Innovate • Conserve • Explore PURPOSE-DRIVEN the Mississippi River Draws Tulane Researchers to Its Banks and Depths
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THE MAGAZINE OF TULANE UNIVERSITY / FALL 2021 innovate • conserve • explore PURPOSE-DRIVEN The Mississippi River draws Tulane researchers to its banks and depths. They study and explore its mystery and power to make lives better. Soaring above the river and its boat traffic is the Crescent City Connection, a conduit between the East and West Banks of New Orleans. PHOTO BY PJ HAHN 1 Contents FALL 2021 / VOL. 93 / NO. 1 DEPARTMENTS 3 Letters 4 In Brief 16 UP FIRST MAIN FEATURE 8 By the Numbers, SSE RIVER 9 Home for Equity, Lyme Infection LOOKOUT The new Department of River- 10 Athletics Coastal Science and Engineering 11 Student Voices looks for solutions to rising sea Amplified, levels and sinking land, among Social Network today’s most looming problems. 12 New Orleans Gridiron Handles 13 Stages of a Career Theater professor Jenny Mercein follows J. Michael Miller (G ’63) in lineage of acting teachers 14 The Beatles and My JYA 22 28 Experience In memory of Linda WATER HAS ENERGY IN Prager (NC ’62) ITS WAYS MOTION Tulane experts address Change is afoot as WAVEMAKERS how to live with threats we move from fossil 36 Audacious Giving of flooding in the urban fuel to renewable environment through energy sources. safe, equitable and TULANIANS sustainable ways. 39 Class Notes 40 Ampersand 43 Impression 44 Impression 32 Readership Survey 45 Farewell AFTER IMAGES LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! Photography professor Go to tulane.it/tulanian-survey 47 Tribute AnnieLaurie Erickson captures the strange beauty of an industrialized VIEWPOINT Louisiana landscape. 48 President’s Letter Make Way MORE CONTENT AT tulanian.tulane.edu 2 Tulanian Magazine fall 2021 Yeah, You Write From the Editor ABOUT THE COVER A great egret flies above marsh ThisTulanian is all about how Tulane makes way for the future of water, land and energy: northwest of Holly Beach in south- We innovate, conserve and explore. In “River Lookout,” scientists and engineers tell us west Cameron Parish, Louisiana. how land may be built and a sinking coast conserved when river sediment is unleashed. Photo by conservationist PJ Hahn. In “Water Has Its Ways,” three experts discuss innovative methods for living safely and EDITOR Mary Ann Travis sustainably with water — in New Orleans and around the world. CREATIVE DIRECTOR Melinda Whatley Viles In “Energy in Motion,” we talk to scientists and engineers who are inventing and business ART DIRECTOR school leaders who are responding to new and efficient sources of clean energy in a Marian Herbert-Bruno changing marketplace. Lastly, in “After Images,” an artist depicts the haunting beauty EDITORIAL DIRECTOR of Louisiana industry with a unique photographic technique that she developed. In all Faith Dawson these stories, we show how Tulane continues to make way for a better world. CONTRIBUTORS Marianna Boyd Also, we’d love to know what you think about Tulanian. We hope you’ll take a magazine Barri Bronston survey in which we ask about your reading habits and how you’d evaluate how we are Jill Dorje Roger Dunaway keeping you connected to Tulane. Go to tulane.it/tulanian-survey. Thanks! Angus Lind Susan McCann Alicia Serrano To the Editor Makin’ Groceries Mike Strecker Leslie Tate [Email letters to [email protected]] When I meet a new patient often I can SENIOR UNIVERSITY tell from their first utterance that they PHOTOGRAPHER Interdisciplinary Collaboration are a New Orleans transplant, and this is Paula Burch-Celentano The lead article, “Come Together,” in the before they tell me that they are on their GRAPHIC DESIGNERS spring 2021 Tulanian gives an excellent way to “make groceries.” Kim Rainey description of President Fitts’ visionary Michael Maloney, M ’78 Chelsea Christopher leadership. … I’m hopeful that through Denver, Colorado VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY President Fitts’ example, interdisciplinary COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING Porch Sitting Libby Eckhardt collaboration will become a hallmark of the university. is not a PRESIDENT OF I suggest … that banquette Yat- TULANE UNIVERSITY Susan Friedlander Keith, NC ’68 ism. Rather it is/was common parlance Michael A. Fitts Albuquerque, New Mexico among my Creole and Cajun ancestors as Tulanian (ISSN 21619255) is published quarterly was gallery in lieu of porch. One sat on the by the Tulane University Office of Communications Cover to Cover and Marketing, 31 McAlister Drive, Drawer 1, New gallery and enjoyed the breeze. Orleans, La. 70118-5624. Business and Editorial Offices: 200 Broadway, Suite 219, New Orleans, I read the Tulanian cover to cover Gary Mannina, A&S ’63, G ’72 La. 70118-3543. Send editorial and subscription now. You should be complimented on New Orleans correspondence to Tulane University Office of Communications and Marketing, 31 McAlister interesting and timely articles. Drive, Drawer 1, New Orleans, La. 70118-5624 or Kindred Spirits email [email protected]. Periodicals postage Bernard