Research

A collection of work by Arts & Sciences faculty, students, alumni and friends related to Asian American and Pacific Islander history, heritage and culture.

Sam Wasser, research professor of biology at the UW and director of the Center for Conservation Biology, has found that two-thirds of pregnancies in Southern resident orca whales are lost due to nutritional stress through his new research.

Several UW faculty members, researchers, and students are involved in the FASER collaboration, which studies interactions of high-energy particles.

The killer whale population is the only whale listed as endangered by the federal government – only 75 of them remain. Deborah Giles, research scientist at the UW Center for Conservation Biology, discusses the threats they face and how her dog’s nose for sniffing killer whale poop is unlocking valuable data about their health and survival. [This is the third segment on “The Record”]

Scientists researching nine binary star systems — like our solar system but with two suns — have revealed that five have “habitable zones” that could host Earth-like planets. Siegfried Eggl, a research scientist in astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

Samuel Wasser, research professor of biology and Director of the Center for Conservation Biology, discusses the role that dogs play in his research.

The UW has been ranked as the number 4 highed education institution in the United States in terms of total economic impact created as a result of federal research expenditures.

Biologist Joanne Chory has laid out a vision for a new kind of agriculture. She wants to create “ideal plants” — crops like wheat or rice that are bred to store huge amounts of carbon in their roots. They could pull as much as 20% of the carbon dioxide emitted by humans out of the atmosphere each year. UW biology professor Jennifer Nemhauser is quoted.

Techniques such as “location spoofing” and deepfake geography present significant risks for our increasingly connected society. Because of this, a team of researchers at University of Washington are working to identify ways to detect these fakes, as well as proposing the creation of a geographic fact-checking system. Bo Zhao, assistant professor of geography at the UW, is quoted.

En el 2019, Toro ganó el premio Marsha L. Landolt, de la Universidad de Washington, donde trabaja desde 1994. El reconocimiento, que obtuvo por su capacidad pedagógica e interés en enseñar un área a la que muchos le temen, también la ubicó como una de las científicas colombianas más reconocidas y brillantes. (English translation: In 2019, Toro won the Marsha L. Landolt Award from the University of Washington, where she has worked since 1994. The recognition, which she obtained for her pedagogical ability and interest in teaching an area that many fear, also ranked her as one of the most recognized and brilliant Colombian scientists).

With a “supermoon” full moon coming early this week it’s likely that you’ll go to bed later and sleep less than on average. Research led UW biology professor Horacio de la Iglesia is quoted.

While the concept of “deepfakes,” or AI-generated synthetic imagery, has been decried primarily in connection with involuntary depictions of people, the technology is dangerous (and interesting) in other ways as well. For instance, researchers have shown that it can be used to manipulate satellite imagery to produce real-looking — but totally fake — overhead maps of cities. Bo Zhao, assistant professor of geography at the UW, is quoted.

Biology professor and chair David Perkel and Biology Professor Jeff Riffell have been awarded research grants from the Human Frontier Science Program.

Bo Zhao, assistant professor of geography, has authored a new study on deepfake geography.

Testing is still a valuable tool in our COVID-19 prevention toolkit, but the technologies and motivations behind it are shifting. We’ll also have to shift our understanding of test results and metrics. A tool developed by the UW's Carl Bergstrom, professor of biology, and Ryan McGee, a graduate student in biology, are quoted.