Buc-ee's founder fuels Texas A&M's new $50M immersive learning laboratory

Beaver powered

Buc-ee's founder Arch Aplin III is gifting $50M to A&M's new facility. Buc-ee's/Facebook

The founder of Lone Star State’s favorite rest stop/gas station/car wash/cultural beacon has just made a Texas-sized investment in a major state university.

Buc-ee’s mastermind Arch “Beaver” Aplin III will commit $50 million toward establishing a Texas A&M University academic center that will serve as an immersive learning laboratory, the school announced.

Dubbed the Aplin Center (Aplin graduated from A&M in 1980), the hub will offer new university programs in hospitality, retail studies, and food product development through degree programs including viticulture, fermentation processes, coffee, and food science.

This new facility also will house product development laboratories and food tasting centers that can be utilized in partnership with related industries, according to a press release. Retail and food services areas will be managed by students and faculty. Students can also expect indoor and outdoor recreational spaces.

The center will be built across the street from the Texas A&M Hotel and Conference Center near Wellborn Road and Kyle Field.

Aplin’s $50 million commitment marks one of the largest single donations in Texas A&M history. “Arch ‘Beaver’ Aplin is a true visionary and one of the most creative entrepreneurs I have known,” said school president Dr. M. Katherine Banks in a statement. “He remains connected to his university, speaking to many students who share his passion for business and product development. Through this generous gift, he is creating a living, learning laboratory that will provide transformational opportunities for our students. The Aplin Center will positively impact Aggies for generations to come.”

Buc-ee’s founder, in turn, noted that Banks’ vision of a “world-class hospitality entrepreneurship program” is “just what Texas A&M needs and I’m proud to have an opportunity to be involved.”

Two years after graduation, Aplin opened his first Buc-ee’s in 1982 in Lake Jackson. His beaver empire has since expanded into five other states, with development underway in another five. Aplin’s brand hallmarks include pristine restrooms, endless fuel pumps, a vast selection of food and consumer items.

Besides its reputation as a cult and customer favorite, Buc-ee’s offers health insurance to employees and pays more than twice the amount of minimum wage. Earlier this year, the convenience store-rest stop hybrid received nationwide attention on CBS Sunday Morning. July 28 marks Buc-ee’s 40th anniversary.

“When Beaver Aplin does something, it’s never halfway,” said A&M System chancellor John Sharp in a statement. “The love he has and shows for Texas A&M and Aggies is inspirational and appreciated. This is an awesome gift and will position Texas A&M to become the top hospitality program in the nation.”

An Aggie through and through, Aplin, who serves on myriad boards and is also chairman of Texas Parks and Wildlife, once preached the College Station gospel during a lecture in 2012, telling the class, “I have to remember — I’ve gotta stay Beaver. I’ve gotta stay Buc-ee’s. I’ve gotta stay Aggie and I’ve gotta stay who I am.”

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

This makes those Beaver Nuggets a lot more cost effective. Image courtesy of TDECU

Houston-area credit union pumps up customers with new Buc-ee’s credit card

WHO NEEDS A BLACK CARD?

Buc-ee’s fanatics, rejoice! As consumers cope with skyrocketing prices, those Beaver Nuggets and gas purchases are getting cheaper for certain credit card holders.

A new credit card from Houston-area credit union TDECU offers a five percent discount for in-store and at-the-pump Buc-ee’s purchases made with the card. TDECU says holders of the new Buc-ee’s Platinum Mastercard, featuring the iconic Buc-ee’s logo, can take advantage of the discount at participating Buc-ee’s locations.

“We are thrilled to share the expanded benefit of our Buc-ee’s partnership with our Members, at a time when they need it most,” Isaac Johnson, president and CEO of TDECU, says in a news release. “Buc-ee’s travel centers have become their own must-see destinations, and we are excited to give our Members another reason to stop along their financial journeys.”

TDECU members with other Mastercard or Visa credit cards will continue to receive a 10-cents-a-gallon discount on fuel pumped at Buc-ee’s stores.

Both Buc-ee’s and TDECU are based in Lake Jackson.

Buc-ee’s operates 35 stores in Texas and locations in seven other states. Its stores are known for their massive size, spotless restrooms, and Beaver Nuggets snacks.

TDECU (Texas Dow Employees Credit Union) is the largest credit union in the Houston area. It operates 37 branches in the region.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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Houston health tech co. lands NIH grant for AI cancer prediction tool

fresh funding

Houston-based CellChorus and Stanford Medicine were recently awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant for the company's AI platform to test how certain cancer patients will respond to therapies.

The funding comes from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. According to a filing, the grant totaled just under $400,000.

CellChorus, which spun out from the University of Houston’s Technology Bridge, has developed TIMING (Time-lapse Imaging Microscopy In Nanowell Grids), which analyzes the behavior of thousands of individual immune cells over time and can identify early indicators of treatment success or failure.

The company will work with Stanford's Dr. David Miklos and Dr. Saurabh Dahiya, who have built the Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cell Therapy Biobank. The biobank manages and stores biological samples from patients treated at their clinic and in clinical trials.

"Predicting which patients will achieve durable responses after CAR-T therapy remains one of the most important challenges in the field,” Miklos said in a news release. “We aim to uncover functional cellular signatures that can guide treatment decisions and improve patient outcomes.”

The project will specifically profile cells from patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma (r/rLBCL). According to CellChorus, only about half of r/rLBCL patients who receive CAR-T therapy "achieve a durable, long-term remission." Others do not respond to therapy or experience relapse.

