AT THE FRONTIER OF INNOVATION UNIVERSIT Y OF ROCHESTER
Meliora Ever Better Meliora is at the foundation of the University’s mission to Learn, Discover, Heal, Create— And Make the World Ever Better.
Welcome The University of Rochester’s motto—Meliora—is Latin for “ever better.” For us, though, it is more than a motto: it is a shared value and a way of life that has set us apart as an educational community since our founding in 1850. With the needs of a global society becoming more complex, the demands on a research university are increasingly urgent. In these pages, you will learn how we are driving innovation in the fields of science, medicine, and business as well as in the humanities and creative arts. Our compact campus, flexible curriculum, and receptivity to interdisciplinary endeavors create an environment where learning and discovery flourish. Our students work alongside prominent faculty and graduate as problem solvers, critical thinkers, and innovators—poised to become global leaders in their fields. In everything we do, we seek to be “ever better” not just for ourselves and our region but also for our nation and the world. We are committed to the tradition of teaching and research excellence. And we continually strive to build on our distinctive strengths and seek new solutions that advance the experience here and benefit humankind everywhere. Meliora.
COVER: J. ADAM FENSTER; STOCK.XCHNG
Joel Seligman President
Peter Lennie Provost and Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Sciences & Engineering
Rochester at a Glance
J. ADAM FENSTER
Located in western New York less than a two-hour drive from Niagara Falls and six hours from New York City, the University of Rochester is one of the world’s top research universities, attracting nearly $400 million in research grant funding annually. Research is embedded in the culture here and is broadly evident across the entire University system. Core research strengths span the biomedical sciences; arts, humanities, and social sciences; applied sciences and engineering; and business. The University’s 170 buildings house 2,000 faculty and instructional staff—half of whom were born outside the United States—and more than 200 undergraduate and graduate programs offered to more than 11,000 students, including more than 4,800 graduate and medical students and more
2 ROCHESTER AT A GLANCE
University of Rochester Academic Schools and Units ■■ Arts, Sciences & Engineering ■■ The College ■■ Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences ■■ School of Arts & Sciences ■■ Eastman School of Music ■■ School of Medicine and Dentistry ■■ School of Nursing ■■ Simon Business School ■■ Warner School of Education
University of Rochester Medical Center and UR Medicine The University’s academic medical center and health system is internationally recognized for its research and medical expertise. It includes the ■■ School of Medicine and Dentistry ■■ School of Nursing ■■ Eastman Institute for Oral Health ■■ Strong Memorial Hospital, Highland Hospital, and Thompson Health ■■ Medical Faculty Group
QUALITY OF LIFE Faculty, staff, and students join the more than one million people who live in Rochester and its surrounding suburbs. With the culture of a large city, Rochester offers a vibrant arts scene, an annual international jazz festival, art galleries and museums, convenient shopping, and local and international cuisine and markets. Rochester’s fine parks, trails, world-class golf courses, and close proximity to the Genesee River, the Erie Canal, Lake Ontario, and the Finger Lakes region provide ample opportunities for outdoor recreation.
ISTOCK
than 250 postdoctoral trainees engaged in scientific research. Across the entire University system, including the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and affiliated health system, more than 22,000 faculty and staff work here, making the University the seventh-largest private employer in New York State. The University spreads across more than 500 acres. Its main campus, the River Campus, runs along the beautiful Genesee River. URMC, one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers, is just a 10-minute walk away and the University’s world-renowned Eastman School of Music is located only 10 minutes away by car. The proximity of the University’s schools and units provides unique opportunities for cross-disciplinary study, research, and collaboration.
ROCHESTER AT A GLANCE 3
Research Snapshot
Research happens in all intellectual disciplines of the University of Rochester. It can be aesthetic, sociopolitical, scientific, technical, philosophical, mathematical, medical, musical, or artistic. It includes the pursuit of research questions in labs, classrooms, and around the world. It spans studying the details of a neutrino beam near Tokyo, the haunts of Dante in Italy, the proliferation of blindness in sub-Saharan Africa, public health in Denmark, and cancerous tumors in a lab at URMC. Rochester faculty members have pioneered statistical methods of research in economics, political science, medicine, and clinical and social sciences. They have made seminal discoveries in evolutionary biology, vision, and visual and cultural studies. They are at the forefront of brain and cognitive science, biomedical science, highenergy physics, and quantum optics. They are known for their medical expertise and health-related breakthroughs. And their efforts in alternative energy confront such societal grand challenges as dwindling petroleum reserves and fossil fuel pollution. A water droplet hangs on the edge of a metal surface that has been treated to repel moisture with a Rochester-developed process using lasers. Potential applications for such “super-hydrophobic” materials include sanitation and other areas where repelling water-borne pathogens is
J. ADAM FENSTER
important.
4
5
Undergraduate Research
J. ADAM FENSTER
The self-directed curriculum designed by and unique to Rochester has for two decades fostered undergraduates who have the ability and drive to participate in serious research. Many have contributed to published research projects and work with distinction alongside graduate students. Through our extensive seed funding programs, support from University resources and donors has helped thousands of Rochester undergraduates begin careers that will lead an exceptional fraction toward successful graduate study and the receipt of prestigious awards, such as National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships, on matriculation.
6  RESEARCH SNAPSHOT
A Culture of Innovation Rochester, N.Y., is the seat of great innovation. It gave rise to such international companies as Bausch & Lomb, Eastman Kodak Company, and Xerox. The entrepreneurial spirit and its accompanying culture of innovation is part of the fabric of the community, which has one of the nation’s highest patents-per-capita ratios. The University contributes as an educational institution and also has one of the most effective technology transfer programs in the country. The local community’s historic tradition as a center of manufacturing excellence, especially in optics and photonics, has helped it transition to a knowledge-based economy. As a leading medical research facility and technology incubator, the University has been a key catalyst for this transition and helps put Rochester on the map as an international center of innovation.
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE Nearly a quarter of the 65 scientists on NASA’s advisory board for the James Webb Space Telescope are University alumni or faculty members.
Technology Transfer UR Ventures, the University’s technology transfer operation, is focused on identifying and securing the resources necessary to get Rochester’s groundbreaking research to the public through technology licensing and/or startup formation. Some of the latest discoveries from the University’s laboratories include methods to treat neurodegenerative diseases based on the brain’s ability to cleanse itself; an on-chip network to provide scalable power delivery, allowing for ever-smaller electronic devices; and potential cancer therapies based on the unique physiological properties of the naked mole rat.
Xi-Cheng Zhang, M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics and director of the Institute of Optics, is often counted among modern day luminaries in the field. His research on THz (terahertz) waves led to NASA (TOP); J. ADAM FENSTER
the detection of defects in foam insulation following the space shuttle Columbia tragedy. Zhang expects that research on THz waves will advance knowledge in many areas, including medical imaging, homeland security, and manufacturing.
A CULTURE OF INNOVATION 7
BY THE NUMBERS Research Profile • Sponsored research expenditures: $375 million • Inventions: 140, from 220 inventors in 48 departments with 34 collaborators from 22 outside institutions • Patents: 56 granted, covering 45 different technologies • Licensing revenue: $29.4 million Source: 2013 ORPA Annual Report, UR Ventures
Making History: Optics and High-Energy Physics In 1929, with a grant from Kodak and Bausch & Lomb, the University founded the Institute of Optics, the nation’s first educational program devoted to optics—the study of light. Today, the institute’s reputation as a leader in optics research and innovation continues with educational and research opportunities that span optical physics, applied optics, and optical engineering. The institute has granted more than 2,400 degrees—approximately half of all optics degrees ever awarded in the United States. The environment breeds a spirit of entrepreneurism. For example, over the last 50 years, more than 160 companies have been founded by the institute’s faculty, staff, and alumni. As the largest user facility for fusion and high-energy density physics research, Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) has played a similarly significant role in its field. Founded in 1970 lab has laid the foundation in laser inertial confinement fusion research and serves as a global resource for researchers. In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, ongoing work here is targeted toward developing fusion power for the production of electricity. LLE is home to the Omega 60-beam laser, which can deliver up to 40 trillion watts of power.
8 RESEARCH SNAPSHOT
EUGENE KOWALUK
and supported by approximately $70 million annually, mostly from the federal government, the
Research Priorities As new global needs, challenges, and professions emerge, bringing together talents from multiple disciplines is increasingly important. The University has forged uniquely productive partnerships across its schools based on common interests that draw on our unique strengths in many areas, including priority areas of data science; vision, hearing, and language; energy and the environment; and medicine and health.
Data Science This is one of the defining disciplines of the 21st century. Just as the Gutenberg press revolutionized the dissemination of information, the production of books and newspapers, and the development of knowledge, data science is changing how the world consumes, uses, applies, and understands information. The field has evolved as a hybrid of research in statistics, computer sciences, and
ISTOCK (TOP LEFT); J. ADAM FENSTER
related disciplines.
Vision, Hearing, and Language Light and sound constitute two major interconnected research areas at the University and span vision and optics as well as hearing and sound. Areas of strength include vision restoration and correction
In 2013, the University announced plans to create the
and imaging of the eye. Rochester is pioneering
Institute for Data Science, recruit 20 new faculty in
revolutionary technologies such as the development
departments in which data science plays a significant
of retinal prosthetics. The University is also recog-
role, and focus initially on three areas of research do-
nized as a world leader in its research of sound in
mains related to data science: predictive health ana-
music and entertainment; medicine and biology; and
lytics, cognitive systems, and analytics on demand.
speech, hearing, language, and communication.
Energy and the Environment
Medicine and Health
Coming up with alternative
the largest segment of the
energy solutions is a complex,
University’s research portfolio.
global issue that Rochester
In the Medical Center alone,
researchers are addressing
there are 550 faculty members
from multiple perspectives.
with federal funding for their
The University’s core research expertise in science,
research programs, with total research topping $230
engineering, and medicine forms the foundation
million in FY 2013. The proximity of the Medical
for internationally recognized research programs in
Center to the River Campus provides myriad oppor-
energy technology, ones that focus on developing
tunities for collaboration. Critical areas of research
carbon-neutral technology, understanding the health
include cancer, infectious diseases, musculoskeletal
implications of energy resources, and investigating
diseases, environmental medicine, RNA biology,
the implications of global climate change.
imaging, neuromedicine, drug development and de-
Biomedical research represents
livery, molecular signaling and aging, public health, and the health consequences of energy policies.
RESEARCH PRIORITIES  9
URMC
Improving Health and the Human
10 
Condition
Researchers across the University are advancing discoveries in medicine, public health, vision science, and myriad fields that relate to the betterment of individual health and the collective human condition. Their work is focused on improving our daily lives and contributing to a promising future for all. At the University of Rochester’s Wilmot Cancer Center, Michael R. O’Dell (left), research assistant, and Aram Hezel, associate professor and vice chief of hematology/oncology, study intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHCC), a type of aggressive liver cancer that’s eluded scientists for years. Hezel and his team have invented the first genetically engineered mouse model of IHCC, allowing them to research the early biological steps that lead to full-blown malignancy.
11
Medical Research of the Highest Order
RICHARD BAKER
Research progress can be charted in the laboratory, in the clinic, and most importantly, in the lives of patients around the globe. The University of Rochester Medical Center is renowned for two vaccines now used worldwide to combat cervical cancer and bacterial meningitis and has played an important role in the clinical development of many others, including a vaccine for bird flu. Research at URMC involves thousands of experts, touching upon nearly every area of medicine, and often involving collaboration with faculty members on the River Campus.
12  IMPROVING HEALTH AND THE HUMAN CONDITION
Respiratory Research Respiratory Pathogens Research Center
New York Influenza Center of Excellence
URMC was chosen as the home of a federally
Research at the New York Influenza
funded center to study the germs that cause
Center of Excellence (NYICE)
lung disease. The Respiratory Pathogens
involves collaboration between
Research Center (RPRC), a mix of clinicians
investigators in the fields of
and researchers, helps protect citizens against
immunology, virology, biochemistry,
bacteria and viruses that take aim at the
medicine, pediatrics, statistics, and
respiratory system, including pneumonia and
bioinformatics. The center’s goal is to
the flu. First-year research funding from the
provide a truly transforming approach to
National Institutes of Health (NIH) is nearly $5
influenza research. It was launched in 2007 as
million, with the opportunity for a longer-term
one of six centers nationwide that will receive
seven-year contract of $35 to $50 million.
a total of approximately $140 million in flu research funding over a multiyear period.
The flu causes 36,000 deaths and up to 200,000 hospital stays in the United States each year.
Chasing Pathogens Biologist and influenza researcher David Topham serves many roles. He is a University vice provost and executive director of the Health Sciences Center for Computational Innovation (HSCCI), director of the RPRC, codirector of the NYICE, and professor of microbiology and immunology in the David H. Smith Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology. As a research biologist, Topham has concentrated his work on immune responses to viral infections, with an emphasis on respiratory infections and influenza. He
Health Sciences Center for Computational Innovation The Health Sciences Center for Computational Innovation (HSCCI), an evolving partnership between the University and IBM, is vital to the success of the RPRC. The center is home to IBM Blue Gene/Q super computers, making it one of most powerful computer systems in the world. Data science and high-performance computing hold the potential to revolutionize the way diseases are studied, monitored, and ISTOCK (TOP); J. ADAM FENSTER
treated by allowing scientists to sift through and analyze huge volumes of data and create complex models and simulations that would previously not have been possible.
is involved in clinical and translational studies of human immune responses to natural infection and experimental vaccines. He also collaborates closely with computational biologists and has developed highly sophisticated mathematical models that simulate the adaptive immune response to influenza. Topham’s research is making strides against the infections that are responsible for a great deal of illness and death among the world’s population.
RESPIRATORY RESEARCH 13
Neuroscience Research Unlocking the Mysteries of the Brain
Taking Steps to Treat Muscular Dystrophy
For the last 25 years, URMC has served as the
URMC neurologist Charles Thornton is dedi-
hub of an international network of researchers
cated to research that could lead to successful
from North America, Europe, and Australia and
treatment of muscular dystrophy. One of its
has overseen more than 80 clinical trials, spon-
most common forms is myotonic dystrophy, an
sored by the NIH, foundations, and industry,
inherited disorder than is marked by progres-
in neurological diseases. They have also been
sive muscle weakness and stiffness. Eventually
pioneers in mastering the use of stem cells
many patients have difficulty walking, swallow-
to explore new treatments for neurological
ing, and breathing. While there are medications
disorders, and have made breakthroughs on a
to treat some symptoms, there is no drug to
possible new treatment that could reduce the
stop its progression.
symptoms of muscular dystrophy. ď‚€ Charles Thornton
Several scientists, including Thornton, discovered that the genetic defect that triggers the disease works quite differently than most other inherited diseases. Here, the defect results in the creation of toxic RNA, which stops other proteins from doing their jobs. Thornton and his colleagues have discovered a way to reverse symptoms of myotonic muscular dystrophy in mice by eliminating the buildup of toxic RNA in muscle cells. Although it is too soon to know whether the approach will work on patients, the research indicates the possibility mentally alter the disease.
14  IMPROVING HEALTH AND THE HUMAN CONDITION
ISTOCK (TOP); WILL YURMAN
of developing a treatment that could funda-
Understanding Brain Function to Treat Disease Steven Goldman and Maiken Nedergaard are
The Center for RNA Biology: From Genome to Therapeutics
unlocking the complex cellular mechanics that
The center provides a means
instruct specific stem cells in the brain to con-
of conducting interdisciplinary re-
tinue to divide. This discovery ensures that an
search into the function, structure, and
abundant supply of cells is available to study
processing of RNA. Led by Lynne Maquat,
and ultimately treat people with myelin-related
research delves into many areas that show
diseases. Damage to myelin lies at the root of a
the clinical ramifications of basic science,
long list of diseases, such as multiple sclerosis,
including mining information encoded in the
cerebral palsy, and a family of deadly child-
genome, developing mechanisms of protein
hood diseases.
synthesis, and investigating how viruses defeat
A research team led by URMC neurologists
drug therapies.
Nedergaard (pictured here with Qiwu Xu, a research associate) is also conducting research that shows that the brain is cleansing itself in a more organized way and on a much larger scale than has been realized previously. These findings may have implications for many conditions that involve the brain,
URMC
such as traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease.
NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH 15
ENGINEERING BETTER HEALTH At URMC’s Center for Musculoskeletal Research, biomedical engineering and medical experts collaborate on innovative tissue engineering research. Their work is helping to advance treatment in one of the most complex, costly areas of health care: when joints, bones, tendons, cartilage, and associated muscle deteriorate with age, become diseased, or suffer massive trauma. The center gives engineers an opportunity to learn from their medical colleagues about the underlying pathology and biology of the problems they address. Engineers, in turn, offer insights about the best way to build a scaffold to promote bone healing, for example, or deliver a therapeutic drug with pinpoint accuracy and timing.
Cardiovascular Research Transforming Heart Care Arthur J. Moss, a cardiology professor and a world-renowned expert on electrical disturbances of the heart, has made some of the most important and long-lasting discoveries in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Moss has demonstrated that preventive therapy with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator or ICD (a device that detects potentially fatal arrhythmias and shocks the heart back into a normal rhythm) significantly reduces the risk of death in heart attack survivors. This finding, published in 2002, changed medical guidelines nationwide and led to the use of ICDs in millions of patients each year. In other studies, Moss found that cardiac resynchronization therapy, which improves the mechanical pumping action of the heart, plus defibrillator—a combination device known as CRT-D therapy— prevents the progression of heart forms of the disease. Guidelines from Moss’s trials have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
16 IMPROVING HEALTH AND THE HUMAN CONDITION
J. ADAM FENSTER
failure in patients living with mild
Cancer Research Harnessing the Immune System to Fight Lymphoma The hematologic malignancies team is studying cancer stem cells in relation to leukemia, as well as how the immune system can be harnessed to fight lymphoma. Preclinical research One of the greatest breakthroughs in cancer prevention has its origins in research done by three URMC virologists. Richard Reichman, William Bonnez, and Robert Rose discovered a method to protect against several strains of human papillomavirus (HPV), including those that cause cervical cancer. This research led Merck & Co. to develop Gardasil®, the first pure anticancer vaccine to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in June 2006.
on an experimental treatment for relapsed T-cell lymphoma resulted in a clinical trial for the drug Alisertib, led by national principal investigator Paul Barr, an oncologist at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, and Jonathan Friedberg, director of the center. In addition, Michael Becker and Laura Calvi are jointly funded to study therapies that target leukemia’s microenvironment (the region in the bone marrow where leukemia cells bloom).
Developing Innovative, Effective Cancer Treatments Chawnshang Chang, director of the George Whipple Laboratory for Cancer Research, has developed an experimental treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. The drug, known as ASC-J9, was developed as a derivative of the main ingredient in ginger. Since 2004, two dozen patents around the world have been issued for his work. Chang’s research at URMC is licensed to AndroScience Corp. of San Diego, a biotech company he cofounded. (The University owns a stake in the company.) Chang collaborates with members of the URMC genitourinary cancers group, China Medical TOP TO BOTTOM: ISTOCK; KEN HUTH; STOCK.XCHNG
University in Taiwan, and Tianjin Medical University to study potential uses for ASC-J9 in combination with existing approved drugs to treat acne; prostate, bladder, and liver cancer; and other medical conditions related to androgens.
CANCER RESEARCH 17
Public Health Research Studying Air Pollution in Beijing
energy from the environment and optimize en-
Pollution in China has been an issue for years.
ergy usage through on-demand wake-up radio
A team of researchers led by David Q. Rich
technology. The system could play a key role in
used the unique circumstances around the
emergency warnings and contribute to societal
2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China—one
well-being in densely populated regions of the
of the most polluted cities in the world—to
world. Heinzelman is also dean of graduate
examine the link between air pollution and
studies for Arts, Sciences & Engineering.
of the American Medical Association, showed a The University’s Rare Books and Special Collections
direct correlation between pollution levels and specific physiological changes that increase risk for cardiovascular disease.
department houses more than
Center for AIDS Research The University of Rochester was named an official Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) by the National Institutes of Health. With $7.5 million in new funding, CFAR is establishing multidis-
In India, air pollution is responsible for nearly
ciplinary collaborations across the University
530,000 deaths per year. Wendy Heinzelman,
and supporting the early career development
professor of electrical and computer engineer-
of HIV/AIDS investigators. Stephen Dewhurst,
ing and of computer science, and colleagues
director of the CFAR, is working with other
from Northeastern University and IIT Delhi and
University HIV researchers to study the virus’s
IIT Hyderabad, both in India, are collaborating
effect on aging and to apply our understand-
on an NSF-funded remote pollution monitor-
ing of HIV RNA biology to the development of
advocacy, and compassion for
ing system, one that relies on wireless sensor
new drugs.
those affected.
networks. These sensors operate by harvesting
6,200 AIDS posters from 124 countries in 68 languages. The collection—one of the world’s largest—documents efforts to educate people about HIV/ AIDS prevention, risks, social
ISTOCK (TOP); POSTERS: RARE BOOKS AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS; VIRUS: URMC
health. Their work, published in the Journal
Preventing Suicide: NIH-Funded Research in China In 2011, the National Institutes of Health awarded the University $1.1 million in support of a program that has been training people in China to investigate the causes and prevention of suicide. Eric Caine, chair of URMC’s Department of Psychiatry, is the program’s principal investigator. Caine and colleague Yeates Conwell are cofounders of the University’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide. Caine is also head of the China-Rochester Suicide Research Program. In China, suicide is the fifth-leading cause of death overall and the leading cause for people in the 15- to 34-year-old age range.
Leading the Way: Evolutionary Biology The University’s faculty members have made pioneering discoveries in evolutionary biology. H. Allen Orr, the Shirley Cox Kearns Professor of biology, is the recipient of the Darwin-Wallace Medal, an award that is presented to the leading minds in evolutionary science only once every 50 years. John H. Werren, the Nathaniel and Helen Wisch Professor of Biology, is a leading expert in the field and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For his research on potential ways to control river blindness (a disease that is especially prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa) and on ways to protect crop plants from parasitic roundworms, John Jaenike has received two Gates Foundation grants. Daven Presgraves was awarded the Dobzhansky Prize by the Society for the Study of Evolution in recognition of his accomplishments as an outstanding young evolutionary biologist. Orr’s innovative combination of studies on the biology of Drosophila (a genus of small flies whose members are often referred to as fruit flies) and theoretical work proved the “dominance theory” of Haldane’s
ISTOCK
rule—a hypothesis that has been controversial since it was proposed in 1922.
PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH 19
David Williams’s laboratory invented a high-resolution camera to take the first pictures ever of all three of the classes of cone, the cells in the retina responsible for daytime vision and our perception of color.
Vision Research Pioneering New Technologies to Improve Eyesight
ter’s Institute of Optics, director of its Center for
One of the world’s leading experts on human
Sciences & Engineering.
vision, David Williams—the William G. Allyn Professor of Medical Optics—has pioneered new technologies that are improving people’s eyesight. Williams received the 2012 António Champalimaud Vision Award in Lisbon, Portugal, in recognition of his work on adaptive optics. In awarding the prize, the jury said that Williams and his research group “have opened up new possibilities for imaging retinal structures in the living eye.” The methods that Williams’s team developed are used throughout the world in Lasik procedures today. Williams is a faculty member of the University of Roches-
Visual Science, and dean for research in Arts,
The Center for Visual Science Founded in 1963, the University’s Center for Visual Science (CVS) lies at the hub of vision research on the River Campus and URMC. Research themes include exploring the neural mechanisms that underlie visual experience, the role of vision in guiding behavior, and advanced technologies of ophthalmic optics. The center brings together scientists from a variety of disciplines with the common goal of pursuing excellence in vision research. With more than 30 research laboratories, faculty members from the departments of brain and cognitive sciences, neurobiology and anatomy, neurology, the Flaum Eye Institute, and optics work collaboratively to address the grand challenges in eye care. With the help of computerized eye trackers, a recent cognitive science study finds that at least 50 percent of people can see the movement of
DAVID WILLIAMS (TOP); J. ADAM FENSTER
their own hand even in the absence of all light.
20 IMPROVING HEALTH AND THE HUMAN CONDITION
Members of the student-led company Ovitz pose with a portable eye-diagnosis instrument that they developed and are working to commercialize. Developed with the Institute of Optics and the Flaum Eye Institute, the “EyeProfiler” is designed to be smaller, cheaper, and more accurate than existing devices and especially suited for use with children.
The Flaum Eye Institute At the institute, teams of biologists, physicists, engineers, and physicians from around the University work together, along with corporate partners, to conduct translational research focused on high-priority issues identified by the National Eye Institute. Current areas of focus include thyroid research, refractive research, stroke research, and researching the optical quality of the eye. The Flaum institute’s teams of physicians and researchers are developing J. ADAM FENSTER
new diagnostics and treatments to help preserve vision in patients from around the world.
