If you're familiar with the hill country, you may recognize a particular sound that can be heard under bridges in garages and in the night sky. That's right.

That's right. Bats. Did you know that bats were important pollinators of blue agave?

Yep. As in tequila, central Texas is home to the largest bat colony or even mammal colony in the world.

And you know what else? Texas leads in wind energy. With wind energy comes amazing potential for the environment, but there's also unintended consequences for our bat-friends. Join us today as we discuss what some call the green green dilemma. Well, welcome to research Outside of the box, a podcast for unconventional, unique and out-of-the box research happening at Texas State and the innovative research approaches faculty use along the way. I'm your host Kamarie Carter training specialist for faculty development, and I am super excited to have Dr. Sarah Fritts join us today in the studio, especially after a couple of technical snags.

Thank you, Sarah. Absolutely. Could you, could you tell the audience a little bit about yourself? Yeah, sure. Hello, I'm Sarah Fritts.

I'm an associate professor in the biology department, and specifically in the wildlife ecology or wildlife biology program here at Texas State.

Texas State. I've been here since 2017, and as a wildlife ecologist, I conduct research on a variety of wildlife taxa, and by that I mean diverse species such as small mammals, snakes, and a lot of my research lately has been focused on bats. How did you get into. Bats?

Bats? Sure. So I actually, I've always enjoyed working with bats. I started my first bat job in 2003, 2004.

Um, and I was volunteering to do, uh, bat inventory at Yellowstone National Park, actually.

Um, and during that time I realized that working with bats, it's not only as difficult as working with other wildlife for just the long hours, but also we were, uh, had to sleep in, uh, shifts. So we'd get like three hours off to sleep and then have to go work for five, six hours and get three hours. And that was just not something that I personally could endure for that type of a job.

Mm-hmm. . Um, but I always had a huge curiosity, um, and fascination by that.

Then after that, I took a lot of other technician jobs, um, including working with chipmunks and ground squirrels and bob white quail and snakes and toads and lots of things.

All kinds of things. Um, and for me it's not really about the taxa or the species, it's more about the question. I think we can focus on a lot of different wildlife to understand how human activities, anthropogenic activities on either private working lands or on shared lands are affecting wildlife conservation so that we can really try to balance the socioeconomic needs of people with the needs of wildlife.

So what research are you currently working on? A lot of my current research, um, has been focused on fats and wind energy, and that's because for the last, um, I guess almost 15 years I've been involved in renewable energy ecology.

my PhD focused on using woody biomass as a, uh, renewable energy input and the effects of harvesting that leftover wood after a clear cut, um, on reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals. So ground dwelling wildlife mm-hmm.  mm-hmm. . And it was really interesting. That was because in 2010, the renewable, uh, the European Union increased their renewable energy initiative, and they were actually acquiring a lot of the wood from southeastern United States forests to meet their renewable initiatives.

Mm-hmm. . Uh, so people don't sometimes realize kind of behind the scenes of what's going on when we have switches in renewables, and obviously we need renewable energy. Mm-hmm. . Absolutely. Climate change is affecting humans and it's affecting every animal.

every plant and every ecosystem on this planet. And we can see that with the heat advisory that we're in today. Oh. It's so hot today, y'all . It's so hot.

So we need renewable energy. However, we also just need, uh, scientists and researchers to be understanding how these renewable energy sources are directly affecting wildlife populations.

Mm-hmm. , and that's something that I've been very interested in. Some have dubbed this the green green dilemma because we all see the need for renewables mm-hmm. , but we also want to figure out ways to make, uh, some renewables more sustainable.

So I hear the, the main issue that you're trying to tackle is our, our poor bat friends are facing a very sad fate. Do you wanna tell us about that? Sure.

So my PhD was in North Carolina, and they're the, one of the big renewable energy initiatives, as I mentioned, was woody biomass. But when I transferred here to Texas, we have the highest amount of wind energy in the us.

In fact, if Texas was, uh, its own country, it'd be the fifth largest wind producer in the world and produces over a quarter of the wind energy in the us.

That's insane. It's crazy. That's. So cool. And we also have the most bat species. We have at least 31 species that live here in Texas. Not all have been documented to be affected by wind energy.

Um, several are, are, a lot of the fatalities are focused on, you know, three species basically mm-hmm. . Um, but we have the highest populations or the, the biggest populations and the highest diversity of bats as well. And unfortunately, an unintended consequence of wind energy is that bats get struck by the wind turbine blades. Mm-hmm. , and we had talked about this the other day when I visited the back cage, which we'll talk about in a little bit. But one issue that you're facing is you don't know why they're getting hit. Is that correct? Correct.

So there's been a lot of postulations and theories, um, a lot of research for 20 years, uh, of, uh, focused on why bats might be, um, flying around wind turbines. So we've known of this issue for a long time mm-hmm. , but we haven't found a solution. So unlike birds, which tend seem to opportunistically be hit by wind turbine blades, so they're just flying in the area, maybe migrating, they're not really hanging out in the, in the vicinity. Mm-hmm.  depends on species, of course. Um, bats appear to potentially be attracted to wind turbines.

There's. A pattern. There's a pattern.

And on public lands, it's mandated that, um, you know, wildlife is surveyed before a wind farm is constructed. And based on those surveys before a wind farm is constructed, uh, compared to the fatalities after mm-hmm.

, the pre-constructed pre-construction surveys do not predict the number of fatalities. The number of fatalities are actually greater than what would be expected. So that has led to this population that perhaps bats are even attracted to wind turbines. That's really interesting.

Um, and so you and your team and other teams are working on a way to deter the bats from the wind turbines. Correct? Correct. So one of the, uh, projects that we had here at Texas State that we're just finishing up now or hopefully soon, um, is working to, uh, working with companies in the Department of Energy and the National Noble Energy Lab, um, and N R G systems to find ways to deter bats from wind turbines. One way to do this, or one way that we have been trying is by using ultrasonic deterrence. So bats use echolocation mm-hmm. , a lot of people think because of that they're blind, they're not. Bats can see very well. They just have this whole extra sense that that mm-hmm.  allows them to navigate and orient here at night. So they emit ultrasonic frequencies from their mouths and nose that bounce off of objects in their flight path, and they can actually tell sometimes, uh, what species of moth it's bouncing off of.

Oh, wow. That's how specific echolocation can be. Cool. Bats are so. Cool. Bats are so cool. We can't even fathom, uh, you know, the, the capabilities of echolocation.

We'll just turn. This podcast into a bat podcast. It's so cool. Bats. Forever.

Um, so researchers years ago saw that, found that, uh, the tiger moth, which is a prey species for some, for some bats, also emit their own echolocation and thought that that might be jamming bats echolocation. Mm-hmm. So it's a, not allowing the echolocation to bounce back and, and be, um, uh, perceived properly so it kind of jams them and, and, and they can't find the moth at night. So using that same concept, a few people, the one we've worked with as N R G systems developed ultrasonic deterrent that emit ultrasonic frequencies. And whether that jams bats echolocation or just makes an area really loud, uh, and annoying, kind of like standing beside a big speaker system at a heavy metal concert, um, you know, bats kind of vacate mm-hmm.

, we're hoping bats vacate the area. Mm-hmm.

Absolutely. So for folks who aren't in this field, what makes this research out of the box? Sure.

So, to test these bat deterrents, um, they have been tested before by a colleague of mine, Dr. Sarah Weaver, who did her PhD here, but that wasn't species specific. Those were actually on wind turbines when she did her testing. So it was just how many bats are dying when they're off versus how many bats are dying when they're on. But we wanted to figure out what the species specific effectiveness of different types of signals mm-hmm.  basically that were being emitted. And so we had to figure out how to do that mm-hmm.  and to do that, we decided to build a outdoor bat flight cage. And there's just a lot of things that go into this type of research. Any type of field research, we're really, at the end of the day, we're field biologists that have to think on our feet. Mm-hmm.  figure out ways to, to get projects done, and sometimes with not a whole lot of money.

Um, so for this project, we actually built a over 60 meter long 10 meter wide flight cage out at the Freeman Center.

Um, and we, although we had assistance from a, from a consultant, really a lot of the heavy lifting and hard work of building that flight cage went to my students and undergraduate volunteers. So these are things we've never done before.

We had all the heavy machinery, we have saws, um, well, some, some people had never done before.

I should say. They're laying concrete, you know, all the different things that we do, not only to capture animals effectively and minimize any type of, of risk or, um, stress to the animals, but also just how to test these different things mm-hmm.  so that we can actually help them at the population level. So you. Became a, um, construction specialist Yes.

