Dust storms on par with cost of major disasters like hurricanes

There’s a longstanding attitude in many farming communities that trees and agriculture don’t mix. But agroforestry can provide a multitude of benefits to farmers and landscapes. A new University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study provides a foundation for strategic plans that integrate environmental, social, and economic considerations of trees in agricultural landscapes.

Vaginas host a complex microcosm of bacteria and yeasts that can fluctuate over time. However, little is known about these microbial communities and their roles in a person’s health, and 9 out of 10 studies only include participants from one continent, resulting in major geographical gaps in data. In a paper publishing February 6 in the Cell Press journal Trends in Microbiology, scientists share insights gleaned from a “sisterhood” of thousands of citizen scientists and demonstrate how international collaboration can help illuminate the gaps in our knowledge about the vaginal microbiome, including which bacteria are helpful or harmful and whether microbiomes look different for people across the globe.

A monumental $20 million gift from Houston civic leader and philanthropist Mindy Hildebrand, BBA ’86, will significantly advance scholarship opportunities and leadership programming for students at The University of Texas at Austin’s top-ranked MBA program.

The gift names the Hildebrand MBA Program at the McCombs School of Business, which encompasses the school’s five internationally renowned graduate business formats: Full-Time MBA, Evening MBA, Executive MBA, MBA at Dallas/Fort Worth, and MBA at Houston.

A groundbreaking research project aims to explore kittiwakes’ unique role in urban ecology and propose innovative strategies to ensure the birds can coexist successfully with humans in the future.