UW News
The latest news from the UW
April 15, 2015
Man with restored sight provides new insight into how vision develops
California man Mike May made international headlines in 2000 when his sight was restored by a pioneering stem cell procedure after 40 years of blindness. But a study published three years after the operation found that the then-49-year-old could see colors, motion and some simple two-dimensional shapes, but was incapable of more complex visual processing….
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • Department of Psychology • Ione FineApril 14, 2015
UW Information School’s Katie Davis gets NSF Early Career Award
Katie Davis, assistant professor at the University of Washington Information School, has received a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation. Davis, who studies the role of digital media technologies in the lives of teenagers, will receive $759,462 over five years for a project titled “Digital Badges for STEM Education.” The work…
UW among select universities to use investigational Medtronic device, advance research into brain activity
Researchers from the University of Washington have teamed up with medical device manufacturer Medtronic to use the Activa® PC+S Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) system with people who have essential tremor.
Tag(s): College of Arts & Sciences • College of Engineering • Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering • Department of Neurological Surgery • Department of Philosophy • Howard Chizeck • School of MedicineApril 13, 2015
Public notice: Determination of non-significance — West Campus Utility Plant
Public Notice University Of Washington Pursuant to the provisions of WAC 197-11-460 & 510 and WAC 478-324-140, the University of Washington hereby provides public notice of the: Determination of non-significance Project Name: Seattle Campus — West Campus Utility Plant Proponent: University of Washington Description of Proposal: The proposed West Campus Utility Plant (WCUP) Project is intended to…
UW Bothell, Tacoma campuses honored in Olympia for 25 years of educational excellence
The University of Washington Bothell and Tacoma campuses were recognized April 13 by both Gov. Jay Inslee and the State Senate with a proclamation and senate resolution acknowledging the 25th anniversary of the state’s newest public university campuses.
Tag(s): UW Bothell • UW Tacoma
Violent methane storms on Titan may solve dune direction mystery
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, has a hazy atmosphere and surface rivers, mountains, lakes and sand dunes. But the dunes and prevailing surface winds don’t point in the same direction. New research from UW astronomer Benjamin Charnay may have solved this mystery.
Tag(s): astronomy & astrophysics • Benjamin Charnay • Department of Astronomy • planetary science • Virtual Planetary LaboratoryApril 10, 2015
UW raises minimum wage to $11 per hour for all student workers
The University of Washington announced today it is increasing the minimum pay for its student workers to $11 an hour, effective April 1, 2015, consistent with its announcement March 31 that it was moving 70 non-student staff earning below $11 to the new level. Approximately 2,600 student workers are affected. On March 31, the University…
April 9, 2015
‘Warm blob’ in Pacific Ocean linked to weird weather across the U.S.
A patch of warm water off the West Coast, nicknamed “the blob” by a UW scientist, is part of a larger shift in the Pacific Ocean that may be responsible for widespread weather changes.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies • Dennis Hartmann • Department of Atmospheric Sciences • Nick Bond
Who’s a CEO? Google image results can shift gender biases
A University of Washington study assesses how accurately gender representations in online image search results for 45 different occupations — from CEO to telemarketer to engineer — match reality. Exposure to skewed image results shifted people’s perceptions about how many women actually hold those jobs.
Tag(s): College of Engineering • Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering • Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & EngineeringApril 8, 2015
Game played in sync increases children’s perceived similarity, closeness
What helps children who have just met form a connection? A new study shows that a simple game played together in sync on a computer led 8-year-olds to report a greater sense of similarity and closeness immediately after the activity. Children who played the same game but not in a synchronous way did not report…
Tag(s): Andrew Meltzoff • I-LABS • Tal-Chen RabinowitchApril 7, 2015
UW astronomer named 2015 Sagan Fellow
A UW postdoctoral scientist is among six nationwide recipients of the 2015 Carl Sagan Exoplanet Postdoctoral Fellowships. The Sagan Fellowships support recent postdoctoral students in research related to the scientific goals of NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program — specifically, to discover and characterize planetary systems and Earth-like planets around stars. Daniel Foreman-Mackey , an incoming postdoctoral…
Common birds bring economic vitality to cities, new study finds
A new study finds the economic value of enjoying urban birds to be $120 million each year for Seattle residents and $70 million for people living in Berlin. Residents in both cities spend more than the average U.S. adult on bird-supporting activities, which then benefit the local economies as residents invest in bird food and conservation.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • John Marzluff • School of Environmental and Forest SciencesApril 6, 2015
Fishing amplifies forage fish collapses
A new study implicates fishing in the collapse of forage fish stocks and recommends risk-based management tools that would track a fishery’s numbers and suspend fishing when necessary.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences • Tim EssingtonApril 3, 2015
University of Washington undergraduates assist search for El Salvador’s disappeared children
The country of El Salvador was torn apart by a brutal civil war from 1980 to 1992 that took the lives of 75,000 civilians, many the victims of massacres that wiped out entire villages. Throughout that war, thousands of children were forcibly disappeared from their homes and communities by agents of the Salvadoran state as…
Event explores mass incarceration, racial justice
The United States imprisons a larger percentage of African Americans than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., three out of every four young black men are likely to serve time in prison, according to projections. Those stark facts are found in Michelle Alexander’s 2012 book “The New Jim Crow: Mass…
R2-D2 to driverless cars: UW conference to explore gray areas in robotics law
Robots such as household helpers, driverless cars and personal drones are — or will soon be —available to consumers. But what protections guarantee they won’t spy on us or surreptitiously sell us things? Could a robot be used to verify an alibi in a criminal court case? Who is liable if a driverless car crashes…
Tourist to traveler: 2015 Kelly Lecture to highlight impact of study abroad
University of Washington English professor Shawn Wong, who has designed and led numerous study abroad classes over the last 18 years, will address the importance of academic travel when he presents the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity’s (OMA&D) 11th annual Samuel E. Kelly Distinguished Faculty Lecture on Thursday, April 16. His lecture titled…
April 2, 2015
Public talk April 9 looks back at astronomy department’s 50 years
The UW Astronomy Department celebrates its 50th anniversary this school year. Julie Lutz, research professor emeritus of astronomy, will review that history in a free public talk at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 9, in the Physics/Astronomy Auditorium. The astronomy department was formed in 1965 by George Wallerstein, Paul Hodge and Theodor Jacobson, for whom a…
‘Fu-Go’ explores World War II Japanese balloon attacks on US
Ross Coen, UW doctoral student in history, discusses his book “Fu-Go: The Curious History of Japan’s Balloon Bomb Attack on America.”
Tag(s): books • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of History • Ross Coen
Sally Clark named UW director of regional and community relations
Sally J. Clark, who has served on the Seattle City Council since February 2006, has been appointed director of regional and community relations at the University of Washington, effective May 18, 2015. “I am thrilled to welcome Sally to the University,” said Randy Hodgins, UW vice president for external affairs. “She brings a wealth of…
UW, NASA prepare for effort to measure rain, snow on Olympic Peninsula
The University of Washington and NASA are preparing for an effort next winter to measure rain in America’s rainiest place: Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. As part of the current gear-up phase, they are looking for volunteers to help track rain.
Tag(s): College of the Environment • Department of Atmospheric Sciences • Lynn McMurdie • NASA • Robert Houze • weatherApril 1, 2015
Three UW students chosen as 2015 Goldwater Scholars
Three University of Washington undergraduates are among 260 students nationwide named as 2015 Goldwater Scholars. The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation scholarships are awarded to students who have “outstanding potential” and plan to pursue research careers in mathematics, natural sciences or engineering. The awards cover tuition, room and board, fees and books…
Tag(s): awards
Arts Roundup: Dance, lectures — and Music of Today
Welcome to a new quarter! The Henry Art Gallery kicks off this week with an Incite and Insight lecture featuring artist Suzanne Bocanegra. The School of Music quickly follows up with a faculty recital by Jazz Studies Professor Marc Seales and a Music of Today performance in collaboration with the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS).
Tag(s): DXARTS • Henry Art Gallery • Meany Center for the Performing Arts • School of MusicMarch 31, 2015
UW Interim President Ana Mari Cauce statement on proposed Senate budget
The following statement is from University of Washington Interim President Ana Mari Cauce: “While I am very pleased to see that the Senate budget not only provides most of the state funding needed to pay for its tuition reduction bill, and makes additional investments for the next biennium, there are some troubling aspects to the…
UW raises minimum-wage workers to $11 per hour
The University of Washington announced today that it is bringing a small group of employees who currently earn below $11 an hour to that level, effective April 1, in keeping with the spirit of Seattle’s new minimum wage law. Of the approximately 39,000 non-student employees at the UW, 70 currently earn below $11 per hour….
Anne Greenbaum a 2015 fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Each year the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the fields of applied mathematics and computational science. A University of Washington mathematician is among 31 new fellows honored this year from academic, industrial and government institutions around the world. Anne Greenbaum, a UW professor of applied mathematics,…
March 30, 2015
Three UW programs make top 10 in LinkedIn’s graduate school program rankings
The University of Washington has three programs in the top 10 on LinkedIn’s rankings of university graduate school programs based on job outcomes in some select fields. The UW’s graduate program for software developers (ranked third), designers (fourth) and accounting professionals (seventh) were in the top 10 in their fields. “By analyzing the employment patterns…
UW faculty team for five-year study of Seattle’s minimum wage increase
What will be the effects of the city of Seattle’s minimum wage ordinance? Faculty from the UW’s schools of public affairs, public health and social work are teaming up for The Seattle Minimum Wage Study, a five-year research project to learn that and more.
