Time may fly when you're having fun, but it feels nearly supersonic when you're surrounded by success. With a Nobel Prize, two UAE Rhodes Scholarships, a slew of Emmy Awards, and many more achievements, NYU students, faculty, and alumni had us feeling the #VioletPride every single day this semester. We also wittnessed significant news in University research, academic programming, and inclusion and sustainability efforts. And we discovered that a Student Health Center staff member—Alex Salas—happens to be a real-life superhero! Let's all take a second to catch our breath and reflect on just some of the notable moments from fall 2018:

AUGUST



• The School of Medicine announces free tuition scholarships to all current and future students in an MD degree program, regardless of need.

• Jelena Kovačević—head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University—begins her tenure as the new dean of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. She is the first woman to hold the position in the 164-year history of the school.

• Tisch alum Tyler Mitchell photographs Beyoncé for Vogue’s September issue, making history as first African American photographer to shoot the magazine’s cover.

• Using facial recognition software, NYU researchers help uncover the inspiration behind Dr. Seuss' The Lorax.

• Facebook and NYU team up for the fastMRI research project, which aims to use artificial intelligence to make MRI scans 10x quicker.

SEPTEMBER

• NYU Journalism student Mathieu Faure wins the Student Academy Award for his documentary An Edited Life.

• Fourteen NYU alumni win Emmy Awards, including Tisch's Rachel Brosnahan, for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel).



• Seventeen-time Grammy Award-winning musician, actor, politician, and activist Rubén Blades becomes Steinhardt’s inaugural Scholar-in-Residence.

• Lydia Mason (CAS ’21) wins the NYU Constitution Day Slam—hosted by the NYU Brademas Center and NYU Government Affairs—for her poem, "Dear America."

• NYU President Andy Hamilton and Provost Katy Fleming announce new sustainability efforts for 2018 and beyond. Measures include eliminating plastic straws and bags on campus, and launching a high-tech waste management system.

• NYU Shanghai professor Zhang Zheng is selcted to head Amazon’s New AI Lab.

OCTOBER

• Paul Romer, founder of the NYU Stern School of Business Urbanization Project and former director of NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management, wins the 2018 Nobel Prize in economics.

• Results and next steps from the Being@NYU Assessment of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion are presented to the NYU community.

• The NYC Economic Development Corporation launches a $100 million effort to turn New York into the cyber security capital of the world, with NYU Tandon as one its key partners in offering certifications and degrees.

• With productions including A Doll’s House, Part 2, Tisch alum Lucas Hnath is named the most-produced playwright in the country for 2018, according to American Theatre magazine's annual list.

• Gallatin alum Adam Mosseri is named the new head of Instagram.

• Isabela “Isay” Acenas (CAS ’21), H.E. Shamma Suhail Faris Al Mazrui (NYUAD ’14), Alina Das (WAG ’05, LAW ’05), and the NYU Veterans Working Group are presented the 2018 Making a Difference Award by President Hamilton.

NOVEMBER

• Two NYU Abu Dhabi seniors—Majida Al Maktoum and Amal Al Gergawi—are selected as 2019 UAE Rhodes Scholars.

• NYU releases its inaugural Community Impact Report, detailing the university’s wide variety of efforts to partner and provide services.

• NYU announces plans to launch a new program in Los Angeles for students in the arts and creative professions.

• The NYU women's and men's soccer teams are selected to compete in the NCAA tournament—marking the first time both teams are chosen in the same year.

• NYU is ranked No. 1 in higher education again by the IIE for the number of international students attending NYU and the number of NYU students studying abroad.

DECEMBER



• Four NYU students are selected as 2020 Schwarzman Scholars.

• Global TIES for Children—an international research center embedded within NYU's Institute of Human Development and Social Change and the NYU Abu Dhabi Research Institute—announces it will partner with Sesame Workshop to expand research on child development through a $100 million LEGO Foundation grant.

• On the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day, the 1985 film Buddies, starring Wagner’s Associate Dean David Schacter (Tisch ’82, Wagner ’94), is screened at the school.