(From left) Tom Evenson, associate professor and associate dean of the School of Community Service, UNT President Norval Pohl and Brent Davison, interim vice president for development, listen to remarks made by Sigrid Glenn, Regents Professor and chair of the Department of Behavior Analysis, about a multimillion-dollar bequest that will benefit the department.

Multimillion-dollar bequest creates new behavior analysis research program at UNT

UNT plans to establish a new research program in the Department of Behavior Analysis with a multimillion-dollar bequest from the Beatrice H. Barrett Endowment for Research in Neuro-Operant Relations. The exact amount of the bequest cannot be determined until the Barrett estate is settled.

Barrett, who died Sept. 4, was a nationally recognized researcher and expert in behavior analysis.

Making the announcement Sept. 10 at Chilton Hall, UNT President Norval Pohl said, "This recognition from the Beatrice H. Barrett Endowment is one more measure of the rising stature of research at the University of North Texas. This significant gift will allow an expansion of the research agenda for behavior analysis — one of the university's pioneer programs that is recognized throughout the nation for the quality of its faculty and graduates.

"As one of the largest endowments UNT has received, this gift is especially important to our current planning effort because it will be directed toward the enhancement of research capabilities at the university," Pohl said.

According to Sigrid Glenn, UNT Regents Professor of behavior analysis and founding chair of the department, the endowment will support research on precise moment-to-moment measures of human actions as they relate to exact measures of the brain activities associated with those actions.

"It will also support digital archiving of much of the 35,000 hours of behavioral data in Dr. Barrett's paper archives," she says. "The digital archiving will allow scholars at UNT and elsewhere to make use of earlier findings in designing current research."

UNT's first step will be to bring the Barrett archives to Chilton Hall, where the archival data will be organized and the digitization will be planned in collaboration with the UNT's Texas Center for Digital Knowledge.

Since the funding provides for a full-time researcher, Glenn says a search will begin as soon as possible to locate the right researcher for the project. The research program also will involve the expertise of several members of the behavior analysis faculty.

"In the future, we expect to attract post-doctoral fellows interested in careers in neuro-operant research, who will advance the research agenda they begin at UNT to universities throughout the world," Glenn says.

For many years, Barrett and Glenn had discussed their mutual vision for a research agenda that combined precise measurement of behavior as it changes with precise measurement of concurrently changing brain activity.

In following the path Barrett outlined in establishing the Beatrice H. Barrett Endowment for Research in Neuro-Operant Relations, the new UNT research program will seek to expand understanding of the relationship between observable behavior and brain activity.

BY RODDY WOLPER rwolper@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• UNT reaches all-time enrollment high for Fall 2003
• Legislative actions advance UNT Dallas project
• UNT celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month
• Poet and essayist to speak at UNT Sept. 25
• Staff Council elects officers for 2003-04 year
• Families to share in Mean Green spirit Sept. 26-28
• Music industry supports musicians' health initiatives
• Interpretational change to holiday pay entitlement

homepage