Life-saving technology, poetic brilliance, top GPAs

MACCOLADES, SUMMER 2025 

Maccolades is a monthly round-up of the most recent accolades and accomplishments earned by members of the Macalester community. Below are highlights from summer 2025.

Clean sweep

Last semester, Macalester participated in the campus race to zero waste competition. During the event, campuses across the country report the amount of compost, recycling, and trash collected each week to see which school is able to divert the most waste from landfills. Macalester is the first-place winner for the small campus division of the competition. 

“Thanks to the collaboration of students, faculty, and staff, Macalester has been able to make a positive impact through reduction, reuse, and recycling efforts,” said Director of Sustainability Megan Butler. 

Reporting on health in Argentina

Dr. Eric Carter, Geography Department chair and Edens Professor of Geography and Global Health, delivered a keynote speech at the provincial legislature of Tucumán, Argentina, sharing years of research on the province’s social determinants of health.

Carter has studied health disparities in Tucumán for decades, including malaria control and community resilience during COVID-19. Most recently, he conducted a project on social capital and access to health care and social services with Laura Cordero, a fellow health geographer based in Tucumán.

“Our work shows how ordinary people find the resources to protect their health and build social infrastructure under challenging circumstances of poverty, food insecurity, precarious housing, and exposure to natural hazards and infectious diseases,” Carter said. “It was nice to be recognized for my long-term contributions to public health research in the region, and to promote international educational exchanges and collaborations.”

Gold standard for ultimate

Macalester student Kyle Suelflow ’26 competed with Team USA in the mixed division at the 2025 World Flying Disc Federation World Under-24 Ultimate Championships in Logroño, Spain in June. The team won all of their games and captured the gold medal. 

 

Leading the nation in GPA

The men’s soccer team registered the highest team grade-point average among all men’s soccer programs across all three NCAA divisions for the 2024-25 academic year. The Scots, coached by Gregg Olson, posted a GPA of 3.83, ahead of fellow Division III member Colorado College at 3.80. This is the second time in the past four years that Macalester’s men’s soccer team has had the highest GPA in the nation, achieving the feat during the 2021-22 academic year. Last year the Scots were second overall behind only MIT. 

Pitch-perfect recognition

Mike McGaghie, professor of music and director of choral activities, will lead his Madison-based choir, the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble, at the American Choral Directors Association’s Midwestern division conference in Milwaukee in February 2026.

“To be invited to conduct at ACDA is a long-term accomplishment that rewards work over multiple years,” he said. The audition requires conductors to submit recordings from the past three seasons. The Isthmus Vocal Ensemble was one of only two community choirs selected from the ten-state division.

“Our program is titled ‘Belonging/Becoming,’ reflecting our belief that we grow best as individuals (and as nations) within the context of mutually supportive community,” he said. “The repertoire includes works from nineteenth-century Europe, twentieth-century Ghana and Britain, and contemporary American composers.

The ensemble includes two of McGaghie’s former students: Elizabeth Everitt ’20 and Taryn Valley ’14. Both sang in the Macalester Concert Choir.

A life-saving signal

Zhijun He ’26 led Team SEESALT to first place at the 2025 United Nations Tech Over Hackathon, hosted at UN Headquarters in partnership with UNICEF. The international competition focused on “children-centric climate emergency response.”

Their winning project—developed for the “Solving the Geo-Puzzle” challenge—used layered environmental data to create an early warning system for climate hazards affecting children. 

“We transformed sophisticated geospatial technology into something immediately accessible,” He said. 

The tool processes satellite data from NASA and NOAA to identify climate risks and sends real-time alerts to families via a Telegram bot. The team created interactive maps for Cambodia, Kenya, and Tajikistan. The open-source solution reached 95 percent completion and is ready for deployment as the first children-focused climate vulnerability assessment platform,

“What excites me most is that our solution can directly save children’s lives,” He said. The system is under review for UN and UNICEF integration worldwide.

Striking gold

Sarah Ghazal Ali, assistant professor of English and creative writing, was the gold poetry winner for the 2025 California Book Awards from the Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, one of the oldest and most distinguished literary award programs in the nation. Her poetry collection, Theophanies, was one of eleven winners out of hundreds of titles submitted. 

Hands-on heritage

Professor Tamara von Schmidt-Pauli, visiting instructor in Russian and faculty member of the Russian House, received the 2025 Slavic Arts Programming Grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. 

“I’m thrilled to receive this support because it recognizes the importance of preserving and sharing Slavic cultural traditions in creative, hands-on ways,” she said. “It also opens the door for broader community participation, especially intergenerational learning and cultural exchange.”

This award supports a weeklong Slavic art experience in the summer, along with monthly workshops for kids and adults throughout the year. Participants will explore a variety of traditional folk arts while connecting them to contemporary themes and applications. 

 

Making waves in the classroom

The College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America selected the Macalester men’s and women’s swim and dive teams for a Scholar All-America award. This recognition celebrates teams that achieve excellence in the classroom while competing at the highest levels in the pool. 

“Coach Kyllian Griffin, the staff, and the entire team have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to academic and athletic success, and we are proud to recognize their efforts,” said Samantha Barany, the association’s executive director.

Seeing the unseen

Chemistry Professor Dennis Cao received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation for his project “Pyrazoloindazoles as Long Wavelength Chromophores and Emitters.” The award also will fund summer research for twelve Macalester students, who will synthesize and study novel molecules that interact with near-infrared light, which has wavelengths longer than the human eye can see. These molecules have potential applications in solar energy harvesting and deep-tissue imaging.

Piping hot wins

In June in Chicago, Macalester’s Grade 5 Pipe Band won first place among twelve bands in the Midwest Championship. The Grade 3 band took second place in both of their events and second overall against nine bands from around the United States. 

In July at the Minnesota Scottish Fair and Highland Games on campus, the Macalester Pipe Band won both the Grade 3 and Grade 5 competitions.

Reading the ice record

Dr. Louisa Bradtmiller, professor of environmental studies, was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation for her research in the southern Indian Ocean that explores the size changes of the Antarctic ice sheet in relation to changes in climate not connected to human greenhouse gas emissions. The timing of changes in the ice sheet holds clues about how this important region of the planet causes and responds to climate change. She will examine ocean sediment for unusual grains called ice rafted debris to provide data on how the ice sheet relates to known climate changes over the last three million years. 

The social life of lions

Dr. Stotra Chakrabarti, assistant professor of biology, was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to investigate the ecological drivers of lion social behavior in Kenya’s Tsavo Ecosystem. While lions in resource-rich savannas have long served as a model for sociality in mammals, this project shifts the lens to lesser-studied, prey-scarce environments where lion group dynamics remain misunderstood. The project explores how ecological variation shapes territoriality, social cohesion, and individual decision-making in lions. Advancing theories of animal behavior, the project will support long-term lion conservation and provide immersive research experiences for Macalester undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students, as well as Kenyan researchers.

How to be considered for future Maccolades

If you or someone you know recently earned an award, fellowship, or honor and would like it to be considered for inclusion in next month’s Maccolades, please let Communications & Marketing know by filling out this Maccolades form. For recent book publications, please use this book publication form.