August 6, 2018

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

I am delighted to welcome Michelle Dunn as the new administrative assistant in the Hajim School Dean’s Office. Michelle served as business development officer and training coordinator for the Sandals Corporate University at Sandals Resort International, Montego Bay, Jamaica, before moving to Rochester in April. She previously was a loans officer with the National Housing Trust in Jamaica and also was a part-time lecturer with Northern Caribbean University, where she received her MBA in 2011.

Sandra Turner, who served as special assistant to the dean for 10 years, did an outstanding job in every aspect of her position, from managing the day-to-day operations of the Hajim School to organizing our Art of Science Competition and our participation in the Clothesline Festival, to organizing our annual reception and managing and mentoring the student workers in our office. Sandra was a superb representative of this office.  Sandra is moving to Atlanta to be closer to her family. We wish her all the best. She will be missed!

A memorial for Emil Wolf, the Wilson Professor of Optical Physics and a leading expert in coherence and polarization of optical fields, will be held at 4 p.m., August 14 in the Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library, on the River Campus. RSVP (name and email) to Gina Kern no later than this Wednesday, August 8. Those who wish to record a video memorial to Prof. Wolf will be able to do so at a booth set up behind the Welles Brown Room from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. A workshop that will also be held that day — featuring talks by invited speakers sharing research they conducted with Prof. Wolf, or that was influenced by him — is already full.

New to campus this summer was a research experience for undergraduates (REU) program entitled “Nano-, Bio-, and Quantum Photonics,” offered by the Institute of Optics and the Kearns Center. The program matched 12 students from 11 other colleges and universities with an interdisciplinary team of faculty members, scientists and graduate students from not only the Institute, but the departments of chemistry, dermatology, electrical and computer engineering, and ophthalmology, and the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. “This program was amazing,” says Catherine Arndt, a rising senior at Baylor University, who did a project in the lab of Jaime Cardenas, assistant professor of optics. Click here to read more.

Also new this summer was a week-long course on data science offered as part of the University’s Precollege Summer Programs for high school students — specifically as part of the Intensive Studies track in engineering. Read more here.

Thanks again to all our faculty and graduate students who helped make this another exciting summer of research experiences for undergraduates and high school students, and to Xerox for its continued support of undergraduate summer research fellowships.  And congratulations to the more than 70 undergraduates — 42 from the Hajim School — who wrapped up their summer research experiences with oral and poster presentations at the Kearns Research Symposium last Monday.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman