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From the College of Natural Sciences

National Science Organization Honors Four University of Texas at Austin Professors

AUSTIN, Texas — Four faculty members at The University of Texas at Austin have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). AAAS fellows are chosen annually by their peers to recognize their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. The University of Texas ...

School of Human Ecology Established

Director of the new School of Human Ecology stands in the courtyard of Gearing Hall, a building long associated with studies of human development, family sciences, nutrition, and textiles and apparel at The University of Texas at Austin. Photo: Christina Murrey. AUSTIN, Texas—The new School of Human Ecology has been established at The University of...

Chemistry & Biochemistry Clinches "Everybody WINS" Award

The Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry was given the "Everybody WINS" award by Women in Natural Sciences (WINS) for 2008. The award is given annually to the department that most successfully uses current best practices to recruit and retain women and underrepresented minority faculty. According to Dr. Lynne McAnelly, program director of WINS,...

$12.5 million National Science Foundation grant to fund UTeachEngineering program for educators

AUSTIN, Texas—The University of Texas at Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering, College of Natural Sciences and College of Education have been awarded $12.5 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to prepare educators to teach engineering to Texas high-school students. “With this grant, the NSF is building on the university’s successful ...

Michael Marder to Receive Massey Award for Excellence in Teacher Education

AUSTIN, Texas – Michael Marder, professor of physics, associate dean for science and mathematics education, and co-director of UTeach in the College of Natural Sciences, has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Elizabeth Shatto Massey Award for Excellence in Teacher Education. The Massey Award recognizes a “teacher of teachers,” one who in...
Dedication, Demonstration of World's Most Powerful Laser

Dedication, Demonstration of World's Most Powerful Laser

Event: U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and University of Texas at Austin President William Powers Jr., will dedicate the Texas Petawatt Laser on Thursday. Scientists will demonstrate aspects of the laser during the event. The Tower will be lit orange during the evening to commemorate this event. When: Thursday, Aug. 28, 11:30 a.m. – 12:...

Blast from the Past: J.T. Patterson

Professor Emeritus of Zoology John T. Patterson (1878-1960) in the lab. Photo (date taken unknown) appeared in The Daily Texan Nov. 21, 1950. Courtesy of the Center for American History. Back in the days when John T. Patterson was rambling around in the Hill Country west of Austin hunting for pregnant armadillos, he often encountered “hill people”...jt patterson

Life on the Outside: J. Craig Wheeler

J. Craig Wheeler Professor of AstronomyNovelist and Movie Star Astrophysics professor J. Craig Wheeler was daydreaming when the idea for his novel, The Krone Experiment, came upon him. “I was an assistant professor at Harvard, and I was at one of the colloquia they held at the old library,” says Wheeler. “The idea just hit me. I don’t even rememb...craig wheeler

Plane Perfect

When Kathy Gore got her degree from the college in 1976 in textiles, clothing and fashion design, she had no grand vision of creating the interiors of airplanes for kings and billionaires. She first worked as the manager of a clothing store, before briefly doing residential interior design. In 1983, she was hired by the Fairchild Aircraft Company ...Kathy Gore

Advisory Council in Antarctica

In January 2008, Advisory Council members Jim Prentice, Carla Blumberg and Evan Kyba, along with their spouses, partners and friends, boarded the National Geographic Endeavor for a once-in-a-lifetime expedition across the Drake Passage to Antarctica. The sun, quite literally, never really set on their 11-day cruise, which gave them glimpses of snow...expedition

Wildflower Center Promotes Green Landscapes

Lady Bird Johnson considered the environment a reflection of who we are, and a focusing lens for our potential. To better reflect this environmental ethic she and others shared, the university’s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is collaborating with national partners to develop the first voluntary standards for sustainable landscapes. The Susta...asia roof

UTeach Celebrates Ten Years

Panel members and UTeach graduates Katie Weber, Janice Trinidad and Daniel FitzPatrick UTeach, fast becoming a national model for preparing qualified science, math and computer sciences teachers,celebrated 10 years of success on November 17, 2007. Past graduates, current students, staff, faculty, supporters and friends descended on campus for picn...Panel members and UTeach graduates Katie Weber, Janice Trinidad and Daniel FitzPatrick
What the Future Holds

What the Future Holds

We asked faculty from the College of Natural Sciences a big question: "What development in your field is likely to have the greatest impact on the way that we live in the next few decades? How?" Here are their answers: --- J. Strother Moore The Admiral B. R. Inman Centennial EMERITUS Chair in Computing Theory  Department of Compute...

Doctors Grown Here

The college has inspired thousands of students to become doctors. The stories of the alumni who enter the health professions—as so many of our alumni do—can be as different from each other as the story of a Google programmer to a chemist at Pfizer. The medical degree is not the sum of who our doctor-alumni are, but as these three stories show, just...Dr. Everett Simmons
Natural Selection May Not Produce the Best Organisms

Natural Selection May Not Produce the Best Organisms

AUSTIN, Texas—Natural selection may favor the fittest organisms around, but it doesn’t always lead to the evolution of the most optimal organisms, says a team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. Drs. Matthew Cowperthwaite and Lauren Ancel Meyers led a team that developed a new theory suggesting that traits that are easy to evolve ...