Cover Story
Enlightened Disagreement
Two scholars of conflict and polarization want us to have more productive conversations.
Spring 2025
Features
President Michael H. Schill reflects on his belief in and commitment to the mission of higher education.
Voices
Studies show that friendships have real, tangible health benefits. Northwestern experts offer advice on how to make more friends and why these relationships are more important now than ever before.
Professor Vicky Kalogera and her colleagues have been advancing innovation at the intersection of AI and astrophysics for years, positioning the University as a leader in this area. Northwestern’s ascent is reflected most recently in its leadership of the NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI Institute), which will develop AI astronomy tools that will allow researchers to make breakthrough discoveries.
Conservation scientist Becky Barak ’12 MS, ’17 PhD is exploring alternatives to conventional turf lawns. She shares her path to research and her passion for conservation and restoration.
Discovery
Northwestern researchers have invented an implantable device that can track inflammation in the body in real time, akin to a continuous glucose monitor. Inspired by fruit being shaken from tree branches, the device comprises DNA strands that stick to cytokine proteins, shake them off and then grab more proteins, providing real-time data on inflammation levels.
Innovation
Roughly 2,400 children in the United States are injured by electric shocks from wall outlets each year, and tripping over electrical cords is another hazard, especially for older adults. To help eliminate these risks, Chirag Goel ’21 and his team at Tego created a magnetic wall outlet that can help prevent injuries and hazards while improving wall outlet accessibility.
Gannon Schram, an economics major at Northwestern, and his friend Shrikar Lekkala co-founded MetaFrazo, a video-dubbing service that uses artificial intelligence to translate educational videos with both voice and lip synchronization.
News
Common Fly is a 15-minute stop-motion film about a housefly who is deeply unsatisfied with his family life and, most crucially, his job at a company that makes him feel insignificant. Created by radio/television/film major Ian Castracane and nearly three dozen fellow students, the film premiered at Northwestern’s MultiStudio Premiere event last year and won Best Animated Short at the 2024 Boston Film Festival in September.
Fresh guacamole and veggie garlic noodles are just two of the many dishes Northwestern students have taught local youth how to make as part of MiniChefz, a Northwestern student organization that provides nutrition education to elementary and middle school students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Alumni
The Northwestern Alumni Association Travel Program offers more than three dozen trips annually to alumni, with itineraries and travel experiences that cater to all interests. For more than 50 years, the program has led trips to all seven continents, across land and sea.
Maria Atanasov, an accomplished business journalist and current president of the NU Club of Southeast Florida, reflects on her time at Northwestern and how she came to be involved with Northwestern’s alumni network.
My Northwestern Direction
The first in his family to go to college, Adam Karr ’93 gained a foundation in behavioral economics at Northwestern and now serves as president and portfolio manager at Orbis Investments and vice chairman of the Northwestern Board of Trustees. He shares why empowering young minds is one of the best investments for the future.
Impact
Northwestern has joined an international consortium of 15 research institutions that will guide the development of and early research at the Giant Magellan Telescope, which will be the world’s largest optical land-based telescope upon completion.
A new fellowship program is helping Northwestern MBA and graduate students address the urgent challenges of climate change. The Abrams Climate Academy will empower the next generation of leaders in business, science, engineering, product design, communication, law and public service to act on climate problems.
Treating glioblastoma, diagnosing hidden hearing loss and improving organ transplant outcomes are among the projects researchers are pursuing with assistance from the Pat & Shirley Ryan Family Research Acceleration Fund.
People
Barry Joseph ’91 has a long-running fascination with fizzy drinks, particularly seltzer, and he wants others to learn all about its effervescent history. In summer 2024 Joseph launched the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum, a partnership with the oldest seltzer factory in New York City.
At just 28, Selina Fillinger became one of the youngest woman playwrights in Broadway history, and her 2022 show, POTUS, received three Tony Award nominations and has since been produced in theaters across the nation and internationally. Fillinger ’16 came to Northwestern to pursue acting, but a playwriting class with theater professor of instruction Laura Schellhardt ’97 changed her trajectory.
Veteran Lauren Wright Kimball ’05, ’05 MS says it’s been the “privilege of a lifetime” to help create the Military and Family Helpline, a new resource for military veterans and active-duty personnel who live in Nebraska and Iowa. Kimball, who is chief strategy officer at United Way of the Midlands, helped establish the support line in collaboration with the Nebraska Department of Veterans Affairs and Offutt Air Force Base.
By day, Amanda Dunlap edits film trailers for Disney, but by night, she’s a true-crime junkie. Dunlap ’06 took inspiration for her debut novel from stories of real-life “resurrection men,” grave robbers who sold stolen corpses to medical schools in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the early 19th century.
Melissa Harris ’02 had just joined the Chicago Tribune as a columnist in 2009 when a colleague recommended she read the 1967 Division Street: America, a book which contains oral histories from 71 Chicagoans interviewed in the late ’60s. Years later, when Harris learned that the audio tapes of the original interviews were being digitized by the Library of Congress, she reached out to Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Mary Schmich, and after some consideration they decided to make a podcast.
As an undergrad, Julia Starzyk Kersey ’99 raised money for the American Heart Association through Radiothon, an annual fundraising event in honor of an undergraduate student who died of cardiac arrhythmia. Kersey carries campus tradition with her today as a national marketing and communications director for the American Heart Association.
In December Northwestern art history assistant professor Antawan Byrd ’13 MA, ’22 PhD launched Project a Black Planet at the Art Institute of Chicago, the first major exhibit to examine Pan-Africanism, a cultural movement and ideology that promotes Black unity across Africa and the African diaspora.
