Weasels are small carnivores with a long body and short legs. They also have a stout skull and sharp teeth. These creatures, along with ferrets and minks, make up the Mustelinae subfamily.

Until now, researchers believed that the oldest fossils from this family were from Poland and Germany, dating back to about 3.5 million years ago in the . But a fossil discovered in Teruel, Spain, has doubled that estimate, dating back to the late , around 6.5 million years ago.

The research team, including , a 91探花 principal research scientist in the biology department, has identified this fossil as belonging to a new species, named Galanthis baskini. The researchers estimate that this creature was about 5 ounces, comparable in size to the smallest living carnivoran today, the or Mustela nivalis. Much like the modern weasel, G. baskini was also likely a carnivore, based on its teeth.

The team in Palaeontology.

“This study begins to uncover the evolutionary history of modern weasels, specifically, why do they have unique small, elongated bodies compared to all other mammals?” said Law, who is also an affiliate curator at the 91探花Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. “We had hypothesized that events during the mid- to late-Miocene — both the expansion of open habitats, such as grasslands, and the diversification of rodents — would have allowed weasels to evolve bodies that were small and flexible enough to chase rodent prey in small crevices underground. G. baskini is exciting because it confirms that weasels were present in the Late Miocene. And it’s pretty cool that G. baskini was the size of the least weasel — that means small weasels were already around more than 6 million years ago.”

To compare this fossil to other weasel family members, the researchers used a combination of classical comparative anatomy with advanced analytical techniques, such as micro-computed tomography, or micro-CT. Micro-CT allowed the team to three-dimensionally reconstruct the internal structure of teeth and jaws as well as observe anatomical features that were not externally visible.

“The new genus, Galanthis, is named after a figure from Greek mythology who was transformed into a weasel, symbolizing the fossil’s significance as representing the origin of the weasel family and the lineage leading to modern species,” said senior author , assistant professor of paleontology at Complutense University of Madrid.

The fossils come from excavations carried out in the 1990s in the Teruel area of Aragón, Spain.

“This research is a clear example of the remarkable richness of Aragón’s fossil record of mammals, recognized worldwide,” said co-author , professor at the University of Zaragoza. “Our team has been contributing for decades to excavations and the study of fossil mammals.”

The study also revises the classification of another fossil of a similar age discovered in China. This fossil has now been assigned to the genus Zdanskyictis.

The next step, the researchers said, will be to find new fossils that help reconstruct in greater detail the early evolution of weasels and their relatives.

“Ideally, we will find an entire skeleton of a fossil weasel,” Law said. “That way we can actually quantify just how elongate these ancient weasels were and when body elongation actually evolved.”

A full list of co-authors and funding .

For more information, contact Law at cjlaw@uw.edu.?

Adapted from a release from Complutense University of Madrid.

Come curious. Leave inspired.

The 91探花offers an exciting lineup of in-person and online events. From thought-provoking art and music to conversations on culture, history, and science, the 91探花community invites you to explore, learn, and connect across disciplines throughout the University. And you don’t have to wait until May: Take a look at everything still happening in April.

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ArtSci On Your Own Time:

Video | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Emily M. Bender’s talk on “AI” hype and resisting dehumanization, from a linguistic and humanities perspective, drew the largest crowd we have seen for a Katz Distinguished Lecture in years. For those who weren’t able to join us, and those who would like to revisit, you can now watch the full recording on our YouTube page. Free.

Podcast | (Biology)
This is a podcast centered around the humans who study the myriad biological processes that shape our world, specifically, the humans who are students and faculty in the Department of Biology at the 91探花. They are scientists who study everything from the ways cells move through complex tissues to ancient communities of long-extinct mammals, from the ways plants interact with their surroundings to the ways bats fly and hummingbirds feed. Plunge into the vast world of biology, students sharing paths to becoming scientists and the lessons they have learned along the way. Free.

Online Events | See all events offered online.

EXHIBITIONS:

April 28 – June 5 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Celebrate the graduating seniors across the art programs: 3D4M, Photo/Media, Painting + Drawing, and Interdisciplinary Visual Art (IVA) during the 2026 BA in Art Graduation Exhibitions at the Jacob Lawrance Gallery. Opening nights: Group 1 – April 28, Group 2 – May 12, Honors – May 26. Free.

Through May 24 | (Henry Art Gallery)
Rodney McMillian (b. 1969, Columbia, South Carolina; based in Los Angeles, California) works with the social and political histories of the United States and how they shape our daily lives. Using existing texts and domestic materials—such as house paint on thrifted fabrics and bedsheets, or “post-consumer objects” as he calls them—he traces both the visible and invisible forces that shape civic life, particularly for the lives of African Americans. Inspired by the lush surroundings of the Henry, McMillian brings together sculpture, video, and painting that present an outdoor landscape overgrown with the lingering effects of physical, political, and social violence. Free.

May 16 – June 14 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
The Henry is pleased to present the 91探花’s School of Art + Art History + Design Master of Fine Arts and Master of Design Thesis Exhibition. Throughout their programs, fine arts and design students work with advisers and other artists to develop advanced techniques, expand concepts, discuss critical issues, and emerge with a vision and direction for their own work. Henry staff conduct studio visits and work closely with the students to facilitate their projects and prepare them for exhibition at the museum. A digital publication will be produced in conjunction with the exhibition to highlight the students’ artistic endeavors and the Henry’s commitment to this exciting and important step in the students’ development as practicing artists and designers. Free.

Exhibition | (Henry Art Gallery)
ojo|-|o?l?? (pronounced oh-ho hol-ohn) is an exhibition of recent and newly commissioned work by Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege (b. 1994, Na’nízhoozhí [Gallup, New Mexico]) that includes sculpture, textile, collage, and video, activated by moments of performance. Across this work, Riege combines customary Diné practices of weaving, silversmithing, and beading with contemporary cultural forms, exploring Diné cosmology, the history of Euro-American trading posts in and adjacent to the Navajo Nation, and the notion of “authenticity” as a value marker of Indigenous art and craft. Free.

Week of April 27

Online – April 27 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by Niki Akhavan, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Media and Communication Studies at The Catholic University of America. The World (Cup) Comes To Seattle 2026 Lecture Series is an online series of talks and discussions hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Free.

April 28 | ?(School of Music)
Students of Dr. Stephen Price present a 91探花Organ studio spring recital. Dr. Price teaches Organ performance, Church music, and Keyboard Harmony courses. In addition, he leads ongoing initiatives to develop and revitalize the 91探花program, continuing the legacy of his predecessor, Dr. Carole Terry. Free.

April 28 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Celebrate the graduating seniors across the art programs: 3D4M, Photo/Media, Painting + Drawing, and Interdisciplinary Visual Art (IVA) during the 2026 BA in Art Graduation Exhibitions at the Jacob Lawrance Gallery. Ways of Becoming is split into three shows between April 28 – June 5, 2026. Free.

April 28 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Stephanie LeMenager, Professor of English and Environmental Studies, considers the role of fiction as a form of resistant truth-telling in an era of lies, bullish*t, propaganda, GenAI fakes, and conspiracy theory, and in the shadow of the climate crisis. In our media atmosphere filled with falsehoods, fiction becomes a means of capturing messy realities unassimilable to propaganda. Moreover, the flexibility of fictional imagination allows for social responses to radical uncertainties, via new genres of storytelling that call climate-change publics into being. In this talk, we’ll consider stories of megafire. Free.

Online option – April 28 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
This panel features talks on conducting research in the Peruvian Amazon by Justin Perez (UCSC) and Amanda Smith (UCSC). Perez will present “Queer Emergent: Scandalous Stories from the Twilight of AIDS in Peru” and Smith will present, “Situating Mothering in a Geography of Digital Colonialism: The Digital Biblioteca Amazónica,” a project to create an open-access digital archive of materials housed at the Biblioteca Amazónica in Iquitos, Peru. Free.

April 29 | (Philosophy)
The idea of space as the stage on which physical events play out dates at least as far back as the 5th century BC. The twentieth century saw a shift from theorising about space and time separately to thinking about spacetime, but the metaphor of spacetime as a stage or arena has continued. Twenty-first century physics looks likely to render this untenable – theories of quantum gravity do not appear to postulate spacetime as a fundamental container for physical contents. This talk examines an alternative way of thinking about spacetime based on the role that it plays in our physical theories – spacetime philosophy should focus on what spacetime does, rather than what it is. Free.

