When Annette Becker ('15 M.A., '25 Ph.D.) was searching for graduate schools, she could have gone to London or New York City. But with her interest in material culture, she knew UNT was the place for her.

UNT's vast resources have proved to be foundational jumpstarts for the careers of alumni, like Becker, who are serving as changemakers in a variety of industries. And UNT, the largest R1 research university in the North Texas region, is working to cultivate those opportunities.

It is ensuring its researchers have modern spaces, such as the forthcoming 111,000-square-foot Science and Technology Building, that promote innovative discovery, cross-training and interdisciplinary collaboration. Faculty and staff across the university are building a research infrastructure with opportunities ranging from workshops and training programs to fellowships, internships, structured mentoring and more.

"Engaging students in meaningful and inclusive research early on not only improves their persistence and long-term success -- it also helps them build skills and relationships that will benefit them well into their careers," says Pamela Padilla, vice president for research and innovation. "As UNT's impact as a higher education leader in the North Texas region continues to grow, we're committed to finding new ways to spark our students' curiosity and prepare them to become future leaders and innovators."

Annette Becker ('15 M.A., '25 Ph.D.) found mentors who supported her in interning at the Dallas Museum of Art, crafting research presentations, publishing a book chapter and curating an exhibition from UNT's Texas Fashion Collection. Becker, TFC director for nine years, says she still feels the impact of those opportunities.

As a recent doctoral graduate in history, she took Todd Moye's courses on oral history, which inspired her to interview Dallas fashion industry professionals -- models, manufacturers, retailers, reporters -- whose experiences had never been documented. "That research opportunity shaped my field of study beyond my own work, informed how I formulated my dissertation and has expanded my capacity for interpreting material culture artifacts at the TFC," she says.

Kush Aggarwal ('23) is a brand technical seller for IBM, where he helps clients address challenges and enhance their businesses' value through data, artificial intelligence and information architecture solutions. His education at UNT at Frisco equipped him well for his career with courses in professional communication, project management, design thinking and data analysis. After earning his degree, Aggarwal launched his career as a regional technology specialist trainee at Toyota Motor North America. While there, he participated in the 2022 Global Swarm Hackathon, where he contributed to anti-drunk driving technology that earned a patent, paving the way for Toyota to further develop the solution.
-- Neil Foote

Shane Kuo ('20 Ph.D.) scales the company's discoveries up from the lab to a commercially viable product as a senior development scientist for Corning, a materials science technology company in New York. It can be a complicated process, but Kuo's time at UNT helping professor Jincheng Du start his Functional Glasses and Materials Modeling Laboratory taught Kuo to focus on the details. "As students, we started learning how to build a lab," Kuo says. "What instruments do we need? What kind of electric plug do we need? There were lots of details and it was a big learning process. We didn't know how to do it but having that experience has actually proven very useful in my career."
-- Scott Brown

Justin West ('18 Ph.D.) is an associate professor of music and human learning at the University of Texas at Austin's Butler School of Music. His research, which has been published in a half-dozen peer-reviewed journals, is focused on professional development efforts and outcomes for music educators -- specifically, the vital role played by multi-day professional conferences, which he attended while at UNT to gather qualitative data for his Ph.D. dissertation. A former high school choir teacher, West, who was a Ronald E. McNair Scholars Fellow at UNT, estimates more than 80 percent of music educators attend such conferences annually. He says the events can be improved so teachers may better implement lessons learned there upon returning to the classroom.
— Lisa Sciortino

Adrian Harvey ('06, '09 M.B.A.) helps businesses make better informed decisions with customers in mind as senior vice president at the marketing insights company Buxton. Recognized as a UNT Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences Alumni of the Year in 2014 and a G. Brint Ryan College of Business Rising Star in 2017, Harvey says research he conducted at UNT using data and real-world scenarios prepared him for his current role. "It was very beneficial in helping me in a professional setting to make the translation between academia and real-world application." He explained that what may look good for a business on paper does not always translate. "Looking at more than what the data says is important. You have to marry the art and the science."
-- Christiana Diak

Taylar Gomez (’18), entrepreneur in residence at Dallas venture capital firm RevTech Ventures, began building her e-commerce startup SYFT while earning bachelor's degrees in merchandising and digital retailing at UNT. "My professors provided the encouragement I needed to establish the company," Gomez says. Now, she's hiring current UNT students to help analyze data collected by her company's browser extension. The SYFT plug-in uses artificial intelligence and algorithms she developed to scour social media trends and analyze user preferences to create personalized fashion options for its target audience of Gen Z shoppers. As online shoppers browse their favorite sites, the SYFT plug-in curates personalized collections of clothing items that are displayed in
a pop-up window for purchase.
— Lisa Sciortino