of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering

Celebrate, Promote, Inform in Service to Connecticut

Volume 40, 2 /  April 2025

Over the past five decades, the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) has served as a vital resource for Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) expertise in Connecticut, collaborating with state government, industry, and academia to provide science-based insight into complex issues. This role is more critical now than ever. Vibrant and robust research serves as a key foundation of progress — fueling innovation, driving economic vitality, advancing public health, and safeguarding national resilience. CASE is committed to sustaining a thriving science and engineering ecosystem, both here in our state and across the country.

The integrity of science underpins the health, safety, and prosperity of our communities. It fuels discovery, informs wise governance, and strengthens our ability to respond to complex challenges — from climate change and public health to technological transformation and national security. Through independent expertise and trusted guidance, CASE helps to ensure the continued strength of research in Connecticut by promoting scientific integrity, advancing STEMM education and workforce development, and reinforcing the essential role of science in shaping a secure and prosperous future.

Over the past few months, CASE has participated in several activities related to our mission. We released a Briefing exploring how AI is understood by small businesses across Connecticut and strengthened collaborations with state government through the Science and Technology Policy Fellowship program with the Connecticut General Assembly (CGA). CASE’s podcast, Learning and Living STEMM in Connecticut, has also launched two episodes – on the origins of life and QuantumCT – ushering in important conversations about the potential of STEMM in Connecticut and beyond.

Next month, we will celebrate our 50th Annual Dinner. This event is not only to recognize our members' outstanding accomplishments — it is a commemoration of our thirty-six New Members and the remarkable achievements of Connecticut’s youth in STEMM. We will also start the celebration leading up to next year’s 50th Anniversary of the CGA chartering the Academy. We look forward to a year of marking this milestone and charting our course forward.

On behalf of the Academy, thank you for being part of this journey. Your dedication, expertise, and voice are what make CASE's future integral to Connecticut's future.

With deep appreciation,

Amy R. Howell, President
CT 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.

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 (CAES) is celebrating its 150^th anniversary. CAES is the oldest Agricultural Experiment Station in the country, having been established in 1875. It was originally housed at Wesleyan University and later at Yale, and it has been in its current location in New Haven since 1882, with the mission to “conduct original research, investigation, and experiments that contribute to the establishment and maintenance of the agricultural industry in the United States.” Read more.

The Connecticut Department of Agriculture has awarded over $525K in Farm Transition Grants to enhance agricultural production for new and existing farm operations. These projects facilitate the development of new products, address essential infrastructure needs, and provide seed funding for new farming initiatives. Read more.

Scientists at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station have discovered potent attractants specific to the spotted wing Drosophila (SWD) (Drosophila suzukii). First detected in Connecticut in 2011, SWD poses a serious threat to soft-skinned fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and grapes. Identifying these specific attractants could significantly enhance the development of targeted traps and save millions of dollars in the fruit industry. Read more.

Nearly 30 years after the discovery of myostatin as a potential treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, this protein is now driving the global race for obesity drug research. CASE Members Se-Jin Lee, Presidential Distinguished Professor at UConn School of Medicine and The Jackson Laboratory, and Emily Germain-Lee, professor of pediatrics at UConn School of Medicine, are delving deeper into the biological factors of obesity and exploring the potential to develop healthier weight-loss drug options utilizing myostatin. Read more.

Members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) have elected CASE Member Marina Picciotto, the deputy chair for basic science in psychiatry, a professor of neuroscience and pharmacology, and the director of the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program at Yale University, to serve as the organization’s president-elect. Picciotto, whose research focuses on the role of acetylcholine and its receptors in behavior and neurological function, has a long history with AAAS; she is an AAAS Fellow and past chair of Section V: Neuroscience. Read more.

Experiments aboard the International Space Station may lead to promising advancements in the fight against cancer. The extremely low gravity facilitates the growth of molecules in shapes and uniformity that are difficult to achieve on Earth. CASE Member Yupeng Chen, associate professor of engineering at the University of Connecticut, has been cultivating an unusually rod-shaped nanoparticle known as a Janus base nanotube in space. With a $1.9M award from the Center for Advancement of Science in Space and NASA’s Division of Biological and Physical Sciences, Chen and his colleagues will utilize the unique environment of the space station to develop pharmaceuticals whose shape is their secret weapon. Read more.

CASE Member Christopher J. Pittenger, the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University, has received one of ten 2025 Distinguished Investigator Grants from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation for his groundbreaking research in neurobiology and behavioral science. Read more.

UConn hosts a cryo-electron microscope (cryo-EM) for all of UConn and other regional scientists. This advanced imaging system uses a beam of electrons to capture images of frozen biological samples. In this " Science in Seconds" segment, CASE Member Wolfgang Peti, professor of molecular biology and biophysics at UConn Health, demonstrates how cryo-EM works and its potential to accelerate drug design and enhance patient care. Watch here.

Charter Communications has launched the Stamford Tech Hub, an initiative that will deliver free technology-focused classes to local residents. This initiative is the result of extensive discussions over the past few years with city leadership aimed at bolstering workforce development in Connecticut’s second-most-populous city. Read more.

The Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development and the Connecticut Business and Industry Association has launched MADE, a quarterly business leadership series of events designed to equip Connecticut’s industry professionals and entrepreneurs with the connections, resources, and insights necessary to create opportunity in today’s business landscape. The series will feature high-profile speakers, expert panels, and exclusive networking opportunities, including “office hours” with public and private sector principals. Read more.

Connecticut has approved $77 million in state funding to support 35 economic development projects across 21 towns and cities through the Connecticut Investment Fund (CIF). Established in 2022, CIF funds projects that include capital improvements focused on affordable housing, brownfield remediation, infrastructure, public facilities, and small business support programs offering revolving loans, gap financing, microloans, or start-up financing. Read more.

Finalists have been named for $100M Connecticut Innovation clusters, including Hartford for Applied AI, Stamford for an AI Institute, and New Haven for Quantum and Bioscience. Read more.

Recently, Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, and Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, met to offer their thoughts on the challenges facing the scientific enterprise, which gives America a competitive advantage, and how the institutions of science should respond. Read more.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont led an economic development mission to India. UConn President and CASE Member Radenka Maric joined representatives from the Department of Economic and Community Development, Yale University, Connecticut Innovations, and AdvanceCT, among others, to meet with Indian business executives and key government officials to strengthen economic ties between Connecticut and India. Read more.

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation’s agricultural and youth education program, supported by UConn Extension, encompasses three primary goals: agricultural production, cultural heritage, and nutrition. Developed with assistance from the USDA’s Federally Recognized Tribes Extension Program, the initiative began when Tribal members sought Extension’s expertise to enhance their agricultural practices. Read more.

CASE Member Indrajeet Chaubey, dean of the College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources at UConn and director of the Connecticut Cooperative Extension System and the Storrs Agriculture Experiment Station since 2019, will become the University of Arkansas’ next provost and executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs in July. Read more.

CASE Member Nilay Hazari, the John Randolph Huffman Professor of Chemistry at Yale University, and his collaborators have introduced a method for converting CO2 into formate, which is primarily used in preservatives and pesticides and may serve as a potential source of more complex materials. This finding expands the possibilities for addressing environmental problems by transforming greenhouse gases into useful products. Read more.

A new study by CASE Member Peter Siver, Charles and Sarah P. Becker '27, Professor of Botany and Environmental Studies at Connecticut College, provides strong evidence that palm trees once thrived in subarctic Canada. The study is reshaping scientific understanding of past Arctic climates. The research, published in the journal Annals of Botany, confirms that during the late early Eocene—approximately 48 million years ago—this region maintained warm temperatures year-round, even during months of winter darkness. Read more.

A new network of research institutions co-founded by Yale is recruiting U.S.-based researchers to contribute their expertise to the next report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations (U.N.) body that assesses the latest science related to climate change. CASE Member Julie Zimmerman, Yale’s vice provost for planetary solutions and a member of the alliance’s steering committee, and Karen Seto, the Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science at Yale School of the Environment, has served as a coordinating lead author for two IPCC assessment reports. Read more.

The National Institutes of Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) centers and institutions are offering grants for small businesses and entrepreneurs to fund projects that develop products or services aimed at improving health access or reducing health disparities in populations designated by the NIH that are facing health disparities. Read more.

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station has published its 2024 report on tick activity, revealing a growing presence of disease-carrying ticks and an expanded range of newer species across the state, particularly the lone star and longhorned ticks. Read more.

