News by Topic: Women

Rochester has a proud history of breaking barriers and fighting for social change. Susan B. Anthony and Anna Murray Douglass were Rochesterians and our community continues to celebrate their social contributions. RIT upholds a tradition of social equity by supporting female students with a host of clubs and organizations, as well as community resources, that provide platforms for meaningful discussion centering on feminine social justice.

  • January 20, 2022

    athletic director standing near Tiger logo on basketball court.

    Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 55: Meet Jackie Nicholson, who became just the fifth athletic director in RIT's history last summer, and the first woman to ever hold the position. She talks with Lauren Zeglen, co-captain of RIT's women’s soccer team and president of the university’s Student Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) about the future of RIT Athletics, the experience of student athletes on campus and the role of sports in creating a more equitable university.

  • January 17, 2022

    environmental portrait of professor Poornima Padmanabhan.

    RIT professor Poornima Padmanabhan honored with NSF CAREER Award

    Scientists look to space for origins of the solar system; chemical engineers like Poornima Padmanabhan are searching for the origins of life based on minute systems of molecules. Padmanabhan recently received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award for “Chirality and polymer thermodynamics: frustration and amplification.”

  • January 13, 2022

    side-by-side portraits of Tomicka Wagstaff, Tanvi Asher, and Stephanie Paredes.

    Three RIT community members named finalists for the ATHENA International Young Professional Award

    Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce and its Women’s Council have named three RIT community members as finalists for the 2022 ATHENA International Young Professional Award, which recognizes emerging female leaders in the 30- to 45-year-old range who demonstrate excellence, creativity, and initiative in their business or profession and serve as a role model for young women.

  • December 20, 2021

    illustration of galaxies in space outside a bedroom window.

    The Atlantic 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.

  • December 10, 2021

    side-by-side portraits of Jackie Wiley and Dylan Ayrey.

    RIT trailblazers make the Forbes 30 Under 30 list

    Forbes has identified a few of the RIT alumni set to define the next decade—and beyond. Two RIT alumni—and a third just a few months shy of the age cut-off—were named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for 2022. Jackie Wiley ’16 (game design and development) was honored in the Games category, and Dylan Ayrey ’15 (computer engineering) was named in the Enterprise Technology category.