After reading the July 28 article on the Oregon Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network, or RAIN, I would like to add some context and commentary to highlight what a significant achievement this state-funded efforts represents.
Human adaptation to environmental and other challenges is what intrigues J. Josh Snodgrass, a biological anthropologist at the University of Oregon. His work in Siberia and Ecuador, in particular, has caught the fancy of The Scientist, a magazine for professionals in the life sciences.
University of Oregon scientist Brad J. Nolen, who studies the molecular basis for actin formation in cells, is completing his second year as a high-profile Pew Scholar, a title and financial award granted by the Pew Charitable Trusts foundation.
Katie Meehan, an assistant professor, is the resident expert at the University of Oregon on water policy and urban development — from a water politics point of view. Her geography class "International Water Policy" (GEOG 467/567), which debuted in fall 2012 is the only UO class at that deals solely with issues about water policy and politics from an international perspective.
Geri Richmond’s interest in water is purely superficial—but that doesn’t make her work any less important. She seeks to understand the simplest properties of what holds a water surface together, which can be applied to everything from oil spills to baby diapers.
“This is about studying the fundamentals behind the most important surface properties on earth—the surface of water,” says Richmond, the UO’s Richard M. and Patricia H. Noyes Professor of Chemistry who recently was appointed by President Obama to the National Science Board.
Scientists have been studying human vision for hundreds of years, but still lack a complete understanding of the neural processes that allow us to see the world. Cris Niell, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology and member of the University of Oregon’s Institute of Neuroscience, is studying the neural circuitry of the visual system to explain the mechanisms behind visual perception.
In a recent TEDx talk she gave before a Portland audience, microbiologist Jessica Green described the ecosystem of a typical indoor space and the trillions of diverse microorganisms that interact with each other, with humans, and with their environment.
“Buildings are complex ecosystems that are an important source of microbes—some of which are good for us, some of which are bad,” Green said.
Smashing protons together in search of the secrets to the universe at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland, yields enormous amounts of data—on the scale of all the information contained on the social networking site Facebook. Deciding which of those collisions are important and which can be ignored is an immense undertaking where the University of Oregon high-energy physics team has taken a leading role, explains James Brau, Philip H. Knight Professor of Natural Science and director of the UO Center for High Energy Physics.
The University of Oregon is the only American university to consult with 14 European partners on a methodology to maintain and preserve European landscapes. Landscape architecture professor Deni Ruggeri will present the UO's findings at the EUROSCAPES project final conference in Val Maubuée, France, in October.
With the debate over same-sex marriage in full swing on today's political radar, a new book by University of Oregon political science professor Priscilla Yamin takes on matrimony's historical and contemporary role as an institution that grants and withholds rights.
