SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 — The UTSA Academy of Distinguished Researchers (ADR) has recognized the accomplishments of 12 faculty, including four new inductees and eight award winners.
The new inductees are:
Chaired by Hamid Beladi, the Janey S. Briscoe Endowed Chair in Business and professor of economics in the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, the academy recognizes UTSA researchers who excel in their disciplines each year.
“To meet the challenges of the future, faculty are being called upon to prepare students to innovate, think critically and be able to bring leading-edge ideas to their chosen fields of interest,” Beladi SAID. “Top scholars create a transformational environment based on a passion for learning and the latest research-based theoretical and empirical intelligence within their area of expertise. Through a rigorous nomination process, the ADR selects members who foster the highest quality of research and scholarly activity. Research excellence is a win-win strategy for students, faculty and academic institutions.”
Members of the ADR may be nominated by their college dean or the vice president for research. They are prolific scholars and must submit three recent publications for consideration.
Cepek is an anthropology professor, scholar and advocate. He is president of the Cofán Survival Fund, a U.S.-based nonprofit that supports the land rights, health care and educational initiatives of Ecuador’s indigenous Cofán Nation. Cepek has helped secure over a million dollars in support for the Cofán Survival Fund. Since joining UTSA, Cepek has received support through several fellowships and grants, including two Wenner-Gren Foundation Post-Ph.D. Research Fellowships, a Wenner-Gren Foundation Engaged Anthropology Grant, a Fulbright Core U.S. Scholars Grant, an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Guo is a recognized expert in electronic and optoelectronic materials and devices. She specializes in interdisciplinary materials research and electronic device engineering. Her recent work focuses on designing and synthesizing smart electronics utilizing advanced ferroelectric, piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and multiferroic materials and their nanocomposites for applications in sensors, actuators, modulators and energy conversion. She has authored or co-authored roughly 380 journal publications. She has served as director of the UTSA Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Advanced Materials Engineering since 2012. Guo's leadership roles extend across several professional organizations. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, The American Ceramic Society, and the International Society for Optics and Photonics. She is also an Academician of the World Academy of Ceramics.
Millwater’s research focuses on computational mechanics, with a specialization in applying probabilistic and sensitivity methods to structures and materials to analyze durability. He has been involved in over 50 grants at UTSA and served as principal investigator on 32, with total funding exceeding $48 million from agencies including the Department of Defense and National Science Foundation. Millwater has contributed to the development of several structural mechanics codes that are used worldwide. Darwin, which won an R&D 100 award, calculates the probability of fracture of aircraft engine disks. The FAA-funded Smart|DT program computes the structural integrity of airframe components. Millwater is also the originator of the hypercomplex finite element method, ZFEM, and author of over 250 publications.
Morissette is the director of the UTSA Trauma Health Research In Veterans’ Experiences (THRIVE) laboratory. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 56 (Trauma Psychology). Morissette researches the impact of trauma exposure, focusing on complex co-occurring conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders and addictive behaviors to better understand risk and resilience factors that affect recovery. She has been involved in research projects worth more than $14.2 million from agencies including the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health. She has published over 130 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and has presented her research over 300 times at professional organizations and venues.
This year, the academy introduced new awards to recognize authors whose papers are deemed impactful and distinguished in each college annually. High-impact papers have a significant influence in their field and a large number of citations while distinguished papers are published in prestigious journals. College deans may nominate up to two papers per year, one in each category. The awards were created to extend the mission of the ADR and foster exceptional research at UTSA.
The 2024 High-Impact Research Paper Award winners are:
The 2024 Distinguished Paper Award winners are:
UTSA established the ADR in 2015 to recognize outstanding faculty scholars, to commemorate UTSA’s commitment to research excellence and to promote the institution’s growth as a premier public research university.
The academy is dedicated to fostering a culture of exceptional research practices at UTSA and creating a collective of faculty advocates. It comprises 30 faculty members representing various disciplines in the arts, humanities, social sciences, engineering, business and sciences.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
Join UTSA Libraries and Museums to learn more about the publishing discounts available for UTSA researchers. Current agreements include Elsevier, Cambridge University Press, Springer Open, and more. Please bring your questions and feedback for the library as we continue to pursue partnerships with publishers to reduce costs for our researchers.
Virtual EventYou have probably heard of the term “fair use,” but how comfortable do you feel with navigating U.S. copyright law? For instance, did you know you are not required to register your copyrighted work with the U.S. Copyright Office? Join us for a hands-on workshop about the basics of copyright, both in education and as a researcher. We’ll dispel some common copyright myths and differences between copyright law and other intellectual property law and teach you how to apply a Fair Use checklist to your scholarly work.
Virtual EventDon’t mind the writing but hate formatting citations and bibliographies? Working on your thesis or dissertation, or even a long paper this semester? Citation managers such as Zotero® can help you store and organize the citations you find during your research. Take part in this session about using Zotero®.
Virtual EventIn this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to setup an EndNote library, save references and PDFs, and automatically create and edit a bibliography. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to have EndNote already installed on a personal computer.
Virtual EventFeaturing UTSA alumni John Seesholtz and Melissa Lubecke Serabia. The program will be focused on Latin American Art Song. Free and open to the public.
UTSA Recital HallPressbooks is an open educational resource authoring platform for simple book publishing. Upon completion of the Pressbooks Basic workshop attendees will be able to: create a new book, clone an existing book, remix chapters from a variety of different Creative Commons licensed books, add media and other content to a book, export a book in a wide range of formats.
Virtual EventJoin Community-Engaged Digital Scholarship Hub (CEDISH) and the Digital Humanities Student Association (DHSO) at UTSA for an enlightening workshop on "Responsible Datasets in Context," sponsored by the Mozilla Foundation. Participants will gain insights into creating contextually rich datasets, developing data essays, and crafting effective visualizations.
Assembly Room, 4th Floor (4.04.22), John Peace LibraryThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
