Mark Shadden ('09), Irving :: co-authored an article in the journal PLOS ONE about what factors NASA looks for when selecting astronauts. He filed Freedom of Information Act requests to access and analyze the information from NASA. He previously worked as a statistician at Elite Research LLC in Irving and at the Center for Research Design and Analysis (CRDA) at Texas Woman’s University. He received a National Science Foundation grant in 2011 from Penn State. While at UNT, Shadden was a McNair Scholar from 2007 to 2009.