This year, 29 faculty new to the University or filling new roles will bolster both research and teaching in Arts, Sciences and Engineering.

Their research interests are diverse, including:

• individual molecular building blocks that assemble into functional materials.
• machine learning that can continually acquire, fine-tune, and transfer knowledge and skills.
• liquid and virtual democracies that leverage tools from computer science to achieve fairness, representation, and efficiency.
• tissue models and genetic tools that show how cells communicate and organize into multicellular structures.
• quantum materials for data storage, quantum computing, energy harvesting and storage, and sensors.
• the impact of technological change on income inequality.
• issues of race and gender in the Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latinx communities in the United States.

New professors of instruction will help students master various skills and subjects including printmaking, cognitive development, conversational Japanese, cryptography, webpage design, macroeconomics, creative theater, properties of chemical systems, video game design, statistics, creative writing, engineering computation, and stage lighting.

Learn more here about the many talents and varied backgrounds of AS&E’s class of 2022-23 faculty.

When states began announcing COVID vaccine mandates for nursing home staff, there were concerns about whether the requirement would lead to further staffing shortages if employees chose to leave their jobs rather than comply.

A nationwide study led by Brian McGarry, assistant professor of medicine in geriatrics and aging, published in JAMA Health Forum, found that the mandates were associated with increased vaccination rates among nursing home staff — with larger effects in Republican-leaning counties — but without increased reports of staffing shortages.

“It looks like this policy really had its intended effect,” McGarry says. “It boosted the vaccination rates among nursing home workers and didn’t seem to lead to this unintended consequence of causing a mass exodus of employees from the nursing home industry in those states.”

“Having a highly vaccinated staff is really a key piece of the mitigation strategy for keeping a very vulnerable population — the nursing home residents — safe from COVID infections and COVID deaths,” McGarry says. “So, policies that can improve vaccination rates among staff are very likely to have protective benefits for the vulnerable individuals there.” Learn more.

The Laboratory for Laser Energetics has broken ground on a $42 million, 66,000-square-foot office and lab building expansion that connects directly to LLE’s existing building.

The new three-floor building will house lab and office space for approximately 110 scientists and LLE personnel and include a class 1000 target fabrication lab and thin film coating lab, a laser computing facility, and several other wet lab and general lab spaces.

The largest lab space will house the AMICA laser system, a state-of-the-art, high-energy, long-pulse laser that scientists at the LLE are assembling for Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Matter at Extreme Condition Upgrade (MEC-U). Learn more.

A new study shows that a device that passively monitors breathing during sleep can not only detect Parkinson’s, but also track the progression of the disease over time. The researchers used an artificial intelligence tool to sift through mountains of data from study participants to find patterns that identify the disease and determine severity.

“I like to compare our understanding of Parkinson’s to a streetlamp in the night; we only get a glimpse of the disease when patients visit a clinic. Moreover, the methods we use to track the disease over time are subjective,” says Ray Dorsey, a professor of neurology and co-author of the study. “As a result, we have a very limited insight into how Parkinson’s disease impacts people’s daily lives.

“This study shows that remote monitoring has the potential to identify individuals with Parkinson’s and create an objective measure of severity and progression. This could be a powerful tool to detect the disease early and conduct research more efficiently.” Learn more.

Xiaolu Wei, genetics, 9 a.m., Sept. 6, 2022, Class of ’62 Auditorium G-9425 (Medical Center)
Segregation Distorter and satellite DNA regulation in Drosophila melanogaster
Host: Amanda Larracuente

Interested in population health research? Take your career to the next level with the Population Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship through the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI).

With an individual development plan, our program is customized to your goals. Over the course of one year, you will develop and complete a population health research project with the guidance of an interdisciplinary team of mentors. Apply by Thursday, September 15 for funding beginning in January 2023.

Learn more.

Applications are now open for the KL2 Career Development Award, which provides two years of support for early-career, multidisciplinary clinical and translational scientists.

The program fosters the transition of KL2 scholars to independent careers as clinical and translational investigators. Submit letters of intent by 5 p.m. Wednesday, September 28.

Learn more.