College of Arts & SciencesStrategic Priority Two

Key Performance Indicators

By 2030, we aspire to:

• Increase overall funding from all sources for infrastructural enhancement.
• Increase overall funding from all sources for instrumentation. 

Highlighted Initiatives

• The College of Arts and Sciences Microscopy (CASM) facility is Texas Tech's central resource for advanced imaging and cell cytometry. CASM welcomes local and regional users to access state-of-the-art instrumentation and expert training. Users can request independent access or fee-for-service projects, by arrangement. CASM supports multidisciplinary research, clinical applications, and educational initiatives from across the university and in our surrounding communities.
• CAS at Texas Tech partners with centralized and cross-college facilities to enhance research and innovation through shared infrastructure. Key partnerships include a $24 million investment in a new, state-of-the-art, multipurpose Clean Room facility led by, among others, Dr. Hieu P. Nguyen to advance semiconductor and nanotechnology, designed for collaborative research across colleges. In addition, faculty and students in CAS work with the High-Performance Computing Center to estimate and test parallel computational models. As another example, the Renewable Energy program and the National Wind Institute engage in collaborative research involving wind tunnel testing, field validation at the SWiFT facility (i.e., in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories, the Department of Energy (DOE), and private industry partners, such as Vestas), and computational modeling relevant to renewable energy initiatives.
• CAS encourages major grant applications to NSF’s Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program in October/November, each year, to purchase much-needed specialized research equipment. This limited submission program requires faculty and administrators to work across campus to submit competitive funding applications. In addition, major equipment funding is available through the NIH’s Modern Equipment Program (MEP) S15 for shared-use instrumentation ($300k–$2M+) to promote operations and protocols in biomedical research and engineering facilities (cf., NIH S10 program for commercial instruments for NIH-funded investigators). Applications are coordinated between CAS, OR&I, and other relevant units. 

Key Performance Indicators

By 2030, we aspire to:

• Increase annual federal proposal submissions from 357 to 503.
• Increase annual federal research expenditures from $1.32 million to $1.86 million.
• Increase total annual research expenditures from $5.18 million to $7.30 million.
• Increase our 10-year average citations rate by 45 percent.
• Increase our annual number of books published by 50 percent. 

Highlighted Initiatives

• The CAS Faculty Research Advancement Program (RAP) provides an internal source of money to support faculty’s research and creative activities as well as their active pursuit of extramural funding. This annual competition provides the opportunity to apply for two tiers of funding. RAP Black provides up to $10,000 to support faculty research and creative activities, whereas RAP Red provides up to $3,000 in support. Faculty recipients are acknowledged annually at our CAS Faculty Awards Banquet.
• Dr. Ronald Kendall of the Department of Environmental Toxicology works with wildlife conservation groups to help determine the cause of the decline of wild northern bobwhite quail, an iconic and economically important gamebird. Through more than a decade of research conducted by Dr. Kendall and his team, identified a parasitic infection, specifically eyeworms and cecal worms, as a major cause of the decline. 2024, the U.S. FDA approved the registration of a medicated quail feed known as QuailGuard®, invented by Dr. Kendall, which reduces parasitic infection in wild quail in their natural habitat. This strategy has been highly successful in enhancing and sustaining wild quail populations.
• The Department of Philosophy hosts an annual graduate conference that brings together a wide range of scholarly perspectives. The conference is entirely organized and run by graduate students. Working collaboratively, they select a theme connected to issues of regional, national, and/or global importance, invite a keynote speaker, secure funding, distribute a call for papers, referee submissions, and choose the presenters. While remaining rooted in the study of philosophy, the event reflects a strongly multidisciplinary spirit, drawing on diverse areas of research and fostering dialogue across fields. 

Key Performance Indicators

By 2030, we aspire to:

• Increase annual federal proposal submissions from 357 to 503.
• Increase annual federal research expenditures from $1.32 million to $1.86 million.
• Increase total annual research expenditures from $5.18 million to $7.30 million.
• Increase number of strategic hires across the college.
• Send bi-monthly updates on strategic investment priorities and funding opportunities. 

Highlighted Initiatives

• Texas Tech organizes around key strategic research themes that unify research centers, institutes, and investments to enhance scholarly and real-world impact. CAS faculty and students are leaders in strategic areas of research to support growth in federal funding, facilitate internationalization and commercialization efforts, and amplify our global reputation. For example, Dr. Natasja van Gestel of the Texas Tech University Department of Biological Sciences is leading critical climate change research, focusing on the impact of warming on Antarctic plants and soil microbes. Appointed as a Station Science Leader by the National Science Foundation, her work at Palmer Station is crucial for understanding ecosystem responses to climate change.
• The Department of Economics has strengthened research activity in areas tied to national security, energy markets, and environmental policy, illustrated most recently by Dr. Misak Avetisyan’s appointment as Research Fellow at the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Threats and Emergencies at the University of Southern California, with funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This appointment will further align CAS with developments at the TTU Reese National Security Complex.
• The Department of Physics and Astronomy is playing a leading role in the rapidly emerging field of quantum research and aims to further extend its research into nuclear science, which has close ties to national security. It is actively leveraging AI and quantum science key strategic research areas – astrophysics, biophysics, condensed matter physics, and high energy physics – to accelerate research in AI-enabled studies, quantum science, and the design and operation of some of the world’s most complex scientific instruments, while also expanding our ability to test new theories.
• Inter-disciplinary teams of atmospheric scientists, engineers, social scientists, and numerical modelers from the Department of Geosciences, working with the National Wind Institute, are enhancing atmospheric measurement and modeling techniques to improve meteorological forecasting, enhance weather intelligence, and improve the timeliness and accuracy of weather warnings in Texas and the region. The outcomes will inform hazard prediction and communication strategies to improve community preparedness and resilience.
• In the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Dr. Ori Swed's Peace, War, and Social Conflict Laboratory provides space for interdisciplinary policy-related research on issues of social, military, and extra-military conflict. This lab is actively creating a socio-professional network for students, scholars, and other stakeholders to communicate, share resources, and advance scholarship via online conferences, weekly meetings, and hosting of an academic journal. 

Key Performance Indicators

By 2030, we aspire to:

• Double our number of faculty and students nominated for external awards and fellowships.
• Establish consistent growth in month-to-month followers and reach across key social media platforms.
• Establish an average engagement time of between 60 and 75 seconds with an engagement rate of between 3.5 and 5.5 percent across all social media platforms. 

Highlighted Initiatives

• The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) has strategies to recruit, support, and retain faculty in alignment with its strategic research and creative activity priorities. CAS places particular emphasis on sustaining the success of existing faculty whose work drives high-impact scholarship and externally funded research. Ongoing retention and support efforts include negotiated development leaves, strategic startup investments, and support for research infrastructure and material. CAS continues to assess and deploy competitive salary adjustments, workload flexibility, and various forms of mentoring at key career stages.
• CAS drives strategic faculty research engagement by hosting TUF proposal workshops designed to expand faculty hiring aligned with institutional priorities. These sessions encourage chairs to engage in cross-college- and cross-campus partnerships, elevating the competitiveness and interdisciplinary reach of new faculty lines and shared-equipment investments.
• CAS has expanded its Internal Marketing Team (IMT) and centralized operations related to unit-level needs. This includes enhanced research-related content through stories shared online via social media or other advertising platforms, as well as centralized email communications and audience segmentation efforts both within the College and to external constituents. IMT is also developing new marketing materials for new and prospective faculty hires, highlighting the ways in which CAS can promote research-related success, stories, and facilities.