UW News
The latest news from the UW
December 4, 2019
Outlook for the polar regions in a 2 degrees warmer world
With 2019 on pace as one of the warmest years on record, a new international study reveals how rapidly the Arctic is warming and examines global consequences of continued polar warming.
Tag(s): Applied Physics Laboratory • College of the Environment • Kristin Laidre • Polar Science Center • School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
Warmer temperatures will increase arsenic levels in rice, study shows
UW researchers have found that warmer temperatures, at levels expected under most climate change projections, can lead to higher concentrations of arsenic in rice grains.
Tag(s): climate change • College of Engineering • Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering • population health • Rebecca Neumann
Joy Williamson-Lott honored for book on civil rights, higher education in South during Jim Crow era
Joy Williamson-Lott, dean of the UW Graduate School and a professor of education, has been honored for her 2018 book “Jim Crow Campus: Higher Education and the Struggle for a New Southern Social Order.”
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • Department of English • Joy Williamson-Lott • Roger Sale • Shawn Wong • University of Washington Press • UW Graduate School
Better wildfire and smoke predictions with new vegetation database
Researchers from the University of Washington and Michigan Technological University have created the first comprehensive database of all the wildfire fuels that have been measured across North America. Ultimately, it can help scientists make more informed decisions about fire and smoke situations.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • Maureen Kennedy • School of Environmental and Forest Sciences • Susan Prichard • UW TacomaDecember 3, 2019
Communities around Sea-Tac Airport exposed to a unique mix of air pollution associated with aircraft
Communities underneath and downwind of jets landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport are exposed to a type of ultrafine particle pollution that is distinctly associated with aircraft, according to a new University of Washington study, the first to identify the unique signature of aircraft emissions in the state of Washington. The finding comes from the two-year…
Tag(s): Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering • Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences • Edmund Seto • Elena Austin • Jeffry Shirai • Jianbang Xiang • Michael Yost • population health • Sukyong Yun • Tim Gould • Timothy Larson
International studies professor Donald Hellmann to receive Japan government’s Order of the Rising Sun — highest honor for scholars
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…
Tag(s): awards • College of Arts & Sciences • Donald Hellmann • Jackson School of International Studies
For some corals, meals can come with a side of microplastics
A new experiment by the University of Washington has found that some corals are more likely to eat microplastics when they are consuming other food, yet microplastics alone are undesirable.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • Jacqueline Padilla-Gamiño • School of Aquatic and Fishery SciencesDecember 2, 2019
Grants awarded: Speeding the engineering life cycle with data science; developing literacy interventions for students with intellectual disabilities; preventing depression among young women
UW faculty members Roxanne Hudson and Magdalena Balazinska have received grants for research to be conducted over the next few years.
Tag(s): Ariel Rokem • Carly Roberts • College of Education • David Beck • Elizabeth Sanders • eScience Institute • Jim Pfaendtner • Magdalena Balazinska • Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering • Roxanne Hudson
Faculty/staff honors: Housing association nod, honorary doctorate, distinguished fellow, best conference paper
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.
Tag(s): Daniel Chirot • Department of Pharmacology • Department of Sociology • Information School • Jackson School of International Studies • Jacob Wobbrock • Pamela Schreiber • Resat Kasaba • UW Housing & Food Services • William Catterall
Carpentry Compiler helps woodworkers design objects that they can actually make
UW researchers have created Carpentry Compiler, a digital tool that allows users to design woodworking projects. Once a project is designed, the tool creates optimized fabrication instructions based on the materials and equipment a user has available.
Tag(s): Adriana Schulz • College of Engineering • Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering • Zachary TatlockNovember 27, 2019
A method with roots in AI uncovers how humans make choices in groups and social media
Using a mathematical framework with roots in artificial intelligence and robotics, UW researchers were able to uncover the process of how a person makes choices in groups. And, they also found they were able to predict a person’s choice more often than more traditional descriptive methods.
Tag(s): Center for Neurotechnology • College of Engineering • Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering • Rajesh RaoNovember 26, 2019
Author, professor Charles Johnson featured on American Philosophy Association posters on diversity
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,…
Tag(s): Charles Johnson • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of English
UW researchers Alex Luedtke, Tyler McCormick receive ‘new innovator’ grants through NIH High-risk, High-Rewards program
Two UW professors — Alex Luedtke and Tyler McCormick — are among 60 researchers the National Institutes of Health has named recipients of its 2019 Director’s New Innovator Awards.
