Texas A&M Hagler Institute announces 2025-26 Hagler Fellows and Distinguished Lecturers

The Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University announced 11 Hagler Fellows and two Distinguished Lecturers for its 2025-26 class.

All Hagler Fellows and Distinguished Lecturers are recognized for outstanding achievements in their fields and are members of the National Academies or hold recognitions of equal stature. The newest class includes scholars recognized internationally for their achievements and scholarship, along with a four-time Grammy Award winner.

“This 14th class of Hagler Fellows continues the tradition of bringing world-class excellence, in all of her guises, to the university,” said John L. Junkins, founding director of the Hagler Institute. “This class brings 13 remarkable individuals with the highest levels of expertise in their very diverse fields who are proven difference-makers in elevating those they have worked with historically. We are delighted to welcome these stellar individuals to Texas A&M University.”

The fellows and lecturers will work closely with Texas A&M faculty and students during their appointments, which generally last up to one year for fellows and shorter periods for lecturers.

Since its inception, the Hagler Institute has attracted 161 world-class researchers to the Texas A&M campus: 146 Hagler Fellows and 15 Distinguished Lecturers. Of these, 16 have joined Texas A&M’s permanent faculty.

The institute will induct its Hagler Fellows for 2025-26 during its annual gala in February:

Joan B. Broderick, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Montana State University, is a leading scholar in the mechanism of radical initiation and the role of the iron-sulfur cluster and S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) in radical SAM enzymes. She will collaborate with faculty and students in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Alison Butler, Distinguished Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is recognized for her work in elucidating the bioinorganic chemistry of the marine environment, including the chemistry of siderophores and vanadium haloperoxidases. She will collaborate with faculty and students in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Geoffrey W. Coates, the Tisch University Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University, is renowned for his work in polymer chemistry with research paving the way for the creation of environmentally friendly plastics and contributing to the broader effort of addressing global environmental challenges through chemistry. Coates will collaborate with faculty and students in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering.
David C. Grabowski, a professor in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, is an expert in the economics of aging and renowned for his contributions to the fields of long-term and post-acute care. He will collaborate with faculty and students in the School of Public Health.
Ioannis Kevrekidis, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, is widely recognized for pioneering an approach for equation-free computation and focuses on multiscale computations and computer-assisted modeling of complex systems. Kevrekidis will collaborate with faculty and students in the College of Engineering and the Texas A&M University Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine.
Lyle Lovett, a Texas-based singer, songwriter and actor and Texas A&M former student, is known internationally for blending elements of country, swing, jazz, folk, gospel and blues with his signature storytelling style over a career spanning 14 albums and gained recognition with four Grammy Awards. Lovett will collaborate with students and faculty in the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts.
José A. Pagán, chair and professor in the Department of Public Health Policy and Management at New York University, is recognized for his empirical research on the population effects of uninsurance and his leadership in the governing body of NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public health care system in the country, through the COVID-19 pandemic. He will collaborate with faculty and students in the Vashisht College of Medicine.
Robert Pianta, Batten Bicentennial Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Virginia, focuses his research on the intersection of education and human development, particularly teacher-student relationships. Pianta will collaborate with faculty and students in the College of Education and Human Development.
Tresa M. Pollock, Alcoa Distinguished Professor of Materials in the Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is best known for her development of cutting-edge, high-strength alloys used at extreme temperatures and for understanding the responsible mechanisms. She will collaborate with faculty and students in the College of Engineering.
John E. Schaufelberger, professor and dean emeritus in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, is an expert on bridging industry and academia in construction management through his highly popular books and his continuous efforts in elevating the scholarship in professional communities. He will collaborate with researchers and students in the College of Architecture.
Jenny Tung, director of the Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, is known for her work demonstrating how social environment influences gene regulation, population genetic structure and health and survival in nonhuman primates and other social mammals. She will collaborate with faculty and students in the College of Arts and Sciences.

In addition, the institute announced two Hagler Distinguished Lecturers, who will also be inducted during the February gala:

Thomas J.R. Hughes, John O. Hallquist Chair in Computational Mechanics and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Chair in Computational and Applied Mathematics in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, is the pioneer of fields such as isogeometric analysis, variational multiscale methods and stabilized methods. Hughes will collaborate with faculty and students in the College of Engineering.
Mordechai Segev, Robert J. Shillman Distinguished Professor of Physics at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, is the founder of several fields of research — nonlinear optics, photonics, solitons, quantum electronics and more — and inventor of topological insulator lasers. He will collaborate with faculty and students in the Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering.