Health Professions and Medical Sciences News

With the help of strong mentors, undergraduate researchers cultivate critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Conducting research can help students synthesize concepts they learned in their classes to create something new.

As an expert in microfluidic devices—tiny labs able to decipher bioparticles—Blanca Lapizco-Encinas and her research partners uncovered a mystery in how these particles can be better differentiated. As she has moved her own research forward, she is influencing a new generation of scientists to do the same.

RIT has an emerging new hotspot for interdisciplinary research about 25 minutes from the main campus. The Tait Preserve includes a 60-acre lake and a private mile of Irondequoit Creek adjacent to Ellison Park, offering endless opportunities for research, education, and conservation activities.

Gap Year Entrepreneurship Fellowships allow students to take time off from classes to focus on their growing business, new product, or compelling social innovation opportunity. In addition to the finances, RIT supports the students with mentoring and progress toward a degree.

RIT students have never had as many ways to pursue their love of performing arts than they do now. From scholarships, new clubs and classes, private music lessons, community partnerships, and exciting new venues being built on campus, performing arts for RIT students is literally becoming a show stopper.

All eyes were on international pharmaceutical giant Pfizer this past year as it raced to produce needed COVID-19 vaccines. Staff across the company—including Christopher Vollaro ’21 MS—played a role in the development and distribution process.

Attitudes about the COVID-19 vaccine, how sleep and age can affect memory, and how bodily secretions impact wounds are just three of the varied subjects to be discussed Saturday at the Honors Research and Creativity Symposium.

Alumni Brandy ’08 and Luiz ’07 Freitas, founding members of RIT’s Sentinel Society, are proud that they are able to give back to the university community that means so much to them. Each year, the generosity and impact of donors are honored during RIT’s Day of Thanks. Today, all RIT donors will be sent a “thank you” video message, and faculty and staff donors are encouraged to visit the Student Alumni Union until 1:30 p.m. to pick up a special chocolate bar.

For fourth-year dietetics and nutrition student Abigail Morrissey, sports nutrition is more than academics—it’s about debunking misinformation about food and body size that promotes unhealthy eating habits among young women athletes.

To help bridge new technology with current health care practices, organizations are recognizing the need to hire more health informatics professionals than ever. In an effort to help more qualified people step into this field, RIT has revised its health informatics master’s degree program and partnered with Rochester Regional Health.

Industrial Design students envisioned solutions for utilizing waste in the apple and dairy industries for the international Biodesign Challenge.

RIT students hoping to enter the healthcare IT workforce now have a jumpstart, as the university joins with the New York state chapter of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).