Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ

Skip to content

News releases

Come curious. Leave inspired. Wherever you are, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ offers opportunities to learn and connect with the ideas, people, and research shaping our world. This summer, visit campus for the latest exhibitions at the Henry Art Gallery and Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, or join us from anywhere through recorded lectures, podcasts, virtual experiences, and more. As a public university, we’re proud to share the knowledge, creativity, and discoveries of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ with communities near and…

A Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ team studied seven popular agentic AI browsers and found that four create ways for malicious actors to bypass a fundamental cybersecurity protocol called the “same-origin policy,â€� which makes websites open in a browser unable to interact with each other’s information. Researchers ran a successful proof-of-concept cyberattack on one browser.

A Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ team built an AI tool that helps users turn research papers into 45-second videos. A researcher uploads a paper to the tool, which uses Google Gemini to write a short script explaining the paper. The researcher can then iteratively edit the transcript and resulting video clip.

A Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ-led research team created GovScape, an efficient search system for PDFs from the End of Term Web Archive. Users can look up exact keywords, like “FAFSA,â€� or use semantic search, which finds documents on a topic even if the exact search terms don’t appear on the page. Because researchers used highly efficient artificial intelligence models, processing the 10 million PDFs hosted online during Donald Trump’s first term costs less than $1,500, or about $1 per 47,000 pages.

Seven Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ students and recent alumni were awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships for the 2026–27 academic year, joining about 2,000 students and recent graduates from around the country to pursue graduate study, conduct research and teach English abroad.

Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ researchers developed an artificial intelligence system that automatically estimates the environmental impacts of making different electronic devices. The system takes only a minute to run and achieves estimates with accuracy similar to human experts’.

New research from Abhinav Gupta, professor of management at the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ, shows the increased public attention on racial injustice after the murder of George Floyd influenced how Black and white employees interacted at work. The study examines how major societal events tied to race and injustice can shape workplace behavior.

Efforts to restore fish passage are cropping up across the country, but these projects come with hefty price tags. In a new study, Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ researchers explore different approaches to improving the benefits from investments in salmon recovery.

Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ researchers examined almost 3,000 science guidelines and assessment questions for any connections to society. Of the approximately 200 elements that had real-world implications, many discussed ethics and public health issues.

Come curious. Leave inspired. The Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University. And you don’t have to wait until June: Take a look at everything still happening in May. Sign up to receive a monthly notice when the ArtSci Roundup has been published. ArtSci On Your Own Time: Through July…

Burrowing shrimp, native to Washington, create problems for shellfish farmers. As their name suggests, these creatures burrow in marine sediments, and the excavated material piles up on the surface, which can smother oysters and clams growing there. State-funded research led by the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ offers a new, non-chemical approach to controlling shrimp populations in shellfish-growing areas.

Graduates at the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµâ€™s 151st Commencement, scheduled for Saturday, June 13, at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium, will hear from Mary E. Brunkow, Class of ’83, who shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  

A new analysis of a 481-meter tsunami generated by a landslide in Alaska’s popular Tracy Arm Fjord last summer describes how glacial retreat, due to global warming, primed the fjord for the colossal wave and what, if any, warning signs preceded it.

Explore recent research from the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ: how sunbirds sip nectar through straw-like tongues, why the Seattle Fault might not pose as great a risk as previously thought, how to gauge landslide dam risk in the PNW, what marine microbes use for making meals and when the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will spot small inbound asteroids.

Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ researchers created BikeButler, a demo web app that lets users find personalized bike routes in Seattle. Cyclists plug in their destination and origin — just like in other mapping apps — and can then toggle sliders for eight attributes to create personalized route options.

A research team led by the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ has identified a new species of an ancient rodent-like creature. The new species, named Cimolodon desosai, was about the size of a golden hamster, the researchers said. It likely scampered on the ground and in the trees and ate fruits and insects.

David Hertzog, a Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ professor of physics, is a recipient of the 2026 Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics. The award is shared among roughly 400 scientists and celebrates decades of work to better understand the muon — a subatomic particle with anomalous properties.

A directive signed by former Gov. Jay Inslee in 2018 aimed to eliminate hepatitis C from Washington state by 2030. A new study led by the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ found that the plan not only expanded access to tests and treatment, but may save money in the long run.

The Ecological Society of America named the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµâ€™s Claire Willing a 2026 Early Career Fellow. Willing, an assistant professor of environmental and forest science, studies fungal ecology, looking at how fungi are evolving and supporting plant communities as the climate changes.

Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ researchers developed a system called VueBuds that uses tiny cameras in off-the-shelf wireless earbuds to allow users to talk with an AI model about the scene in front of them. For instance, a user might look at a Korean food package and say, “Hey VueBuds, translate this for me.â€� They’d then hear an AI voice say, “The visible text translates to ‘Cold Noodles’ in English.

A new study doubles the evolutionary history of the weasel family. Researchers, including Chris Law, a Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ principal research scientist in the biology department, have determined that a fossil that was discovered in Spain belongs to a new species dating back to around 6.5 million years ago. This new species was likely similar in size to the smallest living weasel species today, the least weasel.

As judges across the United States face growing political pressure, public attacks and threats to their personal safety, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ School of Law will host a national symposium on April 17 and 18 to examine how to protect America’s independent federal judiciary and the rule of law.

Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ President Robert J. Jones on Wednesday announced that David Lance has been appointed chief of staff to the president, effective May 11. The chief of staff serves as a senior advisor to the president and plays a critical role in advancing the University’s strategic priorities and institutional goals. 

Come curious. Leave inspired. The Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University.  And as May comes to a close, see what’s happening in June. Sign up to receive a monthly notice when the ArtSci Roundup has been published. ArtSci On Your Own Time: Video | Emily M. Bender Katz Lecture…