Kiyomi Taguchi – 91探花News /news Mon, 06 Apr 2026 21:11:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Video: How do plants know when to bloom? Spring flowering explained by 91探花chronobiologist /news/2026/03/17/how-do-plants-know-when-to-bloom-spring-flowering-explained-by-uw-chronobiologist/ Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:49:56 +0000 /news/?p=90958

Plants, like people, have a circadian clock and they sense seasonal changes to light and temperature. Plants that bloom in the spring use the longer days and warmer temperatures as seasonal cues that it鈥檚 time to bloom.

There are a few ways that plants can sense these cues. Plants with leaves are more sensitive to sunlight and use increasing daylight as a cue to bloom. Plants where the flower comes straight out of the ground or a branch, such as cherry trees and tulips, use temperature as their main cue to bloom.

, 91探花professor of biology, studies the genes that plants use to monitor seasonal changes. In this video, he shares more details about how plants sense seasonal changes.

For more information, contact Imaizumi at takato@uw.edu.

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Peak bloom predictions are in for UW’s cherry trees /news/2026/03/06/peak-bloom-predictions-are-in-for-uws-cherry-trees/ Fri, 06 Mar 2026 19:17:05 +0000 /news/?p=90885

[April 6] UPDATE: Flower petals are falling on the Quad as the trees lose their blossoms. The waning bloom is still quite a site but it’ll be a while before the trees are back on full display.

[March 23] UPDATE: The cherry trees are officially in peak bloom! Visit campus anytime in the next week or so to see the blossoms in all their glory.

[March 18] UPDATE: Recent temperature swings have slowed bud development for the Quad cherries. About half of the trees are still in peduncle elongation stage while half have moved on to the 鈥減uffy white鈥 stage that precedes full bloom. Cool temperatures in the coming days may delay peak bloom as trees gradually blossom. Warm weather could produce a sudden transition. Check the live cams for updates.

[March 13] UPDATE: It’s snowing but the blossoms are still growing! The Quad cherries are now in the “peduncle elongation” stage, where the flower-bearing stalk extends from the bud. Some have also begun to flower.

Each spring, large crowds gather on the 91探花 Quad to admire 29 puffy pink cherry trees making their seasonal debut. The trees begin to wake up as the weather warms, and this year, estimates suggest that they will reach 鈥減eak bloom鈥 on March 20.

The UW鈥檚 iconic cherry trees achieve peak bloom when 70% of the blossoms have opened, but the week before and after still offer visitors an optimal viewing experience.

The cherry blossom visitors鈥 website provides updates on bloom status as well as details on transportation, activities and amenities. The cherry blossoms also have live video feeds for virtual viewing and their own social media accounts on and .

The cherry trees are both beautiful and ecologically significant. Tracking when the buds burst each year helps researchers predict peak bloom and determine how climate warming is impacting the trees, which were planted in the Washington Park Arboretum in 1936 and then relocated to 91探花in 1962.

This year, many plants began to emerge early as a mild winter gave way to spring. Recent 91探花research described how plants rely on both temperature and light cues to time their flowering. Temperature is particularly important to cherry trees, which estimate the arrival of spring based on how cold it has been. They accrue 鈥渃hilling units鈥 as winter progresses and 鈥渉eating units鈥 as it yields to spring.

鈥淭he buds need to accumulate a specific amount of chilling units before they can start accumulating the heating units. When it is not as cold, the chilling units accumulate much slower, so it takes them longer to wake up from dormancy, which is very counterintuitive,鈥 said , a 91探花doctoral student of environmental and forest sciences.

Theil is now overseeing data collection on campus, with the help of approximately 20 undergraduate students. The researchers make observations as the trees begin to wake up and feed the data into a computer model that incorporates weather forecasts to predict peak bloom.

Historically, the onset of peak bloom has fallen between March 12 and April 3, with an average date of March 23. While the weather impacts peak bloom year to year, climate change drives longer term trends over multiple decades.

An aerial shot of the cherry trees on the 91探花Quad in bloom last year. Photo: 91探花

Research shows that bloom time has shifted approximately two days earlier each decade since the 1960s. Researchers began monitoring the trees in 2012 and referenced newspaper archives to estimate peak bloom dates for the preceding years.

鈥淲ith the climate warming more rapidly in the spring, I expected to see the flowers blooming earlier,鈥 said lead author , a recent doctoral graduate from the 91探花school of environmental and forest sciences. 鈥淏ut as we dove into the literature and examined the data, we saw a delay in bloom, as a result of winter warming in Seattle.鈥

The study focused on the Somei-yoshino, or Yoshino, cherry tree cultivar. These trees, sometimes called the Japanese flowering cherry, are found throughout Japan. They also line the National Mall in Washington D.C. and paint many Seattle neighborhoods pink in the springtime.

The bloom delay Maust observed applies only to Yoshino cherry trees in Seattle. In colder climates, such as Washington D.C., the trees have ample time to accrue chilling units. Still, the two populations are quite similar, genetically.

Propagation, or breeding more trees, occurs by grafting one tree onto another. This process limits genetic variability in favor of consistency. Because all Yoshino cherry trees are sterile clones of one another, they do not produce fruits or seeds, but they do reliably bloom in beautiful pink hues each spring.

Related

Even so, there is still enough variation between trees in different places to trace their history. To figure out where the UW鈥檚 trees may have come from, 91探花researchers and students . They compared the results to Yoshino cherry trees at sites throughout Japan and found a cluster of close relatives, with approximately 85% genetic overlap, near Shimane University in the city of Matsue.

The work, led by , a 91探花associate professor of biology, sheds light on the origin of the trees, some of which may be nearly 100 years old.

For more information on bloom time, contact Theil at mtheil@uw.edu or Maust at听 amaust@uw.edu. For information about the Yoshino Genome Project, contact Steinbrenner at astein10@uw.edu.

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Video: Drivers struggle to multitask when using dashboard touch screens, study finds /news/2025/12/16/video-drivers-struggle-to-multitask-when-using-dashboard-touch-screens-study-finds/ Tue, 16 Dec 2025 17:00:09 +0000 /news/?p=90099

Once the domain of buttons and knobs, car dashboards are increasingly home to large touch screens. While that makes following a mapping app easier, it also means drivers can鈥檛 feel their way to a control; they have to look. But how does that visual component affect driving?

New research from the 91探花 and Toyota Research Institute, or TRI, explores how drivers balance driving and using touch screens while distracted. In the study, participants drove in a vehicle simulator, interacted with a touch screen and completed memory tests that mimic the mental effort demanded by traffic conditions and other distractions. The team found that when people multitasked, their driving and touch screen use both suffered. The car drifted more in the lane while people used touch screens, and their speed and accuracy with the screen declined when driving. The effects increased further when they added the memory task.听

These results could help auto manufacturers design safer, more responsive touch screens and in-car interfaces.

The team Sept. 30 at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in Busan, Korea.听

鈥淲e all know ,鈥 said co-senior author , a 91探花professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. 鈥淏ut what about the car鈥檚 touch screen? We wanted to understand that interaction so we can design interfaces specifically for drivers.鈥

As the study鈥檚 16 participants drove the simulator, sensors tracked their gaze, finger movements, pupil diameter and electrodermal activity. The last two are common ways to measure mental effort, or 鈥渃ognitive load.鈥 For instance, pupils tend to grow when people are concentrating.听

Related:

  • Story from

While driving, participants had to touch specific targets on a 12-inch touch screen, similar to how they would interact with apps and widgets. They did this while completing three levels of an 鈥淣-back task,鈥 a memory test in which the participants hear a series of numbers, 2.5 seconds apart, and have to repeat specific digits.听

The participants鈥 performance changed significantly under different conditions:

  • When interacting with the touch screen, participants drifted side to side in their lane 42% more often. Increasing cognitive load had no effect on the results.
  • Touch screen accuracy and speed decreased 58% when driving, then another 17% under high cognitive load.
  • Each glance at the touchscreen was 26.3% shorter under high cognitive load.
  • A 鈥渉and-before-eye鈥 phenomenon, in which drivers鈥 reached for a control before looking at it, increased from 63% to 71% as memory tasks were introduced.

The team also found that increasing the size of the target areas participants were trying to touch did not improve their performance.听

鈥淚f people struggle with accuracy on a screen, usually you want to make bigger buttons,鈥 said , a 91探花doctoral student in the Allen School. 鈥淏ut in this case, since people move their hand to the screen before touching, the thing that takes time is the visual search.鈥

Based on these findings, the researchers suggest future in-car touch screen systems might use simple sensors in the car 鈥 eye tracking, or touch sensors on the steering wheel 鈥 to monitor drivers鈥 attention and cognitive load. Based on these readings, the car鈥檚 system might adjust the touch screen鈥檚 interface to make important controls more prominent and safer to access.

鈥淭ouch screens are widespread today in automobile dashboards, so it is vital to understand how interacting with touch screens affects drivers and driving,鈥 said co-senior author , a 91探花professor in the Information School. 鈥淥ur research is some of the first that scientifically examines this issue, suggesting ways for making these interfaces safer and more effective.鈥

, a 91探花doctoral student in the Information School, is co-lead author. Other co-authors include , , and of TRI. This research was funded in part by TRI.

For more information, contact Wobbrock at wobbrock@uw.edu and Fogarty at jfogarty@cs.washington.edu.

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Video: The UW’s 2025 storytelling highlights /news/2025/12/03/video-the-uws-2025-storytelling-highlights/ Thu, 04 Dec 2025 00:30:17 +0000 /news/?p=90014

Choosing highlights from 2025 for a video roundup is a tough task. 91探花 video producers meet students, faculty and community members during some of the most exciting moments of their lives 鈥 from earning a degree to finding answers that will impact the world.

This year at the UW, we saw cosmic images from a brand new telescope and supercharged a . We used a novel device to regain mobility, and sent a robot out of the lab to help feed people who can鈥檛 eat on their own. We launched an aeronautics professor into the sky in a Blue Angels Navy jet and we learned about using nuisance seaweed to help grow healthy crops. We reached out across our state to help solve problems, from calming traffic in Yakima to giving tribal fisheries on the Columbia River critical water temperature data. We welcomed a new president, new students and celebrated commencement. We were also inspired and heartbroken by 91探花women鈥檚 soccer player Mia Hamant鈥檚 brave fight with kidney cancer and effort to raise awareness of the disease before she passed in November.

Over the course of 2025, the 91探花News office, the and our Be Boundless site shared these stories and more from across the UW, including our researchers鈥 impactful work, and how we prepare students for successful careers and share our knowledge in teaching and in partnerships all over Washington and the world.

You can follow us and find more stories on the 91探花News website, , , and , as well as the , , and .

For more information, contact Kiyomi Taguchi, 91探花News video producer: ktaguchi@uw.edu or 206-685-2716. Happy New Year!

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Video: Halloween concert highlights spooky organ classics /news/2025/10/30/video-halloween-concert-highlights-spooky-organ-classics/ Thu, 30 Oct 2025 20:46:24 +0000 /news/?p=89759

The Halloween Organ Concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Kane Hall鈥檚 Walker-Ames Room. The event is free.

, artist in residence and head of organ studies at the 91探花, will be joined by students and colleagues on Friday, Oct. 31, to perform a concert of spooky organ classics and Halloween fun.

