News

Recipients of the Vardaman Awards, named in tribute to Professor Elizabeth Vardaman, are Baylor faculty members who go above and beyond in mentoring undergraduate students.

Twelve faculty members have received Outstanding Faculty awards from the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences for the 2025-2026 academic year. 

When researchers complete a study and share their work, they hope it will have impact: to help people, advance understanding, develop technologies and more. 

Such impact is important — but can be hard to measure. There’s no one way to do it, but Stanford University has annually compiled a prestigious list that captures one important measure of impact: citations. And Baylor researchers do very well there.

Students gaining experience at the award-winning Baylor Psychology Clinic are promoting mental health care throughout Central Texas.

Earlier this week the University launched A Season of Thanksgiving, a month-long initiative that invites the Baylor Family into an intentional time to give thanks for the blessings God has given us. As people of faith, our words and acts of thanksgiving reflect God’s love for us and the grace he has freely given. I am excited that we are putting our faith into action in this way.

A new clinical trial led by Baylor's Gary R. Elkins, Ph.D., demonstrates that self-guided hypnosis can decrease hot flash frequency and intensity by over 50%, offering a nonhormonal option for the millions of women.

Dr. Sarah Schnitker was appointed this fall to the newly created position of associate vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research. She shares more about the role and how Baylor hopes to support interdisciplinary research across campus.

Baylor's Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory is using the findings of researchers about rest and human flourishing and sharing those with visitors of all ages in a new Mayborn Museum exhibit.

What kind of impact are Baylor researchers making on the world? The burgeoning number of honors and grants awarded to BU faculty and students indicates that Baylor’s impact as a Christian research university is growing.

Here are just a few recent examples:

Baylor researchers from multiple disciplines have explored the role and effects of gratitude and how it can amplify human flourishing in a variety of areas.

Meet this year’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award honorees for excellence in research, teaching and dissertation.

Stanford database features 43 current or retired Baylor faculty and postdoctoral researchers on prestigious most-cited list.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 11, 2024) – Baylor University is mourning the death of Roger E. Kirk, Ph.D., Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Statistics and the University’s longest tenured faculty member at 61 years. Dr. Kirk died Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023.

In October, the University launched the Baylor Research in Growth and Human Thriving Science (BRIGHTS) Center, a multidisciplinary center designed to catalyze research related to the science of human flourishing.

WACO, Texas (Dec. 11, 2023) – Millions of people make resolutions at the beginning of each year to lose weight, quit bad habits, save money, and so on. Unfortunately, many resolutions are quickly broken because they are overly overambitious or unachievable. Two Baylor psychology experts offer tips on setting realistic resolutions with SMART goals.

In a database compiled by Stanford University, 35 current or retired Baylor faculty members appear among the top 2% of the most-cited researchers across 22 disciplines.

WACO, Texas (March 17, 2023) – Most people would agree that happiness is better than negative emotions. Still, few may take the time to fully appreciate how happiness can improve their lives and the lives of those around them. The United Nations declared March 20 International Day of Happiness, which is celebrated annually to create a happier and kinder world. This year’s theme is “Be Mindful. Be Grateful. Be Kind.”

WACO, Texas (March 14, 2023) – Dr. Annie Ginty, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience in the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences, has received the 2023 Early Career Impact Award from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Many Baylor researchers focus their research on faith itself, leading significant projects that address faith’s impact on human flourishing, community health, individual character and more.

The Baylor Ethics Initiative is a community of scholars across campus who engage in purposeful conversation to consider trans-disciplinary ethical issues, and to elevate the role of ethics in their research and teaching.

Three years ago, Baylor set a school record when seven Bears earned prestigious Fulbright scholarships — part of the nation’s flagship program for international graduate study and education. This year, Baylor students are blowing that record out of the water. An incredible 13 BU students have already been named Fulbright recipients for 2022.

WACO, Texas (Feb. 7, 2022) – Baylor University researchers will examine virtue formation in higher education moral communities, both secular and faith-based, with a $2.7 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

In mid-December, Baylor received a surprise early Christmas present: the attainment of R1 status, three years earlier than expected. “R1” has been a big buzzword around campus for the past few years — but what exactly is it? And, perhaps more importantly, what does it mean for Baylor moving forward? First off, “R1” is shorthand...

Baylor researcher builds understanding of stress, the brain and the heart

WACO, Texas (Sept. 17, 2020) – What takes place inside a person when they encounter beautiful pieces of art? While most people would acknowledge being moved by aesthetic and artistic beauty, the changes sparked by such an engagement seem beyond the realm of measurement. Two Baylor psychology and neuroscience researchers, however, are working to change that.

It’s Dr. Annie Ginty’s job to study stress — a subject we can all relate to. In fact, when she tells people her area of expertise, they generally joke that they’d be excellent subjects for her research because of all of the pressures they face. More specifically, Ginty seeks to better understand the links between …

WACO, Texas (Aug. 31, 2020) — People who did not have a large heart rate response to a stress task surprised researchers later — after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — when they showed more symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder related to the crisis than others who also did the stress task and COVID-19 stress ratings.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 21, 2020) - An interdisciplinary team of Baylor University scientists and engineers has been awarded a nearly $600,000 grant to study the effectiveness of a horseback-riding simulator as a treatment for children with autism.

WACO, Texas (July 8, 2020) – Psychiatric inpatients with major depressive disorders who increased in the virtue of patience during hospitalization also showed fewer symptoms of depression, according to a Baylor University study.