Faculty and Staff Notes

Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy Jillian Scudder's new popular science book, The Milky Way Smells of Rum & Raspberries was published in the UK on November 3 by Icon Books. It will be released in the US/Global market on February 14, 2023.

Associate Professor Ross Karre coproduced and performed in a concert featuring composers from the Iranian Female Composers Association. The works were performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Steven Schick. Among the musicians were Oberlin alumni, Hannah Levinson, Rebekah Heller, and Joshua Rubin. The program included the world premiere performance of Inexorable Passage by Nina Barzegar, the US premiere of within the Hadal and Epi by Anahita Abbasi, the NYC premiere of Crystalline Trees by Aida Shirazi, and additional works by Golfam Khayam, Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, Nasim Khorassani, and Bahar Royaee. Niloufar Shiri performed solo kamancheh interludes throughout the evening. (New York Times subscription needed to view article.)

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Shuming Chen has been awarded a $55,000 grant by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for her project, "Probing Complex Post-Transition State Bifurcations in Reactions Between Boroles and Unsaturated Hydrocarbons". Professor Chen and her undergraduate research students will use both experimental and computational approaches to study mechanisms in this family of organic reactions.

Associate Professor of Physics Jillian Scudder coauthored a publication in the Astrophysical Journal on galaxies which have undergone a recent burst of star formation, examining the frequency of mergers in combination with where within a galaxy star formation is suppressed.

Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy Jillian Scudder's recent book, Astroquizzical: The Illustrated Edition (MIT Press) was included in the longlist of eight candidates for the 2023 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books in the Young Adult Science Book category.

Multiple students who worked in Professor Marta Laskowski's lab are coauthors on a paper that appeared in the journal Development. The paper uncovers a gene regulatory network that links the size and shape of the root system to expression of genes that are known to control the life cycle stage of the shoot system. The work was done in the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana.

Stephen Crowley presented a talk entitled “Sanctions, Economic Hardship, and Social (In)stability in Russia” at the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute for Slavic, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies. He published an article with the same title on the website Riddle. He was interviewed by the BBC World Service about the impact of sanctions on Russian society and potential for social protest.

Associate Professor of Computer Science Cynthia Taylor gave a talk and was on a panel for the "STEM in the Art Museum: Teaching Skills and Content through Art" Symposium at Yale University on October 14. The symposium was organized by Liliana Milkova, formerly the Curator of Academic Programs at the Allen Memorial Art Museum.

Peter Slowik gave the world premiere of four new compositions for solo viola in a concert at Old South Church in Boston on October 22. All told, twelve new compositions were premiered by three violists, Slowik was joined by his former student Daniel Orsen ’16 and Jordan Bak.

Scott Branson's new book Practical Anarchism: A Guide For Daily Life (Pluto Books) was launched at a live streamed event on October 24. Branson talked with Vicky Osterweil, the author of In Defense of Looting.