VISION RESEARCH 21
J. ADAM FENSTER
Discoveries in the Humanities and
22 
Sciences
With diverse areas of expertise, the University is uniquely positioned to pursue research that spans the humanities and the arts to the sciences and technology. Combining the collective strength of faculty with hands-on opportunities for research, undergraduates and graduate students alike embrace the spirit of creativity here, one that infuses the cultural environment and enriches a broad range of scholarly pursuits. ď ź Researchers at the University of Rochester and George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film are using nanotechnology to understand and potentially reduce image degradation. Pictured here, an American daguerreotype, circa 1841.
23
BY THE NUMBERS • One-third of the University’s graduate students and about 15 percent of its undergraduates come from outside the United States, with the largest numbers coming from China followed by India, South Korea, and Taiwan. • More than 70 percent of the University’s graduate housing residents are international students. • There are nearly 11,000 University of Rochester alumni living abroad, with the largest numbers living in China and India. • The University teaches a dozen languages, including English as a second language.
Art and Digital Scholarship Joan Saab, associate professor of art and art history and of visual and cultural studies, is contributing to the evolution of how humanities scholarship is carried out. For several years, she has been an investigator for the Alliance for Network Visual Culture, a group that aims to enhance scholarly understanding of visual practices in digital culture and to create scholarly context for the use of digital media. This work has been supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Saab’s new book project, Searching for Siqueiros, about Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, has become a test case for the future of “born digital” scholarship— scholarship expressly created for, not simply adapted to, a digital format. As part of the Mellon grant, three university presses— Duke, MIT, and the University of California—have agreed to publish the projects using Scalar (a digital platform) as part of the Mellon grant.
Physics and Photo Preservation Nicholas Bigelow, the Lee A. Dubridge Professor of Physics, is bringing his expertise in nanotechnology to bear on the field of photo preservation through research on 19th-century daguerreotypes. Using 21st-century technology, Bigelow and curators at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, located a few miles away from the University, are studying why these unique, nonreproducible images are starting to deteriorate. The Eastman House holds one of the world’s largest collections of daguerreotypes, with about 5,000 images. Through microscopy, the research team has found that the silver daguerreotype plate is a biologically active surface, a remarkable finding because silver is naturally antimicro-
24 DISCOVERIES IN THE HUMANITIES AND SCIENCES
bial. The team is finding that small colonies of fungi are growing and damaging the surface on nearly every daguerreotype they examined. “There’s a miraculous piece of all this. Forget about the daguerreotype for a minute: what on earth is going on in the physics that underlies this and the chemical process that forms this?” says Bigelow. At the University’s Integrated Nanosystems Center, known as URNano, Bigelow and others are trying to find answers to these questions.
Music and Technology Research
J. ADAM FENSTER
By combining the resources of the electrical and computer engineering department in the Hajim School and the expertise at the Eastman School of Music, the University has become the home of leading research and educational programs in audio and music technology. Some research projects explore teaching computers how to “listen” to and transcribe music from audio recordings; creating new, more expressive computergenerated musical sounds and music; searching huge music databases using data science; and even developing television screens that can radiate sound and perform double duty as the display and loudspeaker in home entertainment systems.
MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH 25
Cognitive Science and Music
J. ADAM FENSTER
Professor Elizabeth Marvin is both a cognitive researcher and a trained soprano—a rare combination. She is professor of music theory at the University’s renowned Eastman School and also professor of brain and cognitive sciences on the River Campus. Marvin is an expert in music theory—the study of harmony and musical structure—and the coauthor of three widely taught music theory textbooks. She investigates music cognition, an interdisciplinary field that uses the neurological, computational, and experimental methods of cognitive science to investigate musical issues. She also conducts research on the acquisition of absolute pitch. Along with Joyce McDonough, associate professor of linguistics and of brain and cognitive sciences, and Anne Luebke, associate professor of biomedical engineering, Marvin has also investigated the relation between music and speech processing. For the people who participated in their research study, years of music training correlated significantly with lower ratios of speech signal to interfering noise. These findings provide support for shared processing of music and speech, and the tests they developed have potential applications in the hearing aid industry.
26 DISCOVERIES IN THE HUMANITIES AND SCIENCES
Literature, History, and Digital Technology University faculty members are changing the way knowledge is transferred, especially in fields connected to literature and history. For instance, Morris Eaves, the Richard L. Turner Professor in the Department of English, coedits the William Blake Archive, one of the first and most complete online multimedia resources designed for scholars. His undergraduate and graduate students produce scholarly work that is available in the archive. Russell Peck, the John Hall Deane Professor of English, championed the Consortium for Teaching Middle Ages project and its Middle English Text Series, which have changed the study of medieval literature by making it more available and accessible to students and teachers, both online and in print. Thomas P. Slaughter, the Arthur R. Miller Professor of History, works on projects that provide students with hands-on skills in the digital humanities, history, and historical editing. These include digitizing the documents of iconic figures in American history, including William Seward, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
BLAKE ARCHIVE; J. ADAM FENSTER; COVERS: OPEN LETTER
Translation, Globalization, and Communication Most of the best books ever created were written in a language other than English, yet only three percent of all books published in the United States are translated works. In this age of globalization, one of the best ways to preserve the uniqueness of cultures while simultaneously recognizing their connections is through the translation and appreciation of international literature. The literary translation studies program at the University of Rochester takes a multifaceted approach to the research involved in and the art, technique, and business of translation. Open Letter Books, Rochester’s literary publishing house, connects readers with the
works of great international authors. Publishing 10 new books each year, recent titles include Tirza by Arnon Grunberg and Maidenhair by Mikhail Shishkin. Open Letter also runs the Best Translated Book Award and the online literary website Three Percent. As affiliates of the University’s literary translation program (an interdisciplinary program in the humanities that offers undergraduate students an opportunity to study the theory and practice of literary translation), undergraduate and graduate students learn the art and the technology involved in publishing and in literary translation.
THE MEMORIAL ART GALLERY The gallery’s permanent collection of 12,000 works showcases 50 centuries of world art and includes important pieces by Monet, Cézanne, Matisse, Homer, and Cassatt. It also features the only full-size Italian Baroque organ in North America, which is on permanent loan from the Eastman School of Music. Outside the gallery, the Centennial Sculpture Park features anchor installations by renowned international artists Tom Otterness, Jackie Ferrara, Wendell Castle, and Albert Paley. The gallery was founded in 1913 and was given in trust to the University of Rochester. It is one of the few university-affiliated art museums in the country that also serves as a public art museum.
These are just some of the books produced by Open Letter Books, Rochester’s literary publishing house.
LITERATURE, HISTORY, AND DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY 27
28 DISCOVERIES IN THE HUMANITIES AND SCIENCES
Excellence in Music and Art The Eastman School of Music As one of the world’s premier music schools, the Eastman School has long been known for its high standards of performance, learning, creativity, and teaching. More than 900 students, 100 full-time faculty, and 1,800 community education students engage in the variety of musical classes and programs available. The school presents more than 700 performances each year and is home to more than 20 student ensembles, including its Eastman Wind Ensemble, the first of its kind in the country and a pioneering force in the symphonic wind band movement.
Eastman School faculty members have trained
Undergraduate and graduate students here embrace the highest levels of musicianship and scholarship. They also have access to Eastman’s Sibley Music Library. Founded in 1904, it is the largest academic music library in North America. Eastman graduates are found in the best orchestras, chamber groups, jazz ensembles, opera companies, and bands and on Broadway, in Hollywood, and around the world. And Eastman students and faculty regularly collaborate with colleagues throughout the University.
musicians who have become leaders in their fields. These include Alexander Courage, composer of television and movie music, including the Star Trek theme; Renée Fleming, Grammy Award– winning operatic soprano; Chuck Mangione, jazz
The school’s Eastman Theatre serves as Rochester’s preeminent performance space. Its grand Italian Renaissance-style Kodak Hall serves as host to world-famous musicians and conductors. It is also the primary performance space for the Eastman Opera Theatre and the Eastman School’s larger ensembles, including its orchestras, wind ensembles, jazz ensembles, and chorale. It also is the principal hall for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.
musician; Mitch Miller, oboist, conductor, record producer, and television producer best known from his “Sing Along with Mitch” programs in the 1950s; composer Kevin Puts, who received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music; and William Warfield, internationally acclaimed bass-baritone known for his work in Show
J. ADAM FENSTER; EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC (TOP RIGHT)
Boat and Porgy and Bess.
EXCELLENCE IN MUSIC AND ART 29
A History of Innovation The Eastman School has led the way in terms of musical innovation. In 1925, Howard Hanson, the school’s director, established the American Composers Orchestral Concerts. These provided unprecedented opportunities for creating and performing American music. Never before had a platform like this existed. Recognizing the changing shape of music and the need to innovate new ways to perform and market consumer music, the school established the Institute for Music Leadership. This was the first center of its kind in the country focused on preparing students for entry into the challenging and changing music world of the 21st century.
An Incubator for Music Research In 2013, the Eastman School of Music inaugurated the Paul R. Judy Center for Applied Research, a new incubator for alternative music ensembles and part of the school’s acclaimed Institute for Music Leadership. The center was established to provide young musicians with the tools they need to create their own performance opportunities and become self-sustaining artists. The center’s establishment comes when many of America’s orchestras are faced with the long-term challenges of aging audiences, financial pressures, and competition from other cultural programs. At the same time, smaller artist-led ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound (which got its start at the Eastman School), eighth blackbird, and the International Contemporary Ensemble have emerged in and budget. The center will encourage discussion on how to rejuvenate orchestral performance interest while fostering new models of artistic innovation, organization relationships, and operational sustainability. Alarm Will Sound
30 DISCOVERIES IN THE HUMANITIES AND SCIENCES
EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC (TOP); J. ADAM FENSTER
stature and grown in acclaim
The Institute for Popular Music With a unique expertise in this genre, the University of Rochester recently formed the Institute for Popular Music on its River Campus. Classes explore a variety of music popular throughout the world’s history, including during the 14th- to the 17th-century Renaissance, mid-19th-century Civil War, late-19th-century Victorian era, the roaring 1920s, the groundbreaking 1960s, and today’s contemporary music. The institute enhances River Campus and Eastman School offerings, builds on the musical strengths inherent here, and promotes the scholarly research of popular music. As the institute’s director, John Covach works with a group of seven faculty from the University of Rochester and an advisory board of 13 professors from the United States and the United Kingdom to develop programs that support research in fields including musicology, music theory, ethnomusicology, and music performance. Covach has dual appointments, as the Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professor of music and chair of the River Campus’s Department of Music and as professor of music theory at
J. ADAM FENSTER
the Eastman School.
EXCELLENCE IN MUSIC AND ART 31
Understanding How the World Works
32
Whether it is on a personal, community, or societal level, Rochester researchers are making discoveries that lead to an improved understanding of how the world works. Many provide insight into how we— as individuals and communities—think, behave, and communicate. Others are committed to studying history and culture in order to gain perspective into what it means to be human. Still others contribute ideas, policies, and programs that help businesses, governments, and communities thrive. ď ź Vasilii Petrenko, professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, holds a 50,000-year-old ice sample from
J. ADAM FENSTER
Antarctica in his University of Rochester lab.
33
Grasping How People Think, Behave, and Communicate The Value of Intrinsic Motivation All people are motivated by a variety of factors, good grades, rewards, reviews, people’s opinions, and more. Just as importantly, they are motivated from within by interests, curiosity, and personal values. The interplay between these factors and the needs of human nature is the basis of the groundbreaking work of psychologists and professors Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan. In the 1980s, they revolutionized the study of motivation by looking at it from a humanistic perspective and developing the Self-Determination Theory (SDT). The theory maintains that motivation develops from within us—grounded in our basic human needs to develop our skills and capacities—to act of our own accord and to connect to others and to our environment. Today, health care professionals around the world embrace this fundamental research finding.
At Work in the Baby Lab Richard Aslin, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor, professor of brain and cognitive sciences, and director of the Rochester Center for Brain Imaging, is a pioneer in the field of cognitive development. His work has shown how infants and toddlers develop cognitive abilities in both language and object recognition based on the statistics of their environment or, in other words, the probability that something will or will not happen. Within his on-campus Baby Lab, Aslin and his colleagues observe children as they interact with objects and people (either “live” or in videos), while simultaneously monitoring their eye-gaze patterns and brain activity. The Baby Lab is expanding with the addition of a new faculty member, Celeste Kidd, who studies how infants and children make decisions about
J. ADAM FENSTER
allocating their attention or seeking rewards in a variety of lab-based tasks and online video games.
34 UNDERSTANDING HOW THE WORLD WORKS
Out of the Lab, Into the World Rochester researchers in the brain and cognitive sciences department work collaboratively with others across the University to help improve the health and well-being of babies, children, and adults. And they are driving new educational and medical therapies along the way.
Gaming and Development The skills needed to play high-level games require our brains to work in advanced ways. Rochester researchers have found that some video games can enhance perception, learning, and decision making. Video gaming research could drive the development of educationaloriented games that help close gaps for those with attention deficit disorders or who are on the autism spectrum.
Making Decisions Rochester researchers are investigating our perceived value of objects and ideas, the value of rewards, and restraint. By understanding how the brain makes decisions, new therapies can be developed to address obsessive compulsive disorders, drug addiction, gambling habits, and much more.
Adding It All Up Researchers in Rochester’s Kid NeuroLab explore numerical cognition and have determined that a primitive math system exists in the brain—a precursor for understanding numerical computations—
The “marshmallow test” is a
which helps predict future math IQ performance. This helps them
classic experiment designed to
identify potential learning issues and develop educational strategies.
measure children’s self-control.
Training the Brain
A recent University of Rochester study demonstrates that delay-
Researchers in the University’s Center for Brain Imaging study stroke
ing gratification is influenced as
victims and those with brain damage to better understand dysfunc-
much by the environment as by
tional parts of the brain and how to encourage the brain to think dif-
innate ability.
ferently. This helps patients overcome injury and helps neurosurgeons identify the safest ways to operate.
OUT OF THE LAB, INTO THE WORLD 35
are part of the P. G. T. Black
Making Discoveries about Ourselves, Our Communities, and Our Cultures
Collection.
The Social Meanings of Cultural Artifacts
ď ž These body ornaments from Papua New Guinea
A few years ago, Robert Foster, professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology, came upon a unique and little-known treasure at the Buffalo Museum of Science in upstate New York. Tucked away in storage for 50 years was one of the largest and oldest collections of Pacific Island artifacts anywhere in the world, the P. G. T. Black Collection. According to Foster, Buffalo was not a place one would expect to find more than 6,200 objects from remote villages and colonial outposts across the islands of Melanesia. The collection, he says, provides a glimpse of early encounters between Pacific Islanders and European traders, missionaries, and collectors circa 1900. His scholarly work will showcase the social meanings of the artifacts and culminate in a book, a museum exhibit, and an online catalog. He is also working artifacts accessible to Pacific Islander communities and to provide a rich set of resources for constructing local histories.
36  UNDERSTANDING HOW THE WORLD WORKS
J. ADAM FENSTER
with colleagues in Australia and Papua New Guinea to help make the
Keeping It Local: the Mt. Hope Family Center At the Mt. Hope Family Center, located just off campus, faculty members from the Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology and their students make a difference in many local lives by providing resources parents and children need to build strong, healthy family and peer relationships. The community connections provide a unique way to offer treatment, prevention, research, and training programs focused on human development, child maltreatment, and mental disorders in children and families. Researchers here explore many areas including addiction, depression, autism, and other developmental disorders, parenting, and education reform and develop knowledge that is critical to health and wellness.
Training STEM Educators to Help Young Students Thrive The Warner School of Education is committed to preparing its graduate students to teach and advocate for the critical science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills needed by the next generation to thrive. Global challenges will require strong math and science skills. For many, including those traditionally underserved by schooling, this is an issue. April Luehmann, associate professor, designed a program rooted in helping Warner students advance STEM knowledge. Her “Get Real! Science” program uses hands-on, inquiry-based activities to get middle and high school students excited about investigating real science questions, including those related to water quality.
MAKING DISCOVERIES ABOUT OURSELVES, OUR COMMUNITIES, AND OUR CULTURES 37
Plumes of smoke formed during efforts to remove oil
Advancing Knowledge about the Earth
from the surface of the Gulf of
Mixing Oil and Water
Ice Cores and Climate Change
Mexico after the 2010 Deep-
John Kessler, associate professor in the Depart-
Vasilii Petrenko (below), assistant professor in
water Horizon explosion.
ment of Earth and Environmental Sciences, is a
the Department of Earth and Environmental
chemical oceanographer concerned with how
Sciences and the University’s first climate
methane dynamics across the world’s oceans
specialist, holds a 250-year-old ice core sample
affect climate change. His expertise was called
from a glacier in Greenland, while in the freezer
on after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion
boxes around him are 50,000-year-old ice core
and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Along with
samples from the Antarctic. After melting the
researchers from Texas A&M University, he found
ice in a special device, he studies the gases
that more than five months after the catastrophic
from the air bubbles trapped inside to learn
event, naturally occurring hydrocarbon-eating
about ancient climate. Petrenko is the recipient
bacteria that exist in the Gulf had consumed
of a Packard Fellowship, which allows promis-
and removed at least 200,000 tons of oil and
ing scientists to pursue research early in their
natural gas that spewed into the gulf from the
careers.
ruptured well head. This research is fundamental to understanding the consequences of this spill and predicting the behavior of future releases,
JOHN KESSLER (TOP); J. ADAM FENSTER
be they natural or industrial.
38 UNDERSTANDING HOW THE WORLD WORKS
Randall Stone, professor of political science and director of the University’s Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies
Gaining Political and Economic Insight The Influence of Powerful Countries
The data, says Sen, points to the importance
Randall Stone, professor of political science
understanding political views and the lingering
and director of the University’s Skalny Center
economic effects of slavery.
for Polish and Central European Studies, researches the hidden politics in international organizations. Stone argues that organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization are governed by informal processes that allow the most powerful countries to exert greater influence than would be allowed by legal procedures and formal vote shares. The downside of informal power, he says, is weakened credibility and legitimacy. Stone is a prize-winning author and sought-after expert on the topic of international relations.
