WINTER 2017-18 COLUMBIA MAGAZINE

COLUMBIAMAGAZINE

WINTER 2017-18 Exploring cool new worlds beyond our solar system

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Since 1901, the Columbia University Club of New York has been a social, intellectual, cultural, recreational, and professional center of activity for alumni of the eighteen schools and divisions of Columbia University, Barnard College, Teachers College, and affiliate schools.

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PAGE 28 CONTENTS

FEATURES 14 BRAVE NEW WORLDS By Bill Retherford ’14JRN Columbia astronomers are going beyond our solar system to understand exoplanets, fi nd exomoons, and explore all sorts of surreal estate

22 NURSES FIRST By Paul Hond How three women in New York are improving health care in Liberia with one simple but e ective strategy

28 JOIN THE CLUB LETTER HEAD By Paul Hond Scrabble prodigy Mack Meller Since 1901, the Columbia University Club of minds his Ps and Qs, catches a few Zs, and is never at a loss for words New York has been a social, intellectual, cultural, recreational, and professional center of activity for 32 CONFESSIONS alumni of the eighteen schools and divisions of OF A RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY Columbia University, Barnard College, By Phillip Lopate ’64CC Teachers College, and affiliate schools. During the campus protests of 1968, the author joined an alumni group supporting the student radicals ENGAGE IN THE LEGACY OF ALUMNI FELLOWSHIP 38 FARSIGHTED FORECASTS By David J. Craig BECOME A MEMBER TODAY A Q&A with Lisa Goddard on predicting and managing the

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Columbia Mag_Nov_2017_final.indd 1 11/2/17 12:46 PM 4.17_Contents_FINAL.indd 2 11/15/17 3:13 PM COLUMBIA CONTENTS MAGAZINE DEPARTMENTS

3 Executive Vice President, FEEDBACK University Development & Alumni Relations Amelia Alverson

8 Deputy Vice President for Strategic Communications Jerry Kisslinger ’79CC, ’82GSAS COLLEGE WALK Liberté, Égalité, Sexualité \ The Short List \ The Thrill of Victory \ Depth of Field \ Editor in Chief Babylon Revisited \ Speech Therapy Sally Lee

Art Director 42 Jeffrey Saks

EXPLORATIONS Managing Editor Alaska at risk for massive tsunami, study Rebecca Shapiro fi nds \ Socializing with the Kremlin \ Data PAGE 22 Senior Editors reveals X factor in pop hits \ Cartographers David J. Craig, Paul Hond to the rescue \ Flying the eco-friendly skies \ Copy Chief A skin patch that dissolves love handles \ Joshua J. Friedman ’08JRN The Alternative Apple \ Study Hall Assistant to the Editor Julia Joy

48 Editorial Assistant NETWORK Catherine Elizabeth Hernandez State of the Art \ From Light Blue to Green \ New Business in an Ancient Land \ Scholarship Honors Kim Wall \ Senior Director for Strategic Communications Tracy Quinn ’14SPS Attention Shoppers \ Ask an Alum \ Amok in the Art House \ Newsmakers Director of Digital Strategy Gwynne Gauntlett

54 PAGE Director for Marketing Research 55 Linda Ury Greenberg BULLETIN University news and views Content Producer Carolina Castro

58 BOOKS Greater Gotham, by Mike Wallace \ Subscriptions: Address and archive assistance Nomadland, by Jessica Bruder \ The King Is [email protected] Always Above the People, by Daniel Alarcón \ 212-851-4155

The Girl of the Lake, by Bill Roorbach \ To update your address online, visit Plus, Thomas J. Brennan discusses alumni.columbia.edu/directory, FROM TOP: JÖRG MEYER, SHÌFAAN THOWFEEQU, FRANCESCO FIONDELLA Shooting Ghosts or call 1-877-854-ALUM (2586). Advertising: 212-851-4155 64 [email protected] FINALS Letters to the editor: Ready for Our Close-up [email protected] PAGE 38 Columbia Magazine is published for alumni and friends of Columbia by the FOLLOW US Offi ce of Alumni and Development. © 2017 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York

/ColumbiaMag @columbiamag COVER: NASA / JPL-CALTECH

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4.17_Contents_FINAL.indd 3 11/15/17 3:13 PM FEEDBACK

top tweets

Greg Cannon ’97JRN @GregCan Really impressed with @columbiamag redesign. Great, fresh presentation worthy of consistently DAVID TRUMAN’S to his presentations. His time told me, “Dan, you’re a quality content LEGACY standards were high. (When nice guy, but come the revolu- Your article about David B. I complained about a B+ tion, we’ll line people like you Emily Taussig Truman brings back memo- grade at the end of the 1952 up against the wall and shoot @trimbling ries of him as the outstanding fall semester, he responded them.” Needless to say, not Thank you for your scholar I knew sixty-fi ve years amiably but fi rmly that he all, or even a majority, of the excellent coverage of ago (“A Provost’s Refl ections,” did not believe anyone in the protesters thought this way, Justice Gorsuch and College Walk, Fall 2017). class merited an A and had but some did, and they hoped Lindsay Stark’s research, The fi rst thing Truman did graded accordingly.) to take the lead. The Weath- since diversity enhances while teaching Government I was in Czechoslovakia in ermen, who did turn violent, endurance. 19–20, on American parties 1968 watching an e ort to had in their ranks some of and politics, was to fl ing open restore limited freedom there Columbia’s student leaders. I Brendan Donley ’15CC the windows, whatever the until the Russians decided thought even then, as a rather @BrenJDonley temperature outside, to dispel otherwise. I could not judge naive graduate student, that Nice piece on Neil Gorsuch the blinding and malodorous from afar events at Columbia the ad hoc faculty group had in the @columbiamag pall left by smokers awaiting then, but recalling Truman’s too many unthoughtful mem- his lecture. Fresh air was a strength of character and bers who did not understand Joey Wahler hallmark of Truman’s ap- sense of purpose, I viewed that what was going on was @JoeyWahler proach to education and life. and still view the outcome as really an assault against aca- Best piece I’ve seen When I met him, he was a huge loss for Columbia and demic freedom. done on Gary Cohen by new to teaching, but he had an unmerited blow to a life These days, when the values @columbiamag much practical experience in full of promise. we should hold onto are being World War II and afterward Kenneth N. Skoug Jr. ’53CC relentlessly attacked from a that marked him for pro- Harleysville, PA right that is far more danger- bity and realism. He could ous than the deluded left ever analyze expertly and with David Truman was perfectly was, we should remember notable fairness the strengths right to understand that there that whether attacks come and failings of those engaged was a radical core of students from the radical left or the in the turbulence of a presi- that not only wanted to bring radical right, the old-fash- dential election year (1952) in down the University, but ioned liberal, Enlightenment which the head of Columbia really thought (however fool- vision of academic freedom University was a candidate. ish this may now sound) that needs to be defended, even if He was scrupulously hon- this could be the beginning that makes us unpopular. est and restrained in dealing of a general revolution. One Dan Chirot ’73GSAS with inevitable challenges of the radical students at the Seattle, WA

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4.17_Letters_FINAL.indd 3 11/14/17 9:41 AM FEEDBACK At the time of the events many students were very apologize. It is not too late for announced that there would theory of evolution. I was put in mind of 1968, I was several years upset with the University’s Columbia, if not Mr. Truman, be no action taken on any of that in reading your sycophantic an alumnus but living on actions about the gym and its to admit a mistake and apol- nominee put forward by Pres- profile of Neil Gorsuch. Consider the West 114th Street, in the work with the Institute for ogize. I’ve been waiting for ident Obama. Sure enough, many justices connected to Columbia: privately owned apart- Defense Analyses (IDA). almost fifty years. Merrick Garland’s appoint- Jay, Cardozo, Stone, Douglas, Ginsburg ment building adjacent to Maybe I was one of those Michael Jacoby ment was shelved for nearly . . . and Gorsuch! What an accomplish- the Columbia-owned one “hard-core radicals” — what- Brown ’69CC a year, in blatant violation of ment — to have usurped a seat on the occupied on May 18. Thus, ever that means. I was one Arlington, MA the Senate’s constitutional Supreme Court by an appointment I was present when David of the thousands of obligation to give their from a man like Donald Trump through Truman was approached by students who supported the COURT OF APPEALS “advice and consent.” Judge the cynical machinations of a man like a delegation demanding to occupation of April 1968 Thank you so much for your Garland is the most decent Mitch McConnell. Whatever his other know why WKCR had been and was beaten and arrested fawning fluff piece on Justice of men, with great intellect, virtues, Gorsuch is apparently lacking ordered off the air. He was for my actions. We opposed Gorsuch, which appears to charm, wit, and integrity. The one of significance: self-respect. clearly startled to learn this the racist gym (in a public have been ghostwritten by same cannot be said for Gor- Leslie T. Jones ’59CC and promptly said it should park, with separate and him (“The Education of Neil such, who gladly served as an Las Vegas, NV resume broadcasts. He was unequal entrances for Blacks Gorsuch,” Fall 2017). His accessory after the fact in the not the bad guy of the events, in Harlem and the mostly expected role in overturning theft of a Supreme Court seat. I enjoyed reading your recent article regardless of how he may white Columbia students on Roe v. Wade, giving free rein Mark S. Brodin on Justice Gorsuch. It was interesting have interpreted or misinter- Morningside Heights). We to business interests, limiting ’69CC, ’72LAW to know that he wasn’t a nerd who preted motivations. opposed the University’s worker rights and civil rights, Newton, MA studied all the time or this super-being But I was also present when heavy involvement with the eviscerating environmental who always did the right thing. He was twenty trench-coated men IDA and its support of the and financial regulations, How comforting it is to know “a typical college student: he studied, holding clubs rushed by me Vietnam War, now widely demolishing the wall between that when Justice Gorsuch dated, and hung out.” He was opinion- to a ground-level entrance to discredited as a horrible church and state, and enhanc- erodes the division between ated, but he always wanted open and Low Library’s basement. One waste of millions of lives. ing the power of the current church and state, further fair debate. And he had a polite and flourished his club in the air But I did not want to embarrassing occupant of the restricts women’s reproduc- gracious demeanor, a quality so rare in and brought it down with full destroy the University. After White House will be so much tive rights, and imposes his the current political environment. The force on the head of one of my not-so-great high-school more palatable knowing that reactionary, homophobic highlight of the article was his answer the faculty guarding that en- years, I loved the learning I he is such a nice guy. views on the country, he’ll be to the question of why he would come trance. The remaining faculty found at Columbia. David Hershey-Webb ’83CC nice about it. to Columbia University, where all these linked arms and kept all but Truman wrote: “I still New York, NY Susan D. Einbinder liberal students seemed so frivolous to six from the building. One of regret that it was necessary ’85BC, ’95SW him. “If I surrounded myself with like- the faculty asked me to notify to involve police . . . But I do ​I am sure I am not alone in Santa Monica, CA minded students,” he said, “I wouldn’t others of what had happened. not see, even after more than reading the puff piece on Neil get stronger.” The courage and the confi- The person who called in twenty years . . . any reason- Gorsuch with great dismay. Henry Adams famously dence he displayed is inspiring. the police, whether Truman, able alternative that in the Within hours of Justice wrote that the succession of Tang Di ’05SIPA Grayson Kirk, or another, was circumstances was available Antonin Scalia’s death in presidents from Washing- Sleepy Hollow, NY apparently totally naive about to us.” That is sad. When I February 2016, Senate Major- ton to Grant was sufficient the personalities, activities, or make a mistake, I say so and ity Leader Mitch McConnell to disprove the Darwinian MAN IN THE BOOTH motives of the NYPD. They I so enjoyed your feature on Mets resented everyone at Colum- announcer Gary Cohen (“Outta Here!,” KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS bia — administration, faculty, Fall 2017). Speaking as a historian who CODE SCHOOL CODE SCHOOL students — as being from a is researching the history of baseball BC Barnard College NRS School of Nursing social stratum they regard- BUS Graduate School of Business OPT School of Optometry broadcasting, I have no doubt that ed as overly privileged and CC Columbia College PH Mailman School of Public Health Cohen will be ranked among the greats. DM College of Dental Medicine PHRM School of Pharmaceutical Sciences under-appreciative. GS School of General Studies PS College of Physicians and Surgeons But your references to Bob Murphy as Thomas Hamilton ’60CC GSAPP  Graduate School of Architecture, SEAS  Fu Foundation School of Engineering and the longtime voice of the Mets ignores Staten Island, NY Planning, and Preservation Applied Science a couple of the other voices of Cohen’s GSAS  Graduate School of Arts and Sciences SIPA School of International and Public Affairs HON (Honorary degree) SOA School of the Arts childhood: Ralph Kiner, who broadcast I recall that as a Columbia JRN Graduate School of Journalism SPS School of Professional Studies for the team for fifty years, and Lindsey JTS Jewish Theological Seminary SW School of Social Work junior, a few months before KC King’s College TC Teachers College Nelson. The three of them were base- the occupation, I went to LAW School of Law UTS Union Theological Seminary ball’s longest-tenured broadcasting trio, warn David Truman that LS School of Library Service working together for seventeen years.

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4.17_Letters_FINAL.indd 4 11/14/17 9:41 AM announced that there would theory of evolution. I was put in mind As a beginning Columbia PhD stu- New from be no action taken on any of that in reading your sycophantic dent in 1989, I got to hear Cohen’s first nominee put forward by Pres- profile of Neil Gorsuch. Consider the broadcast as a full-time Mets announcer Columbia University Press ident Obama. Sure enough, many justices connected to Columbia: — including his pregame interview Merrick Garland’s appoint- Jay, Cardozo, Stone, Douglas, Ginsburg on WFAN in which he talked about ment was shelved for nearly . . . and Gorsuch! What an accomplish- broadcasting for WKCR — and I was a year, in blatant violation of ment — to have usurped a seat on the impressed with him from the outset. the Senate’s constitutional Supreme Court by an appointment The article didn’t say much about his obligation to give their from a man like Donald Trump through work in football, but I recall him saying “advice and consent.” Judge the cynical machinations of a man like that once you had broadcast Columbia Garland is the most decent Mitch McConnell. Whatever his other football, you were ready for anything. of men, with great intellect, virtues, Gorsuch is apparently lacking That preparation has served him well. charm, wit, and integrity. The one of significance: self-respect. Michael Green ’00GSAS same cannot be said for Gor- Leslie T. Jones ’59CC Las Vegas, NV such, who gladly served as an Las Vegas, NV accessory after the fact in the The story on Gary Cohen’s sportscasting theft of a Supreme Court seat. I enjoyed reading your recent article career brought back fond memories. Mark S. Brodin on Justice Gorsuch. It was interesting When WKCR went FM and could be Conquering Lyme Disease ’69CC, ’72LAW to know that he wasn’t a nerd who heard not just on campus but citywide, Science Bridges the Great Divide Newton, MA studied all the time or this super-being I did the first play-by-play broadcast of BRIAN A. FALLON, MD, AND who always did the right thing. He was a Columbia basketball game — we lost JENNIFER SOTSKY, MD How comforting it is to know “a typical college student: he studied, to Princeton in a very close and exciting that when Justice Gorsuch dated, and hung out.” He was opinion- contest — and my brother had promised “A lucid and important book, filled with erodes the division between ated, but he always wanted open and to listen from home. After the game, I moving case histories and vignettes, church and state, further fair debate. And he had a polite and ran to a pay phone and called him. about an infectious illness that is threatening many lives.” restricts women’s reproduc- gracious demeanor, a quality so rare in “How was it?” I asked. —Siddhartha Mukherjee, tive rights, and imposes his the current political environment. The “You’ll never be a professional sports- author of The Emperor of All Maladies reactionary, homophobic highlight of the article was his answer caster,” he said. views on the country, he’ll be to the question of why he would come “Why?” nice about it. to Columbia University, where all these “Because,” he explained, “no profes- Susan D. Einbinder liberal students seemed so frivolous to sional sportscaster ever uses the word ’85BC, ’95SW him. “If I surrounded myself with like- ‘ostensibly’ during a fast break.” Santa Monica, CA minded students,” he said, “I wouldn’t Henry A. Solomon ’58CC, ’62PS get stronger.” The courage and the confi- Hampton Bays, NY Henry Adams famously dence he displayed is inspiring. wrote that the succession of Tang Di ’05SIPA STUDIES OF VIOLENCE presidents from Washing- Sleepy Hollow, NY “A Voice for Women and Girls” (The Big ton to Grant was sufficient Idea, Fall 2017) describes studies of to disprove the Darwinian MAN IN THE BOOTH violence against women being con- I so enjoyed your feature on Mets ducted in war-torn countries such as announcer Gary Cohen (“Outta Here!,” Ethiopia and the Congo. Mailman Fall 2017). Speaking as a historian who School associate professor Lindsay CODE SCHOOL is researching the history of baseball Stark says, “We want to know: are e Sustainable City NRS School of Nursing OPT School of Optometry broadcasting, I have no doubt that women and girls in these types of STEVEN COHEN PH Mailman School of Public Health Cohen will be ranked among the greats. chaotic environments more likely to PHRM School of Pharmaceutical Sciences “Steven Cohen shows us how the great PS College of Physicians and Surgeons But your references to Bob Murphy as experience gender-based violence? cities of the twenty-first century can SEAS  Fu Foundation School of Engineering and the longtime voice of the Mets ignores If so, what can be done to prevent use sustainable methods to thrive Applied Science a couple of the other voices of Cohen’s this?” There is no mention of Islam or SIPA School of International and Public Affairs economically while simultaneously SOA School of the Arts childhood: Ralph Kiner, who broadcast Muslims in the article, even though providing a higher quality of life SPS School of Professional Studies for the team for fifty years, and Lindsey violence against Muslim women, com- for their residents. A must read for SW School of Social Work TC Teachers College Nelson. The three of them were base- mitted by Muslim men, is rampant not current and future leaders in a rapidly UTS Union Theological Seminary ball’s longest-tenured broadcasting trio, only in countries with significant Mus- urbanizing world.” working together for seventeen years. lim populations but all over the world. —William Eimicke, Columbia University

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4.17_Letters_FINAL.indd 5 11/14/17 9:41 AM FEEDBACK It would seem that the anyone and are in for drug researchers are deliberately o enses that may soon not ignoring a key ingredient. be illegal, while many cor- Jim O’Brien ’66CC porate lawbreakers are not Maitland, FL held accountable and have caused massive hardships to Lindsay Stark responds: many people. As Rosenblatt The majority of girls in himself states, his mind Ethiopia we studied were is closed. Muslim, and the Donald Hagen ’77SEAS majority of those in the Felton, DE Democratic Republic of Congo were Christian, As a non-religious volun- and we found extremely teer teacher in state and UNDERGRADUATES high rates of violence federal prisons for more GRADUATES among both populations. than twenty years, I was ADULTS & PROFESSIONALS BEYOND BARS interested in the two letters DESCARTES’S SAINT I write belatedly to thank in the Fall 2017 issue from Teresa of Ávila (“She thinks, you for publishing “Open- (male) readers who seem Explore more than 50 areas of study. therefore I am,” Explorations, ing Minds Behind Bars” to feel that “opening minds Fall 2017) was not only a (Summer 2017). Mass behind bars” is wasteful and “Roman Catholic nun” who incarceration and the forms counterproductive: “Start infl uenced René Descartes. of retributive criminal making criminals account- sps.columbia.edu/summer18 Give her her due: she is Saint punishment we engage in Reforms can and able for their crimes . . .” and Teresa of Ávila, canonized in as Americans need to be must be made. Thank you “Where else can one get free 1622, just forty years after brought up publicly again for bringing up this issue for rent, free food . . .?” her death. and again. More and more people to think about. These attitudes refl ect, I Of course, that may just Americans appear to be Bonita S. Gutierrez ’09LAW am afraid, a widespread and be an additional reason for gaining consciousness about Oakland, CA profound ignorance of what secular philosophers to over- the exceptionally high num- prison is actually like and its SUMMER PROGRAMS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS look her infl uence. ber of people we sentence to I am writing in response pernicious e ects on Ameri- DESIGNED FOR OUTSTANDING STUDENTS GRADES 9–12 AND GRADUATES Taras Wolansky ’74CC years or, too often, decades to Steve Rosenblatt’s letter can society. Thankfully, there Kerhonkson, NY of living in cages, being attacking the idea of inmates are people at Columbia and subjected to violence and getting degrees, mocking elsewhere who know better SINS OF EMISSION substandard medical care. “alleged good intentions” and are working to improve Finally, the University, I want to commend you for (Fall 2017). He makes a point a very broken criminal- after much prodding, has writing this article, because of praising private prisons, justice system. divested from thermal coal although there will always saying they save tax money. Wally Wood ’86GS (“Columbia stands behind be people whose knee-jerk I note he is from Houston Southbury, CT Paris Agreement,” Bulletin, reaction to mass incarcera- — I suspect he will have no Fall 2017). But that still tion is “let ’em rot,” I believe objection to New York tax leaves possible investment most reasonable people, money being spent on Hous- QUESTIONS? in oil, gas, tar sands, pipe- when better informed about ton’s hurricane recovery. COMMENTS? lines, drilling rigs, o shore just how cruelly we treat our The profi t motive in platforms, refi neries, and so fellow Americans, can agree private prisons increases WE WELCOME THEM ALL! SUMMER IMMERSION PROGRAMS COLLEGE EDGE on. Leaving these gaps means that we put too many people the pressure for the US to E-MAIL US AT: Study at our NYC campus or abroad in one of our pre-college Students entering 11th and 12th grades can earn college credit while our donations could still be in jail and, when we do, we maintain the number-one [email protected] summer programs designed specifically for outstanding high attending Columbia University classes with undergraduates during used for those and enables too often unjustly sentence position it holds among all school students entering grades 9 through 12. the summer or academic year. A separate two-term option is OR WRITE TO US: available for high school graduates. more fossil fuels to be taken them to entire lives without nations in people incar- Columbia Magazine out of the ground, speeding job prospects or education cerated. Rosenblatt speaks Columbia Alumni Center up the end of life on earth. or the ability to vote. In that of criminals — I trust he 622 W. 113th Street, MC 4521 New York, NY 10025 Stan Sulm ’65BUS, ’72TC way, we harm our society and knows that many of those sps.columbia.edu/hs18 Sunnyvale, CA set ourselves up for failure. in prison have not harmed Letters may be edited for brevity or clarity.

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4.17_Letters_FINAL.indd 6 11/14/17 9:42 AM anyone and are in for drug o enses that may soon not be illegal, while many cor- porate lawbreakers are not held accountable and have caused massive hardships to many people. As Rosenblatt himself states, his mind is closed. Donald Hagen ’77SEAS Felton, DE

As a non-religious volun- teer teacher in state and UNDERGRADUATES federal prisons for more GRADUATES than twenty years, I was interested in the two letters ADULTS & PROFESSIONALS in the Fall 2017 issue from (male) readers who seem Explore more than 50 areas of study. to feel that “opening minds behind bars” is wasteful and counterproductive: “Start making criminals account- sps.columbia.edu/summer18 able for their crimes . . .” and “Where else can one get free rent, free food . . .?” These attitudes refl ect, I am afraid, a widespread and profound ignorance of what prison is actually like and its SUMMER PROGRAMS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS pernicious e ects on Ameri- DESIGNED FOR OUTSTANDING STUDENTS GRADES 9–12 AND GRADUATES can society. Thankfully, there are people at Columbia and elsewhere who know better and are working to improve a very broken criminal- justice system. Wally Wood ’86GS Southbury, CT

WE WELCOME THEM ALL! SUMMER IMMERSION PROGRAMS COLLEGE EDGE E-MAIL US AT: Study at our NYC campus or abroad in one of our pre-college Students entering 11th and 12th grades can earn college credit while [email protected] summer programs designed specifically for outstanding high attending Columbia University classes with undergraduates during school students entering grades 9 through 12. the summer or academic year. A separate two-term option is OR WRITE TO US: available for high school graduates. Columbia Magazine Columbia Alumni Center 622 W. 113th Street, MC 4521 New York, NY 10025 sps.columbia.edu/hs18 Letters may be edited for brevity or clarity.

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4.17_Letters_FINAL.indd 7 11/14/17 9:42 AM invested in maintaining a controversial reputation: COLLEGE she once declared that feminists should be given “the lash and the harem.” WALK Born in the village of Saint- Sauveur-en-Puisaye in 1873, Colette seemed to live NOTES a life of sexual liberty and FROM 116TH agency. She divorced two STREET AND husbands, danced in her skivvies onstage, and had BEYOND an infamous affair with her teenage stepson when she was in her late forties. Colette’s famous Claudine novels follow the protagonist as she comes of age emotionally and sexually. Though this series catapulted Colette to fame, its birth was not untroubled. The series was originally published under the name of her husband, Henry Gauthier- Villars, known by the nom de plume “Willy.” For thirteen LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, SEXUALITÉ years, Gauthier-Villars Erica Jong meets Colette locked his wife up daily until she turned out material for him to send to his editor. n a recent evening in the Erica Jong: the author men once read so Finally, Colette divorced him. Maison Française, Elisabeth they could understand what women want While Jong and Ladenson Ladenson ’94GSAS, professor — in and out of the bedroom. Jong’s first were grateful for the existence of French and comparative novel, Fear of Flying, introduced the catch of Colette’s early works, they literature, introduced her fellow phrase “the zipless fuck” — a casual sexual lamented that the books were Ospeaker, Erica Jong ’63BC, ’65GSAS, by encounter — and she still has a reputation only accepted for publication declaring that she was so well known, and as a writer people reach for only to get to under her husband’s name. so prolific, that she had moved even Bob the bedroom parts. But there’s a lot more to For Colette to be taken Dylan to poetry. From the middle of Jong than her empowered sexuality and her seriously when she wrote Dylan’s song “Highlands”: status as what she calls the “happy hooker” of about sex from a female point literature, a reference to Penthouse columnist of view, the reader had to Then she says, “You don’t read women Xaviera Hollander’s 1971 memoir about her believe she was a man. authors, do you?” time as a New York call girl. In fact, Jong’s When Fear of Flying Least that’s what I think I hear her say twenty-five books include seven volumes of came out in 1973, Jong “Well,” I say, “how would you know and poetry and a biography of her late friend and was still one of few women what would it matter anyway?” biggest fan, the novelist Henry Miller, called writing about her own sexual The Devil at Large. desire. Reactions to the book “Well,” she says, “you just don’t seem like This pervasive underestimation of — and to Jong herself —

you do!” Jong’s output connects her to the French COLLEEN O’HARA were varied. “Men hit on I said, “You’re way wrong” novelist Colette — the writer Jong and me, and women came over She says, “Which ones have you read then?” Ladenson had come to discuss. Colette to my apartment wanting

I say, “I read Erica Jong!” was the original female sex writer, deeply MAZZUCCO LISA-MARIE to talk,” she said.

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4.17_CW_FINAL.indd 8 11/14/17 4:11 PM invested in maintaining a To further complicate controversial reputation: matters, as Ladenson noted, she once declared that writers like Henry Miller and THE SHORT LIST feminists should be given John Updike — neither of “the lash and the harem.” them considered apostles of Uncover the Born in the village of Saint- feminism — praised Jong’s EXPLORE planet’s secrets Sauveur-en-Puisaye in candor and prose style. at the Earth2Class Workshop at 1873, Colette seemed to live Miller hailed Jong’s “wisdom Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. a life of sexual liberty and about the eternal man- Learn about ocean dynamics, the global agency. She divorced two woman problem,” and wrote carbon cycle, and more from Columbia husbands, danced in her the author a fan letter. The researchers. Held on the second Saturday skivvies onstage, and had two became friends, often of each month from January to May. an infamous affair with her meeting for dinner on the ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/events teenage stepson when she West Coast. was in her late forties. As writers, Jong and Arthur Mitchell: Harlem’s Colette’s famous Claudine Colette were equally VISIT Ballet Trailblazer celebrates novels follow the protagonist productive. Colette went the famed dancer and founder of the Dance as she comes of age on to publish over twenty Theatre of Harlem. The exhibition will emotionally and sexually. novels under her own name, feature artifacts from Columbia’s Rare Book Though this series catapulted including Chéri, about a and Manuscript Library. From January 13 to Colette to fame, its birth was relationship between a March 11 at Wallach Gallery. columbia.edu not untroubled. The series younger man and an older /cu/wallach/exhibitions/ArthurMitchell.html was originally published woman, and Gigi, whose under the name of her Broadway adaptation would Pianist husband, Henry Gauthier- make a star of Audrey LISTENSimone Villars, known by the nom de Hepburn. Jong’s favorite Dinnerstein, known for her plume “Willy.” For thirteen is La Vagabonde, the story fresh and compelling LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, SEXUALITÉ years, Gauthier-Villars of a traveling dance-hall performances, pairs music by Erica Jong meets Colette locked his wife up daily until performer. “There’s a Franz Schubert and Philip Glass she turned out material for lusciousness of femaleness at a concert on January 18 at him to send to his editor. in Colette’s writing,” Jong Miller Theatre. millertheatre.com Erica Jong: the author men once read so Finally, Colette divorced him. said. “Virginia Woolf killed Simone /events/2018/01/18 they could understand what women want While Jong and Ladenson herself, Sylvia Plath stuck her Dinnerstein — in and out of the bedroom. Jong’s first were grateful for the existence head in the oven, but Colette Want pictures lousy novel, Fear of Flying, introduced the catch of Colette’s early works, they embodied her life.” WATCH with gumshoes, phrase “the zipless fuck” — a casual sexual lamented that the books were After the talk, an audience roscoes, and stoolies? Columbia’s encounter — and she still has a reputation only accepted for publication member mentioned that Film Noir Festival at the Lenfest Center as a writer people reach for only to get to under her husband’s name. Jong had once written a for the Arts, presented by film-studies the bedroom parts. But there’s a lot more to For Colette to be taken poem for Colette entitled professor Rob King, will feature American Jong than her empowered sexuality and her seriously when she wrote “Dear Colette.” Jong then movies that inspired French critics to coin status as what she calls the “happy hooker” of about sex from a female point read the whole poem aloud, the genre’s name. From March 21 to 25. literature, a reference to Penthouse columnist of view, the reader had to though one need only hear lenfest.arts.columbia.edu Xaviera Hollander’s 1971 memoir about her believe she was a man. the first stanza to understand time as a New York call girl. In fact, Jong’s When Fear of Flying the relationship between the The Heyman Center for twenty-five books include seven volumes of came out in 1973, Jong two writers: THINK the Humanities presents poetry and a biography of her late friend and was still one of few women the 13/13 Series, public seminars that biggest fan, the novelist Henry Miller, called writing about her own sexual Dear Colette, explore themes in contemporary activism. The Devil at Large. desire. Reactions to the book I want to write to you Speakers from Columbia and elsewhere This pervasive underestimation of — and to Jong herself — about being a woman will discuss Standing Rock, hacktivism, Jong’s output connects her to the French COLLEEN O’HARA were varied. “Men hit on for that is what you write and more at various Morningside locations novelist Colette — the writer Jong and me, and women came over to me. from December to April. heymancenter.org Ladenson had come to discuss. Colette to my apartment wanting /events/type/13-13-seminar-series was the original female sex writer, deeply MAZZUCCO LISA-MARIE to talk,” she said. — Lacy Warner ’16SOA

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4.17_CW_FINAL.indd 9 11/14/17 4:11 PM COLLEGE WALK films, made under communism, are DEPTH “ripe for rediscovery,” Insdorf says. “They’ve inspired my students to think OF FIELD about the ways in which an iconoclastic Film professor artist can make films that are true to his Annette Insdorf own spirit, despite censorship.” celebrates 30 years Insdorf was born in Paris to of teaching Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivors and moved with her family to New York at age three. She grew up in the Bronx think we learn more speaking English, French, and Polish. ‘‘ about the world and As a teenager she studied voice at about ourselves from Juilliard (she was a promising motion pictures than from any other form,” saysI Annette Insdorf, a world-renowned film educa- tor and professor at Colum- bia’s School of the Arts. “We learn about our fears, our desires, and our aspirations when we identify with movie characters — even those who THE THRILL OF VICTORY are different from us.” Insdorf, who came to Columbia to teach in 1987, is olumbia Lions fans aren’t used to storming fields in jubila- still learning, and she’s busier tion. Sure, in 1988, enthusiasts tore down the goalposts to than ever. In 2017 she pub- lished two books. Cinematic celebrate the end of a forty-four-game losing streak, but Overtures: How to Read true catharsis could only come with true success. This year, Opening Scenes examines C the first minutes of movies the Lions opened their season with six straight wins — their best like Psycho (“Alfred Hitch- start since 1996. In both years, they won their Homecoming game cock was the master not only of suspense but also of the mezzo-soprano), but her parents by three points to extend their record to 5–0. The ’96 team defeated self-conscious voyeuristic steered her toward academia. It wasn’t Lafayette 3–0, in front of what should have been a record crowd at gaze, and the opening of until she became a PhD candidate in Psycho constitutes a textbook English at Yale that she began to seri- Baker Athletics Complex. But heavy rains prevailed, and just 1,170 case of heightened peeping”), ously watch movies — and get another fans saw future NFL All-Pro Marcellus Wiley ’97CC lead the Lions Apocalypse Now (“The music sort of education.

downfield as a tailback to set up a field goal by Matt Linit ’00CC. of The Doors is hypnotic: COURTESY OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS, MIKE MCLAUGHLIN Insdorf was especially drawn to the song ‘The End’ not only the work of the French New Wave October 14, 2017, was another story: sunny and 72 degrees, with identifies the time of the pioneer François Truffaut. “I believed thirteen thousand people on hand as the Lions stunned the Penn Vietnam War but also creates that he cared deeply, not just for his a feeling of doom”), and characters but for the human beings Quakers in overtime, 34–31. It was Columbia’s first victory over Penn Sunset Boulevard (“What do watching his films,” she says. In 1979, in twenty years. After the winning play — a twenty-four-yard touch- we make of a story narrated she published François Truffaut, a by a man who is already landmark study of the director. Truf- down strike from quarterback Anders Hill to wide receiver Josh Wain- dead?”). The other book, faut was impressed and asked Insdorf wright — the emotional floodgates flew open: the Light Blue faithful Intimations: The Cinema of to be his English interpreter at public Wojciech Has, is the first events. She also began translating for poured from the stands onto the turf and ran freely, whooping and English-language work on Polish arthouse director Krzysztof

roaring, toward the end-zone pileup. The goalposts survived. Has, a Polish director whose / THEISPOT.COM NEUBECKER ROBERT Kieslowski, which led to her 1999

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4.17_CW_FINAL.indd 10 11/14/17 4:11 PM films, made under communism, are book Double Lives, Second Chances: DEPTH “ripe for rediscovery,” Insdorf says. The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieslowski. BABYLON “They’ve inspired my students to think “My books are geared largely toward OF FIELD about the ways in which an iconoclastic the cinephile — the layperson who loves REVISITED Film professor artist can make films that are true to his movies,” says Insdorf. “I’ve always con- How a chunk of Annette Insdorf own spirit, despite censorship.” sidered myself less of a film theorist and ancient math history celebrates 30 years Insdorf was born in Paris to more of a film historian who believes in got to Columbia of teaching Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivors and close analysis as the way to truly under- moved with her family to New York at stand a work.” age three. She grew up in the Bronx In 2014, Insdorf went on sabbatical to he object lies think we learn more speaking English, French, and Polish. write her new books, returning in 2016 in a deep-blue, about the world and As a teenager she studied voice at to do what she loves most. “I’m now velvet-lined box in about ourselves from Juilliard (she was a promising teaching more than ever — four classes a display case in motion pictures than instead of one,” says Insdorf, the Rare Book and from any other form,” who, in addition to teaching TManuscript Library in Butler. saysI Annette Insdorf, a graduate students, had been the It is five inches wide and world-renowned film educa- director of undergraduate film three and a half inches tall, tor and professor at Colum- studies for twenty-seven years, sand-colored, and mottled bia’s School of the Arts. “We a role she relinquished when with blotches of rust-orange learn about our fears, our she went off to write. Insdorf and black. Fifteen rows of desires, and our aspirations believes that her teaching ancient numbers arranged in when we identify with movie benefits from the work she does four columns are notched on characters — even those who outside Columbia, including the surface, which is marred are different from us.” “Reel Pieces,” a series of onstage by a couple of serious gouges. Insdorf, who came to discussions with filmmakers and This 3,700-year-old Babylo- Columbia to teach in 1987, is actors that she has been hosting nian clay cuneiform tablet, still learning, and she’s busier at the 92nd Street Y since 1983. known as Plimpton 322, than ever. In 2017 she pub- This fall, she spoke with Woody has fascinated scholars for lished two books. Cinematic Allen about his creative process decades. In 1945, the mathe- Overtures: How to Read and with Ken Burns about his matician Otto Neugebauer Opening Scenes examines new documentary (with Lynn and the Assyriologist the first minutes of movies Novick) The Vietnam War. Abraham Sachs announced like Psycho (“Alfred Hitch- As always, Insdorf’s byword that the tablet’s sixty inscribed cock was the master not only is accessibility: “I’m not a numerals were Pythagorean of suspense but also of the mezzo-soprano), but her parents snob,” she says. “I never talk down to triples. That is, they satisfy the self-conscious voyeuristic steered her toward academia. It wasn’t audiences. I love the Socratic method: classic right-triangle equation gaze, and the opening of until she became a PhD candidate in asking questions and then orchestrat- of a2 + b2 = c2. The tablet Psycho constitutes a textbook English at Yale that she began to seri- ing answers so that we reach therefore suggests knowledge case of heightened peeping”), ously watch movies — and get another new perceptions.” of this essential geometric Apocalypse Now (“The music sort of education. Above all, Insdorf cares about the theorem about one thousand

of The Doors is hypnotic: COURTESY OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS, MIKE MCLAUGHLIN Insdorf was especially drawn to process of learning, both from movies years before the birth of the song ‘The End’ not only the work of the French New Wave and from her own students, whose Pythagoras, the Greek philos- identifies the time of the pioneer François Truffaut. “I believed coursework she sometimes cites in opher generally credited with Vietnam War but also creates that he cared deeply, not just for his her books. the discovery. a feeling of doom”), and characters but for the human beings “I love to acknowledge when students Then, this past summer, in Sunset Boulevard (“What do watching his films,” she says. In 1979, say things more beautifully, precisely, the journal Historia Math- we make of a story narrated she published François Truffaut, a or evocatively than I might have,” she ematica, Daniel Mansfield by a man who is already landmark study of the director. Truf- says. “And while it gives them great and Norman Wildberger of dead?”). The other book, faut was impressed and asked Insdorf pleasure to see their words published, it the University of New South Intimations: The Cinema of to be his English interpreter at public gives me even greater pleasure to know Wales in Australia posited Wojciech Has, is the first events. She also began translating for that that I’ve helped them to articulate that Plimpton 322 is also the English-language work on Polish arthouse director Krzysztof such insights.” world’s oldest working trigo-

Has, a Polish director whose / THEISPOT.COM NEUBECKER ROBERT Kieslowski, which led to her 1999 — Julia Joy nometric table.

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4.17_CW_FINAL.indd 11 11/14/17 4:11 PM COLLEGE WALK “Plimpton 322 describes cigar-store Indians, Colonial destination. Both Kirby and the shapes of right-angle furniture, antebellum slavery Timothy Halpin-Healy, a SPEECH triangles using a novel documents, and even the physics professor at Barnard, kind of trigonometry based bricks of Sir Isaac Newton’s have used it in classroom THERAPY on ratios, not angles and fireplace. He particularly demonstrations. Can we talk about circles,” said Mansfield. This glommed onto old mathemat- Halpin-Healy saves the free expression? would mean that the tablet’s ical texts. tablet for the last day of principles predate the work Plimpton 322 was uncov- Mathematical Boot Camp for of Hipparchus, regarded as ered in Iraq at the site of the Budding String Theorists, the father of trigonometry, by ancient Sumerian city of his course in the University’s he issue of free some 1,500 years. Larsa around 1920. After Summer Immersion Program ‘‘ speech on campus This startling interpreta- World War I, as the Allies for high-school students. couldn’t be more tion of the notched numerals carved up the Ottoman Em- After pummeling the young- timely,” Suzanne has stirred debate in the math pire, speculators swarmed to sters with reams of numbers Goldberg, Columbia’s world, inspiring a Scientific plunder the region’s ancient and theory, he escorts them executiveT vice president of American blog post titled treasures for museums to Butler, where curator university life, told an audience “Don’t Fall for Babylonian and libraries. Among these Jennifer Lee ’76LS presents in Pulitzer Hall in November. Trigonometry Hype.” But adventurers was Edgar James some of the texts he has dis- Everyone got the reference. what is less debatable is how Banks, an archaeologist who cussed for his charges to see The panel discussion she was the relic ended up in Morn- climbed Mount Ararat in up-close. These include first introducing, “Free Speech on ingside Heights. search of Noah’s ark and was editions of Galileo’s Sidereus Campus” — part of her office’s Columbia has more than a model for the fictional char- Nuncius (Starry Messenger) social-justice-themed series six hundred cuneiform tablets acter Indiana Jones. and Newton’s Principia Awakening Our Democracy — in its collection, and George But Banks fell under sus- Mathematica. Halpin-Healy came just days after students Arthur Plimpton, the grand- picion of stealing antiquities, calls Plimpton 322 the “slam loudly protested two speakers father of the author George according to Laurence Kirby, dunk” of the visit. who had been invited to campus “It was incredible,” says by the Columbia University Maryn Brown, who took the College Republicans. to decide what is permissible class in 2015 and now studies Those speakers — Tommy speech and what isn’t. chemistry at the University Robinson, a British nationalist With the yardstick of the First of Oxford. “We all whispered who rails against Islam, and Amendment never far from their excitedly to our classmates, Mike Cernovich, an Internet- thoughts, the panelists drew gently pointing out particular powered verbal grenadier who their own lines. “US law — unlike figures or parts of the tablet promoted the “Pizzagate” the law in most of the rest of itself. I remember trying to conspiracy theory — were the world — doesn’t regulate take the perfect photo. After deemed by some students to hate speech,” said Greene. the tablet was taken out of the be white supremacists, their Not because hate speech is room, we all sort of stared at presence a provocation serving harmless, he said — “people each other. I think we were no valid academic purpose. are harmed by speech all the The object in question: Plimpton 322. all a bit shocked that we’d just The panelists — Jamal Greene, time”— but because of concerns been centimeters away from a Columbia law professor; over who gets to draw the line, Plimpton, donated thirty-four a professor of mathematics this mysterious, irreplaceable Suzanne Nossel, the executive and where. “Who,” said Greene, of them. A successful pub- at Baruch College. “He sold historical document.” director of PEN America, which “is the decision-maker?” lisher, an advocate of higher ancient tablets to supplement Halpin-Healy has taught supports free expression for Columbia’s stance is that education for women, and his main livelihood of grow- the class for ten years, but writers; and Tanya Hernández, a the University should not be in a trustee and the treasurer ing oranges,” Kirby said. In he says he has yet to actual- law professor at Fordham — all the position of deciding which of Barnard College from 1923, Banks sold five tablets ly touch what he calls “this agreed that private universi- views its community should 1893 until his death in 1936, to Plimpton, including what luscious, earthy, tiny, warm, ties are not, as Greene said, hear and which it should not. As Plimpton was an inveterate would become Plimpton 322. orangey-red-looking thing” “governed by constitutional Goldberg states on the Office collector. Assisted by David Total cost: ten dollars. himself. “I’ve never had the standards.” The campus is “a of University Life website, “It Eugene Smith, a professor of In recent years, Plimpton courage, I guess.” regulated environment” and is foundational to Columbia’s mathematics at Teachers Col- 322 has become a teaching — Thomas Vinciguerra “very different from the public learning and teaching missions

lege, he snapped up wooden tool and a kind of scholarly ’85CC, ’86JRN, ’90GSAS square.” The big question is how / THEISPOT.COM KEITH NEGLEY that we allow for the contes-

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4.17_CW_FINAL.indd 12 11/14/17 4:11 PM those taboos are now being SPEECH eroded, and at the highest levels of government. “The question,” THERAPY she said, “is whether regulation Can we talk about is the answer.” free expression? Recognizing that some speech, while not considered “dangerous” by law, can still be damaging, Nossel argued that he issue of free “the answer is not suppressing or speech on campus restricting the speech, but rather couldn’t be more having other voices speaking timely,” Suzanne out — the university speaking Goldberg, Columbia’s in its own voice to repudiate executiveT vice president of noxious speech, and providing university life, told an audience support to students who may be in Pulitzer Hall in November. experiencing those harms.” The Everyone got the reference. goal, she said, was to both “keep The panel discussion she was the campus open and sustain introducing, “Free Speech on this idea of a community that’s Campus” — part of her office’s welcoming to everybody.” social-justice-themed series For Hernández, however, Awakening Our Democracy — asking students to endure came just days after students injurious speech in the name of loudly protested two speakers tolerance overlooked the fact who had been invited to campus that the weight of this responsi- by the Columbia University bility was not evenly distributed. College Republicans. to decide what is permissible tation of ideas,” including ideas “The answer is “Tolerance is an abstraction for Those speakers — Tommy speech and what isn’t. that “are deeply unpopular, people who are not targeted by Robinson, a British nationalist With the yardstick of the First offensive to many in our commu- not suppressing hate speech,” she said. “But who rails against Islam, and Amendment never far from their nity, contrary to research-based vulnerable groups, racial minori- Mike Cernovich, an Internet- thoughts, the panelists drew understandings, and antagonis- or restricting ties that are targeted by hate powered verbal grenadier who their own lines. “US law — unlike tic to University tenets.” the speech, but speech — we have an outsize promoted the “Pizzagate” the law in most of the rest of Greene noted that many burden to bear in tolerating it. conspiracy theory — were the world — doesn’t regulate objectionable speakers aren’t rather having To what purpose?” deemed by some students to hate speech,” said Greene. so easy to categorize, and that Greene attributed the resis- be white supremacists, their Not because hate speech is “even provocateurs tend to gussy other voices tance to hostile speech in part to presence a provocation serving harmless, he said — “people up what they’re saying with speaking out.” the potential of social media to no valid academic purpose. are harmed by speech all the pseudo-academic terms.” But as “metastasize” hateful discourse. The panelists — Jamal Greene, time”— but because of concerns hard as those lines are to draw, at historically oppressed groups. At the same time, he cautioned a Columbia law professor; over who gets to draw the line, Greene said, that doesn’t mean “Racially assaultive speech that what inflammatory speak- Suzanne Nossel, the executive and where. “Who,” said Greene, we shouldn’t ever draw them. He doesn’t seek to enter into con- ers really want is the oxygen of director of PEN America, which “is the decision-maker?” used the example of a Holocaust versation,” she said. “It seeks to attention, and that “regulating supports free expression for Columbia’s stance is that denier: “I have no problem with shut people down.” them can sometimes give them writers; and Tanya Hernández, a the University should not be in administrators saying, ‘Nope, not Nossel, the closest thing more oxygen.” law professor at Fordham — all the position of deciding which that one.’” on the dais to a free-speech In other words, in an imper- agreed that private universi- views its community should Hernández, an expert in anti- absolutist, observed that the fect world, there are no perfect ties are not, as Greene said, hear and which it should not. As discrimination law, called for a broad latitude of the First solutions. “Human beings make “governed by constitutional Goldberg states on the Office more “nuanced” legal threshold, Amendment has been balanced mistakes on both sides,” Greene standards.” The campus is “a of University Life website, “It one that could deal with what by “strong norms of respect” said. But, he said, “at some point regulated environment” and is foundational to Columbia’s she called “racially assaultive in public discourse and taboos there’s going to be a line, and “very different from the public learning and teaching missions speech” — persecutory, hateful, against hostile racial speech. human beings have to draw it.”

square.” The big question is how / THEISPOT.COM KEITH NEGLEY that we allow for the contes- or degrading messages directed She also acknowledged that — Paul Hond

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4.17_CW_FINAL.indd 13 11/14/17 4:11 PM B RAVE NEW WORLDS COLUMBIA ASTRONOMERS ARE GOING BEYOND OUR SOLAR SYSTEM TO UNDERSTAND EXOPLANETS, FIND EXOMOONS, AND EXPLORE ALL SORTS OF SURREAL ESTATE

BY BILL RETHERFORD ’14JRN NASA / JPL-CALTECH / T. PYLE (IPAC) PYLE / T. / JPL-CALTECH NASA

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4.17_CoolWorlds_FINAL_revise.indd 14 11/13/17 4:11 PM WORLDS COLUMBIA ASTRONOMERS ARE GOING BEYOND OUR SOLAR SYSTEM TO UNDERSTAND EXOPLANETS, FIND EXOMOONS, AND EXPLORE ALL SORTS OF SURREAL ESTATE

This artist’s concept allows us to imagine what it would be like to stand on the surface of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f, located in the TRAPPIST-1 system in the constellation Aquarius. The TRAPPIST-1 planets are remarkably close to each other. The star they orbit, an ultra-cool dwarf, would appear about three times larger than our own sun does in Earth’s skies. NASA / JPL-CALTECH / T. PYLE (IPAC) PYLE / T. / JPL-CALTECH NASA

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4.17_CoolWorlds_FINAL_revise.indd 15 11/13/17 4:11 PM he sun, veiled by the mist of a soggy Manhattan But the obsession with discovering new exoplanets — “a gold morning, was undetectable outside David Kipping’s thirteenth- rush,” in Kipping’s words — has already died down. “We’re past floor office window in Pupin Hall on the Morningside Heights that,” he says. “Now we’re trying to fill out the missing details. campus. But Kipping, an assistant professor of astronomy, was We want to understand the stories of these exoplanets.” Certainly contemplating another celestial object anyway, one far more astronomers already know basic things about them — their size, obscure — TrES-2b, the darkest world in the galaxy. how long they take to orbit their stars — but little else. “We’re “It absorbs 99 percent of its sun’s light,” Kipping says. now asking more meaningful questions,” says Kipping. “What are “That’s less reflective than black paint.” An artistic rendering their atmospheres? How much water do they have? What would of TrES-2b, hanging on the wall opposite the window, it be like to walk on the surfaces of these worlds?” And of course, reveals a disk coal-dark, streaked with scorched red swirls. maybe the most tantalizing question ever, and surely the tease of In space, nothing is close, but TrES-2b is unthinkably the galaxy: do they have life? distant, 750 light years away, about four and a half quadrillion miles from Earth. TrES-2b is an exoplanet, a world outside our solar system, one of 3,529 verified by NASA as of October 2017. “But that,” says The Kepler telescope, the size of an SUV and fortified with Kipping, “is the tip of the iceberg. There are so many worlds, it’s forty-two camera sensors, has scrutinized about 150,000 stars — mind-blowing.” Exoplanets are everywhere, scattered through an astoundingly slight patch of sky, about one ten-thousandth of the Milky Way like Motel 6 on the freeway. Scan the night sky, 1 percent of the Milky Way. Go outside, make a fist, and extend pick out any star, and it probably has planets; most all of the your arm skyward; your fist represents roughly the portion of sky two hundred billion stars in our galaxy do. “On average, it’s Kepler has seen. a few planets per star,” says Kipping. That’s approximately a Even from such a trifling sample, Kepler has generated a trillion exoplanets. daunting assortment of data, as many as two million data points Since the fall of 2015, Kipping’s Cool Worlds lab, part of per star. Columbia is among the hundreds of universities and the Department of Astronomy at Columbia, has studied research centers worldwide that download and decode the data. these extrasolar planetary systems. Cool Worlds searches “It’s a treasure trove of discoveries,” says Emily Sandford ’17GSAS, for exoplanets, exomoons, and all sorts of surreal estate; six a fourth-year graduate student on the Cool Worlds team. “It’s graduate students currently work in the lab. “We look for things more data than we know what to do with.” Discovery is within mostly within the habitable zone,” says Kipping. That’s the sweet the data — the exoplanet’s radius, mass, shape, reflectivity, spot in any system, where planets are not too hot or too cold — temperature, orbital period, atmosphere — markers that may a place where temperatures might be right for liquid water, a signal if life is possible. The secrets of the galaxy, or at least some place where Earth-like worlds might exist. A place, Kipping says, of them, are now stowed on Cool Worlds desktops. “Sometimes “where life starts to become possible.” I think, ‘My eyes are the only ones that have ever seen this,’” says Kipping was eleven when astronomers found the first exoplanet Tiffany Jansen, a second-year graduate student. orbiting a sun-like star — 51 Pegasi b — in 1995. Before that, Seeing is one thing. Deciphering is quite another. Simply put, most scientists regarded exoplanet searches as pseudoscience, Kepler collects the data by photographing stars and recording like looking for UFOs, crop circles, or Roswell aliens; exoplanet pixels of their light. Viewed on a computer screen, the stars hunters were considered eccentrics. “They were mavericks and appear as inscrutable bright globs. Orbiting exoplanets, if there radicals,” Kipping says, “and not accepted for the science they were are any, are not visible. But the pixels contain a critical piece of doing.” Still, over the next decade, astronomers would discover a information that kickstarts every discovery: “They measure the few hundred exoplanets, and in 2009 NASA launched the Kepler star’s brightness,” says Sandford. space telescope to find more. From seventy-five million miles out Within the billions of minutes of light measurements, Cool in space, Kepler surveyed the stars between the constellations Worlds researchers can drill down to search for an eclipse-like Cygnus and Lyra, and swiftly spotted exoplanets all over the place. event — a transit. That occurs when an exoplanet passes between Suddenly a fringe specialty became the most intriguing its parent star and Kepler. “A planet passing by will block some of subject in astronomy. Initially, scientists looked for firsts: the the star’s light,” says Moiya McTier, a second-year graduate student. first oxygen-rich exoplanet (Gliese 1132b), the first potential “And the data will show that as a dip in the light.” That dip, should water world (Gliese 1214b), and the first Earth-size planet in the it repeat at precise intervals, suggests an exoplanet is there. habitable zone (Kepler-186f). In March 2016, the Cool Worlds From that dip, researchers can create a transit light curve, a lab announced the discovery of Kepler-167e, one thousand light graph replete with additional data. “By studying the light curve,” This artist’s concept shows years away, the size of Jupiter and about as cold — 220 degrees McTier says, “we can figure out the physical characteristics of an planet KELT-9b orbiting its host below zero Fahrenheit. “The exhilaration you feel from an act of exoplanet.” As technology develops, they will be able to detect star, KELT-9. With a temperature discovery is joyous,” says Kipping. “Whether it’s some little thing specific surface features, like oceans, vegetation, or polar ice caps. of more than 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit (4,600 kelvin), nobody else knew or an entirely new planetary system, you want “Finding out things through the transit method, the limit is your KELT-9b is the hottest gas giant

to go out in the world and tell everyone. It’s like being in love.” imagination,” says Kipping. / JPL-CALTECH NASA planet discovered so far.

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4.17_CoolWorlds_FINAL_revise.indd 16 11/13/17 4:11 PM But the obsession with discovering new exoplanets — “a gold rush,” in Kipping’s words — has already died down. “We’re past that,” he says. “Now we’re trying to fill out the missing details. We want to understand the stories of these exoplanets.” Certainly astronomers already know basic things about them — their size, how long they take to orbit their stars — but little else. “We’re now asking more meaningful questions,” says Kipping. “What are their atmospheres? How much water do they have? What would it be like to walk on the surfaces of these worlds?” And of course, maybe the most tantalizing question ever, and surely the tease of the galaxy: do they have life?

The Kepler telescope, the size of an SUV and fortified with forty-two camera sensors, has scrutinized about 150,000 stars — an astoundingly slight patch of sky, about one ten-thousandth of 1 percent of the Milky Way. Go outside, make a fist, and extend your arm skyward; your fist represents roughly the portion of sky Kepler has seen. Even from such a trifling sample, Kepler has generated a daunting assortment of data, as many as two million data points per star. Columbia is among the hundreds of universities and “THE EXHILARATION YOU FEEL FROM research centers worldwide that download and decode the data. “It’s a treasure trove of discoveries,” says Emily Sandford ’17GSAS, AN ACT OF DISCOVERY IS JOYOUS.” a fourth-year graduate student on the Cool Worlds team. “It’s more data than we know what to do with.” Discovery is within the data — the exoplanet’s radius, mass, shape, reflectivity, temperature, orbital period, atmosphere — markers that may signal if life is possible. The secrets of the galaxy, or at least some of them, are now stowed on Cool Worlds desktops. “Sometimes I think, ‘My eyes are the only ones that have ever seen this,’” says Tiffany Jansen, a second-year graduate student. Seeing is one thing. Deciphering is quite another. Simply put, Kepler collects the data by photographing stars and recording pixels of their light. Viewed on a computer screen, the stars appear as inscrutable bright globs. Orbiting exoplanets, if there are any, are not visible. But the pixels contain a critical piece of information that kickstarts every discovery: “They measure the star’s brightness,” says Sandford. Within the billions of minutes of light measurements, Cool Worlds researchers can drill down to search for an eclipse-like event — a transit. That occurs when an exoplanet passes between its parent star and Kepler. “A planet passing by will block some of the star’s light,” says Moiya McTier, a second-year graduate student. “And the data will show that as a dip in the light.” That dip, should it repeat at precise intervals, suggests an exoplanet is there. From that dip, researchers can create a transit light curve, a graph replete with additional data. “By studying the light curve,” This artist’s concept shows McTier says, “we can figure out the physical characteristics of an planet KELT-9b orbiting its host exoplanet.” As technology develops, they will be able to detect star, KELT-9. With a temperature specific surface features, like oceans, vegetation, or polar ice caps. of more than 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit (4,600 kelvin), “Finding out things through the transit method, the limit is your KELT-9b is the hottest gas giant

imagination,” says Kipping. / JPL-CALTECH NASA planet discovered so far.

