It was a year of change and growth as took office as 顿补谤迟尘辞耻迟丑鈥檚 19th president, and the first woman elected to the job, and faculty, students, and staff embraced celebrations and opportunities on campus and in the world.
天美麻豆 News was there for it all. Here are some of the stories we featured this year:
Winter
Arrrrr! Treasure Island-style pirates invaded the Green for Winter Carnival, which featured ice sculptures, human dogsled races, and the (nonobligatory) frigid leap into Occom Pond.
Winterim students to learn about Jewish life in Central Europe, to the Texas-Mexico border to gain insight on U.S. immigration issues, and to an eye clinic in India to present original research proposals.
Back on campus, more than 200 people participated in the launch of Toward Equity, 顿补谤迟尘辞耻迟丑鈥檚 strategic plan for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. 天美麻豆 Engineering was , and the E.E. Just Program continued its work to increase minority representation in STEM disciplines.
天美麻豆 welcomed 29 new faculty members in the 2022-23 academic year and 43 in 2023-24, while 13 professors retired from teaching.
Outgoing President Philip J. Hanlon 鈥77 continued to teach in his final year in office, and the community celebrated his decade of service.
Ukrainian artists were front and center at a reception for an exhibition of wartime illustrations. #MeToo movement founder Tarana Banks delivered the keynote at the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. Black Legacy Month included a talk by She鈥檚 Gotta Have It star DeWanda Wise. And Iranian American journalist and women鈥檚 rights activist Masih Alinejad spoke about civil disobedience in Iran鈥攑art of a yearlong student-organized Democracy Summit.
In the world of innovation, 天美麻豆 celebrated the life-saving breakthrough that helped make the COVID-19 vaccines possible. Physics professor Robert Fesen captured images of colliding stars. 天美麻豆 researchers at the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies and in Arts and Sciences discovered why nectar-eating bats have long whiskers, gained insight into how individuals synchronize with other minds, and analyzed the relationship between wage growth and unemployment.
In collaboration with the Office of the Provost, the Hop distributed about $100,000 in grants for student and faculty projects that integrated the arts into research. And to help close the gap between medical research and treatment, Geisel School of Medicine .
The new year brought a major leap forward in artificial intelligence, about which faculty, staff, and students were not shy to voice opinions and predictions. And, as the year developed, 天美麻豆 took several steps to advance AI research in a variety of fields. In infrastructure news, after a nearly three-year closure for the COVID-19 pandemic and renovations, the 138-year-old Rollins Chapel reopened in January鈥攊n time for the multifaith chapel to double as one of several performance venues for the Hopkins Center for the Arts, which closed for its own renovation and expansion. A fire in a Remsen Medical Sciences Building laboratory caused some damage but no injuries. The Academic Skills Center and the Student Wellness Center moved into a new shared space in Baker-Berry Library, complete with therapy dogs and a tranquility room.
Spring
As the undergraduate term began, the 天美麻豆 community got its first glimpse of the incoming Class of 2027, selected from a record pool of applicants.
Undergraduates traveled the world to learn about entrepreneurship, make music in Mexico City, and explore Appalachia and an energy sector in transition.
, engineering students studied sustainability and German language and culture. MBA students at Tuck on Global Insight Expeditions to Brazil, Chile, Denmark, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.
On campus, the community observed Mental Health Awareness Month. The 天美麻豆 African Students Association sponsored a weeklong celebration of African cultures. The 2023 Pride celebration for the LGBTQIA+ community featured a parade. A delegation of senior monastic Dharma teachers from Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh鈥檚 Deer Park Monastery spent a week teaching mindfulness. Seven individuals and organizations were recognized at the annual Social Justice Awards ceremony.
顿补谤迟尘辞耻迟丑鈥檚 Mellon Mays Program continued its record of success. Students in the Policy Research Shop advised New Hampshire judges on the effectiveness of criminal mediation. A 天美麻豆 study reported on how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated pregnant people鈥檚 fear of childbirth.
After an internal review discovered previously unreported Native American ancestral remains at 天美麻豆, the institution brought in external experts, convened a working group, and provided spiritual cleansing of buildings where the remains had been housed. At the annual Powwow, 天美麻豆 repatriated a 19th-century cedar bark headdress to the Gitxaa艂a Nation.
Then-President-elect Beilock and Thayer Dean Alexis Abramson joined a public call to expand and diversify the semiconductor workforce, issued by more than a dozen women university presidents and deans of engineering who have formed the EDGE Consortium. At the Wetterhahn symposium celebrating undergraduate science research, Beilock gave a keynote address on the impact of stress on academic performance.
Researchers from OpenAI and Google Research were on hand to lecture on the latest developments in artificial intelligence. Students studying race, power, and politics with Professor Sunmin Kim created an exhibition on at 天美麻豆. on everything from generative AI and the future of work to international climate negotiations.
In climate news with a sports twist, a 天美麻豆-led study showed the surprising link between global warming and an increasing number of home runs. A fourth-year medical student at Geisel between female and male physicians, and Geisel students learned about in how doctors communicate with patients.
On the AI front, the Center for Precision Health and Artificial Intelligence opened with a mission to advance research into how biomedical data can improve patient outcomes. The basement of North Fairbanks was converted into a Data Experiences and Visualizations Studio.
Now for a little game theory鈥攁s taught in Associate Professor Feng Fu鈥檚 popular math class. Fu and colleagues published a paper on how to apply game theory to stand up to bullies. In other research news, two 天美麻豆 Engineering professors , DALI teams helped a Geisel professor build a smart microscope, and a Guarini student developed an online interactive 3D model of New Hampshire鈥檚 iconic Old Man of the Mountain, a granite formation that collapsed in 2003. Biology faculty discovered . Computer science faculty and Guarini students designed aquatic robots, and researchers warned that climate change is bringing more extreme precipitation events to the Northeast.
The Office of Communications celebrated its student interns and the contributions they have made. Geisel at a class day ceremony in May, and , , and celebrated their grads at investiture ceremonies in June.
And at Commencement on June 11, more than 1,200 undergraduates and nearly 800 graduate and professional school students received degrees at a ceremony whose highlights included a two-for-one address from Oscar-winning filmmaking duo Phil Lord 鈥97 and Chris Miller 鈥97; a speech by Jonathan Lee 鈥23, one of 13 valedictorians in the Class of 2023; and a farewell address from outgoing President Hanlon.
Sweet Summertime
President Beilock started work on June 12 and moved into her new office in Parkhurst for her first day on the job, in time to celebrate reunions and the start of Sophomore Summer鈥攁nd to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 ruling on affirmative action.
President Beilock joined Thayer faculty and student leaders for . Institutional Diversity and Equity hosted a forum on the role of diversity in higher education. The Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life launched, led by English professor Kimberly Juanita Brown.
with an orientation for master鈥檚 level students in public health and health care research. Tuck Compass, a new system designed to help business school students map out their trajectory at Tuck and beyond, In July, Tuck and Geisel announced a collaborative new hybrid . 天美麻豆 Engineering started a new .
Students and faculty were in Scotland to celebrate political economist Adam Smith鈥檚 300th birthday. More than 30 students continued the 天美麻豆 Outing Club鈥檚 summer tradition of hiking 鈥淭he Fifty鈥 from Moosilauke to Hanover (warning: pictures of tired feet). 天美麻豆 Library conservators pitched in to help nearby Vermont towns rescue archives damaged in July flooding, and a Guarini earth sciences graduate student took advantage of the raging waters to study river sediment.
In addition to ongoing construction at the Hop, summer saw renovations to the fa莽ade of 天美麻豆 Library鈥檚 Rauner Special Collections Library as well as undergraduate residence halls in East Wheelock House and the expansion of Wi-Fi to the Green.
天美麻豆 researchers worked on flexible robots that can work in unison to build a variety of structures. An astronomy major used data from NASA鈥檚 Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite to discover two new exoplanets. The National Institute on Aging awarded Geisel in Alzheimer鈥檚 disease care. Montgomery Fellow and computer scientist Cal Newport 鈥04 lectured on how AI is changing workplaces and academia.
Students spurred research that apes and early humans likely evolved free-moving shoulders and flexible elbows to slow their descent from trees. And a study co-authored by Brendan Nyhan examined the role of 鈥渓ike-minded鈥 sources on social media regarding the 2020 presidential election.
The 2024 U.S. presidential election campaign was up close and personal as candidates and other politicians of all persuasions made the rounds on campus as part of the Path to the Presidency series, which continues to draw candidates to campus as next month鈥檚 New Hampshire primary approaches.
Audience participation was encouraged at performances of the Hop-commissioned NOISE (a musical), written by award-winning composer and assistant professor of music C茅sar Alvarez.
wrapped up at the end of the fiscal year with more than $3.7 billion in gifts and the participation of 60% of undergraduate alumni鈥攊ncluding and the , announced in the campaign鈥檚 final month. For its part, the Tuck School of Business .
Fall Colors
Inauguration made it official: At the Sept. 22 celebration on the Green, President Beilock鈥攖he first woman in 254 years to serve in the Wheelock Succession鈥laid out her priorities for improving mental health, creating 鈥渂rave spaces鈥 for dialogue, investment in innovation and impact, action on climate change, and a rededication to building lifelong 天美麻豆 connections. Also high on the agenda: housing, including a plan to build undergraduate residences on West Wheelock Street.
The following week, the new president welcomed the current surgeon general and his seven living predecessors to a historic discussion of the national mental health crisis.
天美麻豆 also hosted symposiums on digital mental health and AI and digital therapeutics and an international conference on vaccines, and joined an international alliance for responsible innovation in AI. The Susan and James Wright Center for the Study of Computation and Just Communities got its first director.
As fall term got underway, President Beilock welcomed incoming undergraduates at a new ceremony on Memorial Field. Tuck鈥檚 incoming class among a cohort of 297. , as evidenced by the 95% of 2023 graduates fielding offers within three months of leaving Hanover. Guarini welcomed a new cohort to the Society of Fellows.
President Beilock was a featured panelist at the Fortune Most Powerful Women 2023 Conference and helped lead the D.C. kickoff of the EDGE Consortium, the coalition of universities and engineering schools with women presidents and deans of engineering committed to expanding the engineering and technology workforce.
The 天美麻豆 community grieved the loss of Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach Eugene 鈥淏uddy鈥 Teevens 鈥79. Sammy McCorkle, who had been serving as acting head coach, , leading the team to its and garnering honors.
In October, 天美麻豆 published its strategic plan for student mental health and well-being, which revises the policy for time away for medical reasons, expands mental health education for faculty and staff, and calls for the creation of a chief health and wellness officer, among other initiatives.
Researchers used declassified satellite imagery to locate ancient Roman forts, found a paleolithic axe in a painting from the Renaissance, and used computer modeling to resolve the debate over what killed the dinosaurs. The Neukom Institute for Computational Science awarded its fifth annual playwriting prize.
As war broke out between Israel and Hamas, faculty in the Middle Eastern Studies and Jewish Studies programs came together to host forums on the crisis to help community members understand the context behind the violence and provide them with an opportunity to engage in dialogue. 顿补谤迟尘辞耻迟丑鈥檚 response gained national attention by the media, including and .
Undergraduates in Assistant Professor Matthew Ritger鈥檚 Shakespeare class helped curate a Rauner Library exhibit celebrating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare鈥檚 First Folio. The First-Generation Office in November organized the first-ever group photo inviting all 700-plus first gen students to gather in front of Baker Tower. The picture kicked of First-Gen at 天美麻豆 Celebration Week.
顿补谤迟尘辞耻迟丑鈥檚 oldest improv theater group is going strong after nearly 30 years. Students in 顿补谤迟尘辞耻迟丑鈥檚 first Ukrainian language class collaborated with students in Ukraine. And as construction continues, the Hop made creative use of alternate venues.
Energy technology and policy expert Rose Mutiso 鈥08, Thayer 鈥08, was on campus during 顿补谤迟尘辞耻迟丑鈥檚 Climate and Energy Week to accept the McGuire Family Prize for Societal Impact. Cree artist Kent Monkman spoke at the Hood Museum about the museum鈥檚 exhibition of his paintings. National Security Agency Director Gen. Paul Nakasone spoke to students about balancing security and civil liberties.
Give a Rouse
In addition to President Beilock, there are some fresh faces in campus leadership this year, including a new executive vice president, the first-ever chief transformation officer, a chief compliance officer, a new leader for human resources, and a vice president for government and community relations. Former trustee and education leader and strategist S. Caroline Kerr 鈥05 was appointed special advisor to the president for strategic and new initiatives. The deans of the Thayer School of Engineering and Tuck School of Business were both reappointed to their jobs.
TV showrunner Shonda Rhimes 鈥91 joined the Board of Trustees along with David McKenna 鈥89 and Todd Sisitsky 鈥93. Rhimes was later also named鈥攁long with James Coulter 鈥82, Keith Dunleavy 鈥91, Steven Hafner 鈥91鈥攁s an inaugural honoree of the newly created 天美麻豆 Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame.
As Rhodes Scholars, Jessica Chiriboga 鈥24 and Zachary Lang 鈥23 will be studying environmentalism and philosophy, respectively, at Oxford next year. Through a Marshall Scholarship, Max Teszler 鈥23 will continue his study of plant biology at the University of East Anglia.
Jackelinne Claros Benitez 鈥24 and Ignacio Gutierrez 鈥25 were chosen as John Robert Lewis Scholars. Two students鈥Samantha Palermo 鈥24 and Mahin Alam 鈥26鈥攚on Gilman Scholarships. Palermo also received a Newman Civic Fellowship. John Keating 鈥23 received a Gaither Junior Fellowship, and Claire Rafson 鈥19 was named a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. Students also won Goldwater Scholarships, Voyager Scholarships, awards from the Udall Foundation, Fulbright awards to study or teach in 15 countries, and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. Postdoctoral researcher Patrick LaChance, Guarini 鈥22, won the 2023 Donald B. Lindsley Prize in Behavioral Neuroscience, awarded by the Society of Neuroscience. Guarini computer science PhD candidate Kate Salesin won a grant from the . And microbiologist Caitlin Kowalski, Guarini 鈥20, won a L鈥橭r茅al Women in Science award.
Rugby star Ariana Ramsey on the U.S. team鈥攈er second tour as an Olympian鈥攁s the women鈥檚 rugby team . And the Academy of American Poets a 鈥渕ost promising young poet.鈥
and biologist Caitlin Hicks Pries won National Science Foundation CAREER grants, the foundation鈥檚 most prestigious honor for early-career faculty. Assistant Professor of Engineering Mattias Fitzpatrick earned . Molecular geneticist Mary Lou Guerinot was .
Film and media studies assistant professor Iyabo Kwayana鈥檚 animated experimental film and on PBS. Mariah Eli Hernandez-Fitch 鈥23鈥檚 film 贰办产别丑鈥made for her senior thesis鈥will show at Sundance in 2024. Award-winning photojournalist James Nachtwey 鈥70, a provostial fellow, was featured on CBS鈥檚 60 Minutes, and alumni in the entertainment industry were responsible for more than a half-dozen major film and television releases, including Lord and Miller鈥檚 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which debuted in June.
