Civil and environmental engineering assistant professor Dimitrios Kalliontzis was recently appointed to the 2026 University Marine Energy Research Community (UMERC) Board of Directors. UMERC, under the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), is a national organization that promotes marine energy in the United States. UMERC was founded in early 2021 by the WPTO to act as a unifying organization for marine energy research across US American universities.

Dr. Debalina Sengupta, Assistant Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the UH Energy Transition Institute (ETI), recently appeared on NPR’s Hello Houston to discuss how a unified federal policy could strengthen plastic recycling efforts in the United States. The conversation was informed by ETI’s latest UH Energy white paper, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Plastics Packaging: Gaps, Challenges, and Opportunities for Policies in the United States.

Eva Harth, a chemistry professor in the University of Houston’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the highest professional honor awarded to academic inventors.