Office of Faculty Diversity and Recruitment News

Flip Phillips, professor of motion picture science, shared a Milestone Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his hand in creating RenderMan, Pixar’s revolutionary software still used today to create the iconic animation look of classic films.

The APS Fellowship Program was created to recognize members who have made advances in physics through original research and publication, innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology, or teaching or service in the activities of the organization. No more than one half of 1 percent of the APS membership, excluding students, is recognized with fellowship.

In tumors, cells follow microscopic fibers, comparable to following roads through a city. Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology developed a new technique to study different features of these “fiber highways” to provide new insights into how cells move efficiently through the tumor environment.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand visited RIT on Dec. 11 to deliver news on two federal funding initiatives: RIT’s Semiconductor Fabrication Lab and NTID.

Resistance Mapping is a local, collaborative digital humanities project focused on how Monroe County, N.Y., has been shaped by histories of institutional racism and collective community resistance. Scholars and students affiliated with RIT’s humanities, computing, and design program and the University of Rochester’s Digital Scholarship at River Campus Libraries helped create a website to host the educational content.

Betsy Dell, professor in the College of Engineering Technology, and Makini Beck, assistant professor in the College of Liberal Arts and the School of Individualized Study, are leading a National Science Foundation-funded project to support minoritized women students in STEM through a co-mentoring network.

The Conversation Weekly, a podcast produced by The Conversation, features Andre Hudson, dean of the College of Science.

Emiliano Brini, assistant professor in the School of Chemistry and Materials Science, has received an award from the National Institutes of Health to support his research on building the next generation of drugs. Brini and his team of students will develop computational tools that can predict the strength of the interaction between two proteins and how drugs will modify this interaction.

Faculty in RIT’s Modern Languages and Cultures department received an International Research and Studies grant from the U.S. Department of Education to fund the development of new materials and curricula for Chinese, Italian, and Spanish courses that focus on STEAM. Associate Professor Zhong Chen, Principal Lecturer Elisabetta D’Amanda, and Department Chair Sara Armengot will spend the next three years developing, testing, and implementing the new materials in the classroom.

Astrophysicist Jason Nordhaus is breaking cultural and disciplinary boundaries by helping to grow the number of deaf, hard-of-hearing, and Hispanic researchers. And, in doing so, he is enabling these future scientists to drive discoveries in one of his areas of expertise—neutron star astrophysics.

Lucia Carichino, assistant professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, has received a Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS) award from the National Science Foundation for her research in computational modeling of the interaction between the eye and a contact lens.

RIT researcher Bolaji Thomas is leading a $650,000 study to compare the genetic response in cattle in sub-Saharan Africa to the parasitic disease Trypanosomiasis, or “sleeping sickness,” that attacks their blood and brain. As parasites adapt to a warming world, the biting fly that transmits Trypanosomiasis could someday migrate to northern climates.