乐播传媒 Alumni and Students in the News: Aug. 30, 2024
A selection of recent mentions of 乐播传媒 alumni and future alumni 鈥� 乐播传媒 students 鈥� in the news media.
Edmund Muskie 鈥�36
The lost history of what Americans knew about climate change in the 1960s 鈥� The Grist
Awareness of our warming planet began way earlier than most people think, . 鈥淧lenty of…people were concerned about a warming planet, not just scientists, in the years before 1970,鈥� says reporter Kate Yoder. That includes U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie 鈥�36 of Maine, a hero of the anti-pollution movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
Reporting on a soon-to-be-published paper in the journal Ecology Law Quarterly, Yoder describes how Muskie鈥檚 papers at 乐播传媒 provided the researchers with insights into the surprisingly widespread understanding of the perils of climate change.
鈥淢uskie was deeply involved in conversations about climate change with scientists, and his staff tracked coverage of the topic closely in the press. In 1970, Muskie warned his fellow senators that if air pollution went unchecked, it would 鈥榯hreaten irreversible atmospheric and climatic changes.鈥欌��
Jean Johnson Bird 鈥�51
A 94-year-old Waterville woman is a world traveler who has seen it all 鈥� Morning Sentinel
惭补颈苍别鈥檚 after she received a Silver Status award from The Travelers鈥� Century Club for having visited 150 countries and territories.
Her first few countries on the road to 150 came shortly after graduating from 乐播传媒, when she and fellow students from 乐播传媒, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Dartmouth, and Yale traveled to Europe with the legendary 乐播传媒 professor Rayborn Zerby.
鈥淲e went by ship, you know. People didn鈥檛 travel by airplane then,鈥� said Bird. 鈥淐ologne was devastated by World War II. We went to Switzerland and Capri, off Italy. I swam in the Blue Grotto. I jumped out of the boat and went swimming there.鈥�
David L贸pez-Carr 鈥�93
A planetary health innovation for disease, food, and water challenges in Africa 鈥� Nature
David L贸pez-Carr 鈥�93, a professor of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been in the news for an award-winner paper in Nature that to address disease, food, and water challenges in Africa.
L贸pez-Carr was part of an international team of biologists, social scientists, and medical researchers from the U.S. and Senegal that found a way to lower infection rates of the parasitic disease schistosomiasis by removing vegetation associated with a snail that plays host to the blood fluke. The removed plant material can be repurposed as cheap livestock feed and compost.
The team won a from the Ecological Society of America, amog other honors. Individually, L贸pez-Carr received a 2024 Research Excellence Award from the Human Dimensions of Global Change and the for two decades of teaching, research, and mentorship.
K-Fai Steele 鈥�04
K-Fai Steele auctions rights to middle-grade graphic novel鈥� Bleeding Cool
Best Buds, , will be published by Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in spring 2026, according to Bleeding Cool.
The site describes Best Buds as 鈥渇riendship that blooms between two girls over their love of gardening, library books, and crows, while exploring the roles they play in community care.鈥�
It is Steele鈥檚 first graphic novel : She鈥檚 the illustrator of seven prior children鈥檚 books and the author鈥搃llustrator of two. She lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with her family.
Nathan Diplock 鈥�17
Plant Physiology spotlights First Authors 鈥� Plant Physiology
Emerging researcher Nathan Diplock 鈥�17, who recently earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, was .
Working with researchers at Berkeley and the University of Melbourne, Diplock served as first author of a paper that explores a plant protein called ZAR1, which helps to detect harmful bacteria. ZAR1 works by monitoring how another plant protein, ZED1, interacts with a bacterial protein from a common plant pathogen.
The research team identified an important mutation in ZED1 that allowed a tomato plant to use its version of ZAR1 to recognize the bacterial invader, a discovery that could lead to new ways to enhance plant immunity against bacterial infections.
Already the author of several papers, he told the Plant Physiology that 鈥減lants are capable of extraordinary physiology that can feel both familiar and foreign to the human experience. Plant science is our best tool to unravel these fascinating complexities.鈥�
A 乐播传媒 biology major who at Berkeley, Diplock is now a research scientist at BluumBio, developing new technologies for phytoremediation and bioremediation of environmental contaminants.
Maple Buescher 鈥�25
Kid reporters, now first-time presidential voters, on the coverage of Election 2024 鈥� Columbia Journalism Review
Eight years ago, Maple Buescher 鈥�25 of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, was a middle-school student reporting from the 2016 Republican National Conventions for Time for Kids.
and another former Time for Kids reporter about their take on this year鈥檚 election.
Now a senior politics major, Buescher served as 乐播传媒 Student editor-in-chief in 2023鈥�24 and writes a regular column for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. 鈥淚鈥檝e been fairly impressed by the amount of news and news analysis that has been produced in such an incredibly fast and challenging environment,鈥� Buescher told reporter Jaime Joyce. 鈥淎nd I鈥檝e been impressed by the amount of just simple fact-checking that鈥檚 going on.鈥�
On the other hand, Buescher could do without the mainstream media’s awkward attempts to report on the intersection of pop culture and politics, like covering the whole 鈥溾�� meme. 鈥淧art of what makes the memes popular is the absurdity,” she says, “so trying to square the circle of the absurdity with the more serious political conversation is strange.鈥�
Joyce writes that what young, engaged voters want 鈥渋s serious political conversation: sit-downs with the presidential candidates, questions about their records and what they plan to do, if elected.鈥�
Lena LaPierre 鈥�26
A Mississippian鈥檚 journey from picking gentian plants in the Balkan mountains to drinking Moxie in Lisbon 鈥� Lewiston Sun Journal
In, Lena LaPierre 鈥�26 of Hattiesburg, Miss., wrote about the annual summer festival in nearby Lisbon Falls that has an unlikely focal point: the quirky New England soda Moxie.
Warned by a classmate that the soda 鈥渢astes like the world’s worst cough syrup,鈥� LaPierre instead took a liking to the drink. Perhaps her Bulgarian heritage was the reason, she wrote, recalling family visits see her grandmother in the village of Lyutibrod, Bulgaria, where 鈥渢housands of gentian plants鈥� 鈥� which give Moxie its distinctive taste 鈥� grow in mountain woodlands.
She recalled creating bouquets for her grandmother from the plant鈥檚 yellow flowers. And now, at a festival in Lisbon Falls, a drink made from gentian was helping locals 鈥渇orge cherished, lifelong memories with the ones they love.鈥�
Anders Landgren 鈥�25
The very best college backpacks, according to college students 鈥� New York
New York magazine’s Strategist column turns to 乐播传媒 for its . Reporter Bella Druckman writes that 鈥渨hile North Face backpacks run the show at many colleges from coast to coast, at 乐播传媒 College, students love Patagonia backpacks.鈥�
Druckman reports that Anders Landgren 鈥�25 of Boxford, Mass., chose a Black Hole style backpack his first year 鈥渁fter seeing that all his peers had one,鈥� Druckman writes. 鈥淭hree years later, the backpack is still going strong….Despite bearing the weight of his school supplies or things for weekend trips, the backpack鈥檚 straps don鈥檛 budge.鈥�
鈥淚 got them to a pretty comfortable spot and haven鈥檛 had to adjust them since,鈥� Landgren says.
