University of Texas at Austin

Author Archive


Monday, November 21, 2011

Muriquis monkey mothers pull the strings

Moms are tops in muriquis monkey society. Photo by Carla B. Possamai; provided by K. B. Strier.

Moms are tops in muriquis monkey society. Photo by Carla B. Possamai; provided by K. B. Strier.

If you are a male human, nothing puts a damper on romantic success like having your mother in tow. If you are a male northern muriqui monkey, however, mom’s presence may be your best bet to find and successfully mate with just the right girl at the right time.

In a study of wild primates, reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy
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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Texas professors booked on BookTV

Several weeks ago, 10 University of Texas at Austin professors sat down with CSPAN host Peter Slen to talk about their books.

Julia Mickenberg

Julia Mickenberg

Those interviews have started to run on Book-TV, which appears on CSPAN-2 on weekends.

CSPAN is the cable television enterprise that covers the U.S. Congress and offers other public affairs programming. It turns CSPAN-2 over to interviews with non-fiction authors on weekends.

This weekend (Nov. 19-21, 2011) BookTV will feature interviews with three UT Austin professors, following two that appeared last weekend. More
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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Will this therapy work in correctional facilities?

Molly Lopez, a researcher in the School of Social Work, will test whether a therapy for traumatized youth will work in a correctional setting.

Molly Lopez, a researcher in the School of Social Work, will test whether a therapy for traumatized youth will work in a correctional setting.

A researcher in the School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin has received a $697,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to determine whether an effective behavior therapy can be used in correctional facilities for young people.

Molly Lopez, a research scientist at the Center for Social Work Research, will conduct a pilot
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Tuesday, November 8, 2011

This is the UT Austin program in Tom Friedman’s column

If you read Thomas Friedman’s column in the New York Times on Sunday (Nov. 6, 2011), you might have wondered about its reference to The University of Texas at Austin.

The reference was to a program that the university’s IC2 Institute operates to encourage and train entrepreneurs to develop businesses in India. It’s called the India Innovation Growth Program. IC2 operates similar programs in several countries, including South Korea and Kuwait.

Sid Burback, director of the IC2 Institute's Global Commercialization Group.

Sid Burback, director of the IC2 Institute’s Global Commercialization Group.

In working with Indian
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Engineer, biologist team up to reverse aging

Cockrell School of Engineering Associate Professor Adela Ben-Yakar and College of Natural Sciences Assistant Professor Jon Pierce-Shimomura received a competitive $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant will fund research that aims to prevent degeneration of the nervous system, which occurs through natural aging and diseases like Alzheimer's. Photo by Marsha Miller

Cockrell School of Engineering Associate Professor Adela Ben-Yakar and College of Natural Sciences Assistant Professor Jon Pierce-Shimomura received a competitive $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant will fund research that aims to prevent degeneration of the nervous system, which occurs through natural aging and diseases like Alzheimer’s. Photo by Marsha Miller

This article originally appeared on the Cockrell School of Engineering Web site. It was written by Melissa Mixon.

Technology developed by researchers at The University of
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Monday, October 10, 2011

A gallery of GRACE images

The twin satellites of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) constantly beam information back to Earth.

(See the full story on the University of Texas at Austin Web site).

The data arrives in scientists’ computers as screens full of numbers. The scientists transform the bit and bytes into images to help them, other researchers and policymakers better understand the information.

The principal investigator of the GRACE misson is Byron Tapley, director of the Center for Space Research and professor in the Cockrell School of
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Thursday, September 22, 2011

The image of cancer

There are more than 1.2 million cases of skin cancer in the United States each year.

Biomedical engineers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a device that could reduce the need for biopsies that are performed to determine whether a growth is cancerous.

James Tunnell and his student researchers developed a pen-sized, light-based device for detecting skin cancers.

James Tunnell and his student researchers developed a pen-sized, light-based device for detecting skin cancers.

For every melanoma found, doctors perform approximately 50 biopsies. As a result, healthcare providers spend billions of dollars per year taking
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Why your ride is more of a glide

In recent years, automobiles have become quieter and more comfortable.

For that you can thank an engineering professor at The University of Texas at Austin.

box4Dr. Jeffrey Bennighof, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics in the Cockrell School of Engineering, developed software that manufacturers have used to reduce noise and vibration.

The Automated Multilevel Substructuring (AMLS) software enables fast and accurate prediction of car vibrations over a wide frequency range on inexpensive computers. Analyses are done in hours on
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Monday, August 29, 2011

UT Austin displays significant inventions for regents

Two of The University of Texas at Austin’s significant inventions were highlighted for the Technology Transfer and Research Committee of the University of Texas Systems Board of Regents at an Aug. 24, 2011 meeting.

Richard Miller, chief commercialization officer at The University of Texas at Austin.

Richard Miller, chief commercialization officer at The University of Texas at Austin.

Both inventions bring significant benefits to society and revenue to the university, said Richard Miller, the chief commercialization officer of The University of Texas at Austin.

One invention has provided manufacturers with safe, reliable and rechargeable batteries
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Thursday, August 18, 2011

The worldwide impact of the Columbian Exchange

Alfred W. Crosby, emeritus professor of history, geography and American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, coined the term, “Columbian Exchange.” The term describes the reverberations throughout the New World and Old World after Columbus opened the door between them.

The concept came up recenty up with the publication of “1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created,” by Charles Mann. Mann drew on Crosby’s research in “1493″ and his previous book, “1491: New Revelations of the Americans Before Columbus.”

To
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