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To mark the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, we reached out to our colleagues at the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security and the Schar School of Policy and Government for their remembrances. Many of them have worked in the intelligence and policy communities and each has a unique perspective on a day that changed our world.

Distinguished Visiting Professor Michael Morell is the only person who was with President George W. Bush on Sept. 11, 2001, when the 9/11 attacks occurred, and with President Barack Obama on May 2, 2011, when Osama bin Laden was killed.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America left an indelible mark on An Nguyen with the death of his father at the Pentagon, but the �������� graduate student has overcome considerable hurdles to ensure that he honors his father every day by becoming the kind of young man his beloved father would have wanted.

�������� alumna Shelley A. Marshall was in her office at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. A budget analyst in the comptroller's office of the Defense Intelligence Agency, she was scheduled to move to a new office on the other side of the building later that week.

Eight �������� students traveled to Cusco, Peru, as part of Volunteers Around the World-Dental (VAWD), a student-led organization that gives volunteers an opportunity to shadow dental professionals abroad.

Mason is initiating the largest-scale surveillance testing protocol of any Virginia university, in which our goal is to test up to 13,000 members of the Mason community each week.

Incoming Mason freshman and EIP graduate Muhammad Farhan Babar is no stranger to helping others.

In partnership with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Tech Talent initiative and in anticipation of Amazon HQ2’s arrival, �������� is expanding its programs in computer science and related fields by a third at the undergraduate level and threefold at the graduate level.

Now that most public school districts have resumed in-person instruction, those in health care are beginning to see increases in pediatric admissions due to COVID-19 and other respiratory pathogens and are bracing for surges, according to Amira Albert Roess, professor of global health and epidemiology in ��������’s College of Health and Human Services.

As a child, Nathaniel Socks said he was restless, and could often be found tapping his hands on nearby objects. His mom enrolled him in drum lessons in second grade, he said, which led to his favorite hobby—one that taught him valuable life lessons. “I got to see how if you put in hard work and dedicate yourself to something really hard, how cool the product can be,” the incoming �������� freshman said. “That was one thing that really got me into drumming—you can see the progression of practicing.”

The latest IPCC report has never been more clear about the dangers of global warming or who is responsible for it.

�������� has four programs in the top 100 in the world in the latest Academic Rankings of World Universities. The university also gained in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.