The 91爆料 has been notified by the U.S. Department of Justice that it is conducting a compliance review. The University will cooperate with the review and provide information and responses.

The off-campus event referenced publicly appears to have been organized by a group falsely claiming affiliation with the 91爆料. That group鈥檚 registration was suspended in June 2024 and permanently revoked in May 2025. The 91爆料 strongly and unequivocally opposes antisemitism in all forms.

We also notified Meta last year of this group’s unauthorized use of the University鈥檚 name on social media, and appealed Meta’s refusal to address this issue on March 10. That appeal is pending.

It took less than 22 years after the discovery of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) for a fast-acting, highly effective treatment to become available. at curing hepatitis C infection, yet the virus remains a critical public health problem. It鈥檚 the most common bloodborne illness in the United States, and disproportionately impacts low-income people and marginalized communities.听

A directive aimed to eliminate the disease from Washington state by 2030. The first-in-the-nation plan called for coordination between public health agencies, increased screening, removal of barriers to care and a new approach to purchasing antiviral medications at a discount.听

A new study led by the 91爆料 found that the plan not only expanded access to tests and treatment, but may save money in the long run. , the study found that total costs for hepatitis C-related care rose when the program was first implemented but have declined since, even as increased screening identifies more cases.听

“Comprehensive health insurance claims data can help us see how patterns in testing, treatment and healthcare costs are changing over time across a large population,鈥� said lead author , who worked on the study while completing a doctoral degree at the 91爆料. 鈥淭hat kind of information can help states better understand how initiatives to expand access to care may affect both patients and the healthcare system.鈥�

Working in collaboration with the Washington State Health Care Authority and the Washington State Department of Health, researchers analyzed medical claims data between January 2017 and September 2022. Records included medical and pharmacy claims collected from both private insurance companies and public payers. The data represented about 70% of Washington residents, approximately 6-8 million individuals per year.听

Researchers found that the number of HCV tests administered increased sharply after Washington implemented the elimination initiative. There was a median of 28,375 tests per month at the end of 2017, peaking at 99,161 by July 2020. The number of tests then leveled off at a median of 55,844 per month throughout 2021. Researchers noted that these shifts also aligned with new national guidelines that recommended all adults receive at least one HCV test. Consistent with increased screening, the study observed an initial increase in the total number of HCV cases, followed by a significant decline over time as more people received treatment.

The study also found that total HCV-related costs spiked immediately after implementation of the initiative, but then dropped closer to initial levels. Total monthly costs rose from $45.6 million in 2017 to $70.8 million in 2019, an increase the researchers attributed to expanded screening, which identified more cases to treat. Monthly costs then declined to $56.8 million in 2021.听

While total HCV care costs rose, costs per patient declined by more than 45%. Researchers said the decline may be due to increased screening catching more infections in otherwise healthy people, which would likely improve treatment outcomes and reduce associated risks over time.听

鈥淎s an observational study, we cannot directly attribute the changes over time to the state initiative,鈥� said co-author , a professor of global health and of child, family and population health nursing at the 91爆料. 鈥淗owever, it does support the idea that investing in screening and treatment of healthy people without symptoms is more cost-effective than waiting until they become sick.鈥澨�

Other authors include , professor of health economics and director of the Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy and Economics (CHOICE) Institute at the 91爆料; , teaching professor of biobehavioral nursing and health informatics in the 91爆料 School of Nursing; , assistant professor of child, family and population health nursing and of allergy and infectious diseases at the 91爆料 School of Medicine; , research coordinator in the Department of Child, Family and Population Health Nursing at the 91爆料; Judy Zerzan-Thul, Leta Evaskus, Donna Sullivan, Stella Chang and JoEllen Colson of the Washington State Health Care Authority; and Emalie Huriaux and Jon Stockton of the Washington State Department of Health.

This study was funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

The Ecological Society of America on Wednesday awards. , a 91爆料 assistant professor of environmental and forest science, was named an Early Career Fellow, which recognizes scientists for contributions to advancing and applying ecological knowledge within eight years of completing a doctorate.

