“Nearly one billion travelers pass through U.S. airports each year,” writes Alicia L. Johnson, civic science postdoctoral associate. In a new commentary, she outlines how the CDC’s genomic surveillance program, which monitors airport wastewater for traces of infectious disease, must balance public health and privacy concerns.
The work of Katalin Karikó, 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine recipient, laid a foundation for the development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines that saved close to 20 million lives worldwide. But her discoveries almost did not happen, writes Alicia L. Johnson, a civic science postdoctoral associate at the Baker Institute Center for Health and Biosciences. Karikó’s story highlights the vital importance of supporting women in STEM.
George Zodrow, the Cline Professor of Economics at Rice University and a Rice faculty scholar at the Baker Institute, is interviewed in State Tax Notes, providing expert insight on state tax policies, including thoughts on the looming tax relief debate in the next session of the Texas legislature.