Ravi Bellamkonda ’95 PhD, who served as Ohio State University’s executive vice president and provost since January 2025, was named the university’s new president in March. The university’s board of trustees skipped the traditional national search process, instead relied on depth of experience and character when it hired Bellamkonda.
Can AI solve the universe’s greatest mysteries? These professors are trying to find out.
Read More: Software to the StarsA day at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows’ ballpark changed everything
Read More: CurveballVisionary inventor Mulalo Doyoyo saw potential everywhere—and acted on it.
Read More: ‘What Could Be’Stephen Eskilson ’90 AM, ’95 PhD (see Arlene Brown Eskilson ’59).
Arlene Brown Eskilson writes: “My grandson, David Eskilson ’26, who graduated in 2022 as valedictorian from a Chicago public high school, follows two grandparents— John Eskilson ’57 and me—as well as his parents Jordana Friedman ’93 and Stephen Eskilson ’90 AM, ’95 PhD, and aunt Christine Eskilson ’81 to Brown. Yay!”
Jennifer Ruth ’95 AM, ’00 PhD published It’s Not Free Speech: Race, Democracy, and the Future of Academic Freedom with Michael Bérubé through Johns Hopkins University Press in April. It was excerpted in The New Republic in March in a feature essay entitled “When Professors’ Speech is Disqualifying.”
Anna Pegler-Gordon ’95 AM wrote Closing the Golden Door: Asian Migration and the Hidden History of Exclusion at Ellis Island, published in December 2021 by the University of North Carolina Press. The book discusses the immigration station at New York’s Ellis Island, which opened in 1892 and remained the largest U.S. port for immigrant entry until World War I. In popular memory, Ellis Island is typically seen as a gateway for Europeans seeking to join the “great American melting pot.” But as this fresh examination reveals, it was also a major site of immigrant detention and exclusion, especially for Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian travelers and maritime laborers who reached New York City from Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean, and even within the United States. And from 1924 to 1954, the station functioned as a detention camp and deportation center for a range of people deemed undesirable. Anna draws on oral histories and memoirs, government archives, newspapers, and other sources to reorient the history of migration and exclusion in the United States. In chronicling the circumstances of those who passed through or were detained at Ellis Island, she shows that Asian exclusion was both larger in scope and more limited in force than has been previously recognized. Anna is a professor at James Madison College and in the Asian Pacific American Studies Program at Michigan State University.
Keeping pace with 10,000 alums outside the U.S.
Read More: Seeking Global StoriesClaudia Moscovici ’95 AM, ’97 PhD had her book Holocaust Memories: A Survey of Holocaust Memoirs, Histories, Novels, and Films published on June 15 by Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group.
Joan Hoost McMaster hosted Junior League of Rhode Island members and their guests at the Brown Faculty Club on Saturday, April 27, for the 5th Annual Women Authors Luncheon. The guest authors were Emily Arnold McCully ’61 and Mary-Kim Arnold ’93, ’95 MFA. McCully has written and illustrated more than 30 children’s books and was awarded a Caldecott Medal. She spoke about her most recent book, She Did It!, a compendium of the success stories of 21 prominent American women. Arnold is a writer, poet, and visual artist, and serves as a visiting lecturer in English at Brown. Her new book, Latency for the Long Moment, is a memoir of her life as a South Korean orphan who was adopted and raised by American parents. She describes her continuing search for her birth mother over the years and wonders what life would be like if they were to meet some day. Following the authors’ presentations, there was a book-signing. Joan writes: “A delightful afternoon!”
Brown physics professor and codirector of Brown’s Presidential Scholars Program, Stephon Alexander ’95 ScM, ’97 ScM, ’00 PhD, has been elected president of the National Society of Black Physicists. His research work focuses on the interface between cosmology and particle physics.
Christopher Pugliese ’95 AM completed his EdD in Educational Leadership from Neumann Univ. in Aston, Pa. The title of his dissertation was The Study of the Influence of Bidirectional Teacher-Student Relationships on Teacher Wellbeing. Chris looks forward to implementing the findings in order to improve relationships and wellbeing in schools.
Seeking the vaccine for the world’s #1 child killer
Read More: Malaria ManAtul J. Butte ’91, ’95 MMSc, ’95 MD, of Menlo Park, Calif.; Jun. 14, from cancer. He was director of the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute and was the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished Professor at UC San Francisco. He was a pioneer in the fields of bioinformatics, health informatics, and precision medicine. As chief data scientist for the University of California Health System, he oversaw the integration of electronic health records and facilitated research initiatives to improve patient care. In addition, he cofounded several biotech companies that made significant contributions to genomic medicine and drug discovery. He was the recipient of numerous accolades, including election to the National Academy of Medicine and recognition by the Obama Administration as a White House Champion of Change for his commitment to open science. Survivors include his brother Manish ’93, ’96 MD.
Lois McPherson Beach ’95 AM, of Westerly, R.I.; Dec. 31. She began teaching in 1965 in Stonington, Conn., before starting a family. While raising her family, she taught nursery school and was a camp director for the Camp Fire Girls. She was a skilled seamstress and opened the Pin Cushion fabric store in Westerly. Later, after selling the store, she worked at Mystic Planetarium as a tour guide but, in 1988, returned to teaching in the Westerly school system as an English as a Second Language teacher. She joined a teacher outreach program and traveled to China, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and England. She retired in 2011 and continued to knit, quilt, and travel. She is survived by four children, six grandchildren, and six siblings.
John E. Hays ’95 ScM, of Rio Rico, Ariz.; Aug. 14, after an extended illness. He began working as a floodplain coordinator for Santa Cruz County in 1999 and held the position until his passing. He was instrumental in establishing a retention basin near Ephraim Canyon. Aside from his county position, he was an adjunct professor and governing board member within the Santa Cruz County Provisional Community College District. An avid photographer, he would also document sporting events in the district.
Deborah M. Cherry ’95 AM, of Cumberland, R.I.; Aug. 20 of ALS. She worked for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line International in the late 1980s on The Song of America as a children’s activity director. She later worked for the city of Cranston as a teacher for 18 years before founding her own preschool in Cumberland, Cherry Blossom Journey School. She is survived by her husband, Kenneth; four children; two sisters; two brothers-in-law; and several nieces and nephews.
