A Quantum Leap for CAS Physicists
College of Arts and Sciences physicist Brian Smith is leading a team to develop a quantum network on the University of Oregon campus, thanks to a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
Like the early days of the Internet, the possibilities for quantum networking are just now being imagined, according to Smith. The UO-led effort is part of a national initiative to advance emerging quantum technologies. It builds on his research group's recent success plus longstanding UO expertise in quantum optics.
“We have our work cut out for us, but our research will transform communications, sensors and computers,” said Smith, director of the Oregon Center for Optical, Molecular and Quantum Science. “I anticipate quantum science and engineering will progress considerably faster than the Internet did from 1969 to the present day.”
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We Love Our Supporters
Gifts to the College of Arts and Sciences can help our students make the most of their college careers. To do this, CAS needs your support. Your contributions help us ensure that teaching, research, advising, mentoring, and support services are fully available to every student. Thank you!
What’s Happening in CAS?
The final issue of the 2025-26 CAS Connection is out now! For more than 100 years, people have tried to control malaria and the mosquito that transmits the disease among humans. History professor Melissa Graboyes and her team of undergraduate students have been digging through the history of malaria to see how scientists, policymakers and public health officials have tried and failed to stop malaria.
Also in the June CAS Connection issue, why mahjong is gaining popularity, why three CAS faculty members were awarded a teaching award, how a science degree helped an alum to be a marine biologist and a brewer — and more.
Undergraduate Studies
Wherever your academic goals eventually take you at the UO, all Ducks begin their journey with foundational courses in CAS. More than 60 percent of students go on to pursue a major in a CAS department or program. With more than 50 departments and programs, there’s an intellectual home for almost any interest, talent, or career aspiration.
Graduate Studies
The College of Arts and Sciences offers more than 30 master's programs and more than 20 doctoral programs across a diverse range of disciplines. Both as contributors to research teams and through their own scholarship and teaching, our CAS graduate students are indispensable to the vitality of the UO academic mission.
Student Support Services
We provide our students with a variety of resources to help you thrive inside and outside the classroom. Through Tykeson Advising, we provide comprehensive academic and career advising from the start of your journey at the University of Oregon. Learn about career preparation and get assistance in selecting the very best classes. Connect with labs, libraries, IT and tutoring. Find your community on campus.
World-Class Faculty
The College of Arts and Sciences faculty members are a driving force of the high-output, high-impact research activity that has earned the UO membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU). Our world-class faculty members are inspiring teachers.
Among them are five members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, four members of the National Academy of Sciences. They are committed to helping students discover their academic passion. Every day, they work to expand students’ intellectual horizons, preparing them for life after college with real-world knowledge and skills.
Meet our Dean
In the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), we are committed to excellence in research and teaching, student success, and diversity, equity, and belonging.
A liberal arts education—one that offers a breadth of intellectual approaches and perspectives and depth in a major discipline—is the foundation to a purposeful life as a life-long learner, engaged citizen, and leader. The skills you will learn here—from written and verbal communication to analytical and quantitative reasoning, to compassion and understanding—are those that employers seek and will open the door to a wealth of opportunities.
You will find more than 50 majors and a multitude of minors within CAS, and seemingly endless opportunities for personal exploration and discovery. Whether you are an incoming first-year student, a grad student or a transfer student, you can map an exciting future and be part of a fun, warm, engaged liberal arts community here. Come join us. And go Ducks!
The College of Arts and Sciences includes:
Happening at CAS
11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Eclectic acoustic music on guitar, mandolin, and ukulele.
Standard Charleston Marine Life Center admission--no extra charge for music. All students, and UO staff and faculty are free.
11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
The Fipples are a quartet of recorder players who perform on period reproduction instruments. They play all sizes of recorders and genres of music from the 1500s to the present.
Standard Charleston Marine Life Center admission--no extra charge for music. All students, and UO staff and faculty are free.
4:00 p.m.
The Oregon Humanities Center presents its 2026-27 endowed lectureship series centered on the theme of Reading.
We are used to thinking about reading in relation to writing, musical scores, performances, and works of cinema and art. But as social animals, we read more broadly. We read the signs. We read the landscape. We read each others’ faces and body language. We “read the room.”
Our speakers will consider how people observe, look for patterns, try to discern meaning. How does reading shape humanity, individually and collectively? What might taking an extended, intentional look at this activity—our constant reading—reveal? Using approaches honed by their disciplines, our invited speakerswill help us think about reading from a variety of directions.
Saeed Jones is the author of the memoir How We Fight for Our Lives (Simon and Schuster), winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and the poetry collection Prelude to Bruise (Coffee House Books), winner for the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. His poetry and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times, Oxford American and GQ among other publications. His most recent book Alive at the End of the World (Coffee House Press) won the 2023 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Poetry.
Saeed Jones was the 2024-2025 artist-in-residence in the Media, Health and Medicine program at Harvard Medical School. His next book Home Out There, a memoir, is forthcoming from Washington Square Press. He cohosts the podcast Vibe Check with Sam Sanders and Zach Stafford.