SPRING/SUMMER 2020 COLUMBIA MAGAZINE COLUMBIA COLUMBIA MAGAZINE.COLUMBIA.EDU MA G AZINE. C OL UMBIA.ED U SPRING/SUMMER 2020 SPRING/SUMMER THE VIRUS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD Columbia responds to COVID-19 11.20_COVER-F.indd.20_COVER-F.indd 1 44/21/20/21/20 33:03:03 PPMM OCCUPANCY SUMMER 2020 MODEL RESIDENCES NOW OPEN CONDOMINIUM RESIDENCES STARTING FROM $940,000 543 W 122ND STREET IN THE HEART OF MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS 212.486.3956 11.20_CONTENTS.indd.20_CONTENTS.indd 1 44/20/20/20/20 44:05:05 PPMM SPRING/SUMMER 2020 PAGE 14 CONTENTS FEATURES 14 WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED FROM THE PANDEMIC (SO FAR) Experts explain what we know, what we need to know, and why there’s still so much to discover about the impact of COVID-19 By the editors of Columbia Magazine 22 AN EPIC ADVENTURE An organization of emeritus professors and administrators taps the intellectual wealth of Columbia elders By Paul Hond 28 THE LAWS OF LOVE They say everyone has a New York story. This is mine. By Ankur Paliwal ’15JRN 34 A TASTE OF HONEY Eli Lichter-Marck ’08CC went searching for purpose and truth. He also found sweetness and light. By Paul Hond 40 RAISING STRONG SEXUAL CITIZENS A Q&A with two social scientists David D. Ho, a leading on consent, power, and assault expert on viral epidemics, on Columbia’s campus with fellow researchers. By Lorraine Glennon SAMANTHA CASOLARI ’05SIPA CASOLARI SAMANTHA COLUMBIA SPRING/SUMMER 2020 1 11.20_CONTENTS.indd.20_CONTENTS.indd 1 44/23/20/23/20 112:352:35 PPMM 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 Quiet Contemplation \ The Short List \ Shakespeare with a Twist \ Future Nurses Editor in Chief Sally Lee on Call \ Rapid Response \ The Morning- side Candidate Art Director Len Small 44 Managing Editor EXPLORATIONS Rebecca Shapiro PAGE Toxic Alzheimer’s proteins exposed in new 34 Senior Editors detail \ Montreal pact saves ozone, slows David J. Craig, Paul Hond warming \ How butterfl ies beat the heat \ Copy Chief A new twist on religious liberty \ The hidden Joshua J. Friedman ’08JRN costs of corporate tax breaks \ Study Hall Digital Editor Julia Joy 48 Design Assistant NETWORK Michelle Shin ’20CC Life on Mars \ Pet Projects \ One Size That Fits You \ Ask an Alum: Tattoo Trivia \ Creative Space, Creative Mind \ Newsmakers Senior Director for Strategic Communications Tracy Quinn ’14SPS 54 Director for Marketing Research Linda Ury Greenberg BULLETIN University news and views PAGE Communications Offi cer 40 Ra Hearne 58 BOOKS Until the End of Time, by Brian Greene \ The Splendid and the Vile, by Erik Larson \ Teen Beat! \ Sharks in the Time of Saviors, Subscriptions: Address and subscription assistance FROM TOP: COURTESY OF ELI LICHTER-MARCK; ANNA PARINI; COURTESY OF LAWS OF MOTION OF LAWS COURTESY ANNA PARINI; OF ELI LICHTER-MARCK; COURTESY TOP: FROM by Kawai Strong Washburn \ Plus, Reynold [email protected] Levy discusses Start Now To update your address online, visit alumni.columbia.edu/directory, 64 or call 1-877-854-ALUM (2586). RARE FINDS Advertising: A Prize of a Desk [email protected] Letters to the editor: PAGE 50 [email protected] Columbia Magazine is published for alumni and friends of Columbia by the FOLLOW US Offi ce of Alumni and Development. © 2020 by the Trustees of Columbia University @ColumbiaMag @columbiamag in the City of New York @columbiamagazine COVER ILLUSTRATION BY MELINDA BECK 2 COLUMBIA SPRING/SUMMER 2020 11.20_CONTENTS.indd.20_CONTENTS.indd 2 44/23/20/23/20 112:352:35 PPMM 2020 Summer Programs – Coming to You Online Columbia is your premier resource to continuing your studies at an Ivy League university this summer. We will miss our beautiful campus, but we are glad we can help students proceed with their educational goals by offering our world-class curriculum online. Visiting Students High School Students Your Columbia, Your Community Summer Immersion Immersive pre-college Session 1: June 29–July 17 Undergraduates Bachelor’s Degree programs for talented & Graduate Students Holders & Professionals domestic and international Session 2: July 21–August 7 Join Columbia students Prepare for graduate studies high school students. Session 3: August 10–14 and faculty in hundreds or sign up for certification of university courses programs offered online taught in an online format. this summer. College Edge An opportunity for high Fall, Spring & Summer Session I: May 26–July 2 school students to take Offerings courses for university credit. Session II: July 6–August 14 sps.columbia.edu/EndlessSummer sps.columbia.edu/HSEndless 11.20_CONTENTS.indd.20_CONTENTS.indd 3 44/21/20/21/20 22:57:57 PPMM I just loved school and particularly loved Columbia. NOW I WANT TO GIVE BACK. Jacqueline Rosay ’64GSAS 1754 Society Member SUPPORTING HER ALMA MATER AND HER HERITAGE Jackie served as a professor for 31 years and though retired will continue to infl uence future generations