Strange metals, discovered around 30 years ago, are materials related to high-temperature superconductors and share fundamental quantum attributes with black holes. High-temperature superconductors conduct electricity with zero resistance at temperatures far above normal superconductors. The two fundamental classes of subatomic particles are fermions and bosons, which usually behave very differently. However, a research team co-led by Brown physics professor James Valles has found strange metal behavior in a material in which electrical charge is carried not by electrons, which are fermions, but by more wavelike entities called Cooper pairs. Although they consist of two electrons, Cooper pairs are bosons. Using a material called yttrium barium copper oxide, Valles and his team discovered strange metal behavior in a Cooper-pair metallic state—the first time strange metal behavior had been seen in a bosonic system. The findings, reported in Nature in January 2022, could help scientists understand strange metal behavior, such as high-temperature superconductivity, and potentially provide fundamental insights into the quantum world.

MARCIA CHATELAIN, MA’03, PHD’08 is a professor of history and African American studies at George- town University, a scholar of African American life and culture, a speaker about pervasive social issues and activist movements, and an acclaimed author. Her book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America received the Pulitzer Prize for history in 2021. At Brown, she received her master’s and doctoral degrees in American Civilization.

“My time at Brown University in the PhD program in American Civilization (now American Studies) revealed to me that disciplinary boundaries were made to be challenged and some- times broken. Having received training and mentorship from historians, sociologists, and literary critics, and having access to lectures by cognitive scientists, and having been able to build friendships with emerging physicians and engineers, Brown taught me that research is always collaborative. My explorations into the various dynamics of African American history are informed by an array of thinkers, and I am ever grateful to Brown for giving me the skills and confidence to pursue my curiosities and to seek different ways of looking at the world.”

GUIDO IMBENS MA’89, PHD’91, LHD’22 HON. is an economics professor at Stanford University. He was awarded Brown’s Horace Mann Medal in 2017 for his contributions to the economics field, shared the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, and received an honorary degree from Brown in 2022.

“Coming to Brown University opened up a whole new world for me. It was the first time I came to the United States, and the friendliness of the [economics] department and the University community made me feel very welcome. It was not just the rigor of the academic program that prepared me well for my subsequent work, it was also the humanity of the department. I vividly remember getting invited by one of the profes- sors for a family Thanksgiving dinner. As a faculty, we now often invite graduate students to our house to make them feel welcome and seen.”

Caltech wave fellowship

Sultan Daniels ’23 participated in a WAVE Fellowship at the California Institute of Technology, where he worked with a postdoctoral researcher to conduct information theory research in the electrical engineering department. His project involved developing the proof for a scheme that achieves the fastest theoretical rate at which data could be reliably transmitted by a Gaussian network channel. “The biggest thing that this research project gave me was the chance to put faces to the names in the field. I enjoyed speaking with the other students interested in information theory to brainstorm together or hear about their aspirations. I also enjoyed talking with the professor and the postdoc, as they were always able to point me to interesting papers or other insights,” Sultan said. He is applying to PhD programs with the goal of continuing to pursue research in information theory.

Kareen Coulombe, associate professor of engineering, and team members Bum-Rak Choi, associate professor of medicine (research), and Ulrike Mende, MD, professor of medicine, received a BBII award in 2020 for research to make therapeutic drugs safer for the heart. With an additional round of BBII funding in 2022, the team continued to develop an in vitro cardiac tissue model platform for drug discovery and cardiotoxicology testing. The team is further expanding the model to be able to test for cardiac side effects of oncology drugs as well as to identify drugs that can be used to mitigate or treat these side effects.