Author: Sarah Foust

  • Basquiat: A Griot and His Skulls

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    “I don’t know how to describe my work, because it’s not always the same thing. It’s like asking somebody, asking Miles [Davis], “How does your horn sound?” I don’t think he could really tell you why he plays this at this point in the music. You’re sort of on automatic.” – Jean-Michel Basquiat It’s hard…

  • Bear With Me: A Dispatch From My Photography Trip to Alaska

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    It is 9:48 p.m. on June 25, and I am at Fairbanks International Airport. The airport is bright and spacious, much as Alaska itself had been promised to be, and as I struggle to stay awake while waiting to board, I remind myself why I decided to come here in the first place. When I…

  • Working Towards Gender Equity in Academic Science Requires Addressing Systemic Barriers

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    Would you continue pursuing scientific curiosity if you had to constantly fight for your place at the bench? What if it were highly likely that your work would be overlooked, minimized, or even written out of history? For many women in science, this is a lived reality. Despite persistent barriers to training, recognition, and career…

  • From Barre to Bench: When Art and Science Converge

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    I have spent more of my life in a ballet studio than in a traditional classroom, let alone a laboratory. From a young age, I dreamed of a career as a ballet dancer, and ballet consumed my day-to-day life. I was homeschooled to accommodate my training schedule and moved away from home at sixteen to…

  • Celebrating the Fourth Anniversary of Five Trailblazing Women Scientists at The Rockefeller University

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    In 2020, Women in Science at Rockefeller (WISeR) and the Women & Science Initiative commissioned a portrait by Brenda Zlamany titled “Five Trailblazing Women Scientists at The Rockefeller University.” This portrait, the University’s first depicting women scientists, was installed in the lounge of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Hall in 2022. Behind the scenes, a group…

  • A (freezing) Saturday afternoon in Astoria, brought to you by Zohran Mamdani

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    During the 2025 New York City mayoral election, social media was filled with videos of the now-mayor, Zohran Mamdani, listing his favorite places to eat in Queens. The recommendations ranged from hidden gems, like a Bangladeshi halal steam table spot in Astoria, to neighborhood favorites, like Jackson Heights’s Kabab King. This was a very successful…

  • RU’s (un)official cat rescuer, Kristen Cullen

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    “There’s a ‘cat condo’ on campus!” a co-worker told me a few weeks after our office moved to the Rockefeller campus this summer. I had to go and see it for myself. Inside a safety net, I found a few cat shelters with straw beds and plates for food, all underneath a staircase. I was…

  • You Can’t Have Science Without Migration: The Rise of Anti-Immigrant Sentiment is Hurting the Scientific Community

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    Migration is woven into the fabric of the scientific community. Many scientists move across regions or continents to pursue opportunities for training, education, and collaboration. These journeys affect both an individual’s life and the trajectory of scientific innovation, fostering diversity of thought and new discoveries. However, as anti-immigrant sentiment increases in the United States and…

  • HRGD Journal Club Interviews Svetlana Mojsov

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    In recent years, Svetlana Mojsov has been the most frequently mentioned name in Rockefeller-related news. During her introductory talk at the Historical Reading of Great Discoveries (HRGD) journal club lunch, Dr. Mojsov walked through key data from her landmark papers (Mojsov et al., J Biol Chem. 1986; Mojsov et al., J Clin Invest. 1987) detailing…

  • The Tell-Tale Buzz

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    True—anxious—very, very dreadfully anxious I had been and am. Perhaps even insecure, one would accuse me of being. But not mad. Never mad will you deem me once you have heard my tale. For the sharpest has my intuition always been. I see all: those who envy me, those who pity me, but, above all,…

  • Platforms, Podcasts, and Politics

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    As someone who grew up chronically online, I never would have guessed that dance videos and SpongeBob memes could be used as tools for teaching science. Yet here we are. Scientists and medical professionals are breaking down complex concepts through TikToks, tweets, and podcasts. Social media has made science approachable and accessible to individuals far…

  • Weill Cornell Medicine Postdocs Fight for a Fair Contract

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        Postdocs at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) are fighting to secure our first contract almost two years after voting overwhelmingly to form a union. In November 2023, postdocs voted by 99% to establish Weill Cornell Medicine Postdocs United-UAW (WCMPU-UAW) to address critical issues like salaries below NYC’s higher education standards, disadvantageous housing and childcare…