Texas State University - San Marcos

NSF Awards · FY 2026 · 2026-09

This Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award will advance recyclable biopolymer composite construction materials for use in resource-limited environments while educating future engineers in innovation and entrepreneurship. Many regions face challenges in building infrastructure under conditions of limited materials, water scarcity, and logistical constraints. This project addresses these challenges by developing material systems that can be produced, reused, and recycled using locally available resources. The work focuses on biopolymer materials that can harden to meet structural needs and later be reversed and reused, thereby reducing waste and enabling circular construction practices. These capabilities are particularly important for temporary or short-term structures in remote or harsh environments, where long-term durability is not required. The project also integrates research with education by training students to translate scientific discoveries into practical solutions and new ventures. Outreach activities will engage learners from secondary schools and community colleges to broaden participation in science and engineering. The project contributes to the national interest by advancing scientific knowledge, strengthening economic competitiveness, and enabling technologies relevant to national security and space exploration. The research will establish fundamental relationships among material composition, processing conditions, and the performance of reversible biopolymer construction materials. The work investigates gelatin-based binder systems that undergo hardening through desiccation and can be reprocessed under controlled moisture and temperature conditions. Experimental studies will examine gelation and hardening mechanisms, reversibility, and interactions between the binder and granular materials such as desert sand. Mechanical performance, durability under environmental fluctuations, cracking behavior, and recyclability will be evaluated through laboratory testing and microstructural characterization. Analytical and computational approaches will be used to model structure–property relationships and guide material design. The project will also investigate strategies for water recovery and reuse during material processing. Educational activities will integrate research findings into graduate training that includes innovation and commercialization skills, along with outreach to undergraduate, community college, and pre-college students. The expected outcomes include new scientific understanding of reversible biopolymer construction materials, design principles for resource-efficient material systems, and a trained workforce capable of advancing adaptable construction technologies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2026 · 2026-01

Non-Technical Abstract: This project explores a new concept called Intrinsic Superconducting Spin-Electronics, which has the potential to transform high-performance computing and quantum device technologies. The research focuses on a class of superconducting materials that host a quantum state in which paired electrons align with parallel spins, in contrast to the antiparallel configuration of conventional superconductors. This intrinsic spin alignment enables compatibility with magnetic materials used in spin-electronics research. Through this activity, the research team investigates devices such as Josephson junctions and superconducting diodes to advance understanding of novel superconducting phenomena and support the development of next-generation logic, memory, and quantum devices. The education component emphasizes advanced training and exposure to state-of-the-art research for students at Texas State University. The research team includes both graduate and undergraduate students who are representative of the student body at Texas State University. Outreach activities include superconductivity-themed demonstrations during visits to local high schools, participation in campus-based visit days, involvement in internal events such as the Physics Conference and Careers Fair, and engagement with student-led organizations. Technical Abstract: The research investigates noncentrosymmetric superconductors with intrinsic spin-triplet pairing. The initial goal is to deposit candidate materials, such as niobium-rhenium alloy, and characterize their superconducting properties. These materials are fabricated into devices, including ferromagnetic Josephson junctions and narrow-track diode structures, to test two key hypotheses: that intrinsic spin-triplet junctions can sustain higher critical current densities than conventional proximity-based systems, and that noncentrosymmetric materials can enable a true intrinsic supercurrent diode effect. In conventional superconductors, such as niobium, efforts to achieve practical superconducting spintronic devices have been limited by low critical currents through ferromagnetic barriers and by ambiguity in identifying genuine diode behavior. By employing noncentrosymmetric superconductors with intrinsic spin-triplet pairing, the research team aims to overcome these limitations. The results will advance fundamental understanding of unconventional superconductors and support progress in the emerging field of Intrinsic Superconducting Spin-Electronics and quantum information technologies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-10

With support from the Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Enriching Learning, Programs, and Student Experiences (HSI:ELPSE), this Implementation and Evaluation Project (IEP) Level 1 project aims to increase retention, academic achievement, and career preparation for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates by connecting first-year and transfer students with academic support, professional development, and early research opportunities. Many students begin their STEM studies with strong motivation but may encounter academic challenges in their first year at a 4-year college that can affect their progress toward graduation and readiness for STEM careers. This is important because supporting students at this pivotal stage can help more undergraduates complete their degrees and contribute to the growing need for STEM professionals. The project will offer a series of academic success workshops, a service-learning course in STEM leadership, and opportunities for students to participate in faculty-mentored undergraduate research. Through these activities, students will build confidence, develop essential skills, and engage more deeply with their STEM education. The project seeks to increase retention and graduation rates, enhance academic performance, and strengthen preparation for STEM careers, with a particular emphasis on transfer students. Transfer students are especially vulnerable to academic probation—a risk compounded by their advanced standing, which affords them less time to access and benefit from institutional interventions before graduation. Effectively supporting transfer students at this pivotal stage is crucial for improving degree attainment and addressing the growing demand for STEM professionals. Moreover, the project will provide a model for other institutions seeking to support student success in STEM. The specific aims of this project are to increase retention, academic achievement, and preparation for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers among first-year and transfer students by providing academic success workshops, a service-learning course in leadership, and early opportunities for faculty-mentored undergraduate research. The project will also support faculty and postdoctoral mentors with training in effective undergraduate research mentorship. The research will examine how participation in these activities influences student retention, academic performance, and confidence in scientific skills. The project will use a combination of validated surveys, institutional data, and mentoring assessments to measure outcomes for participating students and mentors. Results are expected to show higher student retention and graduation rates, improved academic performance, and increased engagement in research and leadership activities. Project findings and best practices will be shared through presentations at professional conferences, publications in peer-reviewed journals, and a project website, providing a transferable framework for other institutions seeking to support student achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This project is funded by the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and increase capacity to engage in the development and implementation of innovations to improve STEM teaching and learning at Hispanic-Serving Institutions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-10

This Level 1 Engaged Student Learning project aims to serve the national interest by preparing construction professionals to safely and efficiently work with rapidly advancing assistive technologies, such as exoskeletons and virtual or augmented reality tools. These technologies hold great promise for improving safety and productivity, but they also pose risks when their capabilities do not align with the abilities of human users. This mismatch, called Misalignment of Augmented Capability, can lead to overreliance, reduced skill development, or safety concerns. By helping students recognize and manage these risks, this project fosters critical thinking, responsible decision-making, and technological fluency. Hands-on and scenario-based learning activities will ensure that all students are equipped to thrive in a technology-driven workforce. The resulting educational modules, (a) Learn Physical and Cognitive Misalignment and (b) Learn Spatial Reasoning Misalignment, are expected to promote experiential learning as well as advance the theoretical foundation for human-technology interaction in STEM education. This project also includes outreach to K-12 students and partnerships with industry to expand its broader importance. By creating scalable educational tools, this initiative promotes innovation and educational excellence while addressing workforce needs in a changing technological landscape. Through design-based implementation research informed by situated learning theory, this project will develop and evaluate experiential and scenario-based Misalignment of Augmented Capability learning modules. These modules will be implemented in undergraduate construction education curricula and involve hands-on activities with assistive technologies to simulate real-world decision-making. Driven by the overarching goal to enhance educational efficacy and safety in construction management technology, specific objectives are to (1) investigate and analyze the risks of misalignments of augmented capability from using assistive technologies (i.e., exoskeleton and immersive tools) in construction, (2) enhance the awareness of capability misalignment associated with assistive technologies in construction education, and (3) develop student proficiency in evaluating and addressing capability misalignments associated with assistive technologies to ensure their safe and effective implementation in construction management. This project advances the understanding of capability gains and losses associated with assistive technologies, including exoskeletons for kinetic capabilities, and virtual and augmented realities for spatial reasoning capabilities. By generating empirical data on students' learning outcomes, this project will advance curriculum design and instructional strategies in STEM education. It will also produce scalable and evidence-based educational resources for nationwide use, directly contributing to the preparation of a safety-conscious, and technologically adept construction workforce. The project outcomes have the potential to broaden participation in STEM and lay the groundwork for long-term transformation in how future construction professionals are educated to work with rapidly evolving technologies. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-09

The Expressive STEM Centers (ESC) project creates family-driven learning networks that honor shared knowledge and experience while building confidence with technology and science. Located in San Marcos, Texas, this project transforms how informal STEM learning happens by positioning libraries and community centers as hubs for intergenerational innovation. Rather than treating STEM as separate from daily life, the ESC project uses a material inquiry approach where families explore robotics, coding, circuits, and environmental science by connecting powerful tools to heritage stories and real-world challenges. This project advances understanding of how imagination and creative confidence develop through hands-on learning, testing whether family-based STEM experiences can create lasting changes in how communities envision their futures. By demonstrating that meaningful STEM learning emerges when family communities control the design process and when materials become collaborative partners rather than passive tools, this research project provides a model for accessible STEM education that builds on family and community strengths and assets, supporting NSF's mission to advance both scientific knowledge and broaden participation in the scientific enterprise. The ESC Research Collective employs Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology integrated with material inquiry approaches to investigate how expressive STEM learning generates imagination and creative confidence across intergenerational family networks. Over three years, the project will conduct approximately 160 formal events (playshops, afterschool clubs, scientist roundtables, community science activities) plus 230 DIY drop-ins across three community sites: the San Marcos Public Library, Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos, and the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. Using mixed-methods data collection including micro-interviews, video documentation, exit surveys, ethnographic field notes, and participant-curated digital portfolios, researchers will track how moments of imagination during material engagement propagate through families and communities over time. The research investigates three primary questions: (1) how intergenerational family-focused expressive STEM learning generates sustainable multimodal STEM literacies, (2) how emergent creative confidence disrupts conventional thinking about family and community capacities for learning, and (3) how engaging in community research affects belongingness for individuals and communities. Data analysis employs diffractive mapping, discourse analysis, AI-assisted pattern recognition, and collaborative interpretation between university and community co-researchers. Expected outcomes include evidence-based frameworks for community-driven STEM learning, a replicable catalog of expressive STEM engagements, participant micro-credentials documenting research and facilitation skills, and scholarly publications advancing understanding of imagination's role in informal STEM education. The project's collaborative infrastructure model, where community members become co-researchers while maintaining program autonomy, offers a scalable approach for expanding community-controlled STEM learning networks nationwide. This Integrating Research and Practice project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing everyone with multiple pathways for accessing and engaging in STEM learning experiences. The project is co-funded by the STEM Ed PRF Program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-09

This I-Corps project is based on the development of a next-generation microscopy tool designed to detect an extremely small amount of electric charge and measure electric potential at nanometer scale. As electronic devices and quantum systems become smaller and more complex, currently available microscopy tools struggle to reveal the detailed electrical properties necessary for new technological breakthroughs. This problem is especially relevant in fields such as quantum computing, nanoelectronics, and advanced semiconductor device manufacturing, where understanding and controlling electric fields at the smallest scales directly affects device performance and reliability. This technology provides ultra-sensitive, high-resolution imaging and may be easier to use and more affordable than other existing solutions. Its adoption may accelerate the creation of new materials and quantum devices, benefitting a wide range of industries and supporting scientific advancements that impact everyday life. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of scanning single-electron box (SSEB) microscopy. This technology integrates a single-electron box on an atomic force microscopy (AFM) probe, providing highly sensitive measurements of charge and electric potential with sub-nanometer spatial resolution. Unlike conventional methods such as scanning single-electron transistor, SSEB microscopy detects single-electron tunneling events as shifts in the probe's resonant frequency and damping, allowing practical implementation and compatibility with cryogenic atomic force microscopy (AFM) systems. This technology may be used to investigate fluctuating charges that disrupt quantum bits. In addition, it also enables mapping dopant distributions and defects in advanced semiconductor devices, analyzing semiconductor-insulator interfaces, and characterizing charge transport in novel transistor architectures such as fin field-effect transistors (FinFETs) and nanowire-based devices. The technology may be used to investigate ferroelectric materials for non-volatile memories, detect localized charge traps impacting device reliability, and evaluate nanoscale components in integrated circuits. By supporting ultra-sensitive characterization across quantum, semiconductor, and nanoelectronic fields, SSEB microscopy may allow researchers and developers to advance high-performance computing, sensing, and communications, paving the way toward more reliable and powerful next-generation technologies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-09

This project aims to unlock the full scientific potential of a group of small, colorful fish commonly found in home aquariums—guppies, mollies, and swordtails. These fish have already allowed scientists to uncover important insights on human diseases such as melanoma and metabolic disorders, as well as in studies of animal behavior and development. However, scientists currently lack the tools to precisely modify their DNA, which limits how much we can learn from them. This project will develop new methods to enable DNA editing in these fish, opening the door to discoveries that could benefit both medicine and biology. In addition to advancing science, the project will provide hands-on research opportunities for undergraduate students and engage the public through outreach activities. It will also train other scientists in these new techniques, helping to build a community of researchers equipped to study health and disease using these powerful animal models. Poeciliid fishes are a key model system in integrative organismal biology, yet their utility has been constrained by the lack of DNA editing tools, largely due to their viviparous reproduction. This proposal addresses that gap by developing a suite of biotechnological tools to enable functional genomics in Poeciliids. The project will begin by establishing immortalized cell lines from multiple species and optimizing transfection protocols to enable CRISPR-based DNA editing in vitro. Building on recent success in culturing embryos ex vivo, the team will adapt these protocols for in vivo gene editing. Concurrently, the project will generate high-quality, telomere-to-telomere genome assemblies and functional annotation resources to support downstream applications. These genomic tools will be made publicly accessible via a genome browser, facilitating broad adoption. Together, these efforts will establish a robust platform for genetic manipulation in Poeciliids, enabling mechanistic studies of development, physiology, and disease. The research will result in new biotechnology. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-09

The QuESTS (Quaternary Environments and Societies at Texas State) lab group is an interdisciplinary group of geoscientists and geoarchaeologists at many different career levels, from student researchers to senior scholars. The goal of this lab group is to better understand the types of geologic resources and environments that early inhabitants of Texas used and occupied over time. Past peoples in Texas were technologically reliant on stone resources, so tracking and understanding Texas’ geologic materials provides us with a window to the past. The researchers of this project focus not only on how humans have adapted to changing natural environments over the last several thousand years, but also how to best train students in geoscience using real-world data in the field and laboratory. Through this project, the QuESTS team is surveying, mapping and analyzing the geologic resources of Texas to better understand their use by past people. The team is also identifying new areas for archaeological excavation as well as palaeoecological and geoarchaeological research on the Edwards Plateau, Texas. This project is important because archaeological and environmental data are vulnerable, and this region is threatened by erosional degradation, wildfire risk, and modern land-use pressures. The results of the project will include an archive of what the environment was like in the past, which can further help to conserve and wisely use resources in the future. This project will produce new geochemical datasets comparing chert (aka flint) sources and artifacts. These datasets will be compared with regional geomorphic and archaeological data to address the project’s targeted research questions and foci. The main research question asks: “What geological resources were prioritized at different time periods throughout human history across the Edwards Plateau in Texas, USA, and can these geological resources be distinguished geochemically?”. The team will first stratigraphically map and collect raw materials from varied chert-bearing outcrops in the study area and obtain artifacts left by the region's early occupants. Then, the team will use geochemical testing (XRF and ICP-MS) on the chert samples and artifacts to characterize materials and understand what chert sources were prioritized during different stages of cultural development. Following this, the researchers will also use evidence from soils associated with archaeological zones and artifacts to determine whether preferred lithic sources were impacted by climatological/environmental changes. With this, a new geochemical database will be generated for the Edwards Plateau and novel palaeoclimatological and palaeoecological information will be created through the study of floodplain and terrace alluvial sequences that provide a record of past environmental regimes during relevant cultural periods. All of these lines of evidence elucidate human decision making and resource prioritization in response to regional scale climate shifts during different cultural periods. Most importantly, this project provides students at Texas State with the proper training and scaffolding to promote and achieve success within the shared disciplines of geoscience and geoarchaeology. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-09

With support from the Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) and the Engineering Research Centers (ERC), this project aims to facilitate a center for ultrawide bandgap semiconductor device materials and education. The project plans to combine semiconductor materials fabrication, processing, and characterization strategies along with modern Artificial Intelligence (AI). The researchers will focus on ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors for next-generation devices operating at high power, high frequency, and under extreme conditions (temperature, radiation, corrosion, etc.). The center will also train and develop the next generation of technology leaders comprised of graduate and undergraduate students, and postdoctoral researchers. The project is part of a strategic goal of sustaining and developing research capacity to be a leading research institution in the UWBG semiconductor field within this decade. The aims of the research are interconnected via three subprojects. First, implement new fabrication, processing, and doping strategies to produce novel UWBG heterointerfaces. Second, develop new scanning probe microscopy based UWBG characterization techniques to interrogate UWBG heterointerfaces. And third, develop UWBG material aware AI-based models to investigate materials and heterostructures. UWBG semiconductors are an emerging class of materials for future technological demands of tremendously large power handling capacity and high switching speed for high power electronics. The Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) program provides support to enhance the research capabilities of institutions through the establishment of centers that effectively integrate education and research. The Engineering Research Centers program supports collaborative, interdisciplinary research partnerships between universities and industry to advance engineered systems, drive technological innovation and cultivate a globally competitive engineering workforce for significant societal impact. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-09

Knots are one-dimensional substructures studied in interaction with the three-dimensional spaces that they live in, physically realized in coiled DNA and folded proteins in the micro, and in cosmic trajectories in the macro. The investigator will study a knot’s properties defined by its quantum invariants, constructed by summing over weighted “states” of the knot. The project aims to recover certain quantum invariants of a knot by assigning classical objects to each weight and state. This will, in a way, make precise the idea of quantum mechanical theories and classical theories predicting the same physical phenomena at large scale. In the long-term, the investigator will apply the results toward the goal of developing new theories governing the behavior of knots. For the broader impacts of the project, the investigator will recruit talented undergraduate students at Texas State University to work on summer research that directly contributes to the research program and train them to disseminate their work to the local community. The summer program will culminate in an annual quantum topology conference at Texas State University to support network development for early career mathematicians, that broadly includes graduate students and postdocs working in quantum topology in the United States. The project will proceed along three main lines of inquiry, where the first component investigates the simplification of a presentation of the Khovanov homology of torus links with the aim of giving a general decomposition of the colored Jones polynomial, the decategorification of colored Khovanov homology. With her collaborators the investigator will apply the formula for the decomposition to study the volume conjecture of a subfamily of highly-twisted alternating links. The second component will generalize Garoufalidis’ Jones slope conjecture to include surfaces in 4-dimensions and study the number-theoretical implications via Zeilberger’s machinery. The third direction of inquiry plans to recover and potentially construct new link and 3-manifold invariants from results of the first and second line of inquiries. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Studying mineral interactions in rocks subjected to elevated and cyclic temperatures can improve the economic competitiveness and the national security of the U.S. In fact, the understanding of rock degradation processes can help accelerate the extraction of current and alternative resources (e.g., energy and minerals), improve risk identification associated to land movement events, and expand the skilled workforce in the U.S. Finding factors weakening rock minerals can help facilitate drilling operations though deep rock formations, which are typically found in nuclear storage units, power plants, and mines. Conversely, refined information on rock decay processes under temperature can help assess vulnerability on deep rock, exposed rock, frozen rock, and snow-covered surfaces whose instability can cause catastrophic events. Additionally, measuring rock responses based on the behavior of their mineral components could provide transferable methodologies to study composite materials like concrete, whose structure could also be exposed to thermal fracturing induced by seasonal changes. Due to the strong participation of students in this project, its execution also aims to attract young generations to pursue careers in the STEM fields. The overall goal of this research is to develop new links between rock mechanics and geology by providing a fundamental understanding of the role of mineral interactions on rock degradation under temperature cycles and elevated temperatures. To accomplish it, three subgoals have been outlined. They include: (1) measuring the contribution of mineral strength into rock strength, (2) correlating mineral orientations with mechanical properties of rocks, and (3) measuring the evolution of mineral interphases and fracturing mechanisms within rock composites. As such, subgoal one involves nanoscale experimentation on mineral interactions, subgoal two involves both nanoscale and mesoscale testing on pure minerals (e.g., albite, biotite, quartz) and rock composites, and subgoal three combines (i) nanoscale mechanical testing on localized inter-mineral discontinuities, (ii) microscopy techniques on mineral fractures, and (iii) simple numerical models refining boundary conditions for mineral interactions in granitic rocks. Thus, through experimentation and modeling, this project will bring light into understanding the influence of mineral content, mechanical contrast, mineral orientations, and temperature conditions on the mechanical response of rock composites. The unprecedented data on mineral interactions and their associated analyses on rock degradation mechanisms, stemming from this work, will be applicable to both shallow and deep rock formations. As such, this project also aims to contribute to refining risk mitigation strategies both for engineering infrastructure and for geological formations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Coral reefs are an example of fragile symbioses and have been declining in health in recent years. Coral reefs support global marine ecosystems and have been undergoing a destructive breakdown of the symbiotic relationships with their microbes, resulting in bleaching and decimation of fish and millions of other organisms that depend on stable coral reefs for survival. This project will use a coral model system called a brown anemone to investigate how breakdown and re-establishment of symbioses affect host immunity and pathogen susceptibility. The results of this work will have conservation implications. Specifically, by advancing our understanding of coral symbioses and coral resiliency, the results of this project may be able to enhance the survival and recovery of reef-building corals and the rebuilding of damaged coral reefs. These reefs support the marine fisheries and coastal tourism economy of the United States, making this research essential for advancing the bioeconomy. This research will also contribute to the education of Americans by providing undergraduate students with the opportunity to participate in project-based research through hands-on research opportunities in the summer and course-based research experiences during the academic year.   Symbiotic associations between microbes and their animal hosts have significant impacts on host fitness including host immune responses. However, little is known regarding the impact of dynamic changes in symbioses on host immunity. This project leverages the cnidarian model system Exaiptasia diaphina to characterize how environmentally-induced breakdown and recovery of symbiosis affects host immunity and pathogen susceptibility. The central hypothesis is that dynamic changes in both energetic reserves and photosymbiont density affect host immunity during bleaching recovery, with effect sizes varying through time. Specifically, the project will: 1) characterize mechanisms linking heat-induced symbiosis breakdown and recovery to increased pathogen susceptibility, and 2) compare these mechanisms linking symbiosis breakdown/re-establishment to increased pathogen susceptibility across environmental triggers (heat, cold, light). Exaiptasia diaphana will be exposed to various environmental triggers of symbiosis breakdown and tracked through 4 weeks of recovery using a combination of physiological sampling and periodic pathogen challenges to characterize mechanisms linking bleaching and increased pathogen susceptibility. The results of these three objectives will be synthesized to create a robust conceptual model describing the effects of dynamic changes in symbioses on host immunity. This model will provide an important conceptual framework which can be applied to and evaluated in the context of diverse symbiotic systems. As a result, the outputs will directly inform improved understanding of symbioses in the context of multiple stressors.  This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Predictability is crucial in real-time computing systems, as it is fundamental for ensuring consistent, reliable execution within specified time constraints. Without predictability, even occasional delays or unforeseen behaviors can compromise system performance and safety, which may be unaffordable or catastrophic in many time-critical applications. However, artificial intelligence (AI) tasks and high-performance computing (HPC) hardware architectures often introduce unpredictability in program execution due to their inherent complexity and nondeterministic dynamics. Consequently, managing and mitigating unpredictability becomes a key challenge when integrating and leveraging AI or HPC advancements in real-time systems. This project will address this challenge by developing methods and techniques to preserve time predictability in systems, even when traditionally predictable aspects become unpredictable. This project will produce new system models, scheduling algorithms, analysis frameworks, prototypes, and tools. These outcomes will establish a solid foundation for designing and implementing real-time systems that are highly functional, resource-efficient, and predictably reliable. This project will serve as a cornerstone for the design, implementation, and certification of next-generation real-time systems, overcoming the limitations of traditional predictability assumptions. These advancements will be pivotal for sectors such as autonomous vehicles, industrial control systems, and financial trading platforms, where timing and reliability are critical. The outcomes of this project will provide validated guidelines to enhance the safety, applicability, modularity, and explainability of computing components in these systems. Furthermore, this project will emphasize integrating research efforts and outcomes into educational and outreach activities to cultivate a new generation of talent for the computing and engineering workforce. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-05

