News

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.

HUMANITIES, WOMEN, GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES - These Duck alums are among those working to alleviate hunger. See how CAS and Clark Honor's College alumni like Ian Dixon-McDonald, BA ’06, Rebecca Sprinson, BA ’09, are making a difference in Oregon by tackling hunger.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - Shortly before Ducks football played Texas Tech University in the Orange Bowl, Oregon News spoke with Andrew Lovering, a specialist in cardiopulmonary and respiratory physiology in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Human Physiology who also earned undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Texas Tech.

SOCIOLOGY - As part of the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History summer field school, the students are spending a month immersed in Indigenous cultural landscapes while studying archaeology, history and ecology and, at the same time, helping restore oyster beds. They’re learning vital career skills while helping usher in a new era of archaeology with Gabe Sanchez, a CAS assistant professor of sociology.

CINEMA STUDIES - Cinema studies professor Masami Kawai is set to begin production on her first feature film, “Valley of the Tall Grass,” in Eugene in summer 2026. It is both a personal journey and a community-centered story.

PHYSICS - An assistant professor of physics at the University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences, Nguyen has been named the 2025 recipient of the American Physical Society’s (APS) Maria Goeppert Mayer Award. Named after a German American theoretical physicist who was co-awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics, this award honors exceptional achievement by a woman physicist in the early years of her career.

NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES - Funded through federal, state and institutional grants, the University of Oregon Home Flight program provides financial support, academic advising and culture-rich activities for qualifying American Indian and Alaska Native undergraduates. Now in its fourth year, the program has more than tripled in enrollment, to 170-plus students, while increasing the number of Native graduates.