July 1, 2019

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Forty-four Hajim School students are on campus this summer, engaged in research as Xerox, Eisenberg, Kearns, and McNair fellows or scholars. Others are participants in our NSF-funded REU (research experience for undergraduate) programs “Advancing Human Health, From Nano to Network” and “Nano-, Bio-, and Quantum Photonics.” The students (and their faculty mentors) are:

Audio and Music Engineering: Molly Robins ’20 (Mark Bocko).
Biomedical Engineering: Benjamin Richardson ’21 (Laurel Carney), Michaela Alarie ’21 (Edmund Lalor), Paolo Paco ’20 (Catherine Kuo), Ananya Goyal ’20 (Mark Buckley), Grace Niyo ’21 (Laurel Carney), Ifigeneia Stathaki ’21 (Hussein Aluie), Sereen Assi ’21 (Catherine Kuo), Melisanda Feliz ’21 (Catherine Kuo), and Sophie Mackenzie ’21 (Mark Buckley).
Chemical Engineering: Oion Akif ’21 (Andrew White), Joanna Chavez ’21 (James McGrath), Bryan Schellberg ’21 (Mitchell Anthamatten), Adebimpe Isafiade ’21 (Danielle Benoit), Aime Laurent Twizerimana ’20 (Marc Porosoff), Eve Marealle ’21 (Marc Porosoff), Remsha Rafiq ’20 (Astrid Mueller), Mark Volkin ’21 (Mitchell Anthamatten), Kamaldeen Raji ’21 (Mitchell Anthamatten), Hongzhi Zeng ’20 (Lewis Rothberg), Madeline Vonglis ’20 (Marc Porosoff), Paul Irving ’21 (Matt Yates), Zach Oliver ’20 (Dave Foster), Riley Flower ’20 (Dave Foster), Harshita Mahaseth ’21 (Andrew White), and John Lovito ’20 (Alex Shestopalov).
Computer Science: Ariel Tello ’20 (Chenliang Xu), Thabani Dube ’21 (Ehsan Hoque), Yipeng Zhang ’21 (Jiebo Luo), and Youssef Hussein ’20 (Sreepathi Pai).
Electrical and Computer Engineering: Mazid Muhit ’21 (Marvin Doyley), Hsin-Jui Yeh ’20 (Gaurav Sharma), Abrar Protyasha ’21 (Cristiano Tapparello), and Anthony Pericolo ’20 (Roman Sobolewski).
Mechanical Engineering: Elijah Munoz ’21 (Todd Krauss), Diwas Gautam ’20 (Renato Perucchio), Louisa Anderson ’20 (Renato Perucchio), and Philemon Rono ’21 (Hussein Aluie).
Optics: Benjamin Nussbaum ’21 (Nick Vamivakas), Lauren Scheg ’21 (Jaime Cardenas), Han Dong ’21 (Duncan Moore), Huilong Gao ’20 (Robert Boyd), Jeanne Lyse Mugeni ’21 (Ken Marshall), and Liam Young ’20 (William Renninger).

Twenty-nine undergraduates from a diverse mix of other colleges and universities are doing research on campus as part of the REU programs in Advancing Human Health; Nano-, Bio-, and Quantum Photonics; and Computational Methods for Understanding Music, Media, and Minds.

A total of 41 Hajim School faculty members have opened their labs to the students in these programs, and are serving as mentors. In addition to the faculty members listed above, they include Thomas Brown, Regine Choe, Diane Dalecki, Zhiyao Duan, Zhen Bai, Andrew Berger, Chunlei Guo, Douglas Kelley, Ming-lun Lee, Jannick Rolland, Jim Zavislan, and Yuhao Zhu.

Unfortunately, Xerox Corporation is discontinuing its funding for our summer research fellows. This is not because of any dissatisfaction with the program, but because of changes in the company’s philanthropy model moving forward. We are certainly grateful for the 10 years of funding we received. It enabled 248 Hajim students – more than 60 percent of whom went on to graduate schools — to have an in-depth research experience.

But the loss of this funding means we must redouble our efforts to find other ways to give our undergraduates the summer research experiences they deserve. The interest is certainly there – 110 students applied for 23 Xerox openings this summer. Here’s one way we can start: Faculty who have NSF grants, and would like one or more undergraduates in their labs for the summer, can request an REU supplement to their grant. For example, five of the eight undergraduates working this summer in the lab of Chen Ding, professor of computer science, are being supported in this way.

The Kearns Center would be glad to help with the application process. And the students would have the option of participating in the housing, networking events, GRE prep, and career seminars the center offers to students participating in the formal summer research programs the center sponsors or oversees. The four Hajim students who are taking advantage of that option this summer are designated Kearns Summer Research Scholars.

The many awards that Ching Tang has received over the years — most recently the Kyoto Prize — focus primarily on his pioneering work in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). But he is also an outstanding role model — unassuming, good-natured, generous, and patient. Those qualities were mentioned repeatedly at a Department of Chemical Engineering luncheon honoring Ching last week. Read more here about the positive impact he’s had on the department, the Hajim School, and our University.

Postdoctoral appointees are invited to test their communication skills by participating in the Steadman Family Postdoctoral Associate Prize in Interdisciplinary Research. Finalists will compete for a $1,000 top prize by demonstrating how well they can summarize their research in a five minute-presentation that can be understood by a non-scientific audience. The competition is open to all School of Medicine and Dentistry and Arts, Sciences & Engineering postdoctoral appointees whose fields of study bridge at least two areas of the humanities, science, mathematics, engineering, and medicine. Applications are due July 31, and should include a current curriculum vitae and a two-page, single-spaced summary of how your research crosses disciplinary boundaries, including implications for science and future objectives. The summary must be written for a general, non-scientifically-trained audience. Applications should be submitted by email to gretchen.briscoe@rochester.edu. Final presentations will be held from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Sept. 20 in Goergen Hall Room 101 (Sloan Auditorium) during Meliora Weekend. In addition to the $1,000 first prize, $750 and $500 will be awarded for second and third place, and $250 for the audience choice winner. Questions? Contact gretchen.briscoe@rocheester.edu. Read about last year’s competition and first place winner here.

Have a great week and a safe July 4th weekend!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman