
Former Institute of Optics director Kenneth Teegarden dies
Teegarden joined the Institute of Optics in 1954 and served as its director from 1981 until 1987. He was also the first director of the University’s Materials Science program, and led the New York State Center for Advanced Optical Technology.

Rochester team casts light on a hidden problem in domestic violence cases
While existing technology for detecting bruises works well for light-skinned victims, it’s less effective for people of color. An interdisciplinary team at the University of Rochester has set out to change that.

Creating negative mass particles—and a novel way to generate lasers
Rochester researchers have created particles with negative mass in an atomically thin semiconductor, using a device that creates an optical microcavity.

Humboldt Research Awards support professors’ collaborations in Germany
Two University faculty members—William Jones of the Department of Chemistry and Xi-Cheng Zhang of the Institute of Optics—have received prestigious Humboldt Research Awards.

Knox elected fellow of National Academy of Inventors
As a teenager, Wayne Knox ’79, ’84 (PhD) “sometimes filled the house with smoke” while building short wave radios and other electronic gadgets from scratch. Now the optics professor is among this year’s NAI fellows.

Two University researchers each receive $1.5 million grants
Chunlei Guo, with the Institute of Optics, and Kirsi Jarvinen-Seppo, with the Department of Pediatrics, were recently awarded separate $1.5 million grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest Gates Foundation grants ever awarded in the University’s history.

Cutting-edge science leads to cut-free biopsies
What if biopsies could be performed noninvasively as part of the initial procedure, so surgeons would know immediately whether additional cancerous tissue needed to be removed?

Thinking about time
Spring forward. Fall back. On two Sundays each year, as we move in and out of Daylight Saving Time, time itself suddenly starts to seem a little arbitrary. Every discipline in the University has its own way of constructing and thinking about time.

Three honored with Goergen Awards for teaching excellence
Established in 1997, the award recognizes distinctive teaching accomplishments of faculty in Arts, Science, and Engineering. “The recipients embody all that we value in teaching at the University,” says Dean of the College Jeffrey Runner.

‘It’s an amazing feeling when students have that sort of “ah-ha” moment, and you realize they get it.‘
My parents were missionaries. They would work in Pakistan for four years, return to Massachusetts for a year, and then go back for four years. So I lived in Pakistan…