Tradition of Excellence The University is known worldwide for its study of political science, economics, and business practices. It is well regarded for its pioneering game theory principles and for developing the principal-agent problem, now known as the economic theory of organizations. In 2012, U.S. News & World Report ranked Rochester in the top 10 for political methodology. Looking back, Lionel Mackenzie established the University’s doctoral program in economics in 1957 and led the program to national prom-
The Contemporary Consequences of Slavery A recent study by Rochester political scientists Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen shows that, although slavery was abolished 150 years ago, its political legacy still lingers. The researchers conducted a countyby-county analysis of census data and opinion polls of more than J. ADAM FENSTER (TOP); ISTOCK; MARJORIE OI (RIGHT)
of institutional and historical legacy when
39,000 southern whites. They found that white Southerners who live today in the Cotton Belt where slavery and the plantation economy dominated are much more likely to express more negative attitudes toward blacks than their fellow Southerners who live in nearby areas that had few slaves.
inence. And in 1962, the University’s William Riker, founder of the now mainstream field of positive political theory, and Richard F. Fenno Jr. produced what has been hailed by many as the best doctoral program in political science in the world. Rochester economists have played key roles in shaping policies. For instance, the late Walter Y.
Walter Oi receives the Secretary of Defense Medal
Oi, the Elmer B. Milliman Professor of Economics, testified before the U.S. Congress as a staff member of the draft review commission that President Richard Nixon had established. As one of the first people to point out the economic inequalities of military conscription, his analysis detailed the hidden costs of the military draft and contributed to its repeal in 1973. In recognition of his work, Oi later received the U.S. Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.
GAINING POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC INSIGHT 39
Contributing Ideas that Shape Business and Society Some of the Leading Voices in Business The Simon Business School is a leading force in researching and influencing management theory and practice and educating future business managers. Its faculty members make up an elite group of 72 of the most recognized leaders in their fields. Robert Novy-Marx (left), associate professor of finance at the Simon School, is a leading voice on the national discussion on government pensions and has even testified before Congress and at state capitals on the topic. His research has been covered in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times of London. Abraham Seidmann (below), Xerox Professor of Computers and Information Systems and Operations Management, has expertise in medical
informatics, electronic commerce, and health care management and is on the forefront of researching and understanding the business implications of information systems. Toni Whited (above), the Michael and Diane Jones Professor of Business Administration and professor of finance, researches the effects of financial frictions on corporate investment, econometric solutions for measurement error, the benefits of debt, and other aspects of corporate finance. She was one of the founding
SIMON BUSINESS SCHOOL; ISTOCK (BACKGROUND)
coeditors of Finance Research Letters.
40  UNDERSTANDING HOW THE WORLD WORKS
Transforming Economic Research Ronald W. Hansen, William H. Meckling Professor of Business Administration at the Simon Business School, senior associate dean for program development, and director of the Bradley Policy Research Center, has led transformative research on the economics of pharmaceutical innovation. In the 1970s, he was the first to estimate the full cost of developing new pharmaceuticals including the cost of failure and the time value of money. In framing this as an investment process, the industry changed how pharmaceutical research and development would be pursued in years to come. Today, the Simon School continues to shape ideas that
J. ADAM FENSTER
affect how the world does business.
Using Data Science to Make Informed Predictions Faculty scholars like John Duggan, who has a dual appointment in the Departments of Political Science and Economics, are using data science to predict how individual choices aggregate into larger behaviors affecting groups. Such analyses are useful in predicting voting behavior and election outcomes and understanding the ups and downs of financial markets. Other scholars such as Curt Signorino of the Department of Political Science are using it to understand why countries go to war. By augmenting data mining tools from the areas of genetics and finance, he is comparing data on every combination of countries from the years 1900 to 2000, creating a model that fits the data more than three times better than standard techniques.
CONTRIBUTING IDEAS THAT SHAPE BUSINESS AND SOCIETY  41
J. ADAM FENSTER
Making Connections
42
Recognizing that opportunities and challenges no longer exist solely on a local or national scale, the University is focused on educating global citizens. Through partnerships, research, and educational programs across its entire system, the University of Rochester is making research discoveries that serve those around the world.
 43
Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) Partnership In 2012, Rochester joined WUN, a consortium of 17 global universities focused on collaborating to accelerate the creation of knowledge and developing leaders who will be prepared to address the significant challenges and opportunities in a rapidly changing world. WUN’s mission is to be one of the leading international higher education networks. Rochester is the only private university in the network. WUN combines the resources and intellectual power of its members through a research development fund that is focused on collabora tively addressing climate change, cultural understanding, international research and education, and public health and noncommunicable disease. WUN also hosts more than 85 interdisciplinary research groups, promotes short-term overseas research visits, and coordinates research-oriented events and conferences, as well as virtual seminars.
An undergraduate student and study abroad participant stands in front of the Aurora, a former Russian cruiser, and now museum in St. Petersburg.
44 MAKING CONNECTIONS
Davis United World College Scholarship Program
More than 3,000 students
Rochester is a new partner of the Davis United World
ter’s, and doctoral degrees at
College Scholarship Program, the largest undergradu-
Commencement each year.
ate scholarship program in the world. The program has
In 2013, Steven Chu, a 1970
increased global diversity on campuses in the United
graduate, Nobel laureate in
States by awarding more than $70 million to more
physics, and U.S. Secretary
than 4,000 disadvantaged students from United World
of Energy from 2008 to 2013,
College high schools since 2000. The high schools are
inspired them with his Com-
located in such places as Bosnia and Herzegovina,
mencement address. Chu is
China, India, Norway, and Swaziland.
recognized worldwide for his
Internationally Focused Programs on the River Campus
receive their bachelor’s, mas-
significant contributions to global energy solutions.
The University offers a variety of programs that build on students’ increasing interest in world affairs. For instance, it offers undergraduate degree programs in international relations and in area studies, including East Asian studies, a program that provides interdisciplinary approaches to global questions. Study abroad is also an important part of the undergraduate experience. In fact, more than one-third participate in these programs—double the national average. Students in English, history, engineering, and virtually all majors benefit from the rich opportunities available to them. The University has also been designated as one of the “Top Producers of U.S. Fulbright Student Scholars, J. ADAM FENSTER (TOP AND RIGHT); YELENA KERNOGITSKI
2013–14.” In 2013 alone, 15 students received that honor, giving them opportunities to advance their studies, perform research, and teach English abroad while serving as young ambassadors to their host countries. Since 2001, 83 students here have been named Fulbright student scholars. In 2012, the University established an Intercultural Center on the River Campus. This is a dedicated place for cultural groups to interact, collaborate, and foster increased understanding and appreciation of each other.
MAKING CONNECTIONS 45
If your institution is interested in visiting the University of Rochester, please send details of your delegation to University of Rochester Office of the Provost 200 Wallis Hall Rochester, NY 14627 USA global@rochester.edu www.rochester.edu/global/research/innovation-book
UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS 路 0942-1M-414SV