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Boundless stories

Read about the people, places and programs that drive the University of Washington to work for a world of good.

Be Boundless

Tracking a global hurricane

Experts at an independent population health research center are helping policymakers navigate the COVID-19 pandemic — and prepare for an uncharted future.

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UW fights viral misinformation

From debunking myths on social media to investigating how users react to fake content, UW researchers hope to slow the viral spread of the COVID-19 'infodemic.'

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A natural cure for cavities

Imagine if we could reverse cavities before they worsen — and avoid a painful and costly visit to the dentist.

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Raising their voices

Seen through the eyes of Charity Urbanski, senior lecturer in history, the women of medieval Europe have a lot to teach today’s students.

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Curating the future

At the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, curatorial interns get hands-on preparation for careers in the art world — and roles in the community.

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Strength in community

Hayden Campbell, a graduate student in urban planning, is building on his UW education to help create more equitable spaces on campus — and in the city.

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The path to healing

Srinya Julie Sukrachan overcame many hurdles on her way to becoming a nurse. Now she’s using her UW degree to serve others.

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Fostering brotherhood abroad

Study abroad can be life-changing, but it can also seem largely inaccessible to young men of color. The UW Brotherhood Initiative is working to open the door.

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Remembering those who sacrificed

On Memorial Day, we recognize those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. These monuments on the UW campus in Seattle honor their memory.

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Building bridges

From a small Washington town to one of the world’s largest cities, Caleb Huffman is on a quest to connect with others — and expand his own perspective in the process.

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Veterans on a mission

Evans School graduate Joy Turner, ’18, and student Andrew Peppler, ’19, encountered all kinds of political viewpoints during their Army service. Now they’re bringing a range of veteran voices to the public with their podcast, Speak Freely.

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Speaking words of justice

Through her undergraduate research, UW Bothell senior Malak Shalabi is exploring her identity, her past — and the grim political reality that still affects her family.

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Learning from the ground up

At the College of the Environment’s geology field camp, students hit the dirt for lessons you can’t find in a textbook.

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Brewing success

With support from the Foster School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, four co-founders are turning a UW classroom project into a budding beverage company.

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A week in the wild: Field lessons

Students and professors from the College of the Environment made a classroom out of one of the world’s most closely monitored ecosystems: Yellowstone National Park.

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A promise
fulfilled

In the last decade, the Husky Promise program has helped more than 39,000 Washington students attend the UW — including these three alums.

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A commitment to community

Thanks to our Be Boundless campaign sponsors, the UW is strengthening its efforts to serve others and create opportunities across the state.

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A healthy future after kidney failure

Following a successful kidney transplant, Wade Washington resolved to become a transplant surgeon himself. Now he’s pursuing that dream at the UW.

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A pocket-size research revolution

A breakthrough device called kidney-on-a-chip is giving new hope to patients suffering from kidney disease. Meet the team behind the project — and find out why the chip is heading to outer space.

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Creating communities that care

Across Seattle, UW School of Social Work students and community leaders are working together to encourage healthy behaviors in young people — and set them up for success.

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Reader today, leader tomorrow

Each summer, the UW’s Real Dawgs Read program helps children across Washington state discover the joys — and immense benefits — of reading.

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Changing the game

When she came to the UW, Havana McElvaine, ’17, thought of herself as an athlete first. She graduated as a student-athlete-activist — and now she’s getting ready to explore the world.

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Garden cities

At the UW’s College of Built Environments, students like David de la Cruz, ’17, are partnering with some of the world’s most vulnerable communities in the fight for environmental justice.

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Where will meets way

For Yakima-born Yesenia Velasquez, the Young Executives of Color program at the Foster School of Business has opened the door to a promising future she never knew existed.

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Facing homelessness

For 90 days over winter quarter, the UW hosted Tent City 3, an organized tent city that offers safe, secure housing to people in need. These are the residents’ stories.

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Creating safer, smarter homes

Older adults are living more independently thanks to modern technology. See how the UW School of Nursing is turning houses into smart homes, allowing residents and caregivers to catch warning signs of illnesses earlier.

