As a research university, UT departments’ professors, graduate students and visiting professors from around the world host seminars for anyone to attend. However, audience sizes vary, with many departments lacking undergraduate students in the audience.  

Geophysics graduate student McKenzie Carlson hosts the UT Institute for Geophysics Discussion Hour, an informal seminar generally organized by graduate students where anyone can sign up to give a presentation. Graduate students use this opportunity to share their research and practice their speaking skills in preparation for defending their dissertations. However, she has noticed that attendance is usually small, with the department heads wanting more people to attend.

“I would hope that other students, (particularly) undergrads, would also be interested,” Carlson said. “In terms of attendance at … our big department seminar, they really try to encourage everyone to go, but every week, they always complain that not enough people show up. It would be great if more people came to the seminars.”

While seminars are actively held on campus, many students might not be aware of them. If professors and graduate students were willing to host seminars about their research for the students they teach, undergraduate students could gain exposure to seminars by a familiar face and become more aware of the opportunities on campus. 

Neuroscience sophomore Eleanor Chou has attended many seminars as part of the Dean’s Scholars Honors Program.

“The ones (that) I know of are usually reserved for honors programs, or you have to sign up for a specific newsletter,” Chou said. “If you weren’t a student in the honors program and didn’t actively try to find postings online, it’d be hard to find these seminars.” 

Consequently, students may struggle to understand the complex topics on which seminars are held. 

“I can’t stand going to seminars sometimes because they’re really jargony,” said Morgan Carrington, fourth-year PhD candidate. “When I was an undergrad, I didn’t go to seminars either. There should be more work done to publicize the seminars that already exist and … make undergrads feel comfortable coming.”

Students can find a list of seminars on specific topics on the college or department website, and the departments host visiting speakers. Many are open to the general public, while programs like UTIG run more specialized topic seminars. 

“Our main, big department (is the) one that everyone is encouraged to go to (for) general audience(s),” Carlson said. “Other ones, like the geophysics seminar series or … sub-disciplines …  are grad-student-run and organized. The bigger ones are managed by the department itself.”

Students can become more aware and interested in more seminars by attending those which their professors or teaching assistants host. 

“A lot of students would be more interested if they just knew about it, and if in class they brought it up, they would be more inclined to go,” Chou said. “Once a person goes to one seminar, they naturally know about more because they go over the hurdle of attending it and getting the feel for what kinds of research they’ll know about.”

Attending a seminar can seem daunting to students who don’t know the topics or have not attended one before, but having familiarity with the host can help motivate them to attend a seminar once and then again. Professors and teaching assistants can take small steps to extend awareness by hosting seminars about their research for their students to spark interest.

Medha Shah is a physics freshman from Frisco, Texas.