University News

In a ceremony filled with tradition, music, laughter, and optimism, Sarah C. Mangelsdorf was formally invested Friday afternoon as the University of Rochester’s 11th president. “The University of Rochester was built by the people of Rochester,” she said in her inaugural address. “We are not just a University in this community. We are a University of this community.”

The University of Rochester community will celebrate the inauguration of Sarah C. Mangelsdorf, president and G. Robert Witmer, Jr. University Professor, as part of Meliora Weekend.

Music for film and television is, perhaps more than any other musical genre, about storytelling. And the musical centerpiece at the inauguration of President Sarah C. Mangelsdorf on October 4 is a work by one of the contemporary masters of musical storytelling, Jeff Beal ’85E.

For nearly three months now, the new president of the University of Rochester—who will be formally invested in her role at her October 4 inauguration—has been getting acquainted with University, and one of her consistent themes is her intention to remain a curious, visible, and accessible leader.

For generations, three ritual objects—the charter, the seal, and the mace—have been the centerpiece of the presidential inaugural ceremony. These same insignia have invested authority in presidents with wide-ranging leadership styles, each of whom has also shaped his own ceremony—as the 11th University president, Sarah C. Mangelsdorf, will do with her ceremony on October 4.

Matthew BaileyShea, in the College’s Department of Music and the Eastman School of Music; Ryan Prendergast, in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures; and Katherine Schaefer, in the Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program are this year’s teaching honorees.

As part of advancing a Culture of Respect and the institution-wide Vision and Values, the Code has been adopted to guide the University community in adhering to the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct.

John Tarduno, the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor, professor of geophysics, and chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, has been named dean for research in Arts, Sciences & Engineering.

The professor of electrical and computer engineering is one of 20 faculty members nationwide who have been selected for the IAspire Leadership Academy, a program aimed at building diversity in STEM fields.

Sina Ghaemmaghami, an associate professor of biology who joined the University of Rochester in 2012, has been appointed the director of undergraduate research.

The grant will support research in the growing, multidisciplinary field of Quantum Information Science (QIS), the foundation for the next generation of computing and information processing.

University Trustee and Board Chairman Emeritus G. Robert Witmer Jr. ’59—noted jurist, distinguished alumnus, longtime servant of the University and the Greater Rochester community, and a man known affectionately as “Mr. Rochester”—is being remembered this week as one of the institution’s most significant and beloved leaders. Witmer died Sunday evening, August 18.