Profiles

Meet the four new graduates honored as College of Arts & Sciences Dean's Medalists for 2025. 

MFA alum Brian Christian explores the tricky dynamics between human behavior and artificial intelligence. After moving to Seattle—drawn by both it’s tech and literary scenes—he decided to pursue a master’s in creative writing at the UW. He studied creative nonfiction and poetry but did not lose touch with his affinity for computer science.

From promoting punk bands to designing light festivals, Terry Morgan has shaped Seattle’s cultural landscape for over 50 years. As an African American studies major at the UW, Morgan, ’76, studied widely outside his major, learning video art from art faculty Bill Ritchie and electronic music from Glenn White.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the Distinguished Teaching Award, the UW’s highest teaching honor. And now, drumroll please, here are this year’s stars.

Lindsay Schwarz, '03, received the highest honor handed out by the U.S. government to scientists and engineers in independent research. Schwarz graduated from the UW with a bachelor’s degree in cell and molecular biology.

Brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, can help people with severe injuries or impairments regain the ability to communicate or move their arms and legs through robotic substitutes. The devices, which are about the size of a dime and are implanted on the surface of a persons brain, serve as a communication link between the brains neural...

Imagine sitting in a movie theater watching a film youve been anticipating for months. Suddenly, the screen goes blank. It only lasts a second, but thats long enough to disrupt the experience. Its also long enough, says Mal Ahern, to remind you of the physical infrastructure behind what we so often see as an immaterial...

Recent faculty books from the University of Washington include those from linguistics, Slavic languages and literature and French. UW News spoke with the authors of four publications to learn more about their work. Scrutinizing and confronting AI hype Emily M. Bender, UW professor of linguistics, co-authored The AI Con: How to Fight Big Techs Hype...

Speculative fiction author Anselma Prihandita (PhD, language and rhetoric, 2025), a Nebula Award winner, finds that her creative writing bolsters her scholarly work in unexpected ways. 

Henry Jackson-Spieker, assistant professor of ceramics, glass and sculpture at the UW, is a born-and-raised Seattle artist known for his art installations. In his own work he uses a mix of material metal, glass, paracord, neon, wood to push viewers expectations of space and discernment, forcing them to rethink their physical and sociological relationship to everything around them.

While at the UW, artist Kyra Wolfenbarger was a researcher, museum intern, and arts writer. What shaped her most were the people she met along the way.

Using a powerful research telescope, astronomy and physics major Max Frissell identified a never-before-seen active comet. Now he’s hooked.

Study abroad in Vietnam and Madrid. An internship with the State Department. International studies major Grace Kelly explored the world as a UW student.

“Angela has spent her career bringing tough issues into the light, and she has done so with integrity and an honest desire to inform the public,” says Rickey Hall, vice president for Minority Affairs and Diversity and the UW diversity officer.

Poet and teacher Martha Silano, ’93, died May 5, 2025, at the age of 63. A nationally renowned poet and beloved teacher, she captured the impacts of the climate crisis in her poetry. Martha received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the UW.