News

Astronomers have barely scratched the surface of mapping the nearly endless stars and galaxies of the heavens. Using supercomputers and the help of thousands of citizen scientists around the world, researchers with The University of Texas at Austin have now revealed the locations of more than 200,000 new astronomical objects. Their goal is to map even more and use that knowledge to predict the ultimate fate of the universe.

Three faculty members in the College of Natural Sciences and three others at The University of Texas at Austin have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society.

Just as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning emerge as the fastest-growing in-demand skill sets in the global workforce, The University of Texas at Austin is establishing a new online master's program in AI with the potential to bring thousands of new students into the field.

Chemists from Rice University and The University of Texas at Austin discovered more isn't always better when it comes to packing charge-acceptor molecules on the surface of semiconducting nanocrystals, such as those in solar cells.

The Cosmic Dawn ("CoDa") Project, an international team of astrophysicists, recently reached a new milestone – CoDa III – the first trillion-element simulation of how the universe evolved in its first billion years. This is when galaxies formed and flooded the universe with enough UV starlight to ionize all its atoms and lift the fog that blocked our view. CoDa III is the most detailed and accurate simulation ever produced of this cosmic era, known as the Epoch of Reionization ("EoR"), aligning theoretical and observational data for the first time.

Health benefits of using wind energy instead of fossil fuels could quadruple if the most polluting power plants are selected for dialing down, new study finds.

As UTeach at The University of Texas at Austin celebrates 25 years of preparing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers, it is rising to meet challenges, including a significant shortage of teachers in states like Texas. UTeach's new intensive accelerated teacher development program, UTeach for Texas, aims to help curtail the teacher shortage by supporting career changers who already hold a STEM degree so they can receive teacher preparation in just seven months.

The National Science Foundation has selected The University of Texas at Austin for a pilot grant to establish the UT Center for Pandemic Decision Science (CPDS). The new interdisciplinary center will bring together scientists, engineers, clinicians and policymakers to tackle the grand challenge of preparing the world to combat future pandemic threats.

Autonomous robots will soon rove the buildings and streets of The University of Texas at Austin campus. But unlike other commercial delivery services, this fleet of robots will help researchers understand and improve the experience of pedestrians who encounter them.

Rachel Ward, professor of mathematics at The University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science, or TRIPODS, Phase II award. The award will help establish The Institute for Emerging CORE Methods in Data Science (EnCORE), led by the University of California San Diego in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles; University of Pennsylvania; and UT Austin.