homenews | College of Science

Astronomers celebrate images decades in the making

July 10, 2025

Rubin Observatory Credit: H.Stockebrand

The observatory’s 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope can capture the largest field of view of any telescope currently in operation, covering the entirety of the night sky over the course of a few nights. It creates composite images approximately 70 times larger than the apparent size of the full moon. These images are 3,200-megapixel in resolution—more than 65x times more detailed than the latest iPhone.

For the U’s own astrophysics researchers, there is palpable excitement as they plan on utilizing the Rubin data for new research projects.

“We’ve all been preparing for this day, and it’s finally here! There’s already some cool science being done with just the First Look images; imagine what we can do with the full data set!” said Yao-Yuan Mao, assistant professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy.

Mao has been involved with the Rubin research community for more than a decade, most actively in the Dark Energy Science Collaboration. The operation of the Rubin Observatory represents the culmination of years of design and planning.

“I am particularly excited about how Rubin data will enable us to find some of the smallest galaxies in our neighborhood, helping us understand how galaxies form and grow throughout the cosmic time and even reveal the nature of dark matter,” added Mao.

In addition to the ability to capture gigantic still pictures, the Rubin Observatory can also record the movements in the cosmos. The Observatory had been designed from its inception to detect up to 90% of near-Earth asteroids, advance the study of how our solar system formed, and observe phenomena such as supernovae or tidal disruption events with greater ability.

“I’m really excited for Rubin and have been looking forward to it for many years. For me, the most exciting part of Rubin will be its ability to detect tidal disruption events, which happen when a star comes too close to a massive black hole and is torn apart by the black hole’s gravity,” said Anil Seth, professor of physics and astronomy. “We have previously detected about a hundred of these events, but Rubin is predicted to detect more than 10 new tidal disruption events each night. My PhD student Christian Hannah has been working on predicting how we can use these events to understand for the first time whether small galaxies still all have massive black holes at their centers. These observations will help us understand the currently not understood formation mechanisms of the massive black holes we find at the centers of galaxies.”

The observatory honors the legacy of Vera C. Rubin, whose pioneering research on galaxy rotation produced the first accepted evidence of dark matter’s existence. All-in-all, this marks the beginning of a new and exciting era of astrophysics research. The Rubin Observatory is planned to operate for at least ten years for its Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), producing hundreds of images and data for researchers and the general public.

The Rubin Observatory project was jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science.

by Ethan Hood
This story originally appeared in @ TheU

Great Salt Lake is worth saving

July 10, 2025

Brian Steed, left, and Taylor Randall. Photo credit: Jeff Bagley, University Marketing & Communications.

Millions of eared grebes visit Great Salt Lake to rest and refuel en route to their winter homes on the Pacific Coast each fall, along with 250 other bird species throughout the year. That’s about 10 million individual birds whose survival depends on the massive saline lake and its bounty of micro-organisms and tiny flies, and shrimp.

Each visiting grebe eats between 25,000 and 30,000 brine shrimp a day, according to John Luft, who runs the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources’ Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program.

“We’ve had as many as 5 million grebes on the lake in the fall, and they stay here September to December,” Luft told University of Utah officials last week during an airboat tour of Farmington Bay. You do the math to figure out how many shrimp these birds eat. It’s in the trillions.

That was one of the many curious facts about Utah’s vibrant, yet imperiled inland sea given to U administrators, including President Taylor Randall, on the tour. Led by Utah’s Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed, the trip was organized to update U leaders on the status of the lake and the progress of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team, a partnership between academic researchers and state officials investigating ways to reverse the lake’s alarming decline.

Earlier this year, the team presented a briefing and key recommendations to the Utah Legislature, identifying lake elevations needed to ensure the lake’s ecological health, 4,198 to 4,205 feet above sea level, and calling for changes to Utah water law to allow water conserved upstream to reach the lake via the Bear, Weber and Jordan rivers.

Universities’ role in saving the lake

“Higher education has an absolute role to play in setting the academic baseline knowledge as well as helping solve some of these wicked societal problems,” said Steed, who heads Utah State University’s Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water & Air. “This is as much a business problem as an agriculture problem, a marketing problem as it is anything else.”

On the tour, U officials heard from Luft, Ben Stireman of the Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, and other key officials with the Utah Department of Natural Resources, the state agency responsible for managing the 1,500-square-mile lake. About half the lakebed is currently dry, leaving pockets of loose sediments serving as sources of potentially hazardous dust blowing into Salt Lake and Davis County cities.

Two decades of drought and a century of upstream diversions have depleted the lake, lowering its level to a point that scientists believe will severely damage the ecosystems and industries that depend on it. Currently, 6 feet below what is considered its optimal zone, damage is already occurring. Three years ago, state officials began prioritizing the lake’s recovery, with large investments in conservation and water rights acquisitions.

The strike team came together at Randall’s urging soon after he was named U president in 2022. The goal was to join experts from Utah’s two public research universities with officials from key state agencies to investigate the lake’s challenges and identify the best solutions.

“It’s been just an incredible asset to the state, because there’s nothing better than the research universities combined with the state agencies when it comes to applied science and doing things,” said Natalie Gochnour, director of the U’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, which is providing staff support for strike team activities and publications.

The two schools have complemented one another for an effective partnership, she said.

“Utah State is the land-grant university; they have significant hydrological and agricultural expertise. Since approximately 70% of the water use in this state is agriculture, you have to have agricultural experts at the table,” she said. “At the U, we have expertise in climate and hydrology, as well, and we have expertise in dust.”

Meanwhile, Utah water officials have closely monitored stream flow and other hydrological data for more than a century, leaving an unparalleled historic record among Western states.

“We have such an extensive historical record on the lake,” Gochnour said. “It makes doing this science so much easier.”

U faculty active on the strike team are hydrologist Paul Brooks; forest biologist Bill Anderegg; geologist Bill Johnson; and atmospheric scientists John Lin and Courtenay Strong. Anderegg and Lin are founding directors of the U’s Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy. USU members include Steed, David Tarboton, Joanna Endter-Wada, Sarah Null, Bethany Nielson and Matt Yost.

How an EV stacks up against a gas car

July 9, 2025

Adrian Martino, left, and Logan Mitchell, right, present a research poster explaining the cost and emissions comparison tool. Photo courtesy of Logan Mitchell.

Any car buyer interested in electrical vehicles would want to know how much it costs to drive such a car compared with a similar gas-powered vehicle. Now there’s an app for that, and more.

While completing his graduate degree in the University of Utah’s Professional Science Master’s Program, data science student Adrian Martino developed a first-of-its-kind tool to enable Utah drivers to explore how certain EV models stack up against gasoline-powered vehicles when it comes to both the cost of driving and carbon dioxide emissions.

Developed in partnership with nonprofit Utah Clean Energy using localized information about Utah’s electrical grid and gas prices, the Cost & Emissions Comparison Tool offers an innovative and interactive way to compare vehicle models, emission scenarios, costs and payback of a new car purchase using real-world, Utah-specific data.

“What makes this tool uniquely powerful is the ability to toggle between different electricity grid scenarios,” Martino said. “Users can see how their vehicle emissions shift depending on the source of electricity powering an EV, as well as what their costs and payback will be using different sources of energy. Whether it’s today’s grid, a future cleaner grid or a coal-heavy scenario, the tool makes it easy to visualize the environmental impact of each.”

Funding came from the National Science Foundation’s Futures Engine in the Southwest program. The idea for the tool originated with Utah Clean Energy climate scientist Logan Mitchell, who couldn’t find time to pull it off and mentored Martino through the project.

“I’m hopeful that this is going to become a really useful tool that a lot of people can utilize, especially stakeholders, legislators, reporters,” said Mitchell, who is also a U research assistant professor of atmospheric sciences. “I’m hoping that as reporters are writing news articles, they can refer to this tool and actually improve their reporting and make sure it’s consistent with the best available information.”

Together, Martino and experts with Utah Clean Energy utilized public data from Rocky Mountain Power’s Integrated Resource Plan to project how emissions from electricity usage needed to fuel an EV compare with a gas car’s emissions. The result is a user-friendly platform that allows Utahns to easily plug in different scenarios to accurately compare emissions and costs side by side.

“One of the most common questions we get about going electric is, ‘What if an EV is powered by coal? Is it still better for the climate?’ This tool gives you a clear, data-driven answer,” said Kelbe Goupil, senior associate for electrification at Utah Clean Energy. “Choosing what car you drive is a big decision. This is an incredibly useful resource for anyone curious about whether or not they should make the switch to an electric vehicle.”

The new online tool allows users to:

Compare the fuel costs and payback periods of various EV and gas vehicle models.
Compare the emission impacts of various electric and gas vehicle models.
Customize your power source, including rooftop solar, Rocky Mountain Power’s current electricity mix, its actual forecasted future electricity mix or even a 100% coal or 100% renewable grid.

The transportation sector is the largest source of CO₂ emissions in the U.S., making electrifying vehicles a vital pathway to combat the climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels. One factor that this tool clearly illustrates is that emission benefits are compounded as the electricity grid gets cleaner. The new tool provides clarity about Utah’s electricity grid as well as future projections.

Top 100 List of Global Health Scientists

July 9, 2025

Savin is the Chief Scientific Officer at Redwire, a bioengineering company specializing in manufacturing protein crystals and human tissue in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station, in partnership with NASA and the ISS National Laboratory. Through these collaborations, he has helped expand access to low Earth orbit for researchers seeking to better understand the fundamentals of human biology in the absence of gravity, says the ISS Center for Advancement of Science in Space. Through these initiatives, scientists can utilize the benefits of near zero gravity in space to develop drugs that can be used to battle cancer and other diseases. Redwire says their breakthroughs “address challenges faced by millions of people worldwide through the application of organ transplantation and tissue therapy and advance the next generation of pharmaceutical therapies.”

“I am deeply honored to be recognized as one of the TIME100’s most influential figures in health for 2025,” says Savin. “Through microgravity research and development, we are seeing extraordinary scientific achievements that are accelerating game-changing biomedical breakthroughs not possible on Earth and with enormous potential for the future of human health. I am honored and proud to be part of the Redwire team and excited to see what we are able to accomplish next.”

Savin and his wife Lisa Wenzler Savin both received their Ph.D.s in Chemistry from the University of Utah in 1996 as members of Gary Keck and Thomas Beebe's labs, respectively. Lisa recently retired from pharmaceutical company Lilly, a “medicine company turning science into healing to make life better for people around the world.” She spent 14 years as a research and development scientist before serving as Associate Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs for 12 years. Kenneth also had a successful 20-year career at Lilly before spending time working as the Senior Director of In-Space Applications at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, before his appointment as Chief Scientific Officer at Redwire.

The Chemistry Department proudly congratulates the Savins on their exceptional contributions to the health and science industries.

College of Science Welcomes New Associate Deans

July 2, 2025

The College of Science welcomes Lauren Birgenheier as associate dean for faculty affairs, Akil Narayan as associate dean for undergraduate and graduate studies and Matthew S. Sigman as associate dean for research. Their appointments began July 1, 2025.

Lauren Birgenheier

Lauren Birgenheier earned a Ph.D. in Geoscience from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and completed postdoctoral work there and at the University of Utah before joining the faculty in 2010. She is a sedimentary geologist and geochemist whose research focuses on fluvial, marine and lacustrine systems with implications for energy development, critical mineral exploration, carbon storage and paleoclimate construction. Earlier this year, she received the Outstanding Faculty Research Award in her department. During the 2024-25 academic year, Birgenheier served as one of the inaugural Faculty Fellows in the College of Science. Prior to this role, she served as Associate Chair and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Geology & Geophysics.

Akil Narayan

Akil Narayan earned a Ph.D. from Brown University in Applied Mathematics in 2009. He held a postdoctoral appointment at Purdue University and subsequently joined the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth as an Assistant Professor in Mathematics in 2012. In 2015, he joined the U and is currently a professor in the Department of Mathematics and a member of the Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute. Narayan’s research focuses on numerical analysis and scientific computing. During the 2024-25 academic year, he served as one of the inaugural Faculty Fellows in the College of Science.

Matthew Sigman

Matthew Sigman, earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Washington State University and completed postdoctoral work at NeXstar Pharmaceuticals and Harvard University before joining the U as a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry. He is a physical organic chemist whose research program combines techniques from chemistry and data science to develop new reactions with broad applications, including enantioselective synthesis, energy-related topics and biologically inspired reactions. Earlier this year, he received the U’s Distinguished Mentor Award in recognition of his exceptional dedication to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. A Distinguished Professor in chemistry, Sigman currently holds the Peter J. Christine S. Stang Presidential Endowed Chair of Chemistry and served as chair of the Department of Chemistry from 2019 to 2024. In that role, his leadership was instrumental in maintaining departmental progress and stability through the pandemic.

Evolutionary Biologist, Boundary Pusher, Occasional Lab Hazard

July 1, 2025

Over a career spanning more than four decades, Carrier pushed the boundaries of what a biologist could ask, explore, or survive. From human fists to facial hair, from panting pronghorns to defrosting wolves, his curiosity led him everywhere—including the pages of Science, the airwaves of "This American Life," and the stage of the Ig Nobel Prizes.

Running Down an Idea — Literally

"In the summer of [1984] my brother and I go to Wyoming to try to run down an antelope. The idea is not to run faster than the antelope — only cheetahs can run faster than pronghorn antelope — but to run longer and farther in the heat of the day. My brother think it'll take about two hours, and then the antelope will overheat and collapse. We drive off the interstate and down a dirt road for a few miles... ."

One of Carrier’s earliest big ideas was that humans evolved to be endurance runners. Not sprinters, like cheetahs—but marathoners. His “Running Man” hypothesis suggested that early humans could chase prey over long distances until the animals collapsed from heat exhaustion, thanks to human adaptations like sweating, upright posture, and a springy gait. Running is "one of the reasons we top the food chain. Before supermarkets and food processors, before rifles and four-wheel-drives, we used to outrun our food, ”persistence hunting," Carrier called it.

The Running Man hypothesis, published in 1984, was met with skepticism from the scientific community, and from his own Ph.D. advisor, Dennis Bramble. So Carrier did what any committed scientist would: he tried it himself. He and his brother Scott Carrier (a journalist and radio producer) decided to chase pronghorn antelope across the plains of Wyoming — on foot.

Listen to 'Running After Antelope,' on 'This American Life" here.

The Wyoming Department of Natural Resources politely declined their request for permission. So, naturally, they did it anyway. The pronghorns were unbothered. The Carriers were exhausted. But the story lived on, later aired on This American Life, and eventually helped usher in a renaissance of interest in human endurance running and persistence hunting. The Running Man had arrived. Today, the "Running Man" hypothesis is cited in numerous anthropology texts and inspired a chapter in the 2009 bestseller, "Born to Run," by Christopher McDougal.

Punch First, Publish Later

Later in his career, Carrier turned his attention to a different kind of movement: punching. He began asking whether the human hand evolved to form a fist for striking—something no other primate can do.

To test the theory, Carrier’s lab designed experiments using cadaver arms to measure the forces involved in punching versus slapping. But this wasn’t just a theoretical exercise. At one point, a student — experienced in mixed martial arts —punched Carrier in the face. Repeatedly. For science. In a now-legendary twist, Carrier wore glasses during the test, banking on the unwritten rule: you don’t hit a guy wearing glasses. It didn’t help.

Then came the facial hair question: could beards protect the jaw in combat? Using wooly samples on a test rig, Carrier and colleagues found that bearded “faces” absorbed more impact than bare ones. The findings earned him the 2021 Ig Nobel Peace Prize for biology — a satirical award that honors science that “makes people laugh, then think."

Carrier’s Ig Nobel lecture, appropriately titled “Beards and Face Punching,” has since become a cult classic among fans of creative science. View lecture video here.

'David is the only PI I know who would get punched by a student, grow a beard for data, and still offer to take you out for a coffee after.' ~Jeremy Morris, former Ph.D. student

Click the photo below to watch the RadioWest video of "Made to Fight."
viewer discretion is advised

David Carrier is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Utah. He co-authored a paper that argued the human fist evolved for fighting. He and his team were caught off guard by the controversy it generated.

The Human Treadmill (and Other Lab Hazards)

The Carrier Lab was notorious — in the best possible way — for its experimental zeal. Students were frequently found running on treadmills, not metaphorically, but literally, in studies examining biomechanics and locomotion. Countless shelter dogs found new homes with biology faculty and students after getting fit by participating in running experiments. Other projects involved sudden impacts, high-speed video, and a now-infamous freezer failure that involved defrosting wolf carcasses.

But Carrier wasn’t just eccentric — he was an exceptional mentor. Students came out of his lab sharper, bolder and occasionally bruised, but always inspired. His work combined evolutionary theory with experimental rigor and a sense of humor that kept even the most skeptical audiences paying attention.

A Career that Made an Impact—Literally

Carrier’s research touched on everything from breathing patterns in locomotion, to the mechanics of head injuries in football, to the evolutionary role of human aggression. His contributions have shaped how we understand the design and function of the human body — whether sprinting across a plain or bracing for a hit.

Now, as his scientific career draws to a conclusion , one question lingers: who else would get punched in the face to prove a point? Who would grow a beard for science? Who would literally run after antelope to test a hypothesis?

The answer is no one. And that’s the problem with being incomparable.

David Carrier retires with an “Ig Nobel" and leaves behind a legacy that’s equal parts unconventional, bold, and brilliant. His experiments will be cited, his stories retold, and his impact felt — in academic journals, in student memories and maybe even in the next punchy evolutionary theory.

Spectrum 2024

June 26, 2025

From Toxin to Tonic

June 26, 2025

Quite possibly, according to a University of Utah-led international research team. The team identified a substance in the venom of a predatory marine cone snail that mimics somatostatin—a human hormone that regulates blood sugar and hormone levels. The very traits that make it lethal in the ocean could help scientists engineer safer, more effective therapies for serious conditions.

Baldomero "Toto" Olivera

“Venomous animals have, through evolution, fine-tuned venom components to hit a particular target in the prey and disrupt it,” says Helena Safavi, associate professor of biochemistry and senior author on the study. Studying how the component affects normal pathways provides “a bit of a shortcut” for medicinal chemists, she notes.

Somatostatin acts as a biological brake pedal, regulating blood sugar and hormone levels. The cone snail toxin consomatin mimics this effect—but with a crucial difference. Researchers found that unlike somatostatin, which interacts with multiple proteins, consomatin homes in on a single target.

In fact, the cone snail toxin is more precisely targeted than the most specific synthetic drugs designed to regulate hormone levels. Consomatin’s effects on blood sugar could make direct therapeutic use risky for people with diabetes, but by studying its structure, researchers could design drugs for endocrine disorders that have fewer side effects. Plus, consomatin contains an unusual amino acid that prevents it from breaking down quickly, offering potential for long-lasting treatments.

For over 50 years, the U has been a hot spot for research into snail venom’s pharmacological properties. The legacy began when renowned cone snail scientist Baldomero Olivera arrived in Utah in 1970 from his native Philippines. Olivera and other faculty from the U’s School of Biological Sciences, including Samuel Espino, contributed to the recent study, which was conducted in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen.

A Goblin prince among dinosaurs

June 25, 2025

Named for the goblin prince from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” the new species Bolg amondol also illuminates the sometimes-murky path that life traveled between ancient continents.

“I opened this jar of bones labeled ‘lizard’ at the Natural History Museum of Utah, and was like, oh wow, there’s a fragmentary skeleton here,” said lead author Hank Woolley from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s Dinosaur Institute. “We know very little about large-bodied lizards from the Kaiparowits Formation in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, so I knew this was significant right away.”

Published on June 17, 2025, in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the collaborative research led by the Dinosaur Institute and the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) reveals hidden treasures awaiting future paleontologists in the bowels of museum fossil collections, and the vast potential of paleontological heritage preserved in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and other public lands.

“Discovering a new species of lizard that is an ancestor of modern Gila monsters is pretty cool in and of itself, but what’s particularly exciting is what it tells us about the unique 76-million-year-old ecosystem it lived in,” said co-author Randy Irmis, associate professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah and curator of paleontology at NHMU. “The fact that Bolg co-existed with several other large lizard species indicates that this was a stable and productive ecosystem where these animals were taking advantage of a wide variety of prey and different micro-habitats.”

A Middle Earth-inspired moniker

Bolg represents an evolutionary lineage that sprouted within a group of large-bodied lizards called monstersaurs, which still roam the deserts from which Bolg was recovered. Woolley knew that a new species of monstersaur called for an appropriate name from an iconic monster creator, Tolkien.

“Bolg is a great sounding name. It’s a goblin prince from ‘The Hobbit,’ and I think of these lizards as goblin-like, especially looking at their skulls,” said Woolley. He used the fictional Tolkien Elvish language Sindarin to craft the species epithet. “Amon” means “mound,” and “dol” means “head,” a reference to the mound-like osteoderms found on Bolg’s and other monstersaur’s skulls. “Mound-headed Bolg” would fit right in with the goblins—and it’s revealing quite a bit about monstersaurs.

Hidden gems in collection drawers

The Bolg amondol discovery highlights the likelihood that more large-bodied lizards existed during the Late Cretaceous Period than previously thought. Bolg, along with other fossils from the Kaiparowits Formation, demonstrates that at least three types of predatory lizards lived in the Late Cretaceous sub-tropical floodplains of what is now Southern Utah. Additionally, this finding shows that unexplored diversity is waiting to be dug up both in the field and in paleontology collections.

“Bolg is a great example of the importance of natural history museum collections,” Irmis said. “Although we knew the specimen was significant when it was discovered back in 2005, it took a specialist in lizard evolution like Hank to truly recognize its scientific importance and take on the task of researching and scientifically describing this new species.”The researchers identified the new species from tiny pieces of skull, limbs, girdles, vertebrae and bony armor called osteoderms. Most fossil lizards from the age of dinosaurs are even scrappier—often just single, isolated bones or teeth—so despite their fragmentary nature, the parts of Bolg’s skeleton that survived contain a stunning amount of information.

“That means more characteristics are available for us to assess and compare to similar-looking lizards. Importantly, we can use those characteristics to understand this animal’s evolutionary relationships and test hypotheses about where it fits on the lizard tree of life,” Woolley said.

New Chair of Chemistry

June 24, 2025

She brings with her a unique blend of computational expertise, interdisciplinary leadership experience and a deep commitment to protecting scientific innovation during challenging times.

Clark, who joined the university three years ago from Washington State University, brings extensive administrative experience to her new role. "I've had roles that are adjacent to being a chair, and am excited to expand upon those experiences," she explains, referencing her previous positions as director an interdisciplinary materials science and engineering Ph.D. program and of a high-performance computing center. Most recently, she helped establish the Joint Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology between Pacific Northwest National Lab and Washington State University, creating formal pathways for student internships and collaborative funding opportunities.

‘A couple fires and one explosion’

Clark's journey to becoming a leading computational chemist began in an unlikely place — the mountains of north central Washington, where "the nearest hospital was an hour and a half away." Raised by a mother who was a spinner, weaver, and natural fiber artist, Clark jokes, "My mom was a dye chemist, but she would deny that vehemently, saying that natural dyes are magic.”

This unconventional upbringing proved formative. "I think that background inspired a lot of creative thought and curiosity, where exploring fields and mountains was encouraged 100%." says Clark.

Her path toward computational work was, in part, propelled by a series of memorable laboratory mishaps. As an undergraduate at Central Washington University, Clark started in synthetic organic chemistry, working behind blast shields with explosive molecules. "I had a couple fires and one explosion, and we decided that maybe I wasn't a good synthetic organic chemist," she recalls with a laugh. A summer research experience at the University of Southern California reinforced this message when she accidentally condensed oxygen in a vacuum line, creating dangerously explosive frozen oxygen. "After that, the postdoc mentoring me let me tune laser optics, but was clear on, ‘we're not gonna let you do experiments.' So really, the universe told me, in many, many ways, that my love of chemistry had to be manifested using computers."

Allaying separation anxieties

Today, Clark leads groundbreaking research in chemical separations of critical minerals and nuclear materials — work that addresses some of society's most pressing challenges. Her focus centers on rare earth elements, which are essential for everything from high-strength magnets to electronics but notoriously difficult to separate from one another.

"The 15 lanthanide elements that make up most critical materials have similar chemical reactivity and often occur in mixtures with each other," Clark explains. "However, the differences in the way their electrons are arranged leads to important uses as high-field magnets in electronics or as qubits in quantum computers. Separating one lanthanide element from others, or from complex mixtures that like E-waste, is notoriously challenging."

Her research tackles this challenge by using computational modeling and simulation to understand the fundamental mechanisms and energetic driving forces that cause a successful separations process – also called “demixing.” What sets Clark's work apart is her innovative approach to data analysis. "One impactful innovation in my group lies within the applied mathematics and data science tools that we use to analyze simulation data, to identify patterns in the cooperative motion of molecules that leads to successful separation. Her team develops "physics informed data analysis and data science" tools that are specifically adapted for the high dimensional and time dependent data found in chemical processes, rather than applying generic analytical approaches.

Modeling chemical processes on a computer provides crucial molecular-level insights that are often impossible to obtain experimentally. "Within a simulation, you can sample every single reaction that occurs, whether there are competitive processes, and learn how the conditions bias one reaction over another," Clark explains. Such modeling can be particularly valuable when studying radioactive materials, allowing researchers to use computers to "decrease the number of experiments that need to be done and increase the safety of experimental scientists."

Innovation first

As Clark prepares to assume the role of chair, she brings a thoughtful approach to balancing research excellence with administrative responsibilities. Her lab management philosophy emphasizes infrastructure and mentorship: "All of our group meetings are recorded, we have a group Wiki, tutorials, and clear lines of communication between group members. I have been able to recruit fantastic students, postdocs and a Research Professor, since joining the U, and we have created a strong collaborative and mentoring environment.”

Beyond managing her own research, Clark sees her time as chair as an opportunity to protect the broader scientific enterprise during uncertain times. "It is my job to support faculty who are feeling existential pressure to their research programs, to create an infrastructure that safeguards the incredible science that's being done in our department and ensure the training and education of the next generation of scientists and citizens," she states.

In the current climate, when U researchers are being asked to shorten gestation times of research and move towards applications and commercializing quicker, Clark advocates for recognizing the full spectrum of scientific impact, noting that "innovation in science can be unpredictable, where unexpected insight and serendipity can require knowledge and an interdisciplinary perspective that is learned on the decade timescale. Commercialization based on short-term wins can be necessary, but without longer-term intellectual investment is unsustainable.”

Clark's leadership approach is grounded in the same values that shaped her rural upbringing: curiosity, bravery, and resilience. "There's a lot of bravery involved in being a scientist, we constantly put ourselves out there to learn new things, to be evaluated and have dialogue about our ideas,” she observes. "This is an essential part of what we teach our Ph.D. students - to be fearless in the face of the unknown."

As she steps into her new role, Aurora Clark brings both the technical expertise to advance cutting-edge research and the philosophical framework to nurture the next generation of scientists in an increasingly complex world.

By David Pace

Astronomers celebrate images decades in the making

On June 23 the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located in Cerro Pachón, Chile, presented its inaugural data release of images that will drive a new generation of astrophysics research. It features first-of-its-kind technology, and the largest digital camera ever manufactured.

Great Salt Lake is worth saving

U scientists are helping guide Utah's Great Salt Lake Strike Team, formed three years ago at the urging of U President Taylor Randall.

Universities’ role in saving the lake

How an EV stacks up against a gas car

U student Adrian Martino partners with Utah Clean Energy to develop handy online tool that compares long-term costs of driving and CO2 missions of EVs versus similar internal combustion models.

Top 100 List of Global Health Scientists

Chemistry alumnus Kenneth Savin has been recognized in TIME100 Health, a list of the 100 most influential people in global health. The prestigious list annually recognizes individuals making groundbreaking contributions to the future of health and medicine.

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE WELCOMES NEW ASSOCIATE DEANS

Lauren Birgenheier, Akil Narayan and Matthew S. Sigman are tapped as associate deans by Interim Dean Pearl Sandick

Biologist David Carrier Retires

An evolutionary biologist, boundary pusher and occasional lab hazard, Dave Carrier didn't just study evolution. He tested it — on himself, on treadmills, and sometimes in the ring.