New research from Yale Medical School and the University of California, published in the American Cancer Society’s journal, suggests a link between firefighting and a higher risk of glioma, an aggressive type of brain cancer with an alarmingly poor prognosis. They have identified a specific mutational signature tied to chemical exposure that appears much more frequently in firefighters than in any other occupational demographic. Read more.

A new group has formed – the Connecticut AI Alliance – dedicated to positioning the state at the forefront of artificial intelligence development. Comprised of 16 academic institutions, including UConn, Yale University, the University of Hartford, Connecticut College, Fairfield University, and Wesleyan University, alongside six community organizations and nonprofit agencies, the Alliance will emphasize five key themes: research and development, workforce training, business and industry growth, innovation infrastructure, and community engagement. Read more.

Fairfield University’s School of Engineering and Computing has been recognized as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense by the National Security Agency. This designation stems from a three-year application process and acknowledges the University’s commitment to cybersecurity education as well as its contributions to safeguarding the National Information Infrastructure. Read more.

Nominations for the Connecticut Technology Council’s 2025 Women of Innovation Awards are now open until May 11^th. Recognizing women innovators, role models, and leaders in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), the 20^th annual awards event will take place in October and will feature networking with technology and business leaders from across the state. Read more.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, assessing U.S. infrastructure with an overall ‘C’ grade. The report found that legislation passed by Congress since the 2021 Report Card, where it the grade was ‘C-‘, showed progress, but more work and investment are needed to overcome decades of underinvestment and to adapt the country’s transportation networks, water systems, electric grid, and broadband services to meet current and future demands. Read more.

The Connecticut Transportation Institute at UConn is collaborating with the Connecticut Department of Transportation, utilizing state-of-the-art technology to read the black boxes in cars and provide researchers with information about what the vehicle was doing up to five seconds before a crash. By combining this with traditional accident analysis, such as measuring skid marks and accident reconstruction, investigators are better equipped to piece together the details. Read more.

Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky has demonstrated the capability of a “rotor blown wing” unmanned aircraft system that can operate like both a helicopter and an airplane. The drone is a 115-pound, battery-powered, twin-prop-rotor aircraft that the company claims can be scaled up to perform long-range intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions for search and rescue, firefighting monitoring, humanitarian response efforts, and pipeline surveillance. “Our rotor-blown wing has demonstrated the control power and unique handling qualities necessary to transition repeatedly and predictably from a hover to high-speed wing-borne cruise flight, and back again,” said CASE Member Igor Cherepinsky, director of Sikorsky Innovations. Read more.

Connecticut is celebrating the 10^th anniversary of CTfastrak! Since its 2015 launch, the rapid transit system has provided approximately 28.5M passenger trips—averaging 14,000-weekday trips—and spurred more than $500M in transit-oriented development projects near the ten CTfastrak stations. In 2024, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy ranked CTfastrak as the top bus rapid transit system in the United States. 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).

Recent technical innovations have driven the rapid development of generative AI systems that produce text, images, or other content based on user requests - advancements that have the potential to complement or replace human labor in specific tasks and reshape the demand for certain types of expertise in the labor market. This report evaluates recent advances in AI technology and their implications for economic productivity, the workforce, and education in the United States. The report notes that AI is a tool with the potential to enhance human labor and create new forms of valuable work, but this is not an inevitable outcome. Tracking progress in AI and its impacts on the workforce will be critical in helping to inform and equip workers and policymakers to flexibly respond to AI developments. Read more.

To explore opportunities for enhancing equitable diagnosis and reducing health disparities in the U.S., the Forum on Advancing Diagnostic Excellence at the National Academies hosted a public workshop in September 2024 in collaboration with the Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity. Speakers emphasized factors contributing to diagnostic inequities and proposed potential strategies to promote health equity through technology, education, research, and patient- and community-centered approaches. This publication highlights the presentations and discussions, including potential strategies utilizing technological innovations such as remote monitoring and telehealth, improving education in cultural humility and holistic care, enhancing high-quality data collection on historically underserved communities, increasing patient engagement, improving clinician communication, and strengthening community partnerships to build trust with patients. Read more.

In July 2024, the National Academies Roundtable on Obesity Solutions hosted a symposium to celebrate its 10th anniversary and discuss the next decade. Speakers reflected on the Roundtable's role in shaping obesity research, policy, and practice. The event examined significant advances in the prevention, treatment, and management of obesity, as well as strategies for addressing future challenges. Read more.

Clinical practice guidelines are specific recommendations based on conditions or diseases for appropriately managing patients' health care. Because these guidelines can vary among organizations, the National Academies Roundtable on Genomics and Precision Health and the National Cancer Policy Forum hosted a public workshop in October 2024 to explore how clinical guidelines can influence the adoption and coverage of genomic testing in routine medical care. Read more. 

For decades, public safety has been a priority for state departments of transportation (DOTs) as they strive to reduce traffic crashes. To support these efforts, the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Office of Safety has developed a list of proven safety countermeasures, which includes brief descriptions, information sheets, and additional references. These measures have been field-tested and shown to effectively reduce crashes. This report documents state DOT practices regarding the implementation of FHWA’s proven safety countermeasures. Case examples from six state DOTs offer further insight into the practices related to FHWA’s proven safety countermeasures. Read more.

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the life sciences have the potential to accelerate advances in biological discovery and design more efficiently than classical experimental approaches alone. At the same time, AI-enabled biological tools developed for beneficial purposes could potentially be misused for harmful ends. Although the creation of biological weapons is not a new risk, the potential for AI-enabled biological tools to influence this risk has raised concerns over the past decade. This report reviews the capabilities of AI-enabled biological tools and can be used in conjunction with the 2018 National Academies report, “ Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology, “ which sets out a framework for identifying the different risk factors associated with synthetic biology capabilities. Read more.

Veterans are more likely than non-veterans to experience pain, trauma, and mental health challenges as a result of training and combat-related service. Treatment often leads to the prescription of opioids and benzodiazepines. This report examines newly dispensed opioid pharmacotherapy in veterans, both those without and those with current benzodiazepine pharmacotherapy; varying levels of the initial baseline dosage and dosage escalation of dispensed opioid pharmacotherapy; and newly dispensed benzodiazepines compared to alternative non-benzodiazepine pharmacotherapy in veterans receiving consistent opioid pharmacotherapy. Read more. 

When someone experiences the loss of a limb or severe facial disfigurement, one option they may consider is vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA), which transfers a graft containing multiple tissues as a functional unit. Despite advances in VCA over the last 25 years, challenges remain, and the limited number of recipients of face or hand transplants makes it difficult to generalize outcomes. To address these challenges, the Department of Defense Reconstructive Transplant Research Program tasked a committee from the National Academies with developing principles and a framework for the standardization, assessment, and validation of protocols and standard operating procedures for face and hand transplantation. The resulting report offers guidance for the newly established Clinical Organization Network for Standardization of Reconstructive Transplantation (CONSORT) and includes specific recommendations to enable the larger VCA community to grow, advance, and thrive in the future. Read more. 

The U.S. biomedical research enterprise has played a vital role in advancing science, human health, and the economy. Over the past 80 years, landmark achievements include reducing cancer mortality, developing HIV/AIDS treatments, sequencing the human genome, and creating vaccines that mitigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The enterprise has grown remarkably in less than a century and holds even greater potential for future success. However, its progress is hindered by a lack of high-level national coordination, a fragmented funding system, and a declining workforce. This publication addresses these challenges in five key areas—strategic vision, funding, health equity, coordination and convergence science, and workforce development—offering a roadmap that could be used to sustain U.S. leadership in global health. Read more. 

Over the past century, artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved from computational theory into everyday conversational technologies, capturing the attention and interest of both the public and the media. It has also garnered the focus of the scientific community, providing a new tool to enhance inquiry and exploration. Although the opportunities for AI in scientific discovery seem endless, numerous questions arise about what defines trustworthy and reliable discovery, whether such investigations should occur without human oversight or intervention, and how to effectively prioritize the research agenda and allocate resources without exacerbating disparities for individuals and nations alike. This report outlines the activities and outcomes from an October 2023 workshop, “AI for Scientific Discovery,” which explored the future of AI in terms of its role as an autonomous researcher conducting discovery and considered the ethical aspects of AI used for independent scientific discovery. Read more. 

Airports host multiple federal agencies that play key roles in the operations, safety, and security of their facilities. Planning and operating airports across the United States may require accommodating various federal agencies, but the legal authority defining airports' rights and obligations to these agencies is diverse and sometimes unclear. This report seeks to provide a single source of information regarding airports' rights and obligations to accommodate federal agencies and to enter into cooperative agreements and other arrangements. 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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