News and Highlights
From the Chemistry Department
Arthur Chavez wins 2023 President's Outstanding Staff Award
Senior Procurement Officer, Arthur Chavez has been named the winner of a 2023 President's Outstanding Staff Award. This prestigious honor comes with a cash award and Arthur will be recognized by the President of the University at a ceremony in late s...
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Lynn Stevens Receives POLY Graduate Student Travel Award
Graduate student Lynn Stevens of the Zak Page Group is a recipient of the American Chemical Society Division of Polymer Chemistry, Inc Graduate Student Travel Award. The award provides funding for travel to the ACS national meeting and recipients are recognized at the POLY/PMSE awards symposium.Devleena Samanta and Pedro Metola Receive Teaching Excellence Award
Assistant Professor Devleena Samanta and Assistant Professor of Practice Pedro Metola are recipients of the College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award. This award recognizes excellence among the College's many exceptional faculty who are committed to teaching at either the undergraduate or graduate level.Ken Hsu Founder of New Biotech Company
Ken Hsu is scientific founder of a new startup biotech company that launched this week with $56M in seed financing. Hyku Biosciences aims to develop covalent oncology drugs based on advancing Hsu’s sulfur–triazole exchange (SuTEx) chemistry. https://www.hykubiosciences.com/news-media/press-release-9-19-23Yi-Chih Lin Receives NIH Maximizing Investigators' Research Award
Congratulations to Assistant Professor Yi-Chih Lin, recipient of a five-year NIH Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) grant titled, “Real-time structural and functional studies of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins." This $1.95M grant will support Dr. Lin's research in developing a cutting-edge structural imaging technique, high-speed atomic forc...Muhammad Waqas Ishaq Named Provost’s Early Career Fellow
Muhammad Waqas Ishaq, postdoctoral fellow in the Callmann Group, has been named a UT Austin Provost’s Early Career Fellow. The training program supports postdoctoral fellows and graduate students in their pursuit of attaining academic positions at top tier institutions.Danielle Nestler Receives 2022-2023 College of Natural Sciences Staff Excellence Award
Administrative Manager Danielle Nestler is a receipient of the 2022-2023 College of Natural Sciences Staff Excellence Award. CNS Staff excellence awards recognize members of our community who go above and beyond the day-to-day responsibilities of their job with outstanding dedication, competence, resourcefulness and customer service. Recipient...SuTEx chemistry provides a path towards pharmacological control of biomolecular condensates
A new study from the Hsu Lab in collaboration with colleagues at Princeton report the discovery of small molecules capable of controlling cellular levels of membraneless subcellular compartments known as processing-bodies (PBs) and stress granules (SGs). PBs and SGs are cytoplasmic ribonucleoprotein granules that are part of a larger family of stru...Faculty and Staff Honored by Natural Sciences Council
Carolyn Lum, Eric Anslyn, and Brent Iverson will be honored at this year's Faculty and Staff Appreciation Banquet hosted by the Natural Sciences Council's Student Faculty Committee. Senior Academic Advisor Carolyn Lum is a recipient of the Natural Sciences Foundation Advising Excellence Award. This award recognizes an advisor w...Kevin Zhou & Kevin Xiong Receive the College of Natural Sciences Dean’s Honored Graduate Award
Undergraduates Kevin Zhou (Page Group) and Kevin Xiong (Roberts Group) are recipients of the 2023 College of Natural Sciences Dean’s Honored Graduate Award. The highest honor a CNS student can earn, this title is awarded to approximately 25-30 students a year, representing the top 1% of each spring’s graduating class. Kevin Zhou ...Arthur Chavez wins 2023 President's Outstanding Staff Award
Senior Procurement Officer, Arthur Chavez has been named the winner of a 2023 President's Outstanding Staff Award. This prestigious honor comes with a cash award and Arthur will be recognized by the President of the University at a ceremony in late spring.Eliezer Ortiz Awarded University Graduate Continuing Fellowship
Graduate student Eliezer Ortiz of the Krische Group is a recipient of the University Graduate Continuing Fellowship. The University Graduate Continuing Fellowship is based on the student’s record since coming to UT. It includes a stipend of $35,000 for 12 months, health insurance assistance and tuition assistance that pays the cost of in-state...Aja Nicely Receives 3rd Annual Rising Black Scientist Awards Honorable Mention
Graduate student Aja Nicely of the Hull Group has been selected by Cell Press as a Rising Black Scientist Awards honorable mention. Her essay, “Dismantling the curse of the ‘First’," appears in the journal iScience. The Rising Black Scientist Awards were created in 2020 to break down barriers and create opportunities by providing visibil...Hang Ren Receives Scialog: Negative Emissions Science Award
Assistant Professor Hang Ren is a recipient of the Scialog: Negative Emissions Science Award, which aims to catalyze advances to make removal of CO2 & other greenhouse gases more efficient, affordable and scalable. Ren is part of a team working on "Robust Scalable Multifunctional Electrode for CO2 Reduction and C-C Coupling in Seawater."&n...Hang Ren selected for NSF CAREER award
We are pleased to announce that Assistant Professor Hang Ren has been selected for a highly prestigious NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award. The CAREER award is an early career honor, and it will support Hang’s research program to develop nanoscale scanning electrochemical probe methods to characterize the electrical do...Kami Hull Receives D&A Accessibility Champion Award
Associate Professor Kami Hull has been recognized as an Accessibility Champion by Disability and Access. This is a student-nominated honor given to those faculty who have shown dedication to enhancing the accessibility and inclusivity of our campus for students with disabilities. Well-done, Kami!Jonathan Sessler Receives Supramolecular Chemistry Award
Congratulations to Professor Jonathan Sessler, recipient of the prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry Supramolecular Chemistry Award. He will be honored and give a plenary lecture at the Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry Meeting in Nottingham, UK, in December.
Atreya Dey Wins Three Minute Thesis Competition
Graduate student Atreya Dey of the Thirumalai Group is the winner of the the 2023 Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition. His presentation is titled "The theory of a hundred thousand grandmas." 3MT was developed at The University of Queensland in 2008 and has competitions in 63 countries. Graduate students from all disciplines h...
Michael Krische Appointed Honorary Member of the Israel Chemical Society
The Israel Chemical Society (ICS) has awarded honorary membership in the society to Professor Michael Krische.The ICS is dedicated to the advancement of pure and applied chemistry, both nationally and internationally.Jim Chelikowsky Awarded The Foresight Institute Feynman Prize for Theory
Professor Jim Chelikowsky has been honored with the 2022 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize for Theory for his pioneering use of computational strategies to understand and predict material properties at the nanoscale.News
