News from Brown

Brown’s annual Midyear Completion Ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 7, will celebrate the achievements and unique paths of “.5ers,” who complete their degree requirements this month.

Jill Pipher, a mathematics professor, cryptography expert and president of the American Mathematical Society, said quantum technology brings both great scientific potential and threats to security and privacy.

On the 400th anniversary of the start of slave trade in the British American colonies, students and faculty at Brown’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice are engaging in research for a PBS miniseries directed by renowned documentarian Stanley Nelson, hosting a two-day symposium on the lasting effects of slavery and more.

A study at Brown University finds that mindfulness could reduce blood pressure by enhancing attention control, emotion regulation and self-awareness of both healthy and unhealthy habits.

With more than 25 years of experience in higher education, White will lead financial planning and operations for Brown to advance essential growth and ensure long-term financial security.

Dr. Adam Levine, an emergency physician and leader of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, played a key role on a clinical trial evaluating promising new treatments for Ebola virus disease.

Camila Pelsinger, an international relations concentrator from San Francisco, will pursue graduate studies at Oxford through one of the most prestigious awards for international study.

Seny Kamara, an associate professor of computer science, told a U.S. House Financial Services Committee Task Force that there is more that companies could be doing to keep sensitive financial data safe.

The future of Optional Practical Training, a long-standing federal program that enables temporary employment for international students at American colleges and universities, is at stake in a U.S. District Court case.

Brown President Christina H. Paxson discussed college affordability and other opportunities and challenges alongside other leaders at a Boston Globe discussion on the future of Rhode Island.

Two reports released by the Costs of War project, based at Brown, provide a comprehensive estimate of the financial and human cost of America’s post-9/11 wars.

At Brown’s annual Veterans Day ceremony, President Christina H. Paxson announced plans for increased financial aid for student veterans, need-blind and test-optional admission policies and new partnerships to increase the number of veterans at Brown.

Stephon Alexander, Brown professor and president-elect of the National Society for Black Physicists, discusses the organization’s annual conference, which comes to Providence for the first time this year.

Matthew Gutmann’s book “Are Men Animals?”, out on Tuesday, Nov. 12, traces the origins of the claim that “boys will be boys” — and refutes it.

In a visit hosted by Brown University’s Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, the former national security advisor shared crucial — and surprising — insights from her decades-long diplomatic career.

Leveraging expertise across engineering, chemistry and more, Brown physicists are leading four new federally funded research projects in quantum science.

Researchers at Brown will build quantum mechanical magnetic camera to image magnetic fields, which could help in better understanding and manipulating quantum materials.

“Luscious: Paintings and Drawings by Wendy Edwards,” an exhibition of selected works by the Brown professor of visual art, offers an artistic chronicle of 40 years of travel, life changes and perspective shifts.

A study finds that Pollock’s “drip” technique was geared to avoid a classic fluid mechanical instability, whether he was aware of it or not.

Celebration recognizes the impact already being made in the collaborative, configurable space home to the Nelson Center, recently recognized as one of the globe’s outstanding emerging entrepreneurship centers.

Nearly $6.8 million in new federal grants will enable researchers to collaborate with agencies across the state, including the Rhode Island Department of Health, to investigate innovative ways to tackle the opioid crisis.

Updated policy further defines the principles by which gifts are accepted that advance Brown’s mission.

Recent discoveries by Brown faculty and students at the ancient Koutroulou Magoula settlement have prompted scholars to reconsider their assumptions about the Middle Neolithic period.

As Brown’s distinctive, student-driven approach to teaching and learning marks its 50th anniversary, weekend events honored the pioneers who paved its way and enabled students and families to hear from alumni about its impact on lives and careers.

Building on a decades-long legacy of research, teaching and community partnerships, scholars at Brown are taking steps toward an undergraduate concentration in Native American and indigenous studies.

After sitting abandoned for more than two decades, the building’s redevelopment spurred revitalization efforts throughout Providence’s Jewelry District.

“Faculty in Focus,” hosted by University Provost Richard Locke, features interviews with faculty members about their research and its impact on society.

With references to Brown’s earlier advocacy on DACA, amicus brief argues that rescinding the program would deprive the nation of the contributions of DACA students, some of the most gifted and motivated young people in the world.

Students report increased trust in the University and knowledge of resources related to sexual and gender-based misconduct, but the prevalence of incidents reported makes clear that sexual assault remains a significant issue at Brown and on campuses nationwide.

In enabling Ph.D. program leaders to drop the requirement to submit test scores, the Graduate School looks to attract talented, high-achieving students from an increasingly diverse pool of candidates.

The three-story, 22,500-square-foot facility will build on the teams’ success and reflects Brown’s commitment to enhancing the student-athlete experience.

The endowment’s strong performance was broad-based across the portfolio and bolstered by protecting capital during stock market declines.

The new book by Brown physicist S. James Gates Jr. and Cathie Pelletier tells the stories of astronomers who worked for a decade to get images of a solar eclipse, which ultimately showed Einstein’s theory of relativity was correct.

In the face of mounting pressure from political leaders, journalists and the public must stay committed to pursuing the truth, urged New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger in a presentation at Brown.

Increasingly, scholars at Brown are turning to podcasts to shed light on a broad spectrum of the groundbreaking research and original ideas emanating from College Hill.

“Illustrating Mathematics,” a program happening throughout the semester at Brown’s national mathematics institute, aims to aid research and public engagement with math through visual representation.

A new collection acquired from recording artist Janis Ian, a devoted science-fiction fan, considerably expands the John Hay Library’s holdings of science fiction and fantasy written by women.

A $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation will support research aimed at developing a fundamental understanding of quantum systems to enable new quantum technologies.

One semester after moving into its new space on campus, the Carney Institute for Brain Science installed three brain-inspired works of art by Brown students — in this Q&A, each student shares the inspiration behind their art.

A Soyuz rocket is scheduled to liftoff tomorrow morning will carry astronaut and Brown alumna Jessica Meir to the International Space Station.

Federal grant from the National Institute on Aging will fund a collaborative research incubator to support trials across the nation aimed at improving care for people living with dementia.

A free self-guided tour of the Providence neighborhood, created thanks to a partnership between a Brown professor, the city and the Jewelry District Association, features original research conducted by undergraduate students.

The University was ranked No. 14 in U.S. News and World Report and No. 7 by Forbes, in addition to high marks in a wide variety of other notable surveys.

Hailing from a wide variety of disciplines and backgrounds, the scholars join the Brown community this year to guide student-centered learning and engage in high-impact research.

Early-career researcher Jessica Plavicki is advancing understanding of how environmental contaminants interfere with heart and brain development — the formidable task of establishing her new lab should prove fruitful for decades to come.

For the last half century, the Third World Transition Program has welcomed incoming first-years for four days of workshops and community-building exercises that center the student of color experience.

In marking the start of the 2019-20 academic year, President Christina Paxson and Dean of the College Rashid Zia encouraged students to harness the power of the Open Curriculum to become change agents in their communities.

This month, staff members from the Administrative Fellows Program’s second cohort returned from an experiential opportunity in Brazil with new insights on how to achieve a fully diverse and inclusive campus.

Using a brain-computer interface, a team of researchers has reconstructed English words from the brain activity of rhesus macaques that listened as the words were spoken.

Quantum mechanical calculations show that the melting point of metals decreases at extreme pressure, meaning even high-density metals can have a liquid phase that’s actually denser than its normal solid phase.

Professors Kavita Ramanan and Dr. Jack Wands earned recognition for their distinguished contributions to science by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific body.

Computer models focused on current and potential policy decisions could help shed light on the future of migration caused by sea level rise, concluded a team of scholars that included Brown demographer Elizabeth Fussell.

Researchers using the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope have taken a new and significant step toward detecting a signal from the period in cosmic history when the first stars lit up the universe.

Aiming to reduce treatment gaps and guide state policy, a diverse set of voices from Brown University and the State of Rhode Island developed a cascade of care model for opioid use disorder.

In a finding that reveals an entirely new state of matter, research published in the journal Science shows that Cooper pairs, electron duos that enable superconductivity, can also conduct electricity like normal metals do.

Using orbital instruments to peer into Jezero crater, the landing site for NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, researchers found deposits of hydrated silica, a mineral that’s great at preserving microfossils and other signs of life.

Physics professor Brad Marston is part of an international project supported by a $4 million grant from the Simons Foundation to study turbulence, one of the great unsolved problems of classical physics.

A Warren Alpert Medical School and Rhode Island Hospital cancer physician collaborates with molecular researcher to study use of nanotechnology to deliver medicine inside cancer cells.

New research analyzing the diets and microbiomes of 33 large-herbivore species in Kenya yields surprising findings about the interplay between animal evolution, behavior and the gut microbiome.

The Foundation’s award will enable the University to bring new life to research topics in the humanities, expanding Brown’s portfolio of original scholarship presented in enhanced forms.

Study of wave turbulence suggests that highly mobile species and more diverse ecological communities may be more resilient to the effects of changing environmental conditions.

Developed at Brown University, a new augmented reality system places virtual objects within real-world backgrounds on cell phone screens and lets people interact with those object by hand as if they were really there.

New research sheds light on the ages of ice deposits reported in the area of the Moon’s south pole — information that could help identify the sources of the deposits and help in planning future human exploration.

New study spotlights mismatch between number of deaths in children age 1 to 18 and research to understand, prevent and treat the reasons for those deaths.

Brown University researchers, surgeons from Rhode Island Hospital and private partners will develop and test a device aimed at bridging the gap in neural circuitry created by spinal cord injury, in the hope of restoring muscle control and sensation.

A new study shows that graphene sheets can block the signals mosquitos use to identify a blood meal, potentially enabling a new chemical-free approach to mosquito bite prevention.

Offering courses, programs and support to students at every stage of the entrepreneurial process, the Nelson Center has become a nexus for entrepreneurship at Brown in just three years since launch.

Brown’s scholars in international and public affairs are addressing inequality, convening conversations that move the needle on tough issues and connecting students with practitioners on the ground.

Researchers in Brown’s School of Engineering are developing next-generation renewable energy technologies, advancing energy efficiency in computing and finding new ways to detect and clean contaminants in the environment.

The University is advancing its reputation for excellence in the arts by forming new partnerships with artists and scholars and making major new investments in programming and facilities.

Brown researchers are building understanding of the brain, restoring movement for patients with paralysis, unlocking the secrets of devastating diseases and devising new treatments to address brain-related disorders.

With an increased focus on unearthing novel data sources for analysis, Brown’s economics scholars are bringing new insights to complex problems and teaching the next generation of researchers and policymakers to do the same.

Learning at Brown is a collaborative, hands-on experience — one in which students often lead their own research projects or conduct research alongside their instructors.

Humanities scholars at Brown are energizing comparative work that informs a deeper understanding of the most challenging questions of global common concern.