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Logistics Innovation
UNT has received $1 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation's Regional Innovation Engines program to lead a collaborative network of regional organizations in advancing the logistics industry as an economic driver in the Texoma Region, which is bordered on the south by the Dallas-Fort Worth area and north by the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma. The UNT-led team, called the Texoma Innovation Engine, includes Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas at Arlington, Southeastern Oklahoma State University and Dallas College along with 25 other participating organizations in North Central Texas and Southeastern Oklahoma. The Texoma Innovation Engine is among the more than 40 unique teams from across the nation selected to receive one of the first-ever NSF Engines Development Awards, which aim to help partners collaborate to create economic, societal and technological opportunities for their regions.
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 Closing Counseling Gap
College of Education faculty Matthew Lemberger-Truelove, Peggy Ceballos and Dan Li are looking to make systemic change to counseling in school-based settings with support from a $3.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education that was authorized by Sen. John Cornyn's Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Over the next five years, they'll focus on expanding mental health care and training in local Title I schools in Denton and Lewisville ISDs. The goal is to not only increase the number of mental health providers, but also ensure these incoming professionals are prepared to respond to the evolving needs within growing schools. With very few clinical-based counseling trials performed in schools, their work also will add much-needed research on school-based counseling practices.
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| NSF CAREER Award |
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College of Engineering assistant professor Melanie Ecker earned the National Science Foundation's most prestigious recognition for early career faculty. Ecker will use the $553,036 award given through the NSF's Faculty Early Career Development Program to further her research on using smart polymers for biomedical applications. NSF CAREER awards are granted to faculty within their first 10 years in a full-time college appointment whose scholarly products are considered to have had a high impact in their discipline and/or on society. Overall, UNT has 22 researchers who have been awarded CAREER grants over the years.
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| Chinchilla Discovery |
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Jaime Jiménez, professor of biological sciences, was part of a team of scientists that have discovered a long-tailed chinchilla, usually seen in the Chilean Andes Mountains, instead inhabiting the country's coastal area near Antofagasta, Chile. At this point, the team is still collecting data to determine whether the chinchilla is a new subspecies, a species or just a new population. One thing is clear: These chinchillas spotted on the coast are exhibiting behaviors that are unique from chinchillas found elsewhere. The team's research was recently published in the journal Mastozoologia Neotropical and featured in Hakai Magazine. "I've been studying wild chinchillas since 1986, and I could not believe that chinchillas could live in such remote and harsh conditions in the driest desert in the world. This is a really significant discovery," Jiménez says. "It's important that we understand more about this species and how to protect it from overexploitation and other threats."
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| Goldwater Awards |
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Jathin Pranav Singaraju (pictured left), a student at the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science at UNT, has been named a 2023 Goldwater Scholar in recognition of his work in the biomedical engineering lab of Dr. Huaxiao "Adam" Yang. Jathin is UNT's 71st recipient of a Goldwater Scholarship, which is one of the most competitive awards in the country for students pursuing careers in math, science and engineering. Additionally, Jannon Fuchs, professor in UNT's Department of Biological Sciences, won the 2023 Council on Undergraduate Research-Goldwater Scholars Faculty Mentor Award, recognizing her research, scholarship, teaching and mentorship. She's the first UNT professor to win the award, which includes $5,000 for her undergraduate research program. Of about 185 students she's mentored, 10 became Goldwater Scholars and seven of those based their research essays on their work in her fundamental neuroscience lab. She'll be honored at a CUR virtual award celebration June 13.
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| Sharing Piano Scholarship |
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Elvia Puccinelli, UNT professor of collaborative piano and vocal coaching, launched a new scholarly music journal published by the International Keyboard Collaborative Arts Society (IKCAS), the first international professional association for this discipline. The multimedia journal On Collaborating will connect performance and research in collaborative piano featuring traditional written articles, lecture-recital presentations and a blend of different media. As founder and president of IKCAS, Puccinelli is internationally recognized as a leader in connecting collaborative pianists. "Collaborative pianists work in virtually every area of classical music and music theatre, and its very nature is interdisciplinary, but for this reason, it sometimes poses challenges for pianists to find the appropriate outlet for their scholarly work," Puccinelli says. "The creation of this journal represents another significant step for our discipline, and one that will strengthen and enrich our international community of pianist-partners."
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