the first academic center devoted to the study of jewish life in the united states. the cohen center's work spans basic research on jewish identity to applied educational evaluation studies. the center's recent signature studies include research with participants in taglit-birthright israel, investigations of synagogue transformation, analyses of jewish summer camping, and socio-demographic studies of jewish communities throughout the united states. cmjs research has altered the understanding of contemporary jewish life and the role of jewish institutions in the united states. schuster institute for investigative journalism the schuster institute for investigative journalism was launched in september 2004 as the first investigative reporting center based at a united states university. it was named for founding benefactors elaine schuster and gerald schuster. the institute's major projects were: the political & social justice project the justice brandeis innocence project the gender & justice project. the schuster institute closed at the end of 2018 due to financial considerations. steinhardt social research institute the steinhardt social research institute was created in 2005 from a gift from michael steinhardt as a forum to collect, analyze, and disseminate data about the jewish community and about religion and ethnicity in the united states. the first mission of ssri was to interpret the inherent problems with the national jewish population survey of 2000 (njps). ssri has done a jewish population survey of the greater boston area, the results of which were released on november 9, 2006. the institute collects and organizes existing socio-demographic data from private, communal, and government sources and will conduct local and national studies of the character of american jewry and jewish organizations. the work of the institute is done by a multidisciplinary staff of faculty and scholars, working with undergraduate and graduate students, and augmented by visiting scholars and consultants. the institute works in close collaboration with the maurice and marilyn cohen center for modern jewish studies. women's studies research center women's studies research center the women's studies research center (wsrc) is directed by professor of sociology and women's, gender and sexuality studies karen v. hansen. the wsrc was founded in 2001 by professor emerita of sociology shulamit reinharz. it is home to three general programs: the scholars program, which consists of about 70 academic scholars from around the world who study gender through an interdisciplinary lens the student-scholar partnership program, which pairs brandeis university undergraduate students with wsrc scholars for semester-long, paid research assistantships the arts program, which oversees the kniznick gallery, devoted to feminist artwork the center is located at the epstein building on the brandeis campus. notable faculty and graduates roderick mackinnon (ba, 1978) won the nobel prize in chemistry in 2003. karen uhlenbeck (phd, 1968) first (and to-date only) woman to win the abel prize in mathematics. edward witten (ba, 1971) is a theoretical physicist and fields medal recipient. leslie lamport (phd, 1972) is a turing award-winning computer scientist and inventor of the first algorithm for reading the state of an arbitrary distributed system. robert zimmer (ba, 1968) is a mathematician and served as president of the university of chicago from 2006 to 2021. thomas friedman (ba, 1975) won the pulitzer prize three times. margo jefferson (ba, 1970) won the pulitzer prize for criticism. v. balakrishnan (physicist) (phd, 1970) is an indian theoretical physicist. angela davis (ba, 1965) is an american political activist, philosopher, academic, and author. adam cheyer (ba, 1988) is a co-founder of siri and former director of engineering for the iphone. christie hefner (ba, 1974) is the former ceo of playboy enterprises. debra messing (ba, 1990) is an emmy award-winning actress. david kertzer (phd 1974) is a pulitzer prize-winning historian (2014). mitch albom (ba) is a best-selling author known for writing tuesdays with morrie and the five people you meet in heaven sidney blumenthal (ba, 1969) is a journalist and political operative known for his association with president clinton. guy raz (ba, 1996) is a radio host for npr. abbie hoffman (ba, 1959) was a co-founder of the youth international party and one of the chicago seven. daniel b. shapiro (ba, 1991) was the united states ambassador to israel under barack obama. jeffrey c. hall, professor emeritus of biology won the nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 2017. michael rosbash, peter gruber chair in neuroscience won the nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 2017 robert reich, the united states secretary of labor, was a professor of social and economic policy at brandeis. anita hill, an american lawyer, academic, and public figure, teaches at brandeis. john b. anderson, a member of the u.s. house of representatives and presidential candidate in the election of 1980, taught at brandeis. frank bidart, is a poet who has received the pulitzer prize as well as the national book award twice. pauli murray was a civil rights activist and lawyer who taught at brandeis. eleanor roosevelt was the longest-serving first lady of the united states as the wife of franklin d. roosevelt, the first u.s. delegate to the united nations, and an advocate for women's rights and civil rights for african americans. leonard bernstein, acclaimed american composer and conductor, faculty member 1951 to 1956, and early supporter of the university elliot aronson is an american psychologist who has carried out experiments on the theory of cognitive dissonance. he is the only person in the 120-year history of the american psychological association to have won all three of its major awards: for writing, for teaching, and for research. among the better-known graduates are co-creators of the television show friends david crane and marta kauffman, political activists abbie hoffman and angela davis, journalists thomas friedman and paul solman, congressman stephen j. solarz, physicist and fields medalist edward witten, mathematician and abel prize recipient karen uhlenbeck, novelist ha jin, political theorist michael walzer, actresses debra messing and loretta devine, philosopher michael sandel, olympic silver medalist fencer tim morehouse, social and psychoanalytic theorist nancy chodorow, author mitch albom, filmmakers debra granik and jonathan newman, music producer jon landau, and computer scientist leslie lamport. among the distinguished faculty, present and past, are mathematician heisuke hironaka, a fields medalist, biologists and nobel laureates michael rosbash and jeffrey c. hall, composers arthur berger, leonard bernstein, martin boykan, eric chasalow, irving fine, donald martino, david rakowski, harold shapero, and yehudi wyner, social theorist herbert marcuse, psychologist abraham maslow, linguist james pustejovsky, human rights activist eleanor roosevelt, anita hill, historian david hackett fischer, economist thomas sowell, chemist s katharine hammond, diplomat dennis ross, children's author margret rey, former united states secretary of labor robert reich, sociologist morrie schwartz, poets olga broumas and adrienne rich, author stephen mccauley, virologist and author of fields virology bernard n. fields and pulitzer prize–winning columnist eileen mcnamara. publications newspaper and yearbook archon, the yearbook the barrister news ltd was a politically neutral broadside weekly newspaper with nationally syndicated features, published 1985–1991. the blowfish, a satirical newspaper founded in february 2006, is published every other thursday. the first issue appeared inside the hoot, and every issue since then has been published independently. the justice, which was founded in 1949 (one year after the university's inception) is an administratively independent weekly newspaper distributed every tuesday during term. the brandeis hoot, founded in 2005, is an independent weekly newspaper published on fridays. magazines the louis lunatic, founded in the winter of 2004, is a student-run sports magazine released each semester, discussing brandeis and national sports. gravity, a humor magazine founded in 1990 laurel moon, a literary magazine launched in 1991 artemis, a feminist magazine published intermittently in the 1980s-1990s and revived during the fall 2013 semester. under the robe, an arts and entertainment social tabloid published by the barrister 1985–1988 where the children play, a literature and arts magazine founded in 1994 by phil robinson and abigail myers journals brandeis economic & finance review, founded by jordan caruso in 2010, is a student-run online and print publication dedicated to issues in business, economics, and finance. nobel laureate robert solow contributed an original article for the fall 2010 printed publication. brandeis international journal, a student-run semesterly publication on international affairs, which became the brandeis journal of politics. brandeis university law journal, founded in 2008, is the only undergraduate-edited legal publication not affiliated with a law school in the united states. the brandeis scope reports on research occurring on the brandeis university campus and affiliated laboratories in the sciences. louis magazine, a defunct journal of intellectual discourse, 1999–2002 the pulse, reports on advances in medicine; published by the pre-health society athletics brandeis fields 19 division iii varsity athletic programs. brandeis athletic teams compete in the university athletic association (uaa). brandeis has won ncaa team championships in men's soccer (1976) and men's cross country (1983), as well as 24 individual titles. brandeis teams have earned 17 ncaa division iii tournament berths and won eight eastern collegiate athletic association (ecac) new england crowns in the last decade. nine teams have earned national rankings, with men's and women's basketball and men's and women's soccer all ascending to the top 10 in the nation during that span. in 2017, the men's team reached the sweet 16 of the ncaa tournament for the sixth year in a row, and reached the final four for the second straight year. it was the fourth straight year they finished ranked a top ten team in the country. also earning national rankings in '13-14 were women's cross country and men's and women's tennis. brandeis also sponsors 20 club sports. among them, ultimate frisbee, crew, archery and women's rugby have had success on a national level. the program's many intramural sports are open to students, faculty and staff. research brandeis is classified among "r1: doctoral universities – very high research activity". in fy 2017, brandeis spent $68.4 million on research and was ranked 174 in the nation by total r&d expenditure. these include sponsored research funds from sources including the national institutes of health; the national science foundation and the us department of health and human services as well as a range of foundations. the university's division of science encompasses seven departments (biochemistry, biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, physics, and psychology), five interdepartmental programs (biochemistry & biophysics, biological physics, biotechnology, genetic counseling, molecular & cell biology, and neuroscience), six science centers (ashton graybiel spatial orientation laboratory, national center for behavioral genomics, rosenstiel basic medical sciences research center, sloan-swartz center for theoretical neurobiology, benjamin and mae volen national center for complex systems, and w.m. keck institute for cellular visualization), and more than 50 laboratories that investigate fundamental life processes ranging from the structure and function of individual macromolecules to the mechanisms that control the behavior of whole organisms. faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduates investigate areas such as neuronal development and plasticity, signal transduction, immunology, the molecular basis of genetic recombination, and the three-dimensional structure of macromolecular assemblies. brandeis science faculty include 12 national academy of science members, three howard hughes medical institute investigators, two howard hughes medical institute professors, two macarthur foundation fellows, and 15 american association for the advancement of sciences fellows. brandeis undergraduate students have the opportunity to work with faculty, postdoctoral students and graduate students to conduct original laboratory research. brandeis also offers a number of funding resources to support independent undergraduate research projects. in 2008, brandeis established a science posse program, a merit-based scholarship program that admits students based on their academic, leadership and communication skills, and their interests in studying science. founded by irving epstein, the henry f. fischbach professor of chemistry, and supported by a howard hughes medical institute grant, the science posse program is focused on increasing the recruitment and retention of students from traditionally underrepresented groups in the sciences. the program recruits, trains, and provides mentoring and other services for 10 inner-city atlanta students each year who are interested in studying science at the undergraduate level. in 2014, the national science foundation renewed funding for brandeis' materials research science and engineering center (mrsec), which was established in 2008. this center supports interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary materials research and education that address fundamental problems in science and engineering that are important to society. in particular, the center uses simplified components to create new materials that have some of the functionalities found in living organisms. student life student body composition as of may 2, 2022 race and ethnicity total white 44% 44 foreign