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A person in blue protective gear fiddles with something inside the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The preamplifier support structure at the National Ignition Facility, just one part of the stadium-sized laser that Alison Saunders ’11 (see below) uses for her experimental physics work.

Discovery’s Edge

½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï scientists revolutionize our understanding of land, sea, space, and the human body.

December 5, 2024

Scale is everything. Some mysteries require us to look up, toward the cosmos. Others demand we look down, into microscopic worlds. Still others ask us to look around—at our changing forests, warming oceans, and dynamic bodies. The scientists featured here pursue understanding across these vast scales, finding unexpected connections between the very large and very small. Their work reveals how tree canopies, ocean spray, black holes, and brain cells alike help tell the story of our universe and our place within it.

 

Land

Climbing to a New World

Could old-growth forest canopies hold the secret to keeping biodiversity, and our planet, intact? Botanist Steve Sillett ’89 has been researching up in the trees to find out.
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Ghost Trees

½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï biology students have been scouring the Portland area for hybrid oak trees. Their journey could reshape the way we see our ecosystem.
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Sea

In the Classroom and Out at Sea

Susan Rickards ’90 is a science teacher by day and a marine mammal researcher in any spare moment.
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What Aerosols Can Tell Us About Climate

Trish Quinn ’82 examines sea spray, dust, and pollutants in our atmosphere to better understand their climate effects.
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The Polar Pundit

Professor, public servant, and polar expert Kelly Falkner ’83 has a lot to show for her 40-year science career, including her very own Antarctic glacier.
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Space

Shoot for the Star

Craig DeForest ’89 is leading NASA’s PUNCH mission to make 3-D observations of an underexplored region of space: the sun and its atmosphere.
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Zooming Out: The Cosmic Web

Farhan Hasan ’18 wants to untangle the mysteries of the distant universe.
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Vantage Point

To see a black hole, Shep Doeleman ’86 needed a telescope the size of a planet. So he built one.
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Zooming In: Stringing It All Together

Naomi Gendler ’16 is on her way to finding the most fundamental explanation of our universe.
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½ñÈÕ³Ô¹Ï Legends at Los Alamos

Mark Galassi ’87 and Tess Light ’91 are on the frontlines of nuclear nonproliferation.
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Laser Focused

Alison Saunders ’11 has the biggest laser in the world and a dream: to understand what occurs in the cores of planets and stars.
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Body

The Miracle Worker

Dr. Kevan Shokat ’86 isn’t just curing lung cancer. He’s reshaping the way scientists conquer disease.
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Our Plastic-Stable Brains

Gina Turrigiano ’84 revolutionizes neuroscience with her research on brain plasticity.
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Precision Pointe

With the discipline of a ballerina, Rachel Klevit ’78 investigates the proteins implicated in disease.
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On the Future of Medicine

Roger Perlmutter ‘73 transforms scientific questions into lifesaving treatments.
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Tags: Alumni, Climate, Sustainability, Environmental, Research