UW underwater robot team competes Saturday

This year’s challenges involve installing, operating and maintaining a cabled ocean observing system, similar to the one being installed by the UW this summer off the Washington and Oregon coasts.

The UW team will attempt to qualify for the international contest, as will Western Washington University and Skagit Valley’s 4H club. Middle- and high-school teams from Seattle, Tacoma, the Kitsap Peninsula and the San Juan Islands will compete and see who will advance to the next round.

The weekend event is one of 22 regional contests held in the U.S., Canada, Japan, China, Egypt and Scotland. Winners of the regional contests will advance to the 12^th annual international competition, which will take place June 20-22 in Federal Way.

Cecilia Bitz recognized for decade’s worth of work
Cecilia Bitz, a UW associate professor of atmospheric sciences, was awarded the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel Award. The $10,000 award honors early- to mid-career ocean scientists who have made significant and growing impacts during the previous decade.

Bitz’s research focuses on modeling climate change in snow- and ice-covered regions. She is an author on the last three assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and in March she briefed U.S. Congress members on Arctic sea-ice loss. Bitz, a UW graduate with a master’s in physics and doctorate in atmospheric sciences, currently chairs the advisory board of the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs.

Greenwald, Kuhl among 25 honored as part of 25^th anniversary

As part of Association for Psychological Science ‘s 25th anniversary celebration, the board of directors has named 25 distinguished scientists – including UW’s Anthony Greenwald and Patricia Kuhl – who have had a profound impact on the field of psychological science over the past quarter century.

Greenwald is a psychology professor and Kuhl is co-director of UW’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences and a UW professor of speech and hearing sciences.

In announcing the awards, the association noted that Greenwald’s work with unconscious and automatic thought processes has changed “what had once been a pariah of psychological science — subliminal perception — and turned it into a respectable area of research and even a gold mine for others to excavate.”

The association wrote that Kuhl is “widely known” for research showing how babies’ ability to discriminate speech sounds becomes increasingly specific to their native language as they age and that social skills play a critical role in language learning.

The University Ranking of Academic Performance employs six measures:

• Number of scientific articles published and indexed by the Web of Science;
• Research impact of these articles as measured by the number of times the articles were cited by others;
• Sustainability and continuity of scientific productivity;
• Research quality as measured by the impact of the journals in which articles appeared;
• Research quality as determined by the impact of received citation quality;
• International collaboration, measured by the total number of publications made in collaboration with foreign universities.

Information was gathered from 2,500 higher education institutions worldwide, making it one of the most comprehensive university ranking systems in the world.

Harvard University was ranked first, followed by the University of Toronto, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, University of California Berkeley, University of Michigan and Oxford. The UW’s ranking was behind Oxford by just six hundredths of one point.

The University of Washington has been ranked 16^th in the Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and 24^th by the Times (UK) Higher Education World University Rankings. It was also ranked as 46^th best university by US News & World Report, and 17^th best value among public colleges by Kiplinger’s.

UW outcompetes PAC-12 schools

Among all the 270 colleges and universities competing in the grand champion category, UW ranked 83. In the category for food services organics, which considers the weight of food waste composted per person on campus, UW was 38^th. Considering the total weight of paper and mixed containers recycled on campus, the UW was 35^th. And considering the weight of paper and mixed containers recycle per person on campus, UW was 183^rd.

In addition to the national competition, UW Housing and Food Services sponsored a competition between UW residence halls. During the two month period, McMahon had the highest waste diversion of all residence halls (highest recycling and compost combined, lowest garbage). Poplar came in second for the highest diversion rate even though it has no dining facility.  McMahon also had the highest compost rate of all the residence halls, followed by Terry/Lander. Hansee had the highest recycling rate of all residence halls.

MIT engineering professor to speak on research, career journey
Many seasoned academics can point to circuitous paths and serendipitous events that led to a successful, perhaps unexpected career in research. One professor’s take on this journey is the topic of this year’s annual Dean Lytle Electrical Engineering Endowed Lecture Series.

Alan S. Willsky, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will speak twice for the UW community. His first talk at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 14, in the Electrical Engineering Building (room 105) will be a more technical lecture titled “Learning and Inference for Graphical and Hierarchical Models: A Personal Journey.”

Then on Wednesday, May 15, Willsky will address a general audience with his lecture “Building a Career on the Kindness of Others” at 3:30 p.m. in the Paul G. Allen Center‘s Microsoft Atrium.

Both talks are free and open to the public.

Willsky’s work on large-scale data fusion has been applied in areas such as object recognition, oil exploration, remote sensing in the ocean and groundwater hydrology.

The Dean Lytle lecture series is the electrical engineering department’s largest annual event, usually featuring speakers in the field of communications and signal processing. Lytle came to the UW in 1958 and served for 40 years as a professor of electrical engineering.

Pharmaceutical science association recognizes Rodney Ho
Rodney Ho, professor of pharmacy, will receive the Research Achievement Award in Biotechnology from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists at its annual May meeting. The award, among the highest the association confers, recognizes the quality of his work and its impact. Ho studies the relationship between drug localization in tissues and cells and the links to disease progression. His nanotechnology and device innovations have helped make anti-infective agents, such as anti-HIV drugs, pain medications and cancer drugs, more potent with fewer side effects.

The University of Washington in collaboration with Washington State University is developing an “academic redshirt” program that will bring dozens of low-income Washington state high school graduates to the two universities to study engineering in a five-year bachelor’s program.

The first year will help incoming freshmen acclimate to university-level courses and workload and prepare to major in an engineering discipline. The students will receive extra advising and a detailed course plan to help lay a strong foundation in engineering. At the UW, they will earn a spot in one of the school’s 10 engineering departments starting their second year.

Dawn Wiggin

Math Academy students from 2012 are shown after a workshop. The summer program at UW could be a feeder program for the new “academic redshirt” initiative.

“Engineering education needs to adapt to the tortoises, not just the hares,” said Eve Riskin, UW associate dean of engineering and program lead for the UW. “We’re talking about investing an extra year in what will hopefully be a 30-year engineering career.”

The initiative, called the Washington State Academic RedShirt in Engineering Program –STARS, for short – is funded by a National Science Foundation grant awarded May 8. Eight other colleges and universities also will receive grants to help increase retention of undergraduates in engineering and computer sciences.

Under the five-year grant, the UW and WSU will enroll 32 freshmen from Washington high schools each year for a total of 320 students after five years. Both universities will hire a person to oversee the program, and they hope to keep it running indefinitely. The first 64 students will begin this fall.

“More and more, we’re seeing students who are bright, but they’ve gone to a high school where the college preparation isn’t good,” said Bob Olsen, a WSU associate dean of engineering and lead of the redshirt program at WSU.

The program specifically targets low-income, motivated high school students in Washington state who are eligible for federal Pell Grants – financial aid based on family income and the cost of attending a university – or go to high schools where a high percentage of the students are on free or reduced-price lunches. Such students usually have a lower retention rate at the university level and are more likely to struggle in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“Pell Grant students receive engineering degrees at significantly lower rates than non-Pell Grant students,” Riskin said. “This is unfortunate, because low-income students could most benefit from a lucrative engineering career.”

The Mathematics Academy, a summertime month-long intensive at the UW for high school students, could be a feeder for this new program in the state.

The UW will receive $970,000 over five years from the National Science Foundation to offer this program to incoming freshmen, and WSU will receive $700,000. Students in the UW cohort will get at least $2,000 in additional assistance from the College of Engineering as well as funding from traditional scholarship sources. These students will live in an engineering residential community.

The National Science Foundation partnered with Intel Corp. and General Electric Co. to fund the nine institutions for a total of $10 million in a grant called Graduate 10K+. Other funded schools include Cornell University, Syracuse University and California State University Monterey Bay. The Washington program is modeled after the Engineering GoldShirt Program at University of Colorado Boulder, now headed into its fifth year.

The UW will hire a full-time staff member to work with students in the five-year program. Dawn Wiggin and Scott Winter, associate directors in engineering’s student academic services, are collaborators.

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For more information, contact Riskin at riskin@uw.edu or 206-685-2313. She is traveling on Wednesday, May 8, but will be reachable by email.

Braester is a scholar of modern literary and visual culture, with a special interest in China from 1949 to the present. During his tenure as a Guggenheim fellow, Braester will work on three book projects. “Cinephilia Besieged: Film, National History, and Global Consciousness in the People’s Republic of China” traces the development of debates on film in the republic since 1949. “Screen City: Beijing and the Culture of Emergence” explores how cities, and Beijing in particular, are fashioned in new media as emerging environments. “Zhang Yimou: The Director and His Films” will offer the first book-length introduction in English to the now-famous director.

Daniel, holder of the Joan and Richard Komen Endowed Chair, studies the control and dynamics of movement in biology using concepts from neuroscience, engineering and mathematics. He’s previously been named a MacArthur Fellow and received the UW awards of excellence for teaching and graduate mentor. During his tenure as a Guggenheim fellow he will be working on three projects. One will be an online laboratory manual for “animal engineering,” which will complement his educational and research interests in biomechanics.  The other is the development of open source computational codes for understanding the molecular basis of force generation in muscle.

The winners will be honored 3:30-4:30 p.m., June 13, at a ceremony in Meany Hall for the campus and general public.

Being awarded for the first time this year is the Distinguished Alumni Veteran Award in recognition of community service and civic engagement by a UW alum who is a veteran. The first recipient is Rear Adm. Herbert Bridge, U.S. Navy, retired, who graduated from the UW in ’47.

The other 2013 recipients are:

Distinguished Staff Award

• Sarah Jackins, exercise training center, UW Medical Center
• Carol Kummet, social work
• Robert Lubin, housing and food services
• Genome sciences tech team: James Cobb, Dale A. Hubler, Brian McNally, Roy Obenchain, Alexander Safir, Skylar Thompson, Charles Winston, Elizabeth Young, genome sciences
• Partners PrEP study team: Mira Emmanuel-Ogier, Harald Haugen, Ting Hong, Lara Kidoguchi, Meighan Krows, Susan Morrison, Dana Panteleeff, Katherine Thomas, global health

David B. Thorud Leadership Award

• Faculty award: Nancy Alarcon, speech and hearing sciences
• Staff award: Susan Terry, UW Career Center

Distinguished Librarian Award
Glenda Pearson, microforms and newspapers collection, University Libraries

Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award
Bryan Pearce (posthumous award)

Distinguished Retiree Excellence in Community Service Award
Richard Simkins, undergraduate academic advising

Distinguished Teaching Award

• Ronald Tilden, business, UW Bothell
• Carolyn West, interdisciplinary arts and sciences, UW Tacoma
• Holly Barker, anthropology
• John Manchak, philosophy
• Jim Pfaendtner, chemical engineering
• André Punt, aquatic and fishery sciences
• Phillip Thurtle, comparative history of ideas

Excellence in Teaching Award

• Deepa Bhandaru, political science
• Chi Hou Lei, mechanical engineering

Distinguished Contributions to Lifelong Learning Award
James DeLong, social work

S. Sterling Munro Public Service Teaching Award
Eleanor Bond, biobehavioral nursing and health systems

University Faculty Lecture Award
Stephen Gloyd, global health and health services

Marsha L. Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award
Fred Rieke, physiology and biophysics

Outstanding Public Service Award
Katherine Beckett, sociology, and law, societies and justice

Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus
William H. Gates, ’50

President’s Medal
To be announced in mid-May

Lidstrom is vice provost for research and a professor of chemical engineering and microbiology. Her research focuses on developing environmentally friendly and economically viable alternatives to chemical fuels. Lidstrom was elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences in 2011. She also is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Lidstrom has been at the UW twice, from 1978 to 1985 and again since 1996. She received her bachelor’s in microbiology from Oregon State University and her master’s and doctorate in bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin.

Kaplan is a professor of physics and the director of the UW’s Institute of Nuclear Theory. He did his undergraduate work at Stanford University and earned a doctorate in physics from Harvard University in 1985. He joined the UW faculty in 1994 and became director of the Institute for Nuclear Theory in 2006. Kaplan’s research focuses on the application of quantum field theory to the strong interaction, lattice field theory, cosmology and physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The Standard Model is the well-tested theory of the strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions that predicted the existence of the Higgs boson, which was discovered last year at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

Eggers, UW professor emeritus of computer science and engineering, is co-inventor of a computer processing technology that makes more efficient use of a chip’s computing power. The technology changed industry standards and was adopted by Intel, IBM and others. Eggers is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has received a number of awards since joining the UW in 1989.

Moon, a professor of pharmacology, is a leader in regenerative medicine research. He began studying the cell signals that transform tadpoles into frogs, later concentrating on how alterations in these Wnt signaling networks, as they are called, lead to cancer, bone density disorders and other human diseases.   More recently, his lab has been enhancing this signaling to accelerate tissue repair and prod stem cells to turn into progenitors for various blood cell types.   He hopes to modulate Wnt signaling to design therapies against deadly cancers, such as melanoma, and to improve recovery from brain injuries and other neurological damage.

This year 198 people were elected to the academy including winners of the Nobel Prize, National Medal of Science, Lasker Award, Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur fellowships as well as  Grammy, Emmy, Academy and Tony awards.

Police department open house April 17

It’s a chance to meet police officers and other police department employees and learn about community policing initiatives. This year the department will recognize Eric Godfrey, vice president and vice provost for Student Life, for his leadership and support at 2 p.m.

2013 Magnuson Scholars named
Six students, one from each UW health sciences school, have been named 2013 Magnuson Scholars and will receive $30,000 scholarships for the coming academic year. The award program commemorates the late Sen. Warren G. Magnuson. They are:

• Dentistry: Emily Chu, a dentistry/doctoral oral biology student, is exploring the causes, treatment and prevention of craniofacial disorders, especially cleft lip and palate.
• Medicine: Alan Kwan, a fourth-year medical student, conducts research to influence evidence-based medical practice and healthcare economics in the areas of heart and blood vessel disease, diabetes and obesity.
• Nursing: Sunniva Zaratkiewicz, a third-year doctoral student and wound program coordinator at Harborview Medical Center, studies pressure ulcers and wound healing in patients with diabetes.
• Pharmacy: William Canestaro, a doctoral student in the pharmaceutical outcomes research and policy program, performs comparative-effectiveness assessments of molecular diagnostics, genome technologies and personalized medicines
• Public Health: Cynthia Curl, a doctoral student in Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, studies the health effects of dietary exposures to pesticides and the influence of organic food consumption on those exposures.
• Social Work: Charles Hoy-Ellis is a doctoral student who is addressing the health and aging needs of older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered adults.

Medicine on the move: Bioethicists to discuss ethics of health care ‘migration’
What ethical problems does globalization bring to health care and medical education? What inequalities is it creating in medical expertise and care?

Three scholars of medicine and bioethics will discuss such questions in a daylong symposium April 19 at the UW titled “Whose Medicine, Whose Care? Troubling Inequalities in the Migration of Health Care” sponsored by the UW Department of Philosophy‘s Program on Values in Society.

“We live in a world of globalized medicine on the move,” said Sara Goering, UW associate professor of philosophy and a co-organizer of the event, adding that this has brought both advantages and daunting ethical problems. “Such ‘medicine on the move’ contains huge imbalances of power in terms of how medical labor is valued, who is doing what medical labor, and who gets to define what counts as ‘medicine.’”

