Research Quick Takes

Striving for Friendlier Skies

Professor Vikrant Vaze is one of only two academics cited in a report from The Government Accountability Office titled, "AIRLINE PASSENGER PROTECTIONS: Observations on Flight Delays and Cancellations, and DOT's Efforts to Address Them." Says Vaze on why his research was cited, "US airlines have faced some unusual disruptions recently. Our research has focused on how these disruptions impact passenger travel, and the importance of measuring the success of any disruption mitigation effort in terms of the extent to which it reduces passenger inconvenience."

Unpredictable Melting

Professor Hélène Seroussi is quoted in, "A Greenland Glacier's Rapid Melting May Signal Faster Sea Level Rise" published in The Washington Post. "We are many years away from implementing these processes correctly in numerical models," Seroussi said. "It is important to understand that there are always long delays between the discovery of a new process and its inclusion in numerical models as these processes need to be perfectly understood from a physical point of view." (Picked up by CHRON. Similar coverage in Common Dreams and Alaska Native News.)

Modernizing Vaccine Research

PhD student Andrew Hederman and Professor Margie Ackerman are co-authors of "Leveraging deep learning to improve vaccine design" published in Trends in Immunology. "Despite the nascent stage of deep learning applications in immunological studies, there is ample opportunity to utilize this new technology to address the most challenging and burdensome infectious diseases confronting global populations," states the study.

Real-Time pH Monitoring

Journal cover image of the optical sensor device.

PhD students Junhu Zhou, Billy Jin, and Jiyoon Park Th'19, alumYuan Nie Th'20, andProfessor John Zhang are co-athors on "Dual fluorescent hollow silica nanofibers for in situ pH monitoring using an optical fiber," published in Nanoscale Advances. "The sensor exhibits exceptional accuracy, stability, and simplicity, making it ideal for detecting pH levels in both environmental and biological samples," says Junhu.

Premier Poster

At the Graduate Student Poster Session—Guarini's premier forum for the graduate community to share and learn about their research—PhD student Savannah Decker received a best poster award for: "Diversity in the Radiotherapy Clinic: The effect of skin tone on clinical Cherenkov imaging."

Students Present at TERMIS Conference

Hixon Lab undergrads Karina Mitchell '23 and Rosemary (Posie) Millett '25 presented their original research at the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) Conference in Boston last week. Karina presented her poster on Manuka honey in tissue-engineered scaffolds, and Posie gave an oral presentation on combined tissue-engineered scaffolds targeting the bone-tendon attachment site.