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The latest news from the UW

News releases | Population Health | Public Health | Research | Science

September 28, 2021

Alzheimer’s data center at UW awarded $35 million to continue mission of free, global access

For researchers around the world working to understand and treat Alzheimer’s and eventually find a cure, data from clinical exams of patients suffering from this complex neurodegenerative disease needs to be standardized and accessible. Since 1999, that’s what the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC), housed in the UW School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology, has been doing. With funding from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging, the UW center began collecting data from another set of centers housed in…

Engineering | News releases | Research | Science

New NSF-funded institute to harness AI for accelerated discoveries in physics, astronomy and neuroscience

On Sept. 28, the National Science Foundation announced $15 million, five-year grant to integrate AI tools into the scientific research and discovery process. The award will fund the Accelerated AI Algorithms for Data-Driven Discovery Institute — or A3D3 Institute — a partnership of nine universities, led by the University of Washington.

Environment | Research | Science | UW News blog

September 27, 2021

UW Climate Impacts Group, partner organizations launch the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative

The UW Climate Impacts Group, along with nine community, nonprofit and university partners, is launching a program of community-led, justice-oriented climate adaptation work across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative will be founded with a five-year, $5.6 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The program will be one of eleven across the country funded through NOAA’s Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program.

News releases | UW and the community | Video

New Student Convocation on Tuesday afternoon opens UW’s 2021-22 academic year

University of Washington Associate Professor Wendy Barrington will be the featured speaker at the university’s 38th annual New Student Convocation. Barrington has joint appointments in the Department of Child, Family, and Population Health Nursing in the School of Nursing and the departments of Epidemiology and of Health Systems and Population Health in the School of Public Health.

Environment | Health and medicine | News releases | Public Health | Science | Soundbites | UW and the community | Video

September 23, 2021

Video: Arsenic makes these south Puget Sound fish unsafe to eat

Researchers at the University of Washington and UW Tacoma have been studying arsenic levels in the mud, water and in creatures from lakes in the south Puget Sound area. Eating contaminated fish or snails from these lakes could lead to health risks.

Arts and entertainment

September 21, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Henry Art Gallery Public Opening, Dawg Daze, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend gallery exhibitions, watch recorded events, and more. While you’re enjoying summer break, connect with campus through UW live webcams of Red Square and the quad. Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Faculty lecture: Audrey Desjardins, “Data Imaginaries: Between Home, People and Technology” September 30, 5:30pm | Online via Zoom Celebrate…

News releases | Research | Science

UW, Burke researchers discover four dinosaurs in Montana: Fieldwork pieces together life at the end of ‘Dinosaur Era’

A team of paleontologists from the University of Washington and its Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture excavated four dinosaurs in northeastern Montana this summer. The four dinosaur fossils are: the ilium — or hip bones — of an ostrich-sized theropod, the group of meat-eating, two-legged dinosaurs that includes Tyrannosaurus rex and raptors; the hips and legs of a duck-billed dinosaur; a pelvis, toe claw and limbs from another theropod that could be a rare ostrich-mimic Anzu, or possibly a new species; and a Triceratops specimen consisting of its skull and other fossilized bones.

Arts and entertainment

ArtSci Roundup: Audrey Desjardins: Data Imaginaries, What is Noh? A lecture by Paul Atkins, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend gallery exhibitions, watch recorded events, and more. While you’re enjoying summer break, connect with campus through UW live webcams of Red Square and the quad. Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Audrey Desjardins: Data Imaginaries September 21 – October 9 | Jacob Lawrence Gallery The Jacob Lawrence Gallery is pleased to present Audrey Desjardins:…

Buildings and grounds | For UW employees | UW and the community | UW Notebook

September 14, 2021

Returning to the U District: Recovering from the pandemic with more changes ahead

Hardship, change and resilience — that’s been the experience of the U District community during the pandemic, just as it’s been the experience of us all. As students, faculty and staff return to campus in September, they are going to find that the UW’s front door looks different — and it is on the precipice of even bigger changes to come.

Engineering | News releases | Research | Science

September 9, 2021

NSF to fund revolutionary center for optoelectronic, quantum technologies

The National Science Foundation has announced it will fund a new endeavor to bring atomic-level precision to the devices and technologies that underpin much of modern life, and will transform fields like information technology in the decades to come. The five-year, $25 million Science and Technology Center grant will found the Center for Integration of Modern Optoelectronic Materials on Demand — or IMOD — a collaboration of scientists and engineers at 11 universities led by the University of Washington.

Arts and entertainment

September 8, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Faculty Seminar: A Conversation with Samuel Wasser of Conservation Canines, Hostile Terrain 94, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend gallery exhibitions, watch recorded events, and more. While you’re enjoying summer break, connect with campus through UW live webcams of Red Square and the quad. Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Faculty Seminar: A Conversation with Samuel Wasser of Conservation Canines September 14, 1:00 – 2:00 PM | Online The Center…

Environment | News releases | Population Health | Research | Science | Social science | UW and the community

September 7, 2021

Research, education hub on ‘coastal resiliency’ will focus on earthquakes, coastal erosion and climate change

The new Cascadia Coastlines and Peoples Hazards Research Hub, led by Oregon State University and the University of Washington, will study coastal hazards and community resilience. The National Science Foundation awarded $18.9 million for the hub over five years.

Arts and entertainment

ArtSci Roundup: Bodies of Discovery – Naomi Fisher: Thermodynamic Flower, Works Cited: Experiments in Dismantling Texts, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend gallery exhibitions, watch recorded events, and more. While you’re enjoying summer break, connect with campus through UW live webcams of Red Square and the quad. Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Works Cited: experiments in dismantling texts with Elaine Cameron-Weir and Amaranth Borsuk September 11, 1:00 – 3:00 PM | Henry…

Environment | News releases | Research | Science

August 25, 2021

Volcanic eruptions may have spurred first ‘whiffs’ of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere

A new analysis of 2.5-billion-year-old rocks from Australia finds that volcanic eruptions may have stimulated population surges of marine microorganisms, creating the first puffs of oxygen into the atmosphere. This would change existing stories of Earth’s early atmosphere, which assumed that most changes in the early atmosphere were controlled by geologic or chemical processes.

Research | Science | UW News blog

UW, Carnegie Mellon to pioneer platforms that harness astrophysical data to unravel the universe’s mysteries

The University of Washington and Carnegie Mellon University have announced an expansive, multi-year collaboration to create new software platforms to analyze large astronomical datasets generated by the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, which will be carried out by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in northern Chile. The open-source platforms are part of the new LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing — known as LINCC — and will fundamentally change how scientists use modern computational methods to make sense of big data.

Arts and entertainment

August 24, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Elaine Cameron-Weir: STAR CLUB REDEMPTION BOOTH, Fossils Uncovered, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend gallery exhibitions, watch recorded events, and more. While you’re enjoying summer break, connect with campus through UW live webcams of Red Square and the quad. Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Elaine Cameron-Weir: STAR CLUB REDEMPTION BOOTH Through September 12 | Henry Art Gallery In her sculpture, Elaine Cameron-Weir (b. 1985,…

Population Health | Public Health | UW News blog

August 20, 2021

With extreme heat increasingly common, UW expert calls for urgent planning to protect health in new Lancet series

In a new series on increasingly common extreme heat waves and their impact on human health published Thursday in the British medical journal The Lancet, a University of Washington climate change and health expert joined more than a dozen international experts to warn that we better prepare. “The preventable heat stress and deaths during this summer’s heat waves highlight the importance of developing a regional heat action plan. A heat wave early warning and response plan that includes all relevant services,…

Arts and entertainment

August 17, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Lux Aeterna, A Gee’s Bend Quilt, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend gallery exhibitions, watch recorded events, and more. While you’re enjoying summer break, connect with campus through UW live webcams of Red Square and the quad. Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  A Gee’s Bend Quilt by Mary L. Bennett Through October 3 | Henry Art Gallery This iteration of Viewpoints features “Housetop”—nine-block variation (1975) by…

Health and medicine | News releases | Population Health | Public Health

August 16, 2021

New analysis of landmark scurvy study leads to update on vitamin C needs

It was wartime and food was scarce. Leaders of England’s effort to wage war and help the public survive during World War II needed to know: Were the rations in lifeboats adequate for survival at sea? And, among several experiments important for public as well as military heath, how much vitamin C did a person need to avoid the deadly disease scurvy? In one experiment at the Sorby Research Institute in Sheffield, called the “shipwreck” experiment, volunteers were fed only…

News releases | Research | Science

August 11, 2021

‘More pepper, please’: New study analyzes role of scent compounds in the coevolution of bats and pepper plants

A study published Aug. 11 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B by researchers at the University of Washington and Stony Brook University reports on how bats and pepper plants in Central America have coevolved to help each other survive.

Arts and entertainment

August 10, 2021

ArtSci Roundup: Hostile Terrain 94, Lux Aeterna, and More

Through public events and exhibitions, connect with the UW community every week! This week, attend gallery exhibitions, watch recorded events, and more. While you’re enjoying summer break, connect with campus through UW live webcams of Red Square and the quad. Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Hostile Terrain 94 Through October | Henry Art Gallery Hostile Terrain 94 (HT94) is a participatory art exhibition created by the Undocumented Migration…

Expert quotes

August 6, 2021

UW expert discusses protecting workers from wildfire smoke

  With wildfire smoke forecast for next week in Seattle and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Oregon posting rules for keeping workers safe during increasingly smoky conditions and heat in that state, we caught up with a University of Washington expert on worker safety for advice. Check out Professor Baker’s advice on worker safety in this video.   Journalists can download the video here. Marissa Baker, an industrial hygiene program director and assistant professor in the UW Department of…

News releases | Research | Science

August 5, 2021

Now how did that get up there? New study sheds light on development and evolution of dolphin, whale blowholes

New research by scientists at the University of Washington and Duke University is shedding light on how the nasal passage of dolphins and whales shifts during embryonic development from emerging at the tip of the snout to emerging at the top of the head as a blowhole. The findings, published July 19 in the Journal of Anatomy, are an integrative model for this developmental transition for cetaceans.

Environment | News releases | Research

Drier, warmer night air is making some Western wildfires more active at night

Firefighters have reported that Western wildfires are starting earlier in the morning and dying down later at night, hampering their ability to recover and regroup before the next day’s flareup. A study by University of Washington and U.S. Forest Service scientists shows why: The drying power of nighttime air over much of the Western U.S. has increased dramatically in the past 40 years.

News releases | Research | Science

Superflares may be less harmful to exoplanets than previously thought, study shows

Astronomers have long suspected that superflares, extreme radiation bursts from stars, can cause lasting damage to the atmospheres — and thus habitability — of exoplanets. A new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society reports that they pose only a limited danger to planetary systems.