U professors honored by Ecological Society of America

March 2, 2018

Three University of Utah biology professors have been honored for their contributions to ecology. Frederick Adler and Phyllis Coley were elected fellows of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), and William Anderegg was named an Early Career Fellow. Fellows are members of ESA who have made outstanding contributions to a wide range of fields served by […]



U CO2 sensor network shows effects of metro growth

February 28, 2018

In February 2001, before the Olympic cauldron in Salt Lake City roared to life and focused the world’s spotlight on Utah, scientists at the University of Utah placed the first of several carbon dioxide (CO2) sensors atop a building on campus. CO2 is a key greenhouse gas leading to anthropogenic climate change, with cities around […]



U students present research on Capitol Hill

February 27, 2018

Undergraduate students at the University of Utah will showcase their research for Utah lawmakers and the general public on Wednesday, Feb. 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the rotunda of the Utah State Capitol. Research on Capitol Hill, now in its 18th year, gives lawmakers and the public a glimpse of the breadth […]



Nursery stock, homeowner preferences drive tree diversity in Salt Lake Valley

February 5, 2018

Utah’s early residents would be surprised to see the canopy of trees that covers the Salt Lake Valley today. Few trees are native to the valley, which means that most of the trees present there today are imported. It’s a much different situation from a natural forest, which is shaped by climate, water availability and […]



Climate change and snowmelt – turn up the heat, but what about humidity?

January 17, 2018

  It’s said on sticky summer days: “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” That holds true in the winter too, and could hold the key to the future of snowpack and water resources in the American West. In a new study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of Utah […]



New U podcast: Secrets of the Campus Cadavers

January 10, 2018

On April 20, 2016, University of Utah historical architect Charles Shepherd found something unexpected at an excavation site on Presidents Circle. At first glance in the morning light, he thought it might have been a rock. Closer inspection made it clear, though, that it was a human skull. The skull was just one of more […]



Arctic clouds highly sensitive to air pollution

January 3, 2018

In 1870, explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, trekking across the barren and remote ice cap of Greenland, saw something most people wouldn’t expect in such an empty, inhospitable landscape: haze. Nordenskiöld’s record of the haze was among the first evidence that air pollution around the northern hemisphere can travel toward the pole and degrade air quality […]



‘Oscar of Science’ awarded to U. mathematician

December 3, 2017

Christopher Hacon, University of Utah mathematician, was awarded the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics at a ceremony in Silicon Valley on Dec. 3. The awards ceremony, hosted by Morgan Freeman, was held at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. The $3 million prize, shared with James McKernan of the University of California, San […]



How the shape of Lake Ontario generates local, persistent snowstorms

November 10, 2017

A six-foot-wide snowblower mounted on a tractor makes a lot of sense when you live on the Tug Hill plateau. Tug Hill, in upstate New York, is one of the snowiest places in the eastern U.S. and experiences some of the most intense snowstorms in the world.  This largely rural region, just east of Lake […]



How ice in clouds is born

November 6, 2017

Something almost magical happens when you put a tray full of sloshing, liquid water into a freezer and it comes out later as a rigid, solid crystal of ice. Chemists at the University of Utah have pulled back the curtain a little more on the freezing process, particularly in clouds. Their research shows that when […]