NSF-ADVANCE Team Members

Institutional Background

Missouri State University (MSU) is the second largest university in Missouri and was founded in 1905 as the Fourth District Normal School, and it is a comprehensive institution offering nearly 100 undergraduate and 50 graduate programs, including 7 professional doctorates. Our main campus in Springfield has over 24,000 students, making it the institution with more students from Missouri than any other university in the state. The MSU system has two additional smaller campuses - West Plains, Missouri and Dalian, China. MSU has six colleges, and the majority of students in NSF-Approved STEM Fields are in the College of Natural and Applied Sciences (CNAS). Our CNAS departments are Biology, Chemistry, School of Earth, Environment and Sustainability, Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy and Material Science, and a Cooperative Engineering Program in conjunction with Missouri University of Science and Technology, which includes Electrical, Civil and Mechanical Engineering. Except for the engineering program, all CNAS departments offer a master’s degree. In total, there are 1,823 undergraduate and 187 graduate CNAS majors. Psychology, with 997 undergraduate and 88 graduate majors, is in the College of Health and Human Services, and other science departments, including Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology, History, Political Science and Philosophy and Finance, Economics and Risk Management, with a total of 673 undergraduate and 113 graduate majors, are in the Reynolds College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities or the College of Business.