If you want to get the greatest benefit from a beam of light—whether to detect a distant planet or to remedy an aberration in the human eye—you need to be able to measure it.

Now the lab of Chunlei Guo, professor of optics, has devised a much simpler way to measure beams of light—even powerful, superfast pulsed laser beams that require very complicated devices to characterize their properties.

The new device will give scientists an unprecedented ability to fine tune even the quickest pulses of light for a host of applications, says Guo, who has used femtosecond pulsed laser beams to treat metal surfaces in remarkable ways. Moreover, the device could render traditional instruments for measuring light beams obsolete.

“This is a revolutionary step forward,” says Guo. “In the past we’ve had to characterize light beams with very complicated, cumbersome interferometric devices, but now we can do it with just one optical cube. It is super compact, super reliable, and super robust.”

The device, developed by Guo and Billy Lam, a PhD student in his lab, is described in Nature Light: Science and Applications. Called a wedged reversal shearing interferometer, it consists of a prism cube, assembled from two right-angle prisms. The cube has two angled entrances and splits the beam into two parts.

When the beam exits the cube, the reflected light from the left portion of the beam and the transmitted light from the right portion of the beam are emitted from one face of the cube. Conversely, the transmitted light from the left portion of the beam and reflected light from the right portion are emitted from another face of the cube.

This creates an extremely stable “interference” pattern for Guo and his team to measure all the key spatial characteristics of a light beam—its amplitude, phase, polarization, wavelength, and—in the case of pulsed beams—the duration of the pulses. And not just as an average along the entire beam, but at each point of the beam of light.

This is especially important in imaging applications, Guo says. “If a beam is not perfect, and there is a defect on the image, it’s important to know the defect is because of the beam, and not because of a variation in the object you are imaging,” Guo says.

“Ideally, you should have a perfect beam to do imaging. And if you don’t, you better know it, and then you can correct your measurements. Ultrafast lasers are key for recording dynamic processes, and having an extremely simple but robust device to characterize ultrafast or any type of laser beams is surely important.”

Read more here.

“Recent Pew Research studies show that the nonscientific public actually trusts scientists more than they trust the media and elected officials,” Madeline Sofia ‘16M (PhD microbiology and immunology) tells Lindsey Valich in the current issue of Rochester Review. “Scientists are in the right place at the right time to communicate because they have the public’s trust, plus they are the experts; they know whether things are scientifically sound.”

Sofia, an assistant producer for National Public Radio’s Science Desk and Joe’s Big Idea, offers these tips to help researchers become better science communicators:

One of the most important things for scientists in communicating research is knowing their audience. Not everybody has the same understanding or skill sets. But this doesn’t mean you have to dumb down the science. It means using the appropriate language to connect with them. It’s also really important to tell a story, and to put yourself into that story. Scientists tend to say “It’s not about me, it’s about the science.” But really, if you’re telling people about science, it’s about you, too. Communicating what you’re passionate about makes people even more interested because enthusiasm is infectious.

Science communication doesn’t have to involve starting a podcast or a blog. Science communication can be talking about yourself and your research to your friends and family members. Or talking to people you meet in places where people aren’t necessarily there because they’re excited about science. This is actually a great way to practice because it’s easy to talk to a captive audience, but it’s harder to talk to an audience when you need to keep their interest. Teaching kids is also a good way to be a better science communicator, because kids are brutal—if you ask kids if they understand something, they are not going to lie to you and say that they do.

I think one of the hardest things for science communicators is leaving out the jargon. The way we’re taught to communicate as academics is not the way people outside academia talk. We have training in how to design an experiment and how to present the background, methods, and results to other scientists. We don’t have a lot of training in how to write snappy, interesting, fun stories about our research. This takes practice.

Researchers at the Medical Center are joining those from three other organizations on one of the largest family-based childhood obesity studies ever conducted in the hopes of combating what has become a national epidemic. In the United States, one in five children and one in three adults are considered obese.

The $13.9 million study, funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), encourages overweight parents to attempt to lose weight themselves in addition to assisting with their child’s nutrition and physical activity goals. In previous smaller studies, this approach has reduced obesity in children and has seen parents lose an average of 15 to 20 pounds.

“While tracking the child’s behavior, we also work on setting goals for the parents as well,” says Stephen Cook, associate professor of pediatrics. “When father and daughter, or mother and son, are working together toward the same goal — eating more fruits and vegetables together, exercising together — they tend to have much more success.”

The study also includes researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, which is serving as the lead institution; the LSU Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.; and the American Academy of Pediatrics Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight in Itasca, Ill. In total, the study is aiming to enroll 1,296 parent-child pairs nationally; for its part, URMC will receive $3.1 million and aims to enroll 432 families in the Rochester area.

Cook’s team will work with pediatricians in several local pediatric practices. Participants will receive 12 months of family-based treatment, which will encourage parents to become active participants, setting weight loss goals for themselves, as well as eating and activity targets for their children. The program is designed to help parents and children make lasting changes in eating and activity habits, while teaching positive parenting techniques. Enrollment is expected to begin in Fall 2019.

Read more here.

Fifty middle school students from Sodus Intermediate School will explore how soil consistency, water quality, and insects all impact their local farms, during the annual Get Real! Science Camp led by graduate students who are training to become science teachers at the Warner School.

Engineering a rig to hold small cameras elevated by large helium balloons and kites, the middle school students will gather aerial images to complement scientific investigations they conduct on the ground. Equally important, the Warner graduate students are able to move toward a more authentic, inquiry-based approach that makes learning science exciting and meaningful for children.

The graduate students designed three scientific investigations that came from the Sodus students’ initial questions. Throughout the week, students will investigate the differences in soil content on a local farm. In another investigation, students will compare the quality of water by testing the local streams to Sodus Bay. In the final investigation, students will explore the variety of insects that impact the local crops, including an invasive species of stink bug. Sodus students will also spend a portion of their time back in their science classrooms, where they will continue to investigate questions about and formulate solutions to these local problems.

The annual Get Real! Science Camp is offered in partnership with the Sodus Central School District, to students outside of Monroe County. The camp is an extension of the Summer STEM Program regularly offered to Sodus students each year. The Summer STEM Program is the brainchild of Warner alumna Ellen Lloyd ‘10 (EdD), principal at Sodus Intermediate School.

Read more here.

Natalie Leblanc, a postdoctoral research associate at the School of Nursing, who has been named a visiting fellow in the Research Education Institute for Diverse Scholars (REIDS) at Yale University’s School of Public Health. Leblanc’s research addresses health disparities in sexual health and investigates ways to optimize sexual health through the lens of holistic and culturally relevant frameworks. She is interested in the use of technology and leveraging cultural strengths and social support within couples to address disparities in sexual health. As a fellow in REIDS, located at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS, she is eligible for up to $20,000 in NIH pilot funding to support this line of research.

The Center for Community Health and Prevention is accepting applications for Community Health Mini-Grants to be awarded in September. The competitive grant program began in 2009 in response to faculty and staff surveys focused on addressing barriers to pursuing community health partnerships.

Grant funding of up to $1,000 is made on a quarterly basis.  Applications are welcome from the Medical Center and community partners. The deadline is noon on Monday, August 13. Application directions for the grant can be found here. Contact Gail Hamilton via email or at 224-3062 for additional information.

Ira Shoulson from Grey Matter Technologies LLC will kick off  a new quarterly visiting lecturer series to foster sharing of new ideas in clinical research, from noon to 1 p.m., July 30 in the Ryan Case Method Room (1-9576).

The visiting lecturers, presented by the Center for Health + Technology (CHeT) in conjunction with the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, will come from biotechnology arenas, including the pharmaceutical industry, from academic centers, and research foundations.

Shoulson’s lecture title is “Application of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to Capture Problems that Bother Patients.”

Register here (no cost to attend) by Friday, July 27 if you plan on attending (lunch provided).

The Center for AIDS Research and the Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology (BBCB) Core of CFAR present “The Best Statistical Practice: the BBCB Core of CFAR Is Here to Support Your Research” at 2 p.m. Wednesday, July 25, in the Neuman Room (1-6823) at the Medical Center.

The event includes an overview of the structure and the mission of the BBCB Core, followed by a few examples of ongoing collaborative research projects to highlight the best statistical practice and the power of multidisciplinary research.

There will also be a panel discussion and an opportunity to ask questions.

Ioannis Loukas Vassiliadis, Political Science, “Party Responsibility in Government Terminations.” 11 a.m. July 25, 2018. Harkness 329. Advisor: Anastassios Kalandrakis.

Andrew Greenlee, Philosophy, “A Defense of Moral Sensibilities.” 10 a.m. July 26, 2018. Lattimore 531. Advisor: William Fitzpatrick.

Brandon L. Walling, Microbiology & Immunology, “Chemokine Independent CD8+ T cell Migration.” 10 a.m., August 14, 2018. Medical Center | K307 (3-6408). Advisor: Minsoo Kim.

Taylor J. Moon, Microbiology & Immunology, “Effects of P2Y2 Signaling on Regulation of Efferocytosis and CXCR4 Internalization.”  1 p.m., August 15, 2018. Medical Center | Lower Auditorium 1-7619. Advisor: Michael R. Elliott.

Maureen Ludmila Banach, Microbiology & Immunology, “Exploring the evolutionary relevance of MHC class 1-like molecules and innate-like Tcells in Xenopus tumor immunity.” 1 p.m. August 21, 2018.  Medical Center | K307 (3-6408). Advisor: Jacques Robert.

July 25: “The Best Statistical Practice: the BBCB Core of CFAR Is Here to Support Your Research,” 2 p.m. Neuman Room (1-6823), Medical Center. Overview of the structure and the mission of the the Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology (BBCB) Core of The Center for AIDS Research. Includes panel discussion and an opportunity to ask questions.

July 30: “Application of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to Capture Problems that Bother Patients,” lecture by Ira Shoulson, Grey Matter Technologies LLC. First in a new quarterly visiting lecturer series to foster sharing of new ideas in clinical research. Noon to 1 p.m., Ryan Case Method Room (1-9576). Presented by the Center for Health + Technology (CHeT) in conjunction with the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience. Register here (no cost to attend) by Friday, July 27 if you plan on attending (lunch provided).

Aug. 1: Deadline to submit initial applications for Environmental Health Sciences Center funding of up to $30,000 for pilot projects relevant to the theme, “Environmental Agents as Modulators of Human Disease and Dysfunction.” Submit initial applications to Pat Noonan-Sullivan. Additional Information.

Aug. 13: Noon deadline to apply for Community Health Mini-Grants to be awarded in September by Center for Community Health and Prevention. Up to $1,000 to address barriers to pursuing community health partnerships. Application directions for the grant can be found here. Contact Gail Hamilton via email or at 224-3062 for additional information.

Sept. 17: Deadline to apply for Falling Walls competition. Winner of the Rochester competition, to be held October 2 in the Feldman Ballroom, will receive $500 and a trip to the Falling Walls Lab Finale in Berlin, November 7 to 9. Presenters will each have three minutes and three slides to summarize their groundbreaking ideas. Click here to register. Contact Adele Coelho, faculty outreach coordinator, at adele.coelho@rochester.edu for additional information.

Sept. 27: Workshop on Developmental Programming of Disease, focusing on current understanding of mechanisms that underlie early life programming. 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Class of ’62 Auditorium. Offered by the Department of Environmental Medicine and the University’s Environmental Health Science Center. Free and open to all. Registration is requested for ordering refreshments. Read more here.