Higher ed faces big challenges, but Tykeson Dean of Arts and Sciences Chris Poulsen is ready to meet them with a forward-thinking plan to establish CAS as a leader and innovator. Read how Poulsen views the state of higher education and how a new strategy will work to make the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences a place where students can receive a high-quality liberal arts education while also preparing them for a 21st century work place.

BIOLOGY, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, LINGUISTICS - Three University of Oregon faculty members have received Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards for the 2024-25 academic year. The recipients in CAS are Department of Linguistics Professor Melissa Redford and Department of Biology and Environmental Studies Associate Professor Lauren Hallett.

CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY - Bioengineers and chemists design fluorescent 3D-printed structures with potential medical applications. The discovery emerged from a collaboration between Paul Dalton’s engineering lab in the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact and Ramesh Jasti’s lab in the chemistry and biochemistry department in the UO’s College of Arts and Sciences. The researchers describe their findings in a paper published this summer in the journal Small.

HISTORY - Lauren Goss, BA ’11 (history), is the University of Oregon's new sports archivist. Funded largely by a gift from an anonymous family foundation with deep Oregon roots and a love for UO Libraries, Goss’s position is the only one on the West Coast and one of only a dozen in the US dedicated to preserving collegiate sports history.

PSYCHOLOGY - Michael Posner, professor emerit in psychology, has had a career filled with accomplishments. He's received numerous honorary degrees, awards, and the National Medal of Science presented by President Barack Obama in 2009. Now the Posner family is establishing The Dr. Michael Posner Psychology Professorship in Cognition and Neuroscience to support a tenured professor or associate professor in strengthening the college’s contributions to cognition and neuroscience.

ECONOMICS - Immigration is a part of the United States’s DNA, but it’s long been a contentious political subject. Economic models have found immigration to be a fiscal cost, but a recent study by a University of Oregon economist challenges these findings, showing that low-skilled immigrants on average contribute an additional $750 in annual fiscal benefits not previously accounted for.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES - Do you love the University of Oregon campus enough to create a full-size LEGO replica? Stephen Mack spent, on average, four hours per week for a year building his model on display at the Ford Alumni Center. A 2023 graduate of the environmental studies program in the College of Arts and Sciences, Mack estimates his creation includes more than 10,000 pieces.

NEUROSCIENCE - Graduate student Angelique Allen has long been fascinated by the octopus, which led her to be a researcher in Cris Neill's lab in the College of Arts and Sciences's Institute of Neuroscience. Allen and Neill are recipients of the Gilliam Fellowship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a competitive award that recognizes student-adviser pairs for their top-notch research, as well as their commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in the sciences.

BIOCHEMISTRY AND CHEMISTRY, HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, PHYSICS - The University of Oregon campus buzzed with energy this summer as local high school students attended the Summer Academy to Inspire Learning (SAIL) program. The students experienced some of the labs and academic opportunities at the College of Arts and Sciences.

CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY - Vickie DeRose, professor and head of chemistry and biochemistry, has been awarded a creativity extension by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for research into the structure and function of ribonucleic acid (RNA) through its interactions with metal ions. Fellow chemist Mike Pluth was awarded an NSF creativity extension in 2023 for his work on the role small sulfur-based molecules play in many biological processes. These molecules were likely key species involved in evolution, especially before there was oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere.

HISTORY - The stories of more than 140 Mexican and Mexican American workers who lived and worked not far from the University of Oregon campus went untold for nearly a century until students in a CAS history class discovered them, countering the white settler-dominant history books of the area. Led by Julie Weise, a history associate professor who focuses on the history of migrations in the Americas, students researched and wrote these local histories as part of a course series called Hidden Histories, which aims to tell the stories of underrepresented communities in Lane County.

POLITICAL SCIENCE - In mid-August, Chandler James, an assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, attended the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) as a district-level delegate. This is what he experienced.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - Differences in the way muscles respond to stress could help explain why certain sports injuries are more common in women compared to men, and vice versa, new research from Damien Callahan, an exercise physiologist at the University of Oregon and graduate student Grace Privett. The two published a study in the journal Experimental Physiology that details how the mechanical properties of muscles change in response to exercise in women.

BIOLOGY, OIMB - A century after its origin as a humble camp on the coast, the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology remains on the cutting edge of marine research and restoration. “For undergraduates, OIMB really gives them the opportunity to be totally immersed in their subject,” says retired instructor Jan Hodder, an OIMB alum who began as a student in the 1970s and later joined the faculty. “Because we’re a residential program, students have 24-hour access to the environment.”

OIMB, BIOLOGY - At the Charleston Marine Life Center a growing collection of unique organisms serve as underwater ambassadors between UO researchers, local community partners, and the public. It’s a place where UO scientists share their discoveries with the public and community members rally around the preservation of local marine life.