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The latest news from the UW

September 2, 2020

UW Books: Climate change meets restoration science in ‘Anticipating Future Environments’; ‘Building Reuse’ in paperback — and Anu Taranath’s ‘Beyond Guilt Trips’ named a Washington State Book Award finalist

Recent news about UW-authored books includes a UW Press book on salmon habitat restoration amid climate change and a paperback edition of a book on building reuse. Also, Anu Taranath’s “Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World” is a Washington State Book Award finalist.

August 31, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: “From Ours to Alien: The Journey of Polish OBCY” lecture, MELTED RIOT: RGB performance, and more

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and the greater community, together online.  Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Lecture: From Ours to Alien: The Journey of Polish OBCY September 9, 7:00 – 8:30 PM | Online via Zoom Join the Polish Studies Endowment for…

UW receives NSF funds for investment in an interdisciplinary quantum future

The National Science Foundation has awarded $3 million to establish a NSF Research Traineeship at the University of Washington for graduate students in quantum information science and technology. The new traineeship — known as Accelerating Quantum-Enabled Technologies, or AQET — will make the UW one of just “a handful” of universities with a formal, interdisciplinary QIST curriculum.

August 28, 2020

UW breaks ground on the future of health sciences education and improving our health

The future of our health and the health of the communities we live in relies, in many ways, on students in the health sciences. The education and experiences that future doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, social workers and public health experts receive will to a large degree shape how those professionals work and work together when solving problems affecting our health. And while the University of Washington’s highly ranked health sciences schools have long focused on interdisciplinary education and training students…

Weathering the tough times: Fossil evidence of ‘hibernation-like’ state in 250-million-year-old Antarctic animal

University of Washington scientists report evidence of a hibernation-like state in Lystrosaurus, an animal that lived in Antarctica during the Early Triassic, some 250 million years ago. The fossils are the oldest evidence of a hibernation-like state in a vertebrate, and indicate that torpor — a general term for hibernation and similar states in which animals temporarily lower their metabolic rate to get through a tough season — arose in vertebrates even before mammals and dinosaurs evolved.

August 26, 2020

Faculty from Allen School, Evans School tapped for NSF institutes on artificial intelligence

The National Science Foundation has announced five new institutes devoted to AI research and based at universities around the country. Six University of Washington faculty will be affiliated with the institutes.

Mount Everest summit success rates double, death rate stays the same over last 30 years

A new study led by researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, Davis, finds that the success rate of summiting Mount Everest has doubled in the last three decades, even though the number of climbers has greatly increased, crowding the narrow route through the dangerous “death zone” near the summit. However, the death rate for climbers has hovered unchanged at around 1% since 1990.

August 24, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Strange Coupling 2020, Drop-In Meditation Session, and More

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and the greater community, together online.  Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Lux Aeterna View at your leisure | Online The Jacob Lawrence Gallery & Northwest Film Forum have announced the launch of Lux Aeterna, a year-long project exploring…

August 21, 2020

Failure to ‘flatten the curve’ may kill more people than we thought

New research by the University of Minnesota and the University of Washington finds that every six additional ICU beds or seven additional non-ICU beds filled by COVID-19 patients leads to one additional COVID-19 death over the following week. “A spike in hospitalization naturally leads to more deaths, but these deaths may not only come from those who are hospitalized, but also from those who should have been hospitalized but were not,” said co-author Anirban Basu, a UW professor of health…

August 20, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Strange Coupling Exhibition, The Color of Law, and more

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and the greater community, together online.  Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Strange Coupling 2020 Exhibition Launch View at your leisure | Online Strange Coupling has been a student-run tradition in the School of Art + Art History…

Faculty/staff honors: Public service award, endowed professorship, cybersecurity grant — and a UW professor among Talented 12

Recent honors and grants to University of Washington faculty and staff have come from the American Chemical Society, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the National Science Board and the family of engineers Ganesh and Hema Moorthy.

August 18, 2020

Data omission in key EPA insecticide study shows need for review of industry analysis

For nearly 50 years, a statistical omission tantamount to data falsification sat undiscovered in a critical study at the heart of regulating one of the most controversial and widely used pesticides in America. Chlorpyrifos, an insecticide created in the late 1960s by the Dow Chemical Co., has been linked to serious health problems, especially in children. It has been the subject of many lawsuits and banned in Europe and California. The EPA itself nearly banned the chemical, but in 2017 the…

August 13, 2020

Systemic racism has consequences for all life in cities

Social inequalities, specifically racism and classism, are impacting the biodiversity, evolutionary shifts and ecological health of plants and animals in our cities. That’s the main finding of a review paper published Aug. 13 in Science led by the University of Washington, with co-authors at the University of California, Berkeley, and University of Michigan.

August 10, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Re/frame Series, Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair, #BurkeFromHome Trivia Night, and More

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and the greater community, together online.  Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Re/frame: Still Life August 20, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM and 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM | Online Join Ann Poulson, the Henry Art Gallery‘s Associate…

August 7, 2020

Faculty/staff honors: Grants for STEM equity, HIV prevention; innovation award — and a White House honor for engineering mentoring

Recent honors and grants to University of Washington individuals and units have come from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the Marconi Society — and the White House.

August 6, 2020

ArtSci Roundup: Kim Van Someren at J. Rinehard Gallery, UW Alumni Book Club, Dance Graduate Symposium, and more

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and the greater community, together online.  Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Kim Van Someren: The Slate of Line View at your leisure, through Sept 12 | Online Celebrate School of Art + Art History + Design Instructional…

August 3, 2020

New studies show how to save parasites and why it’s important

An international group of scientists has laid out an ambitious global conservation plan for parasites. A related paper led by the University of Washington found that responses of parasites to environmental change are likely to be complex, and that a changing world probably will see both outbreaks of some parasites and a total loss of other parasite species.

Deep-sea anglerfishes have evolved a new type of immune system

Deep-sea anglerfishes employ an incredible reproductive strategy. Tiny dwarfed males become permanently attached to relatively gigantic females, fuse their tissues and then establish a common blood circulation. Now scientists have figured out why female anglerfishes so readily accept their male mates. Their findings are published July 30 in Science.

National Academies publishes guide to help public officials make sense of COVID-19 data

University of Washington professor Adrian Raftery is lead author on a National Academies guide to help officials interpret and understand different COVID-19 statistics and data sources as they make decisions about opening and closing schools, businesses and community facilities.

July 29, 2020

Rankings roundup: UW rises to No. 26 in the world, fourth among US publics; Bothell, Seattle campuses lead list of colleges that ‘pay off the most’

The University of Washington was recognized this week in two separate rankings for its global impact in teaching and research, as well as for its value to graduates compared to cost of attendance.

Expert FAQ: Wildfires in the Pacific Northwest during the COVID-19 pandemic

The University of Washington has a long history of leading research into the impacts of wildfires from an ecological and health perspective. We worked with two experts to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, including the ways that the pandemic is increasing our community’s vulnerability to extreme wildfire events in the region.

UW Libraries publishes new online research guides on racial justice, African American experience in Pacific Northwest

UW Libraries has published timely new online guides to help researchers studying the Black experience in the Pacific Northwest and the broader topic of racial justice.

July 28, 2020

Faculty/staff honors: Women in engineering network nod, winning magazine article on geologic hazards and refugees — and two national genetics society 2020 awards

Recent honors to University of Washington faculty and staff members have come from the Women in Engineering ProActive Network, Association Media & Publishing and The American Society of Human Genetics.

ArtSci Roundup: “The Last Stargazers” Book Launch, VoiceThreads, and More

During this time of uncertainty and isolation, find solace in digital opportunities to connect, share, and engage. Each week, we will share upcoming events that bring the UW, and the greater community, together online.  Many of these online opportunities are streamed through Zoom. All UW faculty, staff, and students have access to Zoom Pro via UW-IT.  Astronomer Emily Levesque: The Last Stargazers Book Launch  August 3, 7:00-8:30 PM | Online University of Washington professor Emily Levesque discusses her new books at (online)…

July 27, 2020

Pristine air over Southern Ocean suggests early industrial era’s clouds not so different from today’s

A new study led by the University of Washington and the University of Leeds uses satellite data over the Southern Hemisphere to understand the makeup of global clouds since the Industrial Revolution. This research tackles one of the largest uncertainties in today’s climate models — the long-term effect of tiny atmospheric particles on climate change.

July 20, 2020

‘A world of my own’: José Alaniz publishes a life of cartooning — so far — in collection ‘The Phantom Zone’

José Alaniz says that comics — especially superhero tales — hooked him and “rewired” his brain at an early age. They also got him drawing his own comics, chronicling his life and the things he observes. Now Alaniz, a UW professor of Slavic languages and literatures, has published a collection of his own drawings and essays. “The Phantom Zone.”