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Six University of Washington subjects ranked in the top 10, and atmospheric sciences maintained its position as No. 1 in the world on the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects list for 2023. The ranking, released at the end of October, was conducted by researchers at the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, a fully independent organization dedicated to research on higher education intelligence and consultation.

The University of Washington’s annual Veterans Day ceremony, held on Friday at the Medal of Honor Memorial near Red Square, honored those who have served and featured music by the Husky Marching Band. UW alum Dr. John Hess, ’72, was honored with the Distinguished Alumni Veteran Award by President Ana Mari Cauce. While serving in the Army, he transformed the way the medical world treats trauma patients, specifically in kids with congenital heart disease. UW Magazine spoke with Hess about…

Ahead of the Dec. 25 release of “The Boys in the Boat,” the University of Washington — joined by The Seattle Times, Microsoft and additional community partners — is launching a six-week “Pull Together” campaign to support young people and celebrate the civic spirit of our city and region. 

In a paper published Sept. 6 in Physical Review Letters, an international team of researchers in the United States, Germany and France reported that a distinctive strategy they have used shows real promise to be the first approach to measure the mass of the neutrino. Once fully scaled up, their collaboration — Project 8 — could also reveal how neutrinos influenced the early evolution of the universe as we know it.

Pursuant to the provisions of WAC 197-11-340 and WAC 478-324-140, the University of Washington hereby provides public notice of: DETERMINATION OF NON-SIGNIFICANCE Project Name: East Campus Dock lmprovements Proponent/Lead Agency: University of Washington–Seattle Campus Comment Period Closes: October 27, 2023 Description of Proposal: The UW is proposing to repair, replace, and remove several docks located along the shoreline of Union Bay in Lake Washington. The dock improvements result in replacement of five, removal of four, and extension of one dock,…

When you hear a cover of a favorite song, comparisons are inevitable. There are obvious similarities – the lyrics, the melody – but there are also enough differences to make each version unique. Those deviations say more than you might expect.     Maya Angela Smith, associate of professor of French at the University of Washington, introduces translation studies through the lens of the song “Ne Me Quitte Pas.” Originally recorded by Jacques Brel — a French-speaking Belgian man —…

Picture a series of uniform mounds of earth, each about 6-feet high. Enclosing 50 acres, the mounds form an octagon that is connected to a circle. This is The Octagon Earthworks, located in central Ohio, and it’s one of thousands of Indigenous mounds across the eastern half of North America.     Chadwick Allen is a professor of English and American Indian studies at the University of Washington, and he studies Native American earthworks and cultural erasure. The Octagon Earthworks,…

An empty wallet, a hairbrush, a diaper. These are just a few of the items left behind by migrants at the United States-Mexico border, photographed for a 2021 article in the Los Angeles Times. In this episode, Diana Ruíz discusses how the same images can be used on both sides of the same debate. In this case, pro- and anti-immigration. Ruíz, assistant professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Washington, describes how the photos evoked empathy and…

Who gets to be a superhero? What about a villain? It depends on where you look. In the 1940s, comic book villains were often distinguished from heroes through physical disability. That changed in the 1960s and 70s, when it became more common for heroes – think Daredevil and Professor X – to be built around disability. In this episode, he analyzes the physical depictions of superheroes and villains through the decades. José Alaniz, professor of Slavic languages and literatures at…

Centuries ago, writers depicted the natural world as terrifying and dangerous, no place for humans. But that fear, in the decades to come, gradually turned to appreciation, awe and joy, for poets and artists, sightseers and backpackers.     Louisa Mackenzie, associate professor of comparative history of ideas at the University of Washington, describes how the view of nature has evolved. What was once frightening is now enticing – what Mackenzie calls the “wilderness impulse.” In her translation of “La…

The autobiography of Frederick Douglass, published in 1845, was a standard bearer of the abolitionist movement. Having escaped slavery as a young man, Douglass became a famous activist, orator, statesman and businessman.   But it is another aspect of his story that is just as intriguing to Habiba Ibrahim, professor of English at the University of Washington: Douglass never knew, nor is there an official record of, his exact age. Then, with the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida…

“Dover Beach,” a poem by 19th century British writer Matthew Arnold, can be read as both a romantic lament and, as many scholars have concluded, a dark, existential commentary on the loss of religious faith.     Through close reading, a way of reading for insight, not information, University of Washington English Professor Charles LaPorte dissects “Dover Beach.” Focusing on the inconsistencies of rhythm and rhyme of the poem, LaPorte demonstrates how we can use close reading to study any…

What marks the start of the Anthropocene – the geological epoch marked by human impact on the planet? The debate hinges, in part, on how we define “signature events,” the important information left behind as clues. But finding signature events transcends the study of the Anthropocene; it’s how we read to make meaning of a text, a collection of data, even a piece of art.   Jesse Oak Taylor, associate professor of English at the University of Washington, uses a…

Astronomers with the International Astronomical Union are trying to understand how the brightness and transmissions of the BlueWalker3 satellite will interfere with Earth-based observations of the universe — and what can be done to minimize these effects as more of these satellites are launched.

The National Science Foundation has awarded the University of Washington $52.4 million over five years to continue operating the Regional Cabled Array, a cabled deep-ocean observatory about 300 miles offshore from Newport, Oregon. The grant is part of a $220 million total investment that will fund the internet-connected ocean observatory, known as the Ocean Observatories Initiative, through 2028.

Recent recognition for the University of Washington includes Emily M. Bender and Yejin Choi on the TIME100 AI list, President Ana Mari Cauce receiving a Decrees Award and Jeff Hou’s election to the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Council of Fellows.

The University of Washington has been recognized on two lists that measure impact on students and communities. The UW placed third in the nation among public universities on the Washington Monthly 2023 National University Rankings, which ranks the school’s impact on its graduates and the nation. In a separate ranking, all three UW campuses topped the state for best value, according to SmartAsset, a financial services portal.

 Project Name: UWMC-Northwest Major Institution Master Plan (MIMP) Proponent & Lead Agency: University of Washington Comment Period Closes: October 5, 2023 Description of Proposal: The UW Medical Center – Northwest Major Institution Master Plan will allow for space on the campus to accommodate projected population growth and corresponding increase in healthcare demands. It would also allow for replacing aging campus facilities with more energy efficient, lower maintenance, and appropriate systems for today’s medical center functional requirements. The Master Plan will…

A particle physics experiment decades in the making — the Muon g-2 experiment — looks increasingly like it might set up a showdown over whether there are fundamental particles or forces in the universe that are unaccounted for in the current Standard Model. On Aug. 10, the international team of scientists behind Muon g-2 — pronounced “g minus 2” — released the world’s most precise measurement yet of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Calculating the muon’s magnetic moment at a high precision will indicate whether it is interacting solely with the particles and forces known today, or if unknown particles or forces are out there.

An asteroid discovery algorithm — designed to uncover near-Earth asteroids for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s upcoming 10-year survey of the night sky — has identified its first “potentially hazardous” asteroid, a term for space rocks in Earth’s vicinity that scientists like to keep an eye on. The roughly 600-foot-long asteroid, designated 2022 SF289, was discovered during a test drive of the algorithm with the ATLAS survey in Hawaii. Finding 2022 SF289, which poses no risk to Earth for the foreseeable future, confirms that the next-generation algorithm, known as HelioLinc3D, can identify near-Earth asteroids with fewer and more dispersed observations than required by today’s methods. That is important because, though scientists know of more than 2,000 near-Earth asteroids, they estimate that another 3,000 await discovery!