A woman in a blue jacket stands in front of the stone ruins and steep green mountains of Machu Picchu, Peru.

UW Alum Teaches and Researches Global Biodiversity, Inspiring Curiosity and Conservation

Nina Zitani has discovered and named 15 insect species previously unknown to science. Fellow entomologists have named another nine newly discovered species in her honor.

A renowned scientist and educator, Zitani has led or co-led more than 30 expeditions to remote areas of Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru. She’s collected and scrutinized thousands of entomological research specimens, led field courses in the Amazon rainforest, and served as a biodiversity expert for 18 Smithsonian Journeys, including an “Around the World by Private Jet” program.

Latest News

Several lambs walk through a chute near students who are collecting data.

Wyoming Wool Initiative Launches Fifth Annual Lamb-a-Year Program

The Wyoming Wool Initiative, in partnership with the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources, is now accepting applications for its 2026-2027 Lamb-a-Year program.

This flagship program offers UW students valuable industry experience and provides regional sheep producers with individualized lamb quality data.

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Ellen Currano, Regan Dunn, and Kymbre Skersies examine fossils on a rocky hillside.

UW’s Currano Helps Reconstruct Ancient Wyoming Forest Canopy

For more than a decade, University of Wyoming botany Professor Ellen Currano has been collecting fossilized remnants of trees and plants that thrived about 56 million years ago in what is now Wyoming.
Now, Currano’s findings are part of a new scientific paper that reconstructs the forest canopy of 56 million years ago, during a massive and abrupt emission of carbon into the atmosphere during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).

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A close-up on a hawk.

Rare Broad-Winged Hawk Released at UW After Discovery on Campus in June

At the edge of the University of Wyoming’s Prexy’s Pasture Thursday, July 30, people gathered around a rare sight in Wyoming for this time of year—a broad-winged hawk.

The uncommon bird of prey was found on campus in June with a fractured beak and a significant parasite load. A month later, the young hawk, healed and ready to resume its journey, flew from UW’s lawn to the trees between the S.H. Knight Geology Building and the Engineering Building before heading southeast.

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field containing a thick strip of yellow grass with mostly green grass to the right side

UW-Led Institute Releases Film Highlighting 10 Years of Collaborative Invasive Grass Management

The University of Wyoming’s Institute for Managing Annual Grasses Invading Natural Ecosystems (IMAGINE) has released a short film highlighting a decade of collaborative efforts to manage invasive grasses in northeast Wyoming.

The film, titled “Northeast Wyoming Holds the Line Against Ventenata & Medusahead,” features the Northeast Wyoming Invasive Grass Working Group (NEWIGWG), one of the largest invasive grass working groups in the U.S.

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Videos

Winter Care for Young Trees | From the Ground Up

Pruning Trees in Winter | From the Ground Up