ECONOMICS - I start the hike with false urgency, excited after hours in the car. It is late fall and snowing, which I am not expecting. I watch the flakes melt into my clothes. “Cotton kills,” they say, because it won’t keep you warm when wet—but here I am, in jeans.

PHYSICS - Now that the NASA James Webb Space Telescope has reached its destination a million miles from Earth and begins beaming back images of the deepest parts of space this summer, Charity Woodrum, a 2018 University of Oregon alumna, will be among the first to pore over them, looking for clues to how our galaxy came to be.

BIOLOGY - Prithiviraj Fernando, MS ’93, PhD ’98 (biology), and Herve Memiaghe, a landscape architecture PhD student, use research to save elephant populations in Sri Lanka and Gabon, Africa.

SOCIOLOGY - Shortly after AK Ikwuakor launched a fashion company in 2020—and just as he was preparing to leave to conduct an international motivational speaking tour—all US flights were grounded due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ikwuakor, BS ’07 (sociology), a serial entrepreneur and three-time All-American Ducks hurdler, found himself grounded in more ways than one.

Nayeon Kim believes there is benefit to society in reducing the prison terms of people of color and others victimized by excessive sentences and systemic racism. And she is dedicated to this work. Kim is finishing up her law degree at City University of New York (CUNY) in 2022, which puts her one step closer to that goal.

THEATRE ARTS - It’s been a breakout year for Jana Schmieding. Star of the Peacock network’s hit show Rutherford Falls, the Lakota Sioux Native is shattering the glass ceiling and making room for Indigenous creatives in the entertainment industry.

BIOLOGY - Bee populations have been suffering sharp declines in recent years, part of a pattern of widespread loss of pollinator diversity and abundance. Now a UO biologist and former UO postdoctoral fellow have looked for ways to incentivize almond growers to adopt bee-friendly practices.

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY - On January 29, the Brewers announced they were naming Sara Goodrum their new minor league hitting coordinator, making her what is believed to be the first-ever woman to hold that title for a major league franchise.

THEATRE ARTS - Michael Govier and fellow writer Will McCormick won an Academy Award for best animated short film for If Anything Happens I Love You, a 12-minute look into the world of parents whose marriage is suffering under the strain of losing their only child in a school shooting.

NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES - As a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma and a Black American, 2003 alumna Amber Starks is immersed in issues important to many Native Americans and African Americans. Now she’s helping the University of Oregon examine these issues.