Monticino named dean of UNT graduate school

Dr. Michael Monticino has been named dean of the University of North Texas Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies effective July 1.

Monticino had been serving as interim dean since Jan. 1.

Prior to leading the Toulouse School, Monticino was associate dean for administrative affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor in the Department of Mathematics and the Institute for Applied Science. He joined the UNT faculty in 1990, and he was appointed associate dean in 2004. He also is an adjunct professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth.

Monticino has worked with the U.S. Navy, ABC TV, Southwest Airlines, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the Institute for Defense Analysis and IBM. His areas of expertise are statistical analysis, probability models, operations research and environmental modeling.

Monticino was founding president of the Mathematical Association of America Special Interest Group for Business Industry and Government, a link between business, industry and government mathematicians, academic mathematicians and mathematics students. He has been active in the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Visiting Lecturer Program.

Prior to joining UNT, Monticino was an associate with Daniel H. Wagner Associates Inc., a mathematical and computer science consulting firm.

Monticino earned a bachelor’s degree with high honors from the University of Florida and a doctoral degree in mathematics from the University of Miami.

Student lands grant

Aimie Runyan of Colorado Springs, Colo., a graduate student in French at UNT, is one of two students from the U.S. to receive a $5,000 grant from the International Association of Quebec Studies to spend three months in Quebec conducting research.

Runyan is earning a master’s degree in French from UNT via correspondence courses and the UNT Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures’ French Summer Institute, which enables those who are not able to enroll in the regular master’s program for professional reasons to earn the degree over three to five summers. Students attend the French Summer Institute for two weeks and must speak only French in class and with their classmates.