In early 2025 the University of Wyoming achieved Research Level 1 (R1) status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, placing Wyoming's only four-year university in the rarefied air of the top research universities in the United States. This prestigious designation recognizes our commitment to groundbreaking research, academic excellence, and impactful discoveries that benefit Wyoming and the world. The Research and Economic Development Division (REDD) at UW serves as a catalyst to advance the university's knowledge enterprise through research, service, and innovation. Providing rich experiential learning opportunities, REDD enriches the experience of UW students and supports innovation and economic growth across Wyoming. Our commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and innovation remains a foundation for progress and prosperity throughout the state.
UW Students were trained by LAMP-trained educators in active learning classes in FY24
Total FY24 research expenditures
On NAI's annual list of patent production by U.S. universities
New maps released this week document the world’s largest land mammal migration, revealing the seasonal journeys of more than 5 million white-eared kob and tiang antelope across South Sudan and Ethiopia.
The work was made possible by the Global Initiative on Ungulate Migration (GIUM), a partnership of international researchers headquartered at the University of Wyoming that is producing detailed maps to guide conservation and infrastructure planning to protect ungulate migrations worldwide.
The maps were informed by animal tracking data collected by African Parks and the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority. They depict, in unprecedented detail, the expansive “Great Nile Migration,” one of the last remaining large-scale land migrations on Earth.
All told, biologists estimate the migrations include approximately 5 million to 7 million animals across four species -- white-eared kob, tiang, Mongalla gazelle and Bohor reedbuck.
For the full story, visit UW News.
Kenneth Sims and other research scientists recently discovered that mafic volcanism of Henrys Fork Caldera -- located in eastern Idaho and west of Yellowstone National Park -- occurred concurrently with second- and third-cycle rhyolite volcanism in and around the Yellowstone caldera.
The revelation, detailed in a recently published paper, helps provide a new and younger timeline of volcanic activity in the Henrys Fork Caldera region and adds knowledge to the chronology of mafic eruptions and their temporal relation to rhyolitic volcanism in the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field, of which little was previously known.
“Essentially, it changes our understanding of the Yellowstone magmatic system by showing how basaltic eruptions have ‘thermally primed’ Yellowstone's big caldera-forming eruptions and shows that there are some very young eruptions in the Henrys Fork Caldera,” says Sims, a University of Wyoming professor of geology and geophysics and a member of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
For the full story visit UW News.
Responsible harvesting and other small disturbances can help make forests in the eastern United States more resilient to climate change, according to research by a new University of Wyoming faculty member.
The study by scientists at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies is led by UW Botany professor Dr. Sara Germain. Dr. Germain completed the research as a Cary postdoctoral associate and recently joined UW’s Department of Botany. The study explores how Eastern U.S. forests are responding to climate change, how disturbances such as harvesting and pests can help or hinder climate adaptation, and what it means for carbon storage. The study was published in the journal Ecosystems in January. Eastern trees are becoming increasingly stressed by warming temperatures, which can slow their growth and reproduction.
“It was comforting to learn that Eastern forests, which hold the most carbon in the U.S., are actually doing OK,” Germain says. “With moderate, status quo levels of disturbance, Eastern forests have the capacity to remain an important carbon sink.”
