News
UT Hydrogen Startup Celadyne Receives Investment from Shell Ventures
Celadyne Technologies, a University of Texas at Austin spinout that makes materials to improve hydrogen fuel cells and electrolyzers, has received an investment from Shell Ventures.
Federal Water Rule Does Not Account for Pollution Across State Boundaries
In a research analysis to be published Friday in Science, scholars contend that a new federal water rule enacted in 2020 does not adequately account for transboundary pollution across state lines.
NSF Awards 13 CNS Students and Alumni Graduate Research Fellowships
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded 13 Graduate Research Fellowships to College of Natural Sciences students and alumni. The fellowship supports students with outstanding potential to excel in the …
Offshore Search for Sand Resources to Protect Texas from Coastal Erosion
Scientists from The University of Texas at Austin will embark from Galveston on April 14 in search of sunken treasure that holds the key to protecting Texas from storms and rising seas: sand.
Aerial Laser Imaging for Better Natural Disaster Preparation and Response
How a research group at the Bureau of Economic Geology uses lidar technology to help the state to plan and recover.
Biologist Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship
Steven Phelps, a professor of integrative biology and director of the Center for Brain, Behavior and Evolution at UT Austin, has been awarded a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on the biology of intimacy.
Texas Engineers Awarded DOE Grant to Study Engineered Geothermal Systems
Figuring out how to efficiently extract heat from the earth’s sub-surface and use it as a power source is a priority across the energy industry. Cockrell School engineers are on the front lines of this push to learn …
Sorry, Siri: Drawbacks to Algorithms Sounding Too Human
In online marketing, consumers more readily forgive algorithm errors — unless the algorithm pretends to be human.
Boys and Risk in Utero
The delicate sex tends to be boys—at least in utero. Studies have found that boys appear to be more vulnerable in the womb. When mothers faced exposure to lead or even fluoride, researchers have detected an impact on …
Human Trials Begin for a Low-Cost COVID-19 Vaccine to Extend Global Access
In a major boost to efforts to combat COVID-19 globally, a vaccine that recently entered human trials in Vietnam and Thailand, and is slated for a clinical study in Brazil, holds promise for affordable vaccine …
Features
Jack Virostko: Seeing More Than Meets the Eye
When looking at the results of an X-ray or MRI, Jack Virostko, Ph.D., sees more than just a “pretty” picture: He uncovers the story the image tells, picking apart the underlying medical data that can inform …
Cosmic Rumbles: New Faculty Probe Universe for Gravitational Waves
Pablo Laguna (Ph.D., '87) and Deirdre Shoemaker (Ph.D., '99) study some of the most violent events in the universe, when cosmic heavyweights—black holes and neutron stars—collide, shaking the very fabric of space and …
AI’s Inflection Point
There’s a moment when everything changes, like when you’re rolling down the runway in an airplane. At first it just feels like being in a fast car, but then, at a certain velocity, the flaps shift, the wheels lose …
Alone Together
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the winter of 2020, locking down entire countries and leaving people isolated in their homes without outside contact for weeks at a time, many relationship experts pondered what …
Visualizing Science 2021: Finding the Art in College Research
The College of Natural Sciences again invited its faculty, staff and students to submit the best images from their research for our Visualizing Science competition. The images they delivered are the ones that spoke …
5 Questions with Machine Learning and AI Expert, Atlas Wang
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are among the trendiest technologies in the world right now, and The University of Texas at Austin is rapidly becoming a leader in advancing these concepts as they come to …
How Can Texas Create a More Resilient Power Grid?
As temperatures plummeted below freezing for 10 straight days and snow and ice blanketed Texas, all eyes turned to the state’s power grid to understand how 4.5 million Texan customers could lose electricity at once …
When Two Parallel Lines Intersect
Dr. Georgia Stuart is passionate about many things: mathematics, teaching, high-performance computing (HPC), increasing diversity in STEM. Seemingly unrelated, Dr. Stuart has thus far shown they need not be mutually …
Misinformation, the Brain and Tricks for Analyzing Data Accurately
Michela Marinelli, an associate professor of neuroscience and neurology, is participating in the Texas Science Festival and is the featured speaker for UT Brainstorms for "The Fooled Brain: A Conversation on How We …
Jessica O’Connell Connects Ecology Research with Local Conservation Efforts
Jessica O'Connell, an ecologist, remote-sensing specialist and data scientist, recently joined the Department of Marine Science as an assistant professor. O'Connell worked in wetlands across North America before …
Recognition
Aaronson Receives ACM Prize in Computing
The Association for Computing Machinery has awarded Scott Aaronson the 2020 ACM Prize in Computing for groundbreaking contributions to quantum computing.
A Butler School Professor and Two Grad Students Win Prestigious Fellowship
The Harry Ransom Center awarded Butler School of Music Professor Luisa Nardini along with two graduate students, Kyrie Bouressa and Andrea Klassen, a fellowship for the 2021-22 academic year.
Texas Engineers Selected for 2021 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
Four graduate students with the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering have been selected for the 2021 National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
TxCORE Research Wins PhRMA Foundation Award
Three researchers from The University of Texas College of Pharmacy won a Valuing Diversity: Addressing Health Disparities Challenge Award from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Foundation.
Sciences, Mathematics at UT Austin Ranked Among Nation’s and World’s Best
Two lists of academic rankings published this month show that The University of Texas at Austin's programs in the sciences and mathematics are among the best in the country and the world.
College of Liberal Arts Graduate Programs Rise in Rankings
The University of Texas at Austin continues to outperform its peer institutions in Latin American history and sociology of population, according to the newest edition of “Best Graduate Schools” from U.S. News & World Report.
2022 USNWR Best Grad Schools: LBJ School of Public Affairs Ranks #7
The LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin ranks No. 7 in graduate public affairs schools in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report's (USNWR) 2022 edition of "Best Graduate Schools."
7 Cockrell School Graduate Programs in the Top 10 in 2022 Rankings
With three programs in the top five, seven in the top 10 and all programs finishing in the top 20, the Cockrell School of Engineering at UT Austin is once again named one of the best engineering programs in the …
Texas iSchool Remains in Top Tier of U.S. News Grad School Rankings
The University of Texas at Austin School of Information ranked in the top five among colleges and schools of library and information studies in the latest U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools”.
Professor Beili Liu Named Fulbright Arctic Chair
The U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board jointly awarded Leslie Waggener Professor in the College of Fine Arts Beili Liu a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Distinguished Scholar Award.
Undergraduates
Two Natural Sciences Undergraduates Selected as Goldwater Scholars
Two University of Texas at Austin undergraduate students, Briana Syed and Teddy Hsieh, have earned the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship, which honors outstanding students in STEM majors.
Student-Run Arts Festival Showcases Student Talent
The 2021 Cohen New Works Festival kicks off Monday, April 12, and runs through Friday, April 16. It’s the largest festival of its kind, and it’s completely student-run, with the support of faculty advisers and mentors.
Students and Alumna Win NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
Four students and one alumna from the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics have received the National Science Foundation highly competitive Graduate Research Fellowship Program award for 2021.
BSID Student Xie Maggie Hill Awarded Metropolis Magazine Future 100
Congratulations to Bachelor of Interior Design student Xie Maggie Hill (BSID ’21), named one of Metropolis Magazine’s Future 100! Launched this year, Metropolis’s Future 100 program recognizes the top 100 graduating …
Harness the Power of Mealworms to Degrade Plastic
In search of a way to reduce the amount of plastic pollution an individual creates, a team of undergraduates in the UT Austin Inventors Program are exploring how mealworms, and the microbes in their guts, can …
MELC Student Tanya Raghu Wins President's Award for Global Learning
Congratulations to Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures student Tanya Raghu and her teammates for winning the President's Award for Global Learning (PAGL) for their project "Fostering Green Entrepreneurialism …
Senior Aircraft Design Team Makes History with Fully Autonomous Mission
The year 2020 hasn’t been an easy one on the Forty Acres. Faculty have been working hard to learn the ins-and-outs of online teaching, students have been learning from home, and the opportunity for undergraduates to …
Undergraduate Images Gold to Win “Gold”
It is not often that an undergraduate takes top prize at an academic conference’s Student Showcase. But that is exactly what Marília Ferraz da Costa, a Brazilian student who spent a semester analyzing gold-bearing …
Moncrief Fellow Takes Second Place in National Undergraduate Research Prize
Research contributions in computational science and engineering are rarely awarded at undergraduate level. Even less so in the emerging field of computational biology. However, 21-year-old Ishaani Khatri …
Students Compete in Capstone Design Contest
Over the course of the past two semesters, 55 Texas ECE students worked on their Capstone Design projects and this week they competed in the Fall 2020 Capstone Design Contest. Winners were announced during the Texas …