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By Kristen Zapata

The UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry’s research enterprise has been ranked seventh among all U.S. dental schools for National Institutes of Health funding for 2019, jumping 11 spots over previous years.

The Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research ranks U.S. dental schools annually by analyzing NIH award data. In 2017 and 2018, UT Health San Antonio ranked 18th overall in dental research funding, awarded just over $3.8 million and $4.1 million in NIH grants, respectively.

In 2019, funding more than doubled from the previous year to more than $8.6 million, which places the school among the top 10 academic dental research institutions in the country.

“The increase in NIH rankings shows that we have built a robust research program in oral biology at our school,” said Brij Singh, PhD, the School of Dentistry’s associate dean of research. “The research we perform is exemplary and will lead to the better understanding of oral health-related diseases and the identification of new treatment options for patients.”

NIH grants and contracts accounted for 48% of research funding within the School of Dentistry for fiscal year 2019 and contributed to the overall research budget of more than $13.9 million.

With these funds, researchers in the departments of comprehensive dentistry, developmental dentistry, endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery and periodontics have been able to further their investigations into the link between oral health and overall health, biomaterials, oral cancer and non-addictive pain management, which includes the study of neurosciences.

Multimillion-dollar federal grants have also benefited community dentists and patients as well as dental students. Notable federal grants to The National Dental Practice-Based Research Network and to the school from the Center for Medicare Services have provided for expanded community outreach.

Dental research faculty are well on their way to surpassing the No. 7 seven spot for 2020.

“Our researchers are constantly pushing the envelope to churn out novel research,” said Aries Okungbowa-Ikponmwosa, senior research coordinator. “This June and July cycle, we are submitting 14 grants alone, which include collaborations within the dental school, across the UT Health San Antonio institution and with outside collaborators.”

Peter M. Loomer, DDS, PhD, professor and dean of the School of Dentistry, noted that these research endeavors expressly contribute to the overall education and patient care missions of UT Health San Antonio.

“The dedicated faculty who conduct research at UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry are world-renowned leaders in their field,” Dr. Loomer said. “They also educate, in their labs and clinics, the next generation of oral health researchers, and at the same time provide outstanding dental care for patients. Their accomplishments are truly exceptional.”

DECEMBER 16, 2021 — The University of Texas at San Antonio today announced that it has achieved the R1 Classification (“very high research activity”), sometimes referred to as Tier One or Top Tier, from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. This elite designation validates the breadth and strength of UTSA’s knowledge enterprise and aligns the university with the nation’s top public and private research institutions.

UTSA joins an exclusive group of Carnegie R1 institutions across the United States, including in Texas: UT-Austin, UT-Dallas, UT-Arlington, UT-El Paso, Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University, University of Houston, University of North Texas and Rice University. Baylor University also joins this group this year.

“From the moment it was founded just more than 50 years ago, UTSA has been on the fast track to excellence,” UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken said. “For a university this young to have achieved so much so quickly speaks to great leadership, quality faculty and a broad community of supporters who all share a vision for a forward-thinking university that values innovative research and all the good that comes from it.”

“Carnegie R1 is a historic waypoint on our trajectory to transform UTSA into one of the nation’s great public research universities,” said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. “It is one of the most prestigious research designations that a U.S. research university can attain. I am so proud of our faculty and staff; their extensive contributions made this possible. What is really unique is that UTSA is now one of about 20 universities nationally that are both Hispanic serving and Carnegie R1. I believe we represent the future of public research universities for our state and nation.”

The Carnegie Classification was developed in 1970 by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education to recognize the diversity of U.S. colleges and universities through a systematic evaluation. It is based on several data sources, including an institution’s annual research expenditures, the density of its research staff and the number of doctoral degrees it confers each year.

Today, the Carnegie R1 designation is synonymous with academic excellence and research innovation and impact. The recognition of Carnegie R1 status is just one of the important waypoints on the trajectory of UTSA becoming a great public research university as noted in its strategic plan. Other waypoints include National Research University Fund eligibility and growing the doctoral discovery enterprise.

“UTSA faculty have been central in our journey to reach this distinction,” said UTSA Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy. “Our faculty exemplify scholarly excellence in all of its varieties—fundamental, interdisciplinary, applied, community engaged and translational—which are particularly relevant to UTSA’s mission as a Hispanic Serving Institution and urban serving university. Most importantly, we recognize the impact our outstanding faculty and the R1 designation has in outstanding education for our community that promotes the success of UTSA students.”

Achieving Carnegie R1 designation is a significant milestone in UTSA’s strategic vision to become a model for student success and a great public research university. To advance its Research Excellence destination and earn the designation, UTSA increased its annual research expenditures, expanded its pipeline of doctoral students, garnered national recognition for its researchers and added National Academy members by nomination and recruitment to its faculty.

Under the leadership of Vice President for Research, Economic Development, and Knowledge Enterprise Bernard Arulanandam, UTSA’s research enterprise has grown tremendously. Over the past five years, the institution’s research expenditures have steadily increased by 106%, from $68 million in FY 2017 to $140 million in FY 2021. Additionally, UTSA faculty received more than 300 funding grants each year in that five-year span, a significant factor in Carnegie attainment.

“UTSA is committed to tackling the grand challenges facing San Antonio and the nation. The receipt of Carnegie R1 demonstrates the value and impact of the research and scholarly work taking place across our university,” Arulanandam said. “To earn R1, we maximized support for our faculty, developed transdisciplinary research programs, and expanded our research collaborations with the brightest minds in government, industry and academia.”

The growing number of doctoral degrees awarded by UTSA was also key to the university’s receipt of Carnegie R1. Between fall 2017 and fall 2021, the university’s doctoral enrollment increased by nearly 20% (19.4% overall) and in 2020 UTSA conferred 153 doctoral degrees.

UTSA’s academic colleges are currently home to 26 competitive doctoral programs, including a newly approved Ph.D. program in school psychology, and the university has a doctoral program in molecular microbiology and immunology in the review pipeline for approval.

“UTSA faculty, staff and graduate students have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to excel and advance UTSA as a world-class institution. Carnegie R1 designation is a testament to their innovative research and transformational community leadership,” said Vice Provost of Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate School Ambika Mathur. “There is tremendous excitement across UTSA, knowing that R1 will bring new research and career development opportunities to graduate students, faculty and alumni.”

UTSA’s new R1 Carnegie designation will impact San Antonio as a knowledge economy. UTSA has extensive research collaborations with local research organizations such as UT Health San Antonio, Southwest Research Institute, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Brooke Army Medical Center and Joint Base Saint Antonio. These relationships have accelerated the establishment of research centers and institutes within the university—including the National Security Collaboration Center, the School of Data Science and the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute—and the founding of the San Antonio Partnership for Precision Therapeutics.

Moreover, Carnegie R1 status further aligns with the focus on research and development under the Greater San Antonio Regional Economic Development Plan brought forward by Greater: SATX.

Note: The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education notified selected institutions and launched their public review period on December 15, 2021. The public review will last approximately six weeks, with the official classification to be announced by the end of January 2022.

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 [email protected]. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.

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The University of Texas at Austin on Monday named a director to head its new conservative-backed center — The Civitas Institute — which will “focus on the teaching, understanding and appreciation of American values.”

Justin Dyer, the founding director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri will lead the new UT-Austin center, which had been previously called the Liberty Institute.

Dyer, who received his doctorate in government at UT-Austin, starts on July 1. In addition to running the new institute, he will be a professor in the university’s government department.

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“We are so pleased to welcome Professor Dyer back to Austin, and I want to commend the faculty-led search committee for recommending someone with such an impressive record as a scholar, teacher and leader,” UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell said in a statement. “His deep expertise in American political thought, coupled with his leadership experience, integrity and proven ability to work with others across a university campus, all make him an exceptional choice to build this exciting institute here.”

The Civitas Institute will focus on areas including “constitutionalism, limited government, free enterprise and markets, and individual liberty.”

In an op-ed in the Columbia Missourian, Dyer described himself as “a conservative, straight out of central casting, a pro-life evangelical who is an unapologetic admirer of the American Founding Fathers and the U.S. Constitution.” Dyer is the author of the book “Slavery, Abortion, and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning,” in which he draws legal connections between slavery and abortion, arguing that Roe v. Wade denies personhood to fetuses the same way the Dred Scott v. Sandford denied personhood to Black people.

The Texas Tribune first reported last year that the school was working with conservative donors and politicians to create a right-leaning think tank on its Austin campus. Since then, university officials have faced questions and concerns about the center’s mission and whether the Texas Legislature was “politicizing” the university. Last year, state lawmakers allocated $6 million toward the new enterprise. The University of Texas System Board of Regents pledged another $6 million toward the new center last summer.

On a web page about the program last updated in January, the university stated that it hopes to support three to five new members of faculty “with teaching interests in philosophical bases for decision making and choice, government regulation, legal and policy impacts on economic outcomes and individual choice and freedoms, market design and social welfare, and social prosperity and well-being, including innovation, entrepreneurial activities, company formation and job creation.”

On that same website, the university said the new center will be modeled after the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a center at Oxford University.

Last week, the Tribune reported that two of the professors who were involved in early discussions had grown frustrated with the direction Hartzell has taken regarding the center since last fall, including Hartzell’s decision to move forward with Dyer as the center’s leader.

“Justin is a good guy, but I don’t think he has the needed prominence to make this institution a reality,” Professor Carlos Carvalho wrote in an email to another professor. “I am also very disappointed by the lack of a proper national search for a director. We could have done a lot better!! Jay Hartzell likes people he can control, not top scholars!”

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In the announcement, UT-Austin officials said the center’s new name comes from the university’s motto, Disciplina Praesidium Civitatis, meaning “the cultivated mind is the guardian of democracy.”

In February, the Tribune reported that another group, First Liberty Institute, already owned the trademark for the name Liberty Institute.

Jeff Mateer, the group’s chief legal officer, told the Tribune they had alerted UT-Austin of their objections to use of the name and said UT-Austin had agreed.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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In the real world, unlike the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, science hasn't yet allowed people to fly on brooms.

But when Nederland's Avery LeBlanc stepped foot on the University of Texas two years ago, he quickly signed up for the next-best thing — quidditch.

An avid Harry Potter fan, LeBlanc already knew all about the sport from J.K. Row-ling's books and the movies. He also knew Texas had one of the best clubs in the country.

"I'm an English major because of Harry Potter," Le-Blanc said. "During the first week of classes when all the organizations were tabling, I made sure to find quidditch right way."

Now ajunior majoring in English and history, LeBlanc is a veteran of the Texas quid-ditch scene, competing on one of the university's two traveling teams.

The sport, which sprang from the "cultural canon" of Harry Potter, is most popular at the college level, LeBlanc said. He believes an older demographic — and ignorance of all things Hogwarts — has kept the sport from spreading in Southeast Texas, but high school interest could be the key to growth.

"The potential is endless," LeBlanc said. "For a sport that really has only been played since 2005, it's incredible to see the strides we've made so far."

Quidditch is a mixed-gender, contact sport that combines elements from rugby, dodgeball and tag. A team is made up of seven athletes who play with brooms between their legs at all times.

Players score points by throwing a quaffle — a deflated volleyball — through one of three rings set up by the opposing team. A successful throw is worth 10 points.

At some point in the game, aneutral player called a snitch is released into the playing field, carrying a small ball tied to his or her waistband. A player called a seeker, Le-Blanc's position, tries to track down the snitch and pull the ball, which is worth 30 points and automatically ends the game.

In the Harry Potter series, games could last two months. Real-life games usually don't go more than 30 minutes.

LeBlanc said he finds the rugby comparison most accurate, with tackling allowed in certain situations. At least two players on each team must be the opposite gender of the rest.

"Quidditch is the only full contact, co-ed sport by definition," LeBlanc said. "And we don't wear any pads, so I do think it's most like rugby."

Nederland High School senior Jadi Weaver has never stepped on a quid-ditch field, but she has played the sport digitally on Pottermore.com. The website, created by J.K. Rowling, allows users to play and live as characters in the Harry Potter series.

She compared quid-ditch in the Harry Potter series to the popularity of football or other major sports.

