The 乱伦社区 recently was ranked highly among its global peers in both the and the . Both rankings were released in mid-June.

According to U.S. News, the UW is No. 12 in the world on the 2026-27 rankings, No. 3 among U.S. public institutions. The UW also placed in the top 10 globally in six subject areas.

On the QS World University Rankings, the UW is among the top 100, landing at No. 92, or No. 7 among U.S. public universities.

More about the U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities ranking:

The U.S. News ranking methodology 鈥� based on data and metrics provided by Clarivate 鈥� weighs factors that measure a university鈥檚 global and regional research reputation and academic research performance. For the overall rankings, this includes bibliometric indicators such as the number of publications, citations and international collaboration.

The overall Best Global Universities ranking encompasses 2,250 institutions spread across 105 countries.

Here are the UW fields of study that are in the top 10 in U.S. News鈥� subject rankings:

• Public, environmental and occupational health 鈥� No. 4
• Molecular biology and genetics 鈥� No. 6
• Microbiology 鈥� No. 7
• Biology and biochemistry 鈥� No. 7
• Infectious diseases 鈥� No. 7
• Clinical medicine 鈥� No. 8

More about the QS World University Rankings:听

This is the 23rd edition of the global higher education ranking by the analyst firm QS Quacquarelli Symonds. The UW placed No. 92 in the world and No. 23 in America. The UW is in the top 10 among U.S. public universities, landing at No. 7. This year’s ranking features more than 1,500 universities across 106 higher education systems, including 184 in the U.S.

The QS World University Rankings are based on a weighted index of indicators including research and discovery, employability and outcomes, global engagement, learning experience and sustainability.

Why is it important to study mosquitoes?听

Willem Laursen: Mosquitoes have been an enduring scourge of humanity for millennia. Their bites are a nuisance to humans and animals alike, and ancient texts describe illnesses consistent with mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria, long before the source of transmission was understood.

Globalization and climate change are expanding the geographic range of many mosquito species, and their increasing resistance to insecticides threatens the long-term effectiveness of current control strategies. As a result, we urgently need new approaches for controlling mosquito-borne disease.

If we can better understand the genetic and sensory basis of mosquito behavior, we might be able to find new opportunities to disrupt disease transmission. Critical behaviors such as host seeking and blood feeding are highly specialized and difficult to model in other organisms, making it essential to study these mechanisms directly in mosquitoes themselves.

Andrea Durant: These mosquito-related problems are not just for humans. Warmer winters and early-season snowmelt have led to massive swarms of mosquitoes coinciding with wildlife migration, which changes foraging patterns in the Arctic tundra and forces animals like caribou to use precious energy reserves on evading these mosquito-blackened skies. Mosquito swarms are also a big problem for agriculture, particularly cattle herds.

What do you study?

AD: My lab studies how mosquitoes maintain a stable internal environment when faced with changing external conditions. Mosquitoes start their life as an egg that is deposited in or near water, and the larval, or juvenile, stages are aquatic. Unlike the terrestrial flying adult mosquito that has agency in its choice of residence, a mosquito larva is tied to wherever it hatches 鈥� it must survive and develop there, or die.

Sometimes the aquatic reservoirs where an adult female has selected to lay her eggs can be quite extreme, such as very polluted freshwater and seawater. We study specialized adaptations that allow these larvae to survive 鈥� most mosquito species require clean freshwater for larval development. Our goal is to reveal how mosquitoes have been able to successfully expand their habitats to places like urban sewage systems and salty coastal habitats.

WL: In my lab, our research focuses on understanding how mosquitoes sense things at the cellular level. We are trying to determine what proteins mosquitoes use to detect human-associated cues, such as heat and humidity. By identifying the cellular and molecular machinery mosquitoes use to find hosts, food sources, mates and egg-laying sites, we hope to better understand how specialized behaviors, such as blood feeding, evolve, and to uncover new targets for controlling the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases.

Jeffrey Riffell: My lab studies the 鈥渉ow鈥� of mosquito biting behavior. We also study how they visit flowers and plants 鈥� yes, they can pollinate certain plants! 鈥� to understand their natural behaviors. By learning more about mosquito physiology and behavior, we would like to develop new tools for traps and ways to control mosquitoes around people’s homes.

Tell us what it’s like to be someone who studies mosquitoes.

JR: Mosquitoes, all day and all the time. Although we try to minimize the potential for mosquito biting in the lab and in our field sites, you have to grin and bear it when dealing with these little vampires.听

WL: Being around large swarms of mosquitoes all day does desensitize me a bit. Sometimes I will be out hiking or camping with family members and I won’t be paying much attention until I start hearing complaints about the mosquitoes. Working with mosquitoes also leads me to do funny things, such as collecting sweat or wearing a nylon stocking for days to collect human odors for behavioral assays.

Rearing transgenic mosquitoes in the lab is a bit like ranching: We have to keep track of large herds of animals. Because the life stages live in different environments, we have to constantly shuttle them around between water-filled trays, for the larvae/pupae, and cages, for the terrestrial adults. We also have to move the adults around on a specific schedule to make sure they have access to our artificial blood feeders. Some lab members jokingly put a sign on the door that says “Welcome to The Ranch.”

AD: Willem is to a rancher as I am to a protagonist in “Swamp People.” We often venture outside of the lab to hunt mosquitoes in their natural habitat in urban and peri-urban areas. Sometimes we find ourselves in picturesque places like the beautiful pillow basalt coastlines of the San Juan Islands. Most often, I can be found headfirst in a nutrient-rich septic system in someone’s backyard filled with mosquito larvae or marching into the fray of massive swarms of saline-tolerant mosquitoes that await in tidal marshlands and mangrove forests.

What is the coolest mosquito fact you know?

WL: There are over 3,500 species of mosquitoes, with vastly different appearances, life histories and host preferences. Many are generalists. A few strongly prefer humans and some feed from cold-blooded animals like frogs or earthworms. The large amber-encased Toxorhynchites elephant mosquito shown in the movie “Jurassic Park” feeds on other mosquito larvae and doesn鈥檛 actually drink blood at all.

JR: I like These mosquitoes are very pretty, and they shoot their eggs into tree holes.

What鈥檚 one thing you wish people understood about mosquitoes?

AD: The incalculable misery that mosquitoes exert on humans and other animals certainly overshadows any appreciation for the importance of mosquitoes in nature. Many species of mosquitoes are critical to biodiversity and are actually fundamental to the food chain. There are numerous examples of areas with reduced breeding success and animal survival because there have been effective vector control programs and non-targeted mosquito eradication efforts.

For more information, contact Laursen at wlaursen@uw.edu, Durant at durantan@uw.edu and Riffell at jriffell@uw.edu.

Seven 乱伦社区 students and recent alumni were awarded听听scholarships for the 2026鈥�27 academic year, joining about 2,000 students and recent graduates from around the country to pursue graduate study, conduct research and teach English abroad.

The Fulbright scholarship program is the largest U.S. international exchange opportunity for students to pursue graduate study, advanced research and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide.

The Fulbright awards speak to the talent, curiosity and global commitment of 乱伦社区 students, said UW Vice Provost for Global Affairs Ahmad Ezzeddine.

鈥淔ulbright remains one of our nation鈥檚 most powerful platforms for learning across cultures, and it gives students the opportunity to pursue ambitious research, teaching and study while building meaningful relationships around the world,鈥� Ezzeddine said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e grateful for the State Department鈥檚 continued investment in this program and proud to see UW students representing our university 鈥� and the best of higher education 鈥� as thoughtful ambassadors engaged in work that will have lasting impact.鈥�

Among this year鈥檚 recipients are four UW undergraduate students or recent alumni who plan to travel to Europe and Asia to take part in graduate study, research and teaching assistantships. Three graduate-level students, including one recent alumnus, plan to travel to Asia, Europe and South America.

The UW also had five undergraduate students selected as alternates.

This year鈥檚听听awardees are:

• Katherine Guild: English teaching award, South Korea
• Tin Pak: Master鈥檚 degree program award, Taiwan
• Sofia Regan-Bon茅: English teaching award, Spain
• Wendi Zhou: Study award, Germany

This year鈥檚听 awardees are:

• Vecksle Drake: English teaching award, Mongolia
• Tessa Marks: Research award, Honduras
• Justin Zeitlinger: Study award, Netherlands

The Fulbright program, funded by the U.S. Department of State, provides round-trip travel, health insurance, a housing stipend and visa assistance to awardees. Awardees may, from time to time, decline the Fulbright scholarship to pursue other opportunities.

Read more about this year鈥檚 UW Fulbright Student Program finalists and the projects they will pursue abroad at the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships & Awards听and the Graduate School鈥檚听.

If you shop on Google Flights, you get a quick comparison for different itineraries: One flight鈥檚 carbon emissions may be average, while another鈥檚 are 14% higher. But if you go shopping for a new laptop, you likely won鈥檛 find quick, comprehensible information on different models鈥� sustainability bonafides, despite the of producing and discarding electronics. In part, that鈥檚 because understanding a device鈥檚 emissions is difficult and time-consuming, even for experts.听

乱伦社区 researchers developed an artificial intelligence system that automatically estimates the environmental impacts of making different electronic devices. The system uses AI agents 鈥� programs that perform tasks autonomously 鈥� to comb through publicly available data and conduct life cycle assessments, or LCAs. The system achieves an average error rate of 5%-19%, similar to the accuracy of LCAs conducted by experts.

