NJIT Magazine / Winter 2010

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for your

health Realizing key advances for maintaining health and alleviating illness

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detecting danger

bridging the gulf

A unique detector for harmful biological and chemical agents, explosives and narcotics

Science and the liberal arts at NJIT

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Executive Summary

A Message from NJIT President Robert A. Altenkirch

“Society is a partnership in all science, a partnership in all art.”

Edmund Burke Sustaining positive social change and contending with challenges that threaten to impede progress require both a growing array of resources and new strategies for making the best use of those resources. In the words of the great British statesman Edmund Burke, the well-being of society is determined by how skillfully we apply all of the sciences and arts available to us.

The past century has seen steady expansion in the range of scientific and technological knowledge that can energize progress, with new interdisciplinary partnerships emerging in fields such as medicine.

“For Your Health” in this issue gives an overview of how NJIT is promoting synergy among health care, information technology and engineering – a partnership that promises better ways to alleviate illness and injury.

NJIT alumni, faculty and students are also partnering in efforts that bring the potential of science and technology to bear on threats to our society. “Detecting Danger” describes a unique, compact system for warning of chemical and biological warfare agents, environmental contaminants and pathogens that include the Ebola and H1N1 viruses. Developed by AC Birox, a company based at the NJIT Enterprise Development Center, the capabilities of their detector system are being enhanced with the help of university resources that span chemistry, biomedical engineering, mathematics and market research.

Our mission as New Jersey’s science and technology university also recognizes the importance of complementing scientific and technological innovation with humanistic insight and artistic interpretation. Focused on the College of Science and Liberal Arts, “Bridging the Gulf” explores this convergence at NJIT. Encouraging the thoughtful, sometimes critical, evaluation of how new scientific knowledge could impact society is as important as the effort to discover that knowledge. Adding the interpretive dimension of art to science fosters deeper comprehension of the excitement of scientific inquiry, and what it means for the quality of daily life.

Science and technology are certain to move society in new directions over the decades ahead, at times in ways that will startle us. It is equally certain that NJIT will make continuing contributions to scientific and technological progress, and to encouraging examination of our social partnership from the perspective of the arts and humanities.

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N J I T M a g a z in e Winter 2010 Jean M. Llewellyn Executive Director University Communications Dean L. Maskevich Editor Christina Crovetto MS ’03 Assistant Editor Babette Hoyle Production Coordinator Skelton Design Design Editorial Advisory Board Joel Bloom, Robert A. Boynton, Charles R. Dees, Jr., E. Perry Deess, Kirstie Gentleman, Kathryn Kelly, Carol Pilla, Jacquelynn G. Rhodes, Henry Ross, Anita Rubino ’83, Steven Saperstein ’84, Michele Scott ’93, Donald H. Sebastian, Nancy Steffen-Fluhr, Sheryl Weinstein NJIT Magazine is published by New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Communications. Its mission is to foster ties with alumni, university friends and corporate partners and to report on relevant issues, particularly those in education, science, research and technology.

Visit us on the web at http://magazine.njit.edu Please send letters of comment and requests to reproduce material from NJIT Magazine to: NJIT Magazine University Communications University Heights Newark, NJ 07102-1982 Dean.Maskevich@njit.edu Robert A. Altenkirch President Charles R. Dees, Jr. Vice President University Advancement Robert A. Boynton Executive Director Alumni Relations

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For Your Health NJIT faculty and alumni are working to realize the potential of key advances for maintaining health and alleviating illness. page 16

Bridging the Gulf Science and the liberal arts converge at NJIT.

d e pa rt m e n t s 2 Abstracts

NJIT news in brief 6 p oint by point

Athletics update 8 g iving

NJIT development news 25 a lumni circuit

science

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Detecting Danger From the Enterprise Development Center – a unique detector for harmful biological and chemical agents, explosives and narcotics.

Class notes, alumni calendar, and more 3 3 at the edge

Notable achievements by faculty, staff, students, alumni

l i be r a l a r t s

Professor David Rothenberg’s studies of bird song illustrate the complex, complementary relationship between music and the scientific investigation of nature.

Features

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abstracts

Photo: Alla Shumko

The new telescope will facilitate research into solar phenomena such as magnetic storms that can damage satellites and disrupt telecommunications and power grids on earth.

A Brighter Future at Big Bear The future of solar research is much brighter now that the new telescope at NJIT’s Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) is operational. A celebratory dedication was held in October, with more than 120 alumni and their guests, NJIT trustees and overseers, and members of the international scientific community gathering for the event at BBSO in California.

Distinguished Professor of Physics Philip R. Goode spoke about the capabilities of the new telescope and what they signify for advancing solar astronomy. Goode — director of BBSO and the NJIT Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research — led the five-year project to build the instrument, which is the world’s largest groundbased telescope dedicated

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to solar research. As Goode explained, the telescope has three times the resolution of the one it replaced. Along with additional improvements, this power will facilitate research into solar phenomena such as magnetic storms that can damage satellites and disrupt telecommunications and power grids on earth.

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NJIT President Robert A. Altenkirch and Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Research and Development Donald H. Sebastian also spoke. They were joined by Jeffrey R. Kuhn, associate director of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, who helped Goode design key optical systems for the telescope; Buddy Martin of the Steward Observatory

“ Best Business School” Again The Princeton Review has once again featured NJIT’s School of Management (SOM) in its 2010 edition of The Best 301 Business Schools (Random House). SOM is cited as being part of a “solid engineering school” at the edge in technology and related fields, offering affordable undergraduate

Mirror Laboratory at the University of Arizona, who directed mirror polishing; Thomas Rimmele, solar adaptive optics expert; and Ian Huss of DFM Engineering, Inc., who led construction of the telescope’s support structure.

For more about BBSO see “At the Edge in Solar Research” online at http://magazine.njit.edu/2008/ fall/big-bear.pdf. n

and graduate degrees. NJIT students characterized SOM as providing solid preparation in accounting, general management, teamwork, and communication skills. They also pointed out the school’s proximity to major business and financial centers, which allows it to draw outstanding faculty. Also noted were excellent counseling and placement services. n

There’s much more on the Web — visit NJIT Magazine online at http://magazine.njit.edu for links to more information about topics in this issue.

Faculty, Alums Honored as Innovators Two NJIT faculty members were recognized in October with Innovator Awards from the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame.

Also honored were two recent doctoral graduates.

Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering Kamalesh Sirkar added this latest award to the long list of honors he has received during his career as an educator and researcher, most notably in the field of membrane

separation technology. Ali Abdi, associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, was honored for his interdisciplinary engineering work in biology. He shared the award with Effat S. Emamian, MD, founder and CEO of Advanced Technologies for Novel Therapeutics, a start-up company based at NJIT’s Enterprise Development Center. Alumni Chuan-Bi Lin ’08 and Ziqian Dong ’08 were recognized for their inventive electrical engineering research.

Dong received the prestigious Hashimoto Prize at NJIT’s 2009 commencement ceremony. n

A Rising University Star

President Robert A. Altenkirch (front, third from left), Joel Bloom (second from left), senior vice president for academic and student services and dean of Albert Dorman Honors College, and Tony Howell (top, far right), EOP executive director, represented the university at the 2009 awards dinner of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering,

held at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. NJIT received a Rising University Star Award for its commitment to educational opportunity for groups underrepresented among engineers and scientists. Diverse Issues in Higher Education ranked NJIT 11th in the nation in 2009 for graduating minority engineers. n

The ten-week iPhone app course offers the training needed to share in “The iPhone Gold Rush.”

Wanted: iPhone Apps and Soft Skills Gaining new knowledge and skills is one of the best ways to keep a sharp competitive edge in today’s challenging job market. At NJIT, there’s a growing catalog of degrees and certificates that can be completed with part-time evening and weekend study, or entirely online. Two new programs, both online, have been launched to meet the fast-growing demand for iPhone applications and engineering soft skills.

The ten-week iPhone app course offers the training needed to share in what The New York Times recently dubbed “The iPhone Gold Rush,” a current $1 billion market projected to grow to $4 billion by 2012. The twelve-credit graduate credential in Engineering Soft skills rounds out a technical degree with essential knowledge of business, law, global marketing, finance, management, new media-based communication and sustainability. It’s knowledge that makes technical experts stand out among their peers when it comes to a successful job search and professional advancement.

Attuned to employment trends and the needs of all students, NJIT’s Office of Continuing Professional Education (CPE) makes enhancing personal marketability affordable and convenient. Learn about all CPE programs at http://adultlearner.njit.edu. n

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The experience of the 13 students in the course was very close to that of working in an architectural practice.

The ocean says a lot to doctoral candidate Rashi Jain, and what she has learned by listening to underwater sound led to recognition for the best paper presented by a young researcher at the 2009 annual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.

The title of the paper is “Particle Filtering Approach for Multipath Arrival Time Estimation from Acoustic Time Series.”

“Sound waves traveling underwater tell a story about the environment they’ve been traveling through and the sources that transmitted the sound,” Jain says.

That story can be very significant for studying water quality,

Alexander Merlucci, recipient of the Best Project Award from Habitat Newark for his work on designs for a new townhouse development

Photo: Jason Gomes

What the Ocean Says

and incorporation into the new townhouse development.

Inglese will be the architect of record and complete plans for the project.

The organization presented awards in two categories — two Design Excellence Awards and six Awards of Recognition. For excellence of design, Alexander Merlucci* received the Best Project Award and Cara Constantino* was first runner up.

Receiving Awards of Recognition were Anthony Allocca (designing according to an extremely efficient wood framing system), Katherine Cerniglia* (investigating insulating concrete forms and geothermal technologies), Edward Lay* (incorporating

sea-floor geology, and advanced sonar design. Jain has received funding for her work from the Office of Naval Research due to its importance in defense applications such as sonar. n

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Fourth-year NJIT architecture students recently teamed with Newark homeowners to create designs for new local housing.

The homeowners, all residents of city homes built by Habitat for Humanity, reviewed designs for townhouses planned by the organization, which is dedicated to building housing that low-income families can afford.

The students gained the considerable benefits of real input about everyday lifestyle needs from the homeowners. They also had to factor affordability into their concepts for the 2009 Habitat Options studio course taught by NJIT Associate Professor Darius Sollohub and alumnus Jak Inglese ’80, ’83. Inglese is a widely recognized expert in designing affordable housing that incorporates state-of-the-art sustainable construction.

According to Sollohub, the experience of the 13 students in the course was very close to that of working in an architectural practice — especially with respect to assessing the energy efficiency and overall cost of their designs. “Taking affordability into account is rare in architectural schools,” Sollohub says.

In December, when the course concluded, Habitat Newark selected designs created by the students for special recognition

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Photo: Jason Gomes

Photo: Jason Gomes

Teaming with Habitat for Humanity

Habitat project instructor Darius Sollohub (left) and architecture student Daniel Chelchowski

rainwater collection and efficient plumbing systems), Joan Lui (researching green roofs and easily constructible solar shading systems), Ala Rustom* (researching and designing efficient rain garden systems), and Allison Termyna* (promoting affordable radiant heat flooring systems). n *Dorman honors scholars

END NOTES

Two named AAAS Fellows

Below: Photo of the RKO Proctor building today and Jessica Dalrymple’s oil on linen interpretation Bottom: Broad Street mural by Matthew Gosser

The Curtain Rises on a Theatre Town The rich history of theaters that once enlivened Newark’s cultural life was the theme of the most recent exhibit organized

by NJIT alumnus and special lecturer Matthew Gosser ’98, MS ’02. NJIT’s College of Architecture and Design Gallery hosted “Theatre Town,” an exhibition of photos, videos, paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures and more. The work was by some 40 contemporary artists, most from New Jersey. Co-sponsored by the

Sunil Saigal, dean of NCE, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an honor bestowed on AAAS members by their peers. Saigal was cited for distinguished contributions to the field of computational solid mechanics, particularly for meshless analysis methods, sensitivity formulations, glass failure simulations, and mesh generation.

Newark Arts Council, the exhibition ran through November. To complement the gallery works, Gosser created an outdoor mural on the rear wall of a building at 441 Broad Street.

Gosser graduated from NJIT with a bachelor’s in architecture and later received a master’s in infrastructure planning. He is a recognized practitioner of Ar+chaeology – the transformation of found artifacts from culturally significant abandoned buildings into works of art that evoke their origins. Previous exhibitions curated by Gosser focused on Newark’s Pabst brewery and Westinghouse manufacturing complex. n

Sunil Saigal

Philip R. Goode, distinguished professor of physics, is also a new AAAS Fellow. He was recognized for research in helioseismology and climate, and for his role in building the world’s most capable solar telescope and the country’s largest academic solar physics program.

Philip R. Goode

James Dart AIA, university

Gale Tenen Spak, associate vice

lecturer in the College of Architecture and Design, was a contributor at a national conference – “New Orleans Under Reconstruction: The Crisis of Planning” – held in October at Tulane University.

president of the Division of Continuing and Distance Education, was a panelist at the 122nd Annual Meeting of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) in Washington, DC. The topic discussed was “Testing the APLU Institutional Assessment Tool to Enhance Regional Innovation and Prosperity: Three Case Studies from NJIT, Virginia Tech and the University of Missouri.”

Somenath Mitra, professor of

chemistry and environmental science, is a co-author of an article published in BMC Cancer that describes a new strategy for combating an aggressive form of breast cancer using carbon nanotubes and antibodies. The title of the article is “Anti-HER2 IgY antibody-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes for detection and selective destruction of breast cancer cells.”

Farzan Nadim, professor of math-

ematical sciences, gave an invited lecture on “Determining Phase and Stability in Central Pattern Generators” at the Ninth Annual Society of Neuroscientists of Africa Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Sotirios G. Ziavras served as program chair of the 21st IEEE International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence. Ziavras is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Computer Architecture and Parallel Processing Laboratory at NJIT.

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point by point

book shelf

The latest news about NJIT sports: www.njithighlanders.com

all Photos: Larry Levanti

Photo: Christina Crovetto

New Name for NJIT’s Home Soccer Venue

The NJIT Highlander and author Vincent Naimoli at the book signing for Business, Baseball & Beyond on campus in December

Vincent J. Naimoli MS ’62, chairman emeritus and founder of the Tampa Bay Rays, entered the national spotlight in fall 2008 when the team he had nurtured for almost a decade played in the World Series. In Business, Baseball & Beyond (StarGroup International, 2009), Naimoli writes about his roots in a working-class neighborhood in Paterson, New Jersey, the creation of a Fortune 500 business empire, and his foray into the world of professional sports.

Over the years, Naimoli has been dedicated to baseball’s overall welfare as well as to building the success of the Rays franchise. In addition to serving on Major League Baseball’s committees for international relations, legislative affairs and equal opportunity, he was named to a blue ribbon task force on baseball economics in 1999.

As chief executive officer of Anchor Industries International, Naimoli was voted 1995 Florida Entrepreneur of the Year in the turnaround category. In 1999, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations, and in 2004 he was inducted into the National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame.

In recognition of his exceptional career as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, business and civic leader and for service as an NJIT Overseer, the university conferred an honorary doctorate on Naimoli at the 2009 commencement ceremony.

Business, Baseball & Beyond can be ordered from the online Alumni Store at www.njit.edu/alumni/store.

One copy is $20.00, two copies $35.00, plus applicable sales tax and shipping. These prices for Business, Baseball & Beyond are below list thanks to the generosity of author Vincent Naimoli, who is donating all proceeds from sales to support scholarships at NJIT. n

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NJIT has renamed its home soccer venue Lubetkin Field at J. Malcolm Simon Stadium in honor of Mal Simon’s service to the university as coach, director of athletics, and director and professor of physical education. Since 1990, the facility has been known as Dorothy and William Lubetkin Athletic Field, following a generous gift from their sons, Seymour ’47, Bernard ’49, Charles ’53 and Alvin.

The addition of Mal’s name was recognized at a ceremony held in September at the Campus Center. Those present in the large turnout included Mal’s wife, Diane, his children, Stephanie, Melanie and Kenneth, and his five grandchildren. Also attending was his mentor, Lou Peragallo, who coached the soccer team at Panzer College, where Mal graduated in 1954 before earning his master’s from Columbia in 1956.

Mal’s career began at NCE in the 1950s and spanned nearly four decades until his retirement in 1993. In addition to soccer, he coached freshman basketball and volleyball. A widely published writer on coaching and soccer, Mal was inducted into the NJIT Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994.

Many of Mal’s former players were on hand to offer their congratulations.

Mal (right) and Bernie Lubetkin Speaking on behalf of his players was Edward Cruz ’63, a four-year soccer star and Athletics Hall of Fame honoree who is now president and CEO of E.E. Cruz & Company, one of the region’s largest engineering and construction firms. President Robert A. Altenkirch, Vice President for University Advancement Charles R. Dees, Jr., and Athletics Director Lenny Kaplan spoke on behalf of NJIT. The common theme expressed was that, beyond all the wins and championships and personal awards, Mal positively influenced the lives of countless young people in his service to the university. n

First Highlander wins Division I Academic All-America laurels

Women Garner Great West Honors Three members of the women’s basketball team were accorded Great West Conference preseason honors. Junior guard Jessica Gerald was named to the Preseason

Jessica Gerald

First-Team All-Great West Conference Team, with twin sisters Taiwo Oyelola and Kehinde Oyelola recognized as Honorable Mention selectees. Gerald led the team in points scored (318) and points per game (16.7) while scoring double-figures in 16 out of 19 games, with eight 20-point games. Returning seven letterwinners, NJIT is playing its first season as an active full member of NCAA Division I. In soccer, NJIT’s junior goalkeeper Sadie Mele was named 2009 Defensive Player of the Year in the Great West Conference East Division. She was joined on the all-conference team by Cielianna Pasiciel, a sophomore named one of three defenders on the East

Division team and by sophomore Piper Lunan, one of three forwards honored in voting by East Division coaches. Mele, who has played every minute of every game from the start of her nearly three-year career, backstopped NJIT to a first-place East Division finish in the inaugural season of Great West Conference play. n

Sadie Mele

Sabrina Baby on Academic All-America Team Senior Sabrina Baby was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America ThirdTeam, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Playing libero in volleyball (a position specializing in defensive play), she is the NCAA Division I national individual leader with 6.27 digs per set (608 digs, 97 sets).

Baby, enrolled in the School of Management, becomes the first Highlander in any sport to

Christian Baumbach First in IC4A Race Sophomore Christian Baumbach* gained the most prestigious cross-country crown in school history in November, winning the season-ending 8-kilometer race at the 101st annual IC4A Cross Country Championships at New York City’s Van Cortlandt Park.

receive Academic All-America laurels at the Division I level.

Also named Great West Conference Defensive Player of the Year, Baby started all 27 matches this past season for the Highlanders, recording double figures in each contest. She earned Great West Conference Defensive Player of the Week honors three times for the season.

Baby holds the NJIT Division I school record for digs in a four-set match (45) and digs in a five-set match (42). To close out her career, she holds the NJIT Division I school records for career digs (2,284), digs posted in a season (2008; 795), career service aces (189) and service aces in a season (2008; 71). n

Baumbach’s time was 25:36.8, 6.3 seconds ahead of the next runner.

