Welcome to the latest SAS in Focus, a newsletter that reports what’s happening in the School of Arts and Sciences.

In this edition, we’ll spotlight exciting news about major projects, a special talk on quantum, student and faculty accolades and much more.

 

Four new transdisciplinary research centers have been established at the University to address some of the most complex challenges facing humanity. The University will invest $8.5 million to launch the centers. Each of the four centers includes faculty from the School of Arts and Sciences and leverages expertise and knowledge unique to the University of Rochester. The centers were selected after a yearlong, multi-phase proposal process.

Here’s what you need to know about the projects:

• SoundSpace will receive $4 million over five years. The center will push artistic and technical boundaries while exploring the intersection of music, sound, and technology. The SoundSpace team will focus on developing a best-in-class hub for research, education, performance, and public engagement.
• Extended Reality Research and Application (EXTRRA) will receive $2 million over five years. EXTRRA will integrate optics, computing, neuroscience, and education to develop immersive platforms that improve learning, accessibility, and workforce training. Its vision is to reshape how individuals engage with digital and natural environments.
• University of Rochester Resilience Research Center (UR³C) will receive $2 million over five years. The faculty behind UR³C aim to identify the sociocultural factors and other mechanisms that perpetuate stress-related health issues, enabling the development of novel interventions that prevent or reverse those conditions.
• Center for Coherence and Quantum Science (CCQS) will receive $500,000 over two years. University scientists and engineers hope to advance quantum technologies through light-matter interaction.  They will push the frontiers of quantum science and classical coherence while also enabling practical application within optical science and optical engineering.

Read more about the University’s transdisciplinary research centers and the award process.

 

What happens when you juxtapose futuristic technology with Victorian settings? Find out during public lecture “Quantum Steampunk: The Physics of Yesterday’s Tomorrow” at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 26 at Hoyt Hall. The free public lecture will feature Nicole Yunger Halpern, a theoretical quantum physicist at the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science in Maryland.

Yunger Halpern’s lecture is scheduled as part of the Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Science (CQS). The CQS-12 conference (formerly the Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Optics, CQO), has been held every six years since its inception in 1960.

Read more about the Center for Coherence and Quantum Science.

 

The goal of the Fulbright US Student program is to promote mutual understanding and peace between the United States and other nations through educational and cultural exchange. And once again, the University of Rochester is represented in the Fulbright program with six recipients this year.

Congratulations to the recipients, including two School of Arts and Sciences alumni. Isabelle Miranda ’23 BS, BA (neuroscience and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies) earned a Fulbright grant for an English Teaching Assistantship in Taiwan. Daniel Pyskaty ’25 BS, BA (brain and cognitive sciences and linguistics) earned a Fulbright grant to conduct research at the Institute of German Linguistics at Philipps Universität Marburg.

Read more about this year’s Fulbright recipients from Rochester.

 

A new study of fire ants, coauthored by Takao Sasaki, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences, reveals the surprising power of genetics in shaping social organization and group behavior.

In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers studied minority influence in fire ants—highly social insects—and discovered a surprising genetic underpinning to the phenomenon. The research offers insights into how social interactions shape individuals and groups.

“Our research may help us understand how other animals make consensus decisions,” says Sasaki.

Read more about the fire ants research and its findings.

 

Christopher Heuer, professor of art history in the Department of Art and Art History and the Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies is among the 2025-2026 scholars selected in the 2025/2026 fellowship cycle of the GRI Getty Scholars Program.

The residential fellowship at Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, CA invites scholars to conduct innovative research in the visual arts and their histories. For 2025/2026 the program theme is Repair.

Learn more about the GRI Getty Scholars Program,

 

One of China’s first works of science fiction, New Story of the Stone by late Qing author Wu Jianren (1866-1910), is now available in full English translation from Columbia University Press.

Translated by Liz Evans Weber, assistant professor of instruction in Chinese and research assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, the novel is a cutting social satire that catapults Jia Baoyu, protagonist of the beloved 18th-century novel Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, into the first decade of the 20th century where he must come to terms with how much China and the world have changed since his own time.

Weber began work on the translation in 2018 to assign a selection for her university course “Writing Discontentment: Political Turmoil, Social Critique and Civic Responsibility in Late Qing Literature.”

Read more about New Story of the Stone.

 

Send your news tips to Sheila Rayam, director of marketing and communications for the School of Arts and Sciences, at sheila.rayam@rochester.edu. Let her know about unique research, awards, publications, community collaborations and other interesting news. Please put “SAS in Focus” in the subject heading.