Monthly eNewsletter
May 2007
In This Issue
Everyday Excellence
Meet Vince Holmberg, winner of the Hertz Fellowship and the NSF Graduate
Fellowship.
Featured Graduate School Resource
Graduate School Convocation
Spotlight on Faculty
Meet Professor Lynn Rew
Out in the Real World
2007 Moot Corp Competition
Tips and Tools for Success and Survival:
How to have a productive summer
Getting a Life
Enjoy the outdoors in May
Important Graduate Links
Graduate School Home Page
Graduate
Student Assembly
Dean of Students
Office
Libraries
DIIA
ITS
UHS
OSFS
Suggestions
If you have opinions on other topics that you would like to see offered
in these newsletters, we would love to hear them. Please send ideas
to
emcketta@mail.utexas.edu or
kmabley@mail.utexas.edu
Key Graduate Dates and Events
Planning to participate in the Graduate School Convocation this spring? Students
can find instructions for attending and registering online to attend at:
Doctoral
students
Master's
students
Dates
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| May 4 | Last class day |
| May 17 | Payment deadline for pre-registered summer school students |
| May 19 | Graduate School Convocation |
Looking Ahead to Fall 2007
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| August 28 | Deadline for graduate students to be registered in absentia for the fall semester |
| August 29 | Classes begin |
Congratulations to these members of the UT graduate community:
Karen Nyberg (Engineering PhD) has been chosen by NASA for a shuttle mission to the international space station. Nyberg will be UT's ninth alum in space, the first being Alan Bean and the latest Stephanie Wilson. Nyberg's mission, STS-124, will launch early next year.
Dr. Randy L. Diehl, a professor of psychology at The University of Texas at Austin, has been named dean of the university's College of Liberal Arts effective June 1.
A team of students from UT won $25,000 at a competition at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory that showcases nanotechnology ideas. The Nano Taxi team includes Cristal Glangchai (PhD, Biomedical Engineering, co-inventory of Nano Taxi); Abiola Ajetunmobi (MA, Engineering); Jakub Felkl (MA, Physics); and Nicholas Rojeskii (MBA, Business School).
The Guggenheim Foundation has awarded 2007 fellowships to four UT College of Liberal Arts professors. The following professors are among 189 artists, scholars and scientists selected from 2,800 applicants: Diana Davis (Geography and the Environment); Neil Foley (History); Cynthia Talbot (History); A. Van Jordan (English).
Sara Kamal (Advertising Ph.D. candidate) and Dr. Gary Wilcox (Advertising Graduate Adviser) were featured in the April 2007 issue of U.S. News & World Report dedicated to Graduate School rankings.
Linda Prieto (Curriculum and Instruction) has been awarded the prestigious Spencer Dissertation Fellowship, which supports research related to improving education. She will also receive support from the Graduate School's Ralph Nelson Student Endowment Fund for her dissertation addressing pedagogical dilemmas surrounding multiculturalism in teacher education and the instruction of Latino children.
Dr. Darlene Grant, Associate Dean of graduate studies and associate professor of social work and Ellen Spiro, associate professor in the Department of Radio, Television and Film were honored on April 16 on the Texas Senate floor for their work with Troop 1500.
Anthony Matteo, Jeffrey Howard, Noah Mass, Wooseong Yeom, Lynda Boudreault, Joseph Moser, Malavika Shetty, and Vessela Valiavitcharska won third place at the Science, Technology, and Society Game Court competition for “Rhetorical Peaks” – a nonviolent, not socially destructive video game.
Diane Mollaghan (Psychology) was featured in the “New Tricks” article in the NY Times Magazine on April 8 for her work on dog personality assessment.
Message from the Dean
Dear Graduate Students,
As the year draws to a close, many of you prepare to spend your summer continuing your studies, advancing your research and building upon your professional skills. Others prepare to graduate and begin a new life beyond The University of Texas at Austin.
Each fall and spring, one of the great highlights for me and the staff of the Graduate School is our convocation ceremony. It is an opportunity to bring together talented and creative graduate students from all across campus to recognize and celebrate their great achievements and to award the degrees for which they have worked so hard. This year, our ceremony will be held on May 19 at 9:00 a.m. for Master’s degree recipients and 12:00 noon for Doctoral degree recipients. Graduates and candidates will be individually recognized and hooded by the deans of their academic colleges. Provost Steven Leslie will speak at the master’s convocation, and President Bill Powers will speak at the doctoral convocation.
We congratulate our new graduates and welcome you as members of our distinguished graduate alumni community. It is our hope that you keep us updated on your achievements as your career progresses.
Warm Regards,
Victoria E. Rodríguez
Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies
Everyday Excellence
Excellence occurs every day in graduate education at UT Austin. Everyday Excellence highlights a UT graduate student and features his or her thoughts on various aspects of life and academia.
Vince Holmberg is the winner of the Hertz Fellowship as well as the NSF
Graduate Fellowship for his work in nanoscience and nanotechnology. He is
a first year graduate student in the department of chemical engineering,
and is currently working on the supercritical fluid synthesis of semiconductor
nanowires. Holmberg is a member of the Korgel research group.
Read
more….
Featured Graduate School Resource
Spring, 2007 Graduate School Convocation is scheduled for Saturday, May 19, 2007 in the Bass Concert Hall at the Performing Arts Center. The master's ceremony will begin at 9:00 a.m. and the doctoral ceremony will begin at 12:00 p.m.
Spotlight on Faculty
Three major steps in educating young adults about safe sex are giving them
information about sex and protection, teaching them effective communication
to use with their partners, and giving them the confidence to use it. Dr.
Lynn Rew, Professor and Graduate Adviser for UT's School of Nursing, works
in the greater Austin community to inform adolescents about practicing safe
sex.
Read
Full Text >
Out in the Real World
The McCombs Business School's 2007 Moot Corp Competition takes place in Austin from May 2-5. This competition, which brings together forty teams, provides a launch opportunity for MBA ventures worldwide. To learn more about the event that has been coined "the Super Bowl of world business plan competitions": http://www.mootcorp.org/
Getting a Life
May is an ideal time to take advantage of Austin's outdoor recreational resources before the arrival of the fierce summer heat. Consider these options for outdoor exercise and relaxation: biking several loops around the Veloway (bikes and roller blades only—so no fear of running over walkers or getting run over by cars); hiking through paths of native Texas plants and cactus in the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve; spending a quiet, fragrant afternoon walking through the Zilker Botanical Gardens. And of course, swimming in Barton Springs (which is free from 5 a.m. - 9 a.m., then again from 9 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.). More ideas here: http://www.utexas.edu/austin/recreation.html
Tips and Tools for Success and Survival
Survival Tip: How to have a productive summer:
- Maintain good habits: Eat, sleep, exercise regularly. This gives a backbone of order to otherwise unstructured days.
- Read ahead: Ask professors for class readings lists and prepare for classes at a leisurely summer pace.
- Volunteer for a few hours: Austin has hundreds of volunteer opportunities, which many students do not have time to do during the semester.
- Get organized: Make files for old classes and papers, and get your desk (and life) ready for the next project. Make a list of summer goals, and set a schedule for reaching them.
- Get a job at Starbucks: Receive health insurance AND coffee.
- Consider summer classes through UT or ACC: Or, consider signing up for a professional development course.
- Do as the Spanish do, and take a nap every afternoon: Make time to relax, since the three months will go by quickly.