The University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics has joined the American Physical Society’s IDEA initiative, a new program to increase workforce diversity in physics departments and laboratories.

The University’s cornerstone prison education initiative receives a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to expand and further develop its programming.

How a Rochester graduate oversaw a global effort to eliminate smallpox, an infectious disease that had plagued the world’s population for 4,000 years.

By the time of her death at age 103, Olivia Hooker ’62 (PhD) was an early witness to devastating acts of racist violence, the first African-American woman to serve in the Coast Guard, and a prominent psychology professor.

For nearly three months now, the new president of the University of Rochester—who will be formally invested in her role at her October 4 inauguration—has been getting acquainted with University, and one of her consistent themes is her intention to remain a curious, visible, and accessible leader.

For generations, three ritual objects—the charter, the seal, and the mace—have been the centerpiece of the presidential inaugural ceremony. These same insignia have invested authority in presidents with wide-ranging leadership styles, each of whom has also shaped his own ceremony—as the 11th University president, Sarah C. Mangelsdorf, will do with her ceremony on October 4.

University Trustee and Board Chairman Emeritus G. Robert Witmer Jr. ’59—noted jurist, distinguished alumnus, longtime servant of the University and the Greater Rochester community, and a man known affectionately as “Mr. Rochester”—is being remembered this week as one of the institution’s most significant and beloved leaders. Witmer died Sunday evening, August 18.

It’s possible that if you’ve donated even as little as a dollar to a political candidate, it’s information easily obtained on the internet. That concerns David Primo, an associate professor of political science and business administration.

The latest Rochester Women profile looks at the life of Mary Calderone ’39M (MD), a pioneering advocate for sex education who was both celebrated and vilified for her work during a time a great cultural division over sexuality and feminism.

The Rochester Women series continues with the story of Sylvy Kornberg ’38, ’40M (MS), a biochemist most often cited as the wife and the mother of Nobel Prize-winning scientists, but who played a critical role in the discovery of DNA replication.