Fadi Deek, Ph.D., has been appointed acting dean of the College of Science and Liberal Arts (CSLA) at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).  The appointment is effective Dec. 1. A resident of East Brunswick, Deek, an NJIT Professor of Information Systems in the College of Computing Sciences (CCS), also holds a joint appointment in the department of mathematical sciences. >>

Scientists have long believed that the breakup of all fluids—whether produced by a dripping faucet, a splashing fountain or the sun’s boiling surface—exhibit the same type of dynamics. Now a group of scientists has discovered an exceptional dynamic associated with the breakup of a water drop in a highly viscous oil. This dynamic could potentially be used to create microscopically small fibers, wires and particles. >>

To help detect and study genetic changes in cells more quickly and efficiently, Timothy Chang, Ph.D., associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) was recently awarded a three-year, $640,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. >>

To help detect and study genetic changes in cells more quickly and efficiently, NJIT's Timothy Chang, PhD, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, was recently awarded a three-year, $640,000 National Science Foundation grant. Chang, working with Patricia Soteropoulos, PhD, Director of the Public Health Research Institute's Center for Applied Genomics, has developed a robotic technique for getting genetic material onto slides precisely, quickly, and cheaply. >>

Congressman Rush Holt, 54, the congressional representative for New Jersey’s 12th District, will speak Monday, Oct. 20, 11:30 a.m.- 1 p.m., at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Holt, a physicist who was associated for more than a decade with the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University, is one of the few scientists in Congress. >>

Up-to-the minute reports and photographs detailing magnetic fields, radiation and high-energy particles surrounding the sun will soon be available on a new website to be developed and operated by solar physicists at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). >>

Symeon Papavassiliou, Ph.D., an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), won the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Early Career Development Award to develop software tools and network architecture to better manage wireless and wired networks. >>

The FEMME summer program (Women in Engineering and Technology Initiative), which helps girls overcome the gender gap in math, science and engineering, will end with a rocket launch. Fifth-grade girls, who studied the fundamentals of aeronautical engineering, will launch model rockets they assembled in class. Other Femme classes will display projects they designed such as roller coasters, bridges and artificial bones. >>

The Research & Development Council of New Jersey has named Radha Sai Yamarthy, an incoming freshman at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), an Outstanding Science Scholar. >>

When NJIT's Suzanne quizzes quizzes the girls who arrive on campus every summer to study science as part of a program called FEMME,  she asks their opinion of engineers.   Mostly, Heyman says, the students agree that "engineers are nerds," that engineering is not a viable career choice for women, and that science is not something many of them are considering.   What a difference a few weeks of imaginative, exciting teaching can make, she says.   This year's class, 120 girls in grades four through eight, arrived on campus recently and will attend classes through August 7 as day students.   Most are either black or Hispanic and all are within commuting distance of Newark. Many come from low-income families.   But all are bright students who must get A's and B's in math and science and three letters of recommendation from teachers and guidance counselors.   The girls are grouped by grade and spend the summer on one of five interest areas, environment, aerospace science, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, and biomedical engineering.   The faculty design kid-friendly experiments and learning exercises.   For instance, this year's chemical engineering class is learning what makes a polymer turn into "slime," the slippery, gooey plastic sold as a toy.  They learn how chemical reactions change polymers from slimy to hard, says Heyman.   Another class is learning engineering principles by building bridges out of match sticks.   Working in teams--like real engineers--and using a glue gun, the girls design then secure their structures. They will later test their model bridges by placing 10-lb bags of sand on them. Heyman predicts the girls will learn that using cross-braced toothpicks makes a stronger bridge than when the toothpicks are glued together at right angles.   "They come up with some amazing designs," she says.   But in addition to the specifics these girls will learn, the real achievement of FEMME is opening the students' eyes to the possibilities science, math, and engineering offer women.   Nationally, over 90 percent of the jobs in math and science are held by men, according to FEMME data.   Heyman believes that through programs like NJIT's that trend will start to change.   Already about half of FEMME's alumnae who have finished college have gone on to math or science careers, says Heyman.   No one expects that the program will make a scientist of every girl who enters, but Heyman believes FEMME works. It starts wih changing thinking, she says.   At the end of last year's session, the students were again polled on their attitudes toward math, science, and engineering.   To the question "Girls can be engineers, do you agree or disagree?", only 19 percent had said they agreed at the start of the program. By the end of the session, 38 percent said they agreed. >>

Nobel Laureate Dudley Herschbach, a Harvard University Professor of Science, who won the coveted Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1986, recently left a standing-room-only crowd spellbound at New Jersey Institute of Technology’s (NJIT) College of Science and Liberal Arts (CSLA). >>

The College of Computing Sciences (CCS) at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) recently honored seven students, faculty and staff at the college’s first annual awards ceremony. The dinner and ceremony feted the work of these individuals for demonstrating outstanding scholarship, teaching and more. >>

Noted journalist and science writer John Horgan will discuss his three recent books on April 16, at 1 p.m. at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The talk, which is free and open to the public, will take place in Room 1 of Cullimore Hall, located at the intersection of Summit and Bleeker streets, Newark. >>

A $440,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development Award Program has been awarded to a professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) to build the brains of a solar telescope. >>

Treena Livingston Arinzeh, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), won the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) most prestigious honor for outstanding young researchers. >>

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has received a $50,000 grant from the UPS Foundation, the charitable arm of United Parcel Service. The grant will be used to support the university’s College of Computing Sciences. >>