April 29 | (Psychology)
Presented by Maureen Craig, Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University. Free.

April 30 | (School of Music)
The Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band (Erin Bodnar, director) presents “Scenes and Portraits,” featuring music by Gustav Holst, Martin Ellerby, and others.

April 30 |(Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture)
What does it mean to live well as wildfire and smoke season becomes more a part of life in the Pacific Northwest and many other places around the world? As much as we focus on preparedness and reducing materials that fuel wildfires, we must also reckon with the human dimensions of fire, which shape how we interact with it. “Fire Humanities” is a book project and an emerging field of study that draws on the humanities and arts to center stories, representations, collaborations, and values that promote adaptation, resilience, and justice as we adapt to a world with more fire.

This program will feature a panel discussion with five contributors to the book, who will share their approaches to this emerging field of research. After the panel, you’ll be invited to share your stories of fire and smoke with each other, speak with the panelists, and participate in hands-on activities connected to the Fire Humanities project. Free.

April 30 | ?(Jackson School of International Studies)
Panel discussion featuring Wang Feng, University of California, Irvine, and Yong Cai, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, along with 91探花faculty James Lin and Sara Curran. Free.

May 1 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Writing history entails good editing—and accepting when material can’t make the final cut. Lengthy research projects require a command of sources but also analytical flexibility. Such flexibility can ensure rigor, sometimes at the expense of findings that, alas, must be shelved for some other future use. “The B-Sides of Unmaking Botany” will examine a set of sources that did not make it into the recently published monograph Unmaking Botany: Science and Vernacular in the Colonial Philippines (Duke University Press, 2025). The objectives of the talk are thus twofold: to provide a behind-the-scenes take on the production of a scholarly monograph and to offer a conceptual argument gleaned from the sources that nonetheless resonates with some of Unmaking Botany’s principal interventions. Free.

May 1 | (Political Science)
Presented by Rachel Krause, Professor, School of Public Affairs and Administration, University of Kansas. Free.

May 1-2 | (American Indian Studies)
Indigenous scholars, artists, community leaders, and practitioners come together to reflect on food sovereignty, wellness, cultural resurgence, and collective healing through land-based knowledge and practice. Keynote by Vina Brown (Haí?zaqv and Nuu-chah-nulth), a scholar, artist, and wellness advocate, whose work centers on Indigenous law, cultural healing, and community well-being. Raised in her Haí?zaqv homelands, Vina’s work is deeply grounded in cultural resurgence, ceremony, and Tribal Canoe Journeys. She is the founder of Copper Canoe Woman and co-founder of Rooted Resiliency, an Indigenous women-led nonprofit dedicated to community wellness, cultural healing, and reclamation. Across her work, Vina advocates for land, culture, and collective well-being, with particular attention to healing intergenerational and historical trauma through community, movement, and Indigenous knowledge systems.

Week of May 4

Online – May 4 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by Teresa Mosqueda, Councilmember of the Metropolitan King County Council and Anita Ramasastry, Barer Chair and Professor of Law and the 91探花. The World (Cup) Comes To Seattle 2026 Lecture Series is an online series of talks and discussions hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Free.

May 4 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
The foundation of the Abe consensus — the LDP, together with Komeito, governing with large, stable majorities to promote growth as part of the global economy and develop Japan’s military power and international partnerships under the aegis of US leadership — has crumbled after little more than a decade. The LDP has lost public trust, its relationship with Komeito, and its large majorities. The US is in retreat and no longer defending the international order from which Japan had benefited. This talk will look at how this order crumbled and where Japan’s politics goes from here. Free.

May 4 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Tina Turner’s (1939–2023) successful recording career and electrifying stage performances earned her the moniker of “Queen of Rock and Roll.” At the same time, Turner was perhaps one of the most famous Black Buddhist celebrities. In this talk, I will highlight the ways that Turner’s Buddhist practice combined her Afro-Protestant upbringing, the trans-Atlantic flow of metaphysical religious ideas, and SGI Nichiren Buddhism. The talk will show how Turner’s combinatory religious sensibilities are indicative of trends in Black Buddhism. Free.

May 4 | (Chemistry)
Presented by Professor Maksym Kovalenko, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich. Hosted by 91探花Professor David Ginger. Free.

May 5 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
It seems like two separate realms. One is occupied by acclaimed dancers from Brooklyn’s world-renowned Mark Morris Dance Group, the other by people with Parkinson’s disease. CAPTURING GRACE is about what happens when those two worlds intersect. Filmed over the course of a year, Dave Iverson’s remarkable documentary reveals the hopes, fears, and triumphs of this newly forged community as they work together to create a unique, life-changing performance. There will be a post-screening discussion with Shawn Roberts, a Dance for PD? teaching artist? and Dr. Pravin Khemani, MD, Medical Director of the Movement Disorders Clinic, Swedish Neuroscience Institute, Providence Health & Services. Free.

Online option – May 5 | (Physics)
Dr. John Martinis, recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics, presents “Prehistoric quantum bits: experiments testing the fundamental physics of superconducting quantum devices.” Quantum mechanics was developed to describe the physics of the small, for fundamental particles, atoms and molecules. But does it still work for macroscopic systems? Martinis’ PhD thesis experiment in 1985 tested this idea, showing the macroscopic current and voltages in a 1 cm chip obey the quantum phenomena of tunneling and energy-level quantization, proving that a superconducting circuit can behave as a single `artificial atom.’ Over the last four decades, many physicists around the world have continued research on quantum devices. The field has evolved from fundamental tests into a high-stakes effort to build quantum bits and a quantum computer. At Google, the ‘quantum supremacy’ experiment was the culmination of this system-level optimization, proving that a processor could outpace classical supercomputers by maintaining high-fidelity control over a huge computational (Hilbert) space. Now, at his startup Qolab, they are leveraging 300mm semiconductor fabrication to achieve the extreme uniformity and yield necessary to build a useful general-purpose quantum computer. Free.

May 6 | (History)
Presented by Angela Zimmerman, George Washington University. Zimmerman’s recent research has focused on the global history of the U.S. Civil War, Reconstruction, and the New South. She is the author of Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German Empire, and the Globalization of the New South (Princeton, 2010) and the editor of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Civil War in the United States (International Publishers, 2016). Her first book, Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial Germany (Chicago, 2001), studied imperialism, science, and popular culture. Her next book, To Seek a Newer World, will be published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2027. Free.

May 7 | (Simpson Center for the Humanities)
Move beyond the headlines and hot takes for a deeper conversation on labor and identity within women’s hoops with Dr. Courtney M. Cox, author of Double Crossover: Gender, Media, and Politics in Global Basketball (University of Illinois Press, 2025). In her book, she considers how athletes maneuver their lives and labor across leagues and borders, whether in the NCAA, WNBA, Athletes Unlimited, or overseas leagues. Cox is Associate Professor in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies (IRES) at the University of Oregon. She previously worked for ESPN, Longhorn Network, NPR-affiliate KPCC, and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. Free.

May 7 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by Dredge Byung’chu Kang, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. The aesthetics of K-Pop flower boy masculinity, the narratives of K-Drama cross-gender characters, and imagined Korean lesbianism have refashioned contemporary tom (Thai butch lesbian) gender presentation, partnership patterns, and sexual roles. Many Thai youth are “ba kaoli” (crazed for all things Korean), including young lesbians. In this talk, Kang examines how Korean media, consumer goods, and cultural assets are mobilized to imagine, enact, and embody Asian cosmopolitan identities. Kang describes a case in which Thai tom become “tom-gay,” by coupling with another tom. This masculine homogender pairing was previously considered inconceivable when tom-dee relationships between a lesbian and a “normal” woman were the heterogender norm. Kang argues that tom participation in K-pop fandoms, adoption of soft masculine style, and identification with female leads playing male roles in K-drama have allowed for the emergence of new lesbian sexualities. Kang thus shows how Korean Wave media has shaped Thai gender and sexuality. Free.

May 7 | ?(Teaching@UW)
UW’s Five for Flourishing Initiative is a project designed to foster social connection and belonging among students in large enrollment courses. The project team will share the initiative’s 5 core strategies and preliminary data. 91探花faculty members who implemented the strategies will also report on their experiences. The 91探花Five for Flourishing Initiative is a collaboration between the 91探花Center for Teaching & Learning, the 91探花Resilience Lab, and 91探花Academic Strategy & Affairs. Free.

