A Brown University study, led by doctoral candidate Ariel Deutsch, identifies three large surface ice deposits near Mercury's north pole, and suggests there could be many additional small-scale deposits that would dramatically increase the planet's surface ice inventory. The scorching hot surface of Mercury seems like an unlikely place to find ice, but research over the past three decades has suggested that water is frozen on the first rock from the sun, hidden away on crater floors that are permanently shadowed from the sun's blistering rays. 

With humility even at a moment when they’ve been selected for significant honors, three young Brown University life scientists,  emphasized that they would never be where they are today without the generous guidance of many mentors. Now, as they accept the prestigious fellowships from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), doctoral students Kavin Nuñez and Shawn Williams, and postdoctoral researcher Arif Hamid all say that they are dedicated to becoming the mentors they know firsthand can make an existential difference in the careers of young scholars, particularly from historically underrepresented groups and low-income backgrounds.

Doctoral students Amanda Boston, Africana Studies and Elizabeth Rule, American Studies are recipients of the 2017 Ford Foundation Fellowship.

"I'm really excited and honored to have been selected for such a prestigious fellowship. I look forward to working with and learning from others in the network of Ford Fellows who are doing the critical work of promoting diversity and social justice within and outside of the academy," says Boston.

The competition is funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine with the goal of increasing the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

Doctoral student Sierra Kaufman was selected as part of the fourth cohort of students in the Lighting the Pathway to Faculty Careers for Natives in STEM from the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES). Kaufman is a member of the Shinnecock Nation, a small tribe on Long Island. At Brown she studies in the Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences program and is also a Presidential Fellow.

"This fellowship is important to me because it offers support and mentoring sensitive to the issues relevant to Native Americans. My short term goal is to become a capable and competitive applicant for future academic positions and in the long term, to be able to give back by mentoring young members of a diverse STEM community," says Kaufman.