Leveraging strengths

With creative researchers, state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure, UNT is putting an increased focus on each to develop an even stronger research enterprise. This year, UNT is investing in creating Institutes of Research Excellence in areas where there is a critical mass of knowledge and faculty collaborating on research. This not only enhances the educational experience of students by giving them crucial critical thinking and problem-solving skills, but leads to opportunities to connect with industry and business through partnerships, technology transfer and commercialization to support robust economic development in the North Texas region and beyond.

"Increasing UNT's research enterprise will help us enhance our role in tackling societal problems, finding solutions and making discoveries, while achieving our goal of becoming recognized as a top-tier research university," says Tom McCoy, vice president for research and innovation.

 

Facilities

UNT's research facilities and state-of-the-art instrumentation are key to new discoveries. Associate professor of chemistry Guido Verbeck's patented nanomanipulator, housed in UNT's university-managed BioAnalytics Facility, is helping researchers examine the chemistry of individual cancer cells. And UNT's Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART) provides characterization and computational methods to analyze new materials, while UNT's TALON high-performance computing system calculates big data.

 

New institutes

This year, UNT will launch three institutes: the Logistics Systems Institute, the BioDiscovery Institute and the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Processes Institute. Each builds on UNT's existing expertise -- areas in which UNT faculty are recognized for making significant impacts. These initiatives create a stronger platform for research, federal funding and public-private partnerships. And they give UNT new ways to partner with industry and further contribute to the region's economic growth.

 

Design refresh

Visit the newly redesigned UNT Research website to learn how UNT researchers are solving real-world issues, such as preserving our drinking water, understanding cancer cells more clearly, creating bio-based products by mimicking plants' natural systems, making safer materials for aircraft and solving logistics issues by more efficiently managing distribution of goods and services and responding to emergencies quickly.