On. The job. You know, it was funny, we had to go out there and think about how to make the top level, how to think about, um, you know, what is the biggest trajectory of a bat that we may capture and how, what's their turning radius so that we have it, you know, wide enough, but also not have internal struts or any kind of internal structures, um, that would affect the bat's behavior. 'cause we wanted to be as natural as possible, but then we also had to be the engineers and think about wind resistance of the materials that we were using in the field. We were also using thermal cameras and, uh, the thermal cameras we were using, even at the Freeman Center could pick up the, uh, heat signature of downtown San Marcus when we had 'em on one side of the flight cage. Wow. So we had to move them to the other. Uh, so, so a. Lot of moving pieces, a lot of moving pieces. Puzzle, and a lot of things that we didn't think about. But I find this really fun. Mm-hmm. . Um, and then on the other side of that, not just just the field work, um, I do a lot of experimental design and statistics, and so the experimental design is something I've gotten into later.

Oh, not as much. I mean, of course, when I was doing my master's, um, statistics courses were, were, were tough and I didn't know that I would find a passion in it mm-hmm. , but it is like a puzzle. Mm-hmm. , I greatly enjoy talking to people about, okay, here's the problem. Here's what we need to do, or here's the tax that we need to conserve or, or that we're focused on or manage for in, in light of this problem or in lieu of this problem, how do we do that? Gotcha.

So what are the next steps for you in this research project? Sure.

In this specific research project, we currently have one paper that is in peer review, which is an extremely important step of the scientific process. So through that peer review we're, you know, wanting to make sure that we analyze the data properly, that we collected the data properly, and that our results can be used by stakeholders mm-hmm.

, um, for back conservation.

So one thing that I really enjoy about my research, uh, or one thing that I always strive for is to keep it very applied. So I always want there to be a use to stakeholders, whether that be state agencies, federal agencies, landowners, in this case, energy companies mm-hmm.  so they can implement the results and hopefully see a difference. Mm-hmm. , because we wanna save the bats. We wanna save the bats. I was very fortunate to visit Freeman Ranch again to see Dr. Fritt's outdoor lab aptly named the bath flight cage. You may recall from episode one that the Freeman Center is comprised of 3,500 acres of hill country habitat, and there are several research projects being conducted with the help of the Freeman Center staff.

Dr. Fritts and her team needed a way to test bat's, natural responses to bat deterrence.

After walking through a field, you'll find the bat flight cage in the middle of open grassland. The cage looks very similar to greenhouses with the rounded triangular top standing at roughly 15 feet tall, 30 feet wide, and over 186 feet long. The structures foundation is comprised of metal rods with light netting surrounding the entirety of the cage. Here's a clip from my visit. Okay.

So this. Is the back. Cage? Yeah. Yes. This is one of our, uh, one of two of our back flight cages. Um, this is the large one where we do some experimental testing and we also have a holding facility, uh, kind of behind us. You can't see it from here. Um, in case we need to house bats overnight, uh, if we've gotten bats from too far to be able to safely return them back to their, uh, site of capture.

their, uh, site of capture. Okay. And so what. Do you, when you, when you get a bat and you put 'em in the bat cage, what are you looking at in. Here?

Here? Sure. So, um, what the, the big project that this has been used for so far is we actually had, uh, bat deterrent, so ultrasonic deterrents, and these can be put on wind turbines to try to decrease fatalities of bats. So basically these ultrasonic deterrents emit a, a loud sound that humans can kind of hear, but a lot of us at frequencies that we can't hear mm-hmm. . And the thought is that, um, if bats are hearing that near a wind turbine, it could disrupt their echolocation because bats are echolocating ultrasonic frequencies and or just be a really loud, annoying sound that's being emitted from the wind turbine area, from the dangerous rotor swept area, in which case the bats that are coming in to do what we don't know yet. We don't know why they're approaching wind turbines the way that they do. There's several hypotheses about that. But basically it would have them turn around and fly out of the vicinity. So we had, um, a deterrent set up on either end of the flight cage, and we had different, uh, sound emissions, so frequencies, and we were testing what frequency maximized effectiveness across individuals and across species. And we built it this way because one, um, several years ago, this was about the length of a wind turbine blade. However, those have vastly increased in the last few years as wind energy has become more popular across the world. So it no longer represents the wind turbine blade link. Are, they're bigger now. They're way bigger. I've only see, 'cause you only see them like on the highways when they're being moved. And that's a deceiving size. They are very deceiving size.

Um, there are some that are, uh, you know, two and three times this length at this point. Oh my gosh. Um, and they move very quickly. So the ends of those, not at all times, but at their maximum capacity, they can be spinning at a quarter of the speed of sound. Oh my gosh. So, uh, again, people don't big and. Fast. And big and fast. Those wind, you know, how large it is, the tips, you don't really see how fast it's moving when you're driving down the road. So people wonder, how are animals getting hit by this? Well, they're actually spinning a lot. Fairly easy to get hit by it, evidently.

Yeah. So we maximize, so it was about the length of a, um, wind turbine blade mm-hmm. , but we also worked with, um, Austin Bat Refuge, which is a great nonprofit here in town. They have a bat flight cage where they do rehabilitation. So we wanted to make sure it was wide enough for our largest, uh, bats to be able to turn around.

Oh, very easily. Okay. But not too wide where we needed internal structures that would potentially, um, you know, change the bat's flight behavior. And then also we had to think about wind capacity and all of those things as well.

Mm-hmm. . So it is definitely built specifically for bats, although we could use it for other purposes. Okay. Is there a specific bat that is, um, getting killed by wind turbines more than others? Absolutely.

All right. So unfortunately, um, it seems to be our solitary tree roosting bats that are being more greatly affected.

And there's three species of those that, um, have high mortalities. Probably the, um, the one with most concern is called the Horry bat. We do have Horry in Texas. They actually have a large range across the us and it has been estimated a few years ago that, um, even then at the current wind capacity, that they could have a 90% population declines in the next 45 years from wind energy alone. So I heard you mention, mention that you use students. How do you use students in this research project? Uh, like at what levels are they involved? What do their roles look like? Sure. So students are integral. I mean, they are really what gets a lot of this research done. I was in the field for, you know, almost 20 years, but now my role is behind the scenes.

Um, I do some training for the students, of course, uh, but it's really to make sure there's project success behind the scenes and not in the field. So students carry out the huge bulk of this research.

Mm-hmm. , they are the ones that are out in the field, uh, sometimes all night long capturing bats, bringing 'em back to the flight cage, monitoring their behavior, um, then going and re-releasing the bats and having to also think on their feet of all the different possibilities, everything that can happen, things go wrong constantly in the field. Mm-hmm. , . And we're always changing things and mitigating any, you know, um, problems that that arise, which is every day.

So, um, obviously as you know, it's very hot and humid.

Yep. They are out there. They're doing their best.

Yes. They're wearing their long pants and long sleeves and capturing, and, um, you know, it takes a lot of passion.

Mm-hmm. , it just takes a lot of passion in the field to want to help these populations. Mm-hmm.

, um, with the work that students put in. Um, I am curious, and you mentioned, um, student level. So I've had PhD students, master's students, um, and undergrads of course.

Uh, it depends on the projects. Some projects are more technical than others, and some species obviously require, um, additional training. There's always a minimum amount of training that is involved when we're capturing and handling wild animals.

Um, but for the, for handling bats, it's usually graduate students mm-hmm. , but other students come out and help carry the heavy loads, help tie the net together, um, and do other hard jobs that we, um, we greatly appreciate. That sounds like so much fun. Every time I interview somebody for these podcasts, I'm like, should I have gone in this research  field  sounds like. So no matter what the research field is, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's just my mind being curious, which means I'm in a good position in. Faculty development to get to kind of talk to amazing people like you. Absolutely. But I'm like, oh, if I could have a thousand lives, I'd have a thousand degrees. I'd feel. . Same. .

Um, in your research, what do you feel like has been the biggest lesson about general research that you've learned? Patience and flexibility, perhaps .

Um, as I mentioned, you know, no, no matter what the field work is, we are working under a lot of harsh conditions, whether that's, um, heat, cold water, uh, rain storms. And our priorities are always to, uh, minimize stress to animals, which sometimes means that we have to do stressful things to, uh, to do that.

Right. Yeah. So, um, I think patience and flexibility, as I mentioned, things are going to go wrong, um, in the field, and we just have to keep our eye on the prize and be willing to work long hours and many, many days in a row so that we can, uh, make up for any lost time. That makes sense.

I, I hear that a lot from people that I've interviewed. Is patience and flexibility  as a virtue for other faculty researchers who are either maybe newer to the research side of things or have been doing this while and are ready to switch some things up. Do you have any recommendations or advice that you would provide to somebody who wants to approach their research in and out of the box? Way. Patience and flexibility.

