Several University of Rochester historians are being honored for their work in chronicling the history of climate change in Ladakh, a mountain region in the far north of India.

Tanya Bakhmetyeva, an associate professor of history and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies, together with Stewart Weaver, a professor of history, have been awarded the 2021 Public Outreach Project Award by the American Society for Environmental History for their project “Climate Witness: Voices from Ladakh.” Daniel Rinn, who earned his PhD in history from the University in 2020, is also part of the prize-winning team and the designer of an interactive website that the group is in the process of building to make their research accessible to the public.

Weaver and Bakhmetyeva, who serves as the associate academic director of the University’s Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, have been researching climate change and local strategies of resilience and adaptation in the Himalayas since 2017. Based in Rochester’s Department of History, they are part of a larger collaborative project that also includes Nancy Chin, a Rochester associate professor in the undergraduate public health program, and community-partners from the Himalayan Cultural Heritage Foundation, and the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies in Leh, the principal town of the Union Territory of Ladakh.

Mountain environments are particularly susceptible to climate change, placing Ladakh—which translates roughly to “land of high passes”—on the front lines of global warming. Read more here.

The Medical Center, along with other select academic medical centers, will participate in a phase 2/3 vaccine trial in collaboration with Moderna to test the COVID-19 vaccine in 600 to 700 healthy children aged 6 months to 12 years.

The trials will include two doses of the vaccine and will begin this spring. More information about the pediatric trial can be found here.

Parents who are interested in volunteering their children for vaccine trials are encouraged to visit the website www.bringrocback.com and click on the “get started” link.

Characterized by weakness, fatigue, weight loss, and slow walking speed, “frailty” is associated with cancer and its treatments, impacting quality of life and how a person of any age endures disease.

For women with breast cancer, frailty is linked to inflammation levels in the blood, according to a Wilmot Cancer Institute investigation. Higher inflammation prior to chemotherapy can predict frailty after chemotherapy ends.

“Our findings confirm that oncologists should consider inflammation and frailty in their patients, and perhaps personalize treatment, especially in older adults, to avoid undue risks of chemotherapy toxicity,” says Nikesha Gilmore, research assistant professor of surgery at the Medical Center, who conducts studies for Wilmot’s Cancer Prevention and Control program.

Gilmore is first author of the study, recently published in the journal, Breast Cancer Research, which includes a novel finding that when inflammation markers continue to rise during chemotherapy, frailty is even more likely to be a problem after treatment. Read more here.

J. J. Ruby, a graduate student in the High Energy Density Physics Experiments Group at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, who has been awarded the prestigious Lawrence Fellowship from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The fellowship is a three-year post-doctoral appointment to pursue his research using Bayesian inference techniques to combine astrophysical data and HEDP data to better understand the physical processes common to both systems. The Lawrence Fellowship provides extraordinary postdocs with an opportunity to pursue independent, ground-breaking research in a National Laboratory. Read more here.

Wilmot Cancer Institute has partnered with the University’s Aging Institute (URAI) to sponsor a one-year pilot award of $50,000 to support basic, translational, or clinical research projects that address aging and cancer.

The goal of these awards is to encourage the development of new multidisciplinary collaborative research with the aim of reaching competitiveness for grant funding from NCI, NIA, or other extramural sources. Projects must align with one of Wilmot’s three research programs or the Community Outreach and Engagement program. The request for proposals is available through the Wilmot website.

Letters of intent are due April 5. Contact Thom Fogg, assistant director for research administration at Thomas_Fogg@urmc.rochester.edu with any questions.

The Offices of the Provost and Human Resources announce a new web page for faculty and staff who are looking for University resources and services.

The new site, Rochester.edu/human-resources/university-support-services, offers a variety of links to non-crisis support services for mental health, family care, and career concerns. Please send updates or requests for additions to maggie.graham@rochester.edu.

Here are important links for researchers:

• The University’s COVID-19 Resource Center for important updates and guidance on working, teaching, and learning remotely
• University of Rochester Medical Center website for restrictions, resources, and news
• The University’s COVID-19 “Restart and Recovery” web page

Researchers Reflect on a Year of Combatting COVID-19
Recently, we all took a moment to pause and reflect on the challenges and triumphs of the last year. Infectious disease expert Ann Falsey spent the emotional moment with her research team, which has been tirelessly conducting COVID-19 treatment and vaccine trials. Watch the Facebook video to hear Falsey’s comments on a year full of loss, and the progress that was made possible by the many COVID heroes across our University and community.

PLEASE NOTE that the University’s COVID-19 Dashboard is updated daily and dashboard numbers may reflect additional cases confirmed later in the day. When a new case is known, the contact-tracing process begins immediately with the Monroe County Health Department, with confirmed exposures being contacted and required to quarantine. Remember:

If you feel like you’re experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms, it’s best to report them through Dr. Chat Bot immediately. Even if you think your symptoms might be something else, like a cold, seasonal congestion, or allergies, it’s still important to tell University health professionals and contact tracers what you are experiencing—they always want to receive more, not less, information.

Common COVID-19 symptoms include:

• A temperature of 100 °F (37.8 °C) or higher
• Chills
• Muscle or body aches
• Severe fatigue
• Headache
• Congestion or runny nose
• Sore throat
• Loss of taste, smell, or appetite
• Cough, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing
• Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea