Recent News
Explore our News Archive and the University of Rochester Newscenter for news from previous years. Be sure to check out our Upcoming Events for what's happening next, and connect with us on your favorite social media platforms!
Open Scholarship Awards
The Open Scholarship Community Rochester recently presented its annual awards to several Hajim School students. The Open Scholarship Awards celebrate early career scholars who have demonstrated exemplary efforts in making their research open and accessible to the wider community. Congratulations to the following Hajim School PhD students who received awards in the engineering category:
Breathing life-saving services into rural communities
Professor Benjamín Castañeda ’09 (PhD) leads a global effort to meet critical needs for medical technology. The project is emblematic of Castañeda’s career: bringing medical technology to people who would otherwise not have access.
Gaofei Jin Wins SPIE Medical Imaging 2025 All-Conference Best Student Paper Award
Gaofei Jin, a second-year BME Ph.D. student in the Mehr Lab, was selected as a finalist for the SPIE Medical Imaging 2025 All-Conference Best Student Paper Award. He earned this recognition by winning the Best Paper Award at the "Ultrasonic Imaging and Tomography" conference.
Susana Marcos receives the 2025 Edgar D. Tillyer Award
Susana Marcos, the David R. Williams Director of the Center for Visual Science, the Nicholas George Professor in Optics, and a professor of ophthalmology at Rochester, was selected as the 2025 recipient of the Edgar D. Tiller Award by Optica. The award is presented to an individual who has performed distinguished work in the field of vision, including but not limited to the optics, physiology, anatomy, or psychology of the visual system.
Hannah Rickerts ‘25 wins award from AbbVie for migraine sufferers
Hannah Rickert is a senior at the University of Rochester who experiences chronic migraines. She is also a winner of the first-ever AbbVie Migraine Career Catalyst Award contest, which awarded 20 individuals up to $2,500 to help support their career aspirations.
Tissue-on-chip technology holds promise to reduce animal testing
Can computers take over and put an end to animal testing? James McGrath, William R. Kenan, Jr. professor of biomedical engineering, examines this question.
Kaihua (Chloe) Chen Receives Funding from the International Foundation for Ethical Research (IFER)
Kaihua (Chloe) Chen, a biomedical engineering PhD candidate, recently received a spotlight from the International Foundation for Ethical Research (IFER). Chloe, who is a member of the McGrath Lab, received a IFER Graduate Fellowship to pursue her groundbreaking project, “In Vitro Studies of Biophysical and Molecular Determinants of the Blood-Brain Barrier During Sepsis and Systemic Inflammation.” The fellowship is aimed at helping advance human-relevant research practices that reduce reliance on animal models.
Loralai Crawford ('24/Take5 '25) Featured Researcher Ambassador
Loralai Crawford (‘24/Take5 '25), BME major, has been featured by the University Office of Undergrad Research in their Student Research Corner. Each month they feature a few students so that you can learn about what types of research they are doing and give their peers advice on starting their own research experience.
Researchers Seek New Treatments for a Common Surgical Complication: Abdominal Adhesions
University of Rochester researchers Alayna Loiselle, PhD, and Nicole Wilson, PhD, MD, have earned a $3 million grant to investigate a complication that befalls more than half of all abdominal surgery patients: post-operative adhesions that can cause serious and sometimes lifelong health problems.
Jannick Rolland receives SPIE A.E. Conrady Award
Jannick Rolland, Director of the Center for Freeform Optics and the Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical Engineering, is the recipient of the A.E. Conrady Award in Optical Engineering from SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.
Allison Lopatkin receives NSF CAREER Award
Allison Lopatkin ’13, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, and microbiology and immunology, has received a 2024 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation.
Mark Buckley: Biomedical engineering as a passion worth sharing
The innovative professor prioritizes inclusiveness in the classroom.
How does the brain cut through noise to understand speech?
Rochester researchers investigate how visual cues enhance the brain’s ability to understand speech in noisy environments.