The concert will open with 鈥淭occata and Fugue in D minor,鈥 which Price will play on the organ. Most likely written by Johann Sebastian Bach in the Baroque period, the composition is strongly associated with Halloween and spooky films, including the Disney movie 鈥淔antasia.鈥

鈥淧eople will recognize that piece and sort of expect it,鈥澨 Price said. 鈥淲e will then have vocal students and instrumentalists from the 91探花School of Music, which will show how the organ can be an accompanying instrument, outside of just being a solo instrument. Each organist will bring their own character and style to their performances.鈥

Other concert selections include 鈥淭he Ballad of Sweeney Todd,鈥 鈥淧ink Panther,鈥 the Mexican folk song 鈥淟a Llorona,鈥 , and the American folk tune 鈥淭he House of the Rising Sun.鈥澨

鈥淓vents like this are important because they expose people to organ music that may not ever take the chance to go and hear an organ concert,鈥 Price said. 鈥泪迟 is a very popular event, and it’s oriented around popular music and familiar music. That makes it a fun experience.鈥

After graduating from Western Connecticut State University, Price received a Fulbright Scholarship to Toulouse, France, where he studied historical and modern performances practices of French organ music. He went on to earn a master鈥檚 degree and a doctoral degree in music.

I have a colleague here in Seattle who believes the instrument chooses you, and I think there may be some truth to that,鈥 Price said. 鈥淭he first time I saw an organist play, I knew instantly that’s what I wanted to do.鈥

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More bees please: 8 new-to-Washington species identified听 /news/2025/09/23/more-bees-please-8-new-to-washington-species-identified/ Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:20:55 +0000 /news/?p=88922 A woman with a backpack of tools looks small in a field of alpine flowers fringed with trees and a snow-topped mountain in the distance.
Autumn Maust at work near Mount Rainier.

Bee experts wouldn鈥檛 have previously expected to find the likes of Osmia cyaneonitens, Dufourea dilatipes and Stelis heronae in Washington. But this year, researchers added eight new bee species to a list of the state鈥檚 native pollinators.听

While collecting pollinators in Chelan County to study how climate and wildfires affect native bee populations, , a 91探花 research scientist of biology, discovered never recorded in Washington and 100 species that had not previously been documented in Chelan County. Expert taxonomists from Utah to British Columbia helped her identify the bees, which were photographed in high resolution for her research.听

鈥泪迟s a really exciting moment. Sitting with an expert taxonomist to determine the identity of an undocumented bee filled me with awe,鈥 said Maust, who completed this research as a 91探花doctoral student of of environmental and forest sciences. 鈥淭hey cited subtle characteristics that I would not have even known to examine. The findings also have important implications for biodiversity. It’s difficult to conserve a species when we don鈥檛 know its name or native range.鈥

Taxonomists refer to detailed sets of characteristics to differentiate bees by family, genera and species. The morphological qualities of bees are incredibly diverse, and individual species can vary in small but significant ways.鈥 Bees can be distinguished from each other by the shape and structure of wing veins, hair color on the 鈥榯erga鈥 鈥 plates forming the bee鈥檚 abdomen 鈥 and the location of 鈥榮copa,鈥 or pollen carrying hairs.

A white board displays hundreds of tiny pinned bees.If you are interested in bees, Maust said, the trains volunteers to find, collect and identify native bees. Individuals can also share bee photos and observations on sites like where the data is made available to researchers.听

Depicted below are a few of the new-to-Washington bees Maust observed and the characteristics scientists focused on for classification. Click the image to see the full resolution photo.

 

The scopa on the abdomen of this female bee and its heavily pitted 鈥榯erga鈥 with inflated edges helped Maust to identify it as Dianthidium singulare.
A side view of a bee body impaled on a pin with transparent brown wings and a mottled yellow and black pitted body.
Dianthidium singulare Photo: Josh Milnes/WSDA
This fierce-looking female Osmia cyaneonitens has huge mandibles (teeth) and flashy blue coloring. Osmia, in the mason bee family, use their large mandibles to move mud or cut leaves or petals to build nests. Their bodies are often metallic blue and green.

Osmia cyaneonitens Photo: Joel Gardner/WSU

This Dufourea dilatipes Maust collected belongs to a rare group of the Halictidae family, commonly called 鈥榮weat bees鈥 because they are attracted to the salt and moisture in the sweat of mammals. All members of this family have a strongly arched basal vein on the forewing. Dufourea dilatipes exclusively forages on Calochortus flowers for pollen and nectar.

