Meet Tomorrow, Today
Energy alternatives, bioterrorism, cancer and aging. Meet researchers and scientists at universities across Texas who are working to find 21st-century solutions to these and other challenges facing our state and nation.
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Dr. Ritsuko Komaki was living with her family near Osaka when the atomic bomb exploded on her native Hiroshima in 1945. But the family returned to the devastated city when she was four, and Komaki grew up a witness to the long-term effects, which likely contributed heavily to the deaths of about half her relatives, including her father. Like many Japanese, she developed both a fascination with and fear of radiation. When her close friend Sadako Sasaki died at age 11 of radiation-related leukemia, Komaki vowed to become a cancer doctor.
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It's not often that an academic figure holds a place in pop culture, but Dr. C.J. Peters, professor of pathology and of microbiology and immunology, and biodefense director of the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, has turned that trick. In 1989, when he was head of the Special Pathogens Branch of the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Peters led a team sent to a laboratory in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Reston, Virginia, to contain an Ebola outbreak among experimental monkeys. Their success in preventing the deadly virus from escaping the lab was documented in Richard Preston's 1994 bestseller The Hot Zone. That book inspired the hit movie "Outbreak" (1995), which was so heavily fictionalized that Peters still can't figure out whether he's supposed to be the Rene Russo or the Dustin Hoffman character.
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They say every child is a natural scientist — questioning the world around them, exploring their surroundings at every turn. Yet despite this natural propensity, student test scores in the areas of math and science have been on a steady decline in the United States — a trend many believe endangers our ability to compete in a 21st-century global economy. In 2005, the National Academies' influential report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future called the current state of math and science education in the United States a "national emergency" that if left unattended would jeopardize our nation's economy for decades to come. Among the recommendations made in the report was a call to improve K–12 math and science education by bolstering the ranks of math and science teachers by 10,000 nationally. UTeach, at The University of Texas at Austin, was mentioned specifically as a model for accomplishing this ambitious goal.
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The surprising news from Dr. Scott W. Tinker, director of The University of Texas at Austin's Bureau of Economic Geology, is that there is no such thing as "U.S. energy independence," for at least several decades. The good news is that "energy security" is very much within our capabilities and perhaps a better vision. "The nations of the world are simply too interdependent for there to be any wisdom in pushing the idea of energy independence," Tinker declares. " As the world flattens and globalizes further, we actually become more interdependent. But energy security is a completely different thing and it is viable."
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Stan's not what you'd call good looking, nor is he articulate, and his wardrobe can be downright shabby. But he's seen and had it all — voluntarily — from minor cuts and bruises to strokes to lung cancer to Ebola. He takes it all lying down, and he never complains. In his own modest way, he's one of the best teachers medical students have ever had, even though he's a bit of a dummy.
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Dr. Steven Austad, professor of cellular and structural biology at UT Health Science Center - San Antonio, strongly believes science can substantially slow the aging process and nature holds the answer to longer, healthier, more productive lives. In fact, he bet a fellow researcher an estimated $500 million that the first 150-year-old person is already alive today. Each researcher invested $150 in a trust fund and the proceeds go to the winner in 2150. Austad hopes he's here to collect.
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Dr. James D. Cox, head of the department of radiation oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston since 1995, knows a good new thing when he sees it. Still, it took the urging of his wife and fellow UT M. D. Anderson oncologist/professor Ritsuko Komaki to overcome his initial skepticism of proton therapy. Both were sold on the emerging radiation therapy after visiting the then-new Proton Treatment Center at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Southern California in 1990, and once he became head of radiation oncology at UTMDA Cox was in a position to do something about it. He was instrumental in getting the Proton Therapy Center at M. D. Anderson funded — half by the university, half by private investors — and opened in 1995.
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Four million people are afflicted with Alzheimer's disease today, and 12 million are expected to have it by 2030. Though some symptoms can be eased to make life better for its victims, the debilitating disease is currently untreatable. But Dr. Roger Rosenberg, professor of neurology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center, believes that remedies are now in sight.
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As director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and the principal investigator of the Galveston National Laboratory, Dr. Stanley M. Lemon fights a daily battle against the potential ravages of bioterrorism and of Mother Nature. He and his colleagues study emerging infectious diseases that, whether they occur naturally or via microbes that can be altered and used by terrorists, could have profound human and economic consequences. "Fortunately," Dr. Lemon says, "in addressing the natural diseases you also address bioterrorism."
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The Gulf of Mexico provides Texans with countless recreational, environmental and economic benefits, and marine biologist Dr. Lee Fuiman, director of The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, aims to see that it always will. Fuiman and his staff confront myriad problems related to the Gulf's ever-changing ecology.
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As a research professor of geography at Texas State University-San Marcos and the executive director of its River Systems Institute, Andrew Sansom is one of the state's leading conservationists, and an ardent advocate for preserving and protecting Texas waterways. In a state so big that some regions have plentiful water and others almost none, he clearly has his work cut out for him. Just as clearly, he's up to the task.
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Texas A&M chemical physicist Dr. Dudley R. Herschbach believes the role of higher education is to produce two things: discoveries and people who make discoveries. And, he believes in getting them when they're young. "Every little kid is a natural scientist," he says, "because they're naturally curious. And they also want to understand the things they see so they ask lots of 'why' questions. And that's what science is."
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As former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and current U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert M. Gates knows that America must be a global leader in science and technology if the nation is to maintain its current position in the world. Dr. Gates also has firsthand knowledge of the challenge this poses: he was president of Texas A&M University from 2002 to 2006 and interim dean of the university's George Bush School of Government and Public Service from 1999–2001.
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