UW News


November 1, 2021

UW receives $2M from National Science Foundation to design an ‘adaptable society’

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A team led by the University of Washington has received a nearly $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to further research into how urban societal systems can be organized to be both efficient and resilient.


October 29, 2021

UW oceanographer will study how glacial particles remove CO2 from atmosphere

white glacier with ocean in foreground

An oceanographer at the University of Washington is part of a new project to study how glacial dust, created as glaciers grind the rock beneath them into a powder, reacts with seawater to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.


October 27, 2021

Rankings: UW among the best academic universities in the world, according to Times Higher Education

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The University of Washington tied for No. 28 on the Times Higher Education annual reputation ranking, released Wednesday. The UW moved up one place from 2020.


Fossil dental exams reveal how tusks first evolved

Illustration of an ancient mammal-like creature in a forest setting.

Many animals have tusks, from elephants to walruses to hyraxes. But one thing tusked animals have in common is that they’re all mammals — no known fish, reptiles or birds have them. But that was not always the case. In a study published Oct. 27 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team of paleontologists at Harvard University, the Field Museum, the University of Washington and Idaho State University traced the first tusks back to dicynodonts — ancient mammal relatives that lived before the dinosaurs.


October 13, 2021

Rankings: UW among best in world for education, social sciences, business and law

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The University of Washington is among the best universities in the world for the studies of education, social sciences, business and law, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2022.


October 6, 2021

Rankings: UW among best in world for computer science and engineering

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The University of Washington is among the best universities in the world for the studies of computer science and engineering, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2022.


October 1, 2021

Three UW teams awarded NSF Convergence Accelerator grants for misinformation, ocean projects

Three separate University of Washington research teams have been awarded $750,000 each by the National Science Foundation to advance studies in misinformation and the ocean economy.


September 27, 2021

UW Climate Impacts Group, partner organizations launch the Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative

images of Northwest landscapes with announcement text

The UW Climate Impacts Group, along with nine community, nonprofit and university partners, is launching a program of community-led, justice-oriented climate adaptation work across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. The Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative will be founded with a five-year, $5.6 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The program will be one of eleven across the country funded through NOAA’s Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments program.


September 14, 2021

Sean Carr named Executive Director and CEO of Global Innovation Exchange

Photo of Sean Carr

Sean Carr has been named Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Innovation Exchange (GIX). Carr will assume the role in January 2022 and will be based at the Steve Ballmer Building, GIX’s home in Bellevue, Washington.


UW part of $25M NSF-funded effort to retrieve Earth’s oldest ice core

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University of Washington glaciologists will join colleagues from around the country in a new effort to retrieve an ice core more than 1 million years old from East Antarctica, to better understand the history of our planet’s climate and predict future changes.


September 9, 2021

NSF to fund revolutionary center for optoelectronic, quantum technologies

Aerial shot of the University of Washington campus in Seattle

The National Science Foundation has announced it will fund a new endeavor to bring atomic-level precision to the devices and technologies that underpin much of modern life, and will transform fields like information technology in the decades to come. The five-year, $25 million Science and Technology Center grant will found the Center for Integration of Modern Optoelectronic Materials on Demand — or IMOD — a collaboration of scientists and engineers at 11 universities led by the University of Washington.


September 2, 2021

Rankings: UW among best in world, nation

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Two new rankings out this month place UW among the best schools in the nation and the world.


August 25, 2021

UW, Carnegie Mellon to pioneer platforms that harness astrophysical data to unravel the universe’s mysteries

An image of the focal plane of a camera used for astrophysical observations of the cosmos

The University of Washington and Carnegie Mellon University have announced an expansive, multi-year collaboration to create new software platforms to analyze large astronomical datasets generated by the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, which will be carried out by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in northern Chile. The open-source platforms are part of the new LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing — known as LINCC — and will fundamentally change how scientists use modern computational methods to make sense of big data.


August 5, 2021

Superflares may be less harmful to exoplanets than previously thought, study shows

an artists depiction of a small star with a planet orbiting it

Astronomers have long suspected that superflares, extreme radiation bursts from stars, can cause lasting damage to the atmospheres — and thus habitability — of exoplanets. A new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society reports that they pose only a limited danger to planetary systems.


July 29, 2021

Lincoln Institute of Land Policy honors UW College of Built Environments faculty, Nehemiah Studio for curriculum on mitigating gentrification

The Nehemiah Studio, a UW class on mitigating gentrification in Seattle's Central District designed by Rachel Berney, Donald King and Al Levine with support from College of Built Environments Dean Renée Cheng, been honored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. The course supports joint efforts by the college and the Nehemiah Initiative Seattle to train graduate students to help mitigate displacement in Seattle’s Central District.

