Programs and Centers
Agroecology
The Agroecology program at UTRGV combines student-centered research, education, and community engagement in various projects to address locally relevant issues that affect agroecosystems in South Texas, including sustainable agriculture, community-supported agriculture, urban forestry, and sustainable food systems.
Annual Research Conference
The Annual Science Symposium serves as a forum for the dissemination of new scientific knowledge and discussion of scholarly ideas to foster interaction among students, faculty, and the local industry and community. The symposium invites poster and oral presentations of scholarly work from all disciplines. Sessions will be organized by discipline or by themes. All UTRGV undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff, as well as the public, are welcome to attend.
Center for Excellence in STEM Education
The Center of Excellence in STEM Education builds a community of faculty who are leaders in Challenge-Based Instruction and student programs in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields.
Coastal Studies Laboratory
The Coastal Studies Laboratory located on South Padre Island was established in 1973 and is dedicated to providing educational opportunities, enhancing research, engaging in public service, and providing community outreach related to coastal and marine concerns in the Gulf of Mexico with special emphasis on the South Texas region.
Mathematics and Science Academy
For high school students gifted in mathematics and science, UTRGV’s Mathematics and Science Academy (MSA) offers an exceptional academic path to foster that potential and deliver unparalleled learning opportunities. The MSA is an award-winning program in which Texas 11th and 12th grade high school students take classes from UTRGV faculty, alongside UTRGV students, and gain invaluable university experience with more heightened supervision and guidance than traditional UTRGV students.
South Texas Space Science Institute
We are an interdisciplinary space science institute that spans multiple departments within UTRGV, including The Department of Physics & Astronomy, The School of Integrative Biological and Chemical Sciences, and The School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences. We encompass two internationally recognized research centers - the Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy (CGWA) and the Center for Advance Radio Astronomy (CARA). Notably, in 2015, several faculty and staff from these research centers were involved in the Nobel-prize-winning detection of gravitational waves.
UTRGV High Scholars Program
The College of Sciences at UTRGV has established an exciting new program to engage high school students from the Rio Grande Valley in research projects being conducted by the university faculty at UTRGV's Brownsville and Edinburg campuses. The goal of this 9-week summer research program is to promote student interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in "real time" laboratory or field research projects.
USDA IFSEEN Program
The goal of the IFSEEN consortium is to create an educational program to address the NIFA areas (i.e. (a) Curricula Design and Materials Development, (e) Student Experiential Learning, and (f) Student Recruitment and Retention) through collaboration among four major HSIs in Texas and New Mexico.
UTeach
UTeach – UTRGV is a four-year, teacher preparation program for science and math majors modeled after the nationally recognized UTeach program established at The University of Texas at Austin in 1997. Four universities in 21 states and the District of Columbia are implementing UTeach programs that prepare STEM teachers for secondary classrooms, and UTeach also offers training for teachers who are already in the classroom.