News

BIOLOGY - Lauren Hallett, biology associate professor at the College of Arts and Sciences discusses her ongoing work to enhance the climate resiliency of Oregon’s hazelnut farms, which account for 99% of the country's hazelnut production. With the support of a $2 million federal award, Hallett and her lab have designed an agricultural practice using native cover crops and basalt dust amendments to set a new standard for sustainable hazelnut farming.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - Performance testing transforms training from a guessing game into a precise, strategic process that builds maximum athletic potential. Oregon Performance Research Laboratory at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences offers a number of testing services to athletes in the community, including threshold testing, VO2 max, hemoglobin mass, sweat testing and more.

BIOLOGY - An expert on child and adolescent development and an expert on host-microbe interactions have each been recognized by the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon of the Oregon Health and Science University. Karen Guillemin, professor and Philip H. Knight Chair in biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, received the Discovery Award for her significant contributions to health-related research.

PHYSICS - Physics Professor Richard Taylor blends art and science to create award-winning nature-inspired designs for indoor environments. In collaboration with designers in Austria, Taylor has been using computer-generated fractal patterns, which have been shown to reduce people’s stress levels by up to 60%.

PSYCHOLOGY - Adolescence isn’t a time of dysfunction; it’s a peak period of brain development, adaptability, and growth. Jennifer Pfeifer, a psychology professor at the College of Arts and Sciences, discusses at the 2025 TEDxPortland that it’s time to flip the script and recognize that young people are acting exactly as they’re wired to, and are capable of far more than we’ve been led to believe.

EARTH SCIENCES - The earthquake geology workforce is depleted, limiting data collection and slowing progress in our understanding of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Cores to Code addresses this gap by training the next generation of paleoseismologists through immersive, hands-on experiences. But through CRESCENT's Cor to Code program, students from around the US are getting a thorough scientific experience.

EARTH SCIENCES - An analysis of the Columbia River Gorge, which runs along the border between Oregon and Washington, shows that steep, rocky watersheds in that area have been prone to debris flows and rockfall for thousands of years. Those events didn’t measurably increase after the Eagle Creek Fire, which scorched 47,000 acres of the gorge over three months in 2017. CAS Earth scientist Josh Roering and members of his lab published their findings Aug. 8 in Science Advances.

BIOLOGY - New in 2025, the Coastal Quarter program allows undergraduates from all majors to spend winter term living at the coast and taking classes in marine biology, environmental studies, anthropology and science communication. Out of the nine students who participated this year, five are majoring in either environmental sciences or environmental studies; four are marine biology majors; and one is a sports journalism major.

BIOLOGY - An AI-based imaging system that is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University, funded by the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement Inc., is working to monitor bee populations without harming the insects. The technology could solve a key paradox in bee conservation efforts. The collaboration includes CAS biologist Lauren Ponisio.

BIOLOGY - Franklin W. Stahl, a molecular biologist who helped create a methodology to confirm how DNA replicates that was so elegant, it has been remembered for more than five decades as “the most beautiful experiment in biology,” died on April 2 at his home in Eugene. He was a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - A new study from University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences researcher John Halliwill shows that blocking histamine at high levels interferes with fitness gains. It remains to be seen if lower-dose, over-the-counter antihistamine drugs have the same effect. The study was published May 30 in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

EARTH SCIENCES - The Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT) has awarded 11 new grants to researchers studying the Cascadia subduction zone as part of its ongoing effort to help build community resilience against earthquakes along the West Coast’s massive fault line.

NEUROSCIENCE - Using a novel technique he developed in Professor David A. McCormick’s neuroscience lab, postdoctoral researcher Evan Vickers is studying how the brain’s various regions react during different states of arousal, such as sleep versus wakefulness, both at the individual cell level and across large swathes of the cerebral cortex.

EARTH SCIENCES - Deposited in 2022 when the underwater Hunga volcano spewed a 37-mile plume into the atmosphere—the biggest eruption seen in the modern satellite era—the seafloor ash provided a unique opportunity to study the impact of sediment movement on deep-sea life. Marcus Chaknova, then a marine biology and geology major, discovered ash from the volcano, which will shape scientific research for years to come.