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The Global Sorghum Conference is mere days away, and one thing that makes this event important is the work being conduct...
09/11/2026

The Global Sorghum Conference is mere days away, and one thing that makes this event important is the work being conducted and showcased by the next-generation of researchers: graduate students.

These students are each involved in separate projects dedicated to the future of sorghum and agriculture overall. Nicholas McNab's interests are focused on sustainability in agriculture and promotion of food security through forage crops. Ahmari D. Henry is dedicated to nutrition and animal health, with a particular concentration on feed grain digestibility. Mayank Bangari looks to improve sorghum yield by strengthening their stalk to withstand extreme conditions.

Read more about their work:
https://www.ttu.edu/now/posts/2026/09/three-texas-tech-graduate-students-find-their-calling-as-sorghum-researchers.php

The Global Sorghum Conference will bring together ag producers, industry experts, and scientists from all around the world here in Lubbock to spotlight the future of agriculture.

Learn more about the 2026 Global Sorghum Conference:
https://www.depts.ttu.edu/research/sorghum-conference/

Texas Tech Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources
United Sorghum Checkoff Program

A group of water researchers, including several from Texas Tech University, recently published a paper on alfalfa irriga...
09/10/2026

A group of water researchers, including several from Texas Tech University, recently published a paper on alfalfa irrigation.

The study evaluated polished desalinated produced water for alfalfa irrigation in West Texas, focusing on crop performance, forage quality, soil chemistry, trace-element accumulation, and microbial communities associated with plants and soils. The findings provide encouraging insights into the potential agricultural reuse of treated produced water while also considering its impacts on soil health and sustainability.

This study and article was led by Teja Saddapalli in the Department of Plant & Soil Science. Co-authors include Anita Kumari, Dinesh Kumar Saini, Pankaj Trivedi, Mayank Pratap Singh Bangari, Shane Walker, Impa Somayanda, and Krishna Jagadish from Texas Tech, along with Adrianne Lopez from Texas Pacific Water Resources.

Read the article here:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00271-026-01165-7

Department of Civil, Environmental, & Construction Engineering at TTU
Texas Tech University - Whitacre College of Engineering
TTU Department of Plant and Soil Science
Texas Tech Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources

Jonathan Singer, an associate professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, received funding for CREATIVE MINDS...
09/10/2026

Jonathan Singer, an associate professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, received funding for CREATIVE MINDS, a free recreational respite program for family caregivers of people living with dementia in West Texas.

For four years, this program provides caregivers a break while their care recipients take part in activities matched to their interests, abilities, and stage of disease. With this grant, Dr. Singer and his team have expanded to twice weekly in Lubbock with three hours per session, and to Amarillo, where they offer the same service once a week.

This program has allowed more than 40 hours of respite per month to persons in Lubbock, TX and the surrounding rural, under-resourced counties. Funding for this program was provided by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the Alzheimer's Association.

College of Arts and Sciences, Texas Tech University

Congratulations to Soroush Avval, a Texas Tech University computer science doctoral student and the 2026 Charles S. Peir...
09/10/2026

Congratulations to Soroush Avval, a Texas Tech University computer science doctoral student and the 2026 Charles S. Peirce Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellow.

Avval’s research explores distributed artificial intelligence models that use drones as localized data-processing hubs, an approach that could help address challenges with privacy, energy consumption and internet access associated with centralized AI systems.

Avval is particularly interested in how this technology could expand access to affordable mental health AI tools in rural communities and support disaster relief and other remote operations. Through his research, he is working to find the balance between privacy and performance while exploring how AI can become a more accessible and practical tool for communities.

Read more:
https://www.ttu.edu/now/posts/2026/08/texas-tech-doctoral-student-hopes-drones-are-a-step-toward-safer-ai.php

Texas Tech University - Whitacre College of Engineering

Texas Tech University is leading a three-year project with the Pantex Plant near Amarillo aimed at making plant operatio...
09/09/2026

Texas Tech University is leading a three-year project with the Pantex Plant near Amarillo aimed at making plant operations more sustainable at production scale. The goal is to capture one of the facility's major organic waste streams and return it to use rather than sending it off-site for disposal.

This work pairs laboratory experiments with computational modeling of fluid flow and mass transport through adsorption beds, and the modeling results will guide both material selection and the design of a system that can eventually be scaled up at the plant. Dr. Hadis Matinpour's group in the Department of Civil, Environmental, & Construction Engineering at TTU leads the computational fluid mechanics thrust. Dr. Mahdi Malmali, Associate Professor in Texas Tech Chemical Engineering, leads the experimental effort to demonstrate the separation itself.

Just as important is what the project does for the region. Supporting workforce development in West Texas is central to the team's mission. Each summer, undergraduates from the three consortium institutions, including Texas Tech, West Texas A&M University, and Amarillo College, who will spend three months in the Matinpour and Malmali labs, working beside the research team and getting a firsthand look at the kinds of problems Pantex will need solved in the years ahead.

Glenn Cummins, professor and associate dean for faculty and academic affairs in the College of Media & Communication, Te...
09/09/2026

Glenn Cummins, professor and associate dean for faculty and academic affairs in the College of Media & Communication, Texas Tech University, was selected for the Scripps Howard Leadership Academy this summer.

This competitive and immersive program is intended to assist deans, associate deans, chairs, and faculty in journalism and mass communications with strengthening leadership skills and developing solutions to challenges in the field. The program is a collaboration between the Scripps Howard Fund and Scripps Howard Foundation and the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Cummins was one of 14 participants selected this year. “Everything I’ve gotten to experience in my career because of Texas Tech would have been a mere pipedream to me as a kid,” said Cummins.

Read more:
https://www.ttu.edu/now/posts/2026/08/texas-tech-faculty-member-selected-to-scripps-howard-leadership-academy.php

Newhouse School at Syracuse University

Understanding the relationships among living things is vital step in determining how traits evolve. Using molecular/geno...
09/09/2026

Understanding the relationships among living things is vital step in determining how traits evolve. Using molecular/genomic markers to infer relationships is standard practice but the markers chosen vary in their efficacy and the potential complications they introduce. The most used marker, single nucleotide polymorphisms, can introduce uncertainty because their state can be reversed over evolutionary time.

A marker type that is less impacted by these problems is retrotransposon insertion sites. However, those sites require substantial human intervention to identify, making their development difficult and expensive. David Ray, a professor and associate chair in the Department of Biological Sciences at Texas Tech University, will develop a set of computational tools that incorporate machine learning to identify and utilize a plentiful and particularly effective markers from the available genome assemblies.

Initial research will begin with bats then expand the utility of our tools to other organisms that have similar markers. The tools will be made available in a user-friendly package for other researchers, allowing them to identify and utilize these easily interpretable signals rapidly and effectively for their groups of interest. Funding was received from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

College of Arts and Sciences, Texas Tech University

We are one week out from the Global Sorghum Conference! Here's a sneak peek of what you will see at this premier gatheri...
09/07/2026

We are one week out from the Global Sorghum Conference! Here's a sneak peek of what you will see at this premier gathering.

In Dr. Gunvant Patil’s lab, his team is working on utilizing agrobacterium for genetic transformation of sorghum crops. These sorghum seeds glow due to reporter genes which demonstrate that genomic transference was successful. This is a glimpse into the future of agriculture, where innovation like this can give sorghum and other crops advantages in extreme environments, as well as other qualities can that benefit yield, nutrition value, and more.

There's still time to register! Find out about the Global Sorghum Conference:
https://www.depts.ttu.edu/research/sorghum-conference/

Texas Tech Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources
United Sorghum Checkoff Program

🏆 Texas Tech Biophysicist Receives WelchX Pilot Grant Dima Bolmatov at Texas Tech University has formed a collaboration ...
09/04/2026

🏆 Texas Tech Biophysicist Receives WelchX Pilot Grant

Dima Bolmatov at Texas Tech University has formed a collaboration with Dr. Shengxi Huang at Rice University and received a WelchX Pilot Grant for their project, “AI-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Probing Electromechanical Memory and Adaptation in Biomembranes."

This project provides an exciting opportunity to combine their complementary expertise in electrophysiology and vibrational spectroscopy, integrating patch-clamp measurements with ultrafast Raman spectroscopy and AI-driven analysis. They aim to investigate how biological membranes respond, adapt, and retain a physical history of electrical stimulation by directly connecting their nonlinear electrical responses with molecular-level structural and dynamical changes. Ultimately, this approach may reveal fundamental physical mechanisms underlying electromechanical adaptation and memory in biomembranes.

The researchers and respective institutions are very grateful to The Welch Foundation for supporting this multi-institutional collaboration.

Texas Tech Department of Physics and Astronomy
College of Arts and Sciences, Texas Tech University

Beginning this fall, the Texas Tech Department of Physics and Astronomy is opening remote access to the Preston Gott Sky...
09/03/2026

Beginning this fall, the Texas Tech Department of Physics and Astronomy is opening remote access to the Preston Gott Skyview Observatory, giving the opportunity for students, faculty and staff to use state-of-the-art smart telescopes to explore the West Texas night sky.

Led by Dr. Elias Aydi, the observatory is being transformed into a fully remote facility. Alongside research instruments supporting the New Milky Way Survey at Texas Tech, two smart telescopes will be available to the broader campus community for observing and astrophotography.

The New Milky Way Survey at Texas Tech, has already produced exciting discoveries, including a nova explosion in the Milky Way August 6.

College of Arts and Sciences, Texas Tech University

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