DATA SCIENCE, BIOLOGY, ECONOMICS - The Data Science Initiative graduated their first group of undergraduates. Seven undergraduate data science students walked the stage this spring to collect their diplomas, an exciting moment for the university’s new data science degree program.

BIOLOGY - Climate change might be behind an unusual disease outbreak among Antarctic fish. For about a decade, UO biologists John Postlethwait and Thomas Desvignes have been visiting the West Antarctic Peninsula. They study a unique group of fish that has adapted to the harsh polar environment. The researchers worked with UO undergraduate Chloe DaMommio to create a short graphic novel about their research.

BIOLOGY - By sequencing the genomes of two species of sea dragons, UO researchers have found genetic clues to the sea dragons' distinctive features: They’re missing a key group of genes found in other vertebrates. Those genes help direct the development of the face, teeth and appendages, as well as parts of the nervous system.

BIOLOGY - For his scientific contributions, Charles “Chuck” Kimmel recently was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the most prestigious professional scientific organization in the U.S.

BIOLOGY - Jenna Traver's pursuit of a marine biology degree is getting a boost from a Goldwater Foundation scholarship.

BIOLOGY, NEUROSCIENCE - A mutation in a gene called EGR1 snuffs out this social behavior in zebrafish, researchers in the UO's Institute of Neuroscience show in a new study.

BIOLOGY - When Folake Owodunni came to the University of Oregon from Nigeria in 2005 to study premed, she knew she wanted to help people. Today, her international health technology company is poised to help people across Africa.

BIOLOGY - In lab experiments that followed Caenorhabditis elegans worms for many generations, sexual selection after sperm are released was a bigger driver of evolutionary change than sexual selection before mating. Researchers in the lab of UO biologist and Provost Patrick Phillips report their findings in a paper published Feb. 14 in PLOS Genetics.

BIOLOGY, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES - Biologist Lauren Ponisio has a plan to help the pivotal pollinators in the Pacific Northwest

BIOLOGY - UO researchers report observations suggest a new lifestyle option for larval-stage invertebrates living in the ocean. Scientists usually think of plankton-dwelling larvae either growing by grazing on nanoplankton — mostly unicellular algae — or relying on the egg's yolk reserves to become full-fledged adults. Instead, it appears there’s a third strategy: carnivory.

BIOLOGY - Caitlin Kowalski is a postdoctoral fellow in the UO’s Barber Lab, led by biology professor Matt Barber, which investigates the evolution of host-microbe interactions. Her award from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation is the first of its kind to a UO researcher, according to university records, and will fund her research around yeast-bacteria interactions for the next three years, beginning in April.

BIOLOGY, NEUROSCIENCE - Nerves in the intestines help regulate the gut’s acidity, new research shows, and that helps keep their bacterial communities in balance.

BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY - Here at the UO, many women on campus are doing innovative research while also working to make the sciences better for everyone.

BIOLOGY - Proteins on the surface of cells act as sentries — and microbes hoping to invade will evolve tricks to evade these front-line defenses. But the host cell’s proteins don’t sit back helplessly. They, too, can evolve in ways that makes it harder for microbes to get through.

BIOLOGY - Prithiviraj Fernando, MS ’93, PhD ’98 (biology), and Herve Memiaghe, a landscape architecture PhD student, use research to save elephant populations in Sri Lanka and Gabon, Africa.