News
Oil and Gas Activity Linked to Most Recent Earthquakes in West Texas
Since 2009, earthquakes have been rapidly rising in the Delaware Basin – a prolific oil-producing region in West Texas and New Mexico. According to a study, the majority of them can be linked to oil and gas production.
Virus Discovery Offers Clues About Origins of Complex Life
Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin report in Nature Microbiology the first discovery of viruses infecting a group of microbes that may include the ancestors of all complex life.
UT Among Top Schools for NSF Research Awards
New data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for fiscal year 2021 shows that UT Austin is No. 1 in Texas and among the top 10 universities in the country for research awards that are financially supported by the NSF.
Blood Pressure E-Tattoo Promises Continuous, Mobile Monitoring
Blood pressure is one of the most important indicators of heart health, but it’s tough to frequently and reliably measure outside of a clinical setting. For decades, cuff-based devices that constrict around the arm …
Holy Bat Memory! Frog-Eating Bats Remember Ringtones Years Later
Frog-eating bats trained by researchers to associate a phone ringtone with a tasty treat were able to remember what they learned for up to four years in the wild, according to a new study published in Current Biology.
Discovery of the First Evidence of Nixtamalization in the Americas
Associate Professor of Instruction Dr. Astrid Runggaldier has been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science for her part in excavating and analyzing the first evidence of maize nixtamalization in the Americas.
Attackers Can Syphon Crypto Keys with Newly Discovered Attack
A team of researchers including Ph.D. student Yingchen Wang and professor Hovav Shacham from UT Austin has found that a common feature of modern computer processors can make even carefully written encryption software …
River Belt Discovery Helps Scientists Understand Ancient Rivers
Long after a river has dried up, its channel belt lives on. Made up of swaths of sediment surrounding the river, channel belts, once hardened into rock, preserve the paths of rivers that once were. However …
Companies that Work with Universities Can Protect Proprietary Secrets
Companies that conduct and publish research with universities can implement a “knowledge protection effect” strategy to guard against business rivals poaching their ideas, according to a new study at UT Austin.
Sacks Receives R01 for Collaborative Biomechanical Breast Modeling Project
Professor Michael Sacks has received a $3.7 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop an accurate biomechanical model to be used as a reliable and useful tool in patient-specific diagnosis …
Features
Endless Power - George Biros
Many computational scientists begin as mathematicians. Theirs is a community that believes our salvation lies in the universal language of numbers. Many societal problems, particularly those where we must predict …
Devleena Samanta Invents Ways to Detect Molecules in Living Cells
Devleena Samanta joined the Department of Chemistry in fall 2021 as an assistant professor. She designs and synthesizes nanoscale materials to address challenges in biology and medicine, and she's passionate about …
Akhil Surapaneni: Advancing Brain Tumor Treatments
Akhil Surapaneni is a part of a larger team of doctors, engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin conducting a study investigating how to move critical brain functions away from surgical sites.
A Lifelong Researcher - Robert van de Geijn
Pivotal figure at the Oden institute may have retired from UT Austin but still as busy as ever.
Gregory Rodin: The Intuitive Mathematician
To Gregory Rodin, intuition is everything. The newly retired Professor Emeritus of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at UT Austin and a core faculty member at the Oden Institute for …
Professor Layla Parast Aims to Improve Healthcare Using Biostatistics
Meet new statistics and data science professor, Layla Parast, whose work in biostatistics aims to improve medical treatments and trial outcomes.
Computer Science Researcher Aims to Automate Software Development
Isil Dillig is an associate professor of computer science who works to improve the security and reliability of software systems and automatically generate programs from high-level specifications.
Jeanne Kowalski-Muegge: Piecing Together the Puzzle of Cancer Genomics
Dell Medical School professor Jeanne Kowalski-Muegge is creating tools to empower care teams in using precision medicine, ensuring that every patient has every treatment option possible at their disposal.
Modeling A Global Pandemic - Profile Lauren Ancel Meyers
Over the last two years Lauren Ancel Meyers has become a household name across the United States. Her expertise in viral disease outbreak detection, forecasting, and control thrust her into the limelight as the world …
The Kids Are Not Alright
Youth mental health is in crisis across the U.S. In Central Texas, meeting the need requires tackling the problem from all sides.
Recognition
Nielsen Named One of Five National Academies Early-Career Research Fellows
Kristin Nielsen, assistant professor at UT Marine Science Institute, will use her expertise to investigate how climate change is altering the potential for dietary contaminant exposure in remote Alaskan communities.
3 UT Faculty Members Win Fulbright Scholar Awards
Three faculty members of The University of Texas at Austin have received 2022-2023 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
Distinguished Researcher Award 2022 Goes to Rachel Ward
Rachel Ward has been selected as the 2022 recipient of the Peter O’Donnell Distinguished Researcher Award by the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences.
Jason McLellan Named Finalist for Blavatnik National Award
University of Texas at Austin molecular biosciences professor Jason McLellan was selected as a finalist for the 2022 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists.
Guihua Yu Named Finalist in 2022 Blavatnik National Awards
Guihua Yu, a professor of materials science and mechanical engineering in the Cockrell School of Engineering, was chosen as a finalist for the 2022 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists.
Lizy John, Jaydeep Kulkarni and Students Win Best Paper at FCCM Conference
Professors Lizy John and Jaydeep Kulkarni, along with PhD students Aman Arora, Tanmay Anand, Aatman Borda, Rishabh Sehgal, and Bagus Hanindhito, received the Best Paper Award at the 2022 IEEE Symposium on Field …
Inderjit Dhillon Named AAAI Fellow
Inderjit Dhillon, Gottesman Family Centennial Professor in Computer Science, has been named a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
New approaches for ship design: Postdoc Wins ECCOMAS' Best Doctoral Thesis
Marco Tezzele, a postdoctoral researcher with the Willcox Research Group has won the ECCOMAS prize for best thesis of 2021. His project on the optimisation of naval development processes was recognized by the …
Goudge Named NASA Early Career Award Winner
The Jackson School of Geosciences’ Timothy Goudge is among the five scientists selected by NASA’s Planetary Science Division to receive an Early Career Award.
Professor Anthony Di Fiore Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAAS) announced that Anthony Di Fiore, professor of anthropology at UT, has been elected as a member. AAAS is one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious scientific societies.
Undergraduates
Natural Sciences Graduates Win Mitchell Awards
Students and recent graduates in the College of Natural Sciences were awarded the George H. Mitchell Award for Academic Excellence this spring. These awards honor students in STEM and other categories, with generous …
Students Share Passion for Science at Undergraduate Research Forum
Each spring, the College of Natural Sciences holds its annual Undergraduate Research Forum, and last month's event showcased over 250 individual and team research presentations.
Pharm Fresh: Amaka Epoh
As part of Research Week 2022, the Office of Undergraduate Research hosted the Longhorn Research Poster Session in the Texas Union Ballroom on April 20, 2022. Students presented more than 180 research posters on …
Undergraduate Research Played Role in Paper Tied to Early Career Award
When they joined the Luminators stream of the Freshman Research Initiative, alumni Tyler King, Alex Bard, Joe Espinoza, Desmond Schipper and Ohri Esarte Palomero all expected to have experiences in chemistry research …
Graduating Senior David Sarabia Found Passion for Research in FRI
A first-generation undergraduate student from Mexia, Texas, David Sarabia is among the seniors graduating this month. On his way to receiving his bachelor of science degree in chemistry, Sarabia participated in the …
Students Collaborate on Aircraft Systems Design
Lift and Drag Queens and Assuming Incompressible – for those familiar with senior aircraft design at UT Austin’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics (ASE/EM), these clever team names …
Three Undergraduate Students Named 2022 Goldwater Scholars
Three undergraduate students from the College of Natural Sciences have been awarded the 2022 Barry Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious national scholarship given to students pursuing careers in the natural sciences …
Two UT Austin Students Receive Prestigious Schwarzman Scholarship
Isabel Ayala, an Asian studies and government senior, and Brendon Mak, a mechanical engineering senior, will pursue one-year master’s degrees in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
All That Jazz: Improving Automated Piano Note Transcription
Any fan of jazz music can attest to the beauty of musical improvisation. However, many famous improvisational piano pieces aren't recorded in sheet music. “There's a lot of music that exists in the world that doesn't …
Art History Students Examine "Mystery Objects" from Leo Steinberg Prints
Art History students come into the major hoping and expecting to learn more about, well, art and its history. But what does it mean to actually get your hands on different works of art, conduct research and make your …