The team June 12 in Nature Electronics.听

AI agents have recently grown increasingly capable of performing complex tasks. Today’s agents can search the web and pull information about electronic parts from product descriptions, images and documents.听

鈥淪ome of our previous research made me curious about how LCA experts perform environmental assessments 鈥� and whether that process could be automated,鈥� said lead author , a UW doctoral student in the Allen School. 鈥淪o to understand the bottlenecks firsthand, and then built a system that emulates these interactions with two AI agents. Each of them mimics different roles in the LCA process.鈥�

One agent acts as a sort of analyst, defining what information needs to be gathered and how it will fit together. It also reviews results for accuracy. The second agent is more like an engineer. It scrapes publicly available data for information on an electronic device鈥檚 components. That might entail sifting through spreadsheets, or looking up images of the insides of devices and taking chip information from them 鈥� including from sources not typically used for LCAs, such as and posts on.听

The two agents work in a loop. The first sets the scope, the second gathers information. The first then looks that information over and might send the second agent searching again, and so on. The agents then reference to convert the complete list of parts to carbon estimates.

The team also developed a new method to bypass this detailed data collection and directly estimate carbon footprints. For common devices like laptops and smartphones with publicly available carbon footprint reports, they found that products with similar specs like screen size and processors clustered around similar carbon values, because only a handful of companies make specialized parts for all these devices. So an unknown device’s footprint can be represented as a weighted average of similar products.听

They also use this to estimate the carbon for materials not in LCA databases. For example, a new type of sustainable plastic could be estimated based on plastics with similar properties and chemistry.

鈥淲e tried this 鈥榥earest-neighbors鈥� approach and found that for materials, it鈥檚 actually better than the standard approach of a human picking the single closest entry,鈥� said Zhang. 鈥淲hen estimating missing emissions factors in a test, the average error for our method was 23%. Human experts had an average error of 143%.鈥澨�

The authors note that while the aim of the system is to help reduce carbon emissions overall, running AI models requires energy, so they鈥檝e taken several steps to mitigate its impact. They use small AI models that aren鈥檛 as energy-intensive as general-purpose models. They also start the process by running a search to see if the device鈥檚 estimated emissions have already been calculated. If so, it can stop there. If the system does need to call its AI models repeatedly, estimating a device鈥檚 carbon footprint is currently on par with the emissions generated by brewing a cup of tea.

The team plans to collaborate with companies in the future to help automate their workflows.听

鈥淎 lot of big companies have sustainability teams that perform these LCAs,鈥� Iyer said. 鈥淥ur hope is that automating this will actually free up their time, so they can spend their time reducing the carbon footprint of the products themselves, instead of hunting down elusive stats.鈥澨�

Co-authors include , a UW student in the Allen School;, , a UW postdoctoral researcher in the Allen School; , a UW doctoral student in the Allen School; , a UW professor in the Allen School; of Wesleyan University, who completed this research as a UW doctoral student in the Allen School; of the University of Notre Dame; of Northeastern University; and of Brown University, who completed this research as a UW assistant professor in the Allen School.听

This research was funded by Amazon Research Awards and the National Science Foundation. Zhang was supported by the .

For more information, contact Iyer at vsiyer@uw.edu and Zhang at zzhihan@cs.washington.edu.

Recent recognition of the 乱伦社区 includes American COuncil of Learned Societies Fellowship, Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship and Humboldt Award from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Assistant professor awarded 2026 ACLS Fellowship听

, assistant professor in the Department of Asian Languages & Literature at the UW, was awarded a 2026 ACLS Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies. The fellowship recognizes excellence in humanities and social sciences research and supports scholars whose work is poised to make original and significant contributions to their fields.听Rominger听will be the 2026 ACLS Pauline Yu Fellow.听听

“It means a great deal to hold a fellowship in Pauline Yu’s name,鈥� Rominger said. 鈥淗er scholarship on Chinese poetics is part of why I do this work.”听

This year, the program awarded more than $3.5 million to 63 scholars selected from a pool of more than 2,000 applicants.听

Rominger specializes in early Chinese literary and intellectual history. His project, 鈥淎urality and the Search for Sound and Meaning in Early Chinese Texts,鈥� examines how sound-based patterning听shaped meaning in early Chinese听philosophical texts, particularly in听writings听from the Warring States period to the Han dynasty.听听

Rominger鈥檚 research shows how early Chinese thinkers employed the sound of language not only for style but also to build arguments and express complex ideas. The project brings together close readings of ancient texts, historical reconstructions of Old Chinese pronunciation, and computational tools to offer new insight into the relationship between literary form and philosophical thought.

Postdoctoral scholar awarded Arnold O. Beckman Fellowship in Chemical Instrumentation听

, a UW postdoctoral scholar听in听chemistry, was awarded the Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemical Instrumentation. The fellowship supports advanced research by postdoctoral scholars in fundamental chemistry and the development and construction of chemical instrumentation.听

The award provides two years of funding, along with an听additional听$200,000 budget to support instrumentation costs.听

With the fellowship, Rebstock will build a new vibrational spectroscopy instrument designed to听observe听chemical reactions as they happen at surfaces. The instrument will allow researchers to see how molecules move and interact in real time, offering insight into surface chemistry that could help improve technologies such as batteries and clean fuels.听

This fellowship provides Rebstock with a rare opportunity to combine instrument development with fundamental chemistry questions. 鈥�I鈥檓 excited to pursue both and to explore new ways of probing the chemistry that happens at interfaces.鈥� Rebstock said.听

UW researcher receives Humboldt Research Award听

a UW professor of Earth and space sciences,听received a Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The award recognizes internationally leading researchers across all disciplines for their academic record and significant contributions to their fields.听

Each year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grants up to 100 Humboldt Research Awards to researchers from abroad. Awardees receive personal award听money and听are invited to carry out research projects of their听choosing听in cooperation with specialist colleagues in Germany.听

Teng said he was deeply honored by the recognition and grateful to Professor听Harry听Becker, head听of the Geochemistry Group at听FU-Berlin, for听the nomination. The award will allow听Teng听to spend extended periods over the next few years conducting research at Freie University Berlin, beginning with his听sabbatical this听summer.听

鈥淚t is a wonderful opportunity to spend extended periods over the next few years conducting cutting-edge research at Freie University Berlin,鈥� Teng said.听

The award will also enable Teng to develop new collaborations across Germany and become part of the Humboldt Foundation鈥檚 international network of distinguished researchers.听

Quantum materials are a class of exotic materials with special properties that are governed by rather than . Those properties 鈥� like , and unusual forms of magnetism 鈥� often originate in the tiny repeating patterns of atoms inside crystals, but through clever engineering they can be observed and controlled at a more human scale. Quantum materials are helping to power the quickly growing field of , and could find their way into future generations of energy-efficient electronics.听

Designing new materials from the atomic scale up, however, requires intense modeling and simulation. Some materials may appear ordinary when viewed as small clusters of atoms, yet reveal new and useful properties when their atomic building blocks repeat and interact over larger distances. Researchers must be able to accurately predict behaviors at large scales in order to find materials with practical applications 鈥� otherwise designing new materials is a slow and costly trial-and-error process.

In the past 50 years, supercomputers have helped materials scientists solve some of those thorny prediction problems, but two recent studies from the 乱伦社区 demonstrate how newer computing techniques can help researchers sniff out promising quantum materials to pursue. , published June 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows how researchers can use artificial intelligence to simulate dozens of sheets of atoms stacked in intricate patterns, a process that produces complex and potentially useful quantum behaviors. , published June 8 in Nature Communications, shows how quantum computers can create a self-improving design loop by discovering new materials that could themselves be components of future quantum computers.听

鈥淲hat is exciting is that AI and quantum computing are beginning to change not just what problems we can solve, but how we do research,鈥� said , a UW associate professor of materials science and engineering and the senior author of both studies.

These two new tools 鈥� AI and quantum computing 鈥� are complementary in that they each excel at a different kind of simulation problem. With the right training, an AI model can act as a fast and relatively inexpensive surrogate of a supercomputer, extrapolating the behavior of huge material systems from a relatively small dataset. Cao and collaborators used this approach to stack virtual sheets of atoms on top of one another over and over 鈥� a process that created completely new phenomena that were absent on a smaller scale, but would have been impractical to model by traditional supercomputing. From there, researchers can try to make the most promising materials in the lab to prove out the simulations.

Quantum computers, on the other hand, are essentially powered by the same quantum phenomena 鈥� like entanglement 鈥� that Cao and other materials researchers want to study. Such phenomena can be difficult to simulate using traditional computers or AI systems, but quantum computers are naturally suited to the task. In the study, Cao and his team used a quantum computer to study an exotic phase of matter known as a .听

Moving forward, Cao and his team plan to further build out their datasets and eventually develop models that can simulate a much wider range of materials. They also hope to combine their AI and quantum computing systems into a more powerful and flexible hybrid tool.

鈥淭he next step is to bring these tools together,鈥� Cao said. 鈥淲e can use AI to guide quantum simulations, and quantum computers to generate new data and insights that improve AI models.鈥�

鈥淲e are at the start of a new era,鈥� said , UW professor and chair of materials science and engineering and co-author of both studies. 鈥淥ur field is fundamentally changing. Things that were literally impossible a couple of years ago are now becoming routine. And we are only beginning to see what AI and quantum computing will make possible for quantum materials.鈥�

was led by , a UW doctoral student of materials science and engineering. was led by , a UW doctoral student of physics. A complete list of authors is included with the studies.

The authors acknowledge the support of Amazon and the Department of Energy.

For more information, contact Cao at tingcao@uw.edu.

Every summer, , 乱伦社区 associate professor of biology, and members of her lab head to northern Botswana to study how large predators, such as lions and African wild dogs, are affected by climate change and other shifts in their environment.

The researchers are particularly interested in understanding how these predators are changing their behavior 鈥� including where they go and when they reproduce 鈥� as the days get hotter and as the animals are more likely to come into contact with people. One example is a project studying how interactions between lions and wild dogs, which don’t typically get along, might change during heatwaves and droughts.

Abrahms is returning to Botswana again this summer, along with two other researchers in her lab: , a UW research scientist in biology, and , a UW doctoral student in biology. , UW professor of environmental and forest sciences, will also be joining for parts of the season. UW News asked Rafiq and Poulin a few questions about their upcoming work for the occasional series 鈥�In the Field,鈥� which highlights UW field efforts.

Tell us about the trip. Where are you going?

Kasim Rafiq: Our team will be traveling to the fringes of the . We have a long-standing partnership with , which has been operating a long-term monitoring program there since the 1990s. As part of this program, Wild Entrust operates a remote bush camp that we work out of, which we affectionately call “Wild Dog Camp,” or “Dog Camp” for short. This is really just a collection of tents in the middle of the African bush, and everything is non-permanent, meaning it could be quickly taken apart.

The camp is located in an area managed by the local community for wildlife tourism, and it borders the . So, it鈥檚 a wild landscape with lots of wildlife and lush vegetation. There鈥檚 no fence around the camp, so it鈥檚 not uncommon for animals to wander through the camp day and night, including lions, elephants, leopards and various species of snakes.

Have you visited this site before?

KR: I first came to Dog Camp in 2013 as a research assistant and then I completed my master鈥檚 and doctoral research there studying leopards. For my doctoral project, I stayed at the camp for two years because leopards are pretty tricky to study. I’ve been back to Dog Camp every year since I joined the Abrahms Lab as a research scientist in 2021.

I feel very privileged to have been able to work with the people in camp for such a long period of time. It鈥檚 been special to see how the camp has developed over that period, and also to maintain relationships with the Botswana-based teams.

MP: I joined the Abrahms Lab in 2024 and spent time in the field that year to become familiar with the carnivores that we study. I returned in 2025 and I began to learn essential field skills, such as how to track and follow carnivores in the bush. I鈥檓 excited for my third visit to the field site this year.

How do you study these creatures?

KR: We use a combination of techniques. We directly watch these predators and use new conservation technologies to monitor animals year-round and during periods when it鈥檚 just not possible to follow them, such as when it’s too wet.

One key technology we use is wildlife tracking collars that use GPS sensors to let us see where the animals are going and accelerometers and microphones to let us know what they鈥檙e doing. We like to think of these collars as Fitbits for wildlife. Just like your fitness tracker helps you better understand your movement and your sleep, these collars allow us to get deep insights into an animal鈥檚 behavior.

Can you talk about some of the projects you’re working on?

MP: I鈥檓 looking at how social structure in wild dogs may influence how they respond to environmental change. Wild dogs live in tight-knit packs, just like grey wolves in North America. In each pack, usually only one lead pair has pups, while the rest of the pack 鈥� often aunts, uncles and older siblings 鈥� all work together to babysit, feed and protect the pups.

In my research, I am investigating how a pack鈥檚 “social profile,” such as its size, family ties and history, affects how the animals adjust their movement patterns during heatwaves and droughts. I’m also looking at how increasing temperatures affect the timing of these dogs’ reproduction.

Overall, I鈥檓 interested in understanding if the benefits of living in a group, such as the higher hunting success, pup care, and reproductive success seen in larger packs, might help buffer the impacts of environmental change on animal populations.

What are your goals for this trip?

KR: This year, our plan is to deploy tracking collars on the long-term lion and African wild dog study populations across our field site. The data that we’ll get from these collars is crucial for helping us understand how behaviors change year after year as a result of environmental change.

A key part of this field season will also involve following animals with these sensors and collecting video recordings of them doing different behaviors, such as where and how they hunt and feed. We will use the video data to train AI models that allow us to better understand how climate change is affecting these behaviors.

What鈥檚 something you really enjoy about doing this field work 鈥� especially something that might not occur to most people?

KR: Two of the things I enjoy most are the behind-the-scenes parts of the work that are critical to this type of fieldwork, but that people rarely think about or see.

First, I really enjoy tracking animals. There鈥檚 something quite meditative about following a wild animal鈥檚 footprints through the grass.

The second is vehicle mechanics. Around 80% of fieldwork is fixing your Land Rover when it breaks down for some unknown reason, and although that tinkering can be frustrating, it鈥檚 also fun. Some of my favorite memories in the bush come from sitting in the sand and taking apart the engine.

MP: I love tracking animals using radio telemetry. The tracking collars we put on animals send out radio signals that we can detect with an antenna and receiver. By listening for the “ping,” we can tell which direction the animal is in and roughly how far away it is. The carnivores we study roam across huge areas, so tracking them often means a lot of driving on rough roads and not always having successful searches. But, hearing that first 鈥� often really faint 鈥� “ping” is always super exciting, and finding the animals feels rewarding.

I also especially love being in the field around sunrise and sunset, when the landscape looks golden, feels peaceful and the animals are most active.

More generally, is there anything you find surprising about doing field work?

KR: Although fieldwork is intensive and often the busiest part of the year, it鈥檚 busy in a very different way from office work. I鈥檓 often surprised that, despite the long hours, I feel more energized in the field than I do at my desk. I think part of that comes from being so close to the animals and the landscape you鈥檙e trying to understand.

I鈥檓 also a big believer that, although technologies like GPS collars and audio recorders now allow us to collect huge amounts of data from the comfort of our offices, those data are only as useful as our ability to interpret them. To do that well, you really need to understand your study animal. There are many ways to build that understanding, from reading books to watching documentaries, but for me, nothing compares to spending time in the field. I always come back with a dozen new ideas that have appeared while simply sitting and watching the animals.

MP: Doing field work is really enlightening. It鈥檚 extremely valuable because it gives us a better understanding of the animals and their environment. By observing where animals spend their time, how they interact with one another and with other species, and the challenges they face, we can develop more meaningful research questions. Spending time in the field also sparks creativity, because it allows us to see and notice unexpected behaviors and inspires new ideas for research.

For more information, contact Rafiq at rafiqk@uw.edu and Poulin at mpoulin1@uw.edu.

While soccer is the most popular sport globally, it wasn鈥檛 high on the list in Ron Krabill鈥檚 home state of Indiana. As a high schooler, Krabill鈥檚 soccer team often had to travel an hour and a half to find the nearest school with a team. Krabill still became a lifelong fan.

Now a professor in UW Bothell鈥檚 School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences and director of the Global Sport Lab in the UW Jackson School of International Studies, Krabill never imagined soccer would become part of his academic work until he found himself conducting research in South Africa in 2010 when the country hosted the World Cup. He鈥檚 been intertwining sport and academics ever since.

With Seattle scheduled to host World Cup games from June 15 to July 6, Krabill is gearing up to co-lead this year鈥檚 UW Summer Institute in the Arts & Humanities with , UW teaching professor of communication, and , doctoral student in the UW Jackson School of International Studies. This year鈥檚 theme, Seattle鈥檚 World Cup: Storytelling Through Community Mapping, will combine community mapping with other methodologies, including photo and video essays and journalistic reporting, to tell stories about Seattle鈥檚 experience with the World Cup.听

The mapping technology was developed by , associate professor of Urban Studies at UW Tacoma. Kelley is the director of the Action Mapping Project, which works to engage issues of livability, equity, and voice in marginalized neighborhoods through the use of participatory data collection, spatial data analysis, mapping and data visualization.

UW News talked with Krabill about his plans for participating students, his background in sports scholarship, what he鈥檒l be watching during Seattle鈥檚 tournament games and more.

When did your love of soccer and your academic work first intersect and how have you continued that work?

Ron Krabill: I lived and worked in South Africa on and off between 1996 and 2010 doing research on South African media, the late Apartheid Era and the media’s impact on anti-Apartheid politics. And then South Africa hosted the World Cup. I had been to two Women鈥檚 World Cups, but never before to a Men鈥檚 World Cup and I thought, 鈥淚 can鈥檛 be in South Africa when this happens and not go.鈥� It just felt too big and too important. It was a momentous thing for South Africa as a nation.听

A lot of debates were happening from the time South Africa was awarded the World Cup about whether it was going to be a good thing or a bad thing and what it meant. My academic work was concerned with a state putting a lot of money into feel-good projects when听 it鈥檚 struggling to provide basic resources for its people. I around 2010 for Social Text, which is an academic journal that covers a wide range of social and cultural phenomena. The piece talked about the challenge for people who love soccer but also see all the problems with soccer, mega-events, the industry, and so on. In that piece, I also talked about loving South Africa, being deeply connected to South Africa and worrying about what the impact of the World Cup would be.

In 2010, I helped lead a UW study abroad program called My World Cup, which was funded in part by the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the UW, the Seattle Sounders and Cape Town Community Television. We paired our UW students with University of Cape Town film students and media activists from the Media Workers Alliance to put together short segments on the impact of the World Cup locally. We then aired those during the World Cup on Cape Town Community Television.听

After that, the UW Le贸n Center in Spain approached me and I proposed a class about the politics of soccer in Spain and beyond that addresses questions of gender, race, nationalism and migration. For this year鈥檚 World Cup, I wanted to create an immersive course much like the study abroad program 鈥� something that students can really sink their teeth into.

How will your students study the World Cup and Seattle as a host city?

RK: developed the Action Mapping Project, a community mapping tool that we鈥檙e excited to use in the World Cup context. This tool will allow us to do both large and geographical analysis alongside more qualitative and traditional arts and humanities methods. We鈥檒l be asking people outside the stadium, at fan zones and at watch parties to reflect on what stories Seattle tells about itself. How do their experiences in Seattle during the Cup 鈥� whether they鈥檙e from the area, elsewhere in the United States or an international visitor 鈥� relate to what they imagine Seattle to be? In other words, does their experience of World Cup Seattle match their expectations?

The first two weeks are going to be very intense. The games are only in town for three weeks and unfortunately, the first of those weeks is the break in between academic terms. So those first weeks, we鈥檒l be introducing students to critical sport studies as a field and what it means to think about sports as a site of power and politics, at the same time as training them in research methods and fieldwork.听

Hopefully we鈥檒l gather a lot of material to work with, and then we’ll have the rest of the summer to figure out what to do with it. The students will be working in collaborative research teams, looking at different angles of what it means for Seattle to host. They’ll work off whatever material they find really compelling.听

It will be tricky, because they’ll have to collect the data before they’ve decided exactly what they’re going to do with it. They won’t have had the theoretical background to really think about the meaning. That means the teaching team is going to have to be a little more direct about what kinds of research gathering we do on our field days. The first two weeks, we’ll have four pretty long field work days with students. We’re expecting to send teams of students out into different parts of the city and the region to see what the World Cup experience is like.

What are you most interested to observe in Seattle during those three weeks?听

RK: When South Africa hosted the World Cup in 2010, the vibe was incredible. It鈥檚 not really clear how much Seattle is going to embrace that vibe. Is the whole city going to be all about the World Cup? Because it was definitely like that in Cape Town. The Women’s World Cup in Paris wasn鈥檛 like that. You could have easily been in Paris and not had any idea what was going on. I don’t know where Seattle will land. There have also been a lot of stories about the hotel industry downgrading their expectations. The thing about the economic impact is that it’s often named as one big number, but it’s not always very clear where that money’s going and if it’s staying in the city.

People like to say that we should keep politics out of sports. But when we start talking about where the money is going to flow to, who鈥檚 going to be able to afford games,听 or the pressures FIFA and the federal government is putting on local organizing committees, it鈥檚 not as hard for people to understand. We should be thinking about: What are the implications of this, and what are the actions that people can take to make it as beneficial as possible for the city and for the people who live in the city? How do you mitigate against the potential harms, and how do you take advantage of the potential benefits?

There is also a lot of evidence that the fan base is going to be more domestic and less international than expected from a World Cup, particularly because President Donald Trump’s stance on immigration will discourage a lot of people from traveling. I do think that’s going to impact Seattle more than most places because of our proximity to Canada. I think we would have had a lot of visitors, both from Canada and from other countries, because they could have gone to Vancouver and Seattle to see matches in both countries.

I鈥檓 also super interested in what the will look like. The local organizing committee is super committed to having it. The Seattle committee is also taking really seriously their responsibility to think about what it means to have the U.S. play on Juneteenth. That鈥檚 an opportunity to educate a worldwide audience about what Juneteenth is and why it’s necessary as a holiday.听

I鈥檓 following very closely, too. And not just because they鈥檙e coming to Seattle. I鈥檓 looking at what it means for modern society that two nations can be at war, and yet there is an expectation that one of them will travel to play in the other鈥檚 country in a tournament. The idea that that鈥檚 even a conversation says something about how detached we are in the United States from the idea of warfare.听

For more information, contact Krabill at rkrabill@uw.edu or globalsportlab@uw.edu.

The increased public attention on racial injustice after influenced how Black and white employees interacted at work, new 乱伦社区 research suggests.

The study, recently published in , examines how major societal events tied to race and injustice can shape workplace behavior. Researchers specifically investigated how the heightened salience of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement impacted cooperation between Black and white coworkers.

鈥淥rganizations are often treated as relatively self-contained systems where formal goals, incentives and task structures determine how employees interact,鈥� said co-author , professor of management in the UW Foster School of Business. 鈥淏ut employees do not leave the outside world at the door. When major societal events occur, people carry those emotions, anxieties and identities with them into the workplace.鈥�

The study examines responses to 鈥渕ega-threats,鈥� a term used to describe highly-publicized and emotionally-charged events involving violence or injustice against marginalized groups. Such events can threaten people鈥檚 sense of identity and alter how they relate to others at work. To investigate these dynamics, researchers used an unexpected but enlightening proxy: the National Basketball Association (NBA).

鈥淭he NBA is essentially a collection of mini-organizations,鈥� Gupta said. 鈥淧layers from different racial backgrounds must cooperate intensively in order to succeed, and importantly, their cooperation can actually be measured.鈥�

Using detailed data from more than 124,000 player-to-player interactions during the 2014 to 2015 NBA season, the researchers tracked how passing rates aligned with the rise of the BLM movement. Passing behavior offered a direct behavioral measure of workplace cooperation.

The findings revealed strikingly different responses among Black and white players. Black players increased cooperation with other Black players 鈥� marked by more passes 鈥� but did not reduce cooperation with white teammates. The passing behavior of white players showed standard cooperation with other white players, but white players became less likely to cooperate with Black teammates.

The researchers then conducted two experiments in which participants were randomly exposed to either materials describing highly publicized incidents of race-based injustice or unrelated information. Participants were then asked to decide about collaborating with other Black and white participants, showing how heightened awareness of these events shapes cooperation.

For Black participants, attention to BLM increased identification with their racial group and strengthened feelings of solidarity with other Black individuals. This increased their willingness to cooperate with fellow Black coworkers.

White participants, however, experienced a different psychological reaction. Researchers found that many white participants experienced a sense of 鈥渕oral taint鈥� associated with acts of racial injustice committed by members of their racial group. This shame increased concern that attempts at interracial cooperation might be rejected, misunderstood or viewed skeptically by Black coworkers. As a result, many white participants became more hesitant to initiate cooperation across racial lines.

鈥淭hey did not necessarily become hostile,鈥� Gupta said. 鈥淩ather, many seemed to retreat inward because they feared that their gestures might be unwelcome or misinterpreted.鈥�

The researchers also uncovered an important exception. The tendency of white employees to withdraw from interracial cooperation was significantly weaker when the Black coworker held higher professional status.

In the NBA context, white players remained more willing to cooperate with Black teammates who occupied higher-status positions on the team. This suggests that workplace norms and professional role expectations can partially offset the interpersonal strain created by major societal conflicts.

The study highlights how societal events surrounding race and injustice can shape workplace relationships in subtle but important ways. The researchers argue that organizations need to recognize that employees may react differently to racial injustice depending on whether they identify with the victims or feel implicated by association with the perpetrators.

The study also suggests that organizations hoping to foster productive interracial collaboration during periods of social tension may need to create environments that reduce fears of rejection and encourage open, psychologically safe interaction across group boundaries.

鈥淏oth groups may need support, though for very different reasons,鈥� Gupta said. 鈥淥rganizations cannot assume that societal tensions remain outside the workplace. These events can alter patterns of trust, communication and cooperation in ways that directly affect organizational functioning.鈥�

For more information, contact Gupta at abhinavg@uw.edu.

乱伦社区 President Robert J. Jones presided at the UW鈥檚 151st Commencement ceremony on Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium on Saturday, June 13.

Graduates have profound potential and have capacity to combine purpose, skill and cooperation in ways that will change the world,听 Jones said.听

鈥淭hey are innovators, scientists, artists, educators, healers, entrepreneurs and storytellers who have made their mark on the UW and are poised to do the same in the world beyond,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ecause of that, I feel not just hope 鈥� but confidence 鈥� that the future is in their capable hands.鈥�

About 7,500 UW graduates of the Class of 2026 participated in Saturday鈥檚 ceremony. Officials said about 50,000 family members and friends cheered the graduates from the Husky Stadium grandstands. Families from 42 countries from every continent except Antarctica joined the ceremony virtually.

, Class of 鈥�83, who shared the, was the featured speaker.听听

鈥淟eave yourself open to opportunities when they arise. Be willing to take a risk and to say yes to the unknown,鈥� Brunkow told the crowds in Husky Stadium. 鈥淵ou chose UW 鈥� and succeeded here 鈥� because it is a place of discovery, collaboration and optimism. Carry those values with you out into the world. We can鈥檛 wait to see what you make of them.鈥�

By Sunday evening, President Jones will have presented nearly 18,462 degrees to the Class of 2026 across all three UW campuses鈥� ceremonies. Members of the UW Board of Regents, deans and other representatives of the University鈥檚 24 colleges and schools across all three campuses also participated in the ceremonies.听

The following听data, drawn from preliminary information broken down by campus and prepared by the Office of the University Registrar, will be presented听at the Board of Regents鈥� June 11 meeting:听

• For work completed at the听Seattle听campus, about 14,932 degrees will be conferred, specifically: 9,066 bachelor鈥檚 degrees, 4,372 master鈥檚 degrees, 615 professional degrees, 16 Educational Specialist degrees, and 863 doctoral degrees.听
• At听UW Bothell, about 1,886 degrees will be conferred, including 1,619 bachelor鈥檚 degrees and 267 master鈥檚 degrees.听
• And at听UW Tacoma,听students will receive about 1,644 degrees, including 1,321 bachelor鈥檚 degrees, 304 master鈥檚 degrees, 10 Educational Specialist degrees and nine doctoral degrees.听

Degrees are awarded to those who have completed academic requirements during the 2025-2026 academic year. Many colleges and schools also hold separate graduation programs and investiture ceremonies.听

UW Tacoma will hold its commencement June 12 at the Tacoma Dome. UW Bothell鈥檚 graduation ceremonies are scheduled for June 14 at Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.