News by Topic: Women

Associate Professor Moumita Das is part of a team of researchers that was recently awarded a $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation to design and create next-generation materials inspired and empowered by biological cells. The team’s goal is to create self-directed, programmable, and reconfigurable materials—using biological building blocks including proteins and cells—that are capable of producing force and motion.

Elena Rakhimova-Sommers, principal lecturer in RIT’s Department of English, has taught Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel, Lolita, in her Dangerous Texts course for many years. As the #MeToo movement gained strength and global attention in 2018, however, the novel became particularly relevant.

To help address a lack of diversity, as well as gaps in AI curricula, RIT was awarded a grant of nearly $2 million by the NSF to create a new research traineeship program for graduate students

The $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has expanded RIT’s accredited Priority Behavioral Health and Clinical Psychology Internship program to focus on delivering integrated care for young clients who struggle with substance use, mental health issues, and trauma from exposure to high rates of violence within the community.

W. Michelle Harris, an associate professor in RIT’s School of Interactive Games and Media, has had her piece In Their Wake, an interactive digital memorial to the forgotten Black people who developed Rochester, selected for the 67th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition, the region’s longest-running juried exhibition. Harris is one of 28 members of the RIT community who had pieces selected for the exhibition.

Guiping Hu recently began her new role as the sustainability department head at Golisano Institute for Sustainability. Hu arrived on campus from Iowa State University, where she served on the faculty of the Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering department.

The thousands of students who belong to the more than 300 clubs and organizations at RIT face fewer restrictions this semester when gathering to play a sport, sing, dance, do community service work, or discuss common topics of interest. On Saturday, representatives from more than 230 of RIT’s student clubs and organizations attended the Tiger Activities Fair.

WXXI’s “Connections” program features Enid Cardinal, senior advisor to the president for strategic planning and sustainability, and Kimie Romeo, adjunct professor of environmental management.

LaVerne McQuiller Williams, professor and current interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts, has been named associate provost for Faculty Affairs at the university, effective Sept. 1. In this role, McQuiller Williams will oversee the Office of Faculty Affairs, within the Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Shanti Thakur—who began her new role as director of RIT’s School of Film and Animation in the College of Art and Design earlier this month—is an award-winning fiction and documentary filmmaker who has taught for nearly two decades.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded RIT the NIH Prize for Enhancing Faculty Gender Diversity in Biomedical and Behavioral Science. The prize went to 10 institutions that have acted to effect systemic change in gender diversity and equity among faculty members within their biomedical and behavioral science departments, centers, or divisions.

RIT alumna Brig. Gen. Stacy Babcock ’91 (criminal justice), ’96 (educational interpreting), ’98 MS (instructional technology) has been named deputy commanding general and Reserve Personnel Management Directorate director for U.S. Army Human Resources Command (HRC) in Fort Knox, Ky.