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The following faculty members earned the honorary title of Emeritus in 2022 in recognition of their distinguished service to the University of North Texas.

Mary Lynn Babcock
Professor Emerita, Dance and Theatre

Retiring with more than 35 years of experience. Dr. Mary Lynn Babcock was widely regarded as an excellent collaborator and colleague who contributed immensely to the Department of Dance and Theatre. She built a distinguished record of creative research and publication, including over 20 choreographed dance pieces; 25 peer-reviewed, invited, and/or commissioned paper presentations and co-presentations on practice-based research with undergraduate students; 10 chapter and article publications; and more than 50 workshops/master classes at universities and in Egypt, Brazil, Jamaica, Portugal, and the Netherlands, as well as at top professional organizations such as the National Dance Education Organization, Dance and the Child international, and the Conference on Research in Dance. Embracing student-centered learning and community engagement through dance as well as emphasizing the significance of the subjective body and the study of the self in dance, she taught a wide range of courses from modern dance techniques to choreography, Laban Movement Studies, and dance and technology. Always looking for ways to infuse invention and innovation in the undergraduate dance curriculum, she created and served as coordinator for a unique media/dance lab for students, affectionately called "the MacLab," to investigate dance performance and choreography with direct application of digital media. Dr. Babcock also sustained an outstanding record of service on important standing and ad hoc committees within the department that extended to serving for several years as the dance advisor and as building representative. Her passion for dance and dance education was and will continue to be an inspiration to students and to all who had the opportunity to work alongside her.

Bill P. Buckles
Professor Emeritus, Computer Science and Engineering

Dr. Buckles served as associate dean for research and graduate studies for three years. He also served as an associate department chair (a.k.a. graduate coordinator) for another two years. His leadership roles included four years as chair of the College of Engineering PAC Committee, a one year as the chair for the department's Promotion and Tenure Committee, and chair of several ad hoc committees charged with the search and hiring of qualified tenure-track faculty. Dr. Buckles was also a contributing member of several important departmental committees including the Executive Committee (several times) and the Undergraduate Studies Committee (2018-2020). Of approximately 230 peer reviewed papers published over his career, approximately 70 appear with a UNT affiliation. Grants administered at UNT were supported with funds from the NSF, State of Texas, and TxDOT. In addition, Dr. Buckles transferred $400,000 of a ballistic missile defense grant to UNT. While chair of the 2015 IEEE International Conference on Communication and Network Technologies, he used his influence to bring the conference to Denton packaged with a tour of the Discovery Park campus by attendees.

Richard A. Dixon
Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus, Biological Sciences

Dr. Richard A. Dixon served as University Distinguished Research Professor from 2012 to 2021 and was founding director of the BioDiscovery Institute, one of UNT's Institutes of Research Excellence, from 2015 until 2017, and associate director until 2021. He is one of the world's pre-eminent plant biologists whose work has featured in interviews with major outlets including the BBC, NYT, and Canadian Broadcasting Service. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Society of Plant Physiologists. With over 84,000 citations of his more than 500 papers, Dr. Dixon is the third most highly cited author in the field of plant biology. He trained a large cohort of scientists who now hold faculty positions across the world, and mentored a 2021 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. Dr. Dixon received numerous prestigious awards including being elected Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University. He serves on the board of a number of international science advisory boards and is active in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London. He currently sits on the editorial boards of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Professor Dixon was recipient of UNT's Presidential Excellence Award (2016) and received governor's commendations from the states of Oklahoma (2013) and Texas (2018).

Richard M. Golden
Professor Emeritus, History

Dr. Richard M. Golden earned his Ph.D. in History at Johns Hopkins University in 1975. He taught at Clemson University from 1974 until 1994 when he joined the UNT Department of History as a full professor. Dr. Golden served as department chair from 1994 until 2001, created UNT's African American and Mexican American Studies minors, received the “Professing Women Award” from the UNT Women's Studies Roundtable, and was selected as a Regents Faculty Lecturer. A scholar of early modern France, Dr. Golden has been the recipient of numerous grants, including from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Newberry Library. He has written or edited six books, numerous articles, and more than one hundred book reviews or book notes. The four volume Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition received the Roland H. Bainton prize for best reference book in 2007. From 1985 until 2010, he served as a book review editor for the Religious Studies Review. A committed educator, Dr. Golden taught 17 undergraduate and eight graduate courses and chaired the CLEP Social Studies Test Development Committee for the Educational Testing Service between 1998 and 2006. In 2001, Dr. Golden founded the UNT Jewish Studies program (renamed the Jewish and Israel Studies program in 2014) which he directed and raised $1.5 million dollars to support. He served as the elected co-director of the Association for Jewish Studies Program Directors' Network from 2015 to 2016, and he was named the “Jewish Professional of the Year” by the Regional Hillels of North Texas in 2006.

Stephen Guynes
Regents Professor Emeritus, Information Technology and Decision Sciences

Dr. Steve Guynes co-founded the Department of Information Technology and Decision Sciences in the mid-1980s and has been the driving force behind its undergraduate information systems curriculum. Through his leadership and direction, the department created and operated the Information Systems Research Center, one of the few centers in the university at that time. Although the department has expanded its curriculum over the past decade, the BS-BCIS has always been the cornerstone of the department. Thanks to Dr. Guynes' guidance and his role in faculty hiring and development over the years, it is one of the most technically solid undergraduate degrees in any AACSB college of business world-wide.

Andrew Harris
Professor Emeritus, Dance and Theatre

Dr. Andy Harris joined UNT in 2003 as a professor of theatre, bringing with him a meritorious reputation as a scholar, teacher, advocate, and mentor. For his publication The Performing Set: The Broadway Designs of William and Jean Eckart, he received the Golden Pen Award from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology and was invited to present the Golden Pen Lecture at the organization's national conference. He also published World Theatre after 1700, a 700+ page text examining the nature of theatre across various cultures and historical periods. Dr. Harris taught a range of courses from theatre history (a core class) and play analysis to playwriting. His keen interest in theatre history and U.S. musicals led to the development of “The Broadway Theatre," a popular course among students that always filled to enrollment capacity within the first days of registration. The two courses in theatre history required Herculean efforts by Dr. Harris that resulted in both being approved by CLEAR to be taught fully online. Dr. Harris also accumulated a lengthy list of directing credits at UNT, from Sophocles' Antigone, Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters and Moliere's The Misanthrope to the musical Once Upon A Mattress, to Lillian' Helman's The Little Foxes, to Arthur Miller's The Crucible, David Auburn's Proof, and Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett's The Diary of Anne Frank, which was produced on Zoom and reached audiences in 30 states. Dr. Harris always went the extra mile to seek out innovative ways to enrich UNT theatre programming as well as students' experiences with and in theatre. 

Marie-Christine Koop
Professor Emerita, World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

Dr. Marie-Christine Koop retired from her 25-year career at UNT with a record of distinguished service in teaching, scholarship and service, which was honored with awards from the French government (2017) and the Quebec government (2014). Dr. Koop obtained external grants totaling over $400,000, a record for her department in a field where grants are not typical. She acquired international recognition as a scholar, publishing 8 co-edited books, a French textbook,31 peer-reviewed articles, and 16 book chapters. Dr. Koop created and taught many undergraduate and graduate courses that were among her department's most popular, directed ten master's theses, and created and directed several semester-long study abroad programs as well as a graduate Summer Institute and several international exchange programs. She was department chair from 2004 to 2012 and served on many important departmental, college, and university committees. Nationally, she served as president of the American Association of Teachers of French from 2007 to 2009 and was vice president of the North America Commission of the International Federation of Teachers of French, in addition to serving as a member of its Executive Council.

T. David Mason
Regents Professor Emeritus, Political Science

In his 17 years at UNT, Dr. Dave Mason solidified himself as one of the leading peace science scholars in the nation. He accomplished this through a range of scholarship that is extensive and enduring. Two of his most important articles — “How Civil Wars End” and “The Political Economy of Death Squads” — have generated more than 500 citations each. Dr. Mason's overall record of publication and impact puts him among the top scholars in the fields of comparative politics and peace science. While amassing this impressive scholarly record, Dr. Mason also helped create the Castleberry Peace Institute at UNT and directed the Peace Studies program. He retired as a Regents Professor and one of two endowed professors in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. His exceptional record of scholarship, service, teaching, and leadership earned him both the UNT Foundation Leadership Award (2015) and the Eminent Faculty Award (2016), two of UNT's highest faculty honors. 

Margaret Notley
Professor Emerita, Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology

Dr. Notley's most significant professional accomplishments are to be found in her published scholarship and graduate mentoring. During her 18 years at UNT, she published nine articles in prominent peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Musicology and in books produced by major academic presses such as Cambridge University Press. She is the only author to publish two books in the American Musicological Society's premier series, AMS Studies in Music (Oxford University Press). Dr. Notley also supervised seven doctoral dissertations and eight master's theses. Her advisees won national or international awards from the American Musicological Society, the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), and the OeAD (Austria's Agency for Education and Internationalization). They hold permanent teaching positions at University of the Incarnate Word, University of Northern Colorado, and Butler University. In recognition of her graduate mentoring, Dr. Notley was awarded the Faculty Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring from the UNT Graduate Student Council in 2006.

John Robert (Haj) Ross
Professor Emeritus, Linguistics

Dr. John Robert (Haj) Ross is one of the most cited linguists in comparison to many other colleagues in the field. Besides being a world class linguist, he is also a prolific poet of both national and international repute. As an educator, his popularity among students across disciplines spanning over several decades was unparalleled and his dedication to their success was unmatched. Haj's contributions to the field of linguistics over more than 50 years made him a household name in linguistics departments around the world. He dedicated himself to his vision of an interdisciplinary educational environment throughout his career, teaching and working with people across disciplines in its true sense, making linguistics accessible to all students. His groundbreaking work in syntactic theory in the early days of generative syntax and the work he continued to do over several decades searching for answers to grammatical “misfits” was truly exceptional and leaves a lasting mark in the field. His continuing research on the phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and poetic structure of English and other languages has intellectual, philosophical and artistic merit, making his work transformative to the fields of linguistic inquiry and creative arts. 

James Ryon
Professor Emeritus, Instrumental Studies

Dr. Ryon had a distinguished career as a music educator. His students occupy positions in the United States Navy Band, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Hartford Symphony Orchestra and others. Several students have had far reaching careers in different musical venues, including a staff member for actor Dustin Hoffman. Dr. Ryon's students have been successful in competitions at UNT and at LSU where he was a faulty member for several years prior to his appointment at UNT. He performed as principal oboe with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra and has performed as a soloist with InterHarmony Festival Orchestra in Illinois, the Southern Illinois Festival, Louisiana Sinfonietta and Sinfonica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro. He also recorded several CDs, which expanded the oboe literature and introduced new Brazilian styles to the oboe literature. Dr. Ryon was the coordinator for woodwind chamber music at the time of his retirement, an important position that had an impact on the overall chamber music program. He was a member of the Instrumental Studies Review, Promotion and Tenure Committee, and the UNT Concerto Ad Hoc Faculty Advisory Committee. 

Mazhar Siddiqi
Professor Emeritus, Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, and Law

Throughout his 30 years as a professor at UNT, Dr. Mazhar Siddiqi consistently distinguished himself through numerous awards, excellence in research and teaching, and outstanding service and commitment to the students, department, and college. Dr. Siddiqi's research includes 17 refereed journal articles of which 12 were sole-authored. His research focused on finance topics such as dividend policy, spinoffs, capital structure and option pricing, and appeared in top-rated journals such as the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Financial Review, Journal of Financial Research, and Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting. An area where Dr. Siddiqi truly excelled and made his greatest contribution was in his roles as a professor and mentor to the students in the finance doctoral program. He co-authored five publications with his doctoral students which greatly assisted in the launching of their careers and research. Dr. Siddiqi always stepped forward to support the department when needed and taught courses at the undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels. He served on 19 dissertation committees and chaired five. As a charter holder of the Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA), he assisted many students in obtaining their CFA certification, critical for a career in the investment management profession. He played a key role with the student investment group, serving as its faculty advisor and assisting with the management of a significant investment portfolio valued in excess of $700,000. His significant contributions will have a long-lasting impact on the department and college.

Thomas Sovik
Professor Emeritus, Music History, Theory and Ethnomusicology

Dr. Sovik's most significant professional accomplishments are to be found in his innovative teaching and academic leadership. During his three decades at UNT, he led the charge in integrating popular music into the College of Music's curriculum, designing and launching MUET 3020 (Popular Music in American Culture) for both in-person and asynchronous, online formats. In 2014, he published the first of three volumes of a textbook and accompanying workbook, Popular Music in our American Culture: Rethinking History through the Ears of Music, with McGraw-Hill. Dr. Sovik served seven years as division chair and 30 years as the director of Central European Studies and Exchanges. In the latter capacity, he organized 14 study abroad programs for UNT students and three international festivals featuring Czech music and opera. He is the recipient of many awards, including UNT's ‘Fesser Graham Award and the Jan Amos Comenius Lifetime Achievement Award for Contributions to Education.

Abbas Tashakkori
Professor Emeritus, Educational Psychology

Dr. Abbas Tashakkori has taught psychology, statistics, and research methodology for four decades in undergraduate and graduate programs. He was a professor of research and evaluation methodology at the University of North Texas for 12 years and served as department chair for eight and a half of those years. He has extensive experience as a program evaluator, having a Level-A evaluator Certificate from the Louisiana Department of Education. His leadership includes serving as founding chair of the Mixed Methods Special Interest Group at the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and the founding co-editor of the prestigious Journal of Mixed Methods Research. In addition to numerous journal articles, chapters, and invited keynote speeches, his scholarly contributions include multiple books, including Education of Hispanics in the U.S., Mixed Methodology, Foundations of Mixed Methods for Social and Behavioral Sciences (two editions), and the Handbook of Mixed Methods (two editions). His work has been translated into multiple languages across the globe.

Carmen Terry
Principal Lecturer Emerita, World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

Carmen Terry, principal lecturer of German, retired from her 20-year career at UNT with a record of distinguished service in the areas of teaching and service. Teaching made up 80% of her workload, and she excelled at it. Her average student evaluation score was 4.79 on a scale of 5, placing her among the very best teachers in her department. Her work was honored with the UNT College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Excellence Award in 2014 and at the national level with the 2013 American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) Certificate of Merit for Outstanding Achievement in furthering the teaching of German in U.S. schools. Upon her retirement, several students from more than a decade ago shared how her teaching and study abroad had impacted them and their lives. Indeed, her biggest legacy may lie in study abroad. She developed, organized, and led the first faculty-led study abroad program to Germany from 2007 through 2012 and then developed, organized, and led the second faculty-led study abroad program to Freiburg, Germany, from 2013 to 2018. Her work in this area led to her receiving the UNT International Citation for Distinguished Service in 2016. In the area of service, her contributions were numerous and made at all levels including as a UNT faculty senator, German coordinator, and chair of promotion committees.

Rex Wright
Professor Emeritus, Psychology

Dr. Rex Wright maintained an active research profile throughout hsi tenure at UNT, earning internal and external grants and managing three large-scale funded projects. His editorial activity included service as co-editor-in-chief of Motivation Science, membership on several editorial boards, and service as co-editor of special issues of the journals Motivation and Emotion and Polish Psychological Bulletin. He published 54 book chapters and articles, one book, and co-organized three international conferences. In 2019 alone, Professor Wright gave nine invited colloquia, including ones at universities in Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. Professor Wright's scientific articles consistently appeared in high profile journals such as Perspectives on Psychological Science (impact factor = 9.87), Behavioral and Brain Sciences (impact factor = 17.33), and Psychophysiology (impact factor = 4.02). Professor Wright supervised a regular flow of undergraduate research assistants and Honors College students in addition to serving on 15 graduate committees, not only in the psychology department but also in the School of Business and at other universities in the U.S. and Europe.