Inside Hutchinson Hall, home of the �������� School of Drama, students work at tables as they learn to assemble patterns based on costume designs. They’re surrounded by dress forms, bolts of cloth, sewing machines and costumes in progress. This is the Costume Shop, the domain of , master dressmaker for the .

For years, Mayse has taught a graduate-level class at the UW. Students learn the process of making costumes, from patterning on paper to sewing them together. Each costume begins as a concept envisioned by the show’s director, which becomes a guide for the costume designer to follow in fashioning the individual looks. Master dressmakers, like Mayse, take the plans from the designer and create a finished product.

“It takes a lot of work to take a design and make it real,” Mayse said. “We’re providing opportunities for students to experience what it is like working with a costumer and costume shop.”

Mayse is a beloved fixture in the School of Drama, and many of her students have taken her classes because of her expertise. Brandon Riel, a third-year graduate student, said he had already taken the class once because of Mayse, even though his focus is set design. Mayse worked at the  for 18 years before coming to the UW. Her connections have helped her students find jobs after graduation.

Mayse shifted her work fully online during the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought myriad challenges. Gone were the expansive tables in the costume shop. Gone was the ease of hands-on demonstration. Instead, she had to navigate teaching through technology. Video calls kept everyone connected at a distance, but they weren’t the best for showing the intricate details of a costume. She was grateful when they were all able to finally return to in-person instruction.

“Zoom doesn’t show texture very well,” Mayse said. “We ended up having to send photos of our work to each other. There are some things that are just easier to do in person.”

Mayse will retire at the end of the spring quarter after 16 years with the School of Drama. She is looking forward to finishing up some personal projects and teaching advanced classes for working professionals.

“I’ll still be doing what I love,” she said.

Andrew Meltzoff elected to National Academy of Education

, professor of psychology at the UW and co-director of the , has been elected to the National Academy of Education. Members are selected based on outstanding scholarship or leadership related to education.

Members serve on expert study panels that address pressing issues in education. They also engage in the Academy’s professional development fellowship programs.

Meltzoff is a highly lauded researcher and internationally renowned expert on infant and child development. His research reaches beyond the bounds of psychology and investigates how role models and cultural stereotypes of different kinds impact child development, with implications for education.

“Adults have a drive to teach others, and young children have a drive to learn,” Meltzoff said. “Yet education in schools often misfires. Scientific advances in psychological and brain science should help us do a better job. Our children can’t wait, and our future literally depends on how well we feed, foster and embolden our children’s natural proclivity to learn. Social justice and equity issues can and should be addressed through education.”

Meltzoff’s election to the National Academy of Education adds to his long list of distinctions, including the 2020 William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science, given to honor a lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology.

Dean Edwina Uehara selected for 2023 lifetime achievement award

, dean of the �������� , received the 2023 lifetime achievement award from the . The award recognizes her contributions to the social work profession in Washington state and across the country.

“Receiving NASW-Washington’s Lifetime Achievement Award is an incredible honor, and one that is doubly meaningful to me,” Uehara said. “First, because it recognizes the proudest professional title I hold as a ‘social worker,’ and second, because it’s an NASW-Washington state award. I am a Washingtonian though and through.”

Uehara’s career reflects a lifelong commitment to antiracism, civil rights and the development of culturally grounded mental health services. During her tenure, the School of Social Work became widely recognized as an innovative leader in advancing social and economic justice and enhancing quality of life through education, research and community engagement.

Citing her transformative leadership, the nomination letter spotlights how Uehara’s social work initiatives, including the , the , the and more. The letter praised Uehara as “a positive champion for the social work profession.”

Uehara will step down as dean on June 30 after 17 years of leadership and service, becoming the longest-serving dean in the School’s history. She will rejoin the faculty to pursue her research, teaching and leadership in the field of behavioral health.

Ed Kolodziej selected as finalist for Frontiers Planet Prize

, professor of at UW, represented the United States as national champion for the inaugural . The selection from 65 U.S. applicants elevated him into consideration for the international prize at the Frontiers Forum Live in Switzerland in April 2023. The prize competition recognizes scientists whose research contributes to the sustainable future of the planet.

Kolodziej led a team of researchers at UW Tacoma, Washington State University-Puyallup, and elsewhere who discovered 6PPD-quinone, a highly toxic and previously unidentified compound that was killing coho salmon in urbanized Puget Sound streams. The discovery and the shockwave it sent through the tire industry, which uses the compound in all tire rubber, ultimately earned Kolodziej’s team the nomination.

“We believe that our work on understanding the contributions of tire rubber to environmental pollution is important,” said Kolodziej. “I look forward to the day when we have ‘salmon safe tires’ made from chemicals that are safe for both people and the environment.”

Kolodziej recently travelled to Switzerland for the announcement of the prize’s international awards, which come with $1.1 million to put toward future research. Kolodziej was not selected, but said he was grateful for the global interest in his research.

“It was an honor to represent the United States for the Frontier Planet Prize,” he said, “and I was thankful that our wonderful research team and many collaborators were recognized in this fashion.”

Bloomberg recognizes UW Tech Policy Lab as ‘Top Legal Innovation Program’

The UW Tech Policy Lab was recently recognized by Bloomberg as a in 2022 due to its unique cross-discipline approach. The award is given to pioneering schools making an impact in the legal field.

Founded in 2013 by faculty from the UW School of Law, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and the Information School, the lab bridges the gap between technologists and policymakers to help generate wiser, more inclusive tech policy.

“The students and community members who interact with the lab come away with the understanding that collaborating and bringing a variety of perspectives together is the key to working through contemporary challenges,” said , professor of law at the UW and co-director of the Tech Policy Lab. Bloomberg’s Law School Innovation Program seeks to recognize and connect law school faculty, staff and administrators who are education innovators. Submissions to the program were scored based on impact on students, ability to advance the legal industry and replicability. In its submission, the UW Tech Lab demonstrated the model’s unique blend of immersive experiences, opportunities for relationship-building and interdisciplinary approaches.

“Rather than try to work with every student, we offer programming open to all and work closely with a small handful of law students whom we place on interdisciplinary teams to work on consequential issues of tech policy,” Calo said. “They often go on to work in the field and get a unique perspective and experience working across disciplines.”

This was the inaugural year of the awards.

UW professor wins 2023 Seattle Aquarium Conservation Research Award

Vera Trainer, affiliate professor of aquatic and fishery sciences at the UW, was selected as the winner for her work on harmful algal blooms, or HABs, which are proliferations of algae that cause environmental and economic damage.

The Conversation Research Award has honored leaders and innovators in marine conservation research since 2004, focusing on climate change, plastic pollution, sustainable fisheries and tourism, marine protected areas and socioeconomics.

“This award is not only for what has been accomplished, but what will be accomplished in the future,” said Trainer, a former NOAA oceanographer and current research lead for the .

Trainer’s HABs research has provided a foundation for understanding the effects climate change has had on coastal ecosystems and highlights the need for inclusion of impacted communities in decision-making.

Trainer is also co-founder of the program and founder of , a partnership that monitors HABs in the Puget Sound. These unique community collaborations provide advance warning of HABs that threaten seafood safety as well as ecosystem and human health, ultimately ensuring safe, sustainable shellfish harvests.

Astronomy professor awarded for stellar physics textbook

The American Astronomy Society awarded , associate professor of astronomy at the UW, and her co-author Henny J.G.L.M. Lamers the for their graduate textbook “Understanding Stellar Evolution.”

The Chambliss Award recognizes astronomy writing geared towards the upper-division undergraduate or graduate level, a rarely recognized category.

“It’s great to see the importance of stellar physics recognized,” said Levesque. “Henny Lamers spent more than a decade developing amazing lecture notes for our course on stellar structure and evolution, and it was great to work with him on turning these into a textbook.”

Split into three parts, the book first delves into the physics of how stars work. It then describes the evolution of stars from formation to death and explores some complicating factors of stellar evolution. The book was produced using years of lecture notes for an astronomy class at the UW.

“We spent a lot of time expanding and fleshing out roughly outlined ideas from lecture notes so that they could stand alone as complete explanations in the textbook,” said Levesque. “It was interesting to be teaching the course and writing the book at the same time in the spring of 2016. It helped alert us to a topic or detail that would spark discussion or follow-up questions in class and encouraged us to expand on the topic in the text.”