JAMES B. GARVIN ’78, SCM’81, PHD’84, P’17 is the NASA Goddard chief scientist and principal investigator of the DAVINCI mission to Venus scheduled to launch in June 2029.

“Brown gave me the confidence to explore across academic boundaries— from paleontology and mathematical analysis of computer algorithms to art history and semiotics. The Brown experiences I had from freshman to PhD candidate helped me shape a career of space exploration. Thanks to Brown, my experiment flew in the Space Shuttle (Endeavour), and I was able to experience the joy of the first laser light hitting Mars as well as the Hubble Space Telescope searching the Moon for resources. These are all the stuff of dreams, yet Brown (and fellow Brown students and faculty) helped me pursue such ideas with a hopeful confidence and tenacity to see them fly.

My now 38-year career at NASA was more than catalyzed by my Brown education, and I will forever be grateful for all I learned. And I even got to appear on David Letterman!”

National center for health statistics fellowship

John Lin ’23 completed a research fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, where he conducted epidemiologic research—analyzing national data on food insecurity and adult allergies as well as leading a preliminary analysis of the new National Health Interview Survey for teenagers—to inform CDC policies. “My fellowship was such an important learning experience because I got to see a more public role for research. In the future, I hope to continue working with the government and academic institutions like Brown.” Lin has continued his research with long-time mentor Paul Greenberg, MD, Brown professor of surgery, at the Providence VA Medical Center on medical education, health policy, and ophthalmology.

Vikas Srivastava, assistant professor of engineering, and team member Albert Telfeian, MD, professor of neurosurgery, will develop a novel implantable lead for a spinal cord electrical stimulation device to manage chronic neuropathic pain. The lead will be made of nitinol, a material capable of shape memory that can be inserted with a needle. Once placed in the epidural space, it will expand to the correct shape. The advantage would be to achieve better contacts than can be achieved with a cylindrical lead while avoiding the surgery required for a larger paddle lead.

In 2020, the team of Barry Lester, a professor of psychiatry, human behavior, and pediatrics, and Stephen Sheinkopf, executive director of the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the University of Missouri and an adjunct associate professor of psychiatry, human behavior, and pediatrics, received a BBII award to develop diagnostic tools based on acoustic signatures from infants’ cries that are not discernible to the human ear. Recently, a new start-up, PedialyDx, was formed to further develop and commercialize this technology. The first product will be a handheld device that uses a cloud-based algorithm to determine whether the cries of an infant with prenatal opioid exposure meet the criteria for neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome. The company is also exploring use of the device in autism research. 

The pursuit of more stable and powerful lithium-ion batteries hinges in part on the development of improved electrolytes. Current lithium-ion batteries contain electrolytes made from lithium salt dissolved in a liquid organic solvent. Liquid electrolytes can short circuit and are made with chemicals that are toxic and flammable. Solid electrolytes are made of ceramic, and while excellent at conducting ions, they are thick, rigid, and brittle.

Now there’s a better option—a thin and flexible material derived from trees for use in solid-state batteries. The new material was developed by a team of researchers co-led by the laboratory of Yue Qi, a professor in Brown’s School of Engineering, and a materials science laboratory at the University of Maryland. In a paper published in Nature in October 2021, the team describes a solid ion conductor that combines copper with cellulose nanofibrils— polymer tubes derived from wood. The paper-thin material, which has an ion conductivity of 10 to 100 times that of other polymer ion conductors, could be used as either a solid battery electrolyte or as an ion-conducting binder for the cathode of a solid-state battery. Eventually, the new material could be a step toward bringing solid-state battery technology to mass production.