2008: UT Southwestern announced plans to open the BioCenter at Southwestern Medical District, a pivotal initiative to commercialize University technologies and attract leading biotech companies to the region.
2008: Expanding its footprint, UT Southwestern acquired the Exchange Park site and renamed it the Paul M. Bass Administrative and Clinical Center on North Campus, in honor of Mr. Bass, Chair Emeritus of Southwestern Medical Foundation. The site is now the future home of the New Pediatric Campus, slated to open in 2030, in partnership with Children’s Health.
2009: The opening of the $186 million Biomedical Research Building (NL Building on North Campus) marked a significant milestone as the largest LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver-certified laboratory space in Texas, demonstrating a commitment to sustainability and research excellence.
2010: The Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center achieved National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation – the first and only medical center in North Texas to receive this status for cancer research and patient care.
2011: Bruce Beutler, M.D., Director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at UTSW, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his groundbreaking discoveries related to the immune system.
2011: The UT System Board of Regents approved a name update for the institution, removing “at Dallas” to better reflect UT Southwestern’s expanding clinical presence across North Texas, including new campuses in Las Colinas and other surrounding areas.
2013: Thomas Südhof, M.D., then Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience and former Chair, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his seminal work on cellular transport systems.
2014: William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital opened, featuring advanced facilities and technologies designed to enhance patient care and clinical outcomes.
2014: Southwestern Medical Foundation celebrated its 75th anniversary, reflecting its decades of support to advance medical education, research, and patient care across North Texas.
2015: The Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute was established, marking a significant investment in neurological research, treatment, and innovation.
2016: UT Southwestern, together with the Texas Trees Foundation and community partners, launched the Southwestern Medical District (SWMD) Transformation Project to enhance the district’s landscape and promote environmental sustainability.
2016: Southwestern Health Resources was formed as a partnership between Texas Health Resources and UT Southwestern, building on more than 50 years of collaboration to expand and improve health care for North Texans.
2017: UT Southwestern opened the Monty and Tex Moncrief Medical Center at Fort Worth, a three-story, 110,000-square-foot multispecialty outpatient facility offering patient care in 16 specialties.
2017: The Radiation Oncology Center opened on campus, equipped with state-of-the-art technology to further strengthen UT Southwestern’s cancer treatment capabilities.
2018: West Campus Building 3, a new 305,000-square-foot clinical and academic building, brought together clinics and academic offices for several departments, enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration.
2018: UTSW debuted the 49,000-square-foot Simulation Center, which has since logged nearly 6,000 events and more than 113,000 learner encounters. It is one of only a few centers in the nation with a robotic system exclusively for training and was the first in the world to install OR Black Box technology in a simulated environment, integrating artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, virtual reality, 3D printing, and other technologies into medical education.
2019: UT Southwestern Medical Center at Frisco opened on a 20-acre campus in collaboration with Texas Health Hospital Frisco, offering specialty care for adults and children in the northern part of DFW and marking a first-of-its-kind collaboration with Texas Health Resources.
2020: Clements University Hospital opened a third 12-story tower in December, raising the hospital’s total bed count to more than 750, making it among the largest hospitals in the nation.
2021: A 71,000-square-foot addition nearly doubles the capacity for radiation oncology services by adding a second building with 49 exam rooms, procedure rooms, and patient support areas and more than a dozen advanced imaging/treatment machines.
2022: The O’Donnell Foundation made a transformative $100 million gift to endow the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health – UTSW’s fourth school – marking the largest gift to any school of public health at a public university in the U.S.
2022: The Perot family, The Perot Foundation, and The Sarah and Ross Perot, Jr. Foundation provided a transformative $50 million endowment, establishing the Perot Family Scholars Medical Scientist Training Program – one of just 54 M.D./Ph.D. training programs in the country supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
2022: UT Southwestern Medical Center at RedBird brought top-ranked primary care, cardiology, cancer care, and culinary medicine to residents in Southwest Dallas County, where access to care was limited.
2022: A new nine-story, 300,000-square-foot Cancer Care Outpatient Building became the clinical home of Simmons Cancer Center, more than doubling the amount of treatment space and increasing access to clinical trials.
2022: The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, UT Southwestern, and Children’s Health hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of construction on the state’s newest behavioral health center in Dallas.
2023: UT Southwestern and The University of Texas at Dallas dedicated the Texas Instruments Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Building to accelerate training and foster medical innovations to improve patient care.
2023: The new UT Southwestern Medical Center at Coppell brought primary care services to patients in the northwest area of Dallas County.
2024: UT Southwestern and Children’s Health broke ground on a $5 billion pediatric health campus – across from Clements University Hospital – to replace the existing Children’s Medical Center Dallas.
2024: Clements University Hospital celebrated its 10-year anniversary, having been ranked the No. 1 hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth by U.S. News & World Report for eight consecutive years. Since its opening, annual inpatient admissions have increased by nearly 44%, emergency department visits are up 43%, and the volume of procedures and surgeries performed has grown by more than 135%.
2024: UT Southwestern announced plans to expand cancer services in the Fort Worth Medical District with construction of a two-story Radiation Oncology campus that will house the city’s first MRI-guided precision radiation treatment.
2024: Biomedical Preparatory at UT Southwestern celebrated its first year of operation. The science-focused school for prekindergarten through eighth grade students is operated by the Dallas Independent School District in collaboration with UTSW.
2024: UT Southwestern hosted the inaugural UT System symposium to examine artificial intelligence (AI) use in medicine. UTSW also joined more than a dozen leading medical centers and Microsoft to form the Trustworthy & Responsible AI Network (TRAIN), a national group designed to set standards and safely explore applications of AI in health care.
2024: Phase 1 of the Southwestern Medical District Urban Streetscape and Park Project began, including plans to redesign Harry Hines Boulevard into a tree-lined corridor featuring wider sidewalks, trails, protected bike lanes, a 10-acre park, and approximately 4,000 new trees by 2027, with the entire project finishing in 2029.
2024: Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Biology and Director of the Center for Inflammation Research, received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his discovery of the cGAS enzyme, which senses invading pathogens and triggers the body’s innate immune system.
2025: UT Southwestern was named the No. 1 hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth for the ninth consecutive year and ranked among the nation’s top hospitals for care in 12 specialties – the most of any hospital in Texas, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Hospitals list.
2025: Completed renovations at Zale Lipshy Pavillion included 10 operating rooms, enhanced patient rooms, and a revitalized ICU.
2025: UT Southwestern earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® as a Comprehensive Cardiac Center (CCC), a certification that represents the highest standard in cardiovascular care, one of just 24 hospitals in the nation to receive the designation.
2025: Construction began on UTSW’s $177 million, 65,000-square-foot Radiation Oncology campus in Fort Worth. It will be home to the city’s first MRI-guided precision radiation treatment to meet the growing demands for cancer care in Tarrant County and the surrounding area for decades to come. The campus, connected to UTSW’s Moncrief Cancer Institute, is projected to open in 2028.
2025: UT Southwestern and Children’s Health announced the hospital at the new Dallas pediatric campus will be named Moody Children’s Hospital upon completion in 2031 in recognition of a generous nine-figure grant from the Moody Foundation.
2025: UT Southwestern launched its new Innovation Hub, with Daniel Hommes, M.D., Ph.D., serving as the University’s inaugural Chief Innovation Officer. The initiative aims to connect UTSW’s rich culture of discovery with market opportunities in the biomedical industry.
2025: UTSW’s Center for Cellular Therapies and Cancer Immunology (CCTCI) debuted at the Simmons Cancer Center, uniting a multidisciplinary group of investigators who are resolved to improve human health through immune engineering.
2025: Samuel Achilefu, Ph.D., inaugural Chair of Biomedical Engineering, became the first UTSW faculty member elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).
2025: Steve McKnight, Ph.D., Professor and former Chair of Biochemistry, received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for revolutionizing our understanding of low-complexity domains (LCDs) within protein sequences.
2025: UT Southwestern was selected to operate the new Texas Behavioral Health Center in close partnership with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. When fully operational, the hospital will provide 292 beds for adult and pediatric patients – expanding access, improving outcomes, and strengthening the continuum of behavioral health care in North Texas and statewide.
