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The University of Texas at Austin

Review and Evaluation of Applications

Each application will be evaluated by a six-member Faculty Review Committee appointed by the Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies. The current members of the Faculty Review Committees are given below. 

Reviewers for academic year 2008-2009

COMMITTEE A - Humanities, Fine Arts, Communication, and Creative and Performing Arts

Member Title Department
Steven J. Friesen The Louise Farmer Boyer Chair in Biblical Studies Classics
Carol MacKay Distinguished Teaching Professor English
Elizabeth Peña Associate Professor Communication Sciences and Disorders
Susan Rather Associate Professor Art & Art History
  TO BE ANNOUNCED  
  TO BE ANNOUNCED  

COMMITTEE B - Social Sciences, Business, Education, Law, Public Affairs, and Policy Studies

Member Title Department
Ronald J. Angel Professor Sociology
Nora England Professor Linguistics
Kenneth Flamm Dean Rusk Chair  in the LBJ School of Public Affairs Public Affairs
Robert A. Josephs Associate Professor Psychology
Liza J. Shapiro Associate Professor Anthropology
Stephen Trejo Associate Professor Economics

COMMITTEE C - Engineering and Natural Sciences

Member Title Department
John G. Ekerdt Dick Rothwell Endowed Chair in Chemical Engineering Chemical Engineering
Gerald W. Hoffman Professor Physics
Stephen Hursting Margaret McKean Love Chair in Nutrition, Cellular and Molecular Sciences Human Ecology
Tandy Warnow David Bruton Jr. Centennial Fellow in Computer Sciences Computer Sciences
  TO BE ANNOUNCED  
  TO BE ANNOUNCED  

Each application is assigned to the Faculty Review Committee that the faculty member has designated on page one of the application. Each committee identifies applications that merit an award. Since available funding limits the number of awards that can be made, this is a competitive process and it may not be possible to support all worthy proposals. The prime criterion in judging applications is perceived merit--both the merit of the applicant and the merit of the proposal are important. The merit of the applicant is largely judged on the basis of the vita and, for FRA applicants, the letter of recommendation. Judgment of the merit of the proposal is strongly dependent as well on the applicant's summary statement and description of the proposed research. Factors in judging the merit of the proposal include the expected benefit to the applicant, evidence of the investigator's ability to carry it out, importance of the proposed work, soundness of the work plan, and necessity of the FRA or SRA to accomplish the proposed work. The applicant's record of previous support from the Faculty Development Program (formerly the University Research Institute) and the Dean's Fellows Program will also be taken into consideration.