Year in review: 25 stories from ’25

At Yale, 2025 brought our community together in ways both steeped in tradition and engaged in the future.

In April, the university celebrated the inauguration of President Maurie McInnis during a week of events across the campus and the city of New Haven. A few months later, the community gathered for the opening a much anticipated “living village” designed to give back to the natural environment more than it takes.

It was also a year marked, as ever, by historic scientific breakthroughs by Yale’s scholars, creative endeavors that inspired hearts and minds on campus and beyond, and innovative work that is improving lives in every corner of the nation and the world.

As the year draws to a close, we present 25 of our favorite stories that were published on Yale News in 2025 — those that informed us, inspired us, or gave us hope.

At inauguration, a lyrical appraisal of Yale and its future

In early April, Maurie McInnis was officially installed as Yale’s 24th president during a tradition-filled ceremony in Woolsey Hall. The ceremony — which marked the first inauguration of a new Yale president in more than a decade — capped a week of events on campus and across New Haven that brought together community members to celebrate the university’s newest chapter through service opportunities, open houses, academic symposia, and a presidential panel.

Michel Devoret, center, with longtime Yale colleagues Jack Harris, Steven Girvin, Robert Schoelkopf, and Leonid Glazman at the Nobel Prize lectures in physics on Dec. 8.

Photo by Julia Glazman

Devoret wins 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics

In October, Michel H. Devoret, the Frederick W. Beinecke Professor Emeritus of Applied Physics at Yale University, who has spent a career probing the intricate dynamics of qubits and quantum information, won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for his groundbreaking work in quantum computing. He was recognized “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit.” During the ceremony in November, Devoret, who is currently on faculty at the University of California-Santa Barbara, was joined by longtime Yale collaborators, including Robert Schoelkopf and Steven Girvin, with whom he has helped develop a trailblazing approach to quantum computing research.

Living Village raises bar for environmental stewardship

This fall, Yale Divinity School celebrated the opening of the Living Village, a state-of-the-art student-housing complex designed to meet the world’s most exacting standards for environmental sustainability. A project 13 years in the making, the complex now stands as a campus landmark to environmental stewardship — and a defining statement of the school’s commitment to ecotheology, a theological movement that views environmental crises as moral and ethical issues.

The cure for cystic fibrosis might start in the womb

In July, an interdisciplinary group of Yale researchers, led by Yale School of Medicine’s Marie Egan, published a study describing the benefits of a novel approach for treating cystic fibrosis (CF). Using in utero gene editing, the researchers developed a method to deliver corrective genetic material to the fetus of mice with CF via tiny particles called nanoparticles. The results, they say, suggest that CF and other genetic diseases might eventually be curable in utero.

Video by Deon Griffin

‘Purely joyful’: A group that pushes the art of percussion forward

In early January, Yale News visited the Yale Percussion Group, led by Yale School of Music’s Robert van Sice. The ensemble takes a chamber music approach to drums, marimbas, vibraphones, and more — think string quartet, but playing composition written exclusively for percussion. With video.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama

In May, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, a playwright and a professor in the practice of theater and performance studies in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his play “Purpose.” The play, which explores the complex dynamics of a prominent Black American family in Chicago led by a pastor with ties to the Civil Rights movement, won in the Drama category. A few weeks later “Purpose” also won a Tony Award for Best Play.

Checkmates: Chess phenoms share a college and a mastery of the ‘royal game’

Reaching the status of chess grandmaster, the game’s highest title, is pretty rare. But not at Trumbull College, where during the last academic year two Yale students — Arthur Guo, at the time a first-year student in Yale College, and Nicolas Checa, a member of the Class of 2025 — shared the honor.

Yalies in the Mississippi Delta: Bringing AP STEM classes to rural schools

In August, Yale News got to know the Global Teaching Project’s Advanced STEM Access Program, an educational organization founded by Matt Dolan ’82 that offers nearly all the AP STEM classes in Mississippi’s most impoverished communities — free of charge. It’s a kind of collaborative teaching approach that has potential across the United States. “If you’re a student with college aspirations, taking an AP class is one of the best things you can do for yourself,” said Oso Ifesinachukwu ’23, director of student outreach and engagement for the project.

Decades later, a Yale chemist’s water simulations continue to make waves

At Yale News, we recently looked back at one of the most cited science studies of all time — Sterling Professor of Chemistry William Jorgensen’s landmark 1983 simulations of water. At the time, Jorgensen was a 32-year-old assistant professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. But he had an idea that would revolutionize drug discovery worldwide — and would become one of the most cited studies in history. “Bill Jorgensen’s seminal paper mapped out the fundamentals of simulating liquid water computationally, driving theory and experiment together, and impacting numerous fields.,” said Scott Miller, also a Sterling Professor of Chemistry in FAS.”

Teacher addressing a class — Hwansoo Kim, a professor of religious studies with a secondary appointment in East Asian languages and literatures, is helping to guide the university’s expansion of Korean studies.

Photo by Allie Barton

Riding a ‘Wave’: Yale’s expansion of Korean language and cultural studies

Across the university, rising interest in Korean language and culture has brought new course offerings and faculty who specialize in the region. Earlier this year, Yale News offered a glimpse at many of these offerings. “What has been wonderful about the growth of Korean studies at Yale is that it has enjoyed broad support, going beyond any single department, with individual programs hiring new faculty on their own initiative,” said Aaron Gerow, who chairs the East Asian languages and literatures department. “We haven’t had to fight and scratch to make gains but have enjoyed strong backing from the administration and faculty across the university.”

Pioneering drug development, one company at a time

In December, Yale News chatted with trailblazing chemist Craig Crews discusses the transformative science emerging from Yale — and why translating innovative ideas into real-world businesses is good for the university and New Haven — after his third Yale startup, Halda Therapeutics, was acquired by Johnson & Johnson.

A growing number of U.S. adults report cognitive disability

In a 10-year study, Yale researchers found that a growing number of U.S. adults reported having problems with their memory, concentration, and decision-making abilities, driven largely by a surprising jump among young adults ages 18 to 39. While the findings are based on participants’ subjective reporting, it does warrant further investigation, as growing cognitive problems among the population can pose future health care and workplace consequences, said author Adam de Havenon.

Why don’t we remember being a baby? New Yale study provides clues

Researchers have long believed we don’t hold onto memories from our first years of life because the part of the brain responsible for saving memories — the hippocampus — is still developing well into adolescence and just can’t encode memories in our earliest years. But a Yale study published in March found evidence that’s not the case.

A woman working in a Yale lab. — Anabel Schweitzer, a student in Yale’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a member of Isaacs’ lab.

Photo by Dan Renzetti

Yale genome engineers expand the reach and precision of human gene editing

The promise of genome editing to help understand human diseases and create new therapies is vast, but technological confines have limited advancement of the field. A new study by Yale researchers, published in June, advances the ability of scientists to edit multiple DNA sites by threefold and helps prevent unwanted mutations in nearby genetic sites.

Yale launches Center for Civic Thought to promote thoughtful discourse

In the spring, Yale introduced a nonpartisan center that encourages students to engage in civic thinking that integrates various forms of knowledge — and informs their practical judgments as citizens. The mission of the center, said inaugural director and political scientist Bryan Garsten, is “to encourage a thoughtful public discourse and a civically responsible intellectual life.”

Immune markers of post-vaccination syndrome indicate future research directions

A small number of people have reported chronic symptoms after receiving COVID-19 shots. A study published by Yale researchers in February uncovered potential immunological patterns that differentiate those people who were affected from others — which may eventually guide strategies to help affected individuals.

Finding common ground on firearm safety

Last month, Yale News published a Q&A with Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health and an emergency physician, about why it’s important to frame firearm injury as a public health problem. “When we talk about firearm injury as a public health problem instead of as a criminal justice or political problem, it opens up a whole suite of potential solutions and approaches that we may not otherwise be aware of,” she said. “It helps us figure out how to measure the problem — not just the physical injuries but also the emotional injuries and the ripple effects on survivors, their family members, and their community.”

Three esteemed Yale historians explore ‘America at 250’ in 2025 DeVane Lectures

This fall, three of Yale’s most esteemed historians — David Blight, Joanne Freeman, and Beverly Gage — teamed up to teach a course exploring the nature of American identity from 1776 to the present as part of the 2025 DeVane Lecture course, an annual lecture series that is open to the public at no charge. The semester-long course, “America at 250: A History,” explored a wide range of thought-provoking questions in advance of the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026.

Beyond CSI: A veteran forensic pathologist brings her skills to Yale

In September, Yale News caught up with Susan Ely, who spent 26 years as a medical examiner with New York City’s OCME, the largest medical examiner’s office in the country, and more recently with the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, before becoming director of the autopsy service at Yale School of Medicine.

Student examining aquatic life samples in glass dishes — Photo by Dan Renzetti

On Horse Island, Yale students dive into marine life research

In mid-fall, Yale News traveled to one of the Thimble Islands, located on Long Island Sound, where a popular undergraduate course on invertebrate biology has been reinvented as a hands-on, field research experience. While the island is only a 20-minute ferry ride away from the shoreline, it transports these students to a living classroom that feels a world away from campus.

A Yale-trained entrepreneur and ‘Champion of the Earth’

When she arrived at Yale in 2021, Jinali Mody ’23 M.E.M. was already thinking about launching a startup to produce a plant-based leather alternative. But on the Yale campus she found a vibrant culture of entrepreneurship, not to mention mentorship and support, that helped her turn that vision into a viable business. In September, the founder and CEO of Banofi Leather received a 2025 Young Champion of the Earth award during Climate Week NYC.

What do you know? Yale’s Dr. T aims to fill some gaps

Each week Yale’s Shawkat Toorawa invites members of the campus and New Haven communities to a short presentation on three topics he thinks they should know about. The series, whose tagline is “three things worth knowing,” is free for anyone interested in attending. Don’t worry: You won’t be graded.

The Nobelist next door

In April, Yale News visited Branford College, where the distinguished scientists James Rothman and Joy Hirsch are resident fellows, acting as advisers to first- and second-year students. In that role, the couple also hosts monthly dinners at Mory’s structured around a conversation on a predetermined topic. “For students to realize they are living here, next to them, there’s also this sense of awe and, and a genuine reminder that we’re surrounded by excellence and that we are also part of that excellence,” said Enrique De La Cruz, head of Branford College and the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.

Back to the beach: Why did evolution return some animals to the water?

In most narratives the story of evolution is the story of organisms emerging from the ocean and eventually populating the land, but for some species that evolution also involved a return trip. In November, a Yale study undertook the task of explaining when and how this happened — and which species fully re-committed to the life aquatic.

Was Caligula a madman? Maybe. But he also knew his medicine

Caligula, the notoriously erratic Roman emperor known for his bloodthirsty cruelty, probably also possessed a nerd’s knowledge of medicinal plants, according to a study published this summer. Led by the Yale Ancient Pharmacology Program, the novel research offered fresh illumination of a brief anecdote about Caligula originally reported by the historian Suetonius in “The Twelve Caesars,” a second-century collection of biographies of Roman rulers from Julius Caesar to Domitian.