New Faculty Join the Longhorn Family  – UT Austin News

Chatter filled the room, echoing off the vaulted ceilings of the Etter- Harbin Alumni Center on Monday morning as nearly 150 new faculty members gathered for the 2026 New Faculty Launch. These faculty members join the Forty Acres at the end of an exceptionally strong recruitment cycle that began last fall with over 12,000 applications. 

Ahead of the start of classes, the three-day event offered attendees the chance to meet and listen to panelist sessions led by University administrators, as well as provided incoming faculty members the opportunity to share ideas across disciplines and establish pathways for future collaboration. 

President Jim Davis and Executive Vice President and Provost William Inboden welcomed incoming faculty with news of record high student enrollment numbers, including over 100,000 undergraduate applications for this fall's class.  

“You are entering an extraordinary university at an extraordinary time,†said President Davis. “And you are stepping into a significant role in a significant public mission. We are here to serve 254 counties in our state and the world at the same time. I invite you to understand this place, your role in it, and enjoy your time here.â€Â 

Not only did the New Faculty Launch provide incoming faculty members with important resources, the event also allowed instructors the opportunity to connect over their excitement for the upcoming school year as they begin their journeys as Longhorn faculty.  

New faculty member Peter Burr, an assistant professor in the College of Fine Arts, is joining UT with experience as an artist blending graphics and computational systems for digital programs and museum installations. He notes that joining the large faculty community is what he looks forward to the most this school year. 

“This campus is huge, and the questions I'm chasing are also being chased in film and journalism and computer science and probably in fields I don't know exist here yet,†Burr said. “I've spent a lot of years working pretty independently and I'm really happy to join forces here.â€Â 

This year's event attracted 48 faculty mentors from around the University, some with decades-long careers at UT under their belt. Others began teaching on the Forty Acres more recently, like Wayne Geerling, the Murray S. Johnson Chair in Economics in the College of Liberal Arts, who is approaching his fourth year.  

In his advice to new professors, Geerling remembers the kinds of teachers who shaped his experience in both high school and undergraduate learning. Now leading his own class, he uses student activities to make the lesson come alive — he's even held an in-class auction to increase participation. He suggests new faculty make a point to engage students with hands-on curriculum that make even complicated subjects exciting.  

A great teacher, he said, led him to a career in economics and research.  

“The best teachers shape your personality. They inspire you. You go down different paths in life because of that,†Geerling said. “I'd like to think that along the way I've helped students like that as well.â€Â 

Zachary Sickmann, who will be joining the College of Natural Sciences with an expertise in sedimentology as a record of tectonic history, is looking toward the start of his first year as an assistant professor at UT Austin following a previous stint as a lecturer and some time teaching at The University of Texas at Dallas. Sickmann said the New Faculty Launch gave him valuable tools to use this semester. 

“I've been to events like this before, and I would say that the quality of the speakers and the kind of actionable knowledge that they're conveying, is the best I've ever experienced,†he said.  

In both Geerling and Sickmann's experiences in their respective fields, working at UT provides opportunities for tactile learning that takes student interest to the next level.  

Sickmann, who often conducts field research with students at UT's Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, is especially excited for the lab resources at the University. Seeing students apply their classroom lessons to real-world material, he says, is just one rewarding and unique aspect of the job.  

“Suddenly you realize a student is understanding a concept and it clicks and they can explain it back to you,†he said about students conducting field research. “Not only do they have that light bulb moment, that click, or the sparkle in their eye, but they also have the physical product that they were able to produce out of that.â€Â Â 

Sickmann also looks forward to UT labs shaping the “eureka†moments for the students he will be teaching. 

“I'm excited to be based in a place where the students come to get those hands-on experiences,†Sickmann said. “I'm privileged to be one of the faculty members that gets to be on campus, in spaces where our students come to visit.â€Â 

At the New Faculty Launch, the Provost invited faculty to enjoy all the resources, research and opportunities that the University has to offer.  

“In becoming faculty here at UT, you have joined one of the world's great societies for the pursuit of learning,†Provost Inboden said. “My hope is that as you take up your academic duties here at UT, you can also take joy in your practice as scholars and teachers. We're all fortunate to be here and to do the work that we love.â€Â