Baumbach paced the Highlanders to the highest IC4A raceteam finish in the NJIT program’s history – 11th. NJIT finished 21st in the same race in 2008. NJIT, in its first year of Division I championship eligibility, finished ahead of such long-established Division I programs as those at Fordham, Manhattan, Fairfield, Sacred Heart, Loyola, Monmouth, Holy Cross, Hofstra, and Seton Hall. n *Dorman honors scholar

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giving

Learn more and contribute at www.njit.edu/giving

A deferred gift annuity can provide income every year for the rest of your life as well as significant tax advantages.

Planned Giving Why You Should Care about Recession-Proof Gift Annuities

By Monique Pryor Well-educated alumni and friends of NJIT may know from experience that a deferred gift annuity returns a host of special benefits to the giver. It can provide income every year for the rest of your life as well as significant tax advantages. Some NJIT benefactors make one, two or even three such gifts – a lifetime benefit to the university and themselves. You ask why?

With a gift annuity, you can: • Add to your own income streams • Benefit immediately from the charitable income-tax deduction • Make the most of estate and gift tax charitable deductions

• A void upfront capital gains taxes • Avail yourself of trusted professional asset management The balance of your gift goes to the university, deferred, after your lifetime. It’s a gift that helps you today and NJIT in the future.

Suppose you are 45- to 60-years old and have started planning for retirement by saving or investing in stock; a deferred gift annuity is an excellent way to minimize taxes. Also, you may not realize how recession proof a deferred gift annuity can be. NJIT can pay you interest higher than current market rates – because your payments are deferred.

The younger you are, the more favorable this becomes.

Vinod K. Jindia ’75 with his wife, Kiran, and daughters Monica and Melanie

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Monique Pryor, assistant vice president for planned giving, joined NJIT in 2009. A development professional with more than seven years of experience in the field, she has also been licensed to practice law in New York and New Jersey for over fourteen years. She has concentrated her practice on taxes, trusts and estates, and is a frequent speaker on estate-planning issues.

Something else to consider: You have a 10-year-old child (or grandchild), a relatively high income, and you want a tax deduction to help fund the child’s college education. Some donors – even before retirement – will make a gift annuity payable when the child is in college.

And yes, everything can be taken care of by the planned

giving officer. We begin with a conversation. I’ll then present a proposal based on your age and the amount with which you want to fund your annuity. We start from there.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me at 973-596-8548 or monique.pryor@njit.edu.

I look forward to hearing from you. n

A Planned Gift for Help Along the Way

with Johnson & Johnson. He is now a consultant who assists clients with scaling up formulation processes proven in the laboratory to commercial production.

Asked about the motivation for his gift, Jindia says: “No one achieves their full potential in life without considerable help — help from parents, friends, community, schools. I feel that I have a responsibility to acknowledge and give back to all who have helped me along the way.” n

Naming NJIT in one’s will as the beneficiary of a one-time gift is another type of planned giving that a significant number of the university’s supporters have chosen over the years. Among those who have recently selected this option for giving is alumnus Vinod K. Jindia MS ’75. Jindia, a chemical engineer, spent 30 years

Many of NJIT’s most generous supporters once again gathered in November for Celebration, the university’s annual black-tie scholarship benefit. The event, also a festive evening of dinner and dancing, was held at the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, with NJIT President Robert A. Altenkirch serving as master of ceremonies.

“Dinner proceeds endow student scholarships,” says Jacquelynn Rhodes, associate vice president for development.

emphasized how important the support provided by those present at Celebration, and by all contributors to NJIT, has been in her life and for numerous other students at the university.

Celebration also honors individuals for achievements beneficial to New Jersey and the nation. Organizations exceptional for their commitment to NJIT’s mission are applauded as well.

Architect J. Robert Hillier received the President’s Medal

Photos: Ginny Twersky

Celebration 2009

President’s Medal honoree J. Robert Hillier (left) with NJIT President Robert A. Altenkirch

“ Since 1995, Celebration has raised nearly $3.5 million in scholarship funds.”

Jacquelynn Rhodes, associate vice president for development

Celebration student speaker Jacqueline Bunner

“Since 1995, Celebration has raised nearly $3.5 million in scholarship funds.”

Exemplifying the exceptional young men and women who benefit from this assistance was student speaker Jacqueline Bunner. A civil engineering major in her senior year, Bunner is enrolled in Albert Dorman Honors College. She is also an outstanding student-athlete on the women’s track and field team. In her remarks, Bunner

for Lifetime Achievement.

Hillier, who teaches at Princeton University’s School of Architecture, began his solo practice in 1966. Since then, he has garnered more than 300 design awards and enlarged his original practice into a major national firm whose commissions have included NJIT’s College of Architecture and Design.

C. Stephen Cordes received the Edward F. Weston Medal for Professional Achievement.

Cordes graduated from NJIT in 1972 with a BS in industrial engineering. Today, Cordes, is a managing director and member of the executive board of ING Clarion Partners, a leading investment advisory firm specializing in real estate. He also chairs the Board of Visitors of NJIT’s Albert Dorman Honors College.

Hess Corporation was named the Outstanding Corporate Partner for 2009. Over the years, NJIT has received nearly $500,000 in funding from Hess.

This includes the Amerada Hess Corporate Merit Award scholarship provided through NJIT’s Otto H. York Department of Chemical, Biological and

Pharmaceutical Engineering, and support for the university’s pre-college programs. Hess’ assistance also extends to personal involvement. Vice President and Chief Information Officer Jeffrey Steinhorn, who accepted the award, serves on the Advisory Board of the College of Computing Sciences and Walter Vertreace, director of Equal Employment Opportunity, serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Pre-College Programs. n

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Illustration: Carl Wiens

Instant access to medical records, genetically personalized therapy, better detection of traumatic brain injury — all promise to improve our quality of life in the 21st century. On campus and across New Jersey, NJIT faculty and alumni are working to realize the full potential of these and other advances for maintaining health and alleviating illness.

for your

health Accessing critical information A partnership with Newark Beth Israel Medical Center/Saint Barnabas Health Care System aims to innovate the exchange of medical information among patients, practitioners and treatment facilities. To be based on the NJIT campus, the initiative has three components.

One involves bringing together stakeholders from the health-care field, academia and industry to work on complex health-care problems and to create a technology showcase that demonstrates how resulting scenarios could be implemented in an integrated manner across the software platforms used in hospitals and doctors’ offices. The New Jersey Healthcare Innovation Center will be the only one of its kind in the state.

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Key alumni connections Alumnus Tomas Gregorio MBA ’08 is one of the liaisons between the Saint Barnabas system and NJIT. He is chief information officer at Beth Israel Medical Center, part of the Saint Barnabas system, and co-architect of the relationship with NJIT, along with Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Research and Development Donald H. Sebastian.

Gregorio, who teaches a course in health information technology at NJIT, is a leader in the practical utilization of such technology.

His goal is to make the experience of patients much more positive through projects that include the installation of touch-screen “kiosks” in Beth Israel’s emergency room.

“We see 100,000 people annually in an emergency room built for 45,000,” Gregorio says. Patients used to come in, write their names on a form, sit down, and wait. Now they can use the kiosk to check themselves in, and to let us know what their problem is. The system prioritizes patients in the queue to ensure that the sickest are seen first.” And if a person must be admitted for more extensive care, the process is entirely electronic – eliminating delays and paperwork from the time

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Photo: Courtesy of Beth Israel Medical Center

This effort will also promote state-wide implementation of the Health-e-cITi-NJ Health Information Exchange (HIE) planned to link medical facilities in Essex, Passaic and Union Counties. The goal is to start with nine founding facilities while expanding across all the urban and underserved areas of the state. The HIE will make it possible for patient records containing emergency room, radiology and laboratory data to be readily available in digital form at any access point, thereby delivering effective care more quickly and at lower cost.

The third component is the creation of a grant Regional Extension Center to assist the state’s 18,000 physicians and other providers in selecting, purchasing and implementing Electronic Medical Record (EMR) technology. This is in support of meeting the federal government’s mandate that all physicians be up and running with EMR technology by 2015.

he Health Information Exchange will make it possible for patient records to be readily available in digital form at any access point, thereby delivering effective care more quickly and at lower cost.

people enter the door through their being assigned a bed.

Besides the more than 20 IT specialists who report to Gregorio, he has worked with dozens of NJIT interns and co-op students, as well as with seniors whose Capstone IT projects have been oriented toward health care. In fact, NJIT students had a significant role in implementing various innovative projects under the supervision of Gregorio and his staff.

Working on information technology for better health – alumni Andrew Hromada BS ’09 (left) and Tomas Gregorio MBA ’08

A Million Dimensions The new initiative in health information technology joins other efforts related to health that are well under way at NJIT. In the College of Computing Sciences (CCS), for example, Professor Yehoshua Perl and Professor James Geller are engaged in a project that could prevent the administration of drugs to individuals dangerously allergic to them.

Perl and Geller have funding from the National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, to refine the complex, sometimes inconsistent vocabularies used for patient records and for systems that support therapeutic decisions. Their goal is to eliminate errors and redundancies in the massive clinical databases involved. In addition to reducing the cost of [continued on page 14]

Photo: Bill Wittkop

Genetic research

Staffing emergencies Andrew Hromada, BS ’09 in computer science, is one student who met Gregorio through the Capstone program. He later became a full-time member of Gregorio’s IT group.

Hromada’s Capstone project for Newark Beth Israel Medical Center was the Employee Demographics Emergency System.

The objective was to help Beth Israel staff meet pressing personal responsibilities when they are unexpectedly required to remain on duty during an emergency – a flu pandemic, for instance. To this end, Hromada designed a system to store the information that employees provide about needs such as caring for children, elderly parents, and even pets. Newark Beth Israel Medical Center administrators can thus arrange appropriate assistance. They can also get an instant snapshot of personnel available to handle localized emergencies at all Saint Barnabas facilities.

Hromada is contributing his talents to other IT initiatives as well, including the electronic hospital admissions system and Health-e-cITiNJ. “These are among many IT innovations that can improve efficiency and cut health-care costs,” Gregorio says. “What’s much more important is that they can save lives.”

Professor Jason Wang, College of Computing Sciences, is among the NJIT researchers working with massive volumes of data in the search for new insights into genetics and other basic aspects of health.

Mining a Mountain of Data Since the human genome was decoded a decade ago, the volume of genetic data about organisms on our planet has increased at an amazing pace. Virtually all of this information is in the public domain due to the influence of the global scientific community. The data is thus readily accessible to researchers around the world. At NJIT, faculty in the Department of Computer Science are mining genetic information for greater understanding of how we become ill and how effective treatments can be developed. n Professor

Jason Wang is investigating a certain type of RNAs, difficult to detect molecules of ribonucleic acid that may have significant genetic importance with respect to triggering disease. Support from the National Science Foundation has also helped him develop a tool for searching large databases that could facilitate drug design, protein evaluation and the classification of DNA sequences.

n Assistant

Professor Usman Roshan and Assistant Professor Zhi Wei are studying the relatively small number of DNA base pairs in the human genome that seem to account for the largest percentage of variations from individual to individual — and individual proclivity for particular diseases. Working in the realm of disease-risk prediction, or “personalized medicine,” their focus is on the incidence of Type I diabetes.

n Professor

Frank Shih, an expert in pattern recognition, has developed methods to automatically read the significant data in a huge amount of information to determine which genes are active in a cell at a given time.

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Photo: Kai Chan

Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Treena Livingston Arinzeh is helping to advance the use of adult stem cells for the repair of bone and other tissues.

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reakthroughs in biology are providing researchers with ‘million-dimensional data’ that can be studied and mined with the power of computing.”

Associate CCS Dean Barry Cohen

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health care, this can minimize the possibility that confusion over a drug’s name or ingredients will lead to very serious consequences.

Speaking of other frontiers in health, CCS Dean Narain Gehani says that basic biological research and the development of new therapies are increasingly quantitative endeavors.

Barry Cohen, associate CCS dean, adds that breakthroughs in biology are providing researchers with “million-dimensional data” that can be studied and mined with the power of computing.

This is especially true of dramatic developments in genomic analysis. Since the pioneering publication of the human genome in 2001, there has been an incredible increase in genomic data available for analysis – a fastexpanding catalog of genetic profiles ranging from humans to bacteria. It is now possible to look much deeper into how many illnesses originate, and a number of CCS faculty are taking this deeper look with powerful computational tools.

n Jorge Golowasch, associate professor of mathematical and biological sciences, is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to study substances in the body affecting neurons and neuronal networks with the aim of understanding how normal neuronal function can be restored after injury or disease. n Farzan Nadim, professor of mathematical and biological sciences, has a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to investigate neural activity underlying disorders such as epilepsy. n Carol Venanzi, distinguished professor of chemistry and environmental science, has funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to seek an opioid analgesic with minimal side effects and low potential for addiction.

Across a wide spectrum of disciplines and departments, all of these NJIT researchers are bringing their knowledge and skills to bear on the same objective – better health. n Author: Dean L. Maskevich is editor of NJIT Magazine.

On the Web: http://ccs.njit.edu http://biomedical.njit.edu

Photo: Winnie Yeung

Founded in 2000, the Department of Biomedical Engineering is sharply focused on our well-being, with faculty members drawing on diverse technologies to improve health and alleviate the effects of injury and illness.

Treena Livingston Arinzeh, associate professor and interim department chair, says that there are two broad categories of work in the department: neural engineering and tissue engineering. Arinzeh is an internationally recognized leader in research involving adult stem cells and the repair of damaged bone and related musculoskeletal tissues.

Investigators in other departments at NJIT are also pursuing work significant for health:

Biomedical engineering

Work on Diverse Frontiers

Assistant Professor Mesut Sahin is researching how nerve signals might control mobility devices such as a wheelchair.

At the Biomedical Frontier Members of NJIT’s Biomedical Engineering Department are engaged in a broad spectrum of initiatives funded by grants from state, federal and private sources. The following are representative of these efforts: n Helping stroke patients regain the use

of their hands through innovative therapies is a primary focus for the work of Associate Professor Sergei Adamovich. n Associate

Professor Tara Alvarez is investigating better ways to detect and treat traumatic brain injury and vision problems such as convergence insufficiency, which makes it difficult to read or view a computer screen.

n The interests of Richard Foulds, associate professor and director of the graduate program, include neuromuscular/rehabilitation engineering, neural control of movement, and haptic and kinesthetic systems for physical therapy. n Professor

William Hunter is researching cardiac function and biomedical applications for microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices.

n Research

Professor Michael Jaffe is exploring renewable and synthetic materials as scaffolds for tissue repair, which includes working with nanofiber-based medical devices and processing collagen into fibers, films and sponges.

n Assistant

Professor Bryan Pfister’s investigation of growing axons, which interconnect nerve cells, could facilitate surgical repair of neural damage and lead to a nerve-tissue interface for thought-controlled prosthetic limbs.

n Assistant Professor Mesut Sahin is also focused on developing technologies to interface with the central nervous system so that those afflicted by injury or disease can regain mobility through, for example, the use of nerve signals to control a wheelchair.

n With

a special interest in regenerative medicine, Assistant Professor Cheul H. Cho is studying techniques for cardiac, liver and neural tissue engineering.

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In the 1970s, a drug derived from old-growth yew trees showed significant promise for treating cancer.

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Bridging

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Science and the Liberal Arts Converge at NJIT

ive centuries ago, Leonardo DaVinci assumed it natural to view the world as both a scientist and artist. Fifty years ago, the physicist and novelist C. P. Snow decried the “gulf of mutual incomprehension” between the “two cultures” of science and art that had broadened since the Renaissance. Today, as dean of the College of Science and Liberal Arts (csla), Fadi P. Deek is focused on the educational and social benefits of bridging that gulf.

How is csla spanning the divide between science and disciplines such as history and philosophy, music and other arts? NJIT Magazine recently asked csla Dean Deek and several faculty members for their views.

Following are highlights of the discussion.

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Significant questions raised at the time went beyond the science involved.

Yew trees or people?. . .

This could be an urgent, real-world debate with grave implications for science, economics, the environment, and the lives of individuals.

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Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Daniel Bunker

Yew trees or people?

Deek’s vision for promoting deeper understanding of the intersection between science and society is manifest in the contexts of bioethics, the environment, and social values.

Assistant Professor of Physics Camelia Prodan, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Daniel Bunker, and Assistant Professor of Philosophy Michael Brownstein center their research in these contexts.

A major aspect of Prodan’s research has been investigating how chemotherapy agents interact with cellular components, specifically microtubules. In the 1970s, a drug derived from old-growth yew trees showed significant promise for treating cancer. A number of trees were required to obtain enough of the drug to treat one person. “Eventually, this drug was produced synthetically, eliminating the need for large-scale harvesting of yew trees,” Prodan explained. But she added that significant questions raised at the time went beyond the science involved.

What if the drug could not be manufactured synthetically, or if the trees that are its source could not be farmed due to economic constraints or other limits? Would we be justified in removing an entire species from the ecosphere to treat people suffering from cancer, especially with a therapeutic agent that might 18

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be available only until the last tree was cut down? And who should have access to such a drug as the supply dwindles? Just those able to pay an escalating price?

At some point, this could very well be more than a hypothetical exercise. It could be an urgent, real-world debate with grave implications for science, economics, the environment, and the lives of individuals.

A global perspective Bunker – who researches the response of plant species and plant communities to global climate change – pointed to yet another complexity. It’s the potential for conflict between developed and less-developed countries over natural resources. Suppose only an advanced nation has the technology to develop some natural resource in a less-developed region for export and economic gain. What local obligations, if any, does the technically superior nation have? Is there an ethical imperative regarding the degree to which economic benefits should be shared?

Expanding on the points made by Bunker, Brownstein said, “The conflict may not arise from different levels of technical ability, but whether something is perceived locally as having any value at all.” What do people who realize the exportable worth of a resource owe

those who do not value that resource in the same way – perhaps an indigenous people whose forest environment has a plant that can yield a valuable drug?

New connections In discussing the “two cultures,” Snow advocated the interplay between the liberal arts and sciences with a greater awareness of aesthetics. This focus on the nature of beauty is the creative basis of research by Professor of Philosophy David Rothenberg. His widely publicized studies of bird song and whale song illustrate the complex, complementary relationship between music and the scientific investigation of nature. Rothenberg is currently working on a book that assesses the connection between evolution and aesthetics, including the power of the aesthetic aspects of Darwin’s concept of natural selection.

Brownstein too investigates new connections. One of his interests relates to questions long raised by philosophers and the work of social psychologists. This research includes examining the social significance of reflective thinking and the unreflective mode of thought often referred to as a “gut reaction” or instinctive “know-how.”

Philosophers have traditionally spoken of this dichotomy as the difference between acting

Photos (above): Jason Gomes

Assistant Professor of Physics Camelia Prodan

Brownstein’s research includes examining the social significance of reflective thinking and the unreflective mode of thought often referred to as a “gut reaction” or instinctive “know-how.”

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“Every class I’ve taught here, whether it’s music or philosophy, is connected to something scientific or technological. I think we do this to a unique degree compared to other universities.” — David Rothenberg

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Photos (above): Jason Gomes

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Michael Brownstein

intentionally and unintentionally. “Today, there’s considerable work being done in social psychology on what this means with respect to making many kinds of decisions,” Brownstein said. Reflecting on the gulf between social psychology and philosophy, he noted that his goal was “to help bring these two disciplines together in new and creative ways.”

In addition, he is interested in the relationship between unreflective behavior and the wildly popular social media supported by new communications technologies and the Internet. He believes that many aspects of our digital interaction appear to have emerged spontaneously, energized by unreflective behavior. The social scientist and the philosopher are thus challenged to address much the same questions regarding the manner in which we relate to each other as individuals and to society as a whole.

Brownstein also brings the perspective of philosophy to research he’s conducting with Associate Professor of Humanities Robert Friedman, director of the CSLA bachelor’s program in science, technology and society.

They are developing a new model for online academic publishing. While information technology is basic to their effort, their study also addresses ethical implications of making research globally accessible in digital form.

Professor of Philosophy David Rothenberg

Harmonizing differences A productive relationship between the liberal arts and the sciences requires mutual understanding of key differences as well as recognition of common objectives, Deek commented. The sciences demand empirical data and hypotheses that can be experimentally tested with reliable results. The liberal arts, conversely, examine the world in terms of the individual, human case – often purely on the strength of case-centered argument and humanistic impulse. Yet these two ways of thinking about the world can be complementary.

Citing the field of experimental philosophy as an example, Rothenberg said that there are several philosophers now working with neuroscientists and psychologists to help design experiments. “Philosophy has a long history of incisive critical thought,” he commented.

“The idea is to integrate this analytical tradition with that of empirical science to enhance the collection of valid, concrete data.”

Fostering awareness of the many links between science and the liberal arts is what makes being part of CSLA especially appealing to Rothenberg. “Every class I’ve taught here, whether it’s music or philosophy, is connected to something scientific or technological,” he said. “I think we do this to a unique degree compared to other universities.

Whatever people are studying, they see that the sciences and the arts and humanities are intrinsically intertwined.”

Building complementary programs strategically “CSLA today enrolls nearly ten percent of the students at NJIT, up from less than five percent a few years ago,” Deek said. “I think this is a good indicator of the interest there is in the breadth of the educational experience we offer at CSLA. Our goal over the next five years is to raise the visibility of all our programs, and in doing so continue to build essential complementary relationships between the sciences and the liberal arts.”

Specific initiatives to accomplish these goals include the multidisciplinary student research projects outlined in CSLA’s recently adopted strategic plan. Collaborative work will engage students in disciplines as diverse as biology, chemistry, environmental science, mathematics, and physics – as well as the study of history, philosophy, and science, technology and society.

In CSLA, the Renaissance has just begun. n Author: Christina Crovetto is assistant editor of NJIT Magazine.

College of Science and Liberal Arts: http://csla.njit.edu

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g n i t c e t e d ger n a d NJIT alumnus Al Limaye MS ’87 is in the business of detecting danger. He’s the president of AC Birox, a company that manufactures a unique portable detector for biological and chemical warfare agents, explosives and narcotics.

From AC Birox headquarters at NJIT’s Enterprise Development Center — the EDC — Limaye is coordinating work with NJIT faculty and students to enhance the detector’s capabilities for industrial and medical applications. This includes the capacity for fast and accurate verification of pathogens such as E. coli and staph bacteria, mold, and even the H1N1 flu virus.

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meeting in Maryland As Limaye explains, the fortuitous genesis of AC Birox was his getting to know researchers working for the U.S. Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. They had developed the first-generation technology at the heart of the detector that Limaye’s company produces.

Although all concerned realized the market potential of this technology, the Army does not participate directly in commercialization. Limaye, in the right place at the right time, licensed and built on the Army’s original patents. Manufacturing began in Maryland under the company name AC Birox. Asked about the name’s origin, Limaye says that he and his associates, after some brainstorming, decided on one they feel evokes their goal – to detect a broad range of chemical and biological agents.

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A capable tool The current version of the AC Birox detector – the ACB2000 – is a highly capable tool for military and civilian security applications. In addition to many types of explosives, chemical agents and narcotics, the unit can quickly warn of biological dangers such as anthrax spores, plague bacilli and the Ebola virus.

The ACB2000 works on the principle of “sniff and tell.” A sample is heated in a precisely controlled manner to generate a vapor containing the constituent compounds of the sample. The vapor is then deposited in a specially designed, lightweight gas-chromatography (GC) system. The GC column is thermally programmed to release the individual compounds in the vapor sequentially – the “sniff ” phase. These compounds are then characterized by a differential mobility spectrometer that “tells” their identity. If a chemical agent is present in vapor form, the heating step is not needed.

Waleed Maswadeh, PhD (left), AC Birox chief scientist, and Al Limaye, company president

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Better, faster, less expensive Limaye aims to build even greater utility into the detector for use in industrial and medical settings. “We want to continue making our product better, to produce analytical results faster, and at lower cost.” For example, Limaye sees the potential for assuring that complex pharmaceutical manufacturing processes are proceeding smoothly, for replacing costly analytical tests in biomedical research, and for detecting and differentiating among pathogens in the hospital emergency room.

It’s working toward this goal that has led to relocation at the EDC in New Jersey. “I knew

about the EDC from my connections to NJIT as a graduate,” Limaye says. “I also knew that there would be many advantages in moving there. Some are those needed by any new business, including affordable office and lab space, and being able to network with interested investors. But there are also the resources that you’ll find only at a research university such as NJIT.” Assistance in achieving the firm’s objectives has come from Judith Sheft, NJIT associate vice president for technology development, and William Marshall, assistant vice president for government affairs and director of the New Jersey Homeland Security Systems Center at NJIT. Limaye credits Sheft and Marshall for introducing the ACB2000’s technology to first responders in the New York/New Jersey region, including those with responsibilities for homeland security. They also helped to arrange a demonstration at the Public Health Research Institute Center headed by David Perlin, PhD, part of the International Center for Public Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The demonstration focused on rapid identification of Gramnegative/Gram-positive bacteria and E. coli – an application of substantial significance in clinical medicine.

Parag Borgaonkar, AC Birox technical director, demonstrates how a sample is introduced into the ACB2000 for heating and vaporization prior to the gas chromatography stage.

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New Jersey’s Largest High-Technology Business Incubator The NJIT Enterprise Development Center — the EDC — is the state’s oldest and largest incubator for technology-based and life-science companies. Part of the NJIT campus in Newark’s Innovation Zone and University Heights Science Park, the EDC is convenient to New Jersey’s largest transportation hub.

Since 1988, the EDC has helped entrepreneurs rapidly commercialize promising concepts and reduce start-up risks, while greatly increasing their chances of success. Participation is open to early-stage companies that have a proprietary technology as a significant source of revenue.

The EDC provides office and lab space, financial assistance, business and technical services, and the shared business acumen of the Center’s management staff.

The EDC has graduated more than 85 successful businesses. Nearly 95 companies now at the EDC employ over 300 people full-time, along with some 100 student interns. Among these are firms building marketplace success with breakthrough work in areas such as video e-learning, renewable energy, products in the life sciences for medical diagnosis and therapy, information technology, telecommunications, and advanced materials, including nanotechnology.

On the Web: www.njit-edc.org

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“The mission of the EDC is to provide the best possible environment that allows earlystage startup companies to grow and accelerate commercialization of their technologies,” Sheft says. “Part of the interface role that NJIT’s Office of Research and Development plays is to facilitate connections with the rich set of resources available. We help companies navigate what can at times can be a daunting path, often by opening doors and making introductions to begin what, hopefully, will be very fruitful conversations.”

Limaye adds that Jerry Creighton, director of the EDC, has also helped to open important doors. “Jerry has been instrumental in aligning us with a number of manufacturers to consider as well as in setting up seminars with potential investors and others who can provide significant assistance for our company.”

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Market research, math and more Contributions by NJIT faculty and students to further development of AC Birox’s detector encompass market research, mathematical science, chemistry, software architecture and biomedical engineering. The School of Management’s Distinguished Professor Bruce A. Kirchhoff has provided the benefits of skillful student research into expanding the company’s presence in their current markets and for entering new ones, such as medical diagnostics. Associate Professor Annaleena Parhankangas’ MBA students provided valuable input with respect to strategies for competing in international markets.

Narain Gehani, dean of the College of Computing Sciences, and Fadi P. Deek, dean of the College of Science and Liberal Arts, suggested resources available in their respective schools.

Students in the Capstone information-technology program directed by Senior University Lecturer Osama Eljabiri assisted with enhancing the detector’s software, and Assistant Professor Chung Chang of the Department of Mathematical Sciences provided independent validation of the system’s analytical accuracy.

Professor Somenath Mitra, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, has offered his thoughts on how

to prepare the broader range of samples that would be tested as the spectrum of applications for the detector increases. Graduate students recommended by Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Treena Livingston Arinzeh have worked with the company on developing the detector’s capability to determine if stem-cell samples are viable. At present, the procedures for confirming viability are expensive and time-consuming. With the AC Birox detector, the time required could be cut from weeks to minutes, and be much less costly.

“All of these resources show what great synergy there is at the EDC and NJIT,” Limaye says. “Such resources are not widely available to smaller companies like AC Birox. When it comes to building the success of a technological product such as ours, they are invaluable.” n For more information: www.acbirox.com

Before AC Birox AC Birox is not the only successful company launched by Al Limaye. He is also the founder and current head of Logistic Solutions.

After coming to the U.S. from India to pursue a graduate degree at NJIT in computer and information science, Limaye went to work for AT&T Bell Laboratories as a contractor with a large consulting firm. “I realized that I could do this independently and decided to start my own consulting and software-development business,” he says.

Based in Piscataway, New Jersey, Logistic Solutions today offers services and products that range from credit-card fraud detection to leading-edge 3D animation. In the field of supply-chain security, they are among the few firms specializing in the use of radio frequency identification (RFI) tags with which retailers can track products as they travel from the manufacturer through warehousing and final sale. On the artistic side of the operation are the 3D animators on staff. They’ve worked with clients that include a TV production company in the United Kingdom, transforming political celebrities into subjects of animated satire.

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Doc’s passion for literature bolstered his desire to crush the stereotype of “The Engineer Who Can’t Write.”

Remembering Doc Estrin Exceptional Teacher and Mentor

By Rosemary Culver When you think of what makes NJIT great, what comes to mind? Innovation. Technical excellence. The willingness to embrace new technology. But poetry, a love of literature, and the ability to put a name with a face? A generous spirit and a gift for communication? Good old Jersey pride?

For alumni who were students of Herman “Doc” Estrin, these things were as much a part of NJIT as applied math, chemical engineering and advanced computer programming. Even now, years after his death in 1999 at the age of 83, Doc remains one of the most fondly recalled professors at NJIT – not surprising for a man who taught thousands of students and could remember all of their names.

From 1946, when he joined what was then Newark College of Engineering as an English instructor, Doc has been a vital part of NJIT. He firmly believed that the school’s goal should not simply be the education of welltrained engineers, but of wellrounded, social human beings prepared to be contributing members of society.

His devotion to his students extended outside the classroom – Doc was known to organize activities to help his charges practice their social skills – and has continued beyond his death with the Estrin Scholars Award,

Herman “Doc” Estrin

annually recognizing two students who exemplify leadership and extracurricular involvement.

Doc’s passion for literature bolstered his desire to crush the stereotype of “The Engineer Who Can’t Write.” A good writer lurked inside every engineer and students would write well, Doc felt, if they were encouraged to write about topics that grabbed their interest. He acted as guide and mentor while allowing students a healthy dose of creative freedom, whether within the confines of the classroom or in

his role as advisor to nearly every student publication produced during his time at NJIT, including The Vector, The Nucleus and, in 1983, Poetic Engineers, a book of poetry composed by students.

Never let it be said, however, that Doc disdained the “Technology” component of NJIT. He was an enthusiastic proponent of technical writing, dedicated to bringing more teachers into the field. Doc catalyzed the formation of the Committee on Technical and Scientific Communication within the National Council

of Teachers of English, serving as its first chair, and was a founding member of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing.

Nor did Doc hesitate to use cutting-edge tools to make better communicators of his engineers.

Civil engineer Theodore Cassera ’72 recalls Doc using a brandnew gadget, videotape, “to let us see ourselves giving presentations similar to those we’d have to give professionally.” The results, Cassera said, “were quite a revelation for most of us.”

A true Jersey Boy, Doc was appalled by the lack of knowledge he often found regarding Jersey’s homegrown literary talent. To combat this he founded the New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame in 1976; it has since honored authors from Albert Einstein and James Fenimore Cooper to Joyce Carol Oates and Mary Higgins Clark.

Doc’s own literary output was extensive. He authored over 400 articles and 14 books on topics ranging from technical writing, grammar and composition to a children’s book about the voyage to the moon. His work was honored repeatedly throughout his life, at home and abroad, and the Hall of Fame exists now, in part, as a tribute to his own life and work.

Doc Estrin’s legacy lies in his formidable body of work, and in the thousands of engineers who can build the most important kind of bridges – those that stretch between one person and another. n

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alumni circuit Alumni Profiles Abhinav Dhar Engineering the Online Marketplace

A provider of convenience and value – that’s how Abhinav Dhar MS ’95 sees his role as chief technology officer and vice president of the E-Commerce Division at Walgreens. Dhar is at the forefront of a retail revolution that continues to gather momentum daily as millions of consumers shop online for a growing array of products and services.

Dhar came to the United States and, ultimately, to the online marketplace after completing his undergraduate degree at the National Institute of Engineering in Mysore, India.

Looking toward this country for graduate programs that would best further his educational and career goals, Dhar chose to work on his master’s in industrial engineering at NJIT. He says that deciding factors included the offer of a research assistantship and the university’s ranking in U.S. News & World Report.

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Proximity to New York City was a plus as well.

Indicative of how career options for industrial engineers have evolved, Dhar was hired by a New Jersey bank after graduation. Industrial engineers are finely attuned to “systems thinking,” he says. “The discipline’s pragmatic approach to analyzing and improving operations is invaluable in the banking industry and other sectors of the service economy.”

Shortly thereafter, Dhar made the move to a new employer, where his career went in another positive direction. As a business analyst at Bell Laboratories, he was called upon to apply the information-technology (IT) skills he had also acquired in the course of his education. This was an agreeable turn of events, Dhar says, which subsequently took him to the technical consulting division of the company that is now Price Waterhouse Coopers, and then to Cendant Corporation.

At Cendant, he served as director for corporate IT/vice president in the firm’s travel division, and then as chief technology officer for Cendant entities in the United Kingdom and the United States. Dhar’s close involvement with Cendant’s travel subsidiaries led to IT positions with even broader responsibilities at other companies in the industry. “Transportation and the travel business require working with many complex systems,” he says. “That’s why the travel industry is chock full of industrial engineers.”

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“ NJIT was the only school close to New York City that offered the relevant range of courses in power engineering.”

— Louis L. Rana

The call to join Walgreens came while Dhar was working at a travel-technology company in Chicago, responsible for all product development and IT infrastructure. Having been recruited to build a new ecommerce technology structure for Walgreens, he aims to make it a world-class example of retail presence in the online world.

“People are increasingly comfortable with buying a greater variety of products online,” Dhar observes. “Walgreens customers are ordering prints of digital photos, refilling prescriptions, and taking advantage of special coupon discounts on many items. We intend to continue energizing this trend electronically, with a solid e-commerce complement for the company’s ‘bricks and mortar’ success.”

Louis L. Rana Three Fulfilling Careers

“Sometimes it seems as if I started on the job just yesterday,” says Louis Rana MS ’76, reflecting on his four decades at Consolidated Edison Company of New York. Beginning as an

assistant engineer in 1969, Rana progressed through posts of increasing responsibility to become the company’s president and chief operating officer. He retired from that position in November, 2009.

“I feel that I’ve actually had three fulfilling careers at Con Edison,” Rana also muses. “I’ve had great experiences in engineering, operations and management. It’s been very rewarding to work in each of these areas, helping to provide the people of New York City and Westchester County with essential utility services.”

Rana connected with Con Edison the same year he completed his undergraduate engineering degree at Stevens Institute of Technology, whose campus was near his home in Hoboken. He learned a great deal about the business of supplying customers with electricity, gas and steam in his first few years at Con Edison.

But he eventually felt the need for more in-depth knowledge of power-industry technology and enrolled at NJIT to study for a master’s in electrical engineering.

NJIT was the only school close to New York City that offered the relevant range of courses in power engineering, he says.

Rana takes satisfaction in being part of a utility that has long met the needs of its customers with state-of-the-art technology, reliability and efficiency.

Moreover, as a manager, he has enjoyed his role in training and motivating people to do their best, both for themselves and the customers they serve.

Encouraging talented men and women to achieve their full

We want to hear from you!

Do you have news about your career, your family, an avocation? Share it in a class note for NJIT Magazine.

And be sure to let us know if you have a new address.

On the Web, use the form at www.njit.edu/alumni/classnotes.

By e-mail, send news and photos with your graduation year(s) to alumni-classnotes@njit.edu.

Via U.S. mail to: Robert A. Boynton, Executive Director,

Alumni Relations, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Eberhardt Hall NJIT Alumni Center, Room 218, 323 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Newark, NJ 07102-1982

Roasting in Vermont Dick Sweeney ’82, co-inventor of the Keurig single-cup coffee machine, flanked by Joel Bloom, vice president for academic and student services and dean, Albert Dorman Honors College (left) and Charles R. Dees, Jr., vice president for university advancement, recently shared a coffee “cupping” session at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in Waterbury, Vermont.

Green Mountain and its partner Simatelex, the manufacturer of the Keurig coffee maker, have endowed a $100,000 scholarship at NJIT.

potential has also been a rewarding aspect of his membership on the board of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME).

Invited to join the NACME board when he became president of Con Edison in 2005, Rana sees his participation as complementing the company’s commitment to developing a workforce that

mirrors the dynamic diversity of our region. He also congratulates NJIT on the its recent NACME Rising University Star Award, which recognizes NJIT’s partnership in the mission of inspiring the best and the brightest of all backgrounds to pursue technological careers.

“It’s great to see the talent that we do have in our area, and it’s essential to encourage young people to develop the skills that we’ll need to rebuild our infrastructure and implement new technologies, in power as well as many other fields,” Rana says.

“The Obama Administration recently established a multi-billion-dollar program to upgrade the nation’s power grid, the most ambitious such effort in our country’s history. This is the level of commitment that it will take to move us away from dependence on foreign oil through alternate power-generation and plug-in electric vehicles. I’m very optimistic – I’m sure we’ll have the scientists and engineers to make it happen.”

It was a decision that started him on the path to his BS in mechanical engineering from NJIT. Today, Samuel is helping to build a healthier world rather than bridges. He’s vice president for international access operations at Gilead Sciences –

Clifford M. Samuel Building a Healthier World

a California-based biopharmaceutical company whose products include medications for HIV/AIDS, liver disease, and serious cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. Samuel is working to bring Gilead’s leading-edge therapeutics to people in some 130 countries. Many of these people live in developing nations, where Gilead seeks to make its products available to those in need at reduced prices.

As a young teenager in the Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Clifford Samuel ’88 wanted to become a lawyer.

But then he emigrated with his parents to the United States, and upon arriving at Kennedy Airport saw the New York area’s bridges.

“I asked who built these amazing structures and was told that they were the work of engineers,” Samuel says. “That’s when I decided to become an engineer.”

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alumni circuit

Although he lives and works far from New Jersey, Samuel maintains a strong bond with his alma mater.

Photo: Meghan Sullivan

alumni profil es,

Learning What it Takes Vincent Naimoli MS ’62 (ME) and two of the many students to whom he spoke in November about his career path as chairman and CEO of Anchor Industries International and chairman emeritus/founder of the Tampa Bay Rays. Naimoli returned to campus as a speaker in the Sullivan Memorial Lecture Series, which invites alumni to reflect on their careers and share what they have learned about the challenges of achieving success.

