TSUS Names Regents’ Professor, Regents’ Scholar At Texas State

“These honorees exemplify the high caliber of excellence among our faculty and students at Texas State, and the commitment the members of this university community…”

SAN MARCOS – The Texas State University System Board of Regents has named Texas State University faculty member Gary Beall Regents’ Professor and student Ananda Diener Regents’ Scholar.

The board approved the honors during its quarterly meeting November 16 in Huntsville.

The Regents’ Professor designation honors outstanding members of the System’s professoriate who have achieved excellence in teaching, research and publication, and community service, while demonstrating an unwavering dedication to their students, their university and their community. Beall is the 14th TSUS Regents’ Professors to be so honored at Texas State.

It is a lifetime designation bestowed by the Board of Regents upon tenured faculty who have been acknowledged as exceptional by their peers and students and recommended by the TSUS Foundation Board of Directors, the chancellor and their university president.

“These honorees exemplify the high caliber of excellence among our faculty and students at Texas State, and the commitment the members of this university community have to outstanding teaching and research,” said Texas State President Denise M. Trauth.

Beall, associate dean for research and commercialization of the College of Science and Engineering, came to Texas State in 2001 following a successful career in government and industry. Internationally recognized for his work on nuclear waste disposal, Beall is also a recognized expert on wastewater treatment.

He has played a key role in developing the university’s Materials Science, Engineering and Commercialization (MSEC) Ph.D. program, and team-teaches a two-course sequence on entrepreneurial skills with the McCoy College of Business Administration. He has mentored numerous masters and doctoral students and has advised several successful student teams participating in the world-renowned Rice University Business Plan Competition.

During his time at Texas State, Beall has published more than 120 peer-reviewed journal articles, two book chapters, one book, received 11 patents and secured $4.5 million in external funding.

Beall holds the Formosa Endowed Chair as a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He also serves as the Director of the Center for Nanophase Research and Associate Director of the MSEC program. He is an adjunct professor at Lamar University in the department of chemical engineering, science advisor and adjunct professor for Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Distinguished Adjunct Professor for King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia.

Diener, the second Regents’ Scholar at Texas State, is a senior from The Woodlands double-majoring in chemistry and biology.

Regents’ Scholars are selected by the chancellor based on their outstanding academic achievement and scholarship, leadership abilities, and contributions to the institution and their community. In addition to a framed resolution and medallion, Regents’ Scholars receive $2,500 credited toward their educational expenses.

Diener has a cumulative grade point average of 4.0, has earned Dean’s List recognition every semester, and received several prestigious awards and scholarships, including the College of Science and Engineering’s Mariel M. Muir Endowed Science Scholarship and the Durrenberger Scholarship for Women in Science, and being named Outstanding Chemistry Student each year.

In addition to her academic pursuits, Diener has served on the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Student Advisory Board and the Texas State Chapter of the American Chemical Society.

Founded in 1899, Texas State University is among the largest universities in Texas with an enrollment of 38,849 students on campuses in San Marcos and Round Rock. Texas State’s 170,000-plus alumni are a powerful force in serving the economic workforce needs of Texas and throughout the world.  Designated an Emerging Research University by the State of Texas, Texas State is classified under “Doctoral Universities:  Higher Research Activity,” the second-highest designation for research institutions under the Carnegie classification system.