News

Several RIT research labs are ramping up work after several months of down time due to COVID-19. With the approval to reopen and prepare for fall classes, faculty-researchers have put in place some of the recommended guidelines for lab usage—from occupancy to cleaning protocols.

RIT Ph.D. candidate Mehdi (Aslan) Dehghani secured an internship at bio-device company after his team's research paper was published nationally.

Researchers at RIT and the University of Rochester discovered an alternative to successfully purify biological particles to better understand how cells communicate with one another.

Atlas Obscura features Ian Kurtz '18 BS/ME (mechanical engineering); Matt Nygren '19 BS/ME (mechanical engineering); Steven Galbraith, curator, Cary Graphics Arts Collection; and Juilee Decker, associate professor, Department of History.

Two visionaries in the fields of advertising, marketing and communications have been named co-recipients of the 2020 Herbert W. Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award, presented by RIT’s Saunders College of Business. Sue Butler and Tracy Till are the first joint female recipients in the award’s 35-year history.

US Black Engineer features Clayton Turner ’90 (electrical engineering), director of NASA Langley Research Center, who received the Black Engineer of the Year (BEYA) STEM Award.

As businesses look to reopen and jumpstart the COVID-19 stalled economy, RIT alumnus Jim Swift finds himself a much sought-after adviser. Swift ’88 is president and chief executive officer of Cortera, a national business intelligence company that is providing analytics on an estimated $1.5 trillion annual business-to-business transactions — data that businesses need to determine their future.

RIT honored its 2020 class of Distinguished Faculty—Manuela Campanelli, Satish Kandlikar and James Perkins. The Distinguished Professor designation is given to tenured faculty who have shown continued excellence over their careers in teaching, scholarly contributions, lasting contributions in creative and professional work and service to both the university and community.

Friday’s celebration of the Class of 2020 certainly cannot replace the atmosphere of a traditional commencement, which RIT plans to host on campus when it’s deemed safe. But many of graduates say they won’t let the pandemic, or the circumstances surrounding the virtual celebration, define them or their feelings about their time at RIT. (Pictured: Bradley Speck, who will finish his classes online this summer, has a job waiting for him at GE Aviation in Cincinnati, where he completed four co-ops.)

Alyssa Owens is contributing new ways to diagnose breast cancer and Poornima Kalyanram has discovered how fluorescent molecules might help to identify diseased cells. Karen Soule and Fatemeh Shah-Mohammadi are part of breakthrough work in developing carbon nanotubes and cognitive radio networks—advances in technology that will power tomorrow’s electronic devices. All four are on track to graduate with a Ph.D. in engineering.

Morgan Mistysyn, who will graduate this May with a Master of Engineering in engineering management and a bachelor’s in industrial engineering, is the recipient of this year's Outstanding Graduate Woman Award for her leadership role in the RIT chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World.

Jeff Benck ’88 (mechanical engineering) is the president and CEO of Benchmark, a global provider of engineering, design and manufacturing services. Benchmark is working with about 10 clients who are making products that will help treat patients infected with COVID-19.