Achievements in Research, Academics, Fundraising, Service to the State Defined 2009 at Rutgers

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers’ role as an economic engine channeling billions into the state economy continued in 2009. It was underscored by job creation spurred by facilities construction as well as federal investment leading to important economic outcomes for New Jersey. The year also was defined by research breakthroughs in science and technology; public accolades for faculty, staff and students; and initiatives seeking solutions to pressing issues.

Economic Impact

Rutgers: A powerful economic engine across New Jersey

“Solutions from Rutgers,” the university’s 2009 economic impact report, showed that Rutgers and its faculty, staff, students and visitors channel $3.8 billion in direct and indirect spending into the state economy – more than six times the state’s $595.3 million investment in the university.

Rutgers University’s $500 million economic stimulus creates 5,000 jobs

Citing prudent fiscal policies and strong credit ratings, Rutgers embarked on a $500 million capital construction program that will create new academic and student facilities while generating thousands of badly needed construction jobs across the state.

Rutgers announces record-breaking year in fundraising

Donors to Rutgers University have set a record in private giving for the third year in a row. More than $128 million in new gifts and pledges were received during the 2008-2009 fiscal year, a 6-percent increase over last year’s total.

University sets record in grants and contracts

Grants and contracts to Rutgers faculty totaled more than $391 million in the fiscal year ending June 30 with the largest increase coming in federal government grants, which rose from $211.2 million to $268.4 million.

Stimulus package funds important research at Rutgers

Federal investment in the university’s people and programs will help produce important economic outcomes for the state and nation – through workforce development, research and development, technology commercialization, small business growth, policy analysis and forecasting, technical assistance and low- and no-cost business, government, and human services.

University Initiatives

First-ever Rutgers Day brings 50,000 to New Brunswick campuses

Rutgers welcomed 50,000 visitors to the first Rutgers Day on April 25, an opportunity for New Jerseyans of all ages to explore their state university.

Wendell Pritchett named chancellor of Rutgers-Camden Campus

Wendell E. Pritchett, a noted scholar in urban history and policy and an experienced government and university administrator, was appointed chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden. In November, Pritchett was named co-chair of the transition team for Camden Mayor-elect Dana Redd.

Rutgers to establish School of Nursing in Camden

Rutgers launched the planning process for a comprehensive School of Nursing at the Rutgers–Camden Campus.

University welcomes second group of Rutgers Future Scholars

Nearly 200 seventh-graders from Rutgers’ host communities were welcomed into the Rutgers Future Scholars program by

President Richard L. McCormick and other officials. They became the second cohort to be given the opportunity to attend Rutgers tuition free after successfully completing the five-year program. As part of an educational project, students in the program conceived T-shirt designs that were produced and marketed by Rutgers alumnus Marc Ecko’s Sweat Equity Enterprises.

Rutgers initiates veterans’ services programs

Building on a yearlong effort to better serve men and women returning from military service to seek higher education, Rutgers announced a series of initiatives to assist student veterans on its three campuses in Camden, New Brunswick and Newark.

University participates in nation’s first statewide prescription drug disposal program

To combat the growing trend of prescription drug abuse, Rutgers participated in Operation Medicine Cabinet New Jersey. The program allows residents to bring unused, unwanted or expired medications to law enforcement officials for safe disposal.

Rutgers Against Hunger marks first anniversary

Rutgers Against Hunger (RAH) made strides addressing hunger and related problems amid the economic downturn that strained the resources of families across New Jersey. In its first year, the universitywide initiative collected 27 tons of food, raised $105,000 and inspired countless volunteer efforts to help the hungry. In July, Rutgers partnered with Johnson & Johnson and the city of New Brunswick to open a farmer’s market catering to the nutritional needs and tastes of residents in the neighborhood adjacent to the Cook Campus.

Reaching campus and beyond: University launches Rutgers Today

As more people rely on the Internet for the latest news, Rutgers launched a new, web-based service to better inform the public about The State University of New Jersey.

Research Milestones

Submersible glider reaches Spain

The Scarlet Knight, the first submersible robot glider to cross the Atlantic, made its formal entrance into the port of Baiona on Dec. 9, received by Spanish and American government officials, school children and the people of the town.

Army tank rides on Rutgers recycled plastic

A Rutgers-developed “lumber” made from recycled plastic carried a 70-ton Army tank, making the first crossing of a plastic lumber bridge at Fort Bragg, N.C., designed by Army engineers, working with Rutgers and manufacturing licensee Axion International.

