GW Arts & Sciences – Page 2 – GW Arts & Sciences Magazine

July 7, 2020July 10, 2020

Bouchet Society Welcomes CCAS PhD Students

2020 Bouchet Society inductees, from left, Dana Burton, Eden A. Dejene, Cheriko (Riko) Boone, Drishti Pillai and Diana Ainembabazi

Five CCAS PhD students were inducted into The Edward Alexander Bouchet Society, which honors diversity and excellence in doctoral education. Their research focus includes HIV-related healthcare, tobacco cessation and the search for life in space.

Five Columbian College of Arts & Sciences (CCAS) PhD candidates were inducted into the Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, which recognizes and encourages diversity and excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate. Named for the first African American doctoral recipient in the United States and chartered jointly by Yale and Howard Universities in 2005, the society now includes 18 chapters at universities around the country. Professor of English Tara Wallace founded the GW Chapter in 2009. The five were inducted into the society at a virtual ceremony this spring.

The goal of the Bouchet chapters is to develop a network of preeminent scholars who exemplify academic and personal excellence; to foster environments of support; and to serve as examples of scholarship, leadership, character, service and advocacy for those who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academy. These are the 2020 inductees and their research focus:

Diana Ainembabazi

Diana Ainembabazi is pursuing her doctorate in chemistry with a concentration in catalysis. Her research focuses on the design, synthesis and application of supported heterogeneous catalysts in the transformation of biomass. Her interest in chemistry was encouraged by the professors who taught her introductory chemistry courses. She is now fostering that same passion in young adults from underrepresented backgrounds in the Washington, D.C., region as an advocate and tutor.

Cheriko (Riko) Boone

Cheriko (Riko) Boone is a PhD candidate in applied social psychology. His research interests include improving HIV-related health and mental health outcomes among socially and economically vulnerable communities. His research is focused on evidence-based social psychological and social-structural interventions to increase diversity, inclusion and leadership of persons from historically underrepresented groups in biomedical research and academia. Because minority populations are greatly underrepresented in clinical research, he is striving to help rectify these inequities through his various research, professional, community engagement and public service roles.

Dana Burton

Dana Burton is an anthropology PhD candidate. Her research follows NASA scientists’ search for life in space, including how they grapple with and even redefine our understanding of life on Earth. She has previously been involved in constructing databases to promote accessibility to information and has taught critical thinking skills in classroom settings. She strives to build spaces where the exchange of ideas and knowledge from multiple perspectives and ways of living can be expressed and lead to increased collaboration across the sciences and social sciences.

Eden A. Dejene

Eden A. Dejene, PhD ’20, graduated with a doctoral degree in molecular medicine. Her research focuses on understanding how post-translational modifications of proteins involved in telomere diseases affect their enzymatic activity. She has served as a peer-judge for oral presentations at GW and a poster judge at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students. In addition, she volunteers at middle and elementary schools in Washington, D.C., through the nonprofit organization Techbridge girls, a STEM program with the mission of educating girls from low-income communities.

Drishti Pillai

Drishti Pillai is a PhD candidate in public policy with a concentration in health policy. Her research focuses on tobacco cessation and health care access among low-income individuals, racial/ethnic minorities and immigrants. She works at the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity where she is helping to build a diversity tracking center to analyze trends in the diversity of the U.S. health professions’ education and workforce. As a member of various GW advisory committees, she has been an engaged advocate for underrepresented groups in academia. She hopes to teach and continue conducting research with social equity and racial justice at the core of all her endeavors.

Main photo: Bouchet Society inductees, from left, Dana Burton, Eden A. Dejene, Cheriko (Riko) Boone, Drishti Pillai and Diana Ainembabazi. (Photo: Emily Barber)

Read the Magazine

July 6, 2020July 10, 2020

A Century of Suffrage

A group of suffragists standing in front of the US Capitol

As the 19th Amendment celebrates its 100th anniversary, political science’s Corrine McConnaughy examines the history of the suffrage movement and the legacy of the women’s voting rights revolution that continues to resonate a century later.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which barred sex-based discrimination in voting rights, we spoke to Associate Professor of Political Science Corrine McConnaughy, an expert on gender in American politics and the author of The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment (Cambridge University Press, 2015). McConnaughy discussed the history of the suffrage movement, the myths behind the 19th Amendment and how the lessons of the voting rights landmark continue to impact lives a century later.

Q: Take us back to 1920 and set the historical stage for the 19th Amendment. What did the political landscape look like for women’s suffrage?

A: A lot of people don’t realize that well before the 19th Amendment, there were plenty of American women who already had the right to vote. The 19th Amendment did not grant women the right to vote. It prohibited the states from using sex as a disqualifier in who had the right to vote. In 1890, Wyoming was the first state to come into the union with the right to vote for women. In 1893, Colorado adopted woman suffrage into its existing state constitution. Then woman suffrage marched west to east to large, established states like Illinois. And an even larger number of states gave women limited voting rights. They couldn’t necessarily vote for the highest offices, but they voted on school- and tax-issues and municipal elections, which, in that era, was not a small thing.

Q: So women had a voice in American politics even before they had a vote?

Associate Professor of Political Science Corrine McConnaughy

A: Women were doing politics since before the founding of the country. Women figured out how to influence politics while they were still mostly excluded from electoral politics; they had a voice in how their communities made decisions, how resources were used, how public goods were provided and on and on. In the 1800s, you would find women affecting politics through literary societies and sewing societies. For example, a women’s sewing society might raise the funds to buy the land for a town cemetery. Women couldn’t enter the political world as voters, but, at that time, we saw women engaged in organized, collective, interest group politics.

Q: You wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post on the fight for voting rights titled “Forget Susan B. Anthony.” What did you mean?

A: Obviously I’m not saying Susan B. Anthony wasn’t crucially important for the suffrage cause. But a singular focus on any political figure associated with the movement leaves out big pieces of the puzzle. Women on the ground in the states were plugged into political spheres. They were making alignments with other movements, who discovered how to make politicians responsive. We get to the 19th Amendment through their practices of coalition politics between the suffrage movement and important constituencies of existing male voters, like farmers’ organizations and labor unions. This is not to discount the amazing work that suffragists did. These women were political forces to be reckoned with. But part of their skill was coalition building with groups that already had political power and could be brought over to the side of woman suffrage.

“The real lesson of the 19th Amendment is the story of regular citizens’ engagement in the political system . . . . It was the story of a big change in what American democracy looked like because of massive involvement of ordinary people.”
— Corrine McConnaughy

Q: What changes in 1920 when the 19th Amendment is ratified?

A: Well, first let’s talk about what doesn’t change. The federal amendment says that the right to vote can’t be abridged or denied on the basis of sex. But there are plenty of women who were still left out because states used racial qualifications and literacy qualifications and even poll taxes to prevent women from voting. Native American women were left out. Most black women were left out. So for many women, nothing changed. But for other women, the amendment gave them a formal voice and allowed them to be fully-integrated into politics. In some sense, they had a new identity as fully-included citizens.

Q: And do women then have an immediate electoral impact?

Book Cover: the Woman Suffrage Movement in America by Corrine McConnaughy

A: It’s a mistake—then as now—to look at women as a single monolithic voting bloc. With the 19th Amendment, women come into the electorate but without loyalty as a group to a particular party. Teddy Roosevelt’s Progressive Party ticket was the first nationally viable one to put woman suffrage on their agenda. But by 1916, all of the national parties had adapted in one way or another to the inclusion of women. In some reform movements—the temperance movement or abolition, for example—women organized explicitly as women, but that doesn’t mean women, generally, were committed to those issues. Women don’t do politics united by their womanhood. Flip that idea on its head: Do we think that men make voting decisions based on unified manhood? For some voters—men or women—gender identity may be a salient voting issue, but not for everyone.

Q: When we celebrate the anniversary of the 19th Amendment, what should we actually be celebrating?

A: The real lesson of the 19th Amendment, what we are really celebrating, is the story of regular citizens’ engagement in the political system. This was a story of real grassroots politics. It was the story of a big change in what American democracy looked like because of massive involvement of ordinary people in making it so.

Main photo: Suffragettes at the U.S. Capitol, 1914 (Photo Courtesy Library of Congress)

Read the Magazine

July 6, 2020July 7, 2020

Zooming with the Stars

(left to right) Demi Weitz and Richard Weitz in a selfie

CCAS alumnus Richard Weitz, BA ’91, transformed his daughter’s virtual 17th birthday into an Internet event that raised more than $100,000 for charity. The pair are organizing intimate, invite-only Zoom concerts that have become a way for celebrities to help their communities.

By Ruth Steinhardt

Richard Weitz, BA ’91, is used to A-list events. A partner at entertainment agency William Morris Endeavor and co-head of its scripted television department, his client list includes Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais, LL Cool J and more.

His most recent entertainment initiative doesn’t require black tie, or even changing out of pajamas. It’s RWQuarantunes, a private Zoom concert series at which music superstars from Smokey Robinson to Hozier entertain a star-studded guest list and raise money for nonprofit organizations. And for Weitz, the star of the show is his daughter, Demi, who has taken charge of much of the charitable project.

“I’m so proud of her and so indebted to her,” Weitz said.

RWQuarantunes began with a letdown. Searching for a creative way to celebrate Demi’s 17th birthday amid the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic, Weitz hired his favorite pianist to play a Zoom concert for her and a small group of friends. But the teenage attendees grew restless with the old-school playlist, so Mr. Weitz expanded the invitation to some of his own friends and colleagues—friends like actor and musician LL Cool J.

The energy swelled. Weitz began to wonder if he’d found a way for people to connect and find comfort while sheltering at home.

“The next day we thought ‘That was really fun, let’s do it again,’” Weitz said. “So I started booking friends and friends of friends who were artists, and they became these mini-concerts.”

As the gatherings continued, the guest list expanded, including actress Amy Adams, singer Josh Groban and legendary producer Clive Davis. Musician Debbie Gibson was one invitee, and another guest invited John Mayer, who turned out to be a longtime fan of Gibson’s. The musicians struck up a long-distance jam session, including singing “Happy Birthday” to Demi. RWQuarantunes sessions have featured at-home performances by Gloria Gaynor, Barry Manilow, Seal and more. Guitarist Carlos Santana and his wife, drummer Cindy Blackman, performed from their residence in Hawaii and were joined briefly by vocalist Rob Thomas, who chimed in on 1999 megahit “Smooth” from his own home.

It was Demi who suggested they use the gatherings as an opportunity to raise money for charity. She set up a GoFundMe page immediately, setting a goal of $10,000 for Los Angeles’ Saban Community Clinic. At press time, RWQuarantunes had raised over $3 million for charities around the country. Demi has taken charge of much of the operation, including taking calls from the leaders of major nonprofits like the United Way.

“As a father, to see your daughter grow is amazing—and the whole community has been watching her go from this goal of [raising] $10,000 to $3 million and counting.”
— Richard Weitz

“It might have fizzled out if she hadn’t taken the initiative right at the beginning in that moment,” Weitz said. ”And still, the reason it works so well is because Demi has the time to dedicate to it.”

The success of RWQuarantunes isn’t the first time in his career that Weitz has seen a fluke pay off. After graduating from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences in 1991 with a BA in communications, he set off for Los Angeles without plans or connections. He was rejected for jobs at two major agencies, but ended up in the mailroom at a smaller, scrappier company. There, he worked his way to an assistantship as the smaller firm ended up merging with a larger one, which purchased the two that had rejected him. A year and a half later, at age 24, he became an agent—effectively ending up in a job that initially turned him down. “With all things, you never know who’s going to be who and what’s going to lead to what,” Weitz said.

In some ways RWQuarantunes links back to Weitz’s student days at GW, when he attended concerts at Washington, D.C., landmarks like the Howard Theatre and D.A.R. Constitution Hall.

“Several of the artists I saw then I’ve had on the program and gotten to tell them what an inspiration they’ve been,” Weitz said, including Earth, Wind and Fire and singer-songwriter Taylor Dayne.

Weitz was about to take Demi on her first East Coast college visits when the pandemic caused shutdowns across the country. And while he’s disappointed to have to postpone this rite of passage, in some ways he’s grateful for the time the pandemic, and RWQuarantunes, have afforded him.

“I would never have been able to have the time I’ve had with both of my children and the intimacy I’ve had specifically with Demi if it weren’t for this pandemic,” he said. “She in some regards has become a mini-celebrity, but more importantly she’s become a role model for the people who are on these calls, and for their daughters.

“That to me is what’s so meaningful, and that’s what makes it super, super special. As a father, to see your daughter grow is amazing—and the whole community has been watching her go from this goal of $10,000 to $3 million and counting in six weeks.”

Main Image: Richard Weitz and his daughter, Demi, are the brains behind RWQuarantunes. (Photo Courtesy Richard Weitz)

July 6, 2020July 10, 2020

Inside Autism

Research assistants Chynna Golding (left) and Samantha Metzger practice patient examinations in Rosenblau’s Developmental Social Neuroscience Lab.

Why do people with autism struggle with decision making? Psychology’s Gabriela Rosenblau is looking deep inside the brain for answers that may lead to improved treatments for autism and other disorders.

A friend who is new in town asks you for a restaurant recommendation. How do you decide where to send her? Maybe you know something about her dining preferences—Italian or Mexican, formal or casual. Or maybe you’ve shared a meal with her before. But your choice is also based on information you don’t even realize you’re considering: her age, social status, perhaps her culture. And if your friend returns with a bad review, when she asks again—if she asks again—you’ll adjust your expectations.

It’s a process called social learning, and it essentially explains how we learn from other people through their examples, and how we learn about others by observing our environment. Most of it is implicit—we are acquiring information without even knowing we are doing it. And we are continually updating our ideas with each new data point we collect.

But a person with autism finds this fundamental social mechanism nearly impossible to perform. “People with autism face unique challenges in social decision making,” explained Gabriela Rosenblau, an assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience in the Columbian College of Arts and Science’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. “They have difficulty attaining the body of knowledge needed to judge a person’s preferences and then adjusting those preferences based on new information.”

But why exactly they struggle with social learning has never been definitively determined. Rosenblau is looking for behavioral and neurological answers to that puzzle. With two recent grants—$1.6 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and $500,000 from the Simons Foundation—she’s studying neural development in young people with autism to determine how they acquire and process social knowledge. Her work delves deeply into the brain with neuroimaging and eye-tracking technology, while she and her student researchers also lead young people through social learning tasks.

“I feel strongly that we can use these results to understand neural development and how the brain underlies complex decision making in a social context—while also improving treatment of autism and other disorders,” Rosenblau said.

“We can use these results to understand neural development and how the brain underlies complex decision making…while also improving treatment of autism.”
— Gabriela Rosenblau

Decisions and Predictions

Since joining GW as a postdoctoral student in 2016, Rosenblau has specialized in understanding decision making from both a social context and the underlying brain mechanisms. Much of her research revolves around studying brain development to determine how disorders such as autism hinder decision making. In the restaurant scenario, for example, most people draw on their implicit knowledge of a person’s likes. If their recommendation falls flat, they adjust it according to the other person’s preferences—a process known as the “prediction error.”

But people with autism struggle with the prediction error. Instead, Rosenblau said, they use their own preferences to predict other people’s likes, dislikes and behavior. “If I know someone dislikes apples, I won’t recommend a similar fruit, say, a peach. But if a person with autism likes peaches himself, he will continue to recommend peaches.”

Rosenblau believes that, during adolescence, the brain of a person with autism encodes its own preference more strongly than others. Through her ongoing projects with young people, Rosenblau and her team are examining different areas of the brain. For the youngest participants, they are focusing on the prefrontal cortex, the region most associated with complex cognitive behavior like personality expression and decision making. For older children, they are targeting the cerebellum, which has traditionally been associated with motor function but is now considered crucial to social development. Rosenblau believes the cerebellum may hold the keys to the prediction error. “The cerebellum is a kind of a blueprint for action, a blueprint for learning,” Rosenblau said.

For her research, Rosenblau collaborates with colleagues in the GW Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute, the GW School of Nursing and scholars within her own department, including Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience Sarah Shomstein. Senior biology major and research assistant Samantha Metzger said the information they have compiled by guiding young people through exercises has built a foundation for their ongoing work. “These families came in voluntarily to encourage our research so that one day it would help people with autism gain better resources,” she said. “We’re the scientists, but they’re the heroes.”

Main photo: Chynna Golding (left), a student research assistant in Rosenblau’s lab, demonstrates how to fit a volunteer for an EEG cap at the GW Autism and Neurodevelopmental Institute.

Read the Magazine

July 5, 2020July 10, 2020

Researchers Follow Social Distancing’s Path

Professor of Geography Michael Mann sitting in front of his computer

Two CCAS projects are tracing the progress and limits of social distancing. Geography’s Michael Mann is constructing a distancing data map while Psychology’s Gabriela Rosenblau is charting COVID beliefs and behavior.

Two Columbian College scholars are separately embarking on research projects that test the reaches of social distancing—from geo-spatially mapping its progress in Washington, D.C., neighborhoods to examining how people’s COVID opinions affect their behavior.

While both projects are still in their early stages, Associate Professor of Geography Michael Mann and Assistant Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience Gabriela Rosenblau are hopeful their findings will help public health officials determine the effectiveness of social distancing strategies and chart the direction of future COVID safety measures.

“Everyone in the scientific community is looking for something they can do to help out,” Mann said. “I’m trying to fill gaps for policymakers and health officials and whomever else can make use of [social distancing] data.”

Mapping Neighborhood Patterns

An expert in spatial event modeling, Mann has forecasted wildfires in California and droughts in Ethiopia. Now he is using GPS data to create a block-by-block map of the Washington, D.C., region, pinpointing social distancing behavior. By charting people’s locations—essentially, who is staying at home and who is not—Mann is collecting information on the degrees to which individuals within neighborhoods are following distancing guidelines. Once completed, the model will be able to detect patterns by comparing real-time information—such as the number of hours people are away from home—to social distancing metrics.

For his project, Mann is filtering massive amounts of commercial GPS data, anonymized location information compiled by the private firm SafeGraph from mobile devices and made available to academics and researchers for public health-related studies as part of a data-sharing agreement. Mann is designing an online dashboard for viewing and analyzing the data. Through the dashboard, he is hoping local and regional policymakers will be able to easily target areas requiring greater social distancing education. He plans to share his information with colleagues across the university, including those in economics and public health who might benefit from the data. “I think there are faculty who will want to take a deep dive into the factors that are driving behavioral patterns—whether economic or cultural or something else,” he said.

Tracking Optimism Bias

Assistant Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience Gabriela Rosenblau

Rosenblau is in the midst of an international survey on decision making during the COVID crisis. Along with colleagues from the Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Hamburg, Germany, and the University of California, San Francisco, she is focusing on whether optimism bias—our belief in the probability of becoming infected—influences behavior like complying with social distancing guidelines.

In March, her team began conducting interviews with more than 8,000 people in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany. Initially, their interviews revealed a strong optimism bias. “People estimate that negative events are less likely to happen to themselves than to a similar other person, while the opposite is true for positive events,” Rosenblau said.

The study will attempt to link an individual’s optimism to the likelihood of practicing social distancing or following hygiene recommendations. Through two additional surveys, Rosenblau and her research colleagues will assess if the biases change over the course of the pandemic. “It is possible that optimistic people will be more likely to spread COVID-19,” she said, “simply because they naïvely think they’re less likely to contract and transmit it compared to others.”

Main photo: Associate Professor of Geography Michael Mann

Read the Magazine

July 5, 2020July 10, 2020

Can a Computer Code Catch Serial Killers?

graphic of a magnifying glass over a thumbprint on a binary code background

Statistics alumnus Thomas Hargrove created a computer algorithm to track serial killers. His one-of-a-kind data analysis platform is bringing criminals to justice—and giving peace of mind to families.

Thomas Hargrove, Grad Cert ’07, hunts serial killers. He’s tracked some of the most vicious murderers at large today, analyzing their crimes to predict when and where they might strike next.

But the statistics alumnus isn’t a detective. He’s a former journalist and an expert at computer coding. Using an algorithm of his own invention, Hargrove taps a few keys on his laptop and casts a web of data to ensnare criminals.

Hargrove is the founder of the Murder Accountability Project, a nonprofit that collects and interprets statistics on unsolved homicides nationwide. His algorithm identifies clusters of murders that fit the patterns and profiles of serial killings. Working with law enforcement, he’s aided in the arrest of, among others, a serial strangler who killed 15 women in Gary, Indiana. Earlier this year, his computer algorithm identified similarities between the deaths of more than 50 women in Chicago—and led to the arrest of a murder suspect.

“The data shows these kind of killings are much, much more common than most of us think,” he said. “We have to make it easier to identify these crimes by statistical factors—when they occur, where they occur, what are the patterns. History tells us that if you don’t catch serial killers, they won’t stop on their own.”

“We have to make it easier to identify these crimes by statistical factors—when they occur, where they occur, what are the patterns. History tells us that if you don’t catch serial killers, they won’t stop on their own.”
— Thomas Hargrove

Haunting Statistics

Perhaps no one outside of law enforcement knows more about serial killers than Hargrove. For years, he has collected records of murders—mostly from FBI reports—and crunched the numbers into a searchable statistical database. The Murder Accountability Project, whose board includes journalists, police, forensic psychiatrists and criminologists, has amassed “without a doubt the world’s most complete accounting of murder in the United States,” Hargrove said, with a catalogue of nearly one million killings since 1976.

There are 17,000 murders in the United States each year, according to U.S. Department of Justice figures. About two-thirds of them are solved. States are supposed to report murder statistics to the Justice Department, but some file inaccurate data or fail to report at all. (Hargrove has sued states to obtain their records and the FBI for statistics on Indian reservation murders.) Hargrove’s algorithm searches crime archives for killings that are related by factors such as method, location, time of day and the victim’s sex. “There are millions and millions of combinations of research. No human being could do every search,” he said. “The algorithm runs those millions of combinations, looking for a pattern that otherwise wouldn’t be detected.”

While a reporter for the Washington, D.C., office of the Scripps Howard news service, Hargrove used crime data and computer coding for an investigation into prostitution. “I began to wonder if it was possible to teach a computer to spot serial [killing] victims,” he said. A self-described “computer geek,” Hargrove knew he needed to upgrade his coding skills for such a massive project. As a statistics student at GW, he threw himself into computer modeling, developing intricate algorithms including one that predicted the outcome of one million theoretical coin flips. “I’m using those same skillsets right now to identify serial murderers,” he said.

*Thomas Hargrove used the computer modeling skills he learned at GW to create the Murder Accountability Projec*t.

In 2010, while Hargrove was still a reporter, his algorithm determined that 15 unsolved strangulations in Gary, Indiana, were likely committed by the same person. Working off Hargrove’s data, police arrested a suspect who confessed to killing women for decades. He led them to abandoned locations where the bodies of six previously unknown victims were recovered.

Hargrove left journalism in 2015 to focus full time on tracking serial killers. With the Murder Accountability Project, he’s made his algorithm and database accessible to both law enforcement and the general public through the nonprofit’s website. “We’ve created an open source portal so anyone with a computer can search the data,” he said.

In Chicago, the algorithm alerted Hargrove’s team to a pattern of murders among women on the city’s South and West Sides. More than 75 percent of the killings—51 women, many of them sex workers—were unsolved, an alarmingly high rate. And 94 percent of the victims were found outdoors—alleyways, abandoned buildings, deserted lots. That’s another statistical anomaly. As Hargrove puts it, “Murder tends to be an indoor sport.” Hargrove alerted both the Chicago police and the FBI to the possibility that they may be tracking a serial killer. The police arrested a suspect in one of the killings and are investigating him for two other homicides

Detectives are among the primary users of Hargrove’s algorithm. His nonprofit frequently fields law enforcement requests for information on unsolved crimes. Hargrove himself holds analytics workshops for police. “It’s a new tool for their tool kit,” he said. By teaching police how to access the national crime database, Hargrove hopes to solve what he calls “linkage bias”—detectives working in siloes with little sharing of information across states, cities or even within the same departments. “When someone is murdered, a detective is assigned to the case. When someone else is murdered, another detective is assigned. If there are commonalities between the two cases, they aren’t often discovered unless the two detectives have a conversation over the watercooler,” he said.

It’s also common, Hargrove said, for parents to contact him seeking information about a loved one’s unsolved murder. Hargrove walks them through the database, showing them how their case has progressed through the legal system and teaching them how to analyze the statistics. “There are an awful lot of families that never get closure,” he said. “We want every American to be able to call up the data in their town. Maybe it will give them peace of mind. Or maybe, if they don’t like what they see, they’ll pick up the phone and call their mayor. Hopefully, we can turn these numbers into a political force—and put these killers behind bars.”

Read the Magazine

July 4, 2020July 10, 2020

Study: Rampant Online Distrust of Health Expertise

system-level picture of online discourse

Online communities that distrust establishment health guidance are more effective than government health agencies at reaching and engaging audiences, according to a study by Physics’ Neil Johnson.

Communities on Facebook that distrust establishment health guidance are more effective than government health agencies and other reliable health groups at reaching and engaging “undecided” individuals, according to a first-of-its-kind study led by Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) researchers and published in the journal Nature.

The researchers tracked the vaccine conversation among 100 million Facebook users during the height of the 2019 measles outbreak. The study and its “battleground” map reveal how distrust in establishment health guidance could spread and dominate online conversations over the next decade, potentially jeopardizing public health efforts to protect populations from COVID-19 and future pandemics through vaccinations.

Professor of Physics Neil Johnson and his CCAS research team, including Associate Professor of Political Science Yonatan Lupu, collaborated with scholars at the University of Miami, Michigan State University and Los Alamos National Laboratory to better understand how distrust in scientific expertise evolves online, especially related to vaccines.

“There is a new world war online surrounding trust in health expertise and science, particularly with misinformation about COVID-19, but also distrust in big pharmaceuticals and governments,” Johnson said. “Nobody knew what the field of battle looked like, though, so we set to find out.”

During the 2019 measles outbreak, the research team examined Facebook communities, totaling nearly 100 million users, which were active around the vaccine topic and which formed a highly dynamic, interconnected network across cities, countries, continents and languages. The team identified three camps comprising pro-vaccination communities, anti-vaccination communities and communities of undecided individuals such as parenting groups. Starting with one community, the researchers looked to find a second one that was strongly entangled with the original, and so on, to better understand how they interacted with each other.

“There is a new world war online surrounding trust in health expertise and science. . . . Nobody knew what the field of battle looked like, though, so we set to find out.”
— Neil Johnson

They discovered that, while there are fewer individuals with anti-vaccination sentiments on Facebook than with pro-vaccination sentiments, there are nearly three times the number of anti-vaccination communities on Facebook than pro-vaccination communities.

This allows anti-vaccination communities to become highly entangled with undecided communities, while pro-vaccination communities remain mostly peripheral. In addition, pro-vaccination communities that focused on countering larger anti-vaccination communities may be missing medium-sized ones growing under the radar.

The researchers also found anti-vaccination communities offer more diverse narratives around vaccines and other established health treatments—promoting safety concerns, conspiracy theories or individual choice, for example—that can appeal to more of Facebook’s approximately 3 billion users, thus increasing the chances of influencing individuals in undecided communities. Pro-vaccination communities, on the other hand, mostly offered monothematic messaging typically focused on the established public health benefits of vaccinations. The GW researchers noted that individuals in these undecided communities, far from being passive bystanders, were actively engaging with vaccine content.

“We thought we would see major public health entities and state-run health departments at the center of this online battle, but we found the opposite. They were fighting off to one side, in the wrong place,” Johnson said.

As scientists around the world scramble to develop an effective COVID-19 vaccine, the spread of health disinformation and misinformation has important public health implications, especially on social media, which often serves as an amplifier and information equalizer.

In their study, the researchers proposed several different strategies to fight against online disinformation, including influencing the heterogeneity of individual communities to delay onset and decrease their growth and manipulating the links between communities in order to prevent the spread of negative views.

“Instead of playing whack-a-mole with a global network of communities that consume and produce (mis)information, public health agencies, social media platforms and governments can use a map like ours and an entirely new set of strategies to identify where the largest theaters of online activity are and engage and neutralize those communities peddling in misinformation so harmful to the public,” Johnson said.

Main photo: The first system-level picture of nearly 100 million individuals expressing vaccine views among Facebook’s 3 billion users across 37 countries, continents and languages

Read the Magazine

July 3, 2020July 10, 2020

Cisneros Inspires New Generation of Student Leaders

Philanthropist and U.S. Congressman Gil Cisneros, BA ’94, speaking at an event celebrating the GW Cisneros scholars

Philanthropist and U.S. Congressman Gil Cisneros, BA ’94, was a first-generation college student. Now, by promoting leadership and academic opportunities for Latino youth, he’s helping young people write their own education success stories.

When philanthropist and U.S. Congressman Gil Cisneros, BA ’94, celebrated the GW Cisneros Scholars at a Foggy Bottom event in March, he called on each of the students within the leadership development program to use their education as a springboard for uplifting others in their communities through service and support.

“It’s about helping others. . . . When you do, you’re making your community, the country and the world a better place,” said Cisneros, who endowed with his wife, Jacki, the Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute in 2015 to be the model in higher education for mentorship, leadership development and academic research that elevates Latino voices. “For me, it’s all about service and giving back . . . and hopefully making a difference in people’s lives.”

As Cisneros Scholars, dozens of undergraduates—most of whom, like Cisneros himself, are first-generation college students—are preparing to follow in his footsteps. The program is helping them hone their leaderships skills to make their marks in their communities and the world at large. As of fall 2020, there were 43 undergraduate students attending GW as Cisneros Scholars. They come from 17 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Each were selected based on academic achievement and a demonstrated commitment to service and leadership in the Latino community.

“My goal as a Cisneros scholar was to succeed academically and take advantage of all the resources that the institute has to offer me,” said Madeline Aguirre, a senior majoring in economics and international affairs. “I hope to set the path for future Latino students who come to GW so that they can also be successful.”

Through various outlets, Cisneros Scholars are thriving in a supportive academic environment that celebrates their diversity and contributions to the GW community. In addition to receiving financial assistance, scholars participate in curriculum-based leadership training and community service activities throughout their undergraduate years. The institute also provides social and academic support, and—through its affiliate faculty and research fellows—exposes students to mentors and career coaches, as well as internship and networking opportunities.

“Education changed my life. It gave me opportunities I didn’t know were out there.”
— Gil Cisneros

“My wife and I really wanted to create an opportunity,” Cisneros told the students at the March event. “But the institute is only as successful as you’re going to be. You are the ones who are making this happen, you are the ones who are going out and doing the work academically. You are the ones who are supporting each other, making sure you are getting through your classes. You are the ones who are uplifting and mentoring each other.”

In addition to the Cisneros Scholars, the institute supports Caminos al Futuro, a fully funded, pre-college and residential summer program that immerses rising high school seniors in the social, economic and political transformations affecting the Hispanic/Latino community. Cisneros Scholars often participate in the Caminos program, assisting as summer residential advisors and mentors.

“We are particularly proud of what our scholars are achieving and the diversity they bring to GW,” said Cisneros Institute Executive Director Elizabeth Vaquera. “All of our fourth-year students have retained high GPAs and have either graduated early this past fall or are scheduled to graduate this spring—that’s a 100 percent retention rate. During their time here, some have conducted graduate-level work and assisted professors on funded research projects. They leave the institute ready to thrive in graduate school or launch their professional careers.”

In addition to student programming, the Cisneros Institute produces research that offers policy solutions to issues facing the Latino community. These efforts include a project supported by the National Science Foundation to explore the emotional wellbeing of Latino undocumented young adults, and an initiative supported by the National Institutes of Health and GW’s Cross-Disciplinary Research Fund to examine the effects of current news and immigration policy changes on Latino families.

“The Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute has built a supportive environment for students that values their contributions and recognizes that diverse perspectives are critical to the future of this country,” said Paul Wahlbeck, dean of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, in which the institute is housed. “Developing global leaders is the hallmark of our university and the reason why we support an inclusive, diverse and equitable community where everyone feels like they belong and can succeed. The institute is the gold standard for making that happen.”

For Gil Cisneros, who came to GW to major in political science on a ROTC scholarship, it all comes back to providing a pathway to opportunity where all students can thrive.

“Education changed my life,” he explained. “It gave me opportunities I didn’t know were out there.” He noted one of his favorite quotes by baseball legend Jackie Robinson: “A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.”

Main photo: Philanthropist and U.S. Congressman Gil Cisneros, BA ’94, speaking at an event celebrating the GW Cisneros scholars

Read the Magazine

July 3, 2020July 16, 2020

For Chimps, Salt and Pepper Hair Not a Marker of Old Age

Chimpanzee with grey hairs around its chin looking off into the distance

Graying hair isn’t necessarily a sign that chimpanzees are growing older. Researchers from the CCAS Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology found variations in how our closest ape relatives experience pigment loss.

Silver strands and graying hair are signs of aging in humans, but things aren’t so simple for our closest ape relatives—the chimpanzee. A study by researchers at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences’ Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology (CASHP) finds that graying hair is not indicative of a chimpanzee’s age.

This research calls into question the significance of the graying phenotype in wild non-human species. While graying is among the most salient traits a chimpanzee has—the world’s most famous chimpanzee was named David Greybeard—there is significant pigmentation variation among individuals. Graying occurs until a chimpanzee reaches midlife and then plateaus as they continue to age, said Elizabeth Tapanes, a PhD candidate in hominid paleobiology and lead author of a paper published in PLOS ONE.

“With humans, the pattern is pretty linear, and it’s progressive. You gray more as you age. With chimps that’s really not the pattern we found at all,” Tapanes said. “Chimps reach this point where they’re just a little salt and peppery, but they’re never fully gray so you can’t use it as a marker to age them.”

Brenda Bradley, associate professor of anthropology, is the senior author on the paper. The research dates back to an observation Bradley made while visiting a field site in Uganda in 2015. As she was learning the names of various wild chimpanzees, she found herself making assumptions about how old they were based on their pigmentation. On-site researchers told her that chimps did not go gray the same way humans do. Bradley was curious to learn if that observation could be quantified.

Researchers from the GW Primate Genomics Laboratory, which Bradley directs, gathered photos of two subspecies of wild and captive chimpanzees from their collaborators in the field to test this observation. Students visually examined photos of the primates, evaluated how much visible gray hair they had and rated them accordingly. The researchers then analyzed that data, comparing it to the age of the individual chimpanzees at the time the photos were taken.

The researchers hypothesize there could be several reasons why chimpanzees did not evolve graying hair patterns similar to humans. Their signature dark pigmentation might be critical for thermoregulation or helping individuals identify one another.

There has been little previous research on pigmentation loss in chimpanzees or any wild mammals, Bradley said. Most existing research on human graying is oriented around the cosmetic industry and clinical dermatology.

“There’s a lot of work done on trying to understand physiology and maybe how to override it,” Bradley said, “but very little work done on an evolutionary framework for why…this seems to be so prevalent in humans.”

The lab plans to build on their findings by looking at the pattern of gene expression in individual chimpanzee hairs. This will help determine whether changes are taking place at the genetic level that match changes the eye can see. Bradley’s lab has one of the largest collections of chimpanzee DNA samples in the country, which includes genetic material from more than 900 chimpanzees and more than 90 primate species.

CASHP faculty and student researchers contribute to the global understanding of chimpanzees and primates. Through various labs, investigators’ research areas include studying the evolution of social behavior in the chimpanzees and bonobos, as well as the evolution of primate brain structure. They also lead on-the-ground projects at the Gombe Stream Research Center in Tanzania. Bradley’s lab is also examining color vision and hair variation in lemurs.

— Kristen Mitchell

Main Photo: There is significant individual variation in how chimpanzees, like this one at Gombe National Park, experience pigment loss. (Photo: Ian C. Gilby)

Read the Magazine

July 3, 2020July 10, 2020

Break Down: How Wood Decay Drives Carbon Cycle

In the lab and in the field, Biology’s Amy Zanne and a team of researchers are linking wood decomposition rates among fungi to a better understanding of the global carbon cycle and its effect on climate change.

Through a combination of lab and field experiments, Associate Professor of Biology Amy Zanne and a team of researchers have developed a better understanding of the factors accounting for different wood decomposition rates among fungi. Their findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveal how deciphering fungal trait variation can improve the predictive ability of early and mid-stage wood decay, a key driver of the global carbon cycle.

“Fungi are largely hidden players. We know they are critical for cycling carbon but it has been difficult to determine the effects of different decomposers in causing fast or slow decomposition,” Zanne said. ”As we identify who fungal decomposers are in rotting logs and what allows a particular species to affect these rates, we can better predict carbon cycling around the globe under current and future climates.”

As the main decomposers of litter and wood, fungi play an important role in the global carbon cycle—the process that helps regulate the planet’s global temperature and climate by controlling the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While current Earth system models represent little of the functional variation in microbial groups, fungi differ greatly in their decomposing ability. Zanne and her fellow researchers set out to find which traits best explain fungal decomposition ability to help improve the current models.

They found that the hyphal extension rate—or fungal growth rate—is the strongest single predictor of fungal-mediated wood decomposition. The decomposing ability of fungi varies along a spectrum: Slow-growing, stress-tolerant fungi are poor decomposers; fast-growing, highly competitive fungi have fast decomposition rates. The slow growing fungi are more likely to exist in drier forests with high precipitation seasonality. In contrast, the fast-growing fungi tend to be found in more favorable environments and decompose wood more quickly, regardless of the local microclimate.

“Fungi differ massively in how quickly they decompose wood, releasing carbon back into the ecosystem. Our study identifies different fungal traits that explain this variation, which has great potential to improve predictions of the carbon cycle in forests,” said lead author Nicky Lustenhouwer, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Their findings show that the same processes that determine where a fungus lives—its ability to displace other fungi and survive in stressful environments—closely aligns with its decomposition ability. “This connection allows us to translate an ecological mechanism into broad-scale patterns in microbial decomposition rates, helping to address a key uncertainty in earth system models,” said co-author Daniel Maynard, a postdoctoral researcher at Crowther Lab, ETH Zurich.

Main photo: The rate of fungi decay experiment conducted by Associate Professor of Biology Amy Zanne and a team of researchers is shedding light on the global carbon cycle.

Read the Magazine