President Powers talks about Enron's collapse eight years later

It's been eight years since Enron collapsed into bankruptcy, but memories linger in corporate boardrooms, where directors are charged with preventing a reprise of the self-dealing and accounting scandals that sunk the energy company. It's a set of responsibilities William Powers [...]

Wall Street Journal column highlights business professor’s paper

When it comes to cheering CEOs, booing them or throwing them in jail, a consideration that ought to be nagging is whether we're reacting to luck or design. Ken Lay was prosecuted not for the sins that brought down Enron, but for failing to tell investors the company was predestined to fail even as he [...]

Professor discusses controversy surrounding New York marathon winner

As soon as Mebrahtom Keflezighi, better known as Meb, won the New York City Marathon, an uncommon sports dispute erupted online, fraught with racial and nationalistic components: Should Keflezighi’s triumph count as an American victory? Having immigrated to the United States at age 12 [...]

LBJ professor says economic prosperity could take years

It's about to become official: The recession is over — but not the pain. James K. Galbraith, an economist at The University of Texas at Austin, suggests too much attention is given to when recessions technically begin and not enough to other measures of the economy. "It's just a word. A recession technically lasts during [...]

BusinessWeek notes McCombs advising students to retake GMAT

The primary purpose of the Graduate Management Admissions Test may be winning the favor of B-school admissions committees, but for many students, the scores they get on the GMAT will reach an audience that might be even more important—job recruiters. For students with strong applications but lackluster scores, some career services directors will advise admitted [...]

Forbes reports on study: Office culture encourages workers to be glued to their Blackberrys

To avoid wasting time in meetings, hardcore multitaskers sit there with their faces glued to their BlackBerrys, reading e-mails while they follow the discussion with one ear. But all they are doing is making the meeting longer for everyone else. However, a recent study by The University of Texas at Austin, offers hope. Titled "The [...]

Professor comments on Mayan Year 2012 Doomsday in New York Times

Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world. Or is it? “It's a special anniversary of creation,” said David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at The University of Texas at Austin. [...]

Cronkite’s will bequeaths personal papers to university, New York Times reports

He dropped out of The University of Texas at Austin in 1935 as a junior, because of what he called “awful grades,” to pursue a career in the news business, and what a career Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. had. But though he became a broadcasting legend, he never abandoned his Longhorn roots, as evident in [...]

LBJ professor discusses Medicare’s expansion into Mexico in Time

The words “Medicare savings” are a red flag to some and a carrot to others. But far away from the debates in Washington, a group of expatriate baby boomers point to one place they believe real Medicare savings could be realized: Mexico. A doctor's office visit or house call (still a common practice in Mexico) [...]

Why Women Have Sex Research Receives National Attention with Release of New Book

The mystery of why women have sex, and what they want out of it, has long been an elusive study — something even Sigmund Freud called "the great question." Researchers have historically theorized that women's motives lie in love and commitment [...]

Professor's Database Helps Facebook Develop Happiness Index

There is a 9.7 percent increase in happiness on Fridays compared with the worst day of the week, Monday. That is among the discoveries made by Facebook researchers with access to two years of anonymous "status updates" from 100 million users in the U.S. "It's early," said James W. Pennebaker, a psychology professor at The [...]

Professor Helps Chronicle the Lives of U.S. Latinos

Gus Hernandez and his family spent two nights sleeping in their car before Siddiqi Hansoti gave them three weeks' stay in his motel and then, even better, a job. Hernandez and Hansoti shared their story with public radio's StoryCorps, which has been capturing moments of American life since 2003 and archiving them at the Library [...]

Psychology Professor Discusses New Product Identity and Associations in N.Y. Times

Humans instinctively sort and classify things. It’s how we make sense of a complex world. So when companies develop innovative products and services that don’t obviously fit into established categories, managers need to help people understand what comparison to make.

NY Times announces professor’s appointment to new SEC division

The Securities and Exchange Commission has merged several offices and functions to create a division of risk, strategy and financial innovation. Henry T.C. Hu, a professor of banking and finance law at The University of Texas at Austin, will head the new division, the agency announced Wednesday. The division combines the SEC's Office of Economic [...]

Elizabeth Gershoff weighs in on the negative effects of spanking

Children who are spanked as 1-year-olds are more likely to behave aggressively and perform worse on cognitive tests as toddlers than children who are spared the punishment, new research our of Duke University shows. Elizabeth Gershoff, associate professor in human development and family sciences, said the study adds to a growing body [...]

Children’s Research Lab data used for racial attitudes study

At the Children's Research Lab at the University of Texas, a database is kept on thousands of families in the Austin area who have volunteered to be available for scholarly research. In 2006 Brigitte Vittrup recruited from the database about a hundred families, all of whom were Caucasian with a child 5 to 7 years [...]

Law professor writes opinion piece for The Washington Post

For nearly eight years the United States has struggled to develop sustainable, effective policies regarding the capture, detention, trial and disposition of individuals in the context of combat and counterterrorism. Unfortunately, these pressing matters have become mired in a polarized and misleading debate. And judging by the rancor that spilled [...]

Panel recommends new masks for health officials dealing with H1N1 influenza

An advisory panel consisting of Kenneth Shine, executive vice chancellor for health affairs for The University of Texas System, is recommending a major step up in protection for health workers dealing with patients suspected or confirmed to have H1N1 influenza.

Professor’s company says spray-on solar ink is coming soon

A California-based company that liquid-processes light-absorbing materials (other than silicon) into nano-size particles for so-called solar ink, and was founded by Brian Korgel, Matthew Van Winkle Regents Professor in Chemical Engineering, said its technology is only three to five years from becoming a reality. Spun out of The University of Texas at Austin, Innovalight has [...]

Opinion piece analyzes UT, A&M bat sound-decoding research

If you had the ears of a bat, what would you hear if you walked into a crowded bat cave? Music, it turns out. The noise would be louder than a rock concert, and it would be "so loud it would blow your ears out," according to a bat lover at Texas A&M University who [...]