University of Puget Sound student Julia Kaeppel ’24 has always been interested in computer programming. As a kid, she was a member of her elementary school robotics team and got hooked on programming in middle school as a pathway toward making video games. Kaeppel’s lifelong interest in operating systems and programming later led to an exciting research opportunity at Puget Sound.
On a recent Thursday afternoon, students in University of Puget Sound’s Connections 375: The Art & Science of Color class were split into two groups. One group combined various chemicals to produce Prussian blue—the first modern, synthetic blue pigment—while the other group foraged outside to find the ingredients to create ochre—one of the oldest naturally-derived pigments.
When Logan Day ’15 first set foot at the University of Puget Sound with plans of playing baseball and becoming an English teacher, he had no idea he would find himself working for a renewable energy start-up company. After switching majors a few times, Day graduated with a double major in business and comparative sociology. Employment brought him to Portland, Oregon where he landed a job in the human resources department at Nike thanks to a connection from another Puget Sound alum.
The fading, centuries-old murals on the walls of churches around the Yucatán Peninsula reflect the influence of the Europeans who landed on its shores in the 16th century. It seems only logical to assume that the images were created by the Europeans, whose arrival transformed the entire hemisphere—but that assumption is actually incorrect.
Jeffrey J. Matthews knows leadership. As the George F. Jewett Distinguished Professor in the School of Business and Leadership, he has spent chunks of his career digging into the subject. And, as a historian, he’s also not afraid to call it as he sees it. His new book, Generals and Admirals, Criminals and Crooks: Dishonorable Leadership in the U.S. Military (Notre Dame Press, 2023), is an investigative meditation on military leadership gone wrong—a tour through hiccups, eruptions, and bad judgment that winds through Gen.
For Abby Steward ’25, “glamping” was as close as her family ever got to outdoor adventure during her childhood in Oregon. So when her summer research at Puget Sound took her not only out into the woods to camp for 10 straight days, but 60 feet up into the canopy of bigleaf maples, “it really tested my capabilities,” Steward says. “I was thrown into something completely new. Being able to witness what my body could do in climbing that many trees felt amazing.”
Ariela Tubert, professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy, has long been interested in the ethics of artificial intelligence. Since 2022, Tubert and her spouse, fellow philosophy prof Justin Tiehen, have shared the James M. Dolliver National Endowment for the Humanities distinguished professorship to study the intersection of humanities and artificial intelligence.
TACOMA, Wash. — The University of Puget Sound is pleased to announce that Tanya Erzen, associate professor of religion, spirituality, and society and director of crime, law, and justice studies, has been awarded a grant of $598,500 from Ascendium Education Group. This funding will support the university's Technical Assistance for Teaching and Learning Initiative, aimed at enhancing education within college classrooms in prison.
Tacoma, Wash. - The University of Puget Sound has been awarded $1.3 million from The Mellon Foundation to fund its groundbreaking project, "Reimagining Justice and Carceral Systems through the Humanities." This transformative initiative will employ humanities approaches to shed light on the experiences of those most affected by criminal and legal systems and expand our crime, law, and justice studies program.
