News Bytes

NewsBytes

Joy for the world

On July 1, Joy Ward, PhD, began her tenure as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. She arrived from the University of Kansas bearing skills that are expected to serve the college and the planet well in the years ahead. In addition to being an academic leader, she’s an accomplished climate change scientist.

Go Army!

Nigerian-born Sonia Ezenwajiaku credits her interest in prosthetics for steering her into chemistry and biomedical engineering. She thinks the U.S. Army can help her to make science a career. In June, she was featured in the Army Times for using ROTC to become a commissioned officer and serve her new country.

Being a reservist in the Army Corps of Engineers will help her to earn her biomedical engineering degree at Case, she told the newspaper. “I’m just really grateful for taking that route and being open to it, and I feel like others should be, too,” she said.

STEM evangelist

Former Microsoft COO Robert Herbold, MS ’66, PhD ’68, was awarded an honorary doctorate from Case Western Reserve at May commencement — and not only for past achievements. Through the Herbold Foundation, he helps provide scholarships and mentoring to students pursuing science and engineering degrees.

One to watch

Haojia Li knew she wanted to be either a singer or a scientist. Lucky for us, she chose science. As a PhD student in biomedical engineering, Li has been making progress diagnosing breast cancer with artificial intelligence. This summer, Crain’s Cleveland Business named her to its list of “20 in their Twenties” to watch.

Professor forever

In 1991, Hunter Peckham, PhD, helped establish the Cleveland Functional Electrical

Stimulation (FES) Center, a collaboration of Case Western Reserve, the Cleveland VA

Medical Center and the MetroHealth System. “If you’re going to do something important,” he later said, “you have to be able to build partnerships.”

When he retired this year from the Department of Biomedical Engineering after an illustrious, decades-long career, the university made him a partner forever. Peckham was named Distinguished University Professor Emeritus.

Channeling Coach Sudeck

Ilissa Hamilton ’20 was an ace on the mound for the nationally ranked Spartans this year while earning a perfect 4.0 in biomedical engineering. Before graduating in May, she received one more shining honor: The Bill Sudeck Outstanding Student-Athlete Award for exemplifying the best of a CWRU athlete.

Now she’s in a new ballpark, working as a product development engineer for Stryker.

Jolly Good

The cheery can-do spirit of Malcolm Cooke, PhD ’05, will no longer animate Sears think[box]. The inaugural Executive Director of the acclaimed makerspace retired this summer after 25 years at the Case School of Engineering. But Dean Venkataramanan Balakrishnan thinks Cooke’s British accent will echo for years.

”A well-built institution endures,” he said, “and Malcom has positioned CWRU as a national leader.”

A Plum for Uptown

Many were saddened when University Circle’s full-service grocery, Constantino’s Market, closed early in the pandemic. Softening the loss is news that Plum Market Kitchen plans to open in the Uptown space in January.

The Detroit-based chain, featuring lots of natural foods and grab-and-go options, has been carving out a niche in college towns. The Uptown Plum will be Ohio’s first.