News and Events

Climate Engineering Report Ranked Among Top Government Priorities by Copenhagen Consensus Center

Thursday, 17 May 2012

The effect of global warming could potentially be ameliorated by engineering ways to reflect more sunlight back into space, according to a report by a professor at The University of Texas at Austin.

The report, by Professor J. Eric Bickel and Hudson Institute Fellow Lee Lane, was selected by a panel of international experts as one of 16 areas of research that governments and philanthropists should prioritize to respond to the world's most pressing challenges.

Natural Sciences, Engineering Students Named Goldwater Scholars

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

AUSTIN, Texas — Three undergraduates at The University of Texas at Austin have been awarded Goldwater Scholarships, the premier undergraduate award of its type in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering.

The one- and two-year scholarships, awarded annually to outstanding second- and third-year college students, will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

This year’s recipients are William Berdanier, Leslie Chang and Brian Wilson.

Berdanier, a Dean’s Scholars Honors physics and mathematics major from Boulder, Colo., is being recognized for his work in “inertial confinement fusion,” which seeks to achieve fusion energy by compressing a pellet of fuel to extremely high temperatures and pressures.

Working first at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and then with University of Texas at Austin physicist Gennady Shvets, Berdanier has demonstrated that by propagating an ion beam pulse through a weak background of plasma, the beam can be neutralized very effectively and at a low energy cost.

“Will, who is the only freshman I’ve ever accepted into my lab, started working with me as an unpaid student assistant,” said Shvets. “However, his performance was so overwhelmingly effective that I converted his position into a paid one after one month. Since then he has consistently performed at the level of our best graduate students at the university.”

Chang is a Dean’s Scholars Honors biochemistry and biomedical engineering double major from Toronto. She’s being recognized for her work in the protein engineering laboratory of professors George Georgiou and Brent Iverson. The goal of her work is to engineer an enzyme to be used as a cancer therapeutic against malignancies with metabolic deficiencies.

Her long-term goal is to pursue a master’s/doctorate and eventually to combat pediatric cancers both in the laboratory and in the clinical setting.

Wilson is a chemical engineering student in the Cockrell School of Engineering. His research is focused on developing a new physical form of proteins that could drastically improve treatments for cancer and other diseases, as well as overcome some of the largest challenges in therapeutics: delivering drugs to patients safely, easily and more effectively.

He and chemical engineering faculty members are creating a form of proteins that are packed into highly concentrated, nanometer-size clusters that can pass through a needle into a patient to treat disease — a development that could allow patients to self-administer drugs at home rather than be treated intravenously in a clinic or hospital.

"The Goldwater award is tremendous because it provides both financial support and recognition," Wilson said. "This award affirms the value of research and course work I have done while financially supporting me so that I can focus more on those endeavors in the future."

The 275 Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from 1,095 mathematics, science and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. The Goldwater Foundation is a federally endowed agency established by Congress in 1986. The scholarship program honoring Sen. Barry M. Goldwater was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

Baker Hughes Donates $1.7 Million For Drilling and Completions Labs at The University of Texas

Tuesday, 01 May 2012

Baker Hughes, a leading oilfield service company, is donating $1.7 million to help establish The University of Texas at Austin as the global epicenter of creating technology for drilling oil and gas wells.

The gift will go toward renovating and building three labs in the university's Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department.

Statoil Selects University of Texas at Austin Students for New Fellowship

Monday, 30 April 2012

International energy company Statoil has awarded fellowships to eight graduate students from The University of Texas at Austin, funding their research in geology, geophysics and petroleum engineering. Fellowships will last two to three years, depending on the project. Statoil will contribute a total of $5 million to the work of these and future fellows over the coming five years. The research partnership is Statoil's largest agreement with a university outside Norway and its first in the United States.

Aerospace Professor Elected to The Academy of Distinguished Teachers

Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Glenn Lightsey, a professor in the Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Department at The University of Texas at Austin, has been selected as a member of the university's Academy of Distinguished Teachers.