April 08, 2026
At Mizzou, graduate and professional students find support and community on the path to their degrees
By Carey Littlejohn | Show Me Mizzou
Photo by Josh Oppenlander
At the University of Missouri, graduate and professional students drive innovation, fuel groundbreaking research and shape the future of their fields.
Across nearly 150 degree programs, students collaborate with world-class faculty to tackle real-world challenges, elevating Mizzou’s impact far beyond the classroom.
Graduate students pursue their degrees for various reasons. While some want a career in academics and others want to advance in the corporate sector, some are lifelong learners who seek ways to push themselves and develop skills and knowledge that can help them elevate their existing work.
Mauro Lemus Alarcon, PhD ’25, is one of those lifelong learners.
As an enterprise performance management architect with Mizzou’s Division of Information Technology, Lemus Alarcon felt that a doctoral degree was the most natural next step for him.
Lemus Alarcon spent five years pursuing his doctorate in computer science at Mizzou Engineering specifically for the purpose of providing him with research opportunities that would hone critical reasoning skills that he could bring back to his job.
“The kind of research projects that I was involved in applied immediate solutions to real-life problems,” Lemus Alarcon said. “I saw that I could take advantage of that approach. Doctoral studies complemented my work, and my work complemented my doctoral studies.”
He’s excited to use those skills to improve technology usage at Mizzou, especially as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes common in the workplace.
“Vendors are saying, ‘You have to have AI. Everybody is using AI.’” Lemus Alarcon said. “It’s very popular right now. But it may not be the best solution for all issues. This is where my research skills come in. I feel like I can evaluate the technology in a more critical way, thanks to my education.”
Lemus Alarcon praised the collaborative environment among the graduate students at Mizzou Engineering.
“It’s one of the best parts of graduate studies here,” Lemus Alarcon said. “We all work on multiple projects, and we collaborate with each other on those projects. And Professor Prasad Calyam is the backbone that provides the support and mentorship that makes all of this collaboration possible.”
For him, what sets Mizzou apart are the numerous possibilities for interdisciplinary partnerships.
“There are a lot of opportunities to work with different teams,” he said. “The chance to work with the School of Medicine or with other departments in the College of Engineering creates these incredible opportunities. It allows researchers from both fields to work in parallel and look for a common solution.”
One recent collaboration allowed Lemus Alarcon and team to work with researchers from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Together, they developed a powerful new platform that uses AI to help researchers access instruments, such as scanning electron microscopes, that are located outside of their physical labs.
Lemus Alarcon said Mizzou provided exactly what he was seeking for his graduate school experience: an opportunity to marry computer science research with the practical challenges he encountered as a professional.
“Pursuing my doctorate has been the most rewarding part of my career,” Lemus Alarcon said.
This story originally appeared on Show Me Mizzou. Want more stories like this? Subscribe to the Show Me Mizzou newsletter.