) has been developed for the oil costs account for eighty percent of entire refinery planning operation. the refinery turnover. Advanced MINLP The nonlinear models arise mainly models have been developed and are from the prediction of product yields coupled with piecewise linear-based and properties in production units branch and bound global optimization including crude distillation unit, vacuum distillation unit, hydrocracking algorithms. To address crude demand and ship arrival uncertainty, a robust units, and other processing units. optimization framework has been They include bilinear, trilinear, quadratic, polynomial, and exponential also developed.
Planning, Scheduling, and Global Optimization for Refinery Operations
Figure 2. Optimal supply network to fulfill 100 percent of the US fuel demands using hybrid (CBGTL) energy refineries. The circles represent the selected facility locations, whereas the pentagons and square boxes represent the availability of raw materials such as coal and biomass, respectively.
33
Optimization for Environment: Multiscale Systems Engineering for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Research in this area encompasses the application of advanced modeling, simulation, and optimization techniques to combine atomistic, geometric, process, and supply chain level studies in order to identify novel materials, design cost-effective CO2 capture processes, and develop carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS) supply chain networks to minimize nationwide CO2 emissions at reduced costs. A primary goal is to develop novel computational methods that lead to the discovery of new microporous materials (zeolites and metal organic frameworks [MOFs]) for many industrial separations including natural gas upgrading, air separation, hydrogen purification, and xylene separation. Adsorption-based separation processes have great potential for use in CO2 capture, natural gas purification, and other industrial applications, but their cost-effective design depends on improved understanding at both the materials and process levels. At the materials level, a computational framework has been developed to characterize the three-dimensional pore structure of microporous materials such as zeolites and MOFs. Several novel metrics are used to screen libraries of such materials to identify the most promising sorbents for use in a pressure-swing adsorption
process. At the process level, detailed nonlinear algebraic and partial differential equation (NAPDE) models are used to simulate process performance. New materials and process designs have been discovered using this approach for the separation of CO2 from flue gas and natural gas (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Multi-scale systems engineering for simultaneous selection of materials and process optimization for carbon capture.
At the network level, an optimal supply chain topology has been identified for CCUS. The optimization model selects stationary CO2 sources, CO2 capture technologies, and sequestration and utilization sites in a state, region, or the entire US to design a network that most economically reduces CO2 emissions by fifty percent. This work demonstrates the feasibility of largescale reductions in GHG emissions to curb the effects of global warming.
This article is abridged from a paper titled “Optimization for Energy, Environment, and Health.� The full paper is available on the TIAS website (tias.tamu.edu).
34
ROY J. GLAUBER Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Emeritus Department of Physics Harvard University Roy J. Glauber is engaged in research on the quantum theory of light, high-energy collisions, and statistical correlations of particles produced in high-energy reactions. At age eighteen, as a junior at Harvard University during World War II, he joined the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, NM, where he helped to calculate the critical mass for the first atom bombs. He returned to Harvard after the war and earned his doctorate in 1949. Today, he is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Emeritus, at Harvard University. For his scientific achievements he has received numerous awards such as the Albert A. Michelson Medal, the Max Born Award, the Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics, the Gold Medal from Spain’s National Research Council, and the 2005 Nobel Prize in physics. His most important works from 1963 to 1999 are collected in the book Quantum Theory of Optical Coherence.
35
NEW SOURCES OF LIGHT Historically, the study of light was the royal road into quantum physics. Indeed, Max Planck came to his famous quantum of action, which teaches us that energy comes in discrete bundles, by studying the entropy of light. Albert Einstein then took Planck’s insights further and concluded that light has two complementary faces: Sometimes it shows wavelike (interference) behavior and sometimes it shows its particle (photon) face. It is somewhat ironic that these days there is more mystery and confusion associated with the photon than with, say, the electron.
Indeed, the coherence effect of photons had never been fully understood until 1963. Thomas Young’s double-slit experiment (Figure 1) with a single detector shows that the interference pattern still exists in the single photon limit. This finding led Paul M. A. Dirac to write in his famous textbook on quantum mechanics, “Each photon then interferes only with itself. Interference between two different photons never occurs.” This understanding of photon interference confused many people who doubted the results of the experiments by Robert Hanbury Brown and Richard Twiss in the late 1950s, which involved the correlated detection of photons with two detectors. Indeed interference effects between two photons occurred.
Figure 1. Thomas Young and his famous double-slit experiment.
36
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the Hanbury Brown–Twiss stellar intensity interferometer. After M. O. Scully and M. S. Zubairy, Quantum Optics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997) experiment.
The Hanbury Brown–Twiss experiment (Figure 2) is determined by the second-order correlation function. The coherence of light can be fully characterized by all correlation functions to arbitrary orders. Coherent states have full coherence and were actually first proposed by Erwin Schrödinger in 1926. However, they became the essential tool in 1963 to describe the quantum properties of light. The laser invented around 1960 is totally different from the thermal light emitted by the sun or a lamp. Their difference is not so obvious if one measures the first-order correlation functions in Young’s double-slit experiment. Their difference resides in higher-order correlation functions and phase space distribution functions (Figure 3). A laser operating far above the threshold generates light that is very close to a coherent state.
This insight helps us not only to better understand nature but also to make new sources of light potentially in the ultra–short wavelength X-ray region. This aspect is the focus of the collaboration with researchers at the Institute of Quantum Science and Engineering (IQSE). Indeed, the concept of lasers operating without population inversion has led scientists at Texas A&M University to possible ways of generating light by utilizing quantum coherence.
Figure 3. Time evolution of a quantum-phase space distribution due to decay. After cover page of R. J. Glauber, Quantum Theory of Optical Coherence (Wiley–VCH, New York, 2007).
37
development of the QASER idea by treating the light and the atoms as coupled oscillators (Figure 5).
Figure 4. Operation mechanism of QASER: Low frequency driving field (bottom) generates high frequency coherent radiation in the backward direction (top) by means of collective resonance.
Recently, the IQSE group has proposed a new kind of quantum amplifier called a QASER (quantum amplification by superradiant emission of radiation) that requires no population of atoms in the excited state. This amplification mechanism is based on superradiant emission, which is a collective response of an ensemble of atoms to a common driving light field. When the (low) frequency of the driving field matches the frequency difference between two close highfrequency modes of oscillation, a novel resonance phenomenon occurs and leads to amplified emission of coherent radiation at a frequency much higher than the driving frequency (Figure 4). The QASER could become a new source of coherent extreme ultraviolet or X-ray radiation. In particular, we have focused on the collective emission of atomic ensembles and the further
This research advances our understanding of the collective interaction between light and matter and could lead to new sources of highfrequency coherent radiation with a wide wavelength tunability extending the spectral range currently accessible by the optical parametric oscillators to higher frequencies. Such sources have broad applications in spectroscopy, microscopy, medicine, materials research, semiconductor surface studies, and lithography.
Figure 5. Explanation of QASER in terms of harmonic oscillators where one of them has an inverted energy spectrum.
I N C O L L A B O R AT I O N W I T H : Enno Giese, doctoral student, Institute of Quantum Physics, Ulm University Wolfgang P. Schleich, professor of theoretical physics, Ulm University, 2013–14 TIAS Faculty Fellow Marlan O. Scully, Distinguished Professor, Institute of Quantum Science and Engineering, College of Science, Texas A&M University Anatoly Svidzinsky, visiting assistant professor of applied physics, Institute of Quantum Science and Engineering, College of Science, Texas A&M University
38
ROBERT S. LEVINE Distinguished University Professor of English Center for Literary & Comparative Studies University of Maryland
A highly regarded leader in American literary studies, Robert S. Levine has been an influential force in American and African American literature for thirty years and more recently has contributed important new work to the study of the literature of the Americas. His scholarly editions of Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Martin Delany, William Wells Brown, and Harriet Beecher Stowe have brought their extensive writings to wider audiences. Levine is also the general editor of the five-volume Norton Anthology of American Literature, which has been read by hundreds of thousands of students. In 2013, Levine received the Jay B. Hubbell Medal for lifetime achievement in American literary scholarship from the American Literature Section of the Modern Language Association.
39
FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, AND THE CIVIL WAR In his 1881 Life and Times, Frederick Douglass conveys his great admiration for Abraham Lincoln, and from beginning to end presents himself as an unwavering supporter, celebrating Lincoln as a leader who, from the moment he was elected to the presidency, sought to bring about the “ultimate extinction” of slavery. And yet from the time of Lincoln’s inauguration in 1861 through most of 1864, Douglass was one of Lincoln’s most vociferous critics, as is evident from even a cursory look at the articles Douglass printed about Lincoln in his newspaper, Douglass’s Monthly. In 1861, for instance, consider Douglass’s remarks that “unless a new turn is given to the conflict . . . we might as well remove Mr. LINCOLN out of the President’s chair, and respectfully invite JEFFERSON DAVIS or some other slaveholding rebel to take his place.” Douglass declares in 1862 that “The President of the United States seems to possess an ever increasing passion for making himself appear silly and ridiculous,” and that his politics have “been calculated . . . to shield and protect slavery from the very blows which its horrible crimes have loudly and persistently invited.” Douglass would continue to speak critically of Lincoln in 1863 and 1864.
Recent work by historians, derived mainly from Douglass’s 1881 Life and Times, have told heartwarming stories about the Douglass–Lincoln relationship, emphasizing how these two great leaders—one black, one white—worked together to preserve the Union and bring about the end of slavery. While there is some truth to these accounts, this article complicates matters by applying the analytical tools of the literary historian: close reading and rhetorical contextualization. The Douglass–Lincoln relationship during the Civil War is incredibly fascinating and inspiring too, but it’s also more conflicted than the happy story of an interracial collaboration—and, for reasons that will be elaborated, more mysterious too. This raises questions about sentimentalized views of the Douglass–Lincoln relationship, with the goal of developing a greater appreciation of Douglass as a strategic and performative autobiographer who to some extent makes use of Lincoln to achieve his antislavery goals.
Abraham Lincoln (left) and Frederick Douglass (right).
40
Lincoln was still looking to make a deal with southern enslavers, and he initially chose not to support him for reelection.
First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln by Francis Bicknell.
First, let’s review what we know (or think we know) about the relationship between Douglass and Lincoln, focusing on their three White House meetings between 1863 and 1865. In 1863, after Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation and decided to allow blacks to serve in the Union Army, Douglass remained concerned about two matters: unequal pay for black soldiers and the Confederates’ practice of treating black soldiers as insurrectionists who could be killed upon capture. On August 10, 1863, Douglass managed to meet with Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln’s secretary of war, and with Lincoln himself. In what was probably a short but gracious meeting, Lincoln explained to Douglass why he had to move slowly on issues such as equal pay for blacks; he may have also given his thoughts on policies of retaliation. Stanton and Lincoln also talked about making Douglass an officer in the Union army. However gracious Lincoln may have been to Douglass in August 1863, Douglass turned on Lincoln by 1864. He believed that
Perhaps aware of Douglass’s criticisms, Lincoln requested a meeting with Douglass, and on August 25, 1864, a little more than a year after their first meeting, they met to discuss a question on Lincoln’s mind: how the Southern slaves in the Confederate states could contribute to the war effort. Douglass set forth a plan to organize groups of northern blacks to infiltrate southern lines and spread the news of the slaves’ emancipation. Though Lincoln never adopted this plan, the upshot of the meeting was that Douglass came to feel more warmly toward Lincoln, convinced that Lincoln was no longer looking for a negotiated settlement with southerners that would perpetuate slavery. He decided to support Lincoln for the presidency, attended the second inauguration on March 4, 1865, and then (and this constitutes their third meeting) attempted to enter the inaugural reception in the White House. Douglass was initially barred by White House security, but Lincoln or someone on his staff insisted that he be let in, and Douglass was able to compliment Lincoln on his great speech. One month later, Lincoln was struck down by John Wilkes Booth. Douglass gave an off-the-cuff, improvised eulogy at Rochester, New York, and several months later he received a gift from Mary Todd Lincoln: Lincoln’s favorite walking stick.
41
That is what we know. We think we know more (that they were friends; that they were collaborators). What is interesting to a literary historian is that virtually everything we know about the relationship between the two men, and especially their three meetings, comes from the writings of Frederick Douglass. Lincoln had nothing to say about Douglass that we can read in print. There are no testimonials, no discussion of their meetings. It’s also worth noting that Douglass’s accounts of his meetings with Lincoln vary widely and are often based on memories that are written up years later and at moments when it served Douglass’s interests to link himself with the revered Abraham Lincoln. His contemporary accounts, in speeches and essays of 1863–64 in particular, are much less reverential and often very critical. And there are indications that Lincoln may not have been entirely sold on Douglass as well. In the 1881 Life and Times, Douglass presents Lincoln as one of his greatest admirers, going so far as to depict Lincoln as saying that he valued Douglass’s opinion of his Second Inaugural Address above all others. But if he valued Douglass so highly, why didn’t he carry through on what Douglass said was the promise made during the August 1863 meeting to give Douglass an officer’s position in the Union Army? Was it because, as Douglass asserts, Lincoln refused to name black officers? As it turned out, Lincoln named Martin Delany as the first black major; Delany had supported black emigration during the 1850s. Lincoln, who supported
black colonization in 1862 and knew Delany’s writings about black emigration, may have thought he had found a black who shared his views about the desirability of blacks eventually leaving the United States. The bottom line: We don’t know Lincoln’s perspective on Douglass, but his failure to offer Douglass a promised military position may possibly speak to Lincoln’s sense that Douglass was too independent or too radical or just someone whom he would never be able to control. Or, the failure of Douglass to get the commission could be taken as a metaphor for the missing side of the Douglass–Lincoln relationship, which is to say that Lincoln’s decision not to appoint Douglass could be viewed, in effect, as one of Lincoln’s tales of Douglass. Maybe Lincoln hadn’t quite taken to Douglass as much as Douglass thought, and maybe Lincoln was simply being strategic in meeting with Douglass during his second campaign for the presidency and flattering him in the ways Douglass describes. We’ll never know.
...the failure of Douglass to get the commission could be taken as a metaphor for the missing side of the Douglass–Lincoln relationship...
Lincoln’s second inaugural address in 1865 at the Capitol.
42
What we do know is that the Douglass– Lincoln relationship was a bit more troubled and much less of a hermetic binary than Douglass lets on, and at least one important facet of the relationship would appear to be that each person knew how to make use of the other.
...the Douglass– Lincoln relationship was a bit more troubled and much less of a hermetic binary than Douglass lets on...
Cover of Frederick Douglass’s Life and Times.
140 years before Foner, in part through prescient political analysis and in part by making use of his autobiographical insights.
In the speech, Douglass spoke bravely and honestly, presenting a boldly historicist picture of Lincoln as “the white man’s president,” and thus indifferent for a while to the plight Let’s close with a discussion of of the black slaves and a bit too Douglass’s greatest speech about intent on trying to appease borderLincoln, his April 14, 1876, “Oration state racists. This is the Lincoln on the Occasion of the Freedmen’s that Douglass criticizes in his 1860s Monument in Memory of Abraham newspaper writings and not the Lincoln.” Douglass used the occasion of the speech to think historically and Lincoln he sanitizes in the 1881 Life and Times. The overall thrust complexly about Lincoln, offering of the first half of the speech is to insights into Lincoln and slavery and situate Lincoln in his mid-nineteenthLincoln and race that simply haven’t century culture, in which most whites been matched until the recent work regarded blacks as not quite human of Eric Foner, whose Pulitzer Prize– winning book—The Fiery Trial: Abraham and hardly their equals. Lincoln and American Slavery—explores But Douglass makes a remarkable turn interconnections between Lincoln’s in the second half of the speech to racism and antislavery. Douglass was underscore that Lincoln’s greatness able to address these topics around was about being able to make bold and humane decisions about the multiracial future of American democracy from within a mindset that had kept most white American political leaders from imagining such a thing. Douglass is at his historicist best when he tells his auditors not to consider stray facts in isolation but to look at the big picture: “We saw him, measured him, and estimated him,” Douglass remarks, “not by stray utterances to injudicious and tedious delegations who often tried his patience; not by isolated facts torn from their connection; not by any partial and imperfect glimpses, caught at inopportune moments; but
43
by a broad survey, in the light of the stern logic of great events.” From that perspective, Douglass insists, “it was enough for us that Abraham Lincoln was at the head of a great movement and was in living and earnest sympathy with that movement; which, in the nature of things, must go on TILL SLAVERY SHOULD BE UTTERLY and forever abolished in the United States.” Notably, before the president, his cabinet, members of the Supreme Court, and numerous congressmen and senators, Douglass remarks that forms of slavery still exist in the United States, and he enlists the spirit of the dead Lincoln to help him continue his fight for racial equality. It is only at the end of the speech, which throughout is implicitly informed by Douglass’s interactions with Lincoln (and his sense that he had been an important influence on Lincoln), that Douglass lets the personal come to the fore. “No man who knew Abraham Lincoln,” says Douglass, the man who would regularly let the world know he knew Lincoln, “could hate him, but because of his fidelity to Union and liberty, he is doubly dear to us, and will be precious forever.” Douglass told many tales of Lincoln, offering conflicting views on his management of the Civil War and offering various but generally complementary stories about their meetings. Here Douglass offers judgment and that judgment, overall, is good. In Douglass’s writings about Lincoln the reader can see anger, conflict, and hope, and what is most striking are Douglass’s canny and often
moving efforts to make use of his friendship or association with Lincoln to continue his fight for racial equality. Douglass was no manacled slave looking up to a beneficent Lincoln in gratitude for things he did and did not do. He was a rhetorically gifted political visionary who, as his 1876 speech shows, had a clear-eyed view of Lincoln, and a clear-eyed sense of the rhetorical uses he could make of their association. Canny as Douglass was, he probably did come to love Lincoln, and as he dealt with racist politicians such as President Andrew Johnson, and then witnessed the failure of Reconstruction, he came to miss his presence and to appreciate him all the more.
Abraham Lincoln, by Daniel Chester French.
44
WOLFGANG SCHLEICH Professor of Theoretical Physics Institute of Quantum Physics and Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology (IQST) With research that extends across several areas of physics, Wolfgang Ulm University, Germany Peter Schleich’s major scientific interests are found where theoretical and experimental quantum optics intersect with fundamental questions of quantum mechanics, general relativity, number theory, statistical physics, and nonlinear dynamics.
Schleich has received numerous awards, including the Leibniz Prize, the Max Planck Research Award, and the Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics. He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Academy of Europe, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Danish Academy and Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the American Physical Society, the Institute of Physics, the European Optical Society, and the Optical Society of America.
45
PICTURES IN QUANTUM THEORY AND THE MYSTERY OF LIGHT “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image of the microcosmos.” This statement expresses the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics pioneered, promoted, and enforced most prominently by Niels Bohr in the language of the Ten Commandments, using the beginning of Exodus 20:46. Indeed, according to this by now widely accepted interpretation, quantum theory is not able to provide us with a picture of the micro-cosmos. Nevertheless, it makes predictions that have been tested to a surprising accuracy. The American physicist N. David Mermin summarizes this amazing and at the same time mindboggling contrast with the pregnant phrase “Shut up and calculate!” Despite this strict law against images, it is customary today to invoke pictures that respect the internal workings of quantum mechanics. They have been very instructive, especially in the context of the quantum nature of light. In this brief summary, we provide a small picture book of quantum theory. In the development of quantum mechanics light has played a crucial role. Indeed, it was the blackbody radiation that led Max Planck to the discovery of the quantization of energy and the introduction of the unit of an action in 1900. Moreover, Werner Heisenberg’s Matrizenmechanik and the Wellenmechanik of Erwin
Schrödinger were a consequence of the discrete energy spectrum of the atom combined with the insight that only quantities that can be observed have a physical significance. Even today we use light to elucidate the mysteries of quantum mechanics. A cornerstone of quantum mechanics is Bohr’s principle of complementarity according to which it is impossible to observe simultaneously sharp values of complementary variables, for example position and momentum. The mechanical model shown in Figure 1 illustrates this principle. A drawer in a box can be pulled out on both of its ends and contains in the respective compartments two dice. The goal is to determine simultaneously the two numbers on their tops, which represent the two complementary variables. On first sight this task is easy to achieve since we can first pull the drawer to one side and read out the number, and then push it through
Figure 1. Mechanical model illustrating the principle of complementarity, inspired by an exhibit of the state of Denmark at the World Exhibition in New York of 1939 (built by S. Kleinert. S. Laibacher, and W. Zeller).
46
Figure 2. Quantum carpet in space and time given by the probability density of a quantum particle oscillating back and forth between two hard walls.
the center to find the other one. However, once the drawer crosses the center a devilish device makes the dice roll over and the information we have gained is useless. Today we know that this picture of the microcosmos is incomplete. Indeed, in the microscopic world the numbers do not even exist until they are observed. Another counterintuitive aspect of quantum theory is the wave–particle dualism where particles behave like waves and waves like particles. Indeed,
a quantum particle moving between two hard walls does not bounce back and forth like a classical one. Even if it was well-localized at the beginning, at later times it is spread out over the box. Its propagation is described by a wave creating the carpet structure of Figure 2. Indeed, there are domains in space-time where the particle can never be found. These canals giving rise to the design of the carpet are a consequence of the interference of the waves forming the particle. Experiments with light have confirmed the existence of quantum carpets and have opened new possibilities for factoring numbers. Moreover, quantum carpets have revealed a connection between quantum mechanics and number theory. Here the concept of quantum phase space spanned by position and momentum is most useful. Indeed, quantum states can be visualized by Wigner functions. For example, Figure 3 shows the Wigner function corresponding to six light
Figure 3. The phase-space representation of an energy eigenstate given by the Wigner function is reminiscent of a cylindrical water wave created by a stone thrown into a pond (built by H. Losert, G. Nandi, and C. Tempel).
47
quanta—that is, photons. Moreover, the Wigner functions of quantum states representing the Riemann zeta function for various arguments displayed in Figure 4 provide a new angle on the long-standing problem of the Riemann hypothesis. Images are also instructive in the context of the propagation of light in general relativity which is governed by the curvature of space-time. In 1949 the mathematician Kurt Gödel found a solution of Einstein’s field equations in which time-travel is possible. For this purpose an observer has to first propagate forward in time to cross a horizon and then can go back into its own past. The propagation of light brings out many unusual features of the Gödel universe. In Figure 5 we show only one of many. An observer can simultaneously see the front as well as the back of an object. Today images that were originally strictly forbidden by the founding fathers of quantum mechanics provide new insights into the counterintuitive features of this theory. At the same time we use these pictures to exploit
the alien properties of quantum mechanics as resources to build devices whose abilities go beyond their classical counterparts. Examples include, but are not limited to, quantum cryptography, the quantum computer, or light sources such as the quantum amplification by superradiant emission of radiation (QASER). Despite an enormous progress we still cannot answer the fundamental question asked by John Archibald Wheeler: “Why the quantum?”
Figure 4. The Riemann zeta function of analytical number theory represented by the time evolution of a quantum state displayed in quantum phase space.
Figure 5. The space– time curvature of the Gödel universe leads to light propagation such that the front and the back of an object such as the Earth are visible. As the object approaches the horizon the two images merge.
I N C O L L A B O R AT I O N W I T H : Enno Giese, doctoral student, Institute of Quantum Physics, Ulm University Roy J. Glauber, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Harvard University, 2013–14 TIAS Faculty Fellow Moochan (Barnabas) Kim, postdoctoral research associate, Institute of Quantum Science and Engineering, College of Science, Texas A&M University Marlan O. Scully, distinguished professor, Institute of Quantum Science and Engineering, College of Science, Texas A&M University
48
PETER J. STANG Distinguished Professor of Organic Chemistry Holder, David P. Gardner Presidential Chair Working with chemical systems built from molecular components, Peter J. Stang has advanced organic chemistry for five decades. In The University of Utah essence, Stang and his team are molecular architects who rearrange the building blocks of matter to create new and better products to serve advanced medicine, information storage, and energy.
College of Science
In recognition of his achievements as a pioneer in supramolecular chemistry, Stang received the National Medal of Science and the American Chemical Society’s 2013 Priestley Medal. Stang is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
49
ABIOLOGICAL SELF-ASSEMBLY: PREDESIGNED METALLACYCLES AND METALLACAGES VIA COORDINATION Self-assembly is the spontaneous organization of components into well-defined ensembles based upon the recognition elements embedded into the components. Nature is the supreme and consummate master of self-assembly by adroitly exploiting a multitude of noncovalent interactions—such as van der Waals forces, π-stacking, dipole– dipole, hydrophobic–hydrophilic, and hydrogen bonding—to enable countless biological processes.
critical importance to living organisms. For example, the protein coats of viruses consist of self-assembled capsids that resemble polyhedra, such as icosahedra and dodecahedra.
In the last twenty-four years, abiological (i.e., nonbiological) self-assembly has emerged as a major, active, and cutting-edge area of chemistry. Many attempts to mimic nature’s elegant self-assembly processes with hydrogen bonds were met with limited success— All living organisms, from the simplest particularly in the formation of large, finite assemblies with well-defined to humans, depend upon molecular shapes and sizes—due to the lack of self-assembly. Protein folding, directionality of weak interactions and nucleic acid structure, phospholipid membranes, ribosomes, chromosomes, the necessity of accurately positioning and microtubules are all representative many dozens of these interactions to obtain functional assemblies. examples of self-assembly in nature of
50
Figure 1. To date we have prepared molecular polygons such as triangles (1), squares (2), hexagons (3), and polyhedra, such as trigonal prisms (4), cuboctahedra (5), and dodecahedra (6).
During the early 1990s, we pioneered and developed the use of dative, metal–ligand interactions and coordination-driven self-assembly for the formation of large, nanoscale complex, two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) assemblies, with well-defined shapes (Figure 1). Furthermore, coordinationdriven self-assembly represents a “bottoms-up” methodology for the manufacturing of nanoscale species of enormous significance in modern nanotechnology.
This involves a process analogous to the use of a LEGO set to construct complex structures. Proper characterization of these large, complex molecules is critically important. Hence, we are collaborating with Professor David Russell and coworkers at Texas A&M University’s Department of Chemistry to obtain accurate mass-spectroscopic data. Such data are essential for the calculation of an accurate molecular weight for these compounds, which in turn allows the determination of the proper ratio of the building units. An illustrative example of the mass spectrum of a rectangle is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Mass spectrum experimental (red) and calculated (blue) of the indicated molecular rectangle.
51
Figure 3. Self-assembly of the Star of David, using simple building units.
We are currently working on the self-assembly and mass-spectrometric characterization of the Star of David, as illustrated in Figure 3. These self-assembled molecules, such as in Figure 4 (top), have potential applications in both the material and biomedical fields. We are collaborating with Professor Lei Fang of Texas A&M’s Chemistry Department to incorporate these molecules into molecular devices for use as sensors as well as applications in nonlinear optics. A couple of our self-assembled rhomboids show promising antitumor activity as demonstrated in Figure 4 (bottom). In particular, the compound considerably shrinks the tumor volume of treated mice as shown in the figure.
Figure 4. Synthesis of a self-assembled rhomboid (top). Representative size of tumors excised from control and treated mice (left). Tumor size of an untreated mouse before (middle) and after treatment (right).
I N C O L L A B O R AT I O N W I T H : Lei Fang, assistant professor, College of Science, Texas A&M University David Russell, professor and department head, Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Texas A&M University
52
53
2014–15 INCOMING FACULTY FELLOWS
54
HAROLD ADAMS ‘62 A self-described “architect of an architecture firm,” Harold L. Adams is best known for building RTKL Associates from a small practice in Annapolis, Maryland, to a global leader in architecture, planning, and design. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and an Ed Rachal Foundation Faculty Fellow for the 2014–15 academic year. Adams received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Texas A&M University in 1962. After graduation, he worked in Washington, DC, for John Carl Warnecke & Associates, where he worked with President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy on several important projects, including the Lafayette Square project and the site selection for the JFK Presidential Library. Adams was the project manager for the 1962 redesign of Lafayette Square in Washington DC, a project that featured the Howard T. Markey National Courts Building and the New Executive Office Building. He later served as project manager for the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery.
to the Royal Institute of British Architects and serves as a trustee and board chair for several arts, education, and civic organizations in the Baltimore–Washington area. Winner of the Kemper Award for Service to the American Institute of Architects in 1997, Adams has devoted much time to the organization as a keynote speaker, committee member, and officer at the local and national levels, including chancellor of the association’s College of Fellows in 1998. In 2014, Adams received the College of Fellows’ highest honor, the Leslie N. Boney Sprit of Fellowship Award for his years of service. Adams has endowed four professorships and one scholarship with Texas A&M's College of Architecture and is a member of the College Development Advisory Council. A member of the Texas A&M President’s Council, Adams was recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus in 2011. That same year, he was inducted into the National Academy of Construction.
Adams is a member of the board of the Fairfax, Virginia-based architecture and engineering He joined RTKL Associates in 1967, became president in 1969, CEO in 1971, and chairman firm Dewberry. He also serves on the boards of Legg Mason, Lincoln Electric Holdings, and in 1987. Under Adams’s leadership, RTKL Commercial Metals Company. developed into a global design practice with a strong reputation for its design and As a TIAS Faculty Fellow, Adams will interact management expertise. When he retired in with faculty and students in the College of 2003, the firm had grown to 1,200 employees Architecture. in fourteen international offices.
Adams is one of the first Americans to hold a first-class Kenchikushi license from Japan’s Ministry of Construction. He is a registered architect in the United Kingdom. He belongs
55
RAKESH AGRAWAL Rakesh Agrawal is Purdue University’s Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering. His current interests are in energy production issues, especially renewable sources such as solar energy. He conducts research into the efficient conversion of biomass to liquid fuel and is involved in the use of modeling to determine the role of biofuels in relation to solar energy–derived alternatives for propelling transportation in a solar economy.
with several energy-related technologies has led to 120 US patents and 500 international patents along with 136 publications. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India, in 1975; a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware in 1977; and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980.
Agrawal’s efforts also have been recognized with the J&E Hall Gold Medal from the Institute of Refrigeration in the United Kingdom, the Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement from the University of Delaware, the Industrial Research Institute Achievement Award, and six awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers: the Gerhold Award, the Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology Award, the Institute Lecture Award, the Chemical Engineering Practice Award, the Fuels and Petrochemicals Division A member of the National Academy of Engineering since 2002, Agrawal served on the Award, and the Founders Award. From Purdue National Research Council panel, which issued University, he received the Morrill Award for a report The Hydrogen Economy: Opportunities, teaching, service, and impact on society and Costs, Barriers, and R&D Needs. Agrawal was the Shreve Prize for outstanding teaching in elected as a 2013 Fellow of the American chemical engineering. Academy of Arts and Sciences and a 2013 As a TIAS Faculty Fellow, Agrawal will Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. collaborate with faculty–researchers and His technical contributions toward improving graduate students from the Department of the energy efficiency of separation plants that Chemical Engineering in the Dwight Look produce industrial gases, such as oxygen and College of Engineering. nitrogen gases from air, and in the general area of gas liquefaction and separation, along A holder of the highest honor for technological achievement bestowed by the president of the United States—the National Medal of Technology and Innovation— Agrawal conducts research in energy-related areas that involve the conversion of biomass to liquid fuels, processes related to low-cost solar cells, energy systems analysis, and highefficiency separation processes needed for industry and research.
56
JACK DONGARRA As an internationally recognized scholar in numerical algorithms for linear algebra, parallel computing, the use of advanced computer architectures, programming methodology, and tools for parallel computers, Jack Dongarra conducts research in the development, testing, and documentation of high-quality mathematical software. Dongarra is known for his work in the development of the LINPACK and LAPACK libraries, which have provided the benchmark for the world’s 500 fastest computers since 1993. As a Distinguished Professor of computer science at the University of Tennessee, Dongarra directs the Innovative Computing Laboratory, which he established in 1989 to tackle science’s most challenging highperformance computing problems. He is also the director of the Center for Information Technology Research, which coordinates and facilitates research in information technology at the university. His research focuses on numerical algorithms in linear algebra, parallel computing, programming methodology, and the use of advanced computer architectures.
His research has strongly influenced software packages that efficiently and effectively solve many complex equations that support applications within high-performance computing. He also established standards and methods in parallel processing and programming that proved critical in the advancement of high-performance computing systems. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Chicago State University in 1972, a master’s degree in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1973, and a doctorate in applied mathematics from the University of New Mexico in 1980. The IEEE honored Dongarra in 2004 with the Sid Fernbach Award for his innovative approaches in the application of highperformance computers, in 2008 with its first Medal of Excellence in Scalable Computing, and in 2011 with the Charles Babbage Award for his contributions to the advancement of parallel computing.
In 2010, SIAM’s Special Interest Group on Supercomputing honored Dongarra with its Dongarra serves as a member of the first Award for Career Achievement. In 2013, Distinguished Research Staff in the Computer he received the ACM/IEEE Ken Kennedy Science and Mathematics Division at Oak Award for his leadership in designing and Ridge National Laboratory. In addition, he is promoting standards for mathematical a Turing Fellow at Manchester University in software used to solve numerical problems England and an adjunct professor in computer common to high-performance computing. science at Rice University in Houston.
Dongarra is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
As a TIAS Faculty Fellow, Dongarra will collaborate with faculty and students in the Dwight Look College of Engineering’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
57
WILLIAM MARRAS William Marras is the Honda Chair Professor in the Department of Integrated Systems Engineering at The Ohio State University. He conducts research to understand the role of biomechanics in spine disorder causation and its role in the prevention, evaluation, and treatment of spine disorders. His projects include epidemiologic studies, laboratory biomechanics studies, mathematical modeling, and clinical studies. At Ohio State, Marras is the executive director and scientific director of the Spine Research Institute, the executive director of the Center for Occupational Health in Automotive Manufacturing, and the executive director of the Institute for Ergonomics. He holds joint appointments in the departments of Orthopedic Surgery, Physical Medicine, and Neurosurgery.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in system engineering/human factors engineering from Wright State University in 1976, a master’s degree from Wayne State in industrial engineering in 1978, and a doctorate from Wayne State in bioengineering and ergonomics in 1982. Marras’s work has attracted international recognition. He is a two-time winner (1993 and 2002) of the prestigious Swedish Volvo Award for Low Back Pain Research, has won Austria’s Vienna Award for Physical Medicine and the Liberty Mutual Prize for Injury Prevention Research. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Waterloo (Canada) for his work on the biomechanics of low back disorders. Marras has chaired numerous National Research Council committees and boards including the Committee on Human Factors, the Committee on Human Systems Integration, and the Board on Human Systems Integration. He currently serves as deputy editor of the journal Spine and was the previous editor-inchief of Human Factors.
Marras is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In addition, he is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers, the American Industrial Hygiene Association, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Ergonomics Society (United Kingdom), and the International Ergonomics Association.
He is the president of the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society.
He has written numerous books and book chapters, including his most recent book, The Working Back: A Systems View. He has presented a TEDx talk “Back Pain and Your Brain.”
As a TIAS Faculty Fellow, Marras will work with faculty and students in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering in the Dwight Look College of Engineering.
58
ED MOSES President of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization, Ed Moses leads the design, construction, and commissioning of the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), a 25-meter ground-based telescope that will be larger than any telescope in existence today. Scheduled to come online in 2021 at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, the GMT project represents an international technical and scientific collaboration with eleven partner research institutions from the United States, Australia, Korea, Brazil, and Chile. The telescope will enable astronomers to address some of humanity’s most profound questions about our origins and our place in the universe by discovering and characterizing planets around other stars; searching for signs of life beyond Earth; probing the formation of young stars and galaxies shortly after the Big Bang; and exploring fundamental issues in cosmology and physics, including dark matter and dark energy. Moses was formerly the principal associate director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he led the development of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the largest optical and laser project ever constructed. The NIF uses high-power lasers to focus energy at the level needed to initiate the conversion of hydrogen to helium in fusion reactions similar to those occurring in the center of stars. He is recognized as a leader in fusion research and development, laser science and technology, as well as a top-flight director of industrial partnerships and project management. In addition, he has made significant contributions to the fields of high-energy, highpeak-power, high-average-power, and shortwavelength-lasers and associated technologies. He is widely published and holds many patents in laser technology and computational physics.
Moses earned his bachelor’s degree in 1972 and his doctorate in 1977, both from Cornell University in New York. He belongs to the National Academy of Engineering and is a fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has eighteen years of experience developing laser systems for the US Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration, and thirty years of experience developing and managing complex laser systems and hightechnology projects. From 1990 to 1995, he was a founding partner of Advanced Technology Applications, which advised clients on hightechnology projects. Among other prestigious awards, Moses has received the Thomas Jefferson Award, the Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award, the National Nuclear Security Administration Defense Programs Award of Excellence, the Memorial D.S. Rozhdestvensky Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Lasers and Optical Sciences, the R&D100 Award for the Peregrine Radiation Therapy Program, and the US Department of Energy Award of Excellence. As a TIAS Faculty Fellow, Moses will collaborate with faculty and students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Science.
59
YURI OGANESSIAN Acknowledged as a leading figure in experimental nuclear physics, Yuri Oganessian conducts research into nuclear reactions with a focus on the synthesis of new chemical elements. His name is closely connected with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, about eighty miles north of Moscow. Oganessian is credited with three confirmed element discoveries and eleven inventions. Today, Oganessian serves as the scientific leader of JINR’s Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions and is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). With his colleagues, Oganessian has conducted fundamental experiments on the synthesis of elements with atomic numbers between 102 and 106. An atomic number is the number of protons found in the nucleus of an atom of a specific element.
As chairman of the RAS Scientific Council on Applied Nuclear Physics, he coordinates applied research at the Russia’s leading nuclear physics centers. His work earned the USSR State Prize in 1975, the I. V. Kurchatov Prize of the RAS in 1989, the G. N. Flerov Prize of the JINR in 1993, the Alexander von Humboldt Prize in 1995, the L. Meitner Prize from the European Physical Society in 2000, the MAIK Nauka/Interperiodika in 2001, the Gold Medal of the Armenian National Academy of Science in 2008, and the State Prize of Russia in 2010.
He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Physics, Nuclear Physics News International, Il Nuovo Cimento, Physics of Elementary Particles and Atomic Nuclei, and Particle Accelerators, as well on the scientific counsels of GANIL (France), RIKEN (Japan) and FAIR (Germany). He is a foreign member Oganessian proposed—and with his colleagues, of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, developed—a method to synthesize extremely the National Academy of Science of Armenia, heavy nuclei through fusion reactions of as well as an Honorary Doctor of Goethe calcium-48 nuclei, an extremely rare isotope University in Germany and the University of calcium with twenty protons and twentyof Messina in Italy. eight neutrons, with nuclei of artificial actinide elements, which have atomic numbers from 93 As a TIAS Faculty Fellow, Oganessian will to 98. In experiments conducted from 1999 to work with faculty and students in the Cyclotron 2010, these reactions yielded, for the first time, Institute and the Department of Physics and elements with atomic numbers of 113 through Astronomy in the College of Science. 118. The decay properties of these new elements proved the existence of the “island of stability” for very heavy elements, a theory first proposed in the late 1960s. He earned a doctorate from Moscow State University in 1963 and a doctorate from JINR in 1970.
60
ROBERT SKELTON For more than fifty years, Robert E. Skelton’s research has focused on integrating system science with material science to create new material systems. His contributions to innovative engineering serve humankind in outer space and on Earth. Skelton joined the faculty at Purdue University in 1975, where he served for twenty-one years as a professor of aeronautics and astronautics. He directed the Structural Systems and Control Laboratory for Purdue’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Engineering Studies from 1991 to 1996. In 1996, Skelton moved to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where he founded the university’s Systems and Control Program and became director of UCSD’s Structural Systems and Control Laboratory. In 2006, UCSD named Skelton the Daniel L. Alspach Professor of Dynamics Systems and Controls in the Jacobs School of Engineering and professor emeritus in 2009. Most recently, Skelton pioneered the mathematical description of tensegrity structures. Derived by combining “tension” and “integrity,” the term “tensegrity” describes materials composed of strings and rods. His papers have explained the tensegrity nature of the cytoskeleton of red blood cells and of the molecular structure of nature’s strongest tensile material, the spider fiber. Tensegrity materials can change shape by altering their string tension. This ability to adapt allows tensegrity to produce materials systems that can modify their acoustic, electromagnetic, or mechanical properties. In addition, tensegrity structures may include built-in actuators, sensors, and power-storage devices. This versatility makes tensegrity an attractive alternative to conventional design.
Skelton earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Clemson University in 1963; a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Alabama, Huntsville, in 1970; and a doctorate in mechanics and structures from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1976. Skelton received the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Award in 1986, the Humboldt Foundation Senior US Scientist Award in 1991, the Norman Medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1999, and the Humboldt Foundation Research Award in 2011. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration recognized Skelton in 1974 with the SKYLAB Achievement Award and again in 2005 with a NASA Appreciation Award for his service to the Hubble repair missions. Skelton became a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2012. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a life member of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, a non-profit foundation in Germany established to promote cooperation in international research. He has published four books: Model Error Concepts and Compensation (1986), Dynamic Systems Control (1988), A Unified Algebraic Approach to Control Design (1996), and Tensegrity Systems (2009). As a TIAS Faculty Fellow, Skelton will interact with faculty and students in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in the Dwight Look College of Engineering.
“The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study is an emblem for collaboration and integration.”
Christodoulos Floudas 2013–14 TIAS Faculty Fellow
62
2012–13 PAST FACULTY FELLOWS
Jay C. Dunlap Dartmouth University National Academy of Sciences Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology
Research Molecular basis for biological clocks Regulation of cellular daily rhythms in physiology and metabolism Widely used textbook on biological clocks
Peter S. Liss University of East Anglia, UK Fellow, Royal Society Academia Europaea Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2008)
Research Biochemical interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere Mechanisms of trace gas formations in the oceans Chair of the International Geosphere-BioSphere Programme (5 years) Chair, Surface Ocean, Lower Atmosphere Study
Alan Needleman University of North Texas National Academy of Engineering American Academy of Arts and Sciences Timoshenko Medal (highest international award in applied mechanics)
Research Mathematical modeling of fracture, dislocations, and environmental effects on materials Highly cited author in both engineering and materials science
63
Aleda V. Roth Clemson University Distinguished Fellow, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society Fellow, Decision Sciences Institute Fellow, Production and Operations Management Society
Research Study of global supply chains in industry How firms structure their operations for competitive advantage Risks to Americans of outsourcing our food supply
Vernon L. Smith Chapman University Nobel Prize in Economics National Academy of Science Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Research Groundbreaking work in experimental economics Research in capital theory, finance, and natural resource economics Study on housing markets and recessions
Katepalli R. Sreenivasan New York University National Academy of Science National Academy of Engineering American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Research Research on the nature of turbulent flows, including experiment, theory, and simulations Research in physics, engineering, and mathematical sciences Promotion of international scientific cooperation
64
FINANCIAL OVERVIEW
$11 million in committed funds
“The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study is really a transformative program for Texas A&M. The collaborative interactions have been fruitful and have resulted in a number of publications.”
Paul Hardin Distinguished Professor Texas A&M University
For initial funding, the Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study received a five-year commitment for $5.2 million from Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp, plus a five-year commitment from Texas A&M University of $3.7 million, which includes $1.2 million drawn from funds provided by Herman F. Heep and Minnie Bell Heep through the Texas A&M University Foundation.
In addition to this $8.9 million, the Texas A&M colleges provide 30 percent matching funds for the Fellows’ salaries and pay expenses associated with the Fellows’ research, housing, and travel. Significant financial support is anticipated from the Texas A&M Foundation's forthcoming capital campaign, as well as members of the TIAS Legacy Society.
65
COMMITTED FUNDS 5 YEARS
Texas A&M University $5.8 million
Total: $11 Million
The Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp $5.2 million
Total: $11 Million
TIAS Faculty Fellows $5 million
EXPENDITURES 5 YEARS
College Faculty Fellow Support $2.1 million
Heep Graduate Student Fellowships $1.2 million
TIAS Operations $2.7 million
66 TIAS Advocates Advocates for the Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study champion the Institute to anyone who shares an interest in the advancement of Texas A&M. In addition, Advocates identify like-minded prospective donors who may want to contribute to establishing a strong financial foundation for the Institute’s mission.
CHARTING THE WAY FORWARD Great academic institutions such as Texas A&M University are built upon exceptional scholarship. The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study (TIAS) is designed to serve as the cornerstone securing the University’s future as a top-tier institution of learning and research. The success of TIAS will depend upon a substantial endowment facilitated from the combined efforts of the Texas A&M Capital Campaign, the TIAS Advocates, and the TIAS Legacy Society.
Capital Campaign Contributions to TIAS through the Texas A&M Foundation will strengthen our ability to recruit renowned Faculty Fellows and enhance the University’s global reputation. As noted recently by Ed Davis and John Junkins: “While we expect continued progress toward the strategic 2020 goals on all fronts, the Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study is the key that will dramatically enhance the standing of Texas A&M among world-class universities.” You can play a significant role in the capital campaign as an Advocate and/or a member of the Legacy Society.
The TIAS Legacy Society Former students, faculty, staff, and friends of Texas A&M become members of the TIAS Legacy Society by making an estate gift to TIAS through the Texas A&M Foundation. Through these generous estate gifts, members of the TIAS Legacy Society help secure TIAS's endowment and demonstrate their conviction that the Institute is crucial to the future of the University: • Janet Bluemel, professor, Department of Chemistry, College of Science • Jean-Louis Briaud, professor and Regents Fellow, holder of the Spencer J. Buchanan Chair, Zachery Department of Civil Engineering, Dwight Look College of Engineering, with Janet Briaud • Clifford L. Fry, ’67, Associate Director, TIAS, with Judy F. Fry • John Gladysz, distinguished professor and holder of the Dow Chair in Chemical Invention, Department of Chemistry, College of Science • John Junkins, distinguished professor and holder of the Royce E. Wisenbaker ’39 Chair, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Dwight Look College of Engineering, with Elouise Junkins • Ozden Ochoa, professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dwight Look College of Engineering Their financial contributions have helped to permanently underwrite TIAS and to support its mission for years to come.
“The Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study provides the chance for people from outside Texas A&M to interact with us as faculty members, with our graduate students, and with undergraduate students. It greatly supports the mission of the University to provide a quality education. It is a wonderful Institute.�
David Lee Nobel Prize in physics, 1996
Produced by the Division of Research
Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study Texas A&M University Jack K. Williams Administration Building Suite 305 TAMU 3572 College Station, Texas 77843-3572 tias.tamu.edu For inquiries, contact Clifford L. Fry, Ph.D. Associate Director 979-458-5723 cfry@tamu.edu