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For journalists Download soundbites and b-roll   New research by the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, or I-LABS, finds that altruism may begin in infancy. In a study of nearly 100 19-month-olds, researchers found that children, even when hungry, gave a tasty snack to a stranger in need. The findings not only show that infants engage in altruistic behavior, but also suggest that early social experiences can shape altruism. Read the full story here. For more…

A team of chemical engineers has developed a new way to produce medicines and chemicals and preserve them using portable “biofactories” embedded in water-based gels known as hydrogels. The approach could help people in remote villages or on military missions, where the absence of pharmacies, doctor’s offices or even basic refrigeration makes it hard to access critical medicines and other small-molecule compounds. The team — led by Hal Alper, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Texas, and…

Notable new books by UW faculty members include studies of military cultural education programs and equitable collaboration between schools and families. Also, National Endowment for the Humanities support for a coming book on an 18th century India poet, an honor for a work about postwar Japan — and a National Jewish Book Award.

This week in the arts, attend Jacob Lawrence Legacy Resident Marisa Williamson’s artist talk, join the Henry Art Gallery for a trumpet and American Sign Language performance, listen as David Alexander Rahbee leads the UW Symphony, and more! To learn about more events taking place, visit ArtsUW. Open Rehearsal with the UW Symphony February 3,  3:30 pm – 6:00 pm | Meany Hall Get a special behind-the-scenes look at the rehearsal process of the UW Symphony Orchestra on Monday, February 3. Under the…

This week in the arts, experience a free concert at Benaroya Hall commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, attend a lecture about the story of Shawn Wong’s rediscovery of “No-No Boy,” and more! To learn about more events taking place, visit ArtsUW. Music of Remembrance: Art from Ashes – Free Concert Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz January 27, 5:30 pm | Benaroya Hall Seattle-based Music of Remembrance (MOR) presents Art From Ashes, a free community-wide concert marking…

The University of Washington led a clinical trial involving more than 600 children in Kenya and Tanzania, in which community members were trained to deliver mental health treatment, showed improvement in participants’ trauma-related symptoms up to a year after receiving therapy.

On a recent Saturday evening, a dozen women gathered around a table at a community room in the White Center neighborhood of Seattle, settling in with snacks and conversation. The evening’s program would be more education than entertainment, an opportunity to discuss topics so sensitive that, without the group of women assembled that night, might not be discussed at all. Against one wall of the room, a model of the female reproductive system. Standing before them, a doula, one of…

Despite their reputation as blood-suckers, mosquitoes actually spend most of their time drinking nectar from flowers. Scientists have identified the chemical cues in flowers that stimulate mosquitoes’ sense of smell and draw them in. Their findings show how cues from flowers can stimulate the mosquito brain as much as a warm-blooded host — information that could help develop less toxic repellents and better traps.

This week in the arts, attend a film screening at SAM, visit museums on campus for free with your Husky card, and more! Guest Artist Recital: Conor Hanick, piano January 13, 7:30 pm | Brechemin Auditorium Brooklyn-based concert pianist Conor Hanick performs works of Galina Ustvolskaya and Morton Feldman on Monday evening and leads a free master class with UW piano students on Tuesday. Hanick is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music old and new. With a unique adeptness…

A conversation with UW psychology professor Sheri Mizumori about the UW-based program Broadening the Representations of Academic Investigators in NeuroScience — or BRAINS for short — designed to accelerate career advancement for postdoctoral researchers and assistant professors from underrepresented populations.

This week in the arts, attend several screenings with the 2020 Southeast Asia x Seattle Film Festival, visit museums on campus for free with your Husky card, and more! Shawn Wong & Tara Fickle January 9, 7:00 pm | The Elliott Bay Book Company Come celebrate the publication of the Third Edition of Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers (published by University of Washington Press) with UW Professor of English, Shawn Wong, and literary scholar, Tara Fickle. This groundbreaking collection of writing by Asian Americans,…

  A teacher discusses respectful world travel, a historian explores Silicon Valley’s evolution, a professor and violist plays the music of Robert Schumann and a late English faculty member’s meditation on Seattle returns … Here’s a quick look at some gift-worthy books and music created by UW faculty in the last year — and a reminder of some recent favorites. O’Mara’s ‘Code’: History professor Margaret O’Mara provides a sweeping history of California’s computer industry titans in her book “The Code:…

To end the year on a high note, take advantage of visiting the museums on campus (free admission, as always, for UW employees and students)! Burke Museum Daily 10 am – 5 pm | Closed on December 25 and January 1 Experience natural and cultural collections at the Burke Museum. The Burke brings research and collections out from behind the scenes so you can bring your perspective and your passions forward.  We can use them to learn about the past,…

This week in the arts, enjoy Beethoven Trio Cycle with School of Music faculty, use the arts to spark dialogue about memory loss, support Indigenous Artists at the Burke, and more! Beethoven Trio Cycle Concert December 9, 7:30 pm | Meany Center Faculty colleagues Craig Sheppard, piano; Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, cello; and Rachel Lee Priday, violin, present the first of a three-concert performance over two seasons of the complete Beethoven piano trio cycle. Join the artists in the West Lobby of Meany…

Joyce Yen — director of the University of Washington’s ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change, an NSF-funded body to promote female STEM faculty on campus — recently worked with the Heising-Simons Foundation to dismantle bias and promote diversity in a prominent grant that the Foundation awards to postdoctoral researchers in planetary science. In this Q&A, Yen shares the many, sometimes counterintuitive ways bias can work against goals toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM fields.

Donald Hellmann, UW professor emeritus in the Jackson School of International studies and of political science, has been awarded the Order of the Rising Sun from the Government of Japan, in recognition of his contributions in promoting academic exchanges and mutual understanding between Japan and the United States. Hellmann, 86, teaches courses on Japanese government and politics, American foreign policy and the international relations of Northeast Asia. He joined the UW in 1967, chaired the Japan Program for several years,…

Recent honors to UW faculty and staff members include an honorary doctorate from the University of Bucharest, membership in an inaugural class of distinguished fellows in pharmacology, and a leadership position in a national student housing association.

UW English professor emeritus Charles Johnson is one of five people whose likeness is featured on posters promoting diversity and inclusion sent by the American Philosophical Association to every college undergraduate philosophy program in the United States and Canada. And he is in excellent company: The other four people featured, each in a separate poster, are American writers Susan Sontag and Mary Higgins Clark; British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for literature; and English actor Theo…

This week in the arts, Three Sisters closes, Professor Shannon Dudley bridges campus and community, Burke Open Doors allows chatting with researchers, and more! Exhibition: In Plain Sight November 23 – April 26, 2020 | Henry Art Gallery This group exhibition engages artists whose work addresses narratives, communities, and histories that are typically hidden or invisible in our public space (both conceptually and literally defined). The presenting artists approach the exhibition’s theme from a range of directions, varying across all media…

Balancing the needs of open science with national security and journal sustainability, and respecting the beliefs of native populations near observatories are among current issues for the American Astronomical Society, said Paula Szkody, University of Washington professor of astronomy. She has begun a term as president-elect of the AAS, and will serve as the society’s president in 2020-2022.

New findings from the largest study of socially-transitioned transgender children in the world, conducted by researchers at the University of Washington, show that gender identity and gender-typed preferences manifest similarly in both cis- and transgender children, even those who recently transitioned.

This week in the arts, join poet Cedar Sigo at the Burke, learn about the translation of comics, attend a performance by Gabriel Kahane and School of Music faculty, and more! Closing Reception for ALTAR: Ritual, Prayer, Offering November 22, 6:30 – 8:30 pm | Jacob Lawrence Gallery Altars are often erected to pay homage to an ancestor or to honor (a) God or a saint. This exhibition takes the altar out of its religious context and interrogates photography as…

With a $106 million gift from the Weill Family Foundation, UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and the University of Washington have launched the Weill Neurohub, an innovative research network that will forge and nurture new collaborations between neuroscientists and researchers working in an array of other disciplines — including engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry and mathematics — to speed the development of new therapies for diseases and disorders that affect the brain and nervous system.

This week in the arts, see a mind-blowing troupe of wildly creative and physically daring dancers at Meany Center, learn about Somali funk, disco, soul and reggae of the 1970s and 80s, and more! Olmstead in Seattle November 12, 7 pm | Center for Urban Horticulture Seattle has one of the most extensively developed Olmsted park systems in the United States, yet the story of how it came into existence has never been fully explored or described – until now,…

This week in the arts, celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary with Jonathan Biss, attend the Burke museum for free, catch A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and more. Jonathan Biss – Celebrating Beethoven Pt 1 November 5, 7:30 pm | Meany Center In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Meany Center presents a selection of his piano sonatas with acclaimed pianist and Beethoven expert Jonathan Biss. In addition to having embarked on a nine-year project to record all 32 of the composer’s piano…

Researchers from the University of Washington and the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in the Netherlands have developed a way to map strain in lead halide perovskite solar cells. Their approach shows that misorientation between microscopic perovskite crystals is the primary contributor to the buildup of strain within the solar cell, which creates small-scale defects in the grain structure, interrupts the transport of electrons within the solar cell, and ultimately leads to heat loss through a process known as non-radiative recombination.

University of Washington political scientist Megan Ming Francis says there is a dearth of academic book series being published on topics of race, ethnicity and politics. Now, she will start to change that. An associate professor of political science, Francis will be the editor of a new series of books from Cambridge University Press called Cambridge Elements in Race, Ethnicity and Politics. Francis, on leave and at Harvard for the 2019-2020 school year, answered a few questions about the new…