Affiliate professor of biology receives 2026 Kenneth S. Norris Lifetime Achievement Award��

, a research scientist and affiliate professor in the in the Department of Biology at the 91̽��, was honored with the ��from the��. The award recognizes exemplary lifetime contributions to science and society through research, teaching, and service in marine mammalogy.��

Over a 40-year career, Moore’s research has focused on cetacean ecology, acoustics, and natural history, particularly in the Arctic. A prolific researcher, she is widely recognized as a pioneer in using marine mammals as ecosystem sentinels in this rapidly changing region. Over decades of studying whales, Moore has helped scientists understand the health of ocean environments and how they are changing over time. Her work provides critical insight into the impacts of climate change in the Arctic and how marine ecosystems are responding. Her contributions to Arctic science have also been recognized with the����from the International Arctic Science Committee and the 2023����from the Alaska SeaLife Center; she is also a science adviser to the Washington State Academy of��Sciences,��and was appointed Commissioner��of the�� in 2022.

Natt-Lingafelter professor of chemistry awarded 2026 Earle K. Plyler Prize��

,��professor of chemistry at the UW,��was��awarded the 2026�� from the American Physical Society for her impactful contributions to the anharmonic vibrational spectroscopy and dynamics of molecular radicals, ions, and clusters. Established in 1976, the prize honors pioneering spectroscopist Earle K. Plyler and is sponsored by the Journal of Chemical Physics. The prize will be presented at the APS Global Physics Summit, the world’s largest physics research conference, in March 2026.

McCoy’s research focuses on theoretical chemistry, where she develops methods to understand how molecules move, vibrate, and exchange energy. Her work has helped scientists better understand the fundamental behavior of molecules—providing insight into how chemical reactions occur and how energy flows through molecular systems. Much of her recent work has focused on hydrogen-bonded systems and, specifically, proton transport. She is also interested in exotic molecules, like CH5+ and H5+, which have been proposed to exist in the interstellar medium. These advances help lay the groundwork for progress in areas ranging from atmospheric chemistry to materials science.

91̽��joint professor of mathematics and computer science awarded inaugural Trevisan Prize��

91̽�� professor ��has received the�� for his breakthrough contributions to the study of optimization problems.��Rothvoss��holds joint appointments in the Department of Mathematics and the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering and was honored in the mid-career category—a recognition of his impactful work over the course of his career.

for outstanding work in the theory of computing is sponsored by the Department of Computing Sciences at Bocconi University and the Italian Academy of Sciences. Awardees receive a one-time monetary prize and a medal and are invited to give public lectures at Bocconi University. The award ceremony and lectures took place in January 2026.

Rothvoss��has built a distinguished record of contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete optimization. He shares that “over the years my focus has changed a bit…I worked on approximation algorithms, which deal with finding provably good solutions to NP-hard problems in polynomial time.” His work has since shifted toward discrepancy theory and the theoretical foundations of linear and integer programming.��In simple terms,��Rothvoss��studies��the mathematics��behind making��optimal��decisions��in��highly complex��systems. His research helps reveal when efficient solutions are��possible and optimization problems can be solved.��

Political��science��professor��receives John Gaus Award��

,��professor of��political��science at the UW,��received the����from the American Political Science Association��(APSA).��

The John Gaus Award is presented annually to honor a lifetime of exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration. Prakash was selected unanimously for the award in recognition of a career devoted to advancing scholarship at the intersection of political science and public administration. A nomination letter noted that Prakash’s research, particularly on environmental issues, has helped bring environmental concerns into public administration in a variety of ways, including examining how businesses and NGOs can fill governance gaps. At the same time, the letter highlighted how his work explores the risks of these nontraditional governance mechanisms, including potential issues such as regulatory capture and accountability deficits.��

Prakash’s research spans environmental governance, public policy, and global political economy. Over the course of his career, he has published eight scholarly books and more than 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals, with his work cited more than 18,000 times across the field. As part of the honor, Prakash presented the Gaus Lecture at the APSA Annual Meeting in September 2025.

Washington Sea Grant��interim��director��receives��governor’s��leadership��award��

, interim director of Washington Sea Grant, received the��, which recognizes exemplary leadership and service to the state of Washington.

Little was honored for her work supporting the state’s coastal communities through Washington Sea Grant’s research, outreach, and partnership-driven initiatives.��

Little has dedicated more than 15 years to strengthening Washington’s coast through strategic vision, inclusive practices, and sustained investment in community-centered programs. Under her leadership, Washington Sea Grant delivered nearly $250 million in services and economic benefits statewide between 2021 and 2024, reflecting the program’s broad impact across coastal and maritime communities.��

“A big thank you to the team at Washington Sea Grant for the nomination,” Little said.��“I’m��deeply grateful to work alongside such thoughtful colleagues, who are so dedicated to our shared work.��I’m��so honored by this recognition from the��governor. This award really is a testament to the impact of Washington Sea Grant’s work in serving the state’s coastal communities.”

Biology��professor��awarded Rome Prize Fellowship in Environmental Arts & Humanities��

, professor of biology��at��the UW,��was awarded��the prestigious in the new Environmental Arts & Humanities category by the��. This pilot fellowship supports collaborative projects that explore how human beings relate to, experience, and interpret the natural world.

In partnership with Katharine Ogle, lecturer��of��English at��the University��of Southern California, Summers will pursue a project titled��“Piscis Romana.”��Their work draws on��natural history��research conducted at the Friday Harbor Laboratories to investigate the links between marine life,��ecology,��and poetic expression.��

“This��award will allow��Katie Ogle and��me to��further explore the links between poetry and natural history that have been developed by a group of us at Friday Harbor Labs,”��Summers said.��

Summers’ biological research spans marine and aquatic systems with a strong emphasis on understanding organismal form,��function,��and the broader natural-history context in which��species��evolve and interact. Partnering��with Ogle, he will extend that scientific inquiry into the realm of arts and humanities, looking at how the natural world inspires literary forms,��metaphors,��and cultural narratives.��

With this Rome Prize fellowship, Summers joins a competitive cohort selected from��nearly 1,000��applicants and will spend several��months in��residence at the Academy in Rome, working among scholars and artists from around the world.��

For Valentine’s Day, 91̽��News asked 12 91̽�� researchers to share their love stories: What made them decide to pursue their career paths? Scroll down or click on the links below to see their responses.

Lakeya Afolalu | Katya Cherukumilli | Stephen Groening | June Lukuyu | Jennifer Nemhauser | Zoe Pleasure | Kira Schabram | Bára Šafářová | Adam Summers | Timeka Tounsel | Kendall Valentine | Navid Zobeiry

, Assistant professor of language, literacy and culture, College of Education

What do you study at the UW?��

My research explores how immigration, race, language, literacy and identity intersect in the lives of Nigerian immigrant and transnational youth. Unlike in many West African countries, race is the most salient identifier in the United States, often overlooking the diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic identities of youth of African origin. This often affects how immigrant youth make sense of their identities in this country. My research examines how Nigerian youth use multilingualism, literacy and digital literacies to construct and negotiate their identities across home, school and digital environments in the U.S.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

My mother is African American. My father is Nigerian. So, growing up, I often felt like I was split between both cultures. There were also so many societal and familial expectations about what it meant to be “Black,” “African American” and “Nigerian.”

Growing up, my family members and friends in Detroit called me by my African American name, “Lakeya.” But when my sisters and I spent summers and holidays in Queens, New York, with our Nigerian family, the moment I crossed over the threshold of the door I was called by my Nigerian name, “Iyore.”

Honestly, I’d say I set out very early in life to define my life’s path and to be intentional about how I wanted to make myself known to the world — my identity. It was not — and even as an adult Black woman in America, it still is not always — comfortable to defy identity expectations. But what other way is there to live? To be a shell of what others, or society, believe we should be? Is that living? It is not.

As a teenager, I had less confidence in being bold and being my true self. I loved reading novels. I’d go to the bookstore and buy books to read, but I hid this practice from my friends because of some unwritten rule that one can’t be Black, cool and smart. Adolescent peer pressure was a real issue. That’s also how I fell in love with writing. Often feeling misunderstood, I resorted to the pages of my journals where I could be myself and dream of my future self. I continue to keep a journal.

My Aunt Darcelle says I’ve been asking profound questions since I learned to speak. That hasn’t changed. So, it’s no surprise that I’ve committed to a career in research. My research is not just research, though. It’s the story and lives of so many young people who feel wedged between other people’s and society’s ideas of who they should be and what they should become. Sometimes, these expectations can come from those closest to us who have well-meaning intentions — parents, family members, close friends. I understand this feeling well.

There are many times when I’m writing a manuscript or analyzing data, and I draw on memories of my own schooling experiences to interpret interview transcripts from the Nigerian youth in my study. Or I remember similar instances from West African seventh-grade students in Harlem, which guided me to draw on theoretical frames that align best with the Nigerian youth experience.

My research is truly about shifting the narrative about what it means to be Black, Nigerian and African. Why? Well, because Blackness is so rich, diverse and multifaceted. So is Nigerianness and Africanness. As I engage in my research to illustrate the rich diversity of Nigerian youth’s languages, literacies and identities, I also aim to contribute to dismantling rigid identity structures, creating greater freedom for all young people who find themselves in environments that are structured by prescribed identities that conflict with how they desire to be known.

My research is a contribution to freedom — a freedom that transcends into adulthood. My feet may be in the academy, but my heart and hands always have been and always will be in the communities that mirror mine. It’s truly an honor to do this heart work.

I also want to touch on how I decided to pursue this career path. Growing up, I always wanted to play school and take on the role of the teacher. In fact, I cried whenever my sisters and cousins wouldn’t play school with me. For Christmas and my birthday, I would ask my mother to buy me dry-erase boards, markers and other office items so that I could set up my “classroom” in the house.

I fell in love with teaching because my early elementary teachers were some of the first people who made me feel seen. For instance, my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Schave, would let me choose and read books to the whole class on Fridays. My second-grade teacher, Mrs. Korn, at Fitzgerald Elementary on the west side of Detroit, would invite me to the writer’s table in the classroom whenever I finished my work early. At that table, I realized how powerful and freeing the art of writing is.

While I had these great school experiences, they were also starkly different from my cousins’ experiences. They lived and attended public schools in Auburn Hills, in the suburbs outside of Detroit. I often visited them on the weekends and noticed that they read the same books that I read at my elementary school, except that we had the abridged version in basal textbooks while they had the full chapter books. That struck something within me, and I realized very early in life that your ZIP code — where you lived — determined the quality of your education. It felt unfair. I didn’t have the words to describe it then, but I now know that it was an equity issue — not just educationally but also in terms of economic and social mobility.

So, I decided around the age of 7 that I wanted to become a teacher. I made an internal promise to myself, a commitment, that children who grow up in communities like mine — the beautiful west side of Detroit — would have access to a quality education no matter what. Since that commitment, I’ve taught elementary and middle school in Newark, New Jersey, Detroit, and Harlem.

Thinking back to the connection with my research on identity, I had many conversations with my Nigerian father, who wanted me to pursue a career in finance. In Nigerian culture, there’s often the idea that doctor, lawyer and engineer are the only three career choices, but I was less interested in the money and prestige. I was committed to a career in education.

Today, as an assistant professor and the founder of a that supports the identities and well-being of youth of color, I have small moments when I think back to little Lakeya and smile. I’m doing exactly what she set out to do and more. She would be proud.

What advice would you give to your younger self?��

It’s okay to be misunderstood. It’s okay not to fit in. In fact, not fitting in is what makes you beautifully unique. I know that none of your identity and educational experiences may make sense now, but they will later. Trust me, it will make sense — not just for you but for many youths who find themselves making sense of their identities. In fact, you’ll dedicate your career to speaking, writing and doing community-based work about these topics. Finally, I know you’re looking for that example like yourself, with your dreams and who lives between multiple cultural worlds, but in time, you will become the example you’re looking for. Hold on. It’s going to be a beautiful roller coaster of a ride.

For more information, contact Afolalu at lafolalu@uw.edu.

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, Assistant professor, Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering

What do you study at the UW?

My research group, the Safe Water Equity and Longevity Lab, aims to bridge gaps between scientific discovery, technology design and safe water provision. We integrate methods from human-centered design and environmental engineering to investigate barriers that limit safe water access and to develop usable water quality monitoring and treatment technologies. Specifically, we use data science, experiments, hardware prototyping and community-engaged research methods to design collaborative tools that improve safe water management and mitigate exposure to chemical contaminants in water supplies.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

From a young age, I always felt a deep connection to our planet. I loved spending most of my time outdoors exploring the natural world. I was very curious and talkative as a child, wanting to solve riddles, play games and learn about how everything worked. My curiosity led me down a winding path of research adventures that allowed me to study geology and supercontinents, climate change and alpine plant ecology, fuel-efficient cookstoves, wastewater irrigation and, eventually, safe drinking water.

When I reflect on how I ended up choosing to research access to drinking water, I think about the different places I have lived: south India, Florida, California and Washington. Each region has a uniquely different way of life, cultural traditions and natural environments. A common thread in each of the places I have called home was proximity to the coastline and easy access to fresh springs, rivers and lakes. I have always found myself drawn by an invisible force to the nearest body of water.

I am grateful that my career allows me to address environmental health challenges while also considering the human experience, to reflect on and reconcile inequities and injustices, and to collaboratively solve complex puzzles with brilliant students, colleagues and community partners.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Don’t be scared to do what you love every day, follow your heart and never stop speaking your mind. You’ll eventually find your way and realize it was the journey that mattered in the end.

For more information, contact Cherukumilli at katyach@uw.edu.

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, Associate professor, Department of Cinema & Media Studies

What do you study at the UW?

I am a media historian who specializes in the sociocultural aspects of media technologies. This includes researching and writing about devices themselves, the implications of the introduction and widespread adoption of these devices and how people use them. For example, my first book was . I have also published research on cell phones, , 16 mm training films, and the use of television screens in the family minivan.

What made you fall in love with your research area? ��

I was 7 when I was stuck on a Pan Am 747 for five hours on the tarmac at London Heathrow and boy, was it exciting when they finally played the movie on the big screen at the front of the cabin!

After that, I lived in Poland under a military dictatorship, which profoundly shaped my media experience growing up. For example, we used to watch Hollywood films played on a 16 mm projector in our living room — both the films and projector were provided through the U.S. Armed Forces. The range of films could be odd. I remember watching “Sophie’s Choice,” “Heartbeeps,” “Terms of Endearment,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Going Ape!,” “Sleeper,” “Fire and Ice,” “The Towering Inferno,” “City on Fire,” “When Time Ran Out,” “Three Days of the Condor,” “Hannah and Her Sisters” and “Krull” — not exactly .

At the same time, we were watching Polish television (mostly the animated shows “Pszczółka Maja” and “Bolek i Lolek”). Occasionally, a Hollywood film would be aired on TV, over-dubbed in Polish in such a way that the English language dialogue was still audible. I have distinct memories of watching “The Poseidon Adventure” and hearing the first few words of a line in English before the Polish translation came in on top of the dialogue. It wasn’t until a decade or so later that I learned this is not the standard technique for making alternate language versions of films.

We sometimes had access to U.S. television shows from other American diplomats who would return from home leave. They would bring videotape recordings, so I got to watch “Hogan’s Heroes,” “M*A*S*H” and “Gilligan’s Island” months after air date, complete with commercials (which I found both profoundly perplexing and compelling — As I type right now, I am singing the ). I even got to see “Roots” and “The Day After” on Betamax (we did not have what was then thought of as the inferior VHS format).

I would say that those media experiences — in-flight film, 16mm home exhibition, watching films on television in multiple languages — sparked my interest in our mediated mass culture. Until relatively recently, film studies was marked by a bias toward theatrical exhibition of feature films (with the occasional nod to experimental films shown in art galleries) and media studies was concerned with the effective transmission of messages to audiences. The forms of media encounter that are unforeseen and often unintended at the moment of production often get treated as accidental and inconsequential and yet, for many people that is the primary mode of encounter. Because of my experience, I know that all media forms, devices and their contents are contingent on a particular and fortuitous set of circumstances. So I find myself curious about those circumstances and their history.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

If I had known I would become an academic, I might have told my 8-year-old self to take better notes and told my undergraduate self to spend more time in faculty office hours asking about academia. Knowing what I know now, I would have told myself 10 years ago to stop worrying what others might think and just write the damned book.

For more information, contact Groening at groening@uw.edu.

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, Assistant professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

What do you study at the UW?

My research centers on using transdisciplinary approaches to develop solutions for creating sustainable, inclusive and integrated energy solutions for underserved communities. My expertise supports policymakers and practitioners seeking equitable, community-centered energy transitions that combine technical and socioeconomic perspectives.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

I grew up in a small community outside Nairobi, Kenya. From an early age, I saw firsthand the challenges of unreliable power: frequent outages, power surges and a system that did not always meet the needs of the people it served. When the lights went out, my family, like many in the area, was often left scrambling to preserve our food or finish homework assignments in candlelight. It was not just an inconvenience — it was a reminder of how something as essential as electricity could hold communities back. I knew from then that I wanted to do something about it, but at the time, I did not quite know how.

When I was in high school, I applied to colleges in the U.S. and was accepted to Smith College on a full scholarship. There, I pursued engineering science, but what really sparked my love for the field was not just the technical challenges — it was how energy systems intertwined with society. At Smith, I was not just solving equations. I was also exploring how power affects everything from education to health care to human development. My engineering courses were paired with courses in psychology, economics and sociology, and that blend of disciplines opened my eyes to a new way of thinking: Energy wasn’t just a technical problem to solve, it was a societal one.

The more I learned, the more I realized that fixing energy systems in underserved communities couldn’t be as simple as just adding more power or building bigger grids. It had to be about understanding the people who needed that power. I wanted to create systems that responded to real needs, that didn’t just drop in solutions, but considered the community’s culture, environment and existing infrastructure. After graduating, I had a job developing software to estimate the cost of power systems, but I kept thinking about how we could rethink energy to make it more sustainable, more inclusive and more connected to the social fabric of the places it served.

That thinking led me to pursue a master’s in renewable energy systems at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom and then a doctorate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where my research focused on finding ways to develop energy systems that were as much about community as they were about technology. I didn’t just want to create another power system that might fail because it didn’t align with how people lived or how societies worked. Instead, I wanted to design systems that were responsive to local contexts and to the needs of communities they intended to serve, systems that people could rely on for the long haul.

In 2023, I joined the 91̽�� as an assistant professor, where I founded the IDEAS (Interdisciplinary Energy Analytics for Society) research group. Our work is all about creating energy systems that work for the people who use them. It’s a mix of developing sustainable technology, social understanding and deep collaboration with communities. We’re working on projects in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and even here in the U.S., always with the goal of creating solutions that are both sustainable and tailored to the specific needs of each community.

What I love most about my research is that it’s not just about the science — it’s about the people. Every project is a chance to dive into a new community, understand its challenges and design solutions that truly fit. I’m passionate about making sure that when we think about energy, we’re thinking about people, not just power. And now, teaching and mentoring the next generation of engineers at 91̽��gives me a chance to pass on that mindset — to inspire others to think beyond the technical and ask, “How does this system help the people who need it most?”

It’s been a winding journey, from a small town outside Nairobi to researching sustainable and inclusive energy solutions at a major university. But the core of it has always been the same: a desire to make a difference, to solve real-world problems with technology and to ensure that everyone, no matter where they are, has access to the energy they need to thrive.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I’d tell my younger self not to worry so much about fitting into a mold or following a traditional path. Every experience, even the ones that seem unrelated or uncertain, contributes to your journey. Embrace the uncertainty, because it often leads to the most interesting places.

I’d also remind myself to be patient and kind with the process. Progress isn’t always linear. There were times when I felt overwhelmed or unsure of my next step. It’s okay to feel that way — it’s part of learning and growing. The setbacks, the challenges and even the moments of doubt are just as important as the successes. They shape you and teach you valuable lessons.

Finally, I’d tell myself to take more risks — to seek out the scary opportunities, the ones that seem daunting or unfamiliar. You never know where a seemingly small decision or unexpected twist in the road might take you. Sometimes, the things that seem out of reach are the ones worth pursuing most. So, trust yourself, stay curious and keep pushing forward, even when the path isn’t always clear. The journey will be worth it.

For more information, contact Lukuyu at jlukuyu@uw.edu.

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, Professor, Department of Biology

What do you study at the UW?

We use plant, yeast and human cells to understand and engineer the molecular interactions that allow organisms to process information during development and stress responses.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

When I was a little girl, I attended a Montessori school in Los Angeles. This was the 1970s, and the teachers embraced the philosophy of letting a child’s interest direct their learning. I had one teacher that I really bonded with, named Dr. Pillai. He introduced me to the process of science research, rewarding my seemingly insatiable curiosity with thoughtful responses and sharing just the right book or model or experiment to help me dig deeper into any topic that caught my interest. He made me feel like asking a million questions was a wonderful quality (something not everyone agreed with, then or now!).

The pure joy of learning about the natural world through experimentation struck a deep chord. While the road was quite twisty between those early years and my decision to pursue science as a career, I am sure that I would not be here today without that early encouragement.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Be nicer to your dad when he is helping you with your math homework!

For more information, contact Nemhauser at jn7@uw.edu.

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, Doctoral student, Department of Health Systems & Population Health, School of Public Health

What do you study at the UW?

My research focuses on understanding how people make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health care while navigating the multi-level influences that shape our current societal structure. In my research, I use mixed methods to analyze more traditional data sources, such as qualitative interviews and surveys, and newer data sources, such as TikTok videos, Reddit posts and electronic health record notes, to understand what type of information people seek out about sexual and reproductive health, their motivations behind decision-making and their care interactions with providers. I seek to examine how people with different lived experiences (for example: chronic disease, young people, veterans) may have different decision-making motivations and informational needs to make autonomous reproductive health decisions.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

I first became passionate about sexual and reproductive health while taking the class Sex, Gender and the Brain as a neuroscience undergraduate at Emory University. My final project focused on how anti-choice groups attempted to limit reproductive autonomy by promoting erroneous interpretations of neuroscience data to argue that oral contraceptives are dangerous. The class demonstrated to me how scientists could meld science with feminist theory and, more specifically, how the intentional distribution of misinformation online provides another tool to limit bodily autonomy.

Earlier in my educational career, teachers often framed my biology, chemistry and physics classes as apolitical or unbiased by societal structures. I now know that is not true. This class was one of the first classes where we were asked to name the specific orientation or lens of a research paper or study and describe who and what was left out.

I quickly dropped my neuroscience focus after this class and instead focused on policy-relevant, public –health-informed research that aims to improve access to and the equity and quality of sexual and reproductive health care and information. While earning a master’s of public health, I started working at the Guttmacher Institute, a leading sexual and reproductive health policy and research organization based in New York City. There, I started working on research projects that directly studied ways to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I would advise my younger self to think critically about the lessons that are available in all academic classes, including English, dance, and history, and to think about how these lessons can be used to become a better public health researcher and writer.

For more information, contact Pleasure at zoep2@uw.edu.

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, Assistant professor of management, Foster School of Business

What do you study at the UW?

My two primary topics of inquiry are meaningful work and employee sustainability. My research examines how to support employees who want to make a positive difference through their work in ways big and small, ranging from employees who view work as a calling — not just a paycheck but as a source of personal, social or moral significance — to those engaging in everyday acts of helping, kindness and compassion. I study the challenges that impede these activities to determine how employees can conduct their work more sustainably.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

I fell into academia. In 2007, I was working for the largest animal shelter in North America and I enrolled in a part-time master’s program in business because I had aspirations of one day rising into a leadership position in animal welfare.

In 2008, the Great Recession hit and I lost my job, but I also learned that professors in my master’s program did research (who knew!). At the time, research on meaningful work was in its infancy and focused primarily on the positive aspects (for example: showing that employees doing meaningful work have greater engagement and satisfaction). I saw this among my co-workers in the animal shelter, but I also saw so much frustration, burnout and resignation. Every day, employees who wanted to save animals’ lives were in the corner crying because of their inability to do so.

I applied to 10 doctoral programs and got into one, where I was lucky that my supervisors encouraged me to join the burgeoning wave of research looking at meaningful work as a double-edged sword and what to do about it. The rest is history.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

This is less advice for my younger self and more gratitude to all the people who helped me along the way. Early in your career, you do not yet know how anything works: how research works, what journals are appropriate outlets, how to develop the ability to know where to dedicate our efforts: what research projects are not only novel but important. Until then, senior mentors are invaluable guides. What makes for a successful career is all the people who generously offer their time and guidance along the way. I did many, many things wrong in my early career, but one thing I did right was to seek out and show my appreciation for any and all help. I would not be here if it wasn’t for the thousands of hours invested in me by others in the field and I hope I am paying that forward in a small part.

For more information, contact Schabram at schabram@uw.edu.

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, Assistant professor, School of Urban Studies, 91̽��Tacoma

What do you study at the UW?

��My research is primarily on housing segregation, but I have also become an expert on the overlap of and its relationship with the greening of cities in times of climate change and rising inequality.

What made you fall in love with this new research area?

��I happened to fall into this area in the middle of the night a couple months into my architecture doctoral program. It was early spring. I had moved to College Station, Texas, and was living in a relatively old timberstick house. It was about 1 a.m. when I jumped into my bed and then yelped out from a sharp pain in my lower back.

My first thought: a snake bite?! I leapt up, squeezed my back as if I could prevent any poison from getting in, turned on the light and scanned the bed for a snake. Nothing. Instead I saw a bug — a flat dark bug, not even an inch long. I scooped it up in a jar, let go of my “poisoned skin” and sighed in relief.

Then I thought, could this be a risky bug? I had just moved to the U.S. from Europe and I didn’t know the local fauna at all. To resolve this in a rational way, I settled on eliminating worst-case scenarios. I Googled: “most dangerous insects in Texas.” I checked the bug in the jar for unique characteristics and compared it to a ranking of… JESUS! The third bug on the list was exactly the same bug that was staring at me from the jar: A Kissing bug… a bite from which can lead to Chagas disease… Deadly… No cure… Organs disintegrate in several decades.

My heart was pounding. My hand was back on the bite site. I was skimming the internet frantically. It was so late, and I had no one to call at that hour. I thought of calling people in Europe, but what would they know? I forced myself to read slowly and make a plan.

The message became clear: There is no cure for Chagas disease and the only symptom (sometimes) occurs the following morning: the swelling of one eyelid on the side closer to the bite site. Even if I went to the hospital, this seemed to be an under-studied disease and tests were limited. I resolved to just sleep it off and go to the doctor in the morning.

I woke up early. My face was symmetrical. Phew. I took the jar to the clinic right as they opened. Someone in the waiting room told me about getting bit by a brown recluse. “Oh well,” I thought, giving up on life a little.

The doctor took one look at the bug and said “Yes, that is a Kissing bug. There’s no cure. No test. Just move on, sorry!”

Perplexed, but also assured by the lack of urgency, I left the clinic. Over the next few days, my worries slowly faded as there apparently was nothing to do about this. I tossed the bug.

Two weeks later I saw an announcement on the university homepage from , then a doctoral student studying biomedical sciences. She was asking about any Kissing bug sightings and .

I immediately wrote to Rachel and reported what happened. She was super excited and asked me to bring her the bug. I said I threw it out, but had photos and I found a similar one — I had lots of bugs in my old house. We met over coffee. Rachel informed me that the bug was NOT a Kissing bug and that I should not worry. She could test me, but it was not necessary.

She explained the science of how the parasite behind Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, . It’s quite the process: After the bug bites you, it poops. The parasites are in infected bugs’ poop, which means that the poop has to get smudged into the bite site for you to get infected.

Then Rachel asked about my doctoral research and I told her I was studying housing in the colonias that line the border of Texas and Mexico. Her eyes lit up because she was looking to get samples from there. Thanks to the bug bite and my coffee with Rachel, a whole team formed and we started a pilot project that combined our research interests. This study became my master’s thesis, and six years later in the prestigious Habitat International journal.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Talk to doctoral students from many more disciplines!

For more information, contact Šafářová at bsafar@uw.edu.

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, Professor, Department of Biology and School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences

What do you study at the UW?

I am a natural historian who applies physics, math and engineering concepts to living systems to understand how they work. My research is driven by both the evolutionary implications of function and the possibility of bio-inspired design.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

From my earliest childhood I spent three seasons in downtown Manhattan and summer in the north woods of Ontario, Canada. The contrast between the most urban environment and a place without utilities or indoor plumbing was formative. Fishes, whether in tanks, on lines, or through my SCUBA mask, were my constant and most interesting companions. No detail was too obscure, and no species too drab to escape my attention.

I left fish behind when I got to college. Instead, it was a constant joy of mathematics and engineering, with a liberal arts sprinkling of art history, economics and German. After college I tried many things: I started a business, taught in the NYC public school system and attempted a career in photography. But I wasn’t willing to persist when things were hard or no fun. Then I went to Australia to become a SCUBA instructor. There I met my first biologist. I was smitten with the idea of making a living trying to understand animals.

On my return to New York, I immersed myself in biology, particularly the natural history of fishes, reptiles and amphibians. Spending hours in the field closely observing animals and their environment was one avenue of inspiration. The other was investigating animals’ shape, or morphology, with an electron microscope. The link between form and function was how my weeks passed — looking at microstructure, then wading in temporary ponds for larval salamanders. I fell completely in love with both areas and have made my career at that interface.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Treasure your mentors in the moment. They are gone too soon and you will never feel like you made it clear enough how much they affected you and your career.

For more information, contact Summers at fishguy@uw.edu.��

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, Associate professor, Department of Communication

What do you study at the UW?

I am a critical-cultural studies scholar who focuses on race, gender, and sexuality in the media. Specifically, I study how Black people negotiate mass media as marginalized subjects whose status as citizens is always precarious. I’m especially interested in the stories that circulate about Black women, both external narratives and the stories that Black women craft about themselves.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

I sometimes think of myself as an accidental academic. I pursued a degree in magazine journalism and international relations in college with the intention of becoming a magazine editor. But everything changed the summer I landed an internship at my dream magazine, . At the time, many publications were closing their doors or downsizing their staff in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. All of a sudden, pursuing a career in magazines began to feel like a much larger risk than I was comfortable with. Aside from the industry woes, I also realized that I had just as much fun studying magazines (and other media) for class projects as I did working for one.

At Essence, the assignments that my editor gave me reflected a particular image of Black womanhood and assumptions about Blackness, femininity and masculinity that were key to the magazine’s brand. When I returned to school for my last year of college, I took a Black feminist theory course where I wrote essays exploring the questions that had popped into my mind during my internship – questions that I couldn’t shake, questions that played in the background of my mind whenever I was walking through the magazine aisle at the grocery store, or watching television or a movie. This taste of how deeply satisfying a life of the mind could be was a turning point. By the end of the feminist theory course I had decided to apply to graduate school.

My first book, “,” was a full-circle moment. In the book I offer a cultural history of Essence magazine and position it as a predecessor to contemporary commercial representations of Black womanhood realized in the 2010s through hashtags like #BlackGirlMagic and advertising campaigns, such as Proctor and Gamble’s “.” It was an amazing feeling to follow my curiosity and return to the questions that first captivated my mind as an intern. During the writing process I realized that the seeds of these questions had started even earlier, when I was a little girl sitting in a Black beauty shop with dozens of issues of Ebony, Jet and Essence magazines. Long before I was old enough to fully comprehend the articles, the images in these magazines captivated me, beaconing me to explore further.

The thing that most fills my heart about the scholarly path that I’ve chosen is being able to document and amplify the brilliance and beauty of Black women. There’s so much that’s problematic in the stories that society tells about Black women, but the brightest moments in my teaching and research are connected to the dope narratives that Black women craft about themselves.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Lean into the questions that captivate you and the subject areas that awaken your passion and curiosity. This will point you in the direction of your most fulfilling research projects and your very best writing.

For more information, contact Tounsel at timeka@uw.edu.

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, Assistant professor, School of Oceanography

What do you study at the UW?

��I’m a coastal ecogeomorphologist, which means I study how ecology, geology and physics change the landscape on the coast. A lot of my work focuses on how biology (plants, microbes) alters how mud moves around coastal systems and changes what our coastlines look like. I am particularly interested in marshes and mudflats. I go into the field to measure what is really happening on the coast, and then develop numerical computer models to predict how these processes will change in the future.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

When I was 5 years old, my family went on vacation to Cape Cod National Seashore. We attended an educational program at the Salt Pond Visitor Center, and I knew I was in love. The stinky, muddy marsh felt like home to me immediately, and I still remember talking to the volunteer scientist about how marshes work. At that time, however, I had no idea that you could study marshes and mud as your job!

That formative memory never left me, even though, as I continued in school and focused on science, I intended to become a medical doctor. In my world, if you were good at math and science, the logical career path was to become a medical doctor.

I went to college at Boston University, where I planned to major in chemistry. But for every class project, I ended up focusing on oceans and coastlines. I had a wonderful TA who noticed this trend and mentioned to me in passing that my university had a marine science program and that maybe I should consider taking a class in that program to see if I liked it. I enrolled in a class called “Estuaries” and I’ve never looked back. The first week of the class, we took a field trip to collect data in a marsh and I was instantly transported back to my 5-year-old self, loving the marsh. I was the first student who jumped into the mud to collect data, and I didn’t want to leave. Within a few weeks I was working in that professor’s lab, and I really haven’t left the marsh since.

I also started developing so many questions about how things worked — and how everything tied together, from the mud to the birds — that I quickly realized that research and teaching in the field was what I needed to do with my life. My research has expanded a lot since then to encompass many different types of coasts, but my love for the rotten-egg-smelling, squelching mud drives a lot of what I choose to do. Being out in nature and seeing the processes happen in real time inspires me to understand coastal systems and help make a more resilient future for our planet and for people.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I am incredibly lucky to have a job that I absolutely love, and I would encourage my younger self to pursue what makes me happy. Sometimes my work hardly feels like work because I am so engaged and excited by what I am discovering and the students I get to work with. While every day isn’t always amazing (I have bad work days too!), at the end of the work week I’m always thankful for what a great job I have. I hope that everyone is able to find something they are passionate about in their life.

I would also say: Believe in yourself and don’t compare yourself to others. Just keep doing what you love and what you think is important and helpful to others, and everything will work out okay.

For more information, contact Valentine at kvalent@uw.edu.

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, Associate professor, Department of Materials Science & Engineering

What do you study at the UW?

My research team integrates materials science, data science and advanced manufacturing with primary applications in aerospace. We focus on three main areas:

1. Smart material testing methods, using physics-informed machine learning to control the testing parameters.
2. Smart manufacturing that leverages automation, sensing and machine learning. The goal is to develop AI for autonomous and self-aware manufacturing systems.
3. Smart engineering approaches to accelerate aerospace design and certification. We use a combination of machine learning, automated testing and physics-based numerical simulations techniques.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

According to my parents, my first word was “hot.” Looking back, it seems like a fitting start to a life deeply intertwined with the principles of heat transfer. My fascination with heat and materials began early and found a natural outlet in my love for cooking. I enjoy experimenting with different cooking techniques, all of which benefit immensely from an understanding of heat transfer. This passion even led me to publish a cookbook a few years ago.

After earning my doctoral degree, I began working at a research center in Canada, where I collaborated with various companies to solve their manufacturing challenges. Over time, I worked with a wide range of materials — concrete, wood, polymers, metals and composites. As I delved deeper into manufacturing, I started noticing fascinating parallels between it and cooking. Both require precise control of variables like temperature and pressure to transform materials into something new.

For instance, making aerospace composite parts in an autoclave is essentially pressure-cooking a layered material. Similarly, tempering chocolate to achieve its perfect microstructure, texture and snap is strikingly similar to controlling the crystallinity of thermoplastics to optimize their performance. Recognizing these connections allowed me to combine my personal passion for cooking with my professional love for materials science and engineering.

This love for exploring the science behind materials was paired with my lifelong interest in mathematics, which naturally led me to integrate machine learning and AI into my research. These tools provided a way to unlock deeper insights and bring innovation into material design and manufacturing. For example, my very first project as a professor at the 91̽�� was a collaboration with Boeing, where we developed AI for manufacturing aerospace composites. It was akin to creating a smart oven that can monitor the temperature of various parts and autonomously adjust the controls — a direct parallel to advanced cooking techniques.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

As you explore different options for your career, focus more on what you truly love to do. Don’t be afraid to combine your personal passions with your professional goals — start doing this earlier. The joy and fulfillment you’ll find in aligning your personal interests with your career will open doors to creative opportunities and unique solutions you might not have imagined. Trust the process and follow what excites you most.

For more information, contact Zobeiry at navidz@uw.edu.

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Natural history museums have entered a new stage of discovery and accessibility — one where scientists around the globe and curious folks at home to study, learn or just be amazed. This new era follows the completion of , or oVert, a five-year collaborative project among 18 institutions to create 3D reconstructions of vertebrate specimens and make them freely available online.

The team behind this endeavor, which includes scientists at the 91̽�� and its , published a March 6 in the journal BioScience, offering a glimpse of how the data can be used to ask new questions and spur the development of innovative technology.

Natural history museums have become valuable resources for the public, with exhibits highlighting biodiversity, evolution and conservation. But most museum collections remain behind closed doors, accessible only to scientists who must either travel to see them or ask that a small number of specimens be transported on loan. The oVert team wanted to change that.

“If you require someone to get on a plane and travel to you to collaborate, that’s prohibitive in a lot of ways,” said , head of the oVert project and curator of herpetology at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “Now we have scientists, teachers, students and artists around the world using these data remotely.”

Between 2017 and 2023, oVert project members took CT scans of more than 13,000 vertebrate specimens. For the project, a team at the UW’s scanned more than 7,200 specimens — mostly fish, but also reptiles, amphibians and mammals — using the facility’s micro-CT scanner. Many of the specimens scanned at Friday Harbor came from the Burke Museum’s permanent collection. The 91̽��team also trained more than 150 researchers, students and educators from around the world on how to CT scan specimens and analyze them for study purposes.

Since CT scanners use high-energy X-rays to peer past an organism’s exterior and view the dense bone structure beneath, most oVert reconstructions are skeletons. But, for some specimens, researchers took extra steps to visualize soft tissues, such as skin, muscle and other organs. The models give an intimate look at internal portions of a specimen that could previously only be observed through destructive dissection and tissue sampling.

“oVert is a way of reducing the wear and tear on samples while also increasing access, and it’s the next logical step in the mission of museum collections,” said Blackburn.

The project initially sought to scan only specimens preserved in ethyl alcohol, which represent the bulk of fish, reptile and amphibian collections. But researchers were reluctant to leave out larger specimens and came up with creative solutions. Project members at the Idaho Museum of Natural History, for example, painstakingly took apart a humpback whale skeleton to produce 3D models of each individual bone and digitally reassemble the whole skeleton. To scan mummified tortoises from the California Academy of Sciences’ collection, researchers had to pose them on top of inflatable swimming tubes.

Scientists have already used data from the project to gain new insights. One study of more than , for example, revealed that frogs have lost and regained teeth more than 20 times throughout their evolutionary history. A separate study concluded that , a massive dinosaur that was larger than Tyrannosaurus rex and thought to be aquatic, would have actually been a poor swimmer, and thus likely stayed on land. UW’s contributions to oVert have to date resulted in more than 40 peer-reviewed publications.

