Department of Biology

The University of Washingtonâs graduate and professional degree programs were widely recognized as among the best in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Reportâs 2025 Best Graduate Schools rankings released late Monday.

The organization that honors Rosa Parks, Elie Wiesel, and Jane Goodall has also celebrated three members of the UW community. Honorees include: neurobiologist Linda B. Buck, ’75; Theodore Roethke, English professor at the UW, 1947-1963; and master glass artist Dale Chihuly, ’65.

Alejandro Rico-Guevara, assistant professor of biology at the UW and curator of ornithology at the UW Burke Museum, remembers when he first realized he was a hummingbird guy — not like an "I fill my hummingbird feeder every week" guy but an “I want to know everything about these birds” guy.

Certain chemicals break down a primrose’s key fragrance molecules, blunting its scent. The UW's Jeff Riffell, professor of biology, and Joel Thornton, professor of atmospheric sciences, are quoted.

Natural history museums have entered a new stage of discovery and accessibility â one where scientists around the globe and curious folks at home can access valuable museum specimens to study, learn or just be amazed. This new era follows the completion of openVertebrate, or oVert, a five-year collaborative project among 18 institutions to create 3D reconstructions of vertebrate specimens and make them freely available online. The team behind this endeavor, which includes scientists at the University of Washington and its Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture, published a summary of the project March 6 in the journal BioScience, offering a glimpse of how the data can be used to ask new questions and spur the development of innovative technology.

A newly discovered genetic mechanism helped eliminate the tails of human ancestors. David Kimelman, professor emeritus of biochemistry at the UW, is quoted.

Seattle scientist and conservationist Estella Leopold has died at the age of 97. Leopold spent most of her career at the University of Washington, teaching and learning about the distant past through pollen deposits. P. Dee Boersma, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

You might not know it, but some moths can smell just as well as dogs. The nighttime insects use their antennae to sniff out flowers heavy with pollen up to a mile away. New research from the UW shows pollution in car exhaust can blunt the flowers’ scent – making it hard for pollinators to find the blossoms. The UW's Jeff Riffell, professor of biology, and Joel Thornton, professor of atmospheric sciences, are quoted.

Air pollution is making it hard for some Washington state flowers to get pollinated, according to a new study in the journal Science. Jeff Riffell, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

Scientists at this University of Washington facility in the San Juan Islands are working to help sunflower stars — a type of sea star — grow and thrive once again after their populations along the West Coast were devastated by a mysterious disease. Jason Hodin, research scientist in the UW Department of Biology, is quoted.

The research, involving primroses and hawk moths, suggests that air pollution could be interfering with plant reproduction. The UW's Jeff Riffell, professor of biology, and Joel Thornton, professor of atmospheric sciences, are quoted, and Jeremy Chan, a former graduate student, is pictured.

Byproducts of car exhaust disrupt pollination by degrading the floral scents that insects use to track down their favorite plants, according to new research. The UW's Jeff Riffell, professor of biology, and Joel Thornton, professor of atmospheric sciences, are quoted.

Many animals rely on scent to make sense of the world. Pollution from smokestacks and tailpipes may be making them nose-blind. The UW's Jeff Riffell, professor of biology, and Joel Thornton, professor of atmospheric sciences, are quoted.

Scientists at the University of Washington have discovered that nighttime air pollution â coming primarily from car exhaust and power plant emissions â is responsible for a major drop in nighttime pollinator activity. Nitrate radicals (NO3) in the air degrade the scent chemicals released by a common wildflower, drastically reducing the scent-based cues that its chief pollinators rely on to locate the flower. The findings, published Feb. 9 in Science, are the first to show how nighttime pollution creates a chain of chemical reactions that degrades scent cues, leaving flowers undetectable by smell. The researchers also determined that pollution likely has worldwide impacts on pollination.

Dogs share so much of their lives with humans and can develop the same health conditions we do, like dementia or diabetes. Those similarities drove researchers to wonder if our medical science can help dogs live longer — and if maybe, our furry friends could tell us something about how we age, too. Daniel Promislow, professor of biology and of laboratory medicine and pathology at the UW, is quoted.