“The sooner we know whether a cancer therapy is working, the better. To maximize patient benefit, we need technology that can provide a robust and early prediction of response to therapy. The technology needs to be scalable, cost-efficient, and capable of rapid turnaround times,” Rebecca Berdeaux, chief scientific officer of CellChorus, added in the release. “We are excited to work with Drs. David Miklos and Saurabh Dahiya and their colleagues on this very important project.”

CellChorus has previously received SBIR grants from federal agencies, including a $2.5 million award in 2024 from its National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and a $2.3 million SBIR Fast-Track award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences in 2023.

Houston museum showcases America's founding documents in rare exhibit

Experience History

As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, Houstonians have a chance to see rare documents from the founding of the nation. Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation, presented by the National Archives Foundation, will be on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science through Monday, May 25.

The collection includes a rare engraving of the original Declaration of Independence; official Oaths of Allegiance signed by George Washington, Aaron Burr, and Alexander Hamilton; a draft of the Bill of Rights; the Treaty of Paris, the documented that recognized America's independence from Great Britain; and the tally of votes approving the Constitution.

The National Archives specifically chose Houston as one of only eight cities in the country to host the exhibit as a means to help the documents reach a wider audience outside of the main hub of semiquincentennial events in New England and the Washington, D.C. area.

"One of the things we decided when we put the tour together because we wanted to be off the East Coast," said Patrick Madden, CEO of the National Archives Foundation, who was onsite for the exhibit's opening in Houston. "There's a lot of 250th celebration stuff happening in the original 13 colonies. How do we get it to major markets where larger numbers of people can see it? So in the case of Houston, obviously, [is a] major market in this part of the country, but also we've partnered with the museum twice before with National Archives exhibits, so we knew that they would be up to the task of handling the exhibit and the crowds."

The star of the collection is a rare engraving of the original Declaration of Independence. Secretary of State and future president John Quincy Adams commissioned 200 exact replicas of the document from engraver William J. Stone in 1823. Less than 50 now remain. Madden joyfully pointed out that there are errors in this document, a potent reminder that the men who forged a nation made mistakes.

"There's a couple of typos in it where they had to make corrections," said Madden. "So even the founders, you know, they're all human. That resonates because here these people are making this move against the most powerful nation in the world and putting their lives on the line for a country based on ideas."

Other impressive parts of the collection include official Oaths of Allegiance signed by George Washington, Aaron Burr, and Alexander Hamilton, as well as one of the drafts of the Bill of Rights. Many states would not ratify the Constitution until certain rights were included in the document, leading to Washington going on a national tour assuring state leaders enshrining protections was first on the list. The draft copy on display specifically shows the First Amendment in progress.

Houston is the fourth stop on the exhibition's tour, which will take the documents to Denver, Miami, Dearborn, and Seattle through the summer. Freedom Plane is just one part of a larger patriotic celebration at the HMNS, which includes a film series celebrating American science and culture and general Americana decoration throughout the main hall.

Admission to Freedom Plane is free to the public, but separate from general admission to the museum. Space is limited, and passes are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Non-members should expect long waits or the possibility that the day's passes are sold out. Only museum members can reserve passes for specific times. Flash photography is prohibited due to the fragile nature of the documents.

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Houston quantum energy chip startup emerges from stealth with $12M round

seed funding

Houston-based Casimir has emerged from stealth with a $12 million seed round to commercialize its quantum energy chip.

The round was led by Austin-based Scout Ventures. Lavrock Ventures, Cottonwood Technology, Capital Factory, American Deep Tech, and Tim Draper of Draper Associates also participated in the round. The oversubscribed round exceeded the company’s original $8 million target, according to a news release.

Casimir’s semiconductor chips can generate power from quantum vacuum fields without the need for batteries or charging. The company plans to commercialize its first-generation MicroSparc chip by 2028.

The MicroSparc chip measures 5 millimeters by 5 millimeters and is designed to produce 1.5 volts at 25 microamps, comparable to a small rechargeable battery, without degradation and no replacement cycle.

“Casimir represents exactly the kind of breakthrough dual-use technology Scout Ventures was built to back,” Brad Harrison, founder and managing partner at Scout Ventures, said in the release. “This is based on 100 years of science and we’re finally approaching a commercial product … We’re proud to lead this round and support Casimir’s journey from applied science to deployed technology.”

Casimir says it aims to scale its technology across the ”full power spectrum,” including large-scale energy systems that can power homes, commercial infrastructures and electric vehicles.

Casimir's scientific work has been supported by DARPA-funded nanofabrication research and its technology was incubated at the Limitless Space Institute (LSI). LSI is a nonprofit that works to innovate interstellar travel and was founded by Kam Ghaffarian. Technology investor and serial entrepreneur Ghaffarian has been behind companies like X-energy, Intuitive Machines, Axiom Space and Quantum Space.

Harold “Sonny” White, founder and CEO of Casimir, believes the technology can power devices for years without replacements.

“Millions of devices will operate for years without a battery ever needing to be replaced or recharged because we have engineered a customized Casimir cavity into hardware capable of producing persistent electrical power,” White added in the release. “I spent nearly two decades at NASA studying how we power humanity’s future. That work led me to the Casimir effect and the quantum vacuum, where new tools have allowed us to build on a century of scientific knowledge and bring abundant power to the world.”

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