June 11, 2018,

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Our condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Emil Wolf, the Wilson Professor of Optical Physics, and one of the most recognized optical scientists of his generation. He was a leading expert in coherence and polarization of optical fields. Scott Carney, director of The Institute of Optics and one of Professor Wolf’s former doctoral students, says his mentor was not only a scientist of the highest caliber, “but more importantly to those of us who knew and loved him, he was a friend like no other.” Read more here.

Congratulations to:

Jim Zavislan, our associate dean and associate professor of optics, who has been appointed a Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professor for a three-year term. The professorship was created to recognize talented faculty and to encourage them to continue to develop educational opportunities for students. Jim has done an exemplary job of developing such opportunities, so this is a well-deserved recognition.
Yuhao Zhu, assistant professor of computer science, who has received an honorable mention for the ACM SIGARCH/IEEE CS TCCA Outstanding Dissertation Award. The award is for “innovations in computer architecture, spanning hardware design, runtime orchestration, and programming language implementation, for making the Web energy-efficient.” The award recognizes exceptional research by doctoral candidates in the field of computer architecture. The award committee selected one winner and two honorable mentions for 2018.
Daniel Savage, who defended his PhD dissertation in optics on Friday. This is an important milestone for Daniel, who has another two years of medical school to become the first Institute of Optics MD-PhD in the University’s history. This is a testament not only to Daniel’s talent and determination, but to the great things that can happen when a world class Institute of Optics and a world class medical school are in such close proximity. Daniel’s PhD dissertation topic was the use of femto-second laser pulses to noninvasively correct vision, a technology developed by Daniel’s co-advisors Wayne Knox and Krystel Huxlin.
Rafael Muchanga ’18 of chemical engineering, who placed third at the recent Capstone Design Conference at Rochester Institute of Technology for his poster presentation of a senior design project sponsored by Molecular Glasses, Inc. Rafael was part of a team that designed a scaled-up protocol to allow the company to achieve more affordable and effective organic light-emitting diode purification via train sublimation. Rafael, who is from Mozambique, is awaiting an EAD (“green”) card through the Optional Practical Training provision of US immigration law to begin working, and also hopes to attend graduate school. Molecular Glasses, whose CEO and founder Michel (Mike) Molaire (’82 MS) and COO Mark Juba (’80 MS) are both chemical engineering alumni, has sponsored several senior design projects in the department, and is a finalist in the Luminate Accelerator competition for a $1 million grand prize to be announced later this month.

Congratulations as well to our Baja SAE team, which raced its all-terrain vehicle against college teams from around the world at three competitions this spring. The last competition, held May 30 to June 2, was on particularly difficult terrain in the mountains in Washougal, Washington. The team finished a respectable 33rd out of 98 teams in the 4-hour endurance run, the premiere event of the competition. “The team did great this year,” says faculty advisor Chris Muir, associate professor of mechanical engineering. “The team is excited about the possibilities for next year as there are many underclassmen on the roster as well as a strong showing of alumni at the event.” This year the car was decorated not in University colors but in cancer awareness colors. The president from last year, Kevin Bonko ’17 of mechanical engineering, is battling leukemia and this year’s team dedicated the car to him. He is currently being treated in Seattle, Washington, and the team was able to visit him before the competition. Our prayers and best wishes are with Kevin. Read more about the team here.

What is causing the low-pitched mechanical buzzing –most audible at night when other sounds die away — that some residents keep hearing in the Highland Park area? At the request of the Democrat and Chronicle, Ming-Lun Lee, assistant professor of audio and music engineering, analyzed recordings from the Highland Park neighborhood and isolated a droning sound with a frequency between 315 and 320 hertz, similar to the key of E just above middle C on a keyboard. Click here to read more about the mysterious sound, and Ming-Lun’s suggestions for determining its source.

Soledad O’Brien, award-winning journalist, speaker, and author, will be the keynote speaker for this year’s Meliora Weekend, Oct. 4 to 7. She headlines a weekend that includes Pulitzer Prize–winning author Ron Chernow, former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele, comedian Nasim Pedrad, the genre-hopping musical ensemble Pink Martini, and a variety of activities—including class reunions, homecoming events, and family fun—for alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, and the entire Rochester community. Meliora Weekend registration will open at noon on Wednesday, July 25 at rochester.edu/melioraweekend

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman