Research News

Andrea Ghez, a 2020 Nobel Prize winner in physics for her research in discovering one of the most exotic phenomena in the universe—the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy—will be a 2021 RIT commencement speaker on May 14 and 15. Ghez joins Eric Avar ’90 (industrial design), Nike’s vice president and creative guide of innovation design who was honored with the College of Art and Design Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016, as the university’s first-ever dual commencement speakers.

When the James Webb Space Telescope—the long-awaited successor to the Hubble Space Telescope—becomes operational in 2022, one of its first orders of business will be mapping the earliest structures of the universe. A team of nearly 50 researchers led by principal investigator Jeyhan Kartaltepe and other scientists at RIT and University of Texas at Austin will attempt to do so.

Quinn Kolt, a fourth-year applied mathematics and computer science double major from Solon, Ohio, has been awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the premier undergraduate research scholarship in the fields of math, natural sciences, and engineering in the United States.

Professor Mark Fairchild, head of the Integrated Sciences Academy and director of the Munsell Color Science Laboratory and the program of color science in RIT’s College of Science, received the 2021 Otto Schade Prize, which recognizes vision scientists, human factor engineers, and engineers whose efforts have led to major improvements in the visual quality of electronic displays.

Scientific American talks to Jeyhan Kartaltepe, assistant professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, about the program she is leading to use the James Webb Space Telescope to study thousands of the earliest galaxies in the universe.

Erika Holmbeck, who has been working as a postdoctoral associate with Associate Professor Richard O’Shaughnessy in the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation since fall 2020, will begin as a Hubble Fellow in fall 2021.

Tony Wong, assistant professor of mathematical sciences, explains volume and displacement for the "Curious Kids" series published by The Conversation.

WROC-TV talks to Seth Hubbard, professor of physics, about developing low-cost, high-efficiency solar cells.

WROC-TV talks to Christopher Kanan, assistant professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, about an artificial intelligence project.

The Conversation asks Maureen Ferran, associate professor in the Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences, about the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

Nature talks to Carmody McCalley, assistant professor in the Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences, about climate models not accurately accounting for microbial activity in Arctic permafrost and Arctic lakes.

A team of researchers that develops artificial intelligence systems is putting its work to a unique new test: creating machines capable of playing the popular video game Starcraft II. Researchers think it could be an important stepping stone to advancing practical solutions such as self-driving cars, service robots, and other real-world applications.