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.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, GEOGRAPHY - Damp weather in the winter and spring doesn’t necessarily protect against wildfires later in the year, according to University of Oregon researchers. Instead, increased moisture can act to increase the threat of fire as summer heat bakes the landscape.

ENGLISH, FOLKLORE AND PUBLIC CULTURE - While running cross country in high school, Daniel Wojcik had the opportunity to run with UO track legend Steve Prefontaine. Now an English and folklore studies professor, he explores the enduring lore and traditions surrounding the record-breaking athlete who helped establish Eugene as Track Town USA.

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.

High school students from all over Oregon traveled in flocks to the University of Oregon for Foreign Language and International Studies Day. The annual celebration, held in May, provides approximately 1,000 students with an immersive experience in cultures and languages of the world, and a chance to learn more about the university’s foreign language department

MATHEMATICS - Why did we all have to learn the quadratic formula in middle school? Is learning how to find the roots of a polynomial actually useful? Professor Benson Farb from the University of Chicago will answer those questions during the Department of Mathematics' 2024 Niven Lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, May 20, in 110 Fenton Hall.

PHYSICS - Professor Richard Taylor is interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 podcast Deep Calm with Michael Mosley. During the podcast, Mosley and Taylor discuss how fractals can improve our physiology.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, PHYSICS, POLITICAL SCIENCE, PSYCHOLOGY - This ADPI Heritage Month, the UO Alumni Association reflects on the many contributions of Ducks identifying as Asian, Desi, and Pacific Islander. Meet College of Arts and Sciences alumni and the careers they have developed after college.

BIOLOGY, OREGON INSTITUTE OF MARINE BIOLOGY - Scientists at the University of Oregon have discovered that colonies of gelatinous sea animals swim through the ocean in giant corkscrew shapes using coordinated jet propulsion, an unusual kind of locomotion that could inspire new designs for efficient underwater vehicles.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - While not a miracle cure, there might indeed be some health benefits to the trend of cold plunging, new research from the University of Oregon suggests. A study led by Chris Minson, the Kenneth and Kenda Singer Professor in Human Physiology at the UO.The study was published in the December 2023 edition of the Journal of Thermal Biology.

College of Arts and Sciences students had questions for Tykeson Dean of Arts and Sciences Chris Poulsen. And he has answers. Poulsen shares what the CAS dean does, his undergrad major, and his favorite ice cream flavor at Prince Pückler's.

GLOBAL STUDIES, SOCIOLOGY - Japan's energy shift after the Fukushima disaster saw a surge in fossil fuel use. How does this impact their long-term sustainability goals? Recent research by Yvonne Braun of global studies and Michael Dreiling of sociology is featured.