May 7 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presentations and discussions with:

• Raymond Jonas ( 91探花History Dept), “France’s Five Republics and what they tell us about how republics are born and how they die”
• Terje Leiren (Emeritus, 91探花Scandinavian Studies), “From Royal Absolutism to Parliamentary Government: Political Transition in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden).”
• James Felak ( 91探花History Dept), “The Perils of a Problematic Constitution: the Cases of Interwar Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.”

Free.

May 8 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Hidden for decades in a locked cabinet at the Center for Asia Minor Studies in Athens, Eva Palmer Sikelianos’s love letters (1900-1910)—personal, creative, and revealing networks of desire and kinship—challenge expectations about what belongs in Greece’s archival record.?These scattered, stuttering papers sat uneasily within an institute dedicated to Orthodox Christian refugee history, raising new questions about whose lives and stories find a place in official memory. What happens when a collection resists straightforward histories—when archiving itself becomes an act of negotiation, improvisation, and listening for what’s unsaid? What can these fragments teach us about the possibilities of cultural memory, and how listening to stutters and silences might open new ways of understanding the past? In this talk, Artemis Leontis (University of Michigan) explores the process of archiving Palmer’s collection: the hurdles, improvisations, and acts of care involved in bringing these materials from secrecy to public view. Inspired by Patricia Keller’s idea of the “stutter in the archive,” she shows how gaps, interruptions, and incomplete stories invite us to rethink what archives can do, and how they respond to lives lived beyond conventional narratives. Free.

May 7 – 9 | (Meany Center for the Performing Arts)
Celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with Dances to American Music: Soul of America, a captivating performance by one of the country’s leading dance companies. Choreographed by the legendary Mark Morris, this program blends jazz, classical and folk music by iconic American composers, including George Gershwin, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, James P. Johnson and John Luther Adams. Morris brings his unique creativity and musical precision to life, fusing dance and live music to honor the vibrant spirit and diversity of America’s artistic heritage.

May 10 | ?(School of Music)
Performance by John-Carlos Perea, chair of 91探花Ethnomusicology and Grammy-winning multi-instrumentalist. He is joined by guests Marc Seales, piano, Gary Hobbs, drums, and Michael Brockman, saxophone. Free.

Week of May 11

Online – May 11 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Presented by Stéphane Mourlane, Senior Lecturer, Aix-Marseille University; Yvan Gastaut, Lecturer, University of C?te d’Azur; and Paul Dietschy, Professor, Marie and Louis Pasteur University. The World (Cup) Comes To Seattle 2026 Lecture Series is an online series of talks and discussions hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Free.

May 11 | (Asian Languages & Literature)
What was the impact of colonialism on listening in nineteenth-century north India? How did conceptual vocabularies and explanations for emotional responses to music evolve? Did the way listeners processed their feelings about music dramatically change? In this lecture, Richard Williams, Reader (Associate Professor) in the Department of Music and South Asian Studies at SOAS University of London, explores the place of music in the history of the emotions. Williams begins in the early modern period, and consider theories of embodied response and systems for visualizing music through painting and poetry. He then explores how colonial-era authors writing in vernacular languages drew these older theories into conversation with modern ontologies of music and emotion, often inspired by developments in European understandings of the physics of sound and psychological models of emotion. Despite these developments, he argues that nineteenth and twentieth-century sources show that older concepts continued to shape the discourse in Indian music studies, and were not simply overwritten by new, European theories. Free.

May 12 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Celebrate the graduating seniors across the art programs: 3D4M, Photo/Media, Painting + Drawing, and Interdisciplinary Visual Art (IVA) during the 2026 BA in Art Graduation Exhibitions at the Jacob Lawrance Gallery. Ways of Becoming is split into three shows between April 28 – June 5, 2026. Free.

May 12 – 14 | ?(Mathematics)
Richard W. Kenyon, Erastus L. DeForest Professor of Mathematics at Yale University, will give a series of three lectures on “Dimers and webs,”

• May 12 | Webs, multiwebs, traces. The main theorem statement
• May 13 | SL3 case: reduced webs, scaling limits. Connection to the 4-color theorem
• May 14 | Positive connections and generalizations

Kenyon received his PhD from Princeton University in 1990 under the direction of William Thurston. After a postdoc at IHES, he held positions at CNRS in Grenoble, Lyon, and Orsay and then became professor at UBC, Brown University and then Yale where he is currently Erastus L. Deforest Professor of Mathematics. He was awarded the CNRS bronze medal, the Rollo Davidson prize, the Loève prize, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Simons Investigator. His central mathematical contributions are in statistical mechanics and geometric probability. He established the first rigorous results on the dimer model, opening the door to recent spectacular advances in the Schramm–Loewner evolution theory. In his most recent work, he introduced new homotopic invariants of random structures on graphs, establishing an unforeseen connection between probability and representation theory. Free.

May 12 – 14 | (Stroum Center for Jewish Studies)

• May 12 | Did ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ Always Exist? What the Talmud Can Tell Us
• May 14 | Monsters, Hybrids, and Holy Images – Rethinking Bodies in Ancient Jewish Art

Rafael Neis is a scholar and artist. Neis is the Jean and Samuel Frankel Professor of Rabbinic Literature and is appointed in the Department of History and Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. As Faculty Director of Arts Learning at Michigan’s Arts initiative, Neis supports campus-wide art-integrated pedagogy. Their second book, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis & the Reproduction of Species, was published in 2023 by University of California Press. Their artwork has been featured in shows and in many publications. Free.

Online option – May 13 | My Greatest Save with Briana Scurry (Public Lectures)
From winning two Olympic gold medals and a World Cup championship to enduring a career-ending concussion that left her “temporarily totally disabled” and forced her to pawn her Olympic medals, Briana Scurry delivers a raw and inspiring account of resilience. With unflinching candor, she guides audiences through the soaring highs and devastating lows of her journey—sharing a story of triumph, adversity, and ultimate redemption. Along the way, Scurry reflects on the global influence of soccer and the enduring significance of the World Cup, offering a deeply personal perspective on the sport that shaped her life and legacy. Free.

May 14 | ?(Political Science)
Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations was published 250 years ago and illustrated how prosperity is created by an invisible hand (specialization, competition, and a well-governed society). Was it a coincidence that sustained economic progress began shortly thereafter? Smith’s framework and his spirit remain a wise guide to modern betterment and a powerful antidote against today’s reflex for control, protectionism, and political allocation. Join us for a discussion of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and its continued relevance. Free.

May 14 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Fu Pei-mei (1931-2004), Taiwan’s beloved and pioneering postwar cook book author and television celebrity, was often called the “Julia Child of Chinese cooking.” Fu appeared continuously on television for forty years, wrote dozens of best-selling Chinese cookbooks, owned a successful cooking school and traveled the world, teaching foreigners about Chinese food. Women in her generation, which included both housewives and career women, turned to Fu because she taught them how to cook an astounding range of unfamiliar Chinese regional dishes, in ways their own mothers and grandmothers never could. Her cookbook also represents the transpacific journeys of thousands of migrants, as they carried her recipes in their suitcases, traveling far from home. Fu’s story offers us a window onto not just food, but also family, gender roles, technology, media, foreign relations, and cultural identity. This is not a story of timeless culinary tradition, but one of modern transformation– of self and family, of cuisine and society. Free.

May 15 | (School of Music)
William Dougherty is an American composer, sound artist, educator, and writer who joined the 91探花 faculty in January 2025. Dougherty’s works have been performed internationally by ensembles including BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Glasgow), The Sun Ra Arkestra (Philadelphia), Yarn/Wire (New York), Ensemble Phoenix (Basel), TILT Brass (New York), Ensemble for New Music Tallinn(Estonia), JACK Quartet (New York), and Talea Ensemble (New York). His music has been featured in festivals such as Tectonics Glasgow (2023), IRCAM’s ManiFeste (2019), musikprotokoll (2018), Donaueschingen Musiktage (2017), New Music Miami (2017), Tectonics Festival New York (2015), the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (2015), the 47th Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt (2014), the New York Philharmonic Biennale (2014), and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. THEME: A colloquium of 91探花faculty and students of Theory, History, Ethnomusicology, and Music Education held on select Friday afternoons during the academic year. Free.

May 15 | (School of Music)
Faculty pianist Craig Sheppard is joined by current and former 91探花students in this concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

May 15 | (Political Science)
Presented by Daniel Krcmaric, Associate Professor of Political Science and Law, Northwestern University. Free.

May 16 | ?(Biology)
Welcoming all families and science enthusiasts of all ages. The 91探花Department of Biology’s experts in the field whose research and teaching span cellular and molecular biology, global climate change, paleontology, and plant biology. Through experimentation and conversation, explore questions such as: How have penguins adapted to survive climate change? How is neuron fate decided during development? Why are mosquitoes attracted to us? Do plants really “defend” themselves against insect predators? How does the brain really work? And does the Greenhouse really have a stinky corpse plant and when will it bloom next? You’ll also be able to touch invertebrates, brains, fossils…and more! Free.

May 16 | (Henry Art Gallery)
As part of the U District Street Fair, Meet Me at the Henry is a twice-a-year celebration of contemporary art and ideas. Explore new exhibitions, catch captivating performances, get hands-on with an all-ages art-making workshop and museum bingo, and discover rarely seen works from the Henry’s collection. Free.

May 14 – 17 | (Dance)
The MFA Dance Concert features original dances created by the current MFA Cohort, with over fifty undergraduate dancers. The artists explore humanity and community drawing from a variety of movement languages including contemporary modern, wh/aacking and punking, groove, body percussion, and more.

Week of May 18

Online – May 18 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Speakers TBD. The World (Cup) Comes To Seattle 2026 Lecture Series is an online series of talks and discussions hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Free.

May 18 | (School of Music)
91探花music students perform music from the Baroque era under the direction of Tekla Cunningham. Free.

Online option – May 19 | Five Ways to Watch the World Cup with Ron Krabill (Public Lectures)
As Seattle gears up to host the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, the city finds itself at the center of a heated debate: Is the tournament an economic catalyst or a misuse of public funds? A celebration of Seattle’s cultural vibrancy or a distraction from pressing regional challenges? A thrilling chance to witness the world’s greatest athletes—or a calculated profit grab by global elites? This talk invites audiences to explore five distinct perspectives on the political and cultural impact of the tournament—offering a more nuanced, thought-provoking look at what the World Cup means for Seattle and the world.?Free.

May 19 | (Stroum Center for Jewish Studies)
Visiting author and scholar Jacob Daniels will discuss his new book, The Jews of Edirne: The End of the Ottoman Europe and the Arrival of Borders. At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Edirne was a bustling center linking Istanbul to Ottoman Europe. It was also the capital of Edirne Province—among the most religiously diverse regions of the Ottoman Empire. But by 1923, the city had become a Turkish border town, and the province had lost much of its non-Muslim population. With this book, Jacob Daniels explores how one of the world’s largest Sephardi communities dealt with the encroachment of modern borders. Free.

May 19 | (School of Music)
91探花voice students of Thomas Harper and Carrie Shaw perform art songs and arias from the vocal repertoire. Free.

May 19 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
Thea Riofrancos is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College, a Strategic Co-Director of the Climate and Community Institute, and a fellow at the Transnational Institute. She is the author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (W.W. Norton, 2025) and Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador (Duke University Press, 2020), and the coauthor of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso Books, 2019). Free.

May 19 | (Astronomy)
Enjoy evening talks, interactive exhibits, and on clear nights, sky viewing through our historic 1895 telescope. Viewings are held on the first and third Tuesday evenings from April through September, rain or shine. A public talk followed by telescope viewing once the sky darkens. Explore the universe with the UW! Free.

May 21 | (School of Music)
The master Javanese gamelan musician Heri Purwanto from Indonesia performs with his students in this evening of music from central Java, Indonesia.

May 21 – 31 | (School of Drama)
At “God’s” command, “Death” summons “Everybody” to go on the long and difficult journey to give a presentation to “God” on Everybody’s life and why they have lived it the way that they have. Everybody wants to bring along a friend, and Death says it’s fine if Everybody can find someone to volunteer. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins adapted the play from the 15th-century morality play Everyman. Professor Chi-wang Yang directs this production, in which each night the performers’ roles are determined by a lottery. Everybody reveals to us the value of our relationships and how to live with intention amid uncertainty.

May 21 | (American Indian Studies)
Sacred Breath features Indigenous writers and storytellers sharing their craft at the beautiful w???b?altx? Intellectual House on the 91探花Seattle campus. Storytelling offers a spiritual connection, a sharing of sacred breath. Literature, similarly, preserves human experience and ideals. Both forms are durable and transmit power that teaches us how to live. Both storytelling and reading aloud can impact audiences through the power of presence, allowing for the experience of the transfer of sacred breath as audiences are immersed in the experience of being inside stories and works of literature. Free.

May 22 | (School of Music)
Guitar students of Michael Partington present their quarterly studio recital. Michael Partington is one of the most engaging of the new generation of concert players. Praised by Classical Guitar Magazine for his “lyricism, intensity and clear technical command,” this award-winning British guitarist has performed internationally as a soloist and with ensemble to unanimous critical praise. Audiences are put at ease by his charming stage manner and captivated by his musical interpretations. His innate rhythmic understanding and sense for tonal colour combine to form some of the most memorable phrasing to be heard on the guitar. Free.

May 22 | (School of Music)
The UW’s graduate-student-led choral ensembles—the University Singers, 91探花Glee, and Treble Choir—present an eclectic year-end concert.

May 22 | ?(Political Science)
Presented by Valentina González-Rostani, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California. Free.

Through May 24 | (Henry Art Gallery)
Rodney McMillian (b. 1969, Columbia, South Carolina; based in Los Angeles, California) works with the social and political histories of the United States and how they shape our daily lives. Using existing texts and domestic materials—such as house paint on thrifted fabrics and bedsheets, or “post-consumer objects” as he calls them—he traces both the visible and invisible forces that shape civic life, particularly for the lives of African Americans. Inspired by the lush surroundings of the Henry, McMillian brings together sculpture, video, and painting that present an outdoor landscape overgrown with the lingering effects of physical, political, and social violence. Free.

Week of May 25

Through May 31 | (School of Drama)
At “God’s” command, “Death” summons “Everybody” to go on the long and difficult journey to give a presentation to “God” on Everybody’s life and why they have lived it the way that they have. Everybody wants to bring along a friend, and Death says it’s fine if Everybody can find someone to volunteer. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins adapted the play from the 15th-century morality play Everyman. Professor Chi-wang Yang directs this production, in which each night the performers’ roles are determined by a lottery. Everybody reveals to us the value of our relationships and how to live with intention amid uncertainty.

May 26 | (School of Art + Art History + Design)
Celebrate the graduating seniors across the art programs: 3D4M, Photo/Media, Painting + Drawing, and Interdisciplinary Visual Art (IVA) during the 2026 BA in Art Graduation Exhibitions at the Jacob Lawrance Gallery. Ways of Becoming is split into three shows between April 28 – June 5, 2026. Free.

May 26 | (School of Music)
The 91探花Percussion Ensemble (Bonnie Whiting, director) performs contemporary music of many genres composed for percussion ensembles ranging in size from trios to nonets and dectets. Free.

May 27 | (Chemistry)
Presented by Professor Benedetta Mennucci, Department of Chemistry, University of Pisa. Free.

Online Option – May 27 | Is A River Alive? Exploring the lives, deaths and rights of rivers with Robert Macfarlane (Public Lectures)
Across the globe, rivers are dying—choked by pollution, parched by drought, and shackled by dams. The prevailing narrative treats freshwater as a mere resource, water as a liquid asset, existing solely for human use. This lecture offers a different current: an ancient and urgent story in which rivers live, die, and even possess rights. It reimagines rivers as vital, sentient life-forces, intertwined with our own survival. Spanning Ecuador, India, Aotearoa New Zealand, northeastern Canada, and the speaker’s native southern England, the talk weaves together the voices of activists, artists, and lawmakers. Passionate and immersive, it promises to spark debate, shift perspectives, and invite listeners to recognize a profound truth: our fate has always flowed with the rivers. Free.

May 28 | (History)
Professor Matthew Sommer’s new book The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China (Columbia UP, 2024) considers a range of transgender practices and paradigms in Late Imperial China, illuminating how certain forms of gender transgression were sanctioned in particular contexts and penalized in others. This talk will focus on the crime of “a male masquerading in female attire” (男扮女裝), which was prosecuted by applying the statute against “using deviant ways and heterodox principles to incite and deceive the common people” (左道異端煽惑人民). Anatomical males who presented as women sometimes took a conventionally female occupations such as midwife, faith healer, or even medium to a fox spirit — yet, suspected of sexual predation, they risked death for the crime of “masquerading in women’s attire,” even when they had lived peacefully in their communities for years. Free.

May 28 | (Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies)
Graduate and undergraduate students and Indigenous Knowledge Families present their original research in the field of Indigenous Studies. Free.

May 29 | (School of Music)
Students of John Popham present a chamber music showcase. Free.

May 29 | (School of Music)
The Modern Music Ensemble (Cristina Valdés, director) performs music from the mid-20th century and beyond, including world premieres of works by living composers. Free.

May 30 | (School of Music)
The Campus Philharmonia Orchestras (Robert Stahly, Zach Banks, conductors) present an end-of-quarter concert. Free.

Online Events:

Online option – April 28 | (Jackson School of International Studies)
This panel features talks on conducting research in the Peruvian Amazon by Justin Perez (UCSC) and Amanda Smith (UCSC). Perez will present “Queer Emergent: Scandalous Stories from the Twilight of AIDS in Peru” and Smith will present, “Situating Mothering in a Geography of Digital Colonialism: The Digital Biblioteca Amazónica,” a project to create an open-access digital archive of materials housed at the Biblioteca Amazónica in Iquitos, Peru. Free.

May 5 | (Physics)
Dr. John Martinis, recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics, presents “Prehistoric quantum bits: experiments testing the fundamental physics of superconducting quantum devices.” Quantum mechanics was developed to describe the physics of the small, for fundamental particles, atoms and molecules. But does it still work for macroscopic systems? Martinis’ PhD thesis experiment in 1985 tested this idea, showing the macroscopic current and voltages in a 1 cm chip obey the quantum phenomena of tunneling and energy-level quantization, proving that a superconducting circuit can behave as a single `artificial atom.’ Over the last four decades, many physicists around the world have continued research on quantum devices. The field has evolved from fundamental tests into a high-stakes effort to build quantum bits and a quantum computer. At Google, the ‘quantum supremacy’ experiment was the culmination of this system-level optimization, proving that a processor could outpace classical supercomputers by maintaining high-fidelity control over a huge computational (Hilbert) space. Now, at his startup Qolab, they are leveraging 300mm semiconductor fabrication to achieve the extreme uniformity and yield necessary to build a useful general-purpose quantum computer. Free.

Live (not recorded) | (Jackson School of International Studies)
This lecture series is hosted by the Global Sport Lab, featuring local and global experts to discuss the geopolitical, local, and sporting implications of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Seattle. Topics include:

• April 27 | Iran and Seattle’s World Cup
• May 4 | Workers’ Rights in Seattle during the World Cup
• May 11 | Seattle’s World Cup: The View from Europe
• May 18 | The Pride Match and LGBTQ+ Rights
• June 1 | Egypt Comes to Seattle

Free.

May 13 | My Greatest Save with Briana Scurry (Public Lectures)
From winning two Olympic gold medals and a World Cup championship to enduring a career-ending concussion that left her “temporarily totally disabled” and forced her to pawn her Olympic medals, Briana Scurry delivers a raw and inspiring account of resilience. With unflinching candor, she guides audiences through the soaring highs and devastating lows of her journey—sharing a story of triumph, adversity, and ultimate redemption. Along the way, Scurry reflects on the global influence of soccer and the enduring significance of the World Cup, offering a deeply personal perspective on the sport that shaped her life and legacy. Free.\

May 19 | Five Ways to Watch the World Cup with Ron Krabill (Public Lectures)
As Seattle gears up to host the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, the city finds itself at the center of a heated debate: Is the tournament an economic catalyst or a misuse of public funds? A celebration of Seattle’s cultural vibrancy or a distraction from pressing regional challenges? A thrilling chance to witness the world’s greatest athletes—or a calculated profit grab by global elites? This talk invites audiences to explore five distinct perspectives on the political and cultural impact of the tournament—offering a more nuanced, thought-provoking look at what the World Cup means for Seattle and the world.?Free.

May 27 | Is A River Alive? Exploring the lives, deaths and rights of rivers with Robert Macfarlane (Public Lectures)
Across the globe, rivers are dying—choked by pollution, parched by drought, and shackled by dams. The prevailing narrative treats freshwater as a mere resource, water as a liquid asset, existing solely for human use. This lecture offers a different current: an ancient and urgent story in which rivers live, die, and even possess rights. It reimagines rivers as vital, sentient life-forces, intertwined with our own survival. Spanning Ecuador, India, Aotearoa New Zealand, northeastern Canada, and the speaker’s native southern England, the talk weaves together the voices of activists, artists, and lawmakers. Passionate and immersive, it promises to spark debate, shift perspectives, and invite listeners to recognize a profound truth: our fate has always flowed with the rivers. Free.

ArtSci Roundup goes monthly!

The ArtSci Roundup is your guide to connecting with the UW—whether in person, on campus, or on your couch.

Previously shared on a quarterly basis, those who sign up for the Roundup email will receive them monthly, delivering timely updates and engaging content wherever you are. Check the roundup regularly, as events are added throughout the month. Make sure to check out the ArtSci On Your Own Time section for everything from podcasts to videos to exhibitions that can be enjoyed when it works for you!

In addition, if you like the ArtSci Roundup, sign up to receive a monthly notice when it’s been published.

Do you have an event that you would like to see featured in the ArtSci Roundup? Connect with Lauren Zondag (zondagld@uw.edu).uw.edu).

UPDATE April 7, 2026:?The original version of this story omitted two 91探花programs that were included in the rankings: Occupational Therapy (Tied for 20th) and Physical Therapy (Tied for 31st).?

The 91探花’s graduate and professional degree programs again were recognized as among the best in the nation, according to .

Topping this year’s list include programs at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, the School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering in the College of Engineering and the College of Education. The College of Arts & Sciences and the College of the Environment also had top-rated programs.

In total, 81 graduate and professional degree programs across the 91探花placed in the top 35 in this year’s U.S. News rankings.

“These rankings highlight the strength and impact of the 91探花’s graduate and professional programs,” said 91探花President Robert J. Jones. “These programs equip students with the skills and knowledge to meet critical workforce needs and serve society, while demonstrating the power of higher education to advance the public good. We are proud to foster an environment where students and faculty can thrive and have a real impact on the world around them.”

While the 91探花celebrates the success and impact of the programs recognized by U.S. News — and notes that many applicants use these rankings to help them select schools and discover potential areas of study — the University also recognizes shortcomings inherent in the ranking systems.

The 91探花School of Law and the 91探花School of Medicine withdrew from the U.S. News rankings in 2022 and 2023, respectively, citing concerns that some of the methodology in the rankings for those specific disciplines incentivize actions and policies that run counter to the schools’ public service missions.

91探花leaders continue to work with U.S. News and other ranking organizations to improve their methodologies, to the extent that the organizations are open to it. Schools, colleges and departments continually reevaluate the benefits and potential shortfalls of participating in specific rankings.

Excluding the School of Law and the School of Medicine, 29 91探花programs placed in the top 10, and 81 are in the top 35.

?The 91探花this year placed in the top 10 nationwide in public affairs, biostatistics,? nursing, computer science, education, psychology, speech and language pathology, statistics and Earth sciences.

The UW’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance has maintained its top-10 ranking for more than a decade and tied for fifth in the nation this year. The Evans School’s environmental policy program was ranked second, while public finance and budgeting as well as leadership both ranked No. 10.

The 91探花School of Nursing’s doctor of nursing practice program tied for No. 1 among public institutions. The School of Public Health has maintained its top-10 ranking for more than a decade, coming in this year at No. 9. The school also had three programs in the top 10: biostatistics, environmental health sciences and epidemiology.?

The UW’s programs in speech and language pathology tied for No. 6.? Two programs from the College of Education placed in the top 10. And the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering this year tied for seventh place overall with three programs ranked in the top 10, including artificial intelligence, programming language and systems.

U.S. News ranks biostatistics in two ways. 91探花ranked No. 3 as a science discipline that applies statistical theory and mathematical principles to research in medicine, biology, environmental science, public health and related fields. UW’s School of Public Health ranked No. 7 in biostatistics as an area of study that trains students to apply statistical principles and methods to problems in health sciences, medicine and biology. At the UW, biostatistics is a division of the School of Public Health.

In some cases, such as the College of Arts & Science and the Foster School of Business, U.S. News ranks several professional disciplines housed within academic units. Programs in dentistry are not ranked.?

The rankings below are based on preliminary data and may be updated. relies on both expert opinions and statistical indicators.

TOP 10:

Library and Information Studies (overall): Two-way tie for 1st (ranked in 2025)

Public Affairs (environmental policy): 2nd

Library and information studies (digital librarianship): Two-way for 2nd (ranked in 2022)

Library and Information Studies (information systems): 2nd (ranked in 2022)

Biostatistics: 3rd

Physics (nuclear): Two-way tie for 3rd (ranked in 2024)

Nurse practitioner (doctor of nursing practice): Four-way tie for 4th

Evans School of Public Policy & Governance (overall): Four-way tie for 5th

Library and Information Studies (library services for children and youth): Two-way for 5th (ranked in 2022)

Computer science (systems): Tied for 6th

Education (elementary education): 6th

Psychology (clinical): Three-way tie for 6th

Speech-language pathology: Five-way tie for 6th

Statistics: Four-way tie for 6th

Public Health (biostatistics): 7th

Computer science (overall): Three-way tie for 7th

Computer science (programming language): Tied for 7th

Education (secondary education): 7th

Nursing (midwifery): Five-way tie for 7th

Public Health (environmental health sciences): 7th

School of Social Work (overall): 7th (ranked in 2025)

Public Health (epidemiology): 8th

Computer science (artificial intelligence): 9th

Earth sciences: Tied for 9th?

Geophysics: Three-way tie for 9th (ranked in 2024)

Public Affairs (nonprofit management): 9th

School of Public Health (overall): Tied for 9th

Public Affairs (public finance and budgeting): 10th

Public Affairs (public management and leadership): 10th

TOP 25:

Biological sciences: Five-way tie for 16th

Business (accounting): 10-way tie for 16th

Business (entrepreneurship): Five-way tie for 17th

Business (information systems): Three-way tie for 15th

Business (part-time MBA): Three-way tie for 11th

Business (full-time MBA): 20th

Business (management): Five-way tie for 25th

Business (marketing): Eight-way tie for 25th

Chemistry (analytical): Four-way tie for 16th (ranked in 2024)

Chemistry: Seven-way tie for 22nd

Chemistry (inorganic): Three-way tie for 22nd (ranked in 2024)

Computer science (theory): Tied for 11th

College of Education (overall): Tied for 24th

Education (administration): Tied for 11th

Education (curriculum/instruction): Tied for 12th

Education (policy): Tied for 14th

Education (special education): Tied for 12th

College of Engineering (overall): Three-way tie for 22nd

Engineering (aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical): Tied for 17th

Engineering (biomedical/bioengineering): Five-way tie for 12th

Engineering (civil): Four-way tie for 13th

Engineering (computer): 12th

Engineering (electrical): Three-way tie for 22nd

Engineering (industrial/manufacturing/systems): Seven-way tie for 24th

Engineering (materials engineering): Five-way tie for 25th

Library and Information Studies (school library media): Two-way tie for 11th (ranked in 2022)

Mathematics (applied math): 21st (ranked in 2024)

Nursing master’s (overall): Tied for 12th

Nurse practitioner (adult gerontology acute care): Tied for 11th

Nurse practitioner (family): Tied for 15th

School of Pharmacy (overall): Tied for 14th

Physics (overall): Tied for 20th?

Public Affairs (public policy analysis): 14th

Public Affairs (social policy): Tied for 13th

Public Affairs (urban policy): Three-way tie for 21st

Public Health (health care management): Three-way tie for 16th?

Public Health (health policy and management): 11th

Public Health (social behavior): 13th

Sociology (overall): Two-way tie for 22nd (ranked in 2025)

Sociology (population): Two-way tie for 15th (ranked in 2022)

TOP 35:

Business (analytics): Seven-way tie for 32nd

Business (executive MBA): Three-way tie for 29th

Business (finance): Nine-way tie for 31st

Business (international MBA): Tie for 32nd

Business (production & operations): Five-way tie for 27th

Engineering (chemical): Tied for 28th

Engineering (mechanical): 34th

English: Two-way tie for 34th (ranked in 2025)

Fine arts: 15-way tie for 34th

History: Three-way tie for 31st (ranked in 2025)

Mathematics: Four-way tie for 26th

Occupational Therapy: Tied for 20th

Physical Therapy: Tied for 31st

Political science: Five-way tie for 33rd (ranked in 2025)

once believed the focuses of her doctoral and postdoctoral work were completely different.?

She completed her doctorate in Botswana, studying how humans were changing large carnivore behavior. After earning her degree, she researched whale migration at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But while Abrahms was with NOAA, a historic heat wave off the West Coast was associated with an unprecedented rise in whales getting tangled in fishing gear. The event reminded her of studying in Botswana, when an extreme drought led to predators killing more livestock.?

“It struck me as important that you have two really different systems, yet in both cases an extreme climate event led to a change in human-wildlife interactions,” said Abrahms, an associate professor of biology at the 91探花.

Those experiences led Abrahms to study how climate change is affecting human-wildlife interactions and increasing conflict around the world — from polar bear attacks on people to elephant destruction of agricultural areas. Her areas of expertise made her the ideal choice for keynote speaker at the held in Botswana in January.

Abrahms offered a global perspective on how climate change is impacting human-wildlife conflict while also providing specific insight on southern Africa, since she has worked in Botswana since 2011. The roundtable was hosted by the National Assembly of Botswana in partnership with through its program.

“It was really gratifying,” Abrahms said. “As a scientist, we’re often putting papers out and not knowing what reach they will have. You never really know where they’re going to go, if they’re going to go anywhere. To be featured so prominently in this intergovernmental parliamentary workshop was a career highlight.”

The roundtable brought together parliamentarians from Botswana, other African nations, the European Union, and beyond, alongside government officials, civil society leaders, local community representatives, conservation experts and international partners. Attendees focused on identifying solutions to human-wildlife conflicts while ensuring that the interests of citizens, local communities, ecotourism operators and wildlife advocates are reflected in policy.

Abrahms’ speech addressed the global impacts of climate change on human-wildlife coexistence.

She discussed increasing news reports of human-animal conflict, like kangaroos mobbing areas in Australia during droughts, and increased alligator attacks due to hurricanes in South Carolina. Previous research from Abrahms and her team revealed that the warming world is increasing human-wildlife conflicts. Another of her studies found that the overlap between humans and animals will increase substantially across much of the planet in less than 50 years due to human population growth and climate change.?

“These issues are definitely getting more attention and when I gave this talk, it resonated,” Abrhams said. “Afterward, there was a panel featuring different parliament members and every single one of them had their own stories of climate increasing conflict in their countries, whether it was from a hurricane or a drought or a heat wave.”

Despite the wide variety of animal species and climate events — floods and hurricanes in Sri Lanka, droughts in Botswana and more — Abrahms was struck by how frequently climate change exacerbated these problems. She was heartened, though, by how many people from around the world came together to share experiences, success stories and challenges.

Some national-level policy recommendations that came out of the roundtable included predictable compensation and insurance mechanisms for when human-wildlife conflicts occur. Experts also suggested land-use planning that recognizes wildlife corridors as well as human needs. Among the other ideas: Investment in community resilience and climate-smart livelihoods, parliamentary oversight and a wildlife coexistence fund.?

Public outreach is also an important piece, Abrahms said.

“That would help people prepare and hopefully prevent some of these conflicts from occurring,” Abrahms said. “Governmental fiscal planning also could help by anticipating that there will be increased strain on a system and extra money could be put into a fund for use during extreme climate events.”

Abrahms left the roundtable impressed with how much the attendees genuinely cared about the environment, as well as their interest in learning from each other and about her work.

“It was a very grounding experience,” Abrahms said, “and it was nice to be part of a policy-oriented audience. There is a huge amount of money and resources and personnel and expertise aimed at alleviating these problems. In that respect, it was uplifting.”

For more information, contact Abrahms at abrahms@uw.edu.

Nautilus and Allonautilus cephalopods and their extinct ancestors have been drifting through of the ocean for more than 500 million years. Researchers have spent the last 40 years trying to understand how these mysterious “living fossils” thrive in areas with limited nutrients. published in Scientific Reports, a UW-led team documented new habits and habitats for current Nautilus and Allonautilus species. These creatures appear to live in deeper water than their extinct cousins did, and the younger ones live twice as deep as the fully mature adults. Nautilus and Allonautilus species scavenge their food and never stop moving. While a few species migrate hundreds of meters down at dawn and then back up at dusk every day, the team found that most species aren’t quite as intrepid. The researchers also describe a new population of Allonautilus in waters off the island , one of several populations thriving due to hunting restrictions inspired in part by research efforts from this team.

For more information, contact senior author , 91探花professor of both biology and Earth and space sciences, at argo@uw.edu.

Other 91探花co-authors are , and . A full list of co-authors and funding is included

Green clay tennis courts become carbon negative after 10 years

The United States has around a quarter of a million tennis courts, 40,000 of which are helping mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Green clay tennis courts, an alternative to traditional hard courts and the red clay courts popular in Europe, are constructed with a type of rock that reacts with carbon dioxide and water to sequester carbon as a stable dissolved salt. In , 91探花researchers show that in the U.S., green clay courts remove 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year and 80% of green clay courts make up for construction emissions within 10 years. Moving forward, the researchers hope to experiment with other materials that also remove carbon dioxide without compromising performance for players.

For more information contact lead author , 91探花assistant professor of oceanography, at fjpavia@uw.edu.

A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

Temperature dynamics, not just extremes, impact heat tolerance in mussels

Intertidal mussels, forming bumpy layers on shoreline rocks, withstand significant temperature swings as the tide ebbs and flows. These creatures live in one of the most thermally variable environments on Earth, but a new study shows that the rate, timing and duration of heating and cooling impact their metabolic rate, a proxy for overall health. At the UW’s , researchers exposed mussels to temperature regimens with equal highs and lows but different patterns of change. Even when the average temperature for a set period was the same, the mussels’ response was distinct. These results, , show that predicting how marine organisms respond to climate change means considering how temperature changes over time, not just how warm it gets.

For more information, contact lead author , assistant professor of biology at the College of the Holy Cross and a mentor for the 91探花Friday Harbor Laboratories , at mnishizaki@holycross.edu.

The other 91探花co-author is . A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

When algae stop growing, bacteria start swarming

Tiny geometric algae, called , produce nearly a quarter of the world’s organic matter by photosynthesis. In the microscopic marine universe, diatoms coexist with both harmful and helpful bacteria. A new study, , describes how a recently identified species of marine bacteria targets diatoms based on growth phase and nutrient availability. Growing diatoms can resist bacterial attacks, but when growth ceases, the bacteria modulate their gene expression patterns to become aggressive — first swimming and releasing compounds that damage the diatom and then clustering around them to feed. Bacteria can also overcome the diatom’s defenses in nutrient-rich environments. These findings highlight the dynamic relationship between bacteria and algae in the lab. Moving forward, researchers will explore what, if anything, changes in a more complex environment.

For more information, contact lead author , 91探花postdoctoral fellow in oceanography, at dawiener5@gmail.com.

Other 91探花co-authors are and . A full list of co-authors and funding is available .

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’s time to bloom.

Mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue, malaria and Zika, . Mosquitoes are increasingly becoming resistant to current insecticides, leading to a pressing need for new methods to prevent mosquito bites — and the potential transmission of disease.

New research by an international team, including researchers at the 91探花, provides insight into how an organic compound common in plant-based mosquito repellents affects mosquitoes. The study, , reveals that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes use a specific sensory receptor to detect and avoid borneol (pronounced “bor-nee-ohl”), an organic compound found in several aromatic plants, including camphor trees, rosemary and other aromatic herbs.

“We were surprised by how sensitive the mosquitoes were to this repellent,” said co-author , a 91探花professor of biology. “By identifying the odorant receptor, we can now develop and test repellents that are even more effective than borneol, in that they last longer and are more repellent.”

The researchers discovered that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are the major carrier of dengue and yellow fever viruses, have a single odor receptor, called OR49, that is highly tuned to detect borneol.

When a mosquito encounters this compound, OR49 activates a specific nerve cell in a mosquito’s maxillary palp, one of its primary organs for detecting odors and locating human hosts. That signal then travels from the nerve cell to a distinct region of the mosquito’s brain, triggering avoidance behavior.

To test how critical this receptor is, the researchers disabled the Or49 gene. Without OR49, the repellent signal essentially disappeared. The mosquitoes’ neurons no longer responded to borneol and the insects were far less likely to avoid it.

Researchers at the 91探花were instrumental in collecting neural recordings from the mosquito brains to identify how the mosquito olfactory system processes borneol and other similar compounds and repellents.

“Because the repellency through the OR49 receptor is so strong, we might be able to identify other volatile odors that activate the same receptor to ‘push’ mosquitoes away from people,” said co-senior author , associate professor of biology at Baylor University. “The new compounds might be easier and cheaper to produce, or safer and more acceptable to the human nose than existing repellent formulations.”

This research bridges basic neuroscience and public health, offering fresh insight into how tiny sensory signals can have life-saving implications. That is central to the premise of the team’s larger research goal: understanding the genetic basis for how Aedes aegypti is attracted to sources of nectar. The team hopes to create a new generation of mosquito attractants that can be used in traps for enhancing mosquito surveillance and control.

“The knowledge gained in these studies will inform similar studies in mosquitoes that transmit malaria, plus other biting insects that continue to exert negative impacts on human flourishing on a global scale,” Pitts said.

, a 91探花postdoctoral scholar in the biology department, is a co-author on this paper. A full list of co-authors is included . This research was funded by the Israel Science Foundation; the National Institutes of Health; the National Science Foundation; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; the Science and Technology Development Plan Project of Jilin Province, China; and the Ministry of Science & Technology, Israel.

For more information, contact Riffell at jriffell@uw.edu.

Adapted from .

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 91探花, 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.

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

91探花 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.?

March 1 is World Seagrass Day, which celebrates the flowering plants that look like blades of grass waving in our oceans and in Puget Sound. as an opportunity “to promote and facilitate actions for the conservation of seagrasses in order to contribute to their health and development.”

, 91探花 professor of biology, studies the relationship between the environment and marine organisms, including eelgrass, the primary species of seagrass that resides in the waters in and around Washington.

In honor of World Seagrass Day, 91探花News asked Ruesink to explain what seagrass is and what makes the seagrasses in Washington unique.

What is seagrass and why is it important?

Jennifer Ruesink: Seagrasses are “land plants” that have moved into ocean habitats. They have roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. There are only about 70 species of seagrasses, representing just 0.02% of all flowering plant species.

Seagrass matters to humans in many ways. It cycles nutrients and carbon, provides habitat for fish and decapods, and it anchors sediment in place, which contributes to shoreline stabilization. It’s a sentinel species for good water quality — in fact, impaired water quality from nutrient pollution, coastal building and erosion are its biggest threats.

Beyond these utilitarian values, seagrass is “wonderful” in the truest sense of that word — the way it grows, moves and shapes the environment provides a continual source of wonder.

What makes seagrass different from seaweed and other ocean plants?

JR: In addition to seagrasses, there are many other photosynthetic organisms that live in the ocean. Collectively they provide half of our global oxygen. But the others are different from seagrasses: Seaweeds, also known as macroalgae, do not make roots or flowers. Tiny microalgae live on ocean surfaces, even on the seagrass leaves themselves. Other photosynthetic organisms, such as phytoplankton, drift as single cells or small colonies in the water.

Seagrasses are colloquially called “grasses” because many have grass-like shapes with long strap-like leaves that grow from the base, and their stems move horizontally underground. From an evolutionary perspective, seagrasses do not group with the terrestrial grass family but instead have unique families or share relatives with freshwater plants.

What does seagrass look like in the ocean?

JR: If you think of a prairie on land, it is full of different plant species that grow to different heights, flower at different times, and extract light and nutrients with different efficiencies. Seagrass meadows are the prairies of the ocean, but they frequently consist of just one seagrass species. Because the number of seagrass species is so small, much of the dramatic variability occurs within single species, rather than across multiple species. Here in Washington we mostly have the same species — eelgrass, or Zostera marina — that’s found from 23-70 degrees north latitude on both sides of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean.

Tell us about eelgrass in Washington.

JR: The remarkable thing is that there is so much of eelgrass variability present within our state. For example, some populations have shoots that replicate solely by branching, making genetic copies of themselves as they go. Other populations have shoots that never branch, but instead germinate, flower and die within a summer, overwintering as seeds. Shoots in Washington range from a diminutive 0.7 feet to nearly 6.5 feet long.

It makes sense that this diversity within a species is a product of evolving in the varied environments of Washington’s vast and convoluted shoreline. We think this variability should confer resilience to change, but that’s an ongoing exploration.

Washington also has two seagrass species other than Zostera marina: Ruppia maritima, which is a fast-growing species characteristic of brackish channels in saltmarshes, and Nanozostera japonica, which was established in the state in the 1950s after being inadvertently introduced from Japan. You can find them all growing together in a few places.

How would you suggest that someone celebrate World Seagrass Day?

JR: There are plenty of public-access shores around Seattle — including Golden Gardens and the south side of Alki Point — where you can see eelgrass growing. At this time of year, you might see nearby. These small geese feed on eelgrass to fuel their migration. To see eelgrass, you need a low tide since it can’t handle staying out of the water very long. On World Seagrass Day, good low tides occur after dark — around 9 p.m. in the Seattle area. If you do find seagrass, you can take a picture and help data collection about its distribution by uploading your information to iNaturalist or .

Any time you’re at the beach, you might find eelgrass washed up on shore: Keep an eye out for the leaves — green, flexible rectangles — especially if they’re connected to chunky brown cylinders — the stems, or . Each node on the rhizome is the scar of a former leaf. This is fun to think about because it helps demonstrate the dynamic lifestyle of this plant: Each leaf lasts a couple of months before it’s left behind on the rhizome and decays. Meanwhile the production of a new leaf every couple of weeks both turns over the biomass and moves the shoot along the sediment.

The point of “World Days” in general is to raise awareness about global issues of concern and to celebrate accomplishments: If you pass the news about Washington eelgrass along to someone else, that’s a celebration!

For more information, contact Ruesink at ruesink@uw.edu.

Learn more about Jennifer Ruesink’s eelgrass research

Ruesink’s recent research on eelgrass delves into understanding the mechanism behind eelgrass flowering:

• (collaboration with Takato Imaizumi, 91探花biology professor)
• (collaboration with Kerry Naish, 91探花professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, and Takato Imaizumi, 91探花biology professor)
• (collaboration with Kerry Naish, 91探花professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences),

Scientists share their work by publishing articles in journals, such as Nature, Science or PLOS Biology. One major part of the publishing process involves having these manuscripts reviewed by unpaid peers. These scientists specialize in the same topic and volunteer to make sure the science is sound and the authors haven’t missed anything critical in their data analysis.

The peer review process has reached a critical point where there are too many manuscript submissions and not enough peer reviewers. , 91探花 professor of biology, and , North Carolina State University professor of statistics, used mathematical modeling to demonstrate this crisis in the form of a self-perpetuating cycle. The team describes this cycle and potential interventions in PLOS Biology.

91探花News reached out to Bergstrom and Gross to learn more about this cycle and how the potential interventions could mediate this crisis.

Why is the process of peer review important for science?

Carl Bergstrom and Kevin Gross: Peer review helps scientific literature maintain its credibility. The system of peer review guarantees that published research has been scrutinized by experts in the relevant field. While peer review is not, and never has been, a watertight seal of approval — peer reviewers are human, too! — it has proven to be a system that, by and large, helps ensure the reliability of the scientific literature.

What is happening to create and perpetuate this cycle you describe in your paper?

CB and KG: The basic insight that drives our paper is that when peer review functions effectively, it helps journals select the science most worthy of their readers’ attention and creates a strong motivation for scientists to be selective about where they submit their work. After all, a scientist gains little by having their paper rejected by a top journal. So high-quality reviewing encourages scientists to choose where they submit their work carefully, and to submit only their very best work to the most prestigious outlets. Thus, effective peer review reinforces itself through a virtuous cycle.

The cycle can spin in the other direction too. If peer reviewers have to dilute their efforts over a larger volume of submitted manuscripts, then each manuscript may receive less scrutiny and editors’ decisions consequently become less predictable. This encourages authors to try their luck at journals that might otherwise have been a stretch, increasing the volume of manuscripts that need to be reviewed even further and making editorial decisions even less predictable, and so on.

Why are we seeing this crisis now?

CB and KG: To be fair, scientists have been bemoaning the fragile state of peer review for decades. So we are far from the first to observe that using the goodwill of volunteers as a lynchpin of the scientific enterprise may not be a robust model.

But there is reason to believe that the situation is more dire now. There isn’t one single cause driving this more recent turn — many factors contribute. For example, over the past few decades, scientific communities have become larger and looser knit, and the willingness to volunteer tends to decline as groups become more diffuse.

Large commercial publishers have also discovered that scientific publishing can be a lucrative business — especially when they can dip into a tradition of free peer-review labor. Drawn by the sizable profits they could make, these publishers have launched countless new journals, crowding the journal landscape. Scientists, in turn, now have more options for what to do with a paper that has been rejected once or numerous times. There’s always another journal to send it to. And each time a paper is resubmitted, a new set of peer reviewers must be found.

The pandemic also shocked the system by compelling many researchers to reassess their time commitments. It seems that we have collectively yet to fully rebound to pre-pandemic levels of willingness to review.

Should people be concerned about the science described in current peer-reviewed papers?

CB and KG: Well, to back up a bit, the primary responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the scientific literature rests squarely with the authors, as it always has. And, thankfully, most authors have strong reputational incentives to make sure that their work is solid and will stand the test of time. But authors have their blind spots.

Peer review isn’t going to suddenly collapse and take the literature down with it, but as the system becomes stressed, we might start to see a few more cracks emerge. While that isn’t catastrophic, it isn’t good for science, either. Social trust in science can wax and wane, and even a little slippage has real consequences for scientists, their livelihoods and society as a whole.

What about this crisis concerns you?

CB and KG: Perhaps our biggest concern is that journal editors who become frustrated with the inability to find willing peer reviewers will turn to AI for machine review instead. There may be ways in which machine review could complement human peer review, but we think it’s important that human review continues to be the engine of editorial deliberations at scientific journals.

Peer review is not just a process for making an accept-or-reject decision.? Peer reviewers also provide commentary and feedback for the authors. These reports provide a venue for honest dialogue that helps researchers hone their ideas and grow in their careers. Outsourcing manuscript review to robots risks collapsing a discourse that is crucial to scientific progress.

One solution you discuss is to pay reviewers. Is this a viable solution?

CB and KG: Paying reviewers isn’t as crazy as it may sound. The landscape of scientific publishing includes both nonprofit and for-profit journals, and all sorts of business models in between. It seems reasonable that especially scientists who review for for-profit journals should be remunerated for their efforts when they provide a service on which the viability of the journal depends.

Perhaps the most compelling argument for paying reviewers is that, of all the possible interventions one could propose, it requires the least amount of coordination among different stakeholders to succeed. As soon as one journal figures out a working model for paying reviewers, then everyone will notice that paying reviewers is viable, and there will be market pressure on other journals to follow suit.

Another idea that we quite like is for journals to offer substantial monetary awards for the most constructive or helpful reviews. This idea has its drawbacks too. Editors would have to spend a little bit of time choosing the prizewinning reviews, and editors could always select their friends for the prize. But every alternative is going to have its drawbacks, and it’s important to focus on the net effect, especially when the viability of the status quo seems so tenuous.

If we want to keep peer review voluntary, what are other possible solutions?

CB and KG: There are lots of possible interventions. But the intervention that probably would enjoy the broadest support would be for university hiring and promotion committees to prioritize quality of publications instead of quantity. Most academic scientists today are working in a system that rewards a researcher for the number of publications above all else. This obviously creates incentives for researchers to submit lots of manuscripts, which puts lots of pressure on peer review. If the norms changed so that hiring and promotion hinged on a candidate’s top two or three papers instead, then researchers’ incentives would change and the pressure on peer reviewers would diminish.

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

For more information, contact Bergstrom at cbergst@uw.edu and Gross at krgross@ncsu.edu.