University of Arizona in the News

It’s fitting that this year's University of Arizona homecoming queen would break from tradition. Nikita Ganesh is a rugby-playing, triple-majoring, 5-foot-5-inch dynamo who is just as comfortable in Shanghai as she is at Sitton Field.

In a new informal survey of 700 epidemiologists by The New York Times, half said they would not change their personal behavior until at least 70 percent of the population was vaccinated. Thirty percent said they would make some changes once they were vaccinated themselves. "I won't take traveling to my extended family for granted," said Alicia Allen, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona.

Chris Impey, a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, writes that scientists do not discount the idea of aliens, but they aren't convinced by the evidence to date because it is unreliable, or because there are so many other more mundane explanations.

Arizona has recovered better than most states from COVID-19 economic disruptions but still has a long way to go, with the pace of improvement hinging on vaccines and further federal aid. That's the view of George Hammond, director of the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizona, who presented a Dec. 4 forecast on behalf of the Eller College of Management.

Target-date funds are designed to give investors a diversified portfolio that automatically rebalances over time, as a goal like retirement or college approaches. The funds are increasingly popular, particularly in 401(k) accounts and among younger investors. But a new academic paper, released in October but as yet unpublished, points a finger at the fees that target-date fund investors pay, which, the researchers calculate, total an average of one-third of a percentage point annually.

The Phoenix area emerged as an unlikely oasis for sports in recent months because of its willingness to host youth events during the pandemic as nearby states restricted or barred them altogether. The resulting tension between these events and the COVID surge came to a head when Phoenix's city council gathered Wednesday night for a virtual meeting.

Astronomers are watching an object transform into a hyperactive comet that will head toward the inner solar system in the coming decades. Astronomers could see escaping icy matter forming a hazy cloud called a coma, and a tail rocketed out into the inky beyond. But its coma lacks water vapor, said Teddy Kareta, a planetary astronomy graduate student at the University of Arizona and co-author of the study. Combined with models of its orbital evolution, this suggests LD2 has not yet visited the inner solar system.

University of Arizona graduate student Earyn McGee is included on the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for science.

Reentry Task Force Director Dr. Richard Carmona said any attempt at imposing a curfew requires a careful and comprehensive approach. "Does it have the potential to be beneficial? Yes, especially in communities where you see a rise in cases, and if that rise is associated with social activities at night, it is a way to deal with it," Carmona said. "The challenge is, how do you monitor it, and how do you enforce it?"

University of Arizona professors Bonnie LaFleur and Katherine Ellingson write that the the current state of availability and accuracy of rapid COVID-19 tests greatly limit how effective they are at slowing the spread of the virus in communities.