UW News

The latest news from the UW


February 12, 2015

UW Regents name Provost and Executive Vice President Ana Mari Cauce interim president

University of Washington Provost and Executive Vice President Ana Mari Cauce was named interim president by the Board of Regents at their regular meeting on Thursday. Her appointment will be effective March 2, 2015. She succeeds President Michael K. Young, who is leaving the UW for Texas A&M University. “Dr. Cauce is an extraordinary leader…

Two famous names added to College of Built Environments’ Roll of Honor

The UW College of Built Environments has added two names to the Roll of Honor located in the auditorium of Architecture Hall — Roland Terry and Grant Jones. A celebration for the two honorees will take place April 29. Terry was a Seattle architect committed to artistry appropriate to its regional setting who also played…

University of Washington releases design plans, names architect for former Spokane visitors center

SPOKANE, Washington — The University of Washington has released its architectural renderings for the redesign of the former Spokane Visitors Center, soon to be the UW Spokane Center. Located in the heart of Spokane’s University District, the UW Spokane Center will serve as a hub for Spokane-area alumni, students, prospective students, parents and supporters with…

February 11, 2015

Statewide home prices leveling off, but affordability woes linger

Home sale prices were down in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to the third quarter but up compared with the previous year, and the rate of home sales also dropped, according to the UW’s Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies.

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How to interest girls in computer science and engineering? Shift the stereotypes

Women have long been underrepresented among undergraduates in computer science and engineering for a complex variety of reasons. A new study by University of Washington researchers identifies a main culprit for that disparity: inaccurate stereotypes depicting computer scientists and engineers as geeky, brilliant and socially awkward males. And they say broadening those stereotypes is key to…

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Arts Roundup: Music, lectures – and Urban Bush Women

This week, the UW World Series presents American dance ensemble Urban Bush Women, then quickly follows this with the Jerusalem Quartet.

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Earthquake early warning begins testing in Pacific Northwest

The first early earthquake warning system for the region has begun testing with a small group of users at businesses and public agencies in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia.

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14 UW researchers win 2015 Innovation Awards

The University of Washington has chosen 14 researchers across campus to receive this year’s UW Innovation Awards. The awards are given to encourage early and mid-career scientists to pursue projects that may not yet qualify for outside funding, but show future promise and will engage students in innovative, creative work. “These are some of the…

February 10, 2015

Valentine’s Day ‘edit-a-thon’ to address Wikipedia gender gap

There is a widely recognized gender gap in the English language Wikipedia. Two members of the campus community are teaming to offer a four-hour hands-on workshop and discussion to bring feminist dialogues and theory to the information website, the seventh most-viewed in the United States. The event, titled “I Love To You: Critical Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon,”…

February 9, 2015

Board of Regents — Feb. 12 meeting

The Board of Regents will hold their Regular Meeting at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, in the Petersen Room of Allen Library. The full schedule and agendas are available online.

USA Today names UW third-best nationally for English majors

Pardon, Princeton. Step aside, Harvard. Maybe next time, Yale and Columbia — this one’s going to the University of Washington Department of English. UW colleges and departments are often named among the best in the country for science, technology and research. But the latest ranking has more to do with semi-colons than computer algorithms: USA…

3-D printing with custom molecules creates low-cost mechanical sensor

A UW chemistry lab teamed up with UW engineers studying 3-D printing to create 3-D printed objects with new capabilities.

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Six Green Seed Fund winners selected for 2015

The Green Seed Fund, a grant fund for sustainability research projects at the UW, will award money to six projects that contribute to the university’s sustainability goals, are well-planned and achievable and will help the UW reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The six winning projects for 2015 will share about $250,000 in grant money and…

February 6, 2015

Anti-kickback, conflict of interest and whistleblower regulations and supplemental compliance resources

Anti-Kickback, Conflict of Interest and Whistleblower Regulations Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR 52.203-7) require the University to implement procedures designed to prevent and detect violations of the Anti-Kickback Act of 1986 (41 USC 51-58). This is published as a reminder of the policies and procedures in place at the University of Washington 1. Kickback Defined. “Kickback”…

Elders-in-residence program brings traditional learning to campus

As a girl growing up in Alaska, Elizabeth Fleagle learned life lessons and hands-on skills from her grandmother, from cooking to making fish nets and moccasins. “Our grandma taught us how to make everything we had to make,” said Fleagle, who lives in Fairbanks and is Inupiat Eskimo. “In my culture, that’s how we learn.”…

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February 5, 2015

White House honors UW climate scientist Amy Snover as a ‘Champion of Change’

Amy Snover, director of the UW’s Climate Impacts Group and assistant dean for applied research in the UW’s College of the Environment, has been named a White House Champions of Change for her work in promoting climate education and literacy. She will be honored during a ceremony Monday at the White House from 10 a.m….

UW alum Laurie Olin to deliver Dean’s Distinguished Lecture for College of Built Environments Feb. 11

Laurie Olin, teacher, artist, innovator and one of landscape architecture’s most famous names, will return to his alma mater to deliver the College of Built Environments’ 2015 Dean’s Distinguished Lecture at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, in Architecture Hall. His talk will be titled “Global, Regional, Local; Working Toward a Meaningful Landscape.” Olin is known…

New tool monitors effects of tidal, wave energy on marine habitat

A robot developed at the University of Washington will deploy instruments to gather information in unprecedented detail about how marine life interacts with underwater equipment used to harvest wave and tidal energy.

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February 4, 2015

UW Combined Fund Drive raises $2.2 million

The 2014 University of Washington Combined Fund Drive, part of the state’s workplace giving campaign, raised $2,199,793, making it the most successful campaign in the program’s 30-year history. The campaign ran from Oct. 16 to Dec. 5, 2014, with UW faculty, staff and retirees pledging to 1,819 nonprofit organizations. Employees contributed through ongoing payroll deduction…

Arts Roundup: Drama, exhibitions – and ‘The Way Black Machine’

Following up last week’s full schedule of arts events, this week is equally packed. The School of Drama’s production of “Twelfth Night” runs its final weekend, the Jacob Lawrence Gallery’s exhibit, “The Way Black Machine,” is now open and the School of Music presents a faculty recital with Douglas Cleveland on organ and David Gordon on trumpet.

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February 3, 2015

UW President Michael K. Young named sole finalist for president at Texas A&M University

University of Washington President Michael K. Young on Tuesday was named as the sole finalist for president of Texas A&M University by its Board of Regents. Young became President of the UW in July 2011. Young is expected to assume his duties at Texas A&M in the spring. Statement from UW President Michael K. Young…

UW Information School has key role as Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries Initiative winds down

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has worked for years with the University of Washington Information School‘s Technology & Social Change Group on the foundation’s multi-year Global Libraries Initiative, dedicated to improving digital connectivity around the world. The Gates Foundation announced in May 2014 that the initiative is entering a three- to five-year winding-down phase…

Teachers sought for storytelling event

Are you a UW alum or other local educator who’s passionate about your work and willing to talk publicly about it? The UW College of Education and the Seattle Times are hosting a storytelling event at the university on Feb. 25 and are looking for a handful of teachers to share five-minute personal stories onstage….

February 2, 2015

Alumni study highlights successes among UW early-entrance students

A recent study found that graduates of the University of Washington’s two early-entrance university programs excelled in their academic and subsequent professional lives. The study was published in January in Roeper Review, a publication focused on education for gifted students. It looked at the academic, professional and personal outcomes for 192 students in the UW…

Documents that Changed the World: ‘Rosie the Riveter’ poster, 1943

The famous World War II-era poster of Rosie the Riveter is less a document that changed the world than the other way around — an image the world adopted and filled with meaning. But such turnabout is fair play in the ongoing Documents that Changed the World podcast series by UW Information School Professor Joe Janes.

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January 30, 2015

Super Bowl means seafood bet for UW, University of Massachusetts

The 2015 Super Bowl just got serious, because now it involves a bet over delicious seafood between dining services at the University of Washington and the University of Massachusetts. UMass threw down the gauntlet, in the form of lobster, and the UW responded with crab. Here’s the bet: If the Seahawks win, UMass will provide…

Three UW conservation scientists awarded new Wilburforce Fellowship

Three members of the UW College of the Environment are among the first 20 recipients of a Wilburforce Fellowship, a new year-long training for conservation scientists in Western North America. The year-long program provides communication and leadership training to help build a community of conservation scientists and encourage them to reach beyond the scientific audiences….

Town hall on campus Feb. 2 to discuss role of software in academia

The University of Washington’s eScience Institute and GitHub, a code-sharing and publishing service, are hosting a town hall discussion on campus 6-9 p.m. Monday, Feb. 2, to talk about the role of software in academic research today. Six panelists will give short presentations, followed by a discussion moderated by Arfon Smith with GitHub. Dan Halperin,…

New faculty salary policy to be discussed at town hall Weds.

All faculty are invited to a town hall discussion of the proposed new faculty salary policy at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, in the Walker Ames Room (225) in Kane Hall. The first half of the program will be devoted to a panel discussion and debate of the major arguments for and against the policy…

January 29, 2015

Landmark study to track ‘pioneer’ generation of transgender children

Marlo Mack’s son was 3 years old when he told her very adamantly that he was not a boy, but a girl. Unsure what to do, Mack went in search of answers. She found little information online, her pediatrician knew nothing about transgender children, and even a psychologist who specialized in child identity issues couldn’t…

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January 28, 2015

Child maltreatment not a clear path to adult crime

Research has found a significant link between childhood abuse and neglect and crime in adulthood. But a recent University of Washington study finds that link all but disappears when accounting for other life factors. “We find that children who were involved in child welfare services are at high risk of adult crimes, but once we…

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UW Bothell lecturer Kristy Leissle in PBS ‘Nature’ episode Jan. 28

Kristy Leissle, a lecturer in the UW Bothell School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, will appear in an episode of the PBS television series “Nature” tonight, Jan. 28. The episode, titled “Penguin Post Office,” is about a unique British post office located in the heart of the Antarctic Peninsula at Port Lockroy, about 700 miles…

Arts Roundup: Music, lectures – and ‘Twelfth Night’

As we approach the end of January, enjoy a show or two. The School of Drama’s production of “Twelfth Night” sets Shakespeare in The Roaring Twenties, the School of Music offers a variety of performances including the Modern Music Ensemble and a Student Chamber Concert, and the UW World Series presents Ukranian pianist Vadym Kholodenko.

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Some potentially habitable planets began as gaseous, Neptune-like worlds

Two phenomena known to inhibit the potential habitability of planets — tidal forces and vigorous stellar activity — might instead help chances for life on certain planets orbiting low-mass stars, University of Washington astronomers have found.

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January 27, 2015

UW researchers helping region get ready for the next Big One

On the anniversary of a massive earthquake off our region’s coast, UW researchers are working on everything from tsunami evacuation structures to updated seismic hazard maps.

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January 23, 2015

UW Center for Philosophy for Children to host High School Ethics Bowl Jan. 31

The University of Washington Center for Philosophy for Children will host the 2015 Washington State High School Ethics Bowl on campus Saturday, January 31. The event is modeled after the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl and involves teams of high school students competing to analyze wide-ranging ethical dilemmas. Twenty-three high school bowls will take place around the…

John Wilkerson’s Legislative Explorer honored, paper published

The online Legislative Explorer, the big-data policy project by John Wilkerson and Nicholas Stramp of the UW political science department, has been named an award of excellence winner in interactive design by Communication Arts, an international trade journal of visual communications. Their website, www.legex.org, which tracks all Congressional legislation in the last 40 years, also…

$3.9 million project will identify, treat Washington state toddlers at risk for autism

Early detection can make a world of difference for toddlers with autism, but many children do not get diagnosed until they’re at least 4 years old. As a result, they often don’t get specialized services during the critical period up to age 3 that can greatly improve their skills and behavior. A new project at…

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January 22, 2015

Seahawks and fans save best for last on the seismograph

The UW seismologists couldn’t have asked for a better football game to monitor fan-generated stadium shaking. And indeed, the Seahawks’ improbable comeback victory in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game showed the biggest vibrations ever recorded at CenturyLink Field. See also: “How the ‘Beast Quake’ is helping scientists track real earthquakes” (Jan. 7) “Packers versus Seahawks game…

January 21, 2015

UW receives record number of freshman applications for 2015

A record 36,528 freshman applications – an increase of 5,000, or 16 percent, over last year – were submitted to the University of Washington for the 2015 academic year, according to figures released by the UW’s admissions office.  Increases occurred among all categories: 12 percent from Washington residents, 19 percent from other parts of the…

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