Letter from the Editor

Dear Reader,

We live in a post-postmodern world. This seems to be a world that no longer believes in the ubiquity of science. Our lives are dependent on technology, but words like “progress” and “advancement” ring with an inherent suspicion. We know that scientific discoveries can save lives, bring us closer to each other and help us answer some of the most fundamental questions about our human origins, but bureaucratic administrations often hinder the work of researchers. It is in this world that we ask what it means to do scientific research at a school like NYU.

Now, scientists wrestle among themselves and with the outside world to defend their legitimacy. Is the scientific method the ultimate way to understand our world? Should we study human behaviors as we do cells and atoms? How has our faith in science deteriorated over the past decades? How are we going to grapple with the inevitable sociopolitical consequences for the shifting role of science in the current zeitgeist?

For scientists and for our readers, perhaps a more pertinent question is how science matters to those actually doing it. Publishing enough quality research and receiving enough citations have become indispensable for survival in academia. As universities in the United States produce more and more doctorates, tenured professorships have increasingly become an untenable career prospect for graduates. University researchers are organizing to fight for fair compensation, insurances and immigration protection. For our readers who aspire to do research, hopefully this issue, with interviews and features with both student researchers and research professors, will shed some light on your future career.

This issue would not be possible without our dedicated editorial and visual team. Mikaylah Du, Aashna Miharia and Shiphrah Moses reported in-depth on the state of research at NYU. The multimedia editors, Krish Dev, Alisha Goel and Qianshan Weng, coordinated and photographed compelling images while Mikaylah Du and Alisia Houghtaling coordinated and produced illustrations for this issue. Samay Dhawan designed the website layout. Manasa Gudavalli, Carmo Moniz, Yezen Saadah, Gillian Blum, Emily Genova, Anna Baird-Hassell, Katherine Welander, Tina Nejand, Karina Rower and Ania Keenan edited the articles in this issue. I’m in the debt of all the editors who have built this magazine before me and I’m extremely grateful for everyone who made this issue possible. Thank you for reading this issue.

— Samson Tu, Creative Director