As chair, Alana will lead the department’s academic, research, and administrative efforts while serving as a key strategic partner to Huntsman Cancer Institute. She will guide the department’s research strategy, support faculty in securing external funding, and oversee graduate education, faculty development, and resource management. In close collaboration with U of U Health and Huntsman Cancer Institute leadership, Welm will work to elevate the department’s national profile and foster a culture of innovation, inclusion, and scientific excellence.

Twenty-three University of Texas at Arlington students have been selected for the McNair Scholars Program, a competitive Department of Education program that prepares undergraduates for academic research careers.

“The McNair Scholars Program has proven to be a great way for undergraduate students considering a career in academia to see firsthand how scientific research is conducted and the real-world impacts that can come from it,” said Kayunta Johnson-Winters, director of undergraduate research at UTA and an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

Scientists from The University of Texas at Arlington are among the researchers worldwide recognized with the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their contributions to the ATLAS Experiment. The $1 million award honors the team’s groundbreaking work at the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization of Nuclear Research, known as CERN—the world’s largest particle physics laboratory—which led to the discovery of the Higgs boson, often called the “God particle” for its key role in explaining the existence of mass in the universe.