Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

As experience tells us, often past is prologue. So, if our past year’s achievements, as I highlighted in my “retrospective” message last week, here at S&T are any indication, then all in all the year ahead is promising. Of course, success is never by chance, and we continue to work to create the future we seek. 

Fortunately, we have lots to do as we welcome 2026. But we are prepared to continue to implement our plans to achieve our ambitious North Star goals of elevating S&T, creating greater visibility, and ensuring economic development for the region. 

Our milestones for the coming year include the opening of S&T's eagerly awaited Missouri Protoplex, launching the Jaggi School of Business, proceeding with the construction of our largest capital project, the Missouri Bioplex, enhancing our STEM outreach programs, fully establishing our St. Louis location, and holding the planned celebration of our newest class of Alumni of Influence. 

Our guide for implementation will continue to be S&T's strategic plan. Further, we have launched Miner AI as a central hub to connect students, faculty, staff and alumni with AI-related resources. Miner AI supports education for users of AI, advanced coursework for developers of AI, and campus access to AI tools. Efforts are underway to integrate AI into academic programs and university operations. The provost is working closely with faculty to ensure every Missouri S&T student graduates with a defined level of AI competency. These AI skills will strengthen graduate preparation and long-term professional success.

In fact, artificial intelligence will become a common denominator in all our Strategic Focus Areas. Needless to say, in academia, like in many other sectors, the rate of change is moving at the speed of AI, and our faculty and researchers are already a part of creating a future AI-fluent world and graduates. Specifically, we will enable our graduates to demonstrate large language modeling skills, incorporate AI tools in their work and contribute to the new AI world ahead.  

As we count down to America’s 250th anniversary, and as we keep our focus on key education outcome indicators, we will continue to enroll stellar students, implement state-of-the-art student support programs, and recruit exceptional faculty, researchers and staff.

I predict that we – our students, faculty and staff, research teams, collaborators and supporters – will continue to discover, disrupt, innovate and create a better future, not only for our students, but also for our state, nation and the world. 

To all, I say, happy 2026. Let’s make this year what we want it to be, and rest assured that we, here at S&T, remain resolute on our resolution to continue Solving for Tomorrow!

Warmly,

-Mo.
 
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Check out the latest news from S&T:

• S&T named NCAA Award of Excellence finalist for tornado recovery efforts
• Seetharaman named chair of materials science and engineering
• Missouri S&T honors alumnus for professional distinction

Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
chancellor.mst.edu