School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
The School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics offers both graduate and undergraduate programs in Biology and Molecular Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Geosciences, Mathematics, and Physics, and a graduate program in Science Education. Certain options may exceed minimum requirements for a degree. Undergraduate and post-baccalaureate programs in teacher certification are administratively housed in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics but serve other schools as well.
The undergraduate programs in Biology and Molecular Biology provide a basic foundation in molecular and cell biology to prepare students for graduate studies in biological sciences (BS), for professional studies in a wide variety of health-related areas, for secondary school teaching, and for employment as research assistants in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, government, and environmental science laboratories (BS, BA).
The undergraduate programs in Chemistry and Biochemistry provide the fundamental knowledge required for professional participation in chemically oriented industries, for graduate study in chemistry, and for medical or dental studies (BS), or for secondary science teaching or ancillary positions (sales, legal, etc.) in the chemical industries (BA).
The undergraduate program in Geosciences provides a general scientific background suitable for some careers in business or law, for secondary school teaching, or for employment as a professional geologist, or for graduate studies in Geosciences (BS).
The undergraduate programs in Mathematics (BS, BA) encompass Mathematics, Statistics, and Applied Mathematics, and are designed so that students can have the opportunity to prepare for employment immediately upon graduation in a broad range of positions in business, industry, government, and education - or for continuing with graduate studies in any of these areas.
The undergraduate program in Actuarial Science (BS) provides a rigorous mathematical background with special courses in finance, economics, applied statistics, insurance, and actuarial science devoted to preparing students for actuarial exams.
The undergraduate Physics program offers a basic foundation in classical and modern physics for students interested in professional careers in physics, usually requiring graduate degrees, as well as in related fields, e.g., electrical engineering, medical physics, radiology, lasers, geophysics, computer science (BS), or a strong base in physics for students seeking to pursue careers in medicine, patent law, government or industrial laboratories, or secondary school teaching (BA).
The School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics also provides opportunities for students to complete Texas Teacher Certification requirements in Life Science, Chemistry, Physical Science, Composite Science, and Mathematics. Students who wish to be certified should consult UTeach Dallas for specific requirements as soon as possible after formal admission to the University. Further details may be found in the Teacher Education Certification Programs section of the catalog.
Major Honors
The Departments of the School of Natural Science and Mathematics offer the opportunity for outstanding students to graduate with Honors or Honors with Distinction in their major. The program provides for these students to work individually with faculty for an in-depth experience in research.
Eligibility requirements include:
- at least 30 graded semester credit hours of coursework at UT Dallas with a cumulative grade point average of 3.750,
- at least 12 semester credit hours of upper-division courses in the student's major with a grade point average of 3.750 overall the upper-division courses in the major, and
- completion of an honors thesis evaluated by two faculty members with a grade of at least B+.
The thesis should be submitted at least three weeks prior to the last day of classes of the term. It is then critiqued by the faculty mentor, returned to the student for revision and resubmission by the last day of classes of the term.
Honors with Distinction will be awarded to students whose theses are judged by a faculty committee of at least three members to be of exemplary quality, and if carried to fruition, would warrant publication in a journal in the field of work.
Minors
To minor in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, students must take a minimum of 18 semester credit hours for the minor, 12 of which must be upper-division semester credit hours. Students who take a minor will be expected to meet the normal prerequisites in courses making up the minor, and should maintain a minimum GPA of 2.000 on a 4.00 scale (C average). Semester credit hours may not be used to satisfy both the major and minor requirements; however, free elective semester credit hours or major preparatory classes may be used to satisfy the minor. Students must complete all prerequisite sequences for required minor courses for all minors in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Students may choose to minor in any of the following fields of study:
- Actuarial Science
- Biology
- Biomolecular Structure
- Chemistry
- Geosciences
- Mathematics
- Microbiology
- Molecular and Cell Biology
- Neurobiology
- Physics
- Statistics
- Secondary STEM Education
Faculty
Professors: Phillip C. Anderson, Zalman I. Balanov, Kenneth J. Balkus Jr., Ray H. Baughman, Swati Biswas, Lunjin Chen, Min Chen, Pankaj K. Choudhary, Gerardo Cisneros, Baris Coskunuzer, Mieczyslaw K. Dabkowski, Vladimir Dragovic, Rockford K. Draper, Shengwang Du, Sam Efromovich, John P. Ferraris, Yulia Gel, Robert Glosser, Matthew J. Goeckner, Juan E. González, Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki, Wieslaw Krawcewicz, David J. Lary, Mark Lee, Xinchou Lou, David Lumley, Roger Malina, Anton V. Malko, Susan E. Minkoff, Inga H. Musselman, Bruce M. Novak, L. Felipe Pereira, Dmitry Rachinskiy, Viswanath Ramakrishna, Lawrence J. Reitzer, A. Dean Sherry, Stephen Spiro, Mihaela C. Stefan, Robert J. Stern, Janos Turi, Robert M. Wallace, Anvar A. Zakhidov, Chuanwei Zhang, Li Zhang, Michael Qiwei Zhang, Jie Zheng, John Zweck
Associate Professors: Jung-Mo Ahn, Maxim Arnold, Michael C. Biewer, Thomas H. Brikowski, Yan Cao, Sheena D'Arcy, Fabiano Da Silveira Rodrigues, Jeff L. DeJong, Nikki Delk, Gregg R. Dieckmann, Sheel Dodani, Heng Du, Yuri Gartstein, Jeremiah J. Gassensmith, Warren J. Goux, Liang Hong, Michael Kesden, Tae Hoon Kim, Lindsay J. King, Yifei Lou, Lloyd Lumata, Bing Lv, Oleg Makarenkov, Gabriele Meloni, Faruck Morcos, Steven O. Nielsen, Tomoki Ohsawa, Kelli Palmer, Paul Pantano, John W. Sibert IV, Jason D. Slinker, Ronald A. Smaldone, Anh Tran, Duane D. Winkler, Zhenyu Xuan, Fan Zhang, Hejun Zhu
Assistant Professors: Carlos Arreche, Sy Han (Steven) Chiou, Ronan Conlon, Nicole De Nisco, Nicholas Dillon, Purna Joshi, Michael Kolodrubetz, Jiyong Lee, Qiwei Li, Stephen McKeown, Jyoti Misra, Kaloyan Penev, Darshan Sapkota, Xiaoyan Shi, Chuan-Fa Tang, Nathan Williams, Yunan Wu
Clinical Professors: Natalia Humphreys, David Murchison
Clinical Associate Professor: Mohammad Akbar
Research Professors: John W. Geissman, Roderick A. Heelis
Research Assistant Professors: Lan Guo, Li Liu
Senior Lecturers: Brady McCary, Wen-Ho Yu
Professors Emeriti: Larry P. Ammann, Hans Bremer, Lee A. Bulla, Richard A. Caldwell, Austin J. Cunningham, David E. Dunn, Donald M. Gray, Walter Heikkila, M. Ali Hooshyar, Joseph M. Izen, George A. McMechan, Richard M. Mitterer, Patrick Odell, Emile A. Pessagno Jr., Dean C. Presnall, Myron B. Salamon, Brian A. Tinsley, John W. Van Ness
Associate Professors Emeriti: Gail A. M. Breen, Dennis L. Miller
UT Dallas Affiliated Faculty: Hervé Abdi, Alain Bensoussan, Kyeongjae (KJ) Cho, John P. Ferraris, Massimo V. Fischetti, Heather Hayenga, Julia W. P. Hsu, Stefano Leonardi, Stephen D. Levene, Faruck Morcos, Lawrence J. Overzet, A. Dean Sherry, Mary L. Urquhart, Zhenyu Xuan, Michael Qiwei Zhang
Professors of Instruction: Anatoly Eydelzon, Manjula Foley, Bentley T. Garrett, Yuly Koshevnik, Paul Mac Alevey, Scott A. Rippel, Amandeep Sra, Uma Srikanth
Associate Professors of Instruction: Mohammad Ahsan, Kelly Aman, Mehmet Candas, Sergio Cortes, Malgorzata Dabkowska, Rabin Dahal, Sandhya R. Gavva, William R. Griffin, Yu Huang, Changsong Li, Wen-Ju Lin, Derege Mussa, My Linh Nguyen, Jigarkumar Patel, Elizabeth Pickett, Ignacio Pujana, Yanping Qin, Ilya Sapozhnikov, Kuei Sun, Julie Sutton, Tristan Whalen
Assistant Professors of Instruction: Anani Komla Adabrah, Iris Alvarado, Hui Ding, Adannah Duruoha, Kemelli Estacio-Hiroms, Huizhen Guo, Joselle Kehoe, Amena Khan, Ida Klang, Runzhou Liu, Meenakshi Maitra, Neha Makhijani, Irina Martynova, Caitlin Maynard, Iti Mehta, Diarisoa Mihaja Rakotomalala, Ramesh Padmanabhan, Jing Pan, Nimanka Panapitiya, Ajaya Paudel, Mortaza Pirouz, Ruben D. Ramirez, Eva Sadat, Lamya Saleh, Subha Sarcar, Nasrin Sultana, Kristen Wetzler, Michelle Wilson, Zhuoru Wu