CREATIVE WRITING - Kirstin Valdez Quade was a graduate student in the creative writing program when Professor Ehud Havazelet offered that advice. Today Quade, MFA ’09 (creative writing), is an award-winning novelist and creative writing professor at Princeton University who is, she says, “profoundly grateful” for the program and Havazelet, who died in 2015.

CHEMISTRY & BIOCHEMISTRY - A new kind of tiny particle is a big deal in UO chemist Carl Brozek’s lab.He and his team have made a versatile kind of porous material called a metal-organic framework, or MOF, into nanocrystals—a form that’s easier to use beyond the lab.

PSYCHOLOGY - Paul Slovic, professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and one of the founders of the Decision Science Research Institute, has been awarded the 2022 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science by the Franklin Institute.

ECONOMICS - There’s been a lot of talk about problems with the supply chain during the pandemic, but the factors for its logjam were in place well before COVID-19 hit, according to UO economist Keaton Miller.

NEUROSCIENCE - If behavior is a language, UO neuroscientist Luca Mazzucato is decoding its grammar. Distinct, coordinated activity in large sets of neurons can predict a rat’s future behavior, he and his team showed in a new study.

CINEMA STUDIES - Live and in-person (once again!) in December ’21, the UO Hip Hop Jam celebrates diverse communities and hip-hop culture—while teaching first-year students the business of events planning.

ANTHROPOLOGY - On the football field, the University of Oregon and the University of Oklahoma are competing in the Alamo Bowl December 29. But in the research field, anthropologists from both schools are teaming up.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, BIOLOGY - While the climate crisis is a global issue that cannot be solved by any one person or entity alone, individuals can still take meaningful actions. At the time of year when we resolve to be better versions of ourselves, UO experts offer some suggestions for resolutions that individuals can adopt to counter climate change and help green up their lives, their communities, and the planet.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - Knight Campus Undergraduate Scholar Alonso Cruz won the second place $750 prize in the undergraduate category of the Fund it Forward Student Video Challenge, a student video competition presented by the Science Coalition.

BIOLOGY, PHYSICS, MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE - A University of Oregon scholarship program funded by the National Science Foundation is enhancing teacher education on campus and creating a ripple effect in public schools around Oregon.

PHYSICS - Three University of Oregon physicists are able to continue their mission to uncover the fundamental secrets of the universe, thanks to continued funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

BIOLOGY - Two assistant professors of biology at the University of Oregon have landed prized early-stage research grants, funding their projects for the next five years.

NEUROSCIENCE - New research in mice sheds light on the seemingly random brain signals that hum in the background of brains. These signals might help the brain switch between states of inattention or disengagement and states of optimal performance, UO researchers reported Oct. 14 in the journal Neuron.

ENGLISH - Together with a team at the University of Idaho, librarians at the UO received a $49,919 digital humanities advancement grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop new technology-focused teaching plans for humanities courses.

EARTH SCIENCES - There’s a new saber-toothed predator in town — and it’s been hiding in plain sight. The fossil specimen, unearthed in Wyoming, was on display for decades at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. When it went off-exhibit in 2017 during a museum renovation, UO graduate student Paul Barrett finally got a closer look.