June 5, 2023

gold and black semiconductor chip

Rochester’s new REU site will be focused on nanophotonics, quantum photonics, and vision/biomedical optics. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

Dear Members of the Hajim School Community,

The University recently seized an opportunity to bring undergraduate students from across the country to our campus to participate in cutting-edge research. The National Science Foundation (NSF), in partnership with Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), has named Rochester as one of six new grant-supported Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) sites to provide undergraduate students with hands-on research opportunities in STEM priority areas related to semiconductors.

This grant will bolster research and development and help build the workforce in semiconductors and microelectronics in New York State and throughout the country.

We are excited to bring talented and diverse groups of undergraduate students from across the country here to research and attempt to solve some of the greatest challenges of the future. This REU will provide emerging scholars and researchers formative, hands-on learning opportunities at the forefront of nanophotonics, quantum photonics, and optics.

To read more about the new REU, go to the Rochester News Center.

THE FUTURE OF CHEMISTRY IS LANGUAGE

Chemical engineering professor Andrew White expects GPT-4 and other large language models to change not only how researchers connect their data, computer programs, and scientific literature, but also how they plan experiments. (Getty Images photo)

Large language models (LLMs) like the one behind the popular ChatGPT appear poised to disrupt nearly every field and profession. In a recent commentary published by Nature Reviews Chemistry, Associate Professor Andrew White from the Department of Chemical Engineering outlines how he expects LLMs will transform the field of chemistry.

Andrew has been using early versions of GPT-4 since September 2022 as part of OpenAI’s “red team,” a group of researchers hired to help mitigate the risks of artificial intelligence models by testing the platform’s capacity for harmful, illegal, or even unintended output. With the right guardrails in place, he expects GPT-4 and similar large language models to change not only how researchers connect their data, computer programs, and scientific literature, but also how they plan experiments.

Andrew writes that LLMS “are already used in most modern reaction synthesis planner tools and have started seeing applications in explaining molecular properties—but where might LLMs go next? I believe LLMs are about to be stapled to every tool in chemistry. Akin to the creation of the internet, it is a foundational technology that will accelerate how fast a chemist can learn and use computational tools.”

Learn more.

A NEW STEP TOWARD COMBATING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

Research led by Allison Lopatkin, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Rochester, outlines the surprising evolutionary tradeoff between lag time and growth rate of plasmids in bacteria such as Klebsiella pneumoniae, illustrated here. (Getty Images)

One of our new faculty members found a counterintuitive wrinkle in the way bacteria spread antibiotic-resistant genes through small circular pieces of DNA called plasmids. Bacteria can acquire plasmids from other bacterial cells or from viruses, and as plasmids build up, they give bacteria antibiotic resistance.

Some plasmids are easier for bacteria to acquire than others, and Allison Lopatkin ’13 led a study published in Nature Communications showing that surprisingly, the plasmids that spread the easiest are not the ones that allow bacteria to grow the fastest.

Allison has been serving as a visiting professor from Barnard College and joins the Hajim School as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering beginning in July. Please join me in welcoming Allison to the Hajim School.