A University in Motion

In physics, momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. At Texas Tech University, momentum results from talented faculty working with some of the nation’s top students. It results from outreach programs to attract a new generation of students to college and research to answer some of the world’s most pressing needs.

When an object is in motion, it stays in motion. Our accomplishments in 2009 show that Texas Tech is making quantum leaps in pursuit of Tier One research status: our record-breaking enrollment, strategic leadership and unprecedented fundraising.

• The Knight Raiders chess team raked in national and state honors, ultimately qualifying for the President’s Cup to determine the U.S. college chess team champion. They also won the Texas Chess Association’s Texas Collegiate Championship, and International Master (IM) Gergely Antal, an economics major, won the 2009 U.S. Tournament of College Champions.

https://chessdailynews.com/incredible-growth-in-college-chess/

Welcome

Texas Tech University is moving into the most exciting era in our history, and 2009 proved to be a catalyst for the journey that will take us to the next level.

Thanks to the foresight of the Texas Legislature, Texas Tech began this journey to National Research University status with seven other state universities. Our team of alumni and supporters – among the most generous in the nation – responded by helping us raise more private research donations than all six other universities combined.

Fall enrollment numbers put us over the 30,000 mark for the first time in the university’s history. And, while quality undergraduate enrollment growth is essential, we are also developing new programs to attract the best and brightest graduate students. We’ve dedicated $2 million to a new Doctoral Fellowship Initiative to increase our doctoral student enrollment.

We are in the enviable position of having several well-funded endowed chairs and professorships open at this time, including two $7.5 million chairs in energy-related fields and another $1.5 million chair in nuclear engineering, and our state-of-the-art Experimental Sciences Building has space we can configure to suit specific needs as we recruit new research faculty.

Our research activities continued to flourish in 2009 as we expanded work in wind engineering research, contributed to the world’s largest particle collider project in Switzerland, and discovered the meteorite strike that may have wiped out the dinosaurs. Our acquisition of a high-performance computing cluster places us among the top 28 U.S. academic institutions for computer power.

The road to National Research University status is not a short one. Yet our objectives are clear and our focus is sharp. We will get there, sooner rather than later, I believe. Read on. Discover for yourself why we say, “From here, it’s possible.”

Guy Bailey
President
Texas Tech University