The 天美影视传媒 was awarded $2.5 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to fund 16 postdoctoral fellows in a number of fields across the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Engineering and the College of the Environment.

The UW is one of 30 U.S. research universities to receive the funding. The grants support work in a range of natural science disciplines supported by the foundation, including disciplines of astronomy, biology, chemistry, Earth and planetary sciences, ecology materials science, physics and quantum information. Post doctoral fellows will receive between $90,000 and $200,000 for work lasting nine to 24 months.听

Gordon and Betty Moore established the Moore Foundation in 2000 to create positive outcomes for future generations. In pursuit of that vision, the Foundation advances scientific discovery and environmental conservation. It is one of the nation鈥檚 leading philanthropies with an endowment of approximately $12 billion and annual grantmaking exceeding $500 million.

In awarding the funds, officials with the Moore Foundation noted the 鈥渃ritical role postdoctoral fellows play in advancing scientific discovery and the importance of maintaining the talent pipeline for science.鈥�

The UW is well known for training future researchers and scientific leaders across disciplines. Many of the post-doctoral fellows in this cohort say they plan to pursue faculty positions, to inspire another generation of scientists.

鈥淭he work these postdoctoral researchers are doing will increase our understanding of the planet and the universe, helping to create a better future for all,鈥� said Cecilia Giachelli, associate vice provost for research and a professor of bioengineering. 鈥淲e are deeply grateful to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for their generous support.鈥�

UW News asked the cohort of Moore Foundation postdoctoral fellows to share their research goals. Here鈥檚 what they told us:

Arachaporn Anutaliya, Applied Physics Laboratory:

“I’m excited to receive this fellowship because it allows me to study large-scale equatorial waves that move heat through the ocean and shape global climate patterns. Understanding how these waves redistribute heat is essential for improving our understanding of climate variability and global warming. This fellowship supports my goal of building a career in ocean and climate science that connects fundamental research to broader climate understanding.”

Arpit Arora, Department of Astronomy:听

“I am thrilled to receive this fellowship, as it lets me collaborate with the UW experts leading the Rubin Observatory to study dark matter 鈥� the invisible substance making up 85% of all matter in the universe. I use computer simulations to model ‘stellar streams,’ which are long trails of stars being torn apart by our galaxy鈥檚 gravity. By comparing these simulations with new telescope data, I can use the motion of these stars to map out the hidden influence of dark matter and finally understand how it shapes our universe.”

George Brencher, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering:

“My research uses satellite data and machine learning to improve measurements of snow and ice that are needed for managing water resources and natural hazards. Rapid advances in Earth observation and machine learning are transforming the field, allowing us to push the limits of what we can observe on Earth from space. This fellowship will allow me to develop new approaches that translate these advances into meaningful, real-world impact.”

Leo Brody, Department of Chemical Engineering:听

“Receiving this fellowship gives me the flexibility to explore a new class of materials that could dramatically lower the cost of turning waste plastics and biomass into useful fuels and chemicals. I am especially excited about replacing rare, expensive catalysts with materials made from Earth-abundant elements like iron, aluminum and carbon. This support will help me prioritize making energy and chemical production cleaner, cheaper and more sustainable.”

Jamie Cochran, Department of Biology:

“I will study the physiology of the freshwater crustacean Hyalella azteca, which is used to understand the impact of aquatic stressors 鈥� such as metals or pesticides 鈥� on freshwater environments. Just like humans require a specific ratio of salt to water for survival, these shrimp-like crustaceans must regulate their internal balance of ions to water. My project involves trying to determine the mechanisms behind this balance, which could also help us understand other sensitive freshwater creatures. I am grateful to this fellowship for the opportunity to investigate this ecologically significant species.”

Debarati Das, Department of Chemistry:

“As a biochemist, I am keen on pursuing a career in industry or the government sector addressing questions at the interface of chemistry and biology. I find microorganisms particularly fascinating because they are able to live in diverse habitats, from the deep sea to the human body. With the support of the Moore Foundation, I will be able to develop new skills to study how microbes use unique chemistry to adapt to different environmental conditions. This work will help us to understand the critical roles of microorganisms in every ecosystem on our planet.”

Mateo Lopez Espejo, Department of Psychology:

“When we hear a sound, we turn our heads to focus our vision and hearing on the source. This is a process called active sensing. I am excited to investigate the mechanisms behind this process using the fruit fly as a model so that I can take advantage of its genetic tools and fully mapped brain connectivity. The support of this fellowship will be fundamental to help me establish this research plan during my postdoc, and to cement my future career.”

Cassandra Henderson, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering:听

“I am pleased to accept the Moore Foundation fellowship to support my essential research in preparing Washington communities for climate change. With this assistance, I will be able to continue work on the , which enables long term flood planning that addresses sea level rise.”

Sophia Jannetty, Department of Biology:听

“I use computer simulations to explore how the behavior of individual cells affects the health of our tissues and organs. I am honored to receive the Moore Foundation fellowship, which will allow me to apply this approach to better understand how aging cells and inflammation interact to influence disease. I hope my work can inform more thoughtful strategies for promoting healthy aging.”

Atsushi Matsuda, Department of Biology:

“Electron microscopy reveals extraordinary details inside living cells, but turning these images into accurate three-dimensional reconstructions remains a major challenge. My research aims to overcome this by combining physics-informed machine learning with computer vision to create tools that are broadly usable by biological researchers. I am excited to receive this fellowship because it gives me the freedom to pursue this highly interdisciplinary work at the intersection of biology, computational mechanics and artificial intelligence.”

Hikari Murayama, Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science:听

“Quantifying greenhouse gas emissions was a core pillar of my doctoral work, and this fellowship provides an opportunity to build off of that. We’ll be focusing on historical data: Tracking past methane emissions from oil and gas facilities can give us insight into how emission patterns fluctuate over time. I’m excited to continue developing as an interdisciplinary scholar while also forming my identity as a researcher as I pursue faculty positions.”

Dongmin Shi, Department of Materials Science & Engineering:听

“I am honored to receive support from the Moore Foundation fellowship, which will enable me to pursue innovative, foundational ideas with long-term impact in biomedical engineering. My research focuses on developing wearable biosensors that help monitor and better understand human health. In the future, I aim to become a faculty member who helps translate fundamental scientific discoveries into technologies that improve health care.”

Marta Ulaski, School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences:

“Healthy rivers are the backbone of thriving salmon and trout populations but we don’t yet know if the places we protect are the ones most at risk from a warming climate. I鈥檓 looking forward to combining climate, policy and habitat information in a new way to better understand how river protections support salmon and trout. Ultimately I hope this work will help close the gap between research and conservation practice and provide evidence to guide future policy.”

Corinne Vietorisz, School of Environmental & Forest Sciences:听

“I am very excited to receive the Moore Fellowship, which will allow me to join the Willing Lab at the UW to study how fire-adapted microbes can aid in forest recovery following wildfire. I am continuously amazed by the enormous impacts microorganisms have on our world. My long-term goal is to study how soil microbes 鈥� including fungi and bacteria 鈥� can improve ecosystem restoration and land management outcomes.”

Samuel Wong, Department of Physics:听

“I am interested in proposing novel ways to test theories beyond the current understanding of fundamental physics, such as searching for new particles and forces. Specifically, my work involves finding ways to use precision measurement techniques to search for these tiny signals of new physics. The UW is a leading center for precision measurement, and the support from the Moore Foundation postdoctoral fellowship will allow me to do this work alongside , UW assistant professor of physics.”

Weiwang Zeng, Department of Chemistry:听

“I am excited to receive this fellowship because it gives me the freedom to take big scientific risks at a crucial stage in my career. I use ultrafast bursts of light in a special range of the electromagnetic spectrum to reveal and control new behaviors in atomically thin quantum materials. With this support, I can build toward an independent research program.”

The modern world is built with concrete: . Yet cement, the key component of concrete, is the source of as much as 10% of all carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

To address this problem, researchers at the 天美影视传媒 and Microsoft developed a new type of low-carbon concrete by mixing dried, powdered seaweed with cement. The seaweed-fortified cement has a 21% lower global warming potential while retaining its strength. And thanks to an assist from machine learning models, the team arrived at this new formulation in a fraction of the time that such work would ordinarily take.

July 8 in Matter.

鈥淐ement is everywhere 鈥� it鈥檚 the backbone of modern infrastructure 鈥� but it comes with a huge climate cost,鈥� said senior author , a UW assistant professor of materials science and engineering. 鈥淲hat makes this work exciting is that we show how an abundant, photosynthetic material like green seaweed can be incorporated into cement to cut emissions, without the need for costly processing or sacrificing performance.鈥�

Producing one kilogram of cement emits nearly a kilogram of CO2. Most of those emissions come from the fossil fuels used to heat raw materials and from a chemical reaction called calcination that occurs during the production process. Seaweed, in contrast, is a carbon sink: It pulls carbon out of the air and stores it while it grows. And, remarkably, it can directly replace some of the cement in concrete, giving the result a dramatically smaller carbon footprint.

Arriving at the ideal mixture of ingredients would have taken five years of trial and error, Roumeli estimated, because any concrete sample takes about a month to fully cure before its properties can be evaluated accurately.

To speed up the process, the team built a custom machine learning model and trained it on an initial set of 24 formulations of cement. They then used the model to predict ideal mixtures to test in the lab. By feeding the results of those tests back into the model, they were able to work in tandem with the model and move through formulations rapidly. The outcome was an optimal mixture of seaweed-enhanced cement with a reduced carbon footprint that passed compressive strength tests, discovered in just 28 days.

鈥淢achine learning was integral in helping us dramatically shorten the process 鈥� especially important here, because we鈥檙e introducing a completely new material into cement,鈥� Roumeli said.

From here, the team plans to deepen their understanding of how seaweed composition and structure affects cement performance. The larger goal is to generalize the work out to different kinds of algae (or even to food waste) so that producers can create local, sustainable cement alternatives around the world 鈥� and use machine learning to optimize them rapidly.

鈥淏y combining natural materials like algae with modern data tools, we can localize production, reduce emissions, and move faster toward greener infrastructure,鈥� Roumeli said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an exciting step toward a new generation of sustainable building materials.鈥�

Additional co-authors on this paper are , a UW doctoral student studying materials science and engineering; , a former UW postdoctoral researcher in the materials science and engineering department who is now an R&D engineer at the iPrint Institute; and , a principal researcher at Microsoft Research.

This research was funded by Microsoft Research.

For more information, contact Roumeli at eroumeli@uw.edu.

For Valentine’s Day, UW News asked 12 天美影视传媒 researchers to share their love stories: What made them decide to pursue their career paths? Scroll down or click on the links below to see their responses.

Lakeya Afolalu | Katya Cherukumilli | Stephen Groening | June Lukuyu | Jennifer Nemhauser | Zoe Pleasure | Kira Schabram | B谩ra 艩af谩艡ov谩 | Adam Summers | Timeka Tounsel | Kendall Valentine | Navid Zobeiry

, Assistant professor of language, literacy and culture, College of Education

What do you study at the UW?听

My research explores how immigration, race, language, literacy and identity intersect in the lives of Nigerian immigrant and transnational youth. Unlike in many West African countries, race is the most salient identifier in the United States, often overlooking the diverse ethnic, cultural and linguistic identities of youth of African origin. This often affects how immigrant youth make sense of their identities in this country. My research examines how Nigerian youth use multilingualism, literacy and digital literacies to construct and negotiate their identities across home, school and digital environments in the U.S.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

My mother is African American. My father is Nigerian. So, growing up, I often felt like I was split between both cultures. There were also so many societal and familial expectations about what it meant to be “Black,” “African American” and “Nigerian.”

Growing up, my family members and friends in Detroit called me by my African American name, “Lakeya.” But when my sisters and I spent summers and holidays in Queens, New York, with our Nigerian family, the moment I crossed over the threshold of the door I was called by my Nigerian name, “Iyore.”

Honestly, I’d say I set out very early in life to define my life’s path and to be intentional about how I wanted to make myself known to the world 鈥� my identity. It was not 鈥� and even as an adult Black woman in America, it still is not always 鈥� comfortable to defy identity expectations. But what other way is there to live? To be a shell of what others, or society, believe we should be? Is that living? It is not.

As a teenager, I had less confidence in being bold and being my true self. I loved reading novels. I鈥檇 go to the bookstore and buy books to read, but I hid this practice from my friends because of some unwritten rule that one can鈥檛 be Black, cool and smart. Adolescent peer pressure was a real issue. That’s also how I fell in love with writing. Often feeling misunderstood, I resorted to the pages of my journals where I could be myself and dream of my future self. I continue to keep a journal.

My Aunt Darcelle says I’ve been asking profound questions since I learned to speak. That hasn’t changed. So, it’s no surprise that I’ve committed to a career in research. My research is not just research, though. It’s the story and lives of so many young people who feel wedged between other people’s and society’s ideas of who they should be and what they should become. Sometimes, these expectations can come from those closest to us who have well-meaning intentions 鈥� parents, family members, close friends. I understand this feeling well.

There are many times when I’m writing a manuscript or analyzing data, and I draw on memories of my own schooling experiences to interpret interview transcripts from the Nigerian youth in my study. Or I remember similar instances from West African seventh-grade students in Harlem, which guided me to draw on theoretical frames that align best with the Nigerian youth experience.

My research is truly about shifting the narrative about what it means to be Black, Nigerian and African. Why? Well, because Blackness is so rich, diverse and multifaceted. So is Nigerianness and Africanness. As I engage in my research to illustrate the rich diversity of Nigerian youth’s languages, literacies and identities, I also aim to contribute to dismantling rigid identity structures, creating greater freedom for all young people who find themselves in environments that are structured by prescribed identities that conflict with how they desire to be known.

My research is a contribution to freedom 鈥� a freedom that transcends into adulthood. My feet may be in the academy, but my heart and hands always have been and always will be in the communities that mirror mine. It鈥檚 truly an honor to do this heart work.

I also want to touch on how I decided to pursue this career path. Growing up, I always wanted to play school and take on the role of the teacher. In fact, I cried whenever my sisters and cousins wouldn鈥檛 play school with me. For Christmas and my birthday, I would ask my mother to buy me dry-erase boards, markers and other office items so that I could set up my “classroom” in the house.

I fell in love with teaching because my early elementary teachers were some of the first people who made me feel seen. For instance, my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Schave, would let me choose and read books to the whole class on Fridays. My second-grade teacher, Mrs. Korn, at Fitzgerald Elementary on the west side of Detroit, would invite me to the writer鈥檚 table in the classroom whenever I finished my work early. At that table, I realized how powerful and freeing the art of writing is.

While I had these great school experiences, they were also starkly different from my cousins’ experiences. They lived and attended public schools in Auburn Hills, in the suburbs outside of Detroit. I often visited them on the weekends and noticed that they read the same books that I read at my elementary school, except that we had the abridged version in basal textbooks while they had the full chapter books. That struck something within me, and I realized very early in life that your ZIP code 鈥� where you lived 鈥� determined the quality of your education. It felt unfair. I didn鈥檛 have the words to describe it then, but I now know that it was an equity issue 鈥� not just educationally but also in terms of economic and social mobility.

So, I decided around the age of 7 that I wanted to become a teacher. I made an internal promise to myself, a commitment, that children who grow up in communities like mine 鈥� the beautiful west side of Detroit 鈥� would have access to a quality education no matter what. Since that commitment, I’ve taught elementary and middle school in Newark, New Jersey, Detroit, and Harlem.

Thinking back to the connection with my research on identity, I had many conversations with my Nigerian father, who wanted me to pursue a career in finance. In Nigerian culture, there’s often the idea that doctor, lawyer and engineer are the only three career choices, but I was less interested in the money and prestige. I was committed to a career in education.

Today, as an assistant professor and the founder of a that supports the identities and well-being of youth of color, I have small moments when I think back to little Lakeya and smile. I鈥檓 doing exactly what she set out to do and more. She would be proud.

What advice would you give to your younger self?听

It鈥檚 okay to be misunderstood. It鈥檚 okay not to fit in. In fact, not fitting in is what makes you beautifully unique. I know that none of your identity and educational experiences may make sense now, but they will later. Trust me, it will make sense 鈥� not just for you but for many youths who find themselves making sense of their identities. In fact, you鈥檒l dedicate your career to speaking, writing and doing community-based work about these topics. Finally, I know you鈥檙e looking for that example like yourself, with your dreams and who lives between multiple cultural worlds, but in time, you will become the example you鈥檙e looking for. Hold on. It鈥檚 going to be a beautiful roller coaster of a ride.

For more information, contact Afolalu at lafolalu@uw.edu.

Back to the top

, Assistant professor, Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering

What do you study at the UW?

My research group, the Safe Water Equity and Longevity Lab, aims to bridge gaps between scientific discovery, technology design and safe water provision. We integrate methods from human-centered design and environmental engineering to investigate barriers that limit safe water access and to develop usable water quality monitoring and treatment technologies. Specifically, we use data science, experiments, hardware prototyping and community-engaged research methods to design collaborative tools that improve safe water management and mitigate exposure to chemical contaminants in water supplies.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

From a young age, I always felt a deep connection to our planet. I loved spending most of my time outdoors exploring the natural world. I was very curious and talkative as a child, wanting to solve riddles, play games and learn about how everything worked. My curiosity led me down a winding path of research adventures that allowed me to study geology and supercontinents, climate change and alpine plant ecology, fuel-efficient cookstoves, wastewater irrigation and, eventually, safe drinking water.

When I reflect on how I ended up choosing to research access to drinking water, I think about the different places I have lived: south India, Florida, California and Washington. Each region has a uniquely different way of life, cultural traditions and natural environments. A common thread in each of the places I have called home was proximity to the coastline and easy access to fresh springs, rivers and lakes. I have always found myself drawn by an invisible force to the nearest body of water.

I am grateful that my career allows me to address environmental health challenges while also considering the human experience, to reflect on and reconcile inequities and injustices, and to collaboratively solve complex puzzles with brilliant students, colleagues and community partners.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Don鈥檛 be scared to do what you love every day, follow your heart and never stop speaking your mind. You’ll eventually find your way and realize it was the journey that mattered in the end.

For more information, contact Cherukumilli at katyach@uw.edu.

Back to the top

, Associate professor, Department of Cinema & Media Studies

What do you study at the UW?

I am a media historian who specializes in the sociocultural aspects of media technologies. This includes researching and writing about devices themselves, the implications of the introduction and widespread adoption of these devices and how people use them. For example, my first book was . I have also published research on cell phones, , 16 mm training films, and the use of television screens in the family minivan.

What made you fall in love with your research area? 听

I was 7 when I was stuck on a Pan Am 747 for five hours on the tarmac at London Heathrow and boy, was it exciting when they finally played the movie on the big screen at the front of the cabin!

After that, I lived in Poland under a military dictatorship, which profoundly shaped my media experience growing up. For example, we used to watch Hollywood films played on a 16 mm projector in our living room 鈥� both the films and projector were provided through the U.S. Armed Forces. The range of films could be odd. I remember watching “Sophie’s Choice,” “Heartbeeps,” “Terms of Endearment,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Going Ape!,” “Sleeper,” “Fire and Ice,” “The Towering Inferno,” “City on Fire,” “When Time Ran Out,” “Three Days of the Condor,” “Hannah and Her Sisters” and “Krull” 鈥� not exactly .

At the same time, we were watching Polish television (mostly the animated shows “Pszcz贸艂ka Maja” and “Bolek i Lolek”). Occasionally, a Hollywood film would be aired on TV, over-dubbed in Polish in such a way that the English language dialogue was still audible. I have distinct memories of watching “The Poseidon Adventure” and hearing the first few words of a line in English before the Polish translation came in on top of the dialogue. It wasn’t until a decade or so later that I learned this is not the standard technique for making alternate language versions of films.

We sometimes had access to U.S. television shows from other American diplomats who would return from home leave. They would bring videotape recordings, so I got to watch “Hogan’s Heroes,” “M*A*S*H” and “Gilligan’s Island” months after air date, complete with commercials (which I found both profoundly perplexing and compelling 鈥� As I type right now, I am singing the ). I even got to see “Roots” and “The Day After” on Betamax (we did not have what was then thought of as the inferior VHS format).

I would say that those media experiences 鈥� in-flight film, 16mm home exhibition, watching films on television in multiple languages 鈥� sparked my interest in our mediated mass culture. Until relatively recently, film studies was marked by a bias toward theatrical exhibition of feature films (with the occasional nod to experimental films shown in art galleries) and media studies was concerned with the effective transmission of messages to audiences. The forms of media encounter that are unforeseen and often unintended at the moment of production often get treated as accidental and inconsequential and yet, for many people that is the primary mode of encounter. Because of my experience, I know that all media forms, devices and their contents are contingent on a particular and fortuitous set of circumstances. So I find myself curious about those circumstances and their history.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

If I had known I would become an academic, I might have told my 8-year-old self to take better notes and told my undergraduate self to spend more time in faculty office hours asking about academia. Knowing what I know now, I would have told myself 10 years ago to stop worrying what others might think and just write the damned book.

For more information, contact Groening at groening@uw.edu.

Back to the top

, Assistant professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

What do you study at the UW?

My research centers on using transdisciplinary approaches to develop solutions for creating sustainable, inclusive and integrated energy solutions for underserved communities. My expertise supports policymakers and practitioners seeking equitable, community-centered energy transitions that combine technical and socioeconomic perspectives.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

I grew up in a small community outside Nairobi, Kenya. From an early age, I saw firsthand the challenges of unreliable power: frequent outages, power surges and a system that did not always meet the needs of the people it served. When the lights went out, my family, like many in the area, was often left scrambling to preserve our food or finish homework assignments in candlelight. It was not just an inconvenience 鈥� it was a reminder of how something as essential as electricity could hold communities back. I knew from then that I wanted to do something about it, but at the time, I did not quite know how.

When I was in high school, I applied to colleges in the U.S. and was accepted to Smith College on a full scholarship. There, I pursued engineering science, but what really sparked my love for the field was not just the technical challenges 鈥� it was how energy systems intertwined with society. At Smith, I was not just solving equations. I was also exploring how power affects everything from education to health care to human development. My engineering courses were paired with courses in psychology, economics and sociology, and that blend of disciplines opened my eyes to a new way of thinking: Energy wasn鈥檛 just a technical problem to solve, it was a societal one.

The more I learned, the more I realized that fixing energy systems in underserved communities couldn鈥檛 be as simple as just adding more power or building bigger grids. It had to be about understanding the people who needed that power. I wanted to create systems that responded to real needs, that didn鈥檛 just drop in solutions, but considered the community鈥檚 culture, environment and existing infrastructure. After graduating, I had a job developing software to estimate the cost of power systems, but I kept thinking about how we could rethink energy to make it more sustainable, more inclusive and more connected to the social fabric of the places it served.

That thinking led me to pursue a master鈥檚 in renewable energy systems at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom and then a doctorate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where my research focused on finding ways to develop energy systems that were as much about community as they were about technology. I didn鈥檛 just want to create another power system that might fail because it didn鈥檛 align with how people lived or how societies worked. Instead, I wanted to design systems that were responsive to local contexts and to the needs of communities they intended to serve, systems that people could rely on for the long haul.

In 2023, I joined the 天美影视传媒 as an assistant professor, where I founded the IDEAS (Interdisciplinary Energy Analytics for Society) research group. Our work is all about creating energy systems that work for the people who use them. It鈥檚 a mix of developing sustainable technology, social understanding and deep collaboration with communities. We鈥檙e working on projects in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and even here in the U.S., always with the goal of creating solutions that are both sustainable and tailored to the specific needs of each community.

What I love most about my research is that it鈥檚 not just about the science 鈥� it鈥檚 about the people. Every project is a chance to dive into a new community, understand its challenges and design solutions that truly fit. I鈥檓 passionate about making sure that when we think about energy, we鈥檙e thinking about people, not just power. And now, teaching and mentoring the next generation of engineers at UW gives me a chance to pass on that mindset 鈥� to inspire others to think beyond the technical and ask, “How does this system help the people who need it most?”

It鈥檚 been a winding journey, from a small town outside Nairobi to researching sustainable and inclusive energy solutions at a major university. But the core of it has always been the same: a desire to make a difference, to solve real-world problems with technology and to ensure that everyone, no matter where they are, has access to the energy they need to thrive.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I鈥檇 tell my younger self not to worry so much about fitting into a mold or following a traditional path. Every experience, even the ones that seem unrelated or uncertain, contributes to your journey. Embrace the uncertainty, because it often leads to the most interesting places.

I鈥檇 also remind myself to be patient and kind with the process. Progress isn鈥檛 always linear. There were times when I felt overwhelmed or unsure of my next step. It鈥檚 okay to feel that way 鈥� it鈥檚 part of learning and growing. The setbacks, the challenges and even the moments of doubt are just as important as the successes. They shape you and teach you valuable lessons.

Finally, I鈥檇 tell myself to take more risks 鈥� to seek out the scary opportunities, the ones that seem daunting or unfamiliar. You never know where a seemingly small decision or unexpected twist in the road might take you. Sometimes, the things that seem out of reach are the ones worth pursuing most. So, trust yourself, stay curious and keep pushing forward, even when the path isn鈥檛 always clear. The journey will be worth it.

For more information, contact Lukuyu at jlukuyu@uw.edu.

Back to the top

, Professor, Department of Biology

What do you study at the UW?

We use plant, yeast and human cells to understand and engineer the molecular interactions that allow organisms to process information during development and stress responses.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

When I was a little girl, I attended a Montessori school in Los Angeles. This was the 1970s, and the teachers embraced the philosophy of letting a child’s interest direct their learning. I had one teacher that I really bonded with, named Dr. Pillai. He introduced me to the process of science research, rewarding my seemingly insatiable curiosity with thoughtful responses and sharing just the right book or model or experiment to help me dig deeper into any topic that caught my interest. He made me feel like asking a million questions was a wonderful quality (something not everyone agreed with, then or now!).

The pure joy of learning about the natural world through experimentation struck a deep chord. While the road was quite twisty between those early years and my decision to pursue science as a career, I am sure that I would not be here today without that early encouragement.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Be nicer to your dad when he is helping you with your math homework!

For more information, contact Nemhauser at jn7@uw.edu.

Back to the top

, Doctoral student, Department of Health Systems & Population Health, School of Public Health

What do you study at the UW?

My research focuses on understanding how people make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health care while navigating the multi-level influences that shape our current societal structure. In my research, I use mixed methods to analyze more traditional data sources, such as qualitative interviews and surveys, and newer data sources, such as TikTok videos, Reddit posts and electronic health record notes, to understand what type of information people seek out about sexual and reproductive health, their motivations behind decision-making and their care interactions with providers. I seek to examine how people with different lived experiences (for example: chronic disease, young people, veterans) may have different decision-making motivations and informational needs to make autonomous reproductive health decisions.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

I first became passionate about sexual and reproductive health while taking the class Sex, Gender and the Brain as a neuroscience undergraduate at Emory University. My final project focused on how anti-choice groups attempted to limit reproductive autonomy by promoting erroneous interpretations of neuroscience data to argue that oral contraceptives are dangerous. The class demonstrated to me how scientists could meld science with feminist theory and, more specifically, how the intentional distribution of misinformation online provides another tool to limit bodily autonomy.

Earlier in my educational career, teachers often framed my biology, chemistry and physics classes as apolitical or unbiased by societal structures. I now know that is not true. This class was one of the first classes where we were asked to name the specific orientation or lens of a research paper or study and describe who and what was left out.

I quickly dropped my neuroscience focus after this class and instead focused on policy-relevant, public 鈥揾ealth-informed research that aims to improve access to and the equity and quality of sexual and reproductive health care and information. While earning a master’s of public health, I started working at the Guttmacher Institute, a leading sexual and reproductive health policy and research organization based in New York City. There, I started working on research projects that directly studied ways to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I would advise my younger self to think critically about the lessons that are available in all academic classes, including English, dance, and history, and to think about how these lessons can be used to become a better public health researcher and writer.

For more information, contact Pleasure at zoep2@uw.edu.

Back to the top

, Assistant professor of management, Foster School of Business

What do you study at the UW?

My two primary topics of inquiry are meaningful work and employee sustainability. My research examines how to support employees who want to make a positive difference through their work in ways big and small, ranging from employees who view work as a calling 鈥� not just a paycheck but as a source of personal, social or moral significance 鈥� to those engaging in everyday acts of helping, kindness and compassion. I study the challenges that impede these activities to determine how employees can conduct their work more sustainably.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

I fell into academia. In 2007, I was working for the largest animal shelter in North America and I enrolled in a part-time master’s program in business because I had aspirations of one day rising into a leadership position in animal welfare.

In 2008, the Great Recession hit and I lost my job, but I also learned that professors in my master’s program did research (who knew!). At the time, research on meaningful work was in its infancy and focused primarily on the positive aspects (for example: showing that employees doing meaningful work have greater engagement and satisfaction). I saw this among my co-workers in the animal shelter, but I also saw so much frustration, burnout and resignation. Every day, employees who wanted to save animals’ lives were in the corner crying because of their inability to do so.

I applied to 10 doctoral programs and got into one, where I was lucky that my supervisors encouraged me to join the burgeoning wave of research looking at meaningful work as a double-edged sword and what to do about it. The rest is history.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

This is less advice for my younger self and more gratitude to all the people who helped me along the way. Early in your career, you do not yet know how anything works: how research works, what journals are appropriate outlets, how to develop the ability to know where to dedicate our efforts: what research projects are not only novel but important. Until then, senior mentors are invaluable guides. What makes for a successful career is all the people who generously offer their time and guidance along the way. I did many, many things wrong in my early career, but one thing I did right was to seek out and show my appreciation for any and all help. I would not be here if it wasn’t for the thousands of hours invested in me by others in the field and I hope I am paying that forward in a small part.

For more information, contact Schabram at schabram@uw.edu.

Back to the top

, Assistant professor, School of Urban Studies, UW Tacoma

What do you study at the UW?

听My research is primarily on housing segregation, but I have also become an expert on the overlap of and its relationship with the greening of cities in times of climate change and rising inequality.

What made you fall in love with this new research area?

听I happened to fall into this area in the middle of the night a couple months into my architecture doctoral program. It was early spring. I had moved to College Station, Texas, and was living in a relatively old timberstick house. It was about 1 a.m. when I jumped into my bed and then yelped out from a sharp pain in my lower back.

My first thought: a snake bite?! I leapt up, squeezed my back as if I could prevent any poison from getting in, turned on the light and scanned the bed for a snake. Nothing. Instead I saw a bug 鈥� a flat dark bug, not even an inch long. I scooped it up in a jar, let go of my “poisoned skin” and sighed in relief.

Then I thought, could this be a risky bug? I had just moved to the U.S. from Europe and I didn’t know the local fauna at all. To resolve this in a rational way, I settled on eliminating worst-case scenarios. I Googled: “most dangerous insects in Texas.” I checked the bug in the jar for unique characteristics and compared it to a ranking of鈥� JESUS! The third bug on the list was exactly the same bug that was staring at me from the jar: A Kissing bug鈥� a bite from which can lead to Chagas disease鈥� Deadly鈥� No cure鈥� Organs disintegrate in several decades.

My heart was pounding. My hand was back on the bite site. I was skimming the internet frantically. It was so late, and I had no one to call at that hour. I thought of calling people in Europe, but what would they know? I forced myself to read slowly and make a plan.

The message became clear: There is no cure for Chagas disease and the only symptom (sometimes) occurs the following morning: the swelling of one eyelid on the side closer to the bite site. Even if I went to the hospital, this seemed to be an under-studied disease and tests were limited. I resolved to just sleep it off and go to the doctor in the morning.

I woke up early. My face was symmetrical. Phew. I took the jar to the clinic right as they opened. Someone in the waiting room told me about getting bit by a brown recluse. “Oh well,” I thought, giving up on life a little.

The doctor took one look at the bug and said “Yes, that is a Kissing bug. There’s no cure. No test. Just move on, sorry!”

Perplexed, but also assured by the lack of urgency, I left the clinic. Over the next few days, my worries slowly faded as there apparently was nothing to do about this. I tossed the bug.

Two weeks later I saw an announcement on the university homepage from , then a doctoral student studying biomedical sciences. She was asking about any Kissing bug sightings and .

I immediately wrote to Rachel and reported what happened. She was super excited and asked me to bring her the bug. I said I threw it out, but had photos and I found a similar one 鈥� I had lots of bugs in my old house. We met over coffee. Rachel informed me that the bug was NOT a Kissing bug and that I should not worry. She could test me, but it was not necessary.

She explained the science of how the parasite behind Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, . It’s quite the process: After the bug bites you, it poops. The parasites are in infected bugs’ poop, which means that the poop has to get smudged into the bite site for you to get infected.

Then Rachel asked about my doctoral research and I told her I was studying housing in the colonias that line the border of Texas and Mexico. Her eyes lit up because she was looking to get samples from there. Thanks to the bug bite and my coffee with Rachel, a whole team formed and we started a pilot project that combined our research interests. This study became my master’s thesis, and six years later in the prestigious Habitat International journal.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Talk to doctoral students from many more disciplines!

For more information, contact 艩af谩艡ov谩 at bsafar@uw.edu.

Back to the top

, Professor, Department of Biology and School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences

What do you study at the UW?

I am a natural historian who applies physics, math and engineering concepts to living systems to understand how they work. My research is driven by both the evolutionary implications of function and the possibility of bio-inspired design.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

From my earliest childhood I spent three seasons in downtown Manhattan and summer in the north woods of Ontario, Canada. The contrast between the most urban environment and a place without utilities or indoor plumbing was formative. Fishes, whether in tanks, on lines, or through my SCUBA mask, were my constant and most interesting companions. No detail was too obscure, and no species too drab to escape my attention.

I left fish behind when I got to college. Instead, it was a constant joy of mathematics and engineering, with a liberal arts sprinkling of art history, economics and German. After college I tried many things: I started a business, taught in the NYC public school system and attempted a career in photography. But I wasn’t willing to persist when things were hard or no fun. Then I went to Australia to become a SCUBA instructor. There I met my first biologist. I was smitten with the idea of making a living trying to understand animals.

On my return to New York, I immersed myself in biology, particularly the natural history of fishes, reptiles and amphibians. Spending hours in the field closely observing animals and their environment was one avenue of inspiration. The other was investigating animals’ shape, or morphology, with an electron microscope. The link between form and function was how my weeks passed 鈥� looking at microstructure, then wading in temporary ponds for larval salamanders. I fell completely in love with both areas and have made my career at that interface.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Treasure your mentors in the moment. They are gone too soon and you will never feel like you made it clear enough how much they affected you and your career.

For more information, contact Summers at fishguy@uw.edu.听

Back to the top

, Associate professor, Department of Communication

What do you study at the UW?

I am a critical-cultural studies scholar who focuses on race, gender, and sexuality in the media. Specifically, I study how Black people negotiate mass media as marginalized subjects whose status as citizens is always precarious. I’m especially interested in the stories that circulate about Black women, both external narratives and the stories that Black women craft about themselves.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

I sometimes think of myself as an accidental academic. I pursued a degree in magazine journalism and international relations in college with the intention of becoming a magazine editor. But everything changed the summer I landed an internship at my dream magazine, . At the time, many publications were closing their doors or downsizing their staff in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. All of a sudden, pursuing a career in magazines began to feel like a much larger risk than I was comfortable with. Aside from the industry woes, I also realized that I had just as much fun studying magazines (and other media) for class projects as I did working for one.

At Essence, the assignments that my editor gave me reflected a particular image of Black womanhood and assumptions about Blackness, femininity and masculinity that were key to the magazine’s brand. When I returned to school for my last year of college, I took a Black feminist theory course where I wrote essays exploring the questions that had popped into my mind during my internship 鈥� questions that I couldn’t shake, questions that played in the background of my mind whenever I was walking through the magazine aisle at the grocery store, or watching television or a movie. This taste of how deeply satisfying a life of the mind could be was a turning point. By the end of the feminist theory course I had decided to apply to graduate school.

My first book, “,” was a full-circle moment. In the book I offer a cultural history of Essence magazine and position it as a predecessor to contemporary commercial representations of Black womanhood realized in the 2010s through hashtags like #BlackGirlMagic and advertising campaigns, such as Proctor and Gamble’s “.” It was an amazing feeling to follow my curiosity and return to the questions that first captivated my mind as an intern. During the writing process I realized that the seeds of these questions had started even earlier, when I was a little girl sitting in a Black beauty shop with dozens of issues of Ebony, Jet and Essence magazines. Long before I was old enough to fully comprehend the articles, the images in these magazines captivated me, beaconing me to explore further.

The thing that most fills my heart about the scholarly path that I’ve chosen is being able to document and amplify the brilliance and beauty of Black women. There’s so much that’s problematic in the stories that society tells about Black women, but the brightest moments in my teaching and research are connected to the dope narratives that Black women craft about themselves.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Lean into the questions that captivate you and the subject areas that awaken your passion and curiosity. This will point you in the direction of your most fulfilling research projects and your very best writing.

For more information, contact Tounsel at timeka@uw.edu.

Back to the top

, Assistant professor, School of Oceanography

What do you study at the UW?

听I’m a coastal ecogeomorphologist, which means I study how ecology, geology and physics change the landscape on the coast. A lot of my work focuses on how biology (plants, microbes) alters how mud moves around coastal systems and changes what our coastlines look like. I am particularly interested in marshes and mudflats. I go into the field to measure what is really happening on the coast, and then develop numerical computer models to predict how these processes will change in the future.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

When I was 5 years old, my family went on vacation to Cape Cod National Seashore. We attended an educational program at the Salt Pond Visitor Center, and I knew I was in love. The stinky, muddy marsh felt like home to me immediately, and I still remember talking to the volunteer scientist about how marshes work. At that time, however, I had no idea that you could study marshes and mud as your job!

That formative memory never left me, even though, as I continued in school and focused on science, I intended to become a medical doctor. In my world, if you were good at math and science, the logical career path was to become a medical doctor.

I went to college at Boston University, where I planned to major in chemistry. But for every class project, I ended up focusing on oceans and coastlines. I had a wonderful TA who noticed this trend and mentioned to me in passing that my university had a marine science program and that maybe I should consider taking a class in that program to see if I liked it. I enrolled in a class called “Estuaries” and I’ve never looked back. The first week of the class, we took a field trip to collect data in a marsh and I was instantly transported back to my 5-year-old self, loving the marsh. I was the first student who jumped into the mud to collect data, and I didn’t want to leave. Within a few weeks I was working in that professor’s lab, and I really haven’t left the marsh since.

I also started developing so many questions about how things worked 鈥� and how everything tied together, from the mud to the birds 鈥� that I quickly realized that research and teaching in the field was what I needed to do with my life. My research has expanded a lot since then to encompass many different types of coasts, but my love for the rotten-egg-smelling, squelching mud drives a lot of what I choose to do. Being out in nature and seeing the processes happen in real time inspires me to understand coastal systems and help make a more resilient future for our planet and for people.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I am incredibly lucky to have a job that I absolutely love, and I would encourage my younger self to pursue what makes me happy. Sometimes my work hardly feels like work because I am so engaged and excited by what I am discovering and the students I get to work with. While every day isn’t always amazing (I have bad work days too!), at the end of the work week I’m always thankful for what a great job I have. I hope that everyone is able to find something they are passionate about in their life.

I would also say: Believe in yourself and don’t compare yourself to others. Just keep doing what you love and what you think is important and helpful to others, and everything will work out okay.

For more information, contact Valentine at kvalent@uw.edu.

Back to the top

, Associate professor, Department of Materials Science & Engineering

What do you study at the UW?

My research team integrates materials science, data science and advanced manufacturing with primary applications in aerospace. We focus on three main areas:

1. Smart material testing methods, using physics-informed machine learning to control the testing parameters.
2. Smart manufacturing that leverages automation, sensing and machine learning. The goal is to develop AI for autonomous and self-aware manufacturing systems.
3. Smart engineering approaches to accelerate aerospace design and certification. We use a combination of machine learning, automated testing and physics-based numerical simulations techniques.

What made you fall in love with your research area?

According to my parents, my first word was “hot.” Looking back, it seems like a fitting start to a life deeply intertwined with the principles of heat transfer. My fascination with heat and materials began early and found a natural outlet in my love for cooking. I enjoy experimenting with different cooking techniques, all of which benefit immensely from an understanding of heat transfer. This passion even led me to publish a cookbook a few years ago.

After earning my doctoral degree, I began working at a research center in Canada, where I collaborated with various companies to solve their manufacturing challenges. Over time, I worked with a wide range of materials 鈥� concrete, wood, polymers, metals and composites. As I delved deeper into manufacturing, I started noticing fascinating parallels between it and cooking. Both require precise control of variables like temperature and pressure to transform materials into something new.

For instance, making aerospace composite parts in an autoclave is essentially pressure-cooking a layered material. Similarly, tempering chocolate to achieve its perfect microstructure, texture and snap is strikingly similar to controlling the crystallinity of thermoplastics to optimize their performance. Recognizing these connections allowed me to combine my personal passion for cooking with my professional love for materials science and engineering.

This love for exploring the science behind materials was paired with my lifelong interest in mathematics, which naturally led me to integrate machine learning and AI into my research. These tools provided a way to unlock deeper insights and bring innovation into material design and manufacturing. For example, my very first project as a professor at the 天美影视传媒 was a collaboration with Boeing, where we developed AI for manufacturing aerospace composites. It was akin to creating a smart oven that can monitor the temperature of various parts and autonomously adjust the controls 鈥� a direct parallel to advanced cooking techniques.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

As you explore different options for your career, focus more on what you truly love to do. Don鈥檛 be afraid to combine your personal passions with your professional goals 鈥� start doing this earlier. The joy and fulfillment you鈥檒l find in aligning your personal interests with your career will open doors to creative opportunities and unique solutions you might not have imagined. Trust the process and follow what excites you most.

For more information, contact Zobeiry at navidz@uw.edu.

Back to the top

Many traditional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, effectively destroy cancer cells but often lead to severe side effects that leave patients feeling even more sick.

Two 天美影视传媒 researchers are developing treatments that aim to simultaneously treat cancer and improve patients’ quality of life. , UW professor of materials science and engineering and of neurological surgery in the UW School of Medicine, develops tiny systems that deliver cancer treatment specifically to cancer cells. , UW assistant professor of materials science and engineering and of radiology in the UW School of Medicine, uses interventional radiology to precisely deliver cancer treatment to the body.

Both Zhang and Som are studying a cancer treatment method called , where a patient’s own immune cells are trained to target and destroy cancer cells. The two researchers are now collaborating with the goal of getting their therapeutics into the clinic.

For World Cancer Day, UW News asked Zhang and Som to discuss their novel materials and how these materials can treat both the cancer and the patient.

Tell us about your research in this area.听

Miqin Zhang: One of our key research areas is developing biocompatible nanoplatforms for cancer diagnosis, treatment and therapy-response monitoring. For example, one of our recent advances is using tiny particles called nanoparticles to deliver immunotherapies or vaccines in preclinical animal models. The payloads from these nanoparticles activate immune cells to eradicate drug-resistant solid tumors and metastases.

In general, our nanoplatforms provide tumor specificity in two unique ways:

• The nanoparticles can carry diverse payloads 鈥� including chemotherapeutics and genetic materials 鈥� to address tumor heterogeneity
• We can use different methods to trigger our nanoparticles to release their payloads, such as changing the temperature or pH. Other methods include using enzymes or magnetic fields.

Our systems are designed for versatility and can work in tandem with various tumor-targeting and therapeutic agents.

Avik Som: I am a physician-scientist with clinical training in interventional radiology, with a specific focus in interventional oncology. In this field we often deliver therapy directly to single lesions using small needles and wires. This eliminates the need for invasive surgery in patients who are often too sick for surgery.

My research expertise has focused on developing novel drug delivery materials and techniques for interventional radiologists to use, including in the field of immunotherapy. Interventional radiologists have long succeeded at delivering therapy highly precisely within the body. Using the best of material science, my lab looks at changing what we鈥檙e delivering to heal our patients of both their cancer and the underlying ravages that the cancer has caused.

How can your materials both extend patients’ lives and improve their quality of life?

MZ: Our new nanoparticle materials promise more effective and less harmful treatments in a variety of ways. First, the nanoparticles target cancer cells specifically, which minimizes side effects and enables controlled drug release to maintain therapeutic levels without toxicity spikes.

Next, we design these nanoparticles using biocompatible materials, such as iron oxide and chitosan coatings, which reduce immune-response reactions and make the nanoparticles more compatible with long-term use.

Cancer’s complex and variable nature means that treatments that are effective for one patient might not work for another, which makes it difficult to create one-size-fits-all solutions. But our nanoparticles support personalized medicine because we can target specific mutated genes in individual patients. Furthermore, we can develop nanoparticles that are multifunctional. For example, a single nanoparticle can have capabilities that enable both monitoring as well as treatment.

AS: The concepts of extending patients’ lives and improving their quality of life have effectively been done in parallel for years. For example, the UW has extensive history and expertise in tissue engineering. But it usually isn’t combined with cancer care because the two goals often feel contradictory: Tissue engineering results from inducing cell growth, while historically cancer therapy has directly focused on killing cells. So the fields have diverged.

But we can design novel materials to do both: One material can use different release rates to stagger the anti-cancer versus tissue-engineering effects. For example, we can use interventional radiology to implant a material directly into a tumor. The material can have an initial burst of drug release that has an anti-cancer effect. And then, after killing the tumor, the residual material can release factors that recruit normal cells to fill in the gap where the cancer was.

Alternatively, as radiologists, we can see where cancer is and isn鈥檛. It is therefore possible to selectively deliver anti-cancer agents to the cancer, while simultaneously delivering pro-tissue engineering agents to normal tissue.

Are any of these treatments currently available in the clinic?

MZ: The process of getting a treatment like this approved is complex and resource-intensive, because it requires extensive research, clinical trials and regulatory approvals. To reduce clinical trial costs, our nanoparticle platform is adaptable for multiple genetic therapies, which offers regulatory advantages and paves the way for FDA approval.

Right now, our nanoparticles are still at the basic research stage and have not yet entered clinical trials. They have, however, demonstrated their efficacy in various pre-clinical animal models. We are now prepared to engage with venture capitalists and major pharmaceutical companies to advance our nanoparticles into clinical trials.

AS: Our research is also still in the basic stage for the moment. We need to determine the best type of material and safest way to deliver it into patients through rigorous pre-clinical testing.

That being said, at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and UW Medicine, we are leading an intratumoral therapy group that is ramping up clinical trials for patients using therapies that are in development around the country. In addition, we are working on bringing on more minimally invasive tissue engineering trials to the clinic soon.

What part of this collaboration is the most exciting to you?

AS: I was fortunate to meet Miqin during my interview at UW, and we struck up a vibrant conversation. Miqin has been a leader in the fields of biomaterials and drug delivery, and she is an ideal mentor to help me with my goal of bringing these advances to the clinic.

MZ: I have more than 15 years of experience in cancer research, and I strongly believe that interventional radiology is transforming cancer care by offering minimally invasive, precise treatment options that reduce side effects and improve patient outcomes. I am thrilled to collaborate with Avik so that we can apply our advanced materials and his innovative approaches to enhance interventional radiology for cancer treatment and tissue growth in a way that minimizes side effects and improves patients鈥� quality of life.

Zhang’s research is funded by the Kuni Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Zhang is also a faculty researcher with the UW Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems and the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute. Som’s research has been funded by the Radiologic Society of North America and the National Institutes of Health.

For more information, contact Zhang at mzhang@uw.edu and Som at aviksom@uw.edu.

Teeth are essential for helping people break down the food they eat, and are protected by enamel, which helps them withstand the large amount of stress they experience as people chew away. Unlike other materials in the body, enamel has no way to repair damage, which means that as we age, it risks becoming weaker with time.

Researchers are interested in understanding how enamel changes with age so that they can start to develop methods that can keep teeth happier and healthier for longer.

A research team at the 天美影视传媒 and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory examined the atomic composition of enamel samples from two human teeth 鈥� one from a 22-year-old and one from a 56-year-old. The sample from the older person contained higher levels of the ion fluoride, which is often found in drinking water and toothpaste, where it鈥檚 added as a way to help protect enamel (though its addition to drinking water has recently been a ).

The team Dec. 19 in Communications Materials. While this is a proof-of-concept study, these results have implications for how fluoride is taken up and integrated into enamel as people age, the researchers said.

“We know that teeth get more brittle as people age, especially near the very outer surface, which is where cracks start,” said lead author , UW doctoral student in materials science and engineering and a doctoral intern at PNNL. “There are a number of factors behind this 鈥� one of which is the composition of the mineral content. We’re interested in understanding exactly how the mineral content is changing. And if you want to see that, you have to look at the scale of atoms.”

Enamel is composed mostly of minerals that are arranged in repetitive structures that are ten thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair.

“In the past, everything that we’ve done in my lab is on a much larger scale 鈥� maybe a tenth the size of a human hair,” said co-senior author , UW professor of materials science and engineering. “On that scale, it’s impossible to see the distribution of the relative mineral and organic portions of the enamel crystalline structure.”

To examine the atomic composition of these structures, Grimm worked with , a materials scientist at PNNL, to use a technique called “atom probe tomography,” which allows researchers to get a 3D map of each atom in space in a sample.

The team made three samples from each of the two teeth in the study and then compared differences in element composition in three different areas of the tiny, repetitive structures: the core of a structure, a “shell” coating the core, and the space between the shells.

In the samples from the older tooth, fluoride levels were higher across most of the regions. But they were especially high in the shell regions.

“We are getting exposed to fluoride through our toothpaste and drinking water and no one has been able to track that in an actual tooth at this scale. Is that fluoride actually being incorporated over time? Now we’re starting to be able to paint that picture,” said co-author , a postdoctoral researcher in both the oral health sciences and the materials science and engineering departments at the UW. “Of course, the ideal sample would be a tooth from someone who had documented every time they drank fluoridated versus non-fluoridated water, as well as how much acidic food and drink they consumed, but that’s not really feasible. So this is a starting point.”

The key to this research, the team said, is the interdisciplinary nature of the work.

“I am a metallurgist by training and didn’t start to study biomaterials until 2015 when I met Dwayne. We started to talk about the potential synergy between our areas of expertise 鈥� how we can look at these small scales to start to understand how biomaterials behave,” Devaraj said. “And then in 2019 Jack joined the group as a doctoral student and helped us look at this problem in depth. Interdisciplinary science can facilitate innovation, and hopefully we’ll continue to address really interesting questions surrounding what happens to teeth as we age.”

One thing the researchers are interested in studying is how protein composition of enamel changes over time.

“We set out trying to identify the distribution of the organic content in enamel, and whether the tiny amount of protein present in enamel actually goes away as we age. But when we looked at these results, one of the things that was most obvious was actually this distribution of fluoride around the crystalline structure,” Arola said. “I don’t think we have a public service announcement yet about how aging affects teeth in general. The jury is still out on that. The message from dentistry is pretty strong: You should try to utilize fluoride or fluoridated products to be able to fight the potential for tooth decay.”

, a postdoctoral researcher at PNNL, is also a co-author on this paper.听This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Colgate-Palmolive Company and a distinguished graduate research program between PNNL and UW.

For more information, contact Grimm at jckgrmm@uw.edu, Arola at darola@uw.edu and Renteria at crentb@uw.edu. For questions specifically for Arun Devaraj please contact Karyn Hede at karyn.hede@pnnl.gov.

The 天美影视传媒 is proud to announce that more than 40 faculty and researchers who completed their work while at UW have been named on the annual list from Clarivate.

The annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index.

The list of faculty and researchers whose primary affiliation is with the UW or with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation who were acknowledged for their work includes:

David Baker

William A. Banks

Gregory N. Bratman

Steven L. Brunton

Guozhong Cao

William A. Catterall

Helen Chu

David H. Cobden

Katharine H.D. Crawford

Riza M. Daza

Frank DiMaio

Evan E. Eichler

Michael Gale Jr.

Raphael Gottardo

Allison J. Greaney

Alexander L. Greninger

Simon I. Hay

Celestia S. Higano

Neil P. King

James B. Leverenz

Charles M. Marcus

Philip Mease

Ali Mokdad

Thomas J. Montine*

Christopher J. L. Murray

Mohsen Naghavi

William S. Noble

Young-Jun Park

David M. Pigott

Stanley Riddell

Andrea Schietinger **

Jay Shendure

M. Alejandra Tortorici

Troy R. Torgerson***

Cole Trapnell

David Veesler

Theo Vos

Alexandra C. Walls****

Bryan J. Weiner

Spencer A. Wood

Sanfeng Wu

Di Xiao

Xiaodong Xu

The that determines the 鈥渨ho鈥檚 who鈥� of influential researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate. It also uses the tallies to identify the countries and research institutions where these scientific elite are based.

The full 2023 Highly Cited Researchers list and executive summary can be found online .

* now is at Stanford University.

** now is at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

*** now is at the Allen Institute.

**** now is at BoiNTech SE.

now is at Princeton University.

For decades, scientists have been probing the potential of two-dimensional materials to transform our world. 2D materials are only a single layer of atoms thick. Within them, subatomic particles like electrons can only move in two dimensions. This simple restriction can trigger unusual electron behavior, imbuing the materials with 鈥渆xotic鈥� properties like bizarre forms of magnetism, superconductivity and other collective behaviors among electrons 鈥� all of which could be useful in computing, communication, energy and other fields.

But researchers have generally assumed that these exotic 2D properties exist only in single-layer sheets, or short stacks. The so-called 鈥渂ulk鈥� versions of these materials 鈥� with their more complex 3D atomic structures 鈥� should behave differently.

Or so they thought.

In a published July 19 in Nature, a team led by researchers at the 天美影视传媒 reports that it is possible to imbue graphite 鈥� the bulk, 3D material found in No. 2 pencils 鈥� with physical properties similar to graphite鈥檚 2D counterpart, graphene. Not only was this breakthrough unexpected, the team also believes its approach could be used to test whether similar types of bulk materials can also take on 2D-like properties. If so, 2D sheets won鈥檛 be the only source for scientists to fuel technological revolutions. Bulk, 3D materials could be just as useful.

鈥淪tacking single layer on single layer 鈥� or two layers on two layers 鈥� has been the focus for unlocking new physics in 2D materials for several years now. In these experimental approaches, that鈥檚 where many interesting properties emerge,鈥� said senior author , a UW assistant professor of physics and of materials science and engineering. 鈥淏ut what happens if you keep adding layers? Eventually it has to stop, right? That鈥檚 what intuition suggests. But in this case, intuition is wrong. It鈥檚 possible to mix 2D properties into 3D materials.鈥�

The team, which also includes researchers at Osaka University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, adapted an approach commonly used to probe and manipulate the properties of 2D materials: stacking 2D sheets together at a small twist angle. Yankowitz and his colleagues placed a single layer of graphene on top of a thin, bulk graphite crystal, and then introduced a twist angle of around 1 degree between graphite and graphene. They detected novel and unexpected electrical properties not just at the twisted interface, but deep in the bulk graphite as well.

The twist angle is critical to generating these properties, said Yankowitz, who is also a faculty member in the UW Clean Energy Institute and the UW Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems. A twist angle between 2D sheets, like two sheets of graphene, creates what鈥檚 called a moir茅 pattern, which alters the flow of charged particles like electrons and induces exotic properties in the material.

In the UW-led experiments with graphite and graphene, the twist angle also induced a moir茅 pattern, with surprising results. Even though only a single sheet of graphene atop the bulk crystal was twisted, researchers found that the electrical properties of the whole material differed markedly from typical graphite. And when they turned on a magnetic field, electrons deep in the graphite crystal adopted unusual properties similar to those of electrons at the twisted interface. Essentially, the single twisted graphene-graphite interface became inextricably mixed with the rest of the bulk graphite.

鈥淭hough we were generating the moir茅 pattern only at the surface of the graphite, the resulting properties were bleeding across the whole crystal,鈥� said co-lead author , a UW postdoctoral researcher in physics.

For 2D sheets, moir茅 patterns generate properties that could be useful for quantum computing and other applications. Inducing similar phenomena in 3D materials unlocks new approaches for studying unusual and exotic states of matter and how to bring them out of the laboratory and into our everyday lives.

鈥淭he entire crystal takes on this 2D state,鈥� said co-lead author Ellis Thompson, a UW doctoral student in physics. 鈥淭his is a fundamentally new way to affect electron behavior in a bulk material.鈥�

Yankowitz and his team believe their approach of generating a twist angle between graphene and a bulk graphite crystal could be used to create 2D-3D hybrids of its sister materials, including tungsten ditelluride and zirconium pentatelluride. This could unlock a new approach to re-engineering the properties of conventional bulk materials using a single 2D interface.

鈥淭his method could become a really rich playground for studying exciting new physical phenomena in materials with mixed 2D and 3D properties,鈥� said Yankowitz.

Co-authors on paper are UW graduate student Esmeralda Arreguin-Martinez and UW postdoctoral researcher Yafei Ren, both in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; , a UW assistant professor of materials science and engineering; , a UW professor of physics and chair of materials science and engineering; Manato Fujimoto of Osaka University; and Kenji Watanabe and Takashi Taniguchi of the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation; the U.S. Department of Energy; the UW Clean Energy Institute; the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; the Japan Science and Technology Agency; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; and the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.

For more information, contact Yankowitz at myank@uw.edu.

We use plastics in almost every aspect of our lives. These materials are cheap to make and incredibly stable. The problem comes when we’re done using something plastic 鈥� it can persist in the environment for years. Over time, plastic will break down into smaller fragments, called microplastics, that can pose significant environmental and health concerns.

The best-case solution would be to use bio-based plastics that biodegrade instead, but many of those bioplastics are not designed to degrade in backyard composting conditions. They must be processed in commercial composting facilities, which are not accessible in all regions of the country.

A team led by researchers at the 天美影视传媒 has developed new bioplastics that degrade on the same timescale as a banana peel in a backyard compost bin. These bioplastics are made entirely from powdered blue-green cells, otherwise known as spirulina. The team used heat and pressure to form the spirulina powder into various shapes, the same processing technique used to create conventional plastics. The UW team’s bioplastics have mechanical properties that are comparable to single-use, petroleum-derived plastics.

The team June 20 in Advanced Functional Materials.

“We were motivated to create bioplastics that are both bio-derived and biodegradable in our backyards, while also being processable, scalable and recyclable,” said senior author , UW assistant professor of materials science and engineering. “The bioplastics we have developed, using only spirulina, not only have a degradation profile similar to organic waste, but also are on average 10 times stronger and stiffer than previously reported spirulina bioplastics. These properties open up new possibilities for the practical application of spirulina-based plastics in various industries, including disposable food packaging or household plastics, such as bottles or trays.”

The researchers opted to use spirulina to make their bioplastics for a few reasons. First of all, it can be cultivated on large scales because people already use it for various foods and cosmetics. Also, spirulina cells sequester carbon dioxide as they grow, making this biomass a carbon-neutral, or potentially carbon-negative, feedstock for plastics.

“Spirulina also has unique fire-resistant properties,” said lead author , a UW materials science and engineering doctoral student. “When exposed to fire, it instantly self-extinguishes, unlike many traditional plastics that either combust or melt. This fire-resistant characteristic makes spirulina-based plastics advantageous for applications where traditional plastics may not be suitable due to their flammability. One example could be plastic racks in data centers because the systems that are used to keep the servers cool can get very hot.”

Creating plastic products often involves a process that uses heat and pressure to shape the plastic into a desired shape. The UW team took a similar approach with their bioplastics.

“This means that we would not have to redesign manufacturing lines from scratch if we wanted to use our materials at industrial scales,” Roumeli said. “We’ve removed one of the common barriers between the lab and scaling up to meet industrial demand. For example, many bioplastics are made from molecules that are extracted from biomass, such as seaweed, and mixed with performance modifiers before being cast into films. This process requires the materials to be in the form of a solution prior to casting, and this is not scalable.”

Other researchers have used spirulina to create bioplastics, but the UW researchers’ bioplastics are much stronger and stiffer than previous attempts. The UW team optimized microstructure and bonding within these bioplastics by altering their processing conditions 鈥� such as temperature, pressure, and time in the extruder or hot-press 鈥� and studying the resulting materials’ structural properties, including their strength, stiffness and toughness.

These bioplastics are not quite ready to be scaled up for industrial usage. For example, while these materials are strong, they are still fairly brittle. Another challenge is that they are sensitive to water.

“You wouldn鈥檛 want these materials to get rained on,” Iyer said.

The team is addressing these issues and continuing to study the fundamental principles that dictate how these materials behave. The researchers hope to design for different situations by creating an assortment of bioplastics. This would be similar to the variety of existing petroleum-based plastics.

The newly developed materials are also recyclable.

“Biodegradation is not our preferred end-of-life scenario,” Roumeli said. “Our spirulina bioplastics are recyclable through mechanical recycling, which is very accessible. People don’t often recycle plastics, however, so it’s an added bonus that our bioplastics do degrade quickly in the environment.”

Co-authors on this paper are UW materials science and engineering doctoral students and ; , a UW postdoctoral scholar in materials science and engineering; , who completed this work as a UW postdoctoral scholar in materials science and engineering and is now at Intel; , a UW master’s student studying materials science and engineering; , a UW undergraduate student studying chemical engineering; Marissa Nelsen, who completed this work as a UW undergraduate student studying biology; and , a principal researcher at Microsoft. This research was funded by Microsoft, Meta and the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Roumeli at eroumeli@uw.edu. Note: Roumeli is on Eastern Time this week.

Grant number: DGE-2140004

Over 30 years of dentistry, Sami Dogan has treated just about every kind of tooth ailment. Cavities are simple to fill. Dental implants have become routine. But there鈥檚 one problem, he said, that annoys even the most experienced dentists: hypersensitivity, the painful sensation sparked by contact with hot, cold or acidic food.听听

鈥淲e see patients with hypersensitive teeth, but we can鈥檛 really help them,鈥� said Dogan, a . 鈥淲e have all these repair options available in the market, but they鈥檙e all transient. They focus on treating the symptoms and not addressing the root cause. I see my patients after a couple of weeks, several months, again coming to my practice complaining about the same issue.”听

So a few years ago, Dogan began working with a team of UW materials engineers who had set out to develop a natural protocol to rebuild lost tooth minerals, which they believed could also become听permanent fix to this painful condition. Their solution, , builds new mineral microlayers that penetrate deep into the tooth to create effective, long-lasting natural protection.听听

The ultimate goal, Dogan said, is to provide easily accessible relief for the millions of adults worldwide who suffer from tooth sensitivity.听

The painful sensation emerges when acids, like those created after saliva breaks down sugar, wear away at tooth enamel. Uninterrupted, that wear 鈥� called demineralization 鈥� can expose the pathways connecting the tooth鈥檚 hard exterior with its softer interior, dentin and pulp. Nerves and blood vessels are left defenseless, and pain ensues.鈥��听

The body has no way to repair or regrow worn enamel, which is the only non-living tissue in the human body. To reverse that loss, the UW researchers designed their solution to be molecularly biomimetic, meaning it closely resembles the molecular processes by which the body develops teeth.听听

At the heart of that process is a peptide 鈥� a short chain of amino acids 鈥� derived from the larger protein amelogenin, which is key in the biological development of human teeth. Named sADP5, the specifically tailored peptide grabs onto calcium and phosphate ions 鈥� the main components of tooth mineral 鈥� and uses them to build new mineral microlayers.

鈥淥ur technology forms the same minerals found in the tooth, including enamel, cementum, and dentin alike, which had dissolved previously through demineralization and caused the sensitivity,鈥� said lead author , who began this work as a postdoctoral researcher at UW and is now an assistant professor at the . 鈥淭he newly formed mineral microlayers close the communication channels with the tooth nerves, and then hypersensitivity shouldn鈥檛 be an issue for you.鈥�

The peptide can be integrated into nearly any type of oral health product. In preclinical trials, participants received a dental lozenge the size of a cough drop, with a core of calcium and phosphate coated in a layer of peptide-infused flavoring. Researchers have also designed peptide-based formulations including mouthwash, dental gels, tooth whiteners, and toothpaste.鈥��听

鈥淭here are lots of different design and delivery methods,鈥� said , an assistant teaching professor of materials science and engineering at the UW and co-author of the paper. 鈥淭he most important thing is the peptide, the key ingredient in the given formulation, and it鈥檚 working.鈥濃��听

This research was conducted in the at the UW under the direction of , a professor of materials science and engineering. Other authors include John Hamann and Eric Hall from the UW Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Washington State Life Sciences Discovery Fund, Gap Funds, and the UW Department of Restorative Dentistry’s Spencer Funds.鈥�听

For more information, contact Sarikaya at sarikaya@uw.edu, Fong at hfong@uw.edu, Dogan at samido@uw.edu or Yucesoy at denizyucesoy@iyte.edu.tr. 听

Quantum computing could revolutionize our world. For specific and crucial tasks, it promises to be exponentially faster than the zero-or-one binary technology that underlies today鈥檚 machines, from supercomputers in laboratories to smartphones in our pockets. But developing quantum computers hinges on building a stable network of qubits 鈥� or quantum bits 鈥� to store information, access it and perform computations.

Yet the qubit platforms unveiled to date have a common problem: They tend to be delicate and vulnerable to outside disturbances. Even a stray photon can cause trouble. Developing fault-tolerant qubits 鈥� which would be immune to external perturbations 鈥� could be the ultimate solution to this challenge.

A team led by scientists and engineers at the 天美影视传媒 has announced a significant advancement in this quest. In a pair of papers published and , they report that, in experiments with flakes of semiconductor materials 鈥� each only a single layer of atoms thick 鈥� they detected signatures of 鈥渇ractional quantum anomalous Hall鈥� (FQAH) states. The team鈥檚 discoveries mark a first and promising step in constructing a type of fault-tolerant qubit because FQAH states can host anyons 鈥� strange 鈥渜uasiparticles鈥� that have only a fraction of an electron鈥檚 charge. Some types of anyons can be used to make what are called 鈥渢opologically protected鈥� qubits, which are stable against any small, local disturbances.

鈥淭his really establishes a new paradigm for studying quantum physics with fractional excitations in the future,鈥� said , the lead researcher behind these discoveries, who is also the Boeing Distinguished Professor of Physics and a professor of materials science and engineering at the UW.

FQAH states are related to the , an exotic phase of matter that exists in two-dimensional systems. In these states, electrical conductivity is constrained to precise fractions of a constant known as the conductance quantum. But fractional quantum Hall systems typically require massive magnetic fields to keep them stable, making them impractical for applications in quantum computing. The FQAH state has no such requirement 鈥� it is stable even 鈥渁t zero magnetic field,鈥� according to the team.

Hosting such an exotic phase of matter required the researchers to build an artificial lattice with exotic properties. They stacked two atomically thin flakes of the semiconductor material molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe₂) at small, mutual 鈥渢wist鈥� angles relative to one another. This configuration formed a synthetic 鈥渉oneycomb lattice鈥� for electrons. When researchers cooled the stacked slices to a few degrees above absolute zero, an intrinsic magnetism arose in the system. The intrinsic magnetism takes the place of the strong magnetic field typically required for the fractional quantum Hall state. Using lasers as probes, the researchers detected signatures of the FQAH effect, a major step forward in unlocking the power of anyons for quantum computing.

The team 鈥� which also includes scientists at the University of Hong Kong, the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 鈥� envisions their system as a powerful platform to develop a deeper understanding of anyons, which have very different properties from everyday particles like electrons. Anyons are quasiparticles 鈥� or particle-like 鈥渆xcitations鈥� 鈥� that can act as fractions of an electron. In future work with their experimental system, the researchers hope to discover an even more exotic version of this type of quasiparticle: 鈥渘on-Abelian鈥� anyons, which could be used as topological qubits. Wrapping 鈥� or 鈥渂raiding鈥� 鈥� the non-Abelian anyons around each other In this quantum state, information is essentially 鈥渟pread out鈥� over the entire system and resistant to local disturbances 鈥� forming the basis of topological qubits and a major advancement over the capabilities of current quantum computers.

鈥淭his type of topological qubit would be fundamentally different from those that can be created now,鈥� said UW physics doctoral student Eric Anderson, who is lead author of the Science paper and co-lead author of the Nature paper. 鈥淭he strange behavior of non-Abelian anyons would make them much more robust as a quantum computing platform.鈥�

Three key properties, all of which existed simultaneously in the researchers鈥� experimental setup, allowed FQAH states to emerge:

• Magnetism: Though MoTe₂ is not a magnetic material, when they loaded the system with positive charges, a 鈥渟pontaneous spin order鈥� 鈥� a form of magnetism called ferromagnetism 鈥� emerged.
• Topology: Electrical charges within their system have 鈥渢wisted bands,鈥� similar to a M枚bius strip, which helps make the system topological.
• Interactions: The charges within their experimental system interact strongly enough to stabilize the FQAH state.

The team hopes that, using their approach, non-Abelian anyons await for discovery.

鈥淭he observed signatures of the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect are inspiring,鈥� said UW physics doctoral student , co-lead author on the Nature paper and co-author of the Science paper. 鈥淭he fruitful quantum states in the system can be a laboratory-on-a-chip for discovering new physics in two dimensions, and also new devices for quantum applications.鈥�

鈥淥ur work provides clear evidence of the long-sought FQAH states,鈥� said Xu, who is also a member of the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute, the Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems and the Clean Energy Institute, all at UW. 鈥淲e are currently working on electrical transport measurements, which could provide direct and unambiguous evidence of fractional excitations at zero magnetic field.鈥�

The team believes that, with their approach, investigating and manipulating these unusual FQAH states can become commonplace 鈥� accelerating the quantum computing journey.

Additional co-authors on the papers are William Holtzmann and Yinong Zhang in the UW Department of Physics; Di Xiao, Chong Wang, Xiaowei Zhang, Xiaoyu Liu and Ting Cao in the UW Department of Materials Science & Engineering; Feng-Ren Fan and Wang Yao at the University of Hong Kong and the Joint Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics at Hong Kong; Takashi Taniguchi and Kenji Watanabe from the National Institute of Materials Science in Japan; Ying Ran of Boston College; and Liang Fu at MIT. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, the Croucher Foundation, the Tencent Foundation, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the 天美影视传媒.

For more information, contact Xu at xuxd@uw.edu, Anderson at eca55@uw.edu and Cai at caidish@uw.edu.