June 10, 2019

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Many of you, no doubt, will remember a scene from the movie Apollo 13. As the rocket lifts off the launchpad, the astronauts are relentlessly bounced and jostled. Now, imagine what all that bouncing does to a finely tuned space telescope when it is lifted off a launch pad — especially if the telescope is as complicated as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It will be packaged like a table with folding ends for its launch two years from now, then unfolded once it is in orbit—at which time 18 individual hexagonal shaped mirrors will need to be carefully aligned to nanoscale tolerances to deliver sharp images.

NASA will use phase retrieval algorithms developed by James Fienup, the Robert Hopkins Professor of Engineering at the Institute of Optics, to do that alignment. Algorithms developed by Jim also helped correct the Hubble Space Telescope’s infamous “nearsightedness” when it was launched in 1990. So it is no wonder that Jim has received a $238,637 grant from NASA to develop even more robust algorithms for worst-case scenarios: If JWST’s mirrors need to be subsequently realigned on short notice, for example, or at more frequent intervals than expected. Read more here about the outstanding work that Jim and his students have done in this field.

Scott Seidman, professor of biomedical engineering, has been doing some excellent work with online instruction, starting with a single exercise he made available online for students taking his physiology lecture class four years ago. With support of the Wadsworth C. Sykes Engineering Award, he has since created an entire course online – BME/EAS 150 “Interfacing with Microcontrollers” – which is now being offered as part of our summer term, in addition to being taught during the spring semester. Scott got “hooked” after taking a series of lunchtime seminars offered by the Office of Online Learning. Not all courses lend themselves as easily to online teaching. In this case, however, Scott is helping students learn a resume skill they might not acquire otherwise, the students don’t have to worry about “fitting” it into their already crowded schedule of traditional courses, and it doesn’t put any extra demands on our facilities. Something to consider when classroom and lab space is at a premium! Read more here. Students who want to take the course this summer can still sign up. The CRN is 22459.

Congratulations to Douglas Kelley, associate professor, and Jack Thomas, professor emeritus, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Their exciting collaboration with Maiken Nedergaard, co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at the Medical Center, on the brain’s glymphatic “waste removal” system has received additional funding. The project, which also includes collaborators at University of Wisconsin-Madison, is one of 24 nationwide to receive a MURI (Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative) award from the Department of Defense, in this case from the Army Research Office. Of the $6.25 million total, $1.26 million comes to Doug and Jack.

There’s more good news from the Kelley lab. Jeff Tithof, the postdoctoral associate who has worked closely with Doug on the glymphatic research, has received a prestigious $500,000 Career award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, an independent private foundation dedicated to advancing the biomedical sciences. Jeff has also been appointed as an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota. However, he is deferring his appointment one year — and will be able to look after the Kelley lab while Doug is on sabbatical in Denmark, working closely with Maiken’s lab at the University of Copenhagen. Read more here.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman