Higher education reduces recidivism rates by as much as half. Yet only a small fraction of U.S. prisoners have access to such programs. In fall 2014, University College in Arts & Sciences launched the Prison Education Project, a three-year pilot program supported by a grant from the Bard Prison Initiative. Barbara Baumgartner, PhD, is among the instructors.

Kater Murch, PhD, assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, has been awarded a 2015 Sloan Research Fellowship. He is among 126 outstanding U.S. and Canadian researchers selected this year. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation gives fellowships to early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars, the next generation of scientific leaders.

An investigational drug appears to cut the risk of severe asthma attacks in half for patients who have difficulty controlling the disorder with standard medications, according to results from two multicenter clinical trials. The principal investigator is Mario Castro, MD, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the School of Medicine.