Forever Pushing Forward

Great universities don’t stand still. They can’t stand still. And the reason, of course, is that the world doesn’t stand still.

Lehigh is not standing still.

Our bright, ambitious students are excelling both inside the classroom and out. The work of our dynamic faculty bolsters our reputation as a leading research university. Our alumni continue to serve as our proud brand ambassadors, making impacts in the worlds of business, the arts, higher education, sports and so many other fields as well. Meanwhile, our leadership is encouraging us all to think more boldly about the potential of this great university, laying out exciting plans for growth that could prove to be transformative.

There’s no question, these are exciting times at Lehigh, which means it’s a great time to be editor of this magazine. There are simply so many amazing stories to tell; the only challenge, it seems, is trying to make space for all of them. In this, our latest issue, we tried our best to do just that. Some highlights:

You will also read about junior Darian Cruz’s remarkable triumph at the NCAA wrestling championships, the selfless efforts of Vince Volpe ’80 to revive one of France’s most historic sporting institutions and the rising star who is mural artist Denton Burrows ’11.

• In our feature package in this issue (Pg. 22), we explore the many important initiatives Lehigh is currently pursuing on the West Coast, and also tell the story of Lehigh parent Tom Gillis ’15P ’17P ’19P, a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur who is leading the way in helping young women break into the tech world. His generous contributions to talented Lehigh students are already making a major impact.
• Early this year, Lehigh welcomed Khanjan Mehta as the university’s first vice provost for creative inquiry. Mehta is looking to build on the successes of the Mountaintop initiative and integrate the ethos of creative inquiry into every aspect of the Lehigh academic infrastructure. In an in-depth Q&A (Pg. 10), he explains how to intends to do so.
• Lehigh prides itself on supporting research that aims to answer some of the greatest questions of our time, and Sera Cremonini is looking to answer perhaps the biggest of them all (Pg. 28). Cremonini, an assistant professor of physics, is a leading thinker in the field of string theory, which proposes that all the mysteries of the universe can be explained by the existence of, and behaviors of, almost impossibly tiny vibrating “strings.”

We hope you enjoy this issue of the Bulletin, and we welcome you to share your thoughts by writing us at tih313@lehigh.edu. Thank you again for reading.

Sincerely,
Tim Hyland, Editor

Share your thoughts—your kudos, your criticisms, your questions—by sending your Letters to the Editor. They can be sent via snail mail to the address at right, or via email to tih313@lehigh.edu.