University of Rochester

In Review

An alumnus who most recently managed intellectual property issues for Abbott Medical Optics in Santa Ana, Calif., will oversee technology transfer for the University. Scott Catlin ’92 has been appointed associate vice president for innovation and technology commercialization, which includes directing the Office of Technology Transfer. That office is responsible for protecting the University’s intellectual property and facilitating the commercialization of technologies.

Catlin, who earned a bachelor’s degree in optical engineering at Rochester before getting his law degree at Notre Dame, was legal section head for Abbott Medical Optics. He is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Catlin will report to the senior vice president for research.

New Major in Audio and Music Engineering Offered

In response to rapid changes in the field of audio engineering, the University is combining its expertise in music and engineering to help students succeed in the redefined industry.

The New York State Department of Education has certified Rochester’s new undergraduate audio and music engineering major, which is being offered to students for the first time this academic year.

Students enrolled in the major will develop knowledge and skills in recording and sound design, acoustics, electronics, digital signal processing, and computer programming. About 15 students have declared the new major. Beginning in fall 2013, programs for the new major will be housed in Ronald Rettner Hall for Media Arts and Innovation, now under construction between Wilson Commons and Morey Hall.

Scholar of Inequality Receives Douglass Medal

Noted anthropologist Yolanda Moses received the University’s Frederick Douglass Medal in recognition of her scholarship and public service. A former president of the City College of New York, Moses is a leading scholar of the origins of social inequality. A past president of the American Anthropological Association, she is currently the associate vice chancellor for diversity, equity, and excellence at the University of California at Riverside, where she also is a professor of anthropology. She is involved in national projects to promote diversity in education with the National Council for Research on Women and the Women of Color Research Collective, and she was a driving force behind the creation of a traveling museum exhibition, RACE: Are We So Different? Using comparative ethnographic and survey methods, she has focused on gender and class disparities in the Caribbean, East Africa, and the United States. More recently, she turned to issues of diversity and change in universities and colleges in the United States, India, Europe, and South Africa.

Science Coalition Honors Louise Slaughter

The Science Coalition honored Congresswoman Louise Slaughter this winter with its Champion of Science Award in honor of her commitment to funding basic research. President Joel Seligman presented the award at a University event attended by Medical Center CEO Bradford Berk ’81M (MD/PhD), researchers, and students.

Seligman called Slaughter—who holds degrees in microbiology and public health—a “true friend of science” and praised her “passion, leadership, and tenacity.” In accepting the award, Slaughter said, “In an age when our politics often give us reason for despair, the constant progress of science gives us confidence in the realization of a better tomorrow.”

Slaughter also toured the Upstate Stem Cell cGMP facility at the Medical Center.

University Again Named a Tree Campus USA

For the third year in a row, the Arbor Day Foundation has named Rochester a Tree Campus USA. The title comes from a national program of the same name, created in 2008 to honor colleges and universities for effective campus forest management and for engaging staff and students in conservation goals.

The Horticulture and Grounds Department achieved the title by meeting the program’s five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures toward trees, an Arbor Day observance, and student-learning projects. Last spring, Rochester was one of five Tree Campus USA schools nationally to receive $1,000 from the Arbor Day Foundation to help fund an Arbor Day tree-planting event. To view a tree map of the River Campus, visit www.facilities.rochester.edu/arboretum/photos/map.pdf.

New Memorial Honors Veterans

A memorial to honor veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces was dedicated in a January ceremony at the Saunders Research Building.

Located in the atrium, the memorial was inspired by philanthropist and namesake Philip Saunders, who provided the lead gift for the building, which opened in 2011. The memorial is inscribed with a quote from Saunders: “Let us never forget the sacrifices made by our veterans and their families, and may the research within this building bring healing to them and others.”

The building is home to the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, as well as academic departments. It also houses research programs in cancer, pediatrics, emergency medicine, neurological disorders, and cardiovascular disease.