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Spring 2015

Field of Dreams

May 6, 2015 by Emily Nielsen

Larry Carver stands on the pitcher's mound of the UFCU Disch-Faulk field and tosses a baseball up in the air.

Larry Carver’s Got a Marshall on First, a Truman on Second and a Rhodes on Third It’s been more than 20 years since Larry Carver began working with UT Austin students applying for the nation’s most prestigious graduate school fellowships, and he can still tell you the names of all the nominees from memory. It’s […]

Books: Winter & Spring 2015

April 30, 2015 by Rachel White

Winter and Spring 2015 titles from our college community.

Your Turn to Do the Dishes

April 30, 2015 by David Ochsner

Illustration of hands holding a stack of white dishes.

Most young women – and men – prefer shared household responsibilities There’s no shortage of advice for women these days about how to balance work and family — everything from becoming a supermom who can “lean in” at the workplace and do it all, to embracing the role of a full-time homemaker. But when given […]

Give it a Rest

April 30, 2015 by Marc Airhart

Illustration of a a thought bubble in the shape of a padlock.

Scientists have already established that resting the mind, as in daydreaming, helps strengthen memories of events and retention of information, but in a new twist, UT Austin researchers have found that the right kind of mental rest and reflection can actually help boost future learning. How our brains capture and store new information is heavily […]

Mission to Map

April 30, 2015 by Emily Nielsen

Garza visited the Hastings Cutoff trail during a trip to Utah where he presented at the 2014 Partnership for the National Trails System. On the right is Pilot Peak, where the Donner-Reed Party found a spring after miles of crossing the salt flats without water.

On El Camino Real with Nathan Garza As a boy growing up in San Antonio, Nathan Garza spent a lot of time hiking on trails. His Boy Scout troop organized and led the Mission Trail Hike for years. Scouts from San Antonio and surrounding areas would gather at Mission Espada and begin their two-day hike […]

Not Lost in Translation

April 30, 2015 by Alicia Dietrich

In this ca. 1820 painting, Indra is depicted riding on his white elephant Airavata. Indra is the god of storms and war who leads the Deva (the gods who form and maintain heaven and the elements in Hinduism). Indra has about 250 hymns dedicated to him in the Rigveda.

Fifteen-year Project Introduces India’s Earliest Text to Modern Readers Like so many big ideas, it all started over drinks — in this case, glasses of wine in New Orleans. Fifteen years later, a labor of love finally came to fruition for Joel Brereton, associate professor of Asian Studies and Religious Studies, when his joint translation […]

Diagnosing Disease Faster: Q&A with Courtney Koepke

April 30, 2015 by Emily Nielsen

Portrait of Courtney Koepke.

Courtney Koepke is a Plan II Honors and biomedical engineering junior from Austin, Texas. She works as an undergraduate research assistant at UT Austin’s Laboratory of Biomaterials, Drug Delivery and Bionanotechnology. What made you want to be a research assistant? As a freshman entering college, I didn’t know much about research or understand the important […]

Promoting National Security: Q&A With Mark Jbeily

April 30, 2015 by Emily Nielsen

Portrait of Mark Jbeily.

Mark Jbeily is a Plan II Honors and Naval ROTC senior from Austin, Texas. He is a recipient of the 2015 British Marshall scholarship, which will fund his pursuit of a Master of Philosophy in international relations at the University of Oxford. Jbeily is also a Naval ROTC battalion commander, a Bill Archer fellow and […]

Bridge to Somewhere

April 30, 2015 by David Ochsner

Black and white photo of the Brooklyn Bridge shrouded in a white fog.

Connecting STEM and the Humanities to Fix America’s Failing Infrastructure The next time you get behind the wheel, consider this: The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave our major urban highways a big, fat “D” on their infrastructure report card. A “D” on a report card usually means you’re getting grounded, and in a […]

Depression: Making Treatment Personal

April 30, 2015 by Michelle Bryant

Illustration of Russian nesting dolls.

For the estimated 350 million people worldwide who suffer from depression, the health consequences go far beyond “feeling down.” In fact, it is a leading cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people with symptoms of depression will never receive treatment, and for those diagnosed with major […]

Grand Victory

April 30, 2015 by Michelle Bryant

Wes Anderson (Philosophy ’90) arrives for the 2015 FOX Golden Globes party at FOX Pavilion on Jan. 11 in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Liberal Arts alumnus Wes Anderson (Philosophy ’90) won a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy in January and also received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Director for “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (2014). The whimsical and complex comedy earned a total of nine Academy Award nominations and took home four […]

Little Words Can Mean A Lot

April 30, 2015 by Michelle Bryant

Illustration of a magnifying glass looking over a sheet of paper. The letter, "A" is enlarged in the magnifying glass.

The smallest, most forgettable words in admissions essays — such as the, a, to, I and they — can tell us in advance how students will perform in college, according to a new study at UT Austin that included computerized text analysis of 50,000 admissions essays written by prospective college students. How a student uses small words, the study revealed, is related […]

Charles White Collection

April 30, 2015 by Michelle Bryant

Homage to Sterling Brown, 1972 Oil on canvas, 40 x 59 in. Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin Susan G. and Edmund W. Gordon Family Collection.

Charles W. White (1918-1979) is one of America’s most recognized African American and social realist artists of the 20th century. White worked in a figurative style, championing social justice by portraying the heroism of common people. He produced paintings on canvas, but he is best known for his monumental drawings and printmaking. He mentored numerous artists, […]

‘15 Minute History’ Lauded as One of the Best Podcasts of 2014

April 30, 2015 by Emily Nielsen

Illustration of a sun dial. The shadow hangs over the roman numeral for fifteen.

Since its launch in July 2013, UT Austin’s “15 Minute History” has topped the iTunes U charts more than 20 times, surpassing content produced by organizations such as NASA, Smithsonian Libraries, TED and Harvard University. Selected as one of iTunes U Best Podcasts of 2014, “15 Minute History” features short, accessible discussions from faculty members […]

Crossing Mental Boundaries

April 30, 2015 by Randy Diehl

Dean Randy Diehl shakes hands with a guest at an event.

The writer Lawrence Durrell once observed that travel is among the most rewarding forms of introspection, and students who study abroad bear this out. When they leave their comfort zones and experience life and learning in another culture, they return home knowing a lot more about themselves. Study abroad gives students context to better understand […]

Borderline: The Politics, Law and Identity of Immigration

April 23, 2015 by Michelle Garcia

Photo of two outstretched hands in front of a large, imposing border fence.

Temperatures hovered around the triple digits in deep South Texas when the children arrived on the U.S.-Mexico border. They traveled alone, without parents. They traveled from the faraway mountains of Guatemala and El Salvador and the depths of the world’s most violent city — San Pedro Sula in Honduras. Their numbers grew over months until […]

Fighting the World’s Fight: Q&A with Sai Gourisankar

March 25, 2015 by Emily Nielsen

Portrait of Sai Gourisankar.

Sai Gourisankar is a Plan II Honors and chemical engineering senior from Fort Worth, Texas. He is a recipient of the 2015 Rhodes scholarship, as well as being a Dedman distinguished scholar, a Goldwater scholar and an Astronaut Foundation scholar. What does winning a Rhodes scholarship mean to you? It enables me to study at […]

UT Anthropologist Helps Team Unlock Ancient Mammal Mystery

November 6, 2014 by Michelle Bryant

An artist’s rendering of gopher-like mammals in a prehistoric setting.

A UT anthropologist and a team of international researchers have announced the discovery of a new, relatively massive fossil mammal that lived among the dinosaurs more than 66 million years ago. Chris Kirk, associate professor of anthropology and an expert in the evolution of primate sensory systems, said Stony Brook University paleontologist David Krause led […]

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