Solutions through Collaborative Research
At the University of North Texas, research drives our quest to impart knowledge and change the world. By capitalizing on UNT faculty talents and crossing traditional boundaries, the University’s research and scholarship hold even greater promise.
Funding Research Clusters
UNT faculty are conducting research to save lives and preserve the planet. They are seeking treatments for heart disease, developing the science and engineering needed to make more durable jet engines for the U.S. military, finding ways to reduce greenhouse gases and expanding society’s understanding of autism.
$25 million was committed to expand UNT's research strengths and to hire senior faculty.
To capitalize on this life-enhancing research and scholarship, the University committed to invest $25 million in collaborative research clusters that will allow faculty to pool their knowledge and interests. The investment also will bolster faculty ranks as the University adds more leading scientists and high-profile researchers to its intellectual base. UNT’s clusters are built with an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together faculty from different colleges and research areas to allow for a greater exchange of ideas and innovation. Each cluster builds upon strong research areas within the University.
To start, UNT will foster six research clusters. The Bio/Nano Photonics cluster calls upon the expertise of faculty from nine departments to explore how light can be used to develop devices that will have applications in medicine and other fields. The Signaling Mechanisms in Plants cluster is exploring the plant signals that control growth and defense against pathogens with the intent of developing new technologies in agriculture and medicine. The Developmental Physiology and Genetics cluster — by exploring developmental biology at the molecular, cellular and physiological levels — is working on scientific advances for human conditions such as tissue trauma, clotting disorders and heart disease.
The work done in the Modeling and Simulation of Materials cluster brings together faculty from three departments who are focused on creating a new generation of materials to improve the quality of life — from reducing greenhouse gases to creating new therapies for battlefield injuries. UNT’s Autism Spectrum Disorders cluster draws upon work in eight departments as it seeks to expand autism research and training programs. The initiative for the Advanced Research in Technology and the Arts cluster builds upon interdisciplinary work across several programs, including the groundbreaking, nationally recognized Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia, and will investigate how artists and engineers can collaborate to transform the next generation of art.
Thomas W. La Point, professor of biological sciences, researches chemical contaminant effects on freshwater aquatic communities at the UNT Experimental Stream Facility at Denton's Wastewater Treatment Plant. UNT has a long legacy in water quality research, dating back to the 1930s.
Infusing Research into Academic Life
Students — both graduate and undergraduate — work alongside faculty researchers to explore theory firsthand. Valuable classroom and laboratory lessons, out-of-class seminars and a variety of opportunities push students to discover new ideas and challenge traditional thinking. Students like Jeff Hetherly already are using what they have learned to find solutions to real-world problems. Hetherly, who earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from UNT and now is pursuing dual master’s degrees in physics and materials science and engineering, was the only student from Texas and one of nine from across the nation to be awarded a $45,000 two-year graduate fellowship from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative last May. He will study the effects of long-term exposure to radiation on materials used to build nuclear reactors.
Numerous other students take advantage of invaluable research opportunities in advanced programs like UNT’s Honors College and the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, one of the nation’s leading programs for producing highly qualified researchers. TAMS was the nation’s first accelerated residential program for gifted teens who take university courses to complete their first two years of college while earning high school diplomas.