NASA satellites are helping Pakistan’s water managers to more effectively monitor and manage scarce groundwater resources, thanks to a partnership with engineers and hydrologists at the University of Washington, supported in part by the Global Innovation Fund. After training at the UW, the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources began using satellite data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, mission to create monthly updates on groundwater storage changes in the Indus River basin. This will allow them to see where groundwater supplies are being depleted and where they are being adequately recharged, better supporting Pakistan’s agriculture-base economy.
Category: UW researchers
UW-industry partnership manufactures clean, efficient cookstoves in Kenya
For much of the world’s population, gathering fuel to cook food is a dangerous proposition, and smoke from cookstoves poses a serious health threat. A more efficient and clean wood-burning cookstove — developed by the Vashon Island-based non-profit BURN Design Lab in close collaboration with University of Washington mechanical engineers — will reduce the amount of fuel families need to collect or buy by 55 percent. It will also reduce the exposure of these women and children to the harmful particulate pollution produced by traditional cooking flames.
The new wood-burning cookstove will be manufactured in BURN Manufacturing’s factory in Nairobi, Kenya beginning this summer — thanks to a recent $800,000 investment fromUnilever and Acumen — and sold across East Africa.
New device shows great promise for in HIV prevention in Africa
Recent studies in Africa led by University of Washington researchers and others showed that a vaginal ring infused with a microbicide helped prevent HIV infection in more than half of women who used the device correctly.
Re-thinking safari tourism
UW Bothell professors Ben Gardner and Ron Krabill will lead an exploration seminar called “Critical perspectives on ecotourism in Tanzania” to examine many of the issues raised in Gardner’s newly-released book “Selling the Serengeti: The Cultural Politics of Safari Tourism” and ongoing research in the area. The seminar is funded by a Global Innovation Fund grant.
UW part of team that drilled first deep ice core at the South Pole
This January — high summer at the South Pole — a University of Washington glaciologist helped lead a project that surpassed its goal to drill the first deep ice core at the planet’s southernmost tip, providing material to help solve a climate puzzle.
Unearthing new discoveries at Honduras’ City of the Jaguar
UW researchers Anna Cohen and Rodrigo Solinis-Casparius are part of a bi-national, multi-agency team excavating the City of the Jaguar in Honduras. Artifacts from the site provide clues about life in the lost city, and how it came to an end.
Global Health professor to New York Times: “Zika virus a ‘a temperature-driven eruption'”
Weather and warm temperatures are playing an important role in the spread of Zika virus, says University of Washington professor Kristine Ebi in a recent New York Times article.
Read more from the New York Times…
Diplomacy in the Earth’s orbit
Professor Saadia Pekkanen says that space is “a sort of new frontier in terms of U.S. foreign policy, but also the global community.” She aims to “bridge the bridge the gap between what academics know and what policymakers might want to know.”
Teaching and supporting innovators
The Seattle Times weighs in on the University of Washington’s resources and programs for innovators, including the Global Innovation Exchange.
We the people: Race & equity at the UW
The Race & Equity Initiative builds on the University of Washington’s longstanding commitment to inclusion and social justice. The Initiative centers on creating an inclusive experience for students, faculty and staff, addresses institutional bias and racism, and engages our communities to help us work through our shared challenges for a world of good.