4.17_CoolWorlds_FINAL_revise.indd 17 11/13/17 4:11 PM “IT’S POSSIBLE TO INFER A PLANET IS SPACE THEORETICIANS HAVE PARTIALLY MADE OF CARBON. LONG RUMINATED ON EXOPLANET AND CARBON IS WHAT MAKES UP LANDSCAPES. THEY SIMPLY DIAMOND. SO A DIAMOND PLANET CALCULATE A PLANET’S DENSITY AND IS A POSSIBILITY.” THEN TAKE A SMART GUESS. ESO / M. KORNMESSER

4.17_CoolWorlds_FINAL_revise.indd 18 11/14/17 1:21 PM Turning the raw data into decipherable computer fi les is a formidable process. “It’s just a long list of meaningless numbers,” says Sandford. “You can’t scroll through it and learn anything. To comb through the entire volume of data by hand would take ten years.” Sandford’s days are spent coding — converting the gibberish into information both manageable and coherent. “It’s basically computer programming,” she says. Write good code and your computer could take hours to crack what otherwise takes a decade. But writing good code isn’t easy. “For someone starting out,” says Jansen, “a lot of time is spent just fi guring out what’s wrong with your code.”

Nearly nothing is known about the topographical features of exoplanets; Cool Worlds is just now scratching those surfaces. Unquestionably, space theoreticians have long ruminated on exoplanet landscapes. They simply calculate a planet’s density and then take a smart guess. Molten glass rains down on HD 189733b; fl urries of rubies and sapphires fall on HAT-P-7b; boiling lava coagulates on Kepler-78b; diamonds cover WASP-12b. None are outlandish claims, but they are all speculations. Iron, for instance, is one of the densest common elements in the universe. Hence, a dense planet might contain an abundance of iron. But maybe not. “There’s lots of leeway in the interpretation of data,” says Sandford. “It’s possible to infer a planet is partially made of carbon. And carbon is what makes up diamond. So a diamond planet is a possibility. But it’s not the only possibility. The uncertainties are quite large.” What is known is that exoplanets come in two basic categories. “We can say some exoplanets are gaseous, and some are rocky,” says Jansen. “But that’s really the extent of our knowledge.” The rocky planets, like Earth and Mars, have solid surfaces. The gas giants, like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, may not sustain any solid surface at all. Plunge past their atmospheres, and instead of hard ground one could conceivably fi nd a nebulous, plasma-like interior. Jansen is surveying both types of exoplanets. Looking at their light curves, she searches for one thing: refl ectivity. A highly refl ective exoplanet suggests a surface that could be coated with ice. That presents the scientists with a fun extrapolation: ice signals the presence of liquid water, the quintessential biosignature, “a molecular fi ngerprint for life,” says Jansen. So let evolution augment the water with organic molecules, wait while they mingle and wallow for a billion years, and microbes might emerge. That’s extraterrestrial life, but Jansen cautions about This artist’s concept shows getting carried away. Deducing the presence of water (much less the surface of the planet life) based only on a planet’s refl ectiveness is “very di cult,” she Proxima b orbiting the says. After all, trees and asphalt, two very di erent substances, red dwarf star Proxima

ESO / M. KORNMESSER Centauri, the closest star to mirror light at about the same intensity. Before reaching anything our solar system. Proxima b close to certainty, Cool Worlds must learn more. orbits in the habitable zone, McTier, meantime, will spend the next several years looking where the temperature is suitable for liquid water to for mountains. “It’s going to be really di cult,” she says. “No exist on its surface. one has ever found a mountain on a planet outside our solar

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4.17_CoolWorlds_FINAL_revise.indd 19 11/14/17 1:21 PM system.” But mountains cast shadows; McTier theorizes that find Uranus for another twenty-seven years, and Neptune’s shadows should show in the data. “They will cause jaggedness reveal was ninety years away. Telescopes surveyed land more in the light curve,” she says. frequently than stars. In 1776 George Washington, then If McTier discovers a mountain, the suppositions will the Continental Army’s commander in chief, supposedly begin. Here’s one: on Earth, plate tectonics made mountains persuaded the College to loan him a telescope — the school’s possible — also hills, canyons, valleys, lakes, rivers, and oceans only telescope — as a way to monitor British troop movements — all topographical antecedents that led to life. Perhaps a during the Battle of Long Island. Washington promptly lost mountainous exoplanet has tectonic plates? If so, does that both the telescope and the battle. There the story ends, and mean life is more likely there? “We can learn a lot,” says McTier, it may be apocryphal anyway. Whether Washington ever “just based on shadows.” wondered about exotic worlds or extraterrestrials is unclear. But John Adams, Washington’s presidential successor, did. The universe, he said, is “both infinite and eternal,” and at twenty — almost the age of the Cool Worlds graduate students — he Exoplanets give off one-billionth the light of a star. Exomoons wrote this in his diary: “All the unnumbered worlds that revolve orbiting them are even fainter. No astronomer has officially around the fixed stars are inhabited.” discovered one, but Cool Worlds has a candidate — a possible Well, surely not all. But some? “I would be shocked if exomoon orbiting Kepler-1625b, a gas giant at least six times the size life was not elsewhere in the galaxy,” says McTier. Concurs of Earth and about four thousand light years away. The Kepler data Sandford: “The odds of us being the only planet with life are is promising but inconclusive; Kipping obtained time on NASA’s kind of ridiculous.” Jansen remembers a Caribbean vacation Hubble space telescope this past October, hoping to corroborate at age nine: “My mom goes, ‘You’ve got to come outside and his findings and proclaim a discovery. A final confirmation won’t see the stars.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, fine.’ And then I saw this dome of happen until spring. Beyond that he says little else: “We’re being very stars. There were so many. I just looked at them — and then I cautious. We’re waiting to see what the data gives us.” thought, if every one of those stars has planets, there’s no way Discovering the first exomoon would surely be a spectacular we’re the only living creatures in the universe. That was very find. But nobody will be startled. Exomoons, like exomountains, specifically the moment I thought astronomy was amazing. I’ll are expected. Stranger things have already been seen. “Look at the never forget it.” exotica coming out of exoplanets,” says Kipping. Hot Jupiters like Of the trillion or so exoplanets estimated in the Milky Way, TrES-2b (gargantuan, superheated, typically ten times closer to about 10 percent — one hundred billion — may hold water and their stars than Earth is to the sun) are ubiquitous. “And nobody reside in the habitable zone. Any life out there might scale from expected to find them,” he says. primordial microbes to technologically advanced aliens. “You’re Astronomers once thought our solar system was a template looking at vast opportunities for life,” says Kipping. How much, for the rest of the galaxy. Every inference about exoplanets was what kind, where located? “I can’t even speculate,” he says. built on it. “But our solar system,” says Kipping, “is not typical.” “There’s just no information to go on. Working with a single With eight major planets and millions of asteroids, the solar data point, we are completely stuck.” That single data point is system covers ten trillion miles. Yet compact systems seem more us. Earth is the only example of life anyplace. common. The seven TRAPPIST-1 planets, discovered this past Although there’s now Proxima b, an exoplanet discovered in February, are crammed in space; they occupy a congested area of August 2016 and a potential analog of Earth — about the same barely six million miles — one-sixth the distance between the sun size, in the habitable zone, and as a bonus, only four light years, and Mercury, its closest planet. or some twenty-four trillion miles, away. Celestially speaking, About half the exoplanets have wildly eccentric orbits. But in our that’s just across town. Cool Worlds researchers, captivated solar system, the planets’ orbits are basically elliptical; Earth’s is by Proxima b, are contributing to Breakthrough Starshot, the almost a circle. Our sun is categorized as a yellow dwarf star, middle- initiative founded by the celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking aged and relatively hot; but three-quarters of stars are red dwarfs — and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The proposed project “older and dimmer,” says Kipping, and often one-tenth the size. is an outrageous venture: somehow develop and ultimately Hardly an analog to the rest of the galaxy, our solar system is dispatch an uncrewed nanocraft to snap flyby photographs actually an anomaly. “We’re not the freak of the universe — but of Proxima b. The preferred cruising speed for the probe is we are a very poor approximation,” Kipping says. To Cool Worlds approximately 37,200 miles per second, one-fifth the speed of PICTURING PLANETS researchers, that might be the most startling discovery of all. light. Travel time should be twenty-one years. Getting the probe The images you see of these alien worlds are imaginative renderings created by multimedia artists in collaboration with NASA astronomers. ready to go could take at least that long. But imagine what The depictions are largely speculative, drawing a fine line between scientific precision and artistic inspiration. Typically, the designers have might be in those photos. Oceans? Vegetation? City lights? minimal information to go on — the exoplanet’s size, if it’s rocky or gaseous, the distance from the star it orbits, and perhaps a rough idea of Not much of anything? Who knows. “There’s a chance,” says its temperature. Scientists work with the artists to rein in creative overreach and ensure as much accuracy as possible. Color choice is critical. When astronomy was first taught at Columbia University Kipping, “that when I’m retired I might see a photo beamed Generally, shades of blue or green are eschewed, since blue may be too suggestive of an exoplanet with abundant water, and green can suggest (then King’s College) in 1754, little was known about the back.” That image could forever change the way we see not only plant life. Rocky worlds with visible surface features are the most difficult to design, and often require several days’ work. Gas giants, blistering

planets. The British astronomer William Herschel wouldn’t the exoplanets, but ourselves. JPL-CALTECH / INSTITUTE / SETI AMES NASA balls of fire, usually take less. Either way, these otherworldly illustrations, seen in virtually all media worldwide, continue to captivate millions.

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4.17_CoolWorlds_FINAL_revise.indd 20 11/13/17 4:11 PM find Uranus for another twenty-seven years, and Neptune’s This artist’s concept depicts Kepler-186f, which reveal was ninety years away. Telescopes surveyed land more resides in the Kepler-186 frequently than stars. In 1776 George Washington, then system, about five hundred the Continental Army’s commander in chief, supposedly light years from Earth. persuaded the College to loan him a telescope — the school’s only telescope — as a way to monitor British troop movements during the Battle of Long Island. Washington promptly lost both the telescope and the battle. There the story ends, and it may be apocryphal anyway. Whether Washington ever wondered about exotic worlds or extraterrestrials is unclear. But John Adams, Washington’s presidential successor, did. The universe, he said, is “both infinite and eternal,” and at twenty — almost the age of the Cool Worlds graduate students — he wrote this in his diary: “All the unnumbered worlds that revolve around the fixed stars are inhabited.” Well, surely not all. But some? “I would be shocked if life was not elsewhere in the galaxy,” says McTier. Concurs Sandford: “The odds of us being the only planet with life are kind of ridiculous.” Jansen remembers a Caribbean vacation at age nine: “My mom goes, ‘You’ve got to come outside and see the stars.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, fine.’ And then I saw this dome of stars. There were so many. I just looked at them — and then I thought, if every one of those stars has planets, there’s no way we’re the only living creatures in the universe. That was very specifically the moment I thought astronomy was amazing. I’ll never forget it.” Of the trillion or so exoplanets estimated in the Milky Way, about 10 percent — one hundred billion — may hold water and reside in the habitable zone. Any life out there might scale from primordial microbes to technologically advanced aliens. “You’re looking at vast opportunities for life,” says Kipping. How much, what kind, where located? “I can’t even speculate,” he says. “There’s just no information to go on. Working with a single data point, we are completely stuck.” That single data point is us. Earth is the only example of life anyplace. Although there’s now Proxima b, an exoplanet discovered in August 2016 and a potential analog of Earth — about the same size, in the habitable zone, and as a bonus, only four light years, or some twenty-four trillion miles, away. Celestially speaking, that’s just across town. Cool Worlds researchers, captivated by Proxima b, are contributing to Breakthrough Starshot, the initiative founded by the celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The proposed project is an outrageous venture: somehow develop and ultimately dispatch an uncrewed nanocraft to snap flyby photographs of Proxima b. The preferred cruising speed for the probe is approximately 37,200 miles per second, one-fifth the speed of PICTURING PLANETS light. Travel time should be twenty-one years. Getting the probe The images you see of these alien worlds are imaginative renderings created by multimedia artists in collaboration with NASA astronomers. ready to go could take at least that long. But imagine what The depictions are largely speculative, drawing a fine line between scientific precision and artistic inspiration. Typically, the designers have might be in those photos. Oceans? Vegetation? City lights? minimal information to go on — the exoplanet’s size, if it’s rocky or gaseous, the distance from the star it orbits, and perhaps a rough idea of Not much of anything? Who knows. “There’s a chance,” says its temperature. Scientists work with the artists to rein in creative overreach and ensure as much accuracy as possible. Color choice is critical. Kipping, “that when I’m retired I might see a photo beamed Generally, shades of blue or green are eschewed, since blue may be too suggestive of an exoplanet with abundant water, and green can suggest back.” That image could forever change the way we see not only plant life. Rocky worlds with visible surface features are the most difficult to design, and often require several days’ work. Gas giants, blistering

the exoplanets, but ourselves. JPL-CALTECH / INSTITUTE / SETI AMES NASA balls of fire, usually take less. Either way, these otherworldly illustrations, seen in virtually all media worldwide, continue to captivate millions.

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4.17_CoolWorlds_FINAL_revise.indd 21 11/13/17 4:11 PM NursesFirst How three women in New York are improving health care in Liberia with one simple but effective strategy BY PAUL HOND

Nursing for All founder Laura Jean Ridge (right) and board members Jessica Buesing (center) and Jennifer Walsh (left). PORTRAITS BY JÖRG MEYER

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4.17_Nurses_FINAL.indd 22 11/14/17 1:30 PM First How three women in New York are improving health care in Liberia with one simple but effective strategy BY PAUL HOND

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4.17_Nurses_FINAL.indd 23 11/14/17 1:30 PM When Laura Jean Many doctors fled during the war, and nurses assumed the Putting out feelers, Ridge called her alma mater, the School burden of providing medical care. Even today, “nurses are the of Nursing, hoping someone there could give her advice. She Ridge ’10NRS travels backbone of the health system in Liberia,” Ridge says. And she was referred to Richard Garfield ’86PH, a professor of clinical is adamant about ensuring that NFA nurses remain where they international nursing who had worked for the UN in Liberia. to Liberia , as she does twice a year, she are needed most. “We don’t want to contribute to an internal Garfield, now a professor emeritus at the School of Nursing and likes to arrive on a Sunday, which is church day. Life comes brain drain,” she says. “Every nurse that works with us must have an international health officer for the Centers for Disease Control to a standstill then, and Ridge, a warm, energetic, go-getting at least a part-time job in the health field in Liberia.” With NFA and Prevention, admits that he tends to cast a skeptical eye on sort of person, can decompress in her hotel room in Monrovia nurses’ contributions to existing health services assured, Ridge the ambitious plans of young, energetic idealists. “Many students from the seventeen-hour flight from New York. She makes calls can then tout the advantages of joining the organization. “We want to get engaged in the world and do some international (cell-phone service, like Internet access, is spotty) and sets her supplement your income, and you get to run your own initiative,” work,” he says. “Often, it’s a modified version of tourism: have schedule (plans in Liberia often change at the last minute). she says. “You set the budget, make the contacts, and set up the some fun on the beach, drop by the clinic. But there are some Then, on Monday morning, as the West African country clinical interventions for approval. You’re the boss.” people who really are serious and engage for the long term. I resumes its workaday rhythms, she steps into a whirlwind week Kormassah Baysah, a neonatal nurse, is NFA’s Monrovia remember Laura being incredibly resilient and determined.” of meetings and visits. program director. She’s the first person Ridge meets with on Garfield spoke to Ridge about his experience in Liberia, Ridge, thirty-three, is the founder and president of Nursing Monday, at a café called the Donut Bar. While all eleven NFA a country that, despite being the fourth-poorest on earth, for All (NFA), a nonprofit that takes an unusual bottom-up nurses in Liberia send Ridge monthly status reports on their has a strong nursing culture, with four “competent to good” approach to community health: supporting local nurses who patients, Baysah is the in-country liaison, there to support nursing schools. In Garfield’s view, Liberia was a place where devise and run their own health-care initiatives, based on their and advise the nurses and share her observations with Ridge. advanced nursing practices and basic nursing education could intimate knowledge of life on the ground. Over coffee they discuss nurse-midwife Delkontee King’s be promoted. “That’s what I was steering Laura toward, but she

As NFA board member Jessica Buesing ’13GS, a fourth-year family-planning initiative, which offers contraceptives and didn’t let me steer her much. She’s very entrepreneurial, and she medical student at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, counseling. Baysah says she’s impressed by how well King is just took off and made it all happen.” explains, “It’s easy to have ideas of what people need in global known and respected in her community. Ridge sent out e-mails to nursing schools in Liberia, laying health settings and sort of impose our solutions. A lot of The next day, Ridge visits the Liberia Board for Nursing out her idea for a nurse-led public-health initiative, and she organizations — with the best of intentions — aren’t necessarily and Midwifery, the body that licenses nurses in Liberia. From received an eager reply from the West African College of always addressing what’s essential.” Buesing, Ridge, and Jennifer the start, the board has welcomed NFA and helped Ridge by Nursing. Representatives from the Monrovia chapter wanted to Walsh ’09NRS compose NFA’s programming committee, offering managing the payroll, reviewing NFA plans, and giving feedback. meet. Within a matter of weeks, Ridge got her yellow-fever shot clinical advice, funding, and wide-open ears to their Liberian When NFA was trying to set up salaries, Ridge turned to the and flew to Liberia.

counterparts. “Putting the nurses first is what makes this such a board to get a baseline. LEFT: MOLLY KNIGHT RASKIN; CENTER AND RIGHT: LAURA JEAN RIDGE In Monrovia, she met with the Liberian Board for Nursing and novel idea,” Walsh says. After the meeting, Ridge goes back to her hotel and gets ready Midwifery and visited the nursing school at United Methodist When NFA was established in 2013, there were about fifty for a road trip to Ganta, Liberia’s second-largest city, two hundred doctors in Liberia, serving a country of some 4.5 million people. miles to the northeast, about a mile from the Guinean border. Liberia was founded in 1847 as a US colony for ex-slaves and free African-Americans, and the society formed along colonial fault lines, as the newcomers subjugated the indigenous population. In 2012, Ridge was working as a nurse practitioner at an addiction Political and social domination by the Americo-Liberians over treatment center in New York. The job ended at 4:00 p.m. sharp. “The nursing model is very patient-centered the local tribes became entrenched. Tensions built up, and in Finding herself with extra time, she began looking for volunteer 1989 the country spiraled into a protracted civil war, marked opportunities with groups that supported nurses in underserved and very much about ‘What does this by executions, torture, a high rate of civilian casualties, and the communities. She was astonished at how few there were. use, on both sides, of child soldiers. The conflict ended in August Ridge began thinking about starting her own nonprofit. But 2003 after the abdication of President Charles Taylor. where to serve, and how to begin? human being in front of me need?’”

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4.17_Nurses_FINAL.indd 24 11/14/17 10:16 AM Many doctors fled during the war, and nurses assumed the Putting out feelers, Ridge called her alma mater, the School University, at both the Monrovia and Ganta campuses. Ridge was burden of providing medical care. Even today, “nurses are the of Nursing, hoping someone there could give her advice. She surprised that the nursing leaders of Liberia were willing to spend backbone of the health system in Liberia,” Ridge says. And she was referred to Richard Garfield ’86PH, a professor of clinical so much time with her. It gave her confidence to forge ahead. is adamant about ensuring that NFA nurses remain where they international nursing who had worked for the UN in Liberia. Back in New York, Ridge got to work, jumping through the are needed most. “We don’t want to contribute to an internal Garfield, now a professor emeritus at the School of Nursing and legal hoops to form a nonprofit and then raising enough money brain drain,” she says. “Every nurse that works with us must have an international health officer for the Centers for Disease Control from friends and family to get started. The organization went live at least a part-time job in the health field in Liberia.” With NFA and Prevention, admits that he tends to cast a skeptical eye on on May 12, 2013 — International Nurses Day. nurses’ contributions to existing health services assured, Ridge the ambitious plans of young, energetic idealists. “Many students can then tout the advantages of joining the organization. “We want to get engaged in the world and do some international supplement your income, and you get to run your own initiative,” work,” he says. “Often, it’s a modified version of tourism: have Ridge, Walsh, and Buesing all came to the health field after she says. “You set the budget, make the contacts, and set up the some fun on the beach, drop by the clinic. But there are some college. Ridge grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and went to clinical interventions for approval. You’re the boss.” people who really are serious and engage for the long term. I Harvard thinking she’d become a lawyer. It was while doing Kormassah Baysah, a neonatal nurse, is NFA’s Monrovia remember Laura being incredibly resilient and determined.” volunteer work in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester that program director. She’s the first person Ridge meets with on Garfield spoke to Ridge about his experience in Liberia, she saw a distinct correlation between physical and mental Monday, at a café called the Donut Bar. While all eleven NFA a country that, despite being the fourth-poorest on earth, health. People in poor health were less likely to be happy or nurses in Liberia send Ridge monthly status reports on their has a strong nursing culture, with four “competent to good” successful. This problem interested Ridge. She considered patients, Baysah is the in-country liaison, there to support nursing schools. In Garfield’s view, Liberia was a place where getting a master’s in public health, but then decided that she and advise the nurses and share her observations with Ridge. advanced nursing practices and basic nursing education could really wanted a clinical degree. And so she turned to nursing, Over coffee they discuss nurse-midwife Delkontee King’s be promoted. “That’s what I was steering Laura toward, but she an in-demand profession that had, among other qualities that

NFA nurses Gabriel Tounzea (left, with name tag), Sophie Reeves (center, at lectern), and Annette Toegbaye (right, in green).

family-planning initiative, which offers contraceptives and didn’t let me steer her much. She’s very entrepreneurial, and she appealed to her, “a strong public-health perspective.” Now she counseling. Baysah says she’s impressed by how well King is just took off and made it all happen.” lives in Lower Manhattan with her partner, Matt Gline, and their known and respected in her community. Ridge sent out e-mails to nursing schools in Liberia, laying adopted pit-bull mix, Josie (“She’s pretty much the boss of me”), The next day, Ridge visits the Liberia Board for Nursing out her idea for a nurse-led public-health initiative, and she and is working on her PhD in nursing. and Midwifery, the body that licenses nurses in Liberia. From received an eager reply from the West African College of Walsh was raised in Rye, New York, and got her BA in political the start, the board has welcomed NFA and helped Ridge by Nursing. Representatives from the Monrovia chapter wanted to science from Trinity College. She began working for a health- managing the payroll, reviewing NFA plans, and giving feedback. meet. Within a matter of weeks, Ridge got her yellow-fever shot care nonprofit in New York and realized she wanted “a more When NFA was trying to set up salaries, Ridge turned to the and flew to Liberia. hands-on career.” Then she had an experience as a patient: she

board to get a baseline. LEFT: MOLLY KNIGHT RASKIN; CENTER AND RIGHT: LAURA JEAN RIDGE In Monrovia, she met with the Liberian Board for Nursing and was treated by a nurse practitioner — a nurse with advanced After the meeting, Ridge goes back to her hotel and gets ready Midwifery and visited the nursing school at United Methodist training who, like a doctor, can diagnose and treat patients and for a road trip to Ganta, Liberia’s second-largest city, two hundred miles to the northeast, about a mile from the Guinean border.

In 2012, Ridge was working as a nurse practitioner at an addiction treatment center in New York. The job ended at 4:00 p.m. sharp. “The nursing model is very patient-centered Finding herself with extra time, she began looking for volunteer opportunities with groups that supported nurses in underserved and very much about ‘What does this communities. She was astonished at how few there were. Ridge began thinking about starting her own nonprofit. But where to serve, and how to begin? human being in front of me need?’”

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4.17_Nurses_FINAL.indd 25 11/14/17 10:16 AM prescribe medication — and was “amazed Monrovia hospital to close. Others focused on Ebola education by how comprehensive her approach to my and prevention, such as encouraging handwashing. “Having care was.” Intrigued, Walsh decided to check nurses in Liberia identifying needs and implementing relatively out the School of Nursing’s open house in simple solutions that could help a large group of people was Washington Heights. “I was blown away not incredible to see,” says Walsh. She was so impressed that in just by the faculty, but also by how excited 2015, when Ridge asked her if she would join the board, Walsh they were about the field, whether as nurses, embraced the offer. clinical researchers, PhD students, nurse According to Richard Garfield, NFA’s results make sense: practitioners, midwives, or clinical nurse smaller organizations, funded by individuals, have the flexibility specialists. It seemed there was no end to to deliver more targeted care, whereas large international where you could go with this. So I signed organizations — ones heavily funded by governments or the UN up, and off I went, and I haven’t looked — must adhere to their benefactors’ conditions, however flawed back since.” or inexpedient. Buesing, a native of Southern California, went to Williams College, where she studied music and psychology. She was interested in Aaron Debah (left) health but overwhelmed by the options. She speaks with a form. “When I think of my own stories, about my own life, going needed some advice. Her boyfriend (now her patient. In Liberia, through the course of the war, I feel challenged to help these “This was an area completely ravaged by husband), Robert Buesing ’16BUS, happened families are often people,” Debah told journalist Molly Knight Raskin ’02JRN, who involved in their to work with Matt Gline, and the two men relatives’ care. has been making a film about him since 2011. arranged a call between Buesing and Ridge, NFA support can hardly account for Debah’s fortitude, or war, and people carried that event with in which Ridge described her own work as a nurse practitioner. the scope of his work, but in combination they have yielded Buesing was sold, and applied to the School of Nursing. During significant results. Raskin observes that simply by being allowed them. Acknowledging their trauma was  her first year, having become, in the course of her training, to admit their problems and talk about them with Debah, people “passionate about physiology and pathophysiology,” Buesing are getting better: they start working again, care for their children switched to medical school. But her heart is still with the nurses. more attentively, or talk to others about their depression. “This a starting point.” “The nursing model is very patient-centered and very much was an area completely ravaged by war, and people carried that about ‘What does this human being in front of me need?’” event with them,” Raskin says. “Acknowledging their trauma was “If you’re a small organization with a long-term commitment Buesing says. “I remember my first rotation in nursing school: a starting point. Aaron is breaking open that shell of trauma, in one place, rather than trying to staff offices in a dozen my first patient was somebody who couldn’t do anything for giving people an outlet to talk about it and reducing the stigma.” countries, it’s easier to do the right thing in paying close attention himself, so I would clean him, feed him, move him, and get As Ridge points out, families tend to be very involved in to what the caregivers themselves are saying,” Garfield says. blankets for him. It’s a very nurturing role that I really love.” relatives’ care in Liberia, and so Debah never really addresses just one person. “It’s very rare to decontextualize the illness from the family structure,” Ridge says. “In the US, I’ve had dozens of During the Ebola epidemic, Aaron Debah risked his life every One of the first Liberian nurses that NFA recruited was Aaron patients whose significant others I’ve never seen. In Liberia there day tending to the sick. He had a wife and three kids, including Debah. There are a few things that make Debah unusual; not is a larger family context that must be dealt with, and Aaron is a newborn. At one point, he developed symptoms and had to least is his specialty. Most nurses treat physical ailments — fully committed to dealing with that and other social structures quarantine himself from his family. It turned out to be malaria. malaria, HIV/AIDS, high blood pressure. But Debah is focused that influence a lot of mentally ill people.” The Ebola outbreak wiped out hundreds in Debah’s on mental-health conditions, which are less understood, and On March 24, 2014, PBS NewsHour aired a segment about community. Debah persevered. With great tenacity and bound up in superstition, doubt, and stigma. Debah’s work, produced and narrated by Raskin. The week optimism, he took on more work than ever, helping survivors In 2011, Debah was among the first graduates of a course after the broadcast, the Liberian government reported that two recover psychologically. started by the Atlanta-based Carter Center to help establish people in Ganta had tested positive for the Ebola virus. These The city of Ganta has begun to come back from the war and Liberia’s first mental-health program. There was, then as now, were the first known cases in the country. Over the next year, the epidemic, but there’s still a long way to go. Ridge, after a four- one psychiatrist in the whole country. Ebola would kill five thousand Liberians, many of them front- hour drive from Monrovia, arrives in Ganta on Tuesday night. When he started, Debah was the only mental-health clinician line health-care workers. She checks in to Jackie’s Guest House, a small, well-lit, lively not just in Ganta but in the surrounding county. The region’s sole hotel with a restaurant and free Wi-Fi. hospital, where Debah works, serves half a million people, many The next day, Ridge meets up with Adolphus Andrews, a nurse of whom lack running water and electricity. Debah has a mental- Walsh, who now works as a nurse practitioner in a women’s- with some training in dentistry who runs an NFA initiative for health radio show and invites listeners to call his cell phone. health practice in New Jersey, was an NFA donor when oral health, and Clinton Zeantoe, the dean of United Methodist

