News by Topic: Women

Since graduating its first four students in 2011, the 3D digital design program—one of the first of its kind in the country—flourished under the tutelage of Marla Schweppe, who retired in December after nearly 29 years at RIT’s College of Art and Design.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 59: In July 2022, RIT opens a new School of Performing Arts to offer additional creative opportunities for thousands of students who wish to pursue their passions in performance while majoring in a range of other fields. College of Liberal Arts Dean Anna Stenport talks with Thomas Warfield, director of dance at NTID, and Assistant Professor Yunn-Shan Ma, director of the RIT Philharmonic Orchestra, on ways RIT is making dreams come true for students interested in performing arts.

A team of RIT scientists is poring over NASA data for new insights about Earth’s youngest, closest neighbors. Joel Kastner, a professor in RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and School of Physics and Astronomy, received nearly $400,000 for a NASA archival study to advance our understanding of newly formed stars and planets.

Mridhula Sreekumar's RIT journey began at the Dubai campus in her hometown, before coming to the Rochester campus to study abroad with Global Scholars.

Zoraa Victor, a fourth-year student in the dietetics and nutrition BS program in the Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition, will spend six weeks studying the plant-based Mediterranean diet at Perrotis College in Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece.

TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps to hit the market in a decade. Billions of social media users have found both community and entertainment in the vertical short videos that are central to TikTok’s format. With a combined nearly 1 million followers and 25 million “likes” between them, four RIT alumni are establishing themselves as social media influencers.

Brenda Abu, assistant professor in RIT’s Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition, seeks to understand the effect pica, iron deficiency anemia, and food insecurity have on maternal health during pregnancy. Pica refers to excessive craving and/or eating of non-food items, such as, clay, soil, paper, ice, and paint chips.

Astrophysical sciences and technology Ph.D. student Olivia Young earned a competitive fellowship from the National Science Foundation to develop machine learning algorithms that will help scientists use radio telescopes to study transient objects such as pulsars and fast radio bursts.

RIT students can soon begin earning a minor in an emerging field that could disrupt the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. RIT students can now take classes toward a minor in quantum information science and technology.

RIT students, alumni, and faculty have had another successful year securing prestigious Fulbright awards to pursue immersive global experiences. Three recent graduates received awards through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program for the 2022-2023 academic year and two faculty received Fulbright Scholar Awards.

Maria Morcos ’22 BS/MS (physician assistant) will spend the next academic year conducting a clinical asthma trial at the Royal College of Surgeons in Bahrain. It will be the first asthma clinical trial in the area.

Environmental science alumna Sydney VanWinkle ’19, ’21 MS will head to Madagascar this fall to study the impact that conservation initiatives have on local communities and the environment as part of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.