Ann M. Anderson, the Agnes S. MacDonald Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Mary K. Carroll ’86, the Dwane W. Crichton Professor of Chemistry, have co-authored a paper with Prof. Cinzia Buratti and members of her group at the University of Perugia (Italy) in the journal Gels. "Long-Term Performance of Monolithic Silica Aerogel with Different Hydrophobicities: Physical and Color Rendering Properties after an Accelerated Aging Process” is the second publication from an ongoing, long-term study of aerogel materials for window applications and is part of a Special Issue titled International Perspectives on Aerogels. The paper's corresponding author is Costanza Fiorini, PhD, who spent the Fall 2021 term performing research in the Union College Aerogel Laboratory as a visiting graduate student and is now a postdoctoral researcher at “Sapienza” University of Rome.

Chad Orzel, associate professor and chair of Physics and Astronomy, presented an invited talk at the March Meeting of the American Physical Society in Las Vegas, N.V. His talk, “Seventy-Five Years of QED,” marked the debut in 1948 of the theory of quantum electrodynamics developed by Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga (who shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for the accomplishment), and the work of Freeman Dyson showing the mathematical equivalence of the three versions. QED opened the door for a revolution in the theory of fundamental physics. Orzel’s talk was part of a session sponsored by the Forum on the History and Philosophy of Physics commemorating anniversaries in physics and astronomy. The March meeting of the APS is the largest annual physics conference with well over 10,000 physicists from universities and research labs internationally.

Lewis Davis, the Thomas Armstrong Professor of Economics, and Justin Esposito’20 have published an article in the Eastern Economic Journal. "Social Disparities and Social Distancing During the Covid Pandemic" uses cellphone mobility data from over 1,200 U.S. counties to show that social distancing was lower in counties with greater educational inequality, income inequality and ethnic fragmentation. The article started as Esposito’s senior thesis project, which was jointly advised with Arsalan Khan, assistant professor of anthropology.

Ali Hamed, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) program for his project, Wake interactions past two roughness elements in close proximity. Understanding these interactions is important because they govern critical flow features, including drag and turbulence. Hamed will provide hands-on, transformative research experiences for four to six undergraduates each year and will introduce students to this research through lectures and labs.