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​Dean Goldbart sent a message to the community after Interim President Jay Hartzell announced that the building once named for R.L. Moore would be renamed and that Painter Hall would soon have a new Heman M. Sweatt entrance.

A message from Dean Paul Goldbart to the College of Natural Sciences community underscores the need to stand in solidarity and support one another. This post was updated on Tuesday, June 2 to include a statement from the CNS Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

Education is powerful — it's a means to inciting progress in the world, empowering individuals and transforming lives. Education's role in facilitating positive change is a major theme in Texas Computer Science student Dora Gurfinkel's life. She's so aware of it, in fact, that she is using her education to elicit real change within the university while paying homage to her family's unique history.

We in the College of Natural Sciences have launched World Changers, a new initiative that aims to celebrate a very special type of human in history: the scientist or mathematician who charted a path forward in which others could follow. 

In recent weeks, a pair of researchers received two of the biggest prizes in science, the Breakthrough Prize and the Lasker Award. Both women seized the moment to shine a light on something too frequently cast into the shadows—namely that STEM fields need more women and people from underrepresented communities involved and made welcome in their pursuits.

When Samantha Pliego started her freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin in the College of Natural Sciences, things went well. Mostly.

"I did struggle in that first biology class," said Pliego, who is now a sophomore.

The STEM fields – science, technology, engineering and math – have real work to do in terms of diversity. Right now, women make up only about 30 percent of the STEM workforce – and people identifying as black or Hispanic make up just 11 percent.

Amid the national debate about the lack of women in science, experts often cite the need for more female role models to inspire a new generation. Today, there are signs that the public face of science is changing. In Austin, among the vanguard are young women scientists.

With recent talk of a "bro culture" in Silicon Valley and accusations of sex discrimination in the technology sector, some in the College of Natural Sciences' Department of Computer Science are taking it upon themselves to build a culture of inclusion.