Research

Brown University scholars work to turn breakthroughs and discoveries into technologies that enhance lives, placing the University among the nation’s top utility patent holders in 2024.

J. Michael Kosterlitz, a professor of physics, and Terrie Fox Wetle, a professor emerita of health services, policy and practice, will receive the Rosenberger Medal of Honor during Commencement and Reunion Weekend.

At the 26th annual Barnes Lecture, environmental law expert and former U.S. Special Envoy Monica Medina issued a stark warning about the urgent health and safety risks posed by climate change, urging sustained public attention and investment in science-driven systems like NOAA to safeguard lives and the planet.

During a campus conversation to celebrate the launch of the Center for Climate, Environment and Health, panelists explored the impacts of climate change on human health and the research that will drive life-saving solutions.

This year’s Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded to experimentalists at the Large Hadron Collider, where Brown physicists have played key roles in revealing the deepest mysteries of the universe.

The world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society honored Brown faculty members from molecular biophysics and biochemistry and evolutionary biology for significant and lasting contributions to their fields.

For the fifth time, Brown has earned the distinction of being the country’s top producer of Fulbright winners, with 40 grants offered to students and recent alumni for the 2024-25 academic year.

In recent months, prestigious national and international organizations recognized Brown faculty for their research, scholarship, humanitarian efforts and leadership.

Founded in 2014, the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society has become a leader in producing boundary-breaking, solutions-driven research while educating the next generation of environmental leaders.

The sixth floor of 225 Dyer St. has been outfitted with much-needed life sciences lab space to welcome Brown University researchers and encourage innovation and collaboration.

The ambitious goal of the new Brown RNA Center is to untangle the mysteries of human RNA, which could be instrumental in preventing and developing treatments for a wide variety of complex diseases.

A Brown University alumnus will lead the investigation for a lunar lander mission to study volcanic activity on the Moon, a mission first proposed by a Brown researcher and Brown-affiliated scientists.

The JCB, an independent research library on the Brown University campus, has refreshed its entryway and online collections access, further opening its physical and digital doors to scholars researching the history of the Americas.

Fluid mechanics researchers from Brown University and the University of Toulouse found that surfactants give the celebratory drink its stable and signature straight rise of bubbles.

The newly launched Initiative for Sustainable Energy will serve as a campus hub for driving technological advances in sustainable energy and preparing the next-generation of leaders in net-zero-carbon energy solutions.

International Space Station experiments co-led by Peter Lee, a Brown scholar, cardiothoracic surgeon and longtime space researcher, will help inform understanding and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

In celebration of 10 years of impact and the exceptional generosity of its donors, the center’s new name honors Brown’s president emerita, who sparked a landmark effort to uncover the University’s historical ties to slavery.

The Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, founded in the 2012-13 academic year, has become a leading force for original research, international engagement and public conversation on the legacies of racial slavery.

A partner effort among Brown scholars, volunteers and Native American leaders, Stolen Relations has recovered thousands of Indigenous enslavement records, drawing attention to a topic rarely broached in school history lessons.

Researchers from Brown University, Michigan State and Henry Ford Health are leading a multi-institution research effort to reduce the national suicide rate.

Appointed Brown’s 19th president in 2012, Christina H. Paxson has guided the University through major accomplishments and national moments of challenge, and she looks forward to achieving more in the years to come.

With support from a $1.25 million grant from the Abrams Foundation, scholars at Brown are working with partners to collect personal stories that reveal how slavery and colonialism shaped societies across the globe.

The Brown University Library’s new Center for Library Exploration and Research promises to strengthen scholarly inquiry and support for high-impact research by scholars on campus and beyond.

With continued momentum in support of Brown’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, new BrownTogether gifts and grants are catalyzing research on race and inequity, and supporting students from underrepresented groups.

The Climate Social Science Network, based at the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, will bring together leading scholars to catalyze collaborative research on the interests that are stalling climate action.

The Center for Computational Brain Science at Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science will harness the University’s expertise in computation, cognition and systems neuroscience toward new brain health solutions.