We celebrate the scholarly and service contributions of University community members to their fields. Recent award recipients include:

• Julie Bentley ’90, ’96 (PhD), a professor of optics, has been elected to serve as the 2024 vice president of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.
• Catherine Cerulli, a professor of psychiatry, will be honored at the New York City–based Houses on the Moon theater company’s AMPLIFY 2023 Gala in October for “her groundbreaking work in mental health and her commitment to the arts.”
• Meredith Kells, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, has been named a fellow of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.
• From the International Conference on Inertial Fusion Sciences and Applications, Avram Milder ’21 (PhD), a scientist in the Laser–Plasma Interactions Group at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, has been selected to receive the Chiyoe Yamanaka Award; David Turnbull, the Laser–Plasma Interactions group leader, is a recipient of the 2023 Edouard Fabre Prize.
• William Renninger, an associate professor of optics and of physics, received a Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
• Chen Zhang, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, has been honored with the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care’s top research award, the 2023 Researcher/Impact Award.

Cancer cells that carry a certain gene will grow rapidly and divide after shutting down their own circadian rhythms, a new Wilmot Cancer Institute study shows.

The scientific team led by Brian Altman investigates how circadian rhythms—sometimes called the “biological clock”—can lead to cancer when disrupted. 

In the study, which is published in PLoS Genetics, the team looked at what happens deep inside cancer cells, each of which has its own 24-hour cycle.

Learn more about their findings.

(Unsplash photo by Tim Bish)

Expanding newborn screening (NBS) to include identifying genes associated with an increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) would do more harm than good, according to an article published in Pediatrics.

“The benefit of early genomic screening hinges upon the ability to identify children with NDD early and then provide timely access to therapeutic supports,” says lead author Sarah Sobotka, an assistant professor of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Chicago. “The reality is that we’re practicing in a context where there are few supports and disparate access to care for children already identified as having an NDD.”

Given the dire shortage of genetics experts and diagnosticians in the United States, coauthor Lainie Ross, chair of the Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics and director of the Paul M. Schyve MD Center for Bioethics at the University of Rochester, recommend strategic use of NDD screening on populations of children who actually show signs of developmental delays.

Find out more about the debate.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $3 million over four years to fund research on middle school mathematics education in rural areas across the United States. The grant will support the research team, led by the Warner School, as they investigate the conditions, challenges, and resources that educators encounter in rural settings and make recommendations to enhance mathematics instruction in these communities.

“In rural school settings, relative to their better-resourced suburban peers, students often underperform in mathematics, hindering their journeys and opportunities within STEM fields,” says Jeffrey Choppin, a professor at the Warner School and the project’s principal investigator. “We aim to narrow these disparities by enhancing the quality and rigor of middle school mathematics education in rural communities.”

Learn more about the project.

Tanya Bakhmetyeva and Stewart Weaver, her collaborator and husband, at the Aletsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps this past summer, a site of early glaciological research, which is connected to their work. (Provided photo)

Tanya Bakhmetyeva, a professor of instruction in the Department of History and associate academic director of the University’s Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, has received a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for an international collaborative project on the cultural history of the Fedchenko Glacier. One of the world’s longest nonpolar glaciers, the Fedchenko is located in the Pamir mountain range of Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia.

Bakhmetyeva, a member of the multidisciplinary team of scientists and humanists in the Pamir Project, which includes Rochester historian Stewart Weaver, will use the funding to plan and conduct a series of workshops that examine the glacier’s history.

Go deeper at the project’s website.

Each year, undergraduate and graduate students engage in research projects across disciplines—often without funding. That’s why the River Campus Libraries launched a Data Set Grant Program, which enables undergraduate and graduate students in Arts, Sciences & Engineering, the Warner School, and Simon Business School to purchase the data sets they need to complete their research.

On September 12, the spring 2023 recipients presented their projects in Rush Rhees Library’s Evans Lam Square.

Learn who won and what they study.

Monday, October 16, noon–1 p.m. EDT
Virtual

In this webinar, Mallory Waters, grants advisor and senior content director at Hanover Research, will explore the various tools that are available to University faculty and other investigators considering applying to the NIH, including the NIH website, REPORT, and REPORTER. The webinar will also address how to use Matchmaker and the Assisted Referral Tool, and how to decode a funding announcement. Learn more and sign up.

Tuesday, October 17, 2–3:30 p.m. EDT for Mac users
Wednesday, October 18, 2–3:30 p.m. EDT for Windows users
Virtual  

PivotTables and PivotCharts are two of the most useful features in Excel. River Campus Libraries instructors will teach you how to create interactive, powerful, and appealing data visualizations using tables and charts. Register for the Zoom link.

Wednesday, October 18, noon–1 p.m. EDT
Virtual

Tara Pittman and Jennifer Dahne from the Medical University of South Carolina will describe the adoption and implementation of an opt-out, cold-contact patient recruitment policy (referred to as Patient Outreach Recruitment) that allows researchers to reach out to potentially eligible study subjects identified via the electronic health record. The webinar will also showcase REDCap tools, developed at MUSC, to improve both the feasibility and rigor of remote trials. Learn more and sign up.

Monday, November 13, 9:30 a.m.–3 p.m.
Flaum Atrium and other locations, 415 Elmwood Ave.

Translational Research Day is an annual celebration of innovative research supported by the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Researchers from across the Medical Center gather to present their translational research findings in the laboratory, clinic, and community contexts. Learn about their work to develop interventions that improve the health of individuals and communities and discover how UR CTSI programs and services can support your research.

Researchers of all levels of experience are invited to attend, especially those interested in grant opportunities, professional development, and collaboration in the field of translational research. Register to attend.