The President's Annual Report 2021 highlights the strides we made last year as a campus community resolutely committed to advancing achievement, inclusion, and ingenuity as we continue to ensure our students' success. We accomplished a great deal, including a return to campus and bracket-busting basketball wins that reinvigorated our mission to help students thrive.

After rising through the ranks and exhibiting indelible leadership, I have selected Dr. Pamela Padilla to serve as UNT's next vice president for research and innovation. Dr. Padilla is a professor of biological sciences who joined UNT in 2002, and has held progressive leadership roles while sustaining an active research laboratory that has helped elevate UNT as a Tier One research university. She currently serves as dean of our College of Science, and previously served as UNT's associate vice president for research and innovation. She is deeply engaged in recruiting minority students into STEM fields, and Dr. Padilla currently serves as president of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. I'm confident she will continue the good work initiated during Dr. Mark McLellan's tenure, while bringing new vision and innovation to this position. She will formally assume her role as vice president for research and innovation in June upon Dr. McLellan's retirement.

The curiosity, joy, and whimsy sparked by the unique items of the Texas Fashion Collection will be celebrated through May 21 in the UNT Art Building's CVAD Gallery. The exhibition "Delight: Selections from the Texas Fashion Collection" features more than 35 garments and accessories from the collection's world-class holdings, which include nearly 20,000 historic and designer pieces. Alumna Annette Becker ('15 M.A.), TFC director and curator, said every piece in the exhibition inspires "personal and emotional reactions that lead us to think more deeply about fashion's cultural meaning and importance." The exhibition is free and open to the public, and a UNT Alumni Association Family Day event is scheduled for March 26. Pictured from left are designer Patrick Kelly's pinstripe skirt suit with novelty dice print and buttons, Spring-Summer 1989, museum purchase; alumnus designer Michael Faircloth's white and gold evening dress with embroidery at the bust, 2006, gift of Laura Miller; and designer Vera Wang's evening dress of black silk and netting, Spring-Summer 2000, gift of Mercedes Bass.

As Valentine's Day approaches, alumni may reflect on finding love at UNT. The chemistry was there — literally — for Zhiling Zhang ('05 Ph.D.), pictured at left, and Xiaohu Xia ('03 Ph.D.), pictured at right, who met as doctoral students and members of the Chinese Student and Scholars Association. As you'll learn in this story, the pair's UNT roots have led them to highly successful careers as principal scientist at Mars, Inc. (the place where M&Ms are made!), and as senior scientist at AstraZeneca.