Natural Sciences Division

A tradition dating back to 1874, election as an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor, and all fellows are expected to meet the commonly held standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity.

At a recent workshop, researchers and journalists debated how to announce a potential discovery of extraterrestrial life. Victoria Meadows, professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

Seattle’s cloudy weather made for an anticlimactic viewing of Monday’s solar eclipse. Still, that didn’t stop dozens of people who flocked to the UW’s Physics-Astronomy Building, hoping for the clouds to lift, so they could catch a glimpse of this once-in-a-generation event. The UW's Oliver Fraser, assistant teaching professor in astronomy, and Giovanni Gollotti, a student, are quoted.

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.

Eclipses past and present arenât just opportunities for incredible sights. Generations of researchers have used them to study phenomena ranging from the sun itself to the fabric of the universe. UW News intervewed Emily Levesque, author and associate professor of astronomy, about what scientists past and present have learned by studying eclipses.

Brittany Kamai, an astrophysicist with knowledge of Pacific Islanders' Indigenous navigation using the sky, is teaching a new UW course, Pacific Indigenous Astrophysics.

A list of 10 recommended road trips in Washington state includes the UW Planetarium. Andy Tzanidakis, a doctoral student in astronomy at the UW and student director of the planetarium, is quoted. Coach Jedd Fisch also is quoted about open-to-the-public football practices beginning April 2.

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.

Last May, a team led by physicists at the University of Washington in Seattle observed something peculiar. The University of Washington team reported the FQAHE for the first time, in a specially designed 2D material: two sheets of MoTe2 stacked on top of one another and offset by a twist. Xiaodong Xu, professor of physics at the UW, is quoted.

"The next generation of optical systems demands lenses that are not only lighter and thinner than ever before, but also uphold uncompromising image quality. This demand has fueled a surge of efforts to develop ultra-thin sub-wavelength diffractive optics, known as meta-optics. ... In a new paper published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers, led by Professor Arka Majumdar at the University of Washington, introduced a new design framework termed 'MTF-engineering,'" writes Anna Wirth-Singh, a UW doctoral student in the physics department.

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.

Apparently humans aren't the only animals who are neat freaks. Find out how this small rodent and other animals also declutter. James Ha, emeritus research professor of psychology at the UW, is quoted.

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