Dufourea dilatipes Photo: Josh Milnes/WSDA
A closeup of a white 6 petalled flower in the grass.
Calochortus flower / Bill Bouton
Black and brown coloration on the head, abdomen and thorax is one trait of Melissodes nigracauda. This one was caught in a soap/water trap, which Maust said can result in a spiky hairdo sometimes smoothed by 鈥渞elaxing鈥 the bee and giving it鈥 a blow dry before pinning.听
Melissodes nigracauda Photo: Josh Milnes/WDSA
Stelis heronae, at 4 to 5 millimeters long, is so small it was hard for Maust to pin. It wasn鈥檛 described by any taxonomists until 2024, which made it tricky to identify. Stelis heronae is distinguished from other species by the maculations, or colored markings, on its terga. It is a cuckoo, or parasitic, bee that lays its eggs in the nests of other bees. Maust pointed out that female Stelis lack scopal hairs under their abdomens because, like other parasitic bees, they do not gather pollen but instead rely on the pollen stores of their hosts.

Stelis heronae Photo: Autumn Maust

For more information, contact Maust at amaust@uw.edu.

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Video: USDA freezes 91探花project that turns Washington shellfish farmers鈥 seaweed problem into soil solution for land farmers /news/2025/08/04/video-usda-freezes-uw-project-that-turns-washington-shellfish-farmers-seaweed-problem-into-soil-solution-for-land-farmers/ Mon, 04 Aug 2025 19:49:06 +0000 /news/?p=88741

Joth Davis adjusted his waders and stepped into the cool waters of Thorndyke Bay, his Crocs disappearing under a layer of thick, forest-green seaweed. Behind him, jagged Olympic peaks poked above the hilltops. Before him stretched 30 acres of oysters, clams and geoducks 鈥 the shellfish farm he鈥檇 run for 35 years.

A hundred feet from shore, Davis stooped over and reached a hand toward the muck, where a native cockle clam sat on the surface. 鈥淭his right here,鈥 he said, scooping up the clam, 鈥渢his is the problem.鈥澨

A man in bright orange waders holds a small clam.
Shellfish farmer and marine biologist Joth Davis examines a cockle clam that struggled to survive under a thick layer of seaweed.

Under ideal conditions, cockles bury themselves in sand or mud, resting in shallow waters. But the conditions at are not always ideal. Every summer, Davis and shellfish farmers across the Washington coastline contend with an abundance of , a native seaweed that flourishes in tidelands. Commonly called 鈥渟ea lettuce,鈥 Ulva grows thick and heavy. Left unmitigated, it can smother life underneath.

Some shellfish, like the cockle in Davis鈥檚 hand, can force themselves through the sludge and onto the surface, where they鈥檙e more likely to survive. Others 鈥 including the oysters and geoducks that are the heart of Baywater鈥檚 business 鈥 can only suffer on the seabed.听

鈥淭oo much seaweed grows in proliferation, and just piles up on top of the (shellfish). We definitely have seen mortalities among geoducks because of the Ulva,鈥 said Davis, who is also a trained marine biologist and affiliate professor of aquatic and fisheries sciences at the UW. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 getting worse.鈥

For years, Baywater has removed excess Ulva by hand. Teams of workers hunch over to scoop fistfuls of seaweed into oversized buckets. It鈥檚 an expensive, time-consuming, laborious process that creates yet another conundrum 鈥 what to do with hundreds of pounds of unwanted seaweed.听

Researchers at the 91探花 saw an opportunity. Ulva is rich in carbon and other nutrients, which can cause problems when left in the sea. But those same nutrients are vital for land-based agriculture. What if shellfish farmers like Davis could turn all that extra seaweed into an organic soil amendment for vegetable farms?听

鈥泪迟 seemed like a real no-brainer,鈥 said Sarah Collier, a 91探花assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and the project lead. 鈥淲hat has been a problem for shellfish farms could be a great opportunity for farms on land.鈥澨

A woman stands in tidelands covered in seaweed. She is wearing a purple polo shirt with the  91探花logo.
Sarah Collier, 91探花assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and the project lead of Blue Carbon, Green Fields.

That insight led to , a multi-year collaboration between the UW, Baywater Shellfish, , Washington State University, and farm business incubator The project aimed to test the viability of Ulva as a soil amendment, and, if successful, develop a market for sea-based farmers to sell excess seaweed to their counterparts on land. Along the way, Collier鈥檚 team would study the supply chain鈥檚 agricultural, economic and climate impacts.听

Project leaders hoped their findings would help to solve a problem faced not only in Washington, but also in coastal communities around the globe.听

鈥淥ur farm is really a research platform,鈥 Davis said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e doing this because it helps the farm, but it鈥檚 really the science that we want.鈥澨

In December 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded the program nearly $5 million over five years. The project launched the following year, removing more than 17,000 pounds of seaweed from shellfish beds and applying it to crops on four local farms, who received financial support for their participation.听

The project generated widespread excitement. Anecdotes from participating farms suggested an increased crop yield, and nearly 70 farms expressed interest in participating in the second year. The project team built a prototype raft-based system to accelerate seaweed removal. Early data suggested a significant economic benefit.

Then the USDA pulled the plug. In April 2025, federal officials canceled a $3 billion initiative to fund climate-forward agricultural projects such as Blue Carbon, Green Fields.听

鈥淲e had to immediately shut everything down,鈥 Collier said. Now the project is at a standstill: Farmers who had been eager to participate were unable to do so, and researchers haven鈥檛 been able to fully analyze the first year鈥檚 data. The raft-based harvester sits ready, but has no supply chain for the seaweed it collects.

As the summer unfolds, project leaders have scrambled to maintain what they can, collecting essential data and storing seaweed samples for later analysis. Collier is searching for alternative funding and working with the USDA to potentially tweak the project to fit the Trump administration鈥檚 priorities.听

For now, though, a solution to the seaweed problem remains just out of reach.听

鈥淭he thing that’s really frustrating is that this is absolutely a win-win,鈥 Collier said. 鈥泪迟 makes sense. It solves a problem. It鈥檚 just something that makes sense from every perspective whether you’re thinking about the economics, the environmental impacts or听 building resilience and health in the system. It just makes sense from every possible angle.

鈥淪o to have to stop doing this work is just so frustrating.鈥

Dried, greenish-white seaweed sits in two long rows inside of a rounded mesh hoop house.
Blue Carbon, Green Fields planned to test different methods of processing seaweed and applying it to vegetable farms. Here, seaweed harvested at Baywater Shellfish dries in a hoop house.

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Video: 91探花helps protect Washington’s workers through occupational health and safety research, training /news/2025/06/23/video-uw-helps-protect-washingtons-workers-through-occupational-health-safety-research-training/ Mon, 23 Jun 2025 16:27:30 +0000 /news/?p=88429

Every day, hundreds of workers across Washington state are hurt on the job. Some lose their lives. Many of the industries that shaped the state 鈥 forestry, fishing, agriculture 鈥 are riddled with risk.听

The 91探花 has for years been instrumental in the state鈥檚 efforts to keep workers safe. 91探花experts study workplace hazards like the toxic fumes inhaled by nail salon workers and the worsening heat waves faced by agricultural workers east of the Cascades. The UW鈥檚 training and education programs, from undergraduate education to continuing education for industry professionals, prepare trainees to oversee health and safety programs for businesses across the state. 91探花experts consult with businesses on how to keep workers safe and productivity high. And a provides specialized care to injured workers.

鈥淲orker health and safety is a vital component of what the 91探花 does,鈥 said , a 91探花assistant professor of environmental & occupational health sciences.

But those efforts are now under threat. This year, the federal government has dramatically cut the programs that fund worker safety efforts like those at the UW. In April, the Trump administration of the (NIOSH), the federal agency dedicated to worker safety. The agency has closed nearly all its research and training programs, creating uncertainty over whether funding will continue.

NIOSH has long been a significant source of funding for UW鈥檚 occupational health and safety research and training programs, complementing core funding from the state. Without federal support, much of that work will stop in its tracks. That means less research into the hazards workers face, and fewer people who are trained to mitigate those risks and treat workplace injuries and illnesses.

