Professor Tiago H. Falk, a researcher at Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), is part of the IEEE Fellow Class of 2025. He was selected for his contributions to cognitive computing for adaptive and context-aware human-machine systems. 

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which has thousands of members, is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Its main objective is to encourage technological innovation and excellence. 

SAN ANTONIO — March 11, 2025 —Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has received a three-year, $2,999,998 million grant from NASA to identify and characterize life and its biosignatures in frozen sand dunes in Alaska, under conditions similar to dune fields on early Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan. The Assessing Regional Reflectors of Astrobiology in Kobuk dunes for Interplanetary Science (ARRAKIS) project team, which includes researchers from Brigham Young University and the University of California—Davis, seek insight into how microbial life may thrive in extreme environments on other worlds by understanding the limits on and constraints affecting life in similar planetary analog environments on Earth.

Current methods to recycle plastics often use expensive catalysts, harsh conditions and produce toxic byproducts. New process converts PET plastic into monomer building blocks, which can be recycled into new PET products or upcycled into higher value materials. In experiments, method recovered 94% of monomers from PET in just four hours, without harmful byproducts.

Catalytic function and its efficiency play a significant role in industrial reactions, and consistent reforms are made in the methodology to enhance the large-scale synthesis of drugs, polymers, and other desired products. Available catalysts can be homogeneous, which means that they possess the same phase as the reactants and products, making them difficult to separate from the reaction mixture. On the other hand, heterogeneous catalysts are a preferred choice for such reactions because of their ease of separation and reusability.