What can we do in one day? That question was answered by 3,497 Mustang households giving more than $8 million to over 175 causes on SMU Giving Day. Thank you for changing the lives of students, creating new opportunities and shaping a brighter future on the Hilltop and beyond.
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Category: April 2022
Rob Lanier has been named SMU’s head men’s basketball coach. Lanier, who comes to the Hilltop from Georgia State, arrives with more than 30 years as a collegiate coach, including seven seasons as a head coach.
“We are excited to welcome Rob Lanier and his family to Dallas as the head basketball coach at SMU,” Hart says. “Rob is an excellent coach and has been mentored by some of the game’s best in Rick Barnes and Billy Donovan. He and his staff will build upon the success our program has experienced under Coach Brown and Coach Jankovich. As importantly, his character, integrity and commitment to developing our student-athletes as both players and people align with our mission of shaping champions. Our conversations with individuals in the basketball community only reinforced our belief that Rob Lanier is the right leader for SMU basketball.”
Lanier’s former teams have made 12 NCAA Tournaments and earned 19 total postseason bids.
“I couldn’t be more honored to lead the program on the Hilltop,” Lanier says. “SMU’s location in the heart of Dallas, Texas, the beautiful campus, stellar academic reputation and overall commitment to excellence make it the perfect fit for me and my family. I’m excited to get to work and to take this program to the next level.”
Can you smell those roses? There’s a real possibility that the gene that helps you experience their heavenly fragrance may also help you feel the prick of their thorns.
Researchers from SMU have determined that a gene linked to feeling touch may moonlight as an olfactory gene. That’s the conclusion drawn from studying a very small, transparent worm that shares many similarities with the human nervous system.
“This gene has previously been identified as a potential therapeutic target for chronic pain. Now that we know the gene is also involved in olfaction, it might present an opportunity for treating or understanding olfactory defects, such as the mysterious loss of smell that many COVID-19 patients have reported,” says SMU’s Adam D. Norris, co-author of a study published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research.
Norris is the Floyd B. James Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. He worked with SMU graduate students Xiaoyu Liang and Canyon Calovich-Benne, who are the lead authors of the study. Both are studying to get a Ph.D. in biological sciences.
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Theatre alum’s persistence pays off
If Dylan Guerra ’16 had given up after failing to win playwriting fellowships in New York, he would not be where he is today: authoring a screenplay for a well-known production company and co-writing season three of The Other Two, the HBO satire that hilariously spoofs showbiz and celebrity.
“Perseverance is a massive part of it,” says Guerra by phone during a lunch break from The Other Two writers’ room in New York. “I applied to everything more than once.”
It took three tries to become a member of the prestigious Youngblood group of playwrights at Ensemble Studio Theatre and two each for residencies at Ars Nova and Page 73.
“In about a six-to-eight-month period, I got into three of the highest-profile playwriting fellowships in New York, and that put my name on a bunch of lists,” he says. “I also had a solo show, and there was this organic interest in my work.”
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Startup founder Mona El-Gharby ’21 won seed funding from SMU’s Big iDeas program three years in a row as a student. D Magazine writes about El-Gharby, founder of CURLē, “a customized haircare company that’s making curls luxurious,” and her entrepreneurial journey in the March 2022 issue.
EXCERPT:
“Take a single strand of your hair and roll it between your fingers with your eyes closed.”
Can you feel it? Is it thin or thick? Is it straight or curly? Odds are, if it’s straight, you’ve never had to think about this before.
But CURLē founder Mona El-Gharby has.
The Egyptian American Dallas native says her classmates used to bully her growing up over her natural hair texture. Her parents had raised her to be confident and elegant, but it was hard to feel that way about her curly hair. Like many other women, she felt her hair wasn’t “professional” or fit European beauty ideals.
And when her peers teased her, El-Gharby didn’t have any celebrities or television characters to point to and say, “these people have beautiful hair, they’re doing great things, they’re representing me.”
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ICYMI: In Case You Missed It
Enjoy these quick links to stories and more about the people, programs and events making news on the Hilltop.
- Jerry Pittman ’58 drives brighter future for golf
- SMU alum Brent Renaud ’94 killed while covering war in Ukraine
- Reggie Dupard ’99 honored with Silver Anniversary Mustang Award
- J.-C. Chiao elected to American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
- Senior captures SMU’s first international debate title
- SMU research cut a wide path in 2021
- Grant supports Perkins Baptist House of Studies
- Law school partners with four firms on key initiatives
- Black Lives, Black Letters: Primary Sources in African American History and Literature