May 14, 2019

Only one-third of the world’s longest rivers remain free-flowing, new analysis finds

Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in Washington.WSDOT

Just over one-third of the world’s 246 longest rivers remain free-flowing, according to a new study published May 8 in Nature. Dams and reservoirs are drastically reducing the diverse benefits that healthy rivers provide to people and nature across the globe. A team of 34 international researchers from McGill University, World Wildlife Fund, the University of Washington and other institutions assessed the connectivity status of 12 million kilometers of rivers worldwide, providing the first-ever global assessment of the location and extent of the planet’s remaining free-flowing rivers.

Dean's Office scholarships for 2019-20 announced

The College is pleased to announce the following undergraduate and graduate scholarships awarded for 2019-20. Del Rio Endowed Environmental Studies Scholarship The Del Rio Family Foundation established the Del Rio Endowed Scholarship Fund for Environmental Studies to encourage and support students with an interest in the environment who are participating in the Educational Opportunity Program, which promotes academic success and graduation for underrepresented ethnic minority, economically disadvantaged and first generation college students at the University of Washington.

UW Environment students awarded Bonderman Travel Fellowships

Travel fellowships will allow School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences PhD student Daniel Hernandez and School of Environmental and Forest Sciences undergrad Robert Thadeus Sternberg to embark on solo journeys around the world.

Read more about the Bonderman Travel Fellowship »

May 2, 2019

Atmospheric scientist Chris Bretherton elected to National Academy of Sciences

Chris Bretherton, a University of Washington professor jointly appointed in the departments of Atmospheric Sciences and Applied Mathematics, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He is one of 100 new members elected for their “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research” who were announced April 30 by the academy. Chris studies how clouds form and change over time and how to better represent these processes in global climate and weather-forecasting models.

Arsenic-breathing life discovered in the tropical Pacific Ocean

Jaclyn Saunders (far right) fixes the line on a McLane instrument that pumps large volumes of seawater in order to extract the DNA. The instrument on the left measures properties such as temperature, salinity and depth and collects smaller samples of seawater.

Arsenic is a deadly poison for most living things, but new research shows that microorganisms are breathing arsenic in a large area of the Pacific Ocean. A University of Washington team has discovered that an ancient survival strategy is still being used in low-oxygen parts of the marine environment. “Thinking of arsenic as not just a bad guy, but also as beneficial, has reshaped the way that I view the element,” said first author Jaclyn Saunders, who did the research for her doctoral thesis at the UW School of Oceanography and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.