June 11, 2015
While the Shell drilling platform sits in a Seattle port and its future is hotly debated, a conference on changing Northern waters – including the Chukchi Sea where the oil company plans to use the rig to search for oil – will be held June 15-17 on the UW campus. The symposium is the 10th annual meeting of the international Ecosystem Studies of Sub-Arctic Seas Program, or ESSAS, which includes members from the U.S., Canada, Iceland, Norway, Japan and other…
African-American adults — particularly women — are much more likely to know or be related to someone behind bars than whites, according to the first national estimates of Americans’ ties to prisoners.
What researchers have discovered about the hummingbird-sized hawkmoth could help the next generation of small flying robots operate efficiently under a broad range of lighting conditions. The research is published in the June 12 edition of Science.
Washington state’s rural communities with the highest suicide rates soon will get more resources to help with prevention training and support. Washington Women’s Foundation is giving Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention $100,000 for suicide prevention in six underserved rural communities.
June 10, 2015
School may be out for summer, but the arts on campus are heating up. Art Breaks and ArtVentures abound at the Henry Art Gallery, and the Jacob Lawrence Gallery is buzzing with the work of recent grads. Kids and kids at heart will want to check out the daily activities offered at the Burke Museum – crafts, scavenger hunts, and adventures await. Art Breaks: Coley Mixan 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., June 13 | Henry Art Gallery Coley Mixan, MFA candidate…
Juan Felipe Herrera, visiting professor of ethnic studies at the University of Washington, was named the 21st United States Poet Laureate on Wednesday. Herrera, who for the past two years has been the California Poet Laureate, is the first Latino honored since the U.S. Consultant in Poetry program began in 1937 (the title changed to Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry in 1986). In addition to writing poetry, Herrera also explores issues relevant to Latino culture through his novels, short stories…
June 9, 2015
Early intervention for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder helps improve their intellectual ability and reduces autism symptoms years after originally getting treatment, a new study shows.
June 8, 2015
The prolific David Shields, New York Times best-selling author and University of Washington professor of English, has a new book out, titled “That Thing You Do With Your Mouth: The Sexual Autobiography of Samantha Matthews as Told to David Shields.” The book is an extended monologue by Matthews — who is Shields’ cousin once removed — examining her sexual history “from her abuse at the hands of a family member to her present-day life in Barcelona, where she once moonlighted…
Planets with volcanic activity are considered better candidates for life than worlds without such heated internal goings-on.
Now, graduate students at the UW have found a way to detect volcanic activity in the atmospheres of faraway planets when they transit, or pass in front of their host stars.
June 5, 2015
Country musician Billy Mize worked with great people in his long career — Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Buck Owens, Glen Campbell and many more. He also worked in a different way with Diane Kendall, now a University of Washington professor of speech and hearing sciences and director of the UW’s Aphasia Research Laboratory. Aphasia is an acquired communication disorder that impairs a person’s ability to process language but does not affect intelligence or cognition. Kendall’s work helping Mize regain his…
June 4, 2015
Warming temperatures and decreasing levels of dissolved oxygen will act together to create metabolic stress for marine animals. Habitats will shift to places in the ocean where the oxygen supply can meet the animals’ increasing future needs.
June 3, 2015
The Large Hadron Collider has started recording data from the highest-energy particle collisions ever achieved on Earth. This new data, the first recorded since 2012, will enable an international collaboration of researchers — including many from the UW — to study the Higgs boson, search for dark matter and develop a more complete understanding of the laws of nature.
Don’t stress about upcoming finals this week. Instead, calm the mind and spirit at a Mindfulness Meditation class at Henry Art Gallery. Afterwards, browse the Willem De Rooij exhibit “Bouqet XI,” featuring beautiful floral sculptures that are a playful nod to Holland’s role as a major hub in the international flower trade; and stop by the Jacob Lawrence Gallery for the 2015 UW Design Show, featuring the work of graduates in Industrial Design, Interaction Design, and Visual Communication Design. UW Symphony…
The Ocean Modeling Forum is trying something very rare — bringing together multiple science models and people who care about a particular ocean resource or fishery to decide what’s most important for its vitality and the communities it serves.
