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Arts and entertainment

November 25, 2019

ArtsUW Roundup: Professor Chadwick Allen presents Earthworks Rising, annual School of Music CarolFest, and more

This week in the arts, Three Sisters closes, Professor Shannon Dudley bridges campus and community, Burke Open Doors allows chatting with researchers, and more! Exhibition: In Plain Sight November 23 – April 26, 2020 | Henry Art Gallery This group exhibition engages artists whose work addresses narratives, communities, and histories that are typically hidden or invisible in our public space (both conceptually and literally defined). The presenting artists approach the exhibition’s theme from a range of directions, varying across all media…

UW Notebook

UW astronomy professor Paula Szkody elected to American Astronomical Society leadership

Balancing the needs of open science with national security and journal sustainability, and respecting the beliefs of native populations near observatories are among current issues for the American Astronomical Society, said Paula Szkody, University of Washington professor of astronomy. She has begun a term as president-elect of the AAS, and will serve as the society’s president in 2020-2022.

UW Notebook

Grants awarded: Studying ‘culturally sustaining pedagogies,’ dual-credit coursework; teaching global perspective in architecture

University of Washington faculty members have been awarded grants for research to be conducted over the next few years. Django Paris, an associate professor in the College of Education, has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Spencer Foundation. With the four-year grant, Paris will work with H. Samy Alim, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, to study the strengths and limitations of  “culturally sustaining pedagogies” — practices designed to foster cultural pluralism — implemented in…

Engineering | Environment | News releases | Population Health | Science

November 20, 2019

Emissions from electricity generation lead to disproportionate number of premature deaths for some racial groups

UW researchers have found that air pollution from electricity generation emissions in 2014 led to about 16,000 premature deaths in the continental U.S. In many states, the majority of the health impacts came from emissions originating in other states.

Administrative affairs | For UW employees | News releases | UW and the community

November 19, 2019

UW drives $15.7 billion of state’s economy; sustains more than 100,000 jobs

Across its three campuses, the University of Washington generated a total impact on the state’s economy of more than $15.7 billion in FY 2018, according to an economic contribution analysis released today. The study further concludes that the economic activity of the UW system supported or sustained 100,520 jobs throughout the state.

News releases | Research | Social science

November 18, 2019

Among transgender children, gender identity as strong as in cisgender children, study shows

New findings from the largest study of socially-transitioned transgender children in the world, conducted by researchers at the University of Washington, show that gender identity and gender-typed preferences manifest similarly in both cis- and transgender children, even those who recently transitioned.

News releases | Population Health

November 13, 2019

Founder of World Justice Project, former top Microsoft lawyer Bill Neukom to chair advisory board for UW Population Health Initiative

Known for his decades-long leadership of Microsoft’s law and corporate affairs team and then at the American Bar Association, his success as CEO of the San Francisco Giants and founder/CEO of the World Justice Project, Bill Neukom will now chair the external advisory board for the University of Washington Population Health Initiative. The university initiative is a 25-year, interdisciplinary effort to bring understanding and solutions to the biggest challenges facing communities, and revolves around three major pillars — human health, environmental resilience…

Arts and entertainment

November 12, 2019

ArtsUW Roundup: Public opening of ‘In Plain Sight,’ view ALTAR: Ritual, Prayer, Offering — and more

This week in the arts, join poet Cedar Sigo at the Burke, learn about the translation of comics, attend a performance by Gabriel Kahane and School of Music faculty, and more! Closing Reception for ALTAR: Ritual, Prayer, Offering November 22, 6:30 – 8:30 pm | Jacob Lawrence Gallery Altars are often erected to pay homage to an ancestor or to honor (a) God or a saint. This exhibition takes the altar out of its religious context and interrogates photography as…

Engineering | Health and medicine | News releases | Population Health | Research | Science | Technology

New Weill Neurohub will unite UCSF, UC Berkeley, UW in race to find new treatments for brain diseases

With a $106 million gift from the Weill Family Foundation, UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and the University of Washington have launched the Weill Neurohub, an innovative research network that will forge and nurture new collaborations between neuroscientists and researchers working in an array of other disciplines — including engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry and mathematics — to speed the development of new therapies for diseases and disorders that affect the brain and nervous system.

Arts and entertainment

November 7, 2019

ArtsUW Roundup: Olmstead in Seattle, the Music of Somalia’s Disco Era, Artist Talk with Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and more

This week in the arts, see a mind-blowing troupe of wildly creative and physically daring dancers at Meany Center, learn about Somali funk, disco, soul and reggae of the 1970s and 80s, and more! Olmstead in Seattle November 12, 7 pm | Center for Urban Horticulture Seattle has one of the most extensively developed Olmsted park systems in the United States, yet the story of how it came into existence has never been fully explored or described – until now,…

Research | Science | UW News blog

Team uses golden ‘lollipop’ to observe elusive interference effect at the nanoscale

A team led by scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Notre Dame used recent advances in electron microscopy to observe Fano interferences — a form of quantum-mechanical interference by electrons — directly in a pair of metallic nanoparticles.

Health and medicine | News releases | Public Health

November 6, 2019

Mailed self-sampling kits helped more women get screened for cervical cancer

Signaling a potential major change in cervical cancer screening options for American women, a new study found that mailed self-sampling kits that test for HPV — the virus that can cause cervical cancer — helped significantly more women get screened for the cancer. The study involving nearly 20,000 women was conducted by researchers from the University of Washington and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and was published Nov. 6 in JAMA Network Open. In the study, women within the…

Environment | Research | Science | Technology | UW News blog

November 4, 2019

Swordfish as oceanographers? Satellite tags allow research of ocean’s ‘twilight zone’ off Florida

UW marine scientists are using high-tech tags to record the movements of swordfish — big, deep-water, migratory, open-ocean fish that are poorly studied — and get a window into the ocean depths they inhabit.

Engineering | News releases | Social science | Technology

Single discrimination events alter college students’ daily behavior

UW researchers aimed to understand both the prevalence of discrimination events and how these events affect college students in their daily lives. Over the course of two academic quarters, the team compared students’ self-reports of unfair treatment to passively tracked changes in daily activities, such as hours slept, steps taken or time spent on the phone.

Engineering | News releases | Research | Science

Light-based ‘tractor beam’ assembles materials at the nanoscale

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a method that could make reproducible manufacturing at the nanoscale possible. The team adapted a light-based technology employed widely in biology — known as optical traps or optical tweezers — to operate in a water-free liquid environment of carbon-rich organic solvents, thereby enabling new potential applications.

Arts and entertainment

November 1, 2019

ArtsUW Roundup: attend the Danish String Quartet concert, observe a Monologue Audition workshop, and more

This week in the arts, celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary with Jonathan Biss, attend the Burke museum for free, catch A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and more. Jonathan Biss – Celebrating Beethoven Pt 1 November 5, 7:30 pm | Meany Center In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Meany Center presents a selection of his piano sonatas with acclaimed pianist and Beethoven expert Jonathan Biss. In addition to having embarked on a nine-year project to record all 32 of the composer’s piano…

News releases | Research | Science

New technique lets researchers map strain in next-gen solar cells

Researchers from the University of Washington and the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in the Netherlands have developed a way to map strain in lead halide perovskite solar cells. Their approach shows that misorientation between microscopic perovskite crystals is the primary contributor to the buildup of strain within the solar cell, which creates small-scale defects in the grain structure, interrupts the transport of electrons within the solar cell, and ultimately leads to heat loss through a process known as non-radiative recombination.

Honors and awards | Politics and government | Research | Social science | UW and the community | UW News blog

October 29, 2019

UW book notes: Political scientist Megan Ming Francis to edit new series on race, ethnicity, politics

University of Washington political scientist Megan Ming Francis says there is a dearth of academic book series being published on topics of race, ethnicity and politics. Now, she will start to change that. An associate professor of political science, Francis will be the editor of a new series of books from Cambridge University Press called Cambridge Elements in Race, Ethnicity and Politics. Francis, on leave and at Harvard for the 2019-2020 school year, answered a few questions about the new…

Environment | News releases | Population Health | Research | Science | Video

October 28, 2019

Precision mapping with satellite, drone photos could help predict infections of a widespread tropical disease

A team led by the University of Washington and Stanford University has discovered clues in the environment that help identify transmission hotspots for schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that is second only to malaria in its global health impact.

Honors and awards | News releases

October 23, 2019

UW is most innovative U.S. public university; No. 5 in the world, according to Reuters

The University of Washington is listed at No. 5 on the Reuters Top 100: The World’s Most Innovative Universities, released Wednesday. Now in its fifth year, the list ranks the educational institutions doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies and help drive the global economy.

Arts and entertainment

ArtsUW Roundup: the Paco de Lucia Project, CabLab, Jenny Odell at Town Hall, and more

This week in the arts, kick-off School of Drama’s new season, view local artist’s work at the Center for Urban Horticulture, learn about Dakota Sioux artist Mary Sully, and more. Reclaiming our Attention in an Age of Distraction November 1, 7:30 pm | Town Hall Seattle UW Communications Leadership Program presents author and artist Jenny Odell in discussing the impact digital media has on our everyday lives. Joined by political reporter Austin Jenkins, this lecture addresses the dilemma of life in…

Arts and entertainment

October 18, 2019

ArtsUW Roundup: Music of Today, School of Art faculty lectures, and more

This week in the arts, celebrate flamenco with the Paco de Lucía Project, attend the opening reception for Irreducible Forms, tour the Henry Art Gallery with Ariel Goldberg, and more. Exhibition Opening: Irreducible Forms October 24 – November 9 | Jacob Lawrence Gallery Celebrate work by the second-year Master of Fine Arts students working in and between the media of installation, time-based visual art, painting, and sculpture. Attend the Opening Reception October 23, 5 – 7pm | Jacob Lawrence Gallery Free |…