Natural Sciences News

PSYCHOLOGY - Want to make New Year’s resolutions you’ll actually keep this year? Psychology doctoral student Deanna Strayer offers research-backed tips for successful goal setting to help you stick to your plans. Read more in the CAS Connection newsletter.
EARTH SCIENCES - What will happen if a massive earthquake reduces the Pacific Northwest to rubble? The nation’s first subduction zone earthquake hazards center, CRESCENT, brings together researchers and policymakers to help build resilience against the inevitable temblor—and increase diversity in the Earth sciences.
EARTH SCIENCES, DATA SCIENCE - Clark Honors College senior and data science major Lynette Wotruba took up data science three years into her college career. Today, she’s working with the Department of Earth Sciences to make information about the dangers of tsunamis accessible to communities along the Oregon coast.
EARTH SCIENCES - The Oregon Hazards Lab is a research lab within the UO’s Department of Earth Sciences, which is part of the College of Arts and Sciences. Its mission is to detect, monitor and mitigate natural and human-caused hazards, such as earthquakes and wildfires.
CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY - Adding a squirt of water to coffee beans before grinding reduces static electric charge on the coffee grounds, according to new research from Associate Professor Christopher Hendon.
BIOLOGY - A UO study, recently published in the American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, applies the latest molecular and genetic tools to construct a step-by-step map of how colon tissue builds itself, using mice as a model organism.
BIOLOGY - University of Oregon postdoctoral fellow Caitlin Kowalski is one of five women to win the 2023 L’Oréal USA For Women in Science fellowship for her work on the fungi genus Malassezia. Kowalski is a mentor for two UO undergraduate students.
BIOLOGY - New University of Oregon research in tiny worms is unpacking some of the ways that reproductive cells get used differently to make sperm and eggs. A team from the lab of UO biologist Diana Libuda in the College of Arts and Sciences reports their findings in a paper published Oct. 5 in the journal eLife.
MATHEMATICS - Professor Emeritus Gary Seitz passed away on Oct. 30, 2023. For 35 years, Seitz was a faculty member of the Department of Mathematics, serving as the department head at times and later as associate dean of the Division of Natural Sciences and publishing research.
NEUROSCIENCE - Mindfulness is a theme of one of the most popular elective courses at the UO, taught by David McCormick, director of the Institute of Neuroscience. Discover how a mindfulness routine can help you—and how you can get started—in the November/December issue of the CAS Connection newsletter.
EARTH SCIENCES, OREGON INSTITUTE OF MARINE BIOLOGY - While cruising the Pacific Ocean looking for deep-sea creatures to study, a UO undergraduate researcher got more than he bargained for—rare ash samples from an underwater volcanic eruption 62 miles away.
MATHEMATICS - Professor Victor Ostrik received the 2024 Chevalley Prize in Lie Theory, awarded by the American Mathematical Society. The citation for this year's prize acknowledges Ostrik "for his fundamental contributions to the theory of tensor categories, which have already found deep applications in modular representation theory and Lie theory."
BIOCHEMISTRY AND CHEMISTRY, NEUROSCIENCE - University of Oregon senior Nayantara Arora has been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship for graduate study at the University of Oxford, making her the first Duck to earn the prized award in more than 15 years. Arora is majoring in neuroscience and minoring in global health and chemistry. At Oxford, Arora plans to pursue two master’s degrees, one in modeling for global health and the other in international health and tropical medicine.
GEOGRAPHY, HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, NEUROSCIENCE - Three current UO students have been selected as finalists for the prestigious Rhodes scholarship, the oldest international fellowship award in the world.
BIOLOGY, CINEMA STUDIES, ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, GEOGRAPHY - From animals to adhesives to DJ food stamp, students in First-year Interest Groups follow their fascinations and create community.