Ultimately, Baker fears workers across Washington will feel the impact.

鈥淚 suspect that if the cuts to NIOSH are maintained and the work that we’re doing here at the 91探花 no longer continues, the number of workers who are injured or lose their lives in Washington is going to go up,鈥 Baker said.听

Federal funds support the (NWCOHS), which prepares graduate students to work in occupational health and safety and provides continuing education to industry professionals. The NWCOHS addresses the need for specialists in occupational medicine by supporting training programs for physicians.

Trainees work out of specialty clinics, including the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic at Harborview Medical Center, which treats patients who are injured on the job. Physicians at the clinic learn how to connect workplace exposures to patients鈥 health outcomes and craft treatment plans to help workers recover and safely return to work.听

A physician holds the end of a stethoscope on a patient's back.
Dr. June Spector examines a patient in the Occupational & Environmental Medicine Clinic at Harborview Medical Center. Credit: Sarah Fish

鈥泪迟’s a unique combination of medicine and public health. We鈥檙e thinking about individual patients who are sitting in front of us, and also how to prevent workplace injuries and illness for populations of workers鈥 said , research associate professor of environmental & occupational health sciences and former director of the occupational & environmental medicine program at the UW. 鈥淭he goal is for workers and patients to be healthy and feel gratification from the work they’re doing, which often contributes to a healthy and productive workplace.鈥

The benefits aren鈥檛 theoretical 鈥 the UW鈥檚 occupational health and safety work has led directly to improved working conditions for some of the state鈥檚 most essential workers.听

Consider forestry and agricultural workers, who experience higher rates of workplace injury and death on the job. For decades, the UW鈥檚 (PNASH) has received federal funding through a NIOSH program focused exclusively on agricultural workers鈥 health and safety. PNASH experts have built deep ties across the state, working in collaboration with community members and industry partners to build safer, stronger workplaces.听

A few years ago, PNASH researchers learned that workers tasked with applying pesticides weren鈥檛 always properly wearing their protective equipment and faced frequent exposure to these hazardous chemicals. Researchers leaned into community and industry connections to better understand the barriers. Then they got to work on solutions.

A worker dressed red sprays chemicals from a tank strapped to his back onto a mess of weeds.
A worker sprays chemicals in newly planted forest. PNASH developed a pesticide safety toolkit to benefit both workers and their employers. Credit: Carl Wilmsen, Forest Worker Safety Talks

PNASH developed practical training that allows pesticide applicators to see how the sprays drift through the air by using a fluorescent tracer that lights up on clothes or skin. They studied how workers typically apply pesticides and suggested new methods that ensured the chemicals hit their target and didn鈥檛 drift onto workers. And they built tools to translate the warning labels on pesticide containers, which were written almost entirely in English, into Spanish, the primary language of many farm workers.

The developed in collaboration with farmers, educators and researchers across the state, is designed to benefit both workers and their employers.

鈥淎 unique role that we have at the 91探花is being able to listen to those who don鈥檛 have the ability to individually contact their employer or to contact the state, and to really make their voice heard,鈥 said , a 91探花assistant professor of environmental & occupational health sciences whose research focuses on protecting agricultural workers. 鈥淎nd we work with a wide variety of partners to really engage those essential workers that are growing our food and fishing in dangerous waters and understand how we can return information to them that’s actionable, meaningful and practical.鈥

NIOSH funds make that work possible. But the White House has proposed eliminating all federal funding for agricultural worker health and safety, putting PNASH鈥檚 funding in jeopardy. Leaders are searching for alternate funding to support the center鈥檚 critical services.

鈥淲e鈥檙e very concerned about this sudden change in federal focus and lack of resources being allocated to health and safety research,鈥 Austin said. 鈥淲e worry about our region in particular, that our workers are going to suffer and our businesses are going to have to bear the cost.鈥

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Video: A look at 91探花Libraries’ rare 1544 edition of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ /news/2025/03/26/video-a-look-at-uw-libraries-rare-1544-edition-of-dantes-divine-comedy/ Wed, 26 Mar 2025 19:51:12 +0000 /news/?p=87844

Bound in calfskin and detailed in gold, a rare 1544 edition of Dante鈥檚 Divine Comedy was this year. The volume contains something to pique anyone鈥檚 interest, says , associate dean for Distinctive Collections at 91探花Libraries. The book is nearly 500 years old, and has likely lasted so long because its pages are made of durable linen fiber, not wood pulp. The handmade leather cover and sturdy binding also helped preserve the book. When librarians handle the book today, they use foam wedges to cradle the cover, which helps protect the centuries-old spine.

Head shot of Julie Tanaka in a black button up shirt.
Julie Tanaka, associate dean for Distinctive Collections at 91探花Libraries Photo: 91探花News

At the time this book was produced, it was customary for people to buy the pages and take them to be bound in the cover of their choice. Books were expensive and treated with care. This particular edition likely received the current leather binding a century after it was printed. There are also some marginal notes in Italian left by its owner.听

It may have been typical for a book from this period in northern Italy to have been printed 1,000 times. Today, surviving copies are rare, though a handful of collections on the West Coast have acquired copies.

Dante Alighieri was an Italian medieval poet, penning the Divine Comedy in the early 1300s. This edition is remarkable for the side-by-side text by a leading 16th century Dante commentator, Alessandro Vellutello, and for the intricate wood-cut illustrations depicting Dante鈥檚 vision of hell, purgatory and heaven.

鈥淲hat excites me is that there鈥檒l be something in this book that appeals to everyone,鈥 Tanaka said. 鈥泪迟 has lots of opportunities for discovery and engagement. And for 91探花Libraries, that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e here.鈥

The Vellutello Dante may be viewed in the Special Collections Reading Room by making an appointment via the catalog link or contact Special Collection by email (speccoll@uw.edu).

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Video highlights: From sea stars to sound waves, a look back at an eventful 2024 at the UW /news/2024/12/18/video-highlights-from-sea-stars-to-sound-waves-a-look-back-at-uw-news-in-2024/ Wed, 18 Dec 2024 20:15:43 +0000 /news/?p=87143

Magical moments and memorable events 鈥 from a baby sea star getting its first taste of the open ocean to a cherry tree blooming 鈥 happen all year round at the 91探花, and we do all we can to help people understand what it looked like, what happened and who was involved. Here鈥檚 a glimpse, through the video lens, at 2024 from around the 91探花 and beyond.

Researchers are shown underwater wearing scuba equipment with two clear plastic crates of small sea stars.
Researchers dive to place lab grown sea stars in open water near UW’s Friday Harbor Labs Photo: Dennis Wise/UW

91探花videographers captured students starting their college careers and celebrating graduation, educators sharing knowledge on everything from mosquitoes to medieval monsters, researchers developing wearable tech that helps us hear a single voice in a crowd or that can be powered by our own bodies, and 91探花Medicine surgeons. 91探花students, faculty and staff are at work bringing dentistry professionals to rural communities, 鈥痬easuring jet noise and combing community health records for connections between wildfire smoke and dementia.

If that wasn鈥檛 enough, the 91探花saw and prepared to say goodbye to 91探花President Ana Mari Cauce, who announced that she will step down from her position this summer.

Crowns of people enjoying cherry blossoms in full bloom on the  91探花campus on a sunny day.
Cherry blossoms in full bloom on the 91探花campus.

The 91探花News office and share these and more stories about outstanding people, programs and research coming out of the university. In addition to publishing news releases鈥痑苍诲 connecting reporters with faculty experts, the news office offers video stories, soundbites and b-roll to external news outlets to use in broadcasts, online stories and social media. This year, these videos were shared by television stations, radio stations and online publications around the state, the nation and the world.

Happy New Year! You can follow us and find more stories on the 91探花News website,, and, and the , , and .听听听

For more information, contact Kiyomi Taguchi, 91探花News video producer: ktaguchi@uw.edu or 206-685-2716.

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