Willing studies how microbes respond, and help plants cope with, environmental change. focuses on fungi and other microbes living near plant roots. Much like the gut microbiome, these communities play a critical role in plant nutrition, immune function and overall forest health.

Willing鈥檚 lab focuses on understanding these communities and how they are shifting with climate change. Her research integrates methods from various scientific disciplines to gain insight into the ecosystem-wide impact of fungi.

鈥淚 work across pretty diverse fields, from fungal ecology to plant and forest ecology,鈥� Willing said. 鈥淚ntegrating everything together is challenging, but I think it’s a critical intersection to study right now and this award is a nice acknowledgement of that.鈥�

As a Faculty Fellow, Willing also collaborates with federal, state and tribal agencies to incorporate fungi into climate adaptation planning.

Many of her lab鈥檚 projects examine responses to climate change. For example, one of Willing鈥檚 current grad students is studying fungi in post-fire ecosystems.

Some fungal groups are fire-adapted, meaning that they can withstand wildfire better than others. After wildfire, the soil often becomes hydrophobic, which causes water to run off the surface instead of soaking in. This increases the risk of erosion, among other consequences. Fungi help seedlings to establish and stabilize the soil by helping it retain water.

Early findings from her lab indicate that prolonged fire suppression, a stewardship strategy intended to minimize wildfire impacts, can limit microorganisms fire tolerance, which then exacerbates the damage caused by a fire.

鈥淭here are lots of different nuances that we鈥檙e really just starting to understand,鈥� Willing said.

She hopes this work can help inform future forest management practices. Although there are many mushroom enthusiasts in the Pacific Northwest, Willing is one of few scientists in the region studying how these organisms fold into broader ecosystems.

Most of the data on microbial communities was collected within the past 20 years or so, which makes it difficult to gauge how these organisms are responding to climate change. Another project in Willing鈥檚 lab involves conducting genetic analyses on preserved plant specimens to establish a baseline for fungal health.

鈥淥ur understanding of what fungal and bacterial communities were like before the onset of rapid warming is really limited,鈥� Willing said.

Building this baseline will help researchers see how microbial communities are evolving and reveal management opportunities.

Without fungi, life on Earth couldn鈥檛 exist as we know it. Dead logs and fallen leaves would simply accumulate, with nothing to break them down and return their nutrients to the soil.

鈥淔ungi are involved in everything,鈥� Willing said. 鈥淚n the cycle of life, they are at the beginning, helping plants to take root across every ecosystem on Earth, and at the end, helping to create lush soils for future life to flourish.鈥�

ESA will acknowledge and celebrate fellows during a ceremony on July 27 at the annual meeting in Salt Lake City. Early Career Fellows are elected for five years.

For more information about her work, contact Willing at willingc@uw.edu.

Unfortunately for science fiction fans, desert worlds outside our solar system are unlikely to host life, according to new research from 91爆料. Scientists show that an Earth-sized planet needs at least 20 to 50% of the water in Earth鈥檚 oceans to maintain a critical natural cycle that keeps water on the surface.

Scientists believe that there are billions of planets outside our solar system. More than are confirmed, but only some of them are candidates for life. The search for life has focused on planets in the 鈥�,鈥� a sweet spot that is neither too close nor too far from a central star. Planets in this zone are considered viable because they can maintain liquid surface water.

鈥淲hen you are searching for life in the broad landscape of the universe with limited resources, you have to filter out some planets,鈥� said lead author , a 91爆料 doctoral student of Earth and space sciences.

Water, although essential, does not guarantee the existence of life. With this study, researchers worked to further narrow the search by investigating planets with just a small amount of water.

鈥淲e were interested in arid planets with very limited surface water inventory 鈥� far less than one Earth ocean. Many of these planets are in the habitable zone of their star, but we weren’t sure if they could actually be habitable,鈥� White-Gianella said.

The team鈥檚 results, , show that habitability hinges on the geologic carbon cycle 鈥� a water-driven process that exchanges carbon between the atmosphere and interior over millions of years, stabilizing surface temperatures.

Carbon dioxide, which comes from volcanoes in a natural system, accumulates in the atmosphere before falling back to Earth dissolved in rainwater. Rain erodes and chemically reacts with rocks on the Earth鈥檚 surface and runoff transports carbon to the ocean, where it sinks to the seafloor. Plate tectonics drives carbon-rich oceanic plates below continental land. Millions of years later, carbon resurfaces as mountains form.

If water levels drop too low for rainfall, carbon removal 鈥� from weathering 鈥� can鈥檛 keep up with emissions from volcanic eruptions and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere spike, trapping water. Rising temperatures evaporate the remaining surface water, initiating runaway warming that makes the planet too hot to support life.

鈥淪o that unfortunately makes these arid planets within habitable zones unlikely to be good candidates for life,鈥� White-Gianella said.

Although scientists have instruments that can measure surface water, rocky exoplanets are difficult to observe directly. In this study, the researchers ran a series of complex simulations to better understand how water might behave in these desert worlds.

Previous efforts to model the carbon cycle focused on cooler, perhaps wetter planets. The models factored in evaporation from sunlight, but didn鈥檛 include other drivers, such as wind. White-Gianella adapted existing models to drier planets by refining evaporation and precipitation estimates.

鈥淭hese sophisticated, mechanistic models of the carbon cycle have emerged from people trying to understand how Earth鈥檚 thermostat has worked 鈥� or hasn鈥檛 鈥� to regulate temperature through time,鈥� said senior author , a 91爆料 assistant professor of Earth and space sciences.

However, the function of the geologic carbon cycle on arid planets was largely unexplored. The results show that even planets that form with surface water could lose it, transitioning from potentially habitable to uninhabitable due to carbon cycle disruption.

One such planet exists far closer to home: Venus. The planet of love is roughly the same size as Earth, likely formed around the same time and may have started with a similar amount of water.

Yet today, the surface of Venus rivals the temperature of a wood-fired pizza oven. Standing on the surface would feel like being crushed by 10 blue whales, White-Gianella said.

Many theories attempt to explain why Earth and Venus are so different. White-Gianella and Krissanen-Totton propose that Venus, being closer to the sun, may have formed with slightly less water than Earth, which imbalanced the geologic carbon cycle. As surface temperatures rose with atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, Venus lost its water 鈥� and any life it may have hosted.

Upcoming missions to Venus will attempt to understand what happened to the planet and whether it ever hosted life. The findings could also offer insight into planets much farther away.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very unlikely that we will land something on the surface of an exoplanet in our lifetime, but Venus 鈥� our nextdoor neighbor 鈥� is arguably the best exoplanet analog,鈥� White-Gianella said.

The researchers hope that results from future missions will help validate the results of their modeling.

鈥淭his has implications for a lot of the potentially habitable real estate out there,鈥� Krissanen-Totton said.

This study was funded by the National Science Foundation, the NASA Astrobiology Program and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

For more information, contact White-Gianella at hasktw@uw.edu or Krissanen-Totton at joshkt@uw.edu.听

The 91爆料 has earned a Gold rating from the 鈥嬧�婼ustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, or STARS.

The STARS ratings, administered by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, are good for three years and are based on self-reported assessments. The 91爆料 has held a Gold rating from STARS since first participating in 2012.

鈥淭he STARS Gold rating is recognition of all the hard work being done across our campus by staff, students and faculty for sustainability,鈥� 91爆料 Sustainability director Lisa Dulude said. 鈥淎s we celebrate Earth Day in April, this achievement is a reminder of the 91爆料鈥檚 commitment to embed sustainability in everything we do, and the benefits of this work for our environment and our community.鈥�

The STARS report covers the 91爆料 in Seattle and includes questions on sustainability performance in academics, planning and administration, engagement and operations. About 380 schools worldwide have active STARS ratings. Gold is the second-highest tier. There are 17 schools that have achieved the highest Platinum rating. 91爆料 Bothell also holds a STARS Gold rating.

All STARS reports are public, and the .

STARS is the most wide-reaching sustainability report, and the information collected gives the 91爆料 a comprehensive view of its sustainability performance and allows for comparison to peer universities. It can also provide insight on areas where additional efforts might be needed.

The information is used to inform the 91爆料鈥檚 Sustainability Action Plan, which sets out the University鈥檚 sustainability goals. The first Sustainability Action Plan was adopted in 2020, and the 91爆料 is currently in the process of creating an updated Plan, which will be finalized by summer 2026.

鈥淭he 91爆料 has long been a sustainability leader in higher education, as evidenced by our long track record of STARS Gold ratings,鈥� Dulude said. 鈥淲ith the Sustainability Action Plan update, working groups have identified several areas to set measurable targets, which ensure we will continue that leadership.鈥�

The 91爆料鈥檚 sustainability efforts are also on show in recognition of Earth Day on April 22. Events organized by a variety of groups across the 91爆料 happen throughout the month, including volunteer opportunities, workshops and more. You can see the on the 91爆料 Sustainability site.

91爆料 researchers developed the first system that incorporates tiny cameras in off-the-shelf wireless earbuds to allow users to talk with an AI model about the scene in front of them. For instance, a user might turn to a Korean food package and say, 鈥淗ey Vue, translate this for me.鈥� They鈥檇 then hear an AI voice say, 鈥淭he visible text translates to 鈥楥old Noodles鈥� in English.鈥�

The prototype system called VueBuds takes low-resolution, black-and-white images, which it transmits over Bluetooth to a phone or other nearby device. A small artificial intelligence model on the device then answers questions about the images within around a second. For privacy, all of the processing happens on the device, a small light turns on when the system is recording, and users can immediately delete images.听

The team will April 14 at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Barcelona.听

鈥淲e haven鈥檛 seen most people adopt smart glasses or VR headsets, in part because a lot of people don鈥檛 like wearing glasses, and they often come with , such as recording high-resolution video and processing it in the cloud,鈥� said senior author , a 91爆料 professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. 鈥淏ut almost everyone wears earbuds already, so we wanted to see if we could put visual intelligence into tiny, low-power earbuds, and also address privacy concerns in the process.鈥�

Cameras use far more power than the microphones already in earbuds, so using the same sort of high-res cameras as those in smart glasses wouldn鈥檛 work. Also, large amounts of information can鈥檛 stream continuously over Bluetooth, so the system can鈥檛 run continuous video.听

The team found that using a low-power camera 鈥� roughly the size of a grain of rice 鈥� to shoot low-resolution, black-and-white still images limited battery drain and allowed for Bluetooth transmission while preserving performance.

There was also the matter of placement.听

鈥淥ne big question we had was: Will your face obscure the view too much? Can earbud cameras capture the user鈥檚 view of the world reliably?鈥� said lead author , who completed this work as a 91爆料 doctoral student in the Allen School.听

The team found that angling each camera 5-10 degrees outward provides a 98-108 degree field of view. While this creates a small blind spot when objects are held closer than 20 centimeters from the user, people rarely hold things that close to examine them 鈥� making it a non-issue for typical interactions.

Sixteen participants also wore VueBuds and tested the system鈥檚 ability to translate and answer basic questions about objects. VueBuds achieved 83-84% accuracy when translating or identifying objects and 93% when identifying the author and title of a book.

This study was designed to gauge the feasibility of integrating cameras in wireless earbuds. Since the system only takes grayscale images, it can鈥檛 answer questions that involve color in the scene.听

The team wants to add color to the system 鈥� color cameras require more power 鈥� and to train specialized AI models for specific use cases, such as translation.听听

鈥淭his study lets us glimpse what鈥檚 possible just using a general purpose language model and our wireless earbuds with cameras,鈥� Kim said. 鈥淏ut we鈥檇 like to study the system more rigorously for applications like reading a book 鈥� for people who have low vision or are blind, for instance 鈥� or translating text for travelers.鈥澨�

Co-authors include , a 91爆料 master鈥檚 student in the Allen School, and , , , and , all 91爆料 students in electrical and computer engineering.听

For more information, contact vuebuds@cs.washington.edu.

Weasels are small carnivores with a long body and short legs. They also have a stout skull and sharp teeth. These creatures, along with ferrets and minks, make up the Mustelinae subfamily.

Until now, researchers believed that the oldest fossils from this family were from Poland and Germany, dating back to about 3.5 million years ago in the . But a fossil discovered in Teruel, Spain, has doubled that estimate, dating back to the late , around 6.5 million years ago.

The research team, including , a 91爆料 principal research scientist in the biology department, has identified this fossil as belonging to a new species, named Galanthis baskini. The researchers estimate that this creature was about 5 ounces, comparable in size to the smallest living carnivoran today, the or Mustela nivalis. Much like the modern weasel, G. baskini was also likely a carnivore, based on its teeth.

The team in Palaeontology.

“This study begins to uncover the evolutionary history of modern weasels, specifically, why do they have unique small, elongated bodies compared to all other mammals?” said Law, who is also an affiliate curator at the 91爆料 Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. “We had hypothesized that events during the mid- to late-Miocene 鈥� both the expansion of open habitats, such as grasslands, and the diversification of rodents 鈥� would have allowed weasels to evolve bodies that were small and flexible enough to chase rodent prey in small crevices underground. G. baskini is exciting because it confirms that weasels were present in the Late Miocene. And it’s pretty cool that G. baskini was the size of the least weasel 鈥� that means small weasels were already around more than 6 million years ago.”

To compare this fossil to other weasel family members, the researchers used a combination of classical comparative anatomy with advanced analytical techniques, such as micro-computed tomography, or micro-CT. Micro-CT allowed the team to three-dimensionally reconstruct the internal structure of teeth and jaws as well as observe anatomical features that were not externally visible.

“The new genus, Galanthis, is named after a figure from Greek mythology who was transformed into a weasel, symbolizing the fossil鈥檚 significance as representing the origin of the weasel family and the lineage leading to modern species,” said senior author , assistant professor of paleontology at Complutense University of Madrid.

The fossils come from excavations carried out in the 1990s in the Teruel area of Arag贸n, Spain.

“This research is a clear example of the remarkable richness of Arag贸n鈥檚 fossil record of mammals, recognized worldwide,” said co-author , professor at the University of Zaragoza. “Our team has been contributing for decades to excavations and the study of fossil mammals.”

The study also revises the classification of another fossil of a similar age discovered in China. This fossil has now been assigned to the genus Zdanskyictis.

The next step, the researchers said, will be to find new fossils that help reconstruct in greater detail the early evolution of weasels and their relatives.

“Ideally, we will find an entire skeleton of a fossil weasel,” Law said. “That way we can actually quantify just how elongate these ancient weasels were and when body elongation actually evolved.”

A full list of co-authors and funding .

For more information, contact Law at cjlaw@uw.edu.听

Adapted from a release from Complutense University of Madrid.

Even on a campus like the 91爆料鈥檚 鈥� home to particle accelerators, wave tanks and countless other bespoke pieces of equipment 鈥� the machinery in the stands out. Take the dilution fridge, a large, white, cylindrical device that can cool a small chamber to one hundredth of a kelvin above absolute zero 鈥� the coldest possible temperature in the universe.听

鈥淭his is the coldest fridge money can buy,鈥� said , a 91爆料 assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and the former director of the lab, which goes by the nickname QT3. 鈥淲hen it鈥檚 running, the chamber inside this device is about 100 times colder than outer space. At that temperature, it鈥檚 much easier to study and manipulate a material鈥檚 quantum properties.鈥�

The lab also houses a photon qubit tabletop lab: a nondescript set of boxes, lasers and lenses that can demonstrate the 鈥渟pooky鈥� 鈥� a term scientists actually use 鈥� phenomenon known as quantum entanglement, where two particles appear to communicate instantaneously with each other despite being physically apart.

