Natural Sciences

COMICS STUDIES, PHYSICS, ANTHROPOLOGY - Three faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences have been awarded the 2022 Tykeson Teaching Awards for their excellence in teaching.

PHYSICS, PSYCHOLOGY - There is a scientific reason that humans feel better walking through the woods than strolling down a city street, according to a new publication from UO physicist Richard Taylor and an interdisciplinary team of collaborators.

BIOLOGY - UO researchers report observations suggest a new lifestyle option for larval-stage invertebrates living in the ocean. Scientists usually think of plankton-dwelling larvae either growing by grazing on nanoplankton — mostly unicellular algae — or relying on the egg's yolk reserves to become full-fledged adults. Instead, it appears there’s a third strategy: carnivory.

CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY - For the second year in a row a University of Oregon chemistry professor has been awarded a national prize for groundbreaking research and innovative teaching. Carl Brozek was named a 2022 Cottrell Scholar by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement for his lab’s research in water purification and his practical teaching methods.

BIOLOGY - Caitlin Kowalski is a postdoctoral fellow in the UO’s Barber Lab, led by biology professor Matt Barber, which investigates the evolution of host-microbe interactions. Her award from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation is the first of its kind to a UO researcher, according to university records, and will fund her research around yeast-bacteria interactions for the next three years, beginning in April.

PSYCHOLOGY - Wordle, the wildly popular five-word guessing game, has been called “genius” and “the pandemic game we didn’t know we needed,” but don’t count on it to improve your brain power a UO psychology professor says.

BIOLOGY, NEUROSCIENCE - Nerves in the intestines help regulate the gut’s acidity, new research shows, and that helps keep their bacterial communities in balance.

PHYSICS - Two assistant professors of physics at the University of Oregon have landed prized National Science Foundation research grants, funding their projects for the next four years. Ben Farr and Jayson Paulose have been awarded $400,000 and $593,407, respectively, in grants from the NSF’s Faculty Early Career Development Program.

BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY - Here at the UO, many women on campus are doing innovative research while also working to make the sciences better for everyone.

MATHEMATICS - The UO Department of Mathematics garnered a $2.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation for projects that train and mentor the next generation of mathematicians in Oregon.