Serving The University Of Texas At Austin Community Since 1900 @thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Volume 120, Issue 82
Texas Baseball celebrates a win against LSU with outfielder Austin Todd on March 3, 2019. The Longhorns swept the Tigers in a three-game series.
eddie gaspar
NEWS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFE&ARTS
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A UT researcher is part of a NASA team that discovered a potentially habitable planet.
Editor-in-chief Spencer Buckner invites students to join the staff of The Daily Texan.
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Mac Miller’s posthumous album Circles engages with life, pain, social expectations.
Male practice squad players elevate Texas womens’ basketball.
CITY
Austin holds 26th annual MLK celebration Thousands gather on campus to march in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. By Aria Jones @AriaJonesetc
housands of people celebrated Austin’s 26th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day march, gathering at King’s statue in UT’s East Mall on Monday. The event held at the statue honored King’s legacy and civil rights work. Speakers included University President Gregory Fenves; march coordinator
jack myer
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Marchers pass under the Texas State Capitol Building on their way to Huston-Tillotson University on Jan. 20, 2020. The march began under the Martin Luther King Jr. statue on the East Mall and ended at HTU, Austin’s historic HBCU.
Brenda Harris Burt, who is the director of undergraduate and alumni relations for the African and African Diaspora Studies Department; Edmund Gordon, the vice provost for diversity; Cherise Smith, a department chair for the African and African Diaspora Studies Department. “This holiday gives us a chance to reflect on and celebrate all of the individual stories and people who have followed Dr. King’s footsteps and helped improve lives for so many and lead us to a better future,” Fenves said at the event. Fenves also took a moment to recognize the 50th anniversary of the John L. Warfield Center, an institution Fenves said made diversity, inclusion and equality part of the moral foundation of UT. “In over a decade as director, (Warfield) would help lay the groundwork for a transformation of this University, where racist M L K PAGE 2
CITY
RESEARCH
3M Half Marathon course shows off Austin, UT campus to 7,000 runners
UT physics professor wins Wolf Prize for twistronics research
By Hannah Williford @HannahWillifor2
Students and faculty took part in the annual 3M Half Marathon on Sunday, where participants ran a 13.1-mile course through Austin and the UT campus as people cheered them on from the sidelines, playing instruments and holding up signs. The course ran from North to South Austin and cut through the University on Speedway and University Avenue. The race finished at the Texas Capitol.
Cameron Nguyen, a management information systems junior, said the race was part of his goal to complete multiple distance races during college. “It’s kind of crazy to pay to hate yourself for a couple miles,” Nguyen said. “I know in college a lot of people lose their physical activity and just kind of let themselves go a little bit, so I wanted to keep that up.” William Dyson, 3M Half Marathon communications manager, said one goal of the half marathon was to
incorporate more of Austin by inviting local businesses to participate and encouraging the community to cheer on runners. “If (people) are not going to run or volunteer, (they can) come out and spectate and cheer,” Dyson said. “It’s really trying to be … as inclusive as possible while also just making this essentially (an) experience. … We want the whole experience to be truly memorable for every participant.” Dyson said the half marathon drew over 7,000 runners from 47 states and 20 M A R A T H O N PAGE 2
By Nataleah Small @nataleahjoy
UT professor Allan MacDonald won the Wolf Prize in Physics for his theoretical and experimental work on the field of study twistronics, on Jan. 13. This work, which changes the electronic properties of materials by twisting atomic layers, has the potential to impact the evolution of technology, MacDonald said. The Wolf Foundation awards the prize to artists and scientists who produce work “in the
interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples,” according to the foundation’s website. MacDonald is the fourth UT professor to win the prize, and the first to win in the field of physics. “I was surprised by the phone call,” MacDonald said. “I was actually sitting in the study area near the Starbucks in The Texas Union, which is one of my hiding places when I want to get some work done ... and that news was quite a surprise.” MacDonald shares the award with two other recipients, Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, a physics professor at Massachusetts
the Commuter Meal Plan
Institute of Technology, and Rafi Bistritzer, who works at Applied Materials in Israel. Twistronics can control the electronic properties of certain types of materials when a oneatom-thick layer of material is placed on top of another atom-thick layer and twisted at a certain angle, Macdonald said. He said when this happens, special electronic properties can be observed. “I’m a theorist, but what (interests me) is understanding unexplained behaviors in materials and W O L F PAGE 3