Robert A. Altenkirch, PhD, president of New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), was named Chairman of the Board of Trustees for University Heights Science Park. The Board of Trustees, which has 32 members, is responsible for overseeing and guiding the development of the Science Park, a 50-acre mixed-use park in Newark’s Central Ward. >>

NJIT President Robert A. Altenkirch was named Chairman of the Board of Trustees for University Heights Science Park. The Board of Trustees is responsible for overseeing and guiding the development of the 50-acre mixed-use park in Newark’s Central Ward. >>

Solar physicists at NJIT say they expect to see dawn’s first light by January of 2006 with the new 1.6-meter telescope currently under construction. The National Science Foundation recently awarded $1.5 million to the project, which will arguably create the world’s largest optical telescope for solar research. >>

Solar physicists at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) say they expect to see dawn’s first light by January of 2006 with the new 1.6-meter telescope currently under construction.  The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded $1.5 million to the project which will arguably create the world’s largest optical telescope for solar research.  >>

The College of Computing Sciences will host a poster session event on November 30, 2004 to showcase the work of students in the Senior Project Capstone Program. The event, which will be held on the third floor of the Guttenberg Information Technologies Center from 12 noon to 3:30 p.m., will feature student team presentations of their work using posters and computer-assisted demonstrations. Corporate sponsors will also be in attendance. Contact: Serena Branson at ext. 5646 or via email at branson@njit.edu. >>

Hundreds of guests are expected to attend Celebration 2004, the annual black-tie benefit for New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The festive evening of dining and dancing will take place Nov. 12, at 7 p.m., at the Pleasantdale Chateau, West Orange. >>

President George W. Bush has nominated Louis J. Lanzerotti, PhD, distinguished professor of physics at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), to serve on the National Science Board (NSB), the 24-member governing body of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Eight prominent nominees were named on the basis of their distinguished service in science and engineering research. They will fill six-year-terms. The Senate will confirm the nominations. >>

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Dale Gary, PhD, professor of physics at NJIT, $832,927 to continue his research to develop a global network of 100 radio telescopes to learn more about radio waves from the sun. >>

Louis J. Lanzerotti, distinguished professor of physics at NJIT, is one of eight candidates nominated by President Bush to serve on the National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation. After Senate confirmation, the nominees will join the 24-member board, replacing seven members whose terms have expired. >>

Entrepreneurs and small business people interested in tapping into government and university resources to obtain lucrative grants won’t want to miss two free workshops at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The workshops, designed to help entrepreneurs in the life sciences and engineering sciences, will be offered Sept. 20, 2004.  The morning panel, from 8:30 a.m. - noon, will focus on telling engineers what they need to get ahead.  It will take place in Room 3730 of the Guttenberg Information Technologies Center (GITC) on the NJIT campus. The building is located at the intersection of Central Avenue and Lock Street. >>

While some teenagers fritter away their summers bathing in the sunlight, frolicking in the pool or repairing to the local mall, a group 20 teenage girls are ensconced in labs at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), devoting their summer to designing circuit boards, building robots and analyzing micro-bugs. >>

Dr. Maurie Cohen, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, was profiled in the June newsletter of the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability. >>

Dr. Donald Getzin of the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science has been named Associate Professor Emeritus effective June 1, 2005. The designation is in recognition of his many years of service to NJIT and his continuing involvement with its students. >>

Sure they taste great boiled and properly seasoned, but crabs may also hold the key to some of biology's most intriguing questions about rhythmic patterns in the central nervous system and what happens when those patterns become abnormal. Research into rhythmic neuron-firing patterns that activate muscles in the stomachs of crabs is one of about a dozen studies under way at NJIT's interdisciplinary Center for Applied Mathematics and Statistics that combine mathematical and biological techniques to determine how physiological systems function.A crab's simple digestive system, says Farzan Nadim, associate professor of mathematical sciences, makes the crustacean an ideal research model. "Because a crab has only about 30 neurons involved in digestion, it is a good choice for studying the rhythmic pattern of fast and slow nerve impulses that activate the stomach muscles during grinding, chewing, digesting and filtering food," says Nadim. The researcher and his colleague, associate profesor Amitabha Bose, use computational, analytical and experimental techniques to study the crabs. Nadim's research is funded by a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and both researchers also have grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF)."Through the work of mathematicians over the past 20 years, we now have general principles that show us that rhythmic patterns in most animals--including humans--are essentially the same," Bose points out. "Scientists have established that most species can perform several rhythmic motor activities simultaneously, such as walking, breathing, swimming and chewing. What we don't know yet is how these rhythmic activities are generated by neurons and why nerve cells sometimes begin to misfire and disrupt the normal oscillating fast-slow rhythmic pattern. Malfunctioning of these neuron-firing patterns leads to such abnormalities as epilepsy and Parkinson's disease.Jorge Golowasch, an associate professor of mathematical sciences, also collaborates with Nadim in researching neural networks in crustaceans' stomachs. Using electrophysical and computational methods, Golowasch studies cellular and network mechanisms that enable neurons to recover from disruptions produced by growth and injury. With the help of NIH and NSF support, he is attempting to answer the question of how the nervous system can be flexible, or plastic, while at the same time remaining stable, which may shed light on mechanisms of learning and memory.Expanding the spectrum of studiesNadim, Bose and Golowasch are among the members of the Department of Mathematical Sciences and the Center for Applied Mathematics and Statistics who are pursing studies in mathematical biology, a field of applied mathematics that has been growing steadily in recent years. One of the largest concentrations of researchers working in mathematical biology in North America is to be found at NJIT, an their efforts have been supported by major external funding. To date, the funding that has been awarded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Whitaker Foundation, and other public and private sources amounts to nearly $2.5 million.Research in mathematical biology spans a growing range of applications, including studies in animal and plant populations, physiology, biomechanics, epidemiology, disease pathology, neuroscience, hemodynamics, molecular biology, pharmacokinetics and cell physiology. Some examples of medical applications include the detailed study of the components of the brain, treatment of diseases, and the design of pharmaceutical devices for drug delivery.In mathematical biology, equations and experiments go hand in hand. Accordingly, most mathematical biology studies are conducted by teams of researchers that include mathematicians who use analytical and computational models to propose a hypothesis and experimentalists who carry out the relevant experiments in their laboratories to test them. Some of the NJIT researchers are working independently while others are collaborating with experimentalists at Boston University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan, New York University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.A model approach at NJITThe expertise in mathematical biology marshaled at NJIT was one of the reasons Robert M. Miura, associate chair of the department of mathematical sciences and professor in mathematical sciences and biomedical engineering, decided to join the faculty two years ago after having been at the University of British Columbia for over two decades. Miura is involved in a number of neuroscience and related studies, including looking at why neurons fire at specific frequencies, how large-amplitude ion waves propagate in the brain after injury, how normal beta cells in the pancreas work electrically, and how malfunctioning beta cells can lead to diabetes."Interestingly, the types of mathematical equations that govern electrical activity in pancreatic beta cells also govern the electrical activities in other cells such as neurons and heart cells," explains Miura. "This is one of the beauties of mathematical modeling. Many of the mathematical ideas gleaned from one model of a biological system can be applied to models of many other systems."The microcirculatory system, comprising tiny capillaries and arteries that can't be seen without a microscope, is the focus of Daniel Goldman's Whitaker Foundation-funded research. An assistant professor of mathematical sciences and biomedical engineering, Goldman is using mathematical and computational models to study blood flow and mass transport in the microcirculatory system during sepsis, a potentially fatal condition caused by an infection. Sepsis can cause the body's major organs--the heart, kidneys, liver and lungs--to fail, resulting in death."We know that sepsis changes the flow patterns of the blood, which can lead to a lack of oxygen in organs," says Goldman. "But lack of oxygen is not the only cause of organ failure. With our studies we hope to have a better understanding of what other factors lead to sepsis."This multidisciplinary perspective is affirmed by Daljit S. Ahluwalia, chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences and director of the Center for Applied Mathematics and Statistics. "Before we can hope to cure a disease, we have to understand the underlying mechanisms, and that requires several disciplines," he says. "The 21st century has been called the century of biology, and here at NJIT we are applying our wide-ranging expertise, which includes mathematics, to the many unanswered questions about how physiological systems work." >>

If you’re interested in learning how to improve a golf swing, create a better baseball bat or combat sepsis, NJIT is the place to be.  More than 200 mathematicians and scientists are on campus for NJIT’s first international research conference May 21-22.  Conference sponsors are NJIT’s Department of Mathematical Sciences and the Center for Applied Mathematics and Statistics. >>

Thirty high school teams competed on April 3 in the first-ever computer-programming contest sponsored by the College of Computing Sciences at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). >>

The noted computer science researcher, inventor and prolific author Dennis Shasha, a professor of computer science at the Courant Institute at New York University, will be the featured speaker this month at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). >>

A computer scientist at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has received a $19,000 award for his innovative use of IBM software. >>