“It is so exciting to deposit the skeletal data for a new species in a repository where any scientist can access it,” said oVert team member , a 91̽��professor of biology and of aquatic and fishery sciences, who is based at Friday Harbor Labs.

Artists have used the 3D models to create realistic animal replicas, and photographs of oVert specimens have been displayed in museums, including the Burke. Specimens have been incorporated into virtual reality headsets that give users the chance to interact with and manipulate them.

oVert models have also been used by educators in both K-12 and university settings, including in 91̽��courses taken by hundreds of students.

“Digital 3D models of fish skeletons were incredibly useful during the COVID-19 pandemic, when remote labs meant 91̽��students couldn’t access physical specimens,” said oVert team member , a 91̽��associate professor of aquatic and fishery sciences and curator of fishes at the Burke Museum. “And now, we continue to use them as invaluable educational tools even though we’re back in the lab in person.”

The biggest challenge will be creating tools that are sophisticated enough to analyze the data, researchers say. This is the largest number of 3D natural history specimens released for public use, and it will take further developments in machine learning and supercomputing to use them to their full potential.

“In fact, the 91̽��has a collaborative NSF grant to do just that — develop free, open-source software to look at all these new data and quantify their shapes,” said Summers.

Katherine Maslenikov, collections manager of fishes at the Burke, is also a member of the oVert team and a co-author on the new paper. oVert was funded by the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Tornabene at ltorna1@uw.edu and Summers at fishguy@uw.edu.

Adapted from a by the University of Florida.

Contrary to what popular media portrays, we actually don’t know much about what sharks eat. Even less is known about how they digest their food, and the role they play in the larger ocean ecosystem.

For more than a century, researchers have relied on flat sketches of sharks’ digestive systems to discern how they function — and how what they eat and excrete impacts other species in the ocean. Now, researchers have produced a series of high-resolution, 3D scans of intestines from nearly three dozen shark species that will advance the understanding of how sharks eat and digest their food.

“It’s high time that some modern technology was used to look at these really amazing spiral intestines of sharks,” said lead author , assistant professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills. “We developed a new method to digitally scan these tissues and now can look at the soft tissues in such great detail without having to slice into them.”

The research team from California State University, Dominguez Hills, the 91̽�� and University of California, Irvine, July 21 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The researchers primarily used a computerized tomography (CT) scanner at the UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories to create 3D images of shark intestines, which came from specimens preserved at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. The machine works like a����used in hospitals: A series of X-ray images is taken from different angles, then combined using computer processing to create three-dimensional images. This allows researchers to see the complexities of a shark intestine without having to dissect or disturb it.

This video shows the soft tissue of a Pacific spiny dogfish spiral intestine, rotated and viewed from different angles.��Samantha Leigh/California State University, Dominguez Hills

“CT scanning is one of the only ways to understand the shape of shark intestines in three dimensions,” said co-author , a professor based at 91̽��Friday Harbor Labs who has led a worldwide effort to scan the skeletons of fishes and other vertebrate animals. “Intestines are so complex, with so many overlapping layers, that dissection destroys the context and connectivity of the tissue. It would be like trying to understand what was reported in a newspaper by taking scissors to a rolled-up copy. The story just won’t hang together.”

From their scans, the researchers discovered several new aspects about how shark intestines function. It appears these spiral-shaped organs slow the movement of food and direct it downward through the gut, relying on gravity in addition to peristalsis, the rhythmic contraction of the gut’s smooth muscle. Its function resembles the more than a century ago that allows fluid to flow in one direction, without backflow or assistance from any moving parts ( of how the Tesla valve works).

This finding could shed new light on how sharks eat and process their food. Most sharks usually go days or even weeks between eating large meals, so they rely on being able to hold food in their system and absorb as many nutrients as possible, Leigh explained. The slowed movement of food through their gut caused by the spiral intestine probably allows sharks to retain their food longer, and they also use less energy processing that food.

Because sharks are top predators in the ocean and also eat a lot of different things — invertebrates, fish, mammals and — they naturally control the biodiversity of many species, the researchers said. Knowing how sharks process what they eat, and how they excrete waste, is important for understanding the larger ecosystem.

“The vast majority of shark species, and the majority of their physiology, are completely unknown. Every single natural history observation, internal visualization and anatomical investigation shows us things we could not have guessed at,” Summers said. “We need to look harder at sharks and, in particular, we need to look harder at parts other than the jaws, and the species that don’t interact with people.”

The authors plan to use a 3D printer to create models of several different shark intestines to test how materials move through the structures in real time. They also hope to collaborate with engineers to use shark intestines as inspiration for industrial applications such as wastewater treatment or filtering microplastics out of the water column.

Other co-authors on the paper are of University of California, Irvine, and of Applied Biological Services.

This research was funded by Friday Harbor Laboratories, the UC Irvine OCEANS Graduate Research Fellowship, the Newkirk Center Graduate Research Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program and UC Irvine.

For more information, contact Leigh at sleigh@csudh.edu and Summers at fishguy@uw.edu.

Green Rat Clingfish, described by 91̽��biologist Adam Summers, noted among ‘most remarkable’ new marine species of 2019��

The Green Rat Clingfish is having a moment of fame, thanks to , 91̽��professor of biology and fishery sciences, and his co-authors.

That’s because the has included the fish, first described by the researchers in a 2018 in the journal ZooKeys, as one of the “10 most remarkable new marine species from 2019.” The group the list on March 19, to coincide with Taxonomist Appreciation Day. Taxonomy is the science of naming, defining and classifying groups of organisms by shared characteristics.

The Green Rat Clingfish, or Barryichthys algicola, is a small, slender, green fish with a paler green stripe on the side of its tiny head, an orange iris and green fins. Among the smallest species of clingfish, it lives on algae along the southern Australian coast. Summers and co-authors of Texas A&M University and of the Western Australia Museum, in Perth, described the fish based on 22 specimens found in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania. They also created a new genus ��— above species, below family in the taxonomic naming — Barryichthys.

Summers said of the discovery: “It is tiny and bright green, and it has a belly sucker. What could be better in a fish?”

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Mari Ostendorf named a corresponding fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy, has chosen��, 91̽��professor of electrical and computer engineering, as one its new corresponding fellows for 2020.

Ostendorf was named one of eight corresponding fellows,����March 3. Fellows are leading thinkers and experts whose work has had a significant impact on the nation of Scotland. The corresponding fellow designation is for those who have attained high international standing in fields in the society’s domain, but who are not residents of the United Kingdom.

The society named��, who join the 1600 existing fellows from diverse fields such as physical and life sciences, arts, humanities, social sciences, education, business, industry and public life.

Ostendorf, who came to the 91̽��in 1999, is a professor of systems design methodologies in electrical and computer engineering and an adjunct professor of linguistics and of computer science and engineering. She is also the UW��associate vice provost for research.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh was established in 1783 under the mission “Knowledge made useful.” Of 91̽��faculty,��John Scott, chair of the Department of Pharmacology, is also a corresponding����with the society.

Read more on the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering��.

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Thaisa Way receives 2020 Outstanding Educator Award from Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture

The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture has given , 91̽��professor of landscape architecture, its Outstanding Educator Award for 2020.

The award, one of 11 award the council gives annually to faculty members, honors “truly outstanding, innovative and noteworthy work as an educator whose career is recognized as having made a significant contribution to the landscape architecture discipline.” Among the requirements for nomination is that the faculty member’s work must have been recognized at the national or international level in two or more of these areas: research, public service, outreach or service to education.

Way, an urban landscape historian, was to receive the award in person at the council’s 2020 conference, planned for March in Louisville, Kentucky, but the event was canceled due to the coronavirus.

She has written or edited several books, including “” in 2015, published by 91̽�� Press, which came out in paperback last year.

91̽��Notebook is a section of the 91̽��News site dedicated to telling stories of the good work done by faculty and staff at the 91̽��. Read all posts here.

