Message from the Provost

I am very pleased to present the 2021 Faculty Scholarship Report. This compendium of scholarly work by RIT faculty and students represents the best of who we are as scholars and creative artists. The report provides several examples of exceptional individual and group achievements. It contains a list of the awards won, articles and books published, juried shows exhibited, and editorships undertaken by faculty members and students in 2021. I hope you take a few minutes to review the work and take pride in your own and others’ accomplishments.

The scholarly and artistic efforts within this report each contribute to RIT’s growing national reputation. Many have direct and positive impacts on communities here in western New York and around the world. The work ranges from researching cellular mechanisms to developing novel treatments for tissue regeneration and pain reduction to open-access apps that create awareness to help stop the spread of hate and violence online to turning harmful waste streams into valuable resources. It puts RIT and its research at the heart of some of the world’s most technical, scientific, and social challenges. RIT’s vision for the future, embodied in the university’s strategic plan, Greatness Through Difference, sets ambitious research and scholarship goals by the year 2025. The work showcased in this report demonstrates the many ways that RIT’s world-class faculty are steadily achieving these goals.

In fiscal year 2022, RIT had a record year in acquiring $92 million in sponsored research funding. Total expenditures are still being calculated but we believe we will exceed last year’s total. RIT also had two new NSF Career Award Winners, Poornima Padmanabhan in chemical engineering and Daniel Krutz in software engineering, bringing our total to 16 such winners since 2014. Some of the major sponsors of research at RIT in FY22 include NSF ($13.5 million), the Department of Defense ($8.6 million), NIH ($6.7 million) and both NASA and the Department of Energy ($2.5 million each).

I want to thank each faculty member who took the time to contribute to this report. The diversity and quality of your scholarly and artistic work exemplify our success as a Carnegie Research 2 Institution.

I hope you will enjoy this report and the spotlight it places on our faculty’s scholarly achievements.

Ellen Granberg, Ph.D.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Rochester Institute of Technology