This I-Corps project focuses on the development of an innovative concrete curing technology that utilizes highly absorptive recycled polymers to address challenges associated with current labor- and resource-intensive curing operations. This cost-effective and proactive solution simplifies the traditional curing process by eliminating the need for spraying water or chemical compounds, thereby saving time, labor, and resources on construction sites while ensuring high-quality concrete with enhanced strength and durability. The improved curing technology minimizes premature failures and extends the lifespan of concrete infrastructure, delivering broader societal benefits such as enhanced public safety and reduced maintenance costs. This innovation supports environmentally friendly, sustainable, and resilient concrete construction practices and offers a viable solution for infrastructure projects across multiple scales. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of the technology. This solution is based on the development of a cost-effective, easy-to-implement, and scalable concrete curing technology that enhances the durability and longevity of concrete infrastructure. The core innovation integrates a highly absorptive internal curing agent, known as superabsorbent polymers, into concrete mixtures. These materials absorb excess water during concrete mixing and gradually release it during curing, promoting cement hydration. This approach eliminates the reliance on conventional external curing, which typically requires intensive monitoring and additional quality control efforts yet often fails to adequately hydrate the inner portions of concrete. This core technology not only improves the long-term mechanical properties of concrete, but also helps mitigate common issues in reinforced concrete structures, such as shrinkage cracking and rebar corrosion, contributing to more sustainable and resilient infrastructure. More importantly, this innovation uses recycled superabsorbent polymers from discarded hygiene or food packaging products. This preserves the functional benefits of the material while reducing resource consumption and production costs, offering a sustainable solution for the cement, concrete, and construction industry. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-04

This project aims to engage undergraduate students in innovative research focusing on the topics of Smart and Connected Health and Smart and Connected Communities. Through the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at Texas State University, students will explore emerging areas such as intelligent emotion recognition for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven systems to enhance firefighting responses, and technology-assisted sports assessments for individuals with spinal cord injuries. The program offers a unique opportunity for students to collaborate on projects that apply machine learning, artificial intelligence, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies to address real-world challenges. For instance, students will work on developing smart home systems that utilize AI to create personalized and supportive environments for individuals with ASD and improve diagnosis methods for chronic ankle instability using biomechanics and patient-reported outcomes. Additionally, students will explore advanced computer vision techniques for object recognition and tracking for applied engineering applications. Participating in these interdisciplinary projects will gain hands-on experience applying cutting-edge technologies, preparing them for advanced studies and careers in STEM fields. This REU site at Texas State University will engage undergraduate students in research focusing on Smart and Connected Health (SCH) and Smart and Connected Communities (S&CC). The program aims to develop students' disciplinary knowledge and research skills through hands-on experiences in cutting-edge technologies, including machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT). The research activities encompass a wide range of topics, such as developing AI-driven emotion recognition systems for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), building adaptive smart home environments, enhancing chronic ankle instability diagnosis, and improving adaptive sports participation for individuals with spinal cord injuries. Students will work on projects integrating advanced object recognition and tracking, autonomous data collection for smart-city firefighting, and AI-assisted communication tools for individuals with ASD. The participants will address complex real-world challenges through these projects, applying AI, deep learning models, and biomechanics to improve public safety, health outcomes, and overall quality of life within smart health and connected communities. The program will host nine students annually over three summers, with a particular emphasis on recruiting women and students from underrepresented groups. Each REU project will advance the state of the art in SCH and S&CC by leveraging computational models, data analytics, and real-time sensor integration, preparing students to contribute to future innovations in computing and health-related fields. The project will provide long-term engagement and support for students as they transition to advanced studies and professional careers in STEM disciplines. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-04

The Department of Mathematics at Texas State University will host an 8-week summer REU titled "REU Site: Algebra, Combinatorics, and Statistics" in the summers of 2025, 2026 and 2027. The program will continue the successful REU program run by Texas State University during the previous six years under the same title. The chosen participants will come from a selective pool of applicants, and the program will directly involve them in research projects guided by faculty mentors. Beyond successful research outcomes, the objectives of the program are to introduce students to all aspects of mathematical research and the broader mathematical community. At the same time, students will develop mentoring relationships with faculty as they consider pursuing graduate degrees and a career in mathematics. In addition to closely mentored work on a research project, professional training will be provided in various skills including literature review; the use of software such as GAP, Sage, Macaulay2 and R; presentation skills; and mathematical exposition. Students will be encouraged to present their work at local, regional, and national conferences in the subsequent academic year. The research projects include a diverse collection of topics based on the research interests of the faculty mentors. Specific projects include commutative algebra arising from graphs and matroids, algebraic and combinatorial aspects of higher dimensional tilings, chip firing on signed graphs and hypergraphs, combinatorial problems arising from group theory, arithmetic properties of group invariants, linear and permutational representations of groups, statistical analysis of biological data, and deep ReLU neural networks. All projects are tackling problems of high current interest. Some of the projects will lead to publications in respected research journals and thereby advance their respective fields. The REU site has a permanent webpage at https://www.math.txst.edu/research-conferences/summerreu.html. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

As High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems grow increasingly complex to support high levels of parallelism, running applications without understanding how they interact with the underlying system can lead to inefficiencies, slower outcomes, wasted energy, and missed opportunities for discovery. These challenges are further compounded by the dynamic nature of these applications requiring configuration adjustments, such as resource allocations, during runtime. Making these adjustments accurately and in real time renders offline data collection and human-in-the-loop approaches impractical. This project addresses these challenges by developing innovative methodologies based on generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and introducing SPEED, a scalable and efficient modeling framework. SPEED captures multifaceted relationships between configuration settings and application performance from diverse data sources, enabling automated, real-time decision-making. The outcomes of this project can be applied to high-impact, dynamic domains such as disaster response, healthcare, engineering, and manufacturing, where accelerating data-driven decision-making plays a critical role in saving lives and reducing economic losses. Additionally, this project will equip students with advanced skills in HPC and AI, creating a pathway to the national scientific workforce. Unlike traditional methods that rely on aligned datasets or require significant computational resources, this project takes a modular approach to process large volumes of heterogeneous, multi-modal, and unaligned data. SPEED breaks these large datasets into smaller domains, learns relationships and patterns within each domain independently and in parallel, and integrates these smaller, data-centric models into a unified one by identifying cross correlations. This project also introduces a novel approach for updating models without rebuilding them when new heterogeneous measurements are added, making SPEED adapt quickly to new scenarios. Finally, SPEED leverages these learned representations to provide predictive and generative modeling services to HPC users, system software, and facilities. By separating the process of learning representations from how they are used, this transformative approach enables seamless integration of new data sources, modalities, and pre-trained models, ensuring adaptability and scalability for future needs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-12

The broader impact of this I-Corps project is the development of innovative water purification technology utilizing biobased nanocomposite for the removal of a wide range of contaminants from water. This sustainable, cost effective, and scalable solution addresses the global challenge of providing access to clean drinking water quickly and conveniently in all kinds of emergencies or disasters. A sustainable and energy efficient solution for water purification could improve public health and quality of life by reducing water borne diseases. This project could also enhance crop yields and food production by providing clean water for irrigation. This fast water pollution mitigation technology can remove the disadvantages of commercial filters. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of the technology. This solution is based on development of a sustainable, cost effective, multifunctional, and scalable water purification technology that addresses the global challenges of providing access to safe, clean water, especially during emergencies or disasters. The present technology consists of a modified, novel, composite filter material using biochar embedded silver nanoparticles extracted from agricultural waste. The use of silver nanoparticles has exhibited high bioactivity and antimicrobial properties towards common bacteria like E. coli and are non-toxic in comparison to disinfection agents like chlorine. The water cleaning technique is adsorption, which is simple, energy efficient, fast, and does not require a centralized water purification unit to generate potable water. In comparison to other adsorbents, the fabricated nanocomposite does not generate any chlorinated bye products. The project utilizes functionalized biochar, which is abundant and economically-friendly compared to other sorbent materials used in commercial water purification systems. The fabricated purifier can fill the gap of conventional wastewater treatment systems at an affordable price and can pave the way for future innovations in sustainable water technologies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-12

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is based on the development of methods and products to convert vibrational energy into electricity. Vibration energy harvesters convert mechanical vibrations (from environmental sources like machinery, vehicles, buildings, or natural vibrations) into electrical energy. By capturing a larger amount of vibration energy, this technology could increase energy utilization efficiency, which could reduce the consumption of gasoline to build a greener environment. By converting available, naturally occurring forms of energy from vibrations into usable electricity, this technology could significantly increase the total renewable energy utilization. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of the proposed technology. It is based on the prior development of energy harvesting technology. Typically, energy harvesters capture most of the energy at a single frequency and produce minimal energy when the available vibration frequency changes. However, vibrational energy has more than one frequency embedded into it and the frequency varies. To use this variable frequency vibration energy, and by overcoming the shortcomings of the traditional energy harvesting products, this adaptive vibrational energy harvester is designed to capture significant vibrational energy from a wider band of frequencies. This technology designs an oscillator that can harvest non-stationary vibration sources, working as a resonance-tracking vibration energy harvester. Therefore, this process maximizes the vibration energy output from ambient non-stationary vibrations, enhancing energy utilization efficiency. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-10

