University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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Late night, as Letterman signs off, researchers remain absorbed in their dedication. The University proudly secured million-dollar con- tracts and research awards that constituted glorious recognition in the newspapers and academic circles. However, real people supported these projects, spending hours tucked away in laboratories. Behind each piece of machinery, each computer program and underneath the piles of data printout were people who looked forward to horseback riding, playing basketball or swimming. Whoever imagined a guy in a black concert T-shirt handling the na- tion ' s defense mechanisms? Some researchers kept barroom hours. Experimental physics is painstak- ing, said Gail Webber, a physics graduate student who could be found at RLM after 1 1 p.m. It ' s inevitable that my experiment breaks down just as I ' m writing my thesis. It ' s frustrating. The University ' s various research projects ranged from human interests, as in self-esteem experiments in psychology, to genetically engineered bacteria developed in microbiology. The University of Texas received $110.9 million during the 1986 fiscal year, with a little more than half of that coming from the federal government, according to the state higher education Coordinating Board. University-level research was a resource for national, state and private industry. The Center for Enhanced Oil and Gas Recovery, for example, was one of four university programs in the nation that took over research once done by major oil companies. In the public sector, the Texas Water Commission relied on na- tionwide policy research conducted by students at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Although the government and private corporations benefited from UT research, the students also received practical experience. Responsibilities for graduate-level research projects was carried mostly by the students themselves. The faculty members ad- vised and outlined the experiments. They tell you what they want, and you go out and do it, Webber said. Graduate students are very indepen- dent; they have to come up with their own techniques, she said. Undergraduate students usually were hired by the professors who headed the laboratories. They worked by semester and were given research tasks but did not play a large role in completing the ultimate goals for the projects. Since research was expensive, pro- posals for funding had to be submitted. Dr. David Snow, UT associate pro- fessor of sociology, said detailed plans and designs for projects were included in funding proposals. The two projects recognized most by the news media were the hypervelocity railgun at the Center for Elec- tromechanics and the robotics projects in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The robots developed by Dr. Delbert Tesar, holder of the Carol Cockrell Curran Chair in Engineering were shaped like human arms and were designed to perform hazardous work on nuclear reactors. The railgun, part of the Strategic AUTOMATED ARM: Toying with ideas of the future, Randel Lindemann, Graduate Student in Mechanical Engineering, monitors robots design- ed to work on reactors. .. Defense Initiative, or Star Wars, research, was a new technology that pro- pelled materials at ultrahigh speeds. It had non-military applications such as superfast welding, creating new materials and launching aircraft. The UT Physics Department ac- quired a scanning tunneling microscope, one of approximately a dozen in the nation, and Dr. Alexandra de Lozanne, assistant professor of physics and .expert on that particular in- strument. It was used to look at small regions of conductors, such as silicon, with a probe. The microscope reconstructed an atomic image. This pioneer invention enabled man to look at the image of an atom, said Chris Snyder, doctoral candidate in physics. The research conducted was serious, yet it had a lighter side as well. Dr. Mar- shall Rosenbluth, holder of the Fondren 24 In Depth

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tfo protests. 5 would be reww r.; ' lA CAPITOL PROTEST: Students assemble on the West Mall Sept 2.1 before marching to the Capitol to protest cuts in the budget for higher education. Brian Adamcik Exhausted 23

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ive, or Star Wars, :w technology tot pro- at ill applications such as ling, creating new octal airo isis Department ac- 1 a nnint tunneling micros t in physics. dwasserw 5 Foundation Centennial Chair in Plasma Theory, and a highly respected plasma physicist, was known by his colleagues as the Pope of Plasma for his leading work in fusion. Another scientist, Dr. Merlin Tuttle, a visiting scholar in zoology, was referred to as the Bat- man for his studies on the furry, noc- turnal rodents and his directorship of the Bat Conservation Institute. The rising popularity of Cajun- prepared seafood took its toll on one specific fish of blackened fame. The red- fish was in danger of extinction, and the UT Marine Science Institute studied the species and raised it in monitored tanks to help head off the threat. The University attracted faculty members, students and industry from all over the world with its worthwhile research projects. by Susan Babchick PREHISTORIC TEXAN: Eryops, a 200 million ear-old dinosaur found in North Texas, stands constructed at Balcones Research Center. HEART CHAMBER: Dr. Thomas Runge and Stephen Ottmers, Bio-Medicine post graduate stu- lent. demonstrate the artificial heart pump they leveloped. Pete Rene Peter Rene