Should the University dispense with its “agrarian” calendar in favor of a March to Thanksgiving academic year?

Would it make more sense to reorganize the University around interdisciplinary centers, rather than traditional departments and colleges?

Should the University continue a multi-modal mix of remote and in-person learning even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic?

These are the kinds of “big ideas” that a University committee is soliciting from staff, students, faculty, and alumni—and from the broader Rochester community.

Called Project Imagine, the effort was established by Provost Rob Clark who has charged a 21-member committee with coming up with at least 10 “big and bold ideas that challenge our assumptions of what’s possible.” Read more here.

The University has been designated an Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The award:

• recognizes the Medical Center’s national leadership in research for conditions such Autism, Batten disease, and Rett syndrome.
• will translate scientific insights into new ways to diagnose and treat these conditions.
• provide patients and families access to cutting edge care.

The IDDRC at the University of Rochester will be led by John Foxe, director of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, and Jonathan Mink, chief of Child Neurology at Golisano Children’s Hospital. The designation is accompanied with more than $6 million in funding from NICHD.

“The new center will span research from molecule to mind and elevate and accelerate the pioneering work that our scientists and clinicians are undertaking in this field,” says Foxe. “This recognition will enable us to not only strengthen and expand the scope of research, but also attract new scientists, clinical researchers, and students, and accelerate the process of moving discoveries from the laboratory bench to the clinic in the form of new therapeutics and interventions.”

Read more here.

Early in the pandemic, flexibilities were allowed that enabled payment of salaries to laboratory staff from grants even if they were unable to work from home and were unable to make substantive contributions to the goals of the project, provided this was consistent with payment to idle staff from non-grant funding.

This OMB policy is no longer in effect, as of June 16. The new language now indicates that payment from grants would only be possible once the University has taken steps “to exhaust other available funding sources to sustain its workforce.”  As of now, there are no guidelines about what it means to exhaust other available funding sources, but the general intent appears to be to exclude payments from grants to any worker who is not actively contributing to the project goals.  So far,  NIH and NSF have issued guidance that mirrors the OMB policy, with no additional clarification.

Implications

While the vast majority of our research operations are back up and running, there may still be research staff who are not contributing fully to project goals.  It appears that we can no longer continue the policy of maintaining full salaries for idled or partially idled workers paid from grants.  Principal investigators should strive to ensure that all individuals being paid from grants are contributing fully to the research project going forward.  In the event that this is not possible, they should contact their HR business partner for guidance.

The University, like many institutions, was surprised by the July 6 guidance issued by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—the agency within the US Department of Homeland Security with oversight of the F-1 student visa program—and is sharing its strong concerns with elected officials and working with them and national associations to reverse this misguided policy, which requires international students to take in-person classes to keep their visa status.

There are many serious implications for our international students, the University, and the future of global education everywhere associated with this announcement, but of paramount concern is that it jeopardizes public health broadly and the safety of thousands of international students nationwide who will be forced to suddenly return home. The International Services Offices is analyzing and summarizing the immediate impact of the new guidance to our students and will share updates on its website. Read the full message here.

Gourab Ghoshal and Gonzalo Mateos are the University’s newest recipients of data science fellowships funded by University Trustee Stephen Biggar ’92 and his wife, Elisabeth Asaro-Biggar ’92.

Ghoshal, a recently tenured associate professor of physics and astronomy with joint appointments in computer science and mathematics, will serve as the Stephen Biggar ’92 and Elisabeth Asaro ’92 Fellow in Data Science. One of the University’s first targeted hires in the specific area of data science, Ghoshal explores the theory and applications of complex networks as well as non-equilibrium statistical physics, computational social science, econophysics, dynamical systems, and the origins of life.

For example, using GPS location tracking, check-ins on apps like Foursquare, geocaching from Twitter posts, and, under some circumstances, call data records from cell phones, Ghoshal’s lab is able to find patterns in human mobility, traffic, and disease progressions with greater accuracy and precision. He is also collaborating with Andrew White, assistant professor of chemical engineering, on a National Science Foundation grant to create a mathematical model that will monitor the spread of COVID-19 — modeling the effective transmissibility of the disease at any given time, independent of how many people actually have it, to help policymakers make informed decisions about reopening.

Mateos, a recently tenured associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, will serve as the Asaro Biggar Family Fellow in Data Science. Considered a rising star in his field, Mateos and his lab pursue research interests in statistical learning from big data, network science, decentralized optimization, and graph signal processing, with applications in a variety of dynamic networks including the internet, power grids, the brain, and social networks.

He received a National Science Foundation CAREER award to investigate how to use measurements from distributed network processes to learn the underlying graph topology. This would advance our understanding of the inherent complexities of strongly coupled systems such as the brain. In 2016 he received pilot funding from the University’s Goergen Institute for Data Science in collaboration with Alex Paciorkowski, assistant professor of neurology, to develop software to help predict which treatments are likely to have the best outcomes for epilepsy patients by analyzing a patient’s EEG readings, brain MRI imaging, neurobehavioral assessments and genomic data.

Read more here.

Laurie Steiner ’99, associate professor (neonatology) and vice chair for academic affairs in the Department of Pediatrics, has been named assistant director of the Medical Scientist Training (MD-PhD) Program.

In this new position, Steiner will assist with administration and teaching in the MSTP and also oversee research opportunities for students in the MD program.

Steiner completed her undergraduate work at the University of Rochester, obtaining a BS in biochemistry prior to completing her medical degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She then completed a pediatric residency and neonatology fellowship at Yale New-Haven Children’s Hospital where she participated in the Pediatric Scientist Development Program, a national program that selects promising pediatric trainees for intensive research training.

Her fellowship research was focused on delineating mechanisms of gene regulation during erythropoiesis. Following completion of her clinical training, she spent a year as an Instructor at Yale prior to joining the faculty of the University of Rochester in 2011. Steiner has developed a robust NIH funded research program focused on the epigenetic control of normal and perturbed erythropoiesis. She is also an attending neonatologist, with a particular interest in genetic and hematologic diseases of the neonate.

What authority should citizens obey?  Does human nature allow for the possibility of genuine social change?  How have Americans in the past thought about race, gender, ethnicity, and the meanings of freedom?  What can we learn from history about individualism and community in the face of pandemics and the quest for racial justice?  What humanistic visions of society are instructive as we contemplate the future?

These questions and others—matters central to classic works in the humanities—form the basis for a University of Rochester Humanities Center reading and discussion program that will run on Zoom for nine sessions in July and August.  Six UR faculty members will offer their perspectives on brief readings and lead informal, wide-ranging conversations about the issues they raise.  Films related to the readings will be available for viewing at separate times.

“In These Times” will be held on July 14, 15, and 16; July 21, 22, and 23; and July 28, 29, and 30 from 7 to 8:30 on Zoom.  A zoom link will be sent to you for each session.

Anyone may participate, and it is not necessary for participants to attend all the sessions.  The schedule of speakers, topics, and readings, as well as a registration form, can be found here.  Readings will be sent to you by email after you register.

Please contact Humanities Center Director Joanie Rubin at joan.rubin@rochester.edu with questions or concerns.

When in 2010 the US Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that companies and labor unions enjoy the same right to political speech as individuals, many restrictions on money in American politics went out the window.

Subsequently, so-called super PACs can pour hundreds of millions of dollars into political campaigns, as long as their efforts are independent of candidates.

Campaign finance reformers, politicians, and academics alike have been arguing for decades that US democracy is imperiled by a threat that permeates all of politics—money.

But David Primo, the Ani and Mark Gabrellian Professor and a professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester, and Jeffrey Milyo, a professor of economics and chair of the economics department at the University of Missouri, say the reality is very different In their new book, Campaign Finance and American Democracy: What the Public Really Thinks and Why it Matters (University of Chicago Press, 2020).

“We are taking on the belief that money is to blame for all that ails American politics,” Primo says. “The reality is very different. Money does not buy elections—witness Michael Bloomberg’s failed attempt to secure the Democratic nomination for president. Corruption is not rampant—bribery scandals still garner attention precisely because they are unusual. And Americans’ mistrust of government is not driven by levels of campaign spending or the stringency of campaign finance laws.”

Read more here.

Here are four important links for researchers:

• University’s COVID-19 website for important updates and guidance on working, teaching, and learning remotely
• University of Rochester Medical Center website for restrictions, resources, and news
• Office of Research and Project Administration (ORPA) site on Coronavirus 2019 resources related to sponsored programs
• University’s COVID-19 “Restart and Recovery” web page.

Expiring COVID-19 Funding Opportunities:

• The USDA is offering grants to enable and improve distance learning and telemedicine services in rural areas to increase access to education, training and health care resources. Relevance to COVID-19 is encouraged. Apply by July 13, 2020.
• Deadlines for two funding opportunities from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) are fast approaching. PCORI-funded principal investigators or project leads can submit proposals to address the COVID-19 public health crisis through enhancements of currently-funded PCORI research awards or engagement awards by July 17, 2020.

Dear COVID diary: What do you think you will remember about the COVID-19 pandemic a year—or 10 years—from now? Will you remember how your feelings evolved and what day-to-day life was like? The Archiving Our COVID-19 Stories project, initiated by the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, holds historical value—and lessons for future generations. Learn more about the project. Interested in contributing? Fill out this brief submission form.