Janet Marcavage is excited to be back working with students in Kittredge Hall after teaching remotely from her garage for the past year. The distinguished professor of art and art history is currently working on a series of prints featuring striped planes floating in negative space. “I’m interested in creating abstract forms that feel as though they are open, momentary, and subject to change,” Marcavage said. Her latest piece, “Reassemble,” considers how we are rebuilding our lives following a long period of social distancing and loss.

In her role as the director of the Science, Technology, and Society Program, Associate Professor Amy Fisher spends a lot of time thinking about what the history of scientific discovery can teach us about how to meet today’s problems with innovative solutions. Fisher teaches interdisciplinary courses on the development of science from antiquity to the present day, employing the lenses of history, philosophy, and sociology to analyze how science and culture intersect on a variety of issues, including climate change and gene editing.

How I came to be in Tower One of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, is a story that starts at Puget Sound. I joined a fraternity house—Beta house—and in my sophomore year, my fraternity brothers told me about a scholarship opportunity through Kemper Insurance. I ended up doing a couple summers with Kemper, and then after graduation they offered me a trainee position in Chicago. I took the job, and stayed with that same department for 25 years.

Standing at the intersection of physical and life sciences, Rachel Pepper’s curiosity has led her to investigate how living systems function. Her research focuses on how tiny organisms interact with water and other fluids, with outsized impacts on everything from erosion and plant disease transmission to wastewater treatment and carbon sequestration. We sat down with the associate professor of physics and William D. and Flora McCormick chair in biophysics to learn more.

This year, 10 Puget Sound students were selected as semi-finalists for the highly competitive Fulbright U.S. Student program, more than in any previous year. We talked to some of the Loggers who are hoping to perform research or teach English as 2021 Fulbright grant recipients.

Q: What first got you interested in studying tourism and development?

Clinical Associate Professor Karin Steere D.P.T.’09 wears a lot of hats in the School of Physical Therapy. When she isn’t teaching courses on cardiopulmonary physical therapy, systemic pathology, and pharmacology, she treats performing artists and is working on a Ph.D. dissertation on pain and heart rate variability. We recently spoke with Steere about how her time as a professional dancer in a touring company led her to pursue a career a physical therapist.

Brett Rogers is fascinated by how antiquity continues to reverberate in the modern world. As professor of classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, he teaches courses in ancient languages, mythology, and gender, and his research focuses on analyzing Greek drama in the context of the time when it was performed. We caught up with Rogers to talk about science fiction, artificial intelligence, and how learning ancient Greek reorganizes your brain.

For students who started college in fall 2020, the first semester of their first year was nothing like they expected. Unable to live on campus or take in-person courses, incoming Loggers instead got to know their professors and classmates online. That’s how Jojo Marshall ’24 found herself sitting at her family’s kitchen table late at night, reading from a script into the voice memo app on her smartphone.