In Photos

More than 100 medical students received their white coats—the traditional lab jackets worn by physicians and medical scientists—to formally join the School of Medicine & Dentistry at the Robert L. & Lillian H. Brent White Coat Ceremony.

For two weeks in July, the Humanities Center at the University of Rochester led high school students in a quest to understand the philosophical underpinnings and practical expressions of civic life. This was the first year of “Experiencing Civic Life,” an academic preparation and enrichment program designed to help participants become successful college students and active citizens of American democracy.

Rochester’s new president promised she would spend considerable time on a “listening and learning tour” during the first part of her time as the University’s chief executive. President Sarah C. Mangelsdorf jumped right in early Monday morning with a two-hour tour of parts of the River Campus.

From left, University President Richard Feldman, Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD), and U.S. Representative Joe Morelle, celebrate at the University’s annual Commencement dinner. Morelle, made a statement on the House of Representatives floor recognizing Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD), Gérard Mourou and the University’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics for their 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. The statement was inserted in the Congressional Record and a framed version was personally presented to Strickland at the event during Commencement weekend.

In her keynote address at the 10th Annual Diversity Conference, novelist, activist, and commentator Samina Ali described the fear she faced when the birth of her son left her with brain damage. “I was scared, and I was completely alone,” says Ali. “Courage is like any other physical function in your body ... each time we exercise our brave heart we are reinforcing our neural pathways for courage.” (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

The Alaskan flag, with its simple Big Dipper and North star design, was the winning entry submitted by a 13-year-old Aleut boy, John Bell Benson, for a competition by the Alaska Department of the American Legion. Chosen in 1927, this particular example is now part of the University’s William Henry Seward Papers.

Michael Estephan is congratulated after opening his Match Day envelope. At noon precisely, Estaphan and approximately 100 students from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry joined medical students from around the country to simultaneously open sealed envelopes and learn where they’re headed for their residencies. The day caps off years of work and study as the students learn where they will spend the next several years in training for their first jobs as physicians, with Rochester students filling residencies at the top medical centers in the country. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)

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.