Peter Kelley | UW News

July 20, 2017

Birds versus buildings: Rural structures pose greater relative threat than urban ones

Large buildings in rural areas pose a greater threat to birds than if those same-sized buildings were located in an urban area, according to new research to which three University of Washington researchers contributed.

July 6, 2017

Policy and progress in the Arctic: Essays by students in the Jackson School’s International Policy Institute

Graduate student fellows with the International Policy Institute in the UW Jackson School of International Studies have begun publishing a 13-part series of blogs exploring aspects of the intergovernmental Arctic Council as a 21st-century institution.

June 13, 2017

Abstraction, family memories — even a touch of voodoo — highlight annual graduate show at Henry Art Gallery

Artist Arely Morales with her three paintings depicting immigrant workers at the 2017 MFA + Mdes Thesis Exhibition, at the Henry Art Gallery though June 25.

Absurdity and abstraction, artistic dualisms, long-held family memories — and even some gentle voodoo — mingle together in the annual exhibition by UW art and design graduate students, on display through June 25 at the Henry Art Gallery.

June 7, 2017

‘Scales of Struggle’: Historians of labor, working class to convene at UW

Issues of social justice, incarceration and the politics of race and gender — past and present — will be the focus as hundreds of scholars, teachers, labor activists and artists gather at the UW June 22-25 for the annual conference of the Labor and Working-Class History Association.

June 5, 2017

‘Documents that Changed the Way We Live’: Podcast by UW’s Joe Janes now a book

"Documents that Changed the Way we Live" by UW Information School associate professor Joe Janes, was published this month by Rowman & Littlefield.

A popular podcast by Joe Janes of the UW Information School is now a book. “Documents that Changed the Way We Live” is being published this month by Rowman & Littlefield.

May 22, 2017

Kepler telescope spies details of TRAPPIST-1 system’s outermost planet

The ultra-cool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 and its seven planets. A UW-led team has learned details of TRAPPIST-1h, the system's outermost planet.

A University of Washington-led international team of astronomers has used data gathered by the Kepler Space Telescope to observe and confirm details of the outermost of seven exoplanets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1.

May 17, 2017

Visiting astronomer at UW part of ‘Styrofoam’ planet discovery

An artist's rendering of KELT-11b, a "Styrofoam"-density exoplanet orbiting a bright star in the southern hemisphere.

David James, a visiting scientist with the UW Department of Astronomy, assisted in the just-announced Lehigh University-led discovery of an exoplanet 320 light-years away with a density so light it is being called a “Styrofoam planet.”

May 16, 2017

Undergraduate Theater Society mounts big production of ‘Spring Awakening’ May 18-28

The cast of the UW Undergraduate Theater Society's production of "Spring Awakening." From left, top row: Shiv Chitre, Jordan King, Michael Monicatti, Patrick McDermott, Sage Suzzeris, Jackson Ross. Second row: Ricky Spaulding, Caralee Howe, Charlene Kwon, Christine Munson, Saige Hawthorne, Alex Sturtevant, Olga Laskin and Spencer Stromberg. Not shown is cast member Candice Lundy.

For its final and biggest show of the year the UW Undergraduate Theater Society presents “Spring Awakening,” a musical exploration of youth and blooming sexuality that’s surprisingly timely for a story set in 19th century Germany.

May 10, 2017

Seattle Art Museum to exhibit work by UW art professor Denzil Hurley

The Seattle Art Museum will feature work by abstract artist and UW art professor Denzil Hurley. The exhibit, titled “Disclosures,” will be on display from May 20 through November. It’s a fitting tribute, as Hurley will retire from the UW at the end of the school year.

May 2, 2017

Documents that Changed the World: Delayed stock market ticker tape, October 1929

A cleaner sweeps the floor after the Wall Street crash of 1929.

Timing is everything, they say. In the latest episode of his Documents that Changed the World podcast series, Joe Janes of the UW Information School explores how an overload of critical information helped trigger the stock market crash of 1929, and thus the Great Depression. “This is a story about fortunes lost, lives ruined, a…

April 20, 2017

Toward greener construction: UW professor leads group setting benchmarks for carbon across life of buildings

A UW-led research group has taken an important step toward measuring — and ultimately reducing — the global carbon footprint of building construction and long-term maintenance.

April 19, 2017

Proxima b discoverer to join UW astrobiologists for May 3 lecture, discussion

The lead investigator of the research team that discovered Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet, will join UW astrobiologists May 3 to discuss the planet’s potential for life and even the possibility of sending spacecraft to the world.

April 12, 2017

Undergraduate Theater Society unleashes ‘Wolves’ April 13-23

Actors in the Undergraduate Theater Society's production of "Wolves," April 13-23 in the Cabaret Theater of Hutchinson Hall. In back, from left, are Colin Kolbus, Willy Picton and Andrew Forest; in front is Ashley Lobao.

The story of Little Red Riding Hood takes on a new dimension in the UW Undergraduate Theater Society’s new production, “Wolves,” by Steve Yockey, running April 13 to 23 in the Cabaret Theater in Hutchinson Hall.

March 31, 2017

Music played by EEG featured in DXARTS Spring Concert April 6

UW Music School Director Richard Karpen plays an electromagnetic piano called a Disklavier. Though he is shown performing on the keys, some of the music for the April 6 DXARTS Spring Concert will be played hands-free, with only the EEG.

The Disklavier is an electromagnetic piano that — like the UW-created encephalophone recently reported on by the Seattle Times — is played by brain waves alone, via an electroencephalogram. UW audiences can see and hear this new technology in “Music of Today: The DXARTS Spring Concert,” April 6, in Meany Hall.

March 28, 2017

After much media attention, UW Information School’s ‘Calling BS’ class begins

The very name of the class, when proposed, seemed to fire imaginations nationwide and beyond. Now with the beginning of spring quarter, the UW Information School’s new course “Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data” is getting started.

March 23, 2017

Jackson School to offer lectures for students on ‘Trump in the World’

Faculty with the UW Jackson School of International Studies will explore the impact of the 2016 election on their respective areas of expertise in a new two-credit class titled “Trump in the World: International Implications of the Trump Presidency.”

March 22, 2017

Race, health, justice topics for March 31 UW symposium on medical ethics

The interdisciplinary 2017 Benjamin Rabinowitz Symposium in Medical Ethics on March 31, titled “Race, Health & Justice,” will explore inequities in health and health care and place them in political, economic and historical context.

March 13, 2017

New from author David Shields: ‘Other People: Takes & Mistakes’

"Other People: Takes & Mistakes," by UW English professor David Shields, was published by Knopf in February.

UW English professor and New York Times best-selling author David Shields has a new book out and — perhaps unsurprisingly — it’s getting excellent reviews. Shields has a couple of local book events coming up for “Other People: Takes & Mistakes.”

March 7, 2017

‘Pippin’: Dance, drama, music team for UW Musical Theater Program’s third production, March 8-19

The UW Musical Theater Program presents "Pippin" March 8-19 at the Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse.

Director Wilson Mendieta discusses “Pippin,” the third production of the UW’s Musical Theater Program, running March 8 – 19 in the Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse Theater.

March 3, 2017

‘Poor writing makes for poor science’: Scott Montgomery publishes new edition of popular ‘Guide to Communicating Science’

The second edition of "The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science" by Scott L. Montgomery, published in February 2017 by University of Chicago Press Books.

Scientific research that doesn’t get communicated to the public may as well not have happened at all, says Scott Montgomery in the second edition of “The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science.”

February 28, 2017

Eisenhower up, Wilson down, Roosevelts rule: UW historian Margaret O’Mara part of CSPAN 2017 presidential ranking survey

UW historian Margaret O’Mara discusses the CSPAN 2017 Presidential Historians Survey. She participated in this ranking of the nation’s presidents in 10 categories of effectiveness.

February 22, 2017

UW astronomer Eric Agol assists in new seven-planet NASA discovery using ‘distracted driving’ technique

This artist's concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like, based on available data about the planets’ diameters, masses and distances from the host star. UW astronomer Eric Agol assisted with the big new discovery.

UW astronomy professor Eric Agol is part of the large team of researchers that has just announced confirmation of several Earth-sized, potentially habitable planets orbiting a star about 40 light-years away.

The Undergraduate Theater Society will present "Medea" Feb. 23 through March 5 in the Cabaret Theater of Hutchinson Hall. Shown from left are student actors Ariaga Mucek, Jordan Kerlaske (in the title role), Annika Knapp, and Anaïs Gralpois.

The UW Undergraduate Theater Society will present “Medea” Feb. 23 through March 5 in the Cabaret Theater of Hutchinson Hall, home of the School of Drama.

February 15, 2017

Early Earth as exoplanet: NASA highlights just-published UW Virtual Planetary Laboratory research

When haze built up in the atmosphere of Archean Earth, billions of years ago, the young planet might have looked like this artist's interpretation - a pale orange dot. A team of astronomers including members of the UW's Virtual Planetary Laboratory thinks the haze was self-limiting, cooling the surface by about 36 degrees Fahrenheit – not enough to cause runaway glaciation. The team’s modeling suggests that atmospheric haze might be helpful for identifying earthlike exoplanets that could be habitable.

Recently published research from the UW’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) using ancient Earth as a stand-in for hypothetically habitable exoplanets has been highlighted by NASA in a feature article. Leading the research was Giada Arney, who was a UW astronomy doctoral student when doing the work and is now with NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center.

February 10, 2017

Ralina Joseph co-edits special journal issue on race, respectability and the media

Ralina Joseph, University of Washington associate professor of communication, has guest co-edited a special triple issue of the interdisciplinary journal Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society with her former mentor and dissertation adviser, Jane Rhodes of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Joseph’s own article in the issue focuses on the…

February 6, 2017

‘Overwhelming’ response, global press attention for new UW Information School course, ‘Calling BS’

It’s almost unheard-of for a university class to spark global press attention — and offers of book deals — before instruction even begins. But such is the case with the UW Information School’s new course, “Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data.”

January 31, 2017

Poetry, passion and social justice: Activist poets to gather at UW, perform at Seattle Public Library Feb. 3

Poet activists from around the nation will gather for daylong UW conference Feb. 3 on creativity in activism — and then give full voice to that creativity in performances 7 – 10 p.m. at the Seattle Public Library. All are welcome.

January 17, 2017

Conditions right for complex life may have come and gone in Earth’s distant past

A 1.9-billion-year-old stromatolite — or mound made by microbes that lived shallow water — called the Gunflint Formation in northern Minnesota. The environment of the oxygen "overshoot" described in research by Michael Kipp, Eva Stüeken and Roger Buick may have included this sort of oxygen-rich setting that is suitable for complex life.

Conditions suitable to support complex life may have developed in Earth’s oceans — and then faded — more than a billion years before life truly took hold, a new University of Washington-led study has found.

The UW Dance Program will team with the “vertical dance company” BANDALOOP for part of its annual Dance Faculty Concert, to be held Jan. 20 – 22 in Meany Hall.

January 12, 2017