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Arts and entertainment | UW Notebook

February 20, 2025

ArtSci Roundup: March 2025

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 March. Closing Exhibits March 1 | Overexposures: Photographs from the Henry Collection (Henry Art Gallery) March 1 | Body Language: Recent Acquisitions in the Henry Collection (Henry Art Gallery) March 13 | Unissued Diplomas: Honoring the Student Victims of…

Engineering | News releases | Research | Science | Technology

February 18, 2025

Coffee grounds and Reishi mushroom spores can be 3D printed into a compostable alternative to plastics

UW researchers developed a new system for turning used coffee grounds into a paste, which they use to 3D print objects, such as packing materials and a vase. They inoculate the paste with Reishi mushroom spores, which turn the coffee grounds into a resilient, fully compostable alternative to plastics.

Honors and awards | News releases | Research

Three UW scientists named Sloan Fellows

Three University of Washington faculty members have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 18, are Amy L. Orsborn, the Clare Boothe Luce assistant professor of electrical & computer engineering and bioengineering, Dianne J. Xiao, an assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences, and Amy X. Zhang, an assistant professor of computer science in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. 

Environment | Global | News releases | Research | Science

February 6, 2025

Whale poop contains iron that may have helped fertilize past oceans

A recent theory proposes that whales weren’t just predators in the ocean environment: Nutrients that whales excreted may have provided a key fertilizer to these marine ecosystems. Research led by University of Washington oceanographers finds that whale excrement contains significant amounts of iron, a vital element that is often scarce in ocean ecosystems, and nontoxic forms of copper, another essential nutrient that in some forms can harm life.

Administrative affairs | For UW employees | News releases | UW and the community

February 3, 2025

Robert J. Jones named 34th president of the University of Washington

The University of Washington Board of Regents on Monday announced that Robert J. Jones, who is currently concluding a nine-year tenure as Chancellor of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been selected as the 34th President of the UW. The Board had previously authorized Chair Blaine Tamaki to enter into contract negotiations with Jones and an agreement has been reached. Jones’ five-year contract will begin on August 1.

Environment | News releases | Research | Science

Grasshopper size changes suggest how to predict winners and losers under climate change

Thousands of grasshopper specimens from mountains in Colorado show trends in how the insects changed in size over 65 years. With earlier emergence of spring greenery and earlier summer drought, grasshopper species that emerged early in the year grew larger, while grasshopper species that emerge later in the year grew smaller in size. The study, led by UW biologist Lauren Buckley, shows that changes in insect size can be predicted based on lifecycles and environmental conditions.

Engineering | Expert quotes | Health and medicine | Research | Science | UW News blog

Q&A: UW researchers are designing cancer therapeutics that can kill cancer cells and restore healthy tissue

Two University of Washington researchers are developing treatments that aim to simultaneously treat cancer and improve patients’ quality of life. For World Cancer Day, UW News asked them to discuss their novel materials and how these materials can treat both the cancer and the patient.

Health and medicine | Public Health | Research | Science | UW News blog

Q&A: UW-led research identifies migration, housing quality as risk factors in earthquake deaths

Workers from small, rural communities often move into the outer edges of cities, which offer greater economic opportunities but often have low-quality housing that is likely to suffer greater damage during an earthquake. The risk grows even more when migrants come from low-income or tribal villages.

Environment | Research | Science | UW News blog

January 27, 2025

Q&A: How rate of CO2 rise can affect a global ocean current

How fast the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide — and with it, the temperature — goes up matters for the ability of humans and ecosystems to adjust. A slower increase gives humans time to move away from low-lying coasts and animals time to move to new habitats. It turns out the rate of that increase matters for non-living systems, too. Camille Hankel, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies, talks about her research on the Atlantic Ocean circulation.

Arts and entertainment | UW Notebook

January 23, 2025

ArtSci Roundup: February 2025

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 February. Featured Events: Topics in Social Change February 4 | A Shattered Country: Burma/Myanmar Four Years After the 2021 Military Coup d’Etat (Center for Southeast Asia and its Diasporas) February 5 | The Social Shift: Content Creators, New Voices,…

Engineering | News releases | Research | Technology

January 21, 2025

Study finds strong negative associations with teenagers in AI models

A UW team studied how AI systems portray teens in English and Nepali, and found that in English language systems around 30% of the responses referenced societal problems such as violence, drug use and mental illness. The Nepali system produced fewer negative associations in responses, closer to 10% of all answers.

News releases | Research | Science

January 16, 2025

Panorama of our nearest galactic neighbor unveils hundreds of millions of stars

The Hubble Space Telescope has generated the most comprehensive survey yet of the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest galactic neighbor to the Milky Way. The new mosaic of about 2.5 billion pixels yields new clues to the galaxy’s history. UW astronomers presented the findings Jan. 16 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Administrative affairs | News releases | UW and the community

January 15, 2025

Office of Civil Rights concludes UW investigation with resolution agreement, no finding of liability or wrongdoing

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights announced the conclusion of its investigation into complaints alleging that the University of Washington discriminated against students on the basis of shared ancestry by failing to respond to incidents of harassment consistent with the requirements of Title VI. The resolution agreement “does not constitute an admission of liability, non-compliance or wrongdoing by the University,” and the UW has agreed to five actions that will strengthen its commitment to timely and effective responses to complaints filed by students, faculty and staff.  

Engineering | News releases | Research | Technology

January 8, 2025

A smart ring with a tiny camera lets users point and click to control home devices

UW researchers have developed IRIS, a smart ring that allows users to point and click to control smart devices. The prototype Bluetooth ring contains a small camera which sends an image of the selected device to the user’s phone. The user can control the device by clicking a small button or — for devices with gradient controls, such as a speaker’s volume — rotating the ring.

News releases | Research | Science

January 3, 2025

The carbon in our bodies probably left the galaxy and came back on cosmic ‘conveyor belt’

University of Washington scientists recently discovered that the giant ‘conveyor belt’ currents that push star-forged material out of our galaxy and pull it back in can also transport carbon atoms. That means that a good deal of the carbon here on Earth, including the carbon in our bodies, likely left the galaxy at some point!

Arts and entertainment | UW Notebook

December 19, 2024

ArtSci Roundup: January 2025

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 January. Featured: Global Connections Through January | Teamsters, Turtles, and Beyond: The Legacy of the Seattle WTO Protests — MOHAI exhibit (History) January 9 | Global Sport Lab: What Worlds Does Soccer Imagine? (Jackson School) January 15 | Autopsy…

News roundups | Video

December 18, 2024

Video highlights: From sea stars to sound waves, a look back at an eventful 2024 at the UW

Magical moments and memorable events — from a baby sea stars to a cherry trees blooming — happen all year round at the University of Washington, and our videos help people understand what it looked like, what happened and who was involved. Here’s a glimpse at 2024 from around the University of Washington and beyond.

Engineering | Expert quotes | News releases | Research | Technology

Q&A: New AI training method lets systems better adjust to users’ values

University of Washington researchers created a method for training AI systems — both for large language models like ChatGPT and for robots — that can better reflect users’ diverse values. It predicts users’ preferences as they interact with it, then tailors its outputs accordingly.

Administrative affairs | For UW employees | Global | News releases | UW and the community

December 16, 2024

Ahmad Ezzeddine named UW Vice Provost for Global Affairs

Ezzeddine comes from Wayne State University in Detroit, his alma mater, where he is the senior vice provost for partnerships, workforce and international initiatives. He fills the position vacated when Jeffrey Riedinger retired and became professor emeritus at the UW School of Law.

Environment | Research | Science | UW News blog

December 13, 2024

In the Field: UW oceanographers and undergrads pursue tiny viral prize in Puget Sound waters

UW oceanographer Robert Morris and a collaborator at UCLA are going out with students to collect the most abundant bacteria in the oceans to understand how its relationship with marine viruses changes depending on the place or the season. They leave Dec. 16 aboard UW School of Oceanography’s small research vessel, the RV Rachel Carson.

Environment | News releases | Research | UW News blog

December 12, 2024

Surveys show full scale of massive die-off of common murres following the ‘warm blob’ in the Pacific Ocean

Colony surveys of common murres, an Alaskan seabird, show the full effects of the 2014-16 marine heat wave known as “the blob.” Analysis of 13 colonies surveyed between 2008 and 2022 finds that colony size in the Gulf of Alaska dropped by half after the marine heat wave. In colonies along the eastern Bering Sea, west of the peninsula, the decline was even steeper, at 75% loss. No recovery has yet been seen.

UW News blog

December 10, 2024

Social media highlights: UW News 2024

This year, the UW News social media team shared the inspiring stories of work being done by the University of Washington community with reporters, news outlets and our social media followers. We also shared special events happening around campus with our community. National Championship Game 2024 started off with the NCAA National Championship game between the Washington Huskies and the Michigan Wolverines. UW News was there while fans in Houston, Texas cheered on the Huskies and we spoke with UW…

News releases | Research | Science

December 6, 2024

More than 10,000 supernovae counted in stellar census

Since 2018 the Zwicky Transient Facility, an international astronomical collaboration based at the Palomar Observatory in California, has scanned the entire sky every two to three nights. As part of this mission, the ZTF’s Bright Transient Survey has been counting and cataloguing supernovae — flashes of light in the sky that are the telltale signs of stars dying in spectacular explosions. On Dec. 4, ZTF researchers — including astronomers at the University of Washington — announced that that they have identified more than 10,000 of these stellar events, the largest number ever identified by an astronomical survey.

Environment | News releases | Research | Science

Record-low Antarctic sea ice can be explained and forecast months out by patterns in winds

University of Washington researchers show that the all-time record low in winter sea ice extent in 2023 can be explained by warm Southern Ocean conditions and patterns in the winds that circled Antarctica months earlier, allowing forecasts for sea ice coverage around the South Pole to be generated six or more months in advance. This could support regional and global weather and climate models.

News releases | Research | Science

December 5, 2024

That’s no straw: Hummingbirds evolved surprisingly flexible bills to help them drink nectar

Hummingbird bills — their long, thin beaks — look a little like drinking straws. But new research shows just how little water, or nectar, that comparison holds. University of Washington scientists have discovered that the hummingbird bill is surprisingly flexible. While drinking, a hummingbird rapidly opens and shuts different parts of its bill simultaneously, engaging in an intricate and highly coordinated dance with its tongue to draw up nectar at lightning speeds.

Environment | Population Health | Research | Science | UW News blog | Video

December 4, 2024

Video: Talking about climate and weather with the Office of the Washington State Climatologist

From a base at the southwest corner of the UW’s Seattle campus, the Office of the Washington State Climatologist’s Guillaume Mauger and Karin Bumbaco provide expertise, tools and resources on “all things climate” to partners and communities across the state.

News releases | Public Health | Research | Science | Soundbites | Video

November 25, 2024

RETRACTED AND REPLACED: UW-led research links wildfire smoke exposure with increased dementia risk

An analysis of the health care records of 1.2 million Southern California residents found that higher long-term smoke exposure was associated with a significant increase in the odds that a person would be diagnosed with dementia. Exposure to non-wildfire PM2.5 also increased a person’s risk of dementia, but to a much lesser degree.  

Global | Research | UW News blog

November 21, 2024

UW among best universities in the world for interdisciplinary science

The University of Washington was ranked No. 15 in the world for interdisciplinary scientific research, according to a new list published earlier this month by the U.K.-based Times Higher Education. The UW placed in the top 10 among U.S. institutions. Among U.S. public institutions, the UW placed fifth.

Arts and entertainment | UW Notebook

ArtSci Roundup: December 2024

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 December. Open Exhibits Henry Art Gallery Through March 2025 | Overexposures: Photographs from the Henry Collection This focused presentation features a selection of photographs from the Henry’s collections that explore the uses of light to obscure, obliterate, and alter…

News releases | Research | Science

Fewer than 7% of global hotspots for whale-ship collisions have protection measures in place

A new study led by the University of Washington has for the first time quantified the risk for whale-ship collisions worldwide for four geographically widespread ocean giants that are threatened by shipping: blue, fin, humpback and sperm whales. In a paper published online Nov. 21 in Science, researchers report that global shipping traffic overlaps with about 92% of these whale species’ ranges. Only about 7% of areas at highest risk for whale-ship collisions have any measures in place to protect whales from this threat. These measures include speed reductions, both mandatory and voluntary, for ships crossing waters that overlap with whale migration or feeding areas.

Administrative affairs | News releases | Research

November 20, 2024

UW addresses USDA inspection report findings at WaNPRC

A routine inspection of the University of Washington’s animal care and use program conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on Oct. 8 identified issues that the UW had self-reported and corrected before the inspection took place.

News releases | Research | Technology

In the ‘Wild West’ of AI chatbots, subtle biases related to race and caste often go unchecked

University of Washington researchers developed a system for detecting subtle biases in AI models. They found seven of the eight popular AI models they tested in conversations around race and caste generated significant amounts of biased text in interactions — particularly when discussing caste. Open-source models fared far worse than two proprietary ChatGPT models.