News

The Department of Chemistry's new chair, Professor Dave Thirumalai, has been selected to receive the 2016 Award in Theoretical Chemistry by a division of the largest scientific society in the world.

The College and its departments and centers host a number of events that are free and open to the public each spring. ​Mark your calendar for upcoming public lectures, Explore UT, and more.

Neuroscientists from The University of Texas at Austin and the Salk Institute have discovered that connections between brain cells, called synapses, can be grouped into more discrete sizes than was previously thought, and these discrete sizes are thought to predict different functional states.

Artists draw inspiration from science, scientists produce artistic images in their lab, and people who appreciate beauty can find examples of both in the gallery of College of Natural Sciences alumna Hayley Gillespie (PhD, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, 2011).

​Much of what Dr. Xiaoqin "Elaine" Li researches is completely invisible to the human eye. She works with materials that are merely a few atoms thick and observes processes that occur within a trillionth of a second.

Spending time in close contact with others often means risking catching germs and getting sick. But being sociable may also help transmit beneficial microbes, finds a multi-institutional study of gut microbiomes in chimpanzees.

A research center at The University of Texas at Austin will be renamed for Dr. John Ring LaMontagne, a scientist who combated flu and other infectious diseases to improve public health around the globe. The renaming of the existing Center for Infectious Disease follows more than $7 million in contributions by the LaMontagne community of family, friends and colleagues in celebration of Dr. Montagne's work within the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have discovered a mechanism that may explain how the brain can recall nearly all of what happened on a recent afternoon — or make a thorough plan for how to spend an upcoming afternoon — in a fraction of the time it takes to live out the experience. The breakthrough in understanding a previously unknown function in the brain has implications for research into schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, Alzheimer's disease and other disorders where real experiences and ones that exist only in the mind can become distorted.

​A student majoring in textiles and apparel at The University of Texas at Austin last night was announced to have won a prestigious national scholarship from a leading international fashion industry group. Avani Patel's innovative design idea, which combines 3D printing and 3D modeling to make custom-fit leather shoes, is one of a handful of concepts from UT Austin textiles and apparel students to have won national awards in recent weeks.

​Ronny Hadani, associate professor of mathematics in the College of Natural Sciences and co-founder of Cohere Technologies, is developing technologies to make wireless communications faster and more reliable.