Natural Sciences

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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. 

 


News from Natural Sciences

COMPUTER SCIENCE - Student coders put their creativity to the test at QuackHacks, a 24-hour hackathon organized by computer science students. More than 100 participants, from seasoned computer veterans to those entirely new to coding, showed up for the hackathon. Over 24 hours, they worked in teams to develop computer programs, apps, machine learning models and games to present for judging later in the day.
PSYCHOLOGY - Since earning his PhD from the Department of Psychology in 1996 under the joint supervision of professors emeriti Douglas Hintzman and Michael Posner, Levitin has become one of the most prominent figures in cognitive science. During a recent visit to campus to donate his papers to the UO Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives, Levitin delivered a guest lecture about his new book to students.
DATA SCIENCE - In Applied Data Science for Social Justice, a new course developed by Associate Professor Rori Rohlfs in the School of Computer and Data Sciences, students partner with CAHOOTS in Eugene to help its organizers sift through data they’ve collected from thousands of dispatch calls to glean insights on how they can improve their services.

All news »

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Your Gift Changes Lives

Gifts to the College of Arts and Sciences can help our students make the most of their college careers. To do this, CAS needs your support. Your contributions help us ensure that teaching, research, advising, mentoring, and support services are fully available to every student. Thank you!

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World-Class Faculty in the Natural Sciences

Thien Nguyen, Associate Professor of Computer Science

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 portrait

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

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. 

 

 

The new School of Computer and Data Sciences will be open in fall 2023 to students throughout the UO, with the goal of serving 2,000 undergraduate majors and students in existing and new undergraduate and graduate programs.

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.

Explore the SCDS

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.

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

elliot berkman

Happening at CAS

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

UO College of Arts & Sciences (@uocas) • Instagram photos and videos

Feb 10
Coffee Shop Chat with Profs Kohler and Sayre

Join LiveMove for a coffee shop chat with Senior Instructor Nick Kohler (Geography) and Professor Gordon Sayre (English/Folklore). Drop in and chat about car cultures, Geographic...
Coffee Shop Chat with Profs Kohler and Sayre
February 10
Lawrence Hall Willcox Hearth

Join LiveMove for a coffee shop chat with Senior Instructor Nick Kohler (Geography) and Professor Gordon Sayre (English/Folklore). Drop in and chat about car cultures, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), human-environment interactions, automobility, car-centrism, the future of transportation, ecocriticism, and more.

There will be free pastries and coffee while supplies lasts! Open to all.

Feb 10
Physical Chemistry Seminar - Measuring Energy Landscapes for Biomolecules with Native Mass Spectrometry 2:00 p.m.

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Physical Chemistry Seminar Series Professor James Prell, University of Oregon Measuring Energy Landscapes for Biomolecules ...
Physical Chemistry Seminar - Measuring Energy Landscapes for Biomolecules with Native Mass Spectrometry
February 10
2:00 p.m.
Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall 140

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Physical Chemistry Seminar Series

Professor James Prell, University of Oregon

Measuring Energy Landscapes for Biomolecules  with Native Mass Spectrometry

Advances in instrumentation for structural biology and bioanalytical chemistry have enabled the study of ever larger and more dynamic biomolecules and biomolecular complexes. Native ion mobility-mass spectrometry offers advantages for interrogating small, heterogeneous, and dynamic samples while preserving much high-order structure even as analytes are transferred from buffered aqueous solution into the gas phase. Deliberate, precisely controlled heating of the resulting ions inside the mass spectrometer can result in collision-induced dissociation and/or unfolding (CID/U) of non-covalent complexes, revealing structural information that can be exceptionally difficult to access with conventional techniques. However, to date, a quantitative understanding of CID and CIU as a function of acceleration potentials, gas pressure and identity, and other factors has been lacking.

Our recently introduced software suite (IonSPA) can quantitatively predict ion heating, cooling, and motion in such experiments and be used to determine dissociation and unfolding barriers, which are crucial information for interpreting experimental data in terms of structures and chemical properties of the solution-phase biomolecules. We further show that this model can be used to reconcile data acquired using very different instrumentation from a variety of vendors, a key step in tethering these readily available experiments to a universal physical chemistry framework.

Feb 10
Composition Writing Lab Drop-In Hours 3:00 p.m.

Students taking WR 121z, 122z, or 123 are invited to drop by the Tykeson 3rd floor Writing Lab (glass room, 351) for candy and quick writing support. Our GE Writing Support...
Composition Writing Lab Drop-In Hours
February 10–March 10
3:00–4:00 p.m.
Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall 351

Students taking WR 121z, 122z, or 123 are invited to drop by the Tykeson 3rd floor Writing Lab (glass room, 351) for candy and quick writing support. Our GE Writing Support Specialists (tutors) are available to help you with any part of a WR assignment, from coming up with ideas to reading to revising to polishing up a final draft. Join us!

Mondays 3-4 and Thursdays 2-3, beginning week 4, for the rest of Winter quarter 2025.

Feb 10
Organic/Inorganic/Materials Chemistry Seminar: A Journey from Long Acenes to Cyclacenes 4:00 p.m.

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Organic/Inorganic/Materials Seminar Series Professor Holger Bettinger, University of Tübingen Hosted by Mike Haley A Journey...
Organic/Inorganic/Materials Chemistry Seminar: A Journey from Long Acenes to Cyclacenes
February 10
4:00 p.m.
Willamette Hall 110

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Organic/Inorganic/Materials Seminar Series

Professor Holger Bettinger, University of Tübingen Hosted by Mike Haley

A Journey from Long Acenes to Cyclacenes

Acenes are a fundamentally and technologically important class of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Their small HOMO-LUMO gap is a blessing for materials properties but a curse for synthesis, characterization, and handling. My research group has achieved acenes of unprecedented lengths under the stabilizing conditions of matrix isolation and on-surface synthesis that allowed gaining an understanding of acene properties up to pentadecacene (15acene).[1] The key to success is the application of a protection group strategy that enables the release of acenes under these extreme conditions. The cyclic versions of acenes, cyclacenes, are unknown despite significant synthetic efforts since Edgar Heilbronner’s 1954 proposal. I will address expected properties of these zig-zag nanohoops and discuss strategies of their experimental realization using the low-temperature high-vacuum techniques in our laboratory.[2]

1. a) C. Tönshoff, H. F. Bettinger, Photogeneration of Octacene and Nonacene, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 4125, 10.1002/anie.200906355; b) B. Shen, J. Tatchen, E. Sanchez-Garcia, H. F. Bettinger, Evolution of the Optical Gap in the Acene Series: Undecacene, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2018, 57, 10506, 10.1002/anie.201802197; c) Z. Ruan, J. Schramm, J. B. Bauer, T. Naumann, H. F. Bettinger, R. Tonner-Zech, J. M. Gottfried, Synthesis of Tridecacene by Multistep Single-Molecule Manipulation, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 3700, 10.1021/jacs.3c09392; d) Z. Ruan, J. Schramm, J. B. Bauer, T. Naumann, L. V. Müller, F. Sättele, H. F. Bettinger, R. Tonner-Zech, J. M. Gottfried, On-surface Synthesis and Characterization of Pentadecacene and its Gold Complexes, submitted for publication 2024. 2.  a) D. Gupta, A. Omont, H. F. Bettinger, Energetics of Formation of Cyclacenes from 2,3-Didehydroacenes and Implications for Astrochemistry, Chem. Eur. J. 2021, 27, 4605, https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202003045; b) J. B. Bauer, F. Diab, C. Maichle-Moessmer, H. Schubert, H. F. Bettinger, Synthesis of the [11]cyclacene framework by repetitive Diels-Alder cycloadditions, Molecules 2021, 26, 3047, 10.3390/molecules26103047; c) A. Somani, D. Gupta, H. F. Bettinger, Computational Studies of Dimerization of [n]-Cyclacenes, J. Phys. Chem. A 2024, 128, 6847, 10.1021/acs.jpca.4c02833.