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Research Quick Takes

Paulina Umansky on a glacier in Alaska

Sep 17, 2026

Detecting Life in Icy, Extreme Environments

This past summer, PhD student Paulina Umansky, who works with Professor Ian Baker on Antarctic ice microstructure and Professor Jacob Buffo on life detection in planetary ices, lived on the Taku Glacier in Alaska for three weeks as a participant in the Juneau Icefield Research Program. "The Juneau Icefield serves as an analog for environments across the solar system such as Mars and Europa. I conducted a pilot study on 'Life Detection Across Taku Glacier,' collecting subglacial and supraglacial samples. In the field, I learned several assays and applied them to analyze these samples, quantifying biosignatures present across the icefield," says Umansky.

Colin Meyer headshot

Sep 17, 2026

Early Career Program Award

Professor Colin Meyer received an Early Career Program (ECP) Award from the DEVCOM Army Research Lab. ECP awards support creative basic research in science and engineering; enhance early career development of outstanding young investigators; and increase opportunities for young investigators to pursue research in areas relevant to the US Army. "As climate change drives sea‑level rise and amplifies hazards in mountain regions, I’m excited to launch a multidisciplinary effort that links the physics of frozen soils with societal needs. Our work will focus on frost heave, permafrost‑related hazards, and the dynamics of subglacial environments. By integrating laboratory experiments, mathematical models, and thermosyphons technology, we aim to develop actionable solutions for infrastructure resilience through adaptation," says Meyer.

Spencer Bertsch Th'19 headshot

Sep 10, 2026

Expanding Cardiovascular Disease Screening

PhD student Spencer Bertsch Th'19 and Professor Vikrant Vaze are co-authors of "FIND Lp(a) Machine Learning Model: Targeted Screening Enrichment of Elevated Lipoprotein(a) in Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease" published in JACC: Advances. The study used data from deidentified medical records to "Flag, Identify, Network, and Deliver (FIND)" adults with likely elevated Lipoprotein(a). "By combining state-of-the-art machine learning with relevant clinical information from electronic health records, we demonstrated that the effectiveness of Lipoprotein(a) screening can be more than doubled," said Bertsch.

Wai Yan Win Aung '28 headshot

Aug 27, 2026

Papers Accepted to IECON 2026

Wai Yan Win Aung '28 (pictured) and Maanat Bhadani '29, advised by Professor Junbo Zhao and postdoc Alaa Selim, had their papers accepted to the flagship annual conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society: IECON 2026 in Qatar. Win Aung's paper is: "Physics-Constrained Human-in-the-Loop LLM Framework for Voltage-Violation Mitigation in Distribution Feeders," and Bhadani's paper is: "CommunityGuard-AI: Agentic AI for Cyber-Physical Defense of Energy Communities" 

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