Often he will walk long distances to visit individual patients. Ebola struck. She says she was “floored” by how adaptable MOLLY KNIGHT RASKIN University’s Ganta campus, who installed clean-water systems in Ridge met Debah during her first trip to Liberia. Now thirty- the organization proved to be during the crisis, changing local schools to protect children from waterborne illnesses. six, Debah, who survived the war by hiding with his family in its programs in the face of this new horror. Liberian nurse When asked why he became a nurse, Zeantoe says, matter-of- the bush, has the unrelenting, do-what’s-needed manner of Christina Andrews made sure that her HIV patients had access factly, “I wanted to serve humanity. It’s not about money. You nurses everywhere, but which in him seems distilled to its purest to their medications after the Ebola outbreak forced their contribute to helping someone who is ill, and you see them get

26 COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18

4.17_Nurses_FINAL.indd 26 11/14/17 10:16 AM Monrovia hospital to close. Others focused on Ebola education well. They are in need of care, and you are there, and at the end, and prevention, such as encouraging handwashing. “Having they say, ‘Thank you. I’m well today.’ That brings satisfaction to me.” nurses in Liberia identifying needs and implementing relatively simple solutions that could help a large group of people was incredible to see,” says Walsh. She was so impressed that in Ridge makes the most of her few more days in Liberia. She 2015, when Ridge asked her if she would join the board, Walsh visits a community near Ganta, where dirt roads lead to smaller embraced the offer. homes with dirt floors, and people cook their food outdoors. According to Richard Garfield, NFA’s results make sense: There, nurses Gabriel Tounzea, a Carter Center mental-health smaller organizations, funded by individuals, have the flexibility program graduate, and Solomon Yah, whose NFA initiative to deliver more targeted care, whereas large international addresses hypertension, make house calls. Later, back in organizations — ones heavily funded by governments or the UN Monrovia, Ridge meets Aaron Debah in a café. Debah is excited — must adhere to their benefactors’ conditions, however flawed about having been admitted to a health-policy program that or inexpedient. will take him to India for two weeks. Into the weekend, Ridge

form. “When I think of my own stories, about my own life, going through the course of the war, I feel challenged to help these “This was an area completely ravaged by people,” Debah told journalist Molly Knight Raskin ’02JRN, who has been making a film about him since 2011. NFA support can hardly account for Debah’s fortitude, or war, and people carried that event with the scope of his work, but in combination they have yielded significant results. Raskin observes that simply by being allowed them. Acknowledging their trauma was  to admit their problems and talk about them with Debah, people are getting better: they start working again, care for their children more attentively, or talk to others about their depression. “This a starting point.” was an area completely ravaged by war, and people carried that event with them,” Raskin says. “Acknowledging their trauma was “If you’re a small organization with a long-term commitment makes more site visits with nurses Sophie Reeves (in-school HIV a starting point. Aaron is breaking open that shell of trauma, in one place, rather than trying to staff offices in a dozen initiative), Tohdy Nyemah (pre- and post-natal care, including giving people an outlet to talk about it and reducing the stigma.” countries, it’s easier to do the right thing in paying close attention HIV testing), and Annette Toegbaye (hypertension and diabetes). As Ridge points out, families tend to be very involved in to what the caregivers themselves are saying,” Garfield says. Standing on people’s porches during home visits, Ridge relatives’ care in Liberia, and so Debah never really addresses watches and listens, noting the quality of the patient-nurse just one person. “It’s very rare to decontextualize the illness from interactions. “It’s always interesting to see how enthusiastic a the family structure,” Ridge says. “In the US, I’ve had dozens of During the Ebola epidemic, Aaron Debah risked his life every community member is to see the nurse,” she says. “You can tell patients whose significant others I’ve never seen. In Liberia there day tending to the sick. He had a wife and three kids, including there’s a relationship. That’s important, because a lot of what is a larger family context that must be dealt with, and Aaron is a newborn. At one point, he developed symptoms and had to we do is teach and make recommendations, and in order for fully committed to dealing with that and other social structures quarantine himself from his family. It turned out to be malaria. recommendations to function as treatment there has to be a lot that influence a lot of mentally ill people.” The Ebola outbreak wiped out hundreds in Debah’s of trust. These nurses have done an amazing job cultivating trust On March 24, 2014, PBS NewsHour aired a segment about community. Debah persevered. With great tenacity and with their patients.” Debah’s work, produced and narrated by Raskin. The week optimism, he took on more work than ever, helping survivors After a week in Liberia, Ridge will have plenty of facts and after the broadcast, the Liberian government reported that two recover psychologically. figures to share with her board. Ridge, Walsh, and Buesing all people in Ganta had tested positive for the Ebola virus. These The city of Ganta has begun to come back from the war and emphasize the importance of organizational introspection. Are were the first known cases in the country. Over the next year, the epidemic, but there’s still a long way to go. Ridge, after a four- the initiatives working? Are they reaching the right number of Ebola would kill five thousand Liberians, many of them front- hour drive from Monrovia, arrives in Ganta on Tuesday night. people? How should they measure success? How should they line health-care workers. She checks in to Jackie’s Guest House, a small, well-lit, lively fine-tune the metrics so that supporters can see where their hotel with a restaurant and free Wi-Fi. money is going? The next day, Ridge meets up with Adolphus Andrews, a nurse It’s Sunday again. Ridge awakens. Church bells ring. Walsh, who now works as a nurse practitioner in a women’s- with some training in dentistry who runs an NFA initiative for Ridge packs her bags, gets a car to the airport, and boards health practice in New Jersey, was an NFA donor when oral health, and Clinton Zeantoe, the dean of United Methodist her flight. As her plane ascends, she can see, out the window,

Ebola struck. She says she was “floored” by how adaptable MOLLY KNIGHT RASKIN University’s Ganta campus, who installed clean-water systems in the Mesurado River snaking through Monrovia to the Atlantic the organization proved to be during the crisis, changing local schools to protect children from waterborne illnesses. Ocean. She’s always a little sad to leave — it’s like leaving family. its programs in the face of this new horror. Liberian nurse When asked why he became a nurse, Zeantoe says, matter-of- But she knows that the people she saw in hospitals and homes are Christina Andrews made sure that her HIV patients had access factly, “I wanted to serve humanity. It’s not about money. You in caring hands, knows that the nurses of Liberia will be on the to their medications after the Ebola outbreak forced their contribute to helping someone who is ill, and you see them get ground, doing what needs to be done, as they always have.

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4.17_Nurses_FINAL.indd 27 11/14/17 10:16 AM n 2011, Mack Meller went to Stamford, Connecticut, for a Scrabble tournament. In the fi rst round, as he was settling in, the tournament director interrupted play for an announcement. This was highly irregular. But the news warranted it: Joel Sherman, a forty-nine-year-old former world champion from the Bronx, had just fi nished a game with 803 points — a new world record in tournament play and the fi rst time a tournament player had ever broken 800. Meller and his opponent, having stopped their clocks (in tournament Scrabble each player is allotted twenty-fi ve minutes to make all of his or her plays), placed their tiles face down and walked over to Sherman’s board. So did lots of other players. Meller couldn’t believe it. Eight hundred! That was Scrabble’s holy grail. Sherman had used all seven of his letters — called a “bingo” and good for fi fty extra points — seven times. It was a feat for the ages, but Sherman didn’t win the tournament. Meller did. He was eleven years old.

t’s Thursday night, and Meller, now a lanky, sociable seventeen-year-old Columbia fi rst-year, leaves his room in Furnald Hall and heads for the subway. He carries his Scrabble traveling bag, which contains a round board, a chess clock, and a drawstring sack fi lled with exactly one hundred yellow plastic tiles. He gets out in Midtown and walks to a fi fteen-story building at Lexington and East 58th, where, in a room on the twelfth fl oor, the Manhattan Scrabble Club holds its weekly rodeo. “One of the great things about being at Columbia, aside from the outstanding academics and a diverse peer group, is the proximity to the club,” says Meller, who is the top-rated under- eighteen Scrabble player in North America, a distinction he has held since age twelve. “You get to play against some of the best players in the world.” The Scrabble room is located inside the Honors Bridge Club. It has beige walls, waiting-room art, fl uorescent lights. About twenty Scrabble players, women and men, sit at blond wooden tables, hunched over boards. There is an out-of-time quality to the scene, faint fl avors of a bygone canasta night at Grossinger’s or the Concord. Meller, bright-eyed, mild-mannered, palpably well-adjusted, strikes the room’s most contemporary note. You might never guess that in this den of hardened, seen-it-all Scrabblers, Meller, not yet of voting age, is the deadliest. Meller fi rst stepped foot in the club at age ten. His parents drove him to the city from Bedford in Westchester County, where he grew up. That year, he played in his fi rst tournament — and lost the fi rst game. “I was demoralized and very rattled,” Meller Scrabble prodigy Mack Meller says. “I had to really stay focused to claw my way back.” He nailed seven straight victories and won the tournament. “Even more minds his Ps and Qs, catches a few Zs, valuable than winning was having to come back from losing the fi rst game,” Meller says. “Whether it’s through making a mistake and is never at a loss for words or just poor luck, you’re going to have bad games. You can’t dwell By Paul Hond \ Illustration by Dave Wheeler on it or you’ll continue to go south.”

4.17_Scrabble_FINAL.indd 28 11/13/17 10:03 AM n 2011, Mack Meller went to Stamford, Though Meller prefers live competition and the touch of the Connecticut, for a Scrabble tournament. tiles under his fingertips, he has played untold hours of virtual In the first round, as he was settling in, Scrabble, either online against humans or against Quackle, the the tournament director interrupted Deep Blue of Scrabble software. His own mind is computer-like: play for an announcement. This was of the 120,000 words in the Scrabble lexicon, some 90 percent highly irregular. But the news warranted are filed between Meller’s ears. Lately, he’s been studying nine- it: Joel Sherman, a forty-nine-year-old letter words (requiring letters already on the board), a rarity in former world champion from the Bronx, Scrabble and “not the most productive use of my time,” Meller had just finished a game with 803 points — a new world record admits. “But I love the long words, and when I do get to play in tournament play and the first time a tournament player had them it’s really rewarding.” ever broken 800. At seven o’clock, the club’s director, Joel Sherman — the Joel Meller and his opponent, having stopped their clocks (in Sherman, thin and spectral, Poe-like in aspect — calls out the tournament Scrabble each player is allotted twenty-five minutes first matchups. Meller will play Debbie Stegman ’85BUS. to make all of his or her plays), placed their tiles face down and Stegman, a former vice president of human resources at Time walked over to Sherman’s board. So did lots of other players. Warner, has been ranked as high as forty-second in the country. Meller couldn’t believe it. Eight hundred! That was Scrabble’s She grew up on Long Island playing Scrabble with her mother holy grail. Sherman had used all seven of his letters — called a and grandmother. “One big rule in our family, for any games, was “bingo” and good for fifty extra points — seven times. that you don’t let the kid win,” she says. “So I would lose 310–112. It was a feat for the ages, but Sherman didn’t win the But I knew that the first time that I won, I really won. And it was tournament. Meller did. He was eleven years old. awesome.” She began playing in tournaments in 2000 — the year Meller was born — and reached her peak rating while between t’s Thursday night, and Meller, now a lanky, sociable jobs (“Unemployment does wonders for your Scrabble game”). seventeen-year-old Columbia first-year, leaves his room in She remembers Meller’s precocious debut at the club. “Mack Furnald Hall and heads for the subway. He carries his Scrabble never played the first word that he saw, even at a very young age. traveling bag, which contains a round board, a chess clock, and a It’s a tendency for any player, let alone a young person. You get drawstring sack filled with exactly one hundred yellow plastic so excited: ‘Oh, I have a seven-letter word and can get sixty-two,’ tiles. He gets out in Midtown and walks to a fifteen-story building and you don’t even look to see that you could get ninety-five. at Lexington and East 58th, where, in a room on the twelfth Mack gets the ninety-five.” floor, the Manhattan Scrabble Club holds its weekly rodeo. Now, over the table, Meller wishes Stegman good luck, and in “One of the great things about being at Columbia, aside from a moment the room fills with the ear-perking percussion of tiles the outstanding academics and a diverse peer group, is the rattling in their pouches. proximity to the club,” says Meller, who is the top-rated under- Players use a score sheet to keep track of the letters still eighteen Scrabble player in North America, a distinction he has available, and hit their clocks after completing each play. Meller held since age twelve. “You get to play against some of the best goes first, with JOLTY for thirty points. Then it’s a war of words: players in the world.” GLOOP, TROILITE, AMOEBAS. The room grows quiet, and the The Scrabble room is located inside the Honors Bridge Club. only sound is the clicking of tiles being rearranged on the racks. It has beige walls, waiting-room art, fluorescent lights. About Stegman bingos with RESHINE for eighty points. Across the twenty Scrabble players, women and men, sit at blond wooden room, someone calls out “Challenge,” and Joel Sherman, a thick tables, hunched over boards. There is an out-of-time quality to Scrabble dictionary in his hand, springs from his desk at the the scene, faint flavors of a bygone canasta night at Grossinger’s front and moves to the table like a filing to a magnet. Meller or the Concord. Meller, bright-eyed, mild-mannered, palpably bingos with PINCERS, the last three letters attaching to H, ODE, well-adjusted, strikes the room’s most contemporary note. and PAR to form EH, RODE, and SPAR, for a score of eighty- You might never guess that in this den of hardened, seen-it-all seven. Scrabblers, Meller, not yet of voting age, is the deadliest. Meller first stepped foot in the club at age ten. His parents hen architect Alfred Butts of Queens, a lover of crosswords, drove him to the city from Bedford in Westchester County, where chess, and jigsaw puzzles, invented Scrabble in 1938, he he grew up. That year, he played in his first tournament — and could not have foreseen players like Meller, let alone the game’s lost the first game. “I was demoralized and very rattled,” Meller explosion in popularity, or its rise to the upper firmament of says. “I had to really stay focused to claw my way back.” He nailed cerebral, universal board games like chess and go. The first seven straight victories and won the tournament. “Even more tournaments were held in 1973 in Brooklyn and the Catskills, valuable than winning was having to come back from losing the and while New York is still Scrabble’s nerve center, world-class first game,” Meller says. “Whether it’s through making a mistake players have emerged in Australia, Nigeria, and even non- or just poor luck, you’re going to have bad games. You can’t dwell English-speaking countries like Thailand. Players are rated by on it or you’ll continue to go south.” the Elo system, the same formula used in chess. An “expert”

COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18 29

4.17_Scrabble_FINAL.indd 29 11/13/17 10:03 AM rating is 1600, which Meller reached at age eleven, making him named Cornelia Guest, who ran a kids’ Scrabble club at a library In games, Meller projects pure composure: he is serene, the youngest expert on record. in Ridgefield, Connecticut, a thirty-minute drive from Bedford. unflappable — what Sherman calls “the perfect temperament.” “What I love most about Scrabble are the mathematical and “I got a call from Jessica Meller, who said another parent had Win or lose, he loves nothing more than to analyze a game the strategic elements, and also the randomness factor,” Meller suggested she get in touch because her son is really good at afterward with his opponent. He’s more interested in process says. “There are so many different possibilities. In chess, it’s Scrabble,” says Guest, with a wry inflection that indicates this than his personal feats. But he knows his numbers. His highest always the same openings, the same positions. In Scrabble, no is the sort of call she score in a tournament game is 670; only twenty-five tournament two games are the same. I doubt two Scrabble games have ever receives often. “I said, players in North America have cracked 700. His highest-scoring been identical after the second play.” ‘Let me play a couple of play was the time he dropped OBLIQUED across two triple-word Scrabble is not simply a word game. As journalist Stefan Fatsis, games with him online.’” scores for 230 points. And his rating of 2076 places him fifth on author of the best-selling They played, and Guest the continent. Word Freak: Heartbreak, found that Meller was Triumph, Genius, and missing a lot of words — Obsession in the World he simply didn’t know of Competitive Scrabble them. But his instincts Players, says, “Scrabble were sharp. Guest invited is a math game. It’s Meller to the class, and about probability, board they played a game. geometry, spatial relations, and pattern recognition. “I saw a nice S hook and I The best players, like had an S, so I was excited,” efore there was Mack Meller, there was Dan Goldman ’04CC. Mack, have beautiful Mack Meller Guest says. “Then Mack, Like Meller, Goldman began playing with his family at mathematical minds. who also had an S, used age five. He joined a Scrabble club in Manhattan, and at ten, They are assessing a pile of information: the score, their tiles, the it to make a play over two the year his family moved to Westchester, he played in his unseen tiles, the layout of the board, and the amount of time left double-word scores. I first tournament. on the clock. They are searching for, and choosing from, a handful thought, Whoa. He could “I loved words at an early age,” says Goldman, who works as in- of plays, and deciding how each one will affect their likelihood of also calculate the scoring house counsel and strategic planner for several of the holdings of winning. And they make those calculations in seconds.” instantly. I beat him in a New York–based venture capitalist. “I was also very interested in Like many top players, Meller is also adept at chess, and might that game just because math, and intrigued by the probabilistic and statistical aspects of have gone in that direction early on, if he hadn’t felt so warmly at I knew more, but after the game. And I loved the intellectual challenge and engagement home in Scrabbleville. “It’s a tight-knit community, with people that class I said to the of matching wits against highly intelligent people in a game that, of all sorts of backgrounds and ages,” Meller says. “I’m good librarian, ‘This kid is probably the best I’ve ever seen.’ I just knew the more I played, revealed more and more strategic layers.” friends with a lot of different people. One of the things I love right away. He loved words, loved the math, loved the other kids. While at Columbia, Goldman was the top-ranked under- about the community is that everyone’s so supportive of each Loved the game.” twenty-one player in the country. He was wordsmacked, other and always willing to offer advice.” That June, before summer break, Guest gave Meller 350 flash letterstruck, and found particular rapture in Michael Seidel’s “There is a tremendous intellectual camaraderie at the top of cards of seven- and eight-letter words containing five vowels, James Joyce classes. “I’d spent so much time as a kid looking this game,” says Fatsis, who is ranked 184th in North America, like ABOULIA (an absence of willpower) and EUPNOEA (normal at odd sequences of letters and strange words, and Joyce was “and when someone like Mack walks into this world, the players breathing). By the time Meller returned in September, he had obviously a writer who was obsessed with and immersed in the want to nurture him. They saw his genius immediately and memorized them all. And now that he knew the words, and intricacies of the language,” Goldman says. “You’ll see neologisms embraced it. And they became like a family to the Mellers.” everybody knew he knew them, he could bluff — could play an and ‘portmanteau’ words — words put together. I found it Clearly, Meller found his tribe. At tournaments he’ll often invalid word with the confidence that no one would challenge magical. I’d stare at Finnegans Wake and room with friends, and after games they’ll all go out together and him, since losing a challenge carries a stiff penalty. think of what combination of obscure talk about Scrabble and give each other word puzzles. Meller had moved beyond the class. Guest, seeing what she words Joyce tried to anagram together.” “Once, after a tournament, we went out to eat,” Meller says. “A had on her hands, referred the Mellers to three-time national Good anagramming ability is key for friend noticed a bottle of ketchup on the table and said, ‘What’s champion Joe Edley, who gave Meller some lessons. One day, Scrabble, Goldman says. “Players will study the shortest word containing all the letters in “ketchup” that’s Fatsis, the scribe of Scrabble, got an e-mail from Edley saying, combinations of letters that they know how not related to ketchup?’ We all thought about it for a while, and “I have found the next champion. And he’s ten years old.” to unscramble in their heads under time finally somebody found it: it’s ‘superthick.’” Meller hastens to Joel Sherman saw it, too. “I was at Mack’s first tournament, pressure — for instance, A-E-I-G-L-N-R-T add, “I was not the one who found it.” He smiles. “That was a in Albany, and he destroyed the lowest division,” Sherman says. makes ALTERING, INTEGRAL, RELATING, great puzzle,” he says. “He was a standout. He’s very quick and patient and analytic, ALERTING, TANGLIER, and TRIANGLE. If and totally focused on trying to make the best play at all times. you can see these patterns quickly, you can eller, who was homeschooled, began playing Scrabble at age The luck factor — the letters you draw or don’t draw — makes it spend more time on strategy.” five. Within a few years he was going round for round with possible for you to play a perfect game and still lose. You have to JEFFREY SAKS Goldman went on to law school and no the grownups, including his Scrabble-savvy father. This continuously focus on making those best plays, and more often longer had time for competitive Scrabble. prompted his mother to call a Scrabble expert and teacher than not, making the best plays will result in a win.” But he’s kept an eye on the old domain.

30 COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18

4.17_Scrabble_FINAL.indd 30 11/13/17 10:03 AM named Cornelia Guest, who ran a kids’ Scrabble club at a library In games, Meller projects pure composure: he is serene, “What Mack has accomplished is extraordinarily impressive,” in Ridgefi eld, Connecticut, a thirty-minute drive from Bedford. unfl appable — what Sherman calls “the perfect temperament.” Goldman says. “In whatever he chooses to do, he has the whole “I got a call from Jessica Meller, who said another parent had Win or lose, he loves nothing more than to analyze a game world before him.” suggested she get in touch because her son is really good at afterward with his opponent. He’s more interested in process Scrabble,” says Guest, with a wry infl ection that indicates this than his personal feats. But he knows his numbers. His highest t the club, Meller and Stegman fi nish their game (fi nal is the sort of call she score in a tournament game is 670; only twenty-fi ve tournament score: Meller 457, Stegman 406). Then they go back and receives often. “I said, players in North America have cracked 700. His highest-scoring dissect their fi nal moves, taking back letters, undoing the ‘Let me play a couple of play was the time he dropped OBLIQUED across two triple-word architecture, exploring alternate structures and destinies. After games with him online.’” scores for 230 points. And his rating of 2076 places him fi fth on a couple more games, Meller says his goodbyes and heads back They played, and Guest the continent. up to campus. found that Meller was missing a lot of words — he simply didn’t know them. But his instincts were sharp. Guest invited Meller to the class, and they played a game.

“I saw a nice S hook and I had an S, so I was excited,” efore there was Mack Meller, there was Dan Goldman ’04CC. It’s been a busy fi rst semester. Meller is fi guring out how Guest says. “Then Mack, Like Meller, Goldman began playing with his family at to make time for all his interests while carrying a full load, who also had an S, used age fi ve. He joined a Scrabble club in Manhattan, and at ten, including a physics course on general relativity and a math it to make a play over two the year his family moved to Westchester, he played in his course called Modern Analysis, which he describes as “kind of double-word scores. I fi rst tournament. like very rigorous root-based calculus.” He plans to major in thought, Whoa. He could “I loved words at an early age,” says Goldman, who works as in- math or astrophysics — or both. But Scrabble night remains a also calculate the scoring house counsel and strategic planner for several of the holdings of priority. He’s even begun attending the Tuesday-night meet-ups instantly. I beat him in a New York–based venture capitalist. “I was also very interested in of the Columbia Chess Club — on a strictly casual basis. “I hadn’t that game just because math, and intrigued by the probabilistic and statistical aspects of played chess in eight years,” he says. I knew more, but after the game. And I loved the intellectual challenge and engagement As for o cial Scrabble tournaments, Meller’s last one was the that class I said to the of matching wits against highly intelligent people in a game that, 2017 North American championship, held this past July in New librarian, ‘This kid is probably the best I’ve ever seen.’ I just knew the more I played, revealed more and more strategic layers.” Orleans. Meller fi nished second to his friend Will Anderson, a right away. He loved words, loved the math, loved the other kids. While at Columbia, Goldman was the top-ranked under- thirty-two-year-old textbook editor from southeast Pennsylvania. Loved the game.” twenty-one player in the country. He was wordsmacked, But being a college student inevitably means less time to travel That June, before summer break, Guest gave Meller 350 fl ash letterstruck, and found particular rapture in Michael Seidel’s to tournaments, and so it’s by a stroke of luck that a tournament cards of seven- and eight-letter words containing fi ve vowels, James Joyce classes. “I’d spent so much time as a kid looking is coming to Meller, to be held during midterms inside a games like ABOULIA (an absence of willpower) and EUPNOEA (normal at odd sequences of letters and strange words, and Joyce was café called Hex & Company, on Broadway at West 111th — breathing). By the time Meller returned in September, he had obviously a writer who was obsessed with and immersed in the just four blocks from Furnald Hall. The café is a board-game memorized them all. And now that he knew the words, and intricacies of the language,” Goldman says. “You’ll see neologisms emporium for people who like to roll dice and turn up cards and everybody knew he knew them, he could blu — could play an and ‘portmanteau’ words — words put together. I found it draw tiles from bags. The tournament director is Cornelia Guest, invalid word with the confi dence that no one would challenge magical. I’d stare at Finnegans Wake and Meller’s fi rst mentor. Joel Sherman will him, since losing a challenge carries a sti penalty. think of what combination of obscure be there to play. So will Joe Edley. Meller’s Meller had moved beyond the class. Guest, seeing what she words Joyce tried to anagram together.” father, Noel, will also be competing. had on her hands, referred the Mellers to three-time national Good anagramming ability is key for “My dad hasn’t really studied anything champion Joe Edley, who gave Meller some lessons. One day, Scrabble, Goldman says. “Players will study Highest-scoring two-letter words beyond two-letter words, but he enjoys Fatsis, the scribe of Scrabble, got an e-mail from Edley saying, combinations of letters that they know how EX  JO  KA  KI  OX playing, and he’s very good at fi nding “I have found the next champion. And he’s ten years old.” to unscramble in their heads under time XI  XU  ZA bingos on his rack,” Meller says. “I’ve Joel Sherman saw it, too. “I was at Mack’s fi rst tournament, pressure — for instance, A-E-I-G-L-N-R-T convinced him to play a couple of one-day Four-letter words with q but not u in Albany, and he destroyed the lowest division,” Sherman says. makes ALTERING, INTEGRAL, RELATING, tournaments, so it’s a lot of fun.” QADI  QAID  QATS “He was a standout. He’s very quick and patient and analytic, ALERTING, TANGLIER, and TRIANGLE. If In some ways, then, the tournament at QOPH  WAQF and totally focused on trying to make the best play at all times. you can see these patterns quickly, you can Hex & Company will be a homecoming The luck factor — the letters you draw or don’t draw — makes it spend more time on strategy.” Longest words with all consonants (plus y) — a letter-perfect touch. It will spell out JEFFREY SAKS possible for you to play a perfect game and still lose. You have to Goldman went on to law school and no GLYCYLS  RHYTHMS exactly what Meller means when he says, continuously focus on making those best plays, and more often longer had time for competitive Scrabble. TSKTSKS as he often does, “Scrabble is about so than not, making the best plays will result in a win.” But he’s kept an eye on the old domain. much more than the actual game.”

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4.17_Scrabble_FINAL.indd 31 11/13/17 10:03 AM Phillip Lopate in the late sixties.

uch as I shy away from the very notion of generational identity, I must own to Confessions of a Mbeing a creature of the sixties. Born in 1943, I entered Columbia as an under- graduate in 1960, graduated in 1964, and was influenced unsystematically by that period’s anti-Establishment atti- tudes. The sixties have been so mocked, Reluctant caricatured, or flattered by later genera- tions that anyone who lived through that era sometimes seems to have had only two choices: loyal defender or turncoat. What often is missing, which I would Revolutionary like to propose, is a middle path: critiqu- ing our mistakes and misconceptions while remaining sympathetic to the era’s spirit of idealism and experimentation. “The personal is political” was a slogan back then. I would not go so far as to During the campus protests of 1968, writer Phillip Lopate ’64CC, equate the two, but I would argue that one’s private circumstances do have a today a professor in the School of the Arts, joined an alumni group bearing on one’s political views. So here are a few personal facts: in my senior year at Columbia, I had gotten married; supporting the student radicals. Now, almost fifty years later, he’s we had lived abroad for a year and then returned, my wife supporting me while still trying to make sense of his place in that time. I tried to write a novel. Ultimately, I

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4.17_Voices_FINAL_revise.indd 32 11/13/17 4:15 PM uch as I shy managed to eke out a tiny living ghost- I visited the first floor of the student away from writing and working for an antipoverty center at Ferris Booth Hall (since torn the very program. By 1968, our marriage was down), which had been taken over as notion of in serious trouble. We had moved from strike headquarters. Before we could generational secluded middle-class Inwood, on the enter, we had to be vetted by somber identity, I upper tip of Manhattan, down to West student guards wearing Che berets. I must own to 103rd Street, a dozen or so blocks south was immediately struck by the theatrical Mbeing a creature of the sixties. Born in of Columbia, to be closer to the action, mise en scène of it, the air of dress-up, a 1943, I entered Columbia as an under- and suddenly there was plenty of action. militancy pastiche thrown together from graduate in 1960, graduated in 1964, Student protesters had occupied five Ho Chi Minh’s North Vietnam, Fidel’s and was influenced unsystematically by buildings on campus in April 1968. It Cuba, and Mao’s China. Card tables that period’s anti-Establishment atti- seemed worth checking out. carrying pamphlets, posters, radical tudes. The sixties have been so mocked, Having graduated four years earlier literature, buttons, and other revolution- caricatured, or flattered by later genera- from Columbia College, I was drawn to ary paraphernalia lined the room. The tions that anyone who lived through that the student rebellion for several reasons: atmosphere was, despite a certain grim era sometimes seems to have had only (1) opposed as I was to the Vietnam determination — the frustrated feelings two choices: loyal defender or turncoat. War, I had been participating in that something had to be done about the What often is missing, which I would marches in New York and Washington, war, that we had to act, not simply stand like to propose, is a middle path: critiqu- DC, distributing flyers to unsuspecting by — like a street fair. ing our mistakes and misconceptions pedestrians, and generally answering A few days later, I was given a tour while remaining sympathetic to the era’s the call; (2) having spent several years of Fayerweather and Avery, two of spirit of idealism and experimentation. in writerly isolation, I was looking for the occupied buildings, and I saw the “The personal is political” was a slogan excitement, communal and erotic (file dishabille of sleeping bags and blankets, back then. I would not go so far as to under: “the personal is political”); and bookbags, and portable typewriters. It During the campus protests of 1968, writer Phillip Lopate ’64CC, equate the two, but I would argue that (3) I envied the students their fun. The looked like a pajama party, it looked one’s private circumstances do have a Columbia I had gone to at the begin- jolly, with the exception of interminable today a professor in the School of the Arts, joined an alumni group bearing on one’s political views. So here ning of the sixties was a staid, tweedy meetings at which everyone who wanted are a few personal facts: in my senior place. We had aspired or pretended to to speak could. Direct democracy not- year at Columbia, I had gotten married; be sober, mature grownups, and in con- withstanding, I already had been tipped supporting the student radicals. Now, almost fifty years later, he’s we had lived abroad for a year and then sequence, I felt I was missing out on my off that the Students for a Democratic returned, my wife supporting me while youth. As a latecomer to the bacchanal, I Society (SDS) leaders would manipu- still trying to make sense of his place in that time. I tried to write a novel. Ultimately, I wanted to protest and to party. late the outcome by holding off votes

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4.17_Voices_FINAL_revise.indd 33 11/13/17 4:15 PM until early morning, when they could be Demonstrating on campus, April 1968. assured a majority. Still, I was impressed with the practical arrangements being made for daily operations, food delivery, and chores. It did not occur to me to join the occupying students, especially with my apartment’s warm bed close by. It was enough just to have seen the sleep-ins to feel part of history in the making. Much was made later of the cavalier way the students mistreated university prop- erty, smoking the president’s cigars and turning hallowed classrooms into messy dorm pads. Certainly, some hostility was being expressed toward this institution of higher learning; but the occupations also may have signified an affection for the uni- versity, or a longing to know it with greater intimacy, by snoozing on its floorboards. I understood this ambivalence, having, on the one hand, fallen in love with Colum- bia, ever grateful for the fine education it had given me, and on the other hand, put off by its chilly impersonality and clubby exclusions. Despite my high grades, I had been passed over for various fellowships abroad because, as a friendly faculty member clued me in, some professors had disapproved of my less than deferential attitude and found me to be not one of partly oedipal, but you could think it. And the SDS radicals who were spearheading their own. In retrospect, I see they were so what if it was? I was too young then to the unrest, should historical events move right: they perceived I wasn’t cut out to be put in a word on behalf of fathers. in a more extreme direction. a scholar-academic moving compliantly I don’t recall how I received notice that Tom Hayden, who had helped found through the ranks. But at the time, I felt some graduates were forming an organi- SDS in 1962, remembered the chairman UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK unjustly spurned and resentful enough to zation in support of the student protests, of Columbia SDS, Mark Rudd, as share the student activists’ animus. but I went to the first meeting. Out of “absolutely committed to an impossible Those tensions had been brewing for it came Alumni for a New Columbia yet galvanizing dream: that of transform- some time. In the early sixties, I had been (ALFONECO). We fancied ourselves the ing the entire student movement, through largely apolitical, as was the campus, but progressive, pro-youth alternative to the this particular student revolt, into a suc- when the administration censored the official, conservative alumni association, cessful effort to bring down the system.” literary magazine, Columbia Review, I which supported President Kirk and the It’s hard to credit now the gullible belief enthusiastically joined the protest. The anti-protest students to the hilt. As with that such an overthrow of the government college was still all-male, and the hottest many New Left organizations, our mem- and the whole capitalist system was even political issue at the time was whether bers ran the gamut from mildly liberal to in the offing. I remember going during women should be allowed to visit the revolutionary, a confusion that would have this time to a reading at St. Mark’s Church, dorms. (I was all for it.) The paternalistic, to be sorted out later. For the moment, we and the poet Anne Waldman whispering in loco parentis attitude on the part of the were united by goodwill toward the strik- in my ear: the word on the street is that university administration rankled deeply. ers and a desire to support them. My own it’s going down this summer. “It” being The fact that then-president of Columbia political position at the time might be best the revolution. I very much doubted that Grayson Kirk ’53HON was known to be defined as social democratic, more in sym- but was intrigued that there even existed resistant to women faculty only inten- pathy with Sweden’s social-welfare state rumors about the possibility. One day sified our opposition to this patriarchal than Maoist China, but I felt guilty about during the strike, I was on an uptown bus authority figure. You could never admit my wishy-washy politics and was open to going past Columbia toward Harlem and aloud that the students’ rebellion was persuasion by the more militant stance of saw sidewalk demonstrators yelling up to

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4.17_Voices_FINAL_revise.indd 34 11/13/17 4:15 PM the passengers, “Join us! Join us!” From rich in writers) turning out statements for the baffled looks on the faces of my fellow the press about how “shocked and appalled” riders, mostly Black, I could tell they had we were at the university administration’s not the slightest idea what they were being latest clumsy maneuvers. asked to join. Ten blocks away from cam- President Kirk and Provost–Vice Pres- pus and, moreover, throughout the city, ident David Truman both seemed to pos- the disturbances had caused not a ripple. sess tin ears, granting us much insensitive Yet in my progressive circle, the sentiment fodder to work with. We were hoping was growing that one should “organize,” local newspapers would at least include or at least enlist in a like-minded crew to a line or two from these “shocked and prepare for a general strike or some sort of appalled” press releases, in the interest insurrection that might break out. And so of balanced coverage. We also hoped the I joined ALFONECO. stream of press statements would disguise About fifty of us were at that first meet- how small we were: I doubt if our mem- ing, mostly in our twenties and early thir- bership ever exceeded two hundred on the ties: psychotherapists, medical students, mailing list. We engaged in public debate and writers, as well as a smattering of with the official alumni organization, older people, lawyers whose children were men in business suits who deplored what among the protesters, and ex-Communist they saw as longhair anarchists spoiling (maybe not “ex”) organizers from the the college experience for more serious Maritime Union who had come out of the students. I went on the Barry Gray radio woodwork. Michael Nolan ’63CC, a doc- show and argued with someone from the umentary filmmaker for public television, official alumni group. By this time, I had chaired the meeting. I sat in the back, all the talking points down pat: the uni- raising various objections, as I would in versity was engaging in military research, subsequent meetings. It is a truth univer- ripping off the Harlem community, and so sally acknowledged that whoever speaks on. It was easy to stay outraged after the up and challenges a group with irritating police bust. But looking back, I wonder questions eventually will be how much I actually accepted the logic of the SDS radicals who were spearheading asked to lead it. That is how the strike demands. the unrest, should historical events move Mark Rudd I became in short order the For instance, one of the chief demands in a more extreme direction. president of ALFONECO. was that the university sever its ties with Tom Hayden, who had helped found By that time, the students the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA). SDS in 1962, remembered the chairman had been evacuated from the Although Columbia initially had been an UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK of Columbia SDS, Mark Rudd, as buildings by the police, who institutional sponsor of IDA, the universi- “absolutely committed to an impossible forcibly dragged them out ty had no outstanding contracts to do mili- yet galvanizing dream: that of transform- and pummeled them and tary research at the time of the Columbia ing the entire student movement, through many bystanders bloody with protests. Some individual faculty members this particular student revolt, into a suc- nightsticks. I was not a wit- did have dealings with the government, cessful effort to bring down the system.” ness to this shameful event, but the traffic was minimal: IDA served It’s hard to credit now the gullible belief but it became the dividing more as a conveniently symbolic focus that such an overthrow of the government line in the protests, a scandal for student outrage against the Vietnam and the whole capitalist system was even that the Kirk administration War than an actual player on campus. Of in the offing. I remember going during would never live down and course, in a larger sense, the university was this time to a reading at St. Mark’s Church, which solidified sympathy for thoroughly integrated into the “military- and the poet Anne Waldman whispering the student radicals (within industrial complex,” as Columbia’s former in my ear: the word on the street is that hours a university-wide strike president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, had it’s going down this summer. “It” being was called). During the bust, termed it: how could it not be? SDS re- the revolution. I very much doubted that several hundred protest- searchers were busy charting the overlap- but was intrigued that there even existed ers had been arrested, and ping elite who sat on the boards of banks, rumors about the possibility. One day ALFONECO quickly got to corporations, newspapers, government during the strike, I was on an uptown bus work, its lawyers filing amici agencies, and universities. Was this a gen- going past Columbia toward Harlem and curiae briefs in court and its uine conspiracy or the logical outgrowth saw sidewalk demonstrators yelling up to polemicists (the group was of a corporate society? Even at the time,

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4.17_Voices_FINAL_revise.indd 35 11/13/17 4:15 PM The Columbia student radio station, WKCR, broadcasts from the steps of Earl Hall, overlooking the west side of Low Library, April 1968. I was not shocked at the information in the militants’ viewpoint, that it was all a these charts. But I had a role to play, knew pretext to confront the university as a sur- my lines, and relished the spotlight. rogate for the Establishment, so who cared As for the gymnasium that Columbia if the demands were manufactured? The had wanted to build in nearby Morn- point was to show our opposition to the ingside Park, in retrospect it might not Vietnam War and racial injustice — and to have been such a bad thing; the park was stick it to Columbia. a shabby, neglected amenity that could In my current thinking, I regard the have used some traffic. The bulk of the American university as a soft target. building would have been allocated to Politically engaged students are in the university, while a smaller section school; hence, they commence their with a separate entrance, occupying some political struggle where they are, using minuscule percentage of square footage, the university administration as a conve- would have served the community. That nient though often misplaced opponent. the entrance to this proposed community facility was located below, in the park, had suspension for a term. It seems hypocrit- unfortunate connotations of a tradesmen’s ical to argue that the university is morally or servants’ entrance, which the protesters bankrupt on the one hand, and to cling to fastened upon, although the reason for enrollment in said institution on the other. that arrangement had more to do with But perhaps not: in armed rebellions, topography than racial prejudice. The amnesty often is made a precondition Harlem community leaders, originally in to peaceful settlement. Interestingly, the support of the gym, had grown mistrustful, university administration and the faculty rightfully suspicious of a Columbia land were much more willing to compromise grab. The university has had a long history on demands involving external matters, as an acquisitive neighbor. Still, the upside such as the IDA and the gym, but the one was that the community would have demand they resisted strenuously was gotten much-needed recreational facilities, amnesty: they seemed averse to ceding including a swimming pool. But its elected the right to discipline students who had President Grayson officials, State Senator Basil Paterson and broken their rules. Kirk (left) and Vice Assemblyman Charles Rangel ’87HON, As it turned out, Columbia, having spent President David Truman had both come out against the gym con- millions on preliminary planning for the give a press conference, April 25, 1968. struction, while firebrand H. Rap Brown gymnasium in Morningside Park, gave had said if it were built it should be torched it up, severed its formal connection with UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK to the ground. In essence, the strikers’ IDA, and suspended punishment for Just three professors . . . And the gym is I suppose it could be argued from a demand to stop the gym’s construction was almost all student infractions. The crimi- bull. It doesn’t mean anything to anybody.” Marxist perspective that the university largely symbolic, a way for SDS to link the nal cases against the arrested students also But whether or not the demands were indoctrinates false consciousness, or, as antiwar protest to civil rights and to defer were dropped. So in that sense, perhaps serious, the SDS dug in, refusing to com- Pierre Bourdieu maintains, that higher to the Black students who were occupying the demands were shrewdly conceived as promise on them, so as to compel exactly education reinforces the rigid hierar- Hamilton Hall and who themselves were practical and achievable, and their having the theatrical, bloody denouement that chical class structure. But colleges, I deferring to the Harlem community. been met in the end constituted a victory occurred when police ousted the students. can’t help thinking, are not primarily A third demand was amnesty for the six for the strike. Conversely, because they It was this very outcome the professors responsible for the ills of society, and SDS student leaders who had led a march were largely symbolic, their accomplish- acting as go-betweens had dreaded: some to the extent that they provoke critical inside Low Memorial Library earlier in the ment changed little of substance. The faculty even volunteered to interpose thinking, they offer a line of resistance. year, in violation of the rule against indoor faculty had taken the demands quite seri- themselves in front of the buildings if the True, my changed perspective may have demonstrations. I had no problem at the ously, and tried to negotiate on each item police moved to clear them. In short, the something to do with having become a time agreeing with this demand, although to bring about a peaceful resolution, using faculty cared more about protecting the faculty member at Columbia, co-opted when I think about it now, I am less cer- their (excessive) faith in the powers of students from physical harm than the stu- by the academic mindset and paycheck tain that self-proclaimed revolutionaries reason to avoid a police bust. The student dents themselves did. Youth believes itself that lures me to identify more close- who hope to overthrow the government protest leaders did not, I think, take the immortal; those who have attained middle ly with the institution. William Blake and in the short term bring their universi- demands as seriously. Mark Rudd himself age know otherwise. wrote, “The tigers of wrath are wiser ty to a halt should not be prepared to pay later boasted to a reporter that “we [SDS] What puzzles me now is why I gave than the horses of instruction.” I wonder the consequences. Under normal circum- manufactured the issues. The Institute for so little thought to the validity of the whether I understood this Blakean adage stances, they might have faced academic Defense Analyses is nothing at Columbia. demands. I seem to have been closer to in 1968, and now that I’ve become one of

ADAPTED FROM A TIME TO STIR: COLUMBIA ’68, EDITED BY PAUL CRONIN ’14JRN. © 2017 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS. USED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE PUBLISHER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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4.17_Voices_FINAL_revise.indd 36 11/13/17 4:15 PM the militants’ viewpoint, that it was all a the faculty nags or ponies, have forgotten the runaway-train logic of revolutionary pretext to confront the university as a sur- it. But no, I don’t believe that righteous militancy. David Gilbert ’66CC, another rogate for the Establishment, so who cared wrath necessarily trumps every other SDS organizer, was involved in an armed if the demands were manufactured? The kind of moral authority. robbery of a Brink’s truck during which point was to show our opposition to the The corollary to “the personal is two policemen and a security guard were Vietnam War and racial injustice — and to political” is that one’s involvements in killed. Mark Rudd joined Weatherman, stick it to Columbia. politics may have a private as well as which vowed to overthrow the govern- In my current thinking, I regard the a public motive. In my case, I seem to ment by violent or other means; he par- American university as a soft target. have been trying to enact a youth that ticipated in the “Days of Rage’’ in Chicago; Politically engaged students are in was fast escaping my grasp. What I did and then he went underground, working school; hence, they commence their not realize was that it was not only five at odd jobs. When he came out of hiding political struggle where they are, using or so years that separated me from the decades later, he, practically alone of the the university administration as a conve- student rebels. During that historical Weather Underground veterans, confessed nient though often misplaced opponent. juncture there had been a sea change: to regrets for making mistakes. He was thanks in part to the demographic bulge particularly ashamed of having given the denoted by the term “baby boom” and in OK to JJ (John Jacobs) during the second part to the marketing of youth culture, occupation of Hamilton Hall to burn the students felt themselves part of a manuscripts belonging to Professor Orest separate tribe, their age group serving as Ranum. Had I known of this at the time I sufficient identity, one radically different would have been horrified. from grownups. By contrast, I and those Most movement stalwarts never on my side of the divide had prematurely second-guessed their more questionable yearned to be adult; it was too late for us acts. In a 2015 New York Times follow-up to learn the siren song of youth. I could article about the “kidnapping” of an NYU not dismiss so easily my elders’ hesita- computer in 1970 — a computer, by the tions as “bullshit”: if anything, I felt a way, that had nothing to do with military twinge of pity for and identification with uses — one of the perpetrators, Nicholas those professors shuttling between the Unger, was tracked down and interviewed. benighted university administration and “‘What do I say about being part of a the recalcitrant students. generation of protests?’ Mr. Unger said . . . The legacy of the ’68 strike was both ‘The war was wrong, and people who tried positive and negative. Václav Havel said to stop it were doing the right thing.’” It that the Columbia student actions must be good to have such a Manichaean emboldened the Czech rebels and conscience. Still, one must remember that UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK Just three professors . . . And the gym is I suppose it could be argued from a inspired dissidents around the world. In whatever was done, valid or preposterous, bull. It doesn’t mean anything to anybody.” Marxist perspective that the university France, the May uprising, les événements emerged out of the frustrated feeling that But whether or not the demands were indoctrinates false consciousness, or, as de mai, took the protest baton and ran it you had to do something about the war serious, the SDS dug in, refusing to com- Pierre Bourdieu maintains, that higher much further, even bringing down the de — you just had to act, not simply stand promise on them, so as to compel exactly education reinforces the rigid hierar- Gaulle government. It made us giddy to by. And in fact, the cumulative effect of the theatrical, bloody denouement that chical class structure. But colleges, I think we were part of a worldwide move- all that protest activity was to help bring occurred when police ousted the students. can’t help thinking, are not primarily ment. At Columbia, Grayson Kirk was an end to the Vietnam War. The feminist It was this very outcome the professors responsible for the ills of society, and replaced by ex–United Nations diplomat activist Ann Snitow has written wisely: acting as go-betweens had dreaded: some to the extent that they provoke critical Andrew Cordier ’69HON. Modest steps “No activism is possible without naiveté, faculty even volunteered to interpose thinking, they offer a line of resistance. began to be taken to increase the diversity some faith in action in spite of rational themselves in front of the buildings if the True, my changed perspective may have and gender balance of the student body, assessments of what can actually be done. police moved to clear them. In short, the something to do with having become a the faculty, and the board of trustees. And, also, no activism without some faculty cared more about protecting the faculty member at Columbia, co-opted On the negative side, another SDS leader, grandiosity, some earnest belief in the students from physical harm than the stu- by the academic mindset and paycheck Ted Gold — whom I had heard deliver a value of making an unseemly display.” dents themselves did. Youth believes itself that lures me to identify more close- humorous, self-deprecating speech at a I should keep reminding myself of that, immortal; those who have attained middle ly with the institution. William Blake street-corner rally: the rebel as nebbish as I think back with bemusement to the age know otherwise. wrote, “The tigers of wrath are wiser — was blown up on March 6, 1970, by a unseemly if lively posturing, naiveté, and What puzzles me now is why I gave than the horses of instruction.” I wonder homemade bomb in the West 11th Street grandiose play-acting in which I and my so little thought to the validity of the whether I understood this Blakean adage townhouse. That such a sweet, gentle guy’s confederates indulged during that time a demands. I seem to have been closer to in 1968, and now that I’ve become one of life should end so violently testified to half century ago.

ADAPTED FROM A TIME TO STIR: COLUMBIA ’68, EDITED BY PAUL CRONIN ’14JRN. © 2017 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS. USED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH THE PUBLISHER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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4.17_Voices_FINAL_revise.indd 37 11/13/17 4:15 PM THE BIG IDEA

Farsighted Forecasts Lisa Goddard directs Columbia’s International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), which helps developing countries anticipate and manage the impacts of climate change. We asked her to explain how climate scientists can predict weather patterns months in advance, and how their work is improving people’s lives. By David J. Craig Ú

Columbia Magazine: IRI is at the crops that don’t require a lot of rain, forefront of a field called climate even if those crops are less profitable services. Can you explain what than ones they’d ideally like to plant. scientists in your field do? Or if health officials in the tropics know temperatures that a region is likely to on the atmosphere. The most import- Lisa Goddard: We collaborate with that the next rainy season is likely to be experience in a given season. So whereas ant example of a predictable climate farmers, public-health officials, water wetter than usual, they might make a meteorologists track the movements of phenomenon is El Niño, which occurs managers, and others to understand how bigger investment in malaria-prevention particular pressure systems, we study when waters in the eastern and central climate conditions affect their work. We measures, like bed nets. It’s all about phenomena that may cause a region’s equatorial Pacific Ocean become un- then help them make better decisions, helping people use their resources wisely climate to differ from previous years. characteristically warm every few years. based on predictions of what climate and in a timely manner. One of the key factors we consider is El Niño robustly influences weather conditions will likely occur from a few the temperature of the oceans. The conditions over nearly 30 percent of all weeks to several years in the future. How can you predict the weather so warmth of water near the ocean’s surface land on Earth, all the way from the west- far in advance? has an enormous impact on climate, ern coasts of North and South America What types of decisions do you help Unlike TV meteorologists, we don’t because it affects the temperature and to the Horn of Africa and India. people with? attempt to say what the weather is humidity of the air above it. And since Well, if farmers know there’s a good going to look like on any specific day. ocean currents change slowly, they are Didn’t Columbia researchers play chance of a drought occurring in the Rather, we offer forecasts that describe predictable weeks to months in advance. a key role in discovering El Niño’s

next growing season, they might plant the range of total rainfall and average This enables us to anticipate their effects GAWTHROP ELISABETH global effects?

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4.17_BigIdea_FINAL_Revise.indd 38 11/14/17 11:26 AM When was IRI founded? The US government, through its National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- tion, awarded Columbia a major grant to create IRI in the mid-1990s, with the aim of sharing our knowledge of seasonal climate variability and forecasting with the rest of the world. Mark and Steve’s presence here was a huge factor, as was the fact that Columbia is home to many other top climate scientists. We now have a staff of nearly fifty researchers, and we are the world’s preeminent research group dedicated to creating seasonal forecasts and translating our results into actionable information.

Where do your scientists work? We have ongoing collaborations in dozens of countries. In some, we’re working with government ministries to develop their forecasting systems from scratch. In others, we’re working behind the scenes, providing technical support to local sci- entists who are seeking to improve their forecasting systems. A big part of what we do is sharing our forecasting technology and decision-making methods with other scientific groups. We also work with aid organizations. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, for instance, uses our forecasts to anticipate what parts of the world are most likely to be hit by floods, droughts, and other types of severe Farmers in El Paraíso, Honduras, are weather several months in advance. This benefiting from climate forecasts produced by Columbia scientists. enables them to mobilize relief workers ahead of time and respond to emergencies faster and more cost-effectively. temperatures that a region is likely to on the atmosphere. The most import- Yes, Mark Cane, a Columbia climate sci- experience in a given season. So whereas ant example of a predictable climate entist, was the first one to predict changes So you are predicting specific meteorologists track the movements of phenomenon is El Niño, which occurs in El Niño’s sea-surface temperatures, weather events. particular pressure systems, we study when waters in the eastern and central using a forecasting model that he and Not exactly. Not in the sense of saying, phenomena that may cause a region’s equatorial Pacific Ocean become un- Steve Zebiak, his student at the time, “A hurricane is going to hit Jamaica six climate to differ from previous years. characteristically warm every few years. created in the mid-1980s. weeks from now.” But sometimes, in ad- One of the key factors we consider is El Niño robustly influences weather You could say that their work essen- dition to projecting the total rainfall that the temperature of the oceans. The conditions over nearly 30 percent of all tially gave birth to the field of climate a region may receive in a given season, warmth of water near the ocean’s surface land on Earth, all the way from the west- prediction, which led to the new endeav- we can also predict whether that rain will has an enormous impact on climate, ern coasts of North and South America or of climate services. While there are fall nice and evenly over the course of because it affects the temperature and to the Horn of Africa and India. many ocean phenomena that influence the season or arrive in a few big bursts. humidity of the air above it. And since our planet’s climate, El Niño is the most In some cases, we may also be able to say ocean currents change slowly, they are Didn’t Columbia researchers play powerful in influencing annual variations. something about the frequency of intense predictable weeks to months in advance. a key role in discovering El Niño’s Over the years, we’ve gotten better and heat waves. This can be just as helpful

This enables us to anticipate their effects GAWTHROP ELISABETH global effects? better at predicting El Niño and its effects. to know. It can tell farmers the risk that

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4.17_BigIdea_FINAL_Revise.indd 39 11/14/17 11:26 AM certain types of crops may get washed Farmers in the away or dried out, and if aid agencies village of Diouna in southern Mali should be prepared for the possibility that listen to weather thousands of people may get displaced by broadcasts as floods or droughts. they prepare their field for planting.

One of the places you’ve done extensive work is Uruguay. Yes, our scientists have collaborated with the Uruguayan government to build a forecasting system for farmers that is the most advanced of its kind. Today, a farmer in Uruguay can log onto a website that we helped to create and learn what kind of climate conditions are likely little rain comes, they’re completely out of Lisa Goddard to materialize in his specific county. A luck. They might not be able to afford to typical forecast might state: your area has send their children to school, to pay back a 50 percent chance of receiving less rain a loan they’ve taken to buy fertilizer, or to than usual, a 30 percent chance of receiv- feed their family. “Nearly 80 percent of the world’s ing an average amount, and a 20 percent chance of receiving more rain than usual. The University recently announced He can then use the website to find out that it will work with your team to farmers still depend primarily how much money he’s likely to earn by replicate and expand this effort in planting various crops — say, corn, wheat, several other countries. on rainfall, rather than irrigation, barley, or sorghum — under each of Right. This will be part of an initiative those climate scenarios. He can also find called Columbia World Projects, which out the potential benefits of fertilizing President Bollinger launched earlier this for watering their crops.” or irrigating. The tool is individualized, year to promote academic endeavors that sophisticated, and extremely easy to use. address pressing global problems. We’re need to fully capitalize on good weather. Uruguayan government officials are going to be joining forces with faculty We’ve found that poor farmers who are also using the forecasts to decide where from across the University on this, as insured are much more likely to respond droughts may necessitate the distribution well as longtime partners in international to favorable climate forecasts by taking of emergency assistance. organizations. We’re still in the process insurance policies pay people in accor- calculated risks that enable them to of selecting five to six host countries. But dance with the losses that they personally get out of debt, and even see profits. Despite having an agricultural our efforts in each country will aim to experience. But that kind of insurance This might mean getting small loans to economy, Uruguay is a fairly accomplish four goals related to agricul- is prohibitively expensive to administer purchase fertilizer, high-yield seeds, or prosperous country. Don’t you ture: improving food security, nutrition, in some developing countries. That’s be- additional livestock. We’ve shown that if typically work in poorer ones? and economic livelihoods, and supporting cause in order to verify losses, insurance farmers capitalize on a few good seasons Most of our work is focused on helping environmental stability. adjusters would have to visit every single in this way, they can often lift themselves developing nations. One of the reasons we farm, and they’d be inspecting huge num- out of poverty. took on the project in Uruguay is because IRI also has quite a few ongoing bers of small farms spread out over vast its agriculture ministry is extremely well projects in Africa, in countries that distances. But if payouts are based on a Is there a certain level of education run and the country has a vibrant scien- include Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, climate outcome, the administrative costs people need to use your forecasts? tific community. This helped us to create Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia. plummet and insurers are able to sell We find that people of all backgrounds are a top-notch forecasting system. And our What does your work in these policies for less. We’ve conducted studies accustomed to dealing with fairly complex FROM TOP: FRANCESCO FIONDELLA, JEFFREY SAKS goal was always to create a system that countries look like? demonstrating the effectiveness of this choices in their work and that, with a little could serve as a sustainable model for Helping farmers is a major focus of approach in several African nations. As a training, they’re usually able to make use other countries. our work in Africa, too. In addition to result of our work, millions of farmers on of the information we provide. Farmers Developing countries need our help providing farmers with climate forecasts, the continent now have access to insur- in developing countries have to be pretty because they’re especially vulnerable to we’ve developed a new type of agricultural ance for the first time. savvy in order to survive. climate variability. Nearly 80 percent of insurance, called index insurance, that is- They’re benefiting in some surprising IRI scientists are not typically work- the world’s farmers still depend primar- sues payouts to farmers in years when the ways. It’s not just a matter of covering ing directly with individual farmers, ily on rainfall, rather than irrigation, for weather is especially bad. This is different their losses in bad years. Insurance though. We often provide training to local

watering their crops. That means that if from traditional insurance. Traditional can also give farmers the security they BLAKELEY SARI agriculture officials or humanitarian-aid

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4.17_BigIdea_FINAL_Revise.indd 40 11/14/17 11:26 AM A meeting of farmers because major agribusinesses here in the in Bagerhat district, US, as well as in other wealthy countries, Bangladesh, to discuss climate-adaptation have such elaborate irrigation systems and strategies. insurance subsidies that they’re somewhat insulated from the variability of climate.

