Research

Chemistry professor Matthew Golder and his research team are exploring ways to alter the chemical structure of plastics to keep them out of landfills.

The first comprehensive national study on fatal police violence in and around American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) reservations, from researchers at the UW and Drexel University, found that roughly 73% of AIAN people killed by police violence were on or within 10 miles of a reservation. Theresa Rocha Beardall, co-author and UW associate professor of sociology, is quoted.

Astronomers say they've likely witnessed the collision of two planets orbiting a distant star, Gaia20ehk, located 11,000 lightyears from Earth. Doctoral student Anastasios Tzanidakis and research assistant professor James Davenport, both in the UW Department of Astronomy, are quoted.

A "peculiar" ancient relative of the crocodile started life on four legs before it began walking on two, according to new research. Elliott Armour Smith, lead author on the research and a UW biology graduate student, and Christian Sidor, UW professor of biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum, are quoted.

Arts & Sciences alumnus Spencer Kraisler (BA, Mathematics, 2021), currently a doctoral student in aeronautics & astronautics (A&A) in the College of Engineering, is A&A's 2026 Condit Fellow. His research is informed in part by his undergraduate mathematics training in manifold theory, the study of smooth, curved spaces.

Arts & Sciences alumnus Spencer Kraisler (BA, Mathematics, 2021), currently a doctoral student in aeronautics & astronautics (A&A) in the College of Engineering, is A&A's 2026 Condit Fellow. His research is informed in part by his undergraduate mathematics training in manifold theory, the study of smooth, curved spaces.

In her new book, "You Could Be Having Better Sex," psychology professor Nicole McNichols shares frank information based on academic research. 

Last December was the warmest on record for Washington state, which led many garden plants to show signs of small buds as early as February. Takato Imaizumi, UW professor of biology, explains how plants know when to bloom and whether this might change in warmer winters.

More than a half dozen years after Washington began limiting access to drivers license data for immigration enforcement, federal officials were still using the information for immigration arrests as recently as late last year, a report released the University of Washington Center for Human Rights shows. Angelina Godoy, professor of law, societies, and justice and of international studies, as well as director of the Center for Human Rights at the UW, is mentioned.

"Survivor accounts of the lasting effects of their prostitution at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and his wealthy friends repeat the story of every trafficked girl and woman on Aurora Avenue in Seattle," writes Debra Boyer, affiliate faculty in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the UW.

The rockhead poacher, which lurks in the shallow intertidal of the northeastern Pacific Ocean, is one freaky looking fish. Adam Summers, professor of biology and of aquatic and fishery sciences at the UW, is quoted.

Carnivorans, from mongooses to bears, evolved diverse body shapes in response to two major global cooling events, according to a study of 850 skeletons. Chris Law, a principal research scientist of biology at the UW and an affiliate curator at the UW Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, is quoted.

The comet 3I/ATLAS makes its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 19, according to NASA. James Davenport, research assistant professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

What happens if you let teens craft the rules that dictate their use of phones at school? You get policy ideas with a nuanced, holistic perspective that rival those being officially issued by the adults in leadership. The UWs Youth Advisory Board, a group of approximately 20 teens from Seattle-area schools, recently published its first memo tackling this contentious issue. The UW's Rotem Landesman, doctoral student in the Information School, and Luca Magis-Weinberg, assistant professor of psychology, are quoted.

While female green hermit hummingbirds have curved bills, males straighter mouthparts are built for stabbing one another, a new study suggests. Alejandro Rico-Guevara, associate professor of biology at the UW and curator of birds at the UW Burke Museum, is quoted.