The latest news from the UW

Two University of Washington faculty members are among the leaders from academia, business, philanthropy, humanities and the arts elected as 2015 fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies. Stanley Fields, a professor of genome sciences and medicine, and David B. Kaplan, a professor of physics and director of the UW-based Institute for Nuclear Theory, join 197 new academy members announced today. “We are honored to elect a new…

Tatiana Toro, a University of Washington professor and associate chair of mathematics, is among 175 new fellows from the U.S. and Canada recognized this year by the Guggenheim Foundation. Winners, chosen from more than 3,100 applicants, receive grants of varying amounts that allow them to pursue creative projects of six to 12 months in the fields of science, academic scholarship and the arts. Toro, who holds the Robert R. and Elaine F. Phelps endowed professorship, earned her doctorate at Stanford…

At the University of Washington’s first engineering open house, visitors marveled at early-1900s scientific advances: using electricity to cook and curl hair, sending wireless messages over a distance of five miles, experimenting with lightning. Engineering Discovery Days Fri., April 24, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. (registration full) Sat., April 25, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Exhibit location map Fast forward a century, and this week’s on-campus activities for the 100th anniversary of Engineering Discovery Days include forming nanoparticles, extracting DNA…

The UW Stroum Center for Jewish Studies will host its third annual Spring Research Symposium 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, May 1, in room 214 of the HUB. The event is free but advance registration is recommended. This half-day event highlights research by the five members of the 2014-15 Jewish Studies Graduate Fellowship, with topics ranging from biblical interpretation to Jewish animated short films. The graduate students are Summer Satushek of comparative religion, Christina Sztajnkrycer of French and Italian studies, Katja Schatte…

Last summer, a team of University of Washington oceanographers successfully installed hardware deep underwater for an Internet-connected observatory off the Washington and Oregon coasts. Now scientists from around the country are meeting to discuss how this will change how people monitor and study seafloor geology. The Networked Observations and Visualizations of the Axial Environment, or NOVAE, workshop, titled “Axial volcano: Wired and restless,” will take place April 20 through 22 at the Talaris Conference Center near the UW. The program…

Craig Sheppard, professor of piano in the School of Music, will perform all of the 24 Preludes and Fugues, Opus 87, by Dmitri Shostakovich in a faculty recital at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, in Meany Hall. He answered a few questions about the music and his approach to the performance. In a 1993 review of a performance of the Preludes and Fugues by well-known Russian pianist Tatyana Nikolayeva, for whom Shostakovich composed the music, the New York Times…

The University of Washington will be working with the Bainbridge Island-based Puget Sound Restoration Fund to see whether growing seaweed could help combat ocean acidification in Puget Sound waters. Like plants on land, kelps and other seaweeds naturally take up carbon dioxide. Puget Sound waters are already high in carbon dioxide and are projected to become more so in the future. Seaweeds, which are naturally abundant in Puget Sound, could help address this growing problem. The team proposes to cultivate…

Some people think Jonathan Bricker is a geek, and they mean it in the best way possible. Bricker, an affiliate professor of psychology at the UW and a psychologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, is among five finalists for the annual “Geek of the Year Award” from Seattle technology news site GeekWire. The award honors “someone who created a technological breakthrough that made the world a better place, or strengthened the community through their work or good deeds.” Bricker,…

UW Interim President Ana Mari Cauce will give remarks and lead a conversation about equity, racism and difference Thursday afternoon on campus at the Intellectual House. Updated 4/14: Transcript of Cauce’s remarks The roundtable event, which starts at 2 p.m., will encourage students to participate in a discussion about these issues. Space is limited and participants were asked to RSVP in advance. “As one of the world’s great public universities, we have a responsibility to live out our core values…

Katie Davis, assistant professor at the University of Washington Information School, has received a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation. Davis, who studies the role of digital media technologies in the lives of teenagers, will receive $759,462 over five years for a project titled “Digital Badges for STEM Education.” The work aims to develop and implement a system to identify and reward science, technology, engineering and math skills and achievements in a science-based after-school program at…

A UW postdoctoral scientist is among six nationwide recipients of the 2015 Carl Sagan Exoplanet Postdoctoral Fellowships. The Sagan Fellowships support recent postdoctoral students in research related to the scientific goals of NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program — specifically, to discover and characterize planetary systems and Earth-like planets around stars. Daniel Foreman-Mackey , an incoming postdoctoral researcher in the UW Department of Astronomy, will focus on using statistical methods to research exoplanet discoveries, with the goal of developing a framework for…

The country of El Salvador was torn apart by a brutal civil war from 1980 to 1992 that took the lives of 75,000 civilians, many the victims of massacres that wiped out entire villages. Throughout that war, thousands of children were forcibly disappeared from their homes and communities by agents of the Salvadoran state as a tactic to instill terror in the population. Faculty and 10 students of the University of Washington Center for Human Rights in its Jackson School…

The United States imprisons a larger percentage of African Americans than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., three out of every four young black men are likely to serve time in prison, according to projections. Those stark facts are found in Michelle Alexander’s 2012 book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” In a searing indictment of the U.S. criminal justice system, Alexander argues that mass incarceration is a system of…

Robots such as household helpers, driverless cars and personal drones are — or will soon be —available to consumers. But what protections guarantee they won’t spy on us or surreptitiously sell us things? Could a robot be used to verify an alibi in a criminal court case? Who is liable if a driverless car crashes into a person? We Robot 2015, a conference being held April 10 and 11 at the University of Washington School of Law, will explore these…

The UW Astronomy Department celebrates its 50th anniversary this school year. Julie Lutz, research professor emeritus of astronomy, will review that history in a free public talk at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 9, in the Physics/Astronomy Auditorium. The astronomy department was formed in 1965 by George Wallerstein, Paul Hodge and Theodor Jacobson, for whom a UW observatory is named. At the time, NASA’s Gemini program was underway, Sputnik 1 was seven years in the past and the moon landing lay…