The Office of Multicultural Affairs (The O) celebrated its 30th anniversary — and its mission of promoting inclusivity and supporting people from all walks of life — at a gathering of hundreds of students, faculty and friends in the Lavin-Bernick Center on Nov. 7. The celebration took a sentimental turn as The O’s founder and director Carolyn Barber-Pierre (above) was lauded by colleagues, past and present students, and former college classmates.

The National Institutes of Health awarded Tulane School of Medicine a contract for up to $8.5 million over five years to develop a more effective and longer-lasting vaccine against pertussis, more commonly known as “whooping cough.” Microbiologist Lisa Morici, PhD, and immunologist James McLachlan, PhD, will lead the project to use outer membrane vesicles, which are nanoparticles shed by bacteria as they grow, to stimulate a more potent immune response than current vaccines against the disease. Worldwide, there are an estimated 24.1 million cases of pertussis and about 160,700 deaths per yea

“Nothing tells me you can do this without river reintroduction in the toolbox, since that is the tool that built the place.” -MARK DAVIS, director of the Tulane ByWater Institute and Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy, in the Engineering News Record article, “Mississippi River Diversions Could Save Louisiana’s Drowning Coast.”

J. Quincy Brown, associate professor of biomedical engineering, has been awarded a $1.6 million four-year grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health to develop a tool that could lower tumor recurrence in cancer patients, especially those with prostate cancer.

Lisa Fauci, professor of mathematics, has been named a prestigious American Physical Society Fellow. In bestowing the honor, the society cited Fauci’s “pioneering work in using modeling and simulation to understand the basic biophysics of organismal locomotion and reproductive fluid dynamics.”

“The incumbency advantage in the U.S. is really strong. We focus on the upsets. [But] once these women are in office, they can probably hold onto those positions.” -MIRYA HOLMAN, associate professor of political science, commenting in the Christian Science Monitor about the wave of women elected to office during the 2018 midterm elections.

During Outreach Tulane on Sept. 1, students Su Latt Swe Zin and Nadia Kumar bag leaves while cleaning the grounds at Renew Cultural Arts Academy at Live Oak Elementary. The student service event, in which students fan out across the city to sweep, clean, rake, plant and do other helpful activities, is held each year at the start of the fall semester.

Kirk Bouyelas, a 31-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department, is Tulane’s new chief of police. Tulane President Mike Fitts said that Bouyelas is “an extraordinary law enforcement leader.”

Tulane University’s Latin American Library has acquired the personal papers of William Spratling, renowned artist, designer, author, entrepreneur and 1920s Tulane architecture professor. This collection contains original personal and business correspondence, photographs and design drawings from the peak years of Spratling’s artistic and commercial production starting in the 1920s until his death in 1967.