Tag(s): Alex Luedtke • Department of Sociology • Department of Statistics • eScience Institute • Tyler McCormick
Six UW faculty members named AAAS fellows
The American Association for the Advancement of Science has named six faculty members from the University of Washington as AAAS Fellows, according to a Nov. 26 announcement. They are part of a cohort of 443 new fellows for 2019, all chosen by their peers for “scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.”
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • College of the Environment • Department of Biology • Department of Earth and Space Sciences • Department of Genome Sciences • Department of Microbiology • Department of Pathology • Eric Steig • Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation • Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine • Julia Parrish • Karl Banse • Michael Lagunoff • Raymond Monnat • School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences • School of Medicine • School of Oceanography • School of Public Health • Simon Hay
Dads in prison can bring poverty, instability for families on the outside
A new University of Washington study finds that families with a father in prison tend to live in neighborhoods with higher poverty.
Tag(s): Christine Leibbrand • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of SociologyNovember 25, 2019
ArtsUW Roundup: Professor Chadwick Allen presents Earthworks Rising, annual School of Music CarolFest, and more
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…
Tag(s): ArtsUW • Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture • Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of English • Ethnomusicology Program • Henry Art Gallery • Meany Center for the Performing Arts • Meany Hall for the Performing Arts • School of Art + Art History + Design • School of Drama • School of Music • Simpson Center for the Humanities
UW astronomy professor Paula Szkody elected to American Astronomical Society leadership
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.
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Astronomy • Paula Szkody
Grants awarded: Studying ‘culturally sustaining pedagogies,’ dual-credit coursework; teaching global perspective in architecture
University of Washington faculty members have been awarded grants for research to be conducted over the next few years. Django Paris, an associate professor in the College of Education, has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Spencer Foundation. With the four-year grant, Paris will work with H. Samy Alim, a professor at the…
Tag(s): Django Paris • Julia Duncheon • Vikram Prakash
New ‘UW Notebook’ section will tell stories of UW faculty and staff
Welcome to UW Notebook, a new section of the UW News site dedicated to telling stories of good work done by faculty and staff members at the University of Washington.
November 21, 2019
More Washington residents part of University of Washington’s fall 2019 entering class
The new class of undergraduates at the University of Washington this fall contains the largest number of Washington state residents in the UW’s history, according to the finalized fall 2019 census of enrolled students released by all three campuses.
November 20, 2019
Emissions from electricity generation lead to disproportionate number of premature deaths for some racial groups
UW researchers have found that air pollution from electricity generation emissions in 2014 led to about 16,000 premature deaths in the continental U.S. In many states, the majority of the health impacts came from emissions originating in other states.
Tag(s): College of Engineering • Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering • Julian Marshall • population healthNovember 19, 2019
UW drives $15.7 billion of state’s economy; sustains more than 100,000 jobs
Across its three campuses, the University of Washington generated a total impact on the state’s economy of more than $15.7 billion in FY 2018, according to an economic contribution analysis released today. The study further concludes that the economic activity of the UW system supported or sustained 100,520 jobs throughout the state.
Tag(s): Economic Impact ReportNovember 18, 2019
Among transgender children, gender identity as strong as in cisgender children, study shows
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.
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Psychology • Kristina Olson • Selin Gulgoz • TransYouth ProjectNovember 15, 2019
UW aerospace engineer part of $1.7M grant to study corals
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from multiple institutions — including the University of Washington — has received a two-year $1.7 million National Science Foundation grant to study coral growth.
Tag(s): College of Engineering • Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics • Jinkyu YangNovember 13, 2019
Founder of World Justice Project, former top Microsoft lawyer Bill Neukom to chair advisory board for UW Population Health Initiative
Known for his decades-long leadership of Microsoft’s law and corporate affairs team and then at the American Bar Association, his success as CEO of the San Francisco Giants and founder/CEO of the World Justice Project, Bill Neukom will now chair the external advisory board for the University of Washington Population Health Initiative. The university initiative is a…
Tag(s): Ali Mokdad • Ana Mari Cauce • Population Health Initiative • William NeukomNovember 12, 2019
ArtsUW Roundup: Public opening of ‘In Plain Sight,’ view ALTAR: Ritual, Prayer, Offering — and more
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…
Tag(s): ArtsUW • Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Classics • Department of Comparative Literature • Department of Philosophy • Department of Political Science • Department of Slavic Languages and Literature • Henry Art Gallery • Jacob Lawrence Gallery • Meany Center for the Performing Arts • School of Music • Simpson Center for the Humanities
New Weill Neurohub will unite UCSF, UC Berkeley, UW in race to find new treatments for brain diseases
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.
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Biology • neuroscience & brain science • Population Health Initiative • Tom Daniel • Weill NeurohubNovember 7, 2019
ArtsUW Roundup: Olmstead in Seattle, the Music of Somalia’s Disco Era, Artist Talk with Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and more
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…
Tag(s): African Studies Program • ArtsUW • Center for Urban Horticulture • College of Arts & Sciences • Jackson School of International Studies • Jacob Lawrence Gallery • Meany Center for the Performing Arts • School of Art + Art History + Design • School of Drama • Simpson Center for the Humanities • UW Botanic Gardens • UW Drama
Team uses golden ‘lollipop’ to observe elusive interference effect at the nanoscale
A team led by scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Notre Dame used recent advances in electron microscopy to observe Fano interferences — a form of quantum-mechanical interference by electrons — directly in a pair of metallic nanoparticles.
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • David Masiello • Department of Chemistry • Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems • Molecular Engineering & Sciences InstituteNovember 6, 2019
Mailed self-sampling kits helped more women get screened for cervical cancer
Signaling a potential major change in cervical cancer screening options for American women, a new study found that mailed self-sampling kits that test for HPV — the virus that can cause cervical cancer — helped significantly more women get screened for the cancer. The study involving nearly 20,000 women was conducted by researchers from the…
Tag(s): Department of Epidemiology • Diana Buist • Rachel Winer • School of Public HealthNovember 5, 2019
Fall storms, coastal erosion focus of northern Alaska research cruise
A University of Washington team is leaving to study how fall storms, dwindling sea ice and vulnerable coastlines might combine in a changing Arctic.
Tag(s): Applied Physics Laboratory • climate change • College of Engineering • Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering • Jim Thomson • Nirnimesh Kumar • oceanography • polar science
Soundbites & b-roll: HuskySat-1
‘HuskySat-1’ is among seven student-built satellites from around the country that launched Saturday morning, Nov. 2, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast.
November 4, 2019
Swordfish as oceanographers? Satellite tags allow research of ocean’s ‘twilight zone’ off Florida
UW marine scientists are using high-tech tags to record the movements of swordfish — big, deep-water, migratory, open-ocean fish that are poorly studied — and get a window into the ocean depths they inhabit.
Tag(s): Applied Physics Laboratory • Camrin Braun • College of the Environment • fisheries biology • Peter Gaube • School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
Single discrimination events alter college students’ daily behavior
UW researchers aimed to understand both the prevalence of discrimination events and how these events affect college students in their daily lives. Over the course of two academic quarters, the team compared students’ self-reports of unfair treatment to passively tracked changes in daily activities, such as hours slept, steps taken or time spent on the phone.
Tag(s): Anind Dey • College of Engineering • Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering • Eve Riskin • Information School • Jennifer Mankoff • Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering • Paula Nurius • School of Social Work
Light-based ‘tractor beam’ assembles materials at the nanoscale
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a method that could make reproducible manufacturing at the nanoscale possible. The team adapted a light-based technology employed widely in biology — known as optical traps or optical tweezers — to operate in a water-free liquid environment of carbon-rich organic solvents, thereby enabling new potential applications.
Tag(s): Clean Energy Institute • College of Engineering • Department of Chemical Engineering • Department of Materials Science & Engineering • Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems • Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute • Peter Pauzauskie • Vincent HolmbergNovember 1, 2019
ArtsUW Roundup: attend the Danish String Quartet concert, observe a Monologue Audition workshop, and more
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…
Tag(s): ArtsUW • Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture • College of Arts & Sciences • Meany Center for the Performing Arts • School of Art + Art History + Design • School of Drama • School of MusicOctober 31, 2019
Washington’s first student-built satellite preparing for launch
After years of preparation, a tiny satellite built by UW students is scheduled to launch early Saturday, Nov. 2, from a NASA flight facility in Virginia. The launch will be broadcast live on NASA TV.
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • College of the Environment • Department of Earth and Space Sciences • Department of Physics • space science
New technique lets researchers map strain in next-gen solar cells
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.
Tag(s): Clean Energy Institute • College of Arts & Sciences • David Ginger • Department of Chemistry • energyOctober 29, 2019
UW book notes: Political scientist Megan Ming Francis to edit new series on race, ethnicity, politics
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…
Tag(s): Alys Eve Weinbaum • books • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of English • Department of History • Department of Political Science • Marisol Berríos-Miranda • Megan Ming Francis • Michelle Habell-Pallan • Robin Chapman Stacey • Shannon Dudley
Popular third-party genetic genealogy site is vulnerable to compromised data, impersonations
UW researchers have found that the third-party genealogy site GEDmatch is vulnerable to multiple kinds of security risks.
Tag(s): College of Engineering • genetics & DNA • Luis Ceze • Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering • Tadayoshi KohnoNext Page »
