UW News
The latest news from the UW
August 24, 2015
Blacks hit hardest by public-sector job losses during recession, study finds
The public sector has long served as an equalizer in American society, a place where minority workers could find stable employment that offered advancement and a reliable path to a middle-class life. But the Great Recession wiped out many of those jobs, as tax revenues declined and anti-government sentiment added to a contraction that continued…
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Sociology • Great Recession • Jennifer LairdAugust 20, 2015
Hunger drives unethical acts, but only in the quest for food
Ever been so hungry that you can’t think of anything but finding food? Research from the UW Foster School of Business finds that the single-mindedness that results from hunger makes people more likely to commit unethical acts to satisfy that hunger — but less likely to lie, cheat or steal for reasons that don’t address the immediate physiological need.
Tag(s): Foster School of Business • Scott Reynolds
Notice of possible rule making preproposal statement of inquiry
Subject of Possible Rule Making: Chapter 478-168 WAC, Admission and Registration Procedures for the University of Washington Statutes Authorizing the University to Adopt Rules on This Subject: RCW 28B.20.130. Reasons Why Rules on This Subject May Be Needed and What They Might Accomplish: Chapter 478-160 WAC needs a complete review to bring the chapter up…
Maltreated children’s brains show ‘encouraging’ ability to regulate emotions
Children who have been abused or exposed to other types of trauma typically experience more intense emotions than their peers, a byproduct of living in volatile, dangerous environments. But what if those kids could regulate their emotions? Could that better help them cope with difficult situations? Would it impact how effective therapy might be for…
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Psychology • Katie McLaughlin • Stress & Development Laboratory
Crime writer Ann Rule to be remembered in public Kane Hall gathering Aug. 23
A public celebration of the life of writer Ann Rule will be held at 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23, in Room 130 of Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. The gathering, under the title “Ann Rule, Our Tribute to a Life Well Lived,” will feature friends and colleagues remembering the writer’s life and…
August 19, 2015
UW political scientist Megan Francis looks at philanthropy and racial inequality
Protecting African-Americans from state-sanctioned violence remains “an unmet challenge for civil rights groups committed to racial equality,” writes Megan Ming Francis, UW assistant professor of political science, in a much-read post at HistPhil, a blog launched in June to cover the history of philanthropy. Why is preventing racial violence not a higher priority? In part…
August 18, 2015
Thanks and pass the candy: Feelings of gratitude increase the consumption of sweets
Gratitude is universally considered a social good, but gratitude can have a dark side. It can impel us to eat more sweets, according to new research by Ann Schlosser, professor of marketing at the UW Foster School of Business.
Tag(s): Ann Schlosser • Foster School of BusinessAugust 17, 2015
UW holds steady at No. 15 in world university ranking
The University of Washington remained No. 15 on the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities, conducted by researchers at the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which was released Monday. The UW again ranked 13th among U.S. universities and fourth among public institutions worldwide. The ranking considers several indicators of academic or research…
Washington state housing market stays strong in second quarter of 2015
Washington state’s housing market remained strong in the second quarter of 2015 with home sale prices, home sales and new building permits up compared to one year ago, according to the UW’s Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies.
Tag(s): Peter Orser • Runstad Department of Real Estate
UW researchers model tsunami hazards on the Northwest coast
Recent press and social media coverage have reminded residents of the Pacific Northwest that they live in a seismically active region. Stretching offshore from northern California to British Columbia, the Cascadia subduction zone could slip at any time, causing a powerful earthquake and triggering a tsunami that would impact communities along the coast. Scientists from…
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • College of the Environment • Department of Applied Mathematics • Department of Earth and Space Sciences • earthquakes & seismology • Frank Gonzalez • Pacific Northwest Seismic Network • Q&A • Randy LeVeque • tsunami
UW historian William Rorabaugh explores ’60s counterculture in ‘American Hippies’
William Rorabaugh, UW professor of history, looks at the flower power culture of the 1960s in his latest book, “American Hippies.”
Tag(s): books • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of History • history • Q&A • William RorabaughAugust 13, 2015
Documents that Changed the World: Charles Richter’s seismic scale, 1935
A scale of simple numbers — the Richter Scale — unnerves us when we think about earthquakes, as Pacific Northwest residents have been prone to do lately. But who was Richter, and how did it all come about? Joe Janes takes a look for an installment of his Documents that Changed the World podcast series.
