CV: Soren Wheeler

Fall 2018

Soren Wheeler
Photo: WNYC Studios

Soren Wheeler is executive editor of Radiolab, a science-based radio program.

Education

1996 Bachelor’s degree, literature, creative writing, and philosophy, University of Wisconsin
2007 Master’s degree, The Writing Seminars, Johns Hopkins University

Notable

  • Spent 10 years researching and writing about K–12 science education before launching his career in radio.
  • Radiolab has won two Peabody Awards for shows he helped produce and edit.
  • Radiolab attracts close to 2 million listeners.
  • Was a project coordinator at the Association for the Advancement of Science, where he co-authored the book Atlas of Science Literacy.
  • Received the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism award for production of a show about statistics and probability.
  • Johns Hopkins instructor David Kestenbaum, then a science reporter for National Public Radio, told Wheeler about Radiolab. (“I showed up as an unpaid intern for a couple of months and sort of wiggled my way into the scene.”)
  • Has been with Radiolab since 2007, when the still-emerging show created only five hours of audio a year.
  • Was named University of Wisconsin-Madison’s fall 2015 Science Writer-in-Residence.

In His Own Words

I do not want to tell two sides of a story when one side ignores someone’s humanity, steps outside of our more cherished values as a society, or denies basic facts about the world around us.”

Transom, March 10, 2020

I think what Radiolab does is you get to start with us in the room, while we make the call and ask the stupid questions. You’re sort of on the reporter’s journey with us. Our job is to get out of our little ‘squee for science’ heads and help other people come along with us…Once you’ve made someone curious, you have to be able to deliver on that curiosity, you have to give them something to chew on after that.”

The Capital Times, November 7, 2015

Audio gets you a different kind of access to vicarious experiences. It goes straight to your brain, straight to your emotions.”

Johns Hopkins Magazine, Spring 2017

Soren’s advice to science writers:

Make me feel something, please. Fight to find the right anecdote, and keep making science dance with emotions in brave and innovative ways.”

The Last Word on Nothing, 2012

Then & Now: JHU Gatehouse

Fall 2018

Then

In 1971, when this photo appeared in the Hullabaloo yearbook, football and The Writing Seminars were both briefly on the chopping block, Hopkins students took part in the Washington, D.C., May Day protests against the Vietnam War, and university president Lincoln Gordon resigned. The student-run News-Letter reported on these issues and many others from the paper’s office in the iconic Gatehouse, the 1875 stone building that once served as the entrance to Homewood estate. The Gatehouse was a caretaker’s cottage next, and subsequently housed the Department of Gas Engineering, the Camera Club, and chemical engineering labs. Over the years, at least two graduate students lived in its attic.

Now

Following stints in the basement of Levering Hall and what is now Merrick Barn, the News-Letter moved to the Gatehouse—where it remains today—in 1965. Today’s staff numbers 35, with about 200 additional occasional contributors. The paper shifted to an online format with daily updates at the start of the pandemic but plans to reintroduce a print edition this semester, when editors-in-chief Molly Gahagen and Michelle Limpe say they expect to resume the ritual of late-night writing and editing in their beloved Gatehouse office.

Healthy Babies Around the World

Fall 2018

Infants in low-income settings around the globe sometimes fall into a vicious cycle of malnutrition and infection. Lack of access to nutrients causes malnourishment, which leaves the babies more prone to infection, which makes it harder for them to digest nutrients, and so on. 

Global health initiatives often target the infection side of the cycle, using mosquito nets or antibiotics, for example. But Noah Trudeau, a junior from Detroit, is part of a research project trialing a two-pronged approach: at birth, infants in rural Bangladesh will receive a biofortified protein supplement paired with an antibiotic. 

“We’re tackling it from the nutrition perspective,” Trudeau says. “How can we make sure that these children are not only getting the nutrients they need, but retaining them?” 

Health Meets Social Sciences

Trudeau, who is majoring in medicine, science, and the humanities and minoring in French, arrived at Hopkins interested in health and medicine, and quickly developed a passion for the social sciences as well. He finds that global health offers the perfect combination. Hoping to put his interests into practice, he emailed a handful of Hopkins faculty in the field, eventually connecting with Amanda Palmer, assistant professor in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

So far, Trudeau’s role in Palmer’s project has been at the safety profile stage, helping to determine that the antibiotic is safe and effective before coupling it with the protein supplement. He analyzed demographic data for groups of infants who received the antibiotic versus a placebo, ensuring they were relatively similar. He also organized data into tables on pre- and post-dosing symptoms like diarrhea and cough, and is helping Palmer draft the project’s first paper, which they hope to publish soon. 

“The general takeaway is that not only are the adverse events infrequent, but they’re notably minor. So, it looks promising,” Trudeau says. 

Engaging Families and Communities

There are takeaways for Trudeau personally as well: a refining of his insights into global health and the way it affects people not only in hospitals and clinics, but right where they live. 

“This experience has taught me to approach global health differently: not just from a biomedical perspective, but also from the social science and humanistic side,” he says. “Global health really isn’t just about medicine; it’s about how can we engage families and patients to better serve these communities. And how can we make not only long-lasting change, but equitable change. Decolonizing global health is one of my main interests—this field has been rooted in the idea that health is this fundamental right, but only for those who can afford it. Because I believe wholeheartedly that health should be a right regardless of where you live.” 

“Global health is not just policymaking and research,” says Trudeau. “It’s imagining the lived experiences of people who are going to be affected by that policy.” 

Alumnus Wes Unseld Jr., Washington Wizards

Fall 2018

Wes Unseld Jr. talking with two Washington Wizards basketall team members
G. Fiume/Getty Images

Washington Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr. talks to his players during a timeout.

Education 

1997 Bachelor’s degree, economics, Johns Hopkins University 

Work History 

  • 1997–2005 Scout, Washington Wizards  
  • 2005–11 Assistant coach, Washington Wizards  
  • 2011–12 Assistant coach, Golden State Warriors  
  • 2012–14 Assistant coach, Orlando Magic  
  • 2015–21 Assistant coach then associate head coach, Denver Nuggets 
  • 2021–present Head coach, Washington Wizards  

Notable 

  • Son of NBA legend Wes Unseld Sr., he played high school basketball at Loyola Blakefield in Maryland. 
  • At Hopkins, he was a two-time captain of the basketball team and helped Hopkins to 57 wins and the 1997 ECAC Championship. 
  • When he graduated from Hopkins, he ranked 15th in school history in points (875), 10th in free throws made (211) and minutes played (2,045), 13th in rebounds (427), and 15th in steals (69). He currently ranks 11th in career field-goal percentage (.551) and 15th in blocks (60).  
  • During his tenure in Denver, he helped turn around a weak defense and has been credited with playing a significant role in the development of players Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. as a part of head coach Michael Malone’s staff. 
  • During his initial six seasons with the Wizards, he was instrumental in game planning and player development and was largely credited with the success of the Wizards’ offensive game plans, with the team posting four consecutive playoff appearances (2005–08) and three straight top 10 offensive finishes (2004–07). 
  • With the Orlando Magic, he worked with players Nikola Vucevic, Tobias Harris, and Victor Oladipo during their early careers and did the same with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson with the Golden State Warriors. 

In His Own Words 

It was good. It’s always a great opportunity to get home. I give our guys a lot of credit: After a 1-hour 10-minute bus ride, we still got something out of it. That’s kind of our thought process with anything and everything we do.… These are enjoyable things—you get an opportunity to reach out to the community, give back to some degree.” 

The Washington Post, October 20, 2021, Regarding the Wizards’ open-to-fans practice in Baltimore at Morgan State University. 

I was around great coaches where it wasn’t necessarily just about winning. It was about building habits and well-rounded human beings. As the Jesuits would say, ‘Men for others.’ You carry some of these tidbits with you, and as I take a step back, that is our goal. Yes, we want to win. This is a results-driven business. But it’s also part of the journey, and when you have great people around you, that journey is that much more special.”  

 
The Baltimore Sun, July 20, 2021. Crediting his upbringing in Baltimore with shaping him as an individual and a coach. 

I look forward to walking through these halls throughout the season to see not only the bust of my father, but to take a peek up in the rafters and see his retired jersey. Our home opener will be a special night for a number of reasons, but this makes it that much more special.” 

NBA.com, October 22, 2021. Regarding the Washington Wizards’ unveiling of the bust of franchise legend and NBA Hall of Famer Wes Unseld Sr. at Capital One Arena. 

Traveling, Writing, and Finding a Career in Digital Media

Fall 2018

People picture travel as this really expensive thing you do once a year, maybe for a week if you’re lucky; but it’s more of an attitude, a way of living, of always looking for something new to discover, says Rachel Schnalzer ’15. 

Rachel Schnalzer outdoors in front of building in Germany
courtesy of Rachel Schnalzer

Schnalzer should know. The audience engagement editor at the Los Angeles Times, where she writes the Escapes travel newsletter, lives in Germany and works remotely. Her career so far has happened almost entirely in the digital realm, and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon.  

A double major in English and political science, Schnalzer says her education in the humanities gave her “the ability to problem solve, think outside the box, and find hidden connections.” Schnalzer’s first job out of college was at Snapchat, a multi-media instant messaging app and service. From there she moved to BuzzFeed, an internet news company with a focus on digital media. Then came the opportunity at the Los Angeles Times.  

BuzzFeed to the Los Angeles Times 

While she was primarily a researcher at BuzzFeed, Schnalzer challenged herself to expand her skills, and as a result was able to produce, direct, and edit a video story about the way surfers see the effects of climate change before anyone else. She interviewed professional big wave surfer and environmental activist Greg Long for the piece and now counts it as one of her career highlights. “All of the little opportunities that seem random in the moment usually end up being important moments of professional development,” Schnalzer says. 

Schnalzer also has a more recent favorite project: “I had the privilege of going up to the Santa Ynez Valley and interviewing Iris Rideau, who’s widely celebrated as the first Black woman to own and run a vineyard in the United States. I got to spend the day with her and tell her story to the LA Times. When sources trust you to tell their story, it’s such an honor.” 

It was a study-abroad trip to Ireland, and a trip to the Kyoto mountains with her roommate a year later, that solidified what Schnalzer expects to be a lifelong love of travel. She also applied her philosophy of openness and engaged discovery to her time in Baltimore. 

I learned as much from Baltimore as I did from Hopkins.”

—Rachel Schnalzer ’15 

“I loved to ride the JHMI Shuttle or Charm City Circulator and find new neighborhoods and restaurants. I even made a point to take internships outside of walking distance from Hopkins,” she says.

Internships and Experiences

Schnalzer took on a wide range of professional opportunities while attending Hopkins that helped her prepare for careers in the digital realm, including as an intern for Baltimore magazine; as a marketing intern for the Walters Art Museum; and as a marketing assistant for Johns Hopkins University Press, where she was able to familiarize herself with social media and digital strategy.  

Along with encouraging young professionals to say yes to new opportunities and new responsibilities, Schnalzer also stresses the importance of a professional community. “I’m lucky enough to be a part of a collective of women at different media outlets who bounce ideas off one another and learn from one another.” Schnalzer believes that “there’s room for everyone at the table” and hopes that the future includes an understanding “that we’re all here to help each other be better and do better work.”    

Working to Make America a ‘Weather Ready Nation’

Fall 2018

The work performed at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—a key nexus of science and public policy housed within the U.S. Department of Commerce—has an impact on Americans’ lives every day. NOAA’s broad responsibilities are for how climate intersects with industry influences. From the health of the fish we eat, the quality of the air we breathe, to even the accuracy of the weather report we consult each day.   

Richard Spinrad ’75
Courtesy NOAA

But in mid-February, NOAA made headlines for a forecast of a different kind. A study concluding that a rapidly warming planet will cause sea levels along the nation’s coastline to rise an additional 10 to 12 inches by 2050. 

NOAA Administrator Richard Spinrad ’75 sees that projection as a wake-up call for Americans to create what the agency calls a “Weather-Ready Nation.” Yet as many citizens increasingly dismiss scientific expertise, Spinrad believes it is scientists who must “build trust” and intensify public outreach.    

“Just because I went to a meeting of the American Geophysical Union and gave a speech,” he observes, “maybe that family in Topeka might not be reading or listening. So how do I engage more?”  

Research and public policy

Confirmed by the U.S. Senate as NOAA Administrator in June 2021, Spinrad has forged a career at the intersection of research and public policy. He’s worked in academia as a professor of oceanography and vice president of research at Oregon State University. In that time he also held an array of administrative positions, including as NOAA’s chief scientist during the Obama administration.  

Spinrad says his approach to leading NOAA is not turning the agency “as they say in nautical terms, ‘right full rudder.’” He is focused on “what drives a bureaucracy? What makes it move? How do you motivate a workforce of 12,000 people around something like…Weather-Ready Nation?” 

Oceans continue to fascinate Spinrad. “There is so much we don’t know,” he says. “It’s exciting to think that with every [research] cruise, and every investment that we make…there’s going to be discoveries made all the time.” His keen interest dates back to childhood: “I decided I was going to be an oceanographer in eighth grade. I was laser locked into that.”  

Environmental education at Hopkins

Enrolling at Johns Hopkins helped fulfill his aspirations through a “broad environmental education.” It also gave him a chance to work with the legendary Chesapeake Bay Institute in the 1970s as an undergraduate.  

If I had to put it on a bumper sticker: Hopkins taught me how to think.” 

—Richard Spinrad ’75

Spinrad points to work with Hopkins faculty as a spark to his own growth. This included oceanography professor Donald Pritchard, and Jerry Schubel, an assistant professor who subsequently led the Aquarium of the Pacific. “I was rubbing elbows with extraordinary people,” he recalls. “I was learning oceanography from day one.”  

Classes with the late engineering professor Leslie Kovasznay were also a highlight. “He’d start out by saying, ‘All right, if you wanted to create a life form that would live on Mars, how would you do it?’ We thought we knew everything and he would tear apart all our arguments,” he remembers. “It taught me how to think about a problem.”   

Spinrad also indulged a passion for lacrosse by playing in an intramural league. But training his intellect was his foremost pursuit as an undergraduate.

Alumnus Leads Health Systems During the Pandemic

Fall 2018

Selwyn Vickers, MD
UAB/Steve Wood

Selwyn Vickers ’82 has witnessed the havoc wreaked on health institutions by the COVID-19 pandemic from the front lines.   

“It’s brought myriad challenges related to every aspect of our mission,” says Vickers, who is the CEO of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Health System and the UAB/Ascension St. Vincent’s Alliance. “We’ve had to shut down our research enterprise. At times, we’ve had to morph our educational platform. And we’ve had to completely turn our health care paradigm upside down to take care of this vast number of patients with COVID disease.” 

Vickers’ more than three decades of work as a distinguished pancreatic cancer surgeon and an administrator at UAB and the University of Minnesota prepared him to lead in tough times. Part of that leadership has come in addressing how the pandemic has exacerbated vast and highly visible health disparities across American society. As a leading voice in researching and tackling this problem, Vickers believes that the social influences perpetuating inequity are underestimated by the medical community. 

Whether you show up in our emergency room because you didn’t have a refrigerator for your insulin,” Vickers observes, “or because you ran out of your hypertension medicine and didn’t have someone to actually go get it for you, all of these social things play out—financially, medically—on what happens in our hospitals.” 

—Selwyn Vickers ’82

Responding to health inequity

Academic medical centers must organize a response to health inequity, even if it pushes them out of their comfort zone, Vickers believes. “They know it makes financial sense, even though it may require some investment. And they know they have the influence and the spectrum of vision to do it…. We try to step in those spaces that have been so painfully left alone and not addressed over the years.” 

As dean of UAB’s Heersink School of Medicine, Vickers has also witnessed how COVID-19 will be defining new paths for young doctors. “Their expectations of the experience are going to be different than my generation,” he admits. “They want it to be sustainable. It’s not just about that I get the outcome of taking care of somebody. I want how I take care of them to be meaningful.”  

The pandemic also has placed deepening student familiarity with equity issues on a par with leveraging new technologies at UAB. “I think it will now really force us to no longer continually ignore health disparities, [and] we will start within the educational process.” 

A new way of thinking

Vickers grew up in Huntsville—Alabama’s largest city and a key hub for U.S. aerospace and tech companies. But his arrival on the Homewood campus in the late 1970s, he says, was an “eye-opening” experience that “brought a level of appreciation of diversity that challenged my mindset.” His Hopkins experience, he says, taught him that his “way of thinking may not be the only way of thinking.” 

He also acquired resilience, which sustained his “willingness to compete” successfully with numerous Hopkins peers who also wanted to pursue careers in medicine.  

“The resilience built up,” he observes. “Friendships develop. Yes, it was competitive, but not in any bad way. It was just people all wanting to [work in] this space of being a doctor.”  

Vickers credits the late Levi Watkins Jr.—a fellow Alabaman, renowned heart surgeon, and longtime associate dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine—as a mentor and friend.  

“Our pathways were very similar,” he recalls. “Our parents were college educators. And we were both from Alabama. So we knew that history.” In an era when many Hopkins pre-med graduates left Baltimore, Watkins enlisted Vickers “to be a part of the vision of transforming Johns Hopkins [and its medical school] into a diverse community.” Vickers went on to earn his MD (1986) and complete his residency training and a fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Hospital.  

‘Hopkins trained me to lead’

His professional connection with both Hopkins and Alabama is a strong and continuing one. Vickers chose to work at UAB immediately after leaving Hopkins, and he returned there from Minnesota in 2013. “Hopkins trained me to lead,” he says. “UAB gave me the opportunity to lead… That’s in part why I came. And that’s in part why I came back.” 

That public trust in medicine is fraying when front line health professionals and scientists have won so many victories over the pandemic is an irony not lost on Vickers. But he insists that “we can’t just rely on the confidence that we know what we do works. We have to really work at the business of being humble enough to realize we have to earn the privilege for our science to be accepted.”  

Gilman Hall, Then and Now

Fall 2018

Then 

During Gilman Hall’s three-year renovation—completed in 2010—crews deconstructed the bridge, a vending machine-filled hallway connecting the Hutzler Reading Room and Memorial Hall. Below was the roof of the old bookstore in Gilman’s basement. 

Now 

The dramatic centerpiece of Gilman Hall’s 2007-10 renovation is the three-story glass-topped central atrium that replaces the bridge between the Hutzler Reading Room and Memorial Hall. The enclosed courtyard features nine large sculptural pieces titled Vessel Field by artist Kendall Buster. Suspended by steel wires, the sculptures reference the extensive collection of jars and other containers in the university’s Archaeological Museum, which replaced the bookstore below the atrium. 

Spring 2022 Alumni to Watch

Fall 2018

Alumni Kudos 

  • Zach Baylin ’02 received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for King Richard, starring Will Smith. 
  • Kathy Young Karsting ’80 received the 2021 Title V Lifetime Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, for outstanding contributions to the field of maternal and child health over a sustained period. Karsting has worked in the Nebraska DHHS Title V Maternal and Child Health Program since 2006.  
  • Don Mankin ’68 PhD won first place for travel articles in a 2020 competition sponsored by the North American Mature Publishers Association.  
  • Titian’s Icons: Charisma, Tradition, and Devotion in Renaissance Italy, by Chris Nygren ’11 PhD, won the Renaissance Society of America’s 2022 Phyllis Goodhart Gordan Book Prize for the best book in Renaissance studies.  
  • Naoyuki Yoshino ’79 PhD received the International Green Finance Lifetime Achievement Scientific Award from the Central Bank of Hungary in recognition of his breakthrough achievements and transformative career in the field of green finance. Yoshino is Professor Emeritus at Keio University, Tokyo, Japan, and the director of the Financial Research Center at Financial Services Agency, Government of Japan.  

Alumni to Watch 

  • Samuel Cheney ’19 MFA was awarded Gilman School’s Tickner Writing Fellowship, awarded to an emerging poet, playwright, or writer of fiction or creative nonfiction. 
  • Deirdre Danklin ’19 MFA won an Independent Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council and the 2021 Clay Reynolds Novella Prize from Texas Review Press.  
  • Hannah Friedman ’16 PhD won the Renaissance Society of America’s William Nelson Prize for the best article published in Renaissance Quarterly in 2021.  
  • Aleyna Rentz ’19 MFA was named a 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award finalist for The Land of Uz, a short story collection.  
  • Annalee Wu ’21, an illustrator and conceptual artist, was named a winner in the annual L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of the Future Contest. 

From the Dean’s Desk

Fall 2018

At Johns Hopkins, we have been working to craft new ways to bring undergraduate students into our intellectual community, excite their interest in diverse topics and problems, and strengthen the foundation of their academic experience. 

The current landscape makes this a pivotal moment for reimagining undergraduate education.”

—Christopher S. Celenza, James B. Knapp Dean  

While enrollment has remained steady, our selectivity has increased even as our student body has become more diverse. Over the last five years, the number of underrepresented students in each incoming class has grown substantially, as has the number of first-generation, limited-income students. Such changes warrant a new model for undergraduate education. 

Enter CUE2—short for the university’s Second Commission on Undergraduate Education, an effort shaped over the past four years to reimagine the learning experience for undergrads for years to come. Significant changes include giving students greater flexibility in pursuit of their major, as well as in their intellectual exploration of newly defined foundational abilities; providing greater undergraduate access to and engagement with faculty and the greater Hopkins community, including the professional schools; and creating more robust and multilayered academic advising and mentoring. 

Emphasizing the first-year experience

While these efforts will affect all undergraduates, particular emphasis is being placed on the first-year experience. It’s important that—from the day they set foot on campus—our first-year students understand that they are entering one of the world’s greatest research universities. From that point on they are part of a vast community of curious thinkers and learners. 

Last semester, we began to offer what we are calling First-Year Seminars—small, one-semester courses taught by some of our most dynamic faculty members from across the university. The seminars provide a unique common experience, giving students the opportunity to bond with one another, develop meaningful connections with faculty, and hone the core practices of scholarship: reading, writing, and speaking. Our faculty members have been involved from the ground up, providing valuable input and advice that will ensure the success of the seminars. 

With provocative titles such as The Nature of Nature; The Science Behind the Fiction; Rough Magic: Shakespeare on Power; Monumental Memorials: Shaping Historical Memory; and The Science of Color, the seminars provide a small group setting where students can explore fascinating topics they’ve perhaps never considered before and share their curiosity with one another.  

The First-Year Seminars are just one component of our vision for a reimagined undergraduate education at Johns Hopkins, but they are an important one. Today’s new students are tomorrow’s scholars, scientists, and Johns Hopkins alumni. We want them to know from Day One that they are a valued asset to our rich and diverse community of learners.  

I sense a new energy around our efforts to reinvigorate undergraduate education. Stay tuned to these pages as additional efforts take shape. 

Sincerely,   

Christopher S. Celenza  

James B. Knapp Dean  

The Neural Links Between Voice and Thought  

Fall 2018

Jessica Dure ’23
Will Kirk

Descartes famously remarked, “I think, therefore I am.” He still would have been onto something, however, if he’d alternatively suggested, “I speak, therefore I am.” The evolution of speech, the most complex form of communication among all animals, is a distinguishing feature of our species. Yet the connections between the development of our sophisticated vocalizations and our higher-order cognition remain poorly understood.   

Junior behavioral biology major Jessica Dure has started a project to better reveal how communicative capabilities affect brain organization and evolution toward more advanced thinking. She is studying these linkages in Melopsittacus parrots, formally known as budgerigars and nicknamed budgies or parakeets. Popular as pets, these fetchingly colored birds exhibit a rich vocal range and can mimic human speech.   

Do face muscles impact how your brain evolves?

Dure’s work has focused on characterizing the elaborate musculature used by these parrots to form their vocalizations. Additional stages of her project involve mapping the musculature of birds with other kinds of vocalization skills. For example, non-parrot songbirds, which have lesser motor control and more limited vocal manipulation abilities than parrots. Yet they possess rich song repertoires nonetheless.   

We’re seeing how communication affects the brain and how musculature affects the evolution of different areas of the brain.”

—Jessica Dure, behavioral biology major

Dure came up with the project with her advisor, Amy Balanoff, an assistant research professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Balanoff had access to computerized tomography scans of parrots’ skulls that show the hyoid bone. The bone is a key structure in the neck supporting the tongue and other muscles involved in sound generation.   

“My advisor gave me the freedom to come up with an idea of what we could do with these scans, and we decided to label the musculature around the hyoid bone,” says Dure.    

Monitoring the data

The labeling work is time-consuming and intricate as it requires poring over dozens of grayscale scans. Each scan represents a thin slice of the parrot’s anatomy. Overall, the research is building a detailed, three-dimensional view of the area where avian vocalizations are largely produced. It’s is also a critical area for human speech.  

The eventual goal is to compare the musculature maps to brain structure. One expectation, Dure says, is that there could be differences in the hypoglossal nucleus, the part of the brainstem that controls tongue movement.   

Other students are now continuing Dure’s work as she prepares to go to veterinary school. Veterinary medicine is ideal, Dure says. Not only because of her lifelong interest in animal welfare, but also for the chance to collaborate with her fellow Homo sapien. Just like she did on her undergraduate research project. 

Spring 2022 Faculty Awards

Fall 2018

Charles L. Bennett, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Alumni Centennial Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Gilman Scholar, received the Rumford Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies by Erin Aeran Chung, Charles D. Miller Associate Professor of East Asian Politics, Political Science, received the 2021 Research Excellence Award from the Korea Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea.  

Karen Fleming, Professor, Biophysics, was named a Fellow of the Biophysical Society.  

Stephen Fried, Assistant Professor, Chemistry, won a Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) and two Scialog awards from the RCSA and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.  

David Goldberg, Professor, Chemistry, was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  

Taekjip Ha, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Biophysics, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.  

Niloofar Haeri, Professor, Anthropology, received the 2021 Middle East Studies Association’s Fatema Mernissi Book Award for Say What Your Longing Heart Desires: Women, Prayer, and Poetry in Iran. 

Landscape History of Hadramawt: The Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia Project 1998–2008, co-edited by Michael Harrower, Associate Professor of Archaeology, Near Eastern Studies, received the 2022 Anna Marguerite McCann Award for Fieldwork Reports from the Archaeological Institute of America.  

Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World by Jessica Marie Johnson, Assistant Professor, History, won the Lora Romero First Book Prize from the American Studies Association and the Wesley-Logan Prize in African diaspora history from the American Historical Association and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.   

Martha S. Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, Professor of History, Professor at the SNF Agora Institute, was named one of The Baltimore Sun’s 25 Black Marylanders to Watch.  

Kishore Kuchibhotla, Assistant Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences, received an NSF CAREER award. 

The Origin and Character of God: Ancient Israelite Religion through the Lens of Divinity by Theodore J. Lewis, Blum-Iwry Professor of Near Eastern Studies, received the 2021 Best Book Relating to the Hebrew Bible award from the Biblical Archaeology Society. 

MFA candidate Gabriella Fee and Dora Malech, Associate Professor, The Writing Seminars, won the Malinda A. Markham Translation Prize from Saturnalia Books for their co-translation of Giovanna Cristina Vivinetto’s debut collection, Dolore Minimo.  

The Spanish Disquiet: The Biblical Natural Philosophy of Benito Arias Montano by María M. Portuondo, Professor, History of Science and Technology, won the History of Science Society’s 2021 Pfizer Award.  

Brenda Rapp, Professor, Cognitive Science, was elected to the Society of Experimental Psychologists. 

Emily Riehl, Associate Professor, Mathematics, was named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. 

Shannon Robinson, Lecturer, The Writing Seminars, won an Independent Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council. 

Modernism and the Meaning of Corporate Persons by Lisa Siraganian, Associate Professor and J. R. Herbert Boone Chair in Humanities, Comparative Thought and Literature, won the Modern Language Association of America’s Matei Calinescu Prize and the Modernist Studies Association’s Book Prize.  

Danielle Speller, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, received a 2022 Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.  

Alexander S. Szalay, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Physics and Astronomy, with Kimmel Cancer Center’s Janis Taube received a 2021 Life Sciences Award at the Falling Walls Science Summit.  

Revolution in Development: Mexico and the Governance of the Global Economy by Christy Thornton, Assistant Professor, Sociology, won the 2022 Luciano Tomassini Latin American International Relations Book Award from the Latin American Studies Association and was selected as one of the Best Scholarly Books of 2021 by The Chronicle of Higher Education.