October 21, 2019
Dear members of the Hajim School community,
There’s great news to report out of Washington, D.C. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has announced an agreement to support the University’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics with a supplemental cooperative agreement in the amount of $279.9 million for fiscal years 2020–23. Added to previously executed agreements, there is now a record amount of funding authorized for the lab. As LLE director Michael Campbell notes, this is a great expression of the agency’s long-term support for LLE and helps ensure that the lab’s leading role in fusion, high-energy-density science, and advanced high-intensity lasers and optics will continue in Rochester.
As you will see in the fall issue of our Rochester Engineering magazine, 25 of our faculty members have won awards since the spring issue. This represents more than a quarter of our faculty and nearly doubles the previous high number of awards for a comparable period. We have a remarkable breadth and depth of talented faculty members. So, it is not surprising that this year’s awards run the gamut — from awards recognizing junior faculty for promising research at an early stage of their careers, to awards recognizing senior faculty members for the stellar research they’ve compiled over many years. I am especially pleased that seven of our faculty have been recognized for outstanding teaching and mentoring, particularly at the undergraduate level.
Be sure to read as well about the cutting edge quantum research our faculty are engaged in; plans for Studio X, an on-ramping space for students and faculty to explore AR/VR; notable Hajim inventors; a hero’s welcome for Nobel laureate Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD); distinguished alumnus award winner Daniel Sabbah ’74 ’81 (PhD); and Emma Derisi’s stellar work directing our Grand Challenges Scholars Program.
Continuing our look at recent grants our faculty have received for cutting-edge projects:
An ongoing challenge in high energy density science is obtaining detailed descriptions of the complex flows of liquids and plasmas at extreme temperatures and pressures, including small-scale hydrodynamic instabilities and turbulence that occur at scales of hundreds of microns or less.
Jessica Shang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has received a $520,000 grant from DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration to adapt particle image velocimetry (PIV) –a standard laboratory technique in fluid dynamics – for observing the dynamics of high energy density materials. PIV, introduced in the late 1980s, measures the displacement of small, brightly illuminated tracer particles that follow local streamlines. Shang and co-PI Hussein Aluie, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, will use x-rays as the light source, which has the potential to “interrogate HED flows at finer temporal and spatial resolutions than ever obtained with PIV, down to the smallest of turbulent eddies.”
This will not only help develop better computational models of HED flows but attract scientists and engineers from other fields to use DOE/NNSA facilities to answer relevant research questions. Riccardo Betti, chief scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics and the Robert L. McCrory Professor of mechanical engineering; Douglas Kelley, associate professor of mechanical engineering; Ryan Rygg, senior scientist at LLE; and Arianna Gleason, staff scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, are also collaborating on this project.
Congratulations to:
- Javier Navarro Rueda, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Catherine Kuo, associate professor of biomedical engineering. Javier received the Career Development Award at the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting in Philadelphia last week.
- Alec Salminen, a PhD student in the lab of James McGrath, professor of biomedical engineering. Alec is the winner of this year’s Falling Walls competition, and will represent the University next month in the final Falling Walls lab competition in Berlin. He will compete against 99 other presenters from across the globe. Alec described his work on a device that recreates the complex brain microenvironment on an inexpensive microfluidic chip. Combined with batch processing and high content imaging, this system would allow early sepsis detection with a simple blood draw at the bedside. Alec is the second member of the McGrath lab to win this competition. Kilean Lucas took first place two years ago.
Be sure to check out our annual Pumpkin Launch competition and e-social this Friday at the Wilson Quad. Practice launches begin at 1 p.m.; the competition will run from 2 to 3:30 p.m. The e-social, from 2:30-4:30 p.m. on the Wilson Commons Porch, is targeted towards all students, faculty, and staff in the Hajim School. Activities include mini pumpkin painting, donut on a string eating contest, giant jenga, and watching the pumpkin launch. There will be food and refreshments.
Two workshops on October 28 present a great opportunity to learn more about pay negotiation and also the necessary skills to articulate your personal value, benchmark salaries and develop persuasive responses to achieve a fair wage upon beginning and continuing your professional journey.
The Start Smart Workshop will benefit undergraduate and graduate students with limited work experience. The Work Smart Workshop is geared towards graduate students who have held at least one professional position, and towards faculty, staff, and alumni. Both workshops will start at 5 p.m. at the Feldman Ballroom and will be followed by a networking reception from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Admission is $5 per student, $10 for all others; advance registration is required by this Friday, October 25. The workshops are presented in partnership between the Office of Alumni Relations and Constituent Engagement, Eastman School of Music, Simon Business School, the Susan B. Anthony Center, and the Gwen M. Greene Center for Career Education and Connections.
Reminder: Deadline to apply for Hajim School International Experience Scholarships for spring 2020 is November 1.
Have a great week!
Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman
