College of Science

Dear Students, Friends, and Colleagues:

I extend a warm welcome to you to the College of Science and hope you enjoy the new look and features on our website. It has been a great privilege for me to serve as Dean of the College of Science since July 2005. These two years of excitement and challenges have been consistently and deeply rewarding. 

It has also been a wonderful experience to interact directly with some of the best students I have ever met during my 22 years in academia. This year, after a four year hiatus, I taught a course in the Mitte Honors program, working with an outstanding group of students from across the disciplines – fine arts, psychology, biology, just to name a few. Their commitment to learning beyond a conventional classroom experience, to make important connections beyond their majors, and to learn about each other has been inspiring to me as a teacher. My work with our many fine H-LSAMP scholars, a program dedicated to bringing diversity to careers in science, engineering, and technology, has been equally enriching. Most importantly, these experiences reinforce my belief that the College of Science at Texas State continues a strong tradition of caring for the young minds that we are privileged to teach. 

Many of our faculty have earned well deserved teaching awards and continue to excel and innovate in teaching. From this strong foundation, the College of Science is moving assertively towards a culture of serious research that also nurtures undergraduate and graduate students and prepares them for a diversity of careers in academia, industry and government, as well as in teaching science and mathematics in our public schools. Towards this end, we have hired more than 30 new outstanding faculty members in the last three years who are actively engaged in teaching and scholarly activities. We established our first College of Science doctoral program in Aquatic Resources in 2003, and will graduate our first PhD candidate this summer.  This coming year, we will begin two new doctoral programs in Mathematics and Mathematics Education. In the next two to three years, we expect to usher in two additional doctoral programs in Materials Science and Engineering and Computer Science, respectively.  The $5 M gift from Bruce and Gloria Ingram to create the new Ingram School of Engineering has extended the mission and vistas of the future for the College and our students; we hope to have the founding director in place in fall 2007. Our college leadership team has undergone major changes as well, with two new Associate Deans and four new Department chairs hired since January 2006.  We have an outstanding College staff, supporting our students and faculty with the highest professionalism and exemplary work ethic.

By any measure, I believe we are a stronger and better College than we were five years ago. I am confident that we will continue to build an outstanding community and culture of science at Texas State for many years to come. We are proud to be the College of Science, and I invite you to explore our website and become familiar with the many areas where we strive for excellence and service to our global community.

Sincerely,

Hector E. Flores
Dean, College of Science