of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering

Celebrate, Promote, Inform in Service to CT

Volume 39, 2  /  April 2024

In a few short weeks, we will be gathering for the Academy’s 49th Annual Meeting and Dinner. This event provides an opportunity to honor our state’s commitment to STEMM advances and the people who make them happen.

This year, we will celebrate:

• Thirty-five new members of the Academy including representatives from Ambri, Inc., Central Connecticut State University, Independent Data Consortium for Aviation, RTX, UCONN, and Yale University.
• Honorary Members Jack Crane, strategic advisor at CONNSTEP, and Josh Geballe, Senior Associate Provost for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Yale University and Managing Director of Yale Ventures.
• Twenty-four middle and high school student CASE awardees from the Connecticut Invention Convention, the Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium and the Connecticut Science and Engineering Fair (including its Urban School Challenge Program).

A highlight of the evening will be the keynote by Academy Member Akiko Iwasaki, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Professor of Dermatology and of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases); Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity, Yale School of Medicine, and an Investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Professor Iwasaki will discuss immunology of Post Acute Infection Syndrome. Professor Iwasaki is also the winner of the 2023 Connecticut Medal of Science, with the award being bestowed at the 2024 Annual Meeting.

The event will begin with a reception at 6:00 pm, followed by our meeting and dinner. If you are interested in attending and have not received an invitation, email Karen at kcohen@ctcase.org.

On behalf of the members, enjoy this edition and I hope to see you at the Annual Meeting. In the meantime, look for the release of the latest episode of the Academy’s Learning and Living STEMM in Connecticut podcast series. Host and CASE Member Tanimu Deleon interviews Seema Alim, a CASE Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP), about the fellowship scope and opportunities and her path to and forward from this experience. She will share her perspective on climate change and her role in identifying decarbonization opportunities on behalf of the state.

All the best,

John Kadow, 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.

have been elected Honorary Members and will be recognized at the upcoming Annual Meeting & Dinner on May 21^st in Branford. Read more.

Please click the blue "follow" button on the page to stay up to date.

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

Science and Engineering Notes from Around Connecticut

The Connecticut Department of Agriculture (CT DoAg) is awarding $1.475M in state funding to farmers and non-profits involved in production agriculture to invest in long-term climate resiliency projects that will decrease vulnerability to extreme weather events through regenerative agricultural practices. The projects are part of the Farmland Restoration, Climate Resiliency, and Preparedness Grant, with a focus on restoring and improving land with prime and important farmland soils. Read more.

With the support of a USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant, students and faculty from UConn’s College of Engineering and College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources will help farmers design and implement innovative tools to better their farming practices. Read more.

CASE Member Akiko Iwasaki, the Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and Professor of Dermatology and of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases); Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, has been named one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2024 by Time Magazine. Profiled by Anthony Fauci, Akiko has “a deep appreciation of the regulation of the human immune system [allowing] her to lead the way in delineating the mechanisms of how it reacts to COVID-19 and the consequences of Long COVID. Her expertise in innate immunity—or how the immune system first reacts to pathogens—is providing key insights into Long COVID, validating patient experiences and informing treatment strategies.”  Read more.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved an application from Allyx Therapeutics, a New Haven-based biotechnology company to conduct clinical research on a new treatment for Parkinson’s disease. With the FDA’s approval, Allyx will conduct a 28-day safety study on Parkinson’s patients later this year. Read more.

The Yale School of Medicine has been awarded a $13.2 million grant from The Marcus Foundation to support a clinical trial that could mark a first step toward a preventive treatment for Parkinson’s disease. Led by CASE Member David Hafler, chair of the Department of Neurology, and William S. and Lois Stiles Edgerly Professor of Neurology and of Immunobiology, the clinical trial will test the hypothesis that inflammatory signaling plays a key role in the development of the disease. Read more.

While stress itself may not cause cancer, taking up smoking, becoming less active, and drinking more alcohol to try and cope with the stress may have disastrous consequences. "Stress isn't directly linked to cancer, but it depends on how a person handles it," said Melinda Irwin, CASE Member and Deputy Director at the Yale Cancer Center as featured in Newsweek. "For example, people may cope with unhealthy behaviors, such as stress eating, drinking alcohol or becoming less active, that are themselves associated with increased risks of some cancers." Read more.

On a recent episode of the podcast, Health & Veritas with CASE Member Harlan M. Krumholz and Howard P. Forman, CASE Member Lucila Ohno-Machado, Yale School of Medicine’s Deputy Dean for Biomedical Informatics, explains how expanding the use of data science, informatics, AI, and technology could enable doctors to spend more time with patients. Read more.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has accepted the state of Connecticut’s digital equity plan, “Connecticut: Everyone Connected.” Federal acceptance of this plan makes the state eligible for $18 million in Digital Equity Act Capacity Grant funds, which would support the implementation of the plan to help ensure that all Connecticut residents can benefit from life in the digital world for learning, career advancement, telehealth, and leveraging state services. Read more.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that $5B from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is being awarded to the Coalition for Green Capital, a consortium of organizations from throughout the country including the Connecticut Green Bank. This investment will create a first-of-its-kind national network that will finance tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects across the country, especially in low-income and disadvantaged communities. Read more.

