Science & Technology

Jeffrey Catalano, professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, received a three-year Department of Energy grant to support research on elements and minerals essential for the production of electric vehicles, cellphones and computers.

Using computer simulations and a simple theoretical model, physicist Mikhail Tikhonov in Arts & Sciences showed how bacteria could adapt to a fluctuating environment by learning its statistical regularities — for example, which nutrients tend to be correlated — and do so faster than evolutionary trial-and-error would normally allow.

New research from physicists in Arts & Sciences reveals that neurons in the visual cortex — the part of the brain that processes visual stimuli — respond differently to the same kind of stimulus over time.

Understanding how a cell commits resources to building new parts — and eventually divides into two cells — is the focus of a new grant for Shankar Mukherji, assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences. The research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Michael J. Krawczynski, assistant professor in Arts & Sciences, received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to research the evolution of super-hydrous magmas in the Earth’s crust. Krawczynski will explore how volcanoes work, especially how water affects the evolution of volcanoes and their behavior.

Li Yang, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, received a three-year $375,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for a project titled “Doping Effects on Excited-State Properties of Two-Dimensional Moiré Crystals.”

The remains of microscopic plankton blooms in near-shore ocean environments slowly sink to the seafloor, setting off processes that forever alter an important record of Earth’s history, according to research from geoscientists, including David Fike in Arts & Sciences.

With NASA’s latest balloon technology, Johanna Nagy in Arts & Sciences is looking 13 billion years into the past, using the oldest light in the universe, to precisely measure the polarization of the microwave sky.

Brian Rauch, research assistant professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, co-authored a study in Physical Review Letters that suggests that certain cosmic rays move through the galaxy differently. The research addresses fundamental questions about how matter is generated and distributed across the universe.

James H. Buckley, professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, received a $4.9 million award from NASA to build a demonstration version of a large satellite experiment for gamma-ray astronomy research. Washington University leads the entire effort to develop the instrument, which is planned to launch on a scientific balloon in 2024.