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Research Facilities

Below is a list of core facilities and advanced laboratories in the college. 

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Programs

The ILS core facilities support cellular and molecular biology research at The University of Texas at Austin. The facilities offer a full range of services in nucleic acid and protein sequencing, peptide synthesis, mass spectrometry, protein purification and analysis, DNA microarrays, x-ray chrystallography, and transgenic - knockout mice. The ICMB core facilities include:

IMAGING RESEARCH CENTER

The Imaging Research Center is home to a high-field (3 Tesla) MRIt, an image analysis computer suite, test rooms, fully outfitted electronics & machine shops, offices, and a conference/classroom area.

NANOTECHNOLOGY CORE FACILITIES

The Center for Nano and Molecular Science and Technology facilities located in the FNT building  features a variety of facilities that support state-of-the-art teaching activities and high-level scientific research.

  • Nano/Micro Fabrication and Inspection
  • Electronic and Optoelectronic Testing
  • Spectroscopy
  • Electron and Scanning Probe Microscopy

PHYSICS DEPARTMENT

The Department of Physics provides a number of facilities and services for use by faculty, staff, and students within the Department. Many facilities are also available for use by other university-affiliated students and staff.

  • Mechanical Section is located on the third floor (first basement level) of the Physics, Math and Astronomy Building (PMA) and comprises four groups—the Machine Shop, the Student Machine Shop, the Cryogenics Shop, and the Electronics Shop.
  • Materials Physics Lab (Advanced Atomic Design group) is a cross-college collaborative laboratory aiming to advance the fundamental understanding of new materials, particularly complex oxides.

PLANT RESOURCES CENTER

The Plant Resources Center (TEX-LL) with over 1,000,000 specimens is the largest herbarium in the southwestern United States and ranks fifth among U.S. university herbaria and twelfth across the nation. TEX-LL, with about a quarter of its specimens from Texas, has the largest holdings of Texas plants in the world. Nearly one half of the specimens at TEX-LL are from Latin America, with an especially strong representation of Mexico and northern Central America. Presently the number of vascular plant collections inserted in the herbarium is growing at an approximate rate of 16,400 specimens per year.

TEXAS PETAWATT LASER

The college is currently home to the highest power laser in the world, the Texas Petawatt Laser, which, when turned on, has the power output of more than 2,000 times the output of all power plants in the United States. (A petawatt is one quadrillion watts.) The laser is brighter than sunlight on the surface of the sun, but it only lasts for an instant, a 10th of a trillionth of a second (0.0000000000001 second).

TEXAS NATURAL SCIENCE CENTER

With many facilities at the J.J. Pickle research campus in North Austin, the Texas Natural Science Center is home to some of the most extensive collections of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils and natural history collections in the country. A high-resolution X-ray CT (Computed Tomography) scanner is available at the Vertebrate Paleontology Lab.

UTEX CULTURE COLLECTION OF ALGAE

The Culture Collection includes approximately 3,000 different strains of living algae, representing most major algal taxa. The primary function of UTEX is to provide algal cultures at modest cost to a user community. Cultures in the Collection are used for research, teaching, biotechnology development, and various other projects throughout the world. 

Field Research Stations