Pettingill, PHTM ’73 is paid at New Orleans, La. 70113-9651 and Palm Beach, Florida I thoroughly enjoyed Professor Beller’s additional mailing offices. Opinions expressed in Tulanian are not “Gentilly Days,” [Tulanian, spring 2021] necessarily those of Tulane representatives and NOLA/NY Accents as he is “sure stirring up some ghosts for do not necessarily reflect university policies. à Material may be reprinted only with permission. For Drs. Carmichael and Dajko: I really me” ( la Robbie Robertson). Tulane University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution. enjoyed your article [“Where Y’at, Jack Gordon, A&S ’86, L ’89 Dawlin’?,” Tulanian, spring 2021]. I Tampa, Florida POSTMASTER have always been interested in the New Send address changes to: Tulanian magazine, Tulane Office of University Orleans accent and how it differed from Statue of Morgus Communications and Marketing, 31 McAlister Drive, Drawer 1, the New York accent. … I have come to Loved Angus Lind’s tribute to that New Orleans, LA 70118-5624. believe … that the accents are completely underappreciated scientific genius Tulanian magazine is online at different even though the “r” is lost in Morgus in the spring 2021 Tulanian. tulanian.tulane.edu both. The cadence is directly opposite: Maybe Tulane could lead the effort to The NOLA is a unique sing-song rename the 17th Street Canal in his rhythm and the NY distinctly staccato. honor, as Morgus himself suggested. Herbert Hochman, M ’70 Kerry Dooley, E ’76, ’79 New York, New York Baton Rouge, Louisiana 3 In Brief QUOTED ON CAMPUS ELECTRIC SHUTTLE BUSES “The reason that we’re not treating COVID like Thanks to a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy any other virus, like we treat smallpox and Efficiency and Renewable mumps, is that ” Energy, Tulane will it became politicized. purchase five transit THOMAS LAVEIST, dean of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, buses with electric in an interview with NPR. vehicle technology. Charging stations will tulane.it/thomas-laveist-npr be installed to support them. The shuttle buses will service the LIBRARIES RESEARCH regular university shuttle route that links JAZZ ARCHIVE COLON CANCER AND the uptown and downtown campuses EXPANDS SCOPE OBESITY and affiliate programs. The new buses will Suzana Savkovic, associate professor be part of the university’s fleet in 2022. The Hogan Jazz Archive has been of pathology and laboratory medicine Staff will collect and analyze data on the renamed the Hogan Archive of New at the School of Medicine, and a team performance and costs of the shuttle Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz. of researchers are investigating the buses, with the goal of sharing Tulane’s The archive will expand the scope of its relationship between obesity and experience with fleet managers in the collections, including acquisitions that enhanced risk for colon cancer. One of region and at other universities. document late-20th-century and 21st- century contemporary jazz, rhythm and the emerging possibilities with regard tulane.it/electric-shuttle-buses blues, funk, hip-hop and rock musicians in to colon cancer is that excess lipids New Orleans and the surrounding region, accumulate in both the fat-storing as well as the industry and culture that and non-fat-storing tissues of obese RESEARCH fosters and supports those artists. The individuals. The lipids are stored and are TRANSLATIONAL archive, part of Tulane University Special seen at higher volumes in colonic tumors SCIENCE INSTITUTE Collections, is a leading and internationally relative to normal tissues. Savkovic and Tulane is investing $5.7 million to renowned source for research on her team were awarded a five-year, $1.6 significantly expand the Tulane University traditional New Orleans jazz and music million National Cancer Institute grant for Translational Science Institute (TUTSI) starting in the late 19th century. this work. into a universitywide center focused on tulane.it/jazz-archive-expands-scope tulane.it/colon-cancer-and-obesity finding better ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease and translate scientific discoveries into medical practices that improve patient care and public health. FROM CAMPUS The institute will include new graduate NEW PODCASTS degree programs to develop the next AVAILABLE generation of clinical investigators, new On Good Authority, Tulane’s official training programs for clinical research podcast, produced by the Office of University coordinators and a shared “biobank” Communications and Marketing, continues freezer farm to store and preserve patient to create new episodes, including a special samples for use by researchers across episode featuring bestselling author and multiple studies and institutions. TUTSI Tulane faculty member Walter Isaacson talking will include researchers from the School with Tulane President Michael A. Fitts. Other of Medicine, the School of Public Health episodes address topics such as eating for a and Tropical Medicine, the School of healthy planet and voices of New Orleans and Science and Engineering, and the School much more.