President Robert J. Jones, Provost Tricia Serio and more than two dozen new 窪蹋勛圖厙 faculty toured Washington state last week on the annual Faculty Field Tour.

The five-day bus tour departed from the Burke Museum in Seattle on June 15 and made stops at historic sites, the state capitol, health clinics, vineyards, farms, cities and towns throughout the state.

Jones met the group in Richland to participate in a fireside chat. The following day, the 窪蹋勛圖厙 president joined them at Schoesler Farms, the Ritzville wheat farm owned by Sen. Mark Schoesler, a Republican, and his family. Jones, an agronomist, was delighted to spend time with new faculty, meet Schoesler and get a hands-on tour of the wheat farm.

���We are a state university. We have an obligation on both sides of the mountains,��� Jones said. ���We have breadth that runs the entire state. And on this tour, these relatively new faculty members have a chance to experience that.���

窪蹋勛圖厙���s Faculty Field Tour began more than 30 years ago to foster connection between new faculty and communities statewide. While making a counterclockwise loop around Washington, the participants learn about Washington���s varied economies, diverse geography and the places where their students grew up. The tour typically stops in Tacoma, Olympia, Mt. St. Helens, Vancouver, Toppenish, Tri-Cities, Ritzville, Spokane, Grand Coulee and Leavenworth before returning to Seattle.

Held the week following Commencement, the tour is open to faculty from all three 窪蹋勛圖厙 campuses. This year���s cohort included an oceanographer from the College of the Environment, a writing studies professor from 窪蹋勛圖厙 Tacoma, an economist from the College of Arts & Sciences, and 窪蹋勛圖厙 Bothell���s executive vice provost for academic affairs, among others.

���Our students come from all over the state, right? Certainly not just Seattle,��� said , a 窪蹋勛圖厙 assistant professor in the Information School who was on the tour. ���If you want to be an effective educator, you need to understand where your students come from and what their communities are like.���

The 2027 Faculty Field Tour is scheduled for the week of June 14.

窪蹋勛圖厙 President Robert J. Jones presided at the 窪蹋勛圖厙���s 151st Commencement ceremony on Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium on Saturday, June 13.

Graduates have profound potential and have capacity to combine purpose, skill and cooperation in ways that will change the world,泭 Jones said.泭

���They are innovators, scientists, artists, educators, healers, entrepreneurs and storytellers who have made their mark on the 窪蹋勛圖厙 and are poised to do the same in the world beyond,��� he said. ���Because of that, I feel not just hope ��� but confidence ��� that the future is in their capable hands.���

窪蹋勛圖厙 7,500 窪蹋勛圖厙 graduates of the Class of 2026 participated in Saturday���s ceremony. Officials said about 50,000 family members and friends cheered the graduates from the Husky Stadium grandstands. Families from 42 countries from every continent except Antarctica joined the ceremony virtually.

, Class of ���83, who shared the, was the featured speaker.泭泭

���Leave yourself open to opportunities when they arise. Be willing to take a risk and to say yes to the unknown,��� Brunkow told the crowds in Husky Stadium. ���You chose 窪蹋勛圖厙 ��� and succeeded here ��� because it is a place of discovery, collaboration and optimism. Carry those values with you out into the world. We can���t wait to see what you make of them.���

By Sunday evening, President Jones will have presented nearly 18,462 degrees to the Class of 2026 across all three 窪蹋勛圖厙 campuses��� ceremonies. Members of the 窪蹋勛圖厙 Board of Regents, deans and other representatives of the University���s 24 colleges and schools across all three campuses also participated in the ceremonies.泭

The following泭data, drawn from preliminary information broken down by campus and prepared by the Office of the University Registrar, will be presented泭at the Board of Regents��� June 11 meeting:泭

• For work completed at the泭Seattle泭campus, about 14,932 degrees will be conferred, specifically: 9,066 bachelor���s degrees, 4,372 master���s degrees, 615 professional degrees, 16 Educational Specialist degrees, and 863 doctoral degrees.泭
• 插喧泭窪蹋勛圖厙 Bothell, about 1,886 degrees will be conferred, including 1,619 bachelor���s degrees and 267 master���s degrees.泭
• And at泭窪蹋勛圖厙 Tacoma,泭students will receive about 1,644 degrees, including 1,321 bachelor���s degrees, 304 master���s degrees, 10 Educational Specialist degrees and nine doctoral degrees.泭

Degrees are awarded to those who have completed academic requirements during the 2025-2026 academic year. Many colleges and schools also hold separate graduation programs and investiture ceremonies.泭

窪蹋勛圖厙 Tacoma will hold its commencement June 12 at the Tacoma Dome. 窪蹋勛圖厙 Bothell���s graduation ceremonies are scheduled for June 14 at Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

Discovery Days returns!

On April 30 and May 1, thousands of elementary and middle school students from across Washington state will arrive on the 窪蹋勛圖厙���s Seattle campus to explore more than . Hosted by the 窪蹋勛圖厙 College of Engineering, Discovery Days gives students a chance to experience science and engineering concepts for themselves by building batteries, designing videogames, firing air vortex cannons and controlling plasma with their fingertips.泭

This year, more than 9,000 students from 109 schools registered to attend.

For more information, contact William Poor at wpoor@uw.edu.

Plants, like people, have a circadian clock and they sense seasonal changes to light and temperature. Plants that bloom in the spring use the longer days and warmer temperatures as seasonal cues that it���s time to bloom.

[April 6] UPDATE: Flower petals are falling on the Quad as the trees lose their blossoms. The waning bloom is still quite a site but it’ll be a while before the trees are back on full display.

[March 23] UPDATE: The cherry trees are officially in peak bloom! Visit campus anytime in the next week or so to see the blossoms in all their glory.

[March 18] UPDATE: Recent temperature swings have slowed bud development for the Quad cherries. 窪蹋勛圖厙 half of the trees are still in peduncle elongation stage while half have moved on to the ���puffy white��� stage that precedes full bloom. Cool temperatures in the coming days may delay peak bloom as trees gradually blossom. Warm weather could produce a sudden transition. Check the live cams for updates.

[March 13] UPDATE: It’s snowing but the blossoms are still growing! The Quad cherries are now in the “peduncle elongation” stage, where the flower-bearing stalk extends from the bud. Some have also begun to flower.

Each spring, large crowds gather on the 窪蹋勛圖厙 Quad to admire 29 puffy pink cherry trees making their seasonal debut. The trees begin to wake up as the weather warms, and this year, estimates suggest that they will reach ���peak bloom��� on March 20.

The 窪蹋勛圖厙���s iconic cherry trees achieve peak bloom when 70% of the blossoms have opened, but the week before and after still offer visitors an optimal viewing experience.

The cherry blossom visitors��� website provides updates on bloom status as well as details on transportation, activities and amenities. The cherry blossoms also have live video feeds for virtual viewing and their own social media accounts on and .

The cherry trees are both beautiful and ecologically significant. Tracking when the buds burst each year helps researchers predict peak bloom and determine how climate warming is impacting the trees, which were planted in the Washington Park Arboretum in 1936 and then relocated to 窪蹋勛圖厙 in 1962.

This year, many plants began to emerge early as a mild winter gave way to spring. Recent 窪蹋勛圖厙 research described how plants rely on both temperature and light cues to time their flowering. Temperature is particularly important to cherry trees, which estimate the arrival of spring based on how cold it has been. They accrue ���chilling units��� as winter progresses and ���heating units��� as it yields to spring.

���The buds need to accumulate a specific amount of chilling units before they can start accumulating the heating units. When it is not as cold, the chilling units accumulate much slower, so it takes them longer to wake up from dormancy, which is very counterintuitive,��� said , a 窪蹋勛圖厙 doctoral student of environmental and forest sciences.

Theil is now overseeing data collection on campus, with the help of approximately 20 undergraduate students. The researchers make observations as the trees begin to wake up and feed the data into a computer model that incorporates weather forecasts to predict peak bloom.

Historically, the onset of peak bloom has fallen between March 12 and April 3, with an average date of March 23. While the weather impacts peak bloom year to year, climate change drives longer term trends over multiple decades.

Research shows that bloom time has shifted approximately two days earlier each decade since the 1960s. Researchers began monitoring the trees in 2012 and referenced newspaper archives to estimate peak bloom dates for the preceding years.

���With the climate warming more rapidly in the spring, I expected to see the flowers blooming earlier,��� said lead author , a recent doctoral graduate from the 窪蹋勛圖厙 school of environmental and forest sciences. ���But as we dove into the literature and examined the data, we saw a delay in bloom, as a result of winter warming in Seattle.���

The study focused on the Somei-yoshino, or Yoshino, cherry tree cultivar. These trees, sometimes called the Japanese flowering cherry, are found throughout Japan. They also line the National Mall in Washington D.C. and paint many Seattle neighborhoods pink in the springtime.

The bloom delay Maust observed applies only to Yoshino cherry trees in Seattle. In colder climates, such as Washington D.C., the trees have ample time to accrue chilling units. Still, the two populations are quite similar, genetically.

Propagation, or breeding more trees, occurs by grafting one tree onto another. This process limits genetic variability in favor of consistency. Because all Yoshino cherry trees are sterile clones of one another, they do not produce fruits or seeds, but they do reliably bloom in beautiful pink hues each spring.

For more information on bloom time, contact Theil at mtheil@uw.edu or Maust at泭 amaust@uw.edu. For information about the Yoshino Genome Project, contact Steinbrenner at astein10@uw.edu.

Once the domain of buttons and knobs, car dashboards are increasingly home to large touch screens. While that makes following a mapping app easier, it also means drivers can���t feel their way to a control; they have to look. But how does that visual component affect driving?

New research from the 窪蹋勛圖厙 and Toyota Research Institute, or TRI, explores how drivers balance driving and using touch screens while distracted. In the study, participants drove in a vehicle simulator, interacted with a touch screen and completed memory tests that mimic the mental effort demanded by traffic conditions and other distractions. The team found that when people multitasked, their driving and touch screen use both suffered. The car drifted more in the lane while people used touch screens, and their speed and accuracy with the screen declined when driving. The effects increased further when they added the memory task.泭

These results could help auto manufacturers design safer, more responsive touch screens and in-car interfaces.

The team Sept. 30 at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in Busan, Korea.泭

���We all know ,��� said co-senior author , a 窪蹋勛圖厙 professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. ���But what about the car���s touch screen? We wanted to understand that interaction so we can design interfaces specifically for drivers.���

As the study���s 16 participants drove the simulator, sensors tracked their gaze, finger movements, pupil diameter and electrodermal activity. The last two are common ways to measure mental effort, or ���cognitive load.��� For instance, pupils tend to grow when people are concentrating.泭

While driving, participants had to touch specific targets on a 12-inch touch screen, similar to how they would interact with apps and widgets. They did this while completing three levels of an ���N-back task,��� a memory test in which the participants hear a series of numbers, 2.5 seconds apart, and have to repeat specific digits.泭

The participants��� performance changed significantly under different conditions:

• When interacting with the touch screen, participants drifted side to side in their lane 42% more often. Increasing cognitive load had no effect on the results.
• Touch screen accuracy and speed decreased 58% when driving, then another 17% under high cognitive load.
• Each glance at the touchscreen was 26.3% shorter under high cognitive load.
• A ���hand-before-eye��� phenomenon, in which drivers��� reached for a control before looking at it, increased from 63% to 71% as memory tasks were introduced.

The team also found that increasing the size of the target areas participants were trying to touch did not improve their performance.泭

���If people struggle with accuracy on a screen, usually you want to make bigger buttons,��� said , a 窪蹋勛圖厙 doctoral student in the Allen School. ���But in this case, since people move their hand to the screen before touching, the thing that takes time is the visual search.���

Based on these findings, the researchers suggest future in-car touch screen systems might use simple sensors in the car ��� eye tracking, or touch sensors on the steering wheel ��� to monitor drivers��� attention and cognitive load. Based on these readings, the car���s system might adjust the touch screen���s interface to make important controls more prominent and safer to access.

���Touch screens are widespread today in automobile dashboards, so it is vital to understand how interacting with touch screens affects drivers and driving,��� said co-senior author , a 窪蹋勛圖厙 professor in the Information School. ���Our research is some of the first that scientifically examines this issue, suggesting ways for making these interfaces safer and more effective.���

, a 窪蹋勛圖厙 doctoral student in the Information School, is co-lead author. Other co-authors include , , and of TRI. This research was funded in part by TRI.

For more information, contact Wobbrock at wobbrock@uw.edu and Fogarty at jfogarty@cs.washington.edu.

Choosing highlights from 2025 for a video roundup is a tough task. 窪蹋勛圖厙 video producers meet students, faculty and community members during some of the most exciting moments of their lives ��� from earning a degree to finding answers that will impact the world.

This year at the 窪蹋勛圖厙, we saw cosmic images from a brand new telescope and supercharged a . We used a novel device to regain mobility, and sent a robot out of the lab to help feed people who can���t eat on their own. We launched an aeronautics professor into the sky in a Blue Angels Navy jet and we learned about using nuisance seaweed to help grow healthy crops. We reached out across our state to help solve problems, from calming traffic in Yakima to giving tribal fisheries on the Columbia River critical water temperature data. We welcomed a new president, new students and celebrated commencement. We were also inspired and heartbroken by 窪蹋勛圖厙 women���s soccer player Mia Hamant���s brave fight with kidney cancer and effort to raise awareness of the disease before she passed in November.

Over the course of 2025, the 窪蹋勛圖厙 News office, the and our Be Boundless site shared these stories and more from across the 窪蹋勛圖厙, including our researchers��� impactful work, and how we prepare students for successful careers and share our knowledge in teaching and in partnerships all over Washington and the world.

You can follow us and find more stories on the 窪蹋勛圖厙 News website, , , and , as well as the , , and .

For more information, contact Kiyomi Taguchi, 窪蹋勛圖厙 News video producer: ktaguchi@uw.edu or 206-685-2716. Happy New Year!

, artist in residence and head of organ studies at the 窪蹋勛圖厙, will be joined by students and colleagues on Friday, Oct. 31, to perform a concert of spooky organ classics and Halloween fun.

The concert will open with ���Toccata and Fugue in D minor,��� which Price will play on the organ. Most likely written by Johann Sebastian Bach in the Baroque period, the composition is strongly associated with Halloween and spooky films, including the Disney movie ���Fantasia.���

���People will recognize that piece and sort of expect it,���泭 Price said. ���We will then have vocal students and instrumentalists from the 窪蹋勛圖厙 School of Music, which will show how the organ can be an accompanying instrument, outside of just being a solo instrument. Each organist will bring their own character and style to their performances.���

Other concert selections include ���The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,��� ���Pink Panther,��� the Mexican folk song ���La Llorona,��� , and the American folk tune ���The House of the Rising Sun.���泭

���Events like this are important because they expose people to organ music that may not ever take the chance to go and hear an organ concert,��� Price said. ��濡喧 is a very popular event, and it’s oriented around popular music and familiar music. That makes it a fun experience.���

After graduating from Western Connecticut State University, Price received a Fulbright Scholarship to Toulouse, France, where he studied historical and modern performances practices of French organ music. He went on to earn a master���s degree and a doctoral degree in music.

���I have a colleague here in Seattle who believes the instrument chooses you, and I think there may be some truth to that,��� Price said. ���The first time I saw an organist play, I knew instantly that’s what I wanted to do.���

Bee experts wouldn���t have previously expected to find the likes of Osmia cyaneonitens, Dufourea dilatipes and Stelis heronae in Washington. But this year, researchers added eight new bee species to a list of the state���s native pollinators.泭

While collecting pollinators in Chelan County to study how climate and wildfires affect native bee populations, , a 窪蹋勛圖厙 research scientist of biology, discovered never recorded in Washington and 100 species that had not previously been documented in Chelan County. Expert taxonomists from Utah to British Columbia helped her identify the bees, which were photographed in high resolution for her research.泭

�����濡喧���s a really exciting moment. Sitting with an expert taxonomist to determine the identity of an undocumented bee filled me with awe,��� said Maust, who completed this research as a 窪蹋勛圖厙 doctoral student of of environmental and forest sciences. ���They cited subtle characteristics that I would not have even known to examine. The findings also have important implications for biodiversity. It’s difficult to conserve a species when we don���t know its name or native range.���

Taxonomists refer to detailed sets of characteristics to differentiate bees by family, genera and species. The morphological qualities of bees are incredibly diverse, and individual species can vary in small but significant ways.��� Bees can be distinguished from each other by the shape and structure of wing veins, hair color on the ���terga��� ��� plates forming the bee���s abdomen ��� and the location of ���scopa,��� or pollen carrying hairs.

If you are interested in bees, Maust said, the trains volunteers to find, collect and identify native bees. Individuals can also share bee photos and observations on sites like where the data is made available to researchers.泭

Depicted below are a few of the new-to-Washington bees Maust observed and the characteristics scientists focused on for classification. Click the image to see the full resolution photo.

The scopa on the abdomen of this female bee and its heavily pitted ���terga��� with inflated edges helped Maust to identify it as Dianthidium singulare.

This fierce-looking female Osmia cyaneonitens has huge mandibles (teeth) and flashy blue coloring. Osmia, in the mason bee family, use their large mandibles to move mud or cut leaves or petals to build nests. Their bodies are often metallic blue and green.

This Dufourea dilatipes Maust collected belongs to a rare group of the Halictidae family, commonly called ���sweat bees��� because they are attracted to the salt and moisture in the sweat of mammals. All members of this family have a strongly arched basal vein on the forewing. Dufourea dilatipes exclusively forages on Calochortus flowers for pollen and nectar.���

Black and brown coloration on the head, abdomen and thorax is one trait of Melissodes nigracauda. This one was caught in a soap/water trap, which Maust said can result in a spiky hairdo sometimes smoothed by ���relaxing��� the bee and giving it��� a blow dry before pinning.泭

Stelis heronae, at 4 to 5 millimeters long, is so small it was hard for Maust to pin. It wasn���t described by any taxonomists until 2024, which made it tricky to identify. Stelis heronae is distinguished from other species by the maculations, or colored markings, on its terga. It is a cuckoo, or parasitic, bee that lays its eggs in the nests of other bees. Maust pointed out that female Stelis lack scopal hairs under their abdomens because, like other parasitic bees, they do not gather pollen but instead rely on the pollen stores of their hosts.

For more information, contact Maust at amaust@uw.edu.泭

Joth Davis adjusted his waders and stepped into the cool waters of Thorndyke Bay, his Crocs disappearing under a layer of thick, forest-green seaweed. Behind him, jagged Olympic peaks poked above the hilltops. Before him stretched 30 acres of oysters, clams and geoducks ��� the shellfish farm he���d run for 35 years. 泭

A hundred feet from shore, Davis stooped over and reached a hand toward the muck, where a native cockle clam sat on the surface. ���This right here,��� he said, scooping up the clam, ���this is the problem.���泭

Under ideal conditions, cockles bury themselves in sand or mud, resting in shallow waters. But the conditions at are not always ideal. Every summer, Davis and shellfish farmers across the Washington coastline contend with an abundance of , a native seaweed that flourishes in tidelands. Commonly called ���sea lettuce,��� Ulva grows thick and heavy. Left unmitigated, it can smother life underneath.泭

Some shellfish, like the cockle in Davis���s hand, can force themselves through the sludge and onto the surface, where they���re more likely to survive. Others ��� including the oysters and geoducks that are the heart of Baywater���s business ��� can only suffer on the seabed.泭泭

���Too much seaweed grows in proliferation, and just piles up on top of the (shellfish). We definitely have seen mortalities among geoducks because of the Ulva,��� said Davis, who is also a trained marine biologist and affiliate professor of aquatic and fisheries sciences at the 窪蹋勛圖厙. ���And it���s getting worse.���泭

For years, Baywater has removed excess Ulva by hand. Teams of workers hunch over to scoop fistfuls of seaweed into oversized buckets. It���s an expensive, time-consuming, laborious process that creates yet another conundrum ��� what to do with hundreds of pounds of unwanted seaweed.泭泭

Researchers at the 窪蹋勛圖厙 saw an opportunity. Ulva is rich in carbon and other nutrients, which can cause problems when left in the sea. But those same nutrients are vital for land-based agriculture. What if shellfish farmers like Davis could turn all that extra seaweed into an organic soil amendment for vegetable farms?泭泭

��濡喧 seemed like a real no-brainer,��� said Sarah Collier, a 窪蹋勛圖厙 assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and the project lead. ���What has been a problem for shellfish farms could be a great opportunity for farms on land.���泭

That insight led to , a multi-year collaboration between the 窪蹋勛圖厙, Baywater Shellfish, , Washington State University, and farm business incubator The project aimed to test the viability of Ulva as a soil amendment, and, if successful, develop a market for sea-based farmers to sell excess seaweed to their counterparts on land. Along the way, Collier���s team would study the supply chain���s agricultural, economic and climate impacts.泭泭

Project leaders hoped their findings would help to solve a problem faced not only in Washington, but also in coastal communities around the globe.泭泭

���Our farm is really a research platform,��� Davis said. ���We���re doing this because it helps the farm, but it���s really the science that we want.���泭泭

In December 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded the program nearly $5 million over five years. The project launched the following year, removing more than 17,000 pounds of seaweed from shellfish beds and applying it to crops on four local farms, who received financial support for their participation.泭泭

The project generated widespread excitement. Anecdotes from participating farms suggested an increased crop yield, and nearly 70 farms expressed interest in participating in the second year. The project team built a prototype raft-based system to accelerate seaweed removal. Early data suggested a significant economic benefit.泭

Then the USDA pulled the plug. In April 2025, federal officials canceled a $3 billion initiative to fund climate-forward agricultural projects such as Blue Carbon, Green Fields.泭泭

���We had to immediately shut everything down,��� Collier said. Now the project is at a standstill: Farmers who had been eager to participate were unable to do so, and researchers haven���t been able to fully analyze the first year���s data. The raft-based harvester sits ready, but has no supply chain for the seaweed it collects.泭

As the summer unfolds, project leaders have scrambled to maintain what they can, collecting essential data and storing seaweed samples for later analysis. Collier is searching for alternative funding and working with the USDA to potentially tweak the project to fit the Trump administration���s priorities.泭泭

For now, though, a solution to the seaweed problem remains just out of reach.泭泭

���The thing that’s really frustrating is that this is absolutely a win-win,��� Collier said. ��濡喧 makes sense. It solves a problem. It���s just something that makes sense from every perspective whether you’re thinking about the economics, the environmental impacts or泭 building resilience and health in the system. It just makes sense from every possible angle.泭

���So to have to stop doing this work is just so frustrating.���泭