July 23, 2018

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

The lab of Chunlei Guo, professor of optics, continues to produce exciting discoveries. In a paper published recently in Nature Light: Science & Applications, Chunlei and Billy Lam, a PhD student in his lab, describe a wedged reversal shearing interferometer that provides a much simpler way to measure beams of light— even powerful, superfast pulsed laser beams that  require very complicated devices to characterize their properties. The new device will give scientists an unprecedented ability to fine tune even the quickest pulses of light for a host of applications, and it could render traditional instruments for measuring light beams obsolete. Read more here. And stay tuned for more exciting announcements out of this lab in the months ahead.

Congratulations to Xi-Cheng Zhang, the M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics. Last fall his lab created a buzz by being the first to create terahertz light from water, in collaboration with groups at universities in China and Russia. Now Xi-Cheng has received a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to develop new physics to fully characterize this process in liquids, especially in water and related materials, to support new THz wave science, technology, and applications.

The latest issue of Rochester Review includes several articles involving Hajim School students, faculty, and alumni. One features Shawn Rochester ’97, a chemical engineering alumnus, whose recent book, The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America (Good Steward Publishing), shows myriad ways in which African Americans have borne and continue to bear financial costs rooted in racial discrimination. Senior projects involving several Hajim students, including projects they’ve done for non-engineering dual majors, are showcased. As is new research from Ehsan Hoque’s lab on more accurately detecting deception based on facial and verbal cues. And Brad Orego ’11, who earned dual degrees in computer science and psychology, joins two other University alums in describing how the performing arts have shaped their lives. Brad, a user-experience researcher, product designer, and entrepreneur, is also a professional dancer. Read more here.

If you have a chance, be sure to drop by the daylong Kearns Research Symposium, starting at 9 a.m., next Monday, July 30 in the Feldman Ballroom of Fredrick Douglass Commons when our McNair Scholars, Xerox Research Fellows, and REU students will showcase their summer research projects with oral and poster presentations.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman