For more than a decade, leaders of the Initiative to Maximize Student Development at Brown University have worked not only to expand diversity among doctoral students in the University’s science, technology, engineering and math programs, but also to propel the career success of underrepresented students over the long term — in effect, increasing diversity in STEM on a much larger scale. A new study in the Journal for STEM Education Research shows that the program is doing exactly that. Read more.

For brief moments, a casual onlooker could be forgiven for assuming Brown’s Graduate School Ceremony during Commencement Weekend was no different than ever.

Like the ceremonies of years past, the event on Saturday, May 1, opened with a stirring rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by one of Brown’s own — Arlen Austin, a Ph.D. graduate in modern culture and media. As usual, Graduate School Dean Andrew G. Campbell took to the podium to preside, welcoming and congratulating the 763 master’s and Ph.D. graduates. Read more.

At some point between 300 million and 1 billion years ago, a cosmic object smashed into the planet Venus, leaving a crater more than 170 miles in diameter. A team of Brown University researchers, including doctoral student Evan Bjonnes, has used the ancient impact scar to explore the possibility that Venus once had Earth-like plate tectonics. For a study published in Nature Astronomy, the researchers used computer models to recreate the impact that carved out Mead crater, Venus’s largest impact basin. Mead is surrounded by two clifflike faults — rocky ripples frozen in time after the basin-forming impact. Read more.