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Sombrilla

The University of Texas at San Antonio Online Magazine

In Brief

High Praise

The UK-based Times Higher Education magazine ranked UTSA among the top 400 universities in the world, one of only 70 U.S. public universities to be included. The 17,000 academic peers from 137 countries who were surveyed ranked the university on teaching, international outlook, industry income, research and citations. Times Higher Education also ranked UTSA 53rd among 100 universities worldwide that are less than 50 years old.


Monkey Business

Anthropology doctoral student Anne Kwiatt spent the summer in Singapore researching long-tailed macaque monkeys in their urban habitat, observing their behavior and studying their diet, following her receipt of a National Science Foundation fellowship. An element of her eight-week-long East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute research focuses on collecting detailed data about how urbanization has affected the monkeys' diet and how it affects their social structure and behavior.


World-Class Partners

The College of Public Policy has been named the lead partner of the SA2020 Government Accountability and Civic Engagement focus area, one of 11 areas outlined in Mayor Julián Castro's plan to transform San Antonio into a world-class city over the next eight years.

The college has supported SA2020 by hosting discussions about increasing and improving civic engagement and government accountability and creating a Citizens' Bill of Rights and Responsibilities to improve citizen-government relations.


Scholarly Recognition

Three UTSA professors and an alumnus have been selected for 2012–13 Fulbright Scholar grants, the largest international exchange program in the world. UTSA associate professor of history Wing Chung Ng will teach at Hong Kong Baptist University. John Alexander, associate professor of architecture, will research and teach in Italy, while Kimberly Cuero, associate professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching, will spend her year abroad in Colombia. Additionally, music graduate Aaron Carter Cohn '11, will spend his year in Nigeria.

The Fulbrights offer advanced research, university teaching, and primary and secondary school teaching opportunities worldwide.


Another First

Yvonne Katz '74, a former school superintendent who earned her master's degree in UTSA's first graduating class, has made a $1 million commitment to support the Office of Alumni Programs and students who are pursuing careers in education. UTSA will dedicate the Dr. Yvonne Katz Alumni Center later this year to celebrate the nearly four decades of support she has given to UTSA.


From Labs to the Market

Taking research findings observed in laboratories in San Antonio and turning them into drugs to treat disease is the focus of the Center for Innovation in Drug Discovery being built at both UTSA and the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.

Doug E. Frantz and Stanton McHardy in the UTSA Department of Chemistry are building a medicinal chemistry core facility in laboratories on the Main Campus.

"Several top-tier universities have established centers dedicated to the discovery and development of new drugs that will treat devastating human diseases," said Frantz, whose vision was a driving force in the center's formation. "The most successful of these enterprises have included faculty and research staff who bring pharmaceutical industry experience to the table."


Water, Water, Anywhere?

Nearly 600 million people around the world face a water shortage. That number is expected to dramatically increase.

So nearly three dozen UTSA researchers will collaborate on water-related issues under the aegis of UTSA's new Water Institute of Texas. They will provide data, information and technology, and policy solutions for decision makers and companies developing short- and long-term water sustainability strategies.

"Typically, we think of water shortages as problems that affect only third-world countries," said Mauli Agrawal, dean of the College of Engineering. "However, water scarcity is a major issue for South Texas, where the land is arid and the population continues to grow. Locally, farmers, city residents, businesses, energy producers, the oil and gas industry and natural species all vie for water, leading to a unique spectrum of technological, social and political issues."

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Current Issue: Fall 2012 | Table of Contents


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