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.��

Three new faculty books from the 91���� cover the recipes and culture of the world’s largest Syrian refugee camp, traditional ecological knowledge of Indigenous peoples and data science for neuroimaging researchers.

91���� News spoke with the authors to learn more.

Documenting history and rituals of Syrian cuisine

When was invited to Zaatari, the world’s largest Syrian refugee camp, she noticed that stories of the camp rarely included women’s voices. As she learned more about their lives, she had the idea to create a cookbook to counter the effects of domicide – the deliberate destruction of housing and basic infrastructure – and carve a space for the women to share their cultural knowledge with the world.

Published by Goose Lane Editions, “,” brings to life stories and traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. Fisher wrote the book in collaboration with over 2,000 refugees. All royalties return to the people of Zaatari, which is located near Jordan’s border with Syria.

“The book was a way to increase global awareness about war and refugees, and to show how important food and other aspects of the culture are in human survival and in telling the human story,” said Fisher, a 91���� professor in the Information School and an adjunct professor of communication.

The women in the camp were excited when Fisher approached them with the idea – even though many of them had never seen a cookbook.

“Part of why our book is so fascinating is that it focuses on tacit knowledge and the social nature of cooking,” Fisher said. “You learn to cook by cooking alongside somebody else.”

With over 130 recipes, some of which have never been written down before, the book documents the history and rituals of Syrian cuisine and how they have been adapted to life in a refugee camp. It also chronicles camp culture.

“We cannot lose our connections with humanity,” Fisher said. “Just because someone is a refugee living in a camp halfway around the world, doesn’t mean that their lives don’t have value. They are important within the global world that we live in and are all part of the history of humanity. All of these things need to be preserved and supported.”

Because they are war refugees, the people involved in the project were all credited with aliases. The photographs of the women were also taken from behind to protect their identities and as part of Islamic practice.

“The Zaatari book is just a powerful example of the 91���� community-engaged research, of working with a refugee community and agencies inside a high security closed refugee camp,” Fisher said. “It was just incredible what we were able to do.”

For more information, contact Fisher at fisher@uw.edu.��

Collection highlights Indigenous environmental knowledge

In “,” presenters from the discuss best practices for traditional ecological knowledge, or TEK, which refers to evolving knowledge acquired by Indigenous peoples through direct contact with the environment.

(enrolled Haliwa Saponi/descendant Eastern Band Cherokee), who is an associate professor and chair of Social and Historical studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the 91���� Tacoma, edited the book. She brought together speakers from the Indigenous Speakers Series and multigenerational Indigenous peoples to share how TEK aids in environmental justice efforts and why it should be adapted into Western sciences.

Launched by Montgomery in 2015, the Indigenous Speaker Series is a multi-purpose platform that promotes community partnerships, amplifies the voices of Indigenous people and dialogues about Indigenous people’s cultural and traditional lived experiences.

“Part of the Indigenous Speaker Series is about bringing in multigenerational voices to talk about all sorts of topics that relate to sustainability, because sustainability isn’t just about ecosystems or STEM initiatives,” Montgomery said. “It’s also about culture, identity, all those sorts of things. This project is about me really being passionate about decolonizing and indigenizing the narrative.”

As the founder and director of the Indigenous Speaker Series and “a humble, forever student,” Montgomery wanted to give back to the community by helping people share their stories.

“Culturally, I’m taught that my wealth is determined by how many people can say I contributed when asked,” Montgomery said. “Did I give back? How many people did I uplift as I made it on the journey? Being an editor, it sounds like a position of unique power. But to me, it was a humbling opportunity to reach out to people and to say, ‘I believe in your voice. Let me create a platform so you can share it.’”

Storytelling is about empowerment and justice, Montgomery said. Published by University Press of Colorado, the book is a multi-tribal collection and a space for people from all walks of life to share interdisciplinary knowledge through their stories.

“The reason why it’s important for me to always uplift the voices and the storytelling of people is that I want people to feel comfortable in their identity and the walk that they walk,” Montgomery said. “If you save spaces to tell their story, erasure doesn’t happen.”

For more information, contact Montgomery at montgm2@uw.edu.��

A new guide on data science for researchers

“,” recently published by Princeton University Press, serves as a guide to broadly relevant data science skills with specific application to neuroimaging research.

Written by , research associate professor of psychology at the 91���� and data science fellow at the 91���� eScience Institute, and , the book fills the need for an authoritative resource on data science for neuroimaging researchers.

“We’re both neuroimaging researchers and both of us painstakingly acquired data science skills by learning from mentors and peers and teaching ourselves,” Rokem said. “What we wanted to do was make that process a lot easier, especially for early-career researchers in our field.”

In 2016, Rokem and Yarkoni established a summer school focused on data science and neuroimaging. They’ve received funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health since 2017 to run the course, which is now called . Over the years, they identified gaps in existing training and worked to fill them.

In June, The Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) awarded Rokem the , which is given to an OHBM member who has made significant contribution to education and training in the field of neuroimaging. Rokem was recognized for the work that led to the book, among other accomplishments.

Formal training programs don’t typically cover topics like data management and programming topics in machine learning, Rokem said. The book provides a source that students, teachers and instructors can use to learn and teach about these skills.

“Neuroimaging and neuroscience research, much like many other fields, is inundated in data,” Rokem said. “The instruments that we use to make neuroimaging measurements and the datasets that we have available to us are all becoming larger, more complicated.”

Researchers who are mentoring students don’t always have experience with the current magnitude of available datasets. “Data Science for Neuroimaging: An Introduction” helps bridge the gap.

There is also a growing concern about reproducibility in the neuroimaging field, Rokem said.

“One of the ways to mitigate concerns about reproducibility is to automate everything, track the progress of the research and then make the research openly available in a way that others can inspect what we’re doing,” Rokem said. “This is part of a larger movement around open science and reproducible research that the eScience Institute has been advancing here at the 91����. Part of what we write about in the book is, what are the tools and techniques for making research accessible to and reproducible by others?”

The book, which allows users to run code examples and experiment with them hands-on, is also openly.

For more information, contact Rokem at arokem@uw.edu.

Three new faculty books from the 91���� cover a variety of topics: nightlife among Black queer women, hybrid warfare and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and decolonizing climate justice. 91���� News talked with the authors to learn more about their recent publications.

Exploring nightlife as community among Black queer women in Chicago

When people learn of Kemi Adeyemi’s primary research topic – nightlife – they assume it means endless socializing and dancing. Fun in the name of study.

And it can be, says Adeyemi. But it also can be frustrating and very often exhausting. Researching nightlife, after all, is still work: Commuting and interviewing, into the wee hours, night after night.

It’s a challenge she points out early in her new book, “ in Chicago,” published in September by Duke University Press. But it was a challenge she believes was worth undertaking to explore the concepts of community and identity, and how those can be cultivated and celebrated on the dance floor.

, an associate professor of gender, women and sexuality studies at the 91����, spent a decade visiting the clubs and party spaces of Black queer women in Chicago, where she received her doctorate at Northwestern University.

“Partying is a very integral part of how people organize their relationships to themselves as queer people, to the people around them as queer people, and to how the city folds them in or not,” Adeyemi said. “What happens in the club cannot be separated from what happens in the world beyond the club. How people move in the club, how they feel, how they talk about being out at night — they’re not just talking about a great nightlife space. They’re talking about how they situate themselves in community and in the city.”

That city, Chicago, is both a backdrop and a theme of the book. While Adeyemi structures the book in sections according to three distinct nightlife parties, she also elaborates on Chicago politics, geography and gentrification, and how those factors influence how and where Black queer women feel safe and comfortable.

But those factors aren’t confined to Chicago; they affect people everywhere. Urban development, Adeyemi explains, “shapes, surfaces and diminishes queer nightlife, and Black queer night life, in particular.”

“We’re talking about racialized, sexualized communities within urban development contexts. But it could also be a small-town gay bar in the middle of nowhere,” Adeyemi said. “The minute that we start paying attention to how that bar emerges, we recognize that it’s not out of nowhere. It’s been produced. It has a geographic, political and economic history. I hope that a reader could understand the building blocks of that argument and apply it wherever they are.”

Adeyemi draws upon scores of interviews for the book, allowing many of the voices of her subjects to comprise the book’s final chapter. There, party organizers, DJs and attendees discuss the challenges they face and some possible solutions, all with the aim of creating safe spaces and community, such as limiting alcohol and having better-trained staff who are sensitive to the needs and concerns of their clientele.

“I talked with many kinds of people who wanted many different kinds of things for their queer nightlife, and it was never,��‘Oh, let’s just go to a bar and get drunk��and dance,’��which I thought was really interesting. People want to develop more lasting and sustainable ways of relating within that space, and��we keep going back and trying again,” Adeyemi said. “There’s a beautiful kind of optimism to that.”

For more information, contact Adeyemi at kadeyemi@uw.edu.

NATO, hybrid warfare and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

“” examines how hybrid warfare is being used against NATO countries, identifies vulnerabilities and offers potential solutions to help member states diminish cyberattacks and increase energy independence.

, acting assistant professor in the 91���� Jackson School of International Studies and a visiting professor at the United States Army War College, served as the editor and lead author.

The handbook, published in November by U.S. Army War College Press, includes case studies written by JSIS graduate students and Army War College fellows from Lohmann’s 2021 “NATO, Energy and Cybersecurity” class. The students wrote specific case studies for different NATO countries, which provided the platform for the book.

“This is a great opportunity for 91���� faculty to let our students shine,” Lohmann said. “It’s so important to have our students have their names in the lights. It’s important to have them be a part of the process and see that their work can have an impact on policy.”

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the research became even more relevant to policymakers reckoning with the impact of hybrid warfare, which can affect gas prices, disrupt supply chains and test military mobility.

Lohmann said the research group was seeing signs that Russia appeared to be preparing for invasion through low-level hybrid warfare, like the increased planting of disinformation to divide NATO member states and intelligence-gathering on countries supporting Ukraine. Many countries were also completely energy dependent on Russia, which was a concern even before the invasion.

“We plotted out areas across Europe that we thought Russia would target and, unfortunately, those maps were quite accurate,” Lohmann said. “That was really sad. At the same time, it showed the relevancy of our work. There were three different targeted attacks against wind farms in Germany, for example, as well as ports and nuclear plants. The students mapped out the targets they assumed Russia would hit. Unfortunately, that was exactly the kind of infrastructure Russia has been targeting.”

Energy dependence on Russia is one of the major vulnerabilities highlighted in the book. In one of her chapters, Lohmann wrote about how to make microgrids more efficient and sustainable. In the case of a blackout caused by Russia, having a microgrid allows a town or military base to separate from the main grid and use its own energy source.

The studies also suggest an early response force that would allow NATO countries to work together and quickly share disinformation coming from Russia. Further, a new generation of early warning systems for cyberattacks would help protect critical energy infrastructure.

“You have everything connected to cyber and you have these major utilities that are not protected,” Lohmann said. “Our proposal for a prototype would use artificial intelligence and machine learning to get ahead of the curve. It’s not just looking back at patterns. It’s looking ahead and learning from itself.”

For more information, contact Lohmann at slohmann@uw.edu.

Decolonizing climate justice

In “,” editor brings together contributors from various tribal affiliations and backgrounds to share the complexities of Indigenous worldviews and examine the relationship between humans and the environment.

Montgomery, associate professor of American Indian studies and ethnic, gender and labor studies at the 91���� Tacoma, said the purpose of the book is to help decolonize the narratives in academia and other institutions.

Montgomery’s research focuses on Indigenizing the climate justice narrative, environmental ethics as connected to Indigenous peoples’ identities, and eco-critical race theory. In 2015, she launched the , which works to amplify the voices of Indigenous people. Several of those speakers wrote chapters for the book.

“There’s this very rigid boundary of whose voices are part of the narrative and publications,” said Montgomery, enrolled member of the Haliwa Saponi Tribe and Eastern Band Cherokee descendant. “I’m very passionate about the voices of the people in this project. You should always pay it forward. That’s the whole purpose, to bring the voices of my relatives with me and allow every person to tell their story. There is not a one-size-fits-all narrative. It’s interdisciplinary through place-based knowledges and identities.”

The collection covers a range of subjects centered around identity, lived experience and placed-based topics. In her chapter, Montgomery writes on eco-critical race theory. Other chapter titles include “Building Sustainability by Creating Belonging” and “Indigenous Feminisms and Environmentalism in Care of Place.”

“It’s something I call heart work,” Montgomery said. “You should always bring your people with you. That’s the whole purpose, to bring people with me and let every person tell their story.”

Montgomery didn’t provide the co-authors with any boundaries or specific themes. Each person has their own truths and experiences, she said. She wanted to provide a platform for people to write what was “close to their hearts.”

“Everyone has a different narrative,” Montgomery said. “Everyone has a personal lived experience. This project is decolonizing and Indigenizing the narrative. This is justice in action. This entire book is about what justice demands. Justice is a big word to unpack, but justice demands that Indigenous peoples have a voice. We should always be in a position where we can tell our own stories.”

For more information, contact Montgomery at montgm2@uw.edu.

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 .