Or there鈥檚 the lab鈥檚 latest acquisition, the scanning tunneling microscope, which can image individual atoms within a solid material, allowing researchers to study the structure of materials at the smallest scales.

An interdisciplinary group of researchers has been marshalling resources and expertise to create QT3 for three years, and now, the lab is opening its doors as a unique one-stop shop resource for quantum researchers and educators at the 91爆料.

鈥淭he idea of this lab is to improve access to quantum hardware,鈥� Parsons said. 鈥淚t’s rather hard to acquire equipment like this. And there are a lot of researchers that may have good ideas that they want to test, but don鈥檛 have the resources yet for their own equipment. So we鈥檙e inviting researchers, initially from across campus, but also from other universities and from industry, to come in and test their ideas. This can be a hub for quantum experts to share their ideas and collaborate.鈥�

The lab also boasts hardware that can demonstrate known quantum principles and techniques, making it useful for students in quantum fields. In addition to the entanglement device, Parsons鈥� students developed a machine that can suspend charged particles 鈥� in this case, tiny grains of pollen 鈥� in midair using electric fields. Researchers use the same technique to trap single atoms and manipulate their quantum properties, making the lab鈥檚 ion-trapping machine good practice for more complex work.

Some students even work at the lab through an undergraduate staffing program, and have helped install instrumentation, write code to power equipment and build parts for custom microscopes. The program provides yet another avenue for students to get hands-on experience with unusual machinery and techniques.听

鈥淨uantum mechanics is inherently counterintuitive, and that makes it a powerful teaching tool,鈥� Parsons said. 鈥淚n the QT3 lab, students will encounter systems where their everyday intuition breaks down, and they must rely on careful reasoning and experimentation instead. They learn how to debug when results don鈥檛 match expectations, how to test simple cases and how to build understanding about hardware step by step.鈥�

The cosmically cold dilution fridge remains something of a centerpiece, even as the lab fills up with specialized equipment. The extreme environment within the device strips heat, light and other stray energy away from materials, allowing researchers to observe the peculiar quantum properties that remain. One such property is superposition, or the ability of a particle like an electron to maintain multiple mutually exclusive properties at the same time. Scientists use superposition to create a powerful, tiny piece of technology: a quantum bit, or qubit.听

鈥淭raditional computers use bits, which can only be one or zero. A qubit, on the other hand, we can make one plus zero,鈥� Parsons said. 鈥淚t’s both at the same time, and only when we measure it do we find out which one it is. We can use this unusual property to build a new class of computers that excel at tasks like communications and encryption.鈥�

QT3 is part of a collaborative effort to solidify 91爆料 as a leader in quantum research and applications. Most of the lab hardware was funded by a congressional earmark championed by Senator Maria Cantwell鈥檚 office. Departmental funding from across the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences helped rehab the lab space. The National Science Foundation provided seed funding for the instructional lab equipment.

The 91爆料 has also spent the past decade investing heavily in faculty with quantum expertise.

鈥淰ery few places have expertise across the full quantum stack, from materials up to algorithms,鈥� said , a 91爆料 professor of physics and founder of QT3. 鈥淭he 91爆料 has quantum faculty in electrical and mechanical engineering, physics, computer science, materials science and chemistry. Our faculty work on superconducting qubits, spin defects, photons, trapped ions, neutral atoms and topological qubits. Our advantage is the breadth of our investment.鈥�

The lab is now available to researchers and students across the 91爆料, and private companies are encouraged to reach out about partnering. Parsons has already used the lab to teach a graduate-level class in electrical and computer engineering for students who included employees from Boeing, Microsoft and quantum computing company IonQ. The lab is hiring for a full-time manager to maintain the equipment and help users make the most of the facility.听

鈥淗ere in academia, we can improve the building blocks for applied technologies like quantum computing, and then transfer those learnings to industry for further scaling,鈥� Parsons said.

For more information, contact Parsons at mfpars@uw.edu.

As judges across the United States face growing political pressure, public attacks and threats to their personal safety, the 91爆料 School of Law will host on April 17 and 18 to examine how to protect America鈥檚 independent federal judiciary and the rule of law.

The two-day symposium, 鈥淣either Sword Nor Purse,鈥� at the School of Law, is sponsored by the American College of Trial Lawyers and planned in partnership with Keep Our Republic/Article 3 Coalition, the Society for the Rule of Law, and the Task Force for American Democracy. It convenes a slate of prominent judges, scholars and journalists who will examine the rule of law and the constitutional foundations of judicial independence.

鈥淭his symposium is designed to address a core constitutional concern,鈥� said Toni Rembe Dean . 鈥淎ttacks on an impartial and independent judiciary undermine public confidence in the courts, which weakens the foundation of the American legal system and its protections.鈥澨�

The U.S. judiciary system was designed to be independent precisely so it could uphold the rule of law, said , the 91爆料 School of Law jurist-in-residence and a retired member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

鈥淎t this moment, independence is under sustained challenges,鈥� Henry said. 鈥淭his symposium will confront those challenges directly.鈥�

, School of Law associate dean emeritus, said the participation in the symposium of respected judges, scholars and journalists reflect a rising concern that the U.S. system is in peril.

鈥淭he extraordinary group of judges and scholars share a commitment not just to diagnosing the problem, but to identifying meaningful ways to address it,鈥� Spitzer said.

The symposium begins on Friday, April 17 and continues through Saturday, April 18.

Lance brings more than 18 years of university leadership and legal experience to the role, serving for the past five years as chief of staff to the provost at Seattle University. Prior to that role, Lance served as SU鈥檚 associate university counsel from 2017 to 2021 and assistant to the executive vice president and assistant university counsel from 2010 to 2017.

鈥淒avid stood out not only for the depth and breadth of his experience as a university chief of staff, but for the incredible esteem in which he is held by all who have worked with him. In addition, his deep knowledge and understanding of the local higher education landscape makes him the ideal person to fill this important role,鈥� said President Jones.

Before joining Seattle University, Lance was an associate attorney for Miller Nash, LLP where his practice focused on higher education. He holds a bachelor鈥檚 degree in political science from Marquette University, a juris doctorate from Seattle University School of Law and was an adjunct law professor from 2012 to 2016.

鈥淗aving been born and raised in Washington, I am honored to join the Husky family,鈥� Lance said. 鈥淭he 91爆料 stands as a leading public research university and prominent member of the AAU and Big Ten Conference. I look forward to serving alongside President Jones, Provost Serio and the 91爆料 community as we navigate the headwinds facing higher education, lead in this moment of change, and continue our work to educate students, care for patients, innovate and produce knowledge, and serve our communities, all for the common good.鈥�

As chief of staff, Lance will serve as a senior advisor to the president, helping to drive strategic priorities and oversee the operations of the Executive Office of the President and Provost. He will work closely with campus and external partners to ensure alignment across the University, advance the institution鈥檚 strategic plan and strengthen collaboration among divisions. Lance will also support the administration鈥檚 engagement with the 91爆料 Board of Regents and help ensure the University鈥檚 mission and values are reflected in its leadership and decision making.

Lance is the youngest son of two Huskies 鈥� Stan Lance, who graduated with a master鈥檚 degree in 1972 and an MBA in 1975, and Nora Lance, who earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in 1973.

Outside of work, Lance enjoys running and longs for more October baseball in Seattle. He also explores the Pacific Northwest鈥檚 trails, beaches and mountains with his wife, Christi, and three young kids.

Lance succeeds Hasoni Pratts, who served as chief of staff following the departure of Margaret Shepherd, who left the 91爆料 in September after serving at the University for听16听years.