Recent recognition of the 糖心少女 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听

, assistant听professor听of听chemistry听at the听UW, received听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听demonstrated听a strong commitment to education.听听

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

骋辞濒诲别谤鈥檚 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.听

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

Principal oceanographer receives Rosenstiel Award听

, principal oceanographer at the 糖心少女Applied Physics Laboratory听and affiliate听assistant听professor听at the School of听Oceanography, received the听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.听听

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

Whalen studies small-scale physics听in the ocean, including processes that generate turbulence听and mix the water, along with how these processes听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.听

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听

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

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

Montgomery鈥檚 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听knowledges听and expanding conversations across communities.听听

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

Five 糖心少女 faculty members have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 17, are , an assistant professor of physics, , an assistant professor of chemistry, and , an assistant professor of biology, all in the College of Arts & Sciences; , an assistant professor of computer science in the College of Engineering; and , an assistant professor of oceanography in the College of the Environment.听

Since the first Sloan Research Fellowships were awarded in 1955, and including this year鈥檚 fellows, 136 faculty from 糖心少女 have received a Sloan Research Fellowship, according to the Sloan Foundation.听

Sloan Fellowships are open to scholars in seven scientific and technical fields 鈥� chemistry, computer science, Earth system science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics 鈥� and honor early-career researchers whose achievements mark them among the next generation of scientific leaders.听

The 126鈥疭loan Fellows for 2026鈥痺ere selected by researchers and faculty in the scientific community. Candidates are nominated by their peers, and fellows are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based on each candidate鈥檚 research accomplishments, creativity and potential to become a leader in their field. Each fellow will receive $75,000 to apply toward research endeavors.听

This year鈥檚 fellows come from 44 institutions across the United States and Canada.听

Maria 鈥淢asha鈥� Baryakhtar

叠补谤测补办丑迟补谤鈥檚 research in the Department of Physics focuses on theories beyond the established Standard Model of particle physics and on creating new ideas and directions for testing these theories. Such theories address outstanding puzzles in our existing understanding and often predict new, ultralight, feebly interacting particles beyond those we have discovered so far. The existence of these particles can be tested through exquisitely precise experiments in the lab or by observing extreme objects in the sky like black holes and neutron stars.

鈥淢y research program aims to search high and low for new, as yet hidden particles and forces. Because of their nature, these particles require a range of creative search strategies. The directions I am establishing use new technologies and data from the sky to the lab and may be the only way to shed light on the truly dark elements of our universe.鈥�

Matthew R. Golder

骋辞濒诲别谤鈥檚 research in the Department of Chemistry addresses the omnipresent “plastics problems” from two different vantage points. First, the team thinks about new ways to prolong the useful lifetime of commodity materials. The researchers use molecular engineering to keep plastics in use longer before discarding. The Golder Research Group also develops new methods to make and repurpose plastics, with an emphasis on green chemistry and making plastics more recyclable.

“Plastics are paramount to daily life, so there are numerous opportunities to improve performance and mitigate waste. We operate at the interface of fundamental organic chemistry and applied materials science to enhance plastic integrity and sustainability. By doing so, my students really take this mission to heart and constantly dream up new ways to creatively (re)design commodity plastic materials.”听

Vikram Iyer

滨测别谤鈥檚 research in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering seeks to address sustainability challenges across the full computing stack from creating recyclable polymers to reimagining the way we build computing hardware by designing AI systems to and . In particular, the group鈥檚 work goes beyond simply reducing energy consumption to quantify and tackle the environmental impacts of materials and manufacturing.听

鈥�My group both leverages innovations from outside of computing like chemistry and material science to drive sustainability and applies computing techniques from AI to programming languages to fundamentally advance environmental sciences. This work is highly interdisciplinary and takes some extra effort at the beginning for each of us to understand the technologies and methods developed by our collaborators. By doing this, we can come up with completely new ideas that have real world impact like enabling carbon reduction at major companies like Amazon, and creating systems like battery-free robots that push the boundaries of technology.鈥�

Willem Laursen

尝补耻谤蝉别苍鈥檚 research in the Department of Biology is focused on understanding how animals detect and respond to sensory cues in their environment. Using genetic manipulation, neurophysiology and behavioral analyses, the lab’s current focus is to understand how disease vector mosquitoes use sensory cues to locate hosts, mates and egg-laying sites.

“It is an honor to be selected as a Sloan Fellow. This award will support our lab鈥檚 research on the role of the mosquito gustatory, or taste, system in critical behaviors, such as blood feeding. While mosquitoes use all of their senses to efficiently locate hosts, their taste system is surprisingly understudied. By examining the gustatory systems of blood-feeding insects, we hope to better understand how taste cues on the skin and in the blood are detected and used to guide their specialized behaviors, lines of inquiry that could ultimately identify new targets for controlling the spread of disease.”

Frankie Pavia

笔补惫颈补鈥檚 research in the School of Oceanography develops and applies new isotopic techniques to study feedbacks in the Earth system. His work spans the oceanic, atmospheric, lithospheric, and human domains, on timescales ranging from minutes to millennia.

鈥淭he oceans are a repository and reactor for materials originating on land, in the atmosphere, in Earth鈥檚 interior and from outer space. Chemical fingerprints of oceanic interactions with these reservoirs can be unlocked using unique analytical chemistry techniques, especially those involving the precise measurement of isotope ratios. My current research aims to discover new interactions between the oceans and the Earth system in the past, present and future, by pioneering interdisciplinary studies that use measurements of stable and radioactive isotopes to determine how much and how fast the Earth system changes. Current projects involve using cosmic dust to reconstruct sea-ice coverage, sensitively detecting human-derived carbon in the oceans, and understanding the past and future impacts of oceanic calcium carbonate dissolution on storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide.鈥澨�

Contact Baryakhtar at mbaryakh@uw.edu, Golder at goldermr@uw.edu, Iyer at vsiyer@cs.washington.edu, Laursen at wlaursen@uw.edu, and Pavia at fjpavia@uw.edu.