Together with the Nature Conservancy, UW researchers have released a map showing where animals will need to move to survive as climate change alters habitats.
News and features
IHME study shows Syrian civil war has shortened lifespans
An IHME-led study published in the Lancet examined health in countries such as Syria, Tunisia and Yemen from 1990 to 2013 found that since the Arab Spring began in 2010, a combination of increased violence and a collapse in health care has led to the drop of the region’s average expected life span. In Syria, a deadly and complex civil war that continues to ravage the country has resulted in a particularly precipitous drop in life expectancy.
Update: Italy earthquake
Media reports indicate a strong earthquake overnight in central Italy. The UW has more than 50 students and 8 faculty and staff taking part in faculty-led study abroad programs in Rome. We do not anticipate that our students or faculty were directly affected by this event. The UW Global Travel Security Manager is connecting with our students and faculty to be certain they are safe, and to provide additional health and safety information in the wake of this event.
Visit UW Global Travelers to learn about health, safety and security resources for the UW community.
Study abroad sparks hard conversations about race and equity
For two days in late August, more than a million people inundate West London to celebrate one of the world’s largest street festivals—the Notting Hill Carnival.
Elaborate floats and colorful-costumed performers wind their way through streets to the sound of steel bands and calypso music. It’s a tribute to the traditional Afro-Caribbean carnivals of the early 19th century that celebrated the abolition of slavery.
What stood out most for UW School of Public Health student Eric King wasn’t the vibrant sounds or endless sea of people, but rather the sight of British police officers embracing and dancing with carnival-goers.
“I didn’t notice any law officials with firearms. This was different from my experience as an African-American man living in the United States,” says King, then a public health major and now a graduate student in the School’s Department of Health Services. “It speaks to the prominence of gun culture in the U.S. as well as the climate created when law officers are viewed as members of the community instead of controlling outsiders.”
King (BS, Public Health ’16) was attending a four-week exploration seminar called Dark Empire: Race, Health and Society in Britain, which examines the presence and well-being of minorities in Britain, who now make up 14 percent of the country’s 64 million residents. Students explore the social, emotional and physical determinants of health within the framework of Britain’s history and multiculturalism.
Women lead 10 of the world’s best universities
Times of Higher Education‘s analysis of world university rankings revealed that women head some of the world’s most outstanding universities. UW President Ana Mari Cauce is one of the 10 featured leaders.
UW again maintains No. 15 in world university ranking
The University of Washington remained No. 15 on the 2016 Academic Ranking of World Universities, conducted by researchers at the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which was released Tuesday.
The UW again ranked 13th among U.S. universities and fourth among public institutions worldwide. The ranking considers several indicators of academic or research performance, including alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers, papers published in the journals Nature and Science, papers indexed in major citation indices, and the per capita academic performance of an institution, according to the organization.
Professor embarks on 100th field course in Indonesia
A chance meeting with a fellow scientist 27 years ago forever changed Randy Kyes’ life — catapulting him from North Carolina to Indonesia and beyond. As the founding director of the University of Washington’s Center for Global Field Study and head of the Division of Global Programs at the Washington National Primate Research Center, Kyes has spent almost three decades leading field courses on environmental and global health in a dozen countries.
Often accompanied by students from the UW and around the United States, Kyes spends about seven months of the year traveling to remote sites in places such as Indonesia and Nepal, leading study abroad programs and conducting field courses and K-12 outreach efforts for local people.
In late July, Kyes — who is also a research professor in psychology and an adjunct research professor in global health and anthropology — will lead his 100th field course, in Thailand. He sat down with UW Today recently to talk about his work.
How the ‘Seattle Tech Universe’ map ended up at the World Economic Forum
The Seattle region’s technology landscape was in the spotlight over the weekend in Davos, Switzerland, where top corporate executives and global leaders were gathered for the World Economic Forum.
Brad Smith, the Microsoft president and chief legal officer, showed the Seattle Tech Universe map during an event Friday night in Davos to help make his point about the ways universities and industry can collaborate to foster innovation.
Unveiled in December by Washington Technology Industry Association, the Seattle Tech Universe is a visual guide to Seattle’s complex technology ecosystem — showing the impact of University of Washington spinoffs and employees who leave tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon to launch their own startups. Many Seattle startups also share parentage, with founders coming from a combination of Microsoft, Amazon, and the UW.
Tracing China’s past with geologic and oral history
A paper published this week in Science finds evidence to support stories that a huge flood took place in China about 4,000 years ago, during the reign of Emperor Yu. The study, led by Chinese researcher Qinglong Wu, finds evidence for a massive landslide dam break that could have redirected the course of the Yellow River, giving rise to the legendary flood that Emperor Yu is credited with controlling.
An accompanying commentary by David Montgomery, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences, discusses how this finding supports the historical basis for traditional tales about China’s Great Flood. It even explains some details of the classic folk story.
Alum leads smartwatch revolution from Beijing
As Chief Technology Officer of Mobvoi, UW Electrical Engineering (EE) alumnus, Mike Lei, leads a company focused on intuitive design, infallible functionality and brilliant human-machine interaction. The startup, which is shaking up the tech community, has already received multi-million dollar investments from search giant, Google.
Within ten minutes of opening their Kickstarter campaign for their newest invention – The Ticwatch 2, Mobvoi had already surpassed their $50,000 funding goal. Currently, The Ticwatch 2 had raised over $550,000, more than 11 times their original goal.
Although it appears born out of the talented stock of tech products in Silicon Valley, Ticwatch is different. The genesis of Ticwatch occurred nearly 6,000 miles from Silicon Valley in Beijing, China.