Front row (Left to Right): Kimberly La Porte (MSHP ‘20), Ha Leem Ro (MSHP ‘21), Linnaea Dawson (MSHP ‘96), Gabrielle Goldstein (MSHP ‘21) Second row (Left to Right): José C. Hernández (MSHP ‘22), Tisha Allen (MSHP ‘12), Héctor J. Berdecía-Hernández (MSHP ‘20), Meris Westberg (MSHP ‘21), Donglin Chen (MSHP ‘25), Jiwen Fan (MSHP ‘24), Qingrou Dai (MSHP ‘25), Ke-An Chiang (MSHP ‘25), Nicola Macdonald (MSHP ‘23) Back row: Andrew Fearon (MSHP ‘06). Photo: Andrés Santana-Miranda 
Front row (Left to Right): Gabrielle Goldstein (MSHP ‘21), Meris Westberg (MSHP ‘21), Ke-An Chiang (MSHP ‘25), Shen-Tzu Chen (MSHP ‘25) Second row (Left to Right): Jiwen Fan (MSHP ’24), José C. Hernández (MSHP ’22), Amanda Barnette (MSHP ’26), Frank G. Matero (Chair of the Department), Ha Leem Ro (MSHP ‘21), Qingrou Dai (MSHP ’25), Héctor J. Berdecía-Hernández (MSHP ’20) Back row: Andrew Fearon (MSHP ’02) 
Nicola Macdonald presents her talk titled “Colored Expectations, Whitewashed Reality: A.J. Downing’s Influence and the Surprising Palette of Ivy Lodge” Photo: Andrew Fearon 
Meris Westberg presents her talk “Heat, Humidity, and Pressure: Leveraging Techniques from Other Disciplines to Preserve Graffiti and Architectural Paints at a Historic Prison Museum” Photo: Andrew Fearon 
José C. Hernández presents “Bridging the Gap Between Real and Virtual: A Digital Interface for a Building Materials Collection” Photo: Andrew Fearon 
Donglin Chen presents her poster Photo: Andrew Fearon
Last May, a group of Weitzman School of Design Historic Preservation students and alumni shared their research work at the fifty-third Annual Meeting of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC). The conference, held at the Hyatt-Regency Hotel in Minneapolis, Mi., between May 27th and 31st, also provided a space for students and emerging scholars to present their individual research.
Héctor J. Berdecía-Hernández (MSHP ‘20) served as Chair Emeritus of the Architectural Specialty Group (ASG) and moderated a luncheon panel discussion on the intrinsic connection between the care and maintenance of historic buildings and the preventive care of collections, reflecting on the impact and legacy of the 1992 New Orleans Charter for the Preservation of Historic Structures and Artifacts.
Donglin Chen (MSHP ’25) presented a poster in the Exhibit Hall on her research in stylistic and instrumental analysis of a northern Chinese wall painting from the Ming dynasty, believed to be between 15th–16th century.
Jiwen Fan (MSHP ’24) presented her findings on the effectiveness of biological amendments for the conservation of earthen built heritage. Through laboratory testing at the ACL, Fan tested the physico-mechanical properties of soil amended with psyllium husk and evaluated its feasibility as a sustainable alternative to modern synthetic amendments.
José C. Hernández (MSHP ’22) shared the ongoing digitization efforts of the Historic Building Materials Collection at the ACL, laying out the unique complexities of managing special collections like building materials and the implications of digitization of our material world.
Nicola Macdonald (MSHP ‘23) presented her findings on the surprising monochromatic palette used at Ivy Lodge, Germantown, a departure from Andrew Jackson Downing’s signature picturesque palette. Her research relied heavily on visible and UV visible light microscopy at the ACL with samples cross-sectioned from both interior and exterior of Ivy Lodge.
Meris Westberg (MSHP ’21) was a twice presenter and panelist. She presented on leveraging techniques and bodies of knowledge from other conservation disciplines (paper, paintings, and objects) to architectural paint at the Burlington County Prison Museum (a conservation project by Jablonski Building Conservation). Her second presentation focused on the policy gap between building codes and collections management in flood preparedness at museums and sites in historic buildings. She was a panelist on the Architecture Specialty Group (ASG) and Preventive Care Network (PCN) luncheon on the impact of the New Orleans Charter to collections management in historic buildings, moderated by Héctor J. Berdecía-Hernández (MSHP ’20) and Kelly McCauley.
On Friday evening, the Weitzman School of Design organized a Happy Hour reception with alumni at Utelpils Brewing where Professor Andrew Fearon (MSHP ’02) toasted on behalf of Frank Matero, Chair of the Department in Historic Preservation.