Student researchers put UTA on national stage. Program allows students to present original research, network with professionals and future employers. 

Researchers from Tsung-Dao Lee Institute (TDLI) & School of Physics and Astronomy (SPA), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) have proposed a lutetium yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) crystal electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL)^[1], designed for the DarkSHINE experiment^[2-6]. By precisely measuring the energy loss of electrons after their interaction with a target, the ECAL is designed to search for invisibly decay products of dark photons. Featuring excellent energy resolution and strong radiation tolerance, this calorimeter significantly enhances the sensitivity of dark photon detection.

Ozone pollution is a global environmental concern that not only threatens human health and crop production, but also worsens global warming. While the formation of ozone is often attributed to anthropogenic pollutants, soil emissions are revealed to be another important source. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) researchers have examined global soil nitrous acid (HONO) emissions data from 1980 to 2016 and incorporated them in a chemistry-climate model to unveil the pivotal role soil HONO emissions play in the increase of the ozone mixing ratio in air and its negative impact on vegetation.

While scientists have long studied currents of large eddies, the smaller ones — called submesoscale eddies — are notoriously difficult to detect. These currents, which range from several kilometers to 100 kilometers wide, have been the “missing pieces” of the ocean’s puzzle — until now. Using data from the new Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, a Texas A&M researcher and his collaborators at JPL, CNES and Caltech finally got a clear view of these hard-to-see currents, and they are a lot stronger than anyone thought.

Understanding the fundamental energy configuration of thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) materials, the key material that make OLEDs, is critical in developing new more advanced OLEDs. However, current analytical methods have been occasionally unreliable due to its inherent subjectivity and conditional assumptions. Now, researchers have developed a new analytical model that details the kinetics and state dynamics of excitons in TADF materials.

A world team including Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VISTEC from Thailand, Universidad de Zaragoza and Universitat de Girona presents a computational framework for the organocatalytic cycloaddition of CO₂ to epoxides to form cyclic carbonates, key for the polymer industry. It identifies the rate-determining step and highlights the buried volume of epoxide oxygen as a key factor. Results align with experiments and support rational catalyst design beyond ascorbic acid, promoting predictive catalysis for efficient CO₂ utilization by machine learning tools. Their work was published in the journal Industrial Chemistry & Materials in May 2025.