AY 2017-2018
Select a field to read a short excerpt from the student's proposal.
Scholarships
CURRENT CNS STUDENTS
UPDATE - July 20, 2017: All scholarship and waiver applicants have now been notified of their final award status. Please be sure to check your email.
The 2017-2018 College of Natural Sciences scholarship application for currently enrolled CNS students has passed. We are no longer accepting applications. Current CNS students who submitted a scholarship application can expect to hear about their CNS scholarship status in July via email. All students will be notifed of their final award status. Please be sure to keep your email address up-to-date.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Adrianne Chacon-Posey at scholarships@cns.utexas.edu.
Polymaths in Public
Barbara Kingsolver
Photo by Annie Griffiths
Named one of the most important writers of the 20th century by Writer’s Digest, Barbara Kingsolver has followed her curiosity in novels that explore human nature, political repression, and ecological imperatives with a scientist’s knowledge. An entomologist is the hero of her most recent novel, "Flight Behavior" (2012), which explores the winter migration of monarch butterflies, climate change, and the culture clash between religion and science.
Born in 1955, Kingsolver grew up in rural Kentucky. She entered DePauw University, in Indiana, on a piano scholarship and soon changed her major to biology, a choice made "in the practical hope of someday earning a living."
While nurturing a private passion for writing, Kingsolver completed a graduate degree in biology at the University of Arizona where she had gone to "see the West." She worked for the university as a scientific writer for a few years before venturing into full-time freelancing in 1985. Three years later, her first novel, "The Bean Trees," was published.
Kingsolver came to prominence as an author with her fourth novel, "The Poisonwood Bible," a 1998 bestseller and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times noted that this story of an American missionary family in Africa was distinguished by "Kingsolver’s polymathy" that "leads to discourses on medicine, the Bible, cold-war machinations."
She has also contributed work to numerous literary anthologies, magazines and newspapers. After moving from Tucson to a farm in Virginia, Kingsolver’s interest in farming and food economies prompted the nonfiction book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" (2007), a recounting of one year her family spent producing or procuring only local food.
Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize in 2000, "to promote fiction that addresses issues of social justice and the impact of culture and politics on human relationships." The $25,000 prize has helped to launch the careers of several new American literary voices.
PREVIOUS POLYMATHS:
Programs & Activities
The PS Student Leadership Panel organizes a variety of social, academic, and service events on and off campus. Events include weekend camping trips, Friday lunches with faculty guest speakers, and the annual Texas Chautauqua, a panel discussion on a subject of topical interest open to the university community. We also connect our Polymaths with a wide range of opportunities including research, community service, and more.
Research Experiences on Campus
- Freshman Research Initiative The FRI is an acclaimed three-semester sequence that begins with the Research Methods course and then places students into a spring semester research laboratory where they learn important research techniques. First-year internships and additional independent inquiry in the fall semester of the sophomore year complete the FRI experience. Students may then have the opportunity to become mentors for incoming FRI students and to continue their research.
- CNS Undergraduate Research Forum Held on a Friday afternoon in April, this poster session displays the work of over 200 students engaged in undergraduate research. Scientists from academia, national labs, and industry show up to judge the posters and award substantial cash prizes for the best work in each discipline.
- CNS Honors Thesis Symposium Held annually in April, graduating honors students from all three college honors programs present their research in panel sessions. Student panels run concurrently, and each panel is moderated by a UT-Austin faculty member.