Do you see international support for this kind of work gaining momentum? Oh, absolutely. Global warming is a driving force behind it. Outside the United States, where discussion about climate change has not been warped by politics, there is little debate about whether global warming is real. Everybody sees it’s real. Farmers can Lisa Goddard see the effects it’s having. They know that they’re experiencing increasing tempera- tures and thus more severe droughts, and more powerful storms than their parents “Nearly 80 percent of the world’s and grandparents saw. And city dwellers recognize that they’re becoming more vulnerable to floods and water shortages farmers still depend primarily and deadly heat waves. Just in the last few years, we’ve seen more and more countries on rainfall, rather than irrigation, willing to invest in climate forecasting systems, as the need to adapt to climate for watering their crops.” change takes on greater urgency. What are the challenges of your work need to fully capitalize on good weather. workers who then translate the forecasts moving forward? We’ve found that poor farmers who are to farmers in ways that make sense to You’d think that in an age when weather insured are much more likely to respond them. In this way, we can help the largest satellites are continuously orbiting the to favorable climate forecasts by taking number of people. earth we’d have all the data we need to insurance policies pay people in accor- calculated risks that enable them to But even working with these interme- produce climate forecasts for the entire dance with the losses that they personally get out of debt, and even see profits. diaries, we face challenges. In some of planet, but that’s not the case. The prob- experience. But that kind of insurance This might mean getting small loans to the places where we’ve worked, the local lem is that in order to produce forecasts is prohibitively expensive to administer purchase fertilizer, high-yield seeds, or language has no word for the concept that are truly useful to people — that is, in some developing countries. That’s be- additional livestock. We’ve shown that if of “probability.” Once, in a meeting in those that indicate how an upcoming cause in order to verify losses, insurance farmers capitalize on a few good seasons Kenya, a colleague of mine communicated season’s climate may compare to what adjusters would have to visit every single in this way, they can often lift themselves the concept to local aid workers using a people in the region are accustomed to farm, and they’d be inspecting huge num- out of poverty. paper airplane, which he flew repeatedly, — you also need historical climate data. bers of small farms spread out over vast marking all the spots where it landed on This typically consists of many years distances. But if payouts are based on a Is there a certain level of education the floor to represent the range of possible of rain-gauge and temperature-sensor climate outcome, the administrative costs people need to use your forecasts? climate outcomes. The locals got it, and readings that have been digitized and plummet and insurers are able to sell We find that people of all backgrounds are their communities have since embraced uploaded into global databases. But in policies for less. We’ve conducted studies accustomed to dealing with fairly complex our forecasts. some developing countries, this data is in- FROM TOP: FRANCESCO FIONDELLA, JEFFREY SAKS demonstrating the effectiveness of this choices in their work and that, with a little complete or hasn’t been digitized yet. One approach in several African nations. As a training, they’re usually able to make use Do farmers in the United States rely on of our big initiatives now is to work with result of our work, millions of farmers on of the information we provide. Farmers seasonal climate forecasts? African countries to fill in the gaps in their the continent now have access to insur- in developing countries have to be pretty Not as much as you might think. The historical records so that we can generate ance for the first time. savvy in order to survive. National Weather Service generates some better forecasts for them. In the future, we They’re benefiting in some surprising IRI scientists are not typically work- seasonal forecasts, but the agency hon- hope to provide the entire continent with ways. It’s not just a matter of covering ing directly with individual farmers, estly doesn’t have a lot of monitoring and forecasts their losses in bad years. Insurance though. We often provide training to local traction with American To learn more, visit as detailed as those now www.giving.columbia.edu/iri can also give farmers the security they BLAKELEY SARI agriculture officials or humanitarian-aid farmers. This is partly available in Uruguay.

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4.17_BigIdea_FINAL_Revise.indd 41 11/14/17 11:26 AM EXPLORATIONS FRONTIERS OF RESEARCH AND Alaska at risk for massive DISCOVERY tsunami, study fi nds

cientists probing after surveying parts of the Bécel says that it is impossi- the sea fl oor o the Aleutian subduction zone, a ble to predict if and when the southern coast of nearly two-thousand-mile- dislodged plate might move. Alaska have found long fault that extends from She points out that while the geological features Russia’s Kamchatka Penin- Aleutian subduction zone Sthat indicate the region sula all the way to the Gulf of is one of the world’s most is at greater Alaska. Using 3D-imaging active fault lines, the plate risk of equipment aboard the fragment is located in an area Russia Marcus G. Langseth, a where only minor earth- research vessel that Colum- quakes have been recorded. bia operates on behalf of the This could mean one of two National Science Founda- things: either the area truly tion, the scientists created is benign or else the colliding cross-section images of plates have been building two tectonic plates that up pressure for ages and are Bering Sea Alaska are ramming into each therefore due for a big quake. Socializing with the Kremlin other. They discovered “It’s impossible to tell for that a large section of sure,” she says. “But we’ve ublic scrutiny of Facebook’s role one plate has broken detected tiny movements in the 2016 presidential election o its main slab; the that tell us that at least some intensifi ed this past fall when Anchorage scientists say this sec- pressure is building.” the company acknowledged that tion, which is roughly Bécel says that her study political ads bought by Russian the size of Delaware, has broader implications for Pagents were viewed by ten million people. could be propelled vio- understanding the threat of Many members of Congress responded lently upward during an tsunamis around the world. by demanding that Facebook be subject earthquake and generate an Until recently, she says, to the same FCC rules that ensure that enormous tsunami. scientists did not have access traditional media clearly identify sponsors “A strong earthquake in to 3D-imaging technology of political advertising. the area could shake it loose and thought that the type But a recent study by Jonathan Albright, The discovery being and cause seventy-fi ve-foot of rock formation her team research director of the Columbia Journalism was made near the hit by a waves to head both north found — what geologists call a School’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, western end of the Alaska Peninsula. tsunami than previously and south,” says Bécel, whose “splay” fault — was extremely suggests that US lawmakers could face an recognized. The researchers, fi ndings appear in the jour- rare. But the splay fault she uphill battle in combating foreign powers’ led by Columbia seismologist nal Nature Geoscience. “This and her colleagues discovered online propaganda campaigns. Indeed, his Anne Bécel, say that a tectonic could devastate parts of the is the second one found in the study reveals that the campaigns are mas- MICHAEL SCHMELING / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO plate on a fault line there is po- Alaska Peninsula, which is northern Pacifi c in just the last terfully exploiting the community-building sitioned in such a way that, in just sixty miles to the north. few years. The fi rst has already power of social media. the event of an earthquake, it It could also a ect areas slipped: it caused the 130-foot- Albright conducted an in-depth investiga- could jump several meters and as far away as the western high tsunami that hit Tohoku, tion of the online propaganda campaigns in push a tremendous amount coast of the US and Hawaii, Japan, in 2011, killing more early October. Journalists had by that time of water toward the shore. although the wave wouldn’t than fi fteen thousand people uncovered the names of six inauthentic, Bécel and her colleagues be nearly so large by the time and destroying the Fukushima Russian-controlled Facebook accounts —

came to this conclusion it traveled that far.” nuclear-power plant. PHOTO PICTURE ALLIANCE / ALAMY STOCK DPA BOTTOM: PHOTO; / ALAMY STOCK ARTBABII PHOTO, / ALAMY STOCK KOWALSKY ART TOP: Being Patriotic, Heart of Texas, Secured

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4.17_Expl_FINAL.indd 42 11/14/17 12:19 PM Data reveals Alaska at risk for massive X factor in tsunami, study finds pop hits

Bécel says that it is impossi- hat makes ble to predict if and when the the perfect dislodged plate might move. pop song, She points out that while the one that will Aleutian subduction zone rocket to the is one of the world’s most Wtop of the Billboard charts? active fault lines, the plate According to Michael fragment is located in an area Mauskapf of Columbia where only minor earth- Business School and Noah quakes have been recorded. Askin of the INSEAD This could mean one of two business school in France, things: either the area truly data analysis provides some is benign or else the colliding answers. The researchers, plates have been building who recently examined the up pressure for ages and are acoustic qualities of the therefore due for a big quake. Socializing with the Kremlin nearly twenty-seven thousand “It’s impossible to tell for songs that appeared on the sure,” she says. “But we’ve ublic scrutiny of Facebook’s role Borders, United Muslims of America, Blacktivist, Billboard charts between detected tiny movements in the 2016 presidential election and LGBT United — that the company had 1958 and 2016, found that that tell us that at least some intensified this past fall when shut down over the summer. Despite the ac- pressure is building.” the company acknowledged that counts having been deleted, Albright was able Bécel says that her study political ads bought by Russian to unearth their content using a social-media has broader implications for Pagents were viewed by ten million people. analytics tool called CrowdTangle. Specifically, understanding the threat of Many members of Congress responded he analyzed the last five hundred posts that tsunamis around the world. by demanding that Facebook be subject had appeared on each of the six pages. He Until recently, she says, to the same FCC rules that ensure that discovered that their reach had been extraor- scientists did not have access traditional media clearly identify sponsors dinary, with Facebook users having “liked” or to 3D-imaging technology of political advertising. commented on the posts nineteen million and thought that the type But a recent study by Jonathan Albright, times and shared them 340 million times. of rock formation her team research director of the Columbia Journalism Albright also revealed that few of the found — what geologists call a School’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Russians’ posts before the 2016 presiden- “splay” fault — was extremely suggests that US lawmakers could face an tial election explicitly addressed voting for rare. But the splay fault she uphill battle in combating foreign powers’ Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Rather, Adele and her colleagues discovered online propaganda campaigns. Indeed, his the posts tended to contain inflammatory is the second one found in the study reveals that the campaigns are mas- political statements whose ultimate goal the most popular tunes MICHAEL SCHMELING / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO northern Pacific in just the last terfully exploiting the community-building seemed to be sowing division in American sound different — but not few years. The first has already power of social media. society and dampening people’s enthusiasm too different. slipped: it caused the 130-foot- Albright conducted an in-depth investiga- for voting altogether. “Really successful tunes high tsunami that hit Tohoku, tion of the online propaganda campaigns in Albright has referred to the campaigns as strike a delicate balance Japan, in 2011, killing more early October. Journalists had by that time “cultural hacking.” Russian agents, he notes, between innovation and than fifteen thousand people uncovered the names of six inauthentic, “are using systems that were set up by these familiarity and stand out and destroying the Fukushima Russian-controlled Facebook accounts — platforms to increase engagement. They’re from the competition with-

nuclear-power plant. PHOTO PICTURE ALLIANCE / ALAMY STOCK DPA BOTTOM: PHOTO; / ALAMY STOCK ARTBABII PHOTO, / ALAMY STOCK KOWALSKY ART TOP: Being Patriotic, Heart of Texas, Secured feeding outrage — and it’s easy to do.” out alienating listeners,” says

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4.17_Expl_FINAL.indd 43 11/14/17 12:19 PM EXPLORATIONS Mauskapf, a Columbia as- sistant professor of business. Cartographers to the rescue Flying the “This drives an evolution of the art form.” eco-friendly The authors cite Adele’s fter Hurricane Maria they noted where every dwelling was “Set Fire to the Rain,” Justin slammed into Puerto Rico located within a roughly 150-square- skies Bieber’s “Sorry,” and Rihan- in September, international mile patch of land outside Ceiba, a na’s “Diamonds” as songs aid agencies were confront- town on the northeastern coast of the team of Columbia undergraduates that have topped the charts ed with an unexpected island. They then transferred recently took first place in NASA’s in recent years because they Achallenge: no up-to-date maps were the information to OpenStreetMap, Aeronautics University Design Chal- were “optimally different” available for some parts of the island, an open-source platform that lenge, an annual design contest that from the competition. so relief workers had trouble locating invites people to map remote parts calls on college students to come Mauskapf and Askin’s people who needed help. of the world. Aup with ideas for environmentally responsible paper is based on their Soon a call went out to cartogra- “Many regions have never been airplanes. The Columbia team, led by engineering analysis of data from the phers around the world, asking them digitally mapped, in part because students Elon Gordon and Leon Kim, submitted plans for a music-streaming service to improvise a solution. Internet companies like Google and two-hundred-seat commercial airliner whose distinct structure — Spotify, which characterizes At Columbia, about sixty faculty, Nokia don’t have the financial incen- a saucer-like body with a row of jet engines mounted on its tail songs by key, tempo, mode, students, and local residents tive to do so,” says Juan Francisco — would make it extremely energy-efficient. and time signature, as well responded, gathering in Butler Saldarriaga ’12GSAPP, an adjunct Called the Gryphon, the plane would be nearly the size of a Boeing as by novel measures like Library on September 29 for what assistant professor of urban planning 747 but much more aerodynamic. Partly as a result, it would con- “danceability,” “liveness,” and architecture and one of the sume 50 to 60 percent less fuel and emit far less exhaust. “acousticness,” “instrumen- event’s organizers. The students’ design calls for the aircraft to be built from a num- talness,” “speechiness,” and Those who attended the Columbia ber of new, ultra-lightweight synthetic materials and to be powered emotional positivity. While event succeeded in mapping the area by engines that incorporate superconducting generators and a novel Spotify scrutinizes this data around Ceiba within three hours; to understand its subscribers’ their efforts were listening habits, Mauskapf At left, history complemented by professor Manan and Askin used it to deter- Ahmed helps those of volunteers mine the degree to which in- a participant at dozens of other A skin patch that dissolves love handles dividual songs are represen- in Columbia’s US universities, who “mapathon.” tative of their time periods. Below, a student mapped additional The researchers say that examines satel- sections of Puerto further analysis of the data lite imagery of Rico over the next Puerto Rico. could reveal more nuanced few days. details about the way Co-organizer pop-music trends emerge, Alex Gil, who is the shift, and fade over time — digital-scholarship information that could be of coordinator at interest to musicologists and Columbia University cultural historians, as well Libraries, says that as artists. he is working with “One of the lessons of researchers at other our study is that no matter institutions to estab- how hard record companies lish a streamlined try to manufacture hits, process for similar they’re never going to be able crowdsourcing efforts t sounds too good to be true: to do so merely by churning in the future. a medicated skin patch that out what’s been popular in they called a “mapathon.” The partic- “There’s no doubt this made a dif- dissolves unwanted body fat. PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND the past,” says Mauskapf, ipants, who included both mapping ference in Puerto Rico,” he says. “Red But it’s no scam. whose study appears in experts and novices, sat in small Cross officials distributed printouts Developed by scientists at Colum- the American Sociological circles, with their laptops open to of the maps that we helped create to Ibia University Medical Center and the Review. “Audiences always satellite photographs of Puerto Rico. their workers in the field. That was University of North Carolina, the patch

demand freshness.” Zooming in on the images, very satisfying.” OF CUMC COURTESY RIGHT: BOTTOM GMBH / ALAMY; ZOONAR LEFT: BOTTOM NICK BARCLAY; TOP: contains microscopic needles that release

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4.17_Expl_FINAL.indd 44 11/14/17 12:19 PM An artist’s Cartographers to the rescue Flying the rendering of the award-winning eco-friendly design. they noted where every dwelling was located within a roughly 150-square- skies mile patch of land outside Ceiba, a town on the northeastern coast of the team of Columbia undergraduates island. They then transferred recently took first place in NASA’s the information to OpenStreetMap, Aeronautics University Design Chal- an open-source platform that lenge, an annual design contest that invites people to map remote parts calls on college students to come of the world. Aup with ideas for environmentally responsible “Many regions have never been airplanes. The Columbia team, led by engineering digitally mapped, in part because students Elon Gordon and Leon Kim, submitted plans for a fuel-injection system. These investments, they say, would pay for Internet companies like Google and two-hundred-seat commercial airliner whose distinct structure — themselves in improved fuel efficiency. Nokia don’t have the financial incen- a saucer-like body with a row of jet engines mounted on its tail The twelve-person Columbia team, whose members are a part tive to do so,” says Juan Francisco — would make it extremely energy-efficient. of the engineering school’s Columbia Space Initiative, formally pre- Saldarriaga ’12GSAPP, an adjunct Called the Gryphon, the plane would be nearly the size of a Boeing sented their design at an engineering symposium that NASA hosted assistant professor of urban planning 747 but much more aerodynamic. Partly as a result, it would con- at its Langley Research Center in Virginia on September 26. and architecture and one of the sume 50 to 60 percent less fuel and emit far less exhaust. “We’re hopeful that in the coming years people in the aviation event’s organizers. The students’ design calls for the aircraft to be built from a num- industry will draw on our proposal for inspiration about what is pos- Those who attended the Columbia ber of new, ultra-lightweight synthetic materials and to be powered sible,” says Kim. “Building greener airplanes will have a tremendous event succeeded in mapping the area by engines that incorporate superconducting generators and a novel impact on the health of our planet.” around Ceiba within three hours; their efforts were complemented by those of volunteers at dozens of other A skin patch that dissolves love handles US universities, who mapped additional The patch drugs that boost metabolism them. The medications work by induc- sections of Puerto contains micro- and turn the body into a ing white fat cells, which store energy scopic needles Rico over the next that release fat-burning machine. The in the form of triglycerides, to convert few days. fat-busting scientists recently tested the themselves into brown fat cells, which Co-organizer drugs beneath patch on mice and showed periodically burn off to help maintain the the skin. Alex Gil, who is the that it reduced body fat in body’s core temperature. digital-scholarship treated areas by about 20 “Brown fat cells are not typically found coordinator at percent. They expect to in adult humans, but rather in infants Columbia University begin human trials in and in mammals that hibernate,” says Libraries, says that two to three years. Qiang. “The drugs released by our patch he is working with “The patch would trick white fat cells into thinking not only researchers at other be painless to wear, that they are brown fat cells, but also that institutions to estab- because its needles are the body is cold and needs extra heat.” lish a streamlined so tiny,” says Li Qiang, The researchers are currently studying process for similar an assistant professor which drugs work best. crowdsourcing efforts t sounds too good to be true: of pathology and cell biol- “Many people will no doubt be excited in the future. a medicated skin patch that ogy who leads the Columbia to learn that we may be able to offer a “There’s no doubt this made a dif- dissolves unwanted body fat. research team. “You’d wear it for a few noninvasive alternative to liposuction PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ference in Puerto Rico,” he says. “Red But it’s no scam. hours, with the needles releasing a steady for reducing love handles,” says Qiang. Cross officials distributed printouts Developed by scientists at Colum- stream of drugs beneath the skin.” “What’s much more important is that our of the maps that we helped create to Ibia University Medical Center and the The drugs delivered by the patch were patch may provide a safe and effective their workers in the field. That was University of North Carolina, the patch developed years ago. But until now, scien- means of treating obesity and related

very satisfying.” OF CUMC COURTESY RIGHT: BOTTOM GMBH / ALAMY; ZOONAR LEFT: BOTTOM NICK BARCLAY; TOP: contains microscopic needles that release tists had no way of safely administering metabolic disorders such as diabetes.”

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4.17_Expl_FINAL.indd 45 11/14/17 12:19 PM EXPLORATIONS graduate student who Paul Rudolph’s housing development worked on the project. “We Elevated airport atop Hell’s Kitchen felt a deep responsibility to KPF’s New York Stock Exchange get this right, since our mod- el would be the only three- dimensional representation of his plan in existence.” For other projects, like Pei’s 1956 proposal to erect

Raymond Hood’s apartment­-complex bridge

The Norman Bel Geddes’s floating airstrip Alternative Apple Santiago Calatrava’s aerial gondola

f only the architects were in charge. New York City might have apartment build- ings atop its suspension Ibridges, a floating airstrip in its harbor, an opera house shaped like a slipper, and an ultramodern residential enclave on Ellis Island with Building a Paul Rudolph’s model from residential moving sidewalks for Plexiglas. complex. public transportation. These are just a few of the five boroughs at the Queens same name. Whereas Lubell 1966 plan for “Leapfrog City” offbeat and ultimately unre- Museum. The students’ and Goldin’s book presents — a network of elevated alized ideas that prominent temporary makeover of the artwork depicting 125 roads, buildings, and plazas architects have proposed for Panorama, which was origi- neglected designs by the that would have straddled New York City over the past nally built for the 1964 New likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, East Harlem — is document- century. Now their visions York World’s Fair and was Buckminster Fuller, I. M. Pei, ed only by the late architect’s an hourglass-shaped tower have been brought to life last updated in 1992, is part and GSAPP’s own Steven rough sketches, the students atop Grand Central Termi- in miniature by a team of of the museum’s new Never Holl, the students’ task was to consulted with his son, nal, called the Hyperboloid, students at Columbia’s Grad- Built New York exhibition, show how the most ambitious Christian, who is also an blueprints were available.

uate School of Architecture, which is on display through of the passed-over proposals architect, to determine how PHOTOS COURTESY OF COLUMBIA GSAPP “The challenge there was Planning, and Preservation. February 18. could have reshaped the city best to represent it. deciding how much detail to The students recently made The Columbia students as a whole. “He was intimately aware include,” says Travis Tabak, models of fifty-six such were hired to create the mod- In some cases, the students of his father’s vision and another graduate student of projects and inserted them els by exhibition curators Sam conducted considerable actually came to Columbia architecture. “Do you artic- into the Panorama of the City Lubell and Greg Goldin, who research before creating to work through the details ulate every single truss that of New York, a room-sized, based Never Built New York their models. For example, with us,” says Adam Paul would have been visible in 1:1,200 scale replica of the on their 2016 book of the because John Johansen’s Susaneck, an architecture its delicate façade? We could

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4.17_Expl_FINAL.indd 46 11/14/17 12:19 PM graduate student who have done that, but it ulti- worked on the project. “We mately proved impractical, STUDY Walk it off People with desk jobs can significantly increase their felt a deep responsibility to since we had ten weeks to HALL r e s e a r c h life expectancy by getting up and get this right, since our mod- complete dozens of models.” b r i e f s walking around at least once every The students produced el would be the only three- half hour, according to a new study by Keith Diaz, a dimensional representation all their models in GSAPP’s Columbia assistant professor of behavioral medicine. of his plan in existence.” Fabrication Lab, using a 3D For other projects, like printer for the most intricate ALS breakthrough A team of researchers led by Pei’s 1956 proposal to erect structures and sculpting Columbia biochemist Tom Maniatis has found that one of the body’s natural defenses against the neurode- generative disorder ALS can exacerbate the condition in its later stages. The scientists say that further study of the defense mechanism, which involves the disposal of old and worn-out components of brain cells, could lead to new therapies.

Beetles on the move Forest-munching pine beetles native to the southern United States have been moving northward as a result of rising temperatures, say Columbia climate scientists Corey Lesk and Radley Horton ’07GSAS. They warn that the beetles could Installing destroy huge tracts of woodland across the northern Robert US and Canada over the next few decades. Moses’s Lower Manhattan Expressway. Digital dividend The introduction of high-speed I. M. Pei’s others out of Plexiglas with Internet to many African cities over the past decade has boosted employment by as much as 10 percent and Hyperboloid laser-guided cutting tools. tower. reduced income inequality, finds a new study by Jonas Joshua Jordan, an adjunct Hjort, an economist at Columbia Business School. assistant professor of archi- tecture who oversaw their Depression on the rise Rates of depression are work, says the final display surging in the United States, according to research by is provocative for depicting Renee Goodwin, an epidemiologist at Columbia’s would-be marvels (Santiago Mailman School of Public Health. Goodwin’s team Calatrava’s 2006 proposal analyzed mental-health surveys of more than 600,000 to connect Manhattan and people and found that from 2005 to 2015 depression Governors Island via an aerial rose significantly among Americans age twelve and older, gondola) alongside visions of with the most rapid increases seen in young people.

