SAS In Focus is the only newsletter devoted to everything happening in the School of Arts & Sciences.

This publication will undergo a rebranding and a much-needed makeover in the coming months, so be on the lookout for nips and tucks here and there as we evolve. In the meantime, please pardon our dust while we work to keep SAS stakeholders informed and connected.

In this edition of SAS In Focus . . .

• Why Dmitry Bykov was the “exceptional choice” for the Humanities Center’s first “Scholar in Exile.”
• How a new refrigerator Physics Professor Machiel Blok is buying with a DURIP grant is going to expedite his research on quantum computer chips.
• A new book edited by English Professor Jason Middleton makes the case that work had a hand in driving the killers in horror films mad.
• And more . . .

INTRODUCING . . .

DMITRY BYKOV – “SCHOLAR IN EXILE”

Dmitry Bykov is a Russian intellectual, man of letters, media personality, and vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin. He is also the University’s inaugural Scholar in Exile and will be teaching courses on Russian culture, current events, and world literature through the 2024-25 academic year.

Bykov was the victim of a suspected poisoning by Russian FSB agents in 2019 and, after surviving and fleeing the country, was declared a “foreign agent” by the Russian government. He found refuge and voice first at Cornell University and, now, here.

John Givens, who heads the Russian program in the Department of Modern Languages and Culture, called Bykov a “remarkable figure in Russian culture who will play a transformational role” in the program.

“There is really no one like him in American letters or academia who combines excellence and prominence in so many fields,” Givens said.

Peter Christensen, the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Director of the Humanities Center, which oversees the Scholar in Exile program, said Bykov was “an exceptional choice” for the program’s inaugural fellow.

“The Humanities Center has as its mission a commitment to the human experience and to promoting research, writing, and thinking that make that experience a better one for all people on this plant,” Christensen said. “Dmitry Bykov has taken up this exact task in his work, fighting the tentacles of autocracy and its grip on liberty, democratic values, and free expression in his native Russia.”

RESEARCH ROUNDUP

Machiel Blok with the BlueFors dilution refrigerator he is looking to replace. Photo by J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester

Imagine being a chef and being limited to preparing one meal a week.

That’s the analogy Machiel Blok, assistant professor of physics, used to explain the constraints on his research on quantum computer chips caused by equipment limitations. Specifically, a refrigerator he has been using to test chips his team fabricates takes 36 hours to cool to the necessary temperature and another 36 hours to warm back up.

“This means that if we want to test a new chip that we made, we can roughly characterize one chip per week,” Blok said. “This is a big bottleneck in our research.”

But the bottleneck is set to widen with a $730,000 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) award from the Department of Defense’s Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The award, Blok said, will enable him to buy a new refrigerator capable of cooling down in three hours, meaning he can test chips once a day instead of once a week.

“The hope,” he said, “is that this will lead to much better cooking.”

That grant was one of two that Blok was recently awarded.

The other was funded by the Department of Energy and provides $850,000 over five years for researchers to build a qudit processor for simulating quantum field theories. Doctorate students will work on the project.

BOOK NOOK

Psycho killer? Qu’est-ce que c’est? Most people think of the slasher in horror films as little more than a murderous psychopath driven by gratuitous sadism. But the essays in the new book “Labors of Fear: The Modern Horror Film Goes to Work,” make the case that the ravages and monotony of work are a source of the antagonist’s monstrosity.

Edited by Jason Middleton, associate professor of English and director of the Film and Media Studies program, the collection has been called by the Los Angeles Review of Books “well suited for both academics looking to use these essays as jumping-off points for their own work and for horror viewers wanting to find new ways to pay attention to their favorite films.”

Check it out on Amazon.

CALL TO ACTION

The AS&E Graduate Research Symposium in 2023 drew 70 student presenters and almost 200 attendees who took in their work.

You be the judge.

The Office of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs is looking for faculty and staff to act as judges for poster sessions at the annual Graduate Research Symposium on March 27. The symposium showcases and celebrates the research of graduate students across disciplines. Winners receive $300 cash prizes.

To volunteer, fill out the form by Feb. 26. Learn more about the symposium on the GEPA homepage.

ON THE HORIZON – FOOTLOOSE AND FANCY

Four days. Four hundred participants. Countless two-steps. One University.

The University of Rochester is hosting the American College Dance Association’s Northeast Regional Conference March 7-10. The event includes eight concerts and is expected to draw dancers from more than 25 college dance programs from across New York and New England.

The best part? You’re invited. Click here to register.

Got news for SAS In Focus? Share with SAS Senior Communications Officer David Andreatta at david.andreatta@rochester.edu.