Recent recognition of the 91���� includes the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Rosentiel Award for contributions to ocean science, and the 2026 Distinguished Community Engagement Award

Assistant professor of chemistry awarded 2026 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award��

, assistant��professor��of��chemistry��at the��91����, received��a 2026 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. The award supports early-career faculty in the chemical sciences who have created an outstanding independent body of scholarship and��demonstrated��a strong commitment to education.����

Each Camille Dreyfus��teacher-scholar��receives an unrestricted research grant of $100,000. Golder was one of 17 scholars selected for the 2026 award.����

Golder’s research focuses on the design and reconstruction of plastics, with an emphasis on improving polymer integrity and sustainability. The work explores how chemical design can support stronger, more adaptable materials while addressing broader challenges in plastic waste and long-term environmental impact.��

Golder said the foundation’s support will give his group the flexibility to continue pursuing “the boldest and most exciting ideas” over the next five years.��The��recognition��also��reflects the hard work and creativity of his research group over the past six years, he said.��

Principal oceanographer receives Rosenstiel Award��

, principal oceanographer at the 91���� Applied Physics Laboratory��and affiliate��assistant��professor��at the School of��Oceanography, received the��2026 Rosenstiel Award. The award, created in 1971 by the Rosenstiel Foundation, honors mid-career scientists whose work has made significant and growing impacts in their fields.����

The award is presented each year on a rotating basis across marine geosciences, atmospheric sciences, marine biology and ecology, ocean��sciences,��and environmental science policy. Whalen was invited to present a lecture at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine,��Atmospheric,��and Earth Science, where the award was presented in April.����

Whalen studies small-scale physics��in the ocean, including processes that generate turbulence��and mix the water, along with how these processes��interact with the dynamics of the water across ocean basins. Her work helps scientists better understand the physical drivers that shape climate and marine environments.��

Whalen said she was honored to receive the award and to join the ranks of oceanographers whose work she admires. Receiving the award also gave Whalen the opportunity to visit the Rosenstiel School, where she met with faculty and students and learned more about their work.

Professor receives Distinguished Community Engagement Award��

,��professor of ethnic, gender and labor studies and American Indian studies and adjunct professor of education at 91���� Tacoma��received the 2026 Distinguished Community Engagement Award in the project category. Montgomery is also an adjunct professor of bioethics and humanities at the 91���� School of Medicine.��The award recognizes her leadership of the Indigenous Speaker Series and Community Engagement: Promoting Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Multigenerational Community Learning.��

Through support for the Haida Sails Resurgence Project and the Northwest Maritime Center, Montgomery’s work has created meaningful opportunities for co-learning, cultural��exchange,��and the uplifting of Indigenous Knowledge Systems through place-based and multigenerational learning experiences.��

Montgomery’s community-engaged scholarship focuses on amplifying Indigenous voices, supporting dialogue around cultural and traditional lived experiences and strengthening partnerships that connect academic spaces with community knowledge. The Indigenous Speaker Series, which Montgomery created in 2015, has become a platform for sharing place-based Indigenous��knowledges��and expanding conversations across communities.����

“As a visitor to the Pacific Northwest, it is an honor to continue the responsibility to uplift place-based Indigenous��knowledges��and nurture the reciprocity of community partnerships,” Montgomery said.��

Included with most of these services is the ability for users to download their “raw” genetic data, which can be further analyzed using third-party apps. But little is known about how and why consumers are using these apps, or about a variety of potential risks associated with these apps — such as false positives about health information or unknowingly linking a family history to an unsolved crime.

“It’s the proverbial ‘wild West’ of genetic interpretation,” said , a 91���� research scientist in the Department of Biostatistics who recently completed her doctorate in the School of Public Health. She’s the lead author of a new paper, “Third-party genetic interpretation tools: a mixed-methods study of consumer motivation and behavior,” that was published today in��.

The team surveyed more than 1,000 people who had paid to obtain their genetic profile through a service like 23andMe or AncestryDNA. Most respondents reported that they downloaded data and went on to use a third-party application like Promethease or GEDmatch.

“We found that individuals who are initially motivated to learn about ancestry and genealogy frequently end up engaging with health interpretations of their genetic data, too. This has implications for the regulation of such testing and interpretation practices,” said , associate professor of bioethics and humanities, 91���� School of Medicine, and the senior author of the paper.

The study found that nearly all consumers who took the survey (89%) download their raw data and more than half of those who downloaded also used third-party tools (56%) to research both genealogical and ancestry information on third-party sites.

But third-party interpretation is largely unregulated and there are potential risks for consumers, Nelson said. And there are unanswered questions: What did you consent to? What do you think your data is going to be used for?

It’s often unclear what happens to the consumer data once it’s provided to a third-party tool. There are privacy risks, and even the chance that the genetic data may help law enforcement solve crimes. Researchers worry about accuracy, data privacy, reliability and the nation’s limited health resources.

False positives for health conditions can also cause emotional strain and put pressure on an already taxed health care system. People may find out about potentially serious diseases without much context or a support system.

On the other hand, third-party tools can also enable crowdsourced research and encourage people to learn about genetics.

Overall, Nelson is pleased that more people are taking an interest in genomics, but more research is needed on how people are using their information.

“We just had very little data on this,” Nelson said.

, a 91���� professor of bioethics and humanities, also co-authored the paper.

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For more information, contact Nelson at sarahcn@uw.edu.

Interview transcription was supported by funds from the 91���� Institute for Public Health Genetics. This work was partially supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) CSER Consortium, U01 HG006507 and U24 HG007307 (Jarvik, PI). This research used statistical consulting resources provided by the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences at 91����. REDCap and the Participant Portal at ITHS are supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UL1 TR002319.

CPAP use for sleep apnea hushes cancer-related��genes

A common treatment for sleep apnea, continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, may be associated with the suppression of cancer-related genes, according to a new 91���� . The link between cancer and sleep apnea is controversial, and the current study is among the earliest to systematically examine the effects of therapeutic CPAP on gene transcription. Dr. Sina Gharib, lead author and 91���� assistant professor of medicine, said that the study is a “preliminary step in our understanding of how the physiological disturbances caused by sleep apnea adversely affect cellular function.” Read more on .

Ethical medicine, Lesson 1: Recognize your��viewpoint

How do doctors learn to guide patients’ decisions when there are alternative courses of action or when dealing with polarizing medical choices, such as abortion and genetic testing? In a Q&A, Wylie Burke, a 91���� professor of bioethics and humanities, explains how she helps medical students and residents understand their own assumptions, expectations and biases. “Ethics is every day, not just the dramatic, should-we-pull-the-plug dilemmas. Ethics is being competent in your field; that’s a fundamental ethical obligation for a professional,” she said. Read more on .

In Vietnam, reducing harm of battery��recycling

Many��Vietnam��communities make money by recycling lead from used car batteries, but at the cost of widespread lead contamination. Researchers from the 91���� School of Public Health with collaborators at the Vietnamese National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health analyzed surface lead levels in nine homes and a school in a village near Hanoi. The measurements allowed the team to discover how lead spreads through a community. Now they are developing an education and training program and a health assessment. Read more on .

Through imaginative storytelling and art, “The Return” conveys environmental health from a Native American perspective.�� A center within the 91���� School of Public Health worked with Native American tribes to create and publish the illustrated story as a 32-page comic book.

One of the goals of this Native Tradition, Environment and Community Health Project was to find out how Native American ways of understanding the world and our place in it differ from the Western concept of environmental health. Surveys, interviews, and talking circles identified three core themes of Native environmental health: community, wellness, and inter-relationship.

“The Return”��was created from the findings. It is a dreamlike account of a Native woman and her baby, and tells how these three concepts are passed to the next generation.

Michelle Montgomery, senior fellow in the 91���� Department of Bioethics and Humanities at the 91���� Center for Genomics & Healthcare Equality, and Nicholas Salazar, a student at the Institute for American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., developed the book. Montgomery is a tribal member affiliated with the Haliwa Saponi and Eastern Band Cherokee.

The 91���� Center for Ecogenetics & Environmental Health and the Northwest Indian College co-managed the project. The effort began in 2008 with a collaborative grant from the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences.

The book was distributed at the 2013 American Indian Higher Education Consortium Student Conference in Green Bay, Wisc. More dissemination opportunities are planned. The end of the book contains a discussion guide and suggestions for related art projects.

“The Return”��comic book is .