WINTER 2016 COLUMBIA MAGAZINE

COLUMBIAMAGAZINE WINTER 2016 Your Beautiful Brain DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONTIERS OF NEUROSCIENCE

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PAGE 34 CONTENTS

FEATURES 12 YOUR BEAUTIFUL BRAIN By Bill Retherford Dispatches from the frontiers of neuroscience

22 BEING THERE By Paul Hond In more ways than one, Columbia professor Sarah Sze is the artist of the moment

30 THE SECRET LIFE OF VOLCANOES By Kevin Krajick ’76GS, ’77JRN Can a Columbia-led expedition to South America uncover the forces that drive one of its largest volcanoes?

34 SYNCOPATED SISTERS By Paul Hond Tap-dance entrepreneurs Chloe and Maud Arnold are ready to click with a new generation — and heal the world through rhythm and shoes

40 THE BIG IDEA By Fred Strasser Chloe Arnold A Q&A with Columbia law ’02CC (left) and Maud professor Je rey Fagan on police Arnold ’08CC

JORG MEYER JORG accountability

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4.16_Contents_FINAL.indd 2 11/16/16 3:37 PM COLUMBIA CONTENTS MAGAZINE DEPARTMENTS Executive Vice President, 3 University Development & Alumni Relations LETTERS Amelia Alverson Deputy Vice President for Strategic Communications 6 Jerry Kisslinger ’79CC, ’82GSAS COLLEGE WALK Chord Curriculum \ The Short List \ Editor in Chief The Manahata Project \ We Are the World \ Sally Lee

Bittersweet \ Let’s Go Clubbing Art Director Jeffrey Saks

42 Managing Editor EXPLORATIONS Rebecca Shapiro Climate change fuels signifi cant increase PAGE Senior Editors in US forest fi res \ Revealing the true 6 David J. Craig, Paul Hond hunting habits of Yankee whalers \ Study: Copy Chief “Wheat sensitivity” is real \ Data mining Joshua J. Friedman ’08JRN reveals risky drug combos \ Study Hall Assistant to the Editor Julia Joy

48 Editorial Assistant Marley Marius NETWORK A Virtual Museum Tour \ Products with a

Purpose \ The Giving Season \ Reporting Director of Digital Strategy Reimagined \ That’s Amaro \ Newsmakers Gwynne Gauntlett

Director for Marketing Research FROM TOP: RICCARDO VECCHIO; COURTESY OF JOSEPHINE HALVORSON AND SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.; SARA KRULWICH / THE NEW YORK TIMES / REDUX 54 Linda Ury Greenberg BULLETIN Director for Strategic Marketing and Communications University news and views PAGE Tracy Quinn ’14SPS 50

58 Subscriptions: BOOKS Address and archive assistance 4 3 2 1, by Paul Auster \ Mischling, by [email protected] 212-851-4155 A nity Konar \ His Final Battle: The Last To update your address online, visit Months of Franklin Roosevelt, by Joseph alumni.columbia.edu/directory, Lelyveld \ Plus, Graham Moore discusses or call 1-877-854-ALUM (2586).

The Last Days of Night Advertising: 212-851-4155 [email protected] 63 CLASSIFIEDS To download our advertising brochure or submit a classifi ed advertisement online, visit www.magazine.columbia.edu/advertise. 64 Letters to the editor: FINALS PAGE [email protected] 22 The Mane Event Columbia Magazine is published for alumni and friends of Columbia by the Offi ce of Alumni and Development. FOLLOW US © 2016 by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York

/ColumbiaMag @columbiamag COVER ILLUSTRATION: MERIJN HOS

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4.16_Contents_FINAL.indd 3 11/16/16 3:37 PM LETTERS

LIT PARADE Every issue of the outstanding Columbia Magazine seems better than the one before! I frequently feel OPEN CUBA will merely throw a lifeline to sition in a country under an nostalgic about, Excellent article on Cuba the ruling elite. Elites don’t embargo as tight as the one and am always in the fall issue (“Bridges to reform because they want we have on Cuba.” But Cuba grateful for, the Cuba”). When I was a student to but because they have to; has been trading and has had classes taught by at Columbia College in the and we’ve told them they full relations with Canada‘‘ early 1970s, spending half don’t have to. and Europe for decades, yet Mark Van Doren, my food money every week Taras Wolansky ’74CC the Cuban communist gov- Eric Bentley, and at Laissez Faire Books, near Kerhonkson, NY ernment is as repressive and especially William NYU, I shared the comfort- dictatorial as ever. York Tindall. able belief that trade and I was one of the students The writer of the article Ellie F. Schmidt tourism could reform an au- who listened to Fidel Castro’s states that “the values that ’63GSAS thoritarian regime. It sound- speech on College Walk on most Cubans want to pre- Santa Rosa, CA ed a lot easier than JFK’s April 21, 1959. But I was not serve” are “universal health promise that we would “pay seduced, since I knew about care, universal education, any price, bear any burden.” communism from my par- egalitarianism, anti-imperial- Unfortunately, the years ents, who were refugees from ism.” How does he know this? that followed showed that the the Soviet Union. Your article There is no democracy in easy way didn’t work. South quotes President Obama as Cuba, so there has never been Africa ended apartheid not saying, in Havana, “I have an election to test what because we engaged with it, come here to bury the last Cubans value the most. Even but because we embargoed remnant of the Cold War in if you polled Cubans, people and ostracized it. The Soviet the Americas.” This is a naive would not tell you their true Union changed because the statement. Cuba has a dic- feelings, since they are afraid Reagan administration put tatorial communist regime, of being arrested. How naive pressure on its every weak and so as long as there is no can you get? point simultaneously. In the democracy in Cuba, there will Roman George Kernitsky Questions? Comments? meantime, engagement with be a remnant of the Cold War. ’62CC WE WELCOME THEM ALL! China helped transform an There is also no point in Colts Neck, NJ E-MAIL US AT: authoritarian regime that was people-to-people engagement [email protected] too poor to do much damage if the Cuban people have ab- ALWAYS FAITHFUL OR WRITE TO US: in the world into one that solutely no power to change I enjoyed your article “Leave Columbia Magazine now has the wealth to do a the government. SIPA pro- Them Laughing,” about Columbia Alumni Center great deal of damage. fessor Christopher Sabatini comedian Negin Farsad 622 W. 113th Street, MC 4521 New York, NY 10025 In much the same way, it’s is quoted as saying, “There’s (Network, Fall 2016), but I Letters may be edited for brevity or clarity. likely that opening to Cuba never been a democratic tran- noticed an incorrect term

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4.16_Letters_FINAL_Revised.indd 3 11/14/16 11:39 AM LETTERS being used. You quote Farsad as saying, “I always think about the ex-Marine who had been stationed in Afghani- stan. He came in angry and left laugh- ing.” As the daughter of a Marine who is a combat veteran of Vietnam, and as a cousin or friend to many Marines who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, I Calling All wanted to clarify that for Marines — as my dad always says — “once a Marine, always a Marine.” There are no “ex-” Marines — except, perhaps, in the case of a dishonorable discharge. Jillian Kelly ’10SW Readers Brooklyn, NY REDESIGN REACTIONS What happened to Columbia Magazine? Did some marketing guru Do you enjoy tell you that you are not up-to-date, ➜ Engaging with ideas that will change the way we live and think? that we have short attention spans and have become a foodie nation? I used ➜ Learning about breakthroughs in climate science and to read long, thoughtful, well-written precision medicine, and reading about artists, humanitarians, articles. Now pictures have replaced text, and short, breezy, uninteresting entrepreneurs, and inventors? articles dominate. The new look: glitz without substance. ➜ Keeping up with Columbia and your alumni community? Peter Gibbon ’80TC Duxbury, MA

Good idea to have the caption contest, and nice changes to the magazine. Please support Columbia Al McGovern ’78SEAS Naperville, IL

Magazine with a voluntary For those who wrote to express disappointment that your school was not listed in our fall issue’s abbreviation key, we hear you loud and clear! We were experimenting with listing only the abbreviations of schools that appeared in a given edition, in an effort to subscription of $36 or save space. We’re now reevaluating, and we appreciate your sharing your views. — Ed. KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS the amount of your choice. CODE SCHOOL BC Barnard College can be sent to: BUS Graduate School of Business Checks payable to Columbia Magazine CC Columbia College DM College of Dental Medicine Columbia Magazine GS School of General Studies GSAPP Graduate School of Architecture, 622 West 113th Street Planning, and Preservation New York, NY 10025 GSAS Graduate School of Arts and Sciences HON (Honorary degree) JRN Graduate School of Journalism Or donate online: JTS Jewish Theological Seminary KC King’s College giving.columbia.edu/ColumbiaMagazine LAW School of Law LS School of Library Service

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4.16_Letters_FINAL_Revised.indd 4 11/14/16 11:39 AM LETTERS New from being used. You quote Farsad as saying, Columbia University Press “I always think about the ex-Marine 3 More Alumni TED Talks who had been stationed in Afghani- You Might Have Missed stan. He came in angry and left laugh- Readers who enjoyed the fall issue’s ing.” As the daughter of a Marine who Network feature on alumni TED Talks is a combat veteran of Vietnam, and sent in a few more suggestions for your as a cousin or friend to many Marines viewing pleasure. who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, I Pamela Payne Foster ’93PH wanted to clarify that for Marines — as Calling All “Bridging civil rights and health care,” my dad always says — “once a Marine, April 2015, TEDx always a Marine.” There are no “ex-” According to a study in the American Marines — except, perhaps, in the case Journal of Public Health, the number-one of a dishonorable discharge. cause of death in the US isn’t disease; it’s Jillian Kelly ’10SW poor education. To change this, physician Brooklyn, NY and advocate Pamela Payne Foster The First Modern Japanese Readers seeks to build a “bridge” between social The Life of Ishikawa Takuboku REDESIGN REACTIONS equality and health care. What happened to Columbia DonalD Keene Magazine? Did some marketing guru Mike F. Coffin ’85GSAS “Keene’s finely wrought translations of tell you that you are not up-to-date, “Mass extinction,” January 2014, TEDx Ishikawa’s poems glimmer ever more that we have short attention spans and Mike F. Coffin, a marine geoscientist, says brightly, sandwiched between the dark have become a foodie nation? I used that humans are dramatically accelerat- episodes of the young poet’s short life.”

to read long, thoughtful, well-written ing the arrival of the planet’s sixth “mass —Japan Times articles. Now pictures have replaced extinction” through climate change. text, and short, breezy, uninteresting Sczerina Perot ’90CC articles dominate. The new look: glitz “Housing is a human right,” October without substance. 2013, TEDx Peter Gibbon ’80TC A civil-rights lawyer who fights for the Duxbury, MA universal right to “adequate” housing, Sczerina Perot calls for increased social Good idea to have the caption contest, awareness of the circumstances that can and nice changes to the magazine. force people onto the streets, and calls Al McGovern ’78SEAS Please support Columbia homelessness a “moral outrage.” Naperville, IL

Magazine with a voluntary For those who wrote to express disappointment that your school was not listed in our fall issue’s abbreviation key, we hear you loud and clear! We were experimenting with Endangered Economies listing only the abbreviations of schools that appeared in a given edition, in an effort to How the Neglect of Nature subscription of $36 or save space. We’re now reevaluating, and we appreciate your sharing your views. — Ed. Threatens Our Prosperity Geoffrey Heal KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS CODE SCHOOL CODE SCHOOL “In this passionate and readable book, the amount of your choice. Heal sets out the measures needed BC Barnard College NRS School of Nursing BUS Graduate School of Business OPT School of Optometry to reconcile economic progress with CC Columbia College PH Mailman School of Public Health preservation of the planet. They are DM College of Dental Medicine PHRM School of Pharmaceutical Sciences GS School of General Studies PS College of Physicians and Surgeons surprisingly simple and attainable. Heal GSAPP Graduate School of Architecture, SEAS Fu Foundation School of Engineering demonstrates that . . . growth is not Planning, and Preservation and Applied Science attainable over the long run without GSAS Graduate School of Arts and Sciences SIPA School of International and Public Affairs protecting the environment.” HON (Honorary degree) SOA School of the Arts JRN Graduate School of Journalism SPS School of Professional Studies JTS Jewish Theological Seminary SW School of Social Work —Joseph E. Stiglitz, KC King’s College TC Teachers College Nobel Laureate in Economics LAW School of Law UTS Union Theological Seminary LS School of Library Service c u p . co lu m b i a . e d u

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4.16_Letters_FINAL_Revised.indd 5 11/14/16 11:40 AM allegory about a contest in which God judges original COLLEGE songs composed by angels. The narrator’s song does not win the contest, but he’s WALK not disappointed, for he “received the greatest gift of all — a thoughtful listener.” NOTES The message is an appeal, FROM 116TH and perhaps even a subtle STREET AND heads-up: The Ascension of Slow Dakota is rigor- BEYOND ous and requires your full attention. Sauerteig, who wrote that allegory and also contributes piano, ukulele, mandolin, and percussion to the baroque-pop mix, leads you on a melodic, sometimes hypnotic expedition through ballads, hymns, poems, and requiems filled with literary allusions, with nods to Joyce, Walt Whitman, Virginia Woolf, and William Blake. Sauerteig understands that his project makes demands on an audience. “I realize that at times the album is im- penetrable and full of arcane references,” he says. “I’ve often asked myself, ‘Why on earth would anyone in this day and age put out this kind of music?’” To arrive at something of an answer, one must look Chord Curriculum at the portrait of the artist A musician-writer makes music to think by as a young student. Sau- erteig became steeped in the Columbia music scene as a t was the spring of 2015 Kitcher didn’t know it at “Hearing that man read freshman, playing piano at and P. J. Sauerteig ’15CC the time, but he was audi- Ulysses could wake the Orientation and starting an was searching for a voice. tioning for a speaking role on dead,” Sauerteig says. experimental-folk band with One day, while he was sit- Sauerteig’s next indie album. Less than a year later, four classmates. He says he ting in Columbia philoso- The College senior had Sauerteig, now an alumnus, was “amazed — even em- Iphy professor Philip Kitcher’s already put out three records returned to campus, to barrassed” by the wealth of class, Sauerteig’s ears perked under the name Slow Dakota, the basement of Hamilton musical talent surrounding up: Kitcher was reading aloud and now he was looking for Hall, where he recorded him, and resolved to collab- from Ulysses, his voice gliding someone to perform the spo- Kitcher for The Ascension of RICCARDO VECCHIO orate with his classmates as through the labyrinth of ken-word compositions on his Slow Dakota. much as possible. Indeed, James Joyce’s prose with mes- fourth album. The professor’s On the album’s opening when looking for a producer merizing clarity and direction. voice left him spellbound. track, Kitcher recites an for The Ascension of Slow

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4.16_CW_FINALS.indd 6 11/16/16 8:30 AM allegory about a contest in Dakota, Sauerteig called which God judges original on classmate Sahil Ansari songs composed by angels. ’15SEAS, who had played in THE SHORT LIST The narrator’s song does a “confessional avant-folk” The Wallach Gallery presents not win the contest, but he’s band at Columbia called Tox SEE Finesse, an exhibition that not disappointed, for he and Guest. explores how younger artists negotiate the “received the greatest gift of Sauerteig’s lyrics are a relationship between their work and the all — a thoughtful listener.” direct refl ection of his course institution in which it is created. Curated by The message is an appeal, of study at Columbia. He Columbia art-history PhD candidate Leah and perhaps even a subtle majored in creative writing Pires. From January 19 to March 11. heads-up: The Ascension with the explicit purpose of columbia.edu/cu/wallach of Slow Dakota is rigor- sharpening his Slow Dakota ous and requires your full compositions. His studies Did you know that attention. Sauerteig, who with poet Joseph Fasano SHARE Columbia now has wrote that allegory and also ’08SOA, who teaches gradu- its own set of emoji and GIFs? Down- contributes piano, ukulele, ate and undergraduate load the free C-moji app on your mandolin, and percussion to writing, made such an smartphone to send lions, land- the baroque-pop mix, leads impression that Sauerteig marks, or even a slice of oversized you on a melodic, sometimes asked Fasano to read the pizza. Available in the iOS and hypnotic expedition through album’s closing poem. And Android app stores. ballads, hymns, poems, and Barnard English profes- requiems fi lled with literary sor Margaret Vandenburg allusions, with nods to Joyce, ’96GSAS, whose course EXPERIENCE Walt Whitman, Virginia on postmodern literature Richard Price ’76SOA, author of the novels Woolf, and William Blake. inspired many of the under- Clockers and Lush Life, and screenwriter for Sauerteig understands that lying themes of the album, HBO’s The Wire, is known for his gritty tales his project makes demands reads a short allegory. of city living. On January 25 he will host on an audience. “I realize In contrast to the pris- Selected Shorts, public radio’s long- that at times the album is im- tinely polished recordings of running program of theatrical storytelling, penetrable and full of arcane the album’s musical tracks, recorded live at Symphony Space, on the references,” he says. “I’ve each faculty performance Upper West Side. symphonyspace.org often asked myself, ‘Why on was recorded on an iPhone, earth would anyone in this an intentional decision by The Marcus Roberts day and age put out this kind Sauerteig to imbue these LISTEN Trio takes the stage of music?’” quiet moments of refl ection on February 4 as part of Miller Theatre’s To arrive at something of with a raw timelessness. annual jazz series. Roberts, an answer, one must look Turn the volume up and who lost his sight at age fi ve, at the portrait of the artist you can hear echoes from began touring with trumpeter as a young student. Sau- the Columbia halls and Wynton Marsalis ’96HON at erteig became steeped in the the mu ed murmurs of twenty-one. Now fi fty-three, Columbia music scene as a students passing by. These Roberts runs a uniquely “Hearing that man read freshman, playing piano at can only be detected if you democratic trio: each player Ulysses could wake the Orientation and starting an listen carefully, of course. gets equal time to lead. dead,” Sauerteig says. experimental-folk band with Fortunately, The Ascension of millertheatre.com Less than a year later, four classmates. He says he Slow Dakota is so musically Sauerteig, now an alumnus, was “amazed — even em- and lyrically layered that one Who said education returned to campus, to barrassed” by the wealth of has no choice but to put all LEARNends with graduation? the basement of Hamilton musical talent surrounding else aside and commit, for Alumni can audit online courses and Hall, where he recorded him, and resolved to collab- sixty-one minutes, to being hear lectures taught by Columbia faculty RICCARDO VECCHIO Kitcher for The Ascension of orate with his classmates as a thoughtful listener, which on subjects like foreign policy and Slow Dakota. much as possible. Indeed, may, in the end, be Sau- machine learning. alumni.columbia.edu On the album’s opening when looking for a producer erteig’s greatest gift of all. /research-learn/podcasts-online-seminars track, Kitcher recites an for The Ascension of Slow — Eric Kester ’15SOA

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4.16_CW_FINALS.indd 7 11/16/16 8:30 AM COLLEGE WALK that, and after I graduated, the current appealed for the campus community to A depiction of students really brought the e ort respect the plaque’s message. “Continue the purchase to completion.” to recognize the Lenape as you walk of Manhattan in 1626, artist And so, on the second Monday of Octo- these grounds,” she said. “They were here, unknown. ber in 2016, a day celebrated throughout they are here, and we will continue to North America as Indigenous Peoples’ honor them.” Day (the same day as Columbus Day), NoiseCat spoke next. He greeted the Julian Brave NoiseCat, coming straight audience in the Secwepemc language, from his job downtown with the city which has fewer than two hundred housing department, returned to campus remaining fl uent speakers. He o ered his for the plaque’s unveiling. gratitude to students and faculty, and to Under a blue late-afternoon sky, in Bollinger, Goldberg, and Melinda Aquino golden light, NoiseCat walked to the ’12SPS, associate dean of multicultural shaded green quad in front of John Jay a airs. Calling the plaque “an amazing Hall, where 150 students, alumni, faculty, victory,” he focused attention on the ex- and administrators, including Goldberg treme poverty and miserable social con- and President Lee C. Bollinger, had ditions of indigenous people, “the most gathered. The ceremony began with a easily forgotten people in the nation.” thanksgiving by the SilverCloud Sing- Afterward, at a reception in John Jay ers, an intertribal singing group from Hall, attendees heard from NAC political New York. They pounded a drum and chanted, the spiritual sounds evoking THE MANAHATA PROJECT landscapes that predated the nearby Honoring the island’s fi rst inhabitants neoclassical buildings, tinging them with a fl eeting incongruity. WE ARE THE WORLD When the prayer ended, the hen Julian Brave Lenape people, who were “the victims of co-presidents of NAC — Michelle NoiseCat ’15CC arrived disease, warfare, dishonest agreements, Crowfeather, of the Standing Rock at Columbia in 2011, he and destructive policies.” The petition got Sioux and Chippewa Cree Nations, saw the pride with which a thousand signatures. The website and Breanna Leslie-Skye, of the Cayuga the great institution Indian Country Today picked up the Nation — stepped to a lectern on the Wmarked its history — a plaque commem- story, as did the Spectator. walkway. Beside them, on the ground, orating the Battle of Harlem Heights, a In 2013 NoiseCat, a history major, amid the fl owers at the path’s edge, statue of Alexander Hamilton, a bust of wrote an op-ed in the Spectator advocat- rested a plaque that read: John Jay. But as he walked the quads and ing for a plaque. That caught the atten- corridors, he felt that part of the story tion of the Student Council, which held IN HONOR OF THE LENAPE PEOPLE was missing. a hearing on NoiseCat’s proposal and The Lenape lived here before and NoiseCat, who belongs to the unanimously endorsed it. Over the next during colonization of the Americas. Secwepemc and St’at’imc Nations in year, the process of talking to the Trust- This plaque recognizes these indig- British Columbia, felt there should ees, hammering out the language, and enous people of Manhattan, their be, on campus, a monument to the getting funding was slowed by admin- displacement, dispossession, and Lenni Lenape people, who were living istrative turnover and the painstaking continued presence. It stands as a on Manahata (“island of hills” in their business of getting the wording just right. reminder to refl ect on our past as we Algonquian language) at the time a Then, in 2015, law professor Suzanne contemplate our way forward. Dutch ship disgorged the fi rst European Goldberg, the newly appointed head of settlers, in 1624. the O ce of University Life, got behind The plaque, said Crowfeather, rep-

In his sophomore year, NoiseCat the campaign and became a crucial ally. resents Columbia’s “willingness to rec- MUSEUM OF THE CITY NEW YORK brought his idea to the Native American “There was a big pull and push ognize and validate the way traditional Council (NAC), an undergraduate group between the administration and students homelands and community are thought of some fi fteen students (there are now on particular parts of the language so about by indigenous peoples.” She called about thirty). NAC was all for it. Noise- that the plaque would have exactly the on Columbia to recruit more Native Cat then posted a petition on Change.org appropriate message,” NoiseCat says. American students, especially from rural calling on Columbia to recognize the “Professor Goldberg helped us navigate communities and reservations, and

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4.16_CW_FINALS.indd 8 11/16/16 8:30 AM that, and after I graduated, the current appealed for the campus community to co-chairs Tristan Stidham, of the Big NoiseCat mingled with old friends students really brought the e ort respect the plaque’s message. “Continue Pine Paiute Tribe, and Noah Ramage, of and teachers. He, too, wanted Colum- to completion.” to recognize the Lenape as you walk the Cherokee Nation; Barnard histo- bia to compete more aggressively with And so, on the second Monday of Octo- these grounds,” she said. “They were here, ry professor Andrew Lipman, whose peer institutions for the small number ber in 2016, a day celebrated throughout they are here, and we will continue to research informed the plaque’s language; of Ivy-eligible indigenous high-school North America as Indigenous Peoples’ honor them.” and Columbia history professor Karl students. “Obviously, Indian country Day (the same day as Columbus Day), NoiseCat spoke next. He greeted the Jacoby, who described a “powerful inver- needs more young, educated intellectual Julian Brave NoiseCat, coming straight audience in the Secwepemc language, sion” enacted by the European settlers. leaders,” he said. from his job downtown with the city which has fewer than two hundred “The newcomers reimagine themselves He hoped the plaque would help housing department, returned to campus remaining fl uent speakers. He o ered his as the new natives of the given territory, draw those minds to Columbia, and for the plaque’s unveiling. gratitude to students and faculty, and to while the preexisting indigenous people build a place where more indigenous Under a blue late-afternoon sky, in Bollinger, Goldberg, and Melinda Aquino are recast as an alien and foreign pres- people would be seen at every level of golden light, NoiseCat walked to the ’12SPS, associate dean of multicultural ence,” Jacoby said. “This certainly was the University life. shaded green quad in front of John Jay a airs. Calling the plaque “an amazing experience of the Lenape, whom settlers “Maybe someday,” he said, “I’ll take my Hall, where 150 students, alumni, faculty, victory,” he focused attention on the ex- came to term the Delaware.” Today, said kids up to Alma Mater and show them and administrators, including Goldberg treme poverty and miserable social con- Jacoby, most of the Delaware Nation is all the usual stu , then show them the and President Lee C. Bollinger, had ditions of indigenous people, “the most scattered in Canada and Oklahoma, a Lenape plaque and tell them that I was a gathered. The ceremony began with a easily forgotten people in the nation.” testament to “the vast geographic scope part of the student community that made thanksgiving by the SilverCloud Sing- Afterward, at a reception in John Jay of the displacement that dominated US it happen. That would be super cool.” ers, an intertribal singing group from Hall, attendees heard from NAC political Indian policy.” — Paul Hond New York. They pounded a drum and chanted, the spiritual sounds evoking landscapes that predated the nearby neoclassical buildings, tinging them with a fl eeting incongruity. WE ARE THE WORLD When the prayer ended, the Columbia’s 329,505 alumni live in 189 countries and territories. Here are the top twelve. co-presidents of NAC — Michelle Crowfeather, of the Standing Rock Canada China Sioux and Chippewa Cree Nations, 2,983 2,761 and Breanna Leslie-Skye, of the Cayuga United Nation — stepped to a lectern on the Kingdom 3,261 walkway. Beside them, on the ground, amid the fl owers at the path’s edge, rested a plaque that read: South Korea Germany 1,794 IN HONOR OF THE LENAPE PEOPLE 1,067 The Lenape lived here before and during colonization of the Americas. This plaque recognizes these indig- Hong Kong enous people of Manhattan, their 1,250 displacement, dispossession, and France continued presence. It stands as a 2,065 reminder to refl ect on our past as we contemplate our way forward. USA 290,865 Israel Japan The plaque, said Crowfeather, rep- 1,314 2,669 resents Columbia’s “willingness to rec- MUSEUM OF THE CITY NEW YORK ognize and validate the way traditional Taiwan homelands and community are thought 1,288 about by indigenous peoples.” She called India on Columbia to recruit more Native 1,513 American students, especially from rural communities and reservations, and

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4.16_CW_FINALS.indd 9 11/16/16 8:31 AM COLLEGE WALK grow the Boulé membership appearances for labor unions, BITTERSWEET from 440 families to thirty civil-rights organizations, and Two scholars of Harlem take in the view from Sugar Hill thousand, representing a hun- striking workers. He spoke dredth of the Black popula- and sang for miners, textile tion, across class lines. “The workers, and sugar-cane f the story of Manhattan new generation,” Du Bois said, cutters in places as far apart is a story of real estate, it “must learn that the object as Hawaii, Wales, and North was fitting that a recent of the world is not profit but Carolina, sometimes at great forum about Sugar Hill, service and happiness.” risk to his health and safety. the middle-class Harlem That same year, Du Bois “Is there anyone like him Ienclave that from the 1930s was pushed out of the NAACP, today? People at the pinnacle to the 1950s was home to which he had helped found of their artistic careers willing cultural heavyweights like in 1909. He wasn’t the only to donate their time, much Duke Ellington ’73HON, Paul Edgecombe Avenue habitué less risk their lives, to help the Robeson ’23LAW, and Zora to pay a price for reproaching most embattled and marginal- Neale Hurston ’28BC, should capitalism during the Cold ized people, here and around honor the legacy of two apart- War. Naison named three the world?” ment buildings: 409 and 555 other residents who tied The question hung in the Edgecombe Avenue. racism to economic exploita- air, adding to the melancholic These World War I–era tion and took sense of times past. Finally, it Aaron Douglas, bold stands towers stand six blocks apart, Aspects of Negro all came back to real estate. at West 154th Street and Life: The Negro against both: Naison had already portrayed West 160th Street, on a blu— in an African activist Louise the history of Harlem as being Setting, 1934. overlooking the Harlem River Thompson “threatened by gentrification and the South Bronx. In 409 “The people living at 409 construct of the “Talented (later Patterson), journalist and unchecked develop- lived painter Aaron Douglas and 555 had the option of in- Tenth” — an idea he had laid Marvel Cooke, and Robeson, ment,” and now Levering ’44TC, NAACP leader Walter sulating themselves from the out in 1903, calling for the the singer-actor-activist who Lewis recalled an interview White, and polymath scholar daily struggles of the poorest most intellectually gifted moved to 555 Edgecombe in he’d done on French radio, W. E. B. Du Bois. And 555 Harlemites or addressing Black men (one in ten) to re- 1939 with his wife, the anthro- in which he said that when was the address of Robeson, them from the distant perch ceive a classical education and pologist Eslanda Goode Robe- former president Bill Clinton Count Basie, and the boxer of noblesse oblige,” said Nai- form a leadership vanguard. son ’20TC. Not coincidentally, moved his oªce to West 125th Joe Louis. son, who grew up in Crown “Du Bois said that the idea all three were associated with, Street in 2001, it “betokened Less than three miles Heights, Brooklyn. “Some had been that ‘to those of or members of, the American the inevitable transformation south of these citadels, two chose that path. But others us to whom much is given, Communist Party (Du Bois of Harlem.” The historian had historians — author David chose to merge their fate with much is rightly expected’; would join in 1961). predicted that Black Harlem Levering Lewis ’59GSAS, the Black working class and and that this leadership “The CPUSA carved out a in a few years would be all ’15HON, and Mark Naison poor, and the working class of concept was not elitist, but powerful niche in the Black but vanished, with a plaque ’66CC, ’76GSAS, a professor all nationalities, in ways that simply a demand that people intelligentsia in the early on every street memorializing of African-American studies still challenge us today.” with education, resources, Depression years by making society’s regret over the loss. and history at Fordham Levering Lewis, whose and awareness would take the battle against white su- “Rents are rising; historic — discussed the activism two-volume biography of a leadership role that would premacy a central component buildings are coming down,” that sprang from the two W. E. B. Du Bois won two result in time in the uplift of of the struggle for economic wrote Michael Henry Adams buildings. The talk was part Pulitzers and a Bancroft Prize, the race,” said Levering Lewis, justice,” Naison said. Though in a 2016 New York Times of “When Sugar Hill Was focused on number 409’s loft- who attended the ’48 speech Robeson was not a card carri- op-ed titled “The End of Sweet,” a day of panels and iest figure. He recalled the day (he was twelve; his father was er, he had strong aªnities and SCHOMBURG CENTER, NYPL / ART RESOURCE, NY Black Harlem.” But 555 performances held this fall in 1948 in Wilberforce, Ohio, dean of the Wilberforce Uni- would be blacklisted during Edgecombe will survive. in Barnard Hall, sponsored that Du Bois, then eighty years versity divinity school). On the McCarthy era. “Before he Registered as a New York City by Barnard’s Department of old, spoke to the annual meet- that day, Levering Lewis said, was silenced and demonized Landmark in 1993, it is oª- Africana Studies, Columbia’s ing of the Boulé, an exclusive Du Bois, whose thinking was during the Cold War, Robeson cially called the Paul Robeson Heyman Center for the Hu- society of African-American ever more influenced by Karl was among the highest paid Residence, and word is that manities, and the Institute for professional men that Du Marx, proposed, in lieu of the entertainers in the world,” you can find a one-bedroom Research on Women, Gender, Bois felt had grown snobbish. Talented Tenth, a “Guiding said Naison. “Yet he devoted there for $1,800 a month. and Sexuality. There, Du Bois retracted his Hundredth”: an appeal to half his schedule to free public — Paul Hond

10 COLUMBIA WINTER 2016

4.16_CW_FINALS.indd 10 11/16/16 8:31 AM grow the Boulé membership appearances for labor unions, from 440 families to thirty civil-rights organizations, and LET’S GO CLUBBING thousand, representing a hun- striking workers. He spoke Activity-minded students indulge their special interests dredth of the Black popula- and sang for miners, textile tion, across class lines. “The workers, and sugar-cane new generation,” Du Bois said, cutters in places as far apart wathed in streaming plumage and handouts galore: fl yers, cards, papers, and “must learn that the object as Hawaii, Wales, and North wearing papier-mâché masks as pamphlets. Literature from the Residence of the world is not profi t but Carolina, sometimes at great if fresh from a Chinatown street Hall Leadership Organization pledged to offer service and happiness.” risk to his health and safety. festival, a couple of members of “the unique opportunity to lead where you live That same year, Du Bois “Is there anyone like him Columbia University Lion Dance — polish your leadership skills, advocate for Sbobbed and weaved to an insistent drum fellow residents, and plan impactful programs was pushed out of the NAACP, today? People at the pinnacle which he had helped found of their artistic careers willing on College Walk. On South Lawn, a young to build a stronger community.” The Atheist in 1909. He wasn’t the only to donate their time, much woman from Whitewater Kayaking perched and Agnostic Students Society declared, Edgecombe Avenue habitué less risk their lives, to help the precariously atop a table, scrunched in her “We were bummed that there was no group to pay a price for reproaching most embattled and marginal- craft, paddle at the ready. representing nonreligious students. With forty capitalism during the Cold ized people, here and around Over at the Art Collective, the display religious groups dominating discussions of War. Naison named three the world?” swarmed with multicolored Post-its on which faith on campus, we truly felt rear-ended.” other residents who tied The question hung in the passing students had doodled. Nearby, two The day was also a time to fi ne-tune racism to economic exploita- air, adding to the melancholic sparkly stalwarts of CU Bellydance — one principles and build on lessons learned. The tion and took sense of times past. Finally, it dressed in red, one in green — went through Jester crew stressed that their august humor bold stands all came back to real estate. their jingly gyrations. magazine would be less smutty and more like against both: Naison had already portrayed “There’s a neuroscience society?” said a the New Yorker. AllSex, a sexuality discussion activist Louise the history of Harlem as being nearby student, as he admired a model of a group formerly known as FemSex, explained Thompson “threatened by gentrifi cation human brain. its name change as an effort to signal more (later Patterson), journalist and unchecked develop- On a sunny day at the start of the school inclusiveness. And the Black Students’ Organi- Marvel Cooke, and Robeson, ment,” and now Levering year, the activities fair was going strong. zation was hoping to capitalize on the national the singer-actor-activist who Lewis recalled an interview At this annual recruiting drive, many of the mood around racial injustice. “Black Lives moved to 555 Edgecombe in he’d done on French radio, University’s fi ve-hundred-plus undergraduate Matter has galvanized and mainstreamed the 1939 with his wife, the anthro- in which he said that when extracurricular clubs do their best to attract movement,” said president Damon Hart. pologist Eslanda Goode Robe- former president Bill Clinton new blood, mainly that of eager fi rst-years. Meanwhile, the Columbia University College son ’20TC. Not coincidentally, moved his o™ ce to West 125th A generation or so ago, all the commotion Republicans — who distributed Frisbees along all three were associated with, Street in 2001, it “betokened could be crowded into a couple of wings of with copies of the US Constitution — were or members of, the American the inevitable transformation the now-vanished Ferris Booth Hall. But the declining to endorse a presidential candidate Communist Party (Du Bois of Harlem.” The historian had burgeoning diver- in the coming election. “I’m a little nervous,” would join in 1961). predicted that Black Harlem sity, as well as the said club president Annie Ninivaggi, “but I think “The CPUSA carved out a in a few years would be all sheer size, of the it will be an exciting year to grow the club.” An powerful niche in the Black but vanished, with a plaque student body has hour and a half into the festivities, about thirty intelligentsia in the early on every street memorializing made the activities potential initiates had signed up. Depression years by making society’s regret over the loss. fair into something Long before the four-hour event had wound the battle against white su- “Rents are rising; historic considerably more down, engineering student Yifan Zhao was premacy a central component buildings are coming down,” colorful and sprawl- clutching a fi stful of fl yers from Women of the struggle for economic wrote Michael Henry Adams ing. This year, more in Computer Science, Columbia University justice,” Naison said. Though in a 2016 New York Times than three hundred Bhangra (Pu njabi dance), the Columbian Robeson was not a card carri- op-ed titled “The End of clubs participated. yearbook, and Let’s Get Ready, which recruits er, he had strong a™ nities and SCHOMBURG CENTER, NYPL / ART RESOURCE, NY Black Harlem.” But 555 Such time-honored students to help low-income kids with test would be blacklisted during Edgecombe will survive. outlets as the prep. “I heard there was a coding club,” Zhao the McCarthy era. “Before he Registered as a New York City Varsity Show, WKCR, and the CU Marching said. “I’m trying to fi nd it.” Almost immediately, was silenced and demonized Landmark in 1993, it is o™ - Band were joined by newer entries like the she turned around to see two students wear- during the Cold War, Robeson cially called the Paul Robeson Columbia Vegan Society and Camp Kesem, for ing blue T-shirts adorned with strange white was among the highest paid Residence, and word is that children of parents who have cancer. symbols and a third hoisting a sign asking, entertainers in the world,” you can fi nd a one-bedroom By way of inducement, many tables came WANT TO LEARN HOW TO CODE? said Naison. “Yet he devoted there for $1,800 a month. laden with Tootsie Pops, doughnuts, candy “Oh!” she said. “It’s this one!” half his schedule to free public — Paul Hond bars, and chocolate-chip cookies. There were — Thomas Vinciguerra ’85CC, ’86JRN, ’90GSAS

COLUMBIA WINTER 2016 11

4.16_CW_FINALS.indd 11 11/16/16 8:31 AM

BY BILL RETHERFORD BILL BY YOUR BRAIN

BEAUTIFUL

GETTY IMAGES 11/14/16 10:12 AM 4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 12 YOUR BEAUTIFUL BRAIN

DISPATCHES

FROM THE

FRONTIERS OF

NEUROSCIENCE

GETTY IMAGES BY BILL RETHERFORD

COLUMBIA WINTER 2016 13

4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 13 11/14/16 10:13 AM eer into the human Each neuron typically links to thousands more, ’28LAW, ’83HON, was an attorney, real-estate skull, probe the brain’s perhaps up to fifteen thousand more, drawing on developer, and billionaire; he graduated from tofu-like texture, and the measliest of electrical currents (0.07 volts — an Columbia Law School just before the Great there, in that microscopic AA battery carries twenty times as much). Those Depression began. Over the next seventy-one terrain, the neurons exist, currents, moving neuron to neuron, sprint through years, he would give hundreds of millions of nearly infinitesimal. Fifty of them would fit a phalanx of connectors, called synapses, at speeds dollars to charitable causes. He died in 1999, on the period at the end of this sentence. up to almost three hundred miles per hour. Signals age ninety-three, one of New York City’s most Most form before birth and stay with us until from the brain’s motor cortex, for example, rush powerful figures. Even after death he endures: death, although some, due to disease or disuse, through the central nervous system to the neuronal the name on the building is the Jerome L. eventually shrink, slow down, or succumb. The networks in the legs. Those electrical pokes Greene Science Center. brains of frogs hold sixteen million neuronal regulate balance, direction, stride, and speed, along The building’s approximately eight hundred cells; fox terriers, one hundred sixty million. with dozens of other things; such is the abridged tenants will include scientists, principal PYet the human brain, with its eighty-six billion neurological backstory to taking a single step. investigators, lab managers, postdocs, graduate neurons, still doesn’t house the most. The By the end of adolescence, the neurons will have students, and sta— from Columbia’s Mortimer B. African elephant has three times as many, and engineered five hundred trillion connections. Take Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, itself blue whales likely have billions more, though no those connections — from just one brain, mind you relatively new. The institute was established in one is certain. — string them along Interstate 95 somehow, and December 2012 with a $200 million gift from Individual neurons are not self-aware. They do they would stretch from Columbia University to Zuckerman ’14HON, owner of the New York not know what they are, where they are, or who Columbia, South Carolina. Daily News and chairman of U.S. News & World you are. They do not think. Rather, they permit us Neurons are colloquially called the brain’s Report. Says Thomas M. Jessell, one of the to think. Like the frenzy within a pinball machine, “basic building blocks.” And we do know the Zuckerman Institute’s three codirectors and a basics about how individual neurons work. But Columbia professor of biochemistry, molecular fathoming how trillions of them talk across biophysics, and neuroscience: “Our simple task seventy-eight compartments of brain topography now is to create the best institute for neural is a conundrum. And repairing flawed networks science in the US, and, arguably, in the world.” to conclusively cure brain disorders, like autism The move into the Greene Science Center or Alzheimer’s, remains an enigma — looming, kickstarts that assignment. “Really great daunting, slow to undrape itself. “I don’t want science is going to come from it,” says Shadlen, to make it sound like we know nothing,” says a Zuckerman Institute principal investigator. A Michael Shadlen, a professor of neuroscience at the place for “the collision of ideas,” as Jessell likes Columbia University Herbert and Florence Irving to say. Right now, the institute’s scientists are Medical Center (CUMC). “But there are basic, largely disconnected, geographically speaking; basic phenomena that we know nothing about. they’re spread across six buildings throughout Everything we discover provokes deeper questions.” the Morningside Heights and medical center Wrapping one’s head around the human mind campuses. “We’ve really been constrained, is very hard. Figuring yourself out always is. “The hindered, slowed down by all these labs that have greatest scientific challenge we are now facing,” similar interests, scattered all over,” says Randy says Charles Zuker, professor of biochemistry, Bruno, another Zuckerman Institute investigator. molecular biophysics, and neuroscience at CUMC, Just as neurons need to commingle, apparently “is to understand the workings of the brain.” so do scientists. The stereotype of a lone researcher experiencing a eureka moment in a The glass building awaits in West Harlem, at secluded little lab survives only as a science-fiction the intersection of Broadway and 129th Street, trope. In real life, discovery hardly ever happens thirteen blocks north of the Morningside Heights that way. “These are complex problems, and we campus gates. Overshadowing a space previously have not broken them,” says Richard Axel ’67CC, Thomas M. Jessell the neurons fling directives back and forth, occupied by long-abandoned warehouses, it was a Zuckerman Institute codirector and Columbia likes to call the ceaselessly communicating and connecting with the first structure erected on the school’s new professor of biochemistry, molecular biophysics, Jerome L. Greene Science Center other nerve cells. These neuronal networks control seventeen-acre Manhattanville campus. A $250 pathology, and neuroscience. “The ability to a place for “the every thought, feeling, sensation, and movement. million gift helped make it happen — from the understand will require looking at a problem collision of ideas.” They are the conduits that lead to consciousness; Renzo Piano ’14HON design to the construction of through a multiplicity of eyes.” The relocation to they make sense of our senses. Only because of the building’s more than fifty laboratories. the Greene Science Center collects researchers

them do our brains and bodies work. Minus the Dawn M. Greene ’08HON, the philanthropist, JILL L E from more than twenty disciplines throughout

networks, our minds would be slush, gibberish. bestowed the gift in 2006. Her husband of VINE Columbia: neuroscientists, data scientists, Phantasms would replace perceptions. nineteen years, Jerome L. Greene ’26CC, molecular biologists, stem-cell biologists, electrical

14 COLUMBIA WINTER 2016

4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 14 11/14/16 10:13 AM Each neuron typically links to thousands more, ’28LAW, ’83HON, was an attorney, real-estate engineers, biomedical engineers, psychologists, perhaps up to fifteen thousand more, drawing on developer, and billionaire; he graduated from mathematicians, physicists, theorists, and the measliest of electrical currents (0.07 volts — an Columbia Law School just before the Great model builders. “If you only talk to people who AA battery carries twenty times as much). Those Depression began. Over the next seventy-one work on the exact same thing you work on, you currents, moving neuron to neuron, sprint through years, he would give hundreds of millions of probably don’t generate as many new ideas a phalanx of connectors, called synapses, at speeds dollars to charitable causes. He died in 1999, as you could,” says Bruno. “Getting together up to almost three hundred miles per hour. Signals age ninety-three, one of New York City’s most from the brain’s motor cortex, for example, rush powerful figures. Even after death he endures: through the central nervous system to the neuronal the name on the building is the Jerome L. The stereotype of a lone researcher networks in the legs. Those electrical pokes Greene Science Center. experiencing a eureka moment in a regulate balance, direction, stride, and speed, along The building’s approximately eight hundred secluded little lab survives only as a with dozens of other things; such is the abridged tenants will include scientists, principal neurological backstory to taking a single step. investigators, lab managers, postdocs, graduate science-fiction trope. By the end of adolescence, the neurons will have students, and staŽ from Columbia’s Mortimer B. engineered five hundred trillion connections. Take Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, itself those connections — from just one brain, mind you relatively new. The institute was established in — string them along Interstate 95 somehow, and December 2012 with a $200 million gift from people with diŽerent expertise, very diŽerent they would stretch from Columbia University to Zuckerman ’14HON, owner of the New York research programs, but a common purpose of Columbia, South Carolina. Daily News and chairman of U.S. News & World understanding the mind — yeah, that’s fabulous.” Neurons are colloquially called the brain’s Report. Says Thomas M. Jessell, one of the Scientists don’t necessarily put a premium “basic building blocks.” And we do know the Zuckerman Institute’s three codirectors and a on luck, but they do subscribe to serendipity basics about how individual neurons work. But Columbia professor of biochemistry, molecular — of which proximity is a catalyst. “Science is a fathoming how trillions of them talk across biophysics, and neuroscience: “Our simple task completely social interaction,” says Eric Kandel, seventy-eight compartments of brain topography now is to create the best institute for neural the third Zuckerman Institute codirector, is a conundrum. And repairing flawed networks science in the US, and, arguably, in the world.” and a professor of neuroscience, psychiatry, to conclusively cure brain disorders, like autism The move into the Greene Science Center biochemistry, and biophysics at CUMC. “I met or Alzheimer’s, remains an enigma — looming, kickstarts that assignment. “Really great Richard Axel in the late seventies. He became daunting, slow to undrape itself. “I don’t want science is going to come from it,” says Shadlen, interested in the brain and nervous system. to make it sound like we know nothing,” says a Zuckerman Institute principal investigator. A I wanted to learn molecular biology. Axel Michael Shadlen, a professor of neuroscience at the place for “the collision of ideas,” as Jessell likes knew nothing about the brain. I knew nothing Columbia University Herbert and Florence Irving to say. Right now, the institute’s scientists are about molecular biology. And so we started to Medical Center (CUMC). “But there are basic, largely disconnected, geographically speaking; collaborate. He moved full-time into the brain, basic phenomena that we know nothing about. they’re spread across six buildings throughout and I became comfortable with molecular Everything we discover provokes deeper questions.” the Morningside Heights and medical center biology.” Since that collaboration began, both men Wrapping one’s head around the human mind campuses. “We’ve really been constrained, have become Nobel laureates. is very hard. Figuring yourself out always is. “The hindered, slowed down by all these labs that have At the Greene Science Center, a neuroscientist greatest scientific challenge we are now facing,” similar interests, scattered all over,” says Randy could, and almost certainly will, run into an says Charles Zuker, professor of biochemistry, Bruno, another Zuckerman Institute investigator. electrical engineer or stem-cell biologist in a molecular biophysics, and neuroscience at CUMC, Just as neurons need to commingle, apparently hallway, engage in conversation, and — eureka, “is to understand the workings of the brain.” so do scientists. The stereotype of a lone ideas collide — that brief exchange may kindle researcher experiencing a eureka moment in a new research, which may lead to collaboration, The glass building awaits in West Harlem, at secluded little lab survives only as a science-fiction and after years or decades, maybe a cure. Like the intersection of Broadway and 129th Street, trope. In real life, discovery hardly ever happens neural connections, discovery happens for one thirteen blocks north of the Morningside Heights that way. “These are complex problems, and we reason. Someone gets excited. campus gates. Overshadowing a space previously have not broken them,” says Richard Axel ’67CC, occupied by long-abandoned warehouses, it was a Zuckerman Institute codirector and Columbia Kandel, eighty-seven, has been at Columbia the first structure erected on the school’s new professor of biochemistry, molecular biophysics, forty-three years. On his o£ce desk sits Principles seventeen-acre Manhattanville campus. A $250 pathology, and neuroscience. “The ability to of Neural Science, a textbook he coauthored in million gift helped make it happen — from the understand will require looking at a problem 1981, and now in its fifth edition. This particular Renzo Piano ’14HON design to the construction of through a multiplicity of eyes.” The relocation to copy, hardly conspicuous, lays beneath his the building’s more than fifty laboratories. the Greene Science Center collects researchers computer monitor and serves as a screen booster.

Dawn M. Greene ’08HON, the philanthropist, JILL L E from more than twenty disciplines throughout “Look, I’ve been in the field for sixty years,” says Kandel. “We’ve made a lot of progress. But we’re at bestowed the gift in 2006. Her husband of VINE Columbia: neuroscientists, data scientists, nineteen years, Jerome L. Greene ’26CC, molecular biologists, stem-cell biologists, electrical the beginning.”

COLUMBIA WINTER 2016 15

4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 15 11/14/16 10:13 AM Back in 1952, when Kandel was an NYU even when the experiment is a simple one. Put ultimately follow. And that, really, is the crux of medical student, science really, really didn’t know a lab mouse on a treadmill, scan the neurons the institute’s mission. “Understand first how the much about the brain: “We didn’t know how smell twinkling in its hippocampus for a half-hour — normal brain works, and then you have a much worked. How taste worked. We knew nothing and a terabyte of information emerges, enough to better chance of assessing how abnormalities about learning and memory and emotion.” During keep Zuckerman Institute mathematicians and arise,” says Jessell. the fifties, says Kandel, the only major brain lab statisticians decoding for weeks. That is where the slog work comes in. in New York City was Columbia’s. Even the word Two-photon microscopy is state-of-the-art, but Cultivating stem cells in a petri dish, then “neuroscience” wasn’t coined until 1962. He perhaps only for the moment. Fortified with a tweaking them so they’ll morph into certain kinds recollects the first annual meeting of the Society $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of of neurons, is a comparatively modest enterprise, Health, Zuckerman Institute principal investigator but often takes months. Learning how to record and biomedical engineer Elizabeth Hillman is the neural activity in a mouse brain could require “There are so many psychiatric and developing SCAPE, a microscope that widens the years. And a grad student within any of the neurological diseases that we view from small neuronal groups to whole brains. neuroscience disciplines could spend more than a “With SCAPE, we can see the entire brain of an half decade exhaustively scrutinizing what appear just don’t understand and don’t adult fruit fly in real time as it walks, crawls, even to be minutiae. “There’s a lot of labor pain in treat successfully.” as it makes decisions,” says Hillman; SCAPE’s science,” says Behnia. three-dimensional images generate ten to one Frequently, the basic research goes nowhere. hundred times faster than the two-photon. “This Science, seldom a linear excursion, typically advance,” says Jessell, could “unlock the secrets sputters ahead in spasms and is routinely cratered for Neuroscience in 1971; 1,400 scientists showed of brain activity in ways barely imaginable a few with crash landings and wipeouts. “You put a lot up. Today, more than thirty thousand from eighty years ago.” of time and e¦ort into something, and you have countries attend. “And now you can’t walk down And it could lead to cures. Already, researchers to be OK with it not giving you anything,” says Broadway without running into a half dozen brain routinely manipulate individual neurons with Behnia. “It happens to everyone. You have to let it researchers,” Kandel says, half joking. He joined electronic nudges, and can even turn o¦ the go and start all over. It’s hard. You learn through Columbia in 1973, but even then: “So little was genes inside a fruit fly’s motor neurons (a nifty your failures. But nothing really fails, because you known. Almost everything you learned trick, given that a fruit fly’s entire brain is barely learn what doesn’t work.” The converse is also true. was something new.” bigger than the tip of a toothpick). Now, after As Jessell says to every last one of his graduate That is still true today. “There are shutting o¦ the relevant genes, scientists may use students: “You’ll probably discover something no so many psychiatric and neurological SCAPE to look for the fly’s motor impairments, one else in the history of mankind ever realized. It diseases that we just don’t understand identify its faltering genes — then (one day) map may not be a big thing. But if you enjoy the clarity and don’t treat successfully,” says the results onto the counterpart human genes. that arises from small discoveries, then you’re Kandel. “This is a phenomenal Somewhere therein could be clues to curing ALS, attuned to being a scientist.” problem facing humanity.” Among a grim and currently irreversible motor-neuron Those “small discoveries” may someday lead to the more common brain disorders: disease. “Science goes schlepping along,” says cures, and perhaps sooner than you might think. Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Tourette’s, Zuker. “Then breakthroughs come that let you “These may be the early days,” says Bruno. “But epilepsy, narcolepsy, depression, panic jump the steps. You go boom, you jump — boom, some of the most fundamental discoveries will be attacks, anxiety, ADHD, OCD, and you jump — and a mega-barrier is lifted. How made in the early days.” PTSD (there are hundreds more). soon can discoveries be brought to patients? I “You have to be an optimist in this cannot tell you. But we are far closer than we Sarah Woolley, a Columbia professor of psychology field,” says Jessell. “It’s big and it’s were before.” and a Zuckerman Institute principal investigator, complicated. It’ll take time to achieve Even with extraordinary tech advances, has been studying songbirds for more than twenty satisfying answers to some of the basic research — the day-to-day slog work — is years. Take the zebra finch, for example, one of five bigger questions.” indispensable. Without it, scientists will never thousand species of songbird and one of the few But an imposing technological unleash the miracle treatments awaited by that sing only one song. “They breed in the lab,” apparatus, which may help fast-track millions. “You can’t fix a car if you don’t know she says. “They sing, they court, they mate for life, potential treatments, is arriving. what’s under the hood,” says Rudy Behnia, a they make a nest, they raise babies, all in the lab.” One example: in the basement of the CUMC assistant professor of neuroscience and a What attracts Woolley is the singing part — Eric Kandel Greene Science Center will be an array of eighteen principal investigator at the Zuckerman Institute. and the similarities between how songbirds and says that when he two-photon microscopes. With them, scientists “To cure problems of the brain, we first need people learn to vocalize. That’s something almost came to Columbia, in 1973, “almost will see neuronal communities talk to each other to understand it.” By gradually mapping those no other animal does: just humans, parrots, everything you in real time; researchers will record those glinting trillions of neuronal circuits — by looking under hummingbirds, dolphins (probably), bats (maybe), learned was images and replay them endlessly for study. Five the hood — Columbia scientists will eventually and songbirds. “An ape does not learn to vocalize,” something new.”

years ago, none of this was possible. The amount grasp how the engine runs; e¦ective treatments CUMC says Woolley. Dogs don’t learn to bark, and cats

of data generated by the two-photon is immense, for neurological and psychiatric diseases will JOHN ABBOTT don’t learn to purr either. Those sounds surely

16 COLUMBIA WINTER 2016

4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 16 11/14/16 10:14 AM even when the experiment is a simple one. Put ultimately follow. And that, really, is the crux of a lab mouse on a treadmill, scan the neurons the institute’s mission. “Understand first how the twinkling in its hippocampus for a half-hour — normal brain works, and then you have a much and a terabyte of information emerges, enough to better chance of assessing how abnormalities keep Zuckerman Institute mathematicians and arise,” says Jessell. statisticians decoding for weeks. That is where the slog work comes in. Two-photon microscopy is state-of-the-art, but Cultivating stem cells in a petri dish, then perhaps only for the moment. Fortified with a tweaking them so they’ll morph into certain kinds $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of of neurons, is a comparatively modest enterprise, Health, Zuckerman Institute principal investigator but often takes months. Learning how to record and biomedical engineer Elizabeth Hillman is the neural activity in a mouse brain could require developing SCAPE, a microscope that widens the years. And a grad student within any of the view from small neuronal groups to whole brains. neuroscience disciplines could spend more than a “With SCAPE, we can see the entire brain of an half decade exhaustively scrutinizing what appear adult fruit fly in real time as it walks, crawls, even to be minutiae. “There’s a lot of labor pain in as it makes decisions,” says Hillman; SCAPE’s science,” says Behnia. three-dimensional images generate ten to one Frequently, the basic research goes nowhere. convey a message — a monkey shrieks to let its Sarah Woolley’s hundred times faster than the two-photon. “This Science, seldom a linear excursion, typically troop know a snake is coming. “But that’s not studies of songbirds may shed light on advance,” says Jessell, could “unlock the secrets sputters ahead in spasms and is routinely cratered learned,” says Woolley. “Those are calls built into why autistic children of brain activity in ways barely imaginable a few with crash landings and wipeouts. “You put a lot the brain.” find it difficult to years ago.” of time and eŽort into something, and you have A baby zebra finch, however, learns to sing by communicate. And it could lead to cures. Already, researchers to be OK with it not giving you anything,” says listening to its father. That’s pretty much the way routinely manipulate individual neurons with Behnia. “It happens to everyone. You have to let it people learn to speak; infants access language by electronic nudges, and can even turn oŽ the go and start all over. It’s hard. You learn through listening to and socializing with their parents — or genes inside a fruit fly’s motor neurons (a nifty your failures. But nothing really fails, because you whoever’s around them the most. Sure enough, trick, given that a fruit fly’s entire brain is barely learn what doesn’t work.” The converse is also true. when Woolley slips a baby zebra finch into the nest bigger than the tip of a toothpick). Now, after As Jessell says to every last one of his graduate of another species (the Bengalese finch), the baby shutting oŽ the relevant genes, scientists may use students: “You’ll probably discover something no learns the foster dad’s song. “That shows the power SCAPE to look for the fly’s motor impairments, one else in the history of mankind ever realized. It of live social interactions for baby birds to learn identify its faltering genes — then (one day) map may not be a big thing. But if you enjoy the clarity how to communicate,” she says. In both humans the results onto the counterpart human genes. that arises from small discoveries, then you’re and songbirds, Woolley theorizes, a set of neurons Somewhere therein could be clues to curing ALS, attuned to being a scientist.” in the brain rouse a distinct kind of learning, one a grim and currently irreversible motor-neuron Those “small discoveries” may someday lead to stimulated by social relationships. Those neurons, disease. “Science goes schlepping along,” says cures, and perhaps sooner than you might think. she suggests, “may send signals that say, ‘OK, learn Zuker. “Then breakthroughs come that let you “These may be the early days,” says Bruno. “But this, this is important, this matters.’” jump the steps. You go boom, you jump — boom, some of the most fundamental discoveries will be Now the kicker. Woolley suspects those you jump — and a mega-barrier is lifted. How made in the early days.” corresponding neurons in humans somehow soon can discoveries be brought to patients? I malfunction in autistic children. For them, cannot tell you. But we are far closer than we Sarah Woolley, a Columbia professor of psychology acquiring language is often an enormous obstacle. were before.” and a Zuckerman Institute principal investigator, “Maybe the signals that say ‘learn’ do not go to Even with extraordinary tech advances, has been studying songbirds for more than twenty the auditory system or the brain circuits that basic research — the day-to-day slog work — is years. Take the zebra finch, for example, one of five form memory,” she says. What is known: sensory indispensable. Without it, scientists will never thousand species of songbird and one of the few processing is glitchy in autistic kids. A touch on unleash the miracle treatments awaited by that sing only one song. “They breed in the lab,” the shoulder may repel them, a direct look might millions. “You can’t fix a car if you don’t know she says. “They sing, they court, they mate for life, make them shudder, and a loud sound is often what’s under the hood,” says Rudy Behnia, a they make a nest, they raise babies, all in the lab.” excruciating. No wonder so many of them avoid CUMC assistant professor of neuroscience and a What attracts Woolley is the singing part — social interactions. Bonding may induce learning, principal investigator at the Zuckerman Institute. and the similarities between how songbirds and but if bonding is painful, then so is learning — and “To cure problems of the brain, we first need people learn to vocalize. That’s something almost it doesn’t happen. “But if we can figure out in our to understand it.” By gradually mapping those no other animal does: just humans, parrots, birds what makes their brains able to learn based trillions of neuronal circuits — by looking under hummingbirds, dolphins (probably), bats (maybe), on social interactions,” says Woolley, “then we might the hood — Columbia scientists will eventually and songbirds. “An ape does not learn to vocalize,” be able to find ways to help the autistic brain.”

grasp how the engine runs; eŽective treatments CUMC says Woolley. Dogs don’t learn to bark, and cats In some ways, human brains and bird brains

for neurological and psychiatric diseases will JOHN ABBOTT don’t learn to purr either. Those sounds surely are unnervingly alike. “As we study the auditory

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4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 17 11/14/16 10:14 AM cortex of the zebra finch, we find similarity after could lead to clues in controlling our cravings. In reveals something much more tantalizing: similarity after similarity after similarity,” Woolley research with mice, Zuker’s team shined a fiber- “What we’re working on now is top brain and says. If she can identify those neurons in the optic light over their thirst neurons. The mice bottom brain.” baby zebra finch, then Woolley can predict the instantly sprinted to the water spout. “Even if For more than twenty years, Bruno has been approximate location of the comparable human the mouse is not thirsty, the mouse will think it’s investigating the cerebral cortex, an outer neurons. “I can map my bird’s neurons onto a thirsty, and look for water to drink,” he says. “Isn’t sliver of brain barely thicker than a credit card mammal’s neurons,” she says, “and thus onto a that remarkable?” and critical for higher-order functions like human’s neurons.” Someday, Woolley’s displaced The same seems to apply to taste. The perception and attention. In mammals, the baby songbirds might help millions of autistic messages from the mouse tongue travel directly cortex envelops nearly the entire organ, and children reconnect. to its taste neurons. Just as in humans, those divides into “upper” and “deeper” layers. Our nerve cells are dedicated strictly to the five basic deeper layers, evolutionarily older, faintly evoke For decades, scientists readily swallowed the taste qualities. Activate the bitter neurons while the reptilian brain. Indeed, today’s alligators, notion that a “taste map” partitions your tongue a mouse drinks regular water, and it’s repelled. turtles, and snakes have only the lower layers. — sweet at the front, salty at the sides. “It’s all (The mouse squints, shudders, and jiggles its “There’s a really good reason for why mammals incorrect,” says Charles Zuker, the Columbia head, just like someone who bit into a lemon.) developed the upper layers,” says Bruno. “But I neuroscientist, who has spent the last fifteen But silence the bitter neurons, and the mouse don’t know what the answer is.” years studying how we will slurp bitter liquid. Neuroscientists long assumed the upper cortex perceive taste. “There’s The inferences are dumbfounding. Could transmitted its sensory data — that’s everything no taste map.” Instead, physicians someday manipulate neurons to you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel — directly he says, thousands regulate diet, consumption, and sugar cravings to the deeper cortex. Without that, researchers of taste buds are — perhaps with a pill? “There are amazing believed, the lower region in mammals would scattered around your implications,” says Zuker. “I think the field is poised never detect an outside world. But in 2013, tongue, with sweet, to do something very special.” Then, reining it Bruno and his team shut oƒ the upper cortex salty, sour, bitter, and in: “There are challenges — making sure [a pill] in a mouse. What happened (or what didn’t umami receptor cells acts on the right group of cells, that it targets the happen) startled everyone, not just in Bruno’s throughout. right circuit.” And a reminder: “We are still doing lab, but in the scientific community worldwide. Nor do our taste basic neuroscience. We are still at the stage of “Nothing changed,” he says. Turns out the buds actually decide uncovering fundamental logic and principles.” Yet deep layers weren’t relying on the upper cortex how the food tastes. from his lab’s ever-accumulating data, one can at all; they still received the incoming sensory They do the detection extrapolate the prospective human applications — information. The two cortex regions, Bruno work, definitely, but controlling anorexia, obesity, and diabetes. discovered, can operate independently of each they serve primarily More than one-third of adult Americans today other. Independent yet intertwined: “They do as relays, dispatching are obese, and at increased risk for heart disease, work together,” he says. “But they also look like signals directly to the stroke, and cancer. Thirty million Americans they have diƒerent jobs. What’s the job of this half brain. “Sweet taste cells have diabetes, and three hundred thousand die of the cortex versus the other half? I don’t know.” in the tongue talk to from it annually. Overeating and excessive sugar But he already has a hypothesis. Perhaps, sweet neurons,” says consumption are the causes of both obesity and Bruno says, the upper layers mediate “context- Zuker. “Salty to salty. diabetes. Finding a way to govern them with dependent” behaviors, and make sense of Bitter to bitter.” Within pharmaceuticals would be a miracle. “And now intermingling and often conflicting situations. those micro-groups of we can begin to ask,” says Zuker, “if we can control (A rabbit is hungry. It sees wildflowers nearby. neuronal constellations, feeding and sugar craving to make a meaningful But a hawk hovers overhead. Does the rabbit the taste is given a diƒerence. I believe the answer will be yes.” chance it and go for the wildflowers? Or take oƒ definition. That’s how and go hungry?) The computations performed you know the diƒerence The decades-old “left brain–right brain” in the upper layers, suggests Bruno, are good between strudel and paradigm, although not completely discarded at evaluating conflicting data in context. They sauerkraut. by researchers, now survives considerably decide what to do. Charles Zuker and When humans are hungry, or thirsty, those diminished, a moldy scientific chestnut (left- If that’s so, then another theory, even more his research lab neurons will ping us to eat something, or to get brainers, supposedly, are analytical and good provocative, surfaces. Psychiatric patients often plan to map the taste and thirst a glass of water. “Evolution is smart. Clean, clear, at math; right-brainers, emotional and hyper- have problems making decisions that involve neurons in the and simple,” says Zuker. “This is what innate imaginative). “There is some truth to it,” says context. “Schizophrenics are an example,” says human brain. hardwired circuits are all about.” Now Zuker Randy Bruno, a CUMC associate professor Bruno. “Interpreting sensory signals in context and his lab of twenty-two researchers want to of neuroscience. “But not all functions are JOHN ABBOTT is di¢cult for them. They really struggle with map precisely where the taste and thirst neurons completely one side or another. Some things are it. They can’t deal with it.” Which raises the

are located in the human brain. Finding them not lateralized at all.” Instead, Bruno’s research JOHN ABBOTT question: could the malfunctioning neuronal

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4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 18 11/14/16 10:14 AM could lead to clues in controlling our cravings. In reveals something much more tantalizing: research with mice, Zuker’s team shined a fiber- “What we’re working on now is top brain and optic light over their thirst neurons. The mice bottom brain.” instantly sprinted to the water spout. “Even if For more than twenty years, Bruno has been the mouse is not thirsty, the mouse will think it’s investigating the cerebral cortex, an outer thirsty, and look for water to drink,” he says. “Isn’t sliver of brain barely thicker than a credit card that remarkable?” and critical for higher-order functions like The same seems to apply to taste. The perception and attention. In mammals, the messages from the mouse tongue travel directly cortex envelops nearly the entire organ, and to its taste neurons. Just as in humans, those divides into “upper” and “deeper” layers. Our nerve cells are dedicated strictly to the five basic deeper layers, evolutionarily older, faintly evoke taste qualities. Activate the bitter neurons while the reptilian brain. Indeed, today’s alligators, a mouse drinks regular water, and it’s repelled. turtles, and snakes have only the lower layers. (The mouse squints, shudders, and jiggles its “There’s a really good reason for why mammals head, just like someone who bit into a lemon.) developed the upper layers,” says Bruno. “But I networks that cause schizophrenia and other Randy Bruno is But silence the bitter neurons, and the mouse don’t know what the answer is.” psychiatric disorders reside somewhere in the investigating why mammals have will slurp bitter liquid. Neuroscientists long assumed the upper cortex upper layers? “upper” brain layers The inferences are dumbfounding. Could transmitted its sensory data — that’s everything Determining that — the approximate vicinity that reptiles lack. physicians someday manipulate neurons to you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel — directly of the faulty networks — is huge. “We would regulate diet, consumption, and sugar cravings to the deeper cortex. Without that, researchers know where to start looking,” says Bruno. “We — perhaps with a pill? “There are amazing believed, the lower region in mammals would could narrow down the places where the actual implications,” says Zuker. “I think the field is poised never detect an outside world. But in 2013, biological defect is occurring.” If researchers could to do something very special.” Then, reining it Bruno and his team shut o“ the upper cortex then pinpoint those dysfunctional neurons and in: “There are challenges — making sure [a pill] in a mouse. What happened (or what didn’t target them with drugs, e“ective treatments for acts on the right group of cells, that it targets the happen) startled everyone, not just in Bruno’s psychological disease could eventually result. right circuit.” And a reminder: “We are still doing lab, but in the scientific community worldwide. Lots of ifs. “Until we finish the science, that part basic neuroscience. We are still at the stage of “Nothing changed,” he says. Turns out the is still science fiction,” Bruno says. “But that’s the uncovering fundamental logic and principles.” Yet deep layers weren’t relying on the upper cortex hope, right?” from his lab’s ever-accumulating data, one can at all; they still received the incoming sensory extrapolate the prospective human applications — information. The two cortex regions, Bruno Nearly no one knows this about the nose, but controlling anorexia, obesity, and diabetes. discovered, can operate independently of each “most odors,” says Richard Axel, “do not elicit More than one-third of adult Americans today other. Independent yet intertwined: “They do any behavioral responses without learning or are obese, and at increased risk for heart disease, work together,” he says. “But they also look like experience.” That means your reaction to smell stroke, and cancer. Thirty million Americans they have di“erent jobs. What’s the job of this half is tightly twined to memory. Whether garlic have diabetes, and three hundred thousand die of the cortex versus the other half? I don’t know.” from it annually. Overeating and excessive sugar But he already has a hypothesis. Perhaps, “ Evolution is smart. Clean, clear, and consumption are the causes of both obesity and Bruno says, the upper layers mediate “context- diabetes. Finding a way to govern them with dependent” behaviors, and make sense of simple. This is what innate hardwired pharmaceuticals would be a miracle. “And now intermingling and often conflicting situations. circuits are all about.” we can begin to ask,” says Zuker, “if we can control (A rabbit is hungry. It sees wildflowers nearby. feeding and sugar craving to make a meaningful But a hawk hovers overhead. Does the rabbit di“erence. I believe the answer will be yes.” chance it and go for the wildflowers? Or take o“ and go hungry?) The computations performed or gasoline, cologne or co“ee, just-cut grass or The decades-old “left brain–right brain” in the upper layers, suggests Bruno, are good just-smoked grass, your brain, not your nose, paradigm, although not completely discarded at evaluating conflicting data in context. They determines if you like or loathe the smell. Aromas by researchers, now survives considerably decide what to do. transport you to memories that your brain has diminished, a moldy scientific chestnut (left- If that’s so, then another theory, even more catalogued as pleasant or unpleasant; you respond brainers, supposedly, are analytical and good provocative, surfaces. Psychiatric patients often accordingly. This is the core of Axel’s current at math; right-brainers, emotional and hyper- have problems making decisions that involve research. “We are interested in how meaning is imaginative). “There is some truth to it,” says context. “Schizophrenics are an example,” says imposed on odor,” he says. Randy Bruno, a CUMC associate professor Bruno. “Interpreting sensory signals in context Already, at literally a neuronal level of detail, of neuroscience. “But not all functions are JOHN ABBOTT is di¢cult for them. They really struggle with Axel has essentially explained why we can smell; completely one side or another. Some things are it. They can’t deal with it.” Which raises the he has identified more than one thousand receptor

not lateralized at all.” Instead, Bruno’s research JOHN ABBOTT question: could the malfunctioning neuronal cells in the nose that talk to the olfactory bulb, the

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4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 19 11/14/16 10:14 AM brain’s first relay station for smell. There, the odors experiment designed to understand one aspect of memory as they get older. And MRI images are fine-tuned, processed, and propelled to other science can open up something more profound,” of patients with age-related memory loss, as parts of the brain (“to at least five higher olfactory he says. “You go in, not knowing what is going to demonstrated by CUMC neurology professor centers,” he says). For his seminal mapping of the come out.” Scott Small ’92PS, have revealed defects in a brain smell system’s molecular bedrock, Axel won the region di erent from those of the early-stage 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In 1962, Eric Kandel commenced research on Alzheimer’s patients. “A given odor will call forth di erent Aplysia — the sea hare — a blobby mollusk with Kandel also knew mice didn’t get Alzheimer’s. experiences and produce di erent emotional protruding feelers that resemble rabbit ears. He wondered if they got age-related memory responses for di erent individuals,” he says. Studying sea hares, friends and colleagues warned, loss. If they did, that would be another sign Those flexible behavioral responses — fashioned was a calamitous blunder; fifty-four years later, the disorders were di erent. His lab soon between the olfactory bulb and the hippocampus, Kandel remembers their disapproval. “Everyone demonstrated that mice, which typically have where we collect memories — are more robust thought I was throwing my career away,” he says. a two-year lifespan, do exhibit a significant with smell than with any of the other four senses. But Aplysia, with only twenty thousand neurons decrease in memory at twelve months. With Even the fragrance of in its central nervous system, became Kandel’s that revelation, Kandel and others deduced jasmine, supposedly odd little portal into the human brain: “It has the Alzheimer’s and age-related memory loss are the most sensual of largest nerve cells in the animal kingdom. You distinct, unconnected diseases. scents, is contingent can see them with the naked eye. They’re gigantic. Then Kandel’s lab (again, with assistance from on context, says Axel. They’re beautiful.” Four decades later, Kandel won Small) discovered that RbAp48 — a protein Breathe it in while the 2000 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. abundant in mice and men — was a central spending an evening He had discovered how those neurons in Aplysia’s chemical cog in regulating memory loss. A deficit with someone you brain constructed and catalogued memories. of RbAp48 apparently accelerates the decline. love. “Then jasmine Today, as neuroscientists worldwide pursue Knocking out RbAp48, even in a young mouse would elicit a very remedies for Alzheimer’s and age-related brain, produces age-related memory loss. But pleasant response,” he memory loss, Kandel’s half century of findings restoring RbAp48 to an old mouse brain reverses it. says. But that could are considered indispensable. Substantive Now what may be the eureka moment — this change, based on new therapies for Alzheimer’s in particular are from Gerard Karsenty, chairman of CUMC’s experience: “Suppose “poised for success,” says Jessell, a colleague of department of genetics and development: bones that same person Kandel’s for thirty-five years. “We’re on the cusp release a hormone called osteocalcin. And turned around and of making a di erence.” But accompanying that Kandel later found that osteocalcin, upon release, hurt you seriously. claim is a caveat; the fledgling remedies are not increases the level of RbAp48. Then jasmine no panaceas. “We’re not necessarily talking about “So give osteocalcin to an old mouse, and boom! longer will have the curing the disease,” he says. “But we are talking Age-related memory loss goes away.” same e ect on you.” about slowing the symptomatic progression of The same may prove true in humans. A pill or In simpler brains, the disease so significantly that lifestyles are injectable could work, says Kandel: “Osteocalcin many aromas provoke improved in a dramatic way. If in ten years we in a form people can take is something very doable an instinctive and have not made significant progress, if we are not and not very far away.” In less than a decade, age- unalterable response. slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s, then we related memory loss might be treatable. “This,” he When mice get a whi have to look very seriously at ourselves and ask, says, “is the hope.” Richard Axel of fox urine, their hardwired neural pathway sends ‘What went wrong?’” has identified them running. “That’s because mice, for a long Breakthroughs could happen sooner, however. As the ambitions of neuroscientists accelerate, the more than one thousand receptor time, have been prey to foxes,” says Axel. Only a Some of the Alzheimer’s medications available field has moved its goalposts to a faraway place. cells in the nose few scents, however, are hardwired in humans. now “probably work,” says Kandel, except for one “We’re trying to understand behavior,” says Bruno. that convey data Smoke, probably, is one. Anything rotting is obstacle: “By the time patients see a physician, “Behavior is not straightforward. It’s an incredibly to the brain. another (the stench of sulfur, akin to rotten eggs, they’ve had the disease for ten years. They’ve lost ill-defined problem.” is revolting to most everybody). But that’s about it. so many nerve cells, there’s nothing you can do for Behavior encompasses everything. Perception, Says Axel: “It’s very hard to conjure up odors that them.” Possibly, with earlier detection, “those same emotion, memory, cognition, invention, obsession, elicit innate responses in people.” drugs might be e ective.” That’s not a certainty, infatuation, creativity, happiness, despair. To After four decades of foundational work, insists Kandel, only a “hunch.” completely understand how the brain governs Axel recognizes the connection between his Years ago, Kandel had another hunch — that behavior, to neurologically plumb the wisps of fundamental research and the furthermost cures. age-related memory loss was not just early-stage human thought, one must unshroud innumerable

Discovering what’s under the hood could help Alzheimer’s, as many neuroscientists believed, COLUMBIA NEWS obscurities at the subcellular level. “How do clarify the latest curiosity about Alzheimer’s: but an altogether separate disease. After all, you define happiness or beauty? Somehow it’s for many patients, an early symptom is losing not everyone gets Alzheimer’s, but “practically based on connections in the brain,” says Jessell. their sense of smell. “What can emerge from an everyone,” says Kandel, loses some aspects of Always, it gets back to the ever-pinging networks:

20 COLUMBIA WINTER 2016

4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 20 11/14/16 10:15 AM experiment designed to understand one aspect of memory as they get older. And MRI images “Without knowing the links between these eighty- science can open up something more profound,” of patients with age-related memory loss, as six billion neurons that exist within the human he says. “You go in, not knowing what is going to demonstrated by CUMC neurology professor brain, we don’t have a hope of understanding any come out.” Scott Small ’92PS, have revealed defects in a brain aspect of human behavior.” region di‘erent from those of the early-stage Decipher those links, and we will have figured In 1962, Eric Kandel commenced research on Alzheimer’s patients. out how we figure things out. How brain Aplysia — the sea hare — a blobby mollusk with Kandel also knew mice didn’t get Alzheimer’s. connections, for instance, ignite love connections. protruding feelers that resemble rabbit ears. He wondered if they got age-related memory We could, conceivably, fathom ourselves Studying sea hares, friends and colleagues warned, loss. If they did, that would be another sign practically down to the last neuron. Says Axel: was a calamitous blunder; fifty-four years later, the disorders were di‘erent. His lab soon “Do we understand perception, emotion, Kandel remembers their disapproval. “Everyone demonstrated that mice, which typically have memory, cognition? No. But we’re developing thought I was throwing my career away,” he says. a two-year lifespan, do exhibit a significant technology which might allow us entry into these But Aplysia, with only twenty thousand neurons decrease in memory at twelve months. With arenas for the first time. Perhaps we will get in its central nervous system, became Kandel’s that revelation, Kandel and others deduced there. Perhaps.” odd little portal into the human brain: “It has the Alzheimer’s and age-related memory loss are “We are tackling infinity,” says Bruno. “Behavior largest nerve cells in the animal kingdom. You distinct, unconnected diseases. is this infinite space of ideas. Oh, probably not can see them with the naked eye. They’re gigantic. Then Kandel’s lab (again, with assistance from truly infinite. We’re finite beings. Only so many They’re beautiful.” Four decades later, Kandel won Small) discovered that RbAp48 — a protein neurons are in our heads. But think about all you the 2000 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. abundant in mice and men — was a central can do, and the vast realm of possibilities you He had discovered how those neurons in Aplysia’s chemical cog in regulating memory loss. A deficit can react to. Think about how large a set that is. brain constructed and catalogued memories. of RbAp48 apparently accelerates the decline. I mean, you can’t count all of those things. The Today, as neuroscientists worldwide pursue Knocking out RbAp48, even in a young mouse range of human possibility is staggering.” remedies for Alzheimer’s and age-related brain, produces age-related memory loss. But Acknowledge this, and one could easily argue memory loss, Kandel’s half century of findings restoring RbAp48 to an old mouse brain reverses it. we’ve barely begun to know the brain. “We really are considered indispensable. Substantive Now what may be the eureka moment — this are at the very beginning,” says Bruno. “How far therapies for Alzheimer’s in particular are from Gerard Karsenty, chairman of CUMC’s along? I’d say 5 percent. We’re trying to tackle a “poised for success,” says Jessell, a colleague of department of genetics and development: bones collection of problems and questions that put us Kandel’s for thirty-five years. “We’re on the cusp release a hormone called osteocalcin. And on the 5 percent end.” of making a di‘erence.” But accompanying that Kandel later found that osteocalcin, upon release, claim is a caveat; the fledgling remedies are not increases the level of RbAp48. “ I think we have at least fifty years panaceas. “We’re not necessarily talking about “So give osteocalcin to an old mouse, and boom! curing the disease,” he says. “But we are talking Age-related memory loss goes away.” before we can explain every aspect about slowing the symptomatic progression of The same may prove true in humans. A pill or of human behavior.” the disease so significantly that lifestyles are injectable could work, says Kandel: “Osteocalcin improved in a dramatic way. If in ten years we in a form people can take is something very doable have not made significant progress, if we are not and not very far away.” In less than a decade, age- slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s, then we related memory loss might be treatable. “This,” he Learn the rest — the remaining 95 percent — have to look very seriously at ourselves and ask, says, “is the hope.” and we will quite literally understand ourselves. ‘What went wrong?’” But this will take time. “We have a very fragile Breakthroughs could happen sooner, however. As the ambitions of neuroscientists accelerate, the understanding of the principles by which these Some of the Alzheimer’s medications available field has moved its goalposts to a faraway place. things work,” says Jessell. “I think we have at now “probably work,” says Kandel, except for one “We’re trying to understand behavior,” says Bruno. least fifty years before we can explain every obstacle: “By the time patients see a physician, “Behavior is not straightforward. It’s an incredibly aspect of human behavior.” Or possibly longer. they’ve had the disease for ten years. They’ve lost ill-defined problem.” Says Kandel: “On this — to have a satisfying so many nerve cells, there’s nothing you can do for Behavior encompasses everything. Perception, understanding of the brain — I think we’re a them.” Possibly, with earlier detection, “those same emotion, memory, cognition, invention, obsession, century away.” drugs might be e‘ective.” That’s not a certainty, infatuation, creativity, happiness, despair. To So little is known. Almost everything we learn insists Kandel, only a “hunch.” completely understand how the brain governs is something new. What now? Tackling infinity, Years ago, Kandel had another hunch — that behavior, to neurologically plumb the wisps of of course. “What could be more important,” says age-related memory loss was not just early-stage human thought, one must unshroud innumerable Axel, “than to understand the most elusive, the

Alzheimer’s, as many neuroscientists believed, COLUMBIA NEWS obscurities at the subcellular level. “How do most complex, the most mysterious structure but an altogether separate disease. After all, you define happiness or beauty? Somehow it’s that we know of in our universe? That’s pretty not everyone gets Alzheimer’s, but “practically based on connections in the brain,” says Jessell. damn important.” The answers, always within, everyone,” says Kandel, loses some aspects of Always, it gets back to the ever-pinging networks: now lie ahead.

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4.16_Neuroscience_FINAL.indd 21 11/14/16 10:15 AM being

thereIn more ways than one, Columbia professor Sarah Sze is the artist of the moment by Paul Hond

ou go to Sarah Sze’s studio in Midtown Manhattan, not really knowing what to expect. Maybe you’ve seen her work — her installation Still Life with Landscape (Model for a Habitat), a bird-and-butterfly sanctuary of steel framework and ywooden boxes, was perched on the High Line for a year starting in June 2011. Five years earlier, Corner Plot, in which a single

corner of bricks and windows jutted from the LEFT: SARA KRULWICH/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX pavement, suggesting a sunken apartment build- ing, attracted passersby at Fifth Avenue and 60th Street. Or maybe you were at a party recently and saw, on a co†ee table, Sze’s new monograph, with its cover image of 360 (Portable Planetarium). That sculpture, a skeletal sphere of fragile, possibly rickety construc- tion, is crossed with radiating strings and spindly sca†olding, slung with random objects, and pierced with light — a cosmic meditation.

Triple Point (Pendulum), Courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York

Inset: Photo of Sze by Sara Krulwich/The New York Times/Redux. GO HERE CREDITS Photo of artist: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times/Redux At right: Triple Point (Pendulum), 2013. All photos of artwork courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.

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4.16_Sze_FINAL.indd 22 11/16/16 3:42 PM LEFT: SARA KRULWICH/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX CREDITS GO HERE CREDITS

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4.16_Sze_FINAL.indd 23 11/16/16 3:42 PM Or maybe you’ve never seen Sze’s work, and are more aware of her reputation. She received a 2003 MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and was the US representative to the 2013 Art Biennale in Venice. The sublimities of her art led the late Columbia philosopher and art critic Arthur Danto ’52GSAS, ’04HON to write that her concern as an artist is “to feel her way into the future, into art that had yet to be imagined.” And the sculptor Richard Serra told the New Yorker that Sze “is chang- ing the potential of sculpture.” Ascending the elevator to Sze’s workshop, you realize you’re still holding a cup of coŽee. With a chill you ponder what Sze (pronounced Zee) will make of your bringing a spillable liquid to her studio door. Of course you will apologetically surrender it before entering. And, reflect- ing on Sze’s use of everyday items in her work — light bulbs, Q-Tips, cereal, lamps, aspirin, fans, plastic flowers, plastic spoons, electric lights, socks, notepads, candies, thimbles, milk cartons, disco balls, toilet paper, and yes, coŽee cups — you muse that maybe she’ll end up in- corporating it . . . until you remember that Sze doesn’t use trash in her work. That’s because trash has a past: she uses the unused, the fresh- bought, things without history or nostalgia; the object as tabula rasa. The elevator opens and you step into a large, sunny loft, where Sze, forty-seven, warmly welcomes you. Dressed in black, her dark hair coiled in a bun, she imparts the easy self-possession of someone in pure synchronicity with the ticktock of creative life. She assures you that your coŽee cup is no problem, and lets you set it on one of the worktables, which is covered with color photos from magazines. On the floor, lunchbox-sized blocks of clay have been cut into thick slices, and the walls are plastered with pictures that feed Sze’s current interests: fourteenth-century step wells in Delhi; a rock formation in Northern Ireland of basalt columns, shaped over millions of years; a Japanese print in which the white of the paper is articulated into a snowy field by spare strokes of blue. Sze is a seeker and processor of data, a metaphysical alchemist, mining magical eŽects from the inanimate, the mundane. Her canvas is time and space, her work a discourse with the physical world, an elaborate dance with instability and demise. “That we question permanence when we see a work is very important to me,” she says. Because her work is often site-specific and imbued with spontaneity, it is impossible to duplicate: the works are sculptural accounts of ephemerality itself, with objects rambling, colonizing, and dispersing at once, suggesting a volatile state of being made or unmade, of growth or decay. Within all this lies the question of how objects acquire value, and the ways in which arranging common items outside their usual contexts can change their meaning. “How do we create value in an object?” Sze says. “Objects are less valuable than life, because life ends, so the idea was to make work that felt like it had a life to it, and had a life-support system that must be cared for; that gave a sense that if you left it and came back in an hour, it might be diŽerent; that it won’t ever exist elsewhere, and that this exact experience won’t exist again.”

Sze was born in Boston in 1969. Her father, whose family had come

to the US from China when he was four, was an architect, and the house CREDITS GO HERE was like an extension of his o¥ce, with drawings everywhere. Her moth- er taught nursery school, and come vacations she’d bring home the class

pets, so that Sze and her brother grew up with a turtle and a bird (“Our GO HERE CREDITS

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, 2011. , a Habitat) (Model for with Landscape Life Above: Still CREDITS GO HERE GO CREDITS 4.16_Sze_FINAL.indd 25

CREDITS GO HERE CREDITS GO HERE CREDITS GO HERE CREDITS

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4.16_Sze_FINAL.indd 27 11/16/16 3:43 PM house was very animated,” Sze says). The family shared a love of art, ing; while on the ceiling there plays a fuzzy, flickering light, cast music, and dance, and Sze discovered early on that creativity was a there by the collusion of a tray of water, a fan, and a mirror, and way to grasp the world and communicate with it. “I made art all the suggestive of film. Sze has been thinking about the origins of film, time, drawing and painting and making things,” she says. “It was and “how film marks time, how it feels in the memory.” definitely where I found joy.” It’s a lot to take in — which is part of the point. She studied painting and architecture at Yale and later “I’m playing with this idea of this onslaught of images, and switched to sculpture, making her first splash in 1996 at a show images as debris, juxtaposed in ways that you don’t imagine,” Sze in New York. There, she covered the surfaces of a narrow store- says. “Though it can be overwhelming, we’ve been conditioned room space in SoHo with hundreds of figurines made from single to learn how to read this much information at once.” You then squares of toilet paper. She came to Columbia’s School of the Arts notice animals on the walls, circling the room at varying speeds: a to teach in 2002 and was made a full professor in 2009. She lives peregrine falcon, followed by a cheetah and other creatures. The downtown with her husband, Siddhartha Mukherjee, a Columbia images are beamed from a rotating projector within the sculp- oncologist and assistant professor of medicine, and the author of ture, in plain view (Sze hides nothing: the curtain is always pulled the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Emperor of All Maladies. They back). The swirling projection, Sze says, “makes the architecture have two young daughters. become this cocoon that encircles you.” You are in the sculpture, Sze teaches in the spring, and she administers the same care to and perhaps have become its plaything. her students that she does to her art. For graduate critiques, she’ll “I want the feeling that you are having a moment in time that is go into the artist’s studio and look at the work in silence, thinking fragile and you’re experiencing it live,” Sze says. “Very few moments Her canvas is time and space, her work a discourse with the physical world, a dance with instability and demise.

about what needs to be said and how to say it. “I emphasize infor- are marked in time anymore, because we can now access so many mation over affirmation,” she says. “I want to give people tools to things out of time. It’s about the moment of being there.” “I emphasize information over affirmation. I want to give think about what they’re doing. My goal is that when I leave the So you stand at this altar of ingenuity, delicacy, intricacy, craft, studio, the artist wants to dive into the work.” For group classes, caprice, ideas; this fragile ecosystem, this cracked mirror of people tools to think about what they’re doing.” it’s the same: “We don’t talk about liking or not liking something. civilization. Its title is Timekeeper. It took six months to complete, It’s not about taste. It’s about allowing the person being critiqued and, like much of Sze’s work, it will be dismantled. to learn about his or her process without feeling debilitated.” Art school, says Sze, should be a place where you can make mis- Nothing lasts forever, but some things last longer than takes and get feedback. “You can create this incredible dialogue, others. This winter, the long-awaited, long-delayed Second which can accelerate the work so quickly,” Sze says. “It’s such a Avenue subway line is scheduled to open with three stations. In miracle when you see someone’s work develop in two years, which a bold scheme, the MTA handed each station to a single artist — is nothing — that’s why I love teaching the Columbia MFA stu- 72nd Street to Vik Muniz, 86th to Chuck Close, and 96th to Sze dents: they’re so wonderful, thoughtful, intense, and committed.” — a canvas as big and public and challenging as one could dream Sze enjoys her undergrads, too. “They are super smart and totally of, and, in some ways, says Sze, “as permanent as you can get.” open creatively,” she says. “There’s this willingness to learn, and a The station at 96th Street is two blocks long, with three entry- joy in exploration. I love the dialogue. I learn so much from them. I ways. Sze has anointed it with vast violet-blue drawings that she love going up there. Every time I leave, I’m totally energized.” fabricated in porcelain-enamel panels. “It’s all based on the idea of blueprints, of drawing as a tool to understand three-dimensional At the back of Sze’s studio is a sliding door: Sze opens it and space,” she says. As ever, Sze brings an architect’s concern for the steps into a dark room. In the middle of the room is a thing, a viewer’s experience of encountering the art — how one enters structure, the sort of eccentric, spectacular creation that only and leaves, how things unfold. “When you go into the station, it’s genius could produce. It’s humming and blinking, and your first an entirely immersive environment,” she says. “You experience it thought is: it’s alive. You move toward its glow, around its curva- coming down.” She points to a picture of the steep gradient of the ture, pulled by a shuddering sense of revelation. escalator, with its blue wall and fine white lines and ripples and Now it appears: a crystal city of information, of mirror shards marine-like shapes. “You’re in this narrow space on the escalator. and torn photographs and desk lamps and assorted fragments, You’re in a void, and then you get this intense vertical landscape.” the galaxy of it caught in a fragile and complex anatomy. Sze Another picture shows the wall above the track bed, the part points out the two worktables that form the base of the opus, that’s still visible when a train pulls in. It bears Sze’s arresting ab- obscured in a jumble of objects that has proliferated from the stractions in blue and white, a distinctive signpost for the weary site of its making with an almost biological compulsion. Video straphanger. “When you come to that station,” Sze says with a CREDITS GO HERE CREDITS screens ripple with oceans and fires before pixelating, disintegrat- laugh, “you’ll know exactly where you are.” MANDELLA JASON

28 COLUMBIA WINTER 2016 At right: Long White Paint Hanging (Fragment Series), 2015; Lost Image Standing (Fragment Series), 2015.

4.16_Sze_FINAL.indd 28 11/16/16 3:43 PM

At right: Installation of multiple works at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, 2015. ing; while on the ceiling there plays a fuzzy, flickering light, cast there by the collusion of a tray of water, a fan, and a mirror, and suggestive of film. Sze has been thinking about the origins of film, and “how film marks time, how it feels in the memory.” It’s a lot to take in — which is part of the point. “I’m playing with this idea of this onslaught of images, and images as debris, juxtaposed in ways that you don’t imagine,” Sze says. “Though it can be overwhelming, we’ve been conditioned to learn how to read this much information at once.” You then notice animals on the walls, circling the room at varying speeds: a peregrine falcon, followed by a cheetah and other creatures. The images are beamed from a rotating projector within the sculp- ture, in plain view (Sze hides nothing: the curtain is always pulled back). The swirling projection, Sze says, “makes the architecture become this cocoon that encircles you.” You are in the sculpture, and perhaps have become its plaything. “I want the feeling that you are having a moment in time that is fragile and you’re experiencing it live,” Sze says. “Very few moments Her canvas is time and space, her work a discourse with the physical world, a dance with instability and demise. are marked in time anymore, because we can now access so many things out of time. It’s about the moment of being there.” So you stand at this altar of ingenuity, delicacy, intricacy, craft, caprice, ideas; this fragile ecosystem, this cracked mirror of civilization. Its title is Timekeeper. It took six months to complete, and, like much of Sze’s work, it will be dismantled.

Nothing lasts forever, but some things last longer than others. This winter, the long-awaited, long-delayed Second Avenue subway line is scheduled to open with three stations. In a bold scheme, the MTA handed each station to a single artist — 72nd Street to Vik Muniz, 86th to Chuck Close, and 96th to Sze — a canvas as big and public and challenging as one could dream of, and, in some ways, says Sze, “as permanent as you can get.” The station at 96th Street is two blocks long, with three entry- ways. Sze has anointed it with vast violet-blue drawings that she fabricated in porcelain-enamel panels. “It’s all based on the idea of blueprints, of drawing as a tool to understand three-dimensional space,” she says. As ever, Sze brings an architect’s concern for the viewer’s experience of encountering the art — how one enters and leaves, how things unfold. “When you go into the station, it’s an entirely immersive environment,” she says. “You experience it coming down.” She points to a picture of the steep gradient of the escalator, with its blue wall and fine white lines and ripples and marine-like shapes. “You’re in this narrow space on the escalator. You’re in a void, and then you get this intense vertical landscape.” Another picture shows the wall above the track bed, the part that’s still visible when a train pulls in. It bears Sze’s arresting ab- stractions in blue and white, a distinctive signpost for the weary straphanger. “When you come to that station,” Sze says with a CREDITS GO HERE CREDITS laugh, “you’ll know exactly where you are.” MANDELLA JASON

At right: Long White Paint Hanging (Fragment Series), 2015; Lost Image Standing (Fragment Series), 2015. COLUMBIA WINTER 2016 29

4.16_Sze_FINAL.indd 29 11/16/16 3:44 PM

At right: Installation of multiple works at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, 2015. Can a Columbia-led expedition to South America uncover the forces that drive one of its largest volcanoes? STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY KEVIN KRAJICK ’76GS, ’77JRN

On a ledge just inside the lip of the crater, ened lava fl ows, hot springs, and pumice Philipp Ruprecht was furiously digging a that has been left relatively undisturbed by trench. A thousand-foot drop loomed human activity. yards away, and the wind was whipping Ruprecht, an adjunct associate research the dust o his shovel. But Ruprecht was scientist at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty undaunted. Here, at the top of Chile’s Earth Observatory who also teaches at the Quizapu, at an elevation of ten thousand University of Nevada, has been studying feet, the scientist had found a spot topped Quizapu for more than a decade. Earli- with undisturbed layers of powdered er this year, he brought along six other rock that the volcano had vomited from American and Chilean scientists and the deep earth eighty-four years earlier. a dozen students. The purpose of the These were the samples he’d been weeklong expedition (supported by the searching for. Columbia Global Center in Santiago and In 1932, Quizapu (kee-SAH-poo), the President’s Global Innovation Fund) located about 150 miles south of Santiago was to better understand the forces that in the Chilean Andes, produced one of drive Quizapu and other volcanoes in South America’s largest recorded volcanic the region. explosions, expelling a fi ery plume of ash- In recent years, scientists have become

to-boulder-sized material that instantly more adept at monitoring volcanoes CREDITS GO HERE turned some four hundred square miles to anticipate their eruptions. But they Scientists traverse the rim of Chile’s Quizapu volcano. The to desert. Today, the region is a volcanic struggle to predict the type and intensity crater is about a half mile wide

wonderland: a barren landscape of hard- of these events, and there are plenty of and one thousand feet deep. GO HERE CREDITS

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4.16_Chile_FINAL_REVISE.indd 30 11/16/16 1:06 PM CREDITS GO HERE Scientists traverse the rim of Chile’s Quizapu volcano. The crater is about a half mile wide and one thousand feet deep. GO HERE CREDITS

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4.16_Chile_FINAL.indd 31 11/14/16 10:08 AM false alarms. Quizapu is an interesting But if the magma has lost all its gas, it may case study because it has erupted in just pour out in a benign fashion.” di erent ways at di erent times. In 1932 To test this theory, the members of it exploded with massive force, but in Ruprecht’s expedition gathered dozens of 1846 it simply bled out a river of relatively lava samples, which are now being ana- slow-moving lava. lyzed to determine their composition. “If you’re trying to decide how many “We want to see if the lava from the 1846 people to evacuate from around a volcano, eruption had unusually low concentra- you really want to know what that erup- tions of gas,” says Lucy Tweed, a Columbia tion is going to be like,” says Ruprecht, graduate student in earth and environ- noting that while lava fl ows may destroy mental sciences who was a member of property and wildlife, they are rarely the expedition. “This is tricky, because the deadly. “If you tell people to fl ee because new lava that shot up from deep within the next big one is coming, and then only the earth mingled with lava that had been a minor eruption occurs, they may not slowly accumulating for years right be- believe you the next time you warn them.” neath the volcano. So we need to look very By reconstructing Quizapu’s past erup- carefully at the crystallization signatures tions, Ruprecht and his colleagues aim to within the di erent more accurately interpret the volcano’s magma fl ows.” From top: Columbia volcanologist seismic vibrations. They approach their During the trip, Philipp Ruprecht work like forensics experts at a crime Einat Lev, an assistant examines a chunk of scene. By inspecting the mineral composi- research professor hardened lava; Elise Rumpf, another tion of lava deposits, for instance, they can at Lamont-Doherty Columbia volca- determine the depth from which the mag- who studies the nologist, retrieves a ma originated, and the speed with which it fl uid dynamics of lava, camera-equipped drone that will ascended to the earth’s surface. and Elise Rumpf, a help her create a “One of the things we look for is the postdoctoral research detailed map of presence of crystals that form very deep scientist at Lamont, the volcano’s lava fl ows; University of in the earth,” says Ruprecht. “This is fl ew a drone over Michigan geologist a sign that the eruption was fueled, at Quizapu to create the Adam Simon bathes least in part, by magma that came from fi rst comprehensive in a hot spring. Opposite page: miles underground.” photographic survey Members of the On previous trips to Quizapu, Ruprecht of the lava deposits research team hiked made a surprising discovery: hardened around the volcano. for two days to reach Quizapu. lava from the relatively mellow 1846 erup- Lev says that their tion is chock-full of well-preserved rem- maps, together with her colleagues’ nants of this deep-earth magma. This was geochemical analysis, will provide insights unexpected, because volcanologists have into how lava fl ows produced by di erent long assumed that whenever a large vol- types of volcanic eruptions behave on land. ume of magma shoots up from the earth’s “Lava fl ows aren’t a huge concern mantle, an explosive eruption will occur. around Quizapu, since the immediate area To explain the discrepancy, Ruprecht has is sparsely populated, but there are dozens come up with another theory. He suspects of other volcanoes in South America and that if rapidly ascending magma encoun- in places like Japan, Hawaii, the Philip- ters cooler pockets of magma on its way to pines, and Italy that threaten major towns the earth’s surface, it may release certain and cities,” Lev says. “The people who stored gases — thus giving the lava less live there need to know: if a big lava fl ow explosive kick when it emerges. occurs, how fast will it come down? What “A major factor in an explosive eruption direction is it likely to go in? Should we is the buildup of gas pressure within the construct protective barriers in certain

magma as it accumulates just below the areas to redirect the fl ow? By piecing to- CREDITS GO HERE earth’s surface,” Ruprecht says. “When the gether how volcanoes have erupted in the magma eventually bursts out as lava, it’s past, we’re starting to be able to answer

like soda spraying out of a shaken bottle. these questions.” GO HERE CREDITS

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4.16_Chile_FINAL.indd 32 11/14/16 10:09 AM CREDITS GO HERE CREDITS GO HERE CREDITS

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4.16_Chile_FINAL.indd 33 11/14/16 10:09 AM SYNCOPSYNCOPAATEDTED SISTSISTEERSRS

TAP-DANCE ENTREPRENEURS CHLOE AND MAUD ARNOLD ARE READY TO CLICK WITH A NEW GENERATION — AND HEAL THE WORLD THROUGH RHYTHM AND SHOES BY PAUL HOND \ PHOTOGRAPHS BY JORG MEYER

t’s five days before the show, and Chloe Arnold ’02CC is rehearsing her New York tap-dance troupe, Apartment 33, onstage at City College’s Aaron Davis Hall in Harlem. The dancers listen carefully as Chloe, wearing an Ivy Park hoodie and blue jeans, prepares them for the next number, set to Rihanna’s song “Work.” “Do it with passion or not at all,” Chloe says, her voice firm and supportive. I“You can never fake it, ever.” The dancers nod and get into formation. IThe music starts, a mellow synth-pop groove, then crack! — the concussion of metal upon the floor, blunt force, and twelve bodies move as one, arms and legs and hips and hair, toes and heels banging out rhythms that vibrate the senses: sound as movement, sound made visible. And now Maud Arnold ’08CC comes through the auditorium doors, carrying a white shopping bag. She’s been running around as usual. She’s a mover, a deal- maker, the social and business spark of Chloe & Maud Productions. The dancers take a break, and Maud walks onto the stage and brings the bag over to Chloe.

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Maud

Chloe

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4.16_TapDance_FINAL.indd 35 11/16/16 12:59 PM “This is very exciting,” Chloe says, street corners, chorus lines, and concert Gregory Hines, the nineteen-year-old waitress and translator. The sisters were watching as Maud pulls a white shoebox halls. It is aural, visual, and dramatic: it prodigy Glover, and the fabled Nicholas inseparable. They shared a bedroom, and from the bag. “We’re creating an a ord- can tell a story about people, places, and Brothers. Also onstage was a twelve-year- Chloe, now Maud’s babysitter, also became able tap shoe for the nonprofessional. The emotions, or about rhythm, movement, old girl named Chloe Arnold. her dance teacher. shoes we wear cost hundreds of dollars.” and a body talking to no one but itself.” That night, Chloe saw what it meant to At fi fteen, Chloe went back to New “These are in the seventy- or eighty- Tap has its origins in Colonial times be a professional tap dancer. She’d been York to see the Glover vehicle Bring in ’da dollar range,” says Maud proudly. in the contact between enslaved Afri- dancing since she was six, and now she Noise, Bring in ’da Funk, a tap odyssey “Maud and I wanted to create some- cans and Irish and English indentured dreamed of someday leaving her own of African-American history. After the thing for people who can’t a ord top-of- servants. According to dance historian footprint on the fi eld. matinee, she wanted to check out Colum- the-line shoes but want to get into tap.” and tap dancer Margaret Morrison ’83BC, She lived in Washington with her kid bia. Some dancers from the show took her “And that could be anyone.” who teaches at Barnard, “The rhythmic sister, Maud, and their brother, Tadeo, uptown. “I saw the campus and said, ‘This “From two to ninety-two,” says Chloe. imperative of African dance and drum- who “always had our backs,” Chloe says. is going to be my life,’” Chloe says. “There was a guy who came to my class ming styles interacted with Irish and Their father, Eddie, was a Vietnam veter- The next year, she got a part in a dance with a walker. You could be in a wheel- English clog dances. By 1900, all of that an and jazz connoisseur who worked in musical in DC directed by Debbie Allen, chair. If there’s a way to create percussion was fused.” public relations. Their mother, Barbara, the dancer, singer, choreographer, director,

with your feet, there are no limits to who For many, the word “tap” evokes Fred who was born in France, where her and producer who played a tough-love can do it.” Astaire or Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, min- mother hid during the Holocaust, was a dance teacher in the fi lm and TV versions No limits: that could be the sisters’ strel shows or vaudeville — something, at high-school teacher. of Fame. Allen saw Chloe’s promise and tagline. Tracing their arc from where they any rate, anachronistic. But for Chloe and Around the time of the Kennedy Center became her mentor. started to where they stand, they are the Maud, tap is as now as your own pulse. show, Chloe took a bus trip to New York to Meanwhile, at school, Chloe, Ivy-minded, embodiment of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Tap has the ability to always stay cur- see Jelly’s Last Jam, a Broadway musical signed up for everything: clubs, peer “You Can Make It If You Try,” mixed with rent because of the choice of music,” Chloe about the jazz composer Jelly Roll Mor- mediation, sports. She even got elected a little “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge. explains. “In the 1980s, Gregory Hines ton. The show starred Hines and Glover, class president. Still, in her senior year, Like many of their peers, the sisters want danced to funk, and that’s what connect- with choreography by Hines and tap guru a teacher told her she would never get to create change, but in their own fresh, ed it to the people. When we tap-dance Ted Levy. The whole scene captivated into Harvard. Chloe had no designs on o beat way: through a traditional Ameri- to the music I listen to, like Beyoncé and Chloe. “When it’s my time, I’m going to Harvard, but the comment stung, and can art form that is perhaps more enjoyed Rihanna and Prince, the public responds, live in New York,” she thought. “I’m going her smoldering mental response was than understood. because it’s what they’re listening to.” to college in New York.” Ohhh, you watch me. With the encour- As Margo Je erson ’71JRN, a Pulitzer But things were tough at home. When agement of Barbara and Tadeo (who Prize–winning cultural critic and Colum- n 1993, some of the greatest tap danc- Chloe was thirteen, Barbara moved the would graduate from the University of bia School of the Arts writing professor, ers in history gathered at the John F. kids to a small apartment in northwest Pennsylvania), Chloe applied to all the has observed, “Tap is a quintessential II Kennedy Center for the Performing DC. “Our mom was the only white person Ivy League schools. multipurpose form. It is dance, music, Arts in Washington, DC, as part of Savion in the neighborhood,” Maud says. Money “My mom was avid about our educa- and theater, suitable for clubs, studios, Glover’s DC Crew. The lineup included was tight. Barbara took extra work as a tion and motivating us,” Chloe says. “She

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4.16_TapDance_FINAL.indd 36 11/16/16 12:59 PM Gregory Hines, the nineteen-year-old waitress and translator. The sisters were found this clip in a magazine that said, was about tap. My thesis fi lm was about prodigy Glover, and the fabled Nicholas inseparable. They shared a bedroom, and WHAT IF HARVARD WAS YOUR tap. Everything was about tap.” Brothers. Also onstage was a twelve-year- Chloe, now Maud’s babysitter, also became SAFETY SCHOOL? She cut it out and After graduation, Chloe moved to LA. old girl named Chloe Arnold. her dance teacher. taped it to our door so that it was the She had no money, so Debbie Allen put That night, Chloe saw what it meant to At fi fteen, Chloe went back to New fi rst thing I saw each morning.” Chloe got her up and let Chloe shadow her at work. be a professional tap dancer. She’d been York to see the Glover vehicle Bring in ’da into Harvard, and all the other Ivies. But Allen told Chloe that if she wanted to tap dancing since she was six, and now she Noise, Bring in ’da Funk, a tap odyssey her heart was set on Columbia. professionally, she had to learn how to do dreamed of someday leaving her own of African-American history. After the it all: dance, direct, choreograph, write, footprint on the fi eld. matinee, she wanted to check out Colum- hloe applied for every scholarship and produce. Tap auditions were scarce, She lived in Washington with her kid bia. Some dancers from the show took her available. The most substantial so you needed the skills to create the sister, Maud, and their brother, Tadeo, uptown. “I saw the campus and said, ‘This CCone she received was a Kluge work itself. who “always had our backs,” Chloe says. is going to be my life,’” Chloe says. Scholarship, a program endowed in One night in LA, at a tap jam session, Their father, Eddie, was a Vietnam veter- The next year, she got a part in a dance 1987 by businessman John Kluge ’37CC, Chloe ran into some other female danc- an and jazz connoisseur who worked in musical in DC directed by Debbie Allen, ’88HON, a German immigrant who had ers. She rarely saw other women at jam public relations. Their mother, Barbara, the dancer, singer, choreographer, director, himself attended Columbia on grants. sessions. Sensing their power as a group, she pulled them together — along with the teenage Maud — and formed a dance crew called Syncopated Ladies, a wink to Sophisticated Ladies, the 1981 Broadway “ I WANT THESE revue based on the music of Duke Elling- ton, starring Gregory Hines. WOMEN TO These Ladies were something di¤ er- ent: young, gifted musician-dancers who, through their moves and outfi ts, asserted FEEL THAT their femininity in ways seldom seen in tap — bare midri¤ s, ripped jeans, bust- WE ARE iers, a little leather, and a strong, athletic attack. Tap was about to graduate.

LIFTING EACH aud, too, majored in fi lm at Columbia, and by her senior OTHER UP.” MM year, a new rhythm was pound- ing across the land. Yes we can! Yes we can! Graduation speeches at Columbia in 2008 were fi lled with references to who was born in France, where her and producer who played a tough-love At college, Chloe took classes from Barack Obama ’83CC, who was two mother hid during the Holocaust, was a dance teacher in the fi lm and TV versions 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and then at night she’d weeks away from clinching the Demo- high-school teacher. of Fame. Allen saw Chloe’s promise and pack up her portable tap-dancing fl oor cratic nomination for president. Around the time of the Kennedy Center became her mentor. and go down to Greenwich Village for a Maud could relate to the candidate. show, Chloe took a bus trip to New York to Meanwhile, at school, Chloe, Ivy-minded, jazz-club jam session. “Can I jump in?” They had a common educational expe- see Jelly’s Last Jam, a Broadway musical signed up for everything: clubs, peer she’d say, and she’d drop her board and rience, and they’d both had to settle the about the jazz composer Jelly Roll Mor- mediation, sports. She even got elected ad-lib with the band. Tappers are per- complexities of their mixed backgrounds. ton. The show starred Hines and Glover, class president. Still, in her senior year, cussionists, and to develop musicianship “At Columbia, I met a lot of mixed with choreography by Hines and tap guru a teacher told her she would never get “you have to play with musicians,” Chloe kids who really weren’t sure who they Ted Levy. The whole scene captivated into Harvard. Chloe had no designs on says. Afterward, she’d go back to campus were, and I was so sure about it,” Maud Chloe. “When it’s my time, I’m going to Harvard, but the comment stung, and and do her schoolwork. says. “I’m Black. My mom’s white, I love live in New York,” she thought. “I’m going her smoldering mental response was She majored in fi lm and was singularly her, but I’m Black. Our dad taught us a to college in New York.” Ohhh, you watch me. With the encour- focused. “In college I always thought, ‘I’m lot about being proud to be Black. He But things were tough at home. When agement of Barbara and Tadeo (who going to put tap on fi lm. Now, to make a always said, ‘The world will look at you Chloe was thirteen, Barbara moved the would graduate from the University of fi lm is insane, and even crazier is to be- as a Black person, so you have to recog- kids to a small apartment in northwest Pennsylvania), Chloe applied to all the come a professional tap dancer, and even nize that. You’re not better than anybody DC. “Our mom was the only white person Ivy League schools. crazier is to say, ‘I’m going to make tap because you’re light-skinned.’ I’m so in the neighborhood,” Maud says. Money “My mom was avid about our educa- movies.’ But in my head, that’s what was grateful, because it saved me a lot of time was tight. Barbara took extra work as a tion and motivating us,” Chloe says. “She going to happen. Every fi lm project I did and emotion questioning this.”

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4.16_TapDance_FINAL.indd 37 11/16/16 12:59 PM Obama won the election, and Maud and n February 6, 2016, Beyoncé Chloe were in the crowd outside the Cap- released “Formation,” an itol on Inauguration Day. “It was cold, OO empowerment anthem of Black but we didn’t care,” says Maud. “It was womanhood whose music video contains one of the greatest days of my life.” visual references to police violence and With Maud out of school, the sisters the abandonment of African-Americans started Chloe & Maud Productions. in Hurricane Katrina. The next day, the Mindful of Debbie Allen’s gospel of ver- singer performed “Formation” during the satility, they performed with Syncopated halftime show of Super Bowl 50. Ladies and also pursued jobs as produc- If Chloe and Maud weren’t sure what to tion assistants on music-video shoots. do next, now they knew. Chloe created a Among the artists they got to work for dance for “Formation,” and the Ladies hit was one of their heroes: Beyoncé. the studio. “The idea of formation — of “Beyoncé made me see the role of getting people unified — inspired me to women in entertainment di†erently,” reach out to people in countries I’d trav- Chloe says. “She’s so unapologetically eled to as a performer,” says Chloe. “I sent amazing, and at the same time, she lifts them instructions for the dance and told everybody up and makes you feel amaz- them that if they could learn this and film ing. It doesn’t matter if you’re picking it in a week, they might be in our video.” up trash — you still feel like you’re part The response was emphatic: the video of the most incredible production ever. I features dancers from Chicago, DC, Seat- thought, ‘That’s what I want for Synco- tle, LA, Taipei, Rio de Janeiro, and more. pated Ladies. I want these women to feel The sisters uploaded the video, not that we are lifting each other up.’” expecting Beyoncé herself to see it. Not By 2013, the sisters were ready for a only did she see it — she posted it on new step. “Maud,” Chloe said, “it’s time her homepage. In two weeks it got eight to use our film degrees. Let’s make music million views, and now it has more than videos of tap dancing.” thirteen million. Chloe choreographed a piece for Syn- Beyoncé hired the Ladies to perform copated Ladies, set to Rihanna’s “Where in London at the launch of her clothing Have You Been.” Dark stage, floor lights, f there is a glass ceiling for women in of resistance, and Debbie Allen was so piv- black shorts and bodices, silver glitter, tap, it’s full of cracks made by gener- otal in saying, ‘Ignore them, go forward, studded boots, rapid-fire syncopations, IIations of rapping feet. For Chloe, tap don’t let them stop you.’” kinetic camera work. Chloe and Maud history is filled with women who “did Margaret Morrison, who knew Chloe “WE HAVE DANCERS AROUND put the polished product on YouTube, the work but don’t get the credit they and Maud at Columbia and had Maud and it quickly got more than sixty thou- deserve,” and she recalls the lack of pros- as a student, notes that the Arnold sand views. “I was blown away,” Chloe pects that she faced coming up. sisters are fighting against centuries of THE WORLD ASPIRING says. “I had no idea that we could get tap “I was really entering a boys’ club,” ideas. “Anything too close to sexuality seen by that many people.” she says. “You had Tap Dogs and Bring and the female body is considered less TO WORK WITH US, Next, as an expression of gratitude to in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk; there art-worthy, less rigorous, less serious. Beyoncé, the Ladies made a video to her were no roles I could get into.” Nor was It’s entertainment, not art. Chloe just song “End of Time.” To their surprise, Riverdance an option. “If you look at dives into that and says, ‘That’s BS. Who SO OUR RESPONSIBILITY IS Beyoncé shared it on Facebook. Within Broadway, there are very few shows that made these rules?’ And that’s how I feel. days that video got more than five hun- feature or star a Black woman, and very It’s the twenty-first century! We’ve been dred thousand views. The popular TV few African-American producers and through postmodernism! Who made TO CREATE WORK.” show So You Think You Can Dance took choreographers,” says Chloe. “I would say these rules? notice, and the Ladies were invited to to myself, ‘If it doesn’t exist, create it.’” “Some women of my generation felt it line, Ivy Park, in April. A week later, the compete in the show’s first-ever dance- In the critical realm, too, she encoun- was important to downplay sexuality to pop star Prince, another major influence crew battle. They won. tered a certain narrowness of perspec- align ourselves with art, so we did that,” on Chloe and Maud, died unexpectedly. Twitter was aflutter. Blogs and tive. “Some people didn’t like that I was says Morrison. “Then Chloe’s generation Syncopated Ladies made a tribute video, magazines swooped in. People started using my curves, my African-American came along and said, ‘That’s interesting, set to “When Doves Cry.” That one has recognizing Chloe and Maud on planes. culture, incorporating African dance and but why?’ We fought that fight, and Chloe topped twenty-five million views. Now the question had new urgency: hip-hop and things that are authentic to doesn’t need to fight it anymore. Now she Says Morrison, “Probably more people what next? my experience,” she says. “There was a lot and Maud can fight a di†erent battle.” have seen tap dance through the ‘Formation’

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4.16_TapDance_FINAL.indd 38 11/16/16 1:00 PM n February 6, 2016, Beyoncé and Prince videos than anything since us, so our responsibility is to create work. released “Formation,” an the Hollywood era of the 1940s and ’50s. We’re trying to create an industry.” OO empowerment anthem of Black That in itself is astounding.” womanhood whose music video contains Calls poured in. Chloe got hired as t’s showtime at Aaron Davis Hall. visual references to police violence and a choreographer on So You Think You Apt. 33: Where Dreams Are Made is the abandonment of African-Americans Can Dance and The Late Late Show with I based on the stories of tap dancers in Hurricane Katrina. The next day, the James Corden. In July, Syncopated Ladies inI New York who have used Chloe and singer performed “Formation” during the performed in Philadelphia at the Demo- Maud’s real-life Washington Heights halftime show of Super Bowl 50. cratic National Convention. And now, in apartment (unit 33) as their communal If Chloe and Maud weren’t sure what to the fall, Chloe and Maud were ready to crib. Choreographed by Chloe, the show do next, now they knew. Chloe created a roll with Apartment 33. projects Fame-era wholesomeness dance for “Formation,” and the Ladies hit While Chloe creates dances and runs juxtaposed with present-day issues, the studio. “The idea of formation — of rehearsals, Maud meets people and closes as if the gra§ti-covered New York of getting people unified — inspired me to deals. The Chloe & Maud portfolio now 1980 — the auditions and rehearsals reach out to people in countries I’d trav- includes the two bicoastal tap troupes; and blue Greek-diner co‡ee cups — had eled to as a performer,” says Chloe. “I sent the DC Tap Festival (started in 2009 and fused with Black Lives Matter and an them instructions for the dance and told expected to draw, in April, six hundred a‡ordable-housing shortage. them that if they could learn this and film dancers from around the world); an after- Like many artists, the sisters are it in a week, they might be in our video.” school program in LA called Tap Into Life anguished by the unending incidents The response was emphatic: the video (“We want to provide education and schol- of police violence against African- features dancers from Chicago, DC, Seat- arships for inner-city kids,” says Chloe. “We Americans. They know plenty of people tle, LA, Taipei, Rio de Janeiro, and more. were once those kids, and we had mentors with stories, and have had their own The sisters uploaded the video, not and got scholarships from Columbia — so disturbing run-ins. They wanted to say expecting Beyoncé herself to see it. Not we are very heavy on scholarships”); and something in the show, to present a only did she see it — she posted it on the buoyant 2015 documentary Tap World, united front against what Maud calls her homepage. In two weeks it got eight which showcases modern tap virtuosos “blind hatred,” a solidarity underscored million views, and now it has more than and demonstrates the community-building by the diversity of the dancers, who thirteen million. potential of the form. come from India, Australia, Honduras, Beyoncé hired the Ladies to perform Next, the sisters want to create a TV Montana, Brazil. “We can’t push forward in London at the launch of her clothing documentary series about their lives as unless we’re a collective,” says Chloe. “It of resistance, and Debbie Allen was so piv- can’t just be African-Americans fighting otal in saying, ‘Ignore them, go forward, for our rights; it has to be everybody don’t let them stop you.’” saying these are human rights.” Margaret Morrison, who knew Chloe “WE HAVE DANCERS AROUND Onstage, video images pulsed behind and Maud at Columbia and had Maud the dancers on a large screen. Midway as a student, notes that the Arnold through the show, an ensemble per- sisters are fighting against centuries of THE WORLD ASPIRING formed a piece called “One Day . . .,” set ideas. “Anything too close to sexuality to the ballad “Glory,” by Common and and the female body is considered less TO WORK WITH US, John Legend, from the movie Selma. art-worthy, less rigorous, less serious. As cell-phone footage of police violence It’s entertainment, not art. Chloe just played onscreen — of bodies lying unat- dives into that and says, ‘That’s BS. Who SO OUR RESPONSIBILITY IS tended, of grief and terror and outrage — made these rules?’ And that’s how I feel. the lead dancer, Gerson Lanza, stomped It’s the twenty-first century! We’ve been ecstatically, mournfully, transmuting the through postmodernism! Who made TO CREATE WORK.” dynamics of a national emergency into these rules? furious rhythm; and as the screen flashed “Some women of my generation felt it line, Ivy Park, in April. A week later, the tap dancers and entrepreneurs, and build with clips of civil-rights protests past and was important to downplay sexuality to pop star Prince, another major influence franchised shows for Syncopated Ladies present, the dancers nailed the insistent align ourselves with art, so we did that,” on Chloe and Maud, died unexpectedly. and Apartment 33 so that they can do steps, and ended with their fists raised in says Morrison. “Then Chloe’s generation Syncopated Ladies made a tribute video, their favorite thing: hire dancers, espe- unity and defiance. came along and said, ‘That’s interesting, set to “When Doves Cry.” That one has cially women dancers. There was a soundless shiver. And then, but why?’ We fought that fight, and Chloe topped twenty-five million views. “Women have been marginalized one after another, the people stood. They doesn’t need to fight it anymore. Now she Says Morrison, “Probably more people in tap,” says Chloe. “We have dancers clapped, whistled, called out, cried out. and Maud can fight a di‡erent battle.” have seen tap dance through the ‘Formation’ around the world aspiring to work with The air trembled. Tap had spoken.

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4.16_TapDance_FINAL.indd 39 11/16/16 1:00 PM THE BIG IDEA these stops: police need only be able to articulate a reasonable suspicion that a person has committed or is about to commit a crime. If they have a reasonable suspicion that the person is armed, they can also pat the person down. The practice Policing the Police grew quite a bit in the 1980s during the war on drugs, and in the 1990s it expanded further as police departments adopted broken-windows policing. In short, a tactic that had been used Jeffrey Fagan, a professor of fairly judiciously by police became weaponized, and the brunt of that fell on Black communities. In Floyd, the court found the law, the director of Columbia city’s program unconstitutional in practice because it dispro- Law School’s Center for Crime, portionately focused on Blacks and Hispanics, and too often o‚cers lacked the reasonable suspicion that the law required. Community, and Law, and a In 90 percent of stops, the police came up empty-handed.

professor of epidemiology at In his 2016 campaign, President-elect Donald Trump the Mailman School of Public said that stop and frisk succeeded in New York and should therefore become national policy. Constitutional Health, is a leading American considerations aside, did the program reduce crime? criminologist who studies The evidence is tenuous. There are studies — including a few I worked on — that suggest that stop and frisk had a very policing and race. We asked minor e„ect. But recent research shows that a more selective him to assess the relationship use of stop and frisk, in which police follow the higher legal standard of probable cause rather than reasonable suspicion, between police and minority is more likely to deter crime, since more of the people being stopped will actually be criminals. That said, given everything communities and suggest how it we know empirically, it would certainly be a wrong-headed might be improved. national policy. By Fred Strasser

Columbia Magazine: Mistrust of police in rather than fined or given a warning. Cities around the Ú African-American communities seems to be more country have embraced a model sometimes called “broken pronounced than ever. Is it growing? windows” policing, and with it a variety of tactics that Jeffrey Fagan: We all know the names — Eric Garner, include “stop and frisk,” the theory being that combating Walter Scott, Laquan McDonald, Freddie Gray. The low-level o„enses prevents more serious crime. Also, mistrust has exploded into the national consciousness the way police interact with citizens can be harsh and after a series of high-profile deaths, many of them caught disrespectful, and often uses racialized language. These on video. But it’s always been there. In the 1980s, the stories are widely shared in the Black community. It’s hard General Social Survey found a big gap in trust of the police to statistically pinpoint the use of force, but certainly the between Black people and white people. Further back, crowd-sourced data we have on police shootings suggests the Kerner Commission, which assessed the causes and that this has been going on throughout the past decade. consequences of the urban riots of the 1960s, found that outbreaks in cities including Newark, Los Angeles, and You appeared as an expert witness in Floyd v. Detroit were sparked in nearly every case by an incident City of New York, the case that ended the city’s How did the expansion of stop and frisk affect police of police abuse. Deep anger had built up toward the police controversial “stop and frisk” program. How did relations with minority communities? based on what people in the Black community perceived that practice begin? People who were already suspicious of the police tipped over as historical maltreatment. The idea of an investigative stop goes all the way back to the edge into complete alienation and cynicism. That has what’s called the common-law right of inquiry. Police have severe consequences for society. Police are heavily dependent What are the major problems in policing today? always had the right to stop someone and say, hello, how on communities to help them investigate crimes. They need cit- There’s greater emphasis on pursuing low-level crimes and are you, what are you doing here? You’re not always obli- izens to identify witnesses, testify in court, serve on juries, and disorder, using fairly aggressive tactics. People who are gated to answer, but police certainly have the right to ask. so forth. The more you alienate a community through harsh

suspected of minor crimes are often automatically arrested In 1968, the US Supreme Court set the legal standard for / REUTERS © MIKE STONE policing tactics, the less likely people are to get involved, and

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4.16_BigIdea_REVISED.indd 40 11/17/16 3:30 PM these stops: police need only be able to articulate a reasonable that threatens the security of everyone. Listen, there’s a reason suspicion that a person has committed or is about to commit kids say “Don’t snitch”: they don’t feel the police act in the best a crime. If they have a reasonable suspicion that the person interests of the neighborhood. In addition to alienation, we’ve is armed, they can also pat the person down. The practice also observed that young men who have been stopped and Policing the Police grew quite a bit in the 1980s during the war on drugs, and in treated harshly by the police experience mental-health prob- the 1990s it expanded further as police departments adopted lems including posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and insomnia. broken-windows policing. In short, a tactic that had been used fairly judiciously by police became weaponized, and the brunt Many people, particularly members of minorities, believe of that fell on Black communities. In Floyd, the court found the that police officers are seldom called to account for city’s program unconstitutional in practice because it dispro- improper or illegal actions. Is that perception accurate? portionately focused on Blacks and Hispanics, and too often Police discipline su„ers from a lack of transparency. I suspect o‚cers lacked the reasonable suspicion that the law required. that people might have a bit more trust in the police if they In 90 percent of stops, the police came up empty-handed. were able to see how the o‚cers who they report violated their rights are punished within the department. Also, legal barriers In his 2016 campaign, President-elect Donald Trump to obtaining personnel records make it impossible to test the said that stop and frisk succeeded in New York and bad-apple theory, which holds that a small number of o‚cers should therefore become national policy. Constitutional commit the bulk of improper acts. And prosecutions are rare, considerations aside, did the program reduce crime? because police work closely with prosecutors. Police also work The evidence is tenuous. There are studies — including a few under the doctrine of “qualified immunity,” meaning that they I worked on — that suggest that stop and frisk had a very are generally protected from civil or criminal liability as long minor e„ect. But recent research shows that a more selective as they are acting within the expected conduct of their jobs. use of stop and frisk, in which police follow the higher legal standard of probable cause rather than reasonable suspicion, If you were designing the New York Police Department is more likely to deter crime, since more of the people being from the ground up, where would you start? stopped will actually be criminals. That said, given everything First, I’d reconsider the criteria for recruitment. There’s we know empirically, it would certainly be a wrong-headed probably a skill set needed for the modern era that not all the national policy. members of the current corps have: cognitive skills for discern- ing risk and suspicion; temperamental skills like the ability to regulate one’s conduct and see certain interactions as behavioral problems to be managed rather than personal a„ronts — skills that would help o‚cers conduct everyday policing in a way rather than fined or given a warning. Cities around the that diminishes tension. We need people who are country have embraced a model sometimes called “broken more acutely aware of the law and how it works. I windows” policing, and with it a variety of tactics that would pay police more and would be more aggres- include “stop and frisk,” the theory being that combating sive with firings and promotions. low-level o„enses prevents more serious crime. Also, the way police interact with citizens can be harsh and FBI director James Comey claimed that a disrespectful, and often uses racialized language. These “viral-video effect” is discouraging officers stories are widely shared in the Black community. It’s hard from fighting crime, for fear that they’ll be to statistically pinpoint the use of force, but certainly the accused of using excessive force. Does the crowd-sourced data we have on police shootings suggests viral-video effect really exist? that this has been going on throughout the past decade. I haven’t seen any evidence of it. Police shootings have gone up since 2014. If anything, police seem You appeared as an expert witness in Floyd v. to have become a little more aggressive. In any City of New York, the case that ended the city’s How did the expansion of stop and frisk affect police case, what would it mean to the public if the police did take a controversial “stop and frisk” program. How did relations with minority communities? step back? New York went through a short-lived experiment that practice begin? People who were already suspicious of the police tipped over in de-policing at the end of 2014 and early 2015 in a protest The idea of an investigative stop goes all the way back to the edge into complete alienation and cynicism. That has against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s supposed lack of support. The what’s called the common-law right of inquiry. Police have severe consequences for society. Police are heavily dependent police virtually stopped writing tickets and making arrests always had the right to stop someone and say, hello, how on communities to help them investigate crimes. They need cit- for low-level quality-of-life crimes. Total arrests dropped by are you, what are you doing here? You’re not always obli- izens to identify witnesses, testify in court, serve on juries, and more than half. Crime rates didn’t go up. So even if there were gated to answer, but police certainly have the right to ask. so forth. The more you alienate a community through harsh a viral-video e„ect, it might not embolden bad guys to go out

In 1968, the US Supreme Court set the legal standard for / REUTERS © MIKE STONE policing tactics, the less likely people are to get involved, and and commit crimes.

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4.16_BigIdea_REVISED.indd 41 11/17/16 3:31 PM based on historical drought indexes — to the amount of EXPLORATIONS land that burned. They found a direct relationship, with the worst fires occurring in the FRONTIERS OF driest years. RESEARCH AND “We then worked back- DISCOVERY ward, using the latest climate models, to determine how much of each year’s aridity was likely caused by anthropogenic climate change,” says Williams. The scientists say that several other factors are driving the intensity and scope of US forest fires. One is natural climate variation. Most notably, cyclical chang- es in oceanic currents have steered rain and snowstorms away from the western US in recent decades, exacerbating drought conditions. Williams and Abatzoglou say that their study may ac- tually understate the impact that human-induced climate change is having on forest A wildfire near fires, because it does not Fawnskin, account for some factors that California. could be o”shoots of global University of Idaho. “Since warming. These include the Climate change fuels 1984, it has led to the loss of millions of trees killed in about twenty-four million the US in recent years by significant increase in acres, whereas fourteen warm-weather-loving bee- million acres would have tles, and declines in spring- US forest fires burned otherwise.” time soil moisture brought Average temperatures in on by earlier snowmelt. ildfires have have long suspected: that the western United States There is also evidence that been consum- human-induced climate have gone up about 2.5 lightning — which causes ing forests in change is fueling the infernos. degrees Fahrenheit over many forest fires — may the western “Climate change is the the last century, and as the increase with warming. US at a devas- single most important air warms it is sucking the In the coming years, the Wtating pace, with the amount factor driving the trend, moisture out of trees, plants, scientists say, fires in the of land burned annually being responsible for nearly dead vegetation, and soil at western US will continue to increasing ninefold between half the total increase in a faster rate, making them intensify. “The magnitude of 1984 and 2015. Last year fire activity,” says A. Park more susceptible to fire. DAVID MCNEW / GETTY IMAGES fires that we’re seeing now alone, 1.5 million acres were Williams, a climatologist at Williams and Abatzoglou is very di”erent from what destroyed by fire — an area Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty calculated the e”ect that this we saw in the 1980s,” says half the size of Connecticut. Earth Observatory, who drying process has had on Williams. “And in the 2030s, Now, a new study has con- coauthored the study with fires by comparing the aridity fires will probably dwarf

firmed what many experts John Abatzoglou of the of forests in any given year — WHALING MUSEUM OF NEW BEDFORD COURTESY those that we’re seeing today.”

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4.16_Explorations_FINAL.indd 42 11/16/16 8:33 AM based on historical drought indexes — to the amount of Revealing the true hunting habits land that burned. They found a direct relationship, with the of Yankee whalers worst fires occurring in the driest years. “We then worked back- n the nineteenth century, a poor published a quantitative assessment of ward, using the latest man seeking adventure could take the non-cetacean kills made by Yankee climate models, to determine a job on an American whaling whalemen. The study, which is based how much of each year’s ship, a dangerous and not always on his team’s analysis of dozens of ship aridity was likely caused lucrative undertaking. A typical logbooks, shows that the ecological by anthropogenic climate Iexpedition might sail south to the damage wrought by the American change,” says Williams. Caribbean, around Cape Horn, out to whaling industry extended far beyond The scientists say that Easter Island and Hawaii, and then the decimation of certain whale species. several other factors are north to Alaska before returning to Walruses on the northern coast of driving the intensity and Alaska, for example, were scope of US forest fires. One killed en masse when whal- is natural climate variation. ing ships began frequenting Most notably, cyclical chang- the region in the 1850s. es in oceanic currents have “The men were mainly steered rain and snowstorms interested in the walruses’ away from the western US in ivory tusks at first,” says recent decades, exacerbating Drew. “But they soon drought conditions. discovered that they could Williams and Abatzoglou also render their blubber say that their study may ac- into a cheap substitute for tually understate the impact whale oil.” that human-induced climate Hunting was so exten- change is having on forest sive, the logbooks indicate, fires, because it does not that by the late 1880s account for some factors that could be o—shoots of global University of Idaho. “Since warming. These include the 1984, it has led to the loss of millions of trees killed in about twenty-four million the US in recent years by Above: acres, whereas fourteen warm-weather-loving bee- Pages New England three or four million acres would have tles, and declines in spring- from the years later. The pay was burned otherwise.” time soil moisture brought logbook uncertain because if a crew of an Average temperatures in on by earlier snowmelt. American did not secure a su‹cient the western United States There is also evidence that whaling amount of whale oil in that have gone up about 2.5 lightning — which causes ship. time, everyone onboard Below: degrees Fahrenheit over many forest fires — may Carcasses would be in debt to the the last century, and as the increase with warming. of a wal- ship’s owners upon their air warms it is sucking the In the coming years, the rus and return. Given the vagaries fur seal moisture out of trees, plants, scientists say, fires in the killed by of the industry, it’s not dead vegetation, and soil at western US will continue to whalers. surprising that some men, a faster rate, making them intensify. “The magnitude of looking to earn extra cash, would pe- whalemen passing through the region more susceptible to fire. DAVID MCNEW / GETTY IMAGES fires that we’re seeing now riodically go ashore and hunt animals could no longer find any walruses. As Williams and Abatzoglou is very di—erent from what for furs, skins, or ivory. a result, they shifted their attention to calculated the e—ect that this we saw in the 1980s,” says This year, a team of Columbia killing and skinning seals, polar bears, drying process has had on Williams. “And in the 2030s, researchers led by Joshua Drew, a reindeer, caribou, rabbits, and foxes. fires by comparing the aridity fires will probably dwarf lecturer in the Department of Ecology, Drew’s paper, which appeared in

of forests in any given year — WHALING MUSEUM OF NEW BEDFORD COURTESY those that we’re seeing today.” Evolution, and Environmental Biology, the journal Ecology and Evolution,

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4.16_Explorations_FINAL.indd 43 11/16/16 8:33 AM EXPLORATIONS grew out of a midterm patients complain of feeling sick project that he assigned to after consuming wheat and relat- Some credence to clear-water revival undergraduates in his His- ed grains even though they lack torical Ecology course. The the diagnostic markers for celiac course teaches students to disease — which include a particular n 1984, when the federal use unconventional sources antibody in the blood and a distinct government declared a of data to ascertain how form of damage to the intestine. Some two-hundred-mile stretch people in the past aected have suggested that increased public of the Hudson River a their natural environment. awareness of celiac disease has led Superfund cleanup site, In this case, the data came people to imagine their symptoms. Ithe waterway was generally from a collection of whaling Others insist that these patients are o-limits for recreational records, representing sev- suering from a disorder similar to use. Now, after decades enty-four voyages between celiac disease — “non-celiac wheat of progress in controlling 1846 and 1901, recently sensitivity,” or NCWS, some have industrial pollution, many digitized by Massachusetts’s called it — that has yet to be formally towns along the river are New Bedford Whaling described by medical researchers. again encouraging swim- Museum. The logbooks, The new Columbia study strongly ming and water sports. which were typically pro- suggests that NCWS is a real condi- But is all this splashing duced by a ship’s first mate, tion. “The people who complained of around really a good idea? contain surprisingly detailed celiac-like symptoms had several types accounts of their crews’ of immune markers in their blood that daily activities. you don’t see in celiac patients,” says “Many of the logbooks Armin Alaedini, an assistant professor contain descriptions of of medicine at Columbia University every single animal the Medical Center and the paper’s senior crew killed, often with little author. These patients, he says, also drawings to depict spe- reported slightly dierent symptoms cies the men hadn’t seen STUDY: than are typical in celiac disease, such before,” says paper coauthor as the sudden onset of nausea and Elora López ’15CC, who is “WHEAT diarrhea. Many of them said that now a graduate student at within a few hours of eating wheat they Stanford. “We spent weeks SENSITIVITY” would also experience mood swings, skimming through them.” depression, anxiety, or mental foggi- Studying the hunting IS REAL ness — symptoms that are much less habits of nineteenth-century common among celiac patients. whalers gives scientists a team of Columbia scientists The researchers are now planning clearer picture of the wild- say they have found the first follow-up studies to fully understand life that inhabited partic- physiological evidence that the causes of NCWS and to develop ular places before settlers people who test negative diagnostic tests. arrived. And this, Drew for celiac disease and other “Figuring out a way to identify says, helps preservation Aforms of wheat allergy can still get sick people with this condition is crucial,” “Yes and no,” says Andrew eorts that aim to restore from eating wheat. says Peter H. R. Green, a gastroenter- Juhl, a Columbia marine human-disrupted ecologies In a study published in the journal ologist who directs Columbia’s Celiac biologist who studies the to their original states. Gut, the researchers say they found signs Disease Center and is a coauthor of microbial ecology of rivers, “Some islands in the of wheat-inflicted intestinal damage and the new paper. “Too often, people with lakes, and estuaries. “The Arctic that are thought to be inflammation in dozens of such patients. non-celiac wheat sensitivity are told by Hudson is much cleaner pristine were actually hunt- The researchers have not yet determined doctors that they’re hypochondriacs, or than it used to be — but it LISA ROMEREIN / GETTY IMAGES ed by the whaling crews,” if gluten — a protein in wheat that pro- else they are misdiagnosed with con- still has its bad days.” says Drew. “Our study vokes an autoimmune reaction in celiac ditions like irritable-bowel syndrome This past summer, Juhl and suggests that the scientists’ suerers — or another component of the or Crohn’s disease. If we can develop a colleagues from several other current baselines for some grain may be making people ill. comprehensive test for wheat intoler- institutions conducted an species in the region could Physicians have lately struggled ance, people will finally be able to get unprecedented health check

be too low.” to make sense of the fact that many the right treatment.” ANDREW JUHL of the entire 315-mile river

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4.16_Explorations_FINAL.indd 44 11/16/16 10:43 AM patients complain of feeling sick after consuming wheat and relat- Some credence to clear-water revival ed grains even though they lack the diagnostic markers for celiac disease — which include a particular n 1984, when the federal system, from the headwaters to discharge the filthy tempting to do through DNA antibody in the blood and a distinct government declared a in the upstate town of Keene mixture without treating it,” analysis with Queens College form of damage to the intestine. Some two-hundred-mile stretch to New York Harbor. The says Juhl. “If you come into microbiologist Greg O’Mullan have suggested that increased public of the Hudson River a results, published on the contact with that water, you — is di›cult but vital. awareness of celiac disease has led Superfund cleanup site, website of the environmental risk picking up bacteria or “If the source of contami- people to imagine their symptoms. Ithe waterway was generally nonprofit Riverkeeper, gave viruses that could give you an nation is a dog park or a flock Others insist that these patients are o-limits for recreational the Hudson a spotty but upset stomach, a skin rash, or of geese, the management suering from a disorder similar to use. Now, after decades mostly positive health report. an ear or eye infection.” solution is dierent than if celiac disease — “non-celiac wheat of progress in controlling The scientists’ primary Juhl and his colleagues it’s a farm or a failing sewage sensitivity,” or NCWS, some have industrial pollution, many concern was testing for found the worst fecal system,” says Juhl. called it — that has yet to be formally towns along the river are Enterococcus, bacteria contamination not in the The most immediate lesson described by medical researchers. again encouraging swim- that live in the guts of Hudson itself but in several to be drawn from Juhl’s The new Columbia study strongly ming and water sports. warm-blooded animals, of its tributaries, including research, he says, is that suggests that NCWS is a real condi- But is all this splashing including humans, and are the Mohawk, Wallkill, and water-quality testing should tion. “The people who complained of around really a good idea? therefore a good indicator Saw Mill Rivers and Sparkill be done routinely in recre- celiac-like symptoms had several types of immune markers in their blood that you don’t see in celiac patients,” says Andrew Juhl, a Columbia marine biologist, and Greg Armin Alaedini, an assistant professor O’Mullan, a Queens College of medicine at Columbia University microbiologist, collect a Medical Center and the paper’s senior sample at the headwaters of the Hudson River. author. These patients, he says, also reported slightly dierent symptoms than are typical in celiac disease, such as the sudden onset of nausea and diarrhea. Many of them said that within a few hours of eating wheat they would also experience mood swings, depression, anxiety, or mental foggi- ness — symptoms that are much less common among celiac patients. The researchers are now planning follow-up studies to fully understand the causes of NCWS and to develop diagnostic tests. “Figuring out a way to identify people with this condition is crucial,” “Yes and no,” says Andrew of fecal contamination. Creek. The waters surround- ational areas. He says that says Peter H. R. Green, a gastroenter- Juhl, a Columbia marine Pathogens found in feces, ing New York City, in com- water conditions at many ologist who directs Columbia’s Celiac biologist who studies the Juhl says, pose the most parison, generally showed locations in the Hudson River Disease Center and is a coauthor of microbial ecology of rivers, acute public-health threat safe levels of Enterococcus. system vary dramatically the new paper. “Too often, people with lakes, and estuaries. “The in the Hudson River system “The smaller the river, the from week to week, or even non-celiac wheat sensitivity are told by Hudson is much cleaner today. He says that fecal longer it takes for contami- day to day, depending on the doctors that they’re hypochondriacs, or than it used to be — but it contamination is especially a nants to get diluted,” says Juhl. weather and other factors. else they are misdiagnosed with con- LISA ROMEREIN / GETTY IMAGES still has its bad days.” problem during heavy rains, Both human and animal “People are accessing the ditions like irritable-bowel syndrome This past summer, Juhl and when sewage pipes get inun- waste find their way into the rivers at more and more or Crohn’s disease. If we can develop a colleagues from several other dated with storm water. Hudson River system. Iden- locations, which is good,” comprehensive test for wheat intoler- institutions conducted an “The increased flow can tifying which is to blame in says Juhl. “But that makes ance, people will finally be able to get unprecedented health check overwhelm water-treatment any given case of contamina- monitoring eorts more

the right treatment.” ANDREW JUHL of the entire 315-mile river plants, which may be forced tion — which Juhl is now at- important than ever.”

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4.16_Explorations_FINAL.indd 45 11/16/16 8:34 AM EXPLORATIONS Chemists discover key to improving solar power

n the race to make solar power more economical, one “What we’ve done is describe the fundamental structural of the most exciting recent discoveries is that solar cells properties that make perovskites such great semiconductors,” can be manufactured at a lower cost using crystals called says chemistry professor Xiaoyang Zhu, who reported his perovskites instead of silicon. These solar cells have not team’s results in the journal Science. “And our findings suggest been made commercially available, however, in part that similar semiconductors could be made from nontoxic Ibecause perovskite crystals contain lead, which scientists fear metals or synthetic substances.” could leach into the environment. In the past few years, many scientists have experimented Now a group of Columbia chemists say they have found a with making perovskites out of tin, which resembles lead in way around this impasse. By carefully examining how its chemical properties, only to find that the resulting crystals perovskites convert sunlight into electricity, the researchers underperform as solar-cell components. Zhu says that his have concluded that conductive crystals could be made from research ought to reenergize these eœorts, since it suggests any number of materials. They say the discovery opens up that perovskites made of tin or altogether diœerent elements, many new possibilities for designing super-ecient solar cells. if produced correctly, could act as ecient semiconductors. Data mining reveals risky drug combos

Penn Station in a brand-new light hey are two of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the intensified the need to address United States: the heartburn medication Prevacid and the a litany of shortcomings that antibiotic Rocephin. Taken separately, neither is known have always made the station to cause heart problems. If taken together, however, they perplexing and unsafe: a con- may short-circuit an electrical pathway in the heart, caus- fusing layout, poor ventilation, Ting it to beat irregularly and putting a patient at risk of cardiac arrest. and a lack of sightlines to the A team of Columbia data scientists recently discovered this city outside. potentially dangerous drug combination, along with three others, Earlier this year, New York after analyzing an online archive of medical records maintained by governor Andrew Cuomo the US Food and Drug Administration. The scientists, whose findings announced a plan to alle- appeared in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, are viate some of the station’s among the first ever to identify risky drug combinations by spotting overcrowding by turning patterns in large data sets, rather than by investigating drugs that had an adjacent property, the already been flagged by physicians as potentially dangerous. James A. Farley Post Oce, Led by Nicholas Tatonetti, an assistant professor of biomedical into a terminal annex. informatics at Columbia, the scientists searched the FDA database Chakrabarti says that his for drugs that had never been known to cause heart problems but proposal complements the that share side effects with those that had — a deductive technique governor’s plan but goes that Tatonetti had developed and proved effective. After identifying further, using the station’s hundreds of such medications, they consulted Columbia University hat would professor at Columbia’s Grad- up its floor to reveal the trains expansion as an opportunity Medical Center’s records to see if patients who had taken these med- it take to turn uate School of Architecture, underneath. (See above.) to bring it into the twenty-first ications in various combinations later experienced heart problems. New York’s Planning, and Preservation, “Arriving passengers century. And he says that his The combination of Prevacid and Rocephin was among the appar- Pennsylvania has been pondering this ques- would look up and see the entrance pavilion would cost ently risky pairs that stood out; people who had taken these drugs

Station — tion for years. And this fall, city all around them,” says much less to develop than a PRACTICE FOR ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM together were 40 percent more likely to develop a heart condition Wthat labyrinth of tunnels amid growing public debate Chakrabarti, who shared his number of other, similarly that can cause dangerous arrhythmias. beneath Madison Square about how to refurbish the proposal in a New York Times ambitious ones that have been Tatonetti says that additional research will be necessary to prove Garden — into a public station, he released a plan. It op-ed in October. proposed, since it would reuse that the discoveries warrant changes to prescription guidelines. But space as majestic as Grand calls for relocating the Madi- Penn Station currently Madison Square Garden’s even more important than his team’s specific findings, he says, is that Central Terminal? son Square Garden arena and serves 650,000 passengers foundation and structure. they modeled a new way of conducting medical research. As a former New York City then recycling the building: a day — triple what it was “This is a realistic, econom- “There is currently a lot of skepticism about whether big data is planning ocial, Vishaan replacing its concrete clad- designed for. Critics say ical plan to create a grand worth the hype,” he says. “I hope that our study ameliorates some of

Chakrabarti, also an associate ding with glass and tearing that the congestion has only civic space,” he says. TRIBUNE / CHICAGO WAMBSGANS JASON E. this doubt.”

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4.16_Explorations_FINAL.indd 46 11/16/16 8:35 AM STUDY HALL Razzle-dazzle ’em Chemists discover key to improving solar power RESEARCH BRIEFS Smarts, strategy, and performance are important, but they alone won’t get “What we’ve done is describe the fundamental structural you the top job. A study of 2,600 executives coauthored properties that make perovskites such great semiconductors,” Nicholas by Morten Sørensen, an adjunct associate professor at Tatonetti, says chemistry professor Xiaoyang Zhu, who reported his Columbia Business School, found that job candidates team’s results in the journal Science. “And our findings suggest center, and members who also rate high on charisma are most likely to be hired that similar semiconductors could be made from nontoxic of his as CEOs. metals or synthetic substances.” research team: from Pot payoff In states that have legalized medical mari- In the past few years, many scientists have experimented left, Tal juana, fewer people appear to be using opioids, according with making perovskites out of tin, which resembles lead in Lorberbaum, to a new study by researchers at Columbia’s Mailman Phyllis its chemical properties, only to find that the resulting crystals School of Public Health. underperform as solar-cell components. Zhu says that his Thangaraj, and Kevin research ought to reenergize these e’orts, since it suggests Sampson. Big dustup A team of geologists that includes that perovskites made of tin or altogether di’erent elements, Columbia’s Dennis Kent, an adjunct senior research sci- if produced correctly, could act as e‚cient semiconductors. entist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has found Data mining reveals evidence that an ancient period of global warming was caused by a comet that struck the earth fifty-five million risky drug combos years ago, forcing enormous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

hey are two of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the Blue note Pregnant women who take selective sero- intensified the need to address United States: the heartburn medication Prevacid and the tonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, the most common a litany of shortcomings that antibiotic Rocephin. Taken separately, neither is known form of antidepressant, increase their children’s risk of speech and language disorders from about 1 percent to have always made the station to cause heart problems. If taken together, however, they 1.37 percent. The study of 65,000 mothers in Finland, perplexing and unsafe: a con- may short-circuit an electrical pathway in the heart, caus- which was led by Columbia psychiatrist and epidemiolo- fusing layout, poor ventilation, Ting it to beat irregularly and putting a patient at risk of cardiac arrest. gist Alan Brown, adds to a growing body of research that and a lack of sightlines to the A team of Columbia data scientists recently discovered this indicates SSRIs are potentially harmful to fetuses. city outside. potentially dangerous drug combination, along with three others, Earlier this year, New York after analyzing an online archive of medical records maintained by Mind over money Companies that take their social governor Andrew Cuomo the US Food and Drug Administration. The scientists, whose findings responsibility seriously can save on salaries. A study by Vanessa Burbano, an assistant professor of management announced a plan to alle- appeared in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, are at Columbia Business School, found that people applying viate some of the station’s among the first ever to identify risky drug combinations by spotting for jobs in the for-profit sector submitted wage bids that patterns in large data sets, rather than by investigating drugs that had overcrowding by turning were 44 percent lower, on average, if they were informed an adjacent property, the already been flagged by physicians as potentially dangerous. of a company’s ethical business practices. James A. Farley Post O‚ce, Led by Nicholas Tatonetti, an assistant professor of biomedical into a terminal annex. informatics at Columbia, the scientists searched the FDA database Enthusiasm gap Male geoscientists are less likely to Chakrabarti says that his for drugs that had never been known to cause heart problems but give female students enthusiastic recommendations for postdoctoral fellowships, according to a new study of proposal complements the that share side effects with those that had — a deductive technique letters written by 1,224 faculty at five hundred institutions governor’s plan but goes that Tatonetti had developed and proved effective. After identifying worldwide. The male scientists tend to describe women hundreds of such medications, they consulted Columbia University further, using the station’s as “hard-working” and “diligent,” while reserving such expansion as an opportunity Medical Center’s records to see if patients who had taken these med- accolades as “brilliant” and “superb” for men, says lead to bring it into the twenty-first ications in various combinations later experienced heart problems. author Kuheli Dutt, an assistant director of academic century. And he says that his The combination of Prevacid and Rocephin was among the appar- affairs and diversity at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty entrance pavilion would cost ently risky pairs that stood out; people who had taken these drugs Earth Observatory.

much less to develop than a PRACTICE FOR ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM together were 40 percent more likely to develop a heart condition Toss the toupee Columbia University Medical Center number of other, similarly that can cause dangerous arrhythmias. researchers have discovered that a drug used to treat Tatonetti says that additional research will be necessary to prove ambitious ones that have been bone cancers and arthritis promotes hair growth in peo- proposed, since it would reuse that the discoveries warrant changes to prescription guidelines. But ple with alopecia areata, a condition that causes hair loss. Madison Square Garden’s even more important than his team’s specific findings, he says, is that Of the small sample size studied, 75 percent of patients foundation and structure. they modeled a new way of conducting medical research. experienced hair regrowth after six to nine months of “This is a realistic, econom- “There is currently a lot of skepticism about whether big data is treatment. The scientists plan to test the same drug on ical plan to create a grand worth the hype,” he says. “I hope that our study ameliorates some of male pattern baldness.

civic space,” he says. TRIBUNE / CHICAGO WAMBSGANS JASON E. this doubt.” — Julia Joy

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4.16_Explorations_FINAL.indd 47 11/16/16 8:35 AM NETWORK The National Museum of African American History and Culture YOUR ALUMNI CONNECTION A Virtual Tour with Mabel O. Wilson ’91GSAPP

On September 24, 2016, President Barack Obama ’83CC opened the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture — an institution, he said, that seeks to reaffi rm “that African-American history is not somehow separate from our larger American story. It’s not the underside of the American story. It is central to the American story.” The four-hundred-thousand- square-foot museum, designed by David Adjaye, displays more than three thousand artifacts. Mabel O. Wilson ’91GSAPP, a professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preser- vation and a scholar of African-American studies, wrote the offi cial companion book to the museum. Here she highlights some of the building’s most meaningful architectural features. PHOTOS FROM BEGIN WITH THE PAST, COURTESY OF SMITHSONIAN BOOKS

DISTINCT FAÇADE The building has a triple-tiered corona, a decorative façade that gives it a very distinct shape. It is particularly striking on the National Mall, which is dominated by classical architecture. The tiers are meant to recall hands raised in celebration, and also the West African caryatid, a ceremonial sculpture from Yorubaland, in what is now Nigeria.

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4.16_Network_FINAL.indd 48 11/16/16 3:39 PM startup spotlight SUBTLE DETAILS The building is covered in metallic panels that morph from reddish Products gold to deep sepia in the changing The National Museum of African American History and Culture light. The lace detail is based on with a wrought-iron construction that A Virtual Tour with you see on railings and balconies Purpose in New Orleans, Charleston, and Mabel O. Wilson ’91GSAPP other parts of the American South. ndustrial designer Most of that work was done by Diana Sierra ’12SPS On September 24, 2016, President Barack Obama ’83CC opened the Smithsonian’s Black slaves who were, of course, spent almost a decade National Museum of African American History and Culture — an institution, he said, not credited for their craftsman- designing sunglasses, ship. There’s Black history hidden that seeks to reaffirm “that African-American history is not somehow separate watches, and perfume in plain sight everywhere; we just Ibottles for companies like from our larger American story. It’s not the underside of the American don’t recognize it. Kenneth Cole and Nike. story. It is central to the American story.” The four-hundred-thousand- But her proudest creation square-foot museum, designed by David Adjaye, displays more than — and the one that would three thousand artifacts. Mabel O. Wilson ’91GSAPP, a professor at OPEN SPACES transform her profession- Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preser- al life — was a little less Most museums have a cloistered, vation and a scholar of African-American studies, wrote the official glamorous: a reusable, enclosed interior. This museum sustainable sanitary pad companion book to the museum. Here she highlights some of the opens into a huge space with vast for girls in developing building’s most meaningful architectural features. floor-to-ceiling windows. You feel nations who lack access to suspended between the inside and menstrual products. the outside. The space evokes the The idea came to Sierra clearing field — the middle of an in 2012 when she was pur- open field of crops — which was suing her master’s degree in the only community gathering sustainability management. space for many slaves. She had come to Columbia looking for more mean- ingful ways to apply her skill set. “As an industrial designer, you rarely get to choose what you work on,” she says. “After a while, INSPIRING VIEWS I felt like I was making products that had no The view from the upper floors purpose. I wanted to design is powerful. Large windows look something that actually directly out onto the Washington PHOTOS FROM BEGIN WITH THE PAST , COURTESY OF SMITHSONIAN BOOKS improved people’s lives.” Monument and, at different Toward the end of the points, out to the Mall, the Capitol, program, Sierra traveled the White House, and the city to Uganda as an intern for itself. Washington, DC is an the Millennium Villages important character in the Project, a development ini- African-American story; the tiative co-led by Columbia’s strategically placed windows are Earth Institute that helps also an important reminder that communities in Africa lift DISTINCT FAÇADE this museum is not just about themselves out of poverty. The building has a triple-tiered corona, a decorative façade that gives it a very distinct shape. African-Americans, but about the There, she learned some- It is particularly striking on the National Mall, which is dominated by classical architecture. American experience as a whole. thing troubling from one of The tiers are meant to recall hands raised in celebration, and also the West African caryatid, the village’s schoolteachers: a ceremonial sculpture from Yorubaland, in what is now Nigeria.

