April 3, 2017

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Congratulations to two of our assistant professors, John Criswell of computer science and Jonathan Ellis of mechanical engineering and optics. They have received Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards, the most prestigious grant given by the National Science Foundation to junior faculty members. John’s award is for his work on finding new ways to minimize the damage caused by attacks on software systems — for example, new compiler transformations that will modify existing software to distrust other software components. Jonathan’s funding is for his work on improving the metrology of freeform optics. Central to his approach is the combination of two light sources, each with a different wavelength, to evaluate the surface profile of the lens. Great work, John and Jonathan. This brings to 15 the number of current Hajim faculty members who have been recipients of a CAREER award.

Richard Waugh, who did such an outstanding job as the founding chair of our Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been appointed interim dean of the faculty of Arts, Sciences & Engineering through June 30, 2018, while the University continues its search for a permanent replacement for current dean Peter Lennie, who is stepping down at the end of this June. The position includes academic, administrative, and financial responsibility for a unit that is home to more than 350 faculty members, 5,200 undergraduates, and 1,200 graduate students. This appointment adds to Rick’s 35-year track record here as an exemplary teacher, researcher, and administrator. Read more here.

Congratulations as well to Tiffany Nicholas ’19 of biomedical engineering and Tayfun Sahin ’20 of chemical engineering, who are among five students hired as Orientation Leaders by the University’s Orientation Program for next school year. They’ll be working full time this summer helping to plan orientation programs for freshmen, transfer, and international students and their parents; training and supervising orientation volunteers; serving as the first point of contact to field questions from incoming students and their families; preparing communications; managing social media; coordinating meetings with other University offices, and helping with other events as well. They’ll continue part time through the fall semester and the mid-year orientation in January. Orientation is a tremendously important time for our new students, and we are proud to have two fine representatives of the Hajim School involved!

A third new REU (research experience for undergraduates) program involving Hajim School faculty has been approved by the National Science Foundation. “Nano-, Bio-, and Quantum Photonics at the University of Rochester,” led by Andrew Berger and Nick Vamivakas at the Institute of Optics, will introduce visiting undergraduates to cutting edge photonics research, including such interdisciplinary topics as photonic spectroscopy for bone quality monitoring and novel device fabrication for generating quantum states of light. Due to the timing of this award, we will be recruiting 12 students for next summer.

Speaking of REU programs, MaryKate Hanchett ’17 of chemical engineering is co-author of a paper that recently appeared in Molecular Simulations, reflecting research she contributed to this past summer as a participant in an REU at Kansas State University. Click here to read how this summer research experience — and an earlier one through the Laboratory for Laser Energetics summer research program for high school juniors — helped define MaryKate’s career path. A GEAR student, she’ll pursue her master’s here next year before seeking a job in industry.

Douglass Ballroom was abuzz last week with presentations and a poster session for the annual spring meeting of the Institute of Optic’s Industrial Associates Program. Yang Sun, CEO and executive director of Sunny Optical Technology, a leading Chinese integrated optical device manufacturer and optical imaging system solution provider, announced a $100,000 endowed scholarship that will enable two Optics graduate students each year to have summer internships with the company in China. We are grateful for this generous gift and the opportunities it will provide for our students.

In addition, several Institute of Optics master’s students were recognized with awards. Robert Chou, Qi Jin, Yiming Lu, Meiting Song, and Zhou Xu received the James Fienup Academic Achievement Award for highest GPA last semester (4.0 for all five). Samuel Margolis received the Gary Wicks Community Leadership Award for doing the most to bring masters students together, as voted by the master’s students. I applaud the Institute for inaugurating these awards as a way to help master’s students feel part of the Hajim community!

Here’s someone worth listening to: Stefanie Tompkins, acting deputy director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), will be on campus Thursday to give an overview of the agency and some of its current programs, and discuss the ways in which engineers, scientists, and research institutions can work with the agency. The program begins at 10:30 a.m. in the Hawkins-Carlson Room, Rush Rhees Library. Given changing priorities, DARPA is likely to be a prime source of research funding.

Students interested in a $500 Hajim School International Experience Scholarship to help cover the costs of studying abroad this summer and fall have until 5 p.m. today to drop off their application at 301 Lattimore. Click here for more details about applying.

Clearly we’ve had a lot to celebrate lately, with more awards still to come. That will be the theme of my spring State of the Hajim School address to staff and faculty next Tuesday, April 11, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Schlegel Hall Rotunda. You are all cordially invited to attend.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman