Our science departments are committed to creating and disseminating new knowledge in their fields by combining research and teaching. Our 300 faculty members—including fellows of many learned societies and academies—are engaged in research that spans a broad range, from questions about the foundations of quantum mechanics, to the development of cancer cells and the workings of the brain, to work resulting in the spin-off of high-technology companies. Faculty share their excitement about their research with their students, training them to become part of the next generation of scientists who will push the frontiers of human knowledge. Explore majors, minors, concentrations, and academic programs in the Natural Sciences.
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World-Class Faculty in the Natural Sciences
Thien Nguyen
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Thien Nguyen is an expert in natural language processing, or the ability of artificial intelligence to understand, interpret and generate meaningful human language. He aims to enable computers to perform cognitive language-related tasks. His lab is among the first to develop deep learning algorithms for information extraction and text mining in natural language processing and data mining. His research on using natural language processing for multilingual learning earned him a Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation.
Nguyen's recent research focuses on programming computers to improve the efficiency and safety of large language models (LLMs) across human languages while extracting valuable information about events like natural disasters, cyberattacks, disease outbreaks, and protests from news articles and other sources. His work seeks to deliver useful insights from diverse data and make these technologies accessible in low-resource languages that lack adequate data sets for training AI models.
Tien-Tien Yu
Associate Professor of Physics, Institute for Fundamental Science
Tien-Tien is a theoretical particle physicist working at the interface of theory and experiment. She is particularly interested in understanding the nature of dark matter, whose existence is known through its gravitational effects on ordinary matter. She co-founded the SENSEI collaboration, an experiment utilizing silicon chips, much like those found in digital cameras, to search for dark matter. She was recently appointed to P5, an advisory group convened once a decade by the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation to help determine the next funded projects in particle physics.
On Jan. 14, 2025, Yu was one of nearly 400 scientists and engineers to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest award the US government awards to early career scientists.
A founding member of the group Particles for Justice, Yu is also a leader in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the physics field. In collaboration with the Comics and Cartoon Studies program, Yu created the UO Science and Comics Initiative. Read more about the initiative here.
Santiago Jaramillo
Associate Professor of Biology, Institute of Neuroscience
Santiago Jaramillo leads a research group dedicated to understanding how the brain processes and interprets sounds. Using advanced techniques to monitor and manipulate neural activity in mice, along with computational approaches, he investigates how the brain filters, learns, and assigns meaning to sounds and how brain disorders can affect these processes. His interdisciplinary work, supported by the BRAIN Initiative of the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, includes collaborations with psychologists, bioengineers, theoretical neuroscientists, and linguists, with the long-term goal of developing neural interfaces to improve human-to-human and human-to-machine communication.
Beyond the lab, Jaramillo is deeply committed to broadening participation in STEM. He provides hands-on neuroscience experiences to middle school girls through the SPICE program, serves as an advisor for international programs engaging young minds in scientific critical thinking, and mentors college students from a wide range of backgrounds through programs such as NSF STEP-UP, SPUR, and the ESPRIT scholarship for aspiring K-12 science teachers.
School of Computer and Data Sciences
The mission at SCDS is to empower a diverse population of students and faculty working to advance knowledge in computer and data science, train the next generation of scholars, and engage with the wider world to tackle interdisciplinary challenges.
To do this, we start by applying our knowledge and experience at home across the University of Oregon campus.
Research in the Natural Sciences
Natural scientists use data to understand, predict, and work with naturally occurring phenomena on earth and in the universe. From highly controlled experiments in the lab to observations collected in the field, our findings help make sense of the natural world while driving advancements in society and technology that touch everyone. By expanding the limits of human knowledge, we provide a scientific foundation for helping people live better, longer lives.
2024-2025 Sponsored Research in Natural Sciences
Between July 2024 and June 2025, researchers in CAS received $83 million to fund 199 research projects, including approximately $75 million in Natural Sciences. The research projects, which span divisions and fields of study, represent CAS's commitment to curiosity, discovery, and innovation.
Explore Other Majors and Minors in the College of Arts and Sciences
Meet our Dean
Welcome to the natural sciences, where our top-flight researchers bring students in to experience the biological, physical, and computational sciences. Working side-by-side with faculty who are equally committed to student success and scientific discovery, students learn valuable critical thinking skills through hands-on research in the lab, field, and classroom—from studying marine biology at the Oregon Institute for Marine Biology on our beautiful campus on the coast to coding advanced systems and analyzing complex data in the School of Computer and Data Science.
The research we’re conducting at the UO makes a tangible difference in our communities, our nation, and the world. For example, our chemists are pioneering the materials and techniques that will inspire the next generation of batteries for energy storage. Our psychologists are developing and testing cutting-edge interventions to improve mental health and wellbeing. Our geologists and environmental scientists are collaborating with governments, tribes, and industry partners to protect communities from earthquakes and wildfires.
You may or may not end up in a science career, but either way these experiences will change the way you experience and interact with the world. A healthy society depends on people who know how to gather evidence and critically analyze data. No matter what field you enter, scientific thinking will help you become a more thoughtful, engaged, and critical citizen in modern society.
We’re excited to explore the natural world with you.
Elliot Berkman
Divisional Associate Dean, Natural Sciences
Happening at CAS
3:30–4:30 p.m.
The Northwest Native American Language Resource Center's Community Project Planning and Development (CPPD) workshops are designed to help guide you through the process of creating a community-based project: from coming up with the idea, to building a solid organizational and logistical foundation, and all of the other necessary steps to get your project proposal completed. Overall, there are 15 CPPD workshops in this series.
Each workshop also has an associated next-day drop-in assistance hour. This workshop series is meant to take participants with little to no experience in community project planning and development and help them complete their first project proposal. While we are focused on assisting with project planning and development of Alaskan Native/Native American Language projects, much of the content that you will be learning in these workshops is readily transferrable to other types of projects.
Registrants will have access to all workshops in this April offering. Attendance at all workshops in the offering is recommended but not required.
All instruction is provided online and instructors will join online. Participants will join remotely via zoom (please see technology section below.)
Workshops in this Offering
The CPPD workshops are offered in smaller, five workshop offerings. The first five workshops were offered in November and December of 2025. The workshops that are available in the April offering are:
Workshop 6: Identifying Long-Range Goals
- Topic: Supports facilitation of community discussions to identify vision-aligned, long-term goals that drive project outcomes.
- Date: 4/1
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/2
Workshop 7: Defining Barriers to Long-Range Goals
- Topic: Identifies internal and external barriers, explores strategies to surface challenges, and begin problem-solving approaches.
- Date: 4/8
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/9
Workshop 8: Creating Project Goals & Objectives
- Topic: Translates community vision into specific, measurable project goals and objectives using clear, structured frameworks.
- Date: 4/15
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/16
Workshop 9: Outcomes, Outputs, & Activities
- Topic: Distinguishes outcomes, outputs, and activities, aligns them within a project framework/logic model.
- Date: 4/22
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/23
Workshop 10: Building a Project Work Plan
- Topic: Hands-on strategies to create a work plan with timelines, milestones, responsibilities, and deliverables.
- Date: 4/29
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/30
Technology
The CPPD workshops will be held via Zoom and will use Canvas, a course management system, for materials and activities. Participants must have an email address. It will be best to join on a computer that has a stable internet connection, a webcam, and headphones (depending on your work environment). Using a computer rather than a mobile device will improve your experience - you will be able to better interact with others, participate in hands-on activities, and see presented materials.
3:30–4:30 p.m.
The NW-NALRC's Community Project Planning and Development (CPPD) workshops are designed to help guide you through the process of creating a community-based project: from coming up with the idea, to building a solid organizational and logistical foundation, and all of the other necessary steps to get your project proposal completed. Overall, there are 15 CPPD workshops in this series.
Each workshop also has an associated Next-Day Drop-In Assistance Hour. This workshop series is meant to take participants with little to no experience in Community Project Planning and Development and help them complete their first project proposal. While we are focused on assisting with project planning and development of Alaskan Native / Native American Language projects, much of the content that you will be learning in these workshops is readily transferrable to other types of projects.
Registrants will have access to all workshops in this April 2026 offering. Attendance at all workshops in the offering is recommended but not required.
The CPPD Workshops are offered in smaller, five workshop offerings. The first five workshops were offered in November and December of 2025. The workshops that are available in the April 2026 offering are:
Workshop 6: Identifying Long-Range Goals
- Topic: Supports facilitation of community discussions to identify vision-aligned, long-term goals that drive project outcomes.
- Date: 4/1
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/2
Workshop 7: Defining Barriers to Long-Range Goals
- Topic: Identifies internal and external barriers, explores strategies to surface challenges, and begin problem-solving approaches.
- Date: 4/8
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/9
Workshop 8: Creating Project Goals & Objectives
- Topic: Translates community vision into specific, measurable project goals and objectives using clear, structured frameworks.
- Date: 4/15
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/16
Workshop 9: Outcomes, Outputs, & Activities
- Topic: Distinguishes outcomes, outputs, and activities, aligns them within a project framework/logic model.
- Date: 4/22
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/23
Workshop 10: Building a Project Work Plan
- Topic: Hands-on strategies to create a work plan with timelines, milestones, responsibilities, and deliverables.
- Date: 4/29
- Drop-In Assistance: 4/30
Technology
The CPPD workshops will be held via Zoom and will use Canvas, a course management system, for materials and activities. Participants must have an email address. It will be best to join on a computer that has a stable internet connection, a webcam, and headphones (depending on your work environment). Using a computer rather than a mobile device will improve your experience - you will be able to better interact with others, participate in hands-on activities, and see presented materials.
4:00 p.m.
Join the Department of Geography for the Colloquium Series talk with Lise Nelson on ‘Illegality’ and the Transformation of Low-Wage Labor Regimes in the Context of Rural Gentrification.
Over the last three decades, domestic amenity or lifestyle migration across the United States has accelerated processes of rural gentrification, shifting landscapes of production to landscapes of consumption--from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to Highlands, North Carolina. This talk explores how employers recruit low-wage, mostly undocumented Latine immigrants to work in gentrifying rural communities historically “off the map” of immigrant settlement, drawing on qualitative fieldwork in Colorado and Georgia. I trace how, over time, employers transformed their business model to reach new levels of profitability predicated on access to racially marked, “illegal” workers even as public, commodified images of these places celebrated them as sites of luxury, recreation, and whiteness. I contribute to debates about rural gentrification, geographies of immigrant settlement, and to the ways scholars theorize immigrant networks, illegality, and labor in the contemporary United States.
Lise Nelson is Professor in the School of Geography, Development and Environment at the University of Arizona. She is author of Illegality and the Production of Affluence: Undocumented Labor and Gentrification in Rural America (2025—University of California Press). She was a member of the geography faculty at the University of Oregon between 2001-2013.
5:30 p.m.
What is Research? (2026) explores various natures, purposes, and roles of research across disciplines, fields, and areas. The event considers frameworks of systematic and creative inquiry, including methods, designs, analyses, discoveries, collaborations, dissemination, ethics, integrity, diversity, media/technologies, and information environments.
The thirteenth gathering delves into research in its many forms, including searching, critically investigating, and re-examining existing knowledge, as well as emerging functions and procedures in machine intelligence and computation. It highlights pluralities of research pathways, examining time-honored approaches and new ways of knowing, precedents, issues, and futures. It considers challenges and possibilities that researchers face in today’s rapidly changing world, and ways to promote ethical, inclusive, and impactful research.
Featured participants include:
• N. Katherine Hayles, Literature, Duke University and English, UCLA • Colin Koopman, Philosophy/Digital Humanities/New Media and Culture, University of Oregon • Vera Keller, History/European Studies, University of Oregon • Daniel Kreiss, Information, Technology, and Public Life, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Liska Chan, Landscape Architecture/Environmental Futures, University of Oregon • Mark A. Bedau, Philosophy, Reed College and Complex Systems, Portland State University • Bernd Reiter, Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, Texas Tech University • Jakki Bailey, Media Studies/Immersive Media Communication, University of Oregon Portland • Tibor Solymosi, Philosophy, Villanova University and Embodied Education, Aarhus University, Denmark • Alexis Merculief, Prevention Science/Counseling Psychology, University of Oregon Portland • Adell Amos, Law/Environmental and Natural Resources Law, University of Oregon • Victor Pickard, Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania
In cooperation with the International Association for Media and Communication Research.
The event celebrates three decades of the Communication and Media Studies Doctoral Program in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon.
Registration required. Please see the website for more details.