What’s the Buzz About Malaria: Novel Solutions for Blocking Transmission of an Ancient Pathogen

Flaminia Catteruccia, Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes that has scourged humanity over our evolutionary history. To this day, malaria still afflicts large parts of our planet, killing hundreds of thousands every year, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa. Catteruccia investigates the biological, physiological and ecological components that shape how the malaria mosquito interacts with the malaria parasite, ensuring disease transmission. She also discusses novel approaches to block the malaria cycle that promise to aid efforts to reduce the burden of this devastating disease. Elected in 2024, Catteruccia represents Class VI’s section on Animal, Nutritional, and Applied Microbial Sciences.

Improving Access and Completion: Elusive Goals in American Higher Education

Cecilia Elena Rouse, President, The Brookings Institution

The net positive economic benefits of higher education are one of the few results on which economists and policymakers can (generally) agree. As a result, there has long been interest in increasing access, and more recently completion, to improve economic mobility and provide an important boost to the U.S. economy. Rouse documents the evolution of this focus in education policy as well as interventions that have been attempted to improve one or both, such as learning communities, financial aid based on student performance, and simplification of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). She also discusses the increasing concern about the cost of college and the associated levels of student debt as well as policies, such as income-based repayment, to help alleviate some of the burden on students. Despite some documented successes, substantially improving access, and particularly completion, has proven somewhat elusive in the U.S.  Elected in 2024, Rouse represents Class V’s section on Economic Sciences.

What Has Evolution Taught Us About Immunity to Infection?

K. Heran Darwin, Professor, Department of Microbiology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a human-exclusive pathogen that has been a leading cause of death due to an infectious disease over millennia. Understanding how we fight infections and how bacteria resist host defenses is our best chance at finding better cures. Our studies of a fundamental bacterial process may have revealed a remarkable way humans counter microbial invasion, and how this response has shaped human evolution. Elected in 2024, Darwin represents Class IV’s section on Microbial Biology.

Getting in Sync: The Math and Science of Synchronization

Steven Strogatz, Winokur Distinguished Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Mathematics, Cornell University

Every night along the tidal rivers of Malaysia, thousands of fireflies gather in mangrove trees and flash in unison, creating a dazzling display that extends for miles. Similar feats of spontaneous synchronization are seen in our own bodies, and even among inanimate objects, from the firing of neurons to the ticking of metronomes. Strogatz will discuss how mathematicians are uncovering the principles behind these phenomena, shedding light on the mechanisms that allow individual elements to sync without external cues. Elected in 2024, Strogatz represents Class III’s section on Applied Physical Sciences.

The Physics and Development of Beauty: Structural Colors in Butterflies

Nipam H. Patel, Director, Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Chicago

Butterflies are well known for the beautiful colors and patterns that decorate their wings. Many of the colors are created by pigments within the scales of the wing, but other colors, especially blues and greens, are instead produced by a remarkable phenomenon known as structural coloration. While the physical basis of structural color is well understood, we know very little about how animals and plants create the nanostructures required to create the optical effect. Patel will discuss developmental, genetic, and cellular insights into how scale cells generate the necessary materials and geometry to create these colors. Elected in 2024, Patel represents Class II’s section on Cellular and Developmental Biology.

Detecting Gravitational Waves with a Galaxy-Size Observatory

Maura McLaughlin, Eberly Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University

Pulsars are neutron stars formed in the supernova explosions of massive, evolved stars. These exotic objects weigh more than the Sun and can spin over 700 times per second. They possess extremely high magnetic fields, which make them energetic sources of radio waves beamed along their magnetic axes. We detect a pulse of radio emission during each pulsar rotation, and these pulses can be timed with remarkable precision using large radio telescopes, allowing us to detect even minute perturbations in their expected arrival times. We observe a network of these cosmic clocks distributed throughout the Galaxy to search for invisible ripples in spacetime known as gravitational waves. I will describe how we used this pulsar timing array to discover the first evidence for a stochastic background of gravitational waves, most likely generated by the pairs of extremely massive black holes at the cores of distant galaxy mergers. Elected in 2024, McLaughlin represents Class I’s section on Astronomy.