Congratulations to CIS Majors Jamar Kittling and Jocelyn Wang, elected to Wesleyan University’s Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Spring 2024.

The climate change Earth is experiencing today is similar to that during a period of rapid and intense global warming it experienced some 56 million years ago. Understanding the similarities can help scientists evaluate what is happening in today’s warming world, according to Ellen Thomas, Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Emerita.

Key to that understanding is figuring out how much oxygen was dissolved in large swaths of the oceans during that period of rapid warming, called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum or PETM, when average temperatures increased by 5-8^o Celsius or 9-14^o Fahrenheit in a few thousand years, compared to now, Thomas said.

“Most ocean life forms, including fish, need oxygen, so the loss of oxygen would mean loss of an important food source for many people, especially in tropics and subtropics,” she said. 

Read at the Wesleyan Connection

'Meet Our Researchers' highlights research on campus

A new exhibit in Olin Library celebrates how researchers from all parts of our community—undergrads to emeriti—understand and build upon the entirety of what we know about ourselves, each other, and the environment in which we live. From chemistry to karaoke and paleontology to politics, the eight researchers profiled exemplify Wesleyan’s diverse interests and impacts across disciplines. One of the featured researchers is our own Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Emerita, Ellen Thomas.

Meet Our Researchers is located in Olin’s West Corridor and will be on display through this academic year. You can read more about the featured researchers online. 

If you would like to be profiled in 2024-25, please contact Jill Livingston:jlivingsto01@wesleyan.edu.

CIS Major Julissa Cruz Bautista '25 to represent Wesleyan at C.O.L.O.R. Conference

Julissa Cruz Bautista '25, MB&B and CIS major and SACNAS secretary of the board, recieved a full award to attend the SACNAS National conference this fall and to represent Wesleyan's chapter during the 2023 C.O.L.O.R retreat. 

C.O.L.O.R. is a 1 day retreat designed to support SACNAS chapter officers as they continue to place themselves in positions of leadership within their chapters, campuses, and communities. This retreat will not only equip chapter leaders, but also highlight and strengthen their leadership talents through connection and unity with the broader chapter network. 

Julissa was profiled for the Inclusion in STEM blog last year.

Congratulations to Aidan Jones '23

Senior major Aidan Jones receives High Honors for his thesis The Impact of Familial ALS-Associated Mutations on Astrocyte Activation under Serum and Serum-Free Conditions.

Mentor: Alison O'Neil

Aidan exemplifies the ideal of the College of Integrative Sciences. He is majoring in MB&B, works in a Chemistry Department lab, and recently gave a senior research talk at the NS&B Senior Research Celebration. Aidan's thesis work in Prof. Alison O'Neil’s lab explores how genetic mutations that cause ALS moderate the inflammatory response of human stem cell derived astrocytes. This work was presented recently at Quinnipiac University's Neuron conference and is being prepared for publication in a major scientific journal.

Frontiers of Knowledge Award given to Professor Ellen Thomas

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Climate Change category has gone in this fifteenth edition to paleoclimatologists James Zachos (University of California, Santa Cruz) and Ellen Thomas (Yale University and Wesleyan University) "for their seminal contributions to the identification of a major natural event in the fossil record that provides a compelling analog for anthropogenic climate change," said the committee in its citation.

Read more about Ellen Thomas, Harold T Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, Emeritas on the BBVA Foundation website