Designed to create a campus-wide conversation, the Helen and Jeff Herbert Family University Lecture Series gives first-year students an opportunity to interact with leading members of our faculty—scholars, scientists, and civic leaders who are nationally and internationally renowned. All students, faculty, alumni, staff and community guests are invited, but the events will be aimed at entering first-year students. The Helen and Jeff Herbert Family University Lecture Series is generously brought to UT Austin by the Helen and Jeff Herbert family.
Spring 2020 Lectures
Immigration and Imagination
Thomas Palaima, Ph.D. (with Michael Lesy, Professor Emeritus, Hampshire College and Aloysius Martinich, Roy Allison Vaughan Centennial Professor in Philosophy, UT Austin)
Watch the lecture.
Opportunity Hoarding or Opportunity for All: The Choice in Education Today
Kevin Foster, Ph.D.
Watch the lecture.
If Exercise is Good For You, Why Don’t We Do More?
John Bartholomew, Ph.D.
Watch the lecture.
Fall 2020 Events
COVID-19 Research That Changes the World
Lauren Ancel Meyers, Ph.D. & Jason McLellan, Ph.D.
Watch the lecture.
Modeling to Mitigate the COVID-19 Pandemic: Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers will discuss how the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium has used data, math, and computing to measure the speed and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, forecast COVID-19 deaths across the US, and provide guidance for public health officials, policymakers, and schools on strategies for protecting the health and safety of their communities.
Structure-Function Studies of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike and Development of COVID-19 Interventions: During this seminar, Dr. Jason McLellan will present his laboratory’s efforts to investigate the structure and function of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and our involvement in the development of vaccine candidates and monoclonal antibodies being evaluated in preclinical and clinical trials. SARS-CoV-2 is a novel betacoronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China in Dec. 2019 and is the causative agent of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Effective vaccines and therapeutic antibodies are urgently needed, and the development of these interventions is proceeding rapidly. The coronavirus spike protein is the primary vaccine antigen and is the target for the most promising antibodies.
Racial Justice, AI, and the Disrupted EDU
Leonard Moore, Ph.D.
Watch the lecture.
This lecture will look at the three interconnected pillars of racial justice, artificial intelligence, and the disrupted EDU, and it will challenge students to rethink and reimagine how they approach their college experience. With the exponential growth of technological change in an increasingly global economy, it is imperative that students pivot from knowledge acquisition to talent acquisition. This new mindset must be accompanied by a radical shift in the way universities understand their core function.