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
All news »
We Love Our Supporters
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!
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.
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
Electrochem PNW 2025
5th Oregon Center for Electrochemistry Annual Conference ECS PNW Section Fall Meeting
(No fee) Registration required Includes banquet and poster session.
Invited speakers:
- Sossina M. Haile – Northwestern
- Jin Suntivich – Cornell
- Iryna V. Zenyuk – UC Irvine
- David Prendergast – Lawrence Berkeley Lab
- Nicolas Holubowitch – New Mexico Tech
- Michael Nellist – Solid Power
Visit the conference website for more information and to register.
Electrochem PNW 2025
5th Oregon Center for Electrochemistry Annual Conference ECS PNW Section Fall Meeting
(No fee) Registration required Includes banquet and poster session.
Invited speakers:
- Sossina M. Haile – Northwestern
- Jin Suntivich – Cornell
- Iryna V. Zenyuk – UC Irvine
- David Prendergast – Lawrence Berkeley Lab
- Nicolas Holubowitch – New Mexico Tech
- Michael Nellist – Solid Power
Visit the conference website for more information and to register.
9:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
A mini-conference to foster community, coalition, and collaboration among diversity scientists in Oregon.
Many people express the hope that the current political climate’s antagonism toward diversity and the work of diversity scientists is transient—things will go back to ‘normal’ after the midterms or after the next presidential election or when the supreme court makes a particular ruling. But attacking diversity isn’t new and it isn’t going away. The goal of this mini-conference is to bring together scholars of Diversity Science—which we think of as anyone investigating strategies to reduce group-based discrimination and promote the inclusion of marginalized groups. We believe we best support each other and the communities we serve by building coalitions and fostering collaboration.
In this spirit, we invite all Diversity Science scholars across all disciplines to join us this fall at this year's Consortium of Diversity and Equity Scholars Conference, co-chaired by Dr. Chanel Meyers and Dr. Curtis Phills. We welcome submissions from scholars at all levels. Our keynote speaker will be Dr. Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh, an award-winning scholar, equity strategist, certified coach, and leadership consultant with over 25 years of experience working across higher education, non-profits, and global organizations. She currently serves as Vice President for Equity and Inclusion at the University of Oregon.
Registration for attendees and presenters is due by September 5, 2025.
If you're not presenting but still want to attend, we still highly encourage you to register! This is a great opportunity for students to network with scholars across many disciplines and learn more about diversity science as it affects us all.
noon
Join the University of Oregon School of Law's Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center and cross-campus partners—including the Department of Native American and Indigenous Studies, the Native American Law Student Association, and the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics—for the 19th Annual Rennard Strickland Lecture at Oregon Law.
Our community is thrilled to welcome Amy Bowers Cordalis as this year's lecturer.
Amy Bowers Cordalis is a mother, fisherwoman, attorney, and member and former General Counsel of the Yurok Nation—the largest Indigenous Nation in California. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group, a nonprofit advancing Indigenous sovereignty through the protection of cultural and natural resources, including the undamming of the Klamath River. She is the recipient of the United Nations' highest environmental honor, Champions of the World Laureate, and has been named to the second annual TIME100 Climate List (2024), featuring the one hundred most influential leaders driving business to real climate action.
Her book, The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family's Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life, will be published by Little, Brown/Hachette on October 28, 2025, and is currently available for preorder.
Questions about the event? Contact the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center at enr@uoregon.edu.
Attend in person in Room 110 of the law school or join remotely via Zoom Webinar.