With its research activity accelerating, new health and medical partnerships taking shape, and graduate education expanding into doctoral programs, Texas A&M University-San Antonio is entering a new chapter in its evolution as a university: achieving R2 research status.

At the center of that effort is Guido Verbeck, who recently joined A&M-San Antonio as the University’s inaugural vice president for research. A renowned expert in mass spectrometry and instrument design, with a robust research portfolio, Verbeck is helping shape the infrastructure and partnerships that will support the University’s next stage of research growth.

“I’m very excited about helping develop A&M-San Antonio’s research initiatives and steering them into the future,” he said. 

And that future is looking bright. A&M-San Antonio’s external grant awards grew to approximately $8 million in fiscal year 2026, more than doubling the $3.6 million awarded the previous year. The increase reflects growing research activity across the University. For an institution that was founded just 17 years ago, the growth is significant.

“We are doing extraordinarily well given the age of the institution and the number of faculty that we have,” said Davida Smyth, a biology professor and chair of the Natural Sciences Department. “As we continue to build our capacity, we’ll have greater success in growing our grant awards and research activity.”

This growth also creates unique opportunities for new faculty to take advantage of expanding resources and support to pursue their passions. At the same time, more experienced faculty can create innovative research projects from the ground up, forging new paths and leaving an indelible mark on the University.

Striving Toward R2

A&M-San Antonio’s research ambitions are closely tied to its goal of becoming an R2 institution. Under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education methodology, R2 institutions are characterized by significant research expenditures and the awarding of research doctorates. A&M-San Antonio is working toward meeting the R2 standards of $10 million in annual research expenditures and graduating 20 research doctoral students annually.

Verbeck believes the University can reach these thresholds with continued emphasis on research funding, doctoral education, faculty expertise and research infrastructure.

The University’s growing research excellence is also reflected in the recent milestone of two faculty members receiving the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award. Volkan Ozbek, assistant professor of management, and Claire Braaten, professor of criminology and criminal justice, both received the prestigious award for 2026-2027 from the U.S. Department of State.

Ozbek will spend the Spring 2027 semester at Management Center Innsbruck, a leading business-focused institution in Austria, where he will serve as a guest lecturer and instructor. Braaten will conduct field research in the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam during the summer of 2027, where she will examine how governments are responding to the growing threat of cyber-enabled labor trafficking and transnational scam operations.

Shared Resources and Expertise

The University is also strengthening the infrastructure that enables researchers to conduct sophisticated work once grants are awarded.

Verbeck is developing a network of research “core” facilities, including genomics, microscopy, mass spectrometry and high-performance computing. These shared resources and spaces will serve researchers across disciplines while strengthening grant proposals and providing investigators with access to specialized equipment and expertise.

One of the University’s most promising areas of research growth is biomedical science, fueled by a combination of new academic programs, research partnerships and community needs.

The new Public Health and Education Building, which opened in Fall 2026, brings together education programs, growing research in genetics and genomics, and impactful University partnerships. The University’s Public Health Genetics and Genomics Group is actively conducting research addressing health challenges affecting communities in South Texas.

One major project, funded through a $400,000 Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Minority Health Research and Education Grant, is examining childhood obesity among Mexican American youth.

Led by Ravindranath Duggirala, the project seeks to understand how factors such as diet, stress, physical activity, neighborhood conditions and poverty can produce biological changes that influence long-term metabolic health.

“Childhood obesity doesn't occur in isolation,” Duggirala said. “It's shaped by lived environments and economic realities.”

In another research project, Srinivas Mummidi and Rector Arya, also members of the genetics and genomics group, recently received a Research Excellence Fund grant from the Texas A&M University System to launch a new study of Acanthosis Nigricans in Texas children, a visible skin marker strongly linked to obesity, insulin resistance, and cardiometabolic risk.

“This project is a critical first step toward informing targeted interventions to reduce diabetes- and obesity-associated cardiometabolic risk among Texas children,” said Srinivas.

These research projects exemplify A&M-San Antonio’s approach to scholarship: combining scientific inquiry with the needs and experiences of the communities the University serves.

Strategic Partnerships

That community connection will be further strengthened by the University’s growing relationship with Bexar County’s University Health System and the Texas A&M University Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine. In the spring, officials signed an affiliation agreement aimed at training and retaining more physicians to care for Bexar County and South Texas’ rapidly growing population. As part of the collaboration, A&M-San Antonio will provide classroom and office space for residents and faculty in the new Public Health and Education building.

Through this new partnership, Texas A&M faculty physicians will begin providing care to patients at University Health Palo Alto Hospital, which is located next to the A&M-San Antonio campus. At the same time, the Texas A&M Vashisht College of Medicine students will begin clinical rotations at Palo Alto and other clinical sites across the community.

The partnership creates opportunities for collaboration among researchers, health professionals and students while helping establish a pipeline into medical education.

In addition, a new bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences, developed in response to strong student interest in health-related careers, has been approved and will launch in Fall 2027. University leaders envision the program as an important pathway for students interested in medicine, biomedical research and other health professions.

“We have the Palo Alto Hospital right across the street,” Verbeck said. “We are going to be doing work that is focused on the South Side and immersed in our communities.”

The University is also advancing plans for a Ph.D. in Integrative Genetics and Genomics, which would become A&M-San Antonio’s first doctoral program in the life sciences.

According to Donna Lehman, professor of human genomics, the interdisciplinary program is designed to prepare graduates for a rapidly expanding field that combines traditional biology with biotechnology, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence.

The program draws on expertise from across the University and reflects an increasingly interdisciplinary research culture.

For Verbeck, that cross-disciplinary approach is one of A&M-San Antonio’s greatest strengths.

The University has established research expertise in areas ranging from artificial intelligence and cybersecurity to behavioral sciences, special education, conservation science, ecology and water research.

The Espada property, a 380-acre nature reserve located about six miles west of campus along the San Antonio River, which the University manages in partnership with the San Antonio River Authority, also provides an expansive living laboratory for research. Faculty can study its environmental characteristics, including soil and water, while researchers in the humanities and social sciences can explore the site’s history, communities and relationship with the surrounding environment.

Verbeck is adding new tools, including a research robot and drone, to support environmental mapping and research at Espada.

Creating Opportunities for Ideas to Flourish

A&M-San Antonio’s research expansion is ultimately about more than achieving an institutional designation. It is about creating new opportunities for faculty and students to pursue discovery, collaborate across disciplines and address challenges facing South Texas and beyond.

University leaders see undergraduate research, internships and graduate education as integral parts of that mission.

“Research takes many forms,” Smyth said. “It's scholarship, it's creative endeavors, it's writing books, it's writing plays. It's all of those things that we consider to be what a university is known for.”

For Verbeck, the opportunity is to build an infrastructure that allows those ideas to flourish. That means connecting faculty with funding opportunities, establishing shared research facilities, developing doctoral programs, strengthening partnerships and ensuring students have opportunities to participate in meaningful research.

“For a young university with an ambitious vision, the future looks very bright,” Verbeck said, “and it’s already taking shape.”