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Wandering and wondering

A handful of UW students are selected as Bonderman Fellows every year. For eight months, they get to travel the world for an experience that’s eye-opening, unstructured and transformative.

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Setting a course
for the future

Each year, dozens of UW students spend their spring break volunteering across the state. This spring in Neah Bay, volunteers helped fifth-graders imagine their futures through digital storytelling.

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Slide to unlock

Today’s touch-screen world is leaving behind an entire segment of the population: those with motor impairments. iSchool Ph.D. candidate Martez Mott wants to change that.

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Art in all forms

Explore the hidden treasures of the Henry Art Gallery — from 18th-century fashion to priceless works of art from the Pacific Northwest to India and beyond.

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How can we reduce poverty?

For researchers like Matthew Fowle, an MPA student at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, a desire to make the world more equitable drives his work to improve financial services in low-income countries.

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Tracking the $15 minimum wage

Seattle's historic $15 minimum wage presents an unprecedented opportunity for researchers like Hilary Wething to track the effects of a new policy in real time.

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Bridging the Know-Do Gap

We know science can improve health. But how do we go from knowing to doing? The School of Public Health has the world’s first Ph.D. program in implementation science, designed to raise the speed and quality of applying science toward improved health worldwide.

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Special care for healthy smiles

Finding a dentist can be challenging for people with disabilities. But Dr. Keturah Lowe and other practitioners at the UW School of Dentistry are working to increase the number of dentists who can treat patients with special needs.

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Tom Rochat 2.0

Five years ago, Tom Rochat, ’13, was foraging for mushrooms and struggling to pay rent. Today, he’s on the fast track to senior-level management at a global IT company — and he gives UW Tacoma credit for his transformation.

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A new face in Washington state politics

Dulce Gutiérrez, ’14, is making history as one of Eastern Washington’s first Latina city council members.

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Improving one-third of our days

Spurred by factory work with her mother, Google consultant Vy Tran, ’16, is dedicated to making workplaces safer and healthier.

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Archiving history

From historical manuscripts to rare photographs, University Libraries' Special Collections offers countless opportunities to discover the past from a first-person perspective. Explore some of what the archives hold.

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Taking diversity to the next level

Students and staff in UW Bothell’s Digital Future Lab are not only creating professional-quality video games for commercial release, they’re also addressing the lack of diversity in the technology industry.

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What is possible?

Associate professors of art Mark Zirpel and Amie McNeil ask what is possible when we unite scientific curiosity and artistic mastery.

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Opening the door to opportunity

As an instructor and student member of the UW’s Race & Equity Initiative steering committee, Ph.D. candidate Gonzalo Guzman is tackling injustice from K–12 to college.

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Helping the body heal, feel and move again

From the Ability & Innovation Lab to the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, the College of Engineering is innovating novel devices to help people of all abilities live out their dreams.

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Targeting cancer, precisely

At the vanguard of next-generation precision medicine, Dr. Pamela Becker’s work through the Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine is taking aim at cancer.

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Unleashing the Husky Experience

What is the Husky Experience? Well, that depends on who you ask.

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Nurturing minds, opening doors

In South Seattle and south King County, the UW College of Education is partnering with the Road Map Project to close achievement gaps in schools — and open all doors for young learners.

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On the research track

Jennifer Smith, ’16, had been a high school dropout. Now, with the help of scholarships, the mother of three is combining her interests in history and horses with a passion for research.

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Preserving the past, helping the future

Join us as we go behind-the-scenes at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. See fascinating items that aren’t on display, and learn how the museum manages collections in areas from fish to fossils.

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A new reality for rehabilitation

Recovering from a stroke is an arduous process, but thanks to a group of UW Ph.D. students, virtual reality video games could transform the way patients experience therapy.

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Getting into shipshape condition

For 25 years, the UW’s Thomas G. Thompson has conducted research in nearly every ocean on Earth. This year, the ship is being upgraded to extend its life for another quarter century.

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Studying sockeye salmon

Each summer, aquatic and fishery sciences professor Daniel Schindler and his students travel to Bristol Bay, Alaska to observe one of the most valuable fisheries in the world.

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Seeds of hope

In the name of holistic mental health, Christopher Brown, ’16, created Growing Veterans, a sustainable farming organization that reconnects veterans to each other — and to life.

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The unsinkable Concrete Canoe Team

United by a passion for problem-solving, UW undergrads are putting their minds — and paddles — together to build and race a canoe made out of concrete.

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Alternative Spring Break

Spring break can be an eye-opening experience for UW undergrads who spend the week teaching in underserved areas of the state. In this special feature, hear their compelling stories and meet some of their eager students.

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Meet the Husky 100

The Husky 100 is a new award recognizing 100 UW undergraduate and graduate students who exemplify the Husky Experience. Leaders, innovators, activists, teachers, change agents – get to know these outstanding students.

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Digging into the past

Prehistory, meet Professor Donald Grayson. As featured speaker for this year’s University Faculty Lecture, he digs into the mystery surrounding mass extinctions at the end of the last Ice Age.

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Defining
undaunted

From the Paralympics to Husky crew, blind student athlete Eleni Englert continues to blaze her own trail.

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Husky globetrotter

From Brazil to Berlin, UW senior Kainen Bell has trekked the world as part of his student experience. Now, he’s helping students who share a similar background make their dreams of traveling come true, too.

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By veterans, for veterans

Graduate student and veteran Lindsay Zike wanted to help others make the transition from soldier to student. The Office of Student Veteran Life, recently established with her help, is doing just that.

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Rocking the new digs

Back when nirvana was just a state of transcendence, campus-based KCMU was incubating a new kind of rock. Forty-some years later, Seattle’s broadcast pioneer KEXP is settling into its new home.

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Closing the global gap on mental health

Mental health illnesses affect more than 1 billion people, but UW global health professors are tailoring treatments that encourage health — and help.

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Fighting for environmental equity

From volunteering to lobbying, Faith Ramos built an impressive resume of service. Now at UW Tacoma, she’s applying her passion for environmental justice to create widespread impact.

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Taking on childhood trauma

With a scholarship-supported internship, Victoria Chambers broadened her understanding of how trauma affects children — and how she could help.

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The business of nonprofits

Tiny Tots, a local nonprofit, finds new financial footing with the guidance of students from the Foster School of Business.

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Training the brain

When psychology major Marissa Pighin was diagnosed with ADHD, her doctor wrote her a prescription and sent her out the door. Now, Pighin is working toward a better treatment at I-LABS, using neurofeedback to help boost reading retention.

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Helping soldiers tell their stories

For soldiers-turned-students of the Red Badge Project, creative writing in UW English Professor Shawn Wong's class isn't just therapeutic — it's life-saving.

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Q&A about 'The Really Big One'

Alongside fellow experts, UW professor John Vidale is working toward making the earthquake-prone Pacific Northwest a safer place.

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Beyond bars

Thanks to a partnership with a local nonprofit, students in the UW’s Law, Societies & Justice program are getting real-world experience in a mixed-enrollment class alongside inmates at the Monroe Correctional Complex.

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The next generation of nursing

At UW Nurse Camp, Karissa Sanchez found the motivation to pursue her dream of going to college and serving her Eastern Washington community. Now a UW graduate, she’s inspiring underrepresented high school students to do the same.

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Building a boundless future

Seventy percent of UW graduates remain in Washington — playing a major role in shaping the region's economic and cultural future.

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Where the music matters

Pressing play on his iSchool education, KEXP librarian Dylan Flesch, ’08, ’14, is combining his love for music and information science to preserve decades of Seattle history.

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They asked, she told

After being honorably discharged for disclosing her sexual orientation, retired Army Col. Grethe Cammermeyer, ’76, ’91, fought the decision — and won — paving the way for the next generation of LGBTQ military members.

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Picturing hope

With a deep background in special education, UW graduate Ariane Gauvreau works to make the future brighter for
children with special needs — and their families.

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China, revisited

Jane Yang, a UW sophomore who grew up in Shanghai, is teaching the UW men’s basketball team about her language and culture. Now, she’s looking at her home — and herself — with fresh eyes.

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Creating a cleaner cookstove

Thanks to a grant from the Department of Energy and strong community partnerships, Ph.D. student Garrett Allawatt is helping engineer a cleaner cookstove for developing countries.

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A living laboratory

Through the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, Sarah Schooler, ’15, spent six weeks in the Alaskan bush, collecting the same data in the field she’d been studying in the classroom: salmon and the hungry habits of grizzly bears.

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Compassion for community

One four-legged friend at a time, Ph.D. student Dr. Heather Fowler is giving back to the community as a volunteer veterinarian for the pets of low-income and homeless Seattleites.

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A promise to the public

Second-year law student Raz Barnea has always believed in paying it forward, playing his part in public service through a two-year Peace Corps post in Jamaica.

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Brewing up apps

In a city where coffee and technology are king, iSchool graduate Stephen Ramirez, ’15, has found his niche as a developer at Starbucks — with help from the Husky Promise.

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Advocating for equal access

With a passion for equity, sophomore Joshua Dawson is advocating for — and empowering — underrepresented
pre-med students.

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Finding Friday Harbor

UW alumna Susan Harris, ’15, spent a quarter studying everything from orcas to algae on the rocky shores of San Juan Island — right in the Puget Sound’s backyard.

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Teaming up for philanthropy

A third-generation Husky, Michael Kneip is living his childhood dream to be a Husky football player, while working hard to establish a legacy of giving.

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Hungry for change

Christine Tran, a Ph.D. student in the College of Education, is peeling back the complex issues surrounding hunger in our nation’s schools.

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Powering promise

Combining a background in electrical engineering with the real-life business skills she’s learning with the UW Solar club, Shruti Misra is helping make solar power a reality at the UW and beyond.

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Center stage

After scoliosis surgery, Annie Morro, ’15, is pursuing her passion for performing as a member of the UW musical theater program’s inaugural graduating class.

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The big picture

In addition to securing microscopic evidence from the world’s chilliest climes, Brad Markle uses his artistic eye to capture photographs of vast landscapes.

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Putting a stop to poaching

A new study by UW biology professor Samuel Wasser shows that DNA tracing might be the solution to stopping illegal ivory tusk trafficking in Africa, saving elephants from extinction in the process.

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Discovering the deep blue

Just months after an underwater volcano erupted off the coast of Oregon, a team of researchers, engineers and students set to sea to work on the Ocean Observatories Initiative's seafloor laboratory.

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Scanning the sky

UW astronomer Andrew Connolly is helping transform our knowledge of the universe with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope — the largest digital camera in the world that aims to answer some of the most fundamental questions in astrophysics.

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Printing possibilities

Through 3-D printing, UW Bothell’s Ivan Owen is increasing access to prosthetics for children around the world with missing fingers — and inspiring the next generation of innovators along the way.

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The poetry brigadier

A whiz with words, UW senior Jack Chelgren is on a mission to make poetry present and relevant on campus and around the community.

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Deconstructing dementia

Thanks to a groundbreaking study linking some common medications to an increased risk of dementia in older adults, pharmacy Professor Shelly Gray’s impact has gone global.

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Climate clues

By investigating ancient Antarctic ice, UW researchers are unlocking climate clues from the earth’s deepest reaches.

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Starting up

Temo Ojeda came to the University of Washington with a passion for startups, and thanks to the Lavin Entrepreneurship Program, the most valuable lessons he’s learned have been outside the classroom.

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The first line of defense

Developed by UW researchers, a new injectable polymer that strengthens blood clots could save the lives of trauma victims.

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Saving lives with smartphones

Saloni Parikh took her passion for global health and her knack for computer science halfway across the world, playing a key role in HIV-fighting research.

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Exploring Earth’s final frontier

With the ability to explore the deepest reaches of the ocean, the UW’s Deepglider is poised to unlock the secrets of climate change in the briny deep.

