When Edward Mears discovered a photo, dated 1933, of his grandmother and her friends at U-M’s Alpha Lambda Chinese fraternity, his imagination lit up. One of his grandmother’s friends, an Asian man, had inscribed the photo ‘To Veronica, with love, Ben.’ The inscription inspired a deep dive at the Bentley and took Mears across continents. The story is still unfolding.

While usually just irritating, bites from these two insects may also transmit disease. But choosing the right repellent or protection for children can be confusing for some families, according to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health. Don’t worry. Hear from a Michigan Medicine pediatrician who simplifies the information and offers parents valuable tips to combat these pesky bloodsuckers.

Archaeological excavation as a practice is both expensive and destructive, often causing irreparable damage to sites with sacred and historical significance. LSA archaeologist Robin Beck and his colleagues have developed a project using new technologies to conduct the largest geophysical survey of an archaeological site in the Americas — Cahokia Mounds — at a very large scale without the costs and harms of excavation.

Before 1886, U-M had never granted a doctoral degree to a female student. But the University had never admitted a female student like June Rose Colby before. “From the time it opened to women when I was 14 and knew I was to go to Michigan, it gave a settled purpose and wider outlook,” this passionate lifelong educator would write. “The work in the University was sound, hard, enlightening, creating or feeding a never-ceasing hunger for things of the mind.”

Students recently transformed U-M’s Nichols Arboretum into an art exhibit, reminding visitors that “the earth is a living thing.” People were guided not by maps or botanical information, but by poetry—a different kind of navigation system. One message on a wooden placard instructed visitors to “Walk/through the garden’s dormant splendor./Say only, thank you.”

America’s primary care doctors are burning out, cutting back their hours, and leaving their practices early, driven in part by the demands of handling the flood of digital messages from their patients. But a trio of University of Michigan studies offer hope for easing this crisis, and improving both the care that patients get and the work lives of those who provide it.

The U-M Symphony Band toured the state in May, offering free clinics to high school students and performing in 11 communities from Belleville to Interlochen. Some 1,500 student musicians received guidance by U-M band students and faculty in interactive, side-by-side tutorials.

The Board of Regents has named Domenico Grasso, PhD ‘87, as the University’s interim president, effective immediately. Grasso has been chancellor at UM-Dearborn since 2018. “We have full confidence that President Grasso will provide steady leadership during this critical time of transition,” the regents noted in a campus-wide email.

In testimony before the Michigan House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education and Community Colleges in Lansing on April 30, President Santa J. Ono reinforced the vital role state funding plays in furthering the success of students, driving economic development, and maintaining affordable access to a world-class higher education experience for students across the state.