Alumni newsmakers

The skill of an artist, the eye of a polymer engineer

Rina Banerjee ’93 proves, artfully, that a degree in engineering can lead to success in many pursuits. Trained at Case as a polymer engineer, she has become a celebrated artist in the nation’s Indian-American community.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is now presenting a major exhibition of her work.

“Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World” reflects the skill of an artist and the eye of a materials scientist.

Banerjee shared her story at a lecture at Brown University in November. Born in Calcutta, India, she came to New York via England with her family as a young girl. Hailing from a family of engineers, she faced “a lot of pressure” to follow suit, she said. So she studied the sciences and polymer engineering at the Case School of Engineering and went to work as a research chemist.

She soon found that engineering was not her calling. Still, her studies of polymer science taught her how to make “useful” things from base materials. This knowledge inspired her to start making sculptures that combined plastics and found objects. She enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts program at Yale and received her degree in 1995.

As a sculptor and a multimedia artist, she’s become known for creating dynamic, multisensory artwork that explores themes of migration and global connectedness. Immigrants and materials scientists will no doubt understand where she’s coming from.

“Make Me a Summary of the World” will show in Philadelphia through March 2019, move to the San Jose Museum of Art in California in May and then tour nationally. Learn more at www.pafa.org/.

Hurray for Hiro. Case-trained physicist named honorary consul to Japan

For its first honorary consul in Cleveland, Japan picked alumnus Hiroyuki “Hiro” Fujita, PhD ’98, a physicist and former international student who launched a successful medical device company.

Fujita is the founder and president of Quality Electrodynamics, a Mayfield manufacturer of radiofrequency coils for medical imaging machines. The company, which exports to Europe and Asia, began with innovations Fujita developed in the physics lab at Case.

A native of Osaka, Japan, Fujita came to Case in 1992 to earn his doctorate. After scientific positions at Picker International, GE Healthcare and the physics department, he started QED in 2006 with four employees. Today, the company employs more than 100.

A resident of Pepper Pike, Fujita remains a close friend of the university. He’s an adjunct professor in the Department of Physics and serves on the Visiting Committee of the Center for International Affairs. He also serves on the President’s Visiting Committee, International Visiting Committee and the Inamori Center of Ethics and Excellence Advisory Board.

As honorary consul, he’ll represent Japanese residents and promote cultural exchanges and Japan-America business ties in an 18-county region of Northeast Ohio.

Can an engineer really write? D.M. Pulley puts that question to rest

Before becoming a bestselling mystery writer, D.M. Pulley ’99 put her civil engineering degree to work as a forensic engineer. She went deep inside buildings in Cleveland to find out why structural failures occurred. Her fascination with places inspired four novels, including The Dead Key, which won the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Her latest book, The Unclaimed Victim ties Cleveland’s infamous Torso Murders of the 1930s to the Gospel Union Press Building, a haunting colossus Pulley discovered when she lived in Tremont.

“I feel the building itself is a labyrinth of bizarre choices and hidden rooms,” she told the News-Herald last year. “It’s over 175,000 square feet with no master planning. You’ve got doors that drop into 10-foot falls on to stair landings.”

A rich setting, indeed, for an engineer who hears ghosts in the walls. The book is available via Amazon.com and www.dmpulley.com/.

Time to re-launch? New pilot of Ohio aerospace wants universities in the flight plan

Ohio’s aviation industry hums with parts makers and propulsion experts, to a degree that may surprise many Ohioans. The state is the largest supplier of parts to both Airbus and Boeing.

That’s a fact trumpeted by John Sankovic, MSE ’03, PhD ’06, who suddenly has a new perch from which to share his pride—and his fear.

Sankovic, who earned his doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from the Case School of Engineering, in September was named president and CEO of the Ohio Aerospace Institute. The nonprofit research center promotes Ohio’s aerospace industry, in part by tapping the research power of the state’s doctoral-granting engineering schools.

To report to his new job, he walked next door from the NASA Glenn Research Center, where he worked for 31 years and rose to the position of Chief Technologist and Director of the Office of Technology Incubation. His pride in Ohio aviation is tempered by a nagging concern.

Sure, the Wright brothers designed their airplane in Dayton, and Ohio’s Neil Armstrong and John Glenn led the nation into space. But what has the state done lately for aerospace innovation?

Sankovic fears Ohio could be left behind as airlines pivot toward hybrid engines and greater fuel efficiency. For Ohio manufacturers to keep pace, he says, they are going to need new and stronger ties to university research labs.

“It’s a white space of new opportunity” requiring new propulsion systems, advanced materials and new kinds of engines, he argues. “They have to be made somewhere. Why not here? We have the manufacturing expertise.”

Sankovic wants to get his consortium of schools behind a push to design “electrified aircraft,” which will require advances in energy storage. That could tap the expertise of the Great Lakes Energy Institute at the Case School of Engineering. It will also, he says, require engineering schools to devote more energy and resources to aerospace.

“I really do see a need to strengthen the aerospace component of our universities,” he said. “We’ve lost a little bit. Many are not as active as they could be.”

He recalls when Ohio’s universities and the aerospace industry were once so tight, the president of Case Institute of Technology, T. Keith Glennan, took a leave to run NASA as its first administrator.

If there’s to be another aerospace age in Ohio, Sankovic said, universities will have to again play a leading role.

Pain free, drug free. The U.S. invests millions in alumnus-founded company targeting the opioid epidemic

With the nation in the throes of an opioid crisis, the healthcare industry is looking for new options for people suffering severe pain. Maria Bennett, MS ’98, may have the relief they need.

She’s the founder and president of SPR Therapeutics, a Cleveland medical device company that has achieved some success fighting pain with electrical stimulation through devices like the Smartpatch, which Bennett invented.

In October, the company announced $10 million worth of investments from the U.S. Department of Defense in the form of grants and a contract. The largest award, of $6 million, will support clinical testing of the company’s Peripheral Nerve Stimulation System, comparing it against conventional medical management for people with back pain. A recent study by the Carolinas Pain Institute found that the therapy promises a cheaper and less-invasive treatment option to reduce pain and disability. The authors conclude it could indeed “shift the paradigm” in chronic pain management.

Since its founding in 2010, SPR Therapeutics has attracted about $30 million in research grants and awards. Bennett, who earned her master’s in biomedical engineering at Case, expects to stay busy.

“The management of chronic and post-operative pain continues to be a challenge among U.S. military veterans and the general public,” she said in a statement.

She added that the opioid crisis illuminates the need for drug-free solutions, and that she’s honored the Department of Defense views her company as a worthy investment.