June 24, 2024

Assistant Professor Allison Lopatkin stands with her arms crossed in her chemical engineering laboratory.

University of Rochester photo / Matt Wittmeyer

Dear members of the Hajim School Community,

The Pew Charitable Foundation announced that Allison Lopatkin ’13, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, and microbiology and immunology, is one of 22 scientists selected to join the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences this year. Allison is the University’s first faculty member since 2007 to be a part of the program, which provides early-career scientists four years of funding to explore some of the most pressing questions in human health and medicine.

The funding will help Lopatkin’s lab explore how changes in bacterial metabolism contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance. She says that decades of antibiotic overuse—in both clinical and agricultural settings—have led to an alarming rise in bacterial strains that are resistant to antibiotics, contributing to a major public health concern.

Please join me in congratulating Allison on this tremendous achievement! Read more at the News Center.

COLE GOODMAN ’24 BOUND FOR OLYMPIC TRIALS

Cole Goodman performs the triple jump on a track while spectators look on.

Stockton Photo, Inc.

I’m proud to share that computer science student Cole Goodman ’25 will be competing at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon this week for a chance to represent Team USA in the triple jump at the Olympics. Cole will become the first ever Yellowjacket men’s track & field athlete to participate at the United States Olympic Trials.

Cole earned a chance to compete at the finals after capturing the NCAA Division III title in men’s triple jump last month. He will compete against 22 jumpers for one of up to three spots in the Olympics.

The qualifying round will take place starting at 6:20 p.m. (Pacific Time) on Friday, June 28. The top-12 will then jump again in the finals of the event, set to take place on Sunday, June 30, starting at 3:55 p.m. (Pacific Time). Live event coverage of the Olympic Trials will be on NBC, USA Network and Peacock throughout the 10-day competition. Learn more on the University of Rochester Athletics website.

The entire Hajim School community will be rooting you on, Cole!

HYBRID OPTICS MASTERS EDUCATION STUDENTS COMPLETE IN-PERSON LAB

A group of 12 optics master's students stand on stairs in the atrium of Goergen Hall.

Jen Kruschwitz

The latest cohort of master’s students who work or want to work in the growing field of optics just completed an intensive three-week summer lab course on campus. The Hybrid Optics Master’s Education (HOME) program provides working professionals an opportunity to earn their master’s mostly online aside from the MS HOME Lab course that condenses labs that MS students would typically complete in a 14-week semester into three weeks.

A dozen students completed the MS HOME Lab in June during the summer school short-course series offered by the Institute of Optics. The labs were alignment-intensive, giving the students hands-on experience such as characterizing an acousto-optical modulator, building multiple types of lasers, and using a Fizeau interferometer to measure surface figure of an optical surface with traditional reference optics and with computer-generated holograms.

I had a great conversation with the students while they were here and am so glad we can offer this flexible program to help meet the growing demands for optics expertise in industry.

NEWLY FUNDED RESEARCH

Headshots of the following people from left to right: Jaime Cardenas, Tong Gang, Selcuk Kose, and Astrid Muller.

Congratulations to several faculty members who recently secured funding for new sponsored research projects:

Jaime Cardenas, an associate professor of optics, received $90,832 from the Air Force for a project led by Photonect Interconnect Solutions titled “Measurement of optical mode profile at extreme temperatures for a photonic chip.”
Tong Gang, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science, received $50,000 from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for a project titled “Emerging-Architecture-Aware Quantization for Generative AI with Hybrid Data Precision.”
Selçuk Köse, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, received $225,000 from the National Science Foundation for a project titled “Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Small: Exploration of Shared Memory Related Security Challenges in Mobile Computing Platforms.”
Astrid Müller, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, received $299,987 from the National Science Foundation for a project titled “EAGER: Understanding Electrocatalytic Aqueous Alkali-Metal-Hydroxide-Promoted Defluorination of PFAS.”

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman