Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, one of the world's leading infectious disease physicians, will join incoming Brown School of Public Health dean Dr. Ashish K. Jha for a publicly accessible, live-streamed event on Aug. 7.
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University Initiatives
Brown University fully funds $10M endowment to support Providence public schools
The University will permanently endow the Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence, which will provide financial support for the city’s Pre-K-12 students through a range of educational initiatives.
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Science and Technology
Portia Tieze: Conducting science research from home in a pandemic
Novel coronavirus and its effect on University science laboratories has kept engineering student Portia Tieze from working on campus this summer — so she brought the lab to her apartment to continue her research.
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The Center for Computational Brain Science at Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science will harness the University’s expertise in computation, cognition and systems neuroscience toward new brain health solutions.
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Juliet Hooker, a professor of political science at Brown, has long conducted research at the intersection of race and politics — work now catapulted into the spotlight as Americans increasingly consider systemic racism.
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Recent Highlights
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Science and Technology
Brown professors, students make the case for diversity, equity in physics
In the wake of George Floyd’s brutal killing, physicists and students from Brown took to the web to discuss strategies for increasing diversity and inclusion in the physics community across the nation.
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As a member of B-Lab — the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship’s summer startup accelerator — Brown has developed Figured, a venture that offers customized natural hair care guidance to women with Afro-textured hair.
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Science and Technology
Brown student startup seeks to revolutionize crop disease prevention
Cloud Agronomics — a student and alumni venture launched with support from the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship — uses hyperspectral imaging to detect crop-borne diseases that destabilize food supplies and cost farmers billions.
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Health and Medicine
$6.2 million grant renews Alcohol Research Center on HIV funding for five years
The grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism will fund the center, based at Brown’s School of Public Health, as researchers work to reduce the impact of alcohol misuse on the HIV epidemic.
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Through the BrownConnect Summer Institute, University alumni and parents provide professional experiences and mentorship to current students and newly minted graduates interested in a wide range of fields.
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Brown Biomedical Innovations to Impact awards projects focused on analyzing infant cries for signs of opioid withdrawal, developing a malaria vaccine and accelerating medical solutions into commercial technologies.
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Science and Technology
At $23.7 million, largest NSF grant in university history to renew Brown’s math institute
The largest single National Science Foundation grant in Brown’s history will fund ICERM, Brown’s national mathematics institute, for the next five years.
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University Initiatives
Letter from President Paxson: Supporting Brown’s International Students
President Christina H. Paxson wrote to the campus community about University opposition to new federal guidance on the Student and Exchange Visitor Program and how Brown can best support its international students.
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News and Events
Brown faculty members earn prominent awards, distinctions
In recent months, prestigious national and international organizations have recognized Brown faculty for their research, scholarship and leadership.
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Science and Technology
Burrowing crabs reshaping salt marshes, with climate change to blame
Given higher sea levels and softer soil in the wake of a shifting climate, Sesarma crabs, which have already decimated salt marshes in the Northeast, are now rising to prominence in southeastern marshes, a new study finds.
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To mitigate the pandemic’s impact, the University will allow undergraduates back for two terms in a three-term model, reduce the density of students in campus housing, offer instruction in person and remotely, and implement extensive testing, tracing and public health measures.
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Arts and Humanities
Kate Reed: Finding a niche in biomimetic design
The Brown-RISD dual degree student is pursuing several summer projects that use cutting-edge technology to connect people to the natural world and to each other.
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With COVID-19 complicating international travel, this year’s student Fulbright winners will begin their teaching and research assignments across the globe at the start of 2021.
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Project led by the Annenberg Institute and Results for America will equip educators with research briefs on addressing teaching challenges, from coping with learning loss to protecting the most vulnerable students.
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In the face of COVID-19, leaders at the Warren Alpert Medical School worked with the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination on a solution enabling medical students to take essential licensing exams that had been cancelled.
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This spring, a series of course-based research experiences — or CUREs — explored what it means to conduct scientific research in a virtual world.
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Health and Medicine
Emergency physician shows everyday readers why ‘Sex Matters’ in health care
Dr. Alyson McGregor, cofounder of the Division of Sex and Gender in Emergency Medicine at Brown, discusses the difference sex makes in medical research and care in her new book, “Sex Matters.”
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Science and Technology
Brown physicist earns prestigious Early Career Grant from U.S. Department of Energy
The five-year, $750,000 award will help Kemp Plumb study exotic states of matter that emerge in certain magnetic materials.
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In a talk about his new book, “Angrynomics,” Mark Blyth explained why Westerners are angry over the current economic state and suggested a fix for broken capitalist systems.
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Arts and Humanities
Students partner with Providence museum on women’s suffrage digital exhibition
Students in an American studies course at Brown worked with the Lippitt House Museum to create a digital exhibition chronicling the history of women’s suffrage and voting rights in Rhode Island and beyond.
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A new Health Equity Scholars fellowship program from Brown’s School of Public Health and Tougaloo College is aimed at expanding diversity among public health leaders and addressing racism as a public health problem.
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The University has made standardized test scores optional for applicants in the upcoming undergraduate admissions cycle to account for the unprecedented obstacles to testing arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“The Tight Rope,” co-hosted by two prominent scholars at Brown and Harvard, respectively, offers in-depth yet accessible conversations about race, social justice and African American arts and culture.
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Wind turbines in Texas, now up and running, are part of a plan that will enable the University to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, offsetting 100% of campus electricity use with renewable energy sources.
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The 10 newest members of the Brown University Graduate School’s open education program will customize their Ph.D. studies by seeking a master’s degree in a secondary field.
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The University and SUGSE/AFT agreed on a three-year collective bargaining agreement covering wages, hours and other terms of employment for graduate teaching assistants, research assistants and proctors.
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Arts and Humanities
Student composer caps four years at Brown with a plastic-instrument symphony
“Plastic Orchestra,” composed by Class of 2020 graduate Sofia Frohna, celebrates old music traditions while embracing seldom-heard instruments, from melodicas to boomwhackers.
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Emily Oster, an economist and public policy expert at Brown, has partnered with medical experts, data scientists and Brown students to create a hub of helpful information about COVID-19.
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News and Events
Letter from President Paxson: Track and field and cross country
Brown will reinstate the varsity status of its men’s track and field and cross country teams; the move does not alter other decisions to reduce the number of varsity sports as part of the Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative.
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Testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Brown President Christina H. Paxson detailed the complex decisions facing university leaders as they assess how to deliver education safely this fall.
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News and Events
Letter from Brown’s senior leaders: Confronting racial injustice
As communities confront ongoing anti-black racism, University leaders wrote to the Brown community to express deep sadness and anger regarding incidents that continue to cut short the lives of black people.
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The Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative will revise the University’s roster of varsity sports teams, invest in club sports and enhance recruitment, squad sizes, coaching, training and facilities.
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The FarmLink Project, started by students from Brown and other schools, is moving food that farmers would normally sell to restaurants to food banks around the country, putting it in the hands of those in need.
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From locations across the globe, thousands of new Brown graduates and loved ones tuned in to Virtual Degree Conferral celebrations that honored achievements and offered words of wisdom for lives and careers to come.
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News and Events
Brown Corporation approves base budget for Fiscal Year 2021
The approved $1.3 billion base budget includes $347 million for student aid and support, and will serve as a foundation for revised budget forecasts to contend with the full impact of COVID-19 on Brown’s financial position.
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As president of Brown’s Undergraduate Council of Students, William Zhou will address the way that listening to others creates community and catalyzes change in Virtual Degree Conferral ceremony remarks on Sunday, May 24.
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News and Events
Brown Corporation elects two new fellows, eight trustees
Brown’s governing body elected each new member based on their commitment to the University and its mission of education and research.
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Arts and Humanities
Slavic literature scholar aims to inspire fellow Ph.D. grads
Mira Nikolova, a native of Bulgaria and a doctoral candidate in Slavic studies, plans to draw parallels between Ph.D. students and saguaro cacti in her Virtual Degree Conferral ceremony address on Sunday, May 24.
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In an address at the Graduate School’s Virtual Degree Ceremony, master’s degree speaker Abdullah Shihipar will urge his classmates to use their degrees in ways that advance all of society, not just themselves.
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With seniors who are culminating their undergraduate experiences remotely in mind, Brown-RISD dual degree student Yunni Cho created a digital collection of drawings depicting favorite sites on the College Hill campuses.
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An essay by Anthony Bogues, director of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown, anchors a scholarly discussion in the United Nations’ 30th-anniversary Human Development Report.
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Omena, a nonprofit founded by Brown sophomore Francesca Raoelison, teaches young people in her native Madagascar how to recognize emotionally abusive relationships.
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The under-construction center and residence hall on Brook Street in Providence remains on track to bring the University’s health and wellness programs under one roof as early as Spring 2021.
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As a Udall Scholar, Melissa Lopez will examine ways to predict — and prevent — the effects of climate change upon city environments.
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The research team Opportunity Insights, co-directed by Professor of Economics John Friedman, developed a tool to help policymakers and nonprofits respond to rapid economic shifts during the global health crisis.
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Virtual Degree Conferral ceremonies on May 24 will mark the milestone of graduation in advance of next spring’s Commencement and Reunion Weekend, which will honor the classes of 2020 and 2021.
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News and Events
Brown research teams mobilize to investigate COVID-19 solutions
Brown’s new COVID-19 Research Seed Fund is supporting 15 teams of faculty researchers who are working rapidly to develop solutions that could impact the world’s response to the pandemic.
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Student Life
For Brown Salsa Club, the beat goes online
Since Brown went remote in March, the University’s student-run salsa club has hosted weekly online salsa lessons for the greater Brown and RISD communities.
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Arts and Humanities
Brown alumnus captures Pulitzer Prize for Susan Sontag biography
Benjamin Moser, a Class of 1998 graduate, won a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for the authorized biography “Sontag: Her Life and Work" — and a team led in part by Brown alumnus Ira Glass captured the first ever prize for audio reporting.
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Rob Grace, a Ph.D. student at Brown, drew from his research on humanitarian negotiation to offer advice on how to convince skeptical friends and family to protect themselves from COVID-19 via social distancing.
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Health and Medicine
School of Public Health celebrates high-impact student research online
With students studying remotely as a result of COVID-19, Brown’s School of Public Health created a platform for students to share poster presentations on their research virtually.
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Students, and local economies, will depend on the efforts of colleges and universities to marshal the resources and expertise to make it possible to safely reopen, Brown’s president argues.
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The Choices Program at Brown is granting high school teachers in Rhode Island free access to digital editions of its classroom units, which cover topics including war, genocide and climate change.
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With their election to the prestigious honor society, Carl Kaestle, Diane Lipscombe and Susanna Loeb join the nation’s leading scholars in science, public affairs, business, arts and humanities.
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News and Events
Ivy Film Festival moves fully online for its 19th annual event
The world’s largest student-run film festival, held each year on the Brown campus, will transition to a fully digital, weeklong event featuring film screenings, new media exhibitions and a digital speaker series.
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In partnership with the State of Rhode Island, the University has opened currently unoccupied residence halls to front-line personnel seeking to isolate from family members while supporting the state’s pandemic response.
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Victoria Almansa-Villatoro, a Ph.D. student in Egyptology, worked with learning designers at Brown to create an interactive online course about the pyramids, kings and societies of the third millennium B.C.
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A conversation between former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez, both Brown alumni, touched on the upcoming general election and the social consciousness of the Brown community.
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The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded fellowships to Brown faculty members Josh Pacewicz, Kavita Ramanan and Daniel Jordan Smith.
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Fourth-year medical students at the Warren Alpert Medical School who have completed requirements and elected to graduate early will join the fight against COVID-19 both locally and in residencies nationwide.
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Science and Technology
Brown engineering faculty and students design DIY ventilator
The team designed a ventilator that can be easily assembled using 3D-printed and easily acquired parts, and plans to make the design available for anyone to make.
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Nearly 1,000 students, faculty and staff participated in a remote meeting of the Brown University Community Council, which included a moderated Q&A session with senior leaders.
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Science and Technology
Conversations on COVID: Tracing contacts while preserving privacy
Researchers including computer science professor Anna Lysyanskaya are working on a way to use cell phones to track people who may have been exposed to coronavirus — without revealing any personal information.
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Research News
All News Analysis by assistant professor of environment and society and sociology at Brown found that press releases expressing opposition to climate action were twice as likely to receive news coverage as those supporting action.
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Using a microsimulation model, researchers at Brown predicted the number of opioid-related overdose deaths related to three different treatment options over the course of 8 years.
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A study by a team of Brown University researchers sheds new light on the complementary roles of REM and non-REM sleep in visual perceptual learning.
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Science and Technology
Study reveals science behind traditional mezcal-making technique
Researchers reveal for the first time why bubbles are a good gauge of alcohol content in the traditional Mexican spirit.
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Using voting records and arrest data from before and after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a Brown economist found that increased enfranchisement led to fewer arrests for Black Americans.
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Health and Medicine
Drug treatment could improve effectiveness of immunotherapy for cancer patients
The MDM2 gene promotes tumor growth and interferes with immunotherapy in some cancer patients — a new study from a Brown University research team suggests that an MDM2-inhibiting drug could help address this problem.
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Science and Technology
Different tracks, same dinosaurs: Brown researchers dig deeper into dinosaur movements
Using X-ray-based technology developed at Brown University, researchers uncover shared subsurface movement patterns between birds and dinosaurs, adding a new dimension of fossil track diversity.
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“Trouble of the World,” by visiting faculty member Zach Sell of Brown University, demonstrates that American slavery transformed labor and production practices around the world, even in places where slavery was abolished.
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A discovery by researchers at Brown’s Center for Translational Neuroscience could pave the way for future studies aimed at developing solutions to ALS and other vexing neuromuscular diseases.
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Science and Technology
Researchers discover new boron-lanthanide nanostructure
A newly discovered nanocluster has a geometry that “has not been observed in chemistry heretofore,” the researchers say.
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Researchers at Brown and Harvard found that Massachusetts children of all racial and economic backgrounds are more likely than ever before to enroll in college — but wealthy, white students are still far more likely to receive a college degree.
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Science and Technology
Researchers make next-generation, high-toughness battery component
By combining a ceramic material with graphene, Brown University engineers have made what they say is the toughest solid electrolyte built to date.
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Science and Technology
Research reveals how material defects influence melting process
A new study helps to reconcile a Nobel Prize-winning theory with experiments on how solids actually melt.
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Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, new research finds that past stressors and traumatic events increase vulnerability to mental illnesses, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD).
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Science and Technology
Researchers develop ultra-sensitive device for detecting magnetic fields
The new magnetic sensor is inexpensive to make, works on minimal power and is 20 times more sensitive than many traditional sensors.
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Health and Medicine
Brown physician-scholar testifies on COVID-19 before U.S. House committee
Megan Ranney, an associate professor of emergency medicine, urged the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis to ramp up manufacturing and distribution of personal protective equipment.
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Tests can identify or rule out abnormalities, but a study from the R.I. Consortium for Autism Research and Treatment finds that most people with autism spectrum disorder don’t receive them.
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A new study shows that coastal sea ice used by Arctic residents for hunting and fishing will be reduced as the planet warms.
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News and Events
Topological waves may help in understanding plasma systems
A research team has predicted the presence of “topologically protected” electromagnetic waves that propagate on the surface of plasmas, which may help in designing new plasma systems like fusion reactors.
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Social Sciences
Anxiety impairs judgment in social situations, study finds
A new study by three Brown researchers found that those who report symptoms of anxiety have a harder time walking away from people who become increasingly untrustworthy.
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Science and Technology
Research reveals possibly active tectonic system on the Moon
Strange spots scattered across the Moon’s nearside where bedrock is conspicuously exposed are evidence of seismic activity set in motion 4.3 billion years ago that could be ongoing today, the researchers say.
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Science and Technology
Researchers solve ‘link discovery’ problem for terahertz data networks
A team of researchers from Brown and Rice universities has demonstrated a way to help devices to find each other in the ultra-fast terahertz data networks of the future.
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Health and Medicine
Research reveals new target that could be a foundation for malaria vaccine
In a study that could lead to a new vaccine against malaria, researchers have found antibodies that trigger a “kill switch” in malarial cells, causing them to self-destruct.
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Health and Medicine
Mindfulness app may help address physician anxiety, burnout
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.
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Science and Technology
Machine learning improves non-destructive materials testing
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.
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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.
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Science and Technology
Barnacles offer genetic clues on how organisms adapt to changing environments
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.
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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.
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Science and Technology
Researchers develop new explanation for destructive earthquake vibrations
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.
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Science and Technology
Sloan Foundation awards early-career fellowships to two Brown scientists
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.
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Science and Technology
Imaging technique reveals 3D forces exerted by tiny cell clusters
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.
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Science and Technology
How do zebrafish get their stripes? New data analysis tool could provide an answer
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.
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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.
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Science and Technology
Cracks in perovskite films for solar cells easily healed, study finds
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.
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Science and Technology
Researchers report progress on molecular data storage system
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.
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Science and Technology
Algorithm can infer velocity and pressure from video of fluid flows
A technique for estimating velocities and pressures from videos of fluid flows could help in studying everything from hurricanes to vascular disease.
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Science and Technology
Near caves and mines, corrugated pipes may interfere with bat echolocation
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.
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Black Lives Matter — turning point at a historic moment
Highlighting Brown’s Distinction
University Initiatives
Highlighting Brown’s distinction in entrepreneurship
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.
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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.
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Science and Technology
Highlighting Brown’s distinction in energy and environmental engineering
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.
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Arts and Humanities
Highlighting Brown’s distinction in the arts
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.
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Health and Medicine
Highlighting Brown’s distinction in brain science
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.
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Social Sciences
Highlighting Brown’s distinction in economics
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.
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News and Events
Highlighting Brown’s distinction in educational innovation
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.
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Arts and Humanities
Highlighting Brown’s distinction in the humanities
Humanities scholars at Brown are energizing comparative work that informs a deeper understanding of the most challenging questions of global common concern.
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