through her planned gift. She designated a portion of her most signifi cant asset, her retirement account, for the general purposes of Columbia’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies. The GSAS Dean and the Institute Director will use her generous gift for their greatest needs, including scholarships, similar to the ones she received while earning multiple graduate degrees from Columbia. ARE YOUR ASSETS CAPABLE OF MORE THAN YOU IMAGINED? Call the Offi ce of Gift Planning at 800-338-3294 or email us at [email protected] to discover how giving through your retirement plans can be an easy, cost-effective way to help the causes you care about most. READ MORE OF JACKIE’S STORY AT GIVING.COLUMBIA.EDU/ROSAY 11.20_FEEDBACK.indd.20_FEEDBACK.indd 4 44/20/20/20/20 44:10:10 PPMM FEEDBACK 3 INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS TO FOLLOW COVER TO COVER the white Protestant elites in America bonded as they Thank you for the best were so worried at the turn fought together in the war. alumni magazine I know. of the twentieth century Carol Crystle ’64GSAS, ’71TC I receive several, but none (“In Defense of Humankind,” Chicago, IL @columbiaalumni compares to yours in the Winter 2019–20). But with For campus pics, school highly interesting, informa- all due respect to cultural STIGLITZ ON CHINA spirit, and Columbia Alumni tive articles it publishes. anthropologist Franz Boas, Of Joseph E. Stiglitz’s many Association shout-outs Most are just boring brag our assimilation had notable insights on econom- rags. I glance at them, say nothing to do with the ics, his views on China’s weak “That’s nice,” then recycle changing dimensions of intellectual-property regime them. I actually read skulls and noses. have not withstood the test of Columbia Magazine. It had everything to do time (“Rethinking Globaliza- Judith V. Lechner ’69LS with three cultural factors. tion,” Winter 2019–20). Chapel Hill, NC First, the Immigration Act of China now produces more @earthinstitute 1924 sharply cut the number patents than the rest of the For climate and science I have been reading Columbia of immigrants from Southern world combined. It has been news and Nat Geo–style Magazine a long time, and and Eastern Europe, which the largest registry of trade- nature shots the quality of recent issues meant that by the 1950s, a marks for well over a decade. is impressive. I read the past large proportion of those It dominates in even more four issues basically from dreadful Italians, Jews, and obscure rights, such as regis- cover to cover because there Slavs had been brought up trations for plant-variety were so many fascinating, in the United States, had protection. For at least well-written items. The let- attended English-language the last ten years, the vast ters and editorial responses grammar schools, and had majority of patents have been @columbiagsapp are also fi rst-class. found jobs in the American held by China, and the vast For the latest in architectural Benjamin Tua ’63CC workforce. Second, those majority of patent litigation innovation and inspiration McLean, VA schools, whether public has been brought by Chinese or parochial, taught the people against Chinese BECOMING students to be patriotic entities. In certain fi elds, AMERICAN Americans, living, as they such as software patents and Follow us at @columbiamagazine Many of us graduates of were told, in the best country genetic inventions, China has Columbia are the grand- on earth. And fi nally there been granting more robust children and great-grand- was World War II. The Nazis rights than the United States, children of those deplorable gave racism a bad name, and in part due to the work of immigrants about whom men from all ethnic groups Stiglitz and others who have COLUMBIA SPRING/SUMMER 2020 5 11.20_FEEDBACK.indd.20_FEEDBACK.indd 5 44/22/20/22/20 33:42:42 PPMM FEEDBACK thought the US regime version of St. Paul’s,” College overprotective. China is now Walk, Winter 2019–20). leveraging its IP regime, judi- After I read it, I was immedi- cial efficiency, talent program, ately curious if close-up photos technology-transfer regime, existed of the sixteen stained- and science policies to dom- glass windows around the inate many fields — such as dome that have been cleaned semiconductors, materials and repaired. I’ve found only science, clean energy, and two so far on the Columbia telecommunications — where website (Pell and Cheesman). the US has traditionally had a Can you please help? competitive edge. Francis Sypher ’63CC, Stiglitz should recognize ’68GSAS that what distinguishes New York, NY China’s IP environment is no longer the “gap in knowledge” We’ve found two more for you that he identifies between it (at left), and readers can view and more advanced econ- restore manufacturing jobs or the lowest it’s been since 2016, other renovation photos at omies but China’s unique coal-mining jobs,” but it was thanks to the Trump tariffs.