TAMIU Faculty Highlight Research Progress at Quarterly Showcase

Faculty at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) are advancing knowledge across a broad range of disciplines and pursuing innovative projects that address regional, national, and global challenges. Their work is the focus of a new quarterly digital project aimed at showcasing their recently published scholarly contributions.

Dubbed the TAMIU Research Highlights, the initiative is designed to showcase University faculty research areas and scholarly publications, said Dr. Ruby Ynalvez, Associate Vice President for Research & Sponsored Projects.

“TAMIU Research Highlights focuses on the meaningful research undertaken by University scholars and their efforts to address critical questions, advance knowledge, and create lasting impact. By exploring the questions that matter most, these scholars are expanding knowledge and inspiring future researchers,” said Dr. Ruby Ynalvez. 

TAMIU Research Highlights focuses on a wide array of disciplines, illustrating the breadth of faculty expertise and the far-reaching impact of their scholarship. Projects include climate impacts on Laredo’s water quality and public health; search-and-rescue disaster groups and volunteer mental health; targeted anticancer therapies; safety and reliability of autonomous aerial applications; transformative justice, and more.

Early spring 2026 faculty-authored publications are as follows:

Mahanthesh Basavarajappa, assistant professor of mathematics, “Double-Diffusive Convection in Kelvin-Voigt Fluid with Radiation Absorption.”

Maya Bhatt, assistant professor of chemistry, “Controlling Factors of Water Chemistry along the Zacate Creek, an Urban Tributary of the Rio Grande in Texas.”

Kyle Breen, assistant professor of sociology, “You Can Never Unhear That: Gendered Mental Health and Emotional Labor in Civilian Volunteer Search-And-Rescue Organizations.”

Li-Zheng Brooks, associate professor of accounting co-authored, “Abnormal CSR Performance and Auditor Litigation Risk.”

Marcus Carey, associate professor of criminal justice, “Effects of Supervisory Relationships and Childhood Adversity on Recidivism Risks for Women Under Community Supervision.”

Huseyin Cinoglu, associate professor of criminal justice, “Beyond the Jihadi Bride: Women in ISIS and Their Roles During the Organization's Peak Period.”

Seyed Mohammad Davachi, assistant professor of chemistry, “Receptor-Targeted Metal-Organic Frameworks: Recent Progress in Synthesis, Modifications, and Applications in Targeted Drug Delivery.”

Gerardo Flores, associate professor of engineering, “Robust Adaptive Control for Fully Actuated Hexa-Rotors Without Precise Knowledge of Rotor Poses.”

Ray Garza, assistant professor of psychology, “Examining the Associations Between Father-Daughter Attachments and Romantic Relationship Styles.”

Peter Haruna and Varaidzo Zvobgo, professor and assistant professor of public administration, respectively, “Evaluating South Texas Local Government Responses and Managerial Roles During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

Andrew Hilburn, associate professor of geography, “Bounded, Surveilled, and Imperiled: Spatial Dimensions of Environmental Injustice in a City on the US-Mexico Border.”

Runchang Lin, professor of mathematics, “A C0 Linear Finite Element Method for a Second‐Order Elliptic Equation in Non‐Divergence Form with Cordes Coefficients.”

Joan Wakasa Murumba, Information Literacy librarian, contributed a book chapter, “Towards Practical Mechanisms in Managing Tacit Knowledge in Higher Learning Institutions.” 

Mehnaaz Momen, professor of public administration, “Border, Order, Other: Reconstructing Identity in Laredo.”

Jonathan Rader, assistant professor of biology, “The Dynamics of Transposable Element Content in the Genome of the Human Pathogen Histoplasma”

Aziz Rahman, assistant professor of criminal justice, “Childhood Sexual Abuse in Bangladesh: An Exploratory Empirical Study of Lived Experiences of Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors in Tangail, Bangladesh.”

Daniel Scott, associate professor of criminal justice, “Transformative Justice in the Shadow of Neoliberalism: A Critical Look at California’s Division of Juvenile Justice.”

Lukai Yang, assistant professor of finance, “Trade Credit Dynamics in Supply Chain: The Impact of Supplier Operational Inflexibility.”

Haibo Wang, Killam distinguished professor, co-authored “Efficient Local and Tabu Search Strategies for Large-Scale General Quadratic Integer Programming

Yinghong Susan Wei, Killam distinguished professor, co-authored The Influence of Major Economic Reforms on Employee Coping Mechanisms and Work Response.”

Varaidzo Zvobgo and Jihoon Jeong, assistant professors of public administration, “Participative Decision-Making and Turnover Intentions of Women in Non-Supervisory Status in US Federal Agencies: The Mediating Effect of Affective Organizational Commitment.”

The publications listed above reflect submissions provided by academic departments as of the stated request deadline. TAMIU Office of Research and Sponsored Projects has compiled this information as received and has not independently verified completeness; additional publications may exist but were not reported in time for inclusion.

For more information on TAMIU Research Highlights, contact the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects at grants@tamiu.edu, call 956.326.3026, or visit offices in the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library, rooms 426 and 429.