October 8, 2018
Dear members of the Hajim School community,
I’m sure everyone on campus felt the same excitement I did at the news that Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD) and Gerard Mourou will share in this year’s Nobel Prize in physics. It is always exciting when scientists and engineers are recognized for their groundbreaking achievements — and all the more so when those achievements occurred on our campus. Donna, a graduate of the Institute of Optics, and Gerard, a former scientist at LLE and Institute faculty member, are receiving the award for the table-top terawatt laser, or “T-cubed laser,” they developed at the Laser Lab, using chirped pulse amplification. This paved the way for employing very short, very intense laser pulses for a host of applications. Donna is only the third woman to receive a Nobel Prize in physics, which makes her prize even more noteworthy. As Donna noted: “We need to celebrate women physicists because we’re out there.” This is a proud moment for our University, the Hajim School, the Institute of Optics, and LLE. But above all, we are proud of Donna and Gerard, and congratulate them on all of their accomplishments. Read more here.
In order to achieve more accurate and efficient technologies for sensing, computing, modeling, and communicating, researchers need to observe, manipulate, and control the behavior of particles and energy at dimensions at least a million times smaller than the width of a human hair. Two Hajim School electrical and computer engineering faculty members are recipients of new National Science Foundation funding aimed at advancing the next generation of quantum technologies.
Qian Lin, an associate professor, is lead PI of a $750,000 project to explore and develop high-speed, flexibly reconfigurable, fully integrated quantum photonic circuits that offer unprecedented capability of manipulating, translating, and transducing photonic quantum states, encoding/decoding and processing quantum information. His co-PIs are Hui Wu, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Lin Zhu , an associate professor at Clemson. Professor Roman Sobolewski will receive $167,000 as co-PI of a project — led by PI Marek Osinski, professor at the University of New Mexico — to integrate novel devices for the generation, manipulation, propagation, and detection of single and entangled photons for quantum information processing in a silicon photonics platform that can be used to implement a large-scale quantum communication network.
The NSF awarded a total of $31 million to 33 projects in its Research Advanced by Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering (RAISE) quantum mechanics initiative. However, these two awards were among only eight funded nationwide as part of RAISE-Equip, which is aimed specifically at exploring integrated approaches that go beyond individual devices and components to enable scalable quantum communication systems.
I was thrilled to see the strong turnout for our recent day-long meeting with RIT faculty, sponsored by our University’s AR/VR (augmented and virtual reality) initiative, to share research and explore joint projects in this exciting field. Nearly a third of the faculty, students, and staff who signed up to attend were from the Hajim School. It was fascinating to hear about the wide range of applications ranging from healthcare to preservation of historic structures. I am hopeful this will lead to some exciting collaborations. Thanks to Mark Bocko, chair and distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering, and the staff for organizing this event.
Students interested in becoming Grand Challenges Scholars can attend an informational session from 1 to 2 p.m. October 19 at the iZone Forum at Rush Rhees Library, led by Emma Derisi, our coordinator for undergraduate global initiatives. Grand Challenges Scholars work on the most complex problems of the present and future in the realms of sustainability, health, security, and the joy of living. They develop an interdisciplinary, hands-on project that maximizes the flexibility of the Rochester Curriculum and choose other complementary activities to develop a theme to their undergraduate experience. The program is open to all majors, so bring your friends!
Students considering study abroad or other global experiences next spring can apply for a $500 Hajim International Experience Scholarship to help cover such costs as program tuition, room and board, books, local transportation, insurance, and international airfare. Deadline to apply is November 2. Click here to learn more. Questions? Contact Rohan Palma.
Speaking of global experiences, 16 University students — 11 of them from the Hajim School — worked at German research institutes this past summer after being offered DAAD RISE scholarships. This was a record number for our University and the largest contingent from North America. RISE scholars are matched with a host university or institute according to their area of interest and are mentored by German doctoral students for ten weeks to three months. This is a great way to get hands-on research experience and benefit from a global experience. Registration for next summer’s program opens November 1, but it’s never too early to start learning about the application process and requirements here.
The NSF I-Corps Upstate New York (UNY) Node is offering a short course program for researchers interested in exploring the market potential of their work and learning entrepreneurial skills. Short Courses—geared toward faculty, doctoral candidates, and postdocs—are offered at no cost to participants and consist of both in-person and remote meetings over a two-week period. Short Course graduates are able to apply to other NSF grant awards, including the National I-Corps Teams program, which carries an award up to $50,000. The next Short Course will kick off on Friday, Oct. 26, followed by web conference meetings on Oct. 31 and Nov. 7 from 2 to 3:30 p.m., and will conclude on Friday, Nov. 9. Candidates must apply online by Oct. 22. Contact senior program manager Matthew Spielmann at the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship with questions or to learn more.
Have a great week!
Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman
