PSYCHOLOGY - Dare Baldwin, a psychology professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, is working with undergraduate researchers to better understand how people behave during an earthquake. The research team will bring in families to campus to have them participate in an earthquake simulation. Observing how long it takes families to mobilize and how their behavior unfolds will help researchers determine the best way to educate people to take appropriate protective action.

Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are on the frontline of addressing the world's most pressing issues, including AI, Alzheimer's, ice sheet loss in Greenland—and more. These are big problems, and our faculty members are relying on millions of dollars in grant funding to explore solutions for a better tomorrow. Read more in the 2023-24 annual report, out now.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, NEUROSCIENCE - Using functional MRI brain imaging, or fMRI, University of Oregon researchers have unraveled some of the neural circuitry behind basic human actions. Their insights, described in a paper published in the journal eNeuro, can be used to improve the design of brain-computer interface technologies, including brain-controlled prosthetic arms that aim to restore movement in people who have lost it.

DATA SCIENCE - In Applied Data Science for Social Justice, a new course developed by Associate Professor Rori Rohlfs in the School of Computer and Data Sciences, students partnered with the Eugene-based CAHOOTS program to help its organizers sift through data they’ve collected from thousands of dispatch calls to glean insights on how they can improve their services. CAHOOTS works to help people with mental health struggles.

PSYCHOLOGY - Since earning his PhD from the Department of Psychology in 1996 under the joint supervision of professors emeriti Douglas Hintzman and Michael Posner, Daniel Levitin has become one of the most prominent figures in cognitive science. Levitin visited the Eugene campus to donate his papers to the UO Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives, Levitin delivered a guest lecture about his new book to students in a course on cognitive psychology taught by Nicole Dudukovic, director of the UO’s Neuroscience Program.

BIOLOGY - College of Arts and Sciences biology PhD student Heather Dawson and her sister Hillary Dawson and dog Rye are cataloging some of Oregon's truffles, which may be affected by warming temperatures and the increasing magnitude of wildfire season. The team's catalog contains more than 50 genera, or broad categories, of truffles since he began searching in 2020. The sisters’ latest data, published in a 2024 paper in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

All the world’s a stage for CAS students, whether they’re on the screen, in the classroom, in the lab or beyond. Hear from Dean Chris Poulsen about how humanities programs like theatre arts and cinema studies build valuable skills—and how storytelling fosters an understanding of what it means to be human. And if you’re in the Eugene area, buy your tickets for the University Theatre production of POTUS, which runs Feb. 7-23.

BIOLOGY - University of Oregon researchers have identified a sex chromosome in the California two-spot octopus. This chromosome has likely been around for 480 million years, since before octopuses split apart from the nautilus on the evolutionary tree. That makes it one of the oldest known animal sex chromosomes. Doctoral students Gabby Coffing, Andrew Kern and their team described the findings Feb. 3 in the journal Current Biology.

BIOLOGY, PHYSICS - A new study published in the journal mBio shows how one kind of bacteria, Vibrio cholerae, triggers those painful contractions by activating the immune system. The research also finds a more general explanation for how the gut rids itself of unwanted intruders, which could also help scientists better understand chronic conditions like inflammatory bowel disease. The research was led by Julia Ngo, a now-graduated doctoral student in Karen Guillemin and Raghu Parthasarathy’s labs.

PHYSICS - Professor Tien-Tien Yu is one of nearly 400 scientists and engineers awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the US government on outstanding scientists and engineers early in their careers.