SUMMER 2016 COLUMBIA MAGAZINE COLUMBIA COLUMBIAMAGAZINE Meet the Girl with SUMMER 2016 SUMMER the NUP214-ABL1 Gene How Columbia physicians found the cause of Myrrah Shapoo’s cancer, deep in her DNA 22.16_Cover_FINAL_1.indd.16_Cover_FINAL_1.indd 1 55/9/16/9/16 22:57:57 PPMM EDITORS’ LETTER Th is Is Your Magazine elcome to the summer issue of Columbia Magazine, a publication that showcases the intellectual rigor, creative spirit, and global infl uence of the alumni, faculty, and students who make up the Columbia University community. The one publication that reaches more than 320,000 alumni Wworldwide, this magazine has a single, simple mission: to serve its readers. We create content with your interests and needs in mind. Accordingly, you’ll notice a few changes in the following pages, all of them informed by feedback from thoughtful readers. You asked for more features on alumni, so we created Network, a section where you can catch up not only with Columbians in the news but also those fl ying under the radar. (If you would like to suggest an alum for inclusion, please contact us at [email protected].) At Columbia Magazine we also recognize that our readers are lifelong learners. You told us that you enjoy hearing about the cutting-edge research and groundbreaking studies under- way across Columbia’s schools and institutes, so we expanded the Explorations section. And because this University has the capability and commitment to take on complex, global questions, we have added The Big Idea. This Q&A asks key researchers to give us greater insight into those questions. In this issue we interview David Rosner, a professor of history and the codirector of the Center for History and Ethics of Public Health, about the national implications of the Flint water crisis. Along with these and other tweaks, we are also debuting a refreshed design. Our art director, Jeff rey Saks, sought to preserve the integrity of the original magazine but modifi ed its templates to accommodate a wider range of both long- and short-form features and multiple strong images. You may notice that we have also improved the quality of our paper and made greater investments in photography and illustration. We hope you like the changes, and we welcome your feedback. Indeed, our goal is to build a community of readers who will actively engage with the editors and help shape future issues of the magazine, both in print and digital form. (Don’t forget to download your free app on the App Store or Google Play.) If you have thoughts on this issue, suggestions for future stories, or comments on particular features, please e-mail us at [email protected] or send a letter to Columbia Magazine, 622 West 113th Street, New York, NY 10025. We’re looking forward to hearing from you. CU_2.16_Contents_FINAL.indd 11 5/11/16 4:11 PM SUMMER 2016 PAGE 32 CONTENTS FEATURES 12 MEET THE GIRL WITH GENE NUP214-ABL1 By David J. Craig When Myrrah Shapoo arrived at Columbia University Medical Center last year with a form of cancer that wouldn’t respond to chemotherapy, a team of physicians and scientists working on a new precision-medicine initiative faced their ultimate test 22 THE REVENGE OF JENJI KOHAN By Paul Hond Smart. Funny. Obsessive. Subversive. How the creator of the hit TV shows Weeds and Orange Is the New Black smoked the doubters and got the last laugh 28 DIAMOND DAY By Eric Kester ’15SOA NCAA Ivy League baseball champs past and present meet on their home turf 32 UNDER THE RAINBOW By Bill Retherford ’14JRN Today, there are thousands of LGBTQ groups on college campuses around the world. In 1966, there was only one 40 THE BIG IDEA By Claudia Dreifus A Q&A with historian and public- health expert David Rosner about BRIAN STAUFFER the water crisis in Flint, Michigan COLUMBIA SUMMER 2016 1 CU_2.16_Contents_FINAL.indd 12 5/11/16 4:12 PM CONTENTS COLUMBIA MAGAZINE DEPARTMENTS 3 Executive Vice President, University Development & Alumni Relations LETTERS Amelia Alverson Interim Deputy Vice President, 6 Marketing and Communications COLLEGE WALK Jerry Kisslinger ’79CC, ’82GSAS Political Futures \ The Short List \ Regarding Henry \ Class Ceilings \ Old Friends Editor in Chief Sally Lee 44 Art Director Jeffrey Saks EXPLORATIONS Big guys, tender hearts \ Now you see Earth, Managing Editor Rebecca Shapiro now you don’t \ The great salt debate that wasn’t \ Gene-editing technology could treat PAGE Senior Editor 22 blindness \ All work . and some play \ David J. Craig Behind the scenes at Hadrian’s Villa \ To create Associate Editor a memory, fresh cells required \ Study Hall Paul Hond Copy Chief Joshua J. Friedman ’08JRN 50 BULLETIN Assistant to the Editor Lauren Savage Columbia launches new Center for Climate and Life \ Holland Greene joins Trustees \ Editorial Assistants DeFries, Sachs named University Professors Marley Marius, Sophia Wetzig \ Lee C. Bollinger’s term extended \ Remembering Bill Campbell Director of Digital Strategy Gwynne Gauntlett 54 Director for Marketing Research Linda Ury Greenberg NETWORK PAGE Miami Voice \ Pulitzer Pride \ Stay Local, 10 Director for Strategic Marketing and Communications Eat Local \ The Producer \ Ask an Alum \ Tracy Quinn ’14SPS Campaign Cognoscenti \ Newsmakers Write to us [email protected] 58 Address and Archive Assistance BOOKS [email protected] 212-851-4155 62 To update your address online, visit BOOKTALK alumni.columbia.edu/directory, Matt Gallagher ’13SOA discusses his novel or call 1-877-854-ALUM (2586). Youngblood Advertising: FROM TOP: CONOR LANGTON; JEFFREY SAKS; ATTILA LOSONCZY ATTILA JEFFREY SAKS; LANGTON; CONOR TOP: FROM 212-851-4155 [email protected] 63 CLASSIFIEDS To download our advertising brochure or PAGE submit a classifi ed advertisement online, 49 visit www.magazine.columbia.edu/advertise. 64 Columbia Magazine is published for FINALS alumni and friends of Columbia by the For Bard Brains Only Offi ce of Alumni and Development. © 2016 by the Trustees of Columbia University FOLLOW US in the City of New York /ColumbiaMag @columbiamag COVER PHOTOGRAPH: WINNIE AU 2 COLUMBIA SUMMER 2016 CU_2.16_Contents_FINAL.V2.indd 13 5/12/16 10:46 AM LETTERS SPIRIT OF ’68 Thanks to readers who responded to my call for memories of the 1968 campus RITES AND LIGHTS lized or even reduced. Usu- published authors, the article protests. Your The research that is going ally, the discussion involves led me to question why the efforts have on at Columbia’s DeathLab increasing acreage for food course doesn’t give equal already yielded is long overdue (“Making production and shelter as the instruction in responding Light of Death,” Spring population rises. Cemeteries to opinions. ‘‘much — two 2016). I have long felt that are never discussed, but they I believe there is a real interviews lined traditional burial lacks are an important component problem with the way up, lots of phone any real meaning, though of the vicious circle in which students engage with one conversations, I appreciate memorial ser- increasing population leads another’s opinions. To see vices with photos of the life to the need for more land for what I mean, just look at and even some of the deceased. food production, cemeter- the online comments on the photographs — When I told my children ies, and housing, and so on. many opinion pieces about and represent that I thought primitives Another article, in the Explo- sexual violence published in immeasurable had better methods, such as rations section, discusses the Columbia Spectator over burying the body in the earth the looming water shortage the last two years. The stu- contributions to as is, for natural recycling, I (“Reduced snowfall could dent authors of the op-eds the Columbia ’68 got the equivalent of “Eeew!” cause water shortages for do not necessarily agree with research project. in response. 2 billion people”). It would one another, yet in sum have Paul Cronin ’14JRN What happens to my body at least be ameliorated if the provided readers with the New York, NY when I no longer need it is population were stabilized. nuances of the debate over not of great concern to me; Ivan Huber the fairness and eff ectiveness my children will decide. I am Madison, NJ of the University’s policies saving the article for them to on reporting, investigating, read! Thank you! STRONG and punishing instances of Helen Cornell Koenig REACTIONS sexual assault and sexual ’43BUS I was distressed by the violence. But the response to Bernardsville, NJ College Walk article “Strong these pieces by readers tells Opinions” (Spring 2016), another story, revealing that I was pleased to read about which reports on a recent many students do not have Columbia’s DeathLab in the panel discussion on op-eds the skills of respectful debate Spring 2016 issue. This ini- sponsored by the Undergrad- and discussion. Even more tiative highlights a frequently uate Writing Program. While distressingly, students seem ignored or minimized aspect the examples listed provide galvanized and defensive of combating global warm- compelling evidence that the to the point of being ing: namely, that the global University Writing curricu- dangerous to one another, population must be stabi- lum is eff ective in producing and even empowered by the COLUMBIA SUMMER 2016 3 CU_2.16_Letters_FINAL.V2.indd 3 5/11/16 3:10 PM LETTERS presence of an anonymous forum to employ hate speech TWIST AND SHOUT and threats of violence. I thoroughly enjoyed the Spring 2016 issue, but I wish you had included more While the op-ed may still information about the twelve-minute yoga routine, completed every other day, be a viable form of profes- that seemed to give older men and women denser bones (“Yoga: It’s Good for Your sional and personal expres- Bones,” Study Hall).