, director of research development for the arts and humanities in the and the (A&S), has been recognized with the 2026 Innovation Award from the (NORDP).

The award recognizes professionals who advance research development through partnerships, new tools and techniques or the creation and sharing of knowledge that produces demonstrable results. Workman and her NORDP colleague, Allison DeVries of Chapman University, received the award in recognition of the evolution of the (CASSH) affinity group, which they founded in 2022. The group, which has grown to more than 150 NORDP members across the country, helps them marshal and create collective resources and share best practices, case studies and challenges in support of faculty in the humanities, creative arts and social sciences areas.

鈥淚鈥檓 honored to receive this award and proud to have had a part in bringing the CASSH group together four years ago when it seemed rare to have a designated arts and humanities research development staff member housed in an R1 institution,鈥� Workman says. The group has gained momentum 鈥渂ecause higher education recognizes the value of this support nationwide as integral to the national research landscape and vital to an individual institution鈥檚 research ecosystem,鈥� she says.

Workman came to 性视界 in 2019 and built a dedicated arts and humanities research development infrastructure from scratch. She now connects with more than 200 faculty across eight schools and colleges and partners with and several University-affiliated arts organizations.

Beyond campus, she is part of the , an 11-university consortium for collaborative research, teaching and programming. She co-leads its HF4 Corridor Futures and Initiatives working group with program manager Aimee Germain to offer professional development opportunities for faculty.

Impact on Faculty and Funding

Prior to Workman鈥檚 arrival, scholars navigated grant funding alone or through informal networks, often missing critical opportunities, says , senior director of research development in the Office of Research, who co-nominated Workman for the award.

She says Workman has contributed to faculty winning prestigious awards, including summer stipends, a and a grant. Workman has also supported a fellowship, an digital justice grant and several successful applications.

In 2025, Workman supported 64 grant proposals seeking $44 million in funding. She recently helped nine arts faculty and five organizations secure awards, making 性视界 the only university in the state to receive multiple awards in that cycle, Chianese says.

, professor of women’s and gender studies and director of the 性视界 University Humanities Center and the Central New York Humanities Corridor, says Workman鈥檚 Corridor support has deepened scholarly community across the region and has had significant impact on 性视界 faculty success.

“Sarah has been instrumental in several prestigious Mellon awards, including our first and ensuing New Directions fellowships and many other highly competitive awards and grants,” says May, who co-nominated Workman for the award. 鈥淢any of these awards have been substantial enough to transform individual career trajectories and drive transformational work at the University and in听 wider communities locally and nationally.” May says faculty frequently remark about how much they enjoy collaborating with Workman and appreciate her support.

, assistant professor of music history and cultures in A&S, credits Workman with helping her secure a , a first for 性视界 among 200 competing institutions. “I am deeply grateful for her thoughtful engagement with my research and for helping make its relevance accessible to a broader interdisciplinary readership,” Pe帽ate says.

, associate professor in women鈥檚 and gender studies in A&S, says Workman’s guidance “proved instrumental in shaping two grant proposals into competitive, fundable projects. Her careful feedback led to key revisions that directly contributed to securing a major award from a private funder. In a context of shrinking funding, Sarah’s leadership has been indispensable for the success of humanities’ interdisciplinary, social justice-centered research.”

While Workman focuses on the arts and humanities, the Office of Research supports faculty across disciplines through a broader research development team. Researchers across campus partner with team members on proposal development, funding searches, cohort writing programs for competitive federal awards and strategic guidance on funding opportunities. Faculty interested in support for their projects can learn more about .

Ads generated by artificial intelligence are nearly indistinguishable from human-made ones, but new research shows they consistently underperform compared to human-made work when it comes to predicting short-term sales impact.

罢丑别听 from global research firm Ipsos in collaboration with two faculty members from the听 tested 20 ads across 10 brands with 3,000 U.S. respondents. They found that human-made ads outperformed their AI counterparts, though the gap between the two was surprisingly slim.

The study paired existing human-made ads, produced before 2021 to ensure AI tools were not used, with fully AI-generated counterparts built from the same strategic brief, the document that ad professionals use to outline objectives, messaging and tactics for a campaign. Ads were then viewed by real consumers.

The results challenge assumptions the advertising industry can no longer afford to ignore, faculty 听补苍诲听 say, while the project overall reflects Newhouse鈥檚 commitment to train students with the skills and forward-thinking strategies needed to be effective and ethical communicators.

The Research Team

Peruta, director of the听听M.S. program, and Riby, professor of practice in the听, led the University side of the study. Ryan Barthelmes, senior vice president of creative excellence at Ipsos, guided the project for the research firm.

Peruta oversaw the technical process of deconstructing existing ads and building the pipeline to produce their AI counterparts. AI was assigned to do everything a creative team would do, from interpreting strategy to developing a concept to producing the final spot.

鈥淭he human ads and the AI ads started from the same brief,鈥� Peruta says. 鈥淭he only thing that changed was who made them, and that鈥檚 exactly what we wanted to measure.鈥�

Riby brought advertising strategy and creative expertise, including insights drawn from her The Big Idea in Advertising class, where Newhouse students have spent three years creating AI-generated ads and evaluating the results.

The 10 brands selected for the project spanned various sectors, including consumer packaged goods, fashion, automotive and technology: Cheerios, Chewy, Febreze, Fiat, H&M, Old Navy, Herbal Essences, Ray-Ban Meta, TurboTax and Visa.

Raina Rice 鈥�26, an advertising major, supported the project behind the scenes, helping organize and manage the ad assets across all 10 brand pairings.

What They Found

The study produced three findings that promise to generate conversation across the advertising industry.

• Consumers largely cannot tell the difference.听Only 13% of viewers who saw an AI-generated ad were at least somewhat confident it was made by AI鈥攖he same share as viewers who suspected human-made ads were AI-generated. With 40% of all viewers uncertain either way, the line between human and machine-made advertising is blurring quickly.

• Despite that perceptual similarity, a measurable effectiveness gap emerged.听Using Ipsos鈥� sales-validated measures of advertising performance, human-made ads over-indexed against the benchmark by 11 points on average, while AI-made ads under-indexed by five. In practical terms, human ads are predicted to drive stronger short-term sales impact. AI can produce credible work, but on average it does not move the needle the same way.

• AI performed best when the brief was straightforward and product-driven, but struggled when the creative challenge called for storytelling, emotion or a genuine point of view.听The strongest result in the study came from the Cheerios pairing, where a deeply human brief produced the highest combined effectiveness scores across both versions.

鈥淓very semester in my class, I watch students create AI ads about themselves, and not one of them has ever loved their output enough to put it on their refrigerator,鈥� Riby says. 鈥淭hat reaction is the premise of this entire study. If the creators themselves are underwhelmed, why would we expect consumers to feel differently? The data now backs that up.鈥�

An Industry Perspective

Barthelmes says the study addresses a question the advertising industry has been circling but is reluctant to answer directly.

鈥淓very [chief marketing officer] is being asked whether AI can replace their creative agencies, and creative directors are wondering about their futures,鈥� Barthelmes says. 鈥淭his research gives us a framework for that conversation. AI is a powerful tool, but the data shows that the human capacity for storytelling and emotional connection still creates a measurable competitive edge. The future is humans and AI working together.鈥�

Looking Ahead

The Newhouse-Ipsos partnership reflects the school鈥檚 broader investment in industry-facing research that shapes how the next generation of communicators understands and works alongside AI.

The study鈥檚 key recommendation is clear: do not settle for 鈥済ood enough.鈥� AI has an important role in modern campaign strategy and execution, but it is not a replacement for the human-led creativity needed to deliver a competitive advantage.

New research in the journal听听by Maxwell postdoctoral scholar Dustin Hill, Professor of Public Health Dave Larsen and a team of researchers has found a strong connection between the prevalence of genetic variations of the COVID-19 virus and higher community transmission.

Testing wastewater to detect viruses in a community is a well-established scientific practice. But knowing the prevalence of a disease has always presented challenges, with science relying on sheer volume and concentration of virus load found to make inexact assumptions.

The team, which included colleagues from SUNY Upstate Medical University, SUNY College of听Environmental Science and Forestry and the New York State Department of Health, looked closely at existing data and genomes from wastewater surveillance collected during the COVID-19 emergency, measuring genetic variation through small, insignificant changes in the virus genome, and comparing that to transmission levels.

To put it simply: they found that the more variation in the viral material in wastewater, the more people were infected.

鈥淣ot only do infections rise when diversity of the virus increases, infections decline as diversity declines,鈥� says Hill, the study鈥檚 lead author. 鈥淲e tested three different ways to measure diversity of the virus genome in wastewater, and all three measures predicted infections with extremely high statistical power.鈥�

While the study analyzed COVID-19, this connection could change how wastewater surveillance is used not just to detect, but to measure disease transmission with implications for monitoring other diseases, including influenza, measles, polio and future viruses that may arise.

鈥�These findings open up new areas of exploration in genetic epidemiology,鈥� says Larsen. 鈥淲e will now be able to estimate transmission from sequencing data, something that has previously not been possible.

Key Takeaways From the Study

• Genetic diversity measured in wastewater is highly predictive of community infection numbers, and superior to current methods that use concentration
• Wastewater genetic data can tell us more than just what variants or subtypes are circulating in each community
• Methods can be applied to any pathogen found in wastewater that can have genetic material sequenced

鈥淭his is exactly the kind of research Maxwell exists to support鈥攔igorous, evidence-based and consequential well beyond the laboratory,鈥� says Maxwell Dean David M. Van Slyke. 鈥淭he collaboration between Professor Larsen, Dr. Hill and their partners at the New York State Department of Health is a model for how transformative research unfolds: without a roadmap, assembling the right collaborators, working through what didn’t work and ultimately arriving at findings that can make communities healthier and safer. The ability to move from detection to prediction changes what policymakers can do, and when they can do it. That’s not just scientific progress鈥攖hat’s the public good.”

The research project grew from a partnership between 性视界 University, the New York State Department of Health, SUNY Upstate and SUNY ESF that began in March of 2020, in the earliest days of the COVID-19 outbreak.

As the virus first spread in New York and elsewhere, Larsen proposed using wastewater to detect and monitor the virus at 性视界 University. He assembled a team of researchers from 性视界 and nearby universities to begin developing the wastewater surveillance technology that would eventually become critical to New York State鈥檚 response to the disease and developed into the听.

鈥淭he wastewater program was further developed in 2022 by the addition of sequencing of the detected virus, work that was undertaken by the 5-site sequencing consortium set up by the Wadsworth Center in 2021,鈥� says Kirsten St. George, director of the Virology Laboratory at the Wadsworth Center and co-author of the study. 鈥淭he sequence data generated by the consortium provided the information needed for the genetic variation analysis and transmission correlations reported in this study. Initiated to monitor circulating and emerging variants of the virus, the sequence data generated by the consortium has now proven to be a powerful tool for additional applications.鈥�

In 2024, the New York State Wastewater Surveillance Network was designated as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Northeast Region Center of Excellence.

鈥淭he valuable partnerships the department and our world-renowned Wadsworth Center have developed with 性视界 University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and SUNY Upstate Medical University are leading to important new discoveries that are advancing our understanding of not only how to detect COVID in wastewater, but also how to analyze those samples to better predict community transmission,鈥� says New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald. 鈥淭he researchers involved in this study remain on the cutting edge of scientific discovery that could change how we look at other pathogens in wastewater, including polio, influenza and measles and establishing wastewater sampling as a reliable public health early warning system for public health threats.鈥�

This latest research, in the article titled 鈥�,鈥� appears in the May 14 issue of听Science, a leading outlet for scientific news and research.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already making substantial changes in every industry, shifting how we work, learn and organize our daily lives. But how can AI tools shape the field of building science? That was the central question at the Industry Summit on Artificial Intelligence for the Built Environment, organized by , Traugott Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer Science and co-director of the (性视界CoE).

Structured as a working session, the May 4 summit featured expert panelists from industry, academia and government agencies, with 12 companies represented and a total of 35 participants. After opening remarks from Professor Dong, the first panel of the day explored AI applications in smart and human-centered buildings. Presentations included:

• From Equipment to Ecosystem: An AI Strategy for Thermal Energy Systems and the Built Environment, presented by Josiah Johnston, senior director of data science at Daikin Open Innovation Lab Silicon Valley
• AI in Buildings: A Perspective From the Field, presented by William Healy, senior director at TRC Companies
• Using AI for Building Optimization, presented by Evan Torkos, vice president for strategy at Nantum AI
• The Restoration of a Building or Home鈥檚 Comfort, a New Set of Opportunities With AI, presented by Michael Birnkrant, chief architect, service and aftermarket at Carrier Corporation

A moderated discussion led by 性视界CoE鈥檚 executive director, , gave attendees a chance to dig deeper into these AI advances before breaking for a student poster session and lunch.

The afternoon panel widened the lens to AI鈥檚 role in building-connected infrastructure, covering the following topics:

• Load Flexibility and Electrified Commercial Buildings, presented by Mark Bremer and Julia Griffith from National Grid
• Hallucination of AI in Critical Infrastructure, presented by Herbert Dwyer, founder and CEO of EMPEQ
• A Semantic Foundation Unlocks Rapid Deployment of AI in the Built Environment, presented by Andrew Rodgers, co-founder of ACE IoT Solutions
• AI-Powered Communities: From Data to Resilience, presented by Nancy Min, co-founder and CEO of ecoLong
• Using GenAI to Accelerate Decarbonizing NYC Commercial Real Estate, presented by Thomas Yeh, consulting technical advisor, NYSERDA

The summit concluded with small group discussions: four breakout groups each co-facilitated by 性视界 University faculty and populated with a cross-section of academic and industry voices. This format ensured that the day鈥檚 themes were stress-tested in conversation and built the foundation for future collaborations. Dong plans to apply for funding for an interdisciplinary research center, such as a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, that will advance university-industry partnerships in the healthy buildings field.

The summit made clear that AI鈥檚 role in the built environment is no longer speculative鈥攊t is operational and growing rapidly. From smarter HVAC to grid-scale flexibility to community resilience, the challenge now is deploying these tools thoughtfully, sustainably and at scale.

This event was supported by the University鈥檚 听through their Team Building for Large, Collaborative Grants program.

To be notified of future events and opportunities, sign up for 性视界CoE’s 听or听.

Miron Victory Court was the setting for the Faculty Research and Creative Excellence Celebration hosted by the April 27. The event served to honor faculty who earned prestigious external research awards, fellowships, grants and patents in 2025鈥攚hich translates to more than 280 distinct recognitions spanning every school and college at the University.

Incoming spoke at the event, praising the research enterprise and sharing his vision for continued growth.

鈥淚 am coming into this role with deep respect for what has been built here, and with equally deep conviction that our best days as a research institution are still ahead of us,鈥� he said.

Record Year for Sponsored Research

Sponsored research expenditures reached $95.6 million in 2025, a 5% increase over last year and a 49% increase over five years. Of the 178 faculty recognized at the event, 102 secured new sponsored project awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, New York State, various foundations, the private sector and other sources.

Haynie noted that the University鈥檚 鈥淩esearch 1鈥� Carnegie Classification places 性视界 among just 39 private doctoral universities in the nation recognized for the highest level of research activity.

鈥淭hat is not a statistic on a website,” he told the faculty. “That is a reflection of you鈥攜our publications, your discoveries, your doctoral graduates and the external investment that your reputations have attracted to this institution.”

Vice President for Research also spoke at the event. He emphasized the importance of research to the University鈥檚 educational mission.

鈥淪tudents do not choose 性视界 just because of our R1 classification,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey choose 性视界 because of what the R1 classification means: the opportunity to work with faculty who are doing the work we are recognizing tonight. That is the connection between the research enterprise and the educational mission of this University, and it is why our investment in research matters.鈥�

Brown also noted that, 鈥渞esearch attracts and retains our outstanding faculty, and those faculty bring the passion for what they do to our students, transforming them from consumers of knowledge to creators of knowledge and equipping them with the skills to solve challenges across the full breadth of human society.鈥�

Honoree Highlights

Among those celebrated at the event were six physics faculty who shared the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, one of the most prestigious awards in science. Three faculty were elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Four early-career faculty received prestigious NSF CAREER Awards spanning chemistry, electrical engineering and computer science, physics and political science. Six faculty received Fulbright awards.

Additional recognition included diverse book and paper awards, artistic grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and CNY Arts, patents and international honors. In addition, multiple faculty earned awards from their respective professional societies.

Commitment to Research

Haynie called on faculty to pursue ambitious, externally funded research agendas, to collaborate across disciplines, to invest in mentoring doctoral students and to publicly communicate the value of their scholarship.

鈥淭he challenges facing our world鈥攊n health, in technology, in democracy, in sustainability, in human understanding鈥攄emand exactly the kind of rigorous, creative, courageous scholarship that happens at a place like 性视界,鈥� he said.

Haynie offered a direct pledge: 鈥淚 will be an advocate for research, loudly and consistently. I will work to ensure that our faculty have the resources, the infrastructure and the institutional support they need to pursue ambitious ideas. Together, we will make sure that the next chapter of research at 性视界 University is the most consequential one yet.鈥�

Together, they took a corner bakery-grocery and turned it into a new cornerstone of a 性视界 Northside neighborhood.

The project for design students from 性视界 University鈥檚 (VPA) and construction management students from (SUNY ESF) was both an experiential learning opportunity and a chance for them to undertake engaged citizenship in the year they worked with community 听residents and organizers of , a community nonprofit.

Students redesigned an aging, two-story bakery and apartment structure at 601 Park Street owned by Northside Futures into a modern building serving expanded residential and commercial needs. Northside Futures is a collaborative project of the Northside Learning Center and Justice Capital that focuses on workforce training and small business development, housing, remediation and property management, and community wellness and safety for residents of 性视界鈥檚 Northside neighborhood.

The project provided real-world professional experience through the VPA course DES 451 (also known as 鈥淢eaningful Partnership鈥�).

The cross-institutional collaboration also involves SUNY ESF course CME 454, , along with Northside Futures and the University鈥檚 .

The Real Thing

鈥淭his is not a hypothetical,鈥� says , assistant teaching professor in the School of Design and program coordinator. 鈥淚t has real users, real challenges and real goals. Students engaged deeply with the community, developed real solutions for real stakeholders and came away with a genuine understanding of what it takes to bring a project to life.鈥�

Founded in 2017 by , professor in 听VPA鈥檚 , the program became a formal service-learning initiative in 2022 through the Shaw Center. In addition to Dunham, , SUNY ESF associate professor in the Department of Sustainable Resources Management, is a co-teacher. 鈥�84, transportation coordinator at the Shaw Center, 听handles logistics.

During its first six years, Meaningful Partnership operated as a three-way collaboration among designers, construction managers and community stakeholders. This year it expanded to four components鈥攚ith members of the Northside Futures cohort joining as active participants. They learned hands-on construction and trade skills alongside the students while accumulating design literacy for future independent community development. That model is an authentic co-design process where residents are positioned as empowered decision-makers shaping the future of their neighborhood, Lee says.

Two-Semester Overview

In the project, students from both institutions work together for a full year. Last fall, 19 environmental and interior design (EDI) students examined the facility, conducted site visits and client meetings, developed construction blueprints and presented final designs.

In the spring, 17 construction management engineering (CME) students joined them. They used the construction documents to prepare estimates, construction schedules, decide phasing and logistics, suggest value engineering strategies and explore sustainable grants and programs for the project.

Community-Centered Project

Dunham says direct communication with clients is essential to the project鈥檚 success.

鈥淒uring our site visit students were able to speak directly with building owner Northside Futures and the building鈥檚 occupants (a residential tenant, the bakery owner and neighbors) and continued to obtain feedback throughout the process,” she says. “That kind of direct engagement with the people who live and work in these spaces is invaluable and it is very much part of what makes this process real.鈥�

In addition to the bakery redesign, students developed alternatives for using an adjacent lot where a dilapidated garage was due for demolition.

Community members suggested building a library, day care center and a community/gym workout space for that structure.听The client ultimately chose the idea of a laundromat, Dunham says, since it filled a real need, made sense financially as a revenue stream and was the right fit for the neighborhood.

Human Context

EDI student Ella Mchale says residents鈥� involvement expanded her understanding of the city and provided a true client experience.

鈥淲hat we achieved goes so much deeper than just a design project,” she says. “Our community member Fatima helped ground us and gave us the real human context we needed to design with purpose. We took that seriously and created something accessible and meaningful while still bringing our own design concept to the table.鈥�

EDI student and project manager Jolie Ramos says that despite language and cultural differences, 鈥渁 bond was built based on the betterment of our shared community.”

“That exposure beyond our University bubble gave us the opportunity to not only engage with our community but to form intimate personal connections,” she says. “It was really beautiful to watch the relationships unfold and grow.鈥�

Cultivating Community

鈥淎t its core, this project is about community, understanding and creating meaningful impact,鈥� Dunham says. 鈥淭he community representatives who came into our class shared their culture, needs and challenges and were a true voice for their neighborhood. The connections they formed with our students were genuine and those voices shaped everything. That deeply resonated with our students and it showed in everything they produced.鈥�

Meaningful Partnership鈥檚 staying power results from an intentional and ongoing investment of time, interest and shared resources, says Lee.

“Community partnership is something that must be continuously cultivated and is grounded in relationship-building and trust,” she says. “It means sharing resources, lived experience, cultural knowledge and social awareness alongside academic expertise and a commitment to paying that knowledge forward.”

In an age when artificial intelligence can generate content instantly, the human ability to write with clarity, originality and critical insight has become more essential than ever.

Students in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) have ample opportunity to strengthen their writing through a rich landscape of publications and digital platforms. Aurantium, Broadly Textual, Intertext and Mend are among the outlets where students build strong portfolios, sharpen their professional communication skills and engage in experiential learning that prepares them for careers in writing, publishing, media and advocacy.

Aurantium: Making Philosophy Accessible and Alive

Like its namesake, 听(the Latin word for orange) is vibrant, inviting and full of fresh perspective. Founded in 2023, this student-led undergraduate philosophy journal was created to invite curiosity, creativity and conversation across disciplines. Supported by the and the Philosophy Club, the journal publishes two issues each year: one focused on the 性视界 University and SUNY ESF community and another open to contributors worldwide.

Essays, reflections, creative writing and artwork all find a home in Aurantium, making it a space where philosophy is explored not as an abstract exercise, but as a living, interdisciplinary practice.

For editor-in-chief Brielle Brzytwa 鈥�28, discovering philosophy was anything but immediate. 鈥淚n high school it felt abstract, inaccessible and frustratingly stuffy,鈥� she recalls. It wasn鈥檛 until college that philosophy began to feel meaningful, and that transformation shaped her vision for Aurantium. 鈥淧hilosophy doesn鈥檛 have to be confined to dense texts or exclusive academic spaces,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t can鈥攁nd should鈥攊nvite curiosity and conversation.鈥�

As editor-in-chief, Brzytwa has made accessibility a guiding principle. She describes the journal as a place where ideas are not only preserved but 鈥渟hared, challenged and reimagined,鈥� with an emphasis on amplifying a range of undergraduate voices.

Broadly Textual: Building Community Through Public Scholarship

For graduate students eager to share their ideas beyond the boundaries of academic journals, 听offers an inviting and meaningful platform. Overseen by William P. Tolley Distinguished Teaching Professor , the online publication highlights graduate student work designed for public audiences, featuring literary and cultural commentary, , and thoughtful explorations of digital media and identity. With its focus on a broad variety of subject matter, the publication encourages students to see scholarship as both collaborative and accessible.

Co-editor Elena Selthun first encountered Broadly Textual as a contributor during their first year of graduate study and quickly recognized its value. They describe the experience as 鈥渓ow-pressure and supportive,鈥� an ideal introduction to publishing. Equally important, Selthun was drawn to the publication鈥檚 commitment to public humanities. 鈥淭he public-facing nature of the blog allows graduate students to apply what we learn beyond academia,鈥� they say.

For fellow co-editor Meg Healy, the appeal initially lay in skill-building and community engagement. Over time, she gained a deeper appreciation for the publication鈥檚 role in demystifying the publishing process. 鈥淭here is a strong incentive to publish while in graduate school, but that can be daunting,鈥� Healy says.

Both editors emphasize the sense of connection the publication fosters. Selthun points out that graduate research can often feel siloed, and “Broadly Textual” helps bring students across departments into conversation.

Intertext: Celebrating Writing Across WRT Courses

For more than three decades, has celebrated writing by undergraduate students in the (WRT), and community partners. In April 2026, editors and contributors gathered to mark the release of the journal鈥檚 .

Reflecting on their involvement, editors Jules Vinarub and Kairo Rushing wrote in the introduction to the 2026 issue, 鈥淭his publication relies on the willingness of 性视界 University students to be vulnerable enough to let their truth be on display鈥攕haring themselves with you, allowing you to hear and see their stories.鈥�

Throughout the year, students met with publishing professionals and authors like Rand Timmerman, member of the at 性视界 University, whose essay about a is published in the 2026 issue along with a .

Any student who has taken a WRT course can submit their work to “Intertext,” and submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. Students interested in joining the editorial team can enroll in WRT 340: Advanced Editing Studio. For more information, contact Professor Patrick W. Berry.

Mend: Amplifying Voices, Honoring Stories and Creating Purpose

听is an annual publication started by , WRT associate professor, and is dedicated to celebrating the lives and creative work of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, as well as individuals impacted by the criminal legal system. Featuring fiction, poetry and nonfiction on a wide range of topics, the publication offers contributors the freedom to explore personal experience while centering dignity, creativity and voice.

Editor Drew Murphy 鈥�26, who is majoring in writing and rhetoric, and in psychology in A&S, first encountered Mend as a junior through an Engaged Humanities course, WRT 413: Rhetoric and Ethics after Prison, taught by Berry. Guest visits from formerly incarcerated writers involved with Mend left a lasting impression.

鈥淭heir stories represented a powerful intersection of my two majors, writing and rhetoric and psychology,鈥� Murphy says, describing the experience as one that immediately sparked curiosity on both personal and professional levels. When Murphy learned about internship opportunities with , the decision felt natural.

鈥淭he opportunity to work with impacted individuals while contributing to a publication that shares their stories has been meaningful for both my academic studies and future career ambitions,鈥� she explains.

As Murphy prepares for graduate study in social work, she credits Mend with deepening her belief that thoughtful writing can contribute to meaningful change.

When Chie Sakakibara first traveled to an I帽upiaq community in Arctic Alaska as a graduate student, an elder gave her advice that would define her career.

鈥淣ever disappear,鈥� she told her.

For generations, researchers had come to Indigenous lands, documented stories and environmental knowledge, and left鈥攐ften without returning results or sustaining relationships. Community members asked Sakakibara to do something different: to document climate change from their perspective and to show that they were not simply victims of environmental disruption, but creative and resilient people adapting to change.

鈥淚 was honored, and I stayed,鈥� Sakakibara says. 鈥淧lacing yourself in a community means reciprocating and emphasizing their priorities, not just your own interests.鈥�

More than two decades later, she is still returning.

Now an associate professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Sakakibara has built her scholarship around long-term collaboration and Indigenous research sovereignty鈥攖he idea that communities themselves should guide how their knowledge is used, represented and shared. Another focus of her work: the interconnected survival of people, animals and environments in a rapidly changing Arctic.

鈥淐hie鈥檚 work is a model of what engaged scholarship looks like at Maxwell,鈥� says Shana Kushner Gadarian, associate dean for research and professor of political science. 鈥淏y centering Indigenous voices and building lasting partnerships across the globe, she demonstrates that rigorous research and genuine community responsibility are not competing values鈥攖hey are inseparable ones.鈥�

Connecting Communities

Sakakibara鈥檚 current initiative, 鈥淚ndigenous Northern Landscapes: Visual Repatriation and Climate Knowledge Exchange,鈥� connects the I帽upiaq people of Arctic Alaska with the Ainu community of northern Japan to explore environmental memory, cultural preservation and climate adaptation.

Both communities have endured land dispossession and the suppression of traditional language and faith. Both have retained and revitalized Indigenous ways of being鈥攖he I帽upiat through their relationship with the bowhead whale, sea ice and tundra; the Ainu through kinship with the brown bear, salmon, rivers and forests of Hokkaido.

鈥淭heir voices are only getting stronger through connecting and building relationships with other Indigenous communities and their allies within and beyond academia,鈥� says Sakakibara, a research affiliate for the East Asia Program in Maxwell’s Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and a member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program and Center for Global Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Justice in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Her project employs repeat photography alongside community-led ethnography, fieldwork, oral history, archival research and collaborative museum curation. It emphasizes Indigenous knowledge and collaboration and juxtaposes early 20th-century and contemporary images, revealing sea ice loss, coastal erosion and shifting subsistence patterns due to environmental transformation.

Working with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the project collaboratively produces environmental knowledge by interpreting these historical photographs with the Indigenous descendants of the communities where they originated.

Future work will involve storymapping, participatory digital storytelling and traveling museum curation bridging 性视界, Arctic Alaska and Japan.

Challenging the Myth

A persistent misconception frames Indigenous cultures as unchanging and separate from the modern world. Sakakibara sees that stereotype as an obstacle to effective climate policy.

鈥淲hen policymakers or scientists assume that Indigenous peoples are merely relics of the past, they fail to recognize that communities like the I帽upiat and Ainu actively observe, interpret and respond to environmental change,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat blocks opportunities to incorporate Indigenous expertise into climate solutions.鈥�

I帽upiat hunters continuously adjust whaling routes in response to sea ice change. Ainu communities combine historical ecological knowledge with contemporary observations to protect salmon runs. These are dynamic systems of environmental monitoring refined over generations, not static traditions.

Rather than separating Western science from Indigenous knowledge systems, Sakakibara argues the two must be in conversation, especially as policymakers confront accelerating climate disruption. Climate change, she notes, is not solely a scientific challenge but a cultural and political one.

鈥淐limate disruption is among the most consequential challenges of our time, with implications that span policy, governance, culture and human well-being,鈥� says Maxwell Dean David M. Van Slyke. 鈥淥ur students benefit from the wide-ranging expertise and experiences that Professor Sakakibara and colleagues provide.鈥�

Students as Research Partners

Sakakibara brings her knowledge back to 性视界鈥攊nto classrooms, workshops and partnerships that give students direct exposure to the communities and questions at the center of her work.

In July 2024, Sakakibara partnered with public history experts from

StoryCollab to facilitate a on campus with Ainu collaborators. That same year, Sakakibara brought two Haudenosaunee undergraduate students to Japan to participate in workshops with Ainu community members, contributing to mapping projects and oral history initiatives conducted across English, Japanese and Ainu.

One of those students, Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore 鈥�26, is a member of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe and a 2025 Udall Scholar in Tribal Public Policy. Hearing the stories of 听Ainu community members resonated in a personal way.

鈥淚t reminded me of what my own ancestors experienced, the struggle to protect culture, revitalize language and reclaim sovereignty,鈥� says Lazore. 鈥淭here was something powerful in recognizing that shared desire: the simple but profound wish to safeguard your people, your traditions and your future for the next generations to come.鈥�

Rooted in Relationships

Sakakibara鈥檚 听project has cultivated partnerships with major institutions including the Penn Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Yale Peabody Museum, the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan and the Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies at Hokkaido University.

鈥淭he core goals鈥攃entering Indigenous knowledge, documenting environmental change and supporting cultural sovereignty鈥攔emain active and impactful,鈥� Sakakibara says, adding that the elder鈥檚 advice鈥攏ever disappear鈥攔emains central to her approach. 鈥淩esearch is about relationships. And relationships require responsibility.鈥�

Story by Catherine Scott

On Jan. 2, Justin Dalaba鈥檚 phone rang.

It was his former professor, , who teaches photojournalism, documentary photography, filmmaking and visual storytelling at the , with a question.

Did Dalaba G鈥�25 want to come with him on assignment for National Geographic to photograph turtles under the Canadian ice? Before he could second-guess himself, Dalaba said yes.

鈥淚t was definitely a rare opportunity,鈥� Dalaba says. 鈥淭hose kinds of stories don’t just happen in that way. And he pretty much said, 鈥榃ell, we鈥檝e got to leave in about an hour. So are you ready to go?鈥欌��

Luckily, Dalaba had his go-bag ready and the batteries for his cameras were charged. Later that day, the Newhouse graduate was driving to Canada with his former graduate advisor.

Peering Under the Ice

The January assignment Snyder brought Dalaba onboard for is part of work he鈥檚 been doing for the last three years for the Preserving Legacies project. The organization funded by the National Geographic Society highlights how World Heritage Sites, along with cultural heritage and natural heritage sites, can be adapted to climate change. Working on a long-term grant, Snyder tells the stories of communities working to adapt and preserve the sites.

One of the stories he was assigned to work on was about how biologist Gr茅gory Bult茅 is studying a . The creatures are one of the world鈥檚 northernmost reptile species in the system, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that runs from Ottawa to Lake Ontario. During the winter months, the turtles live underwater and bring their body temperatures down to near-freezing. They don鈥檛 eat, breathe or mate, waiting under the ice until they can emerge in the spring.

Bult茅, who has been studying the turtles for 20 years, has observed when ice thins during the winter, principally because of climate change, it allows river otters to slip under and eat the turtles. In 2022, he documented 10% of the turtle population in Ontario鈥檚 Opinicon Lake died, likely because of otters.

鈥淏ecause they can’t move, it’s a free snack,鈥� Snyder says.

In 2025, Snyder went up to do a story on Bult茅 and his work, but a blizzard prevented him from getting the images he needed.

For the return trip in January, Dalaba helped Snyder design a rig system to capture the images of the turtles under the ice. Not only was it freezing and underwater with low visibility, but they had to be sensitive to the turtles and avoid disturbing them.

鈥淭hey’re not supposed to move very much,鈥� Snyder says. 鈥淵ou have this tiny window to operate.鈥�

The videos and photos they captured were published as part of a in National Geographic, one of the publication鈥檚 most-viewed stories of the month. The images may also be the first-ever published of turtles under the ice.

What Went Into the Shoot

Snyder says the recent Newhouse grad proved 鈥渋nstrumental鈥� in helping him get video and photographs on the shoot.

鈥淗e’s both incredibly technically capable and he’s a very, very good image maker and storyteller,鈥� Snyder says. 鈥淗e can do that across platforms with photo, design, video, and that’s super, super important.鈥�

The shoot required them to get up at 4 a.m. and trek through the snow, pulling their gear on a sled across the frozen lake. At one point, the equipment got too cold and the mount they were going to use to submerge the camera broke, so they had to remount their gear on the fly.

The pair also had to work closely and build trust with Bult茅, listening when the scientist expressed concern about the impact on the turtles if they pushed the shoot longer.

鈥淭hat’s a powerful learning opportunity for someone working in the documentary space to understand鈥攊t’s not all about you, it’s not even all about the image,鈥� Snyder says. 鈥淎t the end of the day, it is about the ethics that underlie this practice. It is about relationships, and it is about doing the maximum amount of good with the work you’re doing.鈥�

He says Dalaba had the ability to be adaptive, not just with the changing weather around them and the physical demands of the assignment, but to be collaborative and responsive to the other people and species involved.

鈥淏oth the practice and the product of documentary work is relationship building,鈥� Snyder says. 鈥淵ou need to be highly relational. It’s a soft skill in a lot of ways, and he has this aplomb.鈥�

Dalaba and Snyder both came to photojournalism and documentary work with science backgrounds. Dalaba previously worked as a wildlife biologist in conservation, while Snyder is a geologist and climate scientist by training.

For Dalaba, working on the assignment felt like the culmination of his path as a wildlife biologist turned storyteller.

鈥淪eeing that come together went beyond the personal gratification and more of that deep hearted feeling of this is what a collaboration feels like,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t was a collaboration between two storytellers, scientists, multiple climate custodians who are working to adapt their heritage in Canada.鈥�

The experience also resulted in additional work for Dalaba with Preserving Legacies. The former wildlife biologist says he鈥檚 excited to continue that work, telling stories of hope and resilience related to climate change.

Ethan Coffel has built his research around one of the most consequential questions of our time: as the climate changes, what happens to the systems human society depends on?

For that work鈥攁nd for the teaching and service that have made him one of the 鈥檚 most distinctive junior faculty members鈥擟offel has been named this year鈥檚 recipient of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for Teaching and Research, the school鈥檚 highest honor for untenured faculty.

Coffel accepted the award and spoke at the Maxwell School’s Graduate Convocation today in Hendricks Chapel.

The Moynihan Award has been presented annually since 1985, when it was established by then-U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, himself a former member of Maxwell’s junior faculty from 1959 to 1961.

Coffel, assistant professor of geography and the environment, joined Maxwell in fall 2020 following a Neukom Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship at Dartmouth College and holds a Ph.D. in earth and environmental sciences from Columbia University.

His research centers on a simple but urgent idea: human society depends on a stable climate, and as that stability erodes, the consequences reach into food systems, water supplies, energy grids and more. He uses global Earth system models alongside geospatial and socioeconomic data to understand how climate extremes will reshape the world, and what that means for the people living in it.

His current NSF-funded project, detailed in a recent 性视界 University News feature, examines not just how climate affects crops, but how crops affect the climate around them. Corn and soybean fields across the Midwest may be moderating local temperatures, buffering the very heat waves that threaten them, and Coffel is working to quantify how much, and whether that effect will hold as the world warms.

Since joining Maxwell, Coffel has published 14 peer-reviewed journal articles, including five as lead author, in some of the field鈥檚 most prestigious outlets, including Nature Climate Change and Nature Food. His research has been covered by The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Guardian and the BBC. He has received two National Science Foundation grants, awarded in 2021 and 2023, totaling $942,713.

Peng Gao, professor and chair of the department, nominated Coffel for the award.

鈥淚n his five years at 性视界 University, Dr. Coffel has distinguished himself as an exceptional and reflective educator,鈥� Gao wrote. 鈥淗e approaches course design and instruction with careful deliberation, continuously refining his methods and introducing innovative approaches to enhance the curriculum and foster student engagement.鈥�

That reputation carries into the classroom. Coffel teaches two large-enrollment core courses, GEO 155: The Natural Environment and GEO 215: Global Environmental Change, and has developed three new courses expanding the department鈥檚 physical geography curriculum, including GEO 371: Climate Extremes and GEO 700: Seminar in Climate Science, a graduate-level course that draws students from earth science, geography and environmental engineering backgrounds alike.

Dean David M. Van Slyke praised Coffel鈥檚 contributions across all three pillars the award recognizes.

鈥淓than exemplifies what the Moynihan Award was created to honor鈥攁 scholar whose research pushes the field forward, whose students leave his classroom genuinely changed and whose commitment to this department goes well beyond what鈥檚 asked of someone at his stage,鈥� Van Slyke said. 鈥淭his is exactly the kind of recognition Ethan has earned, and we are proud to celebrate it with him.鈥�

Story by Catherine Scott

For Eva Quackenbush ’26, an interest in maternal and fetal health that began with personal curiosity has grown into a rigorous public health research project with direct implications for how clinicians monitor and make decisions about the most vulnerable newborns.

Quackenbush, a public health major with a concentration in healthcare management in the , worked under the mentorship of , associate professor of public health, on a study examining whether patterns detected in fetal heart tracing鈥攖he monitoring of a baby鈥檚 heart rate during labor鈥攃an predict short-term outcomes for infants born between 23 and 26 weeks of gestation. These babies occupy a narrow clinical window clinicians call “periviable,” a zone where survival has improved in recent decades but where the tools guiding clinical decisions remain poorly understood.

An Understudied Population

Fetal heart tracing is a well-established tool used to signal when medical intervention may be needed in full-term pregnancies. But its predictive value in periviable births has been largely unexplored. That is the gap Quackenbush and Kmush set out to close.

Their study drew on a retrospective cohort of 90 periviable deliveries at a regional referral hospital in upstate New York between January 2017 and August 2022. In their project, two independent maternal-fetal medicine specialists reviewed four key fetal heart tracing indicators鈥攂aseline heart rate, variability, accelerations and decelerations鈥攁nd compared them against an overall composite score. They analyzed those patterns against neonatal outcomes, including lung disease, eye defects, brain hemorrhage and mortality.

The findings were consistent across every model tested: none of the fetal heart tracing patterns were statistically associated with adverse birth outcomes, meaning that the patterns could not reliably predict which babies would fare worse.

“Our research concluded that the heart tracing patterns in this population of periviable infants have no predictive value,” Quackenbush says. That may sound like a null result, but it is a meaningful one, because establishing what does not predict outcomes in this population is itself a critical step toward better clinical understanding, she says.

Building New Skills

Undertaking this clinical research project required Quackenbush to build an entirely new technical skill set. She had no prior experience with coding, but with guidance from Kmush she learned R, the statistical coding language, and applied it to complex regression analyses and data modeling.

“Dr. Kmush has been an incredible mentor for the statistical analysis work that I have been conducting,” Quackenbush says. “She has been guiding my familiarization with R, as well as the process of preparing research for presentation at all levels.”

Quackenbush鈥檚 听work in the lab was made possible in part by the 性视界 Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (SOURCE), which helped fund her project and teamed her with Kmush as a faculty mentor. Quackenbush also broadened her clinical health background through involvement with the University鈥檚 and an internship with the . And beyond coding, she built competencies in scientific writing and research communication, skills she says she will carry into her next career phase.

This spring, she and Kmush presented their findings at the conference in Baltimore, an unusual distinction for an undergraduate researcher. Quackenbush says they hope their study will serve as a foundation for expanded research in the periviable population, including studies with larger sample sizes to further validate the results.

From Data to Policy

This fall, Quackenbush will begin legal studies at the in New York. Her goal is to work in health policy, focusing on improving health outcomes through policy determinations, compliance issues and interdisciplinary collaboration.

While her future path moves her out of the lab, an experience she says has been as much about personal growth as scientific discovery, Quackenbush sees her time there as central to the work ahead. “While my career won’t be directly related to clinical public health activity, I anticipate including many concepts from the public health field into my work in health policy,” she says.

Whether it鈥檚 analyzing data or shaping health policy, Quackenbush says her goal remains to work toward better outcomes for patients. She leaves the lab having contributed one more piece of a puzzle that clinicians, families and policymakers are still working to 听solve.

Every year, the recognizes the people who make graduate education at 性视界 University what it is, honoring the faculty members who mentor and inspire and the teaching assistants who support students while pursuing degrees of their own.

Faculty Awards

At a campus ceremony April 27, 听four faculty members received Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty ,听 honoring their impact on graduate education through teaching, research, creative activity and service. 听The awardees were selected by an interdisciplinary group of graduate students.

This year’s faculty honorees are:

• , professor and graduate program director of the television, radio and film program in the
• , assistant professor of biomedical and chemical engineering in the (ECS)
• , assistant professor of biology in the (A&S)
• , professor of philosophy in A&S.

Teaching Assistant Awards

At the same ceremony, 36 teaching assistants were recognized with Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards for their contributions to the educational enterprise and for helping to create strong teaching and learning outcomes across the University. Awardees were nominated by their departments.

The honorees and their programs of study are:

• Rachel Ameen ’20, geography and the environment, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
• Sarah Appedu, information science and technology, School of Information Studies
• Zachery Robert Barrows Gonzalez, languages, literatures and linguistics, A&S
• Almila Basak G’23, political science, Maxwell School
• Julia Janina Viola Baumgarten, physics, A&S
• Caroline Anne Bowling, architecture, School of Architecture
• Shannon Burth G’23, mass communications, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
• Kirstin Len Clear, human development and family science, A&S
• Rein Desbiens ’23, chemistry, A&S
• Iwona Franczak G’23, sociology, Maxwell School
• Antonio Freiles G’25, philosophy, A&S
• Aliza Haskal, English, A&S

Also honored are:

• Jaihyun Jeon, business administration, Martin J. Whitman School of Management
• Kennedy Reed Jones, communication and rhetorical studies, College of Visual and Performing Arts
• Xiangjing Kong, psychology, A&S
• Shivam Kumar, electrical engineering and computer science, ECS
• Yifan Cheng Li, economics, Maxwell School
• Liam Victor Lieblein, philosophy, A&S
• Ash Lienemann, languages, literatures and linguistics, A&S
• Tyler Logie, earth and environmental sciences, A&S
• Desiree Laurel Martin, mathematics, A&S
• Kerry McNamara G’17, communication sciences and disorders, A&S
• Zaidao Mei G’20, electrical engineering and computer science, ECS
• Fasika Minda Melese G’19, instructional design, development and evaluation, School of Education

Additional recipients are:

• Chelsea Renea Morton, social science, Maxwell School
• Amanda Qi Ni G’21, women’s and gender studies, A&S
• David Aanuoluwa Okanlawon G’24, anthropology, Maxwell School
• Gizem Ozyazici, college science teaching, A&S
• Urmi Manoj Parekh, writing studies, rhetoric and composition, A&S
• John Sackey, biomedical and chemical engineering, ECS
• Sergio Saravia Lopez, sociology, Maxwell School
• Karie Nicole Schmitz G’22, mathematics, A&S
• Lauren Sdun, physics, A&S
• Soham Sinha, English, A&S
• Sabrina Marie Traver G’23, mathematics, A&S
• Jenna Marie Walmer, psychology, A&S

听

Understanding of copper formation means examining material forged at depths of nine to 19 miles beneath the Earth鈥檚 surface. Remarkably, Emerson Long 鈥�26 has spent the past year recreating those conditions in a campus lab.

Long is a double major in geology and physics in the (A&S). She and her faculty mentor, , professor of petrology and experimental geochemistry in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, have spent the past year examining how copper behaves when magma (molten rock) and fluid coexist at the crushing pressures and temperatures of the lower continental crust.

The work has implications that reach far beyond the laboratory. That鈥檚 because copper is used in modern and clean energy technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, lithium ion batteries and LED lighting.

鈥淲hile my research doesn鈥檛 directly relate to finding and extracting copper deposits, it does give us a better understanding of the entire system for copper deposit formation,” Long says. “It鈥檚 really exciting to me to contribute to that understanding in some way.鈥�

Going Deep to Understand the Surface

Copper deposits near the Earth’s surface that are extracted from mines are formed when copper-rich hydrothermal fluids move upward through the crust and deposit minerals along the way. Those fluids originate much deeper in the Earth鈥檚 magmatic systems, where molten rock and aqueous fluid coexist under intense heat and pressure. Long and Thomas are studying how copper splits itself between magma and fluid at those extreme source conditions.

Previous research on copper partitioning has focused on shallower, upper-crust-level conditions. This project goes beyond prior work to assess what happens at conditions equivalent to those found in the lower continental crustal source regions where magmas are generated. It鈥檚 a largely unexplored frontier in the study of copper deposit formation.

High-Pressure Science

To simulate those deep-Earth conditions in the lab, Long runs experiments in piston-cylinder devices, instruments capable of generating extraordinary pressures and temperatures found miles underground. When an experiment concludes, the magma cools into a glass and the fluid gets trapped in tiny pockets within a piece of quartz, called fluid inclusions. Long then uses a suite of sophisticated analytical instruments to measure the copper concentration in both the glass and the fluid inclusions.

That 鈥渄eep dive鈥� into the data helps extract meaning from material forged under those precise conditions. 鈥淚 really enjoy the hands-on aspects of this research the most,鈥� Long says. 鈥淚鈥檝e had a few other short-term projects that have been more computational-based and I鈥檝e realized that I really love lab work. I also just find the high-pressure experiments to be really fun and it鈥檚 really crazy to me still that we can emulate such extreme conditions in the lab.鈥�

That focus recently took her to the facility in Denver, where she used specialized instrumentation (laser ablation ICP-MS, a type of mass spectrometry), one of the only ways to measure the chemistry of fluid inclusions. There are only a handful of facilities in the U.S. capable of doing that type of analysis, a notoriously difficult process.听 鈥淚t was a really great experience,鈥� Long says. 鈥淚 learned so much about the technique and it was really amazing to be there and help with the analyses since it is such a niche method.鈥� Being at the U.S. Geological Survey facility also allowed her to observe professionals conducting scientific research for a government organization, she says.

Long also took her studies globally experience that mirrors a prompting students to shape the future as engaged global citizens by combining studies in diverse areas of interest. She enjoyed both her science major and French/Francophone Studies minor during an immersive experience there, where she lived with a French host family, learned more about French history and culture, participated in a community internship conducting physics research at the University of Strasbourg, and took several courses in French.

Mentorship and Mastery

Later, Thomas’ science lab on campus provided Long with a wealth of experiential learning opportunities and allowed her to gain an impressive range of technical skills. She has conducted electron microprobe analysis, laser ablation mass spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Those experimental and analytical methods听 represent an arsenal of cutting-edge geochemical lab techniques capable of identifying the chemical fingerprints of minerals and rocks at an extraordinarily fine scale.

The (SOURCE) supported Long’s work through Bridge and Fellowship awards. She also worked with the Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising. She says her awards, including a summer living stipend, made it possible to dedicate added time over a summer in 性视界 to sustain the momentum on her lab research.

In August, Long begins Ph.D. studies in geology at Purdue University, where she鈥檒l continue conducting similar experimental research. For her, the appeal of the geological field goes beyond technique or career preparation. It is about being able to contribute in a hands-on way to one of the defining challenges of the coming decades: building the clean energy economy the world needs, starting with a deeper understanding of the Earth beneath our feet.