Over three days, they had 38 individual meetings with staffers and subcommittees representing over 14 different states. The goal was to brief Congress on policy concerns and research in areas of quantum computing, energy and space, and advocate for specific policy agendas the students wanted members of Congress to enact.

“The teams all did a fantastic job in getting preparation, making sure that their asks were clear, and that they were walking into these meetings ready to talk about their research and requests for Congress in a strategic and well-researched way,” said Emma Louden GRD ’26, one of the lead organizers for the event and a space team lead.

The students talked to staffers within the House and Senate; the Senate Commerce, science, and transportation committee; and the House space and aeronautics subcommittee. In each of these meetings, the students presented their research and policy asks, and had conversations with staffers about their research and goals.

According to Julia Levy ’25, a staff reporter for the News and a member of the space policy team, the staffers were all interested in speaking to the students and receptive to their policy ideas.

“We had a really, really good conversation with the house space, aeronautics committee majority staff,” Levy said. “We addressed the needs of science education. They said, ‘We heard you.’ They love having us. They’re glad that early career researchers are coming to hear about these asks.”

Levy explained that it was particularly useful to steer the conversations based on what the staffers already knew and wanted to learn more about. For the space policy team specifically, by asking questions about the staffer’s previous knowledge about NASA funding, Levy was able to have more dynamic, effective conversations.

Louden and Levy also noticed correlations between the staffers’ party affiliations and their approaches to the conversations.

“[Liberal offices] didn’t really steer the conversation to something regarding their goals,” Levy said. “They were open to what we had to say, bringing in new ideas, whereas some of those more conservative-leaning offices already had preconceived notions that we either had to help guide or help support.”

In particular, according to Levy, the South Carolina office focused heavily on space debris and national security concerns.

Louden also noticed that democratic and republican offices often had differing views on space policy. Republicans focused more on national security and workforce building, while Democrats “generally have a broader picture of the benefits of space.”

Louden added that space historically has been a bipartisan topic and receives broad support from both parties. She explained that not a single meeting with staffers went negatively, and every staffer was excited to discuss space policy and hear what the student teams had to say.

According to Levy, it was easy to get in contact with members of Congress, and she hopes that members of Congress will continue to use her as a resource when continuing to discuss space policy. 

Although this was the first year the program was implemented, the organizers plan to make it an annual event and expand its scope beyond this year’s three policy teams.

Maxwell Zhu JGA ’26, who is a student lead and had the initial idea to create the event, explained that through the program, students can explore and learn how to become effective future leaders in science and technology policy.

“It has been exciting to see such an interdisciplinary group of STEM and non-STEM undergraduate, graduate and professional school students come together who are eager to share their research interests as well as develop valuable professional connections for the future,” Zhu said.

Yale STEM Hill Day is supported by the Jackson School, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the School of the Environment.

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The competition, open to all employees in Connecticut healthcare systems, will feature a symposium with national speakers addressing AI’s role in healthcare and live presentations of the top 12 proposals to an independent panel of judges. 

According to a press release from YNHHS, the competition is broken down into three phases: selection by participating institutions, judging of the selected proposals and the symposium, scheduled for May 27. The grand winner, in addition to winning $100,000, will have the opportunity to validate their algorithm in the Yale New Haven Health data ecosystem.

“We are thrilled to launch the Health AI Championship at a time when AI’s potential to revolutionize healthcare has never been greater,” said Dr. Lee Schwamm, chief digital health officer of YNHHS. “By inviting innovators to share cutting-edge ideas, we are not only fostering collaboration but also paving the way for real-world applications that can significantly improve patient outcomes and streamline healthcare operations.”

Six hospitals have already committed to participating in Yale New Haven Health’s AI Championship, including Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Gaylord Hospital, Nuvance Health, Hartford HealthCare and UConn Health. Schwamm predicts the health AI championship will attract 20-30 teams from healthcare systems across Connecticut.

According to Schwamm, the goal of the Health AI Championship is to drive innovation from the needs of the broader Connecticut healthcare system beyond just YNHHS. He hopes to create an environment where health systems form partnerships to identify areas in which AI could be used most effectively.

