As part of an ongoing series, we’re highlighting the contributions of Rochester faculty.
Share your updates
Know of a faculty member receiving an award or honor? Contact us so we can help share the news.
University of Rochester faculty are leaders in their fields who are regularly recognized with regional, national, and international awards and honors for their professional contributions to research, scholarship, education, and community engagement.
As part of an ongoing series, we’re spotlighting their many and varied achievements.
John Bennett earns lifetime achievement award in myelodyplastic syndromes
John Bennett, professor emeritus of medicine, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Congress on Myelodysplastic Syndromes and Myeloproliferative Neoplasms at its annual meeting in Boston in June.
Bennett is a member of numerous professional societies and was the first chair of the Myelodysplastic Syndromes Foundation from 1997 to 2010. He has contributed more than 560 publications to the medical literature as well as several books and was the editor-in-chief of the Leukemia Research Journal for 20 years.
Astrophysicist Adam Frank wins Berggruen Prize Essay Competition
Adam Frank, the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been named one of the inaugural winners of the Berggruen Prize Essay Competition, an international competition hosted by the Berggruen Institute, a think-tank based in California.
Launched earlier this year, the competition aims to stimulate fresh perspectives and innovative ideas relating to the biggest challenges of our time, while facilitating the cross-cultural exchange of thought across fields, disciplines, and geographies. The 2024 competition focused on the theme of “planetarity,” inviting essay submissions on a broad array of topics under the theme.
As one of two English essay winners, Frank will share a $25,000 award for his essay, “The Coming Second Copernican Revolution.”
In addition to publishing the essays in Noema and Cuiling magazines, the Berggruen Institute will host an award ceremony for the winners in November 2024 as part of the Planetary Summit it is hosting at its European center in Venice, Italy.
Eric Fredericksen earns honors for online educational leadership
Eric Fredericksen, the associate vice president for online learning and a professor of educational leadership at the Warner School of Education and Human Development, is being recognized by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) for his visionary leadership in online education. He will receive the Gomory-Mayadas Award for Excellence in Online Educational Leadership at an OLC event in Orlando in November.
The award recognizes his support of colleagues in the community, his contributions to the field of online learning, and his research initiatives about students, faculty, and chief online learning officers, which have set new standards for digital education leadership.
Lauren Ghazal named New York Academy of Medicine Fellow
Lauren Ghazal, an assistant professor of nursing, has been selected as a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. As a new fellow, she joins a community of more than 2,000 New York health care professionals who share a commitment to achieving health equity.
Through her research and advocacy for adolescent and young adult cancer survivors, the assistant professor of nursing looks forward to supporting the New York Academy of Medicine’s mission of addressing health challenges among urban populations and advancing health equity.
Sveta Karelsky and Carolina Marcus earn national OSA recognition
Sveta Karelsky, an associate professor of otolaryngology, and Carolina Marcus, an associate professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine, received the Care Team of Excellence designation from Inspire Medical Systems, maker of the only FDA-approved device for selective upper-airway stimulation for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
The destination recognizes a highly experienced team with proven excellence in patient outcomes using cutting-edge therapy for OSA. They are the first team in the northeast and one of only five teams associated with academic medical centers in the country to earn this designation.
- The honor is featured on the URMC intranet (network access required).
Alex Iosevich honored with best paper award
A paper coauthored by Alex Iosevich, a professor of mathematics, has been selected for a “Best Paper Award in Mathematics” from the International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians.
A presentation of the paper, “On Falconer’s distance set problem in the plane,” is scheduled to take place at a gathering of the organization in January 2025.
LLE research team honored for excellence in plasma physics research
The American Physical Society (APS) has awarded a research team from the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) with its John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research.
The award recognizes outstanding achievements in plasma physics research, including pioneering experiments or novel theoretical developments that stand out for their innovation and impact on the field.
The team includes Rochester faculty members Riccardo Betti, the Robert L. McCrory Professor and a professor of mechanical engineering and of physics and astronomy; Varchas Gopalaswamy, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering; and Sean Regan, an associate professor of mechanical engineering.
The team received the award for pioneering the development of statistical modeling to predict, design, and analyze implosion experiments on the 30-kJ OMEGA laser, achieving hot-spot energy gains above unity and record Lawson triple products for direct-drive laser fusion. The award-winning research includes contributions from scientists and engineers in diagnostics and code development, target fabrication and cryogenic layering, and laser facility operation.
Martha Mock honored for furthering inclusive higher education efforts
Professor of Teaching and Curriculum Martha Mock, the director of the Center for Disability and Education at the Warner School of Education and Human Development, is the recipient of the 2024 Debra Hart Policy & Practice Leadership Award for her outstanding work to further inclusive higher education opportunities. She is being recognized at the 2024 State of the Art Conference (SOTA) at the end of October.
The award is named in memory of Debra Hart, a visionary leader in the field of disability, special education, and higher education for more than 30 years, whose commitment to seeking funding support for policy, practice, and research advancements contributed significantly to the progress made in inclusive higher education.
Fatemeh Nargesian receives NSF CAREER Award
Fatemeh Nargesian, the James P. Wilmot Distinguished Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, has received a 2024 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). CAREER awards are the NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
The award will fund Nargesian’s research in the data efficiency of machine learning, focusing on developing a novel paradigm for model-driven data preparation and summarization to ensure accurate, fair, and efficient model training. A model-driven view of data considers not only the completeness and correctness of data but also the performance of downstream models. This co-optimization of data and model involves treating the key dimensions of model quality—such as accuracy, fairness, and robustness—as first-class citizens during data acquisition and data generation interventions. Furthermore, learning from massive datasets requires substantial computational resources, which consume significant energy and contribute to a large carbon footprint. Summarizing data so that machine learning can be done efficiently, without significant loss in other aspects of model quality, is therefore crucial to reducing these costs and goes hand in hand with model-driven data preparation. The proposed work advocates for a paradigm shift toward model-driven data preparation, emphasizing model-aware data acquisition, coreset (weighted subset) construction, and the eventual declarative handling of the data preparation process.
Maiken Nedergaard awarded Ernst Schering Prize
Maiken Nedergaard, a professor of neurology, has been recognized with the 2024 Ernst Schering Prize for the discovery of the glymphatic system, the brain’s unique waste removal system, and the role that sleep plays in its function.
The EUR 50,000 Ernst Schering Prize is one of the most prestigious German science awards. Established by the Ernst Schering Research Foundation in 1991, it has been awarded annually since 2003. The prize honors scientists worldwide whose pioneering research has yielded new, inspiring models or led to fundamental shifts in biomedical knowledge. According to foundation’s citation, “By highlighting the role of the glymphatic system in eliminating potentially neurotoxic substances, including beta-amyloid, during sleep, Nedergaard has opened new avenues in sleep research and provided key insights into the connections between sleep and neurodegenerative diseases.”
Nedergaard is codirector of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine, which maintains research facilities at the University of Rochester Medical Center and the University of Copenhagen. In 2012, her lab first described the glymphatic system, a previously unknown network of channels that piggybacks on blood vessels. The system is used to transport cerebrospinal fluid deep into brain tissue and flush away toxic waste, including beta amyloid and tau, two proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Earlier this year, Nedergaard was also awarded the Nakasone Award for Pioneering Research.
Lainie Ross inducted into National Academy of Medicine
Lainie Ross—an internationally renowned bioethicist, the chair of health humanities and bioethics, and the director of the Paul M. Schyve, MD, Center for Bioethics—has been inducted into the prestigious National Academy of Medicine.
She is one of only seven Medical Center faculty members to earn this distinction. Previous inductees are Paul Griner, hematology/oncology; Lynne Maquat, biochemistry and biophysics; Seymour Schwartz, surgery; Elizabeth McAnarney, pediatrics; Paul Frame, family medicine; and Robert Griggs, neurology.
Lydia Rotondo named American Academy of Nursing Fellow
Lydia Rotondo, the School of Nursing’s senior associate dean of graduate education and innovation, was recognized by the American Academy of Nursing for her leadership and advocacy.
Rotondo, who also serves as director of the school’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program and a professor of clinical nursing, joins a cohort of American Academy of Nursing Fellows that represents 37 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and 14 countries.
Under Rotondo’s leadership, the school has transformed its approach to nursing education over the past decade and emerged as a leader in DNP education and scholarship.