Piranha fish have a powerful bite. Their teeth help them shred through the flesh of their prey or even scrape plants off rocks to supplement their diet.

Years ago, scientists discovered that lose all of the teeth on one side of their mouth at once and regrow them, presumably to replace dulled teeth with brand new sharp spears for gnawing on prey. But no museum specimens have ever shown this theory to be true, and there’s no documentation of piranhas missing an entire block of teeth.

With the help of new technologies, a team led by the 91̽�� has confirmed that piranhas — and their plant-eating cousins, — do in fact lose and regrow all the teeth on one side of their face multiple times throughout their lives. How they do it may help explain why the fish go to such efforts to replace their teeth.

The were published Aug. 26 in the journal Evolution & Development.

“I think in a sense we found a solution to a problem that’s obvious, but no one had articulated before,” said senior author , a professor of biology and of aquatic and fishery sciences at 91̽��Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island.

“The teeth form a solid battery that is locked together, and they are all lost at once on one side of the face. The new teeth wear the old ones as ‘hats’ until they are ready to erupt. So, piranhas are never toothless even though they are constantly replacing dull teeth with brand new sharp ones.”

The team of researchers joined their expertise in evolutionary history, biomechanical properties of fish and powerful imaging technologies to piece together the unlikely story of how piranhas and pacus lose and replace their teeth. With new teeth waiting in the wings, the fish are never missing a full set of pearly whites.

Once the researchers discovered how the teeth were being replaced, they began to understand why the fish likely employ this tactic. Using an advanced imaging technique, they were able to see clearly the contours and topography of the teeth inside various fish specimens. They found that the teeth on each side were interlocked together, forming two strong blocks within each mouth.

“When one tooth wears down, it becomes hard to replace just one,” lead author , a postdoctoral researcher at George Washington University who started this work with Summers as a researcher at Friday Harbor Labs. “Once you link teeth together, if one wears too much, it becomes like a missing link in an assembly line. They all have to work together in a coordinated way.”

The interlocking teeth likely benefit the fish, allowing them to distribute stress over all of their teeth when chewing. The tradeoff of having to lose an entire set of teeth all at once is perhaps worth it over the course of their lives, the researchers explained.

“With interlocking teeth, the fish go from having one sharp tooth that can crack a nut or cut through flesh to a whole battery of teeth,” said co-author , a 91̽��biology doctoral student. “Among piranhas and pacus there’s a lot of diversity in how the teeth lock together, and it seems to relate to how the teeth are being used.”

The researchers leveraged state-of-the-art analysis techniques to examine in detail the specimens of dozens of piranhas and pacus. They CT-scanned 93 specimens of 40 different species, digitizing the bones and connective tissues for high-resolution, 3D examination. They also stained the tissues of fish to see how teeth develop and incorporated hereditary information about each species to understand their evolutionary relationships with each other.

“By combining all of these things, we got a more holistic idea of what’s going on,” Cohen said.

These techniques showed a clear pattern of tooth replacement in nearly every piranha and pacu fish they examined. The imaging tools allowed them to see what wasn’t visible before to the naked eye in the specimens — rows of teeth poking to the surface underneath the existing teeth of fish.

Additionally, the project teased new information out of dozens of fish specimens that sat on the shelves of natural history museums around the country.

“The motivation for this work came out of an effort to take those collections and come up with new ways of learning about the biology of fish,” Kolmann said.

The other co-authors are Katherine Bemis of Virginia Institute of Marine Science; Frances Irish of Moravian College; and L. Patricia Hernandez of George Washington University.

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Clyde D. & Lois W. Marlatt, Jr. Fellowship and Friday Harbor Laboratories.

For more information, contact Kolmann at mkolmann@gmail.com, Cohen at kecohen@uw.edu and Summers at fishguy@uw.edu.

The finger-sized Northern clingfish employs one of the best suction cups in the world. A small disk on its belly can attach to wet, slimy, even rough surfaces and hold up to 230 times its own body weight.

A 91̽�� team inspired by the clingfish’s suction power set out to develop an artificial suction cup that borrows from nature’s design. Their prototype, described in a published Sept. 9 in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, actually performed better than the clingfish.

“I like to say, nature is always best,” said lead author , who started this work as a postdoctoral researcher at 91̽�� on San Juan Island. “In this case, when considering their attachment force, our suction cups are better.”

The suction cups could be useful across a number of industries that require a strong but reversible sticking force on rough or textured surfaces. These could include tagging whales and other marine animals, attaching sensors to fouled aquatic surfaces or operating underwater vehicles to clean ship hulls. Applications in shower caddy design or industrial processing are other interesting fields of application for the bioinspired suction cups, the researchers said.

Key to their suction cup breakthrough was understanding how the clingfish’s natural suction works so effectively — especially on rough surfaces that normally cause a manufactured suction cup to fail.

Clingfish have a disc on their bellies that allows them to hold on with great tenacity. The rim of the disc is covered with layers of micro-sized, hairlike structures, in many different sizes. This layered effect creates more friction along the rim and helps the fish stick to rough surfaces. The entire disk is flexible and elastic, allowing it to adapt and hold on to coarse, uneven surfaces.

“These fish are so evocative in what they can do. They can stick to irregular rocks covered in algae, and you cannot buy something that will reversibly stick to those rocks,” said co-author , a professor of biology and of aquatic and fishery sciences based at Friday Harbor Labs. “An awful lot of experimentation and skepticism finally led us to understanding how it worked.”

There are about 110 known species in the clingfish family found all over the world. The population around the San Juan Islands is robust and healthy. They often cling to rocks near the shore, and at low tide they can be seen in tide pools and under rocks.

Many marine animals can stick strongly to underwater surfaces — sea stars, mussels and anemones, to name a few — but few can release as fast as the clingfish, particularly after generating so much sticking power.

After more than five years spent deciphering how the clingfish suction cups work, the researchers began building their own prototype, borrowing from the innovations of nature.

The team discovered after years of lab tests that combining different materials helped give the artificial suction cups a rigid structure that was strong enough to hold tension, while also soft and flexible enough to conform and stick to rough surfaces. They also found a way to increase the friction on the rim of the cup.

“This combination of all these different aspects finally gave us good results and enabled us really to build a suction cup that is able to attach strongly to rough surfaces,” Ditsche said.

The researchers tested several iterations of their suction cup design by sticking them to a spectrum of rough and smooth surfaces, then pulling until each cup failed using a testing machine. They did the same tests using the natural clingfish suction disk. Each time, the most advanced artificial cup outperformed the clingfish suction across all surfaces.

The prototype is ready to be taken to the next step, ideally in collaboration with engineers who could develop the concept further with specific products and applications in mind, Ditsche said. Depending on how the cups are used, factors like temperature and sun exposure might require fine-tuning of the design.

“There’s understanding of how something works. And then there’s understanding how it works so well that you can actually make one. Biology doesn’t always give you that opportunity,” Summers said. “This is a really unusual situation, where when we looked closely over time, we realized we could mimic what we saw.”

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Seaver Institute.

For more information, contact Ditsche at petraditsche999@gmail.com and Summers at fishguy@uw.edu. Note: Ditsche currently is based in Germany (Central European Time).

But a new analysis by scientists from Auburn University, the 91̽�� and three other collaborating institutions suggests the value of structured research programs for undergraduates extends to society as a whole by encouraging participants to seek advanced degrees in scientific and technological fields — often referred to as STEM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math.

In an published this week in the journal BioScience, the researchers reported that college undergraduates who take part in summer research training programs — specifically, in this study, the National Science Foundation’s — are 48 percent more likely to pursue STEM-related doctoral degrees than demographically matched students who apply but are not selected.

With annual spending on STEM training in the U.S. surpassing $14 billion each year, guiding future investments requires a good understanding of effective approaches, the authors explain. They looked at this NSF program, specifically, as a case study.

“This program is one of NSF’s most visible efforts to increase STEM research and literacy, and it involves an early exposure to paid research for undergraduates,” said paper co-author , a 91̽��professor of aquatic and fishery sciences and biology at Friday Harbor Laboratories. “An outstanding question is whether these programs actually boost people up or just stir the pot. This paper provides really nice evidence that participation in this program leads to greater STEM success as measured by awards, grad school enrollment and papers published.”

