The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) is investing in its faculty and its future with its recently launched Recruiting Innovative Scholars for Excellence initiative, or RISE 100.
RISE 100 represents a substantial investment in the future of UTA. Through this initiative, the University seeks to hire more than 100 new tenure-system faculty over the next three years, increasing the size of the faculty significantly. Hiring at this scale often takes up to 15 years; UTA seeks to achieve its faculty hiring goals by 2026.
“To create the impact we want on the state of Texas, our nation and beyond, we must expand our faculty and recruit innovative scholars who push the boundaries of discovery,” said Jennifer Cowley, president of UTA. “Our excellence as a national research university is defined by the success of our faculty and their contributions to our mission. In every corner of this campus, you will find researchers and scientists brimming with ambition, ingenuity and promise.”
UTA is hiring scholars with expertise in areas that impact Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, supporting the growth and development of the region’s economy, society and culture. Areas of focus include cluster hires in community-engaged research, semiconductor technology and brain health—allowing UTA to immediately boost its expertise in these critical areas.
UTA’s first hire under the RISE 100 initiative was Hongtei Eric Tseng, a renowned expert in automotive vehicle autonomy with more than 100 U.S. patents to his name. Tseng helped develop or enhance self-driving capabilities, backup assist technology and roll stability control systems on Ford and Volvo vehicles.
UTA recruited Tseng with key support from the Governor’s University Research Initiative, a program launched by Texas Governor Greg Abbott that helps the state’s public universities attract distinguished researchers who can help bolster both the standing of the state’s higher education institutions and its economic development efforts.
Another recently recruited faculty member, Kathleen Preble, joined UTA’s community-engaged research cluster, where she focuses on improving access to services among those impacted by gender-based violence and human trafficking.
New faculty like Tseng and Preble are indicative of the caliber of expertise coming to the University.
“UTA has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hire faculty who will continue our trajectory as a research one university, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and advancing a robust culture of innovation and discovery,” said Tamara L. Brown, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.
UTA is a laboratory for innovation, where business incubator programs and research collaborations support startups and established companies in sectors such as aerospace, health care and manufacturing, fueling economic growth, creating jobs and enhancing community vitality.
Examples of UTA ingenuity include:
- A chemist and his graduate students developing the first methods to identify and characterize all the various irregular forms of amyloid beta, which researchers suspect may be key to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
- An electrical engineering researcher maximizing the power of light in the operations of semiconductor chips to make them more efficient, powerful and bright—with applications for self-driving vehicles, satellite technology and space exploration.
- A public health researcher launching a program that teaches paramedics how to better identify and treat patients who could be suffering from dementia.
Located in the heart of the thriving Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, UTA serves more than 41,000 students and is both a Hispanic-Serving Institution and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution. In recent years, UTA has set its sights on monumental impact through research, achieving and maintaining the R-1: Doctoral University–Very High Research Activity designation from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
With its commitment to opportunity, academic excellence and groundbreaking discovery, UTA has reimagined what an elite research university can look like.
“Our distinctly Maverick approach is what makes us a national treasure,” Cowley said.