Few people, if any, contemplate stars—celestial or cinematic—the way Aomawa Shields does.  An astronomer and astrobiologist, Shields explores the potential habitability of planets beyond our solar system. But she is also a classically trained actor—and that’s helped shape her professional trajectory in unexpected ways.  Today, Shields is an associate professor in the Department of Physics…

Water shortages in Southern California made an indelible impression on Evelyn Wang ’00 when she was growing up in Los Angeles. “I was quite young, perhaps in first grade,” she says. “But I remember we weren’t allowed to turn our sprinklers on. And everyone in the neighborhood was given disinfectant tablets for the toilet and…