Researchers make progress toward AIDS vaccine

With the support of the National Institutes of Health and International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Gail and Eddy Arnold and their team have been able to take a piece of HIV that is involved with helping the virus enter cells, put it on the surface of a common cold virus, and then immunize animals with it. The research found that the animals made antibodies that can stop an unusually diverse set of HIV isolates or varieties.

Discoveries shed new light on how brain processes what the eye sees

Researchers at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience (CMBN) at Rutgers-Newark cited the need to develop a new framework for understanding “perceptual stability” through their discovery that visual input obtained during eye movements is processed by the brain but blocked from awareness.

Researchers find culprit in mysterious phytoplankton death

A chemical culprit responsible for the rapid, mysterious death of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean has been found by collaborating scientists at Rutgers University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).  This same chemical may hold unexpected promise in cancer research.

Scientists find greenhouse gases, ice sheet thickness among factors causing ice ages

Greenhouse gases have been around for hundreds of millennia, playing a key role in the start of the ice ages in the Northern Hemisphere 2.72 million years ago.

Fundraising and Grants

Researchers receive Gates Foundation funding

Three researchers at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences are receiving support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on projects to combat threats to world health and hunger, particularly in developing countries.

Rutgers selected to co-lead Homeland Security research center

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) selected Rutgers as the co-lead for a new DHS Center of Excellence to conduct research into the technological issues involved with maintaining homeland security. Rutgers and Purdue University will together receive up to $5 million per year over a period of six years, for an anticipated total of as much as $30 million.

NSF awards Rutgers $7.6 million for research, graduate education

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Rutgers University two grants worth $6.4 million to fund graduate research in clean and sustainable energy resources using biotechnology and nanotechnology. The foundation also awarded the university up to $1.25 million to extend practices developed under earlier NSF graduate research grants.

NIH awards $3.5 million for continuing research on effect of alcohol on unborn

Dipak Sarkar, professor of animal science at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, received a $3.5 million MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue researching the damaging effects of alcohol on the nervous systems of the unborn.

Rutgers to collaborate in $3.4 million prostate cancer research effort

Rutgers and two collaborators received a $3.4 million research grant to develop tools aimed at improving the identification of prostate cancer using MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging. The five-year grant, with funding in the first two years from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, was awarded by the National Institutes of Health under an initiative to promote industry and academic partnerships.

Academics

Africana Studies Department celebrates 40th anniversary

The Africana Studies Department of Rutgers-New Brunswick is celebrating its 40th anniversary this academic year. The recognition of Africana Studies as a discipline, and its attainment of departmental status at Rutgers and other institutions of higher education in America, is one of the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

School of Arts and Sciences launches signature courses on complex issues

New interdisciplinary courses that look at complex topics and issues such as climate change from multiple perspectives, taught by distinguished faculty, were launched in September as part of the continuing transformation of education under Douglas Greenberg, executive dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.

It’s now the School of Communication and Information

The School of Communication, Information and Library Studies officially became the School of Communication and Information (SC&I) on July 1, reflecting “the school’s mission at the very broadest level of scholarship and inquiry,” according to Dean Jorge Reina Schement. The school’s program offerings and requirements remain in place.

Facilities

Rutgers Business School moves to new facility in Newark

Rutgers Business School welcomed students and faculty to a new state-of-the-art building and headquarters at 1 Washington Park in Newark, a few blocks north of the school’s previous location. The new location is supported by shuttle transportation to easily get around the expanded Newark campus.

Rutgers dedicates new nursing building in New Brunswick

The College of Nursing at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, dedicated a new 18,000-square-foot building to better serve its 250 undergraduate students enrolled at the New Brunswick Campus.

University opens solar energy facility, accepts state award

Rutgers opened a seven-acre solar energy facility, one of the largest renewable energy systems on a single campus in the United States. The 1.4 megawatt solar farm generates approximately 11 percent of the electrical demand of the Livingston Campus and reduces the university’s carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1,300 tons per year. Rutgers also was named the 2009 Energy Educator of the Year as part of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities’ Clean Energy Leadership Awards.

New student counseling center opens

Rutgers opened a new Counseling, Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program, and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) Building on the College Avenue Campus, bringing a range of mental health services for students under one roof in a central location.

New Rutgers Visitor Center aims to ‘wow’ prospective students 

From the 42-foot-long “scarlet wall” to the interactive computer exhibits, the center is designed to offer a memorable welcome to first-time visitors and to serve as a source of pride as well as a gathering place for the university community.

Expanded Rutgers Stadium opens

Rutgers’ newly-expanded stadium with a capacity of 52,454 welcomed a sold-out crowd for the football season opener against Cincinnati on Sept. 7.

Rutgers’ Old Queens reigns for 200 years

The 200th anniversary of Old Queens, a national landmark and New Jersey’s oldest intact higher education building, was celebrated with a ceremonial ringing of its bell, donated by Colonel Henry Rutgers.

Students and Alumni

Rutgers students capture second place in College Fed Challenge

Months of intense work yielded rich results for the College Fed Challenge team fielded by the economics department at Rutgers-Newark.  On Dec. 2, the team finished second at the national finals in Washington, D.C.

Simon Gordonov wins Goldwater Scholarship

Rutgers men’s cross country and track and field student-athlete Simon Gordonov was named the recipient of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, a nationally-awarded honor.

Student wins Clarendon Scholarship

Rutgers University senior Corbin Laedlein received the prestigious Clarendon Scholarship from Oxford University Press to enable international students to study at Oxford.

Awards and Recognition

C. Vivian Stringer inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame; receives other honors

Head women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer joined NBA greats Michael Jordan, David Robinson, John Stockton and Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2009. In addition, Stringer attended a White House dinner, was honored by Lifetime Network, recognized by the National Coalition of 100 Black Women and named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania.

Rutgers faculty helped to shape Obama administration  

President-elect Barack Obama mined the talents of Rutgers faculty and staff in 2009 in crafting national policy for his administration.

Annette Gordon-Reed awarded Pulitzer, George Washington Book Prize

Rutgers-Newark history Professor Annette Gordon-Reed was awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in history for her landmark work, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family and the 2009 George Washington Book Prize, a $50,000 award given for the “most important book on America's founding era.”

New Rutgers-Newark Law School Dean John Farmer’s book on mistakes of 9/11 wins acclaim; Farmer appointed to review committee on Henry Louis Gates arrest case

Former state attorney general John J. Farmer Jr. became dean of Rutgers School of Law-Newark July 1 and also was lauded for his new book, The Ground, which details the misleading accounts by the administration and military about key aspects of the air and ground response on 9/11. His book was named one of the “100 Notable Books of 2009” by The New York Times Book Review. Farmer also was appointed to an independent committee to help identify the lessons learned from the high-profile arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Jayne Anne Phillips named National Book Award finalist

Jayne Anne Phillips, professor of English and founder and program director of the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers-Newark, received accolades for her fourth novel. Lark & Termite was selected as one of five finalists for the National Book Award in fiction. In December, it also was named among the “100 Notable Books of 2009” by The New York Times Book Review.

Institute of Medicine awards Rutgers’ David Mechanic 2009 Sarnat International Prize

The Institute of Medicine awarded the 2009 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health to David Mechanic, director of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research.

Rutgers-Camden filmmaker honored with Mexico’s Messenger of Peace Award 

Mexico honored Robert Emmons, associate director of the Rutgers–Camden Honors College, with a Carranza-Lindbergh Messenger of Peace Award for his 2007 film, “Goodwill: The Emilio Carranza Story.”

Nathan Yee receives Houtermans’ Medal for Geochemistry

Nathan Yee, assistant professor of chemistry, was selected by the European Association for Geochemistry as the 2009 Houtermans’ medalist, awarded to a junior researcher whose contributions to geochemistry are exceptional.

Public policy professor earns Council on Foreign Relations membership

Eduardo Gomez, an assistant professor of public policy at Rutgers University–Camden, has been elected to term membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, a signature accomplishment presented to a highly select group of exceptional young scholars.

Benedetto Piccoli installed as inaugural Lopez Chair holder at Rutgers-Camden

Hailed as “one of this generation’s most accomplished mathematicians,” international applied mathematics scholar Benedetto Piccoli was installed as the Joseph and Loretta Lopez Chair in Mathematics in Memory of Professor Leonard Bidwell.

Five Rutgers scholars elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Five Rutgers scholars – historian T.J. Jackson Lears, philosopher Stephen Stich, anthropologist Susan Cachel, sociologist Lee Clarke and neuroscientist James M.Tepper – were elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the nation’s pre-eminent learned society and research institution.

Rutgers names Tim Pernetti director of intercollegiate athletics      

Former Rutgers football player Tim Pernetti, executive vice president of CBS College Sports Network and familiar to Rutgers fans for his radio commentary, was named director of intercollegiate athletics.