of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering

Celebrate, Promote, Inform in Service to Connecticut

Volume 40, 5 /  October 2025

October has ushered in significant developments on the national (and international) front. Though some of the changes at the national level generate some uneasiness across STEMM-based communities, CASE has continued to serve as a vital source of expertise for our state.

Looking ahead, the remainder of autumn marks an important time for CASE. I’m pleased to share that the 2026 New Member Nomination period is now active.

This process allows us to recognize and elevate the exceptional scientists, engineers, doctors, and innovators of Connecticut each year. Your nominations are essential to the vitality of the Academy. They ensure that CASE continues to represent the full spectrum of expertise across disciplines and institutions and that our membership reflects the diversity of intellect and experience.

I encourage you to take part by reviewing the Membership page on our website, where you’ll find details about this year’s process, eligibility, and timeline. By putting forward outstanding candidates, you help strengthen CASE’s capacity to provide trusted, nonpartisan advice to policymakers and the public.

This year, members will submit an online nomination form that can be accessed at the 2026 Call for Nominations page. The site also has the “Criteria and Guidance for Nominators” and a downloadable “Membership Nomination Preparation Form” to help you organize your information. As a CASE Member, you may serve as a Nominator for only one nomination, and as a Reference (Member Reference or External Reference) for only one other nomination. A CASE Member cannot serve as both the Nominator and Reference on the same nomination.

Our nomination period ends November 13, 2025, 4:00 p.m. EST. This is strictly enforced. Members are encouraged to budget sufficient time before the deadline for nominations, as gathering the information needed may be time-consuming, and you may have questions as you proceed. If you do have questions, please reach out to Kerry Shea, the Academy’s Assistant Director, at kshea@ctcase.org or (860) 282-4229.

Together, let’s look forward to welcoming a new class of members who will continue to strengthen and expand the Academy’s impact.

With appreciation,

Amy R. Howell, President
Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE)
Celebrate, Promote, Inform in Service to Connecticut

Comments about this edition of the Bulletin are welcome via jorszak@ctcase.org.

Your dedication and involvement with the Academy help establish a community of Science, Engineering, Technology, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) experts, both here in Connecticut and across the country.

To learn more about the
Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, please visit ctcase.org.

Science and Engineering Notes from Around Connecticut

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station reports that white oak trees continue to exhibit crop failures across all areas of Connecticut, a concerning trend that has been observed for the last decade. Prolonged periods without adequate white oak acorn production are leading to fewer seedlings becoming established in our forested areas. Over time, this shift will lead to a reduced component of white oak in our future forest and negatively impact the existing ecological processes and associated industries that depend on white oak. Once a common component of our forests, white oaks have diminished across the landscape in recent years due to repeated insect defoliation and drought. Read more.

The Connecticut Department of Agriculture has awarded $1.5M for 17 projects across the state to improve resilience in the middle of the supply chain—processing, storage, and distribution—and to strengthen local and regional food systems through equipment purchases and infrastructure upgrades. The projects were funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program. Read more.

A Yale University-led study found that adding limestone—crushed calcium carbonate—to agricultural fields can remove tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year while increasing crop yields. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recognized carbon removal as an essential strategy to help fight climate change. “There is growing scientific consensus that removing carbon from the atmosphere is necessary to hit carbon goals. At this point, halting emissions won’t be enough,” said CASE Member Peter Raymond, the Oastler Professor of Biogeochemistry at the Yale School of the Environment and co-director of the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture. Read more.

A new, large-scale study—described as the most comprehensive to date—has found that alcohol use, even at moderate levels, may have no safe threshold for brain health. Senior author, CASE Member Joel Gelernter, the Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Yale University, along with colleagues from the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in the UK, said the results could have clinical implications, as the key finding showed that a threefold increase in the number of alcoholic drinks per week raised the risk of dementia by 15%. Read more.

The research by CASE Member Ernesto Canalis from the UConn School of Medicine was highly honored at the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) annual meeting in September. Canalis’s presented basic science abstract, “Activation of NOTCH3 Precludes Corticalization and Skeletal Integrity,” received the 2025 ASBMR Most Outstanding Basic Abstract Award. Read more.

Nationally recognized physician-scientist Ingrid T. Katz, MD, MHS, has been selected as the new director of the Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH), starting Jan. 1, 2026. As YIGH director, Dr. Katz will leverage the expertise of Yale School of Medicine, Yale School of Public Health, Yale School of Nursing, and Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs to expand global health initiatives across Yale’s campus and beyond. These initiatives will include developing innovative research, clinical, and educational programs that turn scientific discoveries into improved health for everyone and train future global health leaders. Read more.

Doctors at Yale New Haven Health and Hartford HealthCare are using a new artificial intelligence tool to improve their interactions with patients during appointments. The tool, called Abridge, records conversations between doctors and patients during clinical visits and then uses a large language model to generate after-visit summaries. The technology is HIPAA-compliant, encrypted, and designed to protect patient information. The physician reviews the notes, makes any necessary edits, and submits them directly into the patient’s electronic medical record. Read more.

A Yale research team, known as the Quantum Laser Across the Sound, led by CASE Member Hong Tang, has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to send laser beams from Yale to New York over Long Island Sound as a way to test a type of quantum technology. The project aims to engage the general public with the fascinating world of quantum science. As Tang and his fellow researchers wrote in their proposal for the project, the idea of quantum particles traveling across Long Island Sound “will incite the public’s curiosity in quantum sciences and help propel the next generation of engineers and scientists.” Read more. 

Sikorsky has secured a $10B contract for 92 Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion helicopters for the U.S. Marine Corps. The Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion is the largest helicopter ever built for the U.S. military, with a cargo hold capable of lifting up to 18 tons of equipment. Read more.

Kirti Patel has been appointed as the new Chief Manufacturing Officer for Connecticut. With a thirty-year career in life sciences and medical device manufacturing, Patel also provides advice to technology startups through Yale Ventures and the University of Connecticut’s Technology Incubation Program. Read more.

The University of New Haven has secured an initial $10 million—toward its goal of raising $25 million—to renovate a 130,000-square-foot commercial property next to its West Haven campus, creating a Center for Innovation and Applied Technology. The university hired former Connecticut Chief Manufacturing Officer Paul Lavoie as its first vice president of innovation and applied technology to oversee the development of collaborative spaces that incorporate technology, data, and human capital to develop solutions for changing market demands, while also improving students’ career readiness by offering opportunities to work alongside industry professionals. Read more.

The Peter Salovey and Marta Moret Data Science Fellows Program at Yale will debut next spring. It will offer professional development and outreach opportunities to enhance doctoral students’ ongoing training and help them connect with a broader community of scholars addressing the challenges facing science and society, where data science plays a crucial role. Leading the creation of the program are CASE Members Lynn Cooley, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Dan Spielman, Sterling Professor of Computer Science at Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science, professor of statistics and data science, and of mathematics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; and Bhramar Mukherjee, senior associate dean for data science at the Yale School of Public Health, who also co-chairs the program’s steering committee. Read more.

The University of New Haven has been added to the Research Colleges and Universities list in the 2025 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. CASE Member Ron Harichandran, the university’s vice provost for research and dean of the Tagliatela College of Engineering, says this new recognition will increase visibility for the diverse research work being conducted across the university. “It’s very welcome news,” he said. “It will help us recruit Ph.D. and master’s degree students, and we can continue to build upon the research being done at the graduate and undergraduate levels.” Read more. 

CASE Member Anna Dongari-Bagtzoglou, professor and associate dean of faculty affairs at the UConn School of Dental Medicine, received the 2025 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award. The award, exclusive to the School of Dental Medicine, recognizes a senior faculty member for their outstanding mentorship of junior faculty. Read more.

Science is often overlooked in early grades, but recent research shows that children introduced to science early tend to perform better on science tests—potentially paving the way for future success in the field. A new meta-analysis by the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education, the University of Michigan, and Michigan State University examines how dedicating more time and resources to science instruction in grades P-1 affects students. It finds that implementing dedicated science curricula and providing teacher training improves students’ scores on standardized science achievement tests and researcher-developed assessments, compared to those in traditional classrooms. Read more.

The University of Connecticut Central Utility Plant, which supplies most of the energy for UConn Storrs, is installing new turbines capable of burning hydrogen along with natural gas. These turbines could cut the facility’s carbon emissions by 30%, supporting the University’s goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. Read more.

CASE Member James Mayer, the Charlotte Fitch Roberts Professor of Chemistry at Yale, received the James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. Mayer’s research explores the inner workings of complex molecules and fundamental processes vital to modern life, including discoveries related to various critical chemical processes, such as those involved in fuel cells and solar fuels. Read more.

Connecticut is now the 40^th “Agreement State” with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and has oversight of radioactive materials used by over 100 Connecticut businesses in research, manufacturing, and healthcare. The agreement allows the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to handle licensing, inspection, and enforcement related to radioactive materials in medicine, academia, and industry within the state. Read more.

CASE Member Emmanouil Anagnostou, UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Eversource Energy Endowed Chair of Environmental Engineering, has been elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). The AMS Fellowship is one of the highest honors in atmospheric and related sciences, awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field. This prestigious award recognizes Anagnostou’s innovative contributions to remote sensing hydrology, hydrometeorology, and environmental engineering. Read more.

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection released its latest Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, a detailed record of Connecticut’s air pollution that affects climate change. This year’s inventory shows that in 2023, emissions decreased from our state's two largest sources of climate pollution: transportation and buildings. After a significant drop in overall emissions in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, economy-wide emissions continued to rise for a third consecutive year but remained 9.5 percent below pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Read more.

Several Northeastern states—Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont—along with New York City, have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative. This voluntary regional coalition of public health agencies and leaders was established to protect all residents' health, safety, and well-being by sharing information based on science, data, and evidence, while ensuring equitable access to vaccines, medications, and services. Read more.

As the world’s clean water supply diminishes, researchers are exploring various methods for effective wastewater treatment and monitoring. A UConn College of Engineering research team, including CASE Members Baikun Li, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Yu Lei, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, is developing smart sensors to monitor municipal wastewater, soil, and other treatments with greater accuracy and stability than existing sensor technology. Read more.

Michael Devoret, Yale professor emeritus, and his colleagues have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery of macroscopic quantum tunneling and groundbreaking work in quantum computing that helped demonstrate quantum physics in action. Read more.

Connecticut is investing $50.5 million in downtown New Haven to bolster the state’s life sciences industry and establish the city as a national hub for emerging quantum technologies. The initial funding from the state’s new Connecticut Innovation Clusters Program will support public infrastructure, research facilities, and development projects that aim to accelerate business growth and create jobs in high-tech industries. The program is managed by the state Department of Economic and Community Development. Read more.

QuantumCT, a research initiative led by Yale and the University of Connecticut, has been named a finalist for a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). If chosen, QuantumCT will receive an initial two-year NSF grant of up to $15M and may be eligible for funding over an additional eight years, totaling a maximum of $160M. This program has the potential to significantly boost the state’s economy and technological capabilities. QuantumCT is headed by Michael Crair, Yale’s vice provost for research, and CASE Member Pamir Alpay, UConn’s vice president for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship, who is also the principal investigator on the proposal. Read more.

Connecticut becomes the first state in the nation to offer a new, free online mapping tool to all residents. Provided through a public partnership between the Connecticut Insurance Department and First Street, a provider of physical climate risk data and analytics, the tool gives residents access to property-specific data via interactive maps and risk-rating reports. By entering an address, homeowners and businesses can instantly see their property’s exposure to climate-related risks such as flooding, wildfire, hurricane winds, extreme heat, and air quality. Read more.

The University of Connecticut has appointed CASE Member Lindsay DiStefano as interim vice president for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship, effective October 3, 2025. DiStefano will oversee the university’s sponsored programs, technology commercialization, and entrepreneurial research opportunities, including the state’s largest tech startup incubator. She will replace CASE Member Pamir Alpay, who is serving as interim provost following the departure of Provost Anne D’Alleva. Read more.

Connecticut launched its Artificial Intelligence Academy earlier this year. The certificate program, a partnership between Charter Oak State College and Google, has experienced strong enrollment since its launch. In response, the Connecticut legislature has allocated funding to expand the project with $500,000 in the upcoming years and $1 million over two years. The college will enhance the program by offering industry-specific AI certificates alongside the current AI essentials course. Currently, AI programs for small businesses, nonprofits, and educators in K-12 education are in the planning stages. Read more.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) plans to boost the number of safety inspectors monitoring railroad bridges from fewer than 10 to around 170. Inspectors review railroads’ bridge management programs to ensure proper maintenance and spot potential issues. Read more.

Connecticut is boosting funding for the Town Aid Road (TAR) grant program by 33%, increasing it from $60M to $80M. This will directly support the state’s 169 municipalities and four boroughs with costs for local road paving, maintenance, and safety efforts. This allocation marks the largest investment in over ten years, reflecting strong bipartisan support for local infrastructure. Read more.

The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is issuing a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the National Railroad Partnership Program, allocating more than $5B in funding for projects that will improve safety on intercity passenger rail networks. The NOFO includes approximately $2.4B that the FRA “de-obligated” from California High Speed Rail, which will be reinvested in other projects, critical infrastructure upgrades, and rail safety. Read more.

Items that appear in the In Brief section are compiled from previously
published sources including newspaper accounts and press releases.  

The following is excerpted from press releases and other news reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (nationalacademies.org).

The U.S. scientific community has made countless discoveries that have led to major advances in technology, health, security, safety, and economic growth. However, concerns remain that excessive, uncoordinated, and duplicative policies and regulations surrounding research are hindering progress and threatening American scientific competitiveness. This report reviews current federal research regulations to ensure that the research community stays highly productive while also maintaining safety, accountability, security, and ethical standards in publicly funded research. It suggests ways to improve regulatory processes and administrative tasks, reduce unnecessary work, and modify or eliminate policies and regulations that are outdated—all while ensuring integrity, accountability, and oversight. Read more. 

Military personnel, often exposed to various hazards during deployment, have expressed concerns that these exposures could lead to mental, behavioral, and neurologic health issues. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs asked the National Academies to assemble a committee of experts to evaluate potential links between military service exposures and health conditions, including chronic multi-symptom illness. The resulting report offers conclusions about possible risk relationships between nine exposure categories and health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and dementia. Read more.

Advances in artificial intelligence, especially in machine learning, are enabling new capabilities across nearly every sector of the economy. Many of these applications—for instance, automated vehicles, the power grid, or surgical robots—are safety-critical, where failures can cause harm to people, the environment, or property. Although machine learning is already used to improve some physical systems, applying rigorous safety engineering practices that include machine learning components presents major challenges. This report discusses ways to safely integrate machine learning into physical systems and highlights research priorities for enhancing safety, testing, and evaluation. Read more.

Individuals and families across the United States face increasing challenges in accessing timely, high-quality primary care, which is essential for overall health and well-being. The delivery of this care is becoming more complex, adding extra pressure on primary care clinicians and worsening existing workforce shortages. A National Academies committee recently examined the inputs and functions needed for interprofessional teams to effectively and sustainably provide high-quality primary care. The committee concluded that the nation must support the primary care workforce through appropriate and supportive payment, hold payers, states, and health systems accountable to ensure this payment reaches primary care practices, and adequately train an interprofessional workforce. This report offers nine specific recommendations for how federal agencies and other key players can better support the delivery of high-quality, team-based, interprofessional primary care. Read more.

The scientific community has studied how human-caused greenhouse gas emissions impact the climate for over a century. Significant knowledge has been gained through decades of direct Earth system observations and detailed research. This report summarizes the latest evidence on whether greenhouse gas emissions threaten public health and welfare in the United States. The motivation for this report was a notice of proposed rulemaking issued in August 2025 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which indicated its plan to rescind the 2009 Finding of Endangerment and related conclusions under Section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act. The authoring committee found that EPA’s 2009 conclusion—that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions harm human health and welfare—was accurate, has stood the test of time, and is now supported by even stronger evidence. Today, many of EPA’s findings are further supported by longer observational records and new evidence. Additionally, research has identified additional risks not evident in 2009. Read more.

The Transportation Research Board's Research and Technology Coordinating Committee provides strategic advice to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on its research, development, and technology (RD&T) program. The committee's letter report to FHWA describes how the agency's RD&T program functions as a key element in the nation's highway RD&T enterprise. After examining the goals, capabilities, and constraints of the FHWA RD&T program, the committee recommends steps the agency can take to further strengthen its crucial role in accelerating innovation in the highway field. Read more. 

Governments, businesses, and funders all have a strong interest in measuring biodiversity to guide decisions, evaluate impacts, and track progress toward conservation and restoration goals. The US-UK Scientific Forum on Measuring Biodiversity for Addressing the Global Biodiversity Crisis aims to build momentum toward standardizing methods for using environmental monitoring technologies to assess biodiversity, ensure interoperability between different outputs, increase confidence that observed changes in biodiversity reflect actual changes in what is being measured, and promote integrating biodiversity monitoring with evaluation to help ensure that conservation efforts at various levels are more effective. Read more.

Breastfeeding supports lifelong health and development for both infants and mothers. It is associated with lower risks of chronic illnesses, improved maternal well-being, and potential reductions in health care costs. Although most families in the United States start breastfeeding, many are unable to continue as long as they intend due to systemic barriers like limited parental leave, inconsistent access to lactation support, and inadequate workplace accommodations. This report provides a roadmap to help families reach their breastfeeding goals and enhance health outcomes across populations. It emphasizes the need for strong federal coordination, comprehensive health care and community support, and inclusive public policies. Using a life course approach, the report highlights key intervention points that begin before birth and extend through the return to work or school. Read more.

The purpose of the Academy is to "provide guidance to the people and the government of the State of Connecticut... in the application of science and engineering to the economic and social welfare." 

OFFICERS OF THE ACADEMY

Amy R. Howell, President
University of Connecticut

Mike Ambrose, Vice President
MH Ambrose Consulting,
Ambro Enterprises LLC

Tanimu Deleon, Secretary
General Dynamics, Electric Boat

Regis Matzie, Treasurer
RAMatzie Nuclear Technology Consulting, LLC

John Kadow, Past President
Alphina Therapeutics

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Jeff Orszak

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Kerry Shea

EDITORS
Leon Pintsov, Executive Editor - Engineering
Pitney Bowes, Inc. (ret.)

Mike Genel, Executive Editor - Medicine
Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics
Yale University School of Medicine
CASE President, 2008-2010

Carolyn Teschke, Executive Editor - Science
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
University of Connecticut

COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT
Rebecca Mead, INQ Creative

The Bulletin is published by the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, Inc, 222 Pitkin Street, Suite 101, East Hartford, Connecticut, 06108. 860.282.4229, jorszak@ctcase.org. To subscribe, visit ctcase.org.

The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering is a private, nonprofit public service organization established by Special Act No. 76-53 of the Connecticut General Assembly.

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