Although not a quid-ditch player, Weaver is a fierce fan and took her senior pictures at Orlando's Harry Potter World at Universal Studios.

LeBlanc said as far as he knows, he's the only quid-ditch player in Southeast Texas. When he tells his friends in Nederland about the sport, they immediately want to know what it's like to run with a broom between your legs.

"They always ask, 'How do you do the broom thing?,'" LeBlanc said. "Really my only answer is it's weird at first, but you get so used to it you really don't think about it."

When quidditch was first played competitively, players used actual brooms. Because of safety and durability concerns, players now use PVC pipes.

LeBlanc competes on the traveling team called Austin Quidditch, essentially the junior varsity team to Texas Quidditch. The university also has two intramural teams.

The traveling teams have two practices of three hours each weekend and go to tournaments across the country. Last month's U.S. Quidditch Cup in Round Rock, where Texas Quidditch finished as the national runner-up, is the largest event in the sport, LeBlanc said.

There is a Major League Quidditch organization, but LeBlanc said its popularity doesn't approach the college game's.

High school teams are rare.

"It's usually just a teacher who gets the idea and then gauges the interest," LeBlanc said. "That's my dream job, to be a teacher and coach quidditch."

LeBlanc thinks the popularity of college teams is the logical result of a generation growing up with Harry Potter.

And he has hope for quiddith in Southeast Texas.

"Give it time to when the generation who started it becomes that older generation. This is just the beginning."

[email protected]Twitter.com/mattGfaye

June 11, 2018|Updated June 12, 2018 12:48 p.m.

Two hundred children who attend the AVANCE-San Antonio Head Start program at Fenley Center will receive on-site health care through a new nurse-led clinic at the school. The Fenley Center is a child-development campus in the Harlandale Independent School District.

The new clinic will offer preventive screenings and primary health care for enrolled children through an agreement between the UT Nursing Clinical Enterprise, an initiative of the School of Nursing, and AVANCE-San Antonio, which provides Head Start services.

“This is our sixth nurse-led clinic in the UT Nursing Clinical Enterprise, with the seventh and eighth clinics in development,” said Julie Novak, D.N.Sc., RN, M.A., CPNP, FAANP, FAAN, executive director of the clinical enterprise. She also is a professor and vice dean of practice and engagement in the School of Nursing.

The new clinic will be accessible to all 813 children enrolled in Head Start in the Harlandale ISD. Through the program, the parents and guardians of the children also receive health education from certified pediatric nurse practitioners, a registered dietician, licensed vocational nurses and AVANCE-San Antonio staff.

“For each clinic, we start with a half day and add additional days and services as we increase the patient base and funding,” Dr. Novak said. “At Fenley, children come in for their clinic appointments on Tuesday afternoons. As the patient volume grows, we anticipate providing child health services three to four days a week.

Health assessments

In addition to exams for common childhood illnesses, the children will receive Texas Health Steps assessments including: height and weight measurements, physical exams, developmental assessments, hearing evaluations and blood tests for anemia and lead exposure.

Advance-practice nurses specializing in behavioral health will join the team this fall, Dr. Novak added.

Kathryn Parke, D.N.P., APRN, CPNP, and Rollie Rockett, M.S.N., RN, CPNP, as well as Josie Alfrido, LVN, provide care at Fenley. Dr. Parke said she recently saw a young mother with a 9-month-old daughter who had not been examined by a doctor since birth. “The mother also has a 6-year-old son. The mother was unaware that her children, who were born in the U.S., were eligible for Medicaid,” Dr. Parke said. She referred the mother for Medicaid enrollment assistance so her children could receive vaccinations and dental exams.

Dr. Parke and Rockett also examined young Anthony Silva. His mother, Alexandra Silva, said, “I like having the clinic here at the school. It will help in case of an emergency.”

In order to expand the six nurse-led clinics, Dr. Novak authored and secured a contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment Program, as well as a grant from the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation to fund the AVANCE clinic expansion. Dr. Novak said, “We’ve had a wonderful partnership with AVANCE-San Antonio at its location on Castroville Road for the past six years. We are thrilled to expand to a second AVANCE clinic site.”