PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — For students, faculty and staff at Brown, calendar year 2017 brought a wealth of opportunities for advancing the University’s strategic priorities, expanding the physical campus and reflecting on moments past.

With the completion of the Engineering Research Center on College Hill and South Street Landing in the Jewelry District, the University strengthened its academic mission by growing its physical space. The launch of the Brown Promise — which will replace loans with scholarship funds in University-awarded financial aid packages — and sustained campus-wide work around issues of diversity and equity continued to build on efforts to make a Brown education more accessible and inclusive. The University celebrated important milestones in the context of the current moment, including the 125th anniversary of women’s enrollment at Brown and the 40th anniversary of the Brown Center for Students of Color.

Throughout the year, students and faculty continued to do what they do best. They researched, they collaborated, they learned and they contributed to the world’s betterment. Among many other accomplishments, Brown researchers invented life-saving overdose kits, planned Mars landing sites for NASA and traced the causes of political polarization. Brown students prepared to send a satellite into space and earned more Fulbright awards than students at any other university in the nation.

All told, there were countless powerful stories that emerged this year. As the year comes to a close, here in chronological order are 21 of the most noteworthy and well-read stories.