# News & Announcements ## News & Announcements ![Detailed view of ivy foliage against a weathered wall, highlighting the lush greenery and the wall's rough surface.](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/2026-07/featured-service-scaled-1.jpg?itok=IfMi2gf-) ## News [### Rowland Fellow Avalon Owens featured on WBUR ](/news/2026/07/rowland-fellow-avalon-owens-featured-wbur) July 31, 2026 WBUR (Boston University public radio) covered a local story featuring firefly conservation efforts, with commentary from Rowland Fellow Avalon Owens on the importance of limiting artificial light at night. Listen to the news feature here. ![fireflies-flashing-in-georgia-forest-synchronous-fireflies-mark-magnerella.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/fireflies-flashing-in-georgia-forest-synchronous-fireflies-mark-magnerella.jpg?itok=uGYRdlL5) [### Nature paper for Rowland alum featured in The FAS Current ](/news/2026/07/nature-paper-rowland-alum-featured-fas-current) July 30, 2026 Our most recent alum, Ismail El Baggari , who is now a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, has published exciting work from his time at the Rowland Institute in Nature . In this paper, Ismail and his postdoc Yang Zhang, along with... ![Courtesy of El Baggari lab](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/ElBaggariParaelectrics-1.jpg?itok=1eBqcMVt) [### Rowland welcomes Fellow Zeguan Wang ](/2026/07/02/rowland-welcomes-fellow-zeguan-wang) July 02, 2026 The Rowland Institute is excited to welcome new Rowland Fellow, Dr. Zeguan Wang to the program. Zeguan received his Ph.D in 2024 in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT. His research focuses on developing optical and molecular neurotechnologies to map... ![Rowland welcomes Fellow Zeguan Wang](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/378a144ffbeee1bb368d5b18d98e6730dd101510_3.jpg?itok=xT3BqFz_) [### Rowland Fellow Viktoriia Morad featured in The FAS Current ](/2026/04/27/rowland-fellow-viktoriia-morad-featured-in-the-fas-current) April 27, 2026 Rowland Fellow Viktoriia Morad is featured in an article from The FAS Current, which highlights news from Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The article discusses the work that Viktoriia and her lab are doing at the Rowland Institute. The full... ![Rowland Fellow Viktoriia Morad featured in the FAS Current](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/e2737603c6eda627c46ba82b9a676c5d989203da.jpg?itok=z1VXYtta) [### Rowland welcomes Fellow Arjun Ashoka ](/2026/01/06/rowland-welcomes-fellow-arjun-ashoka) January 06, 2026 The Rowland Institute is excited to welcome new Rowland Fellow, Dr. Arjun Ashoka to the program. Arjun received his Ph.D in 2024 from the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, UK and went on to become a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity... ![Headshot of Arjun Ashoka](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/b6c8864744fc8848814d755450682dd8bc6fa6c6.jpg?itok=eLGn001q) [### El Baggari Lab featured in Harvard Gazette ](/2025/10/09/el-baggari-lab-featured-in-harvard-gazette) October 09, 2025 Rowland Fellow Ismail El Baggari is featured in a recent article of The Harvard Gazette. The Gazette article focuses on the work the El Baggari Lab has done with a new method of imaging materials at sub-atomic scale at the coolest temperatures possible... ![El Baggari Lab featured in Harvard Gazette](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/82d0243962488233d66bb49c904c36a48ed98ec7.jpg?itok=xZewAR57) [### Rowland welcomes Fellows Viktoriia Morad & Sophia Shi ](/2025/09/10/rowland-welcomes-fellows-viktoriia-morad-sophia-shi) September 10, 2025 The Rowland Institute is excited to welcome two new Rowland Fellows, Dr. Viktoriia Morad and Dr. Sophia Shi. Viktoriia joins us from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where she completed her PhD in 2023. While at Rowland, Viktoriia’s lab will be focusing on novel... ![Rowland welcomes Fellows Viktoriia Morad & Sophia Shi](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/447c674ea951fedc0759c3146e374bf66ff89c8d.jpg?itok=pctnMSyi) [### Rayshubskiy lab “fly microbots” paper published in PNAS and featured in Ars Technica ](/2025/04/11/rayshubskiy-lab-fly-microbots-paper-featured-in-ars-technica) April 11, 2025 Rowland Fellow Sasha Rayshubskiy and his team have turned ordinary fruit flies into remarkably controllable “micro-robots.” – without a single gear or circuit board in sight. Rather than building tiny robots from scratch, the team takes advantage of a... ![Rayshubskiy lab “fly microbots” paper published in PNAS and featured in Ars Technica](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/e4921249888c94e02624f2cbe95f5be3a12e81e3.png?h=82cfb176&itok=0Uf7VfVA) [### Reece lab paper makes the cover of Angewandte Chemie ](/2025/03/21/reece-lab-paper-makes-the-cover-of-angewandte-chemie) March 21, 2025 Rowland Fellow Christian Reece and his team have published an exciting new paper describing the isolation and identification of a high-activity metastable state that forms over carbon monoxide-covered platinum nanoparticles. This project was led by... ![Reece lab paper makes the cover of Angewandte Chemie](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/793d598ed7f00b5419c4a3efbc5e1bc86df70ea4.png?itok=jp-jTkOr) [### Introducing new Rowland Fellow, Purnati Khuntia ](/2024/12/17/introducing-new-rowland-fellow-purnati-khuntia) December 17, 2024 The Rowland Institute is delighted to welcome Dr. Purnati Khuntia to the Fellowship program. Purnati joins us from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Hyderabad, India, and is now setting up her lab to study the mechanobiology of... ![Introducing new Rowland Fellow, Purnati Khuntia](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/2935bdd6c62eb789d9bbc8c511c6945159d95b22.jpeg?itok=AZyXuxJg) [### A new home for the Rowland Institute ](/2024/10/30/a-new-home-for-the-rowland-institute) October 30, 2024 At a symposium to celebrate the move to Harvard’s main campus, the Rowland Institute welcomed alumni and guests to a day of science and inspiring messages from the Dean of Science, Jeff Lichtman, and former Faculty Director, Frans Spaepen, the Harvard... ![A new home for the Rowland Institute](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/5b74d1039d813ccace41f3de6ac77befa7eda75c.jpeg?itok=2ZwAXCGn) [### Introducing new Rowland Fellow, Oluwasegun Wahab ](/2024/10/15/introducing-new-rowland-fellow-oluwasegun-wahab) October 15, 2024 The Rowland Institute is delighted to welcome Dr. Oluwasegun (Segun) Wahab to the Fellowship program. Segun joins us from Texas A&M University, and will be setting up his lab to study nanoscale electrochemistry, thereby enabling renewable energy solutions... ![Introducing new Rowland Fellow, Oluwasegun Wahab](/sites/g/files/omnuum13181/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-07/d4cddd729ec4f88911a2554581f5e8f7a4dde907.jpg?h=d5fd710a&itok=q-G__fAM)