Photo Spotlights

Dr. Daniel Ornt joined RIT Dec. 1 as vice president and dean of the Institute of Health Sciences and Technology. He heads the institute’s three components: RIT’s ninth college, the College of Health Sciences and Technology, the Health Sciences Research Center and the Health Sciences Outreach Center. Ornt was formerly vice dean for education and academic affairs at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Lisa Hermsen, associate professor of English and department chairperson in RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, recently published a book on the history of mania and mental illness.

Attendees at the Finance and Administration holiday breakfast Dec. 19 admired and photographed the gingerbread houses on display. Each dining area created a gingerbread house for a competition this year.

Teaching continues for engineering faculty Michael Schrlau, left, even after his Heat Transfer class has ended. Undergraduate mechanical engineering students gather at his office to discuss homework, class concepts and projects. Schrlau started his first year at RIT this past fall after working as a research assistant professor at Drexel University, where he developed devices for intracellular probing, imaging and spectroscopy.

Gabriella Ramos hands over a collection of handmade scarves as part of a donation to the Rush-Henrietta Area Food Terminal’s Holiday Food Basket program. Ramos is enrolled in the Urban Poverty class in RIT’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

The School for American Crafts annual holiday craft sale is taking place in the Student Alumni Union through Dec. 15. Ceramics students Bri Kinard, left, and Erin McGraw are selling their work in the sale.

RIT’s microelectronic engineering department is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The department has more than 1,000 of its graduates working in prominent semiconductor companies all over the globe. Patrick Chan ’10 is one of those graduates. He is a process engineer with Tokyo Electron Ltd., based in Malta, N.Y., just north of Albany. He had industry and corporate experience before coming to RIT, working as an electrical engineer at Xerox and Kodak.

Tiana Adams-Hawkins is president of the RIT Metalworks Club. Adams-Hawkins and the club, along with the Hooks and Needles Club, will sell their creations in the Student Alumni Union lobby through Dec. 15.

RIT student musicians showed off their skills Dec. 9 at ROC the Mic in the Student Alumni Union. Soloists and bands of multiple genres participated in the competition hosted by RIT’s College Activities Board and WITR-FM (89.7), RIT’s student-run campus radio station. Performers competed for a free recording session and interview at WITR’s “Rochester Sessions” and other prizes.

Members of the College of Applied Science and Technology’s Women in Technology group, including, from left, Kelley Lockwood, Kristen Wildenstein and Danyelle Greene, collected children’s books and made 32 fleece hats for families in eastern New York who were overwhelmed by Hurricane Irene this past summer. Greene, who grew up in the area, says communities in Schoharie County (Schenectady region) continue to rebuild after extensive flooding.

The Center for Campus Life Vending Office sponsored a Winter Craft Sale on Dec. 9 in the Student Alumni Union. The sale featured 38 faculty, staff and alumni vendors, including Abby Kuperstock ’03 (illustration and graphic design). Kuperstock is currently an adjunct professor in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences.

RIT’s Caroline Werner Gannett Project hosted MacArthur award-winning biomedical animator Drew Berry on Dec. 8. Berry spoke to a standing-room-only crowd of about 300 guests in Webb Auditorium, where he focused on the challenges of accurately representing miniscule molecules of flesh and blood and explored the balance between scientific accuracy and creating content that is appropriate for a non-scientific audience. The next speaker in the series, Sebastian Seung, professor of computational neuroscience at MIT, is scheduled for Feb. 2.