At Texas A&M University, the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study brings the world’s leading thinkers together with faculty and students and accelerates discoveries that matter. That attraction is clear in the numbers. Since its inception in 2011, the Hagler Institute has brought 161 world-class researchers to Aggieland: 146 Hagler Fellows and 15 Distinguished Lecturers.
It’s a cerebral crossroads where transformative thinkers don’t just visit; they spark ambitious research and shape new intellectual directions. Each year, Hagler Fellows arrive, handpicked for their trailblazing achievements, to work with select faculty and promising students during workshops, lectures and collaborative projects. The Hagler Institute becomes an incubator that fosters breakthroughs that transcend traditional boundaries and accelerate academic progress.
The Hagler experience creates a lasting impact, illuminating Texas A&M’s academic landscape. By setting a new standard for discovery, it supports the university’s pursuit of excellence, strengthens its global influence and stands as an intellectual force for good.
“In my over 25 years as a faculty member, I have never seen anything like the Hagler Institute,” said Dr. Angela Wilson, vice president for research at Texas A&M. “Indeed, in terms of research, it is a strategic advantage. The Hagler Institute embodies our Core Value of excellence. The Hagler Institute matters because it has such a tremendous impact upon research and the future direction of Texas A&M University research.
“The research culture at Texas A&M is absolutely phenomenal. There is such a can-do attitude in terms of ‘we can try anything, and we will do anything.’ The Hagler Institute is just an example of that. It is just going to help us continue to drive into the future for more discovery and more innovation,” she said.
The research culture at Texas A&M is absolutely phenomenal. There is such a can-do attitude in terms of ‘we can try anything, and we will do anything.’
Where outstanding faculty choose to stay
The institute has also proved to be an excellent recruiting tool for bringing top talent to Texas A&M. More than 20% of Hagler Fellows who completed their time at the institute have joined the university’s permanent faculty. And the presence of the Hagler Fellows has been a game changer, opening the door for the recruitment of additional National Academy-level scholars to the university’s faculty.
To date, 17 former Hagler Fellows have chosen to join the Texas A&M faculty. This track record of faculty appointments reflects a belief Junkins said he had from the beginning — that once these top-level minds came to Texas A&M as Hagler Fellows, experienced the collaborative spirit among faculty and took in a sampling of the university’s culture, they’d want to stay.
He was right. The first Hagler Fellow to join Texas A&M permanently was Dr. Alan Needleman, a world-renowned engineer and materials scientist known for groundbreaking contributions to computational modeling and the mechanics of materials. He was drawn to Texas A&M by Junkins’ vision for the institute.
“I came here and visited, and the people I met reinforced that (Junkins’ vision). It was a chance to try something out that I had never done before and to interact with people in ways I had not done before. It was something I found very exciting. When I got an offer about a year later to join the faculty here, I jumped at it,” he said.
Needleman’s hiring set off a chain reaction at Texas A&M. It not only helped build the Department of Materials Science and Engineering but also attracted other National Academy of Engineering scholars to the department. Among those who joined the faculty due in part to Needleman’s presence were National Academy of Engineering members Dr. George M. Pharr, Dr. Edwin L. “Ned” Thomas, Dr. Enrique Lavernia and Dr. Julie Schoenung. The department went from startup to world-class in just a few years.
Both as a Hagler Fellow and as a Texas A&M professor, Needleman said he especially enjoyed the collective ethos Junkins described.
“I enjoy interacting, and that was part of the attraction — to interact with accomplished people, whether Texas A&M faculty or Hagler Fellows, who have a different perspective from my perspective. Even if it’s not close to my field, I find that it broadens my perspective, and I get a new way of looking at things, both academic and nonacademic.
“I came here visiting (as a Hagler Fellow) and had a connection to Texas A&M. When the offer came (to join the faculty), it did not seem so strange. It was jumping into a place that I was comfortable with because of that experience,” he said.
Inviting fellows to College Station
Each year, the Hagler Institute attracts a number of nationally and internationally prominent scholars to the university as Hagler Fellows to pursue advanced study in collaboration with faculty and students at Texas A&M. The goal is to provide a stellar environment for research and scholarship, with the Hagler Fellows having the freedom to pursue their own research interests and collaborate in disciplinary and multidisciplinary research.
Each Hagler Fellow is affiliated with one or more of the doctoral degree-granting academic departments housed in the university’s 17 colleges and schools. Additional resources provide Texas A&M fellowships for graduate students and fund visiting graduate students and postdoctoral researchers affiliated with the Hagler Fellows.
According to Junkins, each spring, university tenure-track faculty who work in departments with graduate programs develop the nominations for the Hagler Fellows. He invites every tenure-track faculty member to perform a thought experiment.
“If I could have anyone on planet Earth in my field who is great in my profession and a great mentor and a thought leader come here and work with me for up to a year, and have somebody else pay for it, and have somebody else recruit them, who would it be?” he said.
Junkins said that each September, he receives about two dozen Hagler Fellow nominations from the colleges, which he shares with an all-volunteer screening committee of nine Distinguished Professors who thoroughly evaluate each nominee. The nominations are only two pages long, and the Hagler Institute builds a dossier on the accomplishments of each nominee.
Nominees must meet three criteria: They must have achieved National Academy-level recognition in their field, must still be active thought leaders in their field and must be great mentors.
“Only those who fulfill all three criteria are recruited. We want to bring people here who are great to work with. And almost invariably, that means they have a personality that values the people around them and the development of the people around them.
“And that, by the way, is the secret sauce. That is why the Hagler Institute works — because we just bring people here to do what they love, and we create everything around them to make it a very enjoyable experience,” said Junkins.
Promoting research excellence
The Hagler Institute’s structure not only brings prestigious academic names to the university but also helps its academic programs continue to move into the top tier among programs at national universities. As a result, Texas A&M is well-positioned to remain a global academic and research leader.
“The research culture at Texas A&M is absolutely phenomenal. There is such a can-do attitude in terms of ‘we can try anything, and we will do anything.’ The Hagler Institute is just an example of that. It is just going to help us continue to drive into the future for more discovery and more innovation,” Wilson said.
In part because of mentorship from Hagler Fellows, more Texas A&M faculty members have been nominated by their peers for membership in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Since the first Hagler Fellows class, the number of faculty members in these academies has grown dramatically. Initially, there were 11 members; in 2025, Texas A&M had 59 members. Junkins said he expects that growth to continue.
Research funding has also risen dramatically in the years since the Hagler Institute was established. Junkins said research funding at Texas A&M was about $500 million in 2011; in 2025, it had risen to $1.4 billion.
“Texas A&M in the future will contribute important innovations for our nation as well as our state in areas like national security, in water and energy resources, in agriculture, in space, in nuclear science, in so many different areas. We have a lot of exciting work to do, and we’re having a huge impact in areas like AI. Right now, we have the most powerful supercomputer at any university, and we’re going to move forward in quantum and other areas as well,” Wilson noted.
Even more impressive than the increase in research funding is the culture built by the Hagler Institute through the triad system, Junkins said.
“The Hagler Institute is really focused on helping senior faculty and Hagler Fellows set the culture in research — to understand that their role is to accelerate younger faculty and students to really build next-generation research talent,” he said.
It’s what Junkins believes is his legacy in the Hagler Institute.
“We’ve done something very important here. It’s contagious, and I think it’s a major reason why people are joining us (at Texas A&M).
The creation of the Hagler Institute was really focused on making senior faculty set the culture at an institution in research — to understand that their role is to elevate younger faculty and really build next-generation research talent.
“The Hagler Institute, in some sense, is an appendage of the university’s Distinguished Professors. My name is there as the leader of this, but I’m not alone. This is the Distinguished Professors taking ownership of the culture and taking ownership of an institute that is designed to bring more top scholars and elevate people already here, especially the young faculty and the graduate students. I think (the Hagler Institute) is a unique engine for change, powered by the ambition of the faculty to make us better,” he said.
Needleman agreed.
“For me, one of the most satisfying things is seeing young faculty start out and then develop their own perspective, their own way of doing things,” said Needleman. “That’s very successful, and it’s one of the greatest satisfactions of being an academic: seeing young people you work with grow up and really make very significant contributions. I love it.
“By connecting a Hagler Fellow with a department, and particularly with rising young faculty, it helps give them a boost not only in their work but in their visibility outside in the community. It encourages collaboration. And by being in the department interacting with one faculty member, they then meet other faculty members who may not have realized there is a potential collaboration. So it can be like a domino effect where that one collaboration leads to another. And after the Hagler Fellow leaves, the faculty now has a new perspective, a new visibility and can carry that forward in themselves,” he said.
By forging dynamic partnerships and attracting exceptional minds, the Hagler Institute and Texas A&M are together fueling discoveries that not only strengthen America’s future but also inspire global progress and generations of innovation.
The Hagler Institute helps supercharge the university and its faculty, attracting trailblazers whose collaborative energy pushes boundaries and propels Texas A&M to the forefront of discovery.
