AI (currently understood as a set of technologies including machine learning, deep learning, and foundation models) could accelerate scientific discovery, whether through narrow applications like DeepMind’s AlphaFold, or general applications such as advances in AI-enabled lab robotics, evidence synthesis, or statistical inference. There are many practical and technical challenges to solve before society has fully-fledged autonomous ‘AI scientists’. Nevertheless, it seems inevitable that over the coming years public and private R&D funders will make significant investments both to diffuse and adopt AI technologies, and to solve technical challenges, in the direction of a more heavily AI-mediated research.
This is a postdoctoral fellowship program for grants of up to $250,000 USD to support early career researchers in the social sciences and humanities (with particular emphasis on philosophy, sociology of science, and metascience) who are interested in building a career in understanding the implications of AI for the science and research ecosystem. Grants of up to $250,000 (USD) over up to two years will be awarded to social sciences and humanities postdoctoral researchers who study the implications of AI for Science. Learn more here.
In April 2023, civil war erupted in Sudan. To mark the second anniversary of the ongoing humanitarian crisis, “From Sudan to Seattle” will provide space for local Sudanese to share their stories of survival and migration, acknowledge the conflict’s connections to local African and Sudanese populations, and offer insights on the current state of US-Sudan relations. This event is co-hosted by the UW Center for Human Rights, Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, Department of Geography, Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, Center for American Politics and Public Policy, Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures Program, and the Law, Societies and Justice Department.
The event will be held on Saturday, April 12th from 9am to 12pm PST in HUB 250 and online. This event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be provided. The event will provide space for local Sudanese to share their stories of survival and migration, acknowledge the conflict’s connections to local African and Sudanese populations, and offer insights on the current state of US-Sudan relations. Learn more and register here.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
- Mubarak Elamin is a Sudanese community organizer and member of the Muslim Association of Puget Sound.
- Dr. Ushari Khalil is a human rights advocate who focuses on the rights of internally displaced populations and children affected by armed conflict in Sudan. A former Visiting Scholar at the University of Washington School of Law, Dr. Khalil has worked with UNICEF and is the recipient of a Human Rights Watch Monitor Award.
- Dr. Khidir Haroun is a former Sudanese Ambassador to the United States. Dr. Haroun currently serves as a Dean of Faculty at the International University of Africa.
- Dr. Christopher Tounsel is an associate professor of History and Director of the African Studies Program at the University of Washington. Dr. Tounsel has written two books on Sudan (Chosen Peoples and Bounds of Blackness) and has provided commentary on Sudanese affairs for Al Jazeera, BBC, and NPR.
- Dr. Mehari Worku is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Washington. Dr. Worku’s research focuses on Christianity in Egypt, Eritrea and Ethiopia.
- Yasir Zaidan is a PhD Candidate in the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. His research focuses on the Middle East’s growing influence in the Horn of Africa, and his commentaries have appeared in Foreign Policy, African Arguments, and World Politics Review.
- Samira Mohamed is a Sudanese pharmacy student and mother who escaped from Khartoum to Port Sudan when the war began in April 2023.
The application for the 2025-26 Gatzert Child Welfare Fellowship for Dissertation Writing is now open in MyGrad and is due on April 15, 2025 at 12 PM (noon) PST.
This fellowship is for the final stages of writing a Ph.D. dissertation that contributes to the lives of children with disabilities. The program funds one quarter of UW state tuition and fees, GAIP insurance, and a stipend at the Predoctoral TA II rate. The fellowship may be used in summer 2025, autumn 2025, winter 2026 or spring 2026. The choice of the quarter will be left to the discretion of the student.
WHO CAN APPLY: students in any academic discipline who:
· will have achieved doctoral candidate status by April 2025;
· have demonstrated progress on the dissertation which indicates completion by the end of spring quarter 2026 or sooner;
· are in a tuition-based graduate program (students in fee-based programs are not eligible);
· have not received another dissertation writing award from the Graduate School.
Contact Robyn Davis at the Office of Fellowships and Awards: rldavis@uw.edu or 206.543.7152.
The Biological Anthropology Seminar Series will meet next Tuesday, 4/8/2025 at 3:30 pm in Denny 313. Dr. Taylor van Doren, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alaska will speak on her research: “Biodemographic dimensions of the 1918 influenza pandemic and tuberculosis in Alaska.”
This meeting will be hybrid, and you can also choose to join via Zoom. Refreshments will be available for in-person attendees.