In the News

  1. April 11, 2022
    • Photo of Jeffrey Morenoff

    The 5% decline in the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 count of Detroit’s population made the city an “outlier” among major U.S. cities, said Jeffrey Morenoff, professor of sociology and public policy. A mix of factors, including a late start and underresourced Census teams, likely led to the undercount, “but it is fair to say that people of color, especially Blacks and Latinos nationwide, have probably been undercounted, more so than others.”

    Michigan Radio
  2. April 11, 2022
    • Photo of Oveta Fuller

    The way flu vaccines are updated each year could be a model for the future of coronavirus vaccines, says Oveta Fuller, associate professor of microbiology and immunology and a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s coronavirus advisory committee: “We need to remind ourselves … that we are very new in this pandemic. … The important thing here is that the public understands how complex this is.”

    CNN
  3. April 11, 2022
    • Photo of Adam Pritchard

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could argue that Elon Musk, who delayed disclosure of his stake in Twitter and may have earned $156 million, needs to part with the theoretical profit, but that would be a long shot, said Adam Pritchard, professor of law.

    The Washington Post
  4. April 8, 2022
    • Photo of William Elliott III
    • Photo of Terri Friedline

    Investing in college savings accounts has positive effects on the social emotional development of kids and parental practices of lower-income households, says William Elliott III, professor of social work: “What assets give you is tangible hope. … Nobody wants to toil every day just to be able to find a way to eat — they want to have a stake in their future.” Terri Friedline, associate professor of social work, says CSAs help kids “build this future orientation and thinking about college and having that be a possible future for themselves.”

    The Guardian
  5. April 8, 2022
    • Meilan King Han

    “One of the things that’s really important to me is that as a society, we really start thinking about … promoting lung health,” said Meilan Han, professor of pulmonary and critical care. “The tricky part is that lung disease before the pandemic was already significantly underdiagnosed in this country; it’s not something we routinely screened for. Ultimately, we need to make diagnosing lung disease and understanding lung injury a much bigger national priority.”

    WDIV/Detroit
  6. April 8, 2022
    • Joshua Newell

    Research by Joshua Newell, associate professor of environment and sustainability, shows that just 1 percent of the vacant land in Detroit’s Lower Eastside is made up of private and community gardens. One reason there are not more gardens, he says, is uncertainty about whether the land can be used: “It’s hard to justify putting in a lot of infrastructure if you don’t know if you’re going to have that lot to use five years down the road.”  

    Michigan Radio
  7. April 7, 2022
    • Phot of Ibáñez

    While nitrogen pollution in the atmosphere may help maple tree growth in the U.S., it isn’t expected to offset the struggles the trees will face due to climate change, says Inés Ibáñez, professor of environment and sustainability, and ecology and evolutionary biology: “We consider that to be a pollutant but from the point of view of a plant, it’s almost a fertilizer, but it’s not enough to compensate for the warmer temperatures.”

    MLive
  8. April 7, 2022
    • Photo of Stephen Ward

    The release of personal census data for 1950 — a year on the cusp of great change in the United States and its large cities — will be useful for historians and genealogists. “Detroit at the time was a majority white city and it was the fourth-largest city in the country. And because of the auto industry, it was seen as really important for the nation’s economy,” said Stephen Ward, associate professor of Afroamerican and African studies, and the Residential College.

    Detroit Free Press
  9. April 7, 2022
    • Photo of Rosa Vásquez Espinoza

    Research by Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, research fellow at the Life Sciences Institute, and colleagues seeks to better understand the Peruvian Amazon’s stingless bees, what they pollinate and the biochemical contents of their honey. “Stingless bees are bringing life back to the Amazon,” she said, by providing medicinal honey, income and pollination benefits to a region in need of help.

    National Geographic
  10. April 6, 2022
    • Photo of Carol Persad

    “It’s really quite something that aphasia affects over 2 million people in the United States. And it’s actually more common than Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy combined, and yet hardly anyone knows what it is,” said Carol Persad, professor of psychiatry and director of the U-M Aphasia Program, which helps patients communicate after a stroke, head injury or illness.

    WDIV/Detroit