UW News
The latest news from the UW
October 3, 2022
Study suggests La Niña winters could keep on coming
Forecasters are predicting a “three-peat La Niña” this year. This will be the third winter in a row that the Pacific Ocean has been in a La Niña cycle, something that’s happened only twice before in records going back to 1950. A new study of temperature patterns in the tropical Pacific Ocean suggests that climate change is, in the short term, favoring La Niñas.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • David Battisti • Department of Atmospheric Sciences • Kyle Armour • Robert Jnglin Wills • School of Oceanography • weatherOctober 2, 2022
UW statements on weekend violence in the University District
Early Sunday morning, the University of Washington used the UW Alert system to warn the Seattle campus community about a shooting that occurred near NE 43rd Street and University Way NE just after 1 a.m. Four UW students were injured and transported to Harborview Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries. UW President Ana Mari Cauce made the following statement in response to the shooting.
September 30, 2022
ArtSci Roundup: Cuarteto Latinoamericano concert, Sasha Senderovich book launch, Gabriel Kahane concert, and more
Connect with the UW community every week through public events and exhibitions, summarized in this ArtSci Roundup.
Tag(s): Department of Anthropology • Department of Dance • Department of Political Science • Department of Slavic Languages and Literature • Husky Union Building • Jackson School of International Studies • Meany Center for the Performing Arts • School of Art + Art History + Design • Simpson Center for the Humanities • Stroum Center for Jewish Studies • UW Alumni AssociationSeptember 29, 2022
International field course held in Indonesia and led by UW professor ends after 30 years
Randall Kyes established the International Field Study Program-Indonesia at the UW. The month-long study abroad program provided field-based educational and research opportunities for students from the UW, Indonesia and other participating countries.
Tag(s): Center for Global Field Study • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Psychology • International Field Study Program • Jackson School of International Studies • Randy Kyes • Southeast Asia CenterSeptember 28, 2022
UW expert on tropical storms discusses Hurricane Ian
Shuyi Chen, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences, was traveling to a conference in Boston as Hurricane Ian approached the Gulf of Mexico. During breaks at the conference, she provided her thoughts on the closely watched catastrophic storm system that made landfall in Florida on Sept. 28. Q: What are your thoughts on Hurricane Ian?…
Tag(s): College of the Environment • Department of Atmospheric Sciences • Shuyi Chen • weather
UW-developed wave sensors deployed to improve hurricane forecasts
Researchers dropped technology developed at the University of Washington off the coast of Florida this week to measure ocean waves in the path of Hurricane Ian. The test is one part of a broad effort to improve forecasts for these fast-moving and deadly systems.
Tag(s): Applied Physics Laboratory • College of Engineering • Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering • Jim Thomson • oceanography • population health • weatherSeptember 27, 2022
Advancing safety at UW, in the community and beyond
As the academic year gets underway, the University of Washington’s public campuses are again bustling and busy with students, faculty, staff and visitors. While the focus is on academics, research, learning and building community, on any given day, there may be safety challenges and individuals who feel unsafe for any number of reasons.
Tag(s): Ana Mari Cauce • public safety • Sally Clark • UW Bothell • UW TacomaSeptember 26, 2022
UW’s incoming class, one of the university’s largest and most diverse, welcomed at New Student Convocation
The University of Washington on Sunday held its 39th annual New Student Convocation, which returned to Alaska Airlines Arena, Hec Edmundson Pavilion, for the first time since 2019.
Tag(s): Ana Mari Cauce • Denzil Suite • UW convocation
Heat-related mortality risk is widespread across Washington state, study shows
Heat-related deaths occur across Washington state, even in regions with typically milder climates. This is the most extensive study yet of heat-related mortality in Washington state, and the first to look beyond the major population to and include rural areas. Researchers used statistical methods to uncover “hidden” deaths that may have listed something else, like illness or a chronic disease, as the primary cause.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences • population health • School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences • School of Public Health • Tania Busch Isaksen
UW joins industry-academia alliance to accelerate research in neuroscience
The University of Washington has joined the Alliance for Therapies in Neuroscience (ATN), a long-term research partnership between academia and industry geared to transform the fight against brain diseases and disorders of the central nervous system. Launched in 2021 by the University of California, San Francisco, UC Berkeley, Genentech — a member of the Roche group — and Roche Holding AG, the ATN seeks to accelerate the development of new therapies for a broad range of brain and central nervous system conditions.
Tag(s): Alliance for Therapies in Neuroscience • College of Arts & Sciences • College of Engineering • Department of Biology • School of Medicine • Tom Daniel • Weill NeurohubSeptember 23, 2022
ArtSci Roundup: Kicking the school year off with the arts
A weekly roundup of various arts-focused events for the UW community.
Tag(s): anthropology • Department of Dance • Henry Art Gallery • HUB • Meany Center for the Performing Arts • Simpson Center for the Humanities • Stroum Center for Jewish StudiesSeptember 22, 2022
Deepest scientific ocean drilling effort sheds light on Japan’s next ‘big one’
A 2018 expedition that drilled farther into the seafloor than ever before — almost 2 miles — sought to take measurements of stress as close as possible to a tectonic fault off the coast of Japan. Surprisingly, the researchers found little built-up tectonic stress. The findings could help to better understand earthquakes in subduction zones around the world.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • Department of Earth and Space Sciences • earthquakes & seismology • Harold Tobin
UW systems experts put health of kids at the center as King County seeks to reach ‘zero youth detention’
As King County seeks to reach its goal of “zero youth detention” — ultimately eliminating the practice of juvenile detention in the county —University of Washington researchers are working to help address major systemic challenges in how young people engage with health care. With a strategic plan to close the juvenile detention center by…
Tag(s): Addy Borges • population health • sarah gimbel • School of NursingSeptember 21, 2022
Video: UW welcomes students back to campus with move-in days
The University of Washington’s campus again is bustling as students began moving into residence halls on Tuesday and will participate in annual fall activities for incoming undergraduates. About 10,000 students are expected to move into campus housing this week.
Tag(s): Ana Mari Cauce • Mark Richards • UW Housing & Food Services
New Global and Regional Studies major offers undergraduates a customizable window on the world
Global and Regional Studies, a new major in the University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies, offers more flexible course options, allows undergraduates focus on a particular geographic region and theme and provides more choices for the capstone experience.
Tag(s): Britta Simon • College of Arts & Sciences • Danya Al-Saleh • David Bachman • Global and Regional Studies • Jackson School of International StudiesSeptember 19, 2022
A smartphone’s camera and flash could help people measure blood oxygen levels at home
In a proof-of-principle study, University of Washington and University of California San Diego researchers have shown that smartphones are capable of detecting blood oxygen saturation levels down to 70%. This is the lowest value that pulse oximeters should be able to measure, as recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Tag(s): College of Engineering • COVID-19 • Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering • Department of Family Medicine • Jason Hoffman • Matthew Thompson • Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering • School of Medicine • Shwetak PatelSeptember 15, 2022
UW breaks ground on $102 million Interdisciplinary Engineering Building
Wearing purple hard hats and using gold-plated shovels, officials from the University of Washington broke ground Thursday on a new, $102 million Interdisciplinary Engineering Building to be constructed along Stevens Way east of the Husky Union Building. Once complete, the state-of-the-art 70,000-square-foot building will be an example of a student-focused learning facility backed by both public and private investments. The project aims to fuel economic growth and create a pipeline of future, local engineering talent.
Tag(s): College of Engineering • Nancy Allbritton
New direction for UW Botanic Gardens focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion
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.
Tag(s): Center for Urban Horticulture • Christina Owen • Jessica Farmer • UW Botanic Gardens • Washington Park ArboretumSeptember 13, 2022
Q&A: UW researchers develop a reactor that can destroy ‘forever chemicals’
UW researchers have created a reactor that can completely break down hard-to-destroy chemicals.
Tag(s): College of Engineering • Department of Mechanical Engineering • Igor NovosselovSeptember 9, 2022
Pandemic federal programs helped kids in need get access to 1.5 billion meals every month
When schools closed during the first year of the pandemic, an immediate and potentially devastating problem surfaced: How would millions of children in struggling families get the school meals many of them depended on? The U.S. Congress responded by authorizing the Department of Agriculture to roll out two major programs. It launched the “grab…
Tag(s): COVID-19 studies • Health Systems and Population Health • Jim Krieger • population health • School of Public HealthSeptember 8, 2022
UW Board of Regents votes to exit direct fossil fuel investments by 2027
The University of Washington Board of Regents on Thursday approved a resolution to begin exiting all direct investments in fossil-fuel companies with the goal of complete divestiture by Fiscal Year 2027. The resolution includes a commitment not to renew indirect investments in funds primarily focusing on fossil-fuel extraction or reserves. Both commitments include allowances for firms contributing to the transition to sustainable energy.
September 7, 2022
These female hummingbirds evolved to look like males — apparently to evade aggression
1 in 5 adult female white-necked jacobin hummingbirds look like males. New research from the University of Washington shows that this is a rare case of “deceptive mimicry” within a species: Females with male-like plumage are trying to pass themselves off as males, and as a result receive a benefit in the form of reduced aggression from males.
Tag(s): Alejandro Rico-Guevara • Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Biology • evolutionAugust 29, 2022
Black-owned restaurants disproportionately impacted during pandemic
A new study led by the University of Washington uses cellphone location data to estimate the number of visits to Black-owned restaurants in 20 U.S. cities during the first year of the pandemic. The study finds that despite the “Black-owned” labelling campaign launched by companies such as Yelp, the number of visits to Black-owned restaurants dropped off after an initial spike and was inconsistent around the country.
Tag(s): Bo Zhao • College of Arts & Sciences • COVID-19 • Department of GeographyAugust 25, 2022
‘Dangerous’ and ‘extremely dangerous’ heat stress to become more common by 2100
A new study projects the number of days with “dangerous” and “extremely dangerous” mixtures of heat and humidity by the end of this century. Even if global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius, results show that deadly heat waves will become much more common in the mid-latitudes, and many tropical regions will experience “dangerous” heat for about half the year.
Tag(s): Adrian Raftery • College of Arts & Sciences • College of the Environment • David Battisti • Department of Atmospheric Sciences • Department of Statistics • population healthAugust 23, 2022
Beach trash accumulates in predictable patterns on Washington and Oregon shores
Volunteers spent thousands of hours recording trash on beaches in Washington and Oregon to show that certain beaches, and certain areas of a single beach, are “sticky zones” that accumulate litter. Finding patterns for where litter lands could help to better prevent and remove trash in the marine environment.
Tag(s): COASST • College of the Environment • School of Aquatic and Fishery SciencesAugust 17, 2022
New UW Photonic Sensing Facility will use fiber-optic cables for seismic sensing, glaciology and more
A University of Washington pilot project is exploring the use of fiber-optic sensing for seismology, glaciology, and even urban monitoring. Funded in part with a $473,000 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, a nonprofit based in Vancouver, Washington, the new UW Photonic Sensing Facility will use photons traveling through a fiber-optic cable to detect ground motions as small as 1 nanometer.
Tag(s): Brad Lipovsky • College of the Environment • Department of Earth and Space Sciences • earthquakes & seismology • Marine DenolleAugust 15, 2022
UW to host college students for NASA-funded lunar rover challenge
The University of Washington received a nearly $500,000 grant to run one of NASA’s Artemis Student Challenges in which participants turn a model lunar lava tube into a habitat suitable for housing humans on the moon or Mars.
Tag(s): College of Engineering • Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics • Mary Denmon • Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium
Global ranking: UW is No. 17 in the world
The University of Washington is No. 17 in the world — No. 3 among U.S. public universities — on the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities, released today.
Tag(s): RankingsAugust 12, 2022
New faculty books: How your brain works, cycling around the world and more
Recent and upcoming books from University of Washington faculty include those from the Jackson School of International Studies, the Department of Psychology and the Runstad Department of Real Estate.
Tag(s): Chantel Prat • College of Arts & Sciences • College of Built Environments • Deborah Lynn Porter • Department of Psychology • H. Pike Oliver • Jackson School of International Studies • Paula Holmes-Eber • Runstad Department of Real EstateAugust 11, 2022
Bird behavior influenced by human activity during COVID-19 lockdowns
For birds that inhabit developed areas of the Pacific Northwest, the reduction in noise and commotion from COVID-19 lockdowns may have allowed them to use a wider range of habitats in cities, a new University of Washington study has found.
Tag(s): Beth Gardner • College of the Environment • Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences • Joel Kaufman • Olivia Sanderfoot • School of Environmental and Forest Sciences • School of Public HealthAugust 8, 2022
Q&A: Story collection from UW professor tackles messy emotions of domestic relationships
Maya Sonenberg, professor of English at the University of Washington, highlights common feelings that are often silenced due to shame and societal expectations in her new short story collection, “Bad Mothers, Bad Daughters.”
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • Department of English • Maya SonenbergAugust 5, 2022
New study calculates retreat of glacier edges in Alaska’s Kenai Fjords National Park
As glaciers worldwide retreat due to climate change, managers of national parks need to know what’s on the horizon to prepare for the future. A new study from the University of Washington and the National Park Service measures 38 years of change for glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park south of Anchorage. The study, published Aug. 5 in The Journal of Glaciology, finds that 13 of the 19 glaciers show substantial retreat, four are relatively stable, and two have advanced. It also finds trends in which glacier types are disappearing fastest.
Tag(s): Alaska • climate change • College of the Environment • Department of Earth and Space Sciences • glaciers • Taryn BlackAugust 4, 2022
UW to construct new Interdisciplinary Engineering Building, expanding contemporary educational spaces for students
The University of Washington will break ground this fall on a new, $90 million Interdisciplinary Engineering Building, thanks in part to a $10 million donation from Boeing. Once complete, the state-of-the-art building will be a leading example of a student-focused learning facility backed by both public and private investments. The state of Washington has also dedicated $50 million to support the project that aims to fuel economic growth and create a pipeline of future, local engineering talent.
Tag(s): Ana Mari Cauce • College of Engineering • Nancy AllbrittonAugust 2, 2022
Popular map for exploring environmental health disparities, vulnerabilities in Washington gets an update
Since it first launched in 2019, Washington state’s Environmental Health Disparities Map has been used to help decisionmakers and government agencies engage with overburdened communities to clean up contamination, improve buildings and electric grids, plant trees and many other projects. Using a complex matrix of data, this open-access, interactive map ranks Washington’s nearly 1,500 U.S….
Tag(s): Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences • Esther Min • School of Public HealthJuly 28, 2022
The University of Washington’s three campuses join the Common App
The Seattle campus of the University of Washington, UW Bothell, and UW Tacoma are pleased to announce that they have joined the Common App. The Common App is a college application platform used by over 900 universities, including several Washington colleges and universities.
Tag(s): Admissions
How to help assembly-line robots shift gears and pick up almost anything
A UW team created a new tool that can design a 3D-printable passive gripper and calculate the best path to pick up an object. The team tested this system on a suite of 22 objects — including a 3D-printed bunny, a doorstop-shaped wedge, a tennis ball and a drill.
Tag(s): Adriana Schulz • College of Engineering • Department of Mechanical Engineering • Ian Good • Jeffrey Lipton • Milin Kodnongbua • Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & EngineeringJuly 27, 2022
Craig Wilson promoted to chief of UW Police Department
Craig Wilson has been promoted to chief of police at the University of Washington Police Department, UW Vice President for Student Affairs Denzil Suite and UW Interim Vice President for Campus & Community Safety Sally Clark announced Wednesday. Wilson’s appointment is effective Aug. 1.
Tag(s): Denzil Suite • public safety • Sally ClarkJuly 25, 2022
New study challenges old views on what’s ‘primitive’ in mammalian reproduction
Which group of mammals has the more “primitive” reproductive strategy — marsupials, with their short gestation periods, or humans and other placental mammals, which have long gestation periods? For decades, biologists viewed marsupial reproduction as “more primitive.” But University of Washington scientists have discovered that a third group of mammals, the long-extinct multituberculates, had a long gestation period like placental mammals. Since multituberculates split off from the rest of the mammalian lineage before placentals and marsupials had even evolved, these findings question the view that marsupials were “less advanced” than their placental cousins.
Tag(s): Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Biology • evolution • Gregory Wilson Mantilla • paleontologyJuly 22, 2022
Novel HIV combination therapies could prevent viral escape and rebound
New research by scientists at the University of Washington, the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and the University of Cologne indicates that carefully designed cocktails of broadly neutralizing antibodies could help treat HIV while minimizing the risk of the virus evolving to “escape” treatment.
Tag(s): Armita Nourmohammad • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Physics • HIV and AIDS • medicine & pharmaceuticals • population healthJuly 20, 2022
UW atmospheric sciences achieves No. 1 global ranking; nearly three dozen UW subjects in top 50
Eight University of Washington subjects ranked in the top 10 and Atmospheric Sciences moved to its position as No. 1 in the world on the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects list for 2022. The ranking, released Tuesday, was conducted by researchers at the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, a fully independent organization dedicating to research on higher education intelligence and consultation.
Tag(s): Ana Mari Cauce • College of the Environment • Department of Atmospheric Sciences • education • Information School • oceanography • public health • School of Dentistry • School of Oceanography • School of Public Health • UW Medicine« Previous Page Next Page »
