The Anatomy of a Fruit Fly

Two professors and a grad student devise a class to help students get the wet lab experience they need for grad school — with an assist from the mighty fruit fly.

Categories: Research, Science


Prince Marvin

Alum Marvin Prince gives color commentary on his role as a producer and Danette on top sports broadcast “The Dan Patrick Show.”

Categories: Athletics


Star Power

How a team of employees, students, researchers, an alum, and an elite telescope builder brought an important piece of research equipment — and UConn history — back to life.

Categories: Science, The University


The Moments That Made Sue Bird

Husky royalty and WNBA icon Sue Bird reflects on some of the most fateful moments in her 30 years of trailblazing. Think you’ve heard them all? Think again!

Categories: Athletics


Unmasked

How a UConn puppeteer went from being the beer guy at Whole Foods to creating animatronics for the biggest theme parks, robotics for cinematic superheroes, and crazy-clever costumes for Masked Singers.

Categories: Arts


Billion Dollar Bailey

Behind business supernova Trisha Bailey is a “deeply disturbing” story that shaped her into the resilient, generous individual she is today.

Categories: Community Impact


Basketball Capital of the World

We might as well just change Storrs’ name to this. As Jim Nantz writes here, “People don’t say Duke and UConn in the same sentence often enough, but they need to now.”

Categories: Athletics


Kicks

Why does everyone — count Lil Nas X, Matt Damon, Alicia Keys, and Penny Hardaway — want to shop for sneakers with Joe La Puma?

Categories: Business


First-Years

Three UConn School of Medicine graduates take us through year one of residency —with its fast-and-furious rotations meant to teach the finer points of chosen specialties and the broad realities of what it means to be a practicing doctor.

Categories: Health


So Hot

The work the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation at UConn Avery Point is doing today promises to make our city summers less oppressive tomorrow.

Categories: Environment


All Roads Lead Home

A storied Spanish hiking trail delivers a full-circle moment for ’90s alum Alex Chang and some lucky current students. “On the Camino, everyone writes their own story,” says Chang.

Categories: Business, Environment


G-Man: Frank Figliuzzi’s FBI Story

Frank Figliuzzi ’87 JD, host of the podcast “The Bureau with Frank Figliuzzi,” MSNBC analyst, and author of “The FBI Way,” maintains a “fidelity, bravery, integrity” mission despite retirement.

Categories: Community Impact


Play Ball!

From spitballs to spin rates, these two alums have stayed with every curve thrown at them in a combined four decades of umpiring Major League Baseball.

Categories: Athletics


“There Was Suddenly a Fatwa on my Head”

For reporting on terrorism, extremism, and atrocities against women in her country, Marvi Sirmed found herself under the most serious of death threats. The Pakistani journalist found the freedom to live — and to work and teach — at UConn.

Categories: Community Impact


Giants Among Us

A walk with history professor Frank Costigliola, a gentleman farmer and a scholar, who imparts wisdom on everything from powerful presidents to powerful speed naps.

Categories: Environment


Walk This Way

An alum and Guggenheim Fellow whose art is about nature, adventure — and sneakers.

Categories: Arts


Call Cowen!

The more extraordinary the challenge, the more likely UConn Distinguished Alumnus Scott Cowen will be asked to help.

Categories: Community Impact


Finally!

They had waited long enough. UConn’s classes of 2020 and 2021 gathered in person at The Rent for five days in May to celebrate endings and beginnings — together.

Categories: The University


Our American Girls

What do you do with a history doctorate and a pop culture obsession? If you’re these two alums, you create a hit podcast centering on ’90s nostalgia.

Categories: Arts, Business


Uphill Battles

Growing up in Jamaica, Rohan Freeman could not have envisioned himself as an engineer, re-creating the Hartford landscape. And he certainly could not have seen himself as the first Black American to climb the Seven Summits.

Categories: Business


Elevating English Majors

English professor Gina Barreca, dubbed the “feminist humor maven” by Ms. Magazine has kept us laughing through 10 books from “I Used to Be Snow White But I Drifted” to “If You Lean In, Will Men just Look Down Your Blouse?” Her latest, though, invites others to the party.


Who is the Class of 2024?

Their admissions essays — submitted shortly before “Covid” and “pandemic” became part of our daily lexicon — reveal dreams undaunted.

Categories: The University


Our Defining Moments

These Huskies — students, staff, professors, doctors, nurses, and graduates new and old —are finding innovative ways to help us all navigate a global pandemic.

Categories: Community Impact, Health


Greener Greens

“We did all of this without rocket science,” says Richard Piacentini ’84 MS, of turning Phipps Conservatory into a model of green building. “It was all done with off-the-shelf technology. That’s what we need to show people, that it’s possible to do this.”

Categories: Environment


Genetics for Justice

Anthropology professor Deborah Bolnick analyzes ancient DNA in a state-of-the-art Clean Lab in Storrs where her work is, among other things, helping to shed light on Native American histories.

Categories: Community Impact, Health


The Isis Terminator

“The intellectual rigor at UConn, in the political science program, really prepared me for everything from the Supreme Court to the White House to building up one of the largest counterterror coalitions in the world,” says Brett McGurk ’96 (CLAS).

Categories: Community Impact


tiny

The Lilliputian Landscapes of Judy (Hall) Robinson-Cox ’71 (SFA) shine a spotlight on small.

Categories: Arts


The Shape of Storrs

Geology professor Robert Thorson says UConn is UConn because glacial ice slid by 20,000 years ago and shaped the landscape that today includes our iconic Horsebarn Hill.

Categories: Arts


Show Runner

Jenn Suozzo ’99 (CLAS) was named executive producer of “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” last fall. The former dancer says she directs each episode as if it were a ballet.

Categories: Arts


The Fortunate Ones?

Unique among species, the horseshoe crab has persisted, unchanged, for hundreds of millions of years. But now, its survival is threatened by the harvesting of its prized baby-blue blood. A team at UConn seeks to map its DNA and save it from extinction.

Categories: Research


Master Class

Grammy-winning composer Kenneth Fuchs shares with students the lessons he’s learned from industry giants — and from his beloved high school band director.

Categories: Arts


Team Impact

This national nonprofit matches children with serious and chronic illnesses with college athletic teams. UConn has the most pairings of any Division 1 school in the country.

Categories: Community Impact


Clubbing

Photos and info on every one of the 650 student clubs and organizations at UConn. Just kidding — we highlight a dozen

Categories: Campus Life


Where The Wild Things Are

Tracy Rittenhouse, associate professor of natural resources and the environment, knows just how many bears and bobcats could be lurking in your Connecticut backyard

Categories: Research


The Knockout Doctor

Ringside, cageside, in the bullpen, and on the field, Dr. Anthony Alessi is on a mission to save as many human brains as possible

Categories: Athletics


What’s Next

“My expectations are higher than those of the most delusional fan,” says men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley

Categories: Athletics


Hot or Trustworthy?

UConn Communications professors made waves with a study measuring how users of dating sites evaluate trustworthiness from potential dates’ photos.

Categories: Research


Going, Going, Gone…

Around the globe, on every continent, UConn professors are working to prevent species extinction in the face of escalating climate change.

Categories: Environment


The Big Four for the Big Four

The UConn women’s basketball team made more than a little history this spring with their 82–51 win over Syracuse in the NCAA National Championship game.

Categories: Athletics


Black Hats, Cyber Bots, Zombies, and You

Cyberattacks come in all shapes and sizes and expert say it’s just a matter of time before they pose real threats to each of us. Fortunately, this crack team of cybersecurity specialists is working to protect our information.

Categories: Research


Rock On

Robert M. Thorson is crazy about stone walls. He spent years trying to dig up proof that former University president Homer Babbidge shared that love — and along the way found evidence of UConn’s first recorded student protests.


50 Years of the Benton

In honor of The Benton’s anniversary, we present highlights from favorite visiting exhibitions and examples of pieces added to the permanent collection, one for each year from 1967 to 2016.

Categories: Arts


The Art of Muckraking

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalism professor Mike Stanton teaches tried-and-true “shoe leather” investigative journalism. He hopes students will turn his skill set into new-medium magic.

Categories: Business


A Little Push

What those Swing Journals by Mirror Lake are all about — from professions of love to the eating habits of those ubiquitous ducks.

Categories: Campus Life