Category: News

Jim Pfaendtner Wins Distinguished Teaching Award

Posted on by Renske Dyedov

The University of Washington has announced this year's Awards of Excellence recipients, recognizing achievements in teaching, mentoring, public service and staff support.

The winners will be honored 3:30-4:30 p.m., June 13, at a ceremony in Meany Hall for the campus and general public.

Being awarded for the first time this year is the Distinguished Alumni Veteran Award in recognition of community service and civic engagement by a UW alum who is a veteran. The first recipient is Rear Adm. Herbert Bridge, U.S. Read More

Kannan M. Krishnan named 2013 IEEE Fellow

Posted on by Renske Dyedov
 Professor KrishnanKannan M. Krishnan has been named a 2013 fellow of IEEE for contributions to nano-magnetic technology in medicine. IEEE Fellow is a distinction reserved for select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest are deemed fitting of this prestigious grade elevation. The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments and the total number selected in any one year does not exceed one-tenth of one percent of the total voting Institute membership.
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High glucose levels could impair ferroelectricity in body's connective tissues

Posted on by Renske Dyedov

High sugar levels in the body come at a cost to health. New research suggests that more sugar in the body could damage the elastic proteins that help us breathe and pump blood. The findings could have health implications for diabetics, who have high blood-glucose levels.

Researchers at the University of Washington and Boston University have discovered that a certain type of protein found in organs that repeatedly stretch and retract such as the heart and lungs is the source for a favorable electrical property that could help build and support healthy connective tissues. Read More

New device could cut costs on household products, pharmaceuticals

Posted on by Renske Dyedov

New device could cut costs on household products, pharmaceuticals By Michelle Ma Sometimes cost saving comes in nanoscale packages. A new procedure that thickens and thins fluid at the micron level could save consumers and manufacturers money, particularly for soap products that depend on certain molecules to effectively deal with grease and dirt. Researchers at the University of Washington published their findings online April 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read the back of most shampoos and dishwashing detergents and you'll find the word "surfactant" in the list of active ingredients. Read More

CleanTech undergrads win the UW Environmental Innovation Challenge

Posted on by Renske Dyedov

Congratulations to MolES faculty Lilo Pozzo’s senior design team “Polydrop,” grand prize winners at the 2013 UW Environmental Innovation Challenge, an annual event sponsored by the UW’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship. Their prize-winning prototype is an additive that transforms regular coatings into conductive coatings to enable the use of carbon fiber composites in the transportation industry, a solution that prevents the accumulation of static charges that can interfere with sensitive electronics. Learn more "º Read More

CleanTech and the Paradox of Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

Posted on by Renske Dyedov

Guest post by MolES faculty member and Chemical Engineering chair Daniel Schwartz on the Foster Unplugged blog

2011 EIC Grand Prize Winner Voltaic shows off their electric vehicle drive train
When I think Cleantech, my mind goes straight to the triangular logo on my waste container at work: "reduce, reuse, recycle."  These three words are central to most enduring cleantech innovations, though sometimes in paradoxical ways.  "Reduce" is the most prone to paradox, since reducing one thing generally happens by increasing another. Let's explore this "reduce" paradox via two well-known examples in that space.
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Kim Woodrow named on Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s 125 Women of Impact List

Posted on by Renske Dyedov

UW Bioengineering assistant professor Dr. Kim Woodrow’s was named on this list, compiled by Newsweek/The Daily Beast to accompany this week’s Women in the World Summit. Dr. Woodrow was cited for her work creating dissolvable female condoms that prevent pregnancy and protect against HIV, for which she received $1 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Read More

Tenfold boost in ability to pinpoint proteins in cancer cells

Posted on by Renske Dyedov

By Michelle Ma
March 19, 2013

Better diagnosis and treatment of cancer could hinge on the ability to better understand a single cell at its molecular level. New research offers a more comprehensive way of analyzing one cell's unique behavior, using an array of colors to show patterns that could indicate why a cell will or won't become cancerous.

A University of Washington team has developed a new method for color-coding cells that allows them to illuminate 100 biomarkers, a ten-time increase from the current research standard, to help analyze individual cells from cultures or tissue biopsies. Read More

UW Freshmen to Present Research Findings in D.C.

Posted on by Renske Dyedov

Presenting at a research conference in Washington D.C. is an unimaginable dream for most college freshmen. For six University of Washington College of Engineering students, this dream is a reality; they will present their research at the Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) Conference on March 9.

travelling to D.C., from left to right: Kasey Acob, Bailey Bonaci, David Coven, Daniel Corona, Mikael Perla, and Verlanie Rodillas

Kasey Acob, Bailey Bonaci, David Coven, Daniel Corona, Mikael Perla, and Verlanie Rodillas are traveling to Washington D.C. to present the research they conducted during the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience and Mentoring (REM) program the summer of 2012.

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James Carothers named Sloan Research Fellow

Posted on by Renske Dyedov

MolES Institute member and Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering James Carothers was named a 2013 Sloan Research Fellow in an announcement today by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Carothers’s research focuses on developing design platforms for engineering functionally-complex RNA-based control systems. These systems process cellular information and program the expression of very large numbers of genes, enabling both increased understanding of fundamental biological processes and applications to meet the demands for renewable chemicals and new therapies.

Three members of the UW faculty are among 126 recipients of 2013 Sloan Research Fellowships.  Read More