When Ær¶¹ŌŚĻß President Ana Mari Cauce launched the Population Health Initiative in 2016, she spoke in soaring, ambitious terms. ā€œWe have an unprecedented opportunity to help people live longer, healthier, more productive lives ā€“ here and around the world,ā€ she said. UW researchers have leapt at that opportunity, forging connections across the university, working side by side with community partners and breaking down traditional barriers to improving public health. Ģż

In just eight years, the Initiative has funded 227 innovative, interdisciplinary projects. Many are focused right here in Western Washington, where projects have helped in South Seattle, identified soil contaminants in community gardens in the Duwamish Valley, and improved how community leaders along the Okanogan River . Other projects have reached across the globe, targeting health disparities in Somalia, Peru, Brazil and more.ĢżĢż

ā€œIn this relatively short period of time, weā€™ve demonstrated the power that accrues when faculty and staff across the various areas of our campuses are working together and also exposing students to the cutting-edge work of tackling grand challenges,ā€ Cauce said in her most recent .Ģż

And they’re just getting started. Many PHI-funded projects are still in their earliest stages, leveraging initial funding to show proof-of-concept for their ideas and setting the stage for future work. Fourteen projects so far have received much larger grants to empower researchers and community partners to expand successful projects and scale up for greater impact.Ģż

With the Initiative now a third of the way into its 25-year vision, UW News checked in with three projects that recently received funding to scale their efforts.Ģż

Spotting potential memory health issues in rural Washington

Diagnosing memory health issues in the best of circumstances is extraordinarily difficult. Patients typically make multiple visits to their doctor and take a many of which can produce flawed results ā€” people who take the same test more than once, for example, will often score higher, potentially masking memory loss. Ģż

Itā€™s even harder in rural America, which has a Patients seeking memory care might have to make a long, expensive trip to a major city, which leads many people to wait until a problem becomes apparent. By then, itā€™s often too late ā€” modern treatments can slow the progress of memory loss, but thereā€™s no way to regain whatā€™s been lost.Ģż

ā€œSo, how do you catch it early?ā€ said , a UW associate professor of psychology. ā€œWe give people an app to have them check for themselves.ā€ĢżĢż

Stocco and , director of the UW Alzheimerā€™s Disease Research Center, together with Hedderik van Rijn of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, led the development of an online program that can measure a personā€™s memory and predict their risk of memory disorders. Like a flash-card app that helps students cram for a test, the program shows pictures and asks the user to recall what they saw a few minutes earlier. The app records how quickly and accurately the user responds to each question and makes the next one a little easier or more difficult.ĢżĢż

Researchers have long understood that a personā€™s ability to recall a specific memory tends to fade over time. This is called the ā€œ.ā€ InĢż Stocco and van Rijn found that they could measure individual differences in the slopes of such curves.Ģż The app works by comparing a personā€™s responses to an internal model of forgetting and adjusting the slope of the model until it matches the responses. The resulting slope can be used to estimate the likelihood that their memory is fading faster than normal.ĢżĢż

By taking the test regularly, a person can track their memoryā€™s decline over time. But preliminary tests, Stocco said, have shown that even a single use can spot a potential problem.Ģż

ā€œJust by looking at a single lesson, based on the result, thereā€™s almost a perfect correspondence between the speed of forgetting and your probability of being diagnosed by a doctor,ā€ Stocco said. ā€œIt can be as accurate as the best clinical tests but, instead of taking two or three hours, this can be done in eight minutes, and you donā€™t need a doctor.ā€Ģż

A Tier 3 grant from the Population Health Initiative and a collaboration with the will allow the researchers to share the app with up to 500 people in rural and counties. Participants can take the test on their own time, and the results will be shared with researchers. If a potential problem emerges, the researchers plan to invite participants to Seattle for an in-person evaluation.ĢżĢż

ā€œItā€™s a solution that seems to solve these problems of early access and diagnostic bottlenecks,ā€ Stocco said. ā€œIf this works, thereā€™s no problem giving it to everybody in the state. Weā€™re really interested in expanding and adding people from underrepresented populations and underrepresented areas, and the grant will allow us to do that.ā€Ģż

Nancy Spurgeon of the Central Washington Area Health Education Center is also a collaborator on the project to test the prototype app, which is not yet available to the public.Ģż

Revamping the Point-In-Time Count to better understand King Countyā€™s unhoused populationĢż

For years, volunteers fanned across King County on a cold night each January, flashlights and clipboards in hand, searching for people sleeping outside. Theyā€™d also gather the shelter head counts for that night. Officially called the , this effort attempted to tally the number of people who lacked stable housing. This endeavor was replicated in cities across the country, and the results were combined to create a national count that influences how the federal government allocates funding.Ģż

Thereā€™s just one problem ā€“ the count is Volunteers canā€™t possibly find everybody. It captures only a single moment in time, and collects only limited data on peopleā€™s circumstances or personal needs. A person sleeping in their car might need different services than a person who sleeps in a tent, and the count didnā€™t fully capture that distinction.Ģż

So, a team of UW researchers designed a better way to count. Their method, detailed in a published Sept. 4 in in the American Journal of Epidemiology, taps into peopleā€™s social networks to generate a more representative sample, which the researchers then ran through a series of calculations to estimate the total unhoused population.ĢżĢżĢż

Called ā€œrespondent-driven sampling,ā€ the method stations volunteers in common ā€œhubs,ā€ like libraries or community centers, and offers cash gift cards for in-person interviews and peer referrals. Volunteers collect detailed information on peopleā€™s circumstances and needs, giving each person three tickets to share with their unhoused peers. When those peers come in for an interview and show the ticket, the person who referred them receives another small reward. The new person gets a gift card and another three tickets.Ģż

ā€œThis method gives people a more active voice in being counted. Itā€™s a more humane way to count people, and itā€™s also voluntary,ā€ said , a UW associate professor of sociology and co-lead on the project. ā€œThe regular PIT (Point-In-Time) count just counted people. Now we can collect all sorts of information from people on their circumstances and their needs. Should policymakers want to, they could leverage that data to change service offerings.ā€Ģż

The researchers received a Tier 2 grant to develop the system. They launched it in partnership with King County in 2022 and 2024, and were recently awarded a Tier 3 grant to test out the feasibility of running it quarterly.ĢżĢż

ā€œRunning the count quarterly allows us to estimate how many people move in and out of homelessness and whether there are seasonal changes, which are rarely measured,ā€ Almquist said. ā€œAlso, peopleā€™s needs change depending on the time of year, and this method will help us better understand those rhythms.ā€ĢżĢż

Other cities and counties have expressed interest, the researchers said. The team has also begun to expand the effort, aiming to improve data across the broad spectrum of housing and homelessness services.ĢżĢż

ā€œA very important byproduct of this work across schools and departments at UW is that we can create an ecosystem of people and projects,ā€ said , a UW professor emeritus of health systems and population health and co-lead on the project. ā€œWeā€™ve spun off projects on sleep assessments, relationships with organizations that collect data on homelessness, and weā€™re mapping the sweeps of encampments in relationship to where people choose to be located. We have a whole network of homelessness-related research now.Ģż

ā€œThese PHI grants gave us the fuel to ignite these projects.ā€Ģż

Other collaborators are of the UW Department of Health Systems and Population Health and of the VA Health Services Research and Development; of the UW Departments of Sociology and Statistics; of the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology and the eScience Institute; and Owen Kajfasz, Janelle Rothfolk and Cathea Carey of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.Ģż

Engaging community to mitigate flood risk in the Duwamish ValleyĢż

More than a century ago, Seattle leaders set out to control and redirect the Duwamish River. They dredged the riverbed and dug out its twists and turns. Wetlands were filled in, the valley was paved over and a system of hydrology was severed. What had been a wild, winding river valley with regular flooding became an angular straightaway built for industry. But when UW postdoctoral scholar looks out at the Duwamish, she sees the river fighting back.ĢżĢż

ā€œThe water was always there,ā€ Jeranko said, ā€œand now itā€™s fighting to come back up.ā€ĢżĢż

The river returned with devastating effect in December 2022, when a king tide and heavy rainfall , submerging homes and shuttering local businesses. The underserved neighborhood faces a significant risk of future floods.Ģż

To mitigate that risk, the City of Seattle has updated the neighborhoodā€™s stormwater drainage system and launched a new flood-warning system. But the , a nonprofit focused on river pollution and environmental health, saw an opportunity for something greater. The DRCC asked a team of UW researchers to help develop flood adaptation plans that are community-based, culturally responsive and that enrich the local environment.ĢżĢż

ā€œIn the community, people donā€™t think thereā€™s been enough engagement. Thereā€™s all this talk about flood mitigation, but all they see are sandbags,ā€ Jeranko said. ā€œSo DRCC was like, ā€˜Look, we really need the people who live in the flood zone to understand the solutions.ā€™ Because we have this long-lasting relationship with them, they see us as someone whoā€™s able to provide a list of solutions, not favor one over the others, and do it in an informative way.ā€Ģż

Boosted by a Tier 3 grant from the PHI, Jeranko and a team representing five UW departments, the Burke Museum and the DRCC are engaging with the community. This fall, the team will present the neighborhood with an expansive list of flood mitigation options and encourage city leaders to consider peopleā€™s preferences. Early work shows the community would favor nature-based solutions, Jeranko said. Floodable parks, for example, would provide ecological, recreational and public health benefits to the entire community, while storing flood water during storms.ĢżĢż

ā€œIt has been wonderful to collaborate with the UW team on this to make sure we are centering community voices in every single step of the planning for climate resilience,ā€ said Paulina LĆ³pez, executive director of the DRCC. ā€œCommunity leadership and representation is indispensable to bring climate justice to the Duwamish Valley.ā€Ģż

Jeranko hopes their community-based model will be replicated by communities across the country facing similar risks from climate change and sea level rise.Ģż

ā€œEven though UW and a lot of other universities really support and invest in community-engaged work, a lot of times itā€™s fundamentally hard to make that research happen,ā€ Jeranko said. ā€œBut the Population Health Initiative grant was about supporting all those things.ā€Ģż

Other collaborators on the project are , and of the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences; of the Department of Landscape Architecture; of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, of the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences; of the Quaternary Research Center and the Burke Museum; and LĆ³pez and Robin Schwartz of the DRCC.Ģż

For more information on any of the projects mentioned, or to learn more about the UW Population Health Initiative, visit the Initiative’s website or contact Alden Woods at acwoods@uw.edu.ĢżĢż

The Hans Rosling Center for Population Health at the Ær¶¹ŌŚĻß has achieved LEED Platinum Certification, the highest possible rating, reflecting the universityā€™s commitment to sustainable building practices.

, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a widely used green building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.

The Rosling Center is the first building in Washington state to achieve LEED Platinum using the most current criteria, version 4 and version 4.1. The UW’s other LEED Platinum building, the Russell T. Joy building at UW Tacoma, was one of 10 buildings in Washington certified Platinum under version 2.2.

Buildings earn points to achieve LEED certification levels by demonstrating energy savings, reduced water needs, clean indoor air and other measurements. Standout features of the Rosling Center include rainwater collection to flush toilets, shading fins on the east and west faƧades, improved accessibility throughout the site and design elements that promote human health. The building earned the most points available in LEED in the energy efficiency category.

ā€œAchieving LEED Platinum in the Rosling Center demonstrates the UWā€™s commitment to implementing sustainability best practices,ā€ said Lou Cariello, the UWā€™s vice president for facilities. ā€œThis building was designed to exceed state and local requirements, leading by example. It also shows how sustainable design can create a better experience for the people who use the building.ā€

The Rosling Center, which debuted as LEED Gold and won a number of industry trade awards, was made possible by a $210 million gift from theĢż and $15 million in earmarked funding from the Washington Legislature, as well as funding from the university.ĢżThe center is home to theĢż, theĢżĢż(IHME), parts of theĢżĢżand the offices of the Population Health Initiative.

Using project savings from the construction of the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health, the Ær¶¹ŌŚĻß will fund dozens of new research projects through the Population Health Initiativeā€™s interdisciplinary grant program. The new grants will fall into three tiers, with funding from $20,000 to $200,000 per award.

ā€œWe are delighted to have the funding capacity to be able to support the launch of roughly 75 innovative and interdisciplinary projects over the next two years,ā€ said , chief strategy officer for population health and a professor in the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. ā€œWe believe our new tiered approach to granting will engage a broader range of disciplines while also incentivizing the importance of community-based research partnerships.ā€

The tiers are:

• Laying the Foundation ā€” for small projects and capacity-building work with community and/or other collaborators that is intended to prepare a team for future projects seeking proof-of-concept. Awards of up to $25,000 are available per project.
• Establishing Proof-of-Concept ā€” for developingā€Æpreliminary data or proof-of-conceptā€Æneeded to pursue follow-on fundingā€Æto scale oneā€™s efforts. Applications will be accepted from faculty members and principal investigator-eligible staff. Awards of up toā€Æ$50,000ā€Æper project ā€” or $65,000 per project for teams proposing meaningful partnerships with community-based organizations.
• Scaling for Greater Impact ā€” for impactful projects that have developed preliminary data or realized proof-of-concept and are seeking to scale their efforts and/or expand the scope of their work. Awards of up to $150,000 per project ā€” or $200,000 per project for teams proposing meaningful partnerships with community-based organizations.

In 2016, the UW launched itsĢżPopulation Health Initiative, an interdisciplinary effort across the university to bring understanding and solutions to the biggest health challenges facing communities here in the Pacific Northwest, the U.S. and around the world.

The Hans Rosling Center for Population Health was made possible by a $210 million gift from theĢżĢżin October 2016 and $15 million in earmarked funding from the Washington Legislature, as well as funding from the university.ĢżThe center opened to the public in the fall of 2021 and is home to theĢż, theĢż, parts of theĢżĢżand the offices of the Population Health Initiative.

The building project was undertaken through a delivery method, which resulted in a savings of roughly $6 million, and was the first and largest integrated design-build project completed on UWā€™s campus. The design-build team was led by The Miller Hull Partnership andĢżLease Crutcher Lewis.

With these new grants, the Initiative ā€œseeks to create a world where all people can live healthier and more fulfilling lives,ā€ as stated on its website. The grants are intended to encourage the development of new interdisciplinary collaborations for projects that address critical challenges to population health.

ā€œFaculty are at their best when you give them an opportunity to be innovative and not tell them what to do. If you come to them and say hereā€™s the problem, you come up with the best way to solve it and then weā€™ll support you to do so ā€” thatā€™s when you get the greatest ideas,ā€ Mokdad said.

The Hans Rosling Center for Population Health has won top awards in 2021 from state and national design and construction associations for both its architectural design and unique project delivery approach. The building was designed by The Miller Hull Partnership and the general contractor was Lease Crutcher Lewis.

• The in November gave the Rosling Center its category, the award for and the culminating
• The Chicago AthenaeumĢżMuseum of Architecture and Design gave UWā€™s building the
• The Associated General Contractors of Washington gave the Rosling Center its award for construction excellence in the category
• And, the Seattle chapter of the American Institute of Architects gave the center one of four

The Hans Rosling Center for Population Health was made possible by a $210 million gift from theĢżĢżin October 2016 and $15 million in earmarked funding from the Washington Legislature, as well as funding from the university.ĢżThe center opened to the public in the fall of 2021 and is home to theĢż, the Ģż(IHME), parts of theĢżĢżand the offices of the Population Health Initiative.

The center is a direct result of the UWā€™sĢżPopulation Health Initiative, an interdisciplinary effort across the university to bring understanding and solutions to the biggest health challenges

facing communities here in the Pacific Northwest, the U.S. and around the world.

ā€œThe design for the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health draws its inspiration from the Population Health Initiative itself, with a focus on the health and wellness of its inhabitants as well as on global health issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, water preservation and material toxicity,ā€ said Whitney Pearce, an architect and project manager with Miller Hull.

The design optimizes opportunities for connection and collaboration among the building inhabitants, with program elements that support active, healthy lifestyles and workspaces that encourage working together, Pearce explained, adding that art and storytelling elements are integrated throughout the facility. These elements speak to the mission of both the building and the occupants, creating opportunities for education and inspiration.

The building project also achieved LEED Gold Certification through a number of sustainable building systems such as rainwater catchment and reuse for flushing bathroom fixtures, increased ventilation rates for improved indoor air quality, heat recovery from the West Campus Utility Plant for heating, as well as highly efficient radiant heating and cooling made possible by high-performance window and wall assemblies.

ā€œWeā€™re delighted the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health was recognized with these well-deserved honors,ā€ said , the universityā€™s chief strategy officer for population health and professor of health metrics sciences at IHME. ā€œThe intentional design of this building is going to be transformational to the universityā€™s efforts to spur interdisciplinary collaboration to address some of the big challenges we face to our collective health and well-being.ā€

The UW School of Nursing announced in February it was launching the . The first of its kind in the nation, the center will tackle racism in health care ā€” from classroom to research to the doctorā€™s office.

ā€œRacism is a complex problem that exists at many levels ā€” personal, institutional and societal,ā€ said UW School of Nursing Dean . ā€œNurses work at all those levels, and they have the potential to be a powerful force for transformation both inside and outside of the health care system.ā€

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare racial inequities in our society. The Black Lives Matter movement and related demonstrations have intensified calls for action.ĢżBut Emamiā€™s commitment to fighting for those underserved by the health care system predates the explosive events of 2020. It has deep roots in her identity.

Born in Iran, Emami has been shaped by the experience of being, what she calls, an ā€œinsiderā€“outsider,ā€ someone who is part of an institution but has a perspective different from others within it. She experienced this first in her native country, as the daughter of a Kurdish father in majority-Persian Iran, and then as an immigrant to Sweden, where she moved to at age 20 in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.

She minimized her Iranian identity to assimilate into Swedish culture. As an insiderā€“outsider, she was able to recognize the underlying dynamics of interactions.

ā€œYou realize your place in society ā€” where people see you and where you should place yourself in the caste system,ā€ Emami said. “Whatever I do, whether professionally or personally in my life, itā€™s very deeply and strongly impacted by my identity as an immigrant.ā€

At the Karolinska Institutet, Swedenā€™s largest center of medical academic research, Emami studied phenomenology, a field that asks public health professionals to examine their assumptions and biases, put them aside and focus on patientsā€™ lived experiences. The field incorporates insights from philosophy, psychology, social sciences and more.

She went on to earn her doctorate from the institute, and become a faculty member and head of nursing there, working with famed physician and epidemiologist Hans Rosling. He invited her to lead a joint doctoral program with the Ministry of Health and Education in Iran.

ā€œInitially I was hesitant to partner with Iran and didnā€™t want to connect with a country I had migrated from decades ago,ā€ Emami said. ā€œBut Hans convinced me that it would be very rewarding to be able to make a contribution to my country of origin, and that it would help me with my healing and reconciliation. I was very doubtful, but I followed Hansā€™s advice and I am very happy I did it.ā€

Her relationship with Rosling shaped how she viewed her work.

ā€œI learned from him that itā€™s not only about global health. Itā€™s about a lifestyle, how you view your life. If you really can manage to be aware of your blind spots, of your biases, itā€™s not only about your science or your professional contribution, itā€™s about who you become as a person.ā€

Emami moved to the United States in 2008 when she was hired as the dean of the College of Nursing at Seattle University. Five years later, she joined the UW in 2013 as the Robert G. and Jean A. Reid Dean of the School of Nursing.

At the UW, sheā€™s applied her insiderā€“outsider perspective, training and expertise.

Emami knows what itā€™s like coming into a new culture as an immigrant. She says the health care system for many is a new culture ā€” with its own set of rules, customs and language. The system is challenging to navigate for patients, who are in vulnerable situations, and itā€™s easy for health care professionals to make assumptions or ignore the realities of their patientsā€™ experiences.

The United States is a world leader in scientific research and spends more on health care per capita than any other country. Yet it ranks low in overall health outcomes, like life expectancy, compared to other developed nations. The COVID-19 pandemic has put that fact into stark relief, with the United States suffering more deaths from the virus than any other country as of early 2021.

ā€œThat disparity between science and outcome is explained by the gap in our understanding of human nature ā€” equity, poverty, the caste system ā€” as well as the injustice in our health care system and in our overall society,ā€ she said. ā€œAnd I don’t think that as a health care professional, particularly as a nurse, you can help people if your education isnā€™t expanded to include all these components.ā€

Emamiā€™s interdisciplinary outlook aligns the School of Nursing with the UWā€™s Population Health Initiative. Launched in 2016, the initiative invites departments across campus to come together to improve health ā€” looking beyond the absence of disease to issues ranging from equity to climate change to governance. The schoolā€™s role in the initiative also gives Emami another connection to her mentor Hans Rosling, the namesake of the UWā€™s new Center for Population Health.

As part of the initiative, the school has to focus more on transforming health systems, engaging community and promoting health equity ā€” not just managing a patientā€™s immediate health care needs.

With the Center for Antiracism, curricula will also be modified with an antiracist lens so that every nurse graduating from the UW will be empowered to become an advocate for antiracism.

Emami understands that health outcomes are best when people are seen as their full selves, with unique cultural and social identities. She has grown from the young woman who hid who she was to fit in with her new country.

ā€œI refuse to be assimilated now. I refuse to deny important parts of my identity,ā€ she said. ā€œAnd I am committed to guarding people’s right to be who they really are.ā€

At nearly 7 feet tall, “The Seated IV” first graced theĢżMetropolitan Museum of Art’s facade in September 2019 as part of a commission titled . Four “Seated” sculptures by Wangechi Mutu were the first works to take up the positions on The Met’s facade since it was completed in 1902.

On Monday, Jan. 25, one of the four storied bronze sculptures was installed at the north side of the new Hans Rosling Center for Population Health at the corner of W Stevens Way and 15th Ave NE.

“Wangechi Mutuā€™s The Seated IV is an extraordinary addition to the UW art collection, and more importantly, to the campus experience,” saidĢżShamim Momin,ĢżDirector of Curatorial Affairs at the Henry Art Gallery. “The majestic, powerful, female figure seated in strength and presence may reference the traditional caryatid form, but the artist has removed her from the onus of ‘carrying the weight,’ as she says, speaking to the literal holding up of the architectural structure that caryatids typically enacted, as well as the metaphorical responsibilities of women.

“She is here seated, her pose and aesthetic modeling synthesizes African sculptural traditions with Western approaches, creating a new figure ā€” holding the historical gravitas in her form, but in command of and not subject to it. The circular mirrored form atop her forehead offers a kind of ‘third eye,’ reflecting our gazes back at one another, or perhaps offering a portal to a new way of seeing. Iā€™ve passed her only twice now as I walked on campus, and she is already an inspiration, a comfort, a presence felt.ā€

Watch the installation:

The university will invest approximately $1.1 million in artwork for the building, roughly split at about $85,000 from public funds and the remainder from private donors.

About the artist:

Wangechi Mutu is an artist based in New York and Nairobi whose collage-painting,Ģżsculpture, film, and performances often use composite female forms to explore gender, race, and art history.

The Seated IV (2019) is one of four free-standing seated female bronze sculptures (The Seated I, II, III, and IV) commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) to fill the niches of its faƧade. Included in the 2019 – 2020 exhibition The New Ones, will free Us, this regal figure, references different aesthetic traditions, resembling a futuristic sage, inspired by caryatids from classical African and European traditions. She is positioned as a dignified leader, free from responsibility of supporting the weight of history or even the world. When developing the work, Mutu used past drawings from her sketchbooks and also studied the African and Oceanic collections in the Met. She was interested in female caryatids, a Congolese ā€œroyal stoolā€ made with a kneeling female figure who symbolically carried the King, as well as a Yoruba stool that featured a standing woman whose head supported a man on horseback.

Artist statement aboutĢżThe Seated series as told to The Met:

Caryatids, throughout history, have carried these buildings to express the might and the wealth of a particular place. In Greek architecture, you see these women in their beautiful robes, and then in African sculpture across the continent you see these women either kneeling or sitting, sometimes holding a child, as well as holding up the seat of the king. It felt like this was a very ubiquitous position for women across many, many histories. How do I use this figure to change this conversation and this issue?

I wanted to keep the DNA of the woman in an active pose, but I didnā€™t want her to carry the weight of something or someone else. The process of taking it from drawing into 3D has been quite epic. Once these molds had been produced in a much larger scale, I really worked hard to individualize everything that really expresses humanity to us. After they had been cast in bronze, I went in to work on the patinas. And thatā€™s when I was going to have to go in and paint them in fire and really make them alive. . . .

I wanted these things to be about how form and material actually impacts us. I created these coils that Iā€™ve put all the way around their bodies that felt tactile and living and fleshy, but at the same time really protected the women and gave them kind of a privacy and a regal nature. They became almost like soldiers, like they were in armor. And the circular form actually comes from traditional African adornment: Ethiopian, Sudanese tribes that have these incredible lip plates. Theyā€™re mostly worn by women of status. Iā€™ve turned them into mirrors. Theyā€™re able to take light and twist it around; theyā€™re able to flash at you from a distance.

Womenā€™s bodies are always at the front of so much of the expression, the hostility, the magnificence of how humankind sees itself. I think of these women as characters that have the capacity, the freedom, and the opportunity to be where they need to be, to say what they have to say. Theyā€™re here, and theyā€™re present, and theyā€™ve arrived.

Wangechi Mutu discusses making and meaning of The Seated sculptures:Ģż

Hans Rosling is known internationally for his captivating analysis of global health data, for discovering a paralyzing disease in Africa and explaining its socio-economic causes, and for his intense curiosity and life-long passion for educating students, world leaders and the public.

Now, Hans Rosling ā€” a Swedish doctor, statistician, author and professor ā€” will be a name associated with the Ær¶¹ŌŚĻß’s transformative work in population health. Today, the UW Board of Regents approved naming the $230 million building under construction on UW’s Seattle campus the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health.

“Hans Rosling was a visionary scholar who challenged the world to truly understand the health challenges we face, as well as the potential we have to overcome them. It was this unique combination of practicality and optimism that drove his work, and inspired so many to action,” said UW President Ana Mari Cauce. “I hope the faculty, students, staff and partners who come together in the building are equally inspired by Dr. Rosling’s legacy as they work to improve the well-being of people in Washington and around the world.”

In 2016, the UW launched its Population Health Initiative, an interdisciplinary effort across the university to bring understanding and solutions to the biggest health challenges facing communities here in the Pacific Northwest, the U.S. and around the world.

The Hans Rosling Center for Population Health was made possible by a $210 million gift from theĢżĢżin October 2016 and $15 million in earmarked funding from the Washington Legislature, as well as funding from the university. The Gates family proposed naming the building after Rosling in honor of his rigorous analysis of the true state of the world and passion for improving heath, which spurred a decades-long friendship with the physician and his family.

“Where others saw statistics, Hans saw the chance to tell an incredible human story about our progress against poverty and disease. A data geek through and through, he used numbers to educate, to entertain and to share his special brand of big-hearted, evidence-based optimism,” said Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation. “This is a fitting tribute to an extraordinary man.”

After earning his medical degree from Uppsala University in Sweden in 1974, Rosling traveled to northern Mozambique where he was in charge of health services for more than 300,000 people, at one time becoming the region’s only doctor. During his time in Mozambique, he discovered a previously unrecognized paralytic disease that his research team named “konzo.” Rosling’s team traced the outbreak of the disease to cyanide poisoning of the people who were eating improperly prepared cassava roots during food crisis years.

After returning to Sweden, Rosling taught courses on health systems in resource poor settingsĢżand international health at Uppsala University and the medical university Karolinska Institutet until his death in 2017. He was a member of the Swedish Academy of Science, the Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and the Global Agenda Network of the World Economic Forum. Among his many honors was the Illis Quorum Meruere Labores (“For Those Whose Labors Have Deserved It”), the highest award conferred by the Swedish government.

In 2006, Rosling burst onto the international stage with a widely acclaimed TED Talk titled “” that has been viewed more than 14 million times, showing innovative animated data visualizations developed by his son Ola Rosling, and daughter-in-law, Anna Rosling Rƶnnlund. Hans Rosling followed that success with nine more TED Talks, speaking engagements around the world and the best-selling book “Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World ā€” and Why Things Are Better Than You Think.” Published posthumously, “Factfulness” was co-authored with Ola and Anna.

“With powerful data and beautiful charts, Hans taught the world that humanity was getting better,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation. “He shone a spotlight on how far the world had come in taking care of its poorest. Hans is among the greatest influences in how I think ā€” and talk ā€” about our foundation’s work today.”

As his fame and reach grew among the public, and international leaders in business and health, Rosling characteristically self-deprecated that he was an “edutainer” and countered negative suggestions that he was just an “optimist” by declaring instead that he was “a very serious possibilist.”

Rosling, together with his son and daughter-in-law, also created the Swedish foundation and website , which, as the site states, continues his life’s mission “to fight devastating ignorance about the world with a fact-based worldview that everyone can understand.”

“A large dedicated building inspires people to collaborate towards a higher goal. Hans would have been proud to see his name on this new center dedicated to precisely the kind of health research that he was convinced has the highest potential to improve health worldwide,” said Roslingā€™s family ā€” Agneta Rosling (wife), Anna Rosling Larsson (daughter), Magnus Rosling (son), Ola Rosling (son), Anna Rosling Rƶnnlund (daughter in law, married to Ola), Mats Rosling (Hans’ brother) ā€” in a statement.

“Hans would probably have taken the opportunity to paraphrase his grandmother: The reason youā€™re building this large beautiful house must be because you actually believe thereā€™s something valuable in all people. You believe that all people everywhere deserve to get the best possible health care,” the family added. “Thatā€™s exactly what Hans thought! That we must first make sure all people have access to existing solutions before further improving the health care of the healthiest. Weā€™re thankful that you are honoring his name in this wonderful way!”

The new Hans Rosling Center for Population Health will become home to the , the , portions of the , and the UW’s . The building is also designed to be a central hub for colleges, departments, centers, researchers and students from across the university, as well as external partners, to identify and work together on projects related to population health.

“Dr. Rosling had a unique ability to focus us in on the big picture, shift narratives and inspire people to action through his transformational use of data visualizations,” said Ali H. Mokdad, the UW’s chief strategy officer for population health and professor of Health Metrics Sciences. “His seminal efforts are foundational to the work of the Population Health Initiative and the Ær¶¹ŌŚĻß’s vision for harnessing innovative approaches to improve population health, and we are deeply honored that we will now forever be associated with his name.”

At approximately 300,000 square feet, the Rosling Center for Population Health will support spaces for collaborative group work, active learning, offices and training for global partners and multi-disciplinary work in population health campus wide. Honorary naming of various spaces within the building will take place over the course of its construction and following its opening. Generous natural light and common amenities will include kitchens, eating areas, wellness roomsĢżand gender-neutral bathrooms on all floors.

Construction is expected to be completed by fall 2020.

The new building on the Ær¶¹ŌŚĻßā€™s Seattle campus that will be home to some of the key departments at the center of the universityā€™s Population Health Initiative was named in honor of Dr. Hans Rosling on Oct. 10, 2019, by the UW Board of Regents. The $230 million building under construction on the universityā€™s Seattle campus is now the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health.

Rosling was a Swedish doctor, statistician, author and professor, whose work in popularizing positive global health data inspired millions of people, including Bill and Melinda Gates whose foundation contributed $210 million to the construction of the building. Rosling died from pancreatic cancer on Feb. 7, 2017.

Rosling family members said he would have been honored to have his name associated with the universityā€™s building and its related effort to improve lives across the globe. Following are more comments and history about Hansā€™ life and passion for improving lives and our understanding of the world by his family: Agneta Rosling (wife), Anna Rosling Larsson (daughter), Magnus Rosling (son), Ola Rosling (son), Anna Rosling Rƶnnlund (daughter in law, married to Ola), Mats Rosling (Hans’ brother).

On behalf of the family, Ola Rosling (son) told this story:

Hansā€™ mother Britta was holding her motherā€™s hand firmly as she walked towards her first school day, at the age of 6. There were so many children in the slums of Uppsala, Sweden, where Britta lived and the municipality had decided to construct a new large public school. Britta belonged to the age group entering first grade the very day the new building was inaugurated. The new schoolhouse was beautifully painted in green and white and when it appeared in front of them, her mother grabbed her hand and lowered her head to whisper in her daughterā€™s ear: ā€œThe reason they have built this large beautiful house must be that they actually believe thereā€™s something valuable in people like us too.ā€

Hansā€™ mother loved going to school, but beyond grade 6 there was a fee that her family couldnā€™t afford and she had to drop out to start working. Many years later she had Hans, and his first memories of his mother was when he and his father visited her at the hospital where she was isolated with tuberculosis. She survived TB, and Hans became the first in his family to go more than six years to school. He was always determined to use this privilege to work hard to make life better for the many still stuck in poverty, because even if many things have gotten better in the world, there are still lots of talented people with no chances to higher education. There are millions of mothers suffering from preventable diseases, like TB, where treatments have existed for many decades already.

Hans often said ā€œthe health innovations of the future, that will prevent most suffering, will not be medical innovations, they will be health-system innovations: New solutions to better monitor health outcomes and better provide existing health services to all people.ā€

Agneta Rosling, wife:

I am very happy (the UW is) naming the building after him with the very clear dedication of supporting the poorest part of the worldā€™s population. Thatā€™s really a heartwarming thing to hear. We really love that part of it, as it is what he wanted and it is what I wanted.

(Hans and I) have really seen just how divided the world is. And the real poor part of the population, they are really not seen. They have no voice at all and to find means to focus on the poorest, on the most needy, itā€™s really a ā€¦ oh, I can cry when I think about it.

Ola Rosling, son:

I would like to start with a little bit of history: We are living for the first time in human history when there is an abundance of data. And this is a unique opportunity to do things right. Previous generations did try to measure health outcomes. Hans used to tell me this anecdote: WHO (World Health Organization) when it started tried to measure health by the number of doctors per capita, the number of hospital beds, because it is something easy to count. So, then they matured into measuring deaths ā€” how many die and then how many die from different diseases ā€” to try to predict the mortality in the population to see if the health care actually had an effect.

What happened at WHO during the ā€™90s with the ā€œGlobal Burden of Diseaseā€ publication (a systematic measure of the worldā€™s health problems co-authored by Christopher Murray, director of the ), it completely changed all of that. Thanks to the abundance of data, they started understanding health in a new way.

You can better understand Hans in this context.

Whatā€™s being done at the Ær¶¹ŌŚĻß (at IHME in particular) is unique in human history. The first time anyone has parsed this much health outcome statistics at such granular level. That is something that Hans was extremely excited about. The parsing of this enormous amounts of data is a completely new academic exercise, which deserves the name population health because it gives a picture of who exactly is dying and suffering from which diseases.

So, this is a starting point for probably how health will be measured in the future. The way it was done historically was a disaster. They were measuring the wrong things all the time. Measuring death is not measuring health. Itā€™s only measuring life or death, but measuring health and the suffering and disabilities while you are not yet dead is way more complex and requires enormous amounts of data.

So, the huge investment in this research and education building is definitely logical in a longer historical perspective. Humanity has now arrived at the point in time where there is so much data that someone has to set up a population health institute like what UW is doing.

Thatā€™s what Hans said. He was definitely super enthusiastic about the work done at IHME and the Ær¶¹ŌŚĻß.

Anna Rosling Larsson, daughter:

About having this building named in his honor: I think he would have liked it a lot. Itā€™s very important to show the importance of these issues by forming a big center.

He was very committed. He really enjoyed his work and thought it was really important. Thatā€™s why so many say he was a very big inspiration for them, he was truly committed and enthusiastic about his work.

I think itā€™s really great that the (UW) is lifting this issue and continuing the work, because it is important to look at data and that we pay attention to who really needs the most help and where public health can make the biggest difference. ā€¦ Looking at data and really taking notice, I think thatā€™s what he would really want people to do.