UW News


April 5, 2023

UW’s Phil Levin to direct first-ever US National Nature Assessment

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Phil Levin, professor of practice in environmental and forest sciences at the University of Washington and lead scientist at The Nature Conservancy in Washington, has been appointed to direct the first-ever U.S. National Nature Assessment. The 3-year assessment will take an interdisciplinary approach to better understand the role of nature in the lives of people across the country, and how those benefits might be altered under climate change.


March 29, 2023

Determination of significance: UWMC-Northwest Major Institution Master Plan

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Project Name: UWMC-Northwest Major Institution Master Plan (MIMP) Proponent & Lead Agency: University of Washington Comment Period Closes: April 17, 2023 Description of Proposal: The UW Medical Center – Northwest Major Institution Master Plan will allow for space on the campus to accommodate projected population growth and corresponding increase in healthcare demands. It would also…


March 24, 2023

Team detects first neutrinos made by particle collider

An international team of scientists has for the first time detected neutrinos created by a particle collider. The discovery — announced March 19 by the Forward Search Experiment, or FASER collaboration — promises to deepen scientists’ understanding of the nature of neutrinos, which are the most abundant particle in the cosmos. FASER’s detector picked up neutrinos generated by the Large Hadron Collider, which is based at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.


March 21, 2023

Three UW researchers named Fulbright Scholars

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Three University of Washington researchers have been selected as Fulbright Scholars for 2023-2024 and will pursue studies in Portugal, Mexico and Sweden.


March 16, 2023

Rosling Center is LEED Platinum, the highest standard in sustainable building practices

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The Hans Rosling Center for Population Health at the University of Washington has achieved LEED Platinum Certification, the highest possible rating, reflecting the university’s commitment to sustainable building practices.


March 15, 2023

Cherry blossoms get new visitors’ website, are on track for early April peak bloom

The cherry blossoms at the University of Washington campus are a seasonal tradition and celebration for the entire region. This year’s colder-than-usual spring is demanding a little more patience. Mark your calendars and plan your visit for a peak bloom expected in early April.


March 6, 2023

UW joins White House to host forum on climate change solutions on campuses and in surrounding communities

Maya Tolstoy

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the University of Washington are bringing together climate, sustainability and resilience leaders, and educators representing a cross section of colleges and universities from around the country, with federal agency leaders for a virtual forum on climate change.


February 15, 2023

UW computer scientist and mathematician named Sloan Fellows

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Two University of Washington faculty members have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 15, are Leilani Battle, an assistant professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and Jonathan J. Zhu, an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics.


February 14, 2023

New faculty books: Fad diets, how inequality leads to poor health and more

Three books spread on a wooden table with covers facing up.

Four new faculty books from the University of Washington cover topics ranging from inequality’s effects on health to fad diets to former German chancellor Angela Merkel’s legacy on gender equality.


February 13, 2023

Fulbright ‘Top Producer’ lists name UW and UW Bothell

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The University of Washington is proud to be included on the list of U.S. colleges and universities that produced the most 2022-2023 Fulbright U.S. students and scholars. This recognition is given to the U.S. colleges and universities that received the highest number of applicants selected for the 2022-23 Fulbright U.S. Student and Fulbright U.S. Scholar programs.


February 9, 2023

UW experts discuss the earthquake in Turkey and Syria

Three University of Washington experts have provided quotes in response to the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday morning.


January 31, 2023

Four UW researchers named AAAS Fellows in 2022

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Four University of Washington researchers have been named AAAS Fellows, according to a Jan. 31 announcement by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are among 506 new fellows from around the world elected in 2022, who are recognized for their “scientifically and socially distinguished achievements” in science and engineering.


January 18, 2023

The importance of the atmosphere and ocean in determining the fate of Antarctica

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New research finds that ice-sheet-wide collapse in West Antarctica isn’t necessarily inevitable. The pace of ice loss varies according to regional differences in atmosphere and ocean circulation.


January 4, 2023

Fredrick Nafukho named UW Vice Provost for the Office of Academic Personnel

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University of Washington Provost Mark Richards announced the appointment of Fredrick Muyia Nafukho as the new Vice Provost for the Office of Academic Personnel beginning Feb. 1, pending approval by the Board of Regents. Nafukho also will hold a tenured faculty position in the Department of Management and Organization in the Foster School of Business.


