Joining Forces

Year Founded: 1985
Director: Chris Thomas

Located in the Hill Country about six miles northwest of the San Marcos Campus, the 3,500-acre Freeman Center ranch supports a range of research and educational activities and hosts up to 15,000 visitors per year. It is home to the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility, where human decomposition is studied, and a cattle herd used for hands-on education and research. Biologists conduct wildlife studies at the center, while agricultural sciences students test sustainable farming methods at Bobcat Farm. The ranch also collaborates with the Ingram School of Engineering on research initiatives requiring off-campus space, while both Army ROTC and Air Force ROTC use the area for training exercises. “The Freeman Ranch offers a diverse space for research projects across various fields,” said Chris Thomas, ranch director. “We collaborate with faculty to bring their ideas to life, supporting initiatives such as the forensic anthropology body farm, a flight cage for bat studies, and agricultural research involving the Santa Gertrudis cattle herd, just to name a few. Additionally, the ranch’s vast size allows us to engage in pasture restoration, working toward restoring portions of the property to its original Hill Country oak savanna ecosystem.”

Year founded: 2012
Director: Dr. Robert Mace

Located on Spring Lake at the headwaters of the San Marcos River, the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment focuses on research, education, and stewardship to ensure clean and abundant water resources for Texas and beyond. With about 115 employees, including student workers, the center’s multidisciplinary researchers focus on topics such as drought, climate change, groundwater supply, water pollution, environmental education, and humans’ interaction with the environment. The center’s research enterprise attracts more than $2 million annually in grant funding. The center also manages Spring Lake, catering to school field trips and visitors with the Discovery Hall interpretive center, glass-bottom boat tours, and other activities. “We’re lucky to be located at the headwaters of the San Marcos River, which gives us a rare perspective on one of Texas’ most important rivers,” said Dr. Robert Mace, the center’s director. “Our location not only drives home the importance of protecting our water resources, it also gives our researchers a living laboratory in our own backyard and provides our visitors with a great example of how essential and fragile our water resources and environment are.”

Year founded: 2002
Executive Director: Dr. J. Pete Blair

TXST created the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT) to provide active shooter response training for first responders. In 2013, the FBI named ALERRT the national standard for active shooter response training. Numerous states and metro police departments have adopted ALERRT’s curriculum for officer training. In most cases, ALERRT training is delivered at no cost to agencies and their officers, both in cities around the country and at a training facility in San Marcos. ALERRT also houses a criminal justice research department to evaluate and enhance the overall understanding of active shooter events and assist in improving law enforcement best practices, and the center hosts the Annual Active Shooter Integrated Response Conference. ALERRT has garnered more than $180 million in funding since its inception. “ALERRT provides the best research-based critical incident response training in the nation,” said Dr. J. Pete Blair, executive director. “Our training and research save lives and protect communities.

Year founded: 2001
Director: Dr. Kathy Martinez-Prather

The 77th Texas Legislature authorized the Texas School Safety Center in 2001 to serve as Texas’ central location for school safety information and provide schools with research, training, and technical support to help reduce youth violence and promote school safety. With a staff of approximately 80 and a biennial appropriation of almost $18 million, the center supports Texas schools in subjects ranging from emergency operations planning to school behavioral threat assessment and bullying prevention. “The mission of the Texas School Safety Center is to serve schools and communities to create safe, secure, and healthy environments,” said Dr. Kathy Martinez-Prather, the center’s director. “School safety is multifaceted and requires a comprehensive approach. We are educating and training schools on how to prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from any type of emergency that could arise.”

Year founded: 2017
Co-Directors: Dr. Edwin Piner and Dr. Yatin Karpe

The Materials Application Research Center (MARC) works to harness faculty members’ applied research and entrepreneurship to foster an innovation-led economy. With $2.7 million in annual state funding, MARC supports the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Core Research Operations across the university, the Advanced Prototyping Laboratory, the Faculty Innovation Accelerator Program, and STAR Park. Through STAR Park, it supports the Connected Infrastructure for Education, Demonstration, and Applied Research (CIEDAR) Consortium, which links faculty researchers with private industry partners to develop and demonstrate technology-enhanced infrastructure. “MARC is at the center of many TXST enterprises directed toward research and innovation,” Co-Director Dr. Edwin Piner said. “We are excited about what the future holds for our diverse faculty-led research initiatives, the innovations derived from them, and the external engagements that will propel the technology economy and workforce locally and statewide.”

Year founded: 2013
Director: Harold Strong

TXST’s Science, Technology, and Advanced Research (STAR) Park is located on the Texas Innovation Corridor a few miles south of the San Marcos Campus. Set on 58 acres, STAR Park houses the 36,000-square-foot STAR One technology incubator, one of the state’s largest wet lab-based incubators. About 10 startups lease space at STAR Park to commercialize technologies for the biotech, materials, and energy fields. The tenants also partner with the university on research contracts and student internships, incorporating TXST into their work on projects ranging from green-battery technology, to counterfeit-detection materials, to wearable health monitors. Client firms have invested nearly $3 million in research contracts with the university in recent years and hired 25 TXST graduates. “The startups at STAR Park are doing amazing work, with some of them raising significant investments in their business,” said Harold Strong, STAR Park’s director. “One of our clients that really represents the spirit of STAR Park is Material Hybrid Manufacturing, a company led by TXST alum Dr. Chris Reyes. He’s producing 3D printed batteries and going through the process of demonstrating his technology with the next step being to scale it. Chris gives back by hiring TXST students to work in his lab, which gives the students exposure to what it’s like to be an entrepreneur, the hustle and grind, and the process of defining outcomes and working to achieve those outcomes.”

Year founded: 2020
Executive Director: Dr. Melinda Villagran

The Translational Health Research Center (THRC) leads research focused on identifying and sharing scalable solutions to critical health challenges. Since 2021, THRC has generated over $14.3 million to support researchers whose expertise ranges from engineering to entrepreneurship, and from biology to behavioral health, working together on solutions to improve public health and safety, the environment, and our quality of life. The center’s staff provides research and grant assistance, communication assistance to share research with the public, and access to virtual learning networks and events involving business, academic, and community organizations. To date, the center has supported 36 Community Health and Economic Resilience Research (CHERR) Fellows, 91 students, and five postdocs on projects involving over 45 public and private organizations in Texas. “THRC enhances our university’s research enterprise through a better-together approach to research and grants that helps identify actionable solutions to foster resilience, leading to healthier and more prosperous lives for all of us,” said Dr. Melinda Villagran, executive director.

Year founded: 2023
Director: Dr. Tahir Ekin

TXST launched the Center for Analytics and Data Science (CADS) to serve as an interdisciplinary hub for data-intensive and AI-driven research, as well as a catalyst for data science and AI education, training, and outreach programs. CADS brings together over 20 faculty members from seven colleges, uniting expertise in computer science, statistics, engineering, health, and social sciences. In 2024, CADS launched its inaugural Catalyst Research Awards, providing funding and research support to AI projects across the university on themes like “Sustainability, Cloud, and AI,” “AI, Climate, and Resilience,” and “AI and Transportation.” In addition, with $400,000 funding from the National Science Foundation, CADS launched the TXST ExpandAI initiative to integrate AI across various disciplines. “CADS exists to harness the power of data and AI to solve real-world challenges,” said Dr. Tahir Ekin, an analytics professor and CADS director. “Our mission is to advance cutting-edge research while creating pathways for students and faculty from all disciplines to engage in meaningful, data-driven work. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, we aim to not only contribute to knowledge but also to build a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable future.”

Year founded: 1993
Director: Dr. Michael T. Blanda

The Institute for Molecular Life Sciences houses 24 of 26 known species of Xiphophorus fish, a freshwater genus found in Central America that’s used for genetic discovery and human disease exploration. The center keeps the fishes in over 1,400 tanks, maintaining their genetic lines and making them available to researchers from around the country who study genetic interactions to better understand the molecular origins of diseases including cancer, maturation, and obesity, and seek therapeutics to address these diseases. The institute has garnered over $30 million in NIH funding since its relocation to Texas State in 1993. Along with conducting its own biomedical research, the institute—which changed its name this year from the Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center—also hosts students, postdocs, and junior faculty pursuing education and training in biology, biochemistry, bioinformatics, and computer science. “The IMLS has developed a reputation for housing some of the best genomic resources in the world, and this outreach and training reputation has spread to institutions both within the U.S. and around the globe,” said Dr. Michael T. Blanda, institute director. “This past year alone, the IMLS brought scientists from Stanford University, Texas A&M, Germany, and Brazil to work, study, and train at Texas State.”