February 9, 2026

A medium shot of Govind Agrawal. J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

I’m pleased to share that as part of For Ever Better: The Campaign for the University of Rochester, Govind P. Agrawal—the Dr. James C. Wyant Professor of Optics and a world leader in optical communications—and Anne Agrawal ’93W (MS) have established an endowed early career professorship at the University’s Institute of Optics. Their generous $600,000 gift establishes the Dr. Govind Agrawal and Anne Agrawal Professorship in Optics and will be amplified by an additional $900,000 from the Wyant Optics Challenge.

We are grateful to the Agrawals for their vision and generosity. It is because of excellent faculty like Govind that we are a leading engineering school as well as a top tier research university. As a professorship holder, Govind distinctly understands how philanthropy provides critical support, and how early career professorships help faculty move their research forward and provide resources and recognition that help us attract and retain the best and brightest.

THE BRAIN USES EYE MOVEMENTS TO SEE IN 3D

Two male researchers sit in a dimly lit office and look at a large computer screen displaying red and green chevrons in motion. One researcher is wearing an eye-tracking device.

University of Rochester photo / John Schlia

URochester researchers have discovered that the visual motion of an image caused by eye movements helps us understand the world. The specific patterns of visual motion created by eye movements are useful to the brain for figuring out how objects move and where they are located in 3D space.

The new findings are published in a Nature Communications study led by Greg DeAngelis, George Eastman Professor, professor in the Departments of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Neuroscience, and Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Visual Science, and a member of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience.

Read about this intriguing research at the News Center.

BARRY SILVERSTEIN ’84 FEATURED ON FOLLOWING THE PHOTONS PODCAST

A multicolored graphic with a headshot of Barry Silverstein and the logo for the "Following the Photons" podcast.

Laser Focus World’s Following the Photons podcast recently featured Barry Silverstein, a seasoned optics and photonics innovator (most recently at Meta’s Reality Labs) who joined the URochester faculty in January as director of the school’s Center for Extended Reality (CXR). Barry discussed CXR and its mission, and delved into the future of augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.

Listen to the podcast.

YUHAO ZHU AUTHORS NEW BOOK ON VISUAL COMPUTING

A navy blue graphic with a headshot within a shield and text that says "Yuhao Zhu, Associate Professor, Computer Science."

Congratulations to Associate Professor Yuhao Zhu from the Department of Computer Science, who is the author of a new a book published with Springer Nature called Visual Computing For Architects: Imaging, Rendering, and Human Vision. The book is part of the Synthesis Lectures on Computer Architecture series, where Michael Scott, the Arthur Gould Yates Professor of Engineering, has previously published a well-known monograph on Shared-Memory Synchronization. Yuhao’s book is a condensed version of his open, online textbook called Foundations of Visual Computing.

EVER BETTER GRADUATE MENTORS

A gray graphic with illustrations of olive branches and text that says "Ever Better Graduate Mentory."

Congratulations to two individuals who were recognized by Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) in the fall for their excellence in mentoring graduate students. Assistant Professor Astrid Müller from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Kevin Ling, a biomedical engineering PhD student, were named Ever Better Graduate Mentors.

The goal of the program is to recognize mentors that have distinguished themselves in benefitting graduate students in their academic and professional development. Mentors can be anyone in the University, including advisors, principal investigators, faculty, staff, and even other graduate students. Graduate students can nominate a mentor by providing a paragraph explaining how the mentor has been valuable to their academic or professional development. Selected nominees will be recognized in the GEPA Connection newsletter, at Graduate Research Day on Thursday, April 2, and contacted individually to be thanked for their mentorship.

CAREER EXPLORATION SUMMIT

A blue and teal graphic with an illustration of a compass that says "Career Exploration Summit."

The Greene Center for Career Education and Connections is hosting the Career Exploration Summit on Saturday, February 21. Students will connect with, learn from, and be inspired by alumni as they share narratives about how URochester shaped their career and life’s journey.

More than 20 alumni will return to campus to share how they engaged in the campus community, what skills they discovered and nurtured, as well as details about their personal and academic experiences that helped shape the person they are now.

For more information about the day, including the schedule of events, keynote addresses, alumni breakout sessions, and experiential learning fair, visit the event page.

BOND FAMILY FOUNDATION FACULTY SCHOLAR GRANTS

Applications are open for the Bond Family Foundation Faculty Scholar program. This program enables instructors to integrate career education and experiential learning into their courses by engaging student teams in solving real-world problems as part of academic coursework, with participating faculty receiving a $4,000 stipend. Interested faculty are encouraged to apply on the Greene Center’s website by end of day Friday, April 3 to be considered for the 2026-2027 program.

UPCOMING EMPLOYER ROAD TRIPS

The Greene Center is hosting two upcoming employer road trips for students to explore careers in industry. Visit Envative on February 11, a custom software development firm based in Rochester, and Lumetrics on February 13 for a look at precision measurement technology. Register in Handshake to save your spot and experience careers beyond campus.

FOR FACULTY: PROVIDE INPUT ABOUT THE IT SPRING WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

The University’s Office of Online Learning and University IT are seeking feedback from faculty to support their spring workshop schedule. Please take a minute to share your interest and preferences for various technology workshops to support teaching and learning. Workshops will be presented by Zoom later this spring.

IRONCLAD NEWSLETTER

A graphic that says "Ironclad NROTC Rochester" against windows.

The University’s NROTC Program recently published their semiannual newsletter, Ironclad. Compiled by the midshipmen each semester, the newsletter is a great way to stay up to date on the battalion and showcases their events and experiences. Read it at the NROTC website.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman