September 16, 2024
University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster
Dear members of the Hajim School community,
Researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering are repurposing technology most often used for medical imaging as a new tool for restoring blood flow in tissue damaged from disease, injury, and reconstructive surgery.
A team led by Diane Dalecki, the Kevin J. Parker Distinguished Professor in Biomedical Engineering and director of the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound, and Denise Hocking, a professor of pharmacology and physiology and of biomedical engineering, secured a new $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop in vivo acoustic patterning technologies.
“We developed a novel technique using some of the forces associated with an ultrasound field called acoustic radiation force to act on cells in a material to move them to different spatial locations,” says Diane. “By changing the frequency of the sound fields, we can control the distance between how the cells are patterned. Depending on the patterning we use, we can create different types of blood vessel morphologies.”
Read about this exciting project at the News Center.
PATENTED ULTRASOUND TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES CANCER DIAGNOSIS
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Further demonstrating the Hajim School’s leadership in developing ultrasound technologies, the United States Patent and Trademark Office recently issued four patents for diagnostic ultrasound technology developed by Kevin Parker, the William F. May Professor of Engineering, and his doctoral students. Some of the technologies have already been licensed to startups that want to bring the advances into clinics for the benefits of patients everywhere.
“Many diseases, including some malignant cancers, can still be hiding or obscured in medical imaging,” says Parker. “There are many cases where you’d like the picture to be crystal clear, but you can’t really see it. So, we used advanced physics, math, and scattering theory to pull out the hidden features from ultrasound data that could indicate problems with organs such as the liver, thyroid, or breast.”
Two of the patents are related to the H-scan technique developed in Kevin’s lab and the other two focus on reverberant shear wave fields. Learn more about the technology at the News Center.
HAJIM SCHOOL LAUNCHES SEVERAL INNOVATIVE NEW PROGRAMS
University of Rochester illustration / Michael Osadciw
Our faculty have been busy developing new academic programs that can prepare students for the careers of tomorrow. Even more are in development, but some of the most recent programs we have launched include:
The News Center provides a look at these programs and others from across the University that were developed to meet workforce needs of growing industries or double down on areas of historic distinction for the University. Read more.
NEW HAJIM SCHOOL FACULTY DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERSITY OFFICER
I’m pleased to introduce Associate Professor Niaz Abdolrahim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering as the Hajim School’s new faculty development and diversity officer. In this role, Niaz will work in collaboration with the school deans, the associate vice provost for academic equity, and the school faculty affairs officers to provide faculty development opportunities and to identify issues of representation, visibility, and equity for women and people of color among the faculty, and to develop and implement strategies to address them.
Niaz is deeply committed to faculty development and diversity initiatives. Previously, she has served as a representative on the diversity committee of the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society and participated as a panelist in the “Women in Tech” panel at the international conference Display Week 2017. Last year, she completed the Faculty Success Program at the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity and continues to engage with their alumni program. Please join me in congratulating Niaz on this new role!
EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND EMPOWERMENT IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
The Department of Chemical Engineering will host a panel on equity, diversity, and empowerment from 3-5 p.m. on Friday, September 20 in Goergen Hall room 101. A reception will follow in the Munnerlyn Atrium. The alumni panelists include:
- Kwasi Boaitey ’24 PhD (human development), the director of culturally responsive management at the University of Rochester’s Office of Equity & Inclusion
- Mary R. Coan Skow ’07 (chemical engineering), agency risk management officer at NASA
- Kendra Watson, ’22, ’23 MS (chemical engineering), research engineer II at Saint-Gobain
- Brian Yegela ’22, module process engineer at TSMC
Submit questions by emailing Undergraduate Program Coordinator Jennifer Condit. You can also register to watch the panel on Zoom.
NSF GRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP INFORMATION SESSION
The Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs Office is offering an information session for the National Science Foundation – Graduate Research Fellowship from 3-4 p.m. on September 19. They will bring together current fellows, faculty, and staff who can provide advice about the application process. Reference letters for the fellowship are due on October 11. Join the Zoom meeting.
INAUGURAL WYANT COLLOQUIUM
University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster
I was glad to see a tremendous turnout at the Institute of Optics’ inaugural Wyant Colloquium last week. The event, held in honor of the late Jim Wyant ’67 MS, ’69 PhD, ’21 (Honorary), featured one of Jim’s former students, Daewook Kim, an associate professor of optical sciences and astronomy at the University of Arizona. President Mangelsdorf provided remarks, Jim’s wife Tammy shared wonderful memories of Jim, and we were fortunate to be joined by Nobel Prize laureate Donna Strickland ’89 PhD.
Have a great week!
Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman
