2024 Edward Peck Curtis Award recipients

The Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs Office announces the 2024 Edward Peck Curtis Awards for graduate student teaching, honoring the outstanding contributions of full-time graduate students who play a pivotal role in undergraduate education. Recipients have demonstrated exemplary dedication and impact in assisting undergraduate instruction and fostering meaningful interactions in classrooms or laboratories. Meet the recipients who will be honored at a reception during Graduate Student Appreciation Week.

We celebrate the scholarly and service contributions of University community members to their fields. Recent award recipients include:

• Ernesto Aparicio-Puerta, a postdoctoral associate hosted by the McCall Research Group at the Medical Center, has been awarded the European Commission’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Global Fellowship
• Brandon Barnett, an assistant professor of chemistry, has received a 2023 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation
• Lauren Ghazal, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, has been named one of the American Psychosocial Oncology Society’s 2024 Health Equity Scholars
• Benjamin Partridge, an assistant professor of chemistry, has received a 2024 Young Investigator Research Program award awarded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research
• A paper coauthored by Huaxia Rui, the Xerox Professor of Computers and Information Systems at the Simon Business School, has won a Best Information Systems Publications Award for 2023 from the Allocation for Information Systems and the International Conference on Information Systems
• Elizabeth Santos, an associate professor of psychiatry, has been elected president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
• Jin Xiao, an associate professor at the Eastman Institute for Oral Health, has been appointed to the American Dental Association’s Council on Scientific Affairs
• Chen Zhang, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, has been selected to participate in the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Diversity Scholars Network

Find help with back pain from Well-U

Simple changes in your daily habits can ease your lower back issues. In Well-U’s low back pain coaching, discover the right changes for you and how to master them so you can get on with your day in comfort. Join your coach here.

Tax season discounts from Care.com

LifeMart by Care.com, part of the free Care.com premium membership for University employees, allows eligible employees access to discounts, including deals on TurboTax Federal Products. Learn more about Care.com premium memberships and LifeMart.

UR Procurement Marketplace gets an upgrade

The UR Procurement Marketplace (Jaggaer) is upgraded three times a year.  The next scheduled upgrade will occur the weekend of March 15. The UR Procurement Marketplace will be unavailable for placing catalog requisitions and the transmission of all P2P purchase orders to suppliers beginning Friday, March 15, at 9 p.m. through Sunday afternoon, March 17.  This upgrade will have no noticeable end-user impacts. If you have questions or experience any issues, send an email or call (585) 275-2012.

JACK Quartet and WindSync return to Eastman for residencies

Eastman School of Music welcomes the JACK Quartet and WindSync as part of the James E. Clark Chamber Music Residency. The JACK Quartet will perform on Tuesday, March 19, at 12:30 p.m. in Hatch Recital Hall, followed by WindSync on Tuesday, April 9, at 2:30 p.m. in the same venue. Both concerts are free and open to the public. While at Rochester, the groups will hold masterclasses, private coaching, and mentoring sessions with Eastman student groups and individuals.

School of Nursing application workshop, nurse practitioner information session

Join the School of Nursing for a clinical nurse leader, leadership in health care systems, and nursing education application workshop on Wednesday, March 20, at 5:30 p.m. Register to attend and learn more about program options, degree pathways, and how to prepare the most competitive application.

If you’re an aspiring nurse practitioner, join a virtual information session on Thursday, March 21, at 1 p.m. to learn more about specialty pathways, curriculum, and eligibility requirements to apply. Learn more and register here.

Cardiac Dysrhythmia Conference

Register for the Cardiac Dysrhythmia Conference, a one-day CME conference that aims to establish relationships with attendants that will make it easier for them to refer patients for advanced and cutting-edge treatment of heart rhythm disorders. Participants will be able to recognize common symptoms and presentations of patients with heart rhythm abnormalities including supraventricular arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation, and ventricular arrhythmias, and become aware of available medical, invasive, and device-based treatment options. The hybrid event takes place on Friday, April 19.

ROCTalks annual event

ROCTalks is hosting its annual event on Sunday, April 21, in the May Room. This event aims to allow the University community to speak up and have their voices heard on any topic of interest. The event will be held in a TEDx-style with speakers discussing ideas of interest, innovative concepts, and diverse thoughts. Faculty, undergraduate students, and graduate students are all welcome to join.

Congratulations to the Rochester women’s track and field team on its two national titles at the 2024 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships this past weekend.

Madeline O’Connell ’24 won the National Championship in the pole vault. The indoor 4×400 relay team of Ashley Heffernan ’24, O’Connell, Megan Bell ’25, and Nora Chen ’27 claimed a national title and its second straight NCAA indoor meet win to close out the competition. Overall, the team (pictured above) took home two event wins and eight All-America awards and finished fourth out of 66 teams, ranking as the second-best finish in team history. Find more photos on the University’s Facebook and Instagram pages.