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continued

Closer to home, Samuel is a member of the Community Advisory Board for the AIDS Health Project organized by the University of California, San Francisco.

This effort provides comprehensive medical and social support for individuals in the Bay Area afflicted with HIV/AIDS. NJIT’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) was the portal to Samuel’s career in the pharmaceutical industry. Samuel entered NJIT after attending Newark’s Vailsburg High School, his studies there enriched by intensive weekend and summer instruction in math and science at the Stevens Technical Enrichment Program (STEP). Collectively, these experiences gave him the background necessary for successful completion of his degree.

Upon graduating from NJIT, Samuel became an engineering intern at Maxwell House in Hoboken, where he evaluated the efficiency of coffee-roasting equipment. However, when the operation was relocated to Texas, interns were not invited. Samuel moved on to work as an applications engineer for Tecnimat/ TDS, a telecommunications reseller, and discovered a strong affinity for sales.

Attracted by a newspaper ad for a sales position with the pharmaceuticals division of ICI, Samuel submitted his resume – and received a positive response.

“ICI was looking for people with a technical background and sales experience, though not necessarily in pharmaceuticals,” Samuel

explains. “They were interested in applicants willing to learn about the industry, and how ICI did business.”

Embarking on a career in pharmaceuticals, Samuel’s next position was with Glaxo Pharmaceuticals, where he helped to introduce various products, including AZT and 3TC. These were the first widely available antivirals for combating HIV/ AIDS. Samuel joined Gilead in 1996, rising to his current position through posts with substantially increasing responsibility in sales, managed care and operations.

Although he lives and works far from New Jersey, Samuel maintains a strong bond with his alma mater. In addition to serving on the Board of Visitors of Albert Dorman Honors College, he supports a scholarship for EOP students who have followed him at NJIT. n

class notes Mal & Friends NJIT Magazine invites new correspondents to join Mal Simon in sharing news about class members and alumni organizations.

Professor emeritus of physical education and athletics, Mal was director of physical education and athletics, and men’s soccer coach, for 30 years. In 1993, he received the Cullimore Medal for his service to the university.

If you would like to be a regular correspondent, don’t hesitate to send an e-mail to the editor of NJIT Magazine: dean.maskevich@njit.edu.

First, the latest news from Mal — Kjell Bjorkman ’58, Frank D’Alessio ’63, Austin Alvarez ’68, and Steve DeSteno ’69 at-

tended NCE during my early years at the school. It was a pleasant surprise to see them among the alumni and friends at the dedication dinner for the naming of the J. Malcolm Simon Stadium.

Kjell, who learned to play soccer in Sweden where he was born, came out for the NCE team in his sophomore year and became team captain in his senior year. His first job was at Newport News, Virginia, where he helped design the Enterprise, the world’s first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. He moved to York, Pennsylvania, where he worked on missile test equipment for Bendix, and as a product engineer for York Air Conditioners. In 1976, Kjell opened his own business, The Coolkeepers, which specialized in sales, distribution, installation and service of automobile air conditioners. He retired and closed the company in 2005.

Kjell lives in Dover, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Karen.

Frank, who also received an MS from NCE in 1968, earned both degrees the hard way, attending night school while employed at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu, the international honor society for

electrical and computer engineers, and a life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Now retired, Frank and his wife, Marion, who also worked at Bell Labs, live in West Orange, New Jersey. They recently celebrated their 50th anniversary.

Austin has worked for General Dynamics Electric Boat (EB) in Groton, Connecticut, for more than 41 years. EB is a 100% defense contractor and primary designer and builder of nuclear submarines for the U.S. Navy. While at EB, Austin earned an MSCE from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from RPI. He currently holds the top technical position as staff engineer and technical leader for shock and structures development.

Austin has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from SAVIAC (Shock and Vibration Information Analysis Center) and was inducted into UConn’s Academy of Distinguished Engineers in 2009. He resides in Gales Ferry, Connecticut, with his wife, Carol.

Steve played on the junior varsity basketball team that I coached before he moved on to the varsity for his last three years. A few years after graduation, he decided to change careers and went to dental school, earning a DMD and establishing

his practice in Rutherford, New Jersey. Along with former teammate John Bober ’69, who was also at the dedication dinner, Steve keeps in shape playing basketball each Tuesday on Alumni Night at NJIT. Steve lives with his wife, RoseAnn, in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

Another pleasant surprise was a congratulatory e-mail from Ray Bilott ’56, who was captain of the first soccer team I coached in 1955.

Ray joined the Air Force after graduation and served for 24 years all over the world. His service included flying with six H-bombs on a B-52 during the Cuban Missile Crisis and flying 100 combat missions over North Vietnam. Promoted to Lt. Colonel, he served as a program manager in electronic warfare.

After retiring from the Air Force in 1980, Ray earned a law degree at the University of Dayton. He was a prosecutor for the city of Dayton, Ohio, where he lives with his wife, Emily, and retired in 2008.

Other alumni at the dinner were Rudy Sapp ’81, Bill Morris ’82, Paul Bette ’85, and Nelson Gralha ’85. Rudy and his wife,

Gissella, live in Baldwinsville, New York, with their sons Gabriel and Rudy, Jr. They decided to make the move from New Jersey after the destruction of the World Trade Center. Shortly after moving, Rudy established his own home inspection company. Rudy had an extensive playing career as an outstanding goalkeeper at NJIT and with professional soccer teams in New York, New Jersey and Italy. He is also a successful soccer coach, having coached the boys’ teams at Memorial High School in West New York, New Jersey, and Cato-Meridian High School, New York. He has won Coach of the Year awards at both schools.

Bill, who also earned an MS from NJIT in 1993, worked for a general contractor in New York City before moving to Epic Management in Piscataway, New Jersey, where he has been for 24 years. He has managed construction projects for over 50 school districts and three minor league baseball stadiums in New Jersey. Bill lives in Manalapan, New Jersey, with his wife, Patrizia, and their children Alexandra and Nicholas.

Paul also has a master’s from NJIT. He has worked in the telecommunications industry since graduation, with 20 years of service at AT&T. Paul, who is director of finance for worldwide customer service, holds two patents for network service assurance automaton techniques. In 1998 he worked in Frankfurt, Germany, with AT&T’s German partner, Mannesmann ARCOR. Paul has kept active in soccer as a player and coach with the German American Kickers in Trenton, New Jersey, and as a referee. He lives in New Egypt, New Jersey, with wife, Ann Marie, and twin sons Michael and Christopher.

Nelson, a licensed architect, is a project manager at Hunterdon Medical Center. He lives in Pittstown, New Jersey, with his wife, Joyce, and sons Trevor and Collin. Nelson holds a United States Soccer Federation coaching license and coaches his sons’ soccer teams.

The 2009 soccer/basketball alumni golf outing was held at the Lake Mohawk Golf Club, hosted by Roy Knutsen ’62. Team competition ended in a tie between the soccer foursome consisting of Bob McEntee ’62 and his sons, Jeff ’90, Scott and Gregg, and the basketball foursome of Roy,

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class notes Rich Schroeder ’66, Roger Edwards ’63 and NJIT coach Jim

1956

Texas. His firm currently has contracts with the City of Austin Housing Authority and the San Antonio Independent School District.

Engles, who made a noteworthy debut at the outing. Individual awards went to Nelson Gralha for the longest drive, and to Jeff McEntee, Rich Schroeder and NJIT Athletics Director Lenny Kaplan for closest-to-the-pin on three three-par holes. Names were drawn for special prizes.

Paul Dreyer ’64 won a putter donated by Rick Baptista ’85, and Efrain Borja ’77 won an NJIT Highlander golf bag. Skip Wilkins ’64, Henry Shinol ’62 and Gary Mould ’88 won NJIT Athletics jackets donated by Lenny.

The 2010 outing, to be held at the Newton Golf Club, will be hosted

by Bob Welgos ’62.

Edmund H. Hecht (ME), president and principal consultant of EHco Services, Inc. of Corpus Christi, Texas, recently returned from Kremenchuk, Ukraine, where he served as a Fulbright Scholar professor of management at Kremenchuk Mykhaylo Ostrogradskiy State Polytechnic University for a semester.

He lectured on globalization, entrepreneurship and management. He was also invited to lecture at three other schools in Ukraine – Kherson National Technical University, Poltava University of Consumer Cooperatives and Dnepropetrovsk University of Economics and Law.

Alumni are urged to help complete the NJIT Athletics Department archives.

Edmond S. Moore (ME), MS ’92 (EnMgmt), an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, is developing specifications for a new generation of the San Francisco area’s BART rapid transit cars. The specifications will apply to some 1,000 new cars that will replace units now up to 35 years old. New features will include on-board energy storage, electronic passenger signage, improved reliability and higher capacity.

Nelson Colon (EE) and alumni Laura Battista ’95, ’97 and James L. Zunino ’02, ’03, all employed at the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, were honored with a 2009 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award, presented by the New Jersey Research and Development Council. They were recognized for their patented work on “smart coatings,” materials able to sense, analyze and react to their surroundings in real time. Potential uses include warning of deterioration and even self-repair of minor damage.

1984

1990

The all-time team rosters for men’s and women’s basketball and soccer, baseball, and women’s volleyball are up-to-date, and work has started on the rosters for all other teams. Please check your respective sport’s Web page (www.njithighlanders.com) and notify Lenny Kaplan to confirm your name and years of participation, and to let him know about teammates who might be missing.

Also contact Lenny if you have any information and material (news clippings, box scores, dinner/ banquet/awards programs, photos, etc.) related to the history of intercollegiate athletics at NJIT (NCE).

Materials will be copied and returned immediately. Lenny can be contacted at Kaplan@njit.edu.

