August 19, 2025
The goals of those developing AI systems for the climate and those working on the front lines of climate advocacy don’t necessarily align. To compare the two groups, UW researchers interviewed nine people who are developing AI for sustainability and 10 climate advocates.
A new study from the University of Washington shows that households enrolled in the City of Seattle’s Fresh Bucks program experience a 31% higher rate of food security and consume at least three daily servings of fruits and vegetables 37% more often than those assigned to a program waitlist. Fresh Bucks, a $40 a month benefit, works with local partners to help residents access fresh food.
August 18, 2025
A new book from David Armstrong, University of Washington affiliate instructor of drama, is an historical and cultural account of how the Broadway musical was predominantly created by people marginalized from mainstream society. The book, “Broadway Nation: How Immigrant, Jewish, Queer, and Black Artists Invented the Broadway Musical,” traces this history through four major eras.
August 14, 2025
New faculty books from the University of Washington include those from Asian languages and literature, applied mathematics and the Jackson School of International Studies.
August 13, 2025
University of Washington President Robert J. Jones announced the appointment of Heather Horn to serve as the next vice president for Human Resources beginning Oct. 1.
A UW-led team of researchers used a fiber-optic cable to capture calving dynamics across the fjord of the Eqalorutsit Kangilliit Sermiat glacier in South Greenland. This allowed them to document — without getting too close — one of the key processes that is accelerating the rate of glacial mass loss and in turn, threatening the stability of ice sheets, with consequences for global ocean currents and local ecosystems.
New research led by the University of Washington provides clear evidence that highly walkable areas lead to significantly more walking. Authors compared the steps per day of 5,424 people who moved one or more times among 1,609 U.S. cities. Across all relocations, when the Walk Score rose or fell more than 48 points, average steps increased or decreased by about 1,100 per day.
August 11, 2025
Antimicrobial resistance is a lurking threat in hospitals around the world. As more strains of bacteria and other microbes evolve defenses against available drugs, more patients run the risk of contracting infections that defy treatment. Now, University of Washington researchers offer new insights into measures currently used to control the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria and other infectious agents in health care facilities.
An international team of paleontologists, led by researchers at the University of Washington and the Field Museum of Natural History, is identifying the animals that thrived in southern Pangea — the planet’s single supercontinent at the time — just before the so-called “Great Dying” wiped out about 70% of terrestrial species, and an even larger fraction of marine ones.
August 6, 2025
University of Washington researchers recruited self-identifying Democrats and Republicans to make political decisions with help from three versions of ChatGPT: a base model, one with liberal bias and one with conservative bias. Democrats and Republicans were both likelier to lean in the direction of the biased chatbot they were talking with than those participants who interacted with the base model.
August 4, 2025
A UW-led project aimed to test the viability of seaweed as a soil amendment, and, if successful, develop a market for sea-based farmers to sell excess seaweed to their counterparts on land. The USDA froze the project’s funding, and for now, a solution remains just out of reach.
Recent recognition of the University of Washington includes an AIS Early Career award, the Tomassoni-Chisesi prize for contributions to theoretical physics and the National Science Foundation CAREER award. Foster School’s Mingwen Yang receives AIS early career award Mingwen Yang, UW assistant professor of Information Systems and Operations Management in the Foster School of Business, received the AIS Early Career Award from the Association for Information Systems. AIS is a leading international organization dedicated to advancing the practice and study…
At the One Health Clinic, a nurse practitioner and veterinarian, often accompanied by veterinary students, provide primary care services while UW students volunteer as patient navigators, helping to coordinate care and address shared health needs such as extreme weather, environmental contaminants and zoonotic disease. The clinic also helps clients document their pets as emotional support animals, which enables them to access a wider range of housing and other services.
An international research effort, including scientists from the University of Washington, has finally revealed the cause of sea star wasting disease: a strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida.
July 30, 2025
UW professor of aeronautics and astronautics Jim Hermanson took a ride Wednesday morning aboard a U.S. Navy Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet — better known as one of the Blue Angels.
July 24, 2025
University of Washington researchers showed that they can monitor seismic activity at the ocean floor using fiber optic cables without disrupting telecommunications. They developed this technique in Alaska and then tested it off the coast of Oregon.
July 21, 2025
Kendall Valentine, an assistant professor of oceanography at University of Washington, along with collaborators from the University of Rhode Island and the Desert Research Institute are traveling to Anchorage and the Copper River Delta to study marshes that formed in the years following the 1964 earthquake.
Election recognizes the new member’s “outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement and willingness to assist the Academy in providing the best available scientific information and technical understanding to inform complex policy decisions in Washington.”
July 17, 2025
Researchers at the University of Washington and Microsoft developed a new type of low-carbon concrete by mixing dried, powdered seaweed with cement. The seaweed-fortified cement has a 21% lower global warming potential while retaining its strength.
July 14, 2025
University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce has announced that Jason Campbell will serve as interim senior vice president for Finance, Planning and Budgeting and chief financial officer, effective Aug. 2. Currently the vice president for Finance and Budget Strategy and deputy senior finance officer, Campbell will step in to the interim position following the departure of Sarah Norris Hall. “We appreciate Jason stepping into this interim role. I’m confident he will provide excellent support to both incoming President Jones…
“Communications & Design for the Environment,” a Communication Leadership course held for the first time this spring, University of Washington professors Adrienne Russell and Dominic Muren teach students how to examine the climate crisis and environmental problems from a perspective beyond the hard sciences.
July 11, 2025
The Pat Tillman Foundation this week announced the 2025 Class of Tillman Scholars, which included two University of Washington students who exemplify the values Pat Tillman stood for: leadership, service, scholarship and impact. Stephanie Mitchell is a third-year doctoral student in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) and a military spouse. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on global health and conservation. Brian Riley earned a degree in Economics from the US Air Force Academy, and served nearly…
July 10, 2025
University of Washington Provost Tricia R. Serio announced the appointment of Danny Barrow to serve as the vice provost for Enrollment Management beginning July 28.
July 2, 2025
The University of Washington today announced the selection of Studio Tsien to design the Ana Mari Cauce Welcome Center. The UW Architectural Commission made the recommendation in June.
July 1, 2025
University of Washington researchers developed the game AI Puzzlers to show kids an area where AI systems still typically and blatantly fail: solving certain reasoning puzzles. In the game, users get a chance to solve puzzles by completing patterns of colored blocks. They can then ask various AI chatbots to solve and have the systems explain their solutions — which they nearly always fail to do accurately.
June 30, 2025
University of Washington Provost Tricia R. Serio announced that Joel Thornton has agreed to serve as interim dean of the College of the Environment, effective July 1, until a new permanent dean is selected.
Adrienne Fairhall and David Hertzog are among 120 new members and 30 international members elected “in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”
Four University of Washington researchers have been selected as Fulbright Scholars for 2025-2026 and will pursue studies in Spain, Taiwan, Poland and Japan.
June 26, 2025
Seven UW students and recent alumni were awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships for the 2025–2026 academic year, joining about 2,000 students and recent graduates from around the country to pursue graduate study, conduct research and teach English abroad.
June 25, 2025
New research found that a market-based approach to managing water could provide more reliable supplies for farmers, communities and industry. The right market design and a little extra investment could also help threatened fish species.
June 23, 2025
The University of Washington has for years been instrumental in the state’s efforts to keep workers safe. But those efforts are now under threat.
A new era of astronomy and astrophysics began Monday when the first images captured by the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory were released, demonstrating the extraordinary capabilities of the new telescope and the world’s largest digital camera.
June 18, 2025
The University of Washington is No. 8 on the 2025-26 U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities rankings, released on Tuesday. The UW maintained its No. 2 ranking among U.S. public institutions.
June 17, 2025
Brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, can help people with severe injuries or impairments regain the ability to communicate or move their arms and legs through robotic substitutes. The devices, which are about the size of a dime and are implanted on the surface of a person’s brain, serve as a communication link between the brain’s neural activity and an external device, such as a computer or a robotic limb. In this episode, Sara Goering, a University of Washington professor of philosophy,…
June 12, 2025
Imagine sitting in a movie theater watching a film you’ve been anticipating for months. Suddenly, the screen goes blank. It only lasts a second, but that’s long enough to disrupt the experience. It’s also long enough, says Mal Ahern, to remind you of the physical infrastructure behind what we so often see as an immaterial experience. Ahern, a University of Washington assistant professor of cinema and media studies, researches glitches in everything from printers to projectors. In this episode, she…
June 11, 2025
Recent recognition of the University of Washington includes an EarthLab Innovation Grant, the Best Paper Award from American Political Science Association and honorable recognition mention from the American Society for Theatre Research. UW professor Richard Watts and team awarded EarthLab Innovation Grant Richard Watts, UW associate professor of French, is part of an interdisciplinary team from the UW that received an EarthLab Innovation Grant to support their collaborative project, “Life in Spite of It All: Water, Wetlands, and Reclamation in…
From campus to wherever you call home, we welcome you to learn from and connect with the College of Arts & Sciences community through public events spanning the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. We hope to see you this Summer. ArtSci on the Go Looking for more ways to get more out of Arts & Sciences? Check out these resources to take ArtSci wherever you go! Zev J. Handel, “Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came…
Recent faculty books from the University of Washington include those from linguistics, Slavic languages and literature and French. UW News spoke with the authors of four publications to learn more about their work. Scrutinizing and confronting AI hype Emily M. Bender, UW professor of linguistics, co-authored “The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want” with Alex Hanna, the director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute. The book looks at the the…
June 10, 2025
Ken Yocom has been named the next John and Rosalind Jacobi Family Endowed Dean of the University of Washington College of Built Environments, Provost Tricia Serio announced today. His appointment, effective July 1, is subject to approval by the UW Board of Regents. Yocom has served as interim dean since October 2024 and is a professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, where he previously served as department chair. A longtime member of the UW faculty, Yocom brings deep institutional…
Virtual assistants, such as Apple’s Siri, can perform a range of tasks or services for users — and a majority of them sound like white women. Golden Marie Owens, assistant professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Washington, says there is much to learn about a person from how they sound. The same holds true for technology. In this episode, Owens discusses her research into why a white woman is the default voice for virtual assistants in…