Jan. 19: Biden Taps Scientists Eric Lander ’78 and Frances Arnold ’79

President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Eric Lander ’78, president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Nobel chemistry laureate Frances Arnold ’79 to head the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. — The Washington Post
 
A reckoning is underway at colleges and universities that have alumni who played a role in the Capitol violence. Several Princeton alumni are playing a role in that reckoning, including Heather Gerken ’91, dean of Yale Law School; Sen. Ted Cruz ’92; and Dean Doug Elmendorf ’83 at Harvard’s Kennedy School. — The Chronicle of Higher Education

Pulitzer Prize winner Taylor Branch *70 is among more than 1,000 historians and scholars who signed a letter calling for President Trump’s impeachment and removal from office. — The New York Times
 
Brian Spaly ’99, general partner at Brand Foundry Ventures, which is helping grow the digital mortgage marketplace company Own Up, said more customers are preferring to complete all aspects of home buying and financing online. — Housing Wire
 
Alexis Okeowo ’06’s Vogue cover story about Vice President-elect Kamala Harris made almost no mention of fashion, but the cover itself set off a fashion firestorm, wrote columnist Vanessa Friedman ’89. — The New York Times

“Everyone should keep in mind that community transmission rates are so high that you run the risk of an exposure whenever you leave your home. … Assume that this deadly invisible virus is everywhere, looking for a willing host.”

— Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo ’87, an epidemiologist at the University of California San Francisco, on the public’s pandemic fatigue and how the biggest hurdle to lowering transmission rates is convincing people their actions can save lives. — NBC News

Entrepreneur Giovanna Campagna ’10 has launched a new beauty brand named Joaquina Botánica after her great-great-grandmother’s apothecary in Colombia. — Vogue
 
In the New York Times’ “Work Diary” feature, Arielle Patrick ’12, chief communications officer at Ariel Investments, described her week filled with work, family, and fittings for her “elegant and severe” wedding dress. — The New York Times

Author and hospice and palliative care doctor B.J. Miller ’93 discussed how COVID-19 is changing our relationship with death. — GeriPal
 
Guy T. Hollyday ’52, an environmentalist and German-language professor known in Baltimore for writing a history of the Stone Hill neighborhood, died Jan. 7. — The Baltimore Sun
 
Former actress Zelda Harris ’07, who debuted her career as the lead role in Spike Lee’s Crooklyn and later played the only Black babysitter in The Baby-Sitters Club series, spoke about her frustration with casting directors who only wanted her to play roles that fit into the “Black best friend” trope. Now she’s a teacher. — The Cut
 
David E. Kelley ’79 is writing and executive producing a new Netflix series based on the The Lincoln Lawyer and other novels by Michael Connelly. — Deadline