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Health & Science

Light the Way

Winter 2024
Lauren Dandridge Gaines ’04 is co-founder and principal of Chromatic, a Los Angeles–based lighting design firm working at the intersection of architecture and social justice.

Read more about Gaines’ work

Michelin-starred restaurant asterid in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles
Mimi Scheffler Gordon ’94 dreamt of working in Africa one day when she visited for the first time as a Northwestern undergrad. Nearly three decades later, she’s spearheading a sustainability project in Kenyan communities, building up local economies with an unlikely partner: local bees.

Get in on the buzz

A beekeeper holds a panel of honeycomb with swarming bees
Artificial intelligence is all around us. And if AI is not already in your doctor’s office, you can bet it’s coming soon — with the potential to create major improvements in our health care and well-being.

Explore the feature

Geometric illustration featuring futuristic wheelchairs and doctors
Northwestern researchers are the first to discover a link between so-called “underground climate change,” or “subsurface heat islands,” and ground movements beneath urban areas. The researchers found that as the ground warms, it also moves, and this could be a ticking time bomb for urban infrastructure, which is now, quite literally, on shaky ground.

Learn about subsurface heat islands

A warmly colored illustration shows a city and its underneath layers, with abstract flames surrounding it.
A transformative grant from the Howard and Paula Trienens Fund will advance global sustainability and energy solutions at one of Northwestern’s flagship research institutes. The grant from the Trienenses’ donor-advised fund was recommended by University Trustee Nan Trienens Kaehler ’79 MS and Thomas R.

Learn more

Michael R. Wasielewski stands with two students in front of a large array of solar panels.
As concern grows about climate change and its impact on the planet, scientists at Northwestern’s Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy are asking and answering urgent questions.

Learn about the research

A wet city street at night.
The 2023 Northwestern Alumni Medal recipients — Roberta Buffett Elliott ‘54, Chris Galvin ’73, ’77 MBA and Charles S. Modlin Jr. ’83, ’87 MD — are leaders in philanthropy, business and health care.

Meet the medalists

Roberta Buffett Elliott sits smiling with her hands on her lap.
Northwestern professors share how we successfully learn information — and how we can better retain it.

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A colorful image shows various silhouettes in different colors, each with a different subject in their brain.
Many of us amped up our cleaning regimens during the pandemic. But now Erica Hartmann, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and dozens of other scientists have issued a warning about the overuse of certain chemicals often found in cleaning products.

See what they found

A black and white photo of a gloved hand spraying a spray bottle.
Blair Matthews ’22 JD and Giuliana Zaccardelli ’22 MD, MBA are co-founders of Zuri Fertility, an app that serves as a personalized digital fertility clinic, with educational resources, a menstrual and ovulation tracker, access to at-home fertility testing and referrals for specialized treatment options at nearby brick-and-mortar fertility clinics.

Learn more

Giuliana Zaccardelli and Blair Matthews sit on steps next to each other smiling for a photo, both are wearing "Zuri" shirts.