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Bob Zeiss (ChE) is working for

BASF Catalysts LLC as a business development manager with responsibility for environmental catalyst and adsorbent solutions for the powergeneration and industrial markets.

1986 James R. Lesko (CE), MS ’89 (CE)

has opened AGH2O Holdings, LLC, a full-service general contracting, construction management and civil engineering firm in Round Rock,

Keep the news coming to mal.simon@njit.edu or coach7157@yahoo.com

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Al Tarasiuk (EE), the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s Chief Information Officer, was named by the Global CIO Executive Summit as one of the Top Ten Leaders and Change Agents in the technology sector for 2009. The award recognizes CIOs whose outstanding leadership has led to innovative responses to organizational needs.

1989

Michael S. Sarno (IE), MS ’92

(Mgmt) has been appointed global chief executive officer by The Qualicaps® Group. The company is an international manufacturer and supplier of two-piece capsules and pharmaceutical equipment.

1991 Gabriel Shenhar (ME) is senior

engineer with the auto test division of Consumer Reports. Gabriel does much of the planning for the organization’s testing program and

participates fully in other aspects.

This includes overseeing the purchase of test vehicles, driving, and writing most of the technical reports that are the basis for the auto-test features published in Consumer Reports magazine.

1995 Laura Battista (STS), MS ’97

(EPS) and colleagues Nelson Colon ’89 and James L. Zunino ’02, ’03 have received a 2009 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award from the New Jersey Research and Development Council for work at the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center. They were recognized for contributing to the development of “smart coatings” that can sense, analyze and react to their surroundings in real time. In addition to the potential for self-repair of minor damage, such coatings can warn of various types of deterioration.

Stan Mierzwa MS (Mgmt) is

director of information technology for the Population Council, a non-profit organization with offices in 20 developing countries.

Stan writes: “The graduate degree I obtained at NJIT gave me the know-how to succeed in a global organization. I have traveled and worked in over ten developing countries, working to integrate technology solutions in the publichealth arena. Finding a place for technology in meeting real-world issues is extremely rewarding.”

Thomas S. McDonough (IE)

has been recognized by NJBIZ magazine as one of New Jersey’s outstanding “Forty Under 40.”

He is director, global logistics sourcing and supply management for Bristol-Myers Squibb. The

In Memoriam

1997 Erik Rodriguez (IE), MS ’98

(EnMgmt) has been named director of global distribution for Choice Logistics, a mission-critical service parts specialist. He will oversee strategic development for the company’s regional distribution centers throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific region.

2001 Syed Anwar Aftab MS (CS) has

been with AT&T labs since 1998, developing a wide range of software applications and platforms.

2002 James L. Zunino (ChE), MBA ’03, along with co-workers Laura Battista ’95, ’97 and Nelson Colon ’89 at the U.S. Army’s Picatinny Arsenal Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, has been honored with a 2009 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award. Presented by the New Jersey Research and Development Council, the award recognizes the significance of their participating in the development of “smart coatings.” Able to sense, analyze and react to surroundings in real time, these coatings have uses that include warning of deterioration and even self-repair of minor damage.

2004 Amad Rasool (Mgmt), former student-athlete on the men’s basketball team, is a member of the New Jersey Bar and assistant prosecutor for the City of Newark.

Desiree (Zega) Savarese (Arch),

Photo: Courtesy of NASA

award honors men and women exceptional in their field who also share a commitment to business growth, professional excellence and to the community.

now living in Georgia, shares the news that she is a registered architect.

2007 Rubik Sheth (ME) works for NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. He writes: “My current task is to develop advanced thermal protection systems such as heat exchangers, space radiators, sublimators, and other technologies needed to keep a space vehicle such as the shuttle cool. In particular, our designs are geared toward vehicles being developed to take us back to the moon and eventually to Mars.”

2008 Mark Panczyk (CE), a doctoral

student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, was recognized by the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry for an outstanding poster contribution at the Fall 2009 ACS national meeting in Washington, D.C. His work has application in areas ranging from paints and coatings to photovoltaic cells and circuit components.

Jason Peist (Arch) was named the AIA New Jersey Intern Architect of the Year for 2009. He writes that he has enrolled in the NJIT master’s program in professional and technical communication.

A Space Pioneer Passes Thomas J. O’Malley, NCE alumnus and space-industry legend, died at the age of 94 on November 6, 2009 in Cocoa Beach, Florida, shortly after a phone call from former Mercury astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn. In 1962, O’Malley pushed the button that launched Glenn on the first U.S. orbital space mission. He later proudly displayed the button in the den of his Cocoa Beach home.

Thomas J. O’Malley ’36 with Mercury Astronaut John Glenn

Upon leaving the Mercury program, O’Malley became chief project engineer for the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics in Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1967, after a launch pad fire killed three Apollo astronauts, he returned to Cape Canaveral to head Apollo spacecraft checkout and launch operations for North American Aviation.

A mechanical engineer, O’Malley graduated from NCE in 1936. His first position in the aviation field was with Wright Aeronautical Corporation. O’Malley joined NASA’s human spaceflight program in 1961, while working for the Convair division of General Dynamics as a test engineer on development of the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile.

He played major roles in converting the Atlas missile into a vehicle safe enough for the first astronauts.

O’Malley was subsequently named vice president and general manager of launch operations for North American Aviation, which later became Rockwell International. In that position, he led the company’s work on Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz missions, as well as for the shuttle program. His efforts led to the first launch of the shuttle Columbia in 1981.

NJIT also notes with sadness the deaths of the following alumni:

Edward Farrell ’48, ’53 George J. Prohazka ’50, ’58 Raymond E. Werner ’55

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alumni Calendar s av e t h e da t e !

Newark College of Engineering Salute to Engineering Excellence Thursday, March 25

NJIT Campus Center For more information: http://engineering.njit.edu/excellence2010 or contact Kathy Dickerson at kathy.dickerson@njit.edu, 973-596-3456

Commencement 2010 Monday, May 17

Corporate Clubs NJIT’s Corporate Clubs provide valuable networking opportunities for alumni in the workplace while also assisting NJIT students and faculty. Current Corporate Clubs include: Eng-Wong, Taub & Associates, Hatch Mott MacDonald, PSE&G, ScheringPlough, Turner Construction and United Parcel Service.

Corporate Club information and events:

Website for more information: www.njit.edu/alumni/clubs

Young Alumni Club The Young Alumni Club organizes social gatherings and networking events for alumni who have graduated within the last 20 years.

For information about Young Alumni Club activities, including career-advancement events: www.njit.edu/alumni/clubs

Prudential Center, Newark

www.njit.edu/alumni/clubs

Alumni Reunions

Golden Highlanders Commencement March and Spring Luncheon

Regional Clubs

Planning for 2010 and 2011 fifthyear anniversary reunions is under way for all classes whose graduation years end in “0” and “5.”

Monday, May 17

For all alumni who have celebrated the 50th anniversary of their graduation.

Alumni Reunion Weekend 2010 All Five-Year Anniversary Classes Friday, May 21 – Sunday, May 23

Reconnect with NJIT over a weekend that features a Saturday evening dinner dance for all reunion classes.

Enjoy tours, luncheons, lectures and more.

On Saturday, May 22, the Alumni Association will present the Alumni Achievement Awards for 2010 and the Van Houten Award for Teaching Excellence.

Visit www.njit.edu/alumni/class for complete information and to make reservations online for all or part of Alumni Reunion Weekend, including reservations for overnight campus accommodations in Laurel Hall, NJIT’s newest student residence.

You can also call the Alumni Relations Office at 973-596-3441.

For the most current information about all alumni events — including specific dates — visit www.njit.edu/alumni/events and the Websites of the individual clubs and groups listed.

Information is also available from the Alumni Relations Office: 973-596-3441 or alumni@njit.edu.

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NJIT Regional Clubs are planning events across the country for 2010.

Sunday, April 11: The Florida Regional Club will host alumni for a barbecue and game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees.

Check the Alumni Events Calendar and Regional Club pages on the Alumni Relations

For information about reunions and Alumni Reunion Committee meetings, visit your class Website at www.njit.edu/alumni/class.

Reunion information is also available from the Alumni Relations Office: 973-596-3441 or by email to alumni@njit.edu.

Adding Flavor to NJIT Day The Young Alumni Chili Cook-Off was once again a highlight of NJIT Day in October. It was a flavorful addition to an annual campus event that each year is drawing larger crowds of students, alumni and staff, along with family members and friends, for a wide range of activities as well as great food.

at the edge

Clean Power and New Parks

A network of floating docks proposed by Assistant Professor of Architecture Richard Garber and colleagues would tap the currents of the Hudson and East Rivers to generate clean energy for New York City and provide new recreational park space. The concept was developed for the 2009 Next Generation Design Competition sponsored by Metropolis magazine. Featured by the magazine in July, the design is work by a team

that included Nicole Robertson, Garber’s partner at their firm GRO Architects, NJIT architecture student Brian Novello and GRO associate Justin Foster ’08.

The rivers’ 4-mph currents would be harnessed by means of three vertical turbines on the underside of each dock, generating up to 24 kilowatts of constant energy. Fed into the city’s power grid, this would be sufficient to light 350

LED streetlamps. In addition to supplying power and adding to shared public space, the docks could help to create tidal pools for wildlife as they were extended along the shores of the rivers.

Non-profit Org. Non-profit Org. U.S. Postage U.S. Postage PAID PAID Newark, NJNJ Newark, Permit No. 3353 Permit No. 3353 New Jersey Institute of Technology

New Jersey Institute of Technology UniversityHeights Heights University Newark, NJ 07102-1982 Newark, NJ 07102-1982 www.njit.edu www.njit.edu

the edge in knowledge

ARCHITECTURE DIGITAL DESIGN FINE ARTS INDUSTRIAL DESIGN INTERIOR DESIGN

NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN design.njit.edu