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4.16_Network_FINAL.indd 49 11/16/16 3:39 PM NETWORK

once girls got their period, taboo subject in Uganda that they started missing a week the girls couldn’t believe I The Giving Season of class every month because was even talking about it,” Choosing the right gift — for holidays, birthdays, or just because — can be overwhelming they didn’t have access to says Sierra. in a world of limitless options. Let us help you narrow the field with some ideas from pads or tampons. “Girls The pad got a thumbs-up, alumni-owned businesses. Call it smart shopping. would use anything they and with the help of her could find, like dried grasses teachers and the Millenni- and pieces of old mattresses,” um Villages Project, Sierra says Sierra. Not only were refined the pads and tested these materials unhygienic them in other countries. “I and irritating, but they would discovered that girls in Tan- also fall out of a girl’s under- zania and Malawi didn’t even wear when she moved. “The have underwear, which led girls eventually stayed home me to develop panties with a so often that their parents built-in sanitary pouch,” she pulled them out of school,” says. In 2014, Sierra and her says Sierra. Columbia classmate Pablo Sierra was stunned. “Basi- Freund ’12SPS launched Be cally, these girls were being Girl, a for-profit social enter- denied an education because prise that provides the pads and underwear to girls in devel- Title Here oping countries. The underwear In This is also available to the general Spot Here public at Begirl.org; for each pair purchased, the Diana Sierra company shows Be Girl donates a pair underwear to a girl in need. to a group of of their biology,” she says. schoolgirls in In the past “It was the kind of problem Uganda. two years, Be industrial designers are Girl has distrib- meant to solve.” She used the uted over sixteen thousand few materials she had with pads and panties in twen- Measures, an installation of three hand-painted her in Uganda — umbrellas, ty-three countries. Sierra sculptures by Josephine Halvorson ’07SOA, was mosquito netting, scissors, credits much of her success on display this fall at the Storm King Art Center, and a needle and thread — to the creative freedom in New York’s Hudson Valley. The piece was a to develop a prototype of a and support she received at part of the center’s annual Outlook series, which reusable sanitary pad with a Columbia. “I came from a COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO. permeable pouch that could humble background myself,” honors one emerging artist by commissioning be filled with any type of says Sierra, who grew up in a site-specific piece. All three sculptures play safe, absorbent material such rural Colombia. “My home- with scale: a twelve-foot sundial (above), a as toilet paper or washable town didn’t even appear twenty-four-foot measuring stick camouflaged cloth. After getting approval on Google Maps until last as a tree, and a thirty-six-foot yellow yardstick from the teacher and the year. Now I’m traveling the that rests horizontally in an open field. “I want girls’ parents, she gave the world helping people. It’s my these painted sculptures to heighten an individ- pads to the students to test. dream job.” ual’s curiosity for the environment and his or her “Menstruation is such a — Jessica Brown

place within it,” Halvorson says. OF UPRISE ART COURTESY WONG, ADRIAN KAY BY ARTWORK

50 COLUMBIA WINTER 2016

4.16_Network_FINAL.indd 50 11/16/16 3:39 PM e Giving Season Reporting Choosing the right gift — for holidays, birthdays, or just because — can be overwhelming Reimagined in a world of limitless options. Let us help you narrow the fi eld with some ideas from alumni-owned businesses. Call it smart shopping. always wanted to be a “ foreign correspondent,” ƒAll-natural says Peter Klein ’93JRN. small-batch He recalls watching the hot sauce from 1984 fi lm The Killing Brooklyn-based FieldsI as a teenager and A&B American Style. $12. idolizing the heroic journal- abamerican.com ist Sydney Schanberg, who braved Pol Pot’s notorious Communist guerillas to cover the 1970s Cambodian geno- cide for the New York Times. “I wanted to be him.” Basil-mint „Affordable Schanberg made it back art from beard oil upriseart.com. from Kent & home to collect a Pulitzer Prices vary. Bond, maker of Prize, but he saw scores of organic grooming products. $16. his Cambodian colleagues kentandbond.com and sources marched to their deaths by the Khmer Rouge. This fact — the relative safety of Western correspondents ƒHand-crafted wingtip in relation to the life-or- boots from Thursday Boot Company. $199. death risks taken by the local thursdayboots.com “fi xers” who serve as their interpreters and guides — was not lost on Klein, even as a young person. In the thirty years since, he has held onto the notion that international journalism needed a reboot. Now he’s giving it one. „A subscription to Try This June, Klein became Measures, an installation of three hand-painted the World, which sends the founding director of the a monthly box of gourmet sculptures by Josephine Halvorson ’07SOA, was ingredients from different Global Reporting Centre, a on display this fall at the Storm King Art Center, countries. $39 per delivery.  Columbia onesie from Vancouver-based nonprofi t trytheworld.com the CAA gift shop. $18. in New York’s Hudson Valley. The piece was a shop.alumni.columbia.edu that reports international part of the center’s annual Outlook series, which stories in cooperation with COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO. honors one emerging artist by commissioning local journalists. The center, a site-specifi c piece. All three sculptures play which grew out of a program with scale: a twelve-foot sundial (above), a that Klein created in 2008 to twenty-four-foot measuring stick camoufl aged take University of British Co- lumbia graduate journalism as a tree, and a thirty-six-foot yellow yardstick students on overseas report- that rests horizontally in an open fi eld. “I want ing trips, hopes to reinvigo- these painted sculptures to heighten an individ- rate enterprise reporting and ual’s curiosity for the environment and his or her cover global issues that are

place within it,” Halvorson says. OF UPRISE ART COURTESY WONG, ADRIAN KAY BY ARTWORK currently underreported.

COLUMBIA WINTER 2016 51

4.16_Network_FINAL.indd 51 11/16/16 3:40 PM NETWORK Klein fi rst began thinking a global network of interna- about how to help interna- tional and local journalists ASK AN ALUM That’s Amaro tional and local journalists and academics to showcase Amy Schapiro ’12SW is a consultant and leader of create better collaborations voices that would have gone Women Techmakers, Google’s global program to Brad Thomas Parsons ’95SOA is an amiable man with an unusual in the 1990s, when he unheard in the for-profi t support women in technology. motto: “Stay bitter.” Fortunately, this has nothing to do with cynicism and covered the Bosnian war media environment. For one everything to do with cocktails. After studying fi ction-writing at Colum- You have a degree in social work. How can social work for National Public Radio recent project, the center bia and working for a decade as a cookbook editor at Amazon, Parsons inform technology? and the Christian Science partnered with an indepen- published a James Beard Award–winning guide to cocktail bitters in 2011. Social work is a fi eld that emphasizes relationships, em- Monitor. While he traveled dent media organization in His follow-up, Amaro, published this fall, is an ode to amari — bittersweet pathy, and community. Incorporating these principles can the area for months, learning Mogadishu, Somalia. The herbal Italian liqueurs that are the star ingredient in classic cocktails like help ensure that industries that build technology refl ect the negroni. “Americans are starting to embrace bitter as a fl avor,” says diverse human experiences. Their products can then Parsons, “ and bartenders are dusting off their old bottles and creating serve people in a way that supports that kind of diversity. some lovely new drinks.” With more than one hundred recipes in his What are some of the obstacles that women interested in new book, Parsons is happy to join the cause. Here he shares a seasonal science, technology, engineering, and math (or STEM) face? punch perfect for holiday parties. It di ers based on various institutional and cultural barri- ers around the world. Often there is a lack of access to (or at least a lack of support for) educational and professional opportunities. Once in the industry, many women face obstacles like unconscious bias in company culture and policies, as well as lower pay than men. What are some of the resources available to help combat those challenges? There are a lot of great organizations that have been in- credibly helpful to women in the global technology indus- the dialects and immersing team there was fi tted with try. For example, the Women Techmakers membership himself in the culture, he body cameras to o er a program that I developed provides personally curated re- was concerned when he saw reporter’s-eye view of what sources for women and allies in tech. The National Center “these reporters from New it’s like to be a journalist for Women and Information Technology also publishes a York and London coming in in the East African coun- lot of resources to support women. The re:Work program with their little reporter vests try, where more than fi fty provides training in unconscious bias and instruction out of a Doonesbury cartoon, reporters have been mur- guides on how to build e ective management programs flying in for a couple of days, dered in the past twelve that ensure a supportive and inclusive environment. not speaking one word of any years. Another project uses What advice do you have for the parents of young girls of the languages, having very local reporting teams to interested in STEM? little knowledge of the history examine how the mentally There’s a saying that “you can’t be what you can’t see,” and of why this war was going on.” ill are treated in the slums this message is particularly salient for underrepresented He knew this was a of Mumbai, the refugee communities. So I would encourage families to expose Cranberry systemic issue. “I thought camps of Jordan, and the young girls to environments where peers, mentors, and Beret about what a fraud this is,” rural West African nations role models are also involved in STEM, so they can see he says, “and yet somehow I of Togo and Benin. the possibilities. A lot of my work with Women Tech- MAKES 1 DRINK got sucked into that world. Klein admits that courting makers focuses on increasing the visibility of rising and 1 orange wedge I would parachute into a donors and fi lling out grant established technologists from 12 fresh cranberries country that I knew very applications leaves him little underrepresented communi- 1½ ounces Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy little about and try to do the time to be where he’s always ties. That increased visibili- ½ ounce Amaro CioCiaro best I could.” wanted to be: the front lines ty not only provides them ½ ounce Aperol Over the following two of a story. But his e orts to with a platform that 2 dashes cranberry bitters decades, Klein would expand the role of nonprofi t Hard apple cider they didn’t previously build an enviable résumé, journalism on a global level Garnish: orange zest and 3 fresh cranberries, skewered have: it also provides reporting and producing for are already paying o — evidence that people Combine the orange wedge and cranberries in a cocktail shaker and news programs such as plans are in the works for from all sorts of muddle until the fruit is just broken up. Add the apple brandy, Amaro 60 Minutes and Nightline. two more centers to open in backgrounds can CioCiaro, Aperol, and bitters and fi ll with ice. Shake until chilled and With the Global Reporting Europe and India. double-strain into a collins glass fi lled with ice. Top off with the hard thrive in tech.

Centre, he’s now established — Chris Cannon OF TEN SPEED PRESS COURTESY apple cider. Garnish with the orange zest and skewered cranberries.

52 COLUMBIA WINTER 2016

4.16_Network_FINAL.indd 52 11/16/16 3:40 PM NEWSMAKERS ● Jimmy Keyrouz ’16SOA and Felecia Hunter That’s Amaro ’13GS, ’16SOA won the narrative-film Oscar at the 2016 Student Academy Awards this fall. Brad Thomas Parsons ’95SOA is an amiable man with an unusual Their film, Nocturne in Black, which was di- motto: “Stay bitter.” Fortunately, this has nothing to do with cynicism and rected by Keyrouz and co-produced by Hunter, everything to do with cocktails. After studying fiction-writing at Colum- is about a musician trying to rebuild his piano bia and working for a decade as a cookbook editor at Amazon, Parsons in a war-torn Middle Eastern neighborhood. published a James Beard Award–winning guide to cocktail bitters in 2011. ● New York City health commissioner Mary His follow-up, Amaro, published this fall, is an ode to amari — bittersweet Bassett ’79PS won the Frank A. Calderone herbal Italian liqueurs that are the star ingredient in classic cocktails like Prize, one of the most prestigious honors in the the negroni. “Americans are starting to embrace bitter as a flavor,” says field of public health. Bassett is also an asso- Parsons, “and bartenders are dusting off their old bottles and creating ciate professor of epidemiology at Columbia’s some lovely new drinks.” With more than one hundred recipes in his Mailman School of Public Health. new book, Parsons is happy to join the cause. Here he shares a seasonal ● Authors James McBride ’80JRN and Louis punch perfect for holiday parties. Menand ’80GSAS were two of this year’s twelve National Humanities Medal winners. The award, which President Barack Obama ’83CC granted in a September ceremony at the White House, is the highest national recognition of achievement in the humanities. McBride is a novelist, memoirist, and biogra- pher who won the 2013 National Book Award for his novel The Good Lord Bird. Menand is a critic, essayist, and professor of literature and language at Harvard University. Keyboardist, composer, and arranger Dick Hyman ’48CC was also honored this fall as a National Endow- ment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellow, which comes with $25,000 and a tribute concert. ● Jorge Daniel Veneciano ’06GSAS was named director of New York’s Museum of Arts and Design. A native of Argentina, Veneciano studied English and comparative literature at Columbia. He was most recently the executive director of El Museo del Barrio, in Harlem. ● Claudia Rankine ’93SOA was named a Cranberry 2016 MacArthur Fellow. Rankine, a professor Beret of poetry at Yale University, is the author of five volumes of poetry, two plays, and several essays. Her most recent work, a book-length MAKES 1 DRINK poem called Citizen, won the 2014 National 1 orange wedge Book Critics Circle Award in poetry and was a 12 fresh cranberries 1½ ounces Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy finalist for the 2014 National Book Award. ● ½ ounce Amaro CioCiaro Mia Alvar ’07SOA won the Janet Heidinger ½ ounce Aperol Kafka Prize for her debut story collection, 2 dashes cranberry bitters In the Country. The prize is given annually by Hard apple cider the University of Rochester to “promising but Garnish: orange zest and 3 fresh cranberries, skewered less established” women authors. Past winners Combine the orange wedge and cranberries in a cocktail shaker and include Toni Morrison, Ursula K. Le Guin muddle until the fruit is just broken up. Add the apple brandy, Amaro ’52GSAS, and Ann Patchett. CioCiaro, Aperol, and bitters and fill with ice. Shake until chilled and Find and connect with double-strain into a collins glass filled with ice. Top off with the hard all your classmates at

COURTESY OF TEN SPEED PRESS COURTESY apple cider. Garnish with the orange zest and skewered cranberries. alumni.columbia.edu

COLUMBIA WINTER 2016 53

4.16_Network_FINAL.indd 53 11/16/16 3:40 PM FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM TO BULLETIN COMBAT ANTI BLACK RACISM he Atlantic Philanthropies and Columbia COLUMBIA DEDICATES NEW MANHATTANVILLE CAMPUS TUniversity recently announced the creation UNIVERSITY of the Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity, a ten- NEWS AND niversity leaders recently Institute, and the Lenfest far west side of Manhattan, year, $60 million fellowship program that will VIEWS Udedicated the new Center for the Arts. between 125th Street and empower activists, writers, artists, and others Manhattanville campus, The Greene Science Center 133rd Street. fighting anti-Black racism in the United States or now taking shape west of and the Lenfest Center will The new campus is de- South Africa. The program, which will be based Broadway above 125th Street o•cially open in the spring. signed to have no barriers at Columbia, will support up to thirty-five people — an expansion that marks A third building on the — either between academic in these countries each year. Columbia’s most transforma- Manhattanville campus, the disciplines or between Co- The program is the latest in an interconnected The Jerome L. Greene tional campus development University Forum and Aca- lumbia and the West Harlem set of fellowship programs from Atlantic Philan- Science Center is one of two new buildings that will open since it moved to Morningside demic Conference Center, also community. The academic thropies that are designed to “advance fairer, in Manhattanville this spring. Heights in 1897. designed by Piano’s firm, is facilities will host interdis- healthier, more inclusive societies.” ciplinary programs, and the The Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity will amply landscaped grounds be directed by Kavitha Mediratta, who will step will be woven into the down as chief strategy adviser at Atlantic Philan- existing street grid with no thropies this winter to assume her new role. walls or gates. Buildings will Alondra Nelson, Columbia’s dean of social science be open to the public and and a sociology professor, will serve as the lead host community program- faculty partner on the program. ming. The Jerome L. Greene The program was designed in collaboration Science Center, for example, with the leadership of Black Organizing for Lead- will house the Education ership and Dignity (BOLD), a nonprofit based Lab, where local K–12 stu- in Washington, DC; the Center for Community dents and others can learn Change, also in about brain science. The Washington, DC; Wellness Center will o¤er the NAACP Legal free health screenings and Defense and Educa- disease-prevention services tional Fund, based (see “Wellness Center to in New York City; Open in 2017,” opposite). the Nelson Mandela “When we committed Foundation, based ourselves to the Manhattan- in South Africa; and On October 24, President under construction now and ville campus in West Harlem, the Haas Insti- The new campus Lee C. Bollinger led a ceremo- is expected to open in 2018. we knew it would be essen- tute for a Fair and is designed to ny attended by distinguished Soon to begin construction tial for Columbia to use this Inclusive Society faculty, deans, and students, is a new home for Columbia opportunity to build excep- at the University of have no barriers as well as local civic and com- Business School in two build- tional spaces for our mission California, Berkeley. — either between munity leaders and interna- ings: the Henry R. Kravis of teaching, research, and The new program academic tionally renowned architect Building and the Ronald O. creativity,” said Bollinger. “We will also support Renzo Piano of Renzo Piano Perelman Center for Business are creating a di¤erent kind undergraduate disciplines or Building Workshop, which Innovation, designed by Diller of academic space than in the fellows at Columbia between designed the campus master Scofidio + Renfro in collabo- past, designed for the cross- and UC Berkeley; Columbia and plan with Skidmore, Owings ration with FXFowle. disciplinary interaction that an annual sympo- & Merrill. Piano also designed With 6.8 million square feet is crucial to new knowledge, sium of fellows and the West Harlem the first buildings to rise on of new academic space, the within an open, accessible faculty at Columbia;

community. the campus: the Jerome L. Manhattanville campus will urban campus that encour- FRANK OUDEMAN and a multidisciplinary research e¤ort at Greene Science Center, which be realized over the course of ages the University and com- UC Berkeley. houses the Mortimer B. Zuck- the next several decades in the munity to engage with and The first cohort of Atlantic Fellows for Racial

erman Mind Brain Behavior former industrial area on the strengthen one another.” VAGG EVE HEALTH; HIP HOP PUBLIC PHILANTHROPIES; ATLANTIC TOP: FROM Equity will be announced in 2017.

54 COLUMBIA WINTER 2016

4.16_Bulletin_FINAL.indd 54 11/16/16 8:27 AM FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM TO COMBAT ANTI BLACK RACISM

he Atlantic Philanthropies and Columbia TUniversity recently announced the creation of the Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity, a ten- far west side of Manhattan, year, $60 million fellowship program that will Olajide between 125th Street and empower activists, writers, artists, and others Williams, 133rd Street. fighting anti-Black racism in the United States or top; and Sidney The new campus is de- South Africa. The program, which will be based Hankerson, signed to have no barriers at Columbia, will support up to thirty-five people bottom. — either between academic in these countries each year. disciplines or between Co- The program is the latest in an interconnected lumbia and the West Harlem set of fellowship programs from Atlantic Philan- community. The academic thropies that are designed to “advance fairer, facilities will host interdis- healthier, more inclusive societies.” ciplinary programs, and the The Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity will amply landscaped grounds be directed by Kavitha Mediratta, who will step will be woven into the down as chief strategy adviser at Atlantic Philan- existing street grid with no thropies this winter to assume her new role. walls or gates. Buildings will Alondra Nelson, Columbia’s dean of social science be open to the public and and a sociology professor, will serve as the lead host community program- faculty partner on the program. ming. The Jerome L. Greene The program was designed in collaboration WELLNESS CENTER TO OPEN IN 2017 Science Center, for example, with the leadership of Black Organizing for Lead- will house the Education ership and Dignity (BOLD), a nonprofit based wo Columbia doctors, sta† of neurology and asso- Lab, where local K–12 stu- in Washington, DC; the Center for Community Tthe neurologist Olajide ciate professor of neurology dents and others can learn Change, also in Williams ’04PH and the psy- at CUMC, founded Hip Hop about brain science. The Washington, DC; chiatrist Sidney Hankerson, Public Health, which uses rap Wellness Center will o†er the NAACP Legal have been appointed to lead music to teach youngsters free health screenings and Defense and Educa- the new community Wellness health tips. Hankerson, an disease-prevention services tional Fund, based Center on the first floor of assistant professor of clinical (see “Wellness Center to in New York City; the Jerome L. Greene Science psychiatry at CUMC, founded Open in 2017,” opposite). the Nelson Mandela Center, in Manhattanville. Mental Health First Aid, a “When we committed Foundation, based Operating with support from program that works through ourselves to the Manhattan- in South Africa; and Columbia’s Mortimer B. religious organizations ville campus in West Harlem, the Haas Insti- Zuckerman Mind Brain to improve locals’ access to we knew it would be essen- tute for a Fair and Behavior Institute, the mental-health services. tial for Columbia to use this Inclusive Society Wellness Center will open in “The Wellness Center is opportunity to build excep- at the University of the coming months. It will going to be a hub for health tional spaces for our mission California, Berkeley. provide members of the local in West Harlem,” says Han- of teaching, research, and The new program community a broad range kerson. “We know that people creativity,” said Bollinger. “We will also support of health services, including of color — African-Americans are creating a di†erent kind undergraduate free blood-pressure read- and Latinos — are dispropor- of academic space than in the fellows at Columbia ings, cholesterol screenings, tionately a†ected by chronic past, designed for the cross- and UC Berkeley; mental-health treatment, and medical conditions such as disciplinary interaction that an annual sympo- stroke-prevention training. high blood pressure, diabe- is crucial to new knowledge, sium of fellows and Both Williams and Han- tes, depression, anxiety, and within an open, accessible faculty at Columbia; kerson are known for their stroke. Our goal is to promote Kavitha urban campus that encour- FRANK OUDEMAN and a multidisciplinary research e†ort at Mediratta pioneering approaches to education, awareness, and ages the University and com- UC Berkeley. improving public health in engagement so people can munity to engage with and The first cohort of Atlantic Fellows for Racial Harlem and Washington get the help and healing that

strengthen one another.” VAGG EVE HEALTH; HIP HOP PUBLIC PHILANTHROPIES; ATLANTIC TOP: FROM Equity will be announced in 2017. Heights. Williams, chief of they need.”

COLUMBIA WINTER 2016 55

4.16_Bulletin_FINAL.indd 55 11/16/16 8:27 AM BULLETIN MEDICAL CAMPUS RENAMED FOR HERBERT AND FLORENCE IRVING

olumbia University and the Herbert Irving Pavilion, Herbert Irving was a has endured for many years CNewYork-Presbyterian the Irving Cancer Research cofounder and vice chairman and been very important to Hospital have renamed their Center, the Irving Institute of Sysco Corporation, the na- us. We are honored to be shared medical campus in for Clinical and Translational tion’s largest food distribu- associated in this way with Washington Heights in honor Research, the Irving Radi- tor. He died on October 3, at these great institutions and of two of their most signifi - ation Oncology Center, the age ninety-eight, just weeks the special people who make cant benefactors, Herbert and Irving Bone Marrow Trans- after the medical campus them what they are.” Florence Irving. In Septem- plant Unit, and the Herbert was named in his honor. He A joint statement issued by Homecoming Victory ber, the institutions an- Irving Comprehensive and Florence, both of whom Columbia President Lee C. nounced that the campus will Cancer Center. The Irvings’ were born and raised in Bollinger, NewYork- The Lions football team came from behind to beat Dartmouth in dramatic now be called the Columbia donations and commitments Brooklyn, had been married Presbyterian president and fashion at this year’s Homecoming game at Robert K. Kraft Field. Battling University Herbert and Flor- over time to Columbia for seventy-four years. CEO Steven J. Corwin, and rain and forty-mile-per-hour wind gusts, freshman place kicker Oren Milstein University Medical Center “One of the proudest things Columbia University Medical ence Irving Medical Center hit three fi eld goals, including the game-winner, scoring with one minute to and NewYork-Presbyterian/ and NewYork-Presbyterian we’ve done has been to sup- Center chief executive and go in the third quarter to lift Columbia 9–7. The Lions defense then held fi rm, Columbia University Irving will ultimately exceed $300 port the terrifi c doctors at dean Lee Goldman praised Medical Center. million. Most recently, they Columbia and NewYork- Herbert and Florence Irving stopping the Big Green on their last drive, which ended when their placekicker The Irving name is already made donations to support Presbyterian,” the couple said for being “among the most missed a fi eld goal with just twenty-seven seconds left in the game. “It was an well known at the medical Columbia’s precision- in a statement on September generous benefactors in the awesome win,” said Columbia head coach Al Bagnoli. “I couldn’t be happier for center, which is home to medicine initiative. 21. “This is a relationship that history of our institutions.” our kids, our alumni, and the entire Columbia football community.”

DE MENOCAL APPOINTED SCIENCE DEAN YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST LIFESAVING INVENTION

eter B. de Menocal ’92GSAS, a Columbia oceanographer his past summer, two dozen high- Pand paleoclimatologist, has been appointed dean of sci- Tschool students came to Columbia to ence in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. learn the basics of engineering research As a divisional dean, he joins Sharon Marcus, dean of and to design, build, and test inventions humanities, and Alondra Nelson, dean of social sciences. that address global health problems. Columbia’s divisional-dean structure was established in Over the course of the six-week program, 2011; the divisional deans work with the executive committee which was led by Columbia Engineering of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences — currently executive vice lecturer Aaron Kyle, the students took president David Madigan, Columbia College dean James J. crash courses in subjects like electronics, Valentini, and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences dean materials science, medical diagnostics, Carlos J. Alonso — and other academic deans in managing and computer programming. They then the academic departments, research centers, and institutes in pitched their ideas for original creations their divisions. The divisional deans are also responsible for to a panel of biomedical-engineering establishing broader interdisciplinary research initiatives and professionals, whose feedback the stu- helping to lead fundraising eŽ orts to support them. dents incorporated into their devices. De Menocal, who chaired the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences from 2011 to 2014, also directs the Center for Climate and Life at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. This fall, he was named the Thomas Alva Edi- son/Con Edison Professor, a newly established chair funded by the public utility company Con Edison. “The world faces urgent challenges in climate, human Greenwich Village health, and technology innovation, and large research univer- 26 West 8th Street sities should be leading the charge to provide answers,” says 646.678.5263 de Menocal. “My goal is to help lead this charge for Colum- bia, to see us attack such big global problems with resources, Participants in a youth science program test a

discipline, and a sense of purpose.” OF HYPOTHEKIDS COURTESY BOTTOM: / MIKE MCLAUGHLIN; ATHLETICS OF CU COURTESY TOP: water-purifi cation system they designed.

56 COLUMBIA WINTER 2016

4.16_Bulletin_FINAL.indd 56 11/16/16 8:27 AM MEDICAL CAMPUS RENAMED FOR HERBERT AND FLORENCE IRVING TRUSTEES ELECT ABIGAIL BLACK has endured for many years ELBAUM, MARK T. and been very important to GALLOGLY us. We are honored to be associated in this way with bigail Black Elbaum these great institutions and A’92CC, ’94BUS, a New the special people who make York City realty executive, them what they are.” and Mark T. Gallogly ’86BUS, A joint statement issued by Homecoming Victory a New York City investment Columbia President Lee C. banker, have been elected Bollinger, NewYork- The Lions football team came from behind to beat Dartmouth in dramatic to the University Board of Presbyterian president and fashion at this year’s Homecoming game at Robert K. Kraft Field. Battling Trustees. Their six-year terms CEO Steven J. Corwin, and rain and forty-mile-per-hour wind gusts, freshman place kicker Oren Milstein began in September. Columbia University Medical hit three fi eld goals, including the game-winner, scoring with one minute to Elbaum, a principal of Center chief executive and real-estate company Ogden go in the third quarter to lift Columbia 9–7. The Lions defense then held fi rm, dean Lee Goldman praised Abigail CAP Properties, previously Herbert and Florence Irving stopping the Big Green on their last drive, which ended when their placekicker Black served on Columbia College’s for being “among the most missed a fi eld goal with just twenty-seven seconds left in the game. “It was an Elbaum Board of Visitors. generous benefactors in the awesome win,” said Columbia head coach Al Bagnoli. “I couldn’t be happier for In 2002, she history of our institutions.” our kids, our alumni, and the entire Columbia football community.” received the College’s Young Alum- ni Achieve- DE MENOCAL APPOINTED SCIENCE DEAN YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST LIFESAVING INVENTION ment Award and in 2015 its eter B. de Menocal ’92GSAS, a Columbia oceanographer his past summer, two dozen high- The program, called the Hk Maker John Jay Award Pand paleoclimatologist, has been appointed dean of sci- Tschool students came to Columbia to Lab, is part of Hypothekids, a science- for distinguished ence in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. learn the basics of engineering research education initiative for underserved professional As a divisional dean, he joins Sharon Marcus, dean of and to design, build, and test inventions youth in New York City. achievement. humanities, and Alondra Nelson, dean of social sciences. that address global health problems. “They learn the engineering design Gallogly Columbia’s divisional-dean structure was established in Over the course of the six-week program, process and then use that to create is a co- 2011; the divisional deans work with the executive committee which was led by Columbia Engineering solutions to problems that they identify,” founder and of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences — currently executive vice lecturer Aaron Kyle, the students took says Christine Kovich, cofounder of the managing president David Madigan, Columbia College dean James J. crash courses in subjects like electronics, Harlem Biospace, a local biotechnology principal of Valentini, and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences dean materials science, medical diagnostics, incubator that runs Hypothekids in col- Mark T. the investment Carlos J. Alonso — and other academic deans in managing and computer programming. They then laboration with Columbia Engineering Gallogly fi rm Centerbridge the academic departments, research centers, and institutes in pitched their ideas for original creations and Teachers College. Partners. He serves on the their divisions. The divisional deans are also responsible for to a panel of biomedical-engineering Among the standout projects were Columbia Business School’s establishing broader interdisciplinary research initiatives and professionals, whose feedback the stu- Cathalert, a device that notifi es med- Board of Overseers and the helping to lead fundraising e¥ orts to support them. dents incorporated into their devices. ical professionals if a needle has been Economic Club of New York’s De Menocal, who chaired the Department of Earth and improperly inserted into a patient’s vein, Board of Trustees. Environmental Sciences from 2011 to 2014, also directs the and Cerequa, a water-purifi cation “We are fortunate at Center for Climate and Life at the Lamont-Doherty Earth system that kills bacteria with sunlight. Columbia to have a group Observatory. This fall, he was named the Thomas Alva Edi- “I came into this program knowing of highly accomplished son/Con Edison Professor, a newly established chair funded that I was interested in engineering and individuals who generously by the public utility company Con Edison. design, but I didn’t know what biomedical give their time, energy, and “The world faces urgent challenges in climate, human engineers did day to day,” says Gabrielle considerable wisdom to the health, and technology innovation, and large research univer- Caporusso, a high-school senior from governance of the Univer- sities should be leading the charge to provide answers,” says Queens. “This program really gave me a sity by serving on its board de Menocal. “My goal is to help lead this charge for Colum- sense of the biomedical process.” as Trustees,” says Trustees To watch video, visit engineering bia, to see us attack such big global problems with resources, Participants in a youth science program test a chairman Jonathan Schiller

discipline, and a sense of purpose.” OF HYPOTHEKIDS COURTESY BOTTOM: / MIKE MCLAUGHLIN; ATHLETICS OF CU COURTESY TOP: water-purifi cation system they designed. .columbia.edu/news/hypothekids. ’69CC, ’73LAW.

COLUMBIA WINTER 2016 57

4.16_Bulletin_FINAL.indd 57 11/16/16 8:28 AM BOOKS 4 3 2 1 By Paul Auster ’69CC, ’70GSAS (Henry Holt)

n the first page of tively small — in one thread, parents, who lose everything Paul Auster’s new Archie’s father’s small-appli- in the Newark race riots of novel, 4 3 2 1, a ance store burns down, while 1967; one Archie gets caught Oman named Isaac in another the store prospers up in a racially charged inci- Reznikoff steps — but the variations accrue, dent in rural New Hampshire. off a boat at Ellis Island and eventually sending Archie And one Archie comes to Co- is asked his name. Over- down four completely diver- lumbia, where, as a reporter whelmed by his surroundings, gent paths. for the Spectator, he covers he blurts out in Yiddish, As Archie’s circumstances one of the largest protests in “Ikh hob fargessen” evolve, so do the people in his student history: “What he was — meaning “I’ve life. While some new charac- watching was a revolution in forgotten.” The clerk ters are introduced in each miniature, Ferguson decided, misunderstands, thread, it’s particularly inter- a revolution in a dollhouse.” and within seconds, esting to watch how Auster It’s impossible to discuss ‘ Reznikoff’s former manipulates Archie’s support- 4 3 2 1 without acknowledg- identity is gone. In ing cast of friends and family. ing the obvious autobiograph- America, he will be One scholarly aunt consis- ical overtones. Archie was known by the English tently influences Archie’s taste born exactly a month after transliteration of his and interest in literature, yet Auster; and in all four iter- Yiddish phrase: in one thread she is a closeted ations, he gravitates toward Ichabod Ferguson. lesbian living secretly with places important to Auster’s Ferguson né Reznikoff a partner in Palo Alto; in own life: northern New is an incidental another a spinster in Chicago; Jersey, Columbia, and Paris. character — the book and in a third, involved in an Archie grapples with themes is about his grandson, on-again, off-again romance consistent throughout Aus- Archie — but his with a male intellectual in ter’s novels: absent or difficult story is a profound New York. A cousin who is father figures, a deep devotion beginning to a novel beloved in one story ends up to sports and competition Auster preoccupied by a fundamen- betraying an adolescent Ar- (especially baseball), and a tal question: what makes chie in another. And Archie’s search for identity through separates each someone the person he is? Is first girlfriend Amy reemerges art. And all of the Archies M chapter into it birth or circumstance? elsewhere as his stepcousin become writers of some kind. To find the answer, Auster and still elsewhere as his step- The parallels between charac- B four threads and ’69CC, ’70GSAS takes on a sister, which makes for some ter and author make it clear tells a different wildly ambitious project — amusingly uncomfortable that this isn’t just a rumina- version of telling the coming-of-age story narrative shifts. tion on identity in general, but of one boy in four separate but This structural conceit gives a very personal quest. Archie’s life in simultaneous narratives. In Auster an unusually wide It’s tempting to think each one. the book’s prologue, there is lens through which to view a about how our lives might F just one Archie, born an only volatile, fascinating period in have turned out if we had child in Newark, New Jersey, American history: the 1960s, made different decisions, or gi in 1947. But beginning with which coincides with Archie’s if fate had dealt us a different m chapter 1, when Archie is in adolescence and college hand. With this brilliantly Affi grade school, Auster separates years. One Archie works in rendered, intricately plotted th each chapter into four threads experimental theater in the epic, Auster has indulged that m and tells a different version burgeoning hippie enclave temptation and turned it into of Archie’s life in each one. At of Greenwich Village; one a magnum opus. tic first, the changes are rela- Archie rushes home to his — Rebecca Shapiro ar

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4.16_Books_FINAL.indd 58 11/16/16 8:24 AM EXCERPT Stasha and Pearl resist Mengele’s attempts to sepa- rate them. They have a tight The Attention Merchants: bond, are deeply intuitive, and resolve to operate as one. g The Epic Scramble to Get Pearl quickly makes a plan to Inside Our Heads divide up the responsibilities t By Tim Wu A professor at Columbia Law School, Wu examines of life between them: “Stasha how industries increasingly vie for and commodify our attention. would take the funny, the re. future, the bad. I would take - The past half century has been an age of unprecedented individualism, the sad, the past, the good.” In Auschwitz, the girls’ allowing us to live in all sorts of ways that were not possible before. ability to comfort and sustain The power we have been given to construct our attentional lives is an each other helps build their as resilience. But this bond, n underappreciated example. Even while waiting for the dentist, we have while a source of strength, d, the world at our finger tips: we can check mail, browse our favorite is also their greatest vulner- ability. They live in fear of sites, play games, and watch movies, where once we had to content ‘‘ being separated. And when ourselves with a stack of old magazines. But with the new horizon of the girls are forced apart and h- ‘‘ experiments eviscerate them possibilities has also come the erosion of private life’s perimeter. And — literally — their will to live so it is a bit of a paradox that in having so thoroughly individualized is sorely tested. Mischling is a tough read, our attentional lives we should wind up being less ourselves and more and some chapters may actu- in thrall to our various media and devices. Without express consent, ally provoke nausea. The fact that its young narrators detail most of us have passively opened ourselves up to the commercial their suffering with such ach- exploitation of our attention just about anywhere and anytime. If there ing banality only amplifies the horror. Many reviewers have lt is to be some scheme of zoning to stem this sprawl, it will need to be marveled at the book’s brutal- on mostly an act of will on the part of the individual. ity, but it seems appropriate that the twins’ fortitude, love, and imagination, while in- spiring, should not eclipse the nightmare of their experience. d. Mischling If it takes guts to read this c- By Affinity Konar ’08SOA (Little, Brown and Company) book, it certainly took guts to write it. Konar, who is of Polish- Jewish ancestry, has said that ut ew authors would camp, where they are selected descent, but what ultimate- the story is based partly on have the nerve to spin and inspected by infamous ly saves them from the gas the testimony of Auschwitz an uplifting fable out Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. chamber is the fact that survivors Eva and Miriam Fof the true story of “He drew us out, made us Mengele prizes multiples. He Mozes, and in an interview two twelve-year-old turn for him, and had us collects twins and triplets in with Publishers Weekly she girls who were tortured and stand back to back so he could a human “zoo” and subjects admits to feeling “plagued nt maimed at Auschwitz. But appreciate the exactitudes of them to sadistic experiments by doubt” when she wrote it. Affinity Konar ’08SOA went us,” says Stasha. in the name of his genetic Her caution seems prudent. there. And the result is at once With their blond hair, the research. One twin might be Some critics have challenged at marvelous and strange. girls are at first mistaken injected with a disease, or other attempts to “stylize” the to The novel opens with iden- for mischlinge, the word the have a limb or organ Holocaust (Nobel Prize–win- tical twins Pearl and Stasha Nazis used to describe people removed, while the other ning novelist Imre Kertész ro arriving at the concentration of mixed Aryan and Jewish serves as the control. famously decried Steven

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Spielberg’s Schindler’s List as th kitsch, asserting it took away His Final Battle: The Last R survivors’ only real possession: by their “authentic experienc- Months of Franklin Roosevelt of es”). And in 2016, the issue of By Joseph Lelyveld ’60JRN (Knopf) pe “cultural appropriation” has en certainly escaped the safer “th confines of polite academic n September 11, 2016, Hillary that began with his contracting polio at in discourse. Witness the recent Clinton nearly collapsed the age of thirty-nine — Lelyveld makes ae social-media explosion after while leaving an event in palpable the high cost of that secrecy. tw Lionel Shriver ’78BC, ’82SOA OLower Manhattan. Hours Perhaps the book’s most sobering revela- “F later, under pressure from tion is the degree to which this towering civ reporters, her campaign admitted that figure was running on fumes during his no she had been battling pneumonia. For final year and half; the effort required ac Clinton, the incident was a double to keep going, the author makes clear, m blow — it fueled conspiracy theories eventually claimed his life. re that she was in frail health, and seemed FDR’s stamina was particularly put se to confirm the charge that she was not to the test on the international stage, always forthright with the public. Over where, with wars to win on two fronts, m the next few days, Clinton’s polling he pursued a punishing schedule. In the th numbers dropped to their lowest point of summer of ’44, shortly after being re- bo the summer. With health, stamina, and nominated, he embarked on a five-week, N transparency at the center of the 2016 press-embargoed trip to the West Coast in election, it seems almost inconceivable and the Pacific Islands, stopping in Pearl lie that less than a century earlier, an Amer- Harbor to talk strategy with a skeptical th ican president was able to conceal his General Douglas MacArthur. (Afterward, R donned a sombrero to defend inability to walk from public view, and to the notoriously arrogant general deemed pr the novelist’s right to “try on wield political influence on a global scale his commander in chief “a man of great ch other people’s hats” and said even as he rapidly approached his death. vision — once things are explained to su political correctness was be- In His Final Battle, a meticulously him.”) The following January, he left for te coming a threat to creativity. researched examination of the last the Crimean resort of Yalta, where the po Who has the right to speak eighteen months of the life of Frank- Big Three powers drew up a plan to reor- for Miriam and Eva Mozes, for lin Delano Roosevelt, Joseph Lelyveld ganize Europe after the war; FDR’s goal w their grandparents, parents, ’60JRN paints a portrait there was to avoid the fate of Woodrow fo two older sisters, cousins, of a carefully protected Wilson, who failed to secure a permanent sh aunts, uncles, and the six patriarch, whose failing peace after World War I. Tr million others who died in the health is kept secret not As readers witness the gravely ill pres- — Holocaust? Should a writer only from the American ident heading inexorably toward death, tio feel free to exercise her imag- people but to a consid- the heart-sinking what-ifs mount. Had on ination outside the bound- erable extent from the Roosevelt been well, or had someone else m aries of her own experience, president himself. FDR been president, how many failures might el even though her artistry will was just sixty-two when have been turned into triumphs? At m transform the survivors’ story? he undertook an unprec- Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill wrested a in Affinity Konar may or may edented fourth cam- promise from Stalin to preserve democ- ha not speak for the hundreds of paign for the presidency racy in Poland and the rest of Eastern gr twins and triplets murdered in 1944, but he was worn Europe; but with the Soviets already it by Josef Mengele, but one out, not just from guiding his country occupying those countries, the promise lo thing is certain: Mischling, through twelve years of economic pri- was empty, and the region succumbed to is which is already popular on vation followed by world war, but from communism for the next half century. As kn the book-club circuit, will en- hypertension and congestive heart fail- Roosevelt lobbied to organize a home- re sure that at least one version ure. While the long conspiracy of silence land in Palestine for the displaced Jews of di of their story will be heard. around Roosevelt’s health problems is Europe, the Saudi king Ibn Saud warned ev — Sally Lee well documented — health problems him, “Arabs would choose to die rather

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4.16_Books_FINAL.indd 60 11/16/16 8:25 AM READING LIST than yield their land to Jews”; New and Roosevelt was greatly affected noteworthy by the meeting, but little came releases t of it. As for the international peacekeeping organization envisioned by FDR, led by AVID READER “the Big Four (or Five) stand- by Robert Gottlieb ing together under the UN ’52CC In the world s aegis,” Lelyveld, with twenty- of the New York twenty hindsight, writes, literati, Robert Got- a- “Faced with many-sided tlieb is royalty. At g civil wars, involving what are Simon & Schus- now called ‘violent non-state ter and Alfred actors,’ with terrorism and A. Knopf, he mass migration spilling across edited, among regions and borders, they others, Joseph seldom stand together.” Heller, Toni But perhaps no what-if is Morrison, and more painful to contemplate John le Carré, than the dropping of atomic then went on bombs on Hiroshima and to succeed William k, Nagasaki. While acknowledg- Shawn as editor of ing that most Americans be- the New Yorker. His l lieve “the atom bombs ended memoir chronicles his sixty- Barbara Guggenheim. “It’s tion: a Montana rancher, a the war,” Lelyveld hints that year career, with strikingly not always easy to differenti- Kansas farmer, a Mississip- d, Roosevelt — always a “creative frank observations about ate what’s okay from what’s pi barge owner, a Louisiana d procrastinator” — might have the figures behind some of deadly.” With a doctorate shrimper, and a Gulf fish- chosen to prod Japan into the twentieth century’s most in art history and decades erman. All have developed surrender with a mere public enduring works. of experience at Christie’s, innovative solutions to the test of the bombs’ destructive Sotheby’s, and the Whitney challenges their communi- power, had he lived past April. POWER AT GROUND Museum of American Art, ties face, and the resulting r- Obviously, we’ll never know ZERO by Lynne B. Sagalyn Guggenheim is a consum- portrait is inspiring and what path FDR would have The definitive account of mate guide. Her book on enormously hopeful. followed. He died without one of the biggest urban buying and selling art is part nt sharing his thoughts with reconstruction projects in instruction manual, part THE SHIPWRECKED Truman, and the rest — sigh history. Columbia Business history, and a fascinating look MIND by Mark Lilla - — is history. Such specula- School professor Lynne at a complex and remarkably Mark Lilla, a Columbia pro- tion, however, does lay to rest Sagalyn spent ten years unregulated industry. fessor of humanities, argues one contrarian myth that researching the effort to that much about our current e made the rounds in the 2016 redevelop the sixteen-acre RANCHER, FARMER, political polarization can be ht election cycle — that with so site where the Twin Towers FISHERMAN by Miriam explained by a close exam- much governing taking place collapsed. Her meticulous Horn ’05GSAS Some of ination of political reaction- a in cities and states on the one reporting reveals a project America’s most important aries, those “shipwrecked” hand and courts and Con- that was fueled by idealism, environmental-conservation in the present but nostalgic gress on the other, perhaps rife with complexity, marred work is being done not for an idealized past. He it doesn’t really matter in the by competing factions, and by scientists or political examines the work of three long run who the president freighted with symbolism. activists but by the ranch- twentieth-century reaction- o is. It matters, and Lelyveld ers, farmers, and fishermen ary political philosophers s knows it. In his skillful ART WORLD by Barbara whose livelihoods depend and discusses how reaction- rendering, even a tragically Guggenheim ’76GSAS on the land. Miriam Horn, a ary thought has become a of diminished Franklin Roos- “Making your way through best-selling environmental formidable force in twenty- d evelt looms as large as ever. the art world is like pick- writer, profiles five mem- first-century politics on both — Lorraine Glennon ing wild mushrooms,” says bers of this quiet revolu- sides of the Atlantic.

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4.16_Books_FINAL.indd 61 11/16/16 8:25 AM BOOKTALK The Shock of the New Oscar-winning screenwriter and New York Times best-selling author Graham Moore ’03CC discusses his new novel, The Last Days of Night, about the 1888 legal battle between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse to patent the light bulb and electrify America

Columbia Magazine: What first To describe Tesla as an eccentric is to attracted you to this story? put it mildly. It is widely thought that Graham Moore: I was interested modern doctors would diagnose him as in chronicling a hinge moment in a schizophrenic. Tesla didn’t have his American history, when technology name in the papers; he never became a was creating a massive cultural and celebrity like Edison; he wasn’t a huge social shift. And there is something so corporate innovator like Westinghouse; beautiful about the idea of the night sky and he couldn’t quite play nicely with being lit up for the first time. People either of them. He died penniless and who were alive then write about seeing not very well known. I wanted to write electricity as if they were seeing a new about him because, like Turing, he was color. The effect was shocking, literally a singular genius who needed other and figuratively. people to bring his ideas to fruition.

CM: In fact, your book does open with CM: Why did you choose Paul Cravath a literal shock — a man is electrocuted 1886LAW — George Westinghouse’s in the middle of a New York City street. lawyer — as your narrator, rather than Why did you decide to start with that one of the scientists? graphic image? scientists at work. I had always put GM: I was trying to figure out who I GM: That scene was based on real inventors on a pedestal, but for the first wanted as my protagonist — Edison, events, and I thought that it illustrated time I realized that they were flawed Westinghouse, or Tesla — when I saw what it was like to live in that time. human beings. They had passion, but Cravath’s name in the legal records. Electricity was exciting, but it was also they also had jobs to do, and sometimes In some ways, he was also a prodigy; terrifying. People didn’t know if chil- they disagreed. I realized that real a century after his first case, his name dren or pregnant women should even technological progress is not just about is still on one of New York’s most be allowed near electric lights. It was a one person’s idea. Turing wouldn’t have prominent law firms. But when he took massive challenge for these scientists admitted it, but he needed his team to the case, he was just twenty-six years to translate their ideas such that the be successful. In the case of the light old, two years out of Columbia Law public would grasp and embrace them. bulb, Edison was the famous scientific School. He also came from a fascinat- There are so many parallels to how genius, but George Westinghouse was ing family — his father was a white people would react to computers and the one integrating and mass-produc- man who founded Fisk University, cellular technology a century later. ing everything. They needed each other one of the first colleges primarily for in certain ways. Those types of relation- African-Americans. There are no biog- CM: You won an Oscar for your screen- ships intrigue me. raphies of Cravath, and his story was play for The Imitation Game, about compelling. I also liked the idea of tell- another scientist: mathematician Alan CM: You gave an inspiring Oscar ing the story from a layman’s perspec- Turing, a World War II codebreaker acceptance speech, which garnered a tive, which allowed me to explain some who is considered the father of com- lot of attention, encouraging people to of the science in a way that I didn’t puter science. But you never seriously celebrate what makes them weird or think any of the scientists would have studied science. What fascinates you different. Does that message manifest been able to do. And finally, I identi- about these figures? itself in this book as well? fied most with Cravath — a youngish GM: When I was a kid, my grandfather GM: I think it most directly applies to non-scientist working to understand MEL MARCELO took me on a tour of Bell Laborato- my portrayal of Nikola Tesla, who also the minds of these unusual geniuses. ries. I was really moved by seeing the becomes a central figure in the case. — Rebecca Shapiro

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4.16_Books_FINAL.indd 62 11/16/16 8:26 AM CLASSIFIEDS

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4.16_Classifieds_FINAL.indd 63 11/16/16 8:28 AM FINALS e Mane Event ast issue’s caption contest by New Yorker cartoonist Benjamin Schwartz ’03CC, ’08PS drew hundreds of entries, and picking a winner was a labor of laughs — certainly more enjoyable than a doctor’s visit. In the Great Minds Think Alike department, we received twenty-two submissions of “Say Roar” and sixteen of “Roar, Lion, Roar.” Four alumni found Dr. Living- Lstone. Jimmy HoŠa was also located, as was, somewhat disturbingly, Dorothy. Indeed, the lion had swallowed a lot of things: zebras, flashlights, Christians, a zookeeper, a tricycle, the Princeton tiger, and — wince — Barnard (Marilyn Aron ’52BC). Diagnoses were in no short supply. The Lion had liongitis. Or the election- season strain, lyinitis (Sherrie Dulworth ’13JRN). Stephanie Denzer ’09CC oŠered, “Well, you’re health- ier than the donkey and the elephant I gave checkups to this morning,” while Ausama Abdelhadi channeled a single-payer future: “Before universal health care we had to lick our wounds.” Yes, the lion was ill. He needed a Roar-schach test. He needed a CAT scan. He was eating too much red meat (Joe Karlesky ’72GSAS). He had hoof- and-mouth disease (Carol Mick). “Sore, Lion, Sore,” suggested Tom Seaman ’82CC. Lillian G. Nash, age ten, also cited Oz: “It looks like you have a bad case of the Cowardly Lion.” “You’ve got to stop swallowing your pride.” If the lion was not ill, he was perhaps too spirited: ten savvy readers made reference to lines in the Columbia fight song, including “I suggest that you take a break from waking the echoes of the Hudson Valley” (Robert M. Levine ’68CC). And, as Joseph Greenberg reminds us, high spirits are just around the corner from heartburn: “How long have you been a Columbia football fan?” No shortage of wit, but there could only be one winner. That entry, chosen by the cartoonist, reveals how wording can make all the diŠerence. Four entries played on the same pun, but one got it just right. We asked Schwartz how he chose the winning caption, by Joe Maguire ’89GSAPP. Schwartz responded, “Simple: it made me laugh.”

64 COLUMBIA WINTER 2016

4.16_LastPage_FINAL.indd 64 11/16/16 8:37 AM e Mane Event ast issue’s caption contest by New Yorker cartoonist Benjamin Schwartz ’03CC, ’08PS drew hundreds of entries, and picking a winner was a labor of laughs — certainly more enjoyable than a doctor’s visit. In the Great Minds Think Alike department, we received twenty-two submissions of “Say Roar” and sixteen of “Roar, Lion, Roar.” Four alumni found Dr. Living- Lstone. Jimmy HoŠa was also located, as was, somewhat disturbingly, Dorothy. Indeed, the lion had swallowed a lot of things: zebras, flashlights, Christians, a zookeeper, a tricycle, the Princeton tiger, and — wince — Barnard (Marilyn Aron ’52BC). Diagnoses were in no short supply. The Lion had liongitis. Or the election- season strain, lyinitis (Sherrie Dulworth ’13JRN). Stephanie Denzer ’09CC oŠered, “Well, you’re health- ier than the donkey and the elephant I gave checkups to this morning,” while Ausama Abdelhadi channeled a single-payer future: “Before universal health care we had to lick our wounds.” Yes, the lion was ill. He needed a Roar-schach test. He needed a CAT scan. He was eating too much red meat (Joe Karlesky ’72GSAS). He had hoof- and-mouth disease (Carol Mick). “Sore, Lion, Sore,” suggested Tom Seaman ’82CC. Lillian G. Nash, age ten, also cited Oz: “It looks like you have a bad case of the Cowardly Lion.” If the lion was not ill, he was perhaps too spirited: ten savvy readers made reference to lines in the Columbia fight song, including “I suggest that you take a break from waking the echoes of the Hudson Valley” (Robert M. Levine ’68CC). And, as Joseph Greenberg reminds us, high spirits are just around the corner from heartburn: “How long have you been a Columbia football fan?” No shortage of wit, but there could only be one winner. That entry, chosen by the cartoonist, reveals how wording can make all the diŠerence. Four entries played on the same pun, but one got it just right. We asked Schwartz how he chose the winning caption, by Joe Maguire ’89GSAPP. Schwartz responded, “Simple: it made me laugh.”

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