Biology
Alumni Spotlight: Randy Rasmussen
Many of today’s most successful companies were created by groups of friends: Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started HP in a garage in Palo Alto; Microsoft was cofounded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, childhood friends from Lakewood, Washington; and Google established by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, part of the same Ph.D. cohort at Stanford.
Chemistry
Faculty Spotlight: Shelley Minteer
Shelley Minteer, a USTAR Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering, is flipping the switch on ammonia production. She recently published a new process to make ammonia – a valuable chemical and widely used fertilizer – in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
Mathematics
Faculty Spotlight: Davar Khoshnevisan
Davar Khoshnevisan, a Professor of Mathematics, was recently appointed as the Department Chair for Mathematics at the U. He started a three-year term on July 1, 2017. “I am honored to serve as Department Chair,” says Khoshnevisan. “We have a world-class faculty, an amazing staff, not to mention fantastic graduate students, visitors, and post docs. It will be a pleasure to work more closely with them toward our many common goals.”
Physics & Astronomy
Faculty Spotlight: Shanti Deemyad
Shanti Deemyad, an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy, recently helped solve a long-standing mystery about lithium, the first element in the periodic table that is metallic at ambient conditions. Lithium, which is a key element in electronics and battery technology, has played an important role in the development of modern condensed matter theories. The crystal structure of materials at zero pressure and temperature is one of their most basic properties. Until now, it was thought that a complex arrangement of lithium atoms, observed during cooling in the laboratory, was its lowest energy state. But the idea baffled theoretical physicists since lithium has only three electrons and therefore should have a simple atomic structure.