of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering

Celebrate, Promote, Inform in Service to CT

Volume 37, 3  /  June 2022

It is hard to believe that June 30 will conclude my two-year term as president of the Academy. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve this organization, which day-in and day-out keeps at its core our mantra to celebrate, promote and inform on the remarkable things happening in our state in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine. I have been humbled by the accomplishments of our members and by our charge to serve the people and the state of Connecticut.

Over my term as president, I’m pleased to report that we have made progress on key priorities, including strengthening partnerships to better meet our mission, improving the way we communicate CT-STEMM with the people of Connecticut, initiating a working committee of the Academy focused on broadening participation, equity, and inclusion, and finding new ways to better serve the state, including the Academy’s Science and Technology Fellowship Program. A focus on these key priorities is helping us achieve the essential goal of long-term sustainability for the Academy, which will ensure that we continue to serve our members and the state well into the future.

As I shared at our 47th Annual Meeting last month, although I am stepping down as president, I will not be far away. John Kadow, the Academy’s vice president, will transition to president and I will continue to serve as immediate past president for two more years.

Enjoy your summer and think STEMM – it’s all around us!

Christine Caragianis Broadbridge, President
CT Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE)
Celebrate, Promote, Inform in Service to CT

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

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

Science and Engineering Notes from Around Connecticut

CASE member Charles Yarish, professor of Biology at UConn, promotes kelp farming to support the environment and grow the aquaculture economy in Connecticut.  Read more.

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection anticipate heavy defoliation in Litchfield County this spring by the Spongy Moth (renamed from Gypsy Moth).  Read more.

Scientists from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station are reporting that Beech Leaf Disease has increased dramatically in both severity and distribution in 2022 compared to 2021. First detected in lower Fairfield County in 2019, it is now widespread on American beech throughout all eight Connecticut counties, with symptoms most severe in Fairfield, New Haven, Middlesex, and New London Counties.  Read more.

A newly published paper in the journal Cell Press, co-authored by CASE Member Carolyn M. Mazure, Director of Women’s Health Research at Yale University, calls on laboratory researchers to incorporate sex as a biological variable (SABV) into their considerations of how gender-sensitive experience affects disease processes.  Read more.

CASE Member Daniel Colón Ramos, the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at Yale University, has been awarded the Humboldt Prize for his lab’s work in describing fundamental aspects of the cell biology of synapses and behavior.  Read more.

CASE Member Rachel O’Neill, professor of molecular and cell biology and genetics and genomics, UConn and UConn School of Medicine has been named a UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor. This is the highest honor the university bestows on faculty who have demonstrated excellence in teaching, research, and service.  Read more.

The needs of our state’s financial, insurance, and defense industries have driven the growth of our state’s cybersecurity industry. AdvanceCT provides key facts and information on the talent pipeline in this industry.  Read more.

A recent report, published by AdvanceCT, provides a snapshot of the Connecticut life sciences industry - addressing the ecosystem’s strengths, talent, access to capital, and real estate.  Read more.

Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, received overwhelming bipartisan support for up to $75M in tax breaks that will keep production in the state if Sikorsky successfully wins two major helicopter contracts, with $50M if Sikorsky is awarded one of the two. Read more about Sikorsky, which currently has ~8,000 employees in the state.  Read more.

To celebrate UConn as an engine that drives discovery and prosperity, the National Science Foundation Director Sathuraman Panchanathan met with scientists and entrepreneurs including CASE members Radenka Maric, interim UConn president, Dr. Bruce Liang, interim UConn Health CEO, Emmanouil Anagnostou, interim director of the Innovation Partnership Building at UConn Tech Park, and Ofer Harel, associate dean and professor of statistics.  Read more.

CASE Member Nick Donofrio, IBM Fellow Emeritus and executive vice president for innovation and technology (ret.) just released a book, If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes: The Nick Donofrio Story. The book includes life lessons that led to significant contributions in the private and public sectors.  Read more.

Connecticut legislators approved, as part of a budget implementer bill at the end of the 2022 session, a requirement that all public schools include climate change as part of their science curriculum. Rep. Bobby Sanchez, co-chair of the Education Committee indicated that 90% of schools already teach climate change, which is included in the Next Generation Science Standards, national standards already adopted by the state.  Read more.

For their efforts to engage students in the STEM fields, three Connecticut elementary teachers have been named finalists for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST): Katherine Mauro (Sandy Hook Elementary), Patricia Hahn (Parkville Community School, Hartford), and Christopher Messier (Center School, Ellington). This award is the nation's highest honor for U.S. K–12 science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and/or computer science teachers. The awards program is administered by the National Science Foundation on behalf of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.  Read more.

CASE Member Frederick M. Cohan, professor of biology at Wesleyan University, was one of three faculty members to receive the Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. The prize underscores Wesleyan’s commitment to scholar-teachers.  Read more.

A hydrogen-powered truck and car made a stop in the state giving Governor Lamont the opportunity for a test drive. Lamont is pushing for the state to be the location of a hydrogen hub as part of the President’s infrastructure proposals, “Right now, Connecticut is already a leader in separating hydrogen out from H2O, water, and hope that gives us a running head start for this advantage.”  Read more. 

CASE Member Lee Langston, UConn professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, published an article in the June/July 2022 edition of ASME Mechanical Engineering Magazine in which he sees optimism beyond the bumps in recent years to the broad gas turbine industry. The industry deals mostly with commercial aviation, but also military jet engines and gas turbines for electric generation. Additionally, some small markets include areas such as mechanical drive gas turbines.  Read more.

Seema Alim has accepted a two-year CASE – CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Science and Technology Policy Fellowship, with a focus on Building Decarbonization. Seema has a Ph.D. in civil engineering, is a licensed professional engineer, and brings 30+ years of experience in urban planning, building design, and infrastructure development.  Read more.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded nearly $7 million in Brownfields grants to Connecticut communities under the recently passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, among them sites in New London, New Haven, Stratford, Vernon, Waterbury, West Haven, and the Naugatuck Valley.  Read more.

Governor Lamont signed key climate change and energy legislation into law, including Public Act 22-5, An Act concerning Climate Change Mitigation, and Public Act 22-14, An Act Concerning Clean Energy Tariff Programs. The public acts codify the Governor’s 2040 Zero-Carbon Target and expand existing renewable programs.  Read more. 

The University of Connecticut is joining with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and other partners at the federal, state, and local levels to celebrate the establishment of 52,160 acres as the Connecticut National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). The reserve includes the lower Connecticut and Thames Rivers and several islands, state parks, and UConn’s Avery Point campus in Groton. NOAA officially designated the NERR, making it the 30th such reserve in the country.  Read more. 

CASE Member Harlan Krumholz, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, and Yale Professor Howard Forman welcomed CASE Member Amy Justice on the Health and Justice podcast to discuss the influential long-running studies she has conducted using the electronic medical records from the Veterans Administration Healthcare System.  Listen to the podcast.

Connecticut residents continue to be urged by Governor Ned Lamont to visit ct.gov/coronavirus or text by keyword COVIDCT to 888-777 for the most up-to-date information on COVID- 19.  Read more.

A recently released Pew Research Center survey takes a wide-ranging look at Black Americans’ views and experiences with various science and engineering settings. The results indicate that we have much to do to make these jobs more ‘open’ to Black people. Read more.

A team at Raytheon Technologies led by CASE Members Andreas Roelofs, VP of Research, and Rajesh Kumar, Project Lead of the Research Center (RTRC), was awarded by LIFT (the Detroit-based DOD manufacturing institute) a Hypersonics Challenge project. RTRC has world-class expertise right here in Connecticut that will contribute to the next generation of hypersonic vehicles.  Read more.

Each month the Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) highlights a member company to share the innovations they are bringing to the state. MetrumRG (Metrum Research Group, led by CEO Marc R. Gastonguay, was featured in May. The company is headquartered in Tariffville, has ~80 employees, and specializes in biomedical modeling and simulation services and solutions in the Life Sciences industry.  Read more.

Governor Lamont mapped out how the state’s planned transportation infrastructure improvements will benefit from a $5.4B federal investment included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill Congress passed last year.  Read more.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation is developing a new customer experience action plan to guide future programs, policies, and investments to improve bus and rail services. Your feedback is important. Find out 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).

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body's immune system malfunctions and mistakenly attacks healthy cells, tissues, and organs. The National Academies was asked to assess the autoimmune disease research portfolio of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The report finds that while NIH has made impressive contributions to research on autoimmune diseases, there is an absence of a strategic NIH-wide autoimmune disease research plan, a need for greater coordination across the institutes and centers to optimize opportunities for collaboration, and the need to create an Office of Autoimmune Disease/Autoimmunity Research in the Office of the Director of NIH.  Read more.

The United States has long made substantial investments in clinical research with the goal of improving the health and well-being of our nation, yet clinical research faces a critical shortcoming. Currently, large swaths of the U.S. population, and those that often face the greatest health challenges, are less able to benefit from these discoveries because they are not adequately represented in clinical research studies. This report identifies policies, procedures, programs, or projects aimed at increasing the inclusion of these underrepresented groups in clinical research and models the potential economic benefits of full inclusion of men, women, and racial and ethnic groups in clinical research, highlighting new programs and interventions in medical centers and other clinical settings designed to increase participation.  Read more.

Nursing homes play a unique dual role in the long-term care continuum, serving as a place where people receive health care and a home. Ineffective responses to the complex challenges of nursing home care have resulted in failures to ensure the well-being and safety of nursing home residents, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing homes has renewed attention to the long-standing systemic weaknesses. The NAS formed a committee to examine how the United States delivers, finances, regulates, and measures the quality of nursing home care, and this report identifies seven broad goals and supporting recommendations for a comprehensive approach to improving the quality of care in nursing homes.  Read more. 

Widely available, trustworthy government statistics are essential for policymakers and program administrators at all levels of government, for private sector decision-makers, for researchers, and for the media and the public. Official statistics are often the result of complex data collection, processing, and estimation methods. These methods can be challenging for agencies to document and for users to understand. This report explores how National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) could work with other federal statistical agencies to facilitate the adoption of currently available documentation and archiving standards and tools.  Read more.

With computing technologies increasingly woven into our society and infrastructure, it is vital for the computing research community to be able to address the ethical and societal challenges that can arise from the development of these technologies, from the erosion of personal privacy to the spread of false information. This report presents best practices that funding agencies, academic organizations, and individual researchers can use to formulate and conduct computing research in a responsible, ethical manner, and explores ways to promote responsible practices through education and training.  Read more.

The world is faced with complex, interrelated challenges in which the way forward lies hidden or dispersed across disciplines and organizations. The term automated research workflow (ARW) describes scientific research processes that are emerging across a variety of disciplines and fields. ARWs integrate computation, laboratory automation, and tools from artificial intelligence in the performance of tasks that make up the research process, such as designing experiments, observations, and simulations; collecting and analyzing data; and learning from the results to inform further experiments, observations, and simulations. This report examines current efforts to develop advanced and automated workflows to accelerate research progress, including wider use of artificial intelligence.  Read more.

People spend the vast majority of their time inside their homes and other indoor environments where they are exposed to a wide range of chemicals from building materials, furnishings, occupants, cooking, consumer products, and other sources. Despite research to date, very little is known about how exposures to indoor chemicals across complex chemical phases and pathways affect human health. This report identifies gaps in current research and understanding of indoor chemistry and new approaches that can be applied to measure, manage, and limit chemical exposures, and calls for further research about the chemical transformations that can occur indoors, pathways, and timing of indoor chemical exposure, and the cumulative and long-term impacts of exposure on human health.  Read more.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is the most widely used measure of inflation in the U.S. It is used to determine cost-of-living allowances and, among many other important private- and public-sector applications, influences monetary policy. The CPI has traditionally relied on field-generated data, such as prices observed in person at grocery stores or retailers. However, as these data have become more challenging and expensive to collect in a way that reflects an increasingly dynamic marketplace, statistical agencies and researchers have begun turning to opportunities created by the vast digital sources of consumer price data that have emerged. The enormous economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, including major shifts in consumers' shopping patterns, presents a perfect case study for the need to rapidly employ new data sources for the CPI.  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

Christine Broadbridge, President
Southern Connecticut State University

John Kadow, Vice President
ViiV Healthcare

Eric Donkor, Secretary
UConn

Edmond Murphy, Treasurer
Lumentum (ret.)

Baki Cetegen, Past President
UConn

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Terri Clark

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

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

Amy R. Howell, Executive Editor - Science
Department of Chemistry
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, tclark@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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