College discussion events are designed to stimulate faculty interactions across departments and highlight the College’s distinctive research capabilities and educational strengths.

Events held in the fall and spring consist of adult beverages, food and a program where intellectual conversation is the centerpiece. The fall Teaching Discovery Dinner event includes a full dinner.

Teaching Discovery Dinner: Each fall, this event brings faculty together in a relaxed environment for intellectual discourse about improving excellence in the classroom. This event is held in conjunction with the Teaching Discovery Day each year. The next Teaching Discovery Dinner will be on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019.

Cross-Cutting Conversations: To explore research intersections, both within the college and with other units on campus, faculty, their graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, research scientists and key staff and supporters are invited to listen in on a special, interdisciplinary discussion, exploring frontiers in research, and meeting colleagues from other units. At least one expert in the College of Natural Sciences will delve into these topics alongside researchers from elsewhere on campus in each conversation. Our spring 2019 series features partnerships with the Dell Medical School. 

Thank you to all who attended our inaugural conversation on Frontiers in Brain Research and our second conversation on Computational Health! Stay tuned for news coming soon about our Fall 2019 Cross-Cutting Conversation.

Featured Speakers for our April Cross-Cutting Conversation:

Dr. Catherine (Kate) Calder is joining the UT Austin faculty this year to serve as Chair of the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences. Currently a Professor of Statistics at The Ohio State University and Co-Director of the Mathematical Biosciences Institute, one of eight NSF-funded Mathematical Sciences Research Institutes, she specializes in spatial statistics, Bayesian modeling and computation, and network analysis. Her statistical research is motivated by and has made substantive contributions to problems in the environmental, social, and health sciences.

Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers joined UT's Department of Integrative Biology in 2003 and was the founding Chair of the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences. A global leader in the field of mathematical epidemiology, she builds models that leverage big data and high performance computing to track, investigate and control the spread of emerging viruses, including pandemic influenza, Ebola, HIV, dengue and Zika.

Dr. Kelly Gaither is the Director of Health Analytics at the Texas Advanced Computing Center and an Associate Professor in Women’s Health at the Dell Medical School. She received her bachelor’s and master’s in Computer Science at Texas A&M University and completed her Ph.D. in computational engineering at Mississippi State University. Her research areas include large data visualization, feature detection and visualization in health and medicine.