Six congressional staff from a range of Washington members’ offices visited the UW Seattle campus today to tour some of UW’s impressive research facilities. We are always happy to share the exciting things happening on campus as we continue to work together to advance research that has a direct impact on our community, state, country, and world.
Monica Bertagnolli, M.D. was confirmed as the new NIH Director last week. Now that she is confirmed, she has taken the helm immediately as the 17th director. She is the first surgeon and the second woman to hold the position and joins the NIH after being the director at the National Cancer Institute.
In his nomination announcement earlier this year, President Biden stated: “Dr. Bertagnolli has spent her career pioneering scientific discovery and pushing the boundaries of what is possible to improve cancer prevention and treatment for patients and ensuring that patients in every community have access to quality care. Dr. Bertagnolli is a world-class physician-scientist whose vision and leadership will ensure NIH continues to be an engine of innovation to improve the health of the American people.”
Read more about about Dr. Bertagnolli and her confirmation here.
A few weeks ago, President Cauce visited Washington D.C. to meet with members of the Washington congressional delegation. During these meetings, President Cauce discussed the overall state of the institution as we close down FY24 and previewed the university’s priorities for the following year. She also had the opportunity to thank our delegation for being champions of higher education, science, and research. We look forward to working together alongside our delegation to continue to lead Washington state to the forefront of cutting edge research and quality education.
President Cauce also had the wonderful opportunity of attending the EDGE Consortium Fall Summit where members spoke on the importance of investing in the next generation of scientists and engineers, focusing on women and underrepresented groups in the engineering and STEM workforce. Senator Cantwell spoke and met with President Cauce as they work together towards creating a more inclusive STEM workforce.
On October 24, the EDGE Consortium — a group of universities dedicated to increasing women and underrepresented in STEM — hosted a Fall Summit which convened a group of educators, university presidents, industry leaders, and lawmakers. Senator Cantwell, a long-time advocate for science education, research, and inclusion gave remarks, introduced by President Cauce, alongside an impressive group of advocates that are working to increase representation in STEM education and workforce. The Summit, titled “Building a More Inclusive and Resilient Semiconductor Workforce”, brought the group together to talk about how to leverage the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act to increase the number of engineers in the growing semiconductor industry.
The EDGE Consortium is made up of women presidents and deans of engineering from the nation’s leading research universities and schools of engineering including: Dartmouth, Indiana University, Brown University, University of California-Berkeley, University of Rochester, the University of Washington, and the Olin College of Engineering.
The House has released details on its Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill.
Highlights include recommendations for:
To see the House recommendations for more accounts within CJS including NSF, NASA, and other NOAA accounts, take a look at the UW Appropriations Tracker here and see the full bill report here.