This project aims to serve the national interest by developing and implementing professional development for Learning Assistants (LAs) to improve their facilitation of student learning. Learning Assistants are undergraduate students who support student group work in an active learning STEM class in which they have prior content experience. In addition to their presence in STEM classes, they also participate in weekly preparation meetings with the instructional team and in a pedagogy course. There is strong evidence that the implementation of LAs benefits student learning in STEM classes, particularly for students from marginalized groups. The LA pedagogy course is the flagship of the LA model that distinguishes it from other near-peer teaching models. However, pedagogy course lessons are often based on research in K-12 classrooms, as research on facilitation of student learning at the college level is only recently emerging. To address this mismatch of applying K-12 facilitation strategies at the college level, this project plans to implement a new LA pedagogy course sequence based on evidence from recent LA research to support LAs facilitating in student-centered, diverse, and international ways that benefit student learning across a variety of STEM disciplines. The goals of the project are focused on design and implementation of the pedagogy sequence (Goal 1) and research of the impact of the pedagogy sequence (Goal 2). Goal 1 encompasses development of LA-facing materials, instructor-facing materials, and alternative designs for greater flexibility for adopters. The project aims to make the pedagogy sequence applicable to diverse settings and benefit many racially marginalized students’ learning in STEM classes within and, through dissemination, beyond the institutions involved in this project. To achieve this, the project will implement the pedagogy sequence in three different types of institution: a public Hispanic-Serving institution, a private predominantly white institution, and a public Predominantly Black institution. Collaboration with an Advisory Board will focus on an extension to the two-year college environment. Through dissemination to the 571 institutions with LA programs in the LA Alliance, the materials created will reach many LAs and correspondingly impact many more students. Goal 2 includes investigation into how the pedagogy sequence changes LAs’ reflections and their facilitation practices, how this change impacts student learning in STEM classes, and how the STEM class environments influence LA learning. Within Goal 2, the project also intends to identify critical elements of the pedagogy sequence. The project plans to use this knowledge for research-based revision of the pedagogy sequence. This project is the first to study change of LA facilitation practices through LAs’ experience in the pedagogy course and their concurrent practice in STEM classes. While previous work has looked at LAs’ uptake of language from pedagogy course concepts, the impact on their actual practice in STEM classes has not been studied to date. Through a sociocultural framework and data source triangulation including documentation of the implementation, surveys, interviews, and recordings of LA-student interactions in STEM classes, the project intends to gain rich qualitative insight not only into change in LA practice, but also into the impact it has on student learning in various STEM disciplines. When LA programs include richer and more contextually relevant professional development for LAs, this will make LA programs more impactful in supporting student success. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-10

The future of science-enabled discoveries critically relies on the speed of high-performance simulations conducted at large scales and high resolutions. Unfortunately, lacking such performance and scale, current approaches cannot keep up with the backlog of problems in areas of paramount societal consequence, such as climate science and the spread of pandemics. A principal reason for these shortfalls is the rising cost of moving huge amounts of simulation data between supercomputer memories and processors – a cost that increasingly dwarfs the time spent in actual computations. Thus, developing techniques to reduce the volume of data exchanged without sacrificing accuracy is key to future progress in computation-enabled research. Such data reduction is even more important in the emerging area of Scientific Machine Learning (SciML), where simulations are assisted by artificial intelligence (AI) based surrogate models, an area where the data exchange needs are often much higher. The investigators’ expertise in scientific machine learning, data compression, compilers, and program correctness will be central in our collaboration to help SciOPT achieve its goal of fast and reliable AI-assisted scientific simulations. The impact of this project will be to establish new technologies that reduce data volume without sacrificing accuracy in both high-performance computing and the emerging area of SciML. These technologies, in turn, translate directly into societal benefits such as improved healthcare and safer environments. The project will increase participation in this area by offering undergraduate research opportunities to students. This research project, entitled SciOPT, will principally rely on data compression to reduce the amount of data moved: simulation data will be compressed before transmission and decoded upon reception before applying computations. The investigators will also pursue the potentially even more impactful approach of compressing the data and applying computations directly on the compressed data. SciOPT will evaluate both of these approaches in the context of challenging SciML applications that are currently bottlenecked by data exchanges. To ensure higher degrees of automation and productivity, SciOPT will develop efficient compiler-based methods to manage compressed data layout and locality. Moreover, it will automatically generate high-speed compression algorithms that are tailored to the data. To ensure the veracity of the computational results produced by these compressed-data simulations, SciOPT will include rigorous correctness-checking methods at multiple stages to guard the overall simulation workflows. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-10

This project aims to serve the national interest by (1) improving programs preparing novice college mathematics instructors and (2) establishing leadership development for faculty who are the Providers of teaching-focused professional development (TPD) for those novices. Extensive educational research has identified evidence-based instructional practices that support undergraduates' persistence and learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). For undergraduates to benefit from advancements in instructional practices, novice instructors (e.g., graduate students) need opportunities to develop expertise in those practices. For novice instructors to develop that expertise, Providers (i.e., those who facilitate TPD for instructors) themselves need opportunities to develop expertise in teaching about teaching. Providers face daunting challenges: no curricular packages (e.g., textbook, assessment items) exist for teaching graduate students how to teach mathematics. This effort builds upon previous work addressing these needs through workshops for Providers and creating a library of individual activities for TPD. Experienced Providers will assemble lessons from the library of activities, create assessments of learning about teaching, and teach new Providers about use of these packages. An innovation in the project is attention to a particular group of Providers, whose ambitions include scholarly work related to the development of novice instructors. These Provider-Scholars will be the next generation of leaders in this field. Greater Provider skill will improve instruction by novices and boost learning opportunities and outcomes for undergraduates. The goals of the project are (1) to develop curricular packages for learning about teaching college mathematics which will be piloted by Providers and (2) to build new research-based understanding of the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and communities Providers develop as they grow professionally into Provider-Scholars and Stewards (i.e., Provider-Scholars who also have leadership roles). Project research and evaluation will use a mixed-methods convergent design so complementary data are collected concurrently or, as appropriate, sequentially. This approach combines the strengths of quantitative data collection and analysis (e.g., large sample, repeated measures) with those of qualitative methods (e.g., participant voices, rich detail). In particular, the exploratory research questions are: (RQ1) What is the nature of Provider-Scholar knowledge, skills, and dispositions for engaging in scholarly work as Stewards? (RQ2) What is the nature of Steward, Provider-Scholar, and Provider engagement in the work and community growth? Project evaluation questions are: (EQ1) To what extent is project exploratory research implemented as planned? (EQ2) To what extent is the project succeeding in developing and piloting starter packages and Provider orientation with target communities? (EQ3) How can the project do better in supporting the professional community, including stewardship and leadership capacity development? The project intends to build professional community through collaborative working groups of experienced Provider-Scholars and education researchers. Mathematics graduate students (94% of whom have teaching related responsibilities while in graduate school) will benefit from the strengthening of TPD programs achieved by equipping new Providers with “starter packages” of resources informed by research findings about student-responsive teaching and learning. A robust community of Providers whose scholarly activity is about TPD will seed the next generation of leaders. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

In this project funded by the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways (MPS-LEAPS) Program and managed by the Broadening Participation (CHE-BP) Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Michael Jacobs and his students at Texas State University-San Marcos will perform studies aimed at understanding how surface electrification affects the chemical properties of the air-water interface. Many classes of reactions (from condensation to redox to biomolecular) occur several orders of magnitude faster in charged microdroplets than in beaker-scale solution. Professor Jacobs’s research will explore if reactions at the air-water interface are responsible for these dramatic reaction rate accelerations by quantifying molecular concentration at the electrified surface and explicitly measuring the factors that control molecular transport to the charged air-water interface. This research will provide a fundamental understanding of how compartmentalization in microdroplets changes chemical reactivity which can inform how microdroplet chemistry could be deployed for practical applications, such as targeted accelerated chemical syntheses. Furthermore, this project will train a diverse group of students from Texas State University-San Marcos and will lead to the development of in-lecture chemistry demonstration kits that can be used in chemistry courses to encourage students from historically marginalized groups to participate in research. Professor Jacobs and his students will use a quadrupole electrodynamic trap to probe interfacial molecular transport and pH in levitated, highly-charged, ‘electrospray’ droplets with well-defined size and composition. Dynamic and equilibrium surface tension measurements on individual charged microdroplets will be used to assess how electrostatic interactions from large electric surface potentials (approaching the Rayleigh limit) affect the partitioning of molecules with a variety of chemical compositions to the air-water interface. Additionally, they will measure how pH-sensitive molecules partition to the surface of electrospray droplets to explore how electrification changes the acidity of the air-water interface. By explicitly measuring both interfacial transport and pH, Professor Jacobs and his students will develop a fundamental description of how confinement in electrospray droplets drives accelerated chemical reactivity. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

This REU Site will recruit undergraduate students from two- or four-year institutions and provide them with research experience in Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS) across 25 weeks of the academic year. Students will join one of six mentorship teams consisting of a faculty mentor and a graduate student. They will receive focused mentorship, training to research the development of children and families, and professional development for research-focused HDFS careers. The intended impact is to (1) improve the educational expectations and attainment of the students, (2) prepare undergraduates for a range of research-focused HDFS careers, and (3) benefit communities, both directly through targeted interventions and indirectly through informing educational and social policies and practices. The program engages and trains promising scholars to enter the scientific field of HDFS. Specifically, students will learn how to apply quantitative and intervention/evaluation methods to study the development of children and families. A particular focus will be placed on training students in methodologies to examine how social, linguistic, familial, and individual factors influence psychosocial and academic outcomes in children and families. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

This award is jointly supported by the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) and the Chemistry Research Instrumentation (CRIF) programs. Texas State University - San Marcos is acquiring a a single crystal X-ray diffractometer with Cu and Mo sources and a high resolution detector to support the research of Professor Todd W. Hudnall along with colleagues Sean M Kerwin, Ryan L Peterson, Xijun Shi, and David Schilter. The studies impact many areas, including chemical synthesis, bioinorganic/medicinal/biochemistry, and materials science and engineering. In general, an X-ray diffractometer allows accurate and precise measurements of the full three-dimensional structure of a molecule, including bond distances and angles, and provides accurate information about the spatial arrangement of a molecule relative to neighboring molecules. The studies described here impact many areas, including organic and inorganic chemistry, materials chemistry and biochemistry. This instrument is an integral part of teaching as well as research and research training of undergraduate and graduate students in chemistry and biochemistry at this institution. This instrument augments a diverse area of research and student training across multiple departments at Texas State University - San Marcos, which is the second largest four-year public Hispanic Serving University in the nation. The instrument benefits the research and training of research groups at local and regional PUIs who do not have easy access to this research capability. The award is aimed at enhancing research and education at all levels. It especially impacts studies correlating molecular structure, orientation, and dynamics. Researchers will use the scXRD to study several exciting projects in three primary areas: i) chemical synthesis, ii) bioinorganic/ medicinal/and biochemistries, and iii) materials science and engineering. Specific research projects in chemical synthesis include the development of p-acidic carbene ligands for applications in catalysis and renewable energy, the determination of relative and absolute stereochemistry of synthetic compounds produced in natural product total synthesis campaigns, and the structure-property relationships governing the physical properties of liquid azobenzne derivatives. Research will be enabled that is aimed at the development methyl-coenzyme M reductase biomimetics for deeper understanding of energy metabolism. scXRD will be combined with NMR and mass spectrometry to interrogate the structure of nickel complexes mimicking the active site of these enzymes. Additionally, scXRD will provide understanding of the active-site design of extracellular copper acquisition proteins from the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), as well as to describe the metal binding properties of a secreted small molecule metal binding chalkophore secreted by Pd under Cu-stress conditions. The development and characterization of novel chemotherapeutics will also be realized by combining scXRD with 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic techniques. In addition to augmenting various forms of chemical and biochemical analysis, the scXRD will enable new research efforts in several areas of materials science and engineering. Inclusive in these areas is the interrogation of the microstructures and hydration chemistry of cementitious construction materials focused on recycled aggregates and multifunctional materials for smart infrastructure. Research on printable nanomaterials for flexible electronic and photonics applications will also be possible. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.