Summers is one of half a dozen 91̽��professors and postdoctoral researchers who have mentored students in this NSF program. Other 91̽��mentors include (oceanography), (aquatic and fishery sciences) and (environment and forest sciences). Previous 91̽��postdoctoral researchers who mentored students include Anne Gothmann, Nick Gidmark and Joe Bizzarro.

In the REU Sites program, NSF awards universities and laboratories grants to support the scientific training of 10 college undergraduates for 10 weeks each summer for three years. Students from colleges with limited research opportunities apply to host institutions such as the UW, and those accepted receive a stipend.

To gauge the effectiveness of these funded research experiences for college freshmen, sophomores and juniors, the researchers identified and tracked 176 individuals with similar demographics who had applied to one of five field-ecology- or field-biology-based training programs offered at five different REU Sites in the U.S. for the summers of 2009 to 2011. Of those subjects, 88 were accepted into their desired REU Site; 88 were not.

“Our assumption for a long time has been that conducting independent undergraduate research under the guidance of a faculty mentor prepares students for success in STEM careers,” said lead author Alan Wilson, an associate professor at Auburn University. “Our data support that assumption. They show that the product is real, that it can make a difference — for the students, their mentors and the reputation of their universities.”

At the UW’s Friday Harbor Labs on San Juan Island, one of the students mentored by Summers was Dylan Wainwright, an undergraduate at Duke University. His summer research conducted at the 91̽��lab was later published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, and Wainwright went on to graduate school at Harvard University, where he was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Two other undergraduates who came to Friday Harbor Labs for summer research went on to pursue doctoral degrees at Brown University and the University of California, Davis — both backed by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

“I believe students’ success is due in part to the strong sense of cohort that develops among the student participants,” Summers said. “They support each other in their career decisions, offer advice and examples for various paths, and lead each other by example.”

Other scientists involved with this program and study are from the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab in Colorado, the University of Virginia and San Francisco State University.

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This post was adapted from an Auburn University .

Think of them as extra-large parasites.

A��small group of fishes — possibly the world’s cleverest carnivorous grazers — feeds on the scales of other fish in the tropics. The different species’ approach differs: some ram their blunt noses into the sides of other fish to prey upon sloughed-off scales, while others open their jaws to gargantuan widths to pry scales off with their teeth.

A team led by biologists at the 91̽��’s is trying to understand these scale-feeding fish and how this odd diet influences their body evolution and behavior. The researchers Jan. 17 in the journal .

“We were expecting that with this specialized scale-eating niche, you would get specialized morphology. Instead, what you get is a mosaic of strategies for the end goal of scale feeding,” said lead author , a postdoctoral researcher at Friday Harbor Laboratories.

“This niche has a hidden complexity to it, and it is yet another story about the incredible diversity of life on Earth.”

The researchers compared two species of fish — one that feeds on scales only as a juvenile and another that eats scales its whole life — and two species of fish, commonly known as tetras, with similar eating habits as the piranhas. They found that all four of the scale-feeders varied considerably in their body shape and feeding strategy.

The piranha that eats scales its whole life, named , tends to live alone. When it does hunt, it swims up behind its prey, opens its large, Jay Leno-like jaw 120 degrees and pries large scales off the sides of other fishes. These piranhas can tolerate nearly a dozen large fish scales in their stomachs at one time; that’s like a human swallowing a dozen silver dollar pancakes in a single bite.

In contrast, the characin fish most similar to the piranha in life history and eating preferences gets its food in an entirely different way. The blunt-faced fish, called , has teeth on its nose and butts its face into other fish, devouring the scales as they fly off from the force of impact.

“Roeboides is like a car that intentionally runs a stop sign and t-bones another car��— then picks up the tail lights and window trim knocked off in the crash. It is a crazy strategy,” said co-author��, a professor of aquatic and fishery sciences and of biology at Friday Harbor Laboratories.

“Though the diet is rare, and the prey seem fantastically specialized, we found a diversity of approaches to the problem of eating scales, and in the process explained why there is no single scale eater head shape.”

The research team gathered its data by CT scanning specimens of each fish at different ages at Friday Harbor Laboratories on San Juan Island. Using iodine-contrast staining, they were able to examine the internal anatomy of the four species to better understand what traits are shared by fishes that employ such a rare feeding strategy.

The stark differences in jaw and head shape, combined with how each prefers to hunt, shows a great diversity among the small number of species that have evolved to eat scales, the researchers found.

“This study would have been extremely hard to do without the CT scanning,” said co-author , a 91̽��undergraduate student in aquatic and fishery sciences. “We were able to look at the image slices from three different points of view, and could more accurately pinpoint and measure certain elements like the jawbones.”

About 50 fish species are classified as scale-eaters, and all of them live in the tropics. Previous studies have shown — and the CT scans confirm — the fish are able to digest entire scales. The mucous lining the inside of each scale is thought to be appealing to fishes, but there could be other reasons why they prefer the entire scale, Kolmann said.

Most of the piranha and characin scanning was completed last spring during an undergraduate marine biology course at Friday Harbor Laboratories. Huie, then a student in the class, and the other co-authors scanned fish from collections all over the U.S., then meticulously measured a series of traits that are important for feeding, such as the sharpness and shape of various teeth.

The completed scans join a of 3-D digital fish replicas, pioneered by Summers, with the for researchers and the general public to learn about all of the fish on Earth.

Co-author , a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota, and Kolmann conceived of this project when they both discovered rare, scale-eating fish in their respective field projects involving different fish species in the Amazon.

Kolmann will continue studying the evolution and feeding patterns of piranhas in his new position at George Washington University, where he will have access to the Smithsonian Institution’s fish collections.

This research was funded by Friday Harbor Laboratories scholarships and fellowships.

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For more information, contact Kolmann at mkolmann@gmail.com or 360-320-8194; Summers at fishguy@uw.edu; and Evans at jacksonk@umn.edu.

But dramatic escape aside, how can hagfishes survive that initial bite?

Researchers from the 91̽��, Chapman University and University of Guelph have published showing how hagfishes survive an initial attack from predators before they release large volumes of slime to defend themselves. Results show that hagfish skin is not puncture resistant; instead, it is both unattached and flaccid, which helps avoid internal damage from penetrating teeth.

Their published this week in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

This short video shows how hagfishes use slime as their defense mechanism. Additional footage of attacks, lab studies of how their defensive slime functions and the fact hagfishes are rarely found in the stomachs of other fish suggest that fish predators are rarely successful when they attempt to eat a hagfish.

“This video really was the inspiration for our entire study,” said , associate professor of biological sciences at Chapman University and lead author on this study. “A sizable slack volume in hagfishes, combined with minimal attachment of the skin to the muscle, allows the body to slip out of harm’s way even when the skin is punctured.”

Researchers studied the three layers of hagfish skin to determine how they survive the initial attack. They narrowed it down to two possibilities — the hagfishes have either puncture-resistant skin or a loose and flaccid body design that makes it more difficult for teeth to penetrate. The performance of hagfish skin is notable because they lack scales that help boost puncture resistance in many fishes.

Students at the UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories tested the fish skin as part of a 2014 summer course taught by , a professor of aquatic and fishery sciences and of biology. They performed skin puncture tests of 22 fish species including hagfish.

“We tested a wide range of fish skin because we were convinced that hagfish skin, which makes excellent leather, would be far harder to penetrate,” Summers explained. “It was a surprise that it was as easy to poke a hole in hagfish skin as flounder skin, but the hagfish skin is so loose it just slides away rather than getting cut.”

Hagfishes have a subcutaneous sinus system that runs the length of their body, containing 30 percent of their blood volume. Although previous research has found evidence that this sinus system is crucial to burrowing and knot-tying, this study shows that it also plays a role in predator defense.

Other co-authors are Sarah Boggett and Jean-Luc Stiles of the University of Guelph.

This study was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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This story was adapted from a Chapman University .