December 15, 2022

UW welcomes Tent City 3 for winter quarter

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The University of Washington will welcome back Tent City 3 — an organized tent-city community — to its Seattle campus for 90 days during winter quarter 2023. Move-in is scheduled to begin December 17, 2022.


December 8, 2022

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows how several stars ‘stirred up’ the Southern Ring Nebula

In a study published Dec. 8 in Nature Astronomy, an international research team, led by Orsola De Marco of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, analyzed 10 highly detailed exposures taken by the JWST of the Southern Ring Nebula. Their calculations show the central star that ejected the expanding nebula gas was originally three times the mass of the sun, and that unseen companions shaped the nebula’s intricate features.


November 17, 2022

Annual notification: Anti-kickback, conflict of interest, whistleblower regulations and hotlines

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These articles are published as a reminder of the policies and procedures in place at the University of Washington.


November 16, 2022

UW a ‘Most Engaged’ campus for student voting and among top universities worldwide, ranked by reputation

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The University of Washington was No. 24 on the Times Higher Education annual reputation ranking, released Wednesday. The UW moved up from No. 28 on last year’s list and remains No. 4 among U.S. public institutions.


November 15, 2022

UW celebrates researchers on Highly Cited Researchers 2022 List

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The University of Washington is proud to announce that more than 44 faculty and researchers who completed their work while at UW have been named on the annual Highly Cited Researchers 2022 list from Clarivate.


November 4, 2022

Two College of the Environment faculty recognized by American Geophysical Union

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Two UW College of the Environment professors, Ginger Armbrust and Dennis Hartmann, will be honored at the 2022 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in December.


November 2, 2022

Study reveals how ancient fish colonized the deep sea

A new University of Washington-led study reports that throughout Earth’s ancient history, there were several periods of time when many fish actually favored the cold, dark, barren waters of the deep sea instead of shallow ocean waters that are warm and full of resources.


October 21, 2022

Video: Highlights from 2022 Annual President’s Address

Ana Mari Cauce

University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce delivered her annual address to the community on Oct. 20. Highlights of the speech are reflected in this video. The audience was invited to attend the event remotely via livestream. President Cauce talked about the power of public research universities to bring communities together across differences to address…


October 17, 2022

Isotope data strengthens suspicions of ivory stockpile theft

A study led by Thure Cerling, a professor at the University of Utah, and co-authored by Sam Wasser, a University of Washington professor of biology, used carbon isotope science to show that tusks from a guarded government stockpile in Burundi have somehow made their way into the hands of illegal ivory traders.


October 11, 2022

Ranking: UW among best universities in the world

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The University of Washington is among the best universities in the world, according to the  2023 World University Rankings published by Times Higher Education.


October 10, 2022

Engineering lecture series focuses on health care for the brain

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The University of Washington’s annual Engineering Lecture Series will feature research with potential to transform brain therapeutics from infancy to late adulthood.


September 28, 2022

UW-developed wave sensors deployed to improve hurricane forecasts

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Researchers dropped technology developed at the University of Washington off the coast of Florida this week to measure ocean waves in the path of Hurricane Ian. The test is one part of a broad effort to improve forecasts for these fast-moving and deadly systems.


September 22, 2022

Deepest scientific ocean drilling effort sheds light on Japan’s next ‘big one’

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A 2018 expedition that drilled farther into the seafloor than ever before — almost 2 miles — sought to take measurements of stress as close as possible to a tectonic fault off the coast of Japan. Surprisingly, the researchers found little built-up tectonic stress. The findings could help to better understand earthquakes in subduction zones around the world.


August 15, 2022

Global ranking: UW is No. 17 in the world

The University of Washington is No. 17 in the world — No. 3 among U.S. public universities — on the 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities, released today.


August 11, 2022

Bird behavior influenced by human activity during COVID-19 lockdowns

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For birds that inhabit developed areas of the Pacific Northwest, the reduction in noise and commotion from COVID-19 lockdowns may have allowed them to use a wider range of habitats in cities, a new University of Washington study has found.


July 28, 2022

The University of Washington’s three campuses join the Common App

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The Seattle campus of the University of Washington, UW Bothell, and UW Tacoma are pleased to announce that they have joined the Common App. The Common App is a college application platform used by over 900 universities, including several Washington colleges and universities.


July 13, 2022

Determination of non-significance: Basketball Training Facility / Health & High Performance Center

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Pursuant to the provisions of WAC 197-11-340 and WAC 478-324-140, the University of Washington hereby provides public notice of: Determination of non-significance for the Basketball Training Facility / Health & High Performance Center project.


July 5, 2022

Determination of non-significance: Site W27 Project

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Pursuant to the provisions of WAC 197-11-340 and WAC 478-324-140, the University of Washington hereby provides public notice of: Determination of non-significance


June 16, 2022

Q&A: Healthier soil leads to more-nutritious food, argues new book by UW geomorphologist David Montgomery

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David Montgomery, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences, discusses soil health, food nutrients and human health. He is co-author of “What Your Food Ate,” being published this month.


June 12, 2022

Video: Classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022 honored in weekend graduation celebrations

Man in a crowd wearing cap and gown waves his diploma in the air.

On Saturday, for the first time since 2019, the UW held in-person Commencement ceremonies at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium where the University conferred degrees on the Class of 2022. On Sunday, it welcomed alumni from the 2020 and 2021 school years for a Return to Husky Stadium Graduation Celebration.


May 31, 2022

UW-developed, cloud-based astrodynamics platform to discover and track asteroids

A novel algorithm developed by University of Washington researchers to discover asteroids in the solar system has proved its mettle. The first candidate asteroids identified by the algorithm — known as Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery, or THOR — have been confirmed by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, according to a May 31 announcement by the B612 Foundation.


May 17, 2022

25th-annual Undergraduate Research Symposium celebrates undergraduate discovery

Mary Gates Hall

The 25th annual University of Washington Undergraduate Research Symposium returns this year on May 20 with a hybrid format including both online and in-person presentations, following two years of online only events due to the COVID pandemic.


May 12, 2022

Changes in cholesterol production lead to tragic octopus death spiral

After a mother octopus lays a clutch of eggs, she quits eating and wastes away; by the time the eggs hatch, she is dead. Some females in captivity even seem to speed up this process intentionally, mutilating themselves and twisting their arms into a tangled mess. The source of this bizarre maternal behavior seems to be the optic gland, an organ similar to the pituitary gland in mammals. For years, just how this gland triggered the gruesome death spiral was unclear. But in a new study published May 12 in Current Biology, researchers from the University of Washington, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois Chicago show that the optic gland in maternal octopuses undergoes a massive shift in cholesterol metabolism, resulting in dramatic changes in the steroid hormones produced. Alterations in cholesterol metabolism in other animals, including humans, can have serious consequences on longevity and behavior, and the team believes this reveals important similarities in the functions of these steroids across the animal kingdom — in soft-bodied cephalopods and vertebrates alike.


May 4, 2022

Astronomers discover a rare ’black widow’ binary, with the shortest orbit yet

The flashing of a nearby star drew the attention of a team of astronomers, who discovered that it is part of a rare and mysterious system. As they report in a paper published May 4 in Nature, the stellar oddity appears to be a “black widow binary” — a type of system consisting of a rapidly spinning neutron star, or pulsar, that is circling and slowly consuming a smaller companion star, as its arachnid namesake does to its mate.


April 28, 2022

Unchecked global emissions on track to initiate mass extinction of marine life

If emissions from greenhouse gases continue, species losses from warming and oxygen depletion of ocean waters could eclipse all other human stressors on marine species by around 2100. Tropical waters would experience the greatest loss of biodiversity, while polar species are at the highest risk of extinction


April 26, 2022

Scientists find elusive gas from post-starburst galaxies hiding in plain sight

Scientists once thought that post-starburst galaxies scattered all of their gas and dust — the fuel required for creating new stars — in violent bursts of energy, and with extraordinary speed. Now, a team led by University of Washington postdoctoral researcher Adam Smercina reports that these galaxies don’t scatter all of their star-forming fuel after all. Instead, after their supposed end, these dormant galaxies hold onto and compress large amounts of highly concentrated, turbulent gas. But contrary to expectation, they’re not using it to form stars.



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