Posts categorized In Photos

Scholar, political activist, and author Angela Davis, center, arrives at Schlegel Hall to meet with students before her talk, “The University’s Role in Educating Students to be Engaged Citizens,” part of the series Difficult Conversations as a Catalyst for Change. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

During this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Commemorative Address, political commentator Symone Sanders focused on Dr. King’s work after the civil rights movement of 1965, and emphasized his lifelong mission of challenging the status quo. “For young people particularly on college campuses,” she said, “I like to remind them that you are some of the most powerful people in the world.”

Mechanical Design, also known as ME 204, has a reputation for being one of the toughest courses mechanical engineering students experience. And thanks to professor Chris Muir’s approach to the class, it is also one of the most rewarding. In one of the final competitions, seniors Haley Wohlever, Leo Liu, and Crystal Kim must “walk the plank” to see how much weight their balsa wood structure can bear before it snaps into pieces.

As the University photographer, J. Adam Fenster sees—and subsequently documents—more than the average person at Rochester. Here he picks some of his favorite photos and gives us a behind-the-scenes look at what makes each special.

Today’s Rochester researchers are taking science developed at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics to develop the next generation high-power lasers and to better understand the fundamentals of high-energy-density physics. 

On December 3, 1847, the first issue of the North Star newspaper was published in the city of Rochester. One hundred and seventy one years later, the city again celebrated abolitionist, activist, author, and orator Frederick Douglass in an evening of words and song at Rochester’s Hochstein Hall. The Prophet of Freedom event include a performance by Eastman School of Music student Jonathan Rhodes ’20 of a song written for Douglass in 1847 that had not been performed in 100 years.

Lee Koonce ’96E (MM), president and artistic director of the Gateways Music Festival, delivers remarks at a memorial service for University Vice President Emeritus and University Dean Emeritus Paul Burgett ’68E, ’76E (PhD) yesterday afternoon. Burgett championed the festival, a multiday series of concerts, performances, and other events designed to provide classical musicians of African descent a performance showcase of their own. (University photo by J. Adam Fenster)

In the first of an ongoing initiative to bring challenging conversations to campus, Donald Hall (right), the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences & Engineering, welcomed basketball icon and activist Kareem Abdul Jabbar to meet with students and host a talk on the issues dividing America, including racism, economic inequality, and social injustice. “Basically we have to overcome fear … That type of bigotry has no basis in logic,” Abdul Jabbar told the audience in the Palestra last night. “We have to learn to appreciate that people of intelligence come in all shapes and sizes and colors, and if we don’t learn to appreciate that then I think we’re just doomed as a species.” (University photo by J. Adam Fenster)

From left, Amanda Cabal ’18 (T5), Suzie Ziegler ’19, Brian Schonfeld ’19 and Sam Rusoff ’19 take a break on a warm fall day to enjoy a game of spikeball on Eastman quadrangle. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)
WATCH: What is Spikeball?

University alumni, community members, and friends celebrated the annual Meliora Weekend traditions of reunions, thought-provoking conversations, performances, and family fun.