1966 plan for “Leapfrog City” pure lunacy (a 1946 plan to For richer or poorer New research by Columbia cover Hell’s Kitchen with an — a network of elevated economists Pierre-André Chiappori and Bernard Sala- roads, buildings, and plazas elevated airstrip). nié, and Yoram Weiss of Tel Aviv University, shows that that would have straddled And then there are the over the past fifty years Americans have become more East Harlem — is document- proposals that fall somewhere likely to marry someone from their own economic ed only by the late architect’s an hourglass-shaped tower in between. Pei’s hourglass class — a trend that the authors say is exacerbating rough sketches, the students atop Grand Central Termi- tower is considered by many income inequality. consulted with his son, nal, called the Hyperboloid, architectural critics a lost gem Christian, who is also an blueprints were available. — yet its construction would Suspect behavior Columbia statistics PhD student Jonathan Auerbach says that he has found evidence architect, to determine how PHOTOS COURTESY OF COLUMBIA GSAPP “The challenge there was have destroyed Grand Central that suggests New York City police supervisors may be best to represent it. deciding how much detail to Terminal as we know it. holding their officers to ticket quotas, despite the prac- “He was intimately aware include,” says Travis Tabak, “How do you reconcile tice being illegal. In analyzing all traffic tickets issued by another graduate student of these twin impulses, to create of his father’s vision and NYPD officers between 2013 and 2015, he discovered actually came to Columbia architecture. “Do you artic- and to preserve?” says Jordan. that the number of tickets issued daily increases steadi- to work through the details ulate every single truss that “This is the question that ly over the course of each month, with 25 percent more with us,” says Adam Paul would have been visible in city planners and architects tickets issued on the last day than on the first. Susaneck, an architecture its delicate façade? We could wrestle with every day.” — Julia Joy

COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18 47

4.17_Expl_FINAL.indd 47 11/14/17 12:19 PM Throughout the show, a relationship between Black variety of media — film, women artists and second- NETWORK photography, poster, painting, wave feminism.” drawing, sculpture, instal- Her latest project at the lation, and text — capture Whitney, titled Toyin Ojih YOUR ALUMNI State of the Art a wide range of protest Odutola: To Wander Deter- CONNECTION movements and perspectives. mined, features drawings by a Such breadth in one exhibit Nigerian-American artist who he Whitney demonstration against the reflects Hockley’s philosophy explores themes of identity Museum’s elevator Iraq War. This tangible as a curator. “I’m interested and narrative through richly doors open onto a reminder of art’s continued in expanding the types of textured portraits of fiction- film projected on a role in responding to conflict work we see in institutions,” al characters. Like Hock- black wall. Grainy introduces visitors to An she explains. “At the Whitney ley, Odutola is in her early Tfigures march in what looks Incomplete History of Protest: that means thinking in the thirties, and, like Hockley, like a Vietnam War protest. Selections from the Whitney’s most expansive way possible she was born in Africa but But the 8 mm footage isn’t Collection, 1940–2017, an about what it means to be an grew up in the United States. as old as it looks. In fact, it exhibition co-curated by American artist.” “Odutola’s also interested in was shot by artist Josephine Rujeko Hockley ’05CC that Hockley arrived at the exploring who’s an American Meckseper in 2004 at a will run until spring 2018. Whitney as an assistant and what we talk about when curator in March 2017 and we talk about American art,” brought with her a complex Hockley says. sense of American identity. Odutola’s drawings, on view Born in Zimbabwe to a until February 25, aren’t just Zimbabwean mother and an beautiful; they invite viewers English father, she moved to to think about represen- the United States at age two tations of race, class, and and grew up in Washington, nationality. Hockley explains: DC, and New York City. “I’m “Society has a tendency to kind of a hodgepodge of flatten the experiences of things,” she says. people of color into a kind of Hockley’s career took root monolith — into a singular

at Columbia, where, as an LEFT: JODY ROGAC; RIGHT: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK; BOTTOM: RON AMSTUTZ ‘Black experience,’ for exam- art-history major, she studied ple — and Odutola pushes the ways in which American audiences to think about the art has historically represented specificities and nuances of a relatively narrow spectrum individual lives.” of American people. After As a curator, Hockley says Rujeko Hockley graduation, she landed a job she is motivated to show- as a curatorial assistant at the case work that reflects an Studio Museum in Harlem ever-complex, ever-diverse and worked there for two America. “We’re doing our- years before moving to Laos selves a disservice if we don’t to teach English, and then embrace the full range of to California to start a PhD human experience,” she says. program at UC San Diego. In “Of course, that’s a hard thing 2012, she joined the staff of to do, and we struggle with it the Brooklyn Museum, where as a nation. But I see great art she co-organized powerful all the time, and I see people exhibitions including this who are really engaged with Above: Representatives of year’s We Wanted a Revolu- their current moment and State, by Toyin Ojih Odutola. tion: Black Radical Women, surroundings. And to me, At right: An Incomplete History 1965–85, which, Hockley that’s all good.” of Protest at the Whitney.

says, “really homed in on the JETS OF THE NEW YORK COURTESY — Julia Joy

48 COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18

4.17_Network.indd 48 11/16/17 12:00 PM Throughout the show, a relationship between Black variety of media — film, women artists and second- photography, poster, painting, wave feminism.” drawing, sculpture, instal- Her latest project at the lation, and text — capture Whitney, titled Toyin Ojih State of the Art a wide range of protest Odutola: To Wander Deter- movements and perspectives. mined, features drawings by a Such breadth in one exhibit Nigerian-American artist who reflects Hockley’s philosophy explores themes of identity as a curator. “I’m interested and narrative through richly in expanding the types of textured portraits of fiction- work we see in institutions,” al characters. Like Hock- she explains. “At the Whitney ley, Odutola is in her early that means thinking in the thirties, and, like Hockley, most expansive way possible she was born in Africa but about what it means to be an grew up in the United States. American artist.” “Odutola’s also interested in From Light Blue to Green Hockley arrived at the exploring who’s an American Whitney as an assistant and what we talk about when Josh Martin ’14CC majored in anthropology, where he tackled curator in March 2017 and we talk about American art,” the study of human societies. Now he’s busy tackling Patriots, brought with her a complex Hockley says. Saints, and Buccaneers. Martin, an outside linebacker and sense of American identity. Odutola’s drawings, on view special-teams handyman for the New York Jets, is the only Born in Zimbabwe to a until February 25, aren’t just Columbia graduate currently playing in the NFL. After a standout Zimbabwean mother and an beautiful; they invite viewers English father, she moved to to think about represen- career with the Columbia Lions, Martin signed with the Kansas the United States at age two tations of race, class, and City Chiefs in 2013 as an undrafted free agent. He joined the Jets and grew up in Washington, nationality. Hockley explains: in 2015, and in 2017 he signed a two-year, $4.3 million contract. DC, and New York City. “I’m “Society has a tendency to kind of a hodgepodge of flatten the experiences of things,” she says. people of color into a kind of Hockley’s career took root monolith — into a singular at Columbia, where, as an LEFT: JODY ROGAC; RIGHT: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY, NEW YORK; BOTTOM: RON AMSTUTZ ‘Black experience,’ for exam- New Business in an art-history major, she studied ple — and Odutola pushes the ways in which American audiences to think about the Ancient Land art has historically represented specificities and nuances of a relatively narrow spectrum individual lives.” of American people. After As a curator, Hockley says he young entrepreneur bator for conflict-affected populations graduation, she landed a job she is motivated to show- stood in front of the panel in the Middle East. as a curatorial assistant at the case work that reflects an of judges, fiddled nervously “There are over a million Iraqi IDPs Studio Museum in Harlem ever-complex, ever-diverse with a PowerPoint presenta- (internally displaced persons) in Kurd- and worked there for two America. “We’re doing our- tion, and prepared to pitch istan, and 250,000 Syrian refugees. So years before moving to Laos selves a disservice if we don’t This idea: a virtual-reality game that there’s definitely need,” says cofounder to teach English, and then embrace the full range of would help refugees learn their new and executive director Alice Bosley to California to start a PhD human experience,” she says. local language. ’17SIPA. “Entrepreneurship training program at UC San Diego. In “Of course, that’s a hard thing The scene, which took place in a helps address some of the most pressing 2012, she joined the staff of to do, and we struggle with it gleaming, glass-walled new co-working problems in the community, particularly the Brooklyn Museum, where as a nation. But I see great art space, could have been lifted from any employment and education.” she co-organized powerful all the time, and I see people venture competition in Silicon Valley. In addition to weekend boot camps exhibitions including this who are really engaged with But there was a twist: the entrepreneur in the spring and summer, the orga- year’s We Wanted a Revolu- their current moment and was himself a refugee. And he was nization’s main program is a three- tion: Black Radical Women, surroundings. And to me, pitching not in California, but in Erbil, month-long incubator offered in the 1965–85, which, Hockley that’s all good.” Iraq, at a summer boot camp organized fall. Participants receive free office

says, “really homed in on the JETS OF THE NEW YORK COURTESY — Julia Joy by Five One Labs, the first startup incu- space, training in areas like financial

COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18 49

4.17_Network.indd 49 11/16/17 10:24 AM NETWORK planning and marketing, mentorship “There are a lot of refugee-support Wall was killed in August from experienced entrepreneurs in the organizations dedicated to short-term Scholarship at the age of thirty while Middle East and the US, and a chance care — basically, how to keep people working on a story about to compete for $15,000 in seed money. alive,” Bosley says. “Very few are focused Honors Peter Madsen, a Danish Some businesses in the incubator’s on what comes next.” inventor who had crowd- inaugural cohort, like the one making Bosley and Letayf started working Kim Wall funded and built a mini- the virtual-reality language game, focus intensively on the program in 2016 as submarine. Mystery shrouds specifically on needs that people see in a part of the SIPA Dean’s Public Policy the exact circumstances of the refugee community. Others, like an Challenge, an annual competition for ournalist Kim Wall her death. Wall boarded online pharmacy service, are already business ideas that use technology to ’13JRN, ’15SIPA the submarine for a short common in Western nations but new to help solve global problems. Bosley also was known for her voyage. Then the sub sank Iraq. And still others are, as Bosley puts worked part-time at the Columbia curiosity, mischievous and Madsen was rescued at it, universal needs. Entrepreneurship Design Studio, which wit, and propensity sea. More than a week later, “We have three young men who want she credits with helping her to develop Jto pursue offbeat stories Wall’s body was found in a to build a french-fry business,” she says. the prototype for the program. that followed what she bay near Copenhagen. Mad- “And it makes sense. Iraq actually has “The competition really pushed us called “the undercurrents sen has been charged with an abundance of potatoes.” to get our plan done and provided us of rebellion.” Her stories her murder. Bosley came up with the idea for Five with milestones that we needed to for publications such as In October, Wall’s family, One Labs with classmate Patricia Letayf reach along the way,” Letayf says. “As the Guardian, Harper’s, friends, and colleagues gath- ’17SIPA. Both women have backgrounds we advanced through each round, we and the Atlantic covered ered at the Graduate School in the Middle East — Bosley grew up earned more funding.” a broad range of topics: of Journalism to remember mostly in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and This past March, when many of their the talented young reporter. Letayf was raised in America but has classmates were headed off on spring “Humanity needs more family in Syria and Lebanon. Before break, Bosley and Letayf traveled courageous women like coming to Columbia, Letayf was a polit- to Erbil to run a pilot version of the Kim — women who want ical analyst specializing in the region program. After graduating in May, they and dare to give their voices and Bosley worked in the innovation started working on it full-time. to the weak ones and make office of the American University of Bosley and Letayf initially picked this planet a better place to Erbil as the first incubator site largely live,” Wall’s mother, Ingrid for logistical reasons: they both had Wall, said. To honor their connections in the region, and the city is daughter, the family has one of the few places with a significant raised more than $100,000 refugee community where refugees have to establish a grant fund the legal right not only to work but also through the International to own businesses. Women’s Media Foundation. They’ve also found it to be an inspir- The grant will be offered to ing, hopeful place. Like Mosul, which Kim Wall female journalists covering sits only fifty-five miles away, Erbil is the same “undercurrents of an ancient city. But while Mosul has leaking radioactive waste rebellion” that drove Wall as been reduced to rubble by a devastating in the Marshall Islands, the a storyteller. Alice Bosley nine-month-long battle between Iraqi ethical pitfalls of tourism in The journalism school (left) and forces and ISIS, Erbil is blossoming. North Korea, the propaga- has also created a Kim Wall Patricia LEFT: COURTESY OF PATRICIA LETAYF; RIGHT: BENJAMIN HAAS Letayf in The ancient Assyrian fortress there tion of pop culture in Cuba. Scholarship Fund, for which Kurdistan. stands intact, presiding over a busy Her brand of journalism it is accepting donations. marketplace, new suburban subdivi- — which combined, as she Dean Steve Coll says he is sions, and modern office buildings. liked to say, “shoe-leather seeking an endowment for Iraq, advising students who were hop- “The startup community is new in reporting with a foreign- the fund so that it might ing to start their own businesses. Iraq, but Erbil is lively, with an engaged policy lens” — probed be offered in perpetuity. Bosley and Letayf were both inter- community,” says Letayf. “We’re excited corners of the world that Contributions may be made ested in working with refugee popu- to be there, working with these remark- had been overlooked and online at journalism.givenow lations and saw entrepreneurship as able people, and we can’t wait to show gave voice to those who .columbia.edu. a way to create long-term solutions off some of their stories.” might otherwise have — Benjamin Preston for building productive communities. — Rebecca Shapiro remained silent. ’11JRN

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4.17_Network.indd 50 11/16/17 10:24 AM Wall was killed in August Scholarship at the age of thirty while Attention Shoppers working on a story about A guide to this year’s alumni-produced holiday gifts Honors Peter Madsen, a Danish inventor who had crowd- Kim Wall funded and built a mini- Carryall tote bag from Dagny submarine. Mystery shrouds Scout, a women’s sports the exact circumstances of Distillery Cats, apparel brand founded by a cheeky guide to Lauren Amery ’16BUS. ournalist Kim Wall her death. Wall boarded whiskey distilleries $65. dagnyscout.com ’13JRN, ’15SIPA the submarine for a short and their feline inhabitants by Brad was known for her voyage. Then the sub sank Thomas Parsons curiosity, mischievous and Madsen was rescued at ’95SOA. $14.99. amazon.com wit, and propensity sea. More than a week later, Jto pursue o beat stories Wall’s body was found in a that followed what she bay near Copenhagen. Mad- called “the undercurrents sen has been charged with of rebellion.” Her stories her murder. for publications such as In October, Wall’s family, the Guardian, Harper’s, friends, and colleagues gath- and the Atlantic covered ered at the Graduate School Tequila from Blue Nectar, a broad range of topics: of Journalism to remember cofounded by Nikhil the talented young reporter. Bahadur ’12BUS. $49.99. bluenectartequila.com “Humanity needs more courageous women like Kim — women who want and dare to give their voices Men’s slope jacket to the weak ones and make from Orsden, a ski apparel this planet a better place to company founded by Sara Segall ’14BUS. live,” Wall’s mother, Ingrid $330. orsden.com Wall, said. To honor their daughter, the family has raised more than $100,000 Japanese snack box to establish a grant fund from Bokksu, founded by through the International Danny Taing ’14SEAS. $39 for one box. Women’s Media Foundation. bokksu.com The grant will be o ered to Kim Wall female journalists covering the same “undercurrents of leaking radioactive waste rebellion” that drove Wall as in the Marshall Islands, the a storyteller. ethical pitfalls of tourism in The journalism school North Korea, the propaga- has also created a Kim Wall LEFT: COURTESY OF PATRICIA LETAYF; RIGHT: BENJAMIN HAAS tion of pop culture in Cuba. Scholarship Fund, for which Perfume from Scentbird, a subscription Her brand of journalism it is accepting donations. perfume service cofounded by Rachel ten Brink ’01BUS. $59.95 for a three-scent — which combined, as she Dean Steve Coll says he is gift box. scentbird.com liked to say, “shoe-leather seeking an endowment for reporting with a foreign- the fund so that it might policy lens” — probed be o ered in perpetuity. corners of the world that Contributions may be made had been overlooked and online at journalism.givenow gave voice to those who .columbia.edu. might otherwise have — Benjamin Preston remained silent. ’11JRN

COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18 51

4.17_Network.indd 51 11/16/17 12:00 PM NETWORK

A fedora should be lightweight felt, in ASK AN ALUM TAILOR-MADE brown or dusty gray. Once voted the best-dressed man in America by the readers of Esquire magazine, Dan Trepanier ’09CC is now the CEO and creative director of Articles of Style, an online bespoke menswear company that he founded with fellow Columbian Will Howe ’10CC. We asked Trepanier for some practical fashion tips and advice on wardrobe essentials.

COLUMBIA MAGAZINE: CM: What are some of your fashon What’s one rule of thumb pet peeves? that men should keep in DT: I’m a little peeved about the mind when shopping trend toward overly casual clothing. for clothes? It seems that everywhere you go, DAN TREPANIER: people are wearing workout gear. A good fit is the most They’ve lost any sense of occasion. important part of being a well-dressed gentle- CM: Is there an article of clothing man. Frankly, it’s more that looks good on every man? important than quality. DT: A beautiful navy sport coat, an I have friends who shop Oxford shirt in white or blue, a good at the thrift store, and pair of dress boots. The beauty of they spend more money menswear is that you don’t need a lot at the tailor than they do at of clothes. You can build a wardrobe A textured the store. They look fantastic for a out of a few investment pieces; those sport coat also pairs perfectly few bucks. And then I know other are the classics that are going to work with jeans. people who spend a lot of money for most men, day in and day out. on clothes, but they don’t fit. You never want to be the guy in the CM: Where do you look for fashion two-thousand-dollar Louis Vuitton inspiration? suit that doesn’t fit. DT: I usually look to the past, to classic American style icons like Paul CM: How do you define style? Why is Newman, Ralph Lauren, Steve it important to you? McQueen, and James Dean. To me, DT: Style is your cover letter, your they embody cool and casual, and résumé. We teach “Don’t judge a they always looked sharp. Amok in the Art House book by its cover,” but we do that every day, every time we look at CM: What fashion trends do you see Leigh Ledare ’08SOA is a visual artist working someone. Style is your way of putting on the horizon? primarily with photography, film, and collage. your best foot forward and introduc- DT: There’s a consciousness that’s ing yourself without having to say growing — especially among younger His current show at the Art Institute of Chicago anything. I grew up on a farm in people — about sourcing. The same revolves around a film that he created in collab- Canada, in the middle of nowhere, thing that’s happening in food is oration with ten psychologists, documenting a and then played basketball at going to happen in fashion. People Columbia, so I didn’t care about style are going to ask, “How is it possible three-day experiment in group self-analysis on for a long time, because it wasn’t that this shirt is seven dollars? Who’s thirty volunteer participants. Ledare then created important in those arenas. As soon getting hurt along the way?” I’m a collages (including Plot IV: Amok in the Outhouse, as I wanted to be taken seriously as big opponent of fast fashion. Cheap, Use cedar a mature, smart gentleman, dressing disposable clothing is detrimental to above) based on themes that were discussed in

shoetree s ALEX CRAWFORD to keep the the part really catapulted me up the craftsmen and to the planet. the film. Ledare was named a 2017 Guggenheim sha pe i nta ct. ladder. It was life changing for me. — Ian Scheffler ’12CC Fellow this past April, and his work was also included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial.

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4.17_Network.indd 52 11/16/17 10:25 AM NEWSMAKERS ● Three Columbia alumni are among this year’s twenty-four MacArthur Fellows. They are Tyshawn Sorey ’17GSAS, a prolific composer and performer known for working across an extensive range of musical idioms; Regina Barzilay ’03SEAS, a computer scientist at MIT who studies natural-language processing and machine learning; and Damon Rich ’97CC, an adjunct professor of architecture at Columbia who is also the founder of the Center for Urban Pedagogy, which uses art and design to promote civic engagement. Kate Orff, director of the Urban Design Program at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preserva- tion, was also a winner this year. ● Los Comandos, a film byJuliana Schatz Preston ’11JRN, won the award for best docu- mentary short at the Austin Film Festival this fall. The movie follows two teenagers working in an emergency medical unit in gang-ridden El Salvador. ● Four Columbia Law School alumnae were awarded US Supreme Court clerkships. Beatrice Franklin ’14LAW and Alyssa Barnard ’15LAW are both clerking for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’59LAW, ’94HON — Franklin began this past summer, and Barnard will start in 2019; Lena Husani Hughes ’12LAW for Justice Elena Kagan; and Sarah Hartman Sloan ’16LAW for retired justice John Paul Stevens. ● Four Columbia alumni made the National Book Awards longlist this year. Erica Armstrong Dunbar ’00GSAS was nominated in the nonfiction category for Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Amok in the Art House Ona Judge; Daniel Alarcón ’99CC was nomi- nated in the fiction category for The King Is Leigh Ledare ’08SOA is a visual artist working Always Above the People (see our review on page 59); and Marie Howe ’83SOA and Mai Der Vang primarily with photography, film, and collage. ’14SOA were honored for their respective poetry His current show at the Art Institute of Chicago collections, Magdalene and Afterland. ● revolves around a film that he created in collab- Columbia President Emeritus Michael Sovern ’53CC, ’55LAW received a Gold Honor oration with ten psychologists, documenting a Medal for Distinguished Service to Humanity three-day experiment in group self-analysis on from the National Institute of Social Sciences. thirty volunteer participants. Ledare then created He was one of three scholars to receive the award this year. Sovern joined the Columbia collages (including Plot IV: Amok in the Outhouse, faculty in 1957 and is now the Chancellor Kent above) based on themes that were discussed in Professor of Law.

ALEX CRAWFORD the film. Ledare was named a 2017 Guggenheim — Carolina Castro Fellow this past April, and his work was also Find and connect with all your classmates at included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial. alumni.columbia.edu

COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18 53

4.17_Network.indd 53 11/16/17 11:59 AM the interactions between ribosomes — which serve as BULLETIN the “protein factories” of the cell — and other molecules. JOACHIM FRANK WINS NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY In a 2013 paper in Nature, he UNIVERSITY uncovered new details about NEWS AND the ribosomes of a parasite VIEWS oachim Frank, a Columbia Academy of Sciences’ official and to quickly start develop- that causes African sleeping Jbiochemist, won the 2017 prize announcement. “In ing drugs that could disable sickness; that discovery Nobel Prize in Chemistry the past few years, scientific it. The technique has also is now guiding efforts to for his role in developing a literature has been filled with given scientists their first develop new treatments for way to create high-resolution images of everything from close-up views of Salmonella this disease. In another 3D images of biomolecules proteins that cause antibiotic as it attacks cells; of proteins Nature paper the same year, such as proteins, lipids, and resistance to the surface of that confer resistance to he revealed how the RNA the Zika virus.” certain chemotherapies molecules of many viruses For scientists who study and antibiotics; and of the can commandeer the ribo- the inner workings of cells, complex molecular interac- somes of their hosts’ cells to it is often necessary to know tions that govern our produce new viruses. what individual molecules circadian rhythms. Speaking to journalists at look like. The shape of a “Now we can see the Butler Library after the an- protein, for example, can intricate details of the bio- nouncement of his prize on determine its function. molecules in every corner October 4, Frank expressed But before cryo-electron of our cells, in every drop of gratitude to “all of the post- microscopy became available our body fluids,” says Sara docs, students, and research about five years ago, scien- Snogerup Linse, a Swedish associates” who “contributed tists struggled to produce scientist who chairs the Nobel pieces of this immense puzzle anything but fuzzy images of committee for chemistry. over the years.” He said that these molecules. Frank, who was born in his move to Columbia was Frank, Henderson, and Germany during World crucial in the development Dubochet changed that. War II, received degrees from of cryo-electron microscopy, Working separately but in a the Universities of Freiburg both because of the high- manner that complemented and Munich before earning caliber students he was able one another’s advances, they a doctorate in physics from to recruit to his laboratory came up with a solution that the Technical University of here and because of the involved flash-freezing cells Munich in 1970. Over the University’s support for so that their constituent parts next few decades, he held interdisciplinary research. are locked in their natural positions at a number of “There has been wonderful configurations (Dubochet’s academic institutions in support, and generous gifts, Frank expressed ribosomes. He shares contribution); shooting elec- Germany, the United King- that have made possible the gratitude to the award with Richard tron beams into the cells in dom, and the United States, acquisition of new instru- Henderson of the MRC order to detect the contours all the while researching mentation,” he said. “all of the postdocs, Laboratory of Molecular of even the tiniest molecules the computational-imaging Which is not to say students, and Biology in Cambridge, UK, (Henderson’s contribution); methods that eventually Frank was prepared for the research associates” and Jacques Dubochet of the and then translating the made cryo-electron micros- 5:18 a.m. phone call from who “contributed University of Lausanne in resulting data into extraor- copy possible. He joined the Swedish Academy telling pieces of this Switzerland. The trio’s tech- dinarily detailed 3D images Columbia as a professor in him he had won the Nobel. immense puzzle nique, called cryo-electron (Frank’s contribution). the Department of Biochem- “All I could say was, ‘This microscopy, is widely regarded The technique has already istry and Molecular Biophys- is such wonderful news,’” he over the years.” as having revolutionized proved indispensable to ics and the Department of recalled. “I said it over and

biological research. researchers. Last year, Biological Sciences in 2008. EILEEN BARROSO over again.” “This method has moved scientists used cryo-electron In his own research, Frank For video of the October 4 biochemistry into a new era,” microscopy to analyze the has used cryo-electron event, visit news.columbia.edu

reads the Royal Swedish structure of the Zika virus microscopy to investigate THOWFEEQU SHÌFAAN /NobelPrize2017.

54 COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18

4.17_Bulletin_FINAL.indd 54 11/15/17 11:25 AM the interactions between ribosomes — which serve as CUMC State of Mind the “protein factories” of the cell — and other molecules. In a 2013 paper in Nature, he uncovered new details about the ribosomes of a parasite and to quickly start develop- that causes African sleeping ing drugs that could disable sickness; that discovery it. The technique has also is now guiding efforts to given scientists their first develop new treatments for close-up views of Salmonella this disease. In another as it attacks cells; of proteins Nature paper the same year, that confer resistance to he revealed how the RNA certain chemotherapies molecules of many viruses and antibiotics; and of the can commandeer the ribo- complex molecular interac- somes of their hosts’ cells to tions that govern our produce new viruses. circadian rhythms. Speaking to journalists at “Now we can see the Butler Library after the an- intricate details of the bio- nouncement of his prize on molecules in every corner October 4, Frank expressed of our cells, in every drop of gratitude to “all of the post- our body fluids,” says Sara docs, students, and research Snogerup Linse, a Swedish associates” who “contributed scientist who chairs the Nobel pieces of this immense puzzle On November 2, the Empire State Building was lit up committee for chemistry. over the years.” He said that in blue to mark the 250th anniversary of Columbia Frank, who was born in his move to Columbia was Germany during World crucial in the development University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. The War II, received degrees from of cryo-electron microscopy, institution was the first medical school in New York the Universities of Freiburg both because of the high- and Munich before earning caliber students he was able State and the second in the American colonies upon its a doctorate in physics from to recruit to his laboratory founding in 1767. To learn more about its history, visit the Technical University of here and because of the Munich in 1970. Over the University’s support for newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/empire-state. next few decades, he held interdisciplinary research. positions at a number of “There has been wonderful academic institutions in support, and generous gifts, Germany, the United King- that have made possible the dom, and the United States, acquisition of new instru- COLUMBIA COMMITS $100M FOR FACULTY DIVERSITY all the while researching mentation,” he said. the computational-imaging Which is not to say methods that eventually Frank was prepared for the he University recently announced that it is committing $100 million over made cryo-electron micros- 5:18 a.m. phone call from Tthe next five years for the recruitment and retention of professors who copy possible. He joined the Swedish Academy telling traditionally have been underrepresented in higher education, as well as for Columbia as a professor in him he had won the Nobel. career-development programs aimed at helping underrepresented doctoral and the Department of Biochem- “All I could say was, ‘This postdoctoral students succeed in academia. istry and Molecular Biophys- is such wonderful news,’” he The $100 million commitment comes in addition to $85 million that the ics and the Department of recalled. “I said it over and University has dedicated to faculty-diversity initiatives since 2005.

Biological Sciences in 2008. EILEEN BARROSO over again.” “The aim is to develop new leaders and expand scholarship, initiatives, In his own research, Frank For video of the October 4 and programming to meet the needs of the University,” says President Lee C. has used cryo-electron event, visit news.columbia.edu Bollinger. “This is a long-standing initiative inseparable from Columbia’s identity

microscopy to investigate THOWFEEQU SHÌFAAN /NobelPrize2017. and core values.”

COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18 55

4.17_Bulletin_FINAL.indd 55 11/15/17 11:25 AM BULLETIN ALEX NAVAB AND LI LU ZUCKERMAN INSTITUTE RESEARCHERS JOIN TRUSTEES RECEIVE $25M IN FEDERAL GRANTS

lex Navab ’87CC and Li Lu ’96CC, ’96LAW, esearchers at Columbia’s Zuckerman A’96BUS, investment bankers and philanthro- RInstitute have received more than pists with deep ties to Columbia, have been elected $25 million in grants from the National to the University’s Board of Trustees. Their six-year Institutes of Health’s BRAIN Initiative terms began in September. in recent months. Navab, a native of Iran whose family escaped to One such award, for $15.3 million, Greece and subsequently to the United States fol- will enable a team of Columbia neuro- lowing the 1979 Iranian revolution, served for many WOMEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY scientists, data scientists, and engineers years as a senior executive at the private-equity TEAM CLAIMS IVY TITLE to address one of biology’s most funda- firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. He sits on the mental questions: how does the brain boards of numerous cultural and educational orga- Columbia women triumphed at the Ivy tell the body to move? nizations, including the Columbia College Board of “Our ultimate goal is to create a func- Visitors, and received the College’s John Jay Award League Heptagonal Cross Country tional blueprint — a map — of all the for distinguished professional achievement in 2011. Championships this fall, winning their brain’s connections that together drive He is also co-chair of the College’s Core to Com- first team title since 2005. The Columbia movement,” says Thomas M. Jessell, mencement Campaign Committee. codirector of the Zuckerman Institute, Li, who grew up in China during Mao Zedong’s men’s team took second place overall, who, with Columbia neuroscientist Rui Cultural Revolution, was a prominent student activ- in part on the strength of senior Ryan Costa, is co-leader of the $15.3 million ist who helped lead the Tiananmen Square protests project. “With the BRAIN Initiative’s in 1989. The following year, he was invited to speak Thomas’s individual first-place finish. enthusiastic support for this first-of-its- about his experiences at Columbia and soon enrolled kind team approach, we have the means

JOHN ABBOTT to gain insight into one of the most

NICHOLAS LEMANN TO DIRECT COLUMBIA WORLD PROJECTS

icholas Lemann, the dean emeritus of the journalism Left: Alex Nschool, has been named the inaugural director of TOP: COURTESY OF CU ATHLETICS / MIKE MCLAUGHLIN; BOTTOM: COURTESY OF TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Navab. Columbia World Projects, a University-wide initiative Right: created this past April. The initiative aims to facilitate novel Li Lu. collaborations between scholars and non-academic partners at the University, earning degrees in economics, to address pressing global issues. business, and law simultaneously. He has since Lemann, who led the journalism school from 2003 to run his own hedge fund, Himalaya Capital, while 2013, is the Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore continuing to advocate for human-rights reforms Professor of Journalism. He also directs the University- in China. He received the College’s John Jay Award owned publishing imprint Columbia Global Reports and is in 2012. He has also received the Raoul Wallenberg a staff writer at the New Yorker. Human Rights Award from the Congressional As the head of Columbia World Projects, Lemann will Human Rights Foundation, and the Reebok Human spearhead an effort to connect academic work “with orga- Rights Award for his human-rights advocacy. nizations and entities beyond the academy that possess the “I am very pleased to welcome Alex Navab and power and influence to transform research into concrete Li Lu to the Board of Trustees,” says President Lee C. consequences benefiting humanity,” said President Lee C. Bollinger. “They are loyal Columbia alumni who Bollinger in announcing his new appointment. bring with them decades of success and innovation Bollinger also announced that Avril Haines, former deputy in business and civic leadership, as well as a diver- national security adviser to President Barack Obama ’83CC sity of personal experience that will be invaluable as and former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, we build the University’s academic excellence and has joined the University as senior researcher for Columbia our engagement with the world in the years ahead.” World Projects.