June 2, 2015
University of Washington psychology professor Yuichi Shoda has been honored for his ongoing participation in a well-known — and perhaps slightly misunderstood — long-term study about delayed gratification.
Gov. Jay Inslee has named Vanessa Kritzer, a graduate student at the University of Washington, as the next student member of the UW Board of Regents. The year-long appointment is effective July 1.
UW researchers are scaling up a novel plasma confinement device with a DOE grant, in hopes of producing a self-sustaining reaction to create fusion energy.
June 1, 2015
Drumheller Fountain, one of the University of Washington’s campus icons, reopened Monday, one week ahead of schedule after having been closed by Facilities Services crews April 27 for its biannual cleaning and maintenance. “Drumheller Fountain is the centerpiece of our campus,” maintenance supervisor Dale Baxmann said. “We need to be good stewards of our campus landmarks; responsible planning and maintenance work is really important to our aging icons.” Maintenance activities included patching and repairing the fountain’s liner, to prevent water leaks. Facilities’…
University of Washington civil and environmental engineering students have joined a 4,000-volunteer crowdsourcing effort to turn satellite imagery of Nepal into maps that aid earthquake relief efforts.
May 29, 2015
Elena I. Campbell, a University of Washington associate professor of history, has published her first book, which studies Russia’s policies toward Muslims in the 19th and 20th centuries and the impact of the “Muslim Question” on the modernizing path the country would follow. “The Muslim Question and Russian Imperial Governance” was published early this spring by Indiana University Press. “From the time of the Crimean War through the fall of the Tsar, the question of what to do about the…
May 28, 2015
One of the best ways children learn is by copying what they see others do. Now new research shows that this learning strategy can be used even with things that cannot be seen, including invisible scientific concepts. Weight, for example, is a concept that cannot be seen directly, and it puzzles most preschool-aged children. While they can figure out other more obvious properties about objects, such as their shape, color, or the sound they make, weight trips them up. Researchers…
UW physicists have conducted the most precise and controlled measurements yet of the interaction between the atoms and molecules that comprise air and the type of carbon surface used in battery electrodes and air filters — key information for improving those technologies.
May 27, 2015
This week, head to the theater to enjoy the School of Drama’s production of the bitingly funny “Boy’s Life” or the Undergraduate Theater Society’s adventurous production of “On the Verge.” Also this week, the School of Music presents the UW Gospel Choir, UW Symphony, and more. 3D4M BFA Show May 27 – June 6 | Jacob Lawrence Gallery This graduation exhibition features pieces by students receiving a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the 3D4M: ceramics + glass + sculpture Program. More…
Using seawater collected in Seattle, Whidbey Island and other sites, UW oceanographers show that just as with plants on land, a common species of ocean diatom grows faster in the presence of helpful bacteria.
As a graduate student and food justice activist in Santa Barbara, California, Megan Carney became aware that many migrant women in the area struggled to feed their families. Her recently published book “The Unending Hunger: Tracing Women and Food Insecurity Across Borders,” examines the personal and political aspects of hunger and tells the stories of the women she met through her research. Carney, now a lecturer in the University of Washington’s anthropology department and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies…
May 26, 2015
Sylvie Troxel didn’t own a driver’s license when she joined the University of Washington’s EcoCAR team as a freshman four years ago. A lifelong bus rider, she knew virtually nothing about cars. She had never manufactured anything before she started working in the UW machine shop where students fabricate the components to turn an iconic muscle car into a high-performance electric hybrid. “I joined the team with no skills and sort of no confidence in my engineering ability,” said Troxel,…
How can a sushi bar eliminate some of its most popular fish from the menu and still be profitable? One local establishment accomplished this, claiming that sustainable seafood is more important than profits in the long term. Hajime Sato, owner of Mashiko Japanese restaurant in West Seattle, will speak about his experience converting his sushi bar into the first (and likely still the only) fully sustainable sushi restaurant in the city as part of a UW School of Marine and…
The University of Washington communication department will open its new Center for Communication, Difference and Equity with public events May 27 to 29, on campus and off. “The CCDE is a space — a physical space, intellectual space and community space — where we as a department and as a university are going to be able to center these issues of power, privilege and difference,” said Ralina Joseph, professor of communication and the center’s director. “And to think of how…
May 22, 2015
A look at the annual exhibit for students graduating with master’s degrees in art and design, at the Henry Art Gallery.
May 21, 2015
The National Center for Women & Information Technology awarded its inaugural grand prize for excellence in recruiting, engaging and supporting women undergraduates in computer science to the University of Washington’s Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE). The national nonprofit that works to increase women’s participation in computing and technology selected UW CSE as the recipient of its top prize, which comes with $100,000, as part of its NCWIT Extension Services Transformation (NEXT) Awards recognizing academic departments that have shown…
The School of Music offers a variety of events this week, highlighting jazz modern, percussion, and the music and instruments of 20th century composer Harry Partch. ArtsUW presents its final Arts Dawgs reception of the year, co-hosted by the School of Art + Art History + Design at the Henry Art Gallery, celebrating the opening of the MFA + MDes Thesis Exhibition; and if you’re looking for a comedy of manners, don’t miss the School of Drama’s production of “Boy’s Life,”…
Geography professor Sarah Elwood sits at the front of a University of Washington classroom on a recent afternoon, listening and making suggestions as students discuss the data challenges they’re having. Some are wondering how to put data in a particular format. Others are muddling through the process of mapping data, or figuring out where to source information. “Think about who has the data you need, and how do you shake it loose from them?” Elwood says. “There are many public…
May 20, 2015
More than two hundred high school students from four area high schools will visit the campus for a daylong seminar in the HUB May 27 as part of Teachers and Texts, which in turn is part of the UW in the High School program, sponsored by Professional and Continuing Education. The event is called the Northwest Collaborative Regional Symposium, with the subtitle “Student Voices Making Change.” About 240 students of a class called Margins and Centers at Eastlake, Roosevelt, Franklin…
Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held at Noon on Friday, May 29, 2015, in Room 142 of Gerberding Hall, on the UW Seattle campus. The purpose of the hearing is to allow all interested persons an opportunity to present their views, either orally or in writing, on the proposed amendments to Chapter 478-168 WAC, “Regulations for the University of Washington libraries.” Chapter 478-168 WAC establishes the loan code, access to and conditions for use of…
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture paleontologists have documented the first dinosaur fossil from Washington state. The fossil was collected by a Burke Museum research team along the shores of Sucia Island State Park in the San Juan Islands.
Two University of Washington geography professors are leading an effort with what might be considered a staggeringly ambitious goal — to reframe how poverty is perceived and studied around the world. Victoria Lawson and Sarah Elwood are the co-founders of the UW-based Relational Poverty Network, a coalition of academic institutions and organizations around the United States and as far away as Europe, Asia and Africa. The network seeks to recast perceptions of poverty from something impacting others — what Lawson…
May 19, 2015
Christine Gregoire, who served as Washington’s 22nd governor from 2005 to 2013, will be the featured speaker at the University of Washington’s Commencement exercises June 13. Gregoire, a 1969 graduate of the UW, was named director of the Washington Department of Ecology in 1988. Four years later, she became the first woman elected to the position of attorney general in the state of Washington and served in that post for three terms before being elected governor. During two terms as governor, Gregoire proposed…
Oceanographer Deborah Kelley is one of the lead authors of a first-of-its-kind atlas of the deep sea, titled “Discovering the Deep.”
May 18, 2015
“I Think You’re Totally Wrong: A Quarrel,” a film directed by James Franco based on UW English Professor David Shields‘ latest book, with former student Caleb Powell, will be shown at Seattle literary venue Hugo House at 7 p.m. May 30, 31 and June 1. The screenings will be U.S. premiere for the film, which made its world debut May 3 at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver, B.C. “Life is serious business,” Shields said recently. “We all have…
An interdisciplinary team of UW graduate students and its proposal for a 69-unit affordable housing development in Tacoma’s Wedge neighborhood has won the 24th annual Bank of America Low-Income Housing Challenge, held May 14 in San Francisco. The team was organized by the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies, which is in the UW College of Built Environments. Members were Ben Broesamle and Sam Yimparsit of the Master of Science in Real Estate program, Zi Cai and Genevieve Hale-Case of…