News from Brown

A $245,000 award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will allow Itohan Osayimwese, an architectural and urban historian at Brown, to pursue additional studies in historical archaeology.

Dr. Jim Yong Kim and Dr. Ashish Jha joined Brown President Christina H. Paxson to debate solutions for ending the coronavirus pandemic, restoring economies and anticipating COVID-19’s impact on higher education.

In his new book “The Idealist,” associate professor Samuel Zipp argues that Willkie’s World War II-era “one world” idea could help guide how the U.S. evaluates its role on the world stage.

To meet the unique needs of a class admitted during the COVID-19 crisis, the University has launched a virtual campus visit platform that will enable students to interact with Brown community members as they make decisions on enrollment.

Scholars from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs discussed the potential long- and short-term economic effects of the spread of COVID-19, both in the United States and abroad.

Brown President Christina H. Paxson wrote to students, faculty, staff, parents and alumni on March 17 about maintaining a strong sense of community, even in the face of COVID-19’s impact on campus and beyond.

Dr. Jud Brewer, director of research and innovation at Brown’s Mindfulness Center, explains how practicing mindfulness can curb the spread of coronavirus anxiety in individuals’ personal lives and social circles.

Dr. Adam Levine helped to find effective treatments for Ebola — now, he’s working with a global relief organization to ramp up the medical response to COVID-19 in high-risk countries.

Researchers have been searching for Sak Tz’i’, an important city from the ancient Maya civilization, since 1994; thanks in part to Brown anthropologists, they now have physical evidence that it existed.

When clinical rotations at the Warren Alpert Medical School were paused, third- and fourth-year students found new ways to support Rhode Island’s frontline health care workers fighting coronavirus.

Three graduate students in archaeology worked with the Historic Cemetery Advisory Commission in Newport, Rhode Island, to create an interactive map of God’s Little Acre, one of the oldest African and African American burial grounds in the country.

With soon-to-graduate students from the Warren Alpert Medical School placing in medical residency programs across the country, Match Day was a time to celebrate, even without the ability to convene in person.

A former women’s football star and New York Jets scouting specialist, Marini was promoted to quarterbacks coach after one year as an assistant coach for the team.

Dr. Megan Ranney, an associate professor of emergency medicine and health services, policy and practice at Brown, coauthored recommendations detailing a set of public health and financial measures to combat the historic health crisis.

The student-founded, alumni-funded venture capital group based at the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship gives students firsthand experience making investments in Brown- and RISD-affiliated startups.

The student organization’s 10th Annual Runway Show showcased the diverse professional skills and academic interests of its 120 members.

Brown President Christina H. Paxson wrote to students, faculty, staff, parents and alumni on March 17 about maintaining a strong sense of community, even in the face of COVID-19’s impact on campus and beyond.

At Brown, first-year student Chance Emerson finds opportunity to explore wide-ranging academic interests and pursue musical collaborations while perfecting his first full-length album, “The Raspberry Men.”

“The Supermarket of Images,” an exhibition on view at the Jeu de Paume through June 2020, explores how images shape and change people’s lives.

The University implements new measures to protect the health and well-being of its community while enabling students to complete the spring semester.

Parker VanValkenburgh, an assistant professor of anthropology, curated a journal issue that explores the opportunities and challenges big data could bring to the field of archaeology.

President Christina H. Paxson wrote to the campus community on March 4 with an update on Brown’s efforts to confront climate change through net-zero GHG initiatives, halting investments in fossil fuel extraction in the University’s endowment and other efforts.

May, who served as the U.K.’s prime minister from 2016 to 2019, spoke about the divisive present and potentially promising future of Western democracies at the 100th Ogden Lecture at Brown University.

Dr. Ashish K. Jha, faculty director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, will work to advance academic excellence and provide strategic direction for the school, effective Sept. 1, 2020.

As envisioned, a new two-building, 130,000-square-foot residence hall will strengthen the residential experience for third- and fourth-year students and reduce the demand for off-campus rentals.

With the papers of Hortense J. Spillers arriving at Brown last fall, the Pembroke Center Archives has deepened its archive of black feminist theory.

From her office 250 miles above the Earth, history-making astronaut and Brown alumna Jessica Meir answered students' questions about life in space.

Chancellor Samuel M. Mencoff announced to the Brown community that the early extension reflects confidence in Christina H. Paxson’s leadership and excitement for sustained momentum.

With 38 Fulbright grants awarded to students and recent alumni, the University is among the top Fulbright institutions for the fourth consecutive year.

Bashir, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at Brown, will discuss the cultural pervasiveness of poetry in Iran, Central Asia and South Asia.

The two 19th-century buildings are now unified by two modern glass bridges and a light-filled “loggia,” uniting faculty, staff and students from Brown’s Department of History.

This spring, events presented by the Brown Arts Initiative and other campus arts entities give students and curious community members the chance to see how creators in every field execute their ideas.

Thalia Field, the Brown Arts Initiative’s new faculty director and a professor of creative writing at the University, discussed her vision for the future of the arts at Brown.

Warren Alpert Medical School Class of 2020 graduates will be the first in the nation to graduate with training that allows them to prescribe medications to treat opioid use disorder in any U.S. state.

Tuition and fees were approved at the Corporation’s February meeting as an initial step toward full budget approval in May 2020.

Through an immersive eight-day workshop at the Marine Biological Lab, graduate students gain hands-on neuroscience experience and form connections.

Students in an immersive American studies course offered during Brown's Wintersession witnessed firsthand the complex cultural dynamics at the U.S-Mexico border.

Neil Veloso will lead technology transfer efforts at Brown as executive director of the Office of Industry Engagement and Commercial Venturing.

Dr. Josiah Rich, an addiction specialist and Brown professor, contributed to a report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine on how to integrate care for the intertwined epidemics of opioid use and infectious disease.

As coronavirus spreads to multiple countries, Katherine Mason, an assistant professor of anthropology at Brown, detailed lessons learned from the outbreak of SARS and cautioned against public panic.

The University’s newest students completed their ceremonial procession through the Van Wickle Gates, marking their official entry into the Brown community.

The film series, led by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs and by family, friends and classmates of the late Brown alumnus, aims to underscore the importance of documentaries in understanding and confronting challenging social issues.

Americans’ feelings toward members of the other political party have worsened over time faster than those of residents of European and other prominent democracies, concluded a study co-authored by Brown economist Jesse Shapiro.

An acclaimed leader in higher education and race relations, President Emerita of Spelman College Beverly Daniel Tatum will share insights during a moderated discussion on Tuesday, Feb. 11, at Brown.

A collaboration among scientists at the University of Alabama, the Miriam Hospital, Brown and other universities will evaluate a device that monitors what you eat and delivers smartphone prompts.

A four-year Mellon Foundation grant will enable the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and academic centers at three fellow institutions to expand research and teaching opportunities on race and ethnicity.

Postdoctoral researcher Rui Gomes Coelho plans to excavate a trail once trod by WW-II refugees — now a migration route for thousands who are fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

Many physicians live with significant anxiety — now more than ever — but a new study from Brown researchers suggests that app-based mindfulness training can help.

A new algorithm that vastly reduces the error rates involved in testing the mechanical properties of materials could be particularly useful on evaluating modern 3D printed materials.

New research from cognitive neuroscientists at Brown and Radboud Universities has pinpointed how stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall can change people’s motivation to complete difficult tasks.

Long-term work by a Brown research team on how barnacles thrive in intertidal zones has increasingly wide implications for understanding how other organisms may adapt in the face of climate change.

A study provides new details about the collective motion of individual agents in a liquid-crystal-like system, which could help in better understanding bacterial colonies, structures and systems in the human body, and other forms of active matter.

High-frequency vibrations are some of the most damaging ground movements produced by earthquakes, and Brown University researchers have a new theory about how they’re produced.

Two assistant professors at Brown, in chemistry and ecology and evolutionary biology, are among the 126 early-career scholars named as Alfred P. Sloan Foundation fellows for 2020.

A new technique for mapping the forces that clusters of cells exert on their surroundings could be useful for studying everything from tissue development to cancer metastasis.

A new mathematical tool developed at Brown could help scientists better understand how zebrafish get their stripes as well as other self-assembled patterns in nature.

Opportunity Insights, co-directed by Brown Professor of Economics John Friedman, found that students from high-income backgrounds were significantly more likely to attend selective colleges than their lower-income peers.

A new study finds that cracks in brittle perovskite films can be easily healed with compression or mild heating, a good sign for the use of perovskites in next-generation solar cells.

A Brown University team has shown that they can store and retrieve more than 200 kilobytes of digital image files by encoding the data in mixtures of new custom libraries of small molecules.

A technique for estimating velocities and pressures from videos of fluid flows could help in studying everything from hurricanes to vascular disease.

Corrugated metal pipes have been installed at cave and mine entrances to help bats access their roosts, but a new study from Brown University researchers suggests that these pipes may actually deter bats.

Taking a cue from birds and insects, Brown University researchers have come up with a new wing design for small drones that helps them fly more efficiently and makes them more robust to atmospheric turbulence.

A study analyzing the first 1,000 patients from the Rhode Island Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment found that girls receive autism diagnoses an average of 1.5 years later than boys, and people with autism often have co-occurring medical and psychiatric conditions.

A new study from Brown researchers finds that rewards improve performance on a visual perceptual task only if participants sleep after training.

Engineers looking to nature for inspiration have long assumed that layered structures like those found in mollusk shells enhance a material’s toughness, but a study shows that’s not always the case.

Understanding why platinum is such a good catalyst for producing hydrogen from water could lead to new and cheaper catalysts — and could ultimately make more hydrogen available for fossil-free fuels and chemicals.

An analysis led by an Institute at Brown for Environment and Society visiting professor found that oil companies ramp up advertising campaigns when they face negative media coverage or new regulations.

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.