June 3, 2019

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Congratulations to Govind Agrawal, the James C. Wyant Professor of Optics, who is this year’s recipient of the 2019 Prize for Applied Aspects of Quantum Electronics and Optics from the European Physical Society and its Quantum Electronics and Optics Division. Govind is recognized for “pioneering and groundbreaking research that underpins a wide range of current photonic technologies in the fields of semiconductor lasers, nonlinear fiber optics and optical communication systems.” The European Physical Society provides an international forum for physicists and acts as a federation of national physical societies.

There’s more exciting news out of our high-energy density physics initiative: Ryan Rygg and Gilbert “Rip” Collins, along with colleagues at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, used lasers at Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) to flash-freeze water into an exotic water ice phase. Using X-ray diffraction, they were able to identify and record, for the first time, the ice’s atomic structure. Their research, published in the journal Nature, may give more insight into the interior structures of giant planets in our galaxy. Ryan is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and senior scientist at LLE. Rip, the Dean’s Professor of Mechanical Engineering and associate director for science, technology, and academics at LLE, is head of the high-energy density physics initiative. Read more here.

University Research Awards provide “seed” grants for promising, high-risk projects. As such, they mirror the University’s cutting-edge research. Six of this year’s 15 funded projects involve Hajim School researchers, many of them in collaboration with colleagues at the Medical Center.

William Renninger and Jaime Cardenas, assistant professors of optics, will attempt to demonstrate the first chirped pulses in normal dispersion microresonators, enabling ultrashort pulses over a dramatically extended range of parameters with the potential for “holy-grail” 100% conversion efficiency from an extremely low-cost platform.
Alexander Shestopalov, associate professor of chemical engineering, is working with Lewis Rothberg, professor of chemistry, on improving a reflective interferometric method for detection of important biomolecules and developing a portable prototype for field detection of useful biomarkers. There are potential applications in plant pathology and in child malnutrition in Third World countries.
Yuhao Zhu, assistant professor of computer science, and Nick Vamivakas, associate professor of quantum optics and quantum physics, will investigate a completely different paradigm of deep learning by moving deep neural network (DNN) computations from the digital domain to the optical domain. This leverages the fact that optical systems naturally perform the mathematical operation of convolution – the single most costly computational step in DNNs.
James McGrath, professor of biomedical engineering; Andrew Berger and Wayne Knox, professors of optics; Lisa DeLouise, associate professor of dermatology; Jonathan Flax, research assistant professor of urology, and Mahlon Johnson, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, will develop a confocal Raman Microscope capable of examining the ability of microplastic (MP) pollutants to pass through human tissue barriers and accumulate in organs. MP pollutants are now routinely found in sea and fresh water, food and beverages.
Regine Choe, associate professor, and Ross Maddox, assistant professor, both of biomedical engineering, will work with Imad Khan, assistant professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and medicine, and Sunil Prasad, professor of surgery and chief of cardiac surgery, on a new approach to monitoring adults undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). The project will combine diffuse correlation spectroscopy with sensory-evoked potentials into one device that can monitor brain physiology in patients with heart or lung failure who receive (ECMO), which carries a significant risk of brain injury.
Muthu Venkitasubramaniam, associate professor of computer science, will work with Laurie Steiner and Kate Ackerman, associate professors of pediatrics, and Alex Paciorkowski, assistant professor of neurology, on novel approaches to genetic diagnoses and secure genomic data analyses in critically ill infants. This study’s goals are twofold. 1. Determine whether integration of epigenetic and transcriptomic data improves the diagnostic ability of Whole Genome Sequencing in critically ill infants. 2. Use secure cryptography to develop novel mechanisms for investigators to share biologically relevant sequencing and phenotype data while protecting patient privacy.

Here’s an example of the kind of service that faculty members perform for their professions, in addition to their teaching and research. As finance chair for the 2nd IEEE Data Science Workshop (DSW) 2019 being held this week in Minneapolis, MN, Gonzalo Mateos, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, received a $15,000 NSF award to support travel grants for 20 students, including seven females and one Hispanic student, to attend the conference. Chang Ye, a PhD student in his group, is included. He also received a $15,000 Army Research Office award to support six plenary talks and two half-day tutorials from leading academic and industry data science researchers, and a panel discussion on leveraging Big Data analytics research and development to address some of the nation’s most pressing challenges. Well done, Gonzalo.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman