Supported by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, Northwestern’s undergraduate and graduate student delegates attended the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through a quarter-long research seminar. The students developed original research projects, which they then carried out at the conference. We spoke with four students post-conference to share their experiences and insights.

For our inaugural Buffett Q&A, we spoke with Sara Huston, Genetics Ethicist at Lurie Children's Hospital and Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, to learn about her work as co-lead of the Buffett Institute's Global FamDNA Working Group.

"Water matters for thirst’s sake, but it matters for so much more – for nutrition, mental health, prosperity, disease, and societal stability," says Sera Young, Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University and co-lead of the Buffett Institute's Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group. Young led the development of the Water Insecurity Experiences (WISE) Scales, a tool used to measure water access & use worldwide and recently partnered with Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health to implement WISE Scales & tackle the country’s biggest water challenges.

The Buffett Institute's winter quarter symposium on AI and Geopolitics convened leading strategists, researchers and policymakers to discuss the transformative opportunities and profound challenges that AI poses in geopolitics. Speakers offered insights on how AI technologies influence global power dynamics, national security, economic development, international relations and more, exploring the role that international governance and cooperation will play in its future. Read McCormick School of Engineering's synthesis report on the event.

Mkhaimar Abusada, Buffett Institute Visiting Scholar and Visiting Lecturer in Political Science and the Middle East and North African Studies Program, was quoted in a piece reflecting on President Donald Trump's recent plans to force Palestinians out of Gaza. Read Abusada's perspective on why "Palestinians are against this and would rather live in tents and in the rubble of their destroyed homes than leave."

“The governance of AI is absolutely critical,” shared V.S. Subrahmanian, Buffett Institute Faculty Fellow and Professor of Computer Science at McCormick School of Engineering, at a recent Institute for Policy Research talk on AI policymaking. Subrahmanian was joined by McCormick visiting professor Barry O’Sullivan, a professor at University College Cork in Ireland, who shared how the European Union approaches AI governance and policy.

As conflicts and climate crises proliferate and intensify, countless families are being torn apart. Now, a group is exploring a DNA-based extragovernmental solution to help reunite those separated.

Twelve Northwestern students attended the annual Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP29, to conduct research. The delegation presented their findings at a poster session held by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.

Jeffrey Winters, Director of the Buffett Institute's Equality Development & Globalization Studies (EDGS) program and Professor of Political Science in the Weinberg School of Arts & Sciences, discussed what some have called the oligarchy shaping American politics and society in a podcast with KUOW, Seattle’s NPR news station.

Sara Huston, co-lead of the Buffett Institute’s Global FamDNA Working Group and Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, was featured in "Nature" regarding the urgent need for an international DNA database designed specifically to aid the reunification of living family members.

V.S. Subrahmanian, the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering and a Buffett Faculty Fellow at the Buffett Institute of Global Affairs, discussed how TikTok works and what a ban would mean for users. "Flowing down from the other side either a response to a request from me or of their own volition, there’s data coming from the TikTok side to me and my phone. If that pipe is removed or blocked in the middle, then this flow cannot happen," Subrahmanian shared.

The Buffett Institute for Global Affairs held a symposium on artificial intelligence and geopolitics to explore the implications of AI technologies on national security. McCormick Professor V.S. Subrahmanian and Ireland’s University College Cork Professor Barry O’Sullivan moderated several panels on the implications of AI in national security, economics and governance.

Our 2024–25 winter quarter Buffett Symposium on AI and Geopolitics convened leading strategists, researchers and policymakers to discuss the transformative opportunities and profound challenges that AI poses in geopolitics. Speakers offered insights on how AI technologies influence global power dynamics, national security, economic development, international relations and more, exploring the role that international governance and cooperation will play in its future.

Julius Lucks, co-lead of the Buffett Institute's Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group, discusses how toxins and other small molecules at low concentrations in the environment or human body may emit quiet signals that are undetectable without “amplification” via specialized lab technology. This technology is currently being used in the working group's National Science Foundation study.

Julius Lucks, co-lead of the Buffett Institute's Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group, discusses how a sensing platform already being used to measure toxins in drinking water can be applied to disease detection and monitoring in the human body for nucleic acids like DNA and RNA, as well as bacteria such as E. coli. This technology is currently being used in the working group's National Science Foundation study.

In late November, The Block Museum of Art unveiled the results of the Buffett Institute's Climate Crisis + Media Arts (CC+MA) Working Group’s transformative media-funding initiative. The two-night event included the first public presentation of six original media artworks made possible with funding from CC+MA.

V.S. Subrahmanian, the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering and a Buffett Faculty Fellow at the Buffett Institute of Global Affairs, discussed what a potential TikTok ban would mean for the app's users and creators. "The answer is not simple and some amount of time might be required," Subrahmanian shared.

“At the end of the day, our phones reveal a huge amount of information about each of us. An app that can track all that information potentially can allow China to build a massive intelligence database about each and every person in the country — and their personal network of friends and family," said V.S. Subrahmanian, the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering and a Buffett Faculty Fellow at the Buffett Institute of Global Affairs on the Supreme Court hearings on a potential TikTok ban.

Matej Jungwirth, a Buffett Institute Graduate Research Fellow, is a PhD candidate in Political Science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. His research explores the impacts of territorial loss and displacement, aiming to illuminate the experiences of displaced communities and guide the development of policy solutions. Learn more about Matej in this profile by The Graduate School.

Sarah Bartolome, a co-lead of the Buffett Institute's now-retired Trauma, Music & the Breath Global Working Group, is part of a collaboration between the Bienen School of Music and Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital where researchers are exploring whether music and singing can deliver measurable benefits for the heart. Through her Global Working Group, Bartolome jumpstarted the Music for Childhood Well-Being Initiative, which investigates the use of music as therapy for children facing trauma and mental health challenges.

At the 13th annual Global Health Day organized by the Havey Institute for Global Health, two Buffett Undergraduate Research Fellows, Emily Lynott and Ella Kuffour, presented research they conducted under the guidance of their faculty mentor, Professor Faith Summersett Williams. Learn about their research on health inequities in Switzerland in this Global Health Day recap.

Block Museum of Art’s Block Cinema premiered the first of three screenings, “Sanctuary Stations,” as part of its Climate Crisis and Media Arts Showcase Thursday evening. The Buffett Institute for Global Affairs’ Climate Crisis and Media Arts Global Working Group supported the showcase through grants of up to $10,000. The showcase featured a variety of projects, from complete feature films to work-in-progress samples.