More than 90 percent of ivory in large, seized shipments came from elephants that died less than three years before, according to a new study. A team of scientists at the University of Utah, the University of Washington and partner institutions came to this conclusion by combining a new approach to radiocarbon dating for ivory samples with genetic analysis tools developed by UW biology professor Sam Wasser.
News and features
The fate of Salonica’s Jews in the city’s transition from Ottoman Empire to Greece
Devin Naar is the Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies in the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies — part of the Jackson School of International Studies — and an associate professor in the Department of History. He is the author of “Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece,” published in September by Stanford University Press. His recently-published work will be celebrated tonight with a book launch. Registration and more information here.
Helping refugees abroad with a Fulbright scholarship
Hamda Yusuf ’16 was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in a first-ever cohort for a “Community-Based Combined Grant,” which requires both community work and teaching in a foreign country. In fall 2016, she’ll be heading to Austria for 9 months to support Refugees Welcome, a non-profit that is dealing with the Middle East refugee crisis there, and will be an English teaching assistant in secondary schools.
UW maintains No. 11 position in US News Best Global Universities ranking; third among public institutions
The University of Washington maintained its No. 11 spot in the 2017 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities rankings. The UW remains the third-ranked public university on the global list, behind University of California, Berkeley (fourth) and UCLA (10th).
“This recognition reflects the work of our faculty and students in seeking answers to problems of global import in the areas of health and medicine, physical sciences and social sciences,” UW President Ana Mari Cauce said. “We are immensely proud of the work being done here, and it’s nice to see the world is noticing.”
Arts partnership captures a refugee experience in Seattle
A new exhibition and video documentary tell the story of a refugee family. These were developed by ART WORKS Projects in collaboration with the UW Center for Global Studies, The Seattle Times, UW Libraries and the King County Library System.
UW ranked among the top five most innovative universities in the world by Reuters
The University of Washington landed at No. 5 on The Reuters 100: The World’s Most Innovative Universities, released Wednesday. Now in its second year, the list ranks the educational institutions doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies and help drive the global economy.
As 1 Million Strong implementation partner, the UW is creating a pipeline of China-savvy leaders
On the anniversary of its 1 Million Strong initiative, the US-China Strong Foundation, a global nonprofit committed to strengthening US-China relations, announced its new 1 Million Strong implementation partners – including the University of Washington – who will help guide the initiative’s growth.
Announced in September 2015 by Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping during the Chinese leader’s official state visit to the US, 1 Million Strong looks to create a pipeline of China-savvy leaders and employees in the US. The initiative calls for a five-fold increase from current numbers: today, approximately 200,000 US K-12 students are learning Mandarin, while there are more than 300 million English language learners in China.
Read the entire press release from the US-China Strong Foundation…
UW at No. 25, fourth among U.S. public institutions, in Times Higher Education world ranking
The University of Washington landed at No. 25 on the Times Higher Education world rankings for 2017, released this week. The UW is fourth on the list among U.S. public universities, behind UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Michigan. Great Britain’s University of Oxford is ranked No. 1, with the U.S.’s Cal Tech and Stanford ranked second and third.
From Beijing to Seattle: The U.S. and China are teaming up with GIX
Vikram Jandhyala, UW Vice President for Innovation, and Tsinghua University partners discuss the promise and future of the Global Innovation Exchange.
Research shows a single migration from Africa populated the world
In the journal Nature, three separate teams of geneticists survey DNA collected from cultures around the globe, many for the first time, and conclude that all non-Africans today trace their ancestry to a single population emerging from Africa between 50,000 and 80,000 years ago.
“I think all three studies are basically saying the same thing,” said Joshua M. Akey of the University of Washington, who wrote a commentary accompanying the new work. “We know there were multiple dispersals out of Africa, but we can trace our ancestry back to a single one.”