Workforce and emerging industries are expected to be the cornerstones of Connecticut’s economic landscape. The state’s strategy includes the launch of a jobs portal to help residents and potential residents find employment. Read more.

An $80M fuel cell project at the former Stanley Works campus in New Britain is set to power up in May to supply up to 20 MW of electricity to the larger power grid. CASE Member Joel Rinebold said the project could lead to more advanced manufacturing in New Britain and across the state, “Fuel cells are the perfect machine, the perfect technology, to take that hydrogen and turn it into kilowatt-hours that people can use.” Read more.

A project funded by a $4.5M US Department of Energy grant, spearheaded by UConn, will work to help power grid operators nationwide revolutionize how renewable energy sources are integrated into the electrical grid. The project team will create open-source data visualization tools to display information about renewable energy sources and distributed energy resources. Read more.

UCONN has been selected to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to lead cybersecurity research and training in the energy sector. UConn was one of six institutions selected by the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) to receive this funding. Read more.

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) announced progress on the development of release-based cleanup regulations that will streamline the remediation and redevelopment of blighted properties impacted by pollution from past industrial uses, aligning the state’s regulatory approach to those used in 48 other states. Read more.

With spring, black bear activity is increasing. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection urges residents to protect their communities by not reinforcing behaviors that lead to human-bear conflicts. Read more.

The 19th Annual Women of Innovation Awards will be held on October 22, 2024. A program of the CT Tech Council, Women of Innovation is the largest network of women in technology in Connecticut, awarding women who embody excellence in leadership and innovation. Nominations are being accepted until May 12, 2024. Read more.

The UConn School of Engineering has named Ji-Cheng “JC” Zhao as its new Dean. Zhao joins UConn from the University of Maryland, College Park. A member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Zhao has also served on the Subcommittee on the Materials Genome Initiative of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Read more.

The NOMIS & Science Young Explorer Award recognizes and rewards early-career M.D., Ph.D., or M.D./Ph.D. scientists who perform research at the intersection of the social and life sciences. A cash prize of up to US $15,000 will be awarded to essay winners, and their engaging essays will be published in Science. Applications are due May 15, 2024. Read more.

Connecticut’s manufacturing, technology, construction, and bioscience sectors are facing a shortage of engineers. Universities are expanding programs to try and meet the need, but questions remain on their ability to produce graduates fast enough to meet the demand. Read more.

Albertus Magnus College was awarded a $40,000 grant from the Tech Talent Accelerator (TTA) through the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE), a state-funded program to develop pathways from higher education into tech jobs in the state’s business and non-profit sectors. As a result of this award, Albertus will partner with the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce to leverage the College’s academic offerings to meet the need for information technology professionals in the local bio/pharma industry. Read more.

The National Association for Rare Disorders (NORD) recently released its State Report Card, grading each U.S. state on critical issues impacting access to care for the 1 in 10 Americans living with a rare disease. How did Connecticut score? Read more.

A multidisciplinary team of Yale scientists received a $4M federal grant to study the effectiveness of a new vaccine designed to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants. The research team included vaccinology, clinical epidemiology, pediatric infectious diseases, viral genomics, bioinformatics, and translational immunology. CASE Members Linda Niccolai, associate professor of epidemiology of microbial diseases at Yale School of Public Health, and Eugene Shapiro, professor of pediatrics, of epidemiology, and of investigative medicine at both the Yale School of Medicine and the Yale School of Public Health, are co-investigators on the grant. Read more.

QuantumCT, a public-private partnership to accelerate the adoption of quantum technologies, is presenting a ½ day session on “Imagining A Quantum Future: New Haven”. The session will include panel discussions on workforce and economic development. The event will be held at the Adanti Student Center at Southern CT State University and is free. RSVP is required and space is limited. Register here. 

Ten new inventions led by faculty from Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science – including CASE Members John Fortner, Jaehong Kim, Charles Ahn, Jung Han, and Mark Saltzman – are just some of the projects funded by the 2024 Roberts Innovation Fund Awards. The accelerator fund, created in 2022 and managed by Yale Ventures, focuses on supporting technologies with significant potential to benefit a wide range of fields. Read more.

The Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) opened its Digital Thread Lab this past January, providing end-to-end digital thread and hands-on training to support the digital transformation of manufacturers. The lab provides a cost-effective way for businesses and industries to access training in this state-of-the-art facility. Read more.

The latest article by CASE Member Lee Langston, published in the April/May 2024 issue of Mechanical Engineering Magazine, highlights the jet engine’s engineered versatility through providing both forward thrust for aircraft flight and adaptability to be configured to provide reverse thrust to augment the safe braking of both commercial and military aircraft during landing. Read more.

CASE Member Y.F. Khalil, associate director and chief of product safety & reliability engineering, at Collins Aerospace, participated in a two-day DOE Summit organized by the Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO) to discuss initiatives associated with DOE’s Energy Earthshot Program. The program focuses on decarbonizing the fuel and chemical industries through alternative sources of carbon to advance cost-effective technologies with a minimum of 85% lower emissions by 2035. Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) was one of the key discussion topics at this Summit. Read more.

A new microscopy technique – named FLASH-PAINT - developed by Yale scientists provides an unprecedented way to view the inner workