News

It wasn't just the super blue blood moon. From a major science event downtown to a STEM festival for girls to Explore UT, this year brings a rare alignment of science-centric events to Austin. The College of Natural Sciences is encouraging everyone to get out and enjoy some science in the weeks ahead.

The STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and math – have real work to do in terms of diversity. Right now, women make up only about 30 percent of the STEM workforce – and people identifying as black or Hispanic make up just 11 percent.

There's good news for anyone in our College of Natural Sciences community who has put "communicate better about my work" on their list of New Year's resolutions for 2018. UT Austin and others here in Central Texas have several resources and upcoming opportunities to hone your science communication skills. And with the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting coming February 15-19 to Austin for the first time, it's the perfect excuse to brush up.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science—the organization that publishes the journal Science and holds the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific conference—is coming to Austin. The 2018 AAAS Annual Meeting offers many ways for the Texas Science community to get involved.

It's been a busy year for scientists and researchers at the College of Natural Sciences. Discoveries, findings, advancements and technology developed right here made news around the world. Here are just a few of the top science stories of 2017.

Three University of Texas at Austin professors have been chosen by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to join the ranks of a select group of world-class scientist educators known as HHMI Professors. They will receive a combined $2.5 million to support their ongoing efforts to improve undergraduate education. UT Austin is the only institution to have three awardees among this year's 14 winners, selected from more than 200 applicants across the country.

Xiaoqin Elaine Li, associate professor in the Department of Physics, is one of two UT Austin recipients of the 2018 Edith and Peter O'Donnell Award in Science from The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST).

UT Austin alumna Lynne Chantranupong —currently a postdoctoral research fellow in neurobiology at Harvard Medical School—was named as one of the inaugural Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) 2017 Hanna H. Gray Fellows. HHMI is an early-career science award providing up to $1.4 million in financial support, mentoring, and active involvement within the HHMI community during early postdoctoral training through several years of a tenure-track faculty position.

Four University of Texas at Austin faculty members, including two based in the College of Natural Sciences, have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society. This year's AAAS fellows will be inducted at a ceremony during the AAAS Annual Meeting, which is scheduled to take place for the first time in Austin in February.

The University of Texas at Austin ranked No. 11 among all U.S. institutions (academic and nonacademic) and No. 10 among U.S. universities for publication of scientific research, according to the latest report from the Nature Index.

Students and researchers are stepping out of lab and onto the stage, building up their skills as science communicators using a perhaps surprising tool: improv theater.

Five years ago the College of Natural Sciences began an annual tradition called Visualizing Science with the intent of finding the inherent beauty hidden within scholarly research. Each spring faculty, staff and students in our college community are invited to send us images that celebrate the splendor of science and the scientific process. Every year they deliver the moments where science and art meld and become one, and this year is no exception.

After research at The University of Texas at Austin first had him studying genetics using fruit flies over 40 years ago, Michael W. Young has been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. His pioneering research in the same insects led to the identification of a gene that determines living things' circadian rhythms.

Researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering and the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin have received a $15.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to discover and advance new types of materials for use in many applications including energy storage, medical devices and information processing.

​Near the start of the academic year, many faculty members across the College of Natural Sciences welcome guests into their classrooms--fellow educators who are invited to observe active-learning strategies and award-winning teaching in action. This is Teaching Discovery Day in the College of Natural Sciences, and it is just one element of a college-wide push toward lifting up excellence in educational activities.