October 14, 2019

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Congratulations to our three Wells Award recipients this year.  They are seniors Nathan Nickerson, who is majoring in mechanical engineering with a minor in art history;  Jarrod Young, who is earning a dual major in computer science and Spanish; and Melissa Wen, a computer science and brain and cognitive sciences double major who is also earning a minor in studio arts. All three have taken full advantage of the opportunities our school and University offer to excel in engineering or computer science and in the humanities.  (Read more about their achievements here.) And please read more here about a discussion I had recently with Joan Shelley Rubin, the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Director of the Humanities Center and Dexter Perkins Professor of History, on what engineers and humanists can learn from each other — and how it benefits them to do so.

A generous donation from Kwang-Yu and Lee-Chien Wang will enable two new fellowships to be awarded each year to PhD students in chemical engineering. The fellowships will provide stipends, partial research funding, and travel support for students to present their results at research conferences. Kwang-Yu is a chemical engineering alumnus (MS ’70, PhD ’73) who is managing director with Glastech PTE LTD in Singapore. Each one-year fellowship will conclude with students presenting at a special departmental symposium held each fall. “The gift is a solid endorsement of our commitment to deliver high quality, multidisciplinary research and education, and we all express our deep gratitude for this signature support,” says Mitchell Anthamatten, the department chair.  This is a great example of how support from our alumni and friends can make a huge difference for our students. We join Mitch in extending our appreciation for this gift.

It was all hands on deck recently in the lab of Danielle Benoit, professor of biomedical engineering, when several Rochester City School district elementary teachers spent a day learning how hydrogels and other biomaterials can be used for tissue repair and targeted drug delivery. Clearly, these are not topics an elementary teacher would need to know as part of a typical second-grade lesson plan. However, the point was for the teachers to be placed in the role of learners, so they can experience what it’s like from a student’s perspective as they prepare to teach new science competencies in their classes. Thanks to post doctoral fellows Yiming Li, Jared Mereness, Kenneth Sims and Yuanhui Song; PhD students Marian Ackun-Farmmer, David Fraser, Clyde Overby, Lindsay Piraino, and Baixue (Dorothy) Xiao; laboratory technicians Azmeer Sharipol and Jorge Jimenez; and Befikadu Mekonnen ’22 who joined Danielle in sharing the lab’s research. They also demonstrated some experiments the city teachers can use in their classrooms. This collaboration with the Warner School was an excellent opportunity for Danielle’s researchers to hone their communications skills with a wider audience. Read more here.

Congratulations to Varchas Gopalaswamy, a Horton Fellow at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics and PhD student in the lab of Riccardo Betti, chief scientist at LLE and the Robert L. McCrory Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Varchas received the Chiyoe Yamanaka Award at the recent International Conference on Inertial Fusion Sciences and Applications in Japan. Varchas’ presentation was on “Statistically Guided Design of Direct-Drive Inertial Confinement Fusion Experiments.” He was one of six recipients out of more than 80 students who were nominated. Well done, Varchas!

Have a great week,

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman