Honors and Awards

Ada Limón is no stranger to good news. In 2022, she was appointed the 24^th poet laureate of the U.S. Last spring, she was granted a two-year second term. And in October came the announcement that she’d won a MacArthur “genius” grant. Ada Limón, UW School of Drama alumna, is featured.

A proposal to build a far-flung set of radio antennas to measure the cosmos is one of 13 far-out concepts to receive seed funding from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, also known as NIAC. Matthew McQuinn, associate professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

Six University of Washington subjects ranked in the top 10, and atmospheric sciences maintained its position as No. 1 in the world on the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects list for 2023. The ranking, released at the end of October, was conducted by researchers at the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, a fully independent organization dedicated to research on higher education intelligence and consultation.

Briana Abrahms serves as the Boersma Endowed Chair of Natural History and Conservation at UW, and recently received the prestigious Packard Fellowship. Abrahms’ lab will receive $875,000 to pursue research regarding the impacts of environmental change on animal behavior. Writer Samuel Abraham sits down with the professor and distills her ongoing research.

Recent awards and appointments celebrate Arts & Sciences faculty research, leadership, and more. 

The UWAA is proud to honor six extraordinary students across the UW whose stories exemplify Husky adaptability, tenacity and resolve. Each student receives a scholarship and was recognized at the Homecoming football game on Sat. Oct. 21, 2023.

Chandan Reddy, an associate professor of gender, women and sexuality studies and of the comparative history of ideas at the University of Washington, has been named a “Freedom Scholar” by the Marguerite Casey Foundation.

Briana Abrahms, a University of Washington assistant professor of biology and researcher with the UW Center for Ecosystem Sentinels, has been named a 2023 Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering, according to an Oct. 16 announcement from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. As one of 20 new fellows across the country, Abrahms, who holds the Boersma Endowed Chair in Natural History and Conservation, will receive $875,000 over five years for her research.

Ada Limón, the sitting U.S. poet laureate and UW School of Drama Alum, was among the 20 new recipients of the prestigious fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, known as “genius grants," announced on Wednesday, October 4.

Counterbalancing grief with wonder in works that heighten our awareness of the natural world and our connections to one another.

New electronic devices? New data storage methods? UW Physics & Materials Sciences Professor Xiaodong Xu studies the properties of single atomic layer semiconductors. He looks for new materials and new ways to control electrical conductivity.

Three graduate students who earned doctoral degrees in spring 2023 received the Graduate Medal from the College of Arts & Sciences. 

This spring, the UW and the College of Arts & Sciences celebrated faculty, staff, and students for their many accomplishments. 

The four new graduates honored as College of Arts & Sciences Dean's Medalists for 2023 are all working to improve our world, in different ways. 

Two University of Washington faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences for 2023: Gunther Uhlmann, the Robert R. and Elaine F. Phelps Endowed Professor in Mathematics at the UW; and Philip Greenberg, professor of medicine and of immunology at the UW.