56 COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18

4.17_Bulletin_FINAL.indd 56 11/15/17 11:25 AM ZUCKERMAN INSTITUTE RESEARCHERS Neuroscientists RECEIVE $25M IN FEDERAL GRANTS led by Randy Bruno, at right, are participating in a $15.3 million esearchers at Columbia’s Zuckerman complex neuroscience study on how the RInstitute have received more than questions of our time.” brain controls movement. $25 million in grants from the National Jessell and Costa’s grant Institutes of Health’s BRAIN Initiative is one of only fi ve awards in recent months. to US universities through One such award, for $15.3 million, a special program that will enable a team of Columbia neuro- aims to solve major ques- WOMEN’S CROSS-COUNTRY scientists, data scientists, and engineers tions in neuroscience. Two TEAM CLAIMS IVY TITLE to address one of biology’s most funda- other groups of Zuckerman mental questions: how does the brain Institute researchers are Columbia women triumphed at the Ivy tell the body to move? contributing to grantees “Our ultimate goal is to create a func- based at other universi- League Heptagonal Cross Country tional blueprint — a map — of all the ties: Columbia biochemist Championships this fall, winning their brain’s connections that together drive Richard Mann’s lab will fi rst team title since 2005. The Columbia movement,” says Thomas M. Jessell, receive $3.2 million as part of a Caltech In addition, Columbia biomedical codirector of the Zuckerman Institute, e ort to understand how the fruit fl y’s engineer Elizabeth Hillman, who is men’s team took second place overall, who, with Columbia neuroscientist Rui brain sends information to its motor also a principal investigator at the in part on the strength of senior Ryan Costa, is co-leader of the $15.3 million system; and Columbia neuroscientist Zuckerman Institute, received a project. “With the BRAIN Initiative’s Attila Losonczy’s lab will receive separate $4.2 million BRAIN Initiative Thomas’s individual fi rst-place fi nish. enthusiastic support for this fi rst-of-its- $2.4 million as part of a Stanford-led award this past summer to improve the kind team approach, we have the means project to investigate how the brain use and interpretation of human-brain

JOHN ABBOTT to gain insight into one of the most consolidates long-term memories. imaging methods.

icholas Lemann, the dean emeritus of the journalism

Nschool, has been named the inaugural director of TOP: COURTESY OF CU ATHLETICS / MIKE MCLAUGHLIN; BOTTOM: COURTESY OF TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Columbia World Projects, a University-wide initiative created this past April. The initiative aims to facilitate novel collaborations between scholars and non-academic partners to address pressing global issues. Lemann, who led the journalism school from 2003 to 2013, is the Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism. He also directs the University- owned publishing imprint Columbia Global Reports and is a sta writer at the New Yorker. As the head of Columbia World Projects, Lemann will spearhead an e ort to connect academic work “with orga- nizations and entities beyond the academy that possess the power and infl uence to transform research into concrete consequences benefi ting humanity,” said President Lee C. Bollinger in announcing his new appointment. Bollinger also announced that Avril Haines, former deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama ’83CC and former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has joined the University as senior researcher for Columbia World Projects.

COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18 57

4.17_Bulletin_FINAL.indd 57 11/15/17 11:25 AM Remingtons’ after the type- Greater Gotham writers they used — helping to lock in the job category as BOOKS By Mike Wallace ’64CC, ’73GSAS (Oxford University Press) female.” What followed was a social and legal war over rom a distance, Greater Gotham looks them shared the certainty that what was best sexual mores, women’s rights, like a formidable book. But just as for them was best for New York. and gender equality — a the Empire State Building looms less Superlatives toll through Greater Gotham, confl ict that culminated in the closer you get, Mike Wallace’s each one seemingly the product of a day’s the Nineteenth Amendment monumental history of New York City burrowing in the archives. New York, Wallace and, a century later, still rages Ffeels compact and almost fl eet once you fl ip writes in one of his catalogs (the exuberant on. Wallace stays silent on his past the table of contents. It picks up in 1898, italics are his), “had the planet’s tallest story’s contemporary reso- where Gotham, by Wallace ’64CC, ’73GSAS skyscraper, its biggest o ce building, and its nances, but readers will have and Edwin G. Burrows ’66SIPA, ’74GSAS, left largest department store, hotel, corporate no trouble picking them up. o , and covers just twenty-one outsized years employer, bankers club, steamship fl eet, Race, corruption, capitalism’s in 1,100 pages. This cornucopia opens with electrical-generating plant, bakery, ballroom, benefi cence and depredations, library stacks . . .” The list goes on. (“Also the the skyline rising out of longest bar, the richest man, and the fi rst control, nativist fury over auto highway.”) immigration, the disorienting Wallace writes not for his PhD-wielding power of technology — virtu- peers, but for anyone with an interest in the ally every topic he treats buzz- past. Yes, he occasionally waxes a little overly es daily through my Facebook generous with detail — if you’re in the market feed and yours. I fi nd those for a punchy paragraph about the rope-making connections between past and monopoly, Wallace is your man — but he present alternately depressing also dispenses wry asides and telling anec- and invigorating. To sit in a dotes with the gusto of a fi reside raconteur. subway car stalled by rusting We meet the anthropologist Franz Boas as a signals and read about the young assistant at the American Museum of system’s explosive construc- Natural History, when he suggests that the tion more than a hundred explorer Robert Peary bring back an actual years ago is to inhale gratitude Inuit person to help annotate a shipload of and exhale resentment. They artifacts. “He hadn’t, however, planned on bequeathed us such fi ne tran- three men, one woman, and a girl and boy sit! How could we let it rot? (the latter, Minik, being the 8-year-old son of Brushstroke by brushstroke, Qisuk, one of the men),” Wallace remarks. The fact by fact, Wallace builds up incongruity of an Eskimo family turning up on a portrait of a city full of vitali- Central Park West at the height of the Gilded ty and injustice, civic narcis- Age seems momentarily comical sism and collective aspiration, Brushstroke by brushstroke, fact by fact, Wallace — until we learn that the stranded a noisy, crowded metropolis Inuit were housed in the museum’s that is constantly being raised builds up a portrait of a city full of vitality and basement, where they contracted and ruined at the same time. injustice, narcissism and aspiration. tuberculosis and died — all, that is, It’s a New York that is both except for the orphaned Minik. unimaginably di erent and the consolidation of New York and Brooklyn, Wallace erects a sca olding of facts and comfortingly similar to the which Wallace sees as the embodiment of insight that he builds into a full-fl edged saga. one I walk through every day. monopoly capitalism in its yeasty heyday. Big Technology, immigration, and economic — Justin Davidson corporations fed themselves on smaller ones, ferment created both a female workforce ’90GSAS, ’94SOA and a handful of the city’s elite club members and a fresh set of professions. “New positions divided the nation’s material wealth among were associated with new technologies, ones Justin Davidson is a Pulitzer themselves. The Havemeyer family presided that hadn’t yet been sex-typed,” he writes. Prize–winning classical-music over an empire of sugar, Carnegie controlled The gender-neutrality of machines didn’t last and architecture critic for steel, the Rockefellers owned oil, and all of long, though: “Secretaries were called ‘Miss New York magazine.

58 COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18

4.17_Books.indd 58 11/15/17 12:37 PM

Remingtons’ after the type- Greater Gotham writers they used — helping EXCERPT to lock in the job category as By Mike Wallace ’64CC, ’73GSAS (Oxford University Press) female.” What followed was Nomadland a social and legal war over By Jessica Bruder ’04JRN An adjunct professor at Columbia them shared the certainty that what was best sexual mores, women’s rights, Journalism School, Bruder hit the road to document the for them was best for New York. and gender equality — a experiences of transient Americans who live in motor homes, Superlatives toll through Greater Gotham, confl ict that culminated in travel trailers, and vans, following seasonal work. each one seemingly the product of a day’s the Nineteenth Amendment burrowing in the archives. New York, Wallace and, a century later, still rages Inevitably the online conversations between kindred writes in one of his catalogs (the exuberant on. Wallace stays silent on his wanderers spilled into real-world gatherings. As the italics are his), “had the planet’s tallest story’s contemporary reso- ‘‘ skyscraper, its biggest o ce building, and its nances, but readers will have nomads met over campfi res in forests and deserts largest department store, hotel, corporate no trouble picking them up. around the country, they began to form the kind of employer, bankers club, steamship fl eet, Race, corruption, capitalism’s electrical-generating plant, bakery, ballroom, benefi cence and depredations, improvised clans that the novelist Armistead Maupin called “logical” — rather than library stacks . . .” The list goes on. (“Also the the skyline rising out of “biological” — family. A few even called it a “vanily.” For some of them, spending longest bar, the richest man, and the fi rst control, nativist fury over auto highway.”) immigration, the disorienting holidays together became more appealing than reuniting with actual kin. A Wallace writes not for his PhD-wielding power of technology — virtu- typical scene: Christmas dinner on a barren, moonscape-like stretch of desert near peers, but for anyone with an interest in the ally every topic he treats buzz- past. Yes, he occasionally waxes a little overly es daily through my Facebook Interstate 10 in California draws more than a dozen vehicles, whose inhabitants generous with detail — if you’re in the market feed and yours. I fi nd those range in age from their twenties to seventies. They share a fi fteen-pound turkey for a punchy paragraph about the rope-making connections between past and ‘‘ monopoly, Wallace is your man — but he present alternately depressing that has been deboned, halved, and cooked on a pair of portable grills, with sides also dispenses wry asides and telling anec- and invigorating. To sit in a of mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce and two kinds of pie, until even dotes with the gusto of a fi reside raconteur. subway car stalled by rusting We meet the anthropologist Franz Boas as a signals and read about the the dogs licking leftover crumbs from the plates are sated. young assistant at the American Museum of system’s explosive construc- Natural History, when he suggests that the tion more than a hundred explorer Robert Peary bring back an actual years ago is to inhale gratitude Inuit person to help annotate a shipload of and exhale resentment. They e King Is Always artifacts. “He hadn’t, however, planned on bequeathed us such fi ne tran- three men, one woman, and a girl and boy sit! How could we let it rot? Above the People (the latter, Minik, being the 8-year-old son of Brushstroke by brushstroke, By Daniel Alarcón ’99CC Qisuk, one of the men),” Wallace remarks. The fact by fact, Wallace builds up incongruity of an Eskimo family turning up on a portrait of a city full of vitali- Central Park West at the height of the Gilded ty and injustice, civic narcis- They have until morning to one generation writing to Age seems momentarily comical sism and collective aspiration, build shelter or the govern- the next — which implies — until we learn that the stranded a noisy, crowded metropolis ment will legally be able a collective motivation for Inuit were housed in the museum’s that is constantly being raised to evict them. The task is resettling. But the stories that basement, where they contracted and ruined at the same time. daunting, but the settlers are follow prove that there is no tuberculosis and died — all, that is, It’s a New York that is both accustomed to hard work and typical migration story. except for the orphaned Minik. unimaginably di erent and are desperate: “We would Nearly every character in Wallace erects a sca olding of facts and comfortingly similar to the raise our children here. Make Alarcón’s book — which was insight that he builds into a full-fl edged saga. one I walk through every day. n “The Thousands,” the a life here. Understand that longlisted for the National Technology, immigration, and economic — Justin Davidson fi rst story in the gorgeous not so long ago, this was Book Award — is traveling, ferment created both a female workforce ’90GSAS, ’94SOA new collection The King Is nowhere.” It’s an apt begin- or at least casting an eye and a fresh set of professions. “New positions Always Above the People, ning to a book about journeys elsewhere, seeking something were associated with new technologies, ones Justin Davidson is a Pulitzer by Daniel Alarcón ’99CC, and displacement, about the better, though their rest- that hadn’t yet been sex-typed,” he writes. Prize–winning classical-music Ia group of settlers sneak onto urgent dream of a fresh start. lessness takes very di erent The gender-neutrality of machines didn’t last and architecture critic for a patch of uninhabited land “The Thousands” is narrated forms. In “The Provincials,” long, though: “Secretaries were called ‘Miss New York magazine. in the middle of the night. in the fi rst-person plural — a young actor embarks on

COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18 59

4.17_Books.indd 59 11/15/17 12:37 PM BOOKS a road trip to his father’s title character of “The Ballad unnamed hometown, though of Rocky Rontal.” Rocky is e Girl of he actually yearns to follow “a poor boy growing up in a his brother, who has immi- poor city in a poor region of the Lake grated to California. In “The a very rich country.” Gangs By Bill Roorbach ’90SOA Auroras,” a recently divorced help him survive a childhood college professor takes a leave of abuse, but they also land of absence and travels to an him in jail for murder; then n The Girl of the Lake, Bill Roorbach ’90SOA industrial port city, where he his younger sister is killed, threads together nine carefully crafted short stumbles into a complicated presumably in retribution. stories that o er witty and deeply satisfying relationship with a married Rocky spends thirty-two insights on marriage, relationships, and the woman. And in the title story, years being angry, fanta- perilous resentments of old friends. the narrator leaves his rural sizing about revenge. He is IThe fi rst story, “Harbinger Hall,” is a charming community for a life of soli- released into a “world that’s tale of an elderly immigrant who, while walking tude in a big city; a pregnant disappointingly familiar.” But on his estate, fi nds a boy who is skipping school girlfriend lures him back, but Rocky believes that he has to play war games. The man even with a child on the way, the ability to change, to be shares his own war sagas he can’t imagine his future in di erent from the boy he was with the child, and a gentle their small town. when he went to jail, until his and unlikely friendship If anything unites Alarcón’s will is tested in a potentially grows between them. rich cast of characters, it devastating way. Other stories play darker is that they all seem to be Alarcón, who is a profes- notes: two involve old searching not just for a new sor of broadcast journalism friends who reunite in set of circumstances, but for at Columbia, is also the midlife to pursue simmering new identities entirely. The cofounder of Radio Ambu- and mysterious vendettas. narrator of “The Provincials” lante, a Spanish-language In “Dung Beetle,” a museum stops hoping to join his podcast that uses long-form curator gathers the courage brother in California and narrative storytelling to and curiosity to visit his starts pretending that he is report on Latin America, former Oxford roommate, his brother, telling distant often focusing on his an African prince who has relatives that he’s just home native Peru. It’s likely a fair recently assassinated his parents. In “Broadax, for a visit. The young man assumption that many of Inc.,” a wealthy executive’s even wealthier in the title story claims to be the stories in The King Is college friend devises a labyrinthine revenge for an orphan even though his Always Above the People are a long-ago a air. family is alive and searching also set in Latin America, “The Fall,” perhaps the most harrowing for him. The mild-mannered but Alarcón is purposefully story, follows a young unhappy couple on college professor in “The reticent about place, rarely a backpacking trip in Maine. Jean is lost in Auroras” envisions spend- giving identifying details; thought, considering her future with her ing his sabbatical year as rather, characters travel boyfriend, when suddenly she watches him fall to a manual laborer, working between “the port city” and his death o the side of a cli . In shock, she looks on the docks. But as he gets “the capital” and “a beach back on their relationship — “long elegant lines further enmeshed in the life town” and so on. It gives the of thought with no bearing on the emergency” — of his new lover, he starts collection a dreamy, fable-like then confesses with a blunt humor typical of the to assume new roles. When quality and also emphasizes book, “I never loved him one bit.” she tells her friends that he the universality of Alarcón’s Roorbach’s previous book of short stories, Big is a medical doctor, he starts themes. As he proves Bend, won both the Flannery O’Connor Award giving exams and issuing with this superb collection, for Short Fiction and the O. Henry Award. It’s diagnoses; when she urges moving forward is often easy to see why Roorbach is so admired within him toward a violent act, he messy and sometimes even the genre. With The Girl of the Lake, he gives becomes the kind of man ill-intentioned; but generally us a cohesive collection, balancing delight and capable of committing it. it’s founded on one inherently deceit, death and tenderness, with a deftness The most heart-wrenching human principle: hope. only a masterful writer could accomplish.

inner battle belongs to the — Rebecca Shapiro — Rebecca Kelliher ’13BC JEFFREY SAKS

60 COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18

4.17_Books.indd 60 11/15/17 12:37 PM READING LIST New and e Girl of noteworthy Lord Bird). There are some unifying features to his work, releases the Lake though: a focus on race, family, and larger-than-life By Bill Roorbach ’90SOA WOLF SEASON by Helen characters. All are present Benedict Columbia Journal- in his latest, a vibrant story n The Girl of the Lake, Bill Roorbach ’90SOA ism professor Helen Benedict collection that introduces threads together nine carefully crafted short is known for her compas- us to an antique-toy dealer, stories that o er witty and deeply satisfying sionate examination of how a boxer literally fi ghting for insights on marriage, relationships, and the women experience war; she his soul, a group of poor kids perilous resentments of old friends. is the author of seven novels forming a neighborhood IThe fi rst story, “Harbinger Hall,” is a charming and fi ve works of nonfi ction, band, and a mixed-race boy tale of an elderly immigrant who, while walking many of which explore who thinks that his father is on his estate, fi nds a boy who is skipping school related themes. In her latest Abraham Lincoln. to play war games. The man novel, Benedict writes about shares his own war sagas three women — an Iraq War JEWISH COMEDY: A with the child, and a gentle veteran, a widowed Iraqi SERIOUS HISTORY and unlikely friendship refugee, and a young mother by Jeremy Dauber Jewish his- grows between them. with a husband deployed in tory and comedy have been a powerful argument that Together with her friend Mira Other stories play darker Afghanistan — as they wait intertwined since biblical lack of access to adequate Sokol, a Polish-Jewish refu- notes: two involve old out a hurricane in upstate times, argues Jeremy Dauber, health care and education is gee, Spaak helped “kidnap” friends who reunite in New York. a Columbia professor of not only harming society’s hundreds of Jewish children, midlife to pursue simmering Yiddish language, literature, most vulnerable members and kept them hidden during and mysterious vendettas. WHAT IS IT ALL BUT and culture. In his insight- but undermining America’s the German occupation In “Dung Beetle,” a museum LUMINOUS by Art Garfunkel ful, entertaining new book, resilience and infl uence. of Paris. SIPA professor curator gathers the courage ’65CC The folk singer’s fi rst he traces the evolution of Anne Nelson’s riveting new and curiosity to visit his memoir reads more like a Jewish humor from ancient MRS. by Caitlin Macy ’96SOA biography — the fi rst book former Oxford roommate, secret diary than an autobi- Talmudic jokes to Borscht Like a modern Edith Whar- to focus on Spaak — traces an African prince who has ography. Written largely in Belt routines to episodes of ton, novelist Caitlin Macy Spaak’s life from her Catholic recently assassinated his parents. In “Broadax, verse — in a font meant to Seinfeld and Broad City. documents the habits of the upbringing to her eventual Inc.,” a wealthy executive’s even wealthier mimic handwriting — and well-heeled women of New execution by the Gestapo. college friend devises a labyrinthine revenge for peppered with photographs, THE FUTURE OF US York’s Upper East Side. At a long-ago a air. it chronicles Garfunkel’s by Irwin Redlener Few under- the center of her juicy third CALDER: THE CONQUEST “The Fall,” perhaps the most harrowing middle-class Jewish child- stand the challenges facing novel is Philippa Lye, a wom- OF TIME by Jed Perl ’72CC story, follows a young unhappy couple on hood in Queens, education American children better an with a questionable past For nearly a century, museum- a backpacking trip in Maine. Jean is lost in at Columbia, rise to the top than Irwin Redlener. As a who has married her way goers have been charmed thought, considering her future with her of the pop charts with Simon pediatrician, he has worked into the ultra-wealthy invest- by Alexander Calder’s bold boyfriend, when suddenly she watches him fall to and Garfunkel, and fi nally with often forgotten popu- ment-banking set. Philippa mobiles and whimsical wire his death o the side of a cli . In shock, she looks the quiet and consistent joys lations, like poor children in refuses to participate in the sculptures. But forty years back on their relationship — “long elegant lines of family life. the Arkansas Delta, child- gossip-fueled culture that after the beloved artist’s of thought with no bearing on the emergency” — abuse victims in the inner rules the preschool drop-o death, there has been no then confesses with a blunt humor typical of the FIVE-CARAT SOUL city, and kids a ected by 9/11 hour, but it catches up with major biography of him. book, “I never loved him one bit.” by James McBride ’80JRN and Hurricane Katrina. With her anyway. With his new book, which Roorbach’s previous book of short stories, Big James McBride is a writer Paul Simon, he founded the focuses on Calder’s early Bend, won both the Flannery O’Connor Award who won’t be pigeonholed Children’s Health Fund, an SUZANNE’S CHILDREN years, noted art critic Jed for Short Fiction and the O. Henry Award. It’s — his wildly diverse and advocacy and public-health by Anne Nelson Few people Perl changes that. He uses easy to see why Roorbach is so admired within successful books include a organization, and he also know the story of Suzanne never-before-seen letters and the genre. With The Girl of the Lake, he gives sentimental family memoir runs the Program on Child Spaak, a Belgian aristocrat papers, as well as over 350 us a cohesive collection, balancing delight and (bestseller The Color of Well-Being and Resilience at and one of Paris’s leading illustrations, to demonstrate deceit, death and tenderness, with a deftness Water) and a picaresque his- Columbia’s Earth Institute. socialites, who became a how Calder’s childhood and only a masterful writer could accomplish. torical novel (National Book In this memoir, he chronicles hero of the French Resis- life abroad came to shape his

— Rebecca Kelliher ’13BC JEFFREY SAKS Award winner The Good his storied career and makes tance during World War II. illustrious career.

COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18 61

4.17_Books.indd 61 11/15/17 12:37 PM BOOKTALK e Lens of War In a new joint memoir, Shooting Ghosts, former US Marine sergeant Thomas J. Brennan ’15JRN and confl ict photographer Finbarr O’Reilly write about their unlikely friendship and the challenges they faced coming home from war. Here, former US Marine captain Michael Christman ’00SEAS talks with Brennan about the book.

my uniform sleeves rolled up. I was of weakness. It’s also useful to have a Thomas J. Brennan already responsible for an outpost, two creative outlet. Mine is The War Horse, villages, millions of dollars in gear, and a nonprofi t online newsroom that I fi fteen Marines, and I didn’t want to be founded, focusing on the Departments of responsible for anyone else — especially Defense and Veterans A airs. someone who was unprepared for harsh living conditions or other realities of MC: How does your love-hate relation- war. And I didn’t trust journalists to get ship with the Marine Corps infl uence the stories right. When I had reporters The War Horse? embedded in my unit in Fallujah, they TJB: If we’re only publishing fl u stories, showed up, they videotaped us, and they then we’re propaganda. If we’re only left. Finbarr was di erent. He became running bad stories, then we’re adversar- part of the squad. He helped take the ial. We want the scales to be balanced. trash out. He helped clean in the morn- That comes through reporting on the ing. He got it right. good, the bad, and the ugly. A recent project was an exposé of the inappropri- Michael Christman: What do MC: I think there’s a narrative out there ate exchange of naked photos of female Marines and confl ict journalists have that warriors are unbreakable, but you Marines, and it was defi nitely the uglier in common? show a di erent side. side. That story showed people what to Thomas J. Brennan: We’re defi nitely TJB: Unbreakable, yeah. We’re absolutely expect from our newsroom. both adrenaline junkies; we like a chal- breakable. When you’re in the military, lenge, and we’re suckers for punishment. you have to suppress your emotions MC: What was it like writing a memoir I didn’t deploy to Afghanistan thinking I just to be able to function. Then you get with someone else? was going to have a Sealy Posturepedic home, and you’re back with your family, TJB: It was really easy, actually. We wrote bed to sleep on for six months; I’m and you’re supposed to feel happy. But I the book in three sections: Finbarr’s nar- sure Finbarr felt the same way. But the had a hard time turning the switch back rative arc, my narrative arc, and our joint way we processed the aftere ects of on. PTSD is kind of a combination of a narrative arc. They fell together pretty war is di erent. Fin writes in the book slow burn and specifi c triggering inci- seamlessly. For me, writing was ther- about how we’re both plagued by guilt, dents. You have these moments that are apeutic. The ultimate goal was always or what’s known as moral injury, but like stepping on Legos in the dark. When to publish, but I had some hesitations. Marines are haunted by what we did or you fi nd them, they really friggin’ hurt. I’m a pretty private person, and writing didn’t do during combat. For journalists, this book meant delving into some very it’s about watching and documenting MC: You eventually overcame PTSD and personal issues — mood swings, suicidal people getting hurt or killed without a traumatic brain injury. What worked thoughts, the e ects of the war on my being able to do anything. for you? marriage. But it helped that Fin and TJB: As far as mental health goes, I’m I both had the same motivations. We MC: In the book, you talk about meeting hesitant to say I’m a success story. I’ll wrote the book for the greater good of Finbarr for the fi rst time and some of your never be cured. I don’t think there is a the veteran community, to help people preconceived notions about journalists. cure for moral injury. But therapy was feel less alone. I know that I’m not the TJB: I’d seen other Marines get in very e ective. I wish I’d gone earlier; it only person in my squad who has battled trouble thanks to reporters; I’d even was obvious that I needed help. But I thoughts of suicide, and I wanted to do MEL MARCELO been disciplined when a photo that think there’s still a stigma in the Marines right by the people I served with and tell one media outlet published showed — asking for help can be seen as a sign not just my story, but our story.

62 COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18

4.17_Books.indd 62 11/15/17 12:37 PM CLASSIFIEDS

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4.17_Classifieds_FINAL.indd 1 11/13/17 10:02 AM 4 In this 1984 blockbuster, Ready parapsychology FINALS is an area For Our of study. Close-up 5 This 2002 The Morningside campus action fl ick opens with a makes a cameo this class fi eld trip winter in The Post, Steven to a genetics Spielberg’s drama about lab, which leads to a the journalists who tangled web published the Pentagon of intrigue. Papers. Can you name these other movies in which Columbia steals 6 Will Smith is a professional the scene? “date doctor” in this 2005 comedy. Naturally, there’s a catch.

7 A Columbia 1 This Woody PhD student Allen movie races to class in won the 1987 this 1976 thriller Academy starring Dustin Award for Hoffman and best original Sir Laurence screenplay. Olivier.

8 William Hurt made his debut 2 In this 1996 in this 1980 rom-com, Barbra fi lm, playing a Streisand plays professor who Rose Morgan, experiments a lovelorn with hallucino- Columbia English genic drugs. professor.

9 Julianne Moore plays a Columbia 3 This 2007 linguist who comedy stars receives a Scarlett Johansson devastating as a recent college diagnosis in this graduate who 2014 drama. gets a job with a wealthy

Manhattan family.

Still Alice Still 9 , States Altered 8 , Man Marathon 7 , Hitch 6 , Spider-Man 5 , Ghostbusters 4 Still Alice Still 9 , States States Altered Altered 8 , Man Marathon 7 , Hitch 6 , Spider-Man 5 , Ghostbusters

Diaries, Diaries, Nanny Nanny The The 3 3 3 , , Faces Faces Two Two Has Has Mirror Mirror The The 2 2 Sisters, Sisters, Her Her and and Hannah Hannah 1 1 ANSWERS ANSWERS

64 COLUMBIA WINTER 2017-18

4.17_Finals_FINAL_revise.indd 64 11/13/17 4:14 PM 4 In this 1984 blockbuster, parapsychology is an area of study.

5 This 2002 action flick opens with a class field trip to a genetics lab, which leads to a tangled web of intrigue.

6 Will Smith is a professional “date doctor” in this 2005 comedy. Naturally, there’s a catch.

7 A Columbia PhD student races to class in this 1976 thriller starring Dustin Hoffman and Sir Laurence Olivier.

8 William Hurt made his debut in this 1980 film, playing a professor who experiments with hallucino- genic drugs.

9 Julianne Moore plays a Columbia linguist who receives a devastating diagnosis in this

2014 drama.

Still Alice Still 9 , States Altered 8 , Man Marathon 7 , Hitch 6 , Spider-Man 5 , Ghostbusters 4

Diaries, Nanny The 3 , Faces Two Has Mirror The 2 Sisters, Her and Hannah 1 ANSWERS

4.17_Finals_FINAL_revise.indd 65 11/13/17 4:14 PM Columbia Alumni Center Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage 622Columbia W. 113th Alumni Street, Center MC 4521 Non-Profi t Org. COLUMBIA Paid MAGAZINE New622 York, W. 113th NY Street,10025 MC 4521 U.S. Postage COLUMBIA ColumbiaPaid MAGAZINE New York, NY 10025 ColumbiaMagazine Magazine

“It’s about the mind- boggling pace we’re all moving at now.”

— Visual Arts Professor Sarah Sze

Sze’s Second Avenue Subway installation, Blueprint for a Landscape, shows yet again how Columbia’s artists connect us to the city, the world, and the world of ideas.

Arts and Ideas is a Columbia commitment. Find yours. Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Flickr Authority, Transportation Metropolitan commitment.columbia.edu

4.17_BackCover_FINAL.indd 1 11/9/17 12:09 PM