The College’s Premier Research Spaces

The College’s Premier Research Spaces: Part 1

Students and faculty in the College of Sciences have access to multiple research centers and institutes that offer state-of-the-art facilities and instrumentation. These spaces provide the environment, resources and guidance students and researchers need to make meaningful scientific contributions to our world.

Learn about the rest of the college's research spaces in the Spring 2023 issue of Catalyst.

Center for Research and Training in the Sciences

The Center for Research and Training in the Sciences (CRTS) is home to a variety of faculty and student research training and support programs. The mission of the CRTS is to promote science, research and education, and the center coordinates and administers programs related to all scientific disciplines. The CRTS programs have launched the scientific careers of hundreds of UTSA students.

Many programs within the CRTS support undergraduate and graduate students as research assistants, and all play an integral role in the academic programs of the university. These programs attract scientific visitors who engage in cooperative training with UTSA faculty and students, participate in seminar series, and supervise independent research projects.

South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases

The South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases (STCEID) conducts research in the fields of molecular microbiology, immunology, medical mycology, virology, microbial genomics, vaccine development and biodefense. It is a premier center for the study of the pathogenic mechanisms of emerging infectious diseases. New state-of-the-art facilities and the faculty’s diverse expertise provide an excellent environment to answer critical questions relating to infections caused by microbes, including emerging and biodefense-related diseases.

FACILITY HIGHLIGHTS

u Two licensed Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratories u Biosafety Level 2 Animal facilities (ABSL-2) u Genomics Core Lab

u Cell Analysis Core Facility u Multiphoton Microscopy suite

KARL KLOSE

is the director of the STCEID and a professor of microbiology.

Institute for Water Research, Sustainability and Policy

The Institute for Water Research, Sustainability and Policy (IWRSP) brings together UTSA faculty and water professionals from the San Antonio area and South Texas region to identify water-related problems and address water resources for individuals, communities, agriculture and industry. The team’s research spans hydrology, hydrogeology and flood control; water chemistry, contaminants, nutrients and public health; advanced water treatment and reuse; monitoring and modeling of water resources and climate; sustainable water use, reuse and policy research; aquifer sustainability, groundwater resources and ecology; and cross-border water solutions for the U.S.–Mexico border.

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT

Ashley Aguilar, a Ph.D. Environmental Science and Engineering student, is researching water contamination in Central Mexico through the IWRSP. Aguilar’s research investigates the extent and impact of arsenic and fluoride leaching via temperature release into the groundwater from hydrothermally impacted sediments. Aguilar volunteers with several local organizations. She collected litter at local parks with Keep San Antonio Beautiful and built post-assisted log structures (known as “beaver dams”) with the San Antonio River Authority (SARA) to reduce erosion along the Medina River. She is the current graduate student adviser and the student liaison for the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists (AEG) Texas Chapter board, a member of the Diversity, Education and Inclusion Committee (DEIC) for AEG, as well as a member of the Sigma Gamma Epsilon (SGE) national honor society for the earth sciences.

SAUGATA DATTA

is the director of the IWRSP and a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. NASA MIRO Center for Advanced Measurements in Extreme Environments

The NASA MIRO Center for Advanced Measurements in Extreme Environments (NASA MIRO CAMEE) recruits, educates and mentors a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate interdisciplinary students to become leaders in earth-system sciences, space sciences, computational fluid dynamics and experimental fluid mechanics. Students have access to a variety of equipment in CAMEE’s central location as well as the Geographic Information System (GIS) and Geophysical Facility; the Volcano Testing Lab; the Snow and Ice Testing Lab; the Turbulence, Sensing, and Intelligence Systems Lab; the UTSA Hypersonic Lab; the Laser Spectroscopy and Chemical Propulsion Lab; the Heat and Mass Transfer and Experimental Rheology Lab; the Electrochemistry Lab; the Ocean Sciences Lab; and partnering research labs around campus.

EQUIPMENT HIGHLIGHTS

u Matrice 600 and Matrice 100 Full-scale Drones u Unmanned and manned Ground Rovers

u 3-D printer u Mars Surface Replicas u Microsoft HoloLens for Virtual Reality u Three-foot water tunnel facility u Differential scanning calorimeters (DSC), high temperature rheometers and viscometers, and light flash analysis (LFA) for measuring thermal conductivity u Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power Generator u Electromagnetic induction meters u FM-CW snow radar system u Ground-penetrating radar system u Rain gauge u SEAEXPLORER glider u Spectroradiometer u Terrestrial LiDAR scanner u Thermal imaging camera u 36-node Himalaya Supercomputing Cluster u 30,000-node UTSA Simulator NVIDIA Graphical Cluster u Mobile sensing laboratory equipped with wind, temperature and surface flux and gas sensors u Mach 7 wind tunnel and a low-speed wind tunnel