Photo Spotlights

Rick A. Kittles ’89 (biology) received a distinguished alumni award April 11. Kittles helped establish the National Human Genome Center. Currently, he is associate professor in the Department of Medicine and the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is at the forefront of developing ancestry-informative genetic markers and studying how this information can be used to map genes for common traits and disease, especially among African-American populations. His talk, “The Epidemiology of Prostate Cancer: Genomic Insights,” was a College of Science Series Lecture.

A ceremonial groundbreaking for the Clinical Health Sciences Center took place April 11. The Clinical Health Sciences Center will accommodate the growth of existing and future clinical programs in RIT’s College of Health Sciences and Technology, including the new Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition. The facility will also house a primary care clinic operated by Rochester General Health System, a development made possible through the RIT-RGHS Alliance, now in its fifth year.

Erika Mesh, a computing and information sciences doctoral student, likes the direction RIT is heading on research and hopes to give back to the university that has given her so much.

Experimental game designer and Emmy-award nominee Tracy Fullerton, second from right, worked with RIT game design students April 10 as part of her campus visit. Fullerton, associate professor and chair of the Interactive Media Division of University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts and director of the USC Game Innovation Lab, presented a talk for Where Text and Code Collide: Digital Humanities Distinguished Speaker Series. Fullerton has appeared on Time magazine’s Best of the Web list and the Hollywood Reporter’s “Women in Entertainment Power 100.” Her talk was sponsored by the RIT Project for the Digital Humanities, College of Liberal Arts and the Gannett Endowment for the Humanities.

Heath Boice-Pardee, interim senior vice president for student affairs, is also an accomplished mystery novel writer. Two books have already been published as part of the Ocean Grove Mysteries series, and a third book is underway.

RIT hosted a Rwanda Genocide Twenty Year Commemoration and Remembrance ceremony April 7. RIT students and faculty with connections to Rwanda opened up discussion about the Rwandan Genocide, a 1994 state-backed campaign in which more than 800,000 people were killed. Here, College of Liberal Arts student Abubakar Ali lights a candle during the candlelight vigil.

RIT Student Government announced a bike share program for the RIT campus April 7. The free service allows students, faculty and staff to borrow a bike that they can use anywhere for up to 24 hours. The program will initially start with 20 orange Fuji Barnebey bicycles that can be rented from the Residential Office in Kate Gleason Hall. RIT Student Government hopes to grow the program with more bikes being offered at different locations on campus. Here, Student Government President Paul Darragh leads a test ride with the bikes.

Alpha Sigma Alpha hosted the Heel Violence walk on April 6 to raise awareness of domestic violence. This year the fundraiser benefits Advocacy Services for Abused Deaf Victims. ASADV is a local organization that provides free services to people who are deaf and hard of hearing that have experienced domestic violence or sexual abuse. From left, Joe Sciandra, Victor Santiago and Jim Francesca.

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) hosted a workshop March 29 as part of her Science, Technology, Engineering and Math App Challenge for high school students. The workshop was open to all interested students who want to learn more about app design, STEM fields, careers in STEM and higher education opportunities. Andy Phelps, director of RIT’s Media, Arts, Games, Interaction and Creativity (MAGIC) Center served as an adviser throughout the competition. “We are delighted to host this workshop at RIT,” Phelps said. “At MAGIC, we believe that you learn by making and we are eager to engage the K-12 community of learners and makers in this endeavor.”

RIT celebrated the women’s hockey team for winning the College Hockey America league championship this season. From left, Morgan Scoyne, Celeste Brown, Melissa Bromley and Lindsay Grigg sliced cake for the crowd.

Moyu Zhang, a furniture design student in her thesis year at the School for American Crafts, regularly works with a CNC router to assist in the creation of her wood designs. Zhang feels more connected to her furniture pieces when designing hands-on.

Created by RIT graduate Eric Irish, the TigerSafe app enhances traditional blue light offerings with voice and text capabilities, GPS location tracking and reporting services.