The Low Down

March is Women’s History Month. Join the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) and our Columbia community in proudly recognizing and celebrating the generations of Columbia alumnae who have contributed to history, and who continue to help shape the future.

Veteran alumni leader and chair of Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) Brian Krisberg ('81CC, '84LAW, P: '18CC) recently spoke to Columbia alumni relations professionals about his long history of leadership and volunteerism at Columbia.

Excerpts from his speech are provided below.

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Happy Valentine's Day! 

All week, we've been sharing stories of love written and submitted by Columbia alumni below.

Today, we're proud to present the full collection on the Columbia Alumni Association's Facebook page - over 30+ stories of love, friendship, and the enduring ties to Alma Mater that continue to bring us together.  

Happy Valentine's Day! 

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Did you know that over 7,400 Columbia couples met and fell in love through Columbia?

Some were hit by Cupid's arrow on the first day of classes, while others connected years later through the Columbia alumni network. 

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we've compiled a few of our favorite Columbia love stories—written and shared by our alumni—that would give Nicholas Sparks a run for his money.  

Do you have your own Columbia love story to share?  E-mail us your story and photo(s) to: [email protected].

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In honor of Black History Month, we look back at some of our trailblazing and accomplished black alumni.

If you thought that the fictional 'Indominus‍ Rex' in the sci-fi adventure film Jurassic World was big, just wait until you get a glimpse of the real-life remains of the enormous titanosaur that has recently invaded NYC's American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).

This 122-foot-long beast (about the length of three school buses - or twenty-two Alma Maters placed side-by-side) is a species so new that it has not yet been formally named by the team of paleontologists who discovered it - a team led by Dr. Jose Luis Carballido and Columbia alumnus, Dr. Diego Pol '04GSAS.

In 2012, a local rancher in southern Argentina reported that he found fossils on his land to the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio in Argentina. 

By 2014, Dr. Pol and his team of paleontologists excavated 223 fossil bones belonging to six titanosaur dinosaurs at the site, including an 8-foot-tall femur bone now on exhibit at AMNH.  These giant herbivores roamed the earth some 100 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period. 

By measuring the length and circumference of the femur, Dr. Pol and his team estimate that the behemoth dino may have tipped the scale at 70 tons - more than 10 African elephants. 

Photo: Pol next to the femur of the behemoth titanosaur via BBC News. 

How does one go about measuring the size of a prehistoric daunting dino? In this video, Dr. Pol explains how the measuring process works. 

Today, you too can marvel at this prehistoric wonder at AMNH, where the titanosaur has invaded not one, but two rooms at the museum. It dwarfs AMNH's famous blue whale by nearly 30 feet (although the blue whale still takes the crown in mass, weighing as much as 200 tons, or 3x as much as the titanosaur).

Photo: PBS NewsHour via AMNH

Congratulations, Dr. Pol, for the incredible discovery. And for the record, we think "Columbia-osaur" has a nice ring to it, if you're brainstorming names.  

(Photo: Ample Hills Creamery)

Brooklyn Brewery co-founder Tom Potter '83BUS is among several investors, including the founders of Seamless, to raise $4 million in funding for Ample Hills Creamery, a popular ice cream shop chain in Brooklyn. 

Columbia Business School alumni are having lots of success in the startup world. 

by David S. Rose '83BUS
originally published in Columbia Business

Angel investing is when individuals invest their personal capital to help finance a recently founded company. Over the long run, carefully selected and managed portfolios of personal angel investments can produce an average annual return of more than 25 percent, which compares well to virtually any other use for your money. Even better, you often get a ringside seat at a venture that is out to change the world, direct access to company CEOs who may become the corporate magnates of tomorrow, and early access to the latest products and services before they become generally available.