Marianthi Ierapetritou was one of the few female students majoring in chemical engineering. The story repeated itself throughout her academic career. Now the Distinguished Professor and chair of Rutgers-New Brunswick’s Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering will begin a new position as associate vice president for the promotion of women in science, engineering and mathematics – known as SciWomen – a role that will enable her to inspire and support women in the STEM fields.
An estimated 106,000 people came to New Brunswick, Newark and Camden to celebrate all things Rutgers. The annual show-and-tell, which coincides with Alumni Weekend, offered festivalgoers more than 700 free performances, demonstrations and interactive activities.
Chenjerai Kumanyika, an assistant professor in Rutgers-New Brunswick’s School of Communication and Information and co-creator of the popular podcast Uncivil, was honored for an episode called “The Raid,” which recounts the real-life story of the planning and execution of a covert operation that led to the freeing of 750 enslaved men, women and children.
A new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that one in 34 children in the state are affected by autism, a 19 percent increase from two years ago. That compares to one in 59 children nationwide, which represented a 15 percent increase. Walter Zahorodny, an associate professor of pediatrics at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School who directed the New Jersey portion of the study, called the results “consistent, broad and startling.”
The Committee to Advance our Common Purposes recently presented the Leaders in Faculty Diversity Awards and the Clement A. Price Human Dignity Awards to honor Rutgers faculty, staff and organizations who demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equality, inclusion and access at Rutgers and in society. The awards were presented to universitywide honorees during a ceremony attended by more than 100 people.
A study of a fungus that is harmful to rice – a grain that feeds roughly half the world's population – led by Rutgers-New Brunswick's Ning Zhang, an associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology and the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology – may help researchers discover ways to fight and prevent crop and plant diseases worldwide.
For A.J. Arnold, a first-year Rutgers-Camden student who served as the voice of the South Jersey March for Our Lives, this was personal. “As one of the survivors of the Parkland shooting said, it’s not an issue of gayness or whiteness or whatever. All young people are at risk,” Arnold said. But some are more at risk than others, he concedes, including himself in that category as a member of the transgender community.
Leslie Kantor, former vice president of education for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, is known as a leader in sexual and reproductive health and an advocate for underserved and marginalized populations. Read our Q&A to learn more about Kantor’s plans for addressing inequality in her new role leading the Urban-Global Public Health program in the School of Public Health in Newark.
Janay Lima has known exactly where she wanted to work since her senior year of high school. But she didn’t know how to make it happen. It wasn’t until she walked into University Career Services after transferring from a community college that she learned how to go about landing her dream job. Lima is one of thousands of students across Rutgers to get help identifying their career paths and applying for jobs. Learn more about the programs at each Rutgers location tailored for the students.
Women who are sexually assaulted and suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can learn to decrease negative thoughts and enhance self-worth by a combining meditation and aerobic exercise, according to a new Rutgers University-New Brunswick study. “The #MeToo movement and other platforms have provided women with an opportunity to tell their stories of sexual harassment and assault. It is important that we also provide them with new ways to help them recover from these experiences,” says study author Tracey Shors, distinguished professor in the Department of Psychology and Center for Collaborative Neuroscience, both in the School of Arts and Sciences.
Barbara Ostfeld, a pediatrics professor and program director at the SIDS Center of New Jersey, based at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Hackensack Meridian Health., developed the free app with Thomas Hegyi, the center’s co-medical director, to educate parents and caregivers on safe infant sleep practices, such as placing an infant on his or her or back in a crib that does not contain blankets or bumpers.
Rutgers Day, the university’s annual welcome and show-and-tell for New Jersey residents of all ages, will take place Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, offers more than 700 free performances, demonstrations and interactive activities. The celebration includes programming at all three of the university’s locations – Camden, New Brunswick and Newark.