
Data mining Instagram feeds can point to teenage drinking patterns
By extracting information from Instagram images and hashtags, computer science researchers have shown they can expose patterns of underage drinking more cheaply and faster than conventional surveys.

Sigma Xi awards David R. Williams the William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement
David R. Williams, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on human vision and pioneer in the use of adaptive optics technologies for vision applications, serves as the William G. Allyn Professor of Medical Optics, director of the Center for Visual Science, and dean for research in Arts, Science & Engineering.

Nicholas George’s role as mentor celebrated in endowed optics professorship
The Nicholas George Endowed Professorship in Optics will honor the professor emeritus and former director of the Institute of Optics. The professorship was established by a gift from George’s former student Milton Chang, with an additional commitment from Joseph W. Goodman, the William Ayer Professor Emeritus at Stanford University
University of Rochester Researchers Awarded $1.5 Million to Develop a Technology to Concentrate Sunlight onto Solar Cells
Funding from ARPA-E Announced as Part of Initiatives by President Obama to Advance Innovative Clean Energy Technologies University of Rochester researchers have been awarded $1.5 million to develop a technology…

Researchers use laser to levitate glowing nanodiamonds in vacuum
Nick Vamivakas, assistant professor of optics, thinks his team’s work will make extremely sensitive instruments for sensing tiny forces and torques possible, and could also lead to a way to physically create larger-scale quantum systems known as macroscopic Schrödinger Cat states.

Vision expert David Williams receives Beckman-Argyros Award
David Williams, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on human vision, received the $500,000 prize for his transformative breakthroughs in vision research and adaptive optics.

Renowned particle physicist Susumu Okubo dies
Okubo, a Rochester alumnus and faculty member since 1964, was internationally known for his groundbreaking investigations into the patterns and decay rates of fundamental particles and symmetries of the universe.

Drawing a line between quantum and classical: Bell’s Inequality fails test as boundary
The best guide to the boundary between our everyday world and the “spooky” features of the quantum world has been a theorem called Bell’s Inequality, but now a new paper shows that we understand the frontiers of that quantum world less well than scientists have thought.

Funding aimed at fusion energy awarded to Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Sandia National Laboratories collaboration
The award seeks to build upon recent successes of Sandia’s Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) concept. The concept uses a laser to heat fusion fuel contained in a small cylinder as it is compressed by the huge magnetic field of Sandia’s massive Z accelerator.

New smartphone app would track spread of Ebola
Node, a new smartphone app developed by Medical Center research associate Solomon Abiola, would track the spread of Ebola and other infectious diseases and allow victims to receive the help they need more quickly.