5questions

Last Friday, Peter Shulman’s Twitter account had a respectable 128 followers. A week later, Shulman now has more than 3,835 followers—and counting—thanks to a recent article by Slate that praised the simple, yet captivating account. About three years ago, Shulman, assistant professor of history,…

As a second-grader in the suburbs of Chicago, David Ake wanted to show off the results of his classical piano lessons by playing a Mozart sonata as part of show-and-tell. Ake thought he’d performed the piece well, but the reception from his classmates was not what he had expected. “They made fun…

At a young age, John Broich felt a compulsion to understand how things came to be. Well before his high school years, he remembers thinking that the fundamental questions about how people came to act and think weren’t being asked. Like any good researcher, he began searching for answers to these…

Just two years ago, custodian Steve Bailey received his first certificate of completion from Lynda.com—a website that offers free, online video-based tutorials on a range of technology subjects, taught by industry experts. Fast-forward to today: Bailey just completed his 722nd tutorial and is a…

Megan Moynahan’s early interest in biomedical engineering stemmed from an article she read in a science magazine about bionic people and the idea of artificial organs and limbs. As a 14-year-old, she wrote letters to researchers to help her replicate a famous experiment by physicist Luigi Galvani…

By Shivani Parikh While today is just a normal Friday for most, it’s a monumental day in Jordan Genovese’s life: it’s the release date of her album, “Green November,” which encompasses years of songwriting and performing. The third-year medical anthropology major has been making music since high…

By Jack Behrend Arielle Dolezal’s passion for dance began with a bit of childhood window-shopping. One day, while watching her younger sister in her first-ever dance class, Dolezal wandered past another class in advanced ballet. Hidden from sight, she watched the class, enthralled by the beauty of…

Like anyone else, Cameron McIntyre likes to unwind after a long week in the office or, in his case, the lab. However, his idea of relaxing doesn’t involve the calm of a golf course or ballgame; rather, he prefers a seat behind the steering wheel of a race car, taking hairpin turns at breakneck…

While an undergraduate student researcher at Ohio University, William Johnson gained a strong interest in blood cell development and gene regulation. So after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences, he decided to take his passion for science to the next level. Johnson began…

When Max Simon was 13 years old, he and his cousin, 16-year-old Nick Francis, entered a national contest to create a backyard haunted house. Five years later, their business—the Fear Experience—is hailed as one of Northeast Ohio’s premier Halloween attractions. In 2008, the cousins devoted their…