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The latest news from the UW

Year: 2021

October 29, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Global Month

November is UW Global Month!  UW Global Month celebrates our University’s global impact and community. During the month of November, we highlight the connections and relationships the UW has all over the world and the impact of our University’s global engagement. Many of these opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Converge: Virtual Series Ongoing Without borders, registration fees or the challenges of travel, last year’s “Convirtual” created a historic gathering…

Video: Great ShakeOut drill tests new earthquake early warning system

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GkB93CQjuK0_0-GRxhAGmwV0SSLt31_V?usp=sharing

At 10:21 a.m. on Oct. 21, teacher Wade Johnson’s science class at Port Susan Middle School scrambled under their desks as part of the annual Great American ShakeOut. It was Stanwood Camano School District’s first live test of its earthquake early warning system with all 13 of its schools participating in a “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” drill.

Countermarketing based on anti-smoking campaigns reduces buying of sugary ‘fruit’ drinks for children

spoonful of sugar with raspberry on top

Public health messages such as in the image below — designed to reduce parents’ purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages marketed as fruit drinks for children — convinced a significant percentage of parents to avoid those drinks, according to a study by researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Pennsylvania. The UW-led study set out to assess the effect of culturally tailored countermarketing messages on drink choices, similar to stark anti-smoking campaigns, and involved more than 1,600 Latinx parents…

After California’s 3rd-largest wildfire, deer returned home while trees were ‘still smoldering’

a deer with fawn

In a rare stroke of luck, researchers from the University of Washington, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, were able to track a group of black-tailed deer during and after California’s third-largest wildfire, the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire. The megafire, which torched more than 450,000 acres in northern California, burned across half of an established study site, making it possible to record the movements and feeding patterns of deer before, during and after the fire.

Fossil dental exams reveal how tusks first evolved

Illustration of an ancient mammal-like creature in a forest setting.

Many animals have tusks, from elephants to walruses to hyraxes. But one thing tusked animals have in common is that they’re all mammals — no known fish, reptiles or birds have them. But that was not always the case. In a study published Oct. 27 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team of paleontologists at Harvard University, the Field Museum, the University of Washington and Idaho State University traced the first tusks back to dicynodonts — ancient mammal relatives that lived before the dinosaurs.

October 25, 2021

‘Self-care and resilience’ — UW’s Elaine Walsh discusses burnout among nurses

The pandemic has left nurses around the country feeling burned out. Their top four feelings, according to a recent survey? Exhausted, overwhelmed, irritable and anxious or unable to relax. UW News spoke with Elaine Walsh, a UW School of Nursing associate professor and a Nurse Scientist in Resiliency at Seattle Children’s Hospital, to learn more about the conditions that lead to burnout and solutions. Walsh explains burnout is characterized by physical, mental and emotional exhaustion and can involve a feeling of disconnection…

October 21, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Maysoon Zayid – Survival of the Unfittest, BOOK TALK: Automation and Autonomy, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend lectures, book talks, and more. Many of these opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Maysoon Zayid – Survival of the Unfittest October 26, 6:30 PM | Meany Performing Arts Center Join comedian, disability advocate, and author Maysoon Zayid for “Survival of the Unfittest.” This one-hour talk will tackle everything from diversity to cats named…

The Jackson School’s Taso Lagos reflects on becoming American at his family’s restaurant, the Continental

sketch of a restaurant

In 2013, Seattle’s U District neighborhood lost one of its most cherished businesses. The Continental Greek Restaurant and Pastry Shop, owned by the family of the Jackson School’s Taso Lagos, sat on University Way for nearly 40 years before closing its doors that June. Lagos looks back on the restaurant and what it meant to his family in a memoir due to be released this fall.

October 15, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Frontiers of Physics Lecture, Chamber Dance Company: 30th Anniversary Season, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend performances, lectures, and more. Many of these opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Frontiers of Physics Lecture: Gravity: The Biggest Open Question in Fundamental Physics October 20, 7:30 – 9:00 PM | Online The Frontiers of Physics Lecture Series brings renowned scientists to the UW to offer free lectures on exciting advances in physics with the…

October 11, 2021

UW Resilience Lab aims to change campus culture toward compassion and mindfulness

Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs Ed Taylor chats with Director of the UW Resilience Lab Megan Kennedy about how students, faculty and staff can create a more supportive, compassionate environment in which to learn and discover as the University of Washington community comes back to the campuses and recovers from the traumas of the last two years.

October 5, 2021

Education should focus on ‘heads and hearts,’ UW researcher says

A college classroom with students seated in a lecture hall.

In a Policy Forum piece published Oct. 1 in Science, a group led by Nesra Yannier at Carnegie Mellon University is advocating for a fresh look at active learning and its potential as classrooms and lecture halls again fill with students. Two co-authors from the University of Washington’s Department of Biology — assistant teaching professor Elli Theobald and lecturer emeritus Scott Freeman — highlight the role that active learning methods have in promoting equity STEM education.

UW joins USAID’s $125M project to detect emerging viruses with pandemic potential

Showing a bat

To better identify and prevent future pandemics, the University of Washington has become a partner in a five-year global, collaborative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The newly launched Discovery & Exploration of Emerging Pathogens – Viral Zoonoses, or DEEP VZN project, has approximately $125 million in anticipated funding and will be led by Washington State University. The effort will build scientific capacity in partner countries to safely detect and characterize viruses which have the potential to spill…

October 4, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Math Bass: a picture stuck in the mirror, The World of Noh Drama with Takeda Munenori, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend gallery exhibitions, lectures, and more. Many of these opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Math Bass: a picture stuck in the mirror October 16 – March 6 | Henry Art Gallery Los Angeles-based artist Math Bass (b. 1981, New York, NY) will create a site-specific installation at the Henry Art Gallery featuring a series of recent oil paintings…

UW study provides rare window into work life of app-based drivers during pandemic

When you get into the car of the app-based driver you just tapped up on your phone, you expect and hope the driver and the car are safe and capable of getting you where you need to go. Apps rate drivers, which you can see. But what if the driver is sick? What if the car has a mechanical problem? What if the driver has simply had a bad day? What you may not have realized is that the driver…

September 28, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Fossil Costume Contest, Packaged Black, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend gallery exhibitions, lectures, and more. Many of these opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Fossil Costume Contest October 2 – 31 | Burke Museum Celebrate the 12th anniversary of National Fossil Day with the Burke Museum’s Fossil Costume Contest! Draw your costume inspiration from the museum’s collection, or the National Park Service National Fossil Day…

Alzheimer’s data center at UW awarded $35 million to continue mission of free, global access

Neurons

For researchers around the world working to understand and treat Alzheimer’s and eventually find a cure, data from clinical exams of patients suffering from this complex neurodegenerative disease needs to be standardized and accessible. Since 1999, that’s what the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC), housed in the UW School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology, has been doing. With funding from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging, the UW center began collecting data from another set of centers housed in…

New NSF-funded institute to harness AI for accelerated discoveries in physics, astronomy and neuroscience

A venn diagram

On Sept. 28, the National Science Foundation announced $15 million, five-year grant to integrate AI tools into the scientific research and discovery process. The award will fund the Accelerated AI Algorithms for Data-Driven Discovery Institute — or A3D3 Institute — a partnership of nine universities, led by the University of Washington.

September 27, 2021

UW Climate Impacts Group, partner organizations launch the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative

images of Northwest landscapes with announcement text

The UW Climate Impacts Group, along with nine community, nonprofit and university partners, is launching a program of community-led, justice-oriented climate adaptation work across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative will be founded with a five-year, $5.6 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The program will be one of eleven across the country funded through NOAA’s Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program.

New Student Convocation on Tuesday afternoon opens UW’s 2021-22 academic year

aerial view of large circular fountain on college campus

University of Washington Associate Professor Wendy Barrington will be the featured speaker at the university’s 38th annual New Student Convocation. Barrington has joint appointments in the Department of Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing in the School of Nursing and the departments of Epidemiology and of Health Systems and Population Health in the School of Public Health.