In Review

FLASH FORWARD: Petros Tzeferacos, the director of the Flash Center for Computational Science (second from right), demonstrates simulations of laser-driven experiments to Chris Deeney, deputy director of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, center research scientist Adam Reyes, and graduate research assistant Abigail Armstrong during a session at the Vista Collaboratory at Carlson Library. (Photo: J. Adam Fenster)

Center to Study Astrophysics Finds a New Home

Rochester is the new home of a research center devoted to computer simulations that advance the understanding of astrophysics, plasma science, high-energy-density physics, and fusion energy.

The Flash Center for Computational Science moved from the University of Chicago to the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Located in the Bausch and Lomb building on the River Campus, the center encompasses cross-disciplinary, computational physics research projects conducted using the FLASH code. Publicly available, the code allows researchers to accurately simulate and model many scientific phenomena—including plasma physics, computational fluid dynamics, high-energy-density physics, and fusion energy research—and inform the design and execution of experiments.

The center fosters joint research projects among national laboratories, industry partners, and academic groups around the world.

Petros Tzeferacos, an associate professor of physics and astronomy and a senior scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, serves as the center’s director.

Initiative Aims to Ease Emergency Food Challenges for Patients

A new partnership between Rochester-area nonprofit Foodlink and the Medical Center aims to address food insecurity for some patients in the region. The partnership will enable emergency food assistance through health providers, starting with a pilot project at Strong Memorial Hospital.

Under the program, patients are screened for indications of food insecurity during a hospital visit, and those in need receive bags of nutritious, shelf-stable foods intended to support patients and their families for three days. Medical Center social workers, who follow up with the patients after their visit, can refer those who need more help to additional resources and services.

According to Foodlink, more than 152,000 residents are food insecure in the organization’s 10-county service area, meaning they have limited or uncertain access to enough healthy food for everyone in their household.

Translated Novel Nets National Book Award

A novel published in translation by the University’s Open Letter Press earned top honors at the 2021 National Book Awards.

The novel, Winter in Sokcho, written by Elisa Shua Dusapin and translated from the French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins, is the first work published by the press to receive the coveted award from the National Book Foundation, which administers the awards program.

One of only a handful of publishing houses dedicated to making world literature accessible to English-language readers, the press has been located at Rochester since its founding in 2008.

In addition to publishing a catalog of books in translation, the press works closely with the academic literary translation program in the School of Arts & Sciences.

The novel, set in the eponymous tourist town on the border between South and North Korea, traces an uneasy relationship between a young French Korean woman working as a receptionist in a tired guesthouse and an unexpected visitor.

The book was first published in 2016 as Hiver à Sokcho and received the Prix Robert Walser that same year.

First Named Professor in Italian Studies Appointed

Donatella Stocchi-Perucchio—a Dante expert and faculty member within the University’s Department of Modern Languages and Cultures for the last 30 years—has been named the first Lisio Distinguished Professor in Italian Studies.

Endowed with a $2 million gift from Arnold Lisio ’56, ’61M (MD) and his wife, physician Anne Moore Lisio, the professorship is intended to provide perpetual support for Italian instruction and scholarship at Rochester.

Long supporters of Italian studies at the University, the Lisios also endowed the Dorothy and Anthony Lisio Prize—in honor of Arnold’s parents—an award that recognizes outstanding undergraduate scholarship, and the Lisio Program in Italian Studies, which provides support for students to study in Italy.

Warner Professorship Established for Literacy Learning

A new professorship at the Warner School of Education will support a faculty scholar who has a strong focus on literacy learning, is engaged in community-based instruction programs, and is involved in partnerships that elevate reading and comprehension skills for marginalized students.

That’s thanks to a $1.5 million gift to establish the Sheila Konar Professorship from the William and Sheila Konar Foundation, which also made a $275,000 gift to support the Project READ Fund, a partnership with Rochester’s School 33 and East High School’s upper and lower schools.

The professorship recognizes the late Sheila Konar, who attended School 36 as a child and volunteered there for years and who was passionate about literacy.

Faculty Earn National Recognition for Research and Scholarship

Duncan Moore, the Rudolf and Hilda Kingslake Professor of Optical Engineering, and David Williams, the William G. Allyn Professor of Medical Optics, have been inducted into the National Academy of Inventors.

A holder of 18 patents, Moore, who serves as vice provost for entrepreneurship and oversees the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship, most recently has worked to develop solar energy technology that allows light to pass through translucent material while also collecting energy in photovoltaic cells.

Williams, who directed the University’s Center for Visual Science for 30 years, holds 10 patents. His research has led to significant advances in technology to improve human vision.

Laura Ackerman Smoller, chair of the Department of History, has been named a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, the highest honor the academy bestows on North American medievalists. Smoller also received a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship.

Joseph Eberly, the Andrew Carnegie Professor of Physics and a professor of optics, and Andrew Berger, a professor of optics, have been recognized by Optica, the international society for optics and photonics previously known as OSA, the Optical Society of America.

Eberly was selected as the 2021 Honorary Member of the organization, a recognition reserved for the most distinguished members of the organization, while Berger was named a fellow.

Douglas Ravenel, the Fayerweather Professor of Mathematics, has been awarded the 2022 Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry from the American Mathematical Society. The award recognizes Ravenel’s work to answer a long-standing problem in algebraic topology. He shared the prize with coauthors Michael Hill at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Michael Hopkins at Harvard University.

Nicholas Bigelow, the Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Physics and a professor of optics, and Michael Scott, the Arthur Gould Yates Professor of Engineering and professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science, have been elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Bigelow has helped advance the understanding of quantum physics and quantum optics.

Scott is widely cited for his research on systems software for parallel and distributed computing.