
Honorary professorships awarded for excellence in teaching
John Tarduno has been awarded the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professorship, and Thomas Eickbush and James Zavislan are recipients of the Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professorship.

Group ‘cleaves’ oxygen from surface of metal oxide, enhancing reactivity
A new method of opening solid state materials to oxygenation, using metallic oxide clusters, can eliminate guesswork from discovery of new catalysts. The ultimate goal is to more efficiently convert greenhouse gases to useful fuels.

Rochester chemists find new means to ‘block’ cancer cell growth
A pathway that enables embryonic cells to develop into different organs can be reactivated by cancer cells. A cyclic peptide has been found that can block the activation of this pathway, and is also less likely to trigger resistance in cancer cells.

Protein identified in post-chemo cell death puzzle
Researchers have identified a protein that is required for cell death after undergoing chemotherapy—at least, it appears, in male mice.

Michael Tanenhaus awarded top cognitive science prize
Tanenhaus is best known for developing the Visual World Paradigm, which uses eye movements to study the mechanisms behind speech and language comprehension.

Researchers use lasers to display ‘true’ 3-D objects
3-D displays, once only found in science fiction, are now closer to reality using a 3-D volumetric display where viewers can see images in three dimensions without the use of special glasses or filters.

Ancient ozone levels provide a glimpse into future effects of climate change
A computer model developed at Rochester, and used to compare model data to analysis on 100,000-year-old Greenland ice cores, has shown a surprising result.

New prehistoric bird species discovered
A team of Rochester geologists has discovered a new species of bird in the Canadian Arctic. At approximately 90 million years old, the bird fossils are among the oldest avian records found in the northernmost latitude.

Finding needles in chemical haystacks
Chemists have developed a process for identifying new catalysts that will help synthesize drugs more efficiently and more cheaply, by searching libraries for drugs with structure features similar to known catalysts.

Protein found that initiates DNA repair
Researchers who specialize in the study of aging have identified a protein that may serve as a first responder, activating a “longevity gene” known as sirtuin 6 and setting in motion a cascade of molecular first responders to repair damaged DNA.