The Dean is pleased to recognize Autumn Miller-Arvidson as a recipient of this month's COS Excellence in Mastering Challenges Continuously (E=mc²) Award! This award was recently established by Dean Quintanilla to recognize outstanding efforts among full-time staff members within the College of Science and its departments.

"Autumn has made a huge impact on the daily lives of our graduate students. She works tirelessly to ensure that every graduate student is happy and healthy," said Dr. Timothy Stephens, Senior Instructional Lab Supervisor of UNT Chemistry. "Her work in graduate student recruiting for the department is unmatched."

Autumn has been the Student and Program Coordinator for the UNT Chemistry department's grad program since last August. Her workday involves lots of communication with graduate students, helping them complete degree paperwork and applications, as well as helping plan and coordinate departmental events.

"My favorite part of the job is interacting with our amazing graduate students! I really enjoy getting to know them, speaking with them about their research and the progress they are making, and being an ear when they just need to talk or are having a rough day." said Autumn. "I also love recruiting; I think it's so fun to get to meet new people and talk about our graduate program to prospective students."

UNT Chemistry, which recently won the 2023 UNT Outstanding Department Award, is welcoming one of the largest incoming classes of graduate students that the department has ever seen this fall. Autumn's passion for recruitment played a big role in this influx of students.

"Autumn was invited to be on a panel at the ACS Spring 2023 National Meeting along with recruiters from Harvard and Stanford to discuss and give insights to graduate student life in chemistry," said Dr. Stephens. "Because of her participation on that panel, we had students enroll who might have never considered UNT otherwise."

Autumn went to the University of Kansas and earned her BS in Environmental Studies with an emphasis on ethnobotany, a field of study that explores how people of a particular culture and region make use of native plants. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors hiking, kayaking, camping, and visiting National Parks.

Lisa Aguirre of the College of Science Graduate Studies Office was also a recipient of August's E=mc² Award. Dean Quintanilla plans to continue giving this award to two outstanding COS staff members every month. If you'd like a deserving staff member to receive the E=mc² award and a free meal at Avesta courtesy of the college, please complete this nomination form.