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Houston-area chemical plants expected to curb emissions under new federal rules

News Feed
Tuesday, April 9, 2024

GABRIEL C. PÉREZ / KUTGas is burned off from an oil well in West Texas.Chemical plants throughout the Houston area will now be expected to reduce air pollution emissions under new rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — an effort focused on reducing hazardous air pollutants in nearby communities. Under the EPA’s new policy, chemical plants throughout the U.S. will now be required to monitor and reduce the emission of cancer-causing chemicals, including chloroprene, which is used to make synthetic rubber in shoes, and ethylene oxide, which is used as a pesticide and a sterilizing agent. The EPA expects the new policy to reduce the spread of these two chemicals throughout neighboring communities by about 80%. Additionally, the rule will require plants to conduct fenceline monitoring — which is used to measure pollution in the air around the facility — if the plant uses, produces, stores or emits ethylene oxide, chloroprene, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, ethylene dichloride or vinyl chloride. The plants will also be required to plug leaks in storage tanks and improve the efficiency of flares used to burn materials that would otherwise be released into the community. Overall, the federal agency says the policy should keep more than 6,200 tons of hazardous pollutants out of the air annually and reduce the creation of more than 23,000 tons of smog-forming emissions each year. The EPA claims that these changes will result in a 96% reduction in the number of people living with elevated cancer risk in nearby communities. “It’s a very big deal,” said Luke Metzger, the executive director of Environment Texas. “It’s going to mean far cleaner air for all of Houston and far fewer people contracting cancer.” In total, the new federal will impact about 200 facilities across the country — most of which are located in Texas and Louisiana, along with facilities in Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio. This comes after the EPA tightened nationwide standards for fine particle air pollution back in February, forcing county leaders to lower soot levels throughout the region, which is home to a large number of refineries and other industrial facilities — some of which already struggled to maintain previous federal standards.

Under the EPA's new policy, several chemical plants in the Houston area will now be required to monitor and reduce the emission of cancer-causing chemicals.

Gas is burned off from an oil well in West Texas.

GABRIEL C. PÉREZ / KUT

Gas is burned off from an oil well in West Texas.

Chemical plants throughout the Houston area will now be expected to reduce air pollution emissions under new rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — an effort focused on reducing hazardous air pollutants in nearby communities.

Under the EPA’s new policy, chemical plants throughout the U.S. will now be required to monitor and reduce the emission of cancer-causing chemicals, including chloroprene, which is used to make synthetic rubber in shoes, and ethylene oxide, which is used as a pesticide and a sterilizing agent.

The EPA expects the new policy to reduce the spread of these two chemicals throughout neighboring communities by about 80%.

Additionally, the rule will require plants to conduct fenceline monitoring — which is used to measure pollution in the air around the facility — if the plant uses, produces, stores or emits ethylene oxide, chloroprene, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, ethylene dichloride or vinyl chloride.

The plants will also be required to plug leaks in storage tanks and improve the efficiency of flares used to burn materials that would otherwise be released into the community.

Overall, the federal agency says the policy should keep more than 6,200 tons of hazardous pollutants out of the air annually and reduce the creation of more than 23,000 tons of smog-forming emissions each year. The EPA claims that these changes will result in a 96% reduction in the number of people living with elevated cancer risk in nearby communities.

“It’s a very big deal,” said Luke Metzger, the executive director of Environment Texas. “It’s going to mean far cleaner air for all of Houston and far fewer people contracting cancer.”

In total, the new federal will impact about 200 facilities across the country — most of which are located in Texas and Louisiana, along with facilities in Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio.

This comes after the EPA tightened nationwide standards for fine particle air pollution back in February, forcing county leaders to lower soot levels throughout the region, which is home to a large number of refineries and other industrial facilities — some of which already struggled to maintain previous federal standards.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

PFAS mixtures more toxic than single compounds, suggesting higher danger

First-of-its-kind research highlights need for change to regulation, as humans almost always exposed to mixtures Mixtures of different types of PFAS compounds are often more toxic than single chemicals, first-of-its-kind research finds, suggesting humans’ exposure to the chemicals is more dangerous than previously thought.Humans are almost always exposed to more than one PFAS compound at a time, but regulatory agencies largely look at the chemicals in isolation from one another, meaning regulators are probably underestimating the health threat. Continue reading...

Mixtures of different types of PFAS compounds are often more toxic than single chemicals, first-of-its-kind research finds, suggesting humans’ exposure to the chemicals is more dangerous than previously thought.Humans are almost always exposed to more than one PFAS compound at a time, but regulatory agencies largely look at the chemicals in isolation from one another, meaning regulators are probably underestimating the health threat.“Our point is that PFAS needs to be regulated as mixtures,” said Diana Aga, a study co-author with the University of Buffalo, which partnered with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany.PFAS are a class of about 15,000 compounds most frequently used to make products water-, stain- and grease-resistant. They have been linked to cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, high cholesterol, kidney disease and a range of other serious health problems. They are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down in the environment.The study, which relied on modeling with in vitro cells, not human or animal studies, checked the neurotoxicity and cytotoxicity for combinations of up to 12 PFAS compounds that the federal government has regularly found in water. It also looked at a combination of four PFAS that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has often found in blood serum.Cytotoxicity refers to toxicity to cells, and the researchers measured oxidative stress, which is a marker of potential health impacts.The research did not find a synergistic effect in which a combination of PFAS enhanced the chemicals’ toxicity – instead, it showed that the toxicity is additive.Aga likened it to finding that “one plus one equals two”, rather than “one plus one equals 10”, as some had feared might be the case with PFAS compounds.“Originally, that’s what we thought, but it’s not synergistic. It’s just simple addition,” Aga said.Still, it is a problem in the real world because some compounds are more toxic than others. PFOA and PFOS are two of the most common and dangerous PFAS chemicals, research over recent decades has found, and one of those compounds is very frequently found in contaminated human blood or drinking water.The sum of those chemicals can present a danger, even if they are below the Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking-water limits of 4ppt (parts per trillion) for each.Hypothetically, if PFOA and PFOS levels were present at 3ppt each, then the water would be considered safe by EPA standards. But the sum of each chemical’s toxicity would probably make the water dangerously toxic.The new study found PFOA to be the most cytotoxic, making up to 42% of the water mixture’s cytotoxicity. In the blood sample, it accounted for nearly 70% of the cytotoxicity, and 38% of the neurotoxicity.The study also looked at PFAS combinations found in sewage sludge used as fertilizer and spread on cropland as a cheap fertilizer. Sewage sludge, or biosolids, is a byproduct of the water-treatment process that is left over when water is separated from human and industrial waste discharged into the nation’s sewer systems. It can contain any of tens of thousands of chemicals sent into the US sewer system.Environmental groups have blasted the practice and sued the EPA for allowing it because biosolids can pollute water and contaminate food.When researchers analyzed the toxicity of biosolid samples collected from a municipal wastewater treatment plant, they found very high toxicities despite low concentrations of PFOA and other PFAS in the sample.“It was more toxic than what we predicted, not necessarily because of other PFAS, but other chemicals in biosolids that can cause toxicity,” Aga said.

L.A. County sues Pepsi and Coca-Cola over their role in ongoing plastic pollution crisis

The suit is the latest in a series of high-profile legal actions California officials have taken against petrochemical corporations and plastic manufacturers.

Los Angeles County has filed suit against the world’s largest beverage companies — Coca-Cola and Pepsi — claiming the soda and drink makers lied to the public about the effectiveness of plastic recycling, and as a result, left county residents and ecosystems choking in discarded plastic.The suit is the latest in a series of high-profile legal actions California officials have taken against petrochemical corporations and plastic manufacturers. In September, sate Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and a group of environmental organizations sued Exxon Mobil, accusing the company falsely promoting plastics as universally recyclable when, in reality, the vast majority of these products cannot be reused.The Los Angeles County suit alleges — in a vein similar to that of Bonta’s suit against ExxonMobil — that the global beverage companies misrepresented the environmental impact of their plastic bottles, “despite knowing that plastics cannot be readily disposed of without associated environmental impacts.”“Coke and Pepsi need to stop the deception and take responsibility for the plastic pollution problems” their products are causing, said Los Angeles County Board Chair Lindsey P. Horvath.Neither company had yet to respond to requests for comment from The Times.Currently, just 9% of the world’s plastics are recycled. The rest ends up being incinerated, sent to landfills, or discarded on the landscape, where they are often flushed into rivers or out to sea. At the same time, there is growing concern about the health and environmental consequences of microplastics — the bits of degraded plastic that slough off as the product ages, or is used, or washed. The tiny particles have been detected in every ecosystem on the planet that has been surveyed, as well as nearly every living organism examined — including the brain, heart, lungs, blood and semen of humans.In a statement, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors said that current methods of recycling are “incapable of eliminating environmental impacts.” Coca-Cola and PepsiCo own the brands Coke, Pepsi, Dasani, Smartwater, Fanta, Aquafina, Gatorade, 7-Up, Sprite, Vitamin Water, and Mountain Dew, among others. Together, the two companies own roughly 72.8% of the carbonated soft drink market in the U.S. — with Coca-Cola owning 46.3% and Pepsi 26.5%. According to the county’s statement, the two companies have consistently ranked as the world’s “top plastic polluters.”Environmentalists and plastic pollution opponents hailed the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday. “It’s encouraging to see corporate polluters finally being held accountable for exploiting the trust of their customers in order to turn huge profits at the expense of human and planetary health,” said Jennifer Savage of the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation. Surfrider, Heal the Bay, Sierra Club, and San Francisco Baykeeper collectively sued ExxonMobil in September, in a lawsuit similar to Bonta’s.The beverage maker lawsuit was filed by County Counsel Dawyn R. Harrison on behalf of the People of the State of California in Los Angeles Superior Court.The suit seeks injunctive relief to “stop the companies’ unfair and deceptive business practices, restitution for consumers of the money acquired by means of the companies’ unfair and deceptive business practices, and civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation,” the county board said in a statement.The penalties could be per customer or per bottle — the case will be prosecuted in civil court by the County Counsel’s Affirmative Litigation and Consumer Protection Division.“The goal of this lawsuit is to stop the unfair and illegal conduct, to address the marketing practices that deceive consumers, and to force these businesses to change their practices to reduce the plastic pollution problem in the County and in California,” said Harrison in a statement. “My office is committed to protecting the public from deceptive business practices and holding these companies accountable for their role in the plastic pollution crisis.”

Stricter toxic chemical rules reduce Californians’ exposures

Californians have lower levels of toxic chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and reproductive harm in their bodies than people in the rest of the country, according to a new study. California has the strictest chemical regulations of any state, and its policies are more stringent than federal chemical laws. This study is the first one assessing whether those regulations have resulted in lower levels of toxic exposures. The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives and conducted by researchers at Silent Spring Institute, a nonprofit scientific research organization, and the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley), looked at nationwide data on the levels of 37 toxic chemicals in people’s blood before and after California introduced its stringent regulations. It found that for 18 of these chemicals, Californians have lower levels in their bodies than the rest of the country. “Our finding … has potentially far-reaching implications,” Claudia Polsky, a study co-author and director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, said in a statement. “It suggests a tangible public health payoff from the state's more stringent environmental regulations.” California’s primary chemical regulation, Prop 65, requires that products sold in the state include labels if they contain potentially harmful levels of any of 850 chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm. The researchers found that in the years after a chemical was listed in Prop 65, levels of that chemical in people’s bodies decreased in California — and beyond. “Not only have people’s exposures to specific toxic chemicals gone down in California, but we also see exposures going down across the country driven in part by Proposition 65,” the study’s lead author, Kristin Knox, a research scientist at Silent Spring Institute, said in a statement. It’s difficult to produce and sell separate versions of products in different states, so companies seeking to avoid a Prop 65 label are more likely to reformulate their products nationwide to remove chemicals that are regulated under California’s policy. “This aligns with what we’ve learned by interviewing companies,” said Knox. “When companies reformulate their products to avoid Prop 65 chemicals, they end up doing that for all their products, not just those sold in California.” Lower levels of BPA, PFAS and phthalates  Researchers analyzed levels of harmful chemicals in Americans’ bodies through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (or NHANES), a federal program that collects health data from adults and children across the country every year, including measuring chemicals and pollutants in blood and urine. “It suggests a tangible public health payoff from the state's more stringent environmental regulations.” - Claudia Polsky, a study co-author and director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. The 37 chemicals the researchers looked at included 26 chemicals that are listed under Prop 65, meaning they’re linked to cancer, reproductive harm or birth defects, and 11 chemicals that are not listed under Prop 65. The list included: Phthalates, which are found in cosmetics and personal care products. Phenols, like bisphenol A, or BPA, which are found in plastic products, disinfectants, and food products. Heavy metals, like lead and arsenic, which are sometimes found in cosmetics and food containers. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are found in cigarette smoke, emitted in vehicle exhaust, and found in some foods. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS or “forever chemicals”), which are found in cosmetics and personal care products, nonstick cookware, food packaging, and waterproof and stainproof clothing and furniture. The 18 chemicals that were found at lower levels in Californians than the rest of the country included diesel-related chemicals, several phthalates, BPA and PFAS. Regrettable substitutionsThe study also found evidence that after a toxic chemical was added to Prop 65, some companies substituted those chemicals for similar but unregulated chemicals. For example, levels of BPA, which has been used in plastic, thermal receipt paper and food can linings, decreased in people’s bodies after the chemical was listed under Prop 65 in 2013, but levels of bisphenol-S (BPS), a similar chemical linked to many of the same health effects, increased in people’s bodies. Similarly, levels of the phthalate DEHP, which is used in vinyl and other plastic products, decreased in the bodies of Californians after it was listed under Prop 65 in 2003, but levels of a similar, unlisted phthalate called DiNP went up. Levels of DiNP then decreased in people’s bodies after the chemical was also listed under Prop 65 in 2013. The researchers say their findings highlight the need for increased investment to track changes in people’s exposures to toxic chemicals in response to policies. “NHANES isn’t designed to detect changes in chemical exposures driven by local or state-level policy,” study co-author Meg Schwarzman, a physician and environmental health scientist at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, said in a statement. “Policymakers could change this picture by better supporting both NHANES and state-level biomonitoring programs, as well as creating chemicals policies that require before-and-after testing to measure the policy’s effectiveness.”

Californians have lower levels of toxic chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects and reproductive harm in their bodies than people in the rest of the country, according to a new study. California has the strictest chemical regulations of any state, and its policies are more stringent than federal chemical laws. This study is the first one assessing whether those regulations have resulted in lower levels of toxic exposures. The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives and conducted by researchers at Silent Spring Institute, a nonprofit scientific research organization, and the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley), looked at nationwide data on the levels of 37 toxic chemicals in people’s blood before and after California introduced its stringent regulations. It found that for 18 of these chemicals, Californians have lower levels in their bodies than the rest of the country. “Our finding … has potentially far-reaching implications,” Claudia Polsky, a study co-author and director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, said in a statement. “It suggests a tangible public health payoff from the state's more stringent environmental regulations.” California’s primary chemical regulation, Prop 65, requires that products sold in the state include labels if they contain potentially harmful levels of any of 850 chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm. The researchers found that in the years after a chemical was listed in Prop 65, levels of that chemical in people’s bodies decreased in California — and beyond. “Not only have people’s exposures to specific toxic chemicals gone down in California, but we also see exposures going down across the country driven in part by Proposition 65,” the study’s lead author, Kristin Knox, a research scientist at Silent Spring Institute, said in a statement. It’s difficult to produce and sell separate versions of products in different states, so companies seeking to avoid a Prop 65 label are more likely to reformulate their products nationwide to remove chemicals that are regulated under California’s policy. “This aligns with what we’ve learned by interviewing companies,” said Knox. “When companies reformulate their products to avoid Prop 65 chemicals, they end up doing that for all their products, not just those sold in California.” Lower levels of BPA, PFAS and phthalates  Researchers analyzed levels of harmful chemicals in Americans’ bodies through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (or NHANES), a federal program that collects health data from adults and children across the country every year, including measuring chemicals and pollutants in blood and urine. “It suggests a tangible public health payoff from the state's more stringent environmental regulations.” - Claudia Polsky, a study co-author and director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. The 37 chemicals the researchers looked at included 26 chemicals that are listed under Prop 65, meaning they’re linked to cancer, reproductive harm or birth defects, and 11 chemicals that are not listed under Prop 65. The list included: Phthalates, which are found in cosmetics and personal care products. Phenols, like bisphenol A, or BPA, which are found in plastic products, disinfectants, and food products. Heavy metals, like lead and arsenic, which are sometimes found in cosmetics and food containers. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are found in cigarette smoke, emitted in vehicle exhaust, and found in some foods. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS or “forever chemicals”), which are found in cosmetics and personal care products, nonstick cookware, food packaging, and waterproof and stainproof clothing and furniture. The 18 chemicals that were found at lower levels in Californians than the rest of the country included diesel-related chemicals, several phthalates, BPA and PFAS. Regrettable substitutionsThe study also found evidence that after a toxic chemical was added to Prop 65, some companies substituted those chemicals for similar but unregulated chemicals. For example, levels of BPA, which has been used in plastic, thermal receipt paper and food can linings, decreased in people’s bodies after the chemical was listed under Prop 65 in 2013, but levels of bisphenol-S (BPS), a similar chemical linked to many of the same health effects, increased in people’s bodies. Similarly, levels of the phthalate DEHP, which is used in vinyl and other plastic products, decreased in the bodies of Californians after it was listed under Prop 65 in 2003, but levels of a similar, unlisted phthalate called DiNP went up. Levels of DiNP then decreased in people’s bodies after the chemical was also listed under Prop 65 in 2013. The researchers say their findings highlight the need for increased investment to track changes in people’s exposures to toxic chemicals in response to policies. “NHANES isn’t designed to detect changes in chemical exposures driven by local or state-level policy,” study co-author Meg Schwarzman, a physician and environmental health scientist at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, said in a statement. “Policymakers could change this picture by better supporting both NHANES and state-level biomonitoring programs, as well as creating chemicals policies that require before-and-after testing to measure the policy’s effectiveness.”

DuPont Plant in Louisiana Fined $480,000 for Releasing a Cancer-Causing Chemical

A chemical manufacturing plant west of New Orleans has agreed to pay a $480,000 federal fine and install equipment to stop the release of a cancer-causing chemical from a storage tank and pipe

RESERVE, La. (AP) — A chemical manufacturing plant west of New Orleans has agreed to pay a $480,000 federal fine and install equipment to stop the release of a cancer-causing chemical from a storage tank and pipe.The consent agreement and final order outlining the settlement between DuPont and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was filed Sept. 25, about 2½ years after an unannounced inspection found several releases of benzene at levels greater than federal rules allowed, The Advocate reported.The plant is located roughly a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) from an elementary school in Reserve, Louisiana, and is within an 85-mile (137-kilometer) stretch of the state known officially as the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor. Colloquially it is called Cancer Alley.Daniel Turner, a spokesperson for DuPont Specialty Products, said the release of the chemicals had caused “no impacts to site personnel or to the community.”“We are pleased to resolve this matter with the U.S. EPA,” Turner said. “From the time the on-site inspection occurred, we have disputed the instrument readings captured by EPA from those of our contractors. However, we have taken immediate corrective actions to resolve the issues identified in the inspection process."According to the EPA, benzene has been found to cause an increase in leukemia cases for those occupationally exposed. Women who have inhaled high levels of benzene have reported reproductive effects, and long-term exposure can also cause blood disorders. Short-term exposure can cause drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation, and at high levels can cause unconsciousness.EPA officials monitored 77 valves and two pumps on the first day of the inspection when they found the violations. They measured 20,100 parts per million of benzene streaming from a vent on a benzene waste tank, and 1,933 ppm of benzene leaking out of a second pressure/vacuum valve.The inspectors also found an open-ended line from a valve and a second valve in a different location that were leaking about 542 ppm of benzene, just above the EPA limit.DuPont said its own measurements found much lower benzene levels — though still higher than the EPA limit.Federal law requires major industries to assure that tanks storing benzene have no detectible emissions, which is indicated by readings of less than 500 ppm and visual inspections. The same standard applies to pipelines or valves used to move benzene, but open-ended valves or lines must be capped or plugged.The DuPont facility is located on the same site as Denka Performance Elastomers, which the federal government in 2023 accused of presenting an unacceptable cancer risk to the nearby majority-Black community. The DuPont facility makes paraphenylenediamine, or PPDA, a chemical it ships to another DuPont plant to manufacture Kevlar, used in making bulletproof vests. The facility has about 280 employees and contractor employees at the site. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

MIT affiliates receive 2024-25 awards and honors from the American Physical Society

Two faculty, a graduate student, and 10 additional alumni receive top awards and prizes; four faculty, one senior researcher, and seven alumni named APS Fellows.

A number of individuals with MIT ties have received honors from the American Physical Society (APS) for 2024 and 2025.Awardees include Professor Frances Ross; Professor Vladan Vuletić, graduate student Jiliang Hu ’19, PhD ’24; as well as 10 alumni. New APS Fellows include Professor Joseph Checkelsky, Senior Researcher John Chiaverini, Associate Professor Areg Danagoulian, Professor Ruben Juanes, and seven alumni.Frances M. Ross, the TDK Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, received the 2025 Joseph F. Keithley Award For Advances in Measurement Science  “for groundbreaking advances in in situ electron microscopy in vacuum and liquid environments.”Ross uses transmission electron microscopy to watch crystals as they grow and react under different conditions, including both liquid and gaseous environments. The microscopy techniques developed over Ross’ research career help in exploring growth mechanisms during epitaxy, catalysis, and electrochemical deposition, with applications in microelectronics and energy storage. Ross’ research group continues to develop new microscopy instrumentation to enable deeper exploration of these processes.Vladan Vuletić, the Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics, received the 2025 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science “for pioneering work on spin squeezing for optical atomic clocks, quantum nonlinear optics, and laser cooling to quantum degeneracy.” Vuletić’s research includes ultracold atoms, laser cooling, large-scale quantum entanglement, quantum optics, precision tests of physics beyond the Standard Model, and quantum simulation and computing with trapped neutral atoms.His Experimental Atomic Physics Group is also affiliated with the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms and the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE). In 2020, his group showed that the precision of current atomic clocks could be improved by entangling the atoms — a quantum phenomenon by which particles are coerced to behave in a collective, highly correlated state.Jiliang Hu received the 2024 Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Biological Physics “for groundbreaking biophysical contributions to microbial ecology that bridge experiment and theory, showing how only a few coarse-grained features of ecological networks can predict emergent phases of diversity, dynamics, and invasibility in microbial communities.”Hu is working in PhD advisor Professor Jeff Gore’s lab. He is interested in exploring the high-dimensional dynamics and emergent phenomena of complex microbial communities. In his first project, he demonstrated that multi-species communities can be described by a phase diagram as a function of the strength of interspecies interactions and the diversity of the species pool. He is now studying alternative stable states and the role of migration in the dynamics and biodiversity of metacommunities.Alumni receiving awards:Riccardo Betti PhD ’92 is the 2024 recipient of the John Dawson Award in Plasma Physics “for pioneering the development of statistical modeling to predict, design, and analyze implosion experiments on the 30kJ OMEGA laser, achieving hot spot energy gains above unity and record Lawson triple products for direct-drive laser fusion.”Javier Mauricio Duarte ’10 received the 2024 Henry Primakoff Award for Early-Career Particle Physics “for accelerating trigger technologies in experimental particle physics with novel real-time approaches by embedding artificial intelligence and machine learning in programmable gate arrays, and for critical advances in Higgs physics studies at the Large Hadron Collider in all-hadronic final states.”Richard Furnstahl ’18 is the 2025 recipient of the Feshbach Prize Theoretical Nuclear Physics “for foundational contributions to calculations of nuclei, including applying the Similarity Renormalization Group to the nuclear force, grounding nuclear density functional theory in those forces, and using Bayesian methods to quantify the uncertainties in effective field theory predictions of nuclear observables.”Harold Yoonsung Hwang ’93, SM ’93 is the 2024 recipient of the James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials “for pioneering work in oxide interfaces, dilute superconductivity in heterostructures, freestanding oxide membranes, and superconducting nickelates using pulsed laser deposition, as well as for significant early contributions to the physics of bulk transition metal oxides.”James P. Knauer ’72 received the 2024 John Dawson Award in Plasma Physics “for pioneering the development of statistical modeling to predict, design, and analyze implosion experiments on the 30kJ OMEGA laser, achieving hot spot energy gains above unity and record Lawson triple products for direct-drive laser fusion.”Sekazi Mtingwa ’71 is the 2025 recipient of the John Wheatley Award “for exceptional contributions to capacity building in Africa, the Middle East, and other developing regions, including leadership in training researchers in beamline techniques at synchrotron light sources and establishing the groundwork for future facilities in the Global South.Michael Riordan ’68, PhD ’73 received the 2025 Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics, which “recognizes outstanding scholarly achievements in the history of physics.”Charles E. Sing PhD ’12 received the 2024 John H. Dillon Medal “for pioneering advances in polyelectrolyte phase behavior and polymer dynamics using theory and computational modeling.”David W. Taylor ’01 received the 2025 Jonathan F. Reichert and Barbara Wolff-Reichert Award for Excellence in Advanced Laboratory Instruction “for continuous physical measurement laboratory improvements, leveraging industrial and academic partnerships that enable innovative and diversified independent student projects, and giving rise to practical skillsets yielding outstanding student outcomes.”Wennie Wang ’13 is the 2025 recipient of the Maria Goeppert Mayer Award “for outstanding contributions to the field of materials science, including pioneering research on defective transition metal oxides for energy sustainability, a commitment to broadening participation of underrepresented groups in computational materials science, and leadership and advocacy in the scientific community.”APS FellowsJoseph Checkelsky, the Mitsui Career Development Associate Professor of Physics, received the 2024 Division of Condensed Matter Physics Fellowship  “for pioneering contributions to the synthesis and study of quantum materials, including kagome and pyrochlore metals and natural superlattice compounds.”Affiliated with the MIT Materials Research Laboratory and the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering, Checkelsky is working at the intersection of materials synthesis and quantum physics to discover new materials and physical phenomena to expand the boundaries of understanding of quantum mechanical condensed matter systems, as well as open doorways to new technologies by realizing emergent electronic and magnetic functionalities. Research in Checkelsky’s lab focuses on the study of exotic electronic states of matter through the synthesis, measurement, and control of solid-state materials. His research includes studying correlated behavior in topologically nontrivial materials, the role of geometrical phases in electronic systems, and novel types of geometric frustration.John Chiaverini, a senior staff member in the Quantum Information and Integrated Nanosystems group and an MIT principal investigator in RLE, was elected a 2024 Fellow of the American Physical Society in the Division of Quantum Information “for pioneering contributions to experimental quantum information science, including early demonstrations of quantum algorithms, the development of the surface-electrode ion trap, and groundbreaking work in integrated photonics for trapped-ion quantum computation.”  Chiaverini is pursuing research in quantum computing and precision measurement using individual atoms. Currently, Chiaverini leads a team developing novel technologies for control of trapped-ion qubits, including trap-integrated optics and electronics; this research has the potential to allow scaling of trapped-ion systems to the larger numbers of ions needed for practical applications while maintaining high levels of control over their quantum states. He and the team are also exploring new techniques for the rapid generation of quantum entanglement between ions, as well as investigating novel encodings of quantum information that have the potential to yield higher-fidelity operations than currently available while also providing capabilities to correct the remaining errors.Areg Danagoulian, associate professor of nuclear science and engineering, received the 2024 Forum on Physics and Society Fellowship “for seminal technological contributions in the field of arms control and cargo security, which significantly benefit international security.”  His current research interests focus on nuclear physics applications in societal problems, such as nuclear nonproliferation, technologies for arms control treaty verification, nuclear safeguards, and cargo security. Danagoulian also serves as the faculty co-director for MIT’s MISTI Eurasia program.Ruben Juanes, professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences (CEE/EAPS) received the 2024 Division of Fluid Dynamics Fellowship “for fundamental advances — using experiments, innovative imaging, and theory — in understanding the role of wettability for controlling the dynamics of fluid displacement in porous media and geophysical flows, and exploiting this understanding to optimize.”An expert in the physics of multiphase flow in porous media, Juanes uses a mix of theory, computational, and real-life experiments to establish a fundamental understanding of how different fluids such as oil, water, and gas move through rocks, soil, or underwater reservoirs to solve energy and environmental-driven geophysical problems. His major contributions have been in developing improved safety and effectiveness of carbon sequestration, advanced understanding of fluid interactions in porous media for energy and environmental applications, imaging and computational techniques for real-time monitoring of subsurface fluid flows, and insights into how underground fluid movement contributes to landslides, floods, and earthquakes.Alumni receiving fellowships:Constantia Alexandrou PhD ’85 is the 2024 recipient of the Division of Nuclear Physics Fellowship “for the pioneering contributions in calculating nucleon structure observables using lattice QCD.”Daniel Casey PhD ’12 received the 2024 Division of Plasma Physics Fellowship “for outstanding contributions to the understanding of the stagnation conditions required to achieve ignition.”Maria K. Chan PhD ’09 is the 2024 recipient of the Topical Group on Energy Research and Applications Fellowship “for contributions to methodological innovations, developments, and demonstrations toward the integration of computational modeling and experimental characterization to improve the understanding and design of renewable energy materials.”David Humphreys ’82, PhD ’91 received the 2024 Division of Plasma Physics Fellowship “for sustained leadership in developing the field of model-based dynamic control of magnetically confined plasmas, and for providing important and timely contributions to the understanding of tokamak stability, disruptions, and halo current physics.Eric Torrence PhD ’97 received the 2024 Division of Particles and Fields Fellowship “for significant contributions with the ATLAS and FASER Collaborations, particularly in the searches for new physics, measurement of the LHC luminosity, and for leadership in the operations of both experiments.”Tiffany S. Santos ’02, PhD ’07 is the 2024 recipient of the Topical Group on Magnetism and Its Applications Fellowship “for innovative contributions in synthesis and characterization of novel ultrathin magnetic films and interfaces, and tailoring their properties for optimal performance, especially in magnetic data storage and spin-transport devices.”Lei Zhou ’14, PhD ’19 received the 2024 Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics Fellowship “for outstanding and sustained contributions to the fields of metamaterials, especially for proposing metasurfaces as a bridge to link propagating waves and surface waves.”

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