WINTER 2020-21 COLUMBIA MAGAZINE COLUMBIA MA MAGAZINE.COLUMBIA.EDU G AZINE. C OL UMBIA.ED U WINTER 2020-21 33.20_COVER-F0CC.indd.20_COVER-F0CC.indd 1 112/9/202/9/20 112:552:55 PPMM A BRILLIANT MOVE 33.20_CONTENTS.indd.20_CONTENTS.indd 1 112/10/202/10/20 99:37:37 AAMM WINTER 2020-21 PAGE 20 CONTENTS FEATURES 14 IMAGES OF CHANGE A photojournalist captures one of the most environmentally vulnerable areas of the world. By Katie Orlinsky ’12JRN 20 LET THERE BE LIGHT After 75 years, the University Seminars at Columbia remain one of academia’s shining intellectual traditions. By Paul Hond 24 IN PURSUIT OF DARK MATTER Columbia physicists confront one of the most confounding mysteries in science. By David J. Craig and Lily Padula 30 SOUL SURVIVOR Forty years ago, Barry Rosen ’74GSAS was one of fi fty-two American hostages released from Iranian captivity. It’s been a long road home. By Paul Hond 36 THE LOST ART OF DYING WELL A Q&A with physician and medical ethicist Lydia Dugdale on the importance of confronting our mortality. JOE CIARDIELLO By Cherie Henderson ’14SPS COLUMBIA WINTER 2020-21 1 33.20_CONTENTS.indd.20_CONTENTS.indd 1 112/14/202/14/20 110:240:24 AAMM COLUMBIA CONTENTS MAGAZINE DEPARTMENTS Executive Vice President, 5 University Development & Alumni Relations FEEDBACK Amelia Alverson Deputy Vice President for Strategic Communications 8 Jerry Kisslinger ’79CC, ’82GSAS COLLEGE WALK Monumental Justice \ Overheard at the J-School \ Art Won’t Wait \ From Prison to Editor in Chief Sally Lee Programming \ Zooming in Mongolia Art Director Len Small 40 EXPLORATIONS Managing Editor Rebecca Shapiro Diagnostic test for gluten sensitivity could PAGEPAGE be on horizon \ Lab in a box \ Columbia, 3414 Senior Editors Amazon to launch new AI research center \ David J. Craig, Paul Hond What you need to know about COVID-19 Copy Chief now \ Researchers call for clean-energy push \ Joshua J. Friedman ’08JRN Explaining the ‘Blue-Ring Nebula’ \ Genetic Digital Editor study reveals causes of many stillbirths Julia Joy 46 NETWORK Senior Director for Strategic Communications Tracy Quinn ’14SPS Early Riser \ The Memory Makers \ Ask an Alum: How to Beat Work-from- Director for Marketing Research Linda Ury Greenberg Home Burnout \ Dunking on COVID \ You Glow, Girl \ Intoxicating Mocktails Communications Offi cer Ra Hearne 52 PAGE 42 BULLETIN University news and views 56 BOOKS TOP: KATIE ORLINSKY; CENTER: SERGIO MEMBRILLAS; BOTTOM: COURTESY OF BENEDICT NWACHUKWU OF BENEDICT NWACHUKWU COURTESY BOTTOM: MEMBRILLAS; CENTER: SERGIO ORLINSKY; KATIE TOP: A Promised Land, by Barack Obama \ Subscriptions: Address and subscription assistance What Are You Going Through, by Sigrid [email protected] Nunez \ Well-Versed \ The Offi ce of Historical Corrections, by Danielle Evans \ The Last To update your address online, visit alumni.columbia.edu/directory, Million, by David Nasaw \ Plus, Carl L. Hart or call 1-877-854-ALUM (2586). discusses Drug Use for Grown-Ups Advertising: [email protected] 64 Letters to the editor: BACKSTORY PAGE 49 [email protected] Lorenzo Da Ponte’s Second Act Columbia Magazine is published for alumni and friends of Columbia by the FOLLOW US Offi ce of Alumni and Development. © 2021 by the Trustees of Columbia University @ColumbiaMag @columbiamag in the City of New York @columbiamagazine COVER ILLUSTRATION BY BOB STAAKE 2 COLUMBIA WINTER 2020-21 33.20_CONTENTS.indd.20_CONTENTS.indd 2 112/14/202/14/20 110:240:24 AAMM 33.20_CONTENTS.indd.20_CONTENTS.indd 3 112/10/202/10/20 99:38:38 AAMM 33.20_FEEDBACK.indd.20_FEEDBACK.indd 4 112/11/202/11/20 99:53:53 AAMM FEEDBACK THREE CHEERS An issue I will WISE WORDS share with my indeed ignore a lot of facts. you can solve arguments. The granddaughter! Each issue of Columbia The middle ground is disap- framing question is far more Caroline M. Staples Magazine is better than pearing. And facts them- important than the space ’68SOA the last — if that is possible. selves are malleable. You and position given to it. Bryans Road, MD Thanks for the consistent tend to fi nd what you want to My daughter Heather and high quality in a publication fi nd. Issues are often framed I were discussing the fasci- that keeps the Columbia wrong — by social and mass nating and infuriating story I never leave the family not only informed media, politicians, activists, from September that the but also proudly loyal to trolls, and so on — and that’s CDC did not write the CDC country without the University. where Coleman’s research is advice for COVID-19 testing. the latest copy The in-depth reporting and should be. Heather is a world-class of Columbia on subjects that are timely All that said, I can go epidemiologist, now working Magazine! Great and of utmost importance is through issue after issue, on ways to get the public to most appreciated. There is a from global warming to war understand vaccines. She writers from a constant need for an under- in the Middle East, and the “marches for science” in the great university. standing of today’s complex truth content of the far right annual event. This CDC mess Shawn Brown ’05SIPA issues to assist readers in is substantially below the was a triumph of politics Jericho, NY taking appropriate action truth content of the far left. over science in an area where now and in the future. The far left talks a good game facts are clear. The Columbia Magazine but boosts mainly elites. The Steve Ross ’70JRN I always enjoy editors and staff are most far right boosts mainly those Revere, MA reading your defi nitely up to the task of who believe (sometimes magazine. So providing well-written, rele- correctly) that they have been Peter Coleman’s approach vant information. left behind. to resolving confl ict suf- many interesting Suzanne Wise ’73GS Obama did appoint many fers defects of messenger, people on your Santa Fe, NM Republicans to key positions. substance, and timing. First, campus are It did him little good. he has already taken a side. “making things NO MIDDLE The interview does not, in Associating with Timothy GROUND? my opinion, focus on what Shriver does not enhance happen”! The interview with Peter Coleman knows and acts Coleman’s standing with con- Sue Spaid ’99GSAS Coleman (“Healing the Red– upon — that the arguments servatives or Republicans. Lasne-Chapelle-Saint- Blue Divide,” Fall 2020) was between left and right are His idea that our represen- Lambert, Belgium profound and necessary. But not symmetrical. Too many tatives distance themselves it did leave me uneasy. The readers may get the idea that from their constituents and far right and the far left do if you just get the facts right, instead form a more perfect COLUMBIA WINTER 2020-21 5 33.20_FEEDBACK.indd.20_FEEDBACK.indd 5 112/11/202/11/20 99:53:53 AAMM FEEDBACK union with other politicians It is difficult to see what the centralizes power in Wash- point of compromise might ington at the expense of our be with people who do not representative democracy. define what a human being Vote-splitting suppresses is in the same way that a Republicans’ strength where patriot does. Indeed, the only their voter turnout is higher. way to save the Union is to Though adding someone remove the traitors from all from the other party to a positions of authority in our cabinet is neither novel nor personal, professional, and rare, replacing multiple public lives. We must then cabinet officials with mem- complete the Reconstruction bers of the other party is that was halted by Northern disloyal and would likely and Southern white suprem- result in selecting opposition acists in 1877. Anything less party members on their last than this will lead to the stop to retirement or who Twilight on Low Plaza. demise of the republic. have little following within Paweł Grajnert ’05SOA their own party. rhetoric is regrettable and For the past forty-plus years Beverly Shores, IN More immediately, there disconcerting; but violence we have been subjected to can be no compromise and cancel culture directly the neo-Confederate agenda MALTHUS MOMENT between conservatives and threaten the safety and wel- of the modern Republican Every action taken by anarchists, or their enablers fare of nearly every American.) Party, which seeks to limit humanity to prevent climate in the Democratic Party, at Government has to func- the power of the govern- change from causing one major universities and in tion, so compromise on spe- ment until its members or more major worldwide the media. People who seek cific legislation will continue. can “drown it in the bath- catastrophes will fail, due to the violent overthrow of the If and when traditional Dem- tub.” The current Putinist the ever-increasing human United States or the cancel- ocrats regain control of their presidency is just the latest population and the ever- lation of the free speech and agenda, compromise among symptom of the three deadly increasing per capita usage livelihoods of those who are the center-right, center, and diseases spread by this party: of resources (“New climate insufficiently fervent in sup- center-left constituencies white supremacy, misogyny, studies show how earth is porting their dogma must be who represent most Ameri- and nativism. The mem- changing,” Explorations, Fall stopped by all lawful means. cans will be welcome, though bers of this party regularly 2020). Any article discussing Unless traditional centrist preferably utilizing means subvert the rule of law for climate change that does not and center-left Democrats and messengers other than short-term political gain and discuss population growth is who (presumably) disagree Coleman or Shriver.