Research at RIT

Andrea Ghez, a 2020 Nobel Prize winner in physics for her research in discovering one of the most exotic phenomena in the universe—the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy—will be the 2021 Rochester Institute of Technology commencement speaker on May 14 and 15.

Transitioning demanding engineering classes to the online environment throughout the pandemic was a challenge, but Associate Professor Amanda Bao adjusted by supplementing lectures with a series of interactive and accessible materials that enhanced student learning.

When the James Webb Space Telescope—the long-awaited successor to the Hubble Space Telescope—becomes operational in 2022, one of its first orders of business will be mapping the earliest structures of the universe. A team of nearly 50 researchers led by principal investigator Jeyhan Kartaltepe and other scientists at RIT and University of Texas at Austin will attempt to do so.

Quinn Kolt, a fourth-year applied mathematics and computer science double major from Solon, Ohio, has been awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the premier undergraduate research scholarship in the fields of math, natural sciences, and engineering in the United States.

Renovation work inside RIT’s College of Art and Design—including key areas within the internationally recognized School of Photographic Arts and Sciences—is part of a five-year masterplan that has already begun to renovate, rejuvenate, and transform spaces to meet the growing demands for a college that serves as the university’s intersection of technology, art, and design.

Associate Professor Amanda Bao brings extensive experience in building bridges and strong connections to students to her classroom, and she is being honored with a 2021 Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Professor Mark Fairchild, head of the Integrated Sciences Academy and director of the Munsell Color Science Laboratory and the program of color science in RIT’s College of Science, received the 2021 Otto Schade Prize, which recognizes vision scientists, human factor engineers, and engineers whose efforts have led to major improvements in the visual quality of electronic displays.

Scientific American talks to Jeyhan Kartaltepe, assistant professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, about the program she is leading to use the James Webb Space Telescope to study thousands of the earliest galaxies in the universe.