, . Um, no, that's interesting. I, I had the, um, fantastic opportunity to talk to some of the newer new faculty last year, and that was a similar question of, you know, I think not being too broad, but also not pitching wholing yourself is very important. Just being adaptable.

Um, and that's something that, you know, we have to learn here or you have to learn in my profession as well, um, because our priorities constantly change mm-hmm.

, um, and that can change just based on a new anthropogenic activity that's going on such as wind energy mm-hmm.

 or the development of, um, not really the development, but the expansion of renewables at a very rapid pace.

Um, it could be that a, a new species gets protection, a protection level, and now we have to kind of switch focus and, and mm-hmm.  perhaps work with that species. Um, so it's kind of the same thing. It's hard to think that I would've come here and, and be like, I'm only gonna work on bats and wind, because I work on a lot of different mm-hmm. , a lot of different, uh, species such as, uh, I have a project right now with Dr. David Rodriguez with snakes mm-hmm. , and that's also really fun. Um, so I would say don't lower or give up any of your expectations or your passion or desire to do what you want in the field, but remain adaptable.

Mm-hmm.  to the changing environment that we can't control. Absolutely.

So that's where the flexibility piece comes in. But I like that you said to don't give up on passions. That doesn't mean you have to give up on your passions. It's finding where your passions fit in broader ways that you haven't thought of. And that's the point of this podcast is hopefully to inspire people to think about their research in a way that they might not have before. And so I think that's a really good way to summarize that. Yes. And so for the bats, do you feel like the, so you talked about emissions and, and maybe attaching those to the wind turbines to deter bats. Do you think that that is something that can be immediately applicable? It is. It's already being used, in fact. Oh, great. Great. Yes. Due to, again, my, uh, uh, colleagues, Dr.

Sarah Weavers, due to her research here at Texas State, um, and some other research and what we're doing in the flight cage. I mean, there are energy companies that are using these in areas, um, in some areas of the world.

Uh, they are not widespread yet. Mm-hmm. .

But again, that may take, um, a little bit more of proof of concept. And that's. Where your publication comes in. That's where the publication comes in. Because I mean, at the end of the day, they can be expensive mm-hmm.

, um, and, you know, but if they reduce fatalities, then that expense might be well worth it for the energy company. Like, for example, as more and more bats are being killed, not just by wind energy, but also by white nose syndrome.

Mm. And other like habitat loss, especially through climate change mm-hmm. . Um, but as these species are becoming more vulnerable, um, these actions that we do on private lands or on any or on shared lands, um, have greater effects.

So there was a, um, you know, wind turbine that, or wind farm that has opened that was almost immediately shut down from wind production at night because there was a, a protected species of fat in the area.

So for about six months, they lost all power generation during the night.

Wow. So that then puts the, um, pressure back on fossil fuels, but this wind farm is standing mm-hmm.

. So again, it's just really making sure that everyone is working together. I think that is a really big part of it. Um, you know, making sure that no one's blaming any energy company. Mm-hmm. , we're not blaming the biologists, we're not blaming anyone else that we really need to come together, find solutions together, because again, renewable energy is extremely important to mitigate climate change. Absolutely.

Absolutely. And have you spoken with any of the stakeholders, any of the energy companies yourself?

any of the energy companies yourself? Oh. Yes, absolutely. What's. That? Like? What's that working relationship like? Oh, sure.

So, um, a lot of energy companies, uh, really want to do the right thing mm-hmm. , and they're relying on US scientists to figure out what that right thing is. Mm. We have gotten, uh, funding directly from energy companies to try to assist in, uh, figuring these issues out.

Um, and actually an energy company helped build the fly cage Oh wow. At the Freeman Center.

Uh, so energy companies, the Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Lab, um, consultants and academics and state agency, federal agency, were all trying to work together to alleviate this issue. Well, is there anything that you feel like you really want other researchers to know about? Anything that we might not have covered? So just in general, I would say, um, stay positive as much as you can.

This is hard. Mm-hmm. , this work is very, very tough.

Academia is, is very tough. Um, and, you know, we work very long hours.

Um, we work very hard, whether you're a field biologist like I am or any other researcher at this university, um, and staying positive and knowing that there's gonna be a lot of hiccups in the road mm-hmm.

, um, and having a support system. So, uh, thankfully, you know, I've had a lot of help here at Texas State, both through my department, um, my department chair, Dr.

Dipmar Han, our dean, um, Dr.

Chris Haley, uh, Chris Thomas at the Freeman Center. So realize the people around you can help you mm-hmm.

, um, build that support system and be willing to help them back. Of course. Yeah. Um, but don't try to do everything alone.

Mm. Be be on a team, help yourself and help others. Yes. Help yourself and help others. And it doesn't have to be the, the team that's working together on any specific project, but just within a department, having, having that support system as a team, um, is extremely important.

It's vital. It's vital. I would be, I wouldn't not be doing the research today that I'm doing without all of, um, all of their support. Are there any maybe sneak peeks that we could have into some other projects that you're about to work on? Absolutely.

So, um, I do have a few other BAT projects that are in different stages. So one, we are recording bat acoustics, so as I mentioned, bats use echolocation mm-hmm. . And what's really cool about bats echolocation is that, um, often it's species specific.

So the frequency, the timing, the power, so we can actually use bat detectors to record echolocation, um, so that we can see what bat species are in what area.

Now, there is some overlap, it's not as easy as it sounds. Mm-hmm. , but this is being done across the us well across the world, but we're doing it across the US in a, a systematic manner. And so we're running this the North American Bat Monitoring project, um, and leading the effort for Texas here at Texas State.

Awesome. So yeah, we have almost a hundred detectors out through the state, um, that are recording year round, which has resulted in over 150 terabytes of data. Wow.

Yeah. So again, students have just been vital to the success of that. And the reason that we're using, um, this technique of, of bat acoustics, of recording echolocation is, well, every species is difficult to capture and handle.

Mm-hmm. , you know, we have more, some species are more elusive than others, but bats are notoriously difficult.

, you know, not only are they nocturnal flying. Around flying fast. Yeah. They're, they're, yeah. They fly really fast. In fact, the fastest animal is the Mexican free tail bat.

That's an. Ins You told me this yesterday.

And that is an insane fact. Well, you tell the audience about, um, yeah.

The Mexican free tail bat and the. Sly.

Absolutely. So, uh, Brazilian free tail, Mexican free tale. So people might be, um, familiar with this bat. 'cause this is the bat species that lives under the Congress bridge. Mm-hmm. , it lives under the bridge in Wimberley. Um, also Bracken Cave, which is the largest density of mammals found anywhere in the world where there's 20 million.

Gosh. Um, but they have been clocked at a hundred miles per hour. So while Peregrines can dive, uh, you know, at very fast paces, this is actually in free flight. And they've also been documented to fly at over 10,000 feet in altitude. Wow. So we're out there having our little nets trying to capture these bats that are flying, like. I said, are flying high and fast. High and fast.

And so, you know, the advent of a lot of this new technology and also just cloud storage and ways for researchers to collaborate.

Mm-hmm.  has been amazing. I would say even, you know, less than 10 years ago, a lot of times scientists at one university are not talking to scientists in another. And it's not because maybe we don't wanna collaborate, it's just those possibilities.

We didn't have Zoom, we didn't have cloud storage.

Um, not in the same way. So, you know, we don't ever know what's going on and like with each other, but we need to put all of that together for the same reasons, to conserve species.

Mm-hmm. . So now, um, we have the North American Bat Monitoring Project where we're, again, using acoustics and uploading all of that data so that the federal government can go in or the US Geological Survey and do range wide population assessments mm-hmm.

Of these different species. Alright. Any, anything else you wanna leave us with? Um, I, well say thank you for your time and thank you for Texas State for all of the support.

Um, again, one thing that I've really liked here about Texas State, it's a large university, but it does feel like a small community.

Mm-hmm. . Um, the fact that, you know, we can talk to people that are in very high levels with a quick email, the response time. It just feels like researchers are very supported. And I wanna say thank you, Texas State for that.

And, uh, look forward to a, a long career here. Yay. We're excited to have you. We're lucky to have you. Well, thank you. Thank you so much, Sarah.

I really appreciate it. And thank you audience members.

We'll be here next time. Sounds good.

Bye. Thanks for joining us today. This podcast project is sponsored by faculty development using YouStar Studios at Alkek One on the Hill in the bright and beautiful San Marcos, Texas. Thank you to all the faculty who are making amazing strides in your research. We hope you join us next time. And until then, stay curious and dare to research outside of the box.