NJIT in the News

NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts (CSLA) recently honored faculty, staff, students and alumni for outstanding work.

Neil M. Maher, PhD, associate professor, chair and graduate coordinator of the department of history, received the 2009 Robert Van Houten Award for Teaching Excellence from the NJIT Alumni Association on June 13. Maher recently published Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (Oxford University Press, 2008) and is currently researching and writing an environmental history of the space race during the 1960s and 1970s.

The NJIT Alumni Association annually honors a select group of distinguished alumni for their notable achievements in their professional careers, community activities, and/or support of NJIT. This year’s event will honor a group of New Jersey residents who made their marks in the fields of architecture, engineering and more. Set for Saturday, June 13, 2009, at 4 p.m. at NJIT, the event caps Alumni Weekend at the University. 

NJIT will host a free screening and discussion of the internationally acclaimed film Revolution ’67 on April 28 at 6 p.m. in the Jim Wise Theatre. The film reconstructs the response of Newark’s black citizens and the actions of police and city leaders to the “Newark riots” of 1967 and also examines their subsequent influence on the life of NJ’s largest urban center. Filmmakers Marylou Tibaldo-Bongiorno and Jerome Bongiorno (at left) will attend the screening and participate in a discussion. Revolution ’67 has garnered accolades that include the 2008 John E. O’Connor Film Award of the American Historical Association; O’Connor, NJIT professor emeritus of history, will attend the screening. 

The Society of Women Engineers and NJIT's Murray Center for Women in Technology will wrap up Women’s History Month at NJIT with an evening panel discussion focusing on how women can take the lead to save the planet. The talk will be held on March 30, 5:30-9 p.m. in Eberhardt Hall, Rm. 112 at NJIT. Dora Maria Abreu, assistant vice president and senior business analyst for the global technology integration group of Pershing LLC, will moderate a panel of successful female business executives, engineers and architects. For more information, contact Sara Mina or Talina Knox.

Richard B. Sher, PhD, a distinguished professor of history at NJIT, has been elected a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE). Sher, of Maplewood, is one of only 44 new Fellows and one of five new Corresponding Fellows.

Green farmer and sustainability activist Carolyn Llewellyn provided timely information on buying and growing organic food, eco-friendly recycling and other actions toward living a greener lifestyle last week at the ACE-Network Spring Workshop.  "Little steps make a huge difference, so we shouldn't be scared to start changing things, said Llewellyn. "As you get used to one change, take on another." The event was part of NJIT’s celebration of Women’s History Month 2009. For more information, contact Talina Knox at 973-642-4671 or view the calendar.

“Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet” is the inspirational theme of a plethora of intriguing events this month at NJIT to celebrate Women’s History Month. Join NJIT for activities ranging from green, money-saving tips to a lecture from a Harvard sustainability guru about saving the planet. Except where noted, all events are free and open to the public. For further information, please contact: Talina Knox at 973-642-4671 or view the calendar.

NJIT wraps up Black History Month with an unusual three-dimensional interactive art installation, celebrating diversity and created by a group of more than a dozen diverse architecture students of Latino, Asian and African American descent.    

Richard B. Sher, PhD, a professor of history at NJIT and a former Guggenheim Fellow, has received a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship to edit a volume of the correspondence of James Boswell, the eighteenth-century Scottish writer. Boswell was best known for his biography of Samuel Johnson. Sher’s research focuses on the thought and culture of 18th century Scotland.

Irving McPhail, PhD, the executive vice president and chief operating officer for National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME) kicks off  NJIT’s opening celebrations for Black History Month with a lecture about America, black history and advances in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). 

A new book by Carol S. Johnson, PhD, assistant professor in the department of humanities at NJIT, shows how archives available in local and state libraries across the U.S. can provide rich sources of technical communication history and examples of technical and business writing. In The Language of Work: Technical Communication at Lukens Steel, 1810 to 1925 (Baywood Publishing Company, Inc., 2009), Johnson explains that our predecessors eventually turned logs and notes into standardized texts and industry bibles, creating many of the types of information design that we use today. A podcast series related to the book is available at http://web.njit.edu/~cjohnson/lukens.htm

Irving McPhail, EdD, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME) will discuss “America, Black History and S.T.E.M.: A Seminal Convergence in Time” on Feb. 4 at 2:30 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom, followed by a reception in the Campus Center Second Floor Gallery. The event will kick off NJIT's Black History Month celebration.

Congratulations to NJIT Professors Richard Sher and Raquel Perez-Castillejos on their recent accomplishments.

Searching for an up-and-coming newsmaker for 2009 to round-off your new year’s spotlight? Why not take a closer look at three young, dynamic NJIT professors with a visit to “Spotlight” in the NJIT Newsroom.  There you’ll find the following three winning professors with contact information so you can reach them today! 

The Great Depression collided with a wave of natural disasters, including the Dust Bowl and devastating floods of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Recovering from these calamities—and preventing their reoccurrence—was a major goal of the New Deal. In Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement (Oxford University Press, 2007), NJIT author and professor Neil M. Maher recounts the history of one of Franklin D. Roosevelt's boldest and most successful experiments, the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Karl Schweizer, PhD, a professor in the federated department of history at NJIT, has been elected a fellow of the New York Academy of Arts in recognition of his contributions to historical studies.

Lisa Nocks, PhD, a lecturer in the Federated Department of History at NJIT/Rutgers-Newark, will discuss her research on "The Android Initiative in Fiction and Science" at the Spring 2008 Albert Dorman Honors College Colloquium Series. The presentation, which is open to the public, will be held on March 10, 11:30-a.m.-1 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom at NJIT. 

NJIT History Professor Richard Sher has received one of the American Historical Association’s highest honors for his 800-page text about the history of books in the 18th century.

ESPN network’s SportsCenter anchor Linda Cohn will be the guest speaker at the 25th Anniversary of Women in Athletics, NJIT’s first celebration dedicated to its letterwomen. Alumnae-athlete pioneers from basketball to swimming, soccer to volleyball, will rally on Saturday, March 29, 2008 in the Campus Center Atrium at NJIT.

Karl Schweizer, PhD, a professor in NJIT's Department of History, will be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a research body founded in 1754.

History Professor To Receive Award for Book on 18th-Century Scottish Authors and PublishersRichard B. Sher, distinguished professor of history and chair of the federated history department at NJIT, will receive the Leo Gershoy Award for The Enlightenment and the Book: Scottish Authors and Their Publishers in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and America (University of Chicago Press, 2006).  Dr. Sher will be presented with the award at the 122nd annual meeting of the American Historical Association on January 4, 2008 in Washington, DC.

Daniel A. Henderson, president of PhoneTel Communications, Inc. and a member of the Albert Dorman Honors College Board of Visitors, assisted the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in the acquisition of two prototypes and related documentation for a pioneering wireless picturephone technology developed in 1993. Henderson recently was awarded six U.S. patents for innovation incorporated in the wireless system and device. The donation adds to a previous collection of wireless technology that Henderson donated to the museum’s Information Technology and Communications Division in 2003.

A way to provide electricity to New York City in the next century garnered a national award for a team of students at NJIT. The “City of the Future” contest sponsored by IBM, The History Channel, and the American Society of Civil Engineers named four NJIT electrical and computer engineering students “IBM Engineers of the Future.”

A weekend conference drawing East Coast female engineers and students headlines the upcoming month-long events set for Women’s History Month at NJIT. The month kicks off this weekend, March 2-4, as more than 200 female engineering students and professionals from 68 engineering schools descend on the NJIT campus for the Eastern regional conference of the Society of Women Engineers. NJIT Provost Priscilla Nelson, PhD, will drive home this year’s theme—Diversity in Engineering—when she speaks at 8 a.m. on March 3.

Book Co-Authored by History Professor To Receive AAP/PSP AwardStephen Pemberton, PhD, an assistant professor in the federated department of history, has won the 2006 Association of American Publishers award in the History of Science category for his book The Troubled Dream of Genetic Medicine: Ethnicity and Innovation in Tay-Sachs, Cystic Fibrosis, and Sickle Cell Anemia (Johns Hopkins University Press). The award is presented by the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division.Humanities Professor To Receive CCCC Outstanding Book AwardOn a Scale: A Social History of Writing Assessment in America by Norbert Elliot, PhD, a professor in the department of humanities, has been selected as one of two winners of the 2007 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Outstanding Book Award. Dr. Elliot will be presented with the award on March 23, 2007 at the Awards/Retirement Session of the 2007 CCCC Convention in New York.

The relationship of race and ethnicity to treatments in the U.S. of genetic disorders is the focus of a new book co-authored by Stephen Pemberton, PhD, assistant professor in the federated department of history at NJIT. The Troubled Dream of Genetic Medicine: Ethnicity and Innovation in Tay-Sachs, Cystic Fibrosis and Sickle Cell Disease investigates critical issues arising from efforts to utilize genetics in American health care.

Robots have been to the moon, to Mars and even, in the form of vacuum cleaners, to shopping malls. But where they haven't been, and where they might be most useful, is in our homes, said Cynthia Breazeal, PhD, one of the nation’s leading roboticists who spoke yesterday at NJIT. “For robots, the final frontier isn’t space; it’s your living room," Breazeal said.

Join robot designer, researcher, author and inventor Cynthia Breazeal, PhD, when she introduces her robotic world to students, faculty and staff at NJIT on March 20. The public is invited to the event, which will take place 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom.

More than a dozen unique events ranging from a robot demonstration to free massages, roses and chocolates will number among the featured offerings when Women’s History Month gets underway on March 1 at NJIT. All events are free, open to the public and sponsored by NJIT's Murray Center for Women in Technology. Jacquelynne Eccles (left), a nationally recognized expert in adolescent psychology and career choice, will speak on March 6, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Campus Center second floor ballroom.

The NJIT Technology and Society Forum's spring program kicked off on Feb. 1 with a performance by the Advanced Mixed Chorus from Newark's Arts High School and vocalist Yvette Glover. Co-sponsored by the NJIT Educational Opportunity Program, the concert is part of the university's recognition of Black History Month and celebration of our nation's rich diversity.

The Advanced Mixed Chorus from Newark’s Arts High School and jazz singer Yvette Glover will perform at NJIT on Feb. 1, 2006 at 4 p.m. as part of the university’s celebration of Black History Month.The concert, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the NJIT Technology and Society Forum Series and the Educational Opportunity Program at NJIT.