Natural Science

BIOLOGY - Marine biologist Alan Shanks has a simple trap that allows him to predict the amount of Dungeness crab will be available for fisherfolk. For the past 25 years, Shanks has compared the yields of the winter commercial catch to the baby crabs his water-jug trap collects each summer. He’s found that the number of baby crabs that arrive on the coast can be used to estimate the size of the state’s commercial harvest of adult Dungeness crab years in the future, with a 12 percent margin of error.

CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY - It's August, and the fall term is around the corner, but associate professor Carl Brozek is heading to Japan through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. None of them, including Brozek or the lab in Japan he'll be working in, know that he’ll be there when his research colleagues at Kyoto University get some epic news about their work on structures known as metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - When he was still an undergraduate, Tucker Orman served in an uncommon role: as first author on a paper published Sept. 4 in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, looking at the factors that affect a scuba diver’s ability to maintain core body temperature. Now a College of Arts and Sciences alumnus, Orman reflects on how experiential learning as a human physiology student and love for scuba diving came together.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - New research from College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) researchers is now suggesting that nicotine withdrawal may also affect the way we breathe. Lila Wollman, an assistant professor and researcher in CAS’s Department of Human Physiology is studying the effects of nicotine withdrawal on the body’s respiratory control. Read more about CAS research in the 2024-25 Annual Report.

PHYSICS - A team of physicists in the College of Arts and Sciences are part of a $1.245 million US Department of Defense research project, along with the UCLA and MIT. The goal of the project is to improve the function of quantum computers. The work is being done in the Oregon Ions Group research lab, which is led by CAS’s 2012 Nobel Prize recipient and Philip H. Knight Distinguished Research Chair David Wineland and physics assistant professor David Allcock.

EARTH SCIENCES - In spring 2025, Marli Miller received a Herman Award for Specialized Pedagogy. Taking a liberal arts approach, Miller’s focus is on helping students think about and work through problems, which they have a chance to put into practice on a yearly field camp in southwestern Montana.