Environmental Studies and Sustainability News

The Times Herald-Record features Lia Grammer, a second-year packaging science student.

TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps to hit the market in a decade. Billions of social media users have found both community and entertainment in the vertical short videos that are central to TikTok’s format. With a combined nearly 1 million followers and 25 million “likes” between them, four RIT alumni are establishing themselves as social media influencers.

This change comes about to further address the interdisciplinary trends and growth taking place in both the evolving print and packaging industries. It reflects the college and RIT’s focus on aligning programs to better provide a highly skilled workforce for each area.

Environmental science alumna Sydney VanWinkle ’19, ’21 MS will head to Madagascar this fall to study the impact that conservation initiatives have on local communities and the environment as part of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

Catherine C. Lange ’16 M.Arch (architecture) developed a passion for sustainable architecture when she learned the impact the world’s built environment has on climate change, and that buildings designed to limit humanity’s impact on the planet’s resources offer a real and pressing opportunity to combat the climate crisis.

Jason Aymerich BS ’00 is president of JN White and is being honored by the College of Engineering Technology.

As the nation’s reshuffled economy rebounds from the pandemic, RIT students graduating from a university renowned for its academic rigor combined with successful internships and co-op experiences are leveraging multiple job offers into their top choices.

Circle Optics, a member company of RIT’s Venture Creations technology business incubator, has earned two significant investments totaling $800,000 to further advance its panoramic imaging technology. As a result, the company enters the second quarter with $2.5 million in total contract awards.

GMG Color recently donated one of its high-end color management software systems, ColorProof, to RIT. The system will be used as part of classroom instruction and research projects based in RIT’s Department of Graphic Media Sciences and Technology to better evaluate color quality prior to print production.

RIT is extending a special graduate tuition scholarship program to recent alumni as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year. The program helps alumni who graduated during the pandemic enhance their skill set for the new economy through master’s degrees that build upon collaboration, analytical thinking, complex problem solving, and flexibility. 

RIT contributed to a massive study on a tiny roadside weed that shows urbanization is leading to adaptive evolution at a global scale. As part of the Global Urban Evolution Project (GLUE) project, scientists from 160 cities across six continents collected more than 110,000 samples of white clover plants in urban, suburban, and rural areas to study urbanization’s effects on the plants.

The New York State Pollution Prevention Institute (NYSP2I) is accepting applications for the organization’s 2022-2023 Community Grants Program. Founded in 2008, the program is part of the NYSP2I’s ongoing efforts to continue improving the health and environmental quality of New York state.