Reflecting Humans at Our Best

IN 2022, society had its first glimpse of jaw-dropping images from NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope. Those first views into what had never been seen before captured our collective imagination. They were soon projected on buildings in Times Square and the Eiffel Tower — snapshots from around the universe that somehow also reflected humanity at its best. We are a species capable of bold and astounding feats, and that’s especially clear in science. 

As awe-inspiring as those early pictures were, the research that followed was even more amazing. As this edition of our annual magazine makes clear, JWST is upending long-held ideas about the earliest epochs of our universe. Many key breakthroughs trace a root to The University of Texas at Austin, where our researchers competed successfully to earn nearly one-tenth of the total time up for grabs on this telescope, so important are their explorations in humanity’s understanding of our collective cosmic origins.

At UT Austin, we continue on our quest to be the highest-impact public research university on Earth for not only astronomy but for other science, mathematics and technology, too. From leveraging insights from data science to improve the environment to hosting the longest-running evolutionary experiment in microbiology, from matching the world’s most celebrated mathematicians to thorny challenges to engaging the public with inspiring science, we are hard at work towards making our impact far-reaching. We are well positioned, too, alongside our stakeholders — all of you.

David Vanden Bout
Dean, College of Natural Sciences