BIOLOGY - People are living longer, but that comes with age-related health issues, including Alzheimer’s disease, osteoarthritis and dementia. Biology Professor Patrick Phillips is spearheading a new research initiative focused on age-related diseases. The effort employs technology that will accelerate discovery and fuel new approaches to research, launched with a major gift from longtime UO donors Kenda and Kenneth Singer.

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation announced this year's Outstanding Research Awards, many of which went to College of Arts and Sciences faculty members: Professor Carlos Aguirre (history and Latin American studies), Assistant Professor Gabriel Sanchez (anthropology) and Leland O'Driscoll (associate director of the Oregon Hazards Lab).

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - From competing in seven events as a track heptathlete to conducting research in the lab, Colleen Uzoekwe has her sights set high. In 2023, Colleen was selected as a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship, the oldest and most prestigious international fellowship award in the world. In 2024, she received the Jackson Award as the top senior female student-athlete. She is now working on attending medical school, a dream she's had since she can remember.

BIOLOGY - New research from Judith Eisen, a neuroscientist in the College of Arts and Sciences, describes how nerve cells and muscle cells communicate through electrical signals during development—a phenomenon known as bioelectricity. Research by Eisen and her colleagues was published in Current Biology.

EARTH SCIENCES - Iceland’s ongoing volcanic eruptions may continue on and off for years to decades, threatening the country’s most densely populated region and vital infrastructure. Ilya Bindeman, an earth sciences professor in CAS, said volcanoes are ordinary on the geological scale, but on the human scale, they can be devastating.

From microscopic creatures to planets orbiting distant stars, undergraduates in the College of Arts and Sciences focused their lenses on some of the world’s unanswered questions, both large and small, during the 2024 Undergraduate Research Symposium.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - Heat will only become a bigger issue for summer sports, such as track and field. Outside Magazine's Alex Hutchinson tries out the heat adaptation protocol created by Chris Minson and John Halliwill, both of whom run the Exercise & Environmental Physiology Lab at the Bowerman Sports Science Center.

Staff and faculty members came together for the inaugural College of Arts and Sciences Awards and Hallmark Achievement Reception, which celebrated some of the achievements of faculty and staff. In addition to celebrating some of the college’s faculty members who have received accolades outside of the university, the ceremony featured the college’s first-ever awards that recognize the work of faculty and staff.

PHYSICS - A team led by College of Arts and Sciences professor Richard Taylor has developed an artificial intelligence tool that can help authenticate Jackson Pollock’s paintings with 98.9% accuracy, giving art experts a new, science-backed method for detecting forgeries.

This June, we celebrate Pride Month and the diverse identities of alumni identifying as LGBTQ+. Three College of Arts and Sciences alumni — Whitney Donielson, English, '11; Kevin Thomas, biology, '85; and Morgan Thomas, creative writing, '16— are featured in the UO Alumni Association's Shout publication.

During the past six months, College of Arts and Sciences stakeholders have built a roadmap to guide the college over the next five years. Our new strategy was born from feedback and support from the college's community—including alumni, campus leaders, faculty, staff, and undergrad and graduate students. Read more how members of the CAS community had the chance to help shape the strategy during two CAS Community Conversations in April 2024.

PSYCHOLOGY - University of Oregon researchers are making it easier to include diverse and understudied populations in psychology research by designing a new approach to bring social interaction studies online, allowing scientists and participants to conduct studies remotely.

GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL STUDIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE, PHYSICS - Where can a liberal arts degree take you? These College of Arts and Sciences seniors are charting their own course as they pursue careers in the specialty coffee industry, particle physics and public service.

EARTH SCIENCES - Twelve back-to-back explosions at Hawaii's Kīlauea volcano back in 2018 may be proof of a different kind of eruption. The explosions were driven by sudden pressure increases as the ground collapsed, which blasted plumes of rock fragments and hot gas into the air, much like a classic stomp-rocket toy, according to researchers at the University of Oregon collaborated with the US Geological Survey and China’s Sichuan University. The findings were published in Nature Geoscience on May 27.

EARTH SCIENCES - Three universities — including the University of Oregon’s Oregon Hazards Lab, known as OHAZ; the University of Nevada, Reno; and ALERTCalifornia at the University of California, San Diego — have integrated their wildfire monitoring networks under a single software platform, ALERTWest. This partnership allows unprecedented sharing between monitoring systems and provides wildland firefighters easier access to real-time data.