AI is already used across health systems, Schwamm explained. 

For example, YNHHS uses an AI program to record and summarize conversations between patients and doctors. AI also produces a patient-friendly version of the medical consultation note. Doctors draft responses to patients with the help of AI, which streamlines communication between doctors and patients.

“Then we have a lot of stuff going on in imaging, where the AI is pre-reading the images and suggesting areas to that normality, or ordering the scans to get the most abnormal scans read first,” said Schwamm. “I would say it’s all over the whole system.”

Walter Lindop, who leads the Center for Healthcare Innovation at Yale New Haven Health, believes that AI has historically been used to expedite the administrative side of healthcare by automating routine tasks like prior authorizations. 

Through innovation in AI, Lindop hopes that healthcare systems will explore new applications centered around the patient experience. By automating routine tasks for clinicians, such as writing clinical notes, AI can relieve the burden of clinicians and allow more time for interactions with patients, improving the patient experience.

“It’s also improving the quality of the interaction with the patient and translating to that patient experience,” Lindop said. “So to me, the real advantage and shift forward is towards this idea of clinical decision support and clinical care and ultimately impacting the patient experience in a positive way.” 

At the YNHH Center for Healthcare and Innovation, nine out of the 25 ongoing projects involve the use of AI, according to Lindop. For example, YNHH has collaborated with companies to use AI in insulin dosing and to optimize supply chains.

Schwamm believes that AI’s most important application — and where it outperforms humans — is synthesizing large amounts of data.

He said that sources like Apple Health kits, health tracking software on smartphones and other applications track patient health and behavior. With AI models, doctors can identify which patients will do well with their treatment, which patients are less likely to follow up on recommendations and which patients might not come for a return visit. Health systems can utilize these tools to direct resources to patients at the greatest risk.

The competition will take place on May 27.

Correction, March 1: Nine, not 25, projects at the YNHH Center for Healthcare and Innovation involve the use of AI.

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The group, some of whom have no prior background in policy, is divided into three teams: quantum, energy and space. Over the course of three days, students will meet with members of Congress and their staffers, briefing them on important research and policy concerns, and advocating for specific policies and legislation that they would like to see Congress enact.

“It has been exciting to see such an interdisciplinary group of STEM and non-STEM undergraduate, graduate and professional school students come together who are eager to share their research interests as well as develop valuable professional connections for the future,” said Maxwell Zhu JGA ’26, who is a student lead and had the initial idea to create the event. 

According to Zhu, the group is made up of students from Yale College and four graduate schools — the Jackson School, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of the Environment and the School of Public Health.

Since early in the fall 2024 semester, they have organized workshops, guest speakers, career talks and networking events to prepare for the trip. In preparation for the event, the students set up meetings with their representatives and senators. 

Julia Levy ’25, staff reporter for the News and a member of the space policy team, explained that Zhu created the program to promote discussion about science policy initiatives at the Jackson School. She highlighted the group’s diversity and range of experiences in research and policy across different fields.

“What really struck me, and what was really striking about this program, is that it was specifically tailored for those who have never had policy experience, or on the flip side, for those with policy experience who never advocated for science initiatives,” Levy said.

She noted that she was especially excited to speak to Congress about issues in science policy that directly affect her research. For instance, some of the telescopic surveys used for astrophysics research on a day-to-day basis are mainly funded by the government. If the government decreases funding, the scope of research shrinks.

Each of the three teams has been working over the past months to identify issues and policies that affect their fields and develop pitches to present to members of Congress.

“For our space team, with six members, we focus on two initiatives that we’re going to approach Congress with,” Levy said. 

One policy ask this year is asking Congress members to support the upcoming NASA Reappropriations Act to ensure NASA and the National Science Foundation will continue to have adequate funding. Many of these initiatives are currently frozen, according to Levy. The space policy team is using data sourced from the NSF and NASA, to support their policy ask.

Another policy ask, proposed by the group’s international students, is to continue the robust international collaboration between the United States and other groups on space exploration and astronomical surveys. Levy explained that some space research initiatives, such as certain surveys and large field telescopes, as well as the International Space Station, are only possible through extensive international collaboration.

“I am heartened that they are so committed to utilizing their science, technology, and policy expertise to learn how they can help develop solutions for some of the principal global challenges of our time,” wrote Ted Wittenstein ’04 LAW ’12, a faculty advisor for the program.

In preparation for the event, the students have attended workshops with guest speakers and faculty members to understand how Congress operates, and how to effectively advocate for policy. 

In particular, they learned about some of the problems with science communication and the disconnect between science researchers and policy members.

“A lot of these Congress members don’t interact with the science community,” said Levy. “So how do you communicate your research at a high technical level for those who don’t regularly see science every day?”

When Emma Louden GRD ’26, a student lead, visited Capitol Hill in the past, she became a resource for particular offices in Congress. Offices reached out to her multiple years later to ask specific questions relating to research in her field. 

Levy hopes that Congress members will continue to contact the students they will meet during STEM Day, who will continue to inform future policy.

“I think the biggest impact that we’ll continue to have past Hill day is better informing Congress members on policies directly relating to our research and continue to be a resource for particular offices,” Levy said. “If I could continue to be an asset to the members of Congress that represent my state, and my district, that would be the best outcome in the world.”

In the future, organizers plan to make STEM Hill Day an annual program and incorporate new policy teams, expanding to five next year.

Yale STEM Hill Day is supported by the Jackson School, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the School of the Environment.

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In December, YNHH integrated the newly FDA-approved Medtronic VitalFlow ECMO System and first used it to transfer a patient from Greenwich Hospital. The technology allows patients in need of long-term cardiac and respiratory support to be transported between hospitals with greater ease, improving access to advanced care.

“We’re hoping that this system allows the hospital systems and the clinicians and these clinical ECMO teams to think differently about how they provide that care,” said Dr. Karim Bandali, president of Cardiac surgery at Medtronic.

ECMO — or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation — is a form of life support that functions as an artificial heart and lung for patients experiencing severe cardiac and respiratory failure. Traditionally, ECMO systems were approved for short-term use of up to six hours. The VitalFlow ECMO System, however, is the first device to receive FDA approval for longer-term applications.

Unlike traditional ECMO devices, which are often cumbersome and require extensive setup, the Medtronic VitalFlow ECMO System, which was released last September, is designed for mobility. Its modular design allows for seamless transitions between hospital settings and ambulances, ensuring that critically ill patients receive uninterrupted life support.

“Everything comes off the cart and can be placed on the bed, making transport much easier,” David Hafler, a neurologist and professor at the School of Medicine, told the News.

According to Bandali, one of the goals when developing the VitalFlow ECMO system was to make it accessible and intuitive to use, especially by clinicians in different fields, including respiratory therapists, pulmonologists, perfusionists and cardiologists.

The VitalFlow ECMO system is also unique because of its durability. Bandali explained that clinicians need to be confident about how long the ECMO system can support a patient. The VitalFlow system was designed to give these clinicians certainty that the ECMO would reliably last up to 14 days for problems with the lungs and 5 to 7 days for problems with the heart.

Bandali also emphasized that this technology is designed not as a permanent fix but as a bridge — either giving a patient’s heart and lungs time to heal or serving as a temporary measure before a transplant or other life-saving intervention.

YNHH played a role in the system’s early implementation, working closely with Medtronic engineers to refine the technology. The hospital is among a handful of centers nationwide using the device, with its deployment extending to out-of-hospital settings. 

David Springer, senior perfusionist at YNHH, highlighted the new system’s advantages.

“We decided to move to this device because it was readily available, it was financially feasible, it was compact and concise and it’s got excellent data management tools and utilization,” Springer said.

Training and education were key factors in rolling out the system. 

YNHH’s ECMO team includes 12 perfusionists and 14 ECMO specialists, all of whom underwent rigorous training to ensure proficiency in using the VitalFlow system. The hospital’s critical care transport team also collaborated with perfusionists to streamline transport protocols. 

Beyond its immediate benefits, the VitalFlow ECMO System holds promise for future applications, including pediatric ECMO transport. The hospital has begun integrating the technology into its pediatric program, with plans to expand its use for critical care cases for infants and adolescents.

Currently, ECMO systems are only used as a backup in severe conditions when initial treatment has failed. 

However, Bandali believes that implementing VitalFlow can help ECMO systems be used for a broader range of applications, from protective therapy to early intervention. He also believes VitalFlow can help treat patients with esophageal cancer, high-risk ventricular tachycardia and burn patients.

The VitalFlow ECMO system was launched on Sept. 26, 2024. 

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Nelson Ambulance, based out of the Fairfield and New Haven counties, provides a full scope of medical transportation, and has worked closely with YNHHS in the past. Through this acquisition, YNHHS aims to strengthen the health system’s transport capabilities within emergency medical services to create a more integrated experience for patients.

“We are very excited about becoming part of the state’s leading healthcare system,” said Philip Onofrio, vice president of Nelson Ambulance Service and Affiliate Transportation companies.  “By joining our resources and expertise, we can expand access to care by bolstering our transportation presence across the YNHHS network and ensure YNHHS transportation capabilities are responsive to the evolving needs of the Connecticut Healthcare community.”

While YNHHS uses other transportation and ambulance services, Nelson Ambulance has been the number one provider of ambulance transportation, according to Onofrio. Nelson Ambulance offers critical care transports, non emergency transports, emergency transports, wheelchair services and delivery services.

Onofrio also explained that since the inception of Nelson Ambulance, they have enjoyed a strong relationship with YNHHS, and have worked in partnership for over five years. 

“Nelson Ambulance is a critical part of the medical transport business across our state,” said Christopher O’Connor, the CEO of YNHH. “This acquisition will allow for more direct supervision of patient transport allowing for better coordination and more efficient integration with medical staff resulting in better, safer care from arrival to discharge.”

YNHHS anticipates closing the transaction within the first half of the 2025 calendar year, pending regulatory approval. The process can take anywhere from three to six months, according to Onofrio. 

Through the acquisition, Nelson ambulance also hopes to provide growth opportunities for their employees. By merging with a larger organization and gaining access to new resources, Nelson Ambulance hopes that employees will have access to better training and career opportunities, according to Onofrio.

“YNHH being the premier health care system in Connecticut, and the largest in Connecticut, it has some growth pathways for our employees to seek,” Onofrio said. “And whether it’s continuing on from being a paramedic into nursing or other types of jobs, they get to avail themselves to many other types of jobs in the system, being an employee of the Yale New Haven health system.”

YNHHS has also committed to making offers of employment to all Nelson employees within good standing. Onofrio believes that due to the longstanding relationship between the two groups, a smooth integration is likely to occur.

Yale New Haven Hospital is located at 20 York St.

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The team, comprised of Rui Li SOM ’25, Sander Cohen-Janes GRD ’29, John-Paul Webster GRD ’29 and Lucy Damachi ’26, won the Quantum Disruption problem — investigating applications for quantum technology in the finance and insurance sectors. The four students created a roadmap of how industries could integrate quantum computing. 

“More people need to look at emerging technology and look outside their circle,” Li said. “It’s very promising in the future but just nascent enough that people aren’t working on it.”

Quantum computers use quantum mechanics principles to process information in a far more powerful way than classical computers, according to Li. 

In a classical computer, information is stored in bits, which can be either 0 or 1. A quantum computer uses qubits, which can exist in a state of 0, 1, or any combination of both at the same time. 

This means that instead of processing one computation at a time, a quantum computer can explore many possible solutions simultaneously, greatly increasing computer efficiency.

“Classical computers take a few hundred years to solve certain problems that a quantum computer can solve in a few hours,” Li said.

Webster highlighted how quantum computers can help reduce computational costs. Every calculation demands time, energy and money. Quantum computing can potentially speed up large-scale calculations in industries like finance and banking, reducing their cost.

The winners analyzed existing research and models to understand how businesses could integrate quantum computing to save costs. On Nov. 1, they presented their findings to business leaders and sponsors at the event, which was hosted at the University of Connecticut.

Florian Carle, the managing director of the Yale Quantum Institute and one of the organizers of Quantum UP! Challenge, said the team’s success was fueled by its members’ diverse backgrounds and skills.

Webster and Cohen-Janes are both pursuing doctorates in chemistry, while Li and Damachi are students at the School of Management and Yale College, respectively. 

“I think it gave the team the breadth of knowledge and insights that a team only composed of grad students or Yale College students would not have been able to,” Carle said. “They stand out because of the innovative approach that they have done for this challenge.”

Team members also believe that close collaboration allowed them to cover the business and technical sides of the problem in depth.

Through QuantumCT and the Yale Quantum Institute, Carle explained that he ultimately envisions creating a corridor of jobs in the quantum technology sector in Connecticut. 

“We want as many people as possible to be prepared and not scared of the future but more excited about it,” Carle said.

The team was supported by Yale Ventures, Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale and the Yale Quantum Institute.

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Ramaswamy, along with Elon Musk, will co-lead the newly proposed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — a new presidential advisory commission that seeks to reduce excess federal spending and restructure federal agencies. 

Bessent, who has taught three college seminars at Yale and previously donated to the University, was nominated to serve as secretary of the treasury, a position for which he needs to be confirmed by the Senate. If confirmed, he would follow Yale alumna Janet Yellen GRD ’71, who was appointed by President Joe Biden. 

“Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists,” Trump wrote in a statement released on Truth Social.

During his time at Yale, Bessent served as a News editor at the News. That year, Steven Mnuchin ’85, who served as treasury secretary during Trump’s first term, served as publisher of the News on the board with Bessent.

Bessent — who was in Branford College — was also president of Wolf’s Head, treasurer for the class of 1984, chairman of the 1984 Alumni Fund and assistant to the director of athletics. He was also awarded the John Proctor Clarke Prize for outstanding service and leadership within Yale College.

In a 2015 interview, Bessent shared that while in college, he originally wanted to do journalism, he decided to “consider doing something else going forward” after he lost an election to lead the News. Thus, after graduating from Yale College with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1984, Bessent went on to work at various hedge funds, including Soros Fund Management. 

After graduation, Bessent remained involved with Yale. He sat on the University Council, an advisory body to the Yale president. Between 2006 and 2011, he also taught three courses at Yale: “Twentieth Century Financial Booms and Busts,” “Hedge Funds: History, Theory and Practice,” and a class about the financial panic between 2007 and 2009.

Bessent supported the Democratic Party in the past, hosting a fundraiser for former Vice President Al Gore and donating to former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton LAW ’73. 

By 2011, however, Bessent had become a major donor to Republican politicians. In 2016, Bessent gave $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inauguration. And while he was not part of Trump’s first term as president, Bessent was an economic advisor for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Bessent advocates for deficit reduction and deregulation and calls for spending cuts and shifts in existing taxes to offset the costs that the tax extension would add to the federal deficit.

“Scott will support my Policies that will drive U.S. Competitiveness, and stop unfair Trade imbalances, work to create an Economy that places Growth at the forefront, especially through our coming World Energy Dominance,” Trump wrote when announcing his Treasury pick.

If confirmed, Bessent will be the second openly gay Cabinet secretary in United States history and the first openly gay cabinet member in a Republican administration. 

Ramaswamy, a 2024 presidential candidate who ran against Trump before joining his team, graduated from Yale Law School in 2013. During his time at Yale, he met Vice President-elect JD Vance LAW ’13 and was a part of the Jewish intellectual discussion society Shabtai.

Before Yale, he graduated from Harvard in 2007 and co-founded a private social networking website while working at the Hedge Fund QVT Financial. After graduating from Yale, he founded Roivant Sciences, a biotechnology firm, and has amassed a net worth of $950 million in 2023, according to Forbes. 

“These two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump wrote in a press release of Ramaswamy and Musk, who will co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency.

Ramaswamy has proposed drastic reform and restructuring to the federal government, such as eliminating the Department of Education, the FBI and the IRS by executive order. He also agrees with plans to cut the federal workforce by 75 percent and slash foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Ramaswamy said he plans to cut “the $500 billion-plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended.”

“The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long,” Ramaswamy and Musk wrote in Wall Street Journal in November. “That’s why we’re doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians.”

During Trump’s first administration, four members of his 16-person cabinet were Yale alumni, and three other alumni held prominent leadership roles in the administration. As of early December, Ramaswamy and Bessent have been the only Yale alumni named to the second Trump administration

Donald Trump will take office on Jan. 20, 2025.

Correction, Dec. 3: Trump has not nominated Ramaswamy and Bessent but tapped them for positions. 

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The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, released biannually, evaluates patient safety in general acute-care hospitals across the United States, grading them on a scale from “A” to “F.” More than half of Connecticut hospitals received a grade higher than YNHH and its Saint Raphael campus. Per Leapfrog Safety Grade, YNHH performs worse than average in staff responsiveness, blood leakage, dangerous object left in patient’s body and patient falls and injuries categories.

“The numbers of mistakes that do happen are far too high and we need to keep focusing on it,” Lisa Freeman, executive director of the Connecticut Center for Patient Safety, told the News. “And we need to involve the patients more.”

YNHH did not respond to requests for comment.

The Leapfrog Safety Grade uses data from multiple sources, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — CMS. The system assesses up to 22 measures of patient safety and compares each measure to the national average to produce a single letter grade for each category. 

The rating’s purpose is to enable patients to make a more informed decision when choosing a hospital. According to Alexandra Campione, a program analyst for the Leapfrog Group, hospitals with a “C” grade lost an additional three lives per 1,000 patients compared to “A”-rated hospitals.

“Patient safety is something that should be on the forefront of everyone’s minds when they are admitted to a hospital,” Campione wrote to the News, adding that patients should seek out higher-rated hospitals when possible. 

Yale New Haven Hospitals have received a “C” rating in six out of seven past seasons. The latest report identified that the hospitals have performed worse than average in nine categories.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Freeman shared, she went to the YNHH emergency room after sustaining a concussion. There, she waited two hours before receiving an initial CAT scan, after which she was placed in the waiting room for eight hours with no further response.

“They’re below average when it comes to responsiveness of hospital staff,” Freeman said. “And that’s why people go to the hospital, because they need a response.” 

However, Yale New Haven hospitals performed above average in practices to prevent errors: nursing and bedside care for patients, doctors ordering medication through a computer and safe medication administration.

While Leapfrog is a tool for patients to evaluate a hospital’s safety, it is not a regulatory standard.

“The Connecticut Department of Public Health — CTDPH — does not utilize grading systems of private organizations nor evaluate any alignment between such systems and the regulatory standards that apply to hospitals,” Christopher Boyle, a CTDPH spokesperson, wrote the News. 

Instead, the CTDPH enforces compliance with federal and state safety requirements, investigating complaints and ensuring healthcare facilities meet established regulatory standards.

Freeman explained that the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is an accurate and reliable patient safety measure. She emphasizes that the Leapfrog Group is one of the few systems focusing specifically on patient safety.

“It’s a very good tool. As a patient, my concern would be, am I going to come out as whole as I went in?” Freeman said. “And I think Leapfrog covers that very, very well.”

According to Campione, hospitals like YNHH have the tools to improve their ratings. The organization recommends greater attention to infection control, enhanced staff training and better adherence to safety protocols to reduce preventable errors.

YNHH is located at 20 York St.

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Raskin led a nine-person team that proved the geometric portion of the Langlands conjectures, a theoretical framework for fundamental relationships between three branches of math: number theory, harmonic analysis and geometry. This achievement has far-reaching implications for mathematics, physics and quantum field theory. 

“We always knew that there was some very big mystery, and until we solve that we won’t be able to do the full proof,” said Dennis Gaitsgory, director of the Max Planck Institute for mathematics in Bonn, Germany, who worked closely with Raskin on his team. “I thought it would take decades to prove it, and suddenly they cracked it.”

The Langlands program — originally proposed in 1967 by former Yale doctoral student and professor Robert Langlands — is a series of conjectures that suggest deep connections between seemingly unrelated areas of math. These conjectures have been fundamental to modern mathematics and unlock new ways of thinking about mathematical ideas.

Raskin, a professor of mathematics in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, proved the geometric Langlands program. His research specifically focuses on algebraic geometry: using shapes and geometry to imagine algebraic equations. Raskin’s team formulated Langlands’ number theory conjecture in terms of geometry, and then proceeded to prove it. 

The monumental accomplishment is the product of over thirty years of research in the field of the geometric Langlands conjectures. Given its highly detailed and abstract nature, Gaitsgory noted that it would take months, if not years, to simply explain all the definitions needed to understand the work, and that the scope of the achievement is almost impossible for people without an advanced mathematics background to comprehend.

“It is extremely beautiful, beautiful mathematics, which is connected very much with other mathematics and with mathematical physics,” said Alexander Beilinson, a University of Chicago professor who has worked closely with Raskin in the past. 

Raskin was first introduced to this research as an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago, where he worked with Beilinson and Vladimir Drinfeld, mathematicians who first explored the idea of the geometric conjecture. He later completed his doctorate at Harvard, where he further pursued research in the field with Gaitsgory, his Ph.D. advisor. 

Raskin said he has always been interested in the field of Langlands conjectures, and has explored different approaches to research throughout his career. He compares his work to experimental science in the sense that he closely monitors other researchers’ contributions to the fields and chooses less-attempted approaches to delve into.

“Mathematical research isn’t necessarily geared towards big problems, but it’s geared towards incremental progress and understanding things a little bit better,” Raskin said. “And sometimes you have a new idea which is interesting, and you play with it; if you get really lucky, then it connects to some big stuff.

One of the main breakthroughs came during a tumultuous time in his life. A few weeks after Raskin and Joakim Faergeman, a Yale graduate student, had published a crucial paper, Raskin drove his wife to the hospital, where she stayed for six weeks before the birth of their second child. 

During this time, Raskin used the long hours driving from home, school and the hospital, to call Gaitsgory and discuss ideas for the proof. 

“There’s been a lot of progress, but there have been certain hurdles no one’s ever really been able to get past,” Raskin said. “Somehow, somewhere in there, in essentially the worst week of my life, I managed to get past the last hurdle.” 

Gaitsgory explained another potential significance for science: physicists Anton Kapustin and Edward Witten independently realized that the geometric Langlands conjecture was a consequence of quantum field theory. Therefore, according to Gaitsgory, this research offers mathematical proof for particular behaviors in quantum field theory. 

Aside from the final proof, the research that Raskin and his collaborators have been producing over the past decades has shaped the field of Langlands conjectures, and has unlocked new relationships in modern mathematics.

“Even that process of just contributing knowledge [to] the field without solving the full proof is

what 90 percent of my life consisted of,” Gaitsgory said. “But it was satisfying enough.”

In the future, Raskin and Gaitsgory plan to continue working in the field of Langlands conjectures, and they feel that there is still much information to be discovered. 

Sam Raskin received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 2014.

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Designed by Envirosuite, an environmental intelligence company that specializes in aviation noise management, the airport hopes the platform will increase transparency and open communication with the community. Locals have highlighted concerns about noise pollution, which the website hopes to help mitigate. 

“We’re investing in the community with a professional grade system that represents the kind of airport that is part of the neighborhood,” Andrew King, a spokesperson for the Tweed-New Haven airport, said. 

This comes in response to nearby residents’ voicing the ways in which the airport’s activity is negatively affecting their daily lives — including air pollution, traffic and the degradation of surrounding wetlands — in addition to noise pollution.

Tweed-New Haven airport is surrounded by the towns of East Haven and Branford and by New Haven’s East Shore neighborhood — residents of which are primarily affected.

“The Branford sky is just covered. It’s just covered with flight paths like crazy,” said Shirley McCarthy, a resident of Short Beach, Branford and retired School of Medicine Professor. “It’s no longer peaceful.”

Jody Rowell, who has lived a block from the airport for over 13 years, also voiced concerns about noise and air pollution. She described how the older airplane models that frequently fly from the airport produce exceptionally loud noises, and how fumes from airplanes idling on the runway enter her house on a regular basis. 

Lorena Venegas, a resident of East Haven who works in the healthcare field, also finds air pollution especially concerning, pointing out that a high population of East Haven residents have asthma and lung conditions. 

“Noise pollution affects me in my everyday life,” she said. “Right now, we’re woken up in all hours of the night by planes around the flight path.”

Despite a voluntary agreement to limit the planes flying from the airport during nighttime hours, all three residents have been frequently disturbed by planes during this time.

By implementing WebTrak, the airport aims to increase transparency and incorporate community feedback to achieve solutions for these issues, according to King. The airport has been working with Envirosuite for months to release the online platform.

“The algorithms that we’ve developed are able to correlate the noise that the noise monitor measures to the aircraft position,” Greg Bracci, the vice president of Envirosuite, said. “And that’s what’s different with what we offer versus other websites that are out there.”

In addition to giving residents a real-time flight tracker to see planes’ locations and noise levels, the airport also intends to use the system to obtain data to create more effective noise mitigation strategies. By quantifying where planes are creating the most noise, the airport can know where to apply more resources in the future, according to King.

Most importantly, WebTrak is part of the airport’s efforts to incorporate community feedback.

King noted that the airport regularly holds public meetings to listen to residents’ concerns and suggestions. He explained that the idea of working with Envirosuite was first considered during a public meeting in which a resident asked about using noise monitors. King explained that the airport looked into options available at that meeting, which eventually led to the partnership with Envirosuite. 

King also said that the airport has been looking into different solutions for problems other than noise pollution, such as working with the City of New Haven for new traffic mitigation measures, and a program to provide residents near the airport with HEPA air filters in their homes. He said they hope to implement resident feedback on these issues in the nearby future.

Despite these initiatives, many residents believe that the airport frequently makes empty promises and does not deliver real solutions. Rowell noted that with only two noise monitors, and no real solutions promised beyond monitoring, she believes that the launch of WebTrak will not significantly improve residents’ quality of life.

“It’s another band aid, another cover up that Tweed and the city of New Haven are doing to look like they’re pacifying our concerns, rather than taking real action,” Rowell said. “There has been absolutely no response to the community.”

Venegas notes that the airport has ignored many suggestions that residents have proposed for years, such as providing noise medication or a “hot button” to indicate when a plane is flying directly over a home. All three residents said that the problems of noise and air pollution are only getting worse due to the airport’s expansion, and the airport is not receptive to their concerns.

King attributed some of these challenges to the airport’s rapid expansion in recent years, growing from almost zero passengers to over 600,000 per year. He cited difficulties in hiring personnel and financial challenges that the airport faces to rapidly introduce new solutions. 

King also noted that there are community members who enjoy living next to the airport as well due to its convenience, and that the airport supports the local economy.

“We employ over 300 people at the airport, and many of those come directly from the community,” King said.

New Haven residents, however, continue to say they remain negatively impacted by the airport’s expansion. Venegas notes health-related concerns, noting that noise is linked to cardiovascular problems and strokes. She explains that more than just quality of life, she is worried about the community’s health. 

All three residents hoped that the airport would incorporate more community feedback. 

“I have to tell you, the community is tired, and we don’t trust that this is actually going to actually do anything or get us anywhere,” Rowell said. “It feels like another set up.”

Tweed-New Haven airport is located at 155 Burr St.

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