Texas A&M University's Hagler Institute for Advanced Study has chosen 11 scholars for its 2026-27 class, the university announced Wednesday: 10 Hagler Fellows and one Distinguished Lecturer.
The institute brings researchers who belong to the National Academies, or hold honors of similar standing, to College Station to work alongside A&M faculty and students. Each one may spend up to a year on the project, spread across as many as five years, according to founding director John L. Junkins, who said the scholars were picked from nominations made by faculty across the university.
This is the institute's 15th class.
The 2026-27 Fellows
- Rexford S. Ahima of Johns Hopkins, who studies the biology behind obesity and diabetes, will work with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
- Myles Allen, head of atmospheric, oceanic and planetary physics at the University of Oxford and director of Oxford Net Zero, will work with the College of Engineering on climate research.
- Kristi Anseth of the University of Colorado Boulder, who designs biomaterials for regenerative medicine and drug discovery, will join the College of Engineering.
- Mark Berends, a Notre Dame sociologist who researches how school policy affects learning and inequality, will work with the College of Education and Human Development.
- Christopher N. Bowman of Colorado Boulder, a polymer and photopolymerization researcher, will also join the College of Engineering.
- Clive Lennox of USC's Marshall School of Business, who studies corporate financial reporting and audit regulation, will work with Mays Business School.
- Theo Notteboom, a port and maritime economist at the University of Antwerp and Ghent University, will work with the College of Marine Sciences and Maritime Studies.
- Baldwyn Torto of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, known for discoveries in how insects communicate chemically, will join the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
- Patricia C. Wright of Stony Brook University, a primate and tropical conservation scientist, will also work with Agriculture and Life Sciences.
- Jun Ye, a University of Colorado Boulder and National Institute of Standards and Technology physicist working in quantum technology and precision measurement, will work with the College of Arts and Sciences.
The Distinguished Lecturer is Amita Sehgal, director of the Chronobiology and Sleep Institute at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. She studies the cellular and molecular basis of sleep and daily body rhythms and will work with the College of Arts and Sciences.
