Research News

Nathaniel Barlow, associate professor in RIT’s School of Mathematical Sciences, and Steven Weinstein, head of RIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, outline a solution to the SIR epidemic model, which is commonly used to predict how many people are susceptible to, infected by, and recovered from viral epidemics, in a study published in Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena.

A team of RIT researchers will explore how tiny particles of plastic pollution are impacting Lake Ontario thanks to new funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The multidisciplinary group will examine how microplastics are transported and transformed in the lake, where they ultimately end up and what effects they have on the ecosystem.

City Newspaper talks to Juliette Daily, mathematical modeling Ph.D. student, and Matthew Hoffman, assistant professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences, about their research on plastic pollution in Lake Erie.

Professor Emeritus Roger Dube was recently awarded a prestigious Fulbright fellowship for a project to increase retention of First Nations students in STEM higher education programs. The project will take place at the University of Manitoba, where he is serving as Visiting Indigenous Scholar.

RIT honored its 2020 class of Distinguished Faculty—Manuela Campanelli, Satish Kandlikar and James Perkins. The Distinguished Professor designation is given to tenured faculty who have shown continued excellence over their careers in teaching, scholarly contributions, lasting contributions in creative and professional work and service to both the university and community.

BuzzFeed talks to Michael Peres, professor and associate chair, School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, about capturing images of microscopic viruses and bacteria.

Michael Richmond considers himself a “lucky guy.” As a professor in RIT’s School of Physics and Astronomy, he gets to spend his workdays talking about the subjects that have fascinated him since he was young. His passion for teaching physics and astronomy shines through so brightly that this year it earned him an Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching,

Nabil Nasr, RIT’s associate provost and founding director of the Golisano Institute for Sustainability, has been appointed a Trustee by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, formed in 2010 to inspire a generation to rethink, redesign and build a positive future through the vision of a circular economy. 

Alyssa Owens is contributing new ways to diagnose breast cancer and Poornima Kalyanram has discovered how fluorescent molecules might help to identify diseased cells. Karen Soule and Fatemeh Shah-Mohammadi are part of breakthrough work in developing carbon nanotubes and cognitive radio networks—advances in technology that will power tomorrow’s electronic devices. All four are on track to graduate with a Ph.D. in engineering.

Austin Gehret, an associate professor in NTID's Department of Science and Mathematics, was honored for his research project exploring the development of an e-learning model for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Gehret’s research is especially vital during the COVID-19 pandemic as remote learning for all students has become the “new normal.”

An Ohio-based explosives company called Austin Powder has turned to RIT scientists for a creative approach to quantifying nitrogen oxide gases that on rare occasions are released during mining operations.

An RIT scientist has been tapped by the National Science Foundation to solve a fundamental problem that plagues artificial neural networks. Christopher Kanan, an assistant professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, received $500,000 in funding to create multi-modal brain-inspired algorithms capable of learning immediately without excess forgetting.