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UW News blog

May 11, 2017

Suicide prevention messages are top priority for UW’s Forefront

University of Washington advocates for suicide prevention were busy pushing for legislation in Olympia, working on programs with more than a dozen local high schools and organizing the fourth annual Husky Help & Hope walk when an online TV show about suicide suddenly captivated a teenage audience. To the staff of UW-based Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention and the student volunteers with Huskies for Suicide Prevention and Awareness (HSPA), the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” portrays suicide in exactly the…

May 3, 2017

UW School of Social Work to host May 9 event ‘How Shifting Federal Priorities Impact the Poor’

For social service agencies, pinning down funding is par for the course. But there is heightened interest in the new administration’s priorities, and whether services to the poor will be among them. That lack of certainty — and a need to share information — prompted the University of Washington School of Social Work and the West Coast Poverty Center to host a panel discussion with local agency representatives at 5 p.m. May 9 at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute,…

May 2, 2017

Documents that Changed the World: Delayed stock market ticker tape, October 1929

A cleaner sweeps the floor after the Wall Street crash of 1929.

Timing is everything, they say. In the latest episode of his Documents that Changed the World podcast series, Joe Janes of the UW Information School explores how an overload of critical information helped trigger the stock market crash of 1929, and thus the Great Depression. “This is a story about fortunes lost, lives ruined, a world plunged into a decade of depression, the end of an era,” Janes says in the podcast. “And, a story of infrastructure. And like any…

Class on Black Lives Matter examines ideas behind the slogan

At first, La TaSha Levy was worried her class on Black Lives Matter would be almost out of date. After all, who hasn’t seen the signs, heard the slogans, watched — or perhaps even participated in — marches to protest racism and violence against African Americans? But that was just it, realized Levy, a new assistant professor of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington. What most people know of Black Lives Matter is just a slogan. “Black Lives…

April 24, 2017

UW Law School hosts ‘How We Police in America: A Case for Reform’ May 4

Officer-involved shootings. Federal investigations. Body cameras. Civilian review boards. Black Lives Matter. Blue Lives Matter. In cities around the country, the relationship between police and community is fraught with tension — sometimes the direct result of violent incidents, sometimes the reverberations of problems elsewhere. And almost always, talk of police reform is in the air. But rather than enact changes after the fact, argues Barry Friedman, the Jacob D. Fuchsberg professor of law and director of the Policing Project at…

March 1, 2017

Polar Science Weekend attractions range from old-fashioned ice sled to future NASA satellite

Polar Science Weekend poster

University of Washington polar scientists are holding the 12th annual Polar Science Weekend, Friday through Sunday, March 3-5, at Pacific Science Center in Seattle. This year’s lineup includes a simulation from NASA of its new ICESat-2 instrument. Visitors can get scanned by an instrument above their head that measures a person’s height using an infrared distance sensor. The real ICESat-2 satellite, scheduled for launch in 2018, will map the Earth’s ice surfaces to very high precision, from space. During the…

UW CSE announces the Guestrin Endowed Professorship in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Photo of Carlos Guestrin

University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering announced today the establishment of the Guestrin Endowed Professorship in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. This $1 million endowment will further enhance UW CSE’s ability to recruit and retain the world’s most outstanding faculty members in these burgeoning areas.

UW’s Kristin Laidre awarded Pew marine fellowship to study effects of climate change, subsistence hunting on polar bears

Kristin Laidre

A new, two-part project led by the UW’s Kristin Laidre aims to explore the interacting effects of climate change and subsistence hunting on polar bears, while also illuminating the cultural value of the species to indigenous peoples and the role they play in conservation.

February 15, 2017

UW affiliate faculty member in anthropology presents her book, ‘Seawomen of Iceland’

Maritime communities take various forms around the planet and through the centuries. Margaret Willson, affiliate associate professor of anthropology and Canadian Studies Arctic Program at the University of Washington, is the author of “Seawomen of Iceland: Survival on the Edge,” published in 2016 by University of Washington Press. UW Today asked Willson a few questions about the book, in advance of her talk Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. at Seattle’s Center for Wooden Boats. How did you get interested in…

Early Earth as exoplanet: NASA highlights just-published UW Virtual Planetary Laboratory research

When haze built up in the atmosphere of Archean Earth, billions of years ago, the young planet might have looked like this artist's interpretation - a pale orange dot. A team of astronomers including members of the UW's Virtual Planetary Laboratory thinks the haze was self-limiting, cooling the surface by about 36 degrees Fahrenheit – not enough to cause runaway glaciation. The team’s modeling suggests that atmospheric haze might be helpful for identifying earthlike exoplanets that could be habitable.

Recently published research from the UW’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) using ancient Earth as a stand-in for hypothetically habitable exoplanets has been highlighted by NASA in a feature article. Leading the research was Giada Arney, who was a UW astronomy doctoral student when doing the work and is now with NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center.

February 10, 2017

Ralina Joseph co-edits special journal issue on race, respectability and the media

Ralina Joseph

Ralina Joseph, University of Washington associate professor of communication, has guest co-edited a special triple issue of the interdisciplinary journal Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society with her former mentor and dissertation adviser, Jane Rhodes of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Joseph’s own article in the issue focuses on the creator of the television show “Grey’s Anatomy,” set in Seattle. The special edition, the guest editors wrote, resulted from a panel discussion called “The Right…

February 6, 2017

‘Overwhelming’ response, global press attention for new UW Information School course, ‘Calling BS’

It’s almost unheard-of for a university class to spark global press attention — and offers of book deals — before instruction even begins. But such is the case with the UW Information School’s new course, “Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data.”

February 3, 2017

New digital collection from UW Libraries: Glaciers and Landforms

ridged ice

Thousands of photos of glaciers, volcanoes, rivers and other natural phenomena are now easily viewed by the public through the University of Washington Libraries. UW Libraries’ Special Collections this fall released a new Glacier and Landforms Photograph Collection. The collection is designed to provide online access to photos of glaciers, geology and related subjects. At launch, the collection includes material from three photographers, and more will be added over time. Don Easterbrook, professor emeritus of geology at Bellingham’s Western Washington…

January 30, 2017

Artists in the lab: Talk will highlight a creative partnership between art and science

a work of art

Jennifer Nemhauser leads a research laboratory of scientists, all immersed in the complex world of plant hormones. But last year, the University of Washington professor of biology boosted her lab’s roster with some unexpected talent. Claire Cowie — an artist, UW alumna and lecturer — spent three months in 2016 as a part-time artist-in-residence in Nemhauser’s lab. On Feb. 3, Cowie will deliver a talk to share her experiences and help spread the word about the benefits both she and Nemhauser see…

January 12, 2017

UW law professor leads group defending ‘aural tradition’ of creativity in famous ‘Blurred Lines’ copyright case

Marvin Gaye

UW School of Law professor Sean O’Connor has filed a brief in the famous “Blurred Lines” music copyright case, arguing for full composition credit for those who worked in the “aural tradition” and did not use traditional musical notation.