USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

09/03/2026

In 1862, flooding turned California’s Sacramento Valley into a 300-mile inland sea. The Los Angeles River burst its banks, sweeping away much of the city.

Natural evidence of that disaster may offer important clues about the climate risks that lie ahead.

And California is just one place USC Dornsife researchers are looking for answers. From Alaska’s thawing permafrost to Florida’s threatened coral reefs, they’re uncovering how a changing climate is reshaping America.

From California floods and wildfires to thawing Arctic permafrost and dying coral reefs, researchers track a nation under environmental pressure

09/01/2026

How much of the America we know today would its founders recognize, and how much would surprise them?

As the U.S. marks its 250th anniversary, historians Peter Mancall and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal join Dean James Bullock to look beyond familiar founding stories and explore how the nation took shape, including how ideas about freedom, citizenship, and democracy evolved along the way.

Join us Sept. 10 for this free Dornsife Dialogue, open to all.

Register: https://usc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WOnMdfPSQLeFpvHYCbsDYg #/registration

08/25/2026

Congratulations to Prof. Karen Lloyd, whose project has been selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s GENESIS Mission. It's one of several USC-led efforts receiving support to accelerate AI-driven scientific discovery.

Prof. Lloyd’s team will use AI to better understand how critical minerals become concentrated beneath Earth’s surface, helping strengthen the nation’s supply of materials essential to clean energy and other advanced technologies.

Seven projects involving USC researchers — including three led by USC — were selected for the U.S. Department of Energy initiative to harness artificial intelligence for scientific discovery and innovation.

08/24/2026

Can AI see a city the way people do? Can electricity control magnetism to make computers faster? And what can understudied languages reveal about how human language works?

USC Dornsife scholars pursued questions like these around the world this summer. Swipe to explore some of their work → then discover all 21 featured projects: https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/global-summer-research/

08/19/2026

When it comes to protecting your brain, not all physical activity may be equal.

A USC Dornsife-led study found that leisure-time exercise is associated with a lower risk of dementia, while physical activity on the job is linked with higher risk.

Researchers say the difference may have less to do with movement itself than with the conditions surrounding it — including stress, workplace hazards and limited recovery time.

USC research finds strenuous work may not offer same brain protection as voluntary leisure-time exercise, may increase dementia risk.

08/13/2026

Not everyone gets to witness a total solar eclipse. Even fewer capture the moment in images like these by USC Dornsife professor of physics and astronomy Vahe Peroomian. He shot them from Ibiza, Spain.

Thank you, Prof. Peroomian, for sharing them with us.

All images are copyrighted by Vahé Peroomian (www.vahep.com)

08/12/2026

With tonight’s Powerball jackpot at $1 billion, buying your ticket at a “lucky” store won’t improve your chances. But choosing less-popular numbers could matter if you actually win.

A USC Dornsife mathematics professor explains how you may be able to reduce the odds of having to share the prize.

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08/06/2026

Los Angeles wants more trees and shade, but some of its decades-old rules may be standing in the way.

Research from our Spatial Sciences Institute and Public Exchange found that more flexible tree-spacing standards could create substantially more opportunities to plant trees in shade-deprived neighborhoods.

Citing that research, an LA City Council member is calling for a closer look at those rules. https://patch.com/california/los-angeles/decades-old-la-tree-rules-may-be-blocking-shade-where-its-needed-most.

08/05/2026

More than a year after the Palisades and Eaton fires, many Los Angeles residents still have urgent questions about the safety of their soil and coastal waters.

A new report from our Public Exchange CLEAN project, based on more than 6,000 soil samples and 900 seawater samples, provides one of the clearest pictures yet of how the fires affected environmental contamination.

The findings offer practical information for residents as communities continue to rebuild.

Study examined Palisades, Eaton fires, environmental contamination.

08/04/2026

The pathogens our ancestors encountered thousands of years ago may still influence how our bodies respond to disease today.

A USC Dornsife-led study traced how four immune-system genes evolved across human populations and identified rare genetic variants associated with severe COVID-19.

By bringing together evolutionary genetics and infectious-disease research, the study may help explain why the same infection affects people so differently — and could eventually point to new strategies for prevention and treatment.

Combining evolutionary genetics with infectious disease research may reveal why one disease can affect different people in different ways