News by Topic: Gifts

Continuing the university’s tradition of philanthropy, RIT is celebrating ROAR Day from midnight to midnight on Thursday, Oct. 3. ROAR Day is an annual day of giving that provides a unique opportunity for people to help support a specific area of the university that enriched their RIT experience.

RIT has received a $1.3 million gift to endow its partnership between the university and Genesee Country Village & Museum. The gift comes from RIT alumnus Philip Wehrheim and his wife, Anne. Wehrheim received a degree in business from RIT in 1966.

RIT had its second best year ever in sponsored research funding and a record year for research expenditures in fiscal year 2019. RIT received 366 new awards totaling $74 million in funding, and expenditures grew to $58 million.

NASA is awarding a team of researchers from RIT and Dartmouth College a grant to develop a detector capable of sensing and counting single photons that could be crucial to future NASA astrophysics missions. The extremely sensitive detector would allow scientists to see the faintest observable objects in space, such as Earth-like planets around other stars.

RIT President David Munson this morning welcomed back the community, saying that the university is positioned for another exciting academic year.

RIT will welcome the 10th class of Destler/Johnson Rochester City Scholars, a program that has provided more than 200 graduates of the Rochester City School District and Rochester charter schools with the opportunity to attend RIT tuition-free since 2010. RIT will also welcome the first two recipients of the Mark and Maureen Davitt Graduate Education Endowed Scholarship.

The National Science Foundation awarded RIT a grant to conceptualize a new institute that would be at the forefront of quantum science and technology. RIT received $150,000 in funding from the NSF’s Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes program to create a plan for an institute that would expand quantum science and technology capabilities through quantum photonic integrated circuits.

Cybercrime is costing the world trillions of dollars, and analysts say that there aren’t enough qualified professionals to prevent those attacks. To address this problem, RIT is creating the Global Cybersecurity Institute (GCI), aimed at meeting the demand for computing security and artificial intelligence professionals, while developing future technologies, protocols and human understanding needed to address the global cybersecurity crisis.

RIT’s genomics research capabilities have evolved significantly over the past year. The university has invested heavily in revamping and equipping its Genomics Research Lab Cluster. The overhauled genomics facilities will boost capabilities for researchers in multiple disciplines, including bioinformatics, biotechnology and environmental science.

Kevin J. Surace ’85 (electrical engineering technology) will be honored for his support of the university with the Outstanding Alumnus of 2019 award at the Presidents’ Alumni Ball on Oct. 18 during Brick City Homecoming and Family Weekend. The award is the highest honor RIT can bestow upon an alumnus.

Three deaf and hard-of-hearing students in business-related majors at NTID received a new scholarship funded by the Frank B. Sullivan Memorial Foundation.

In an effort to expand science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education for all, RIT is developing a new program to help other colleges compete for federal government funding that supports programming for talented, low-income students.