Tag(s): Documents that Changed the World • earthquakes & seismology • Information School • Joe Janes
‘Scarface,’ an ancient cousin to mammals, unearthed in Africa
A team of scientists has identified a new species of “pre-mammal” based on fossils unearthed in Zambia’s Luangwa Basin in 2009. The ancient, Dachshund-sized creature lived some 255 million years ago, in a time just before the largest mass extinction in Earth’s history. Its discoverers include Christian Sidor, professor of biology at the University of…
Tag(s): Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture • Christian Sidor • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Biology
Lessons from Australia: Understanding public support for carbon pricing
A new study finds that acceptance of a policy is an important process through which people’s beliefs and economic ideologies influence their support for putting a price on carbon emissions, but general acceptance doesn’t always lead to support. A University of Washington researcher led a study looking at views towards a carbon pricing policy before…
From protein design to self-driving cars: UW researchers win AI prize for new optimization approach
UW machine learning researchers have developed a new approach to optimization – a key step in predicting everything from election results to how proteins will fold – that won a top paper prize at the world’s largest artificial intelligence conference.
Tag(s): College of Engineering • Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering • Pedro DomingosAugust 12, 2015
CO2 emissions change with size of streams and rivers
Researchers have shown that CO2 appears in streams by way of two different sources — either as a direct pipeline for groundwater and carbon-rich soils, or from aquatic organisms releasing the gas through respiration and natural decay.
August 11, 2015
Behaviors linked to adult crime differ in abused girls and boys, study finds
The signs that an abused child might later commit crimes might not be obvious — that boisterous playground behavior from a third-grade boy, for example, or the 10-year-old girl who seems a little anxious or withdrawn. But new research from the University of Washington suggests that troubling behaviors exhibited by abused children can be predictors…
Tag(s): School of Social Work • Social Development Research Group • Todd HerrenkohlAugust 7, 2015
UW scientists explore recently erupted deep-sea volcano (with video)
When University of Washington oceanographers visited the deep-ocean Axial Volcano in late July, parts of the seafloor were still warm. The team knew to expect changes in the mile-deep volcano 300 miles off the Oregon coast. This spring, seafloor seismometers connected to shore by a new Internet cable showed that Axial Volcano, a 3,600-foot-tall underwater…
Washington state climatologist provides weekly drought updates
This year’s pathetic snow season wasn’t just a problem for skiers. Now that it’s summer, salmon are struggling because there’s not enough snowmelt to feed streams, and water managers are worried by lack of snowpack or summer rains to feed water supplies until the fall. When Gov. Jay Inslee first declared a drought in April,…
Information School’s Michelle Carter explores our ‘IT identities’
Oh no — you’ve lost your smartphone. Anxiety spikes as you check pockets and bags. But wait — there it is and your worries vanish. All is well, and you feel yourself again, whole again. What’s up with that? Michelle Carter, an assistant professor in the University of Washington Information School, has studied and given…
August 6, 2015
Abusive men put female partners at greater sexual risk, study finds
Abusive and controlling men are more likely to put their female partners at sexual risk, and the level of that risk escalates along with the abusive behavior, a UW study found. Published in the Journal of Sex Research in July, the study looked at patterns of risky sexual behavior among heterosexual men aged 18 to…
Tag(s): abuse • Erin Casey • School of Social Work • UW TacomaAugust 5, 2015
How makerspaces can be accessible to people with disabilities
UW researchers have released new guidelines to make MakerSpaces more accessible to people with disabilities, as more communal spaces with soldering irons, 3-D printers, sewing machines and other “making” tools pop up on campuses and neighborhoods nationwide.
Tag(s): AccessEngineering • College of Engineering • CoMotion MakerSpace • Kat SteeleAugust 4, 2015
UW workshop to explore Big Data solutions for science
At a University of Washington workshop this week, a hundred graduate students from around the country will explore a question that everyone is asking these days: What can data science do for me? To land an invite to the Data Science 2015 workshop on Aug 5 – 7, they were asked to identify a single…
‘How We Spent It’: UW infographic designs get attention from Seattle Police Department
When UW design professor Karen Cheng collaborated with students to create an infographic from publicly available City of Seattle data and published it in a local design magazine, the result was so good they were invited to present their work to the Seattle Police Department. Cheng, professor in the School of Art + Art History…
New fish genus and species named for its red, fingerlike fins
University of Washington scientists recently announced the name of a new genus and species of frogfish, which are small, stocky creatures found in most tropical and subtropical oceans around the world.
Tag(s): Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture • College of the Environment • School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences • Ted PietschAugust 3, 2015
Crystals form through a variety of paths, with implications for biological, materials and environmental research
Crystals play an important role in the formation of substances from skeletons and shells to soils and semiconductor materials. But many aspects of their formation are shrouded in mystery. Scientists have long worked to understand how crystals grow into complex shapes. Now, an international group of researchers has shown how nature uses a variety of…
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • College of Engineering • Department of Chemistry • Department of Materials Science & Engineering • James De Yoreo • Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
UW gets top green honor from Princeton Review
The University of Washington has again been named to Princeton Review’s Green Rating Honor Roll, receiving the highest possible score for the 2014-15 school year. This is the fifth year in a row the UW has achieved this distinction and the seventh year overall since the program began eight years ago. The UW was among…
UW-developed program boosts community-wide prevention, study finds
Almost 30 years ago, two University of Washington researchers developed a program that aimed to reduce problem behaviors among young people by implementing preventive measures at the community level. That program, Communities That Care, is now being used in states across the nation and has been shown to reduce risk factors that lead to problems…
UW to invest $37 million in nanofabrication lab critical to researchers, start-ups
The UW is investing up to $37 million in the Washington Nanofabrication Facility, which makes things for researchers and outside companies that aren’t practical, economical or possible to fabricate at commercial foundries: inconceivably tiny devices, chips made from unconventional materials that industrial factories won’t touch and devices that probe the boundaries of our universe.
Tag(s): College of Engineering • Karl Bohringer • Michael Khbeis • Washington Nanofabrication Facility
What would the world look like to someone with a bionic eye?
Various sight recovery therapies are being developed by companies around the world, offering new hope for people who are blind. But little is known about what the world will look like to patients who undergo those procedures. A new University of Washington study seeks to answer that question and offers visual simulations of what someone…
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Psychology • Geoffrey Boynton • Ione FineJuly 31, 2015
Social media amplifies damage of product recalls to firms — rivals, too
A product recall is never good news for a firm. Research from the Foster School of Business indicates a recall is not necessarily good news for competitors, either.
Tag(s): Abhishek Borah • Foster School of BusinessJuly 30, 2015
UW-led group launches plan to reduce youth problems by 20 percent in a decade
A national coalition of experts that includes two University of Washington researchers has a bold plan to reduce behavioral health problems such as violence and depression among young people across the country by 20 percent in a decade. And their proposal rests on one simple principle: prevention. The group’s paper, recently published on the National…
Tag(s): David Hawkins • Rico Catalano • Social Development Research Group
Four West Coast universities funded for earthquake early warning system
The U.S. Geological Survey today announced $5 million in funding that will allow the University of Washington and three other institutions to help transition the prototype ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system, under development since 2005, into a public-facing tool.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • Department of Earth and Space Sciences • John Vidale • Pacific Northwest Seismic Network • ShakeAlertJuly 29, 2015
Healthier Puget Sound depends on healthy people, report finds
The Puget Sound Partnership on Wednesday adopted new targets that seek to quantify aspects of the natural environment that boost our collective happiness and wellness. These people-focused benchmarks will help inform restoration plans and assess future progress in cleaning up Puget Sound.
Tag(s): Kelly Biedenweg • Puget Sound Institute • UW Tacoma
Two UW researchers elected AGU fellows
Two University of Washington scientists have been elected as new fellows of the American Geophysical Union. The Earth sciences group recognizes only one in 1,000 members each year for major scientific work and sustained impact. The UW honorees are among 60 new 2015 fellows from U.S. and international institutions. They will both be honored in…
Documents that Changed the World: Annals of the World, 1650
As shadows lengthened and day turned to night on Saturday, Oct. 22, in the year 4004 BCE, God created the universe. Or, perhaps not. Still, that’s the time and date for creation determined, after long and painstaking research, by Irish scholar and church leader James Ussher, author of the 17th century chronology, Annals of the World.
Tag(s): Documents that Changed the World • Information School • Joe Janes
‘Odd’ Puget Sound conditions prompt multi-agency awareness day
It’s been a strange summer for Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean that feeds it. Water temperatures are warmer than usual, shellfish harvesting has been closed because of a long-lived toxic algae bloom, and oxygen levels in some areas continue to drop, meaning fish kills could be a reality this fall. Local scientists from multiple…
NOAA funds UW, partners to investigate West Coast harmful algal bloom
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced last week it is committing $88,000 in event-response funding for our state to monitor and analyze an unusually large and long-lived bloom of toxic algae that has been affecting shellfish in the region. UW-based Northwest Association of Networked Ocean Observing Systems, or NANOOS, was awarded $75,000 of the…
July 28, 2015
‘Antigona’ dance performance born at UW nominated for two Bessie awards
“Antigona,” a dance production by Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca that was born at the University of Washington, has been nominated for two Bessie awards — the highest tribute in the New York dance world.
Tag(s): Meany Center for the Performing ArtsJuly 27, 2015
Babies’ brains show that social skills linked to second language learning
New findings by researchers at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS) at the University of Washington demonstrate for the first time that an early social behavior called gaze shifting is linked to infants’ ability to learn new language sounds.
Tag(s): Andrew Meltzoff • I-LABS • Patricia Kuhl • Rechele Brooks« Previous Page Next Page »
