Natural Sciences News

Four College of Arts and Sciences faculty members will discuss the social impact of research during the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation (OVPRI) Week of Research and Innovation. The event is 10:30 am to noon Wednesday, April 8, at the Cedar and Spruce rooms in the Erb Memorial Union.

CAREER PREPARATION — Tasked with meeting the College of Arts and Sciences career preparation goal, Assistant Dean for Career Preparation Yifang Zhang developed and implemented the Career Leaders Program. The program focuses on providing tools and resources to reframe and elevate the school's existing effort in career preparation in classrooms.

For Graduate-Professional Student Appreciation Week in 2026, CAS gradate students share their experiences of what makes their experience special at CAS. CAS is home to 1,295 graduate students: 307 master’s and 959 PhD. With April 6-10 Graduate-Professional Student Appreciation Week, CAS reached out to some of its graduate students to hear how about their experiences at the college.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - John Halliwill has been named a 2025 fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). A professor in the Department of Human Physiology, Halliwill was recognized for advancing the understanding of exercise-induced cardiovascular adaptation and discovering histamine's role as a signaling molecule in adaptation to physical activity.

Throughout the week of April 6–10, 2026, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, along with campus partners, will host a series of events open to faculty, students, postdoctoral scholars, and staff. The event will feature researchers throughout the College of Arts and Sciences.

COMPUTER SCIENCE - Over the past few terms, computer science professors Hank Childs and Aye Thuzar have been working on reworking the entry level computer science class, “Fluency with Information Technology,” to incorporate AI-assisted programming.

PHYSICS -At the University of Oregon’s Institute for Fundamental Science, a growing number of faculty have earned prestigious honors from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, which signal both individual excellence and the institute’s positive research trajectory. The most recent winner is CAS physicist Tien-Tien Yu, who received an NSF CAREER Award followed by the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY, BIOCHEMISTRY, BIOLOGY — A new cutting-edge major in the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences prepares students to drive technological change through high-demand careers in fields such as semiconductor manufacturing, energy and sustainable materials development.

PHYSICS - A supermassive black hole with a case of cosmic indigestion has been burping out the remains of a shredded star for four years — and it’s still going strong, new research led by University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences astrophysicist Yvette Cendes. Cendes and her team published findings about this one-of-kind black hole in the Feb. 5 issue of Astrophysical Journal Astrophysicists.

BIOLOGY - Marine biologist Alan Shanks has a simple trap that allows him to predict the amount of Dungeness crab will be available for fisherfolk. For the past 25 years, Shanks has compared the yields of the winter commercial catch to the baby crabs his water-jug trap collects each summer.

PHYSICS - About 15 feet below 13th Avenue, scientists in the Center for Advanced Material Characterization in Oregon (CAMCOR) are using a brand-new scanning transmission electron microscope (S/TEM) to enable cutting-edge research at the atomic scale. You’d never know that the busy University of Oregon street is nearby; the facility was built into bedrock to prevent vibrations that could affect delicate instrumentation.

PHYSICS - Fascinated by the unexplored corners of the universe since childhood, physicist Tien-Tien Yu has made dark matter the pillar of her research career. In her quest to understand, she’s co-founded a major experiment in collaboration with physicists at other institutions, all of whom are trying try to bring light to the dark.

PSYCHOLOGY - If you're a teenager, hitting the snooze this weekend might be good for your mental health according to College of Arts and Sciences psychologist Melynda Casement. Published in Journal of Affective Disorders, Casement found that people age 16 to 24 who caught up on sleep on the weekend had a 41% lower risk for symptoms of depression than a group who didn’t.

On the cusp of a new year, Tykeson Dean of Arts and Sciences Chris Poulsen took time to share what he is most excited about in the College of Arts and Sciences, now and into the future. "The success of this strategy doesn't depend on a few leaders. It depends on all of us," Poulsen said.

CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY - It's August, and the fall term is around the corner, but associate professor Carl Brozek is heading to Japan through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. None of them, including Brozek or the lab in Japan he'll be working in, know that he’ll be there when his research colleagues at Kyoto University get some epic news about their work on structures known as metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs.