The University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility

The High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility at The University of Texas at Austin (UTCT) is a national shared multi-user facility supported by the Instrumentation and Facilities Program of NSF’s Earth Sciences (EAR) directorate and NASA’s Planetary Science Enabling Facilities program. UTCT offers scientific researchers across the earth, biological and engineering sciences access to a completely nondestructive technique for visualizing features in the interior of opaque solid objects, and for obtaining digital information on their 3D geometries and properties.

Interested in scanning materials at our facility? See the Scanning FAQ or download the Scan Agreement Form.

Selected Recent Publications

Benson, R.B.J., Walsh, S.A., Griffiths, E.F., Kulik, Z.T., Botha, J., Fernandez, V., Head, J.J., and Evans, S.E. (2025) Mosaic anatomy in an early fossil squamate. Nature, 647, 673-679.

Borenstein, C., Butler, B.G., Paramore, J.D., Hartwig, K.T., and Demkowicz, M.J. (2025) Shape‐preserving metallic gels with applications as electrodes for liquid metal batteries. Advanced Engineering Materials, 2500738.

Dasent, J., Wright, V., Scharer, K., Manga, M., and Kilburn, R. (2025) Memory and jamming in fault zone sediments. Nature Communications Earth & Environment, 6, 998.

Epperson, J.J., Malkowski, M.A., Ketcham, R.A., and Sharman, G.R. (2025) Batholiths are bullies: arc-unroofing trends in detrital zircon fertility and morphology revealed through CT analysis, central California, U.S.A. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 95, 1143-1153.

Haridy, Y., Norris, S.C., Fabbri, M., Nanglu, K., Sharma, N., Miller, J.F., Rivers, M., La Riviere, P., Vargas, P., Ortega-Hernández, J., and Shubin, N.H. (2025) The origin of vertebrate teeth and evolution of sensory exoskeletons. Nature, 642, 119-124.

O’Connor, J., Clark, A., Kuo, P.C., Kiat, Y., Fabbri, M., Shinya, A., Van Beek, C., Lu, J., Wang, M. and Hu, H. (2025) Chicago Archaeopteryx informs on the early evolution of the avian bauplan. Nature, 641, 1201-1207.

See our publication page for a complete list.