The College of Science is pleased to welcome Dr. Neal Smatresk to our UNT faculty roster in the department of Biological Sciences this fall. Most will know him from his role as UNT president for the past ten years, and in his new position, he said he aims to leverage his institutional knowledge and passion for research to continue to grow our STEM pursuits and student success at the University of North Texas.

"I plan on teaching a class called STEM Startups that will help our graduate students understand intellectual property, licensing, and how to get a small tech business off the ground," said Dr. Smatresk, who will also be assisting with licensing and IP in the UNT Tech Transfer and Commercialization office. "I have always loved teaching and witnessing students grow as they move through their degrees."

During his time as UNT president, Dr. Smatresk led the charge to develop degree plans to keep up with fast-growing fields such as business analytics, data science, and urban policy and planning. Through the new STEM Startups and mentorship, he hopes to further his efforts in helping students and faculty get engaged in entrepreneurship and contemporary career planning.

"I welcome all UNT creators and innovators to reach out to me and see how we can help you translate your ideas into patents, licenses and business start-ups," he said in a recent post on LinkedIn. "In the meantime, please follow me on X @NSmatresk."

Under Dr. Smatresk's leadership, UNT was named a Tier One research university by the Carnegie Classification, identified as a top 10 U.S. public university on the rise, earned designation as both a Minority-Serving and Hispanic-Serving Institution, and grew in enrollment overall.