April 20: Erez Lieberman Aiden ’02 Is Sequencing the DNA of Animals

New York Times fashion director Vanessa Friedman ’89 said the “vaccine selfie” has roots in a tradition of vaccine imagery dating back to the late 18th century. — NPR
 
The DNA Zoo, run by Erez Lieberman Aiden ’02’s lab at the Center for Genome Architecture at Baylor College of Medicine, is sequencing the DNA of animals to help with species’ survival. — Texas Monthly

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi ’95 is among those calling for authorities to investigate the role of anti-Sikh sentiment in the mass shooting at a FedEx facility that killed eight people, including four Sikhs. — Financial Express
 
David Petraeus *85 *87, former commanding general of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, said stopping U.S. involvement there won’t “end the endless war.” — National Review

Marcia Castro *02, of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, led a report that concluded Brazil’s federal response to the coronavirus has been “a dangerous combination of inaction and wrongdoing.” — CNN

Epidemiologist Céline Gounder ’97 said sending more vaccines won’t save Michigan from a case surge, but public health measures will. — The Washington Post
 
Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor ’76 and Neil Gorsuch repeated their calls for improving civics education, saying America’s democracy is threatened by “domestic enemies.” — Education Week
 
Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson ’93 said the organization needs to reckon with its founder’s “association with white supremacist groups and eugenics.” — The New York Times
 
Courtney Dressing ’10 has been awarded the 2021 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy for advancing “our understanding of the formation rate, composition, and evolution of planets around low-mass M dwarf stars.” — American Astronomical Society
 
Caltech scientist and Nobel laureate Frances Arnold ’79 testified to the U.S. House of Representatives that the nation needs to invest more in science and technology innovation and entrepreneurship. Norman Augustine ’57 *59, a former aerospace industry leader, was among those present. — Pasadena Now

“Insisting that there is actually a fixed definition of what infrastructure is — bridges, but not baby care — perfectly encapsulates the ways in which the world is still shaped by men.”

— Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80, chief executive of the New America think tank, comparing World War II infrastructure spending that included child and elder care with the current infrastructure debate that does not. — The New York Times 

Speaking at the dedication of the first World War I memorial in Washington, D.C., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley ’80 said it is our duty to remember what those soldiers fought for “and why they fought.” — The DC Post
 
The Biden administration plans to nominate career diplomat Marc Knapper ’91 to be ambassador to Vietnam. — WENY
 
Sarah Kennel ’92 co-curated a new exhibition at the High Museum of Art, “Underexposed: Women Photographers from the Collection,” that explores how women have transformed photography over the past 100 years. — WABE
 
Writer-director Maggie Betts ’99 adapted Elena Ferrante’s novel The Days of Abandonment for an HBO film that will star Natalie Portman. — STL Jewish Light

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