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UW Notebook

UW Notebook features stories of interest to the UW community — including projects and books by, and recognition of, UW faculty, students and staff. If you’d like to submit a story idea, email uwnews@uw.edu.

January 6, 2023

ArtSci Roundup

Start the new year with lectures, performances, and more! January 9, 7 PM |Feelin Book Event: Bettina Judd in Conversation with Dian Million, Elliott Bay Book Company University of Washington Professors Bettina Judd and Dr. Dian Million gather in support of the former’s new book Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure, and Black Feminist Thought (Northwestern University Press, December 2022). In the book, the poet, artist, and scholar Bettina Judd argues that Black women’s creative production is feminist knowledge production produced by…

October 21, 2022

UW’s Dianne Xiao receives Packard Fellowship for research on new materials for sustainable chemical synthesis

Headshot of smiling woman

Dianne Xiao, a University of Washington assistant professor of chemistry, has been awarded a 2022 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering for her research on creating new materials to make chemical reactions that are compatible with renewable energy sources and raw materials.

September 15, 2022

New direction for UW Botanic Gardens focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion

Orange flowers on a tree branch

New Directions in Public Gardens, a speaker series created by the University of Washington Botanic Gardens, will conclude in September with the final speaker and a town hall. Past guests addressed topics like engaging with local Indigenous populations and opportunities for public land to support urban food systems and engage with BIPOC communities.

July 14, 2022

UW professor’s new book and course on sexual harassment in engineering seek to disrupt culture of silence

Denise Wilson, a University of Washington professor of electrical and computer engineering, is working to end the prevalence of sexual harassment in engineering. She and her colleague Jennifer VanAntwerp of Calvin University are co-authors of “Sex, Gender, and Engineering: Harassment at Work and in School,” published in April by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

June 15, 2022

Video: Improvised Music Project Festival’s new format focuses on recording process

Man wearing mask sits behind professional looking microphone

This year, the School of Music’s Improvised Music Project focused on audio recording, inviting acclaimed recording engineer David Boucher for a weeklong workshop. The new format allowed students and faculty to gain experience with UW’s new mobile recording system while teaching fundamental recording and audio skills. 

June 8, 2022

UW doctoral student leads effort to change diploma name policy, demonstrating power of trans community

Person wearing Western shirt smiling with grass and trees in the background

In 2021, UW registrar Helen Garrett announced that, for the first time, the UW would allow graduates to use a chosen first name for their diplomas. The policy change was the result of efforts led by Vern Harner, a UW doctoral student in social work, and a change.org petition that earned over 30,000 signatures, demonstrating the power of the trans community.

June 7, 2022

Burke Museum receives national award

museum gallery

The Burke Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle today announced it is one of six recipients of the 2022 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the nation’s highest honor given to museums and libraries that make significant and exceptional contributions to their communities. The award is given by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Burke Museum is the only institution in Washington to be selected.

May 26, 2022

With EcoCAR, UW students experience post-COVID camaraderie under the hood of a hybrid vehicle

students standing with a car with logos on it

With the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge, UW students modified a 2019 Chevrolet Blazer to use electrification, advanced propulsion systems and automated vehicle technology. It’s an opportunity for students — across four years — to take a car from design to a consumer-ready product.

Video: Alexes Harris draws attention to low representation of people of color in bone marrow registry

Bald woman in hospital bed looking at nurse examining medications beside her

In 2016, Alexes Harris was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer. But a search for a bone marrow donor turned up only five matches, and none ended up being a donor. People of color are underrepresented in the bone marrow registry; according to Be The Match, the nation’s largest bone marrow registry, white people have a 79% chance of finding a match. But a Black person’s potential match is only 29%, and Asian and Latinx people both have about a 47% chance. People of Native American ancestry have a 60% chance of finding a match.

May 11, 2022

Faculty/staff honors in STEM mentoring, applied mathematics and Inuit languages

Recent recognition of the  includes the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring for Joyce Yen, the election of J. Nathan Kutz as a Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics fellow and the recognition of Alexina Kublu with the 2022 Inuit Language Recognition Award.

April 14, 2022

Historian Bailkin, astronomer Levesque receive Guggenheim Fellowships

Aerial view of UW Campus

Two University of Washington faculty members are among 180 experts in the arts, humanities, law and the sciences chosen as 2022 Guggenheim Fellows, according to an April 7 announcement from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Jordanna Bailkin, a professor in the Department of History, and Emily Levesque, an associate professor in the Department of Astronomy, are among the new class of fellows, which were selected from a pool of nearly 2,500 applicants.

April 8, 2022

UW professors show that Japanese democracy is ‘flourishing’ as co-editors of first Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics

Book cover against a background

Robert and Saadia Pekkanen, both professors in the UW Jackson School of International Studies, are co-editors of the first Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics, published online in September 2020 and in print in January 2022. They worked with dozens of collaborators around the world to add the topic to the respected collection of Oxford Handbooks that presents surveys of original research.