Letter from the Dean

Credit: Marsha Miller

Dear Friends,

Each year, science delivers new views of what’s possible. For example, a few years ago came the announcement of the discovery of gravitational waves, powered by a team that included University of Texas at Austin alumni and faculty like Deirdre Shoemaker. Scientists described a revolutionary new way of interacting with events in the distant universe, detecting a collision of black holes for the first time.

And who could argue with Texas writer Lawrence Wright who described last year’s greatest scientific breakthrough – the development of coronavirus vaccines – as a development for which we owe scientists “our thanks and perhaps our lives”? One of the scientists Wright mentions by name is UT Austin’s own Jason McLellan, whose technology is found in four of the five leading SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

Then there’s biologist Nancy Moran, whose innovation holds promise to protect our bees under threat, and our experts in Human Development and Family Sciences, whose insights demonstrate we can emerge from our quarantine year with stronger ties to those around us.

Peruse this site for more that shows what our university and College of Natural Sciences mean when we say: “What starts here changes the world.”

David Vanden Bout

Dean, College of Natural Sciences