Those interested may RSVP online. For more information, contact Amy Reed-Sandoval at 503-913-9201 or amyjota@uw.edu.

Portion of Montlake closing Saturday, Sunday

Northbound traffic will be routed around the Triangle Parking Garage area. Southbound traffic will be directed to Northeast Pacific Street, loop toward the waterfront via Brooklyn Avenue and back up Fifteenth Avenue Northeast, then back on Northeast Pacific heading back to Montlake Boulevard.

Pedestrians and bicyclists will be routed onto a temporary path at the Triangle Parking Garage area.

For more information, contact Sound Transit community outreach, Andrea Burnett, 206-398-5300 or andrea.burnett@soundtransit.org.

UW finalist in environmental excellence contest
The University of Washington is among four finalists in the “Environmental March Madness Tournament,” and in the running to be named the national environmental-excellence champion April 9.

“Our track record in researching and teaching about environmentally sound and sustainable practices and incorporating them into the lives and behaviors of our students is impeccable,” said UW President Michael K. Young. “We are very mindful and self-conscious about the importance of educating the generation that will be taking over from us and – we hope and trust – doing a better job of it. The planet demands it.”

For the challenge, the UW submitted images on Facebook, short essays and YouTube videos documenting environmental and sustainability efforts.

Family-friendly Paws-on Science April 5-7
Nearly 40 UW units will have exhibits and hands-on activities for Huskies of all ages at this year’s Paws-on Science: Husky Weekend at Pacific Science Center, April 5-7. Bring your Husky Card or UW Alumni Association member card to receive a 20 percent discount on general exhibit admission for you and your guests.

Home Improvement Fair April 11
The 16^th annual Home Improvement Fair will be 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, April 11, in the HUB Lyceum, Room 106.

This year’s theme focuses on appreciating and adapting your home at any stage. Experts will discuss renovating, remodeling, refinancing and buying a home. Exhibitors include LastingNest, Rivalee Design, GreenHomes America and WSU Master Gardeners. There will be refreshments and door prizes.

The event is sponsored by HomeStreet Bank, a partner of the UW Benefits Hometown Home Loan Program. For more information contact Kathleen Dwyer, 206-543-2812, kdwyer@uw.edu or Mary Parker-Hale at 206-616-4932 or mphale@uw.edu.

Dr. King K. Holmes, noted for his work on sexually transmitted diseases, in a 2009 photo of a talk given at the Burke Museum.

Dr. King K. Holmes, professor and chair of the UW Department of Global Health, won the prestigious 2013 Canada Gairdner Global Health Award for his work in sexually transmitted diseases, the Gairdner Foundation announced March 20.

The award, valued at $100,000 Candian (about $97,300 U.S.) is one of the world’s most esteemed prizes for medical research. Since 1959, of the 312 individuals presented with a Canada Gairdner Award, 80 have gone on to receive a Nobel Prize. Holmes said he would contribute the money to the University of Washington.

Holmes was awarded the prize for his “global scientific contributions to the field of sexually transmitted disease and their effective treatment and prevention.” He becomes the 10th UW faculty member to win a Gairdner Award.

The Gairdner Foundation, in citing the award, said that today more than 35 sexually transmitted diseases have been discovered. Holmes and the scientists he mentored are working on approximately 20 of these.

“Dr. Holmes assisted in defining the causes of many major diseases and through leading numerous clinical trials, has paved the way for many standard-of-care therapies used to treat STDs today,” the foundation said in a release.

John Dirks, president and scientific director of the Gairdner Foundation, told The Lancet that Holmes “brought to medicine and public health the proper means of diagnosing, treating, and preventing STDs and of understanding their epidemiology. In addition, his amazing gift of mentorship launched so many trainees to the forefront of the global health scene, which, thanks in great measure to their achievements, is now a flourishing discipline in its own right. Holmes’ huge lifetime contribution has no parallel. Among the many mountains on the public health landscape he stands out as an Everest.”

Holmes holds the William H. Foege Endowed Chair in Global Health. He founded and directs the UW Center for AIDS and STD, which provides patient care, training and education, research and international technical assistance in the field of sexually transmitted diseases. Holmes is also head of Infectious Diseases at Harborview Medical Center.

Read The Lancet story.

Watch a brief video of Holmes on advances in AIDS survival.

Washington Sea Grant sponsors four-day symposium on waterfront challenges

UW’s Washington Sea Grant is sponsoring a national event March 25-28 in Tacoma for citizens and maritime leaders to discuss waterfront challenges and creative solutions.

The National Working Waterfronts and Waterways Symposium will include representatives of maritime industries such as shipyards, commercial fisheries and aquaculture; government officials from ports, state and federal government; elected officials;  as well as planners, engineers and researchers, said Peter Granger, program leader for marine advisory services with Washington Sea Grant.

The symposium will feature panels of experts covering the spectrum of maritime interests, from large West Coast ports, such as Geraldine Knatz from the Port of Los Angeles, to to small community fishermen such as Guy Hoppen from Gig Harbor.

The symposium,  being coordinated with Oregon Sea Grant,  begins March 25 with a full day of field trips around the Tacoma waterfront and the region. For more information, visit the symposium website or contact Nicole Faghin, symposium coordinator, at wwaters2013@uw.edu or 206-685-8286.

Lecture March 22 discusses advances, challenges of tissue engineering
Growing human tissues to help repair failing or damaged organs is developing as a new branch of medicine. These engineered tissues give scientists a platform to study stem cells as they grow or regenerate, which could prove useful as the young field develops.

“Functional Tissue Engineering for Regenerative Medicine, Human Stem Cell Research, and Study of Disease” is the topic of the UW Department of Bioengineering’s annual Robert F. Rushmer Lecture, Friday, March 22, 4:30 p.m. in the William H. Foege Auditorium, (Room S060).

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, professor of biomedical engineering and medical sciences at Columbia University, will talk about recent findings and the future of tissue engineering, including challenges the field faces. Her research focuses on engineering human tissues for regenerative medicine, stem-cell research and disease study. Vunjak-Novakovic directs the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering at Columbia.

This is the 25^th year of the annual Rushmer Lecture, which is UW Bioengineering’s largest lecture event of the year. A reception will follow the presentation at 5:30 p.m. in the north lobby of Foege.

Reception March 26 for Distinguished Staff Award nominees
The 70 individuals and 17 teams nominated this year for Distinguished Staff Awards will be honored at a reception, 2:30 to 4 p.m., Tuesday, March 26  in the HUB Ballroom. The event is open to members of the UW community and guests of the nominees. President Michael Young and Vice President of Human Resources Mindy Kornberg will speak at the reception.

The awards will be presented at the university’s annual Awards of Excellence ceremony in June.

The School of Medicine was ranked first in the academic specialties of family medicine and rural medicine. It also ranked fifth in AIDS, eighth in internal medicine, ninth in geriatrics and ninth in pediatrics. The school was also ranked 12^th in research.

The UW’s Information School was ranked third in the nation. Its program in law librarianship was ranked first, services for children and youth second, school library media third, information systems fourth and digital librarianship fifth.

The College of Education was ranked seventh in special education, eighth in secondary education, ninth in elementary education and tenth in administration/supervision. Its overall graduate program was ranked 12^th.

The UW College of Engineering was ranked sixth for its biomedical program. Its overall graduate program was ranked 25^th.

The Evans School of Public Affairs was ranked ninth in the nation and its program in nonprofit management was ranked third. The Foster School of Business was ranked 23^rd; its part-time MBA program was ranked 15^th. The School of Law was ranked 28^th.

Also included in the publication’s “Best Graduate Schools” are programs ranked in previous years.

• The School of Nursing was ranked first in the nation in 2011. The clinical nurse specialty in community/public health ranked first, the family nurse practitioner program ranked second, the adult nurse practitioner program second, the pediatric nurse practitioner program third and the clinical nurse specialist psychiatric/mental health program ninth.
• Social work was ranked third in 2012. Speech language pathology was ranked third in 2012. Public health was ranked sixth in 2011.
• The clinical psychology program was ranked second in 2012. The audiology program was ranked third in 2012. The healthcare management program was ranked eighth in 2011. The physician assistant program was ranked eighth in 2011. The pharmacy program was ranked tenth in 2012. The occupational therapy program was ranked 15^th in 2012.
• The program in biological sciences was ranked 15^th in 2010, with the specialty in genetics/genomics/bioinformatics ranked fifth. The chemistry program was ranked 26th in 2010, with the specialty in analytical chemistry ranked eighth.
• Computer science was ranked seventh in 2010, with the specialty in artificial intelligence ranked sixth, systems ranked fifth, and theory ranked eighth.
• Earth sciences was ranked 13^th in 2010, with the geology specialty ranked 10^th, and geophysics and seismology ranked 10^th.
• The Department of Biostatistics tied for third among all biostatistics and statistics programs (combined) in the country, and was also tied for first in biostatistics programs alone. The Department of Statistics tied for sixth among biostatistics and statistics programs (combined), and also was tied for third among statistics programs alone.

More information is at http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools.

The University of Washington has been ranked 16^th in the Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and 24^th by the Times (UK) Higher Education World University Rankings.  It was also ranked as 46^th best university by US News & World Report, and 17^th best value among public colleges by Kiplinger’s.

It’s being presented in cooperation with the UW Tower Art Committee, which on the same day will open its new show of art made with recycled and found objects.

The fair will include demos of crafts made with recycled objects, Total Reclaim will be on hand collecting personal e-waste and Bike Works will be accepting donations of bikes and bike parts for its Earn-a-Bike program.  Other first time exhibitors include The Sierra Club, Cedar Grove Composting, Cascade Bicycle Club and the King County Native Plant Salvage Program. Sustainability films will be shown in the UW Tower auditorium.

Society recognizes UW Restoration Ecology Network
The Society for Ecological Restoration Northwest Chapter has awarded its 2013 Special Award to the UW Restoration Ecology Network. Through the network UW students conduct capstone projects in cooperation with community partners to restore degraded sites. The program was founded in 1999 by Warren Gold, associate professor at UW Bothell, and Kern Ewing, professor of environmental and forest sciences, who received the award March 1 from the society. In the past 13 years, more than 475 students from 31 academic majors have conducted restoration projects with community partners ranging from local and regional governments, to nonprofits, public utilities, schools and private landowners.

Tracy Mehlin

Riz Reyes said he took inspiration from movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark for his garden featuring rare, wild and little-seen plant species.

Part-time UW gardener designs winning display
Riz Reyes, who works part time as a gardener with the University of Washington Botanic Gardens, claimed the top prize at the Pacific Northwest Flower & Garden Show this week. Reyes, who earned his bachelor’s in environmental horticulture and urban forestry from the UW, owns RHR Horticulture in Shoreline.

The flower and garden show proposed movies as the theme for gardens and Reyes said he took inspiration from Jurassic Park, King Kong and Raiders of the Lost Ark for his garden titled “The Lost Gardener – A Journey from the Wild to the Cultivated.”

Seattle garden writer Valerie Easton blogged, “The cool plant garden that took the Founder’s Cup – “The Lost Gardener” – is by Riz Reyes, a F&G Show first-timer. . . How many years has it been since there’s been a real plant collector’s garden? This one is all about unusual and rare plants, used extravagantly to create a jungle of a garden. How good Riz was rewarded with the big prize for being daring with his plant choices.”

Included in the display are more than 75 different kinds of plants.

At the UW, Reyes works at the Center for Urban Horticulture and is responsible for maintaining the Soest Herbaceous Display Garden.

The flower and garden show continues this weekend.

RecycleMania a chance to increase recycling, composting on campus
You can help the UW’s standings in this year’s RecycleMania by increasing your efforts to recycle and compost between now and March 30.

The RecycleMania competition pits the UW against universities nationwide – including the Pac-12 rivals such as ASU, Stanford and WSU – to determine the top recycler.

Since Feb. 3, UW Recycling has been tracking the amount of recycling, food waste and garbage collected on campus each week. UW is competing in four categories: the highest waste diversion rate (recycling compared to what is thrown away); the highest recycling rate per person on campus; the highest gross tonnage of recycling generated on campus; and the highest percentage of food waste composted per person.

UW Recycling is sharing weekly results on its website, where you can also see results of a competition between UW residence halls sponsored by Housing and Food Services.

The competitions provides incentives to take waste diversion at the UW further, according Jessica Lisiewski, UW Recycling & Solid Waste program coordinator. The more participation across campus, the closer the UW can get to reaching its waste diversion goal of 70 percent by 2020, she said.

Newborn screening test brings chemical society honor to Gelb, Tureček
Michael Gelb and František Tureček, UW chemistry professors, will be presented the Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest for their work in devising methods to detect rare genetic diseases in newborns.

The diseases – which include Tay-Sachs, Gaucher, Krabbe, Pompe, Nieman-Pick, Fabry, and Hurler syndromes – affect about one in every 5,000 people and cause serious abnormalities in children, often resulting in premature death. Early detection is important for the best chances of effective treatment.

The procedures for newborn screening developed by Gelb and Tureček have proven so reliable and inexpensive that several states now require that every newborn be tested.

The award will be presented by the Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society April 4 at Harvard University.

This year’s awardees represent 61 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. According to the foundation, the fellowships “are given to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars, the next generation of scientific leaders.”

The new UW fellows are:

Lekelia (Kiki) Jenkins, assistant professor of marine and environmental affairs, received a B.S. in biology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 1997. As a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, she received her Ph.D. from Duke University in 2006 by pioneering a new field of study into the invention and adoption of marine conservation technology. Her research interests include: the theoretical and empirical study of the invention and adoption of marine technologies, especially bycatch reduction devices and tidal energy arrays; the study of the integration of “lay” expertise into scientific decision-making; and the study of gear substitution as a means to reduce bycatch and habitat impacts of fishing gear. Recent research includes studying the factors that cause fishermen to adopt, or not to adopt, equipment that can help sea turtles avoid being caught by fishing gear or cause them the least harm if they are caught.

James Carothers is an assistant professor in the department of chemical engineering.  Carothers earned his doctorate at Harvard University in 2005, and recently joined the UW from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Jane Coffin Childs postdoctoral fellow and research scientist with Jay D. Keasling and the DOE Joint BioEnergy Institute. He is a member of the UW’s new Molecular Engineering & Science Institute and an affiliated investigator of the NSF Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center.  Carothers’ honors include a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, the Harvard University Graduate Prize Fellowship, and the American Honda Scholarship for First Place at the National Science Olympiad.  His research focuses on developing design platforms for engineering functionally-complex RNA-based control systems. These systems process cellular information and program the expression of very large numbers of genes, enabling both increased understanding of fundamental biological processes and applications to meet the demands for renewable chemicals and new therapies.

Daniela Witten, assistant professor of biostatistics at the UW School of Public Health, was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list for 2012 in the field of science and healthcare. She was named to the 2011 list for science and innovation.

Witten earned a Ph.D. in statistics from Stanford University in 2010 before joining the UW School of Public Health. She is also an adjunct assistant professor in the UW Department of Statistics. In 2011, she received a prestigious five-year Early Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health.

The 28-year-old biostatistician was recognized for her work developing statistical tools that can analyze large sets of data such as the human genome, work that could lead to better treatment and prevention of disease.

Witten says she plans to use the fellowship to support research in statistical machine learning, and specifically in the area of high-dimensional graphical modeling. She also is completing an “entry-level” textbook with colleagues from Stanford University and the University of Southern California that seeks to make machine learning techniques more accessible to those who don’t have a Ph.D. in the field.

The fellowships include a grant of $50,000 over a two-year period. Once chosen, Sloan Research Fellows are free to pursue whatever lines of inquiry are of most interest to them, and they are permitted to employ Fellowship funds in a wide variety of ways to further their research aims.

Transportation services “hearts” ridesharing this week

To receive a care package just stop by any staffed campus gatehouse between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. in either an existing vanpool or carpool with a valid permit, or by purchasing a daily carpool permit on the spot.

Each care package is chock-full of things to help you and your rideshare partners enjoy your trip and encourage those around you to share their ride as well, according to information from transportation services. There’s a Facebook page to learn more about the event.

Registration opens for UW Summer Youth Programs
New classes offered through UW Summer Youth Programs this year include an introduction to engineering design, Lego animation and a class in partnership with the Pacific Northwest Girls Collaborative called Girls Inventing Robots, according to Leslie Rome-Nagata, who manages the program for UW Educational Outreach.

There also will be two middle school academies focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics topics, as well as daylong programs for elementary students.

For more information call 206-543-2310.

Lizabeth Wilson wins national award
Lizabeth (Betsy) Wilson, dean of UW libraries, is the 2013 winner of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award from the American Libraries Association. Wilson will receive a cash award and citation during the association’s annual conference.

Named in honor of a pioneer in library automation, the award recognizes an academic librarian who has made significant contributions in the area of library automation or management, and has made notable improvements in library services or research.

Wilson has fostered innovation to strengthen the ability of the libraries she has personally led as well as libraries across the world to serve better users of libraries, according to information from the association.

Nominations due March 1 for university faculty lecturer
Nominations are now open for next year’s university faculty lecturer. The position is open to current and emeriti faculty whose research, scholarship or art has been widely recognized by their peers and whose achievements have had a substantial impact on their profession, on the research or performance of others and perhaps on society as a whole.

The honoree delivers a lecture that is open to the public. For example, this year’s recipient, Batya Friedman, professor in the UW Information School, delivered her lecture last week.

Nomination materials should be submitted to the Secretary of the Faculty at secfac@uw.edu. Those with questions can call 206-543-2637

Meet dozens of suppliers at annual fair Feb. 20
The seventh annual UW Supplier Fair, hosted by Procurement Services and the Business Diversity Program, will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 20 in the HUB Ballroom. The fair is a showcase for suppliers in eProcurement, suppliers with a UW contract and for small, local minority- and women-owned businesses.  Light refreshments will be served. Registration is open now for this free event.

President Young receives congratulations from Carrie Hessler-Radelet, acting director of the Peace Corps.

This year, UW is joined at the top spot by Western Washington University, first among medium-sized schools (5,000 to 15,000 students), and Gonzaga University, the leader among small schools (fewer than 5,000 students).

The UW has ranked first five times, more than any other university.  WWU and Gonzaga were each top-ranked for the first time. It’s the first time the top schools in all three categories are in the same state. The results were presented at a news conference on the UW campus Tuesday (Feb. 5).

“We are proud to be a public university that is globally engaged and whose graduates show it,” said UW President Michael K. Young. “Our students have a passion for changing the world and a determination to get on the ground and make a difference.  We couldn’t be prouder of all of those who have chosen and been chosen to serve.”

Since the agency was founded in 1961, 2,738 UW alumni have served as Peace Corps volunteers.

“Every year, graduates of colleges and universities across the United States are making a difference in communities overseas through Peace Corps service,” said Carrie Hessler-Radelet, Peace Corps acting director. “As a result of the top-notch education they receive, these graduates are well-prepared for the challenge of international service. They become leaders in their host communities and carry the spirit of service and leadership back with them when they return home.”

Currently, more than 8,000 volunteers from across the U.S. are working with communities in 76 host countries on projects related to agriculture, community economic development, education, environment, health and youth development. Some 90 percent of volunteer positions require a bachelor’s degree. The agency particularly seeks people with backgrounds in agriculture, environment, teaching English as a second language, and other technical or language skills related to Peace Corps assignment areas. Peace Corps service is a 27-month commitment.

The UW currently has 107 undergraduate alumni serving in the agency.  WWU has 73, and Gonzaga has 24.

UW

Rogelio Riojas

Rogelio Riojas, president and chief executive officer for Sea Mar Community Health Centers, is the 2013 recipient of the Charles E. Odegaard Award.

The award will be presented at the 43rd annual Educational Opportunity Program Celebration, Fête and Honors hosted by the University of Washington’s Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity and the Friends of the Educational Opportunity Program. The event is at 5:30 p.m. Thurs., May 16, at the Husky Union Building on the UW campus.

Established in 1973, the Odegaard award honors individuals whose leadership in the community exemplifies the former UW president’s work on behalf of diversity. It is the only university- and community-selected award, and is regarded as the highest achievement in diversity at the UW.

“As the leader of Sea Mar for the last 35 years, Rogelio has ensured that thousands of our state’s most vulnerable people receive health and human services,” said Sheila Edwards Lange, UW vice president for minority affairs and vice provost for diversity. “Equally important is his activism and commitment to empowering youth in the Latino community. Rogelio’s service in the areas of social equity and justice reflect the goals of Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity and the Educational Opportunity Program and we are honored to present him with this award.”

Riojas spent his youth as a migrant farm laborer and was the first member of his family to go to college. He enrolled at UW in 1969 and became a leader among Latino student activists. Riojas’ activism inspired his career in public health.

In 1978, he started the health and human services organization Sea Mar, which began as a single medical clinic in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood. Today, it serves 12 counties and more than 140,000 individuals per year in Washington state.

For more information, visit the celebration website.

The University of Washington School of Law and Jackson School for International Studies, and other partners, present a daylong seminar on Friday, Feb. 8, titled “Towards Global Food Law: Transatlantic Competition and Collaboration.” Registration is online and costs $50.

“This conference will highlight new developments in food safety law in the U.S. and the European Union, noting where their regulatory strategies converge and where they diverge, as well as examples of ‘smart’ regulation that protect the public without distorting markets,” wrote Jane Winn, UW professor of law.

After an introduction by Pat Kuszler, UW School of Law associate dean and director of its Center for Law, Science and Global Health, food safety attorney William Marler will give the keynote address, “Strengths and Weaknesses of Litigation as a Food Safety Regulation Strategy.”

Pharmacy faculty member honored for early-career achievement
Nina Isoherranen, associate professor of pharmaceutics, will receive the Drug Metabolism Division Early Career Achievement Award from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

The award recognizes excellent research in drug metabolism and disposition by investigators who have received their doctorate within the last 15 years, according to the society’s website.

Isoherranen studies the metabolism and excretion of drugs, vitamins and hormones. Her work helps prevent harmful drug interactions and addresses the safe use of drugs and vitamins during pregnancy. Her research on vitamin A metabolism, in particular, advances knowledge about certain cancers, fetal development and the body’s ability to fight infections.

She will be honored in Boston at the April annual meeting.

Batya Friedman

We are the architects of the tools and technology we use, and those innovations don’t take place in a moral vacuum — they have values, says Batya Friedman, professor in the UW Information School.

Friedman, a longtime Information School faculty member who also directs the Value Sensitive Design Research Lab, will give the University Faculty Lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, in Room 130 of Kane Hall. The title of her lecture will be “The Shape of Being: Technology Design, Human Values, and the Future.”

“What we do with design matters,” Friedman said. “We’re not just passive in the face of technology, it’s not something that happens to us. We are the creators of these tools, after all.”

We can choose how we implement technology, Friedman said, and innovate in ways that match our lives, visions and needs.

“The purpose of our work is to show that you can make progress, can shape technology with some intentionality toward goals in service of what people consider important in their lives.”

Friedman has for two decades been a pioneer in the study of technology design that supports human values. She has researched online privacy, technology and homeless young people and large-scale urban simulation for land use and transportation. In addition to her Information School appointment, she is also an adjunct professor in the departments of computer science and engineering and human centered design and engineering.

With her Voices from the Rwanda Tribunal project, Friedman spreads word about international justice efforts following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that left 800,000 people dead over three months. Working with a team of legal experts and videographers, she conducted 49 interviews with judges, interpreters, defense counsel and others who have served with the war crimes tribunal. The interviews are now on the web with an online tool that lets anyone with web access help curate the collection.

In her talk, Friedman will discuss projects involving privacy in public, the design of secure implantable medical devices and creating support systems to support international justice. She will reflect on four topics for which technology design has provocative implications for the future: communal intelligence, the human mind, the data cloud and the planet.

Friedman’s current work is on multi-lifespan information systems — addressing problems that cannot likely be resolved in a single lifetime — of which her ongoing work in Rwanda is an example.

The University Faculty Lecture has since 1976 honored current or emeriti faculty members whose research, scholarship or art has been recognized by their peers and whose achievements have had a substantial impact on their profession, later research or society as a whole. The recipient is selected by a committee of faculty members appointed by the President, and the honor comes with $5,000.

Friedman’s colleague Eliza Dresang, a professor in the Information School, said in a nominating letter, “In my many years in academia, I have known no one I find more deserving of such a stellar research, teaching and service award.”

The tribute, “All Labor that Uplifts Humanity Has Dignity,” will include music, singing, dancing, poetry reading, community volunteer recognition and the keynote “We are One: Worker Rights are Civil Rights” by Elana Perez, of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21. Performers will include the Eickstein Middle School Senior Jazz Band, NW Tap Connection and Musicians of the UW School of Medicine.

The event, sponsored by Health Sciences Administration and University of Washington Medical Center, is free and open to all.

So too are opportunities to volunteer.

The UW’s Carlson Leadership & Public Service Center, for example, is partnering again with United Way of King County to connect UW volunteers with 80 community service projects  on Monday, Jan. 21.

The day of volunteering starts with a kick-off event, 8 to 9 a.m. in the HUB ballroom.

“Gather together with us on the morning of Martin Luther King Day for some inspirational words to set the tone, for some coffee and pastries to add some fuel and for event t-shirts so you look cool, and a chance to connect before heading off to serve,” it says on the Carlson center site about the day’s events.

After the kick-off, volunteers will fan out across the region to work on community projects identified by local nonprofits. Some 2,000 volunteers are needed and sign-ups are still underway, although services projects are filling up fast, according to information from the Carlson center.

A number of other events and service opportunities are planned by various UW units. These include the following.

–Harborview Medical Center, Thursday, Jan. 17
The program “Living the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Right to Dream,” will be held noon to 1 p.m., in the Harborview Medical Center Research & Training Building Auditorium.  In a retrospective, Marcel Davis of Living Voices will perform in front of a video display.  The event will also include speeches, a video of Harborview employees volunteering in the community and a coffee reception. On Jan. 21, a group of Harborview employees will prepare a meal for people in need at a community service center in Seattle’s Pioneer Square.

–UW School of Law, Friday, Jan. 18
New York Times best-selling author Michelle Alexander speaks 10 to 11 a.m., Friday, Jan. 18, in Room 115 of William H. Gates Hall. A civil rights lawyer, advocate and legal scholar, Alexander is the author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” RSVP to gatespsl@uw.edu.

–UW Bothell, Saturday, Jan. 19
UW Bothell is teaming up with Cascadia Community College to hold its fourth annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. Volunteers will perform service at 10 sites in and around Bothell. Tasks range from food collection to yard work to working with children with disabilities.

–Evans School of Public Affairs, Monday, Jan. 21
Evans School of Public Affairs student groups GreenEvans and Partners for Community & Diversity are joining EarthCorps, the Green Seattle Partnership, Service for Peace, City Year, YMCA EarthService Corps and Seattle Parks and Recreation in ongoing restoration of the 43-acre Cheasty Greenspace from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

–Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, Monday, Jan. 21
The UW’s newly renovated Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center celebrated its grand opening last week, and its staff needs help moving into the new space. Volunteers can join Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity staff and students to develop materials such as bulletin boards and resource binders and assist in other tasks to make the center fully functional.

–UW Tacoma, Monday, Jan. 21
The annual Unity Breakfast, 8 to 10:30 a.m., in William W. Philip Hall, includes community Dream Awards, local performing artists and keynote speaker Carolyn McKinstry, a survivor of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963 and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.  Space for the Unity Breakfast is limited to the first 300 paid registrants. UW Tacoma has also put together a list of service and educational opportunities taking place throughout the week of January 21 to commemorate Martin Luther King’s message of service.

David A. Jekel of Woodinville is the freshman medalist. He attended Providence Classical Christian School in Lynnwood and is in the Honors Program.

“The UW was the only in-state school I applied to, and in the end, I realized I wanted to live at home so I could see my family, save money by not paying for housing and prepare healthy food more easily,” he said. “Also, the large campus, full of diverse people and beliefs and well-staffed with expert researchers, seemed better suited to expanding my mind than small private schools.”

Jekel received a National Merit Scholarship as well as other need-based financial aid. Outside of class he enjoys writing poetry, stories and music. He attends church regularly and usually swing dances weekly.  His volunteer activities have included a weeklong service/mission trip to Yakima with the Reformed University Fellowship and a summer trip to Japan working with relief teams dealing with the effects of the 2011 tsunami.

His career plans remain fluid, but they are likely to include graduate school and an eventual teaching career, either in high school or college.

Emily Nitz-Ritter, the sophomore medalist, is a graduate of Seattle’s Roosevelt high school. She is majoring in English and the comparative history of ideas. One of her favorite classes thus far was “21^st Century American Poetry.”

“I remember being pleasantly surprised that poetry could be such a rigorous academic pursuit,” she said. This course and others helped her realize that “my most meaningful learning is done in a classroom that’s just a little bit uncomfortable and pushes me to examine my own convictions.”

Outside of class, Nitz-Ritter has volunteered as a tutor in Highland Park Elementary School. She has been involved with the Honors Student Advisory Panel, which stages an annual Honors Colloquium and other events.

Her plans after graduation are still uncertain. She is considering taking time off to travel, obtaining internships through the UW or applying to Teach for America. She is planning eventually to pursue graduate studies in education leadership and policy studies, with an eye toward a career in public school administration.

Eric Lei, junior medalist, is majoring in computer science, economics and mathematics. He entered the UW after 10^th grade through the Robinson Center’s UW Academy. He is currently conducting research on algorithmic game theory – the intersection of game theory and computer science. Lei is involved with the student organization Husky Traders, an investment club with its own stock portfolio.

As a freshman he tutored third-graders in math and science. “I enjoyed trying to predict which students would grow up to enter math or science careers,” he said.

His plans include eventually going to graduate school to obtain a doctorate in computer science. Lei also was the freshman medalist in 2010-11.

Public health statistician one of Forbes’ rising stars

Daniela Witten, assistant professor of biostatistics at the UW School of Public Health, was named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list for 2012 in the field of science and healthcare. She was named to the 2011 list for science and innovation.

Forbes calls Witten and the other standouts – 30 people each in 15 categories from art and style to sports and technology – “tomorrow’s brightest stars.” All are under 30 years of age and include names such as singer Adele, 24, Miami Heat forward LeBron James, 28, and Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, 28.

Witten, 28, was recognized for her work developing statistical tools that can analyze large sets of data such as the human genome, work that could lead to better treatment and prevention of disease.

“Witten became a professor at 26, and is now developing machine learning programs that convert vast amounts of data into useful knowledge,” the magazine said in its online report. The “30 Under 30” list will also appear in the Jan. 21 Forbes magazine.

The potential varied uses of Witten’s research include personalizing cancer therapy, understanding genomes, recommending products to shoppers and predicting election results.

“One of the things that’s really cool about machine learning is that there is an incredibly broad set of tools that can be applied in a wide set of areas,” Witten said. The techniques used in health sciences aren’t much different from those in other fields, she said, such as getting computers to understand human speech or tools that Google uses to recommend search results.

“The question is how can we teach a computer to do something useful with this data?” Witten said.

Fisherman by first-year orthodontics resident Blake Davis.

Dr. Blake Davis’ design of an angler hooking a catch from a boat has won the School of Dentistry’s annual Department of Orthodontics sculpture contest. Dr. Soleil Roberts’ wire bust of an ancient Egyptian queen was voted runner-up.

Since 1966, the department has conducted the contest for its first-year residents. Entries are judged by popular vote, and competitors must use predominantly orthodontic materials, such as wire, rubber bands and dental acrylic.

Previous contests have included sculptures of a guitar, a geisha figure, a model town, the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, a strand of DNA and the Lion King.

Nefertiti by first-year orthodontics resident Soleil Roberts.

Inspiration for the contest came indirectly from the late Dr. Ben Moffett, a School of Dentistry professor emeritus of orthodontics. In the 1960s, he took a UW art class in form and function and found the material so useful that he arranged for weekly lectures on the subject at the School of Dentistry. That in turn led to the contest.

Steve Steinberg

At the School of Dentistry’s faculty retreat Dec. 14, Dean Joel Berg (center) joins Dr. David Branch (left), chair of Delta Dental/Washington Dental Service board of directors, and Jim Dwyer, president and CEO of the insurer.

The School of Dentistry has announced a gift of $1.15 million from Delta Dental/Washington Dental Service to support the school’s vision of transforming dental education.

Under Dr. Joel Berg, who became dean on Aug. 15, the school has launched a wide-ranging plan to revamp its clinical education and curriculum. The goal is to produce the “dentist of the future” – an oral health practitioner on the leading edge of technology, research and best practices in patient care.

“At Delta Dental/Washington Dental Service, we strongly support Dean Berg and his compelling vision for the future of dental education and what dentistry can be,” said Jim Dwyer, president and chief executive officer. “We believe his plan will help ensure that the people of Washington will continue to receive the highest standard of patient care, and we fully share that goal.”

Delta Dental/Washington Dental Service is part of the nation’s largest dental insurance network, Delta Dental, which has more than 50 million members. Its gift will help Dentistry fund the initial phase of its undertaking in the current academic year.

“For years Delta Dental/Washington Dental Service has been a valued and loyal supporter of the School of Dentistry, and I’m thrilled with their new contribution, which could not come at a better time,” Berg said. “Our school has historically been a national leader in dental education. However, our continued leadership depends on implementing a new model that incorporates advances in science and technology, a greater emphasis on prevention, and the integration of oral health into overall health.

“Their investment in our vision greatly enhances our ability to deploy the people and resources we need to bring about these needed changes. Their scope demands that we implement them not in a piecemeal fashion, but with a unified strategy. With Delta Dental/Washington Dental Service’s help, we can do just that.”

The gift will facilitate the addition of several critical faculty and staff positions and also support the work of several task forces appointed by Berg shortly after he became dean. These include a curriculum renovation task force and a clinical systems task force.

While the School of Dentistry is committed to major changes, Berg said, it will continue to emphasize a high standard of excellence in restorative dental education. “Our school has always been known as a standard-bearer in restorative dentistry, and that will not change as we move forward,” he  said. “Restorative dentistry will always be at the heart of our training.

“At the same time, far-reaching changes are coming to dentistry. New accreditation standards demand that we place more emphasis on interprofessional education and evidence-based dentistry. We must also continue to continue to train dentists with the highest ethical standards and cultural sensitivity – dentists who are fully prepared to serve all parts of the community.”

In addition to its enhanced partnership with Delta Dental/Washington Dental Service, Berg noted that the School of Dentistry has already begun reaching out to other partners for expertise and support in the school’s transformation. Recently the school hosted several corporate executives for a three-day brainstorming session on updating and streamlining the school’s clinical operations. The school has also initiated a collaboration with the UW Foster School of Business to help Dentistry revamp its business operations.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about producing the best dentists and the best patient care,” Berg said.

“Dean Berg often says, ‘Good patient care is the best education,’ and that’s a big reason why we find his vision so appealing,” Dwyer said.

Delta Dental/Washington Dental Service, a UW Presidential Laureate, also supports Dentistry scholarships, and in 2007 gave a $5 million gift that provided the impetus for the school’s Center for Pediatric Dentistry, which opened in September 2010. A partnership with Seattle Children’s Hospital, the $21 million facility at Magnuson Park in Seattle is a center of research and education as well as pediatric oral health care.

Going green at holiday parties

Think green and plan ahead, urge the folks with UW Recycling.

Just before the holidays, they updated the request form to reserve recycling, compost and garbage bins for parties, and launched an ad campaign in the Daily, online and on Facebook reminding people to reserve extra bins.

There’s also an Event Coordinator’s Guide with useful tips on planning your on-campus event.

UW Dream Project named in $40 million federal Race to the Top grant
Part of a four-year, $40 million grant awarded to seven school districts in King County will go toward the UW Dream Project, a mentoring program that serves the school districts in the grant.

The award was announced Tuesday (Dec. 11) by the U.S. Department of Education as part of the Race to the Top program.

The new funds will support counselor assistants in middle and high schools across the region as well as training and program support for college and career readiness.

The Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Kent, Renton, Seattle and Tukwila school districts competed for the grant this fall as “The Road Map District Consortium,” a reference to their participation in the Road Map Project – an effort to improve education in South Seattle and South King County.

Anna Karlin new Association for Computing Machinery fellow
Anna Karlin, professor of computer science and engineering, is among 52 newly named fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery. The international designation recognizes fundamental computing advances that drive economic growth. Karlin’s research interests include game theory, online algorithms and economics. The association recognized her “contributions to algorithms and to the boundary with systems, networking, data mining, and microeconomics.” UW’s Department of Computer Science & Engineering now has 12 active faculty members who are fellows of the association.

Early Entrance Program information session Jan. 10
Students, parents and middle-school teachers are invited to learn more about the Transition School/Early Entrance Program at the UW at an information session Jan. 10. The program facilitates early entry to the UW for a carefully selected group of 16 highly-capable students younger than 15 years old. RSVPs are being accepted for the information session, which will be conducted 6:30 – 8 p.m. in the Foege Genome Sciences Building’s auditorium, Room 060.

Robinson Center offers Saturday classes for K-8 students, teachers
From star-gazing to math equations to finding the perfect word for the last line of a poem, the Robinson Center’s Saturday Program has a full slate of math and writing classes. Two new science classes are being offered, one on Latin and the classical world and the other for elementary school teachers. Registration begins Jan. 7.

Delaney, a professor of oceanography, is director of the Regional Scale Nodes, a cabled underwater research facility being constructed off Oregon and Washington that’s one component of the Ocean Observatories Initiative.

Mary Miller/Exploratorium

John Delaney at the awards ceremony during the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting.

“John’s powerful outreach and innovative activities developed public support for the vision of the powerful and technologically advanced ocean observing system now under construction,” the AGU citation says. “His passionate message about the oceans enthralls audiences, and he is a highly sought after speaker giving more than 50 invited talks a year. . .He is as excited to share his excitement with school children as with TED audiences and national committees.”

Among his outreach activities, Delaney worked with colleagues to develop the first formal programs bringing middle and high school teachers to sea, now common opportunities, according to the citation. He worked with NOVA in 1998 to film the successful recovery of black smokers from ocean ridges. In 2005 Delaney’s group was the first to stream high-definition video live from sea floor. More than a million viewers across the globe watched on the web.

The letters nominating him for the award talk of the historical and cultural aspects he employs to explain science, including his use of poetry. One letter writer called him “. . .an extraordinary scientist and communicator, in essence, an environmental philosopher.”

Delaney joined the UW in 1977 and currently holds the holds the Jerome M. Paros Endowed Chair in Sensor Networks. Leader of more than 50 ocean expeditions, his research focuses on the deep-sea volcanic activity of the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the northeast Pacific Ocean.

U of Washington

Ginger Armbrust

“Too often, the most innovative scientists are hampered by funding that binds them to a solid, but conservative research agenda,” said Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief of Science magazine and a board member of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The foundation this week announced $35 million in awards to Armbrust and 15 other scientists to use during the next five years.

“These awards give scientists in marine microbiology the freedom and flexibility to take more risks, forge unusual collaborations and, ultimately, make noteworthy new discoveries,” Alberts said.

Armbrust, who in 2004 received a similar multi-million dollar eight-year award, told KUOW radio, “A lot more freedom comes with this funding. It allows me to take what I refer to as calculated risks in the science and to explore areas that are interesting between disciplines. In my lab I have biologists, oceanographers, mathematicians, computer scientists, engineers – I’ve been able to bring together a lot of really talented people.”

She and her lab have already developed new instruments. One, for example, counts and identifies microorganisms being collected in a continuous stream while a ship is underway. They also are developing DNA-based technologies.

“We do the equivalent of the human genome project but we do it for entire microbial communities,” she said. Earlier this year, for example, she co-authored a paper in Science about an advance that allowed researchers to zero in on a single marine microorganism and map its genome even though it made up less than 10 percent of a water sample teeming with millions of other microorganisms.

Armbrust, who joined the UW in 1996, is a professor and director of the School of Oceanography. The marine phytoplankton she studies are single-celled algae and the most abundant photosynthetic organisms in the ocean. Trillions upon trillions of them make up the base of the ocean’s food webs and remove the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The microbes also generate about half the oxygen humans breathe, leading Armbrust to say, “They are responsible for every other breath you take.”

The UW fellows are:

Robert Houze

Robert Houze, professor of atmospheric sciences, was named for his contributions to the understanding of cloud dynamics. He has more than 200 scientific publications, is an Institute of Science Information highly cited researcher, a recipient of the highest research medal of the American Meteorological Society and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Current areas of research include tropical clouds, hurricanes, mountain weather and recent floods in Pakistan and India. Houze helped lead a 2011 campaign in the Maldives to study clouds over the Indian Ocean and a 2012 NASA project flying drones over hurricanes. He joined the UW faculty in 1972 after receiving his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Keiko Torii

Keiko Torii, endowed distinguished professor of biology, was honored for contributions to the field of plant development, specifically the molecular-genetic bases of cell-cell communication, specifying organ shape and stomatal patterning and differentiation. Plants adjust the number of stomata in response to drought and other environmental conditions so work led by Torii to understand the underlying processes may help predict how well crops and other plants cope with climate change and other threats. In 2011 she was among 15 plant scientists nationally to share $75 million for fundamental plant science research from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Her degrees are from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, and she’s been at the UW since 1999.

Thomas Daniel

Thomas Daniel, professor of biology, was recognized for distinguished contributions as an international leader in research and teaching of integrative biology of complex systems using computational approaches, and for serving as a source of inspiration to colleagues and students, according to AAAS. Since coming to the UW in 1984, for example, he’s won both a UW Distinguished Teaching Award and the UW Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award, as well as a MacArthur Fellowship, often called a genius award. Daniel studies the physics and engineering of movement in biology. Understanding animal locomotion may improve designs of robotic systems. His doctorate is from Duke University.

David Ginger Jr.,

David Ginger Jr., a UW chemistry professor, was honored for advances in the physical chemistry of nanoscale materials relevant to optoelectronics, particularly photovoltaics, and innovation in surface microscopy techniques for probing such materials. His research focuses on nanostructured materials with potential applications in low-cost solar cells, energy efficient light-emitting diodes and novel biosensors. He earned a doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 2001 and came to the UW in 2003 after working as a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University.

D. Michael Heinekey

D. Michael Heinekey, a UW chemistry professor, was recognized for contributions to the field of organometallic chemistry, particularly for pioneering studies of dihydrogen and polyhydride complexes. His research focuses on various aspects of transition metal organometallic chemistry. Major areas of investigation include synthetic, structural and mechanistic problems. He earned a doctorate in 1982 from the University of Alberta and was a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. He served on the faculty of Yale University and came to UW in 1992.

Sarah Keller

Sarah Keller, a UW chemistry professor, was recognized as a leader in the field inhomogeneous distributions of lipids within membranes that model cell membranes. She and members of her laboratory use quantitative tools of physics and chemistry to address questions inspired by biology. She has won a UW Distinguished Teaching Award and is a fellow of the American Physical Society. She earned a doctorate from Princeton University in 1995 and came to the UW in 2000 after holding postdoctoral positions at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Stanford University.

František Tureček

František Tureček, a UW professor of chemistry, was honored for contributions to mass spectrometry in explaining the structures, stereochemistry, and dissociation mechanisms of gas-phase ions, and applying these principles to chemistry, biology, and medicine. His research, using mass spectrometry as the core technique, focuses on new methods of peptide and protein sequencing using special mass spectrometric techniques based on ion-electron recombination. He earned a doctorate from Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, in 1977 and came to the UW in 1990.

Breck Byers

Breck E. Byers, professor of medicine and genome sciences and former chair of the UW Department of Genetics, was selected for his contributions to cellular and molecular biology. He is noted for his work on the yeast cell cycle as a model for understanding cell division in a wide variety of organisms. Most significantly, he has pioneered work on how dividing cells split and transmit their genetic material during proliferation and during the creation of gametes, or reproductive cells. He also expanded the use of electron microscopy to capture fine details of cellular structures. He was one of the leaders in establishing the UW Department of Genome Sciences in 2001.

Trish Davis

Trish Davis, professor and acting chair of biochemistry, studies the molecular machines and motors that move chromosomes inside of cells. When operating with clockwork precision during cell division, they assure that chromosomes are evenly divided as the pairs are pulled apart. Errors can lead to birth defects, cancer, or cell death. Davis’ lab is working to understand the cell structures and activities that organize the accurate segregation of chromosomes during cell duplication, and the quality control measures that detect and correct mistakes. She is applying these findings to analyze the chromosome division abnormalities that occur in human cancer cells.

John Stamatoyannopoulos

John Stamatoyannopoulos, associate professor of genome sciences, recently made several major contributions to Project Encode, an international effort to understand the regulatory elements of the human genome. He developed powerful techniques for mapping these complex control networks, which turns out have patterns similar to primitive brains. He is helping to uncover the operating instructions for the human genome. Through a greater understanding of the role of genome regulators generated in his lab, new ways of looking at the causes and progression of disease are likely to emerge.

Elton “Ted” Young

Elton “Ted” Young, professor of biochemistry and genome sciences, studies the DNA and protein factors that control how yeast genes produce their products. His lab is interested in the genes that encode a family of enzymes involved in alcohol metabolism.  Young and his team have identified the DNA sequences that mediate the expression of these genes. His discoveries have advanced knowledge about transcription regulation – how sections of the DNA code are transcribed to RNA. His group is making “designer” DNA binding proteins to target specific sequences in complex genomes and activate transcription.