News Archive

Cockrell School of Engineering professor Guihua Yu, a materials scientist and engineer in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and in UT’s Texas Materials Institute and Energy Institute, has received the 2022 Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research from The Welch Foundation. He is being honored for his pioneering work in nanomaterials science that will have far-reaching applications in renewable energy and environmental and water sustainability.

Graphene has earned the moniker of "wonder material" because it is one of the strongest known materials and has a huge variety of practical applications. An international team led by researchers from The University of Texas at Austin has discovered new and exotic properties of graphene when it is manipulated in such a way to become a moiré material. These altered materials are made by stacking layers on top of each other and twisting them together. The research, published in Nature Physics, should help researchers further their understanding of graphene properties and unlock potential new applications down the road.

Ashley James (A.J.) Welch, a leading biophotonics researcher and one of the founding faculty members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UT, died at the age of 88 on January 1, 2022. Welch leaves a legacy of fundamental research and influence that carry on in the students he mentored and colleagues with whom he worked. Known for his patience, kindness, and ability to teach, the UT community mourns his loss.

Researchers across the Cockrell School of Engineering were among the most frequently cited in their fields in 2021. A total of 11 Texas Engineers made the list of the top 1% most highly cited researchers in the world, as determined by the Institute for Scientific Information at London-based analytics firm Clarivate.

William “Tex” Moncrief, one of the first graduates of The University of Texas at Austin’s petroleum engineering program (B.S. 1942) and a pioneer in the oil and gas industry, died Wednesday, Dec. 29, at the age of 101. Moncrief, who served on The University of Texas System Board of Regents, was known for his philanthropy across the state of Texas, including his longtime support of UT Austin.

Alan Bovik, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named the recipient of the 2022 Edison Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for "pioneering high-impact scientific and engineering contributions leading to the perceptually optimized global streaming and sharing of visual media.”

Hans Mark, a world-renowned aerospace engineer who was in Mission Control during the first moon landing and who served as chancellor of the University of Texas System for nearly a decade, died on Saturday, Dec. 18 at the age of 92. Mark leaves a legacy of exploration and discovery, warmth and inspiration, and leadership and innovation. In addition to being a champion of research and technology, he was known for bringing a personal approach to the UT community.

A research team from The University of Texas at Austin featuring battery luminaries John Goodenough and Arumugam Manthiram has secured a grant as part of the Battery500 consortium to continue their groundbreaking work.

On December 10, the Cockrell School of Engineering hosted a celebratory event to commemorate the naming of the Sam and Hema Kumar Construction Engineering and Project Management Program (CEPM) in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering. The Kumar CEPM program is named in honor of alumnus Sam Kumar and his wife, Hema, for their transformative gift to the program.

Honeywell plans to commercialize carbon capture technology created by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin that holds the promise of significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions from many industrial sources.