In Review: University Notebook

A new report finds that the University has more than doubled its impact on the region’s economy in the last 14 years.

Based on 2019 information, the analysis by the Center for Governmental Research also indicates that the University is the largest private employer based in upstate New York and the seventh largest private employer in the state.

The report is the eighth in a series of biennial assessments by the center of the employment and payroll, capital expenditures, purchasing, student and visitor spending, and tax impact of the University, including UR Medicine and its affiliates.

The analysis finds that the job impact of the University—both in terms of direct employment and spillover effect—has more than doubled since CGR started compiling the reports in 2006 and sustains a total of nearly 68,000 jobs in the New York State economy.

Staff Recognized for Their Contributions

This year’s President’s Staff Awards—the Meliora Award, Lamar Riley Murphy Leadership Award, Witmer Award for Distinguished Service, and Staff Community Service Award—recognize several people and groups who went above and beyond during the past year.

Additionally, the 2020 Award, a special one-time honor awarded this year, recognizes employees for their extraordinary and heroic response to the COVID-19 crisis.

2020 Award

Three teams received the 2020 Award: the Coronavirus University Restart Team (CURT), University Emergency Operations Command (EOC), and UR Medicine COVID-19 Regional Command Center.

Meliora Award

The award, which recognizes staff members whose work performance and dedication during the preceding few years exemplify the University’s motto, was presented to Wen Li, director of category management in Corporate Purchasing; the Post-Anesthesia Response Unit at Strong Memorial Hospital; the Employee Health Services Team at Strong Memorial Hospital; and the University Health Service Primary Care and Health Promotion Office.

Lamar Riley Murphy Leadership Award

The award, which recognizes an individual who is an exemplary role model and who demonstrates innovative and proactive leadership, was presented to Shayne Hawkins, director of medical surgical nursing at the Medical Center.

The Witmer Award for Distinguished Service

The award, which is presented to staff members whose careers have been characterized by outstanding and sustained contributions to the University, was presented to Donald DiVita, director of clinical engineering at the Medical Center; Eileen Pullara, the academic operations manager for the Department of Computer Science in the Hajim School; and Maria Romana, the clinical director for Strong Ties in the Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry.

The Staff Community Service Award

The award, which honors a nonmanagement staff member whose commitment best exemplifies service to the University and the Greater Rochester community, was presented to Jacquelyn McGriff, a program assistant for Alumni Relations and Constituent Engagement.

(Photo: J. Adam Fenster)

Acclaimed Soloist, Actor, and Activist Commemorated at Eastman

A bronze sculpture to commemorate the life and legacy of William Warfield ’42E, ’46E (MM), ’88 (Honorary), one of the most acclaimed vocal artists of the late 20th century, has been installed at the Eastman School of Music. The sculpture, created by Rochester artist Shawn Dunwoody, was unveiled this fall during a ceremony in the courtyard of Eastman’s Miller Center in downtown Rochester. The project was a collaboration of the William Warfield Scholarship Fund, Eastman and the University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the City of Rochester.

Warfield grew up in Rochester and attended Rochester city schools before enrolling at Eastman. Best known for his portrayals of Porgy in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and of Joe in the 1951 MGM movie musical Show Boat, Warfield won a Grammy in 1984 for his narration of Aaron Copland’s A Lincoln Portrait, accompanied by the Eastman Philharmonia.

He died in 2002 and is buried in Rochester’s Mt. Hope Cemetery.

Nursing Dean Announces Plans to Step Down

Kathy Rideout ’95W (EdD), who is credited with leading a period of growth and renewed prominence as dean of the School of Nursing for more than a decade, has announced plans to step down as the school’s top leader effective June 30, 2022.

A member of the nursing faculty for more than 35 years, Rideout was officially installed as the school’s fifth dean in 2012 after serving in an interim capacity the previous year. She was named a vice president at the Medical Center in 2013 and was appointed to a second five-year term as dean in 2017. She will return to her role on the faculty as a professor of clinical nursing and pediatrics at the conclusion of the academic year.

Carrying on in the tradition of the school’s founding dean, Loretta Ford, Rideout has been an influential voice in national discussions on nursing leadership and education.

At Rochester, she has overseen a period of substantial growth at the school. She has also been an advocate for more diversity and inclusion while continuing to practice clinically as a pediatric advanced practice nurse at Golisano Children’s Hospital.

A committee led by Eli Eliav, director of the Eastman Institute for Oral Health, will undertake a national search for a new dean.

Astrophysicist Receives Sagan Medal

Adam Frank, the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has been awarded the 2021 Carl Sagan Medal for excellence in public communication in planetary science. Presented by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, the award is named in honor of the late Cornell University astrophysicist, astronomer, and educator, who brought science to millions of people worldwide with his PBS series Cosmos and the 1980 book of the same name.

Frank cofounded the National Public Radio’s 13.7 Cosmos and Culture blog and contributes frequently to the New York Times. He is also a regular on-air commentator for NPR’s news show All Things Considered and contributes to the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Scientific American, and other publications.

RNA Biologist Receives Alpert Prize

Lynne Maquat, the founding director of the Center for RNA Biology, has been awarded the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for her discoveries in the field of RNA biology. Maquat, the J. Lowell Orbison Distinguished Service Alumni Professor in Biochemistry and Biophysics, shares the prize with fellow RNA biologist Joan Steitz, the Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University.

Presented in recognition of work to improve the understanding, prevention, treatment, or cure of human disease, the prize has been administered by Harvard Medical School since 1987.

Maquat and Steitz also received the 2021 Wolf Prize in Medicine, an award they shared with RNA biologist Adrian Krainer of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Engineer Named to ‘Brilliant 10’

Michael Giacomelli, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and of optics, has been included on Popular Science magazine’s 2021 list of “The Brilliant 10: The most innovative up-and-coming minds in science.”

The magazine cited Giacomelli’s invention of a novel type of 3D imaging device that can be rolled into an operating room so that surgeons can detect in less than three minutes whether a biopsy is cancerous.

Funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Giacomelli’s innovative microscope is being developed to detect nonmelanoma skin cancers. Though less lethal than melanomas, nonmelanoma skin cancers are more prevalent, resulting in 5 million biopsies and 1.5 million surgical procedures each year in the United States.