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A global citizen

Thanks to scholarship support, UW resident adviser Louie Vital is forging her passion for academics, leadership and study abroad — from Spain to the Philippines.

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A spring break of service

A first-generation student from a migrant farming family, Salvador Gomez is donating his spring break to the Pipeline Project, tutoring and mentoring children in rural Washington whose childhoods remind him of his own.

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Advocating for hope

Thanks to scholarship support, Dashni Amin was able to draw inspiration from her parents’ sacrifices — and prepare herself for a future of helping others.

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Speaking up to save lives

Forefront, a UW-based organization, teams up with Facebook in the name of suicide prevention.

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Next generation breast cancer care

By applying PET technology to a standard mammography machine, UW startup PET/X hopes to streamline the treatment process for breast cancer patients, knocking out costs and side effects along the way.

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Making waves in marine energy

Monitoring the briny depths, the aptly named Millennium Falcon robot serves as the eyes and ears for scientists studying the effects of tidal- and wave-energy projects on marine life.

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Curbing concussions

With a little help from the NFL, UW startup VICIS is bringing together the latest in engineering and medicine to create a football helmet for the modern age.

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'Beast quakes' offer test of seismic network

UW seismologists detected the biggest vibrations ever recorded at CenturyLink Field during the NFC Championship game.

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Solving for success

Once a homeless youth with a devastating addiction to drugs and alcohol, Mark Bennett is on his way to earning his bachelor’s in mathematics at the UW — all while giving back to the community that saved him and raising his 9-year-old son.

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Creating a world of good

Take a closer look at the UW’s new statewide Economic Impact Report. Plus, see what that impact means right in your own backyard.

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A new vision for vascular disease

Ben Starnes is improving the surgical treatment options for blood vessel disorders while strengthening Harborview’s reputation as a leader in clinical research.

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Protecting the Puget Sound

Tim Dardis is helping protect the Puget Sound’s wildlife by reducing the harmful noise pollution of aquatic construction projects.

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A heart for health care

Taylor Boyd, a proud second-generation Husky, is committed to giving back to the community and to providing health services to underserved populations.

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Sky-high solution

With sights set sky high on streamlining coating for the aerospace industry, UW startup PolyDrop developed an additive that’s grabbed the attention of Boeing — and they’re just getting started.

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Giving thanks

The gifts that Greta Sedlock, ’77, and her late husband Tom, ’70, ’74, made to the University of Washington support innovators, including one who saved Greta’s son’s life.

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Art of light

With support from a family whose Husky roots go back 100 years, Julia Chamberlain is forging brave new worlds
in glass and light.

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Arctic immersion

On a mission to learn the language by immersing themselves in the culture, students Jason Young and Walter O’Toole journeyed to the Canadian Arctic to study the native tongue of the Inuits.

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Intergalactic show and tell

The University of Washington Astronomy Department is taking starry nights to the schools, inflating its portable planetarium in classrooms across the Seattle area.

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Bridging brains

Language may limit us, but a groundbreaking technology developed by researchers at the UW means communicating basic commands from one human brain to another is a new reality.

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A community of support

As a student in the UW School of Dentistry’s RIDE program, Renelle Conner is working to bring a world of good to the Yakama Nation community, one smile at a time.

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Goodbye, greenhouse gases

A groundbreaking concept for a fusion reactor called the “dynomak” could reduce our carbon footprint and change the energy game — all on a budget — courtesy of graduate student Derek Sutherland.

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Citizen science in action

From counting seabirds to collecting rare plants, UW professors and students are partnering with caring Washingtonians to research pressing environmental issues.

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Engineering the car of the future

Sixty UW undergrads from schools across campus are teaming up for a national competition to re-engineer the fuel-hungry Chevy Camaro into the hybrid-electric car of tomorrow.

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Unlocking secrets of the ocean

Students, scientists, engineers — and even some robots — have joined forces to build the world’s largest deep–sea ocean observatory off the coast of Washington and Oregon.

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