As Spring 2025 comes to a close, we’re looking back at this semester and remembering a few highlights that set Longhorn faculty apart from the rest. From innovative teaching to groundbreaking research, our faculty are setting high standards and preparing students for success.
Accolades
- The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation named three faculty members to its 100th class of Guggenheim Fellows.
- 51 UT Health Austin providers and many other Dell Med faculty physicians were included in Austin Monthly’s annual Austin’s Top Doctors list.
- Five faculty were recognized with University Research Excellence Awards, and several more were honored with President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Awards, including an art history professor with a focus on Greek art and archaeology and Near Eastern art.
- Six faculty members were announced as recipients of Sloan Research Fellowships, putting UT Austin at the forefront among public universities boasting winners this year.
- Several faculty members were selected as fellows for distinguished societies and programs, including the 2025 Class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows, the United States Institute for Theatre Technology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Educational Research Association and the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.
Teaching
- Congratulations to our new members of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers.
- A professor of practice and founding director of the Texas Immersive Institute in the Stan Richards School of Public Relations & Advertising encourages students to work across new forms of media to stay on the forefront of emerging technology and trends. Students in the program explore live theater, augmented reality and experiential marketing to bring stories to life beyond a 2D format.
- To prepare students for the realities of legal practice in a business context, faculty from the School of Law and McCombs School of Business teamed up for an intensive, three-day “bootcamp” that provided aspiring attorneys with foundational business knowledge.
- A Moody associate professor was surprised with the student-driven Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship, a $30,000 award presented for outstanding teaching. The award is given annually by The Friar Society, the university’s oldest and most prestigious honor society.
Research
- In a collaboration between the School of Architecture and the Cockrell School of Engineering, faculty and students are tackling affordable housing by designing small, modular, stackable homes for those who need immediate housing, including those displaced by disasters.
- A study from the Jackson School of Geosciences, which describes a fossil of a nearly complete and intact duck-like bird skull, is shedding light on the early evolution of today’s birds and avian diversity at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. The study has been published in Nature.
- The Collaborative Accelerator for Transformative Research Endeavors between UT Austin and MD Anderson will enable groundbreaking projects that align complementary strengths to improve cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and survival.
Honorable Mention (Almost Spring)
- A professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics recently — and unexpectedly — had an asteroid named for him. This rare honor includes a rigorous selection process led by an international organization.