have yielded millions of dollars for Texas A&M in royalty-bearing license agreements through more than 900 patents and 1,500 patent applications relating to a portfolio of over 2,600 inventions. On average, Texas A&M files over 50 patents and closes 25 license agreements per year. Texas A&M has led the world in several fields of cloning research. Scientists at the university's College of Veterinary Medicine created the first cloned pet, a cat named 'cc', on December 22, 2001. Texas A&M was also the first academic institution to clone six species; cattle, a Boer goat, pigs, a cat, a deer, and a horse. In 2016, the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) targeted the university and alleged abusive experiments on dogs. According to Texas A&M, the dogs in question were given several experimental treatments to improve or cure a genetic condition that also affects humans. During this period, the dogs were under the care of board-certified veterinarians and other highly trained staff with oversight from multiple agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The university is also engaged in significant scientific exploration projects. In 2004, as part of its responsibilities under the space grant program, it joined a consortium of universities and countries to build the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile. Construction began in November 2015; on its completion—which is scheduled for 2025—it will be the largest optical telescope ever constructed with seven mirrors, each with a diameter of , the equivalent of a mirror across and ten times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope. As part of a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, Texas A&M completed the first conversion of a nuclear research reactor from using highly enriched uranium fuel (70%) to use low-enriched uranium (20%). The eighteen-month project ended on October 13, 2006, after the first-ever refueling of the reactor, thus fulfilling a portion of the United States' Global Nuclear Threat Reduction Initiative. In 2013, geography researchers named the largest volcano on Earth, Tamu Massif, after the university in honor of their research contributions. Worldwide Texas A&M ranks second in the Southern United States and fourteenth in the country in annual research expenditures and conducts research on every continent. Of the university's numerous agreements and joint facilities of international cooperation, Texas A&M owns a multipurpose center in Mexico City, Soltis Research and Education