The Nehemiah Studio, a UW class on mitigating gentrification in Seattle’s Central District, has been honored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.


July 9, 2021

Faculty/staff honors: Early career honor in communication, distinguished service award in theoretical computing

The International Communication Association has given Kristina Scharp, UW assistant professor in the Department of Communication, its 2021 ICA Early Career Scholar Award.

Recent honors and achievements by UW faculty include an early career award for study of family communication and a distinguished service award for decades in support of theoretical computing.


July 8, 2021

Remotely-piloted sailboats monitor ‘cold pools’ in tropical environments

red sailboat on blue ocean

A UW-led study uses data from remotely-piloted sailboats to better understand cold air pools — pockets of cooler air that form when rain evaporates below tropical storm clouds. These fleeting weather phenomena are thought to influence tropical weather patterns.


June 29, 2021

From the Jackson School: Endowed scholarship for India study, book on angels in ancient Jewish culture

In her new book, "On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture," Ahuvia explores the ancient Jewish practice "centered on humans' relationships with invisible beings who acted as intermediaries, role models and guardians." The book was published this month by University of California Press.

Recent news from the Jackson School of International Studies includes a new endowed scholarship for study of India made possible by two alumni, and a book on angels in ancient Jewish culture by Jewish Studies professor Mika Ahuvia.


June 17, 2021

Washington formally recognizes Juneteenth as a paid holiday in 2022

A large 'W' is at the north entrance to the UW campus.

President Joe Biden’s signature on legislation Thursday making Juneteenth a federal holiday is a welcome recognition. Our state — including the University of Washington — looks forward to marking Juneteenth as a paid holiday beginning June 19, 2022.


Interim deans named in UW College of the Environment and University Libraries

University of Washington Provost Mark A. Richards has announced interim deans for both the College of the Environment and University Libraries.


June 14, 2021

Faculty/staff honors: Humanitarian award, early career research support, literary journal guest editor

Richard Anderson, professor in the UW's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, has received the 2020 ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions Within Computer Science and Informatics from the Association for Computer Machinery.

Recent honors and achievements for UW faculty include an award for humanitarian contributions to computer science, early career research recognition and support, and the guest-editing of a new anthology of Black American literature.


June 8, 2021

English professor, author Shawn Wong honored by Association of University Presses

Shawn Wong, UW professor of English and longtime advocate for Asian American literature, has received the 2021 Stand UP Award from the Association of University Presses.

Shawn Wong, UW English professor and longtime advocate for Asian American literature, has received the 2021 Stand UP Award from the Association of University Presses.


June 1, 2021

Faculty/staff honors: Allen School’s Shyam Gollakota, Anna Karlin honored by Association for Computing Machinery

Associate professor Shyam Gollakota has received the association's 2020 Grace Murray Hopper Award, given annually to the most outstanding young computer professional of the year by the Association for Computing Machinery

Two professors with the UW Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering — Shyam Gollakota and Anna Karlin — have received 2020 honors from the Association for Computing Machinery.


May 26, 2021

Faculty/staff honors: Theoretical computer science award, early career faculty innovator in environmental studies, fellowship in Jewish history

Recent honors for UW faculty include the 2021 Presburger award for theoretical computer science, an Early Career Faculty Innovator research grant for a collaboration in environmental studies with the Karuk Tribe in California, and a fellowship to explore war regulations and raiding norms among early Arabian Jewish communities.


May 20, 2021

Creative Destruction Lab joins UW Foster School of Business, establishing CDL-Seattle

Creative Destruction Lab, a nonprofit organization for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies, will launch its third U.S.-based location, CDL-Seattle, this fall. Based at the UW’s Foster School of Business, CDL-Seattle will be a partnership with Microsoft Corporation, the UW College of Engineering, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and CoMotion, UW’s collaborative innovation hub. The initial area of focus for CDL-Seattle is computational health.


May 18, 2021

Ascend program at UW’s Foster School of Business expands to further support diverse-owned small businesses thanks to $8 million investment from JPMorgan Chase

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In 2016, the Consulting and Business Development Center at the UW’s Foster School of Business partnered with global financial services firm JPMorgan Chase to launch Ascend, a national network of business schools, non-profit lenders and suppliers focused on a goal of accelerating growth of businesses owned by people of color, women and military veterans, especially those operating in inner cities.


May 10, 2021

Former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell named Fritzky Chair in Leadership at UW’s Foster School of Business

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Sally Jewell, U.S. Secretary of the Interior under President Barack Obama and former CEO of REI, has been appointed as the Edward V. Fritzky Endowed Chair in Leadership at the UW Foster School of Business for the 2021-2022 school year. Established in 2002, this prestigious faculty position is designed to bring distinguished leaders to campus to share their expertise with faculty and students.


May 5, 2021

Ice core data show why, despite lower sulfur emissions in U.S. and Western Europe, air pollution is dropping more slowly

graphic of Earth with chemical pathways

Ice core data from Greenland shows why air pollution is dropping more slowly than sulfur emissions reductions. As cloud droplets become less acidic, the chemical reaction that turns sulfur dioxide into sulfate aerosol gets more efficient. The new results can improve the models that project air quality and climate change.


FASER is born: new experiment will study particles that interact with dark matter

The newest experiment at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is now in place at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. FASER, or Forward Search Experiment, was approved by CERN’s research board in March 2019. Now installed in the LHC tunnel, this experiment, which seeks to understand particles that scientists believe may interact with dark matter, is now undergoing tests before data collection commences next year.


May 3, 2021

Genetically engineered grass cleanses soil of toxic pollutants left by military explosives, new research shows

Grasses growing in tubes in the foreground. Two people stand behind them. Another person standing to the right.

A team, which includes researchers from the University of Washington, demonstrated that over the course of three years, a genetically engineered switchgrass could break down an explosive chemical in plots of soil at a military range.


April 29, 2021

Faculty/staff honors: Golden Apple, Leading the Narrative awards

Patricia Shehan Campbell, professor and chair of music education in the UW School of Music, has been given a 2021 Golden Apple Award by Seattle public television station KCTS for her work on the musical education of children. The annual awards honor successful teaching models and programs in Washington state.

Recent honors to UW faculty include a Golden Apple Award for teaching innovation from Seattle television station KCTS and a Leading the Narrative award for community engagement from the Society of Behavioral Medicine.


April 28, 2021

Report: UW No. 4 in country for economic impact as a result of federal research investments

The University of Washington is the No. 4 higher education institution in the country in terms of total economic impact as a result of federal research expenditures. The UW alone contributed $306.8 million to the U.S. gross domestic product and helped to produce more than 3,908 jobs, according to The Science Coalition’s fourth Sparking Economic Growth report, released earlier this month.


UW Spokane Center to move into historic SIERR Building

inside of a warmly lit brick building

The University of Washington’s Spokane Center will soon serve the community and its constituents from new offices in Spokane’s historic Spokane Inland Empire Railroad (SIERR) Building, located in the heart of Spokane’s growing University District. The UW Spokane Center will relocate May 1, 2021, to new offices at 850 E. Spokane Falls Blvd. from its office at 201 West Main, where it has been housed since 2015.


People of color hardest hit by air pollution from nearly all sources

A picture of power lines at sunset. Everything is hazy.

A new study from researchers at multiple universities, including the UW, shows that exposure disparities among people of color and white people are driven by nearly all, rather than only a few, emission source types.


April 26, 2021

Four UW faculty named to American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Four University of Washington faculty members have been inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.


April 22, 2021

UW biology professors Jeffrey Riffell, David Perkel awarded research grants from Human Frontier Science Program

UW biology professors Jeffrey Riffell and David Perkel have received grants from the Human Frontier Science Program.


April 16, 2021

Official notice: Rule-making hearing for Chapters 478-116 and 478-161 WACs

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Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 27, 2021 via a zoom conference meeting. The details of the hearing are available on the University Policy and Rules Office website.


April 14, 2021

Faculty/staff honors: Guggenheim fellowship, Fulbright award, cybersecurity policy advocate

Recent honors and achievements for UW faculty and staff include a Guggenheim fellowship in film history, a Fulbright fellowship for bioethics research in South Africa and membership in a new state cybersecurity team formed by the National Governors Association.


April 13, 2021

Deep earthquakes within the Juan de Fuca plate produce few aftershocks

cracked pavement on highway

In the Cascadia subduction zone, medium- and large-sized “intraslab” earthquakes, in which the slip happens within the oceanic plate and below the continental plate, will likely produce only a few detectable aftershocks, according to a new study from the University of Washington and the U.S. Geological Survey.


April 8, 2021

Official notice: UW accreditation evaluation by Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

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Next week the UW will undergo a comprehensive evaluation visit by its accrediting body, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. This review will involve an assessment of the UW’s initiatives and efforts related to student success, its institutional effectiveness and mission, as well as governance, resources and capacity.



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