Science & Technology
Spiders and ants inspire metal that won’t sink
University of Rochester researchers, inspired by diving bell spiders and rafts of fire ants, have created a metallic structure that is so water repellent, it refuses to sink—no matter how often it is forced into water or how much it is damaged or punctured.
Pioneer urges women audio engineers to ‘raise your hands’ at every opportunity
During a recent master class, four-time Grammy Winner and Skywalker Sound director Leslie Ann Jones was impressed to find that nearly half of the University of Rochester students gathered were women.
‘Lasers are everywhere’
In a video for WIRED University alumna and Nobel Prize recipient Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD) explains the inner-workings of lasers to five different people: a child, a teenager, a college student, a graduate student, and, finally, to an expert: Mike Campbell, director of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics.
Adam Frank wins multiple awards for promoting public understanding of science
The University of Rochester astrophysicist recently received the American Physical Society’s 2020 Joseph A. Burton Forum Award and his latest book Light of the Stars was awarded the 2019 Phi Beta Kappa Award for Science.
Promising solutions to tough medical problems win University research competitions
Jessica Goodman and Alec Salminen each took first place at two recent University of Rochester research competitions that limited contestants to brief presentations geared toward general audiences.
New National Nuclear Security Administration agreement authorizes record LLE funding
The renewed NNSA agreement brings record funding to the Laboratory for Laser Energetics—$409.9 million for fiscal years 2019–23—and demonstrates the agency’s long-term support of LLE’s mission.
Rochester recognized as leader in high-energy-density physics
Three of eight national research grants recently awarded by the Department of Energy were given to researchers at the University of Rochester, which is home to the largest university-based DOE research program in the nation.
Using machine learning to understand climate change
In a vast ocean where direct observational data is scarce, Rochester researchers are using data science to understand how shallow coastal waters and deep oceans contribute to the methane found in the atmosphere.
Making a study of adapting to change
Karl Rosengren joined the University faculty this summer, with a research focus on how children think and reason about changes in the world around them. In the process, he’s adapting to change himself, as the spouse of the University’s new president, Sarah C. Mangelsdorf.
Understanding an endangered species, bird by bird
Rochester biologist Nancy Chen is mapping the evolutionary forces affecting an endangered species of Florida birds, and raising fundamental questions about how and why species go extinct.