Tag(s): Evans School of Public Policy & Governance • Heather Hill • Jacob Vigdor • Jennifer Otten • Marieka Klawitter • Mark Long • minimum wage • Robert Plotnick • School of Public Health • School of Social Work • Scott Allard
Huge whirlpools help set oceanic spring bloom
On the UW campus, most people’s focus at this time of year is on pink cherry blossoms. But this time of year in the northern Atlantic Ocean, a massive bloom soon to appear at the ocean’s surface is a major event in our planet’s carbon cycle. Now UW-developed robots have captured what happens to these…
Lecture April 2 looks at how to fill nature void for kids, adults
We are attached to our devices nearly 24/7. As our number of activities and time spent outdoors shrinks, it’s perhaps no coincidence that the larger society faces higher occurrences of depression, child and adult obesity and attention deficit disorder. Getting more people outside and engaged with nature is the topic of this year’s School of…
March 29, 2015
Notice of possible rule making preproposal statement of inquiry
Subject of Possible Rule Making: Chapter 478-168 WAC, Regulations for the University of Washington Libraries Statutes Authorizing the University to Adopt Rules on This Subject: RCW 28B.20.130. Reasons Why Rules on This Subject May Be Needed and What They Might Accomplish: Chapter 478-168 WAC has not received any substantive amendments to the code since 2004…
March 27, 2015
UW Interim President Ana Mari Cauce statement on proposed House budget
University of Washington Interim President Ana Mari Cauce comments on the proposed House budget.
UW-built mic records noisy glacier melt
One would imagine a glacier’s melt to be fairly quiet. That would be wrong. Recordings by current and former University of Washington researchers in fjords shows that melting at glacier edges in the narrow rock-edged canyons are some of the noisiest places in the sea. The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, recorded the sound…
Students to pitch clean-tech solutions April 2 at Environmental Innovation Challenge
More than 40 University of Washington students will compete in the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge 2015. It asks students from around the state to identify an environmental problem, develop a solution, build a prototype and sell their idea to judges. Twenty-two interdisciplinary student teams will pitch and demonstrate their solutions April 2 at an…
Tag(s): clean or renewable energyMarch 25, 2015
Labor Archives of Washington kicks off minimum-wage history project April 11
The Labor Archives of Washington, part of UW Libraries Special Collections Department, is creating an online resource called the Minimum Wage History Project to document the 2013-2014 campaign that succeeded in mandating a $15 minimum hourly wage in the cities of Seattle and Sea-Tac. The effort kicks off with a public program, “Preserving Solidarity Forever:…
March 24, 2015
Is exposure to secondhand smoke child abuse?
No one would argue that exposing children to secondhand smoke is bad, but should it be considered child abuse? Taryn Lindhorst, a UW associate professor of social work, says no. In an opinion piece published online in the Annals of Family Medicine earlier this month, Lindhorst argues that treating children’s exposure to secondhand smoke as…
March 23, 2015
UW scientists build a nanolaser using a single atomic sheet
University of Washington scientists have built a new nanometer-sized laser using a semiconductor that’s only three atoms thick. It could help open the door to next-generation computing that uses light, rather than electrons, to transfer information.
Tag(s): Arka Majumdar • College of Arts & Sciences • College of Engineering • Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering • Department of Materials Science & Engineering • Department of Physics • Sanfeng Wu • University of Washington Magazine • Xiaodong Xu
Mia Tuan named dean of the UW’s College of Education
Mia Tuan has been named dean of the College of Education at the University of Washington, interim President Ana Mari Cauce and interim Provost Jerry Baldasty announced today. Tuan comes to the UW from the University of Oregon, where she has held a number of academic and leadership positions over the past 18 years. The…
Author Charles Johnson discusses new work — and the return of Emery Jones
Charles Johnson, English professor emeritus discusses three new books out, including the second children’s book in the Adventures of Emery Jones series, “The Hard Problem,” illustrated by Johnson himself.
Tag(s): books • Charles Johnson • College of Arts & Sciences • Department of English • Race
For Alternative Spring Break students, a cultural experience close to home
Years ago, a fellow educator made a comment that stuck in Christine Stickler’s head. University students don’t need to travel to a foreign country for spring break to immerse themselves in another culture, she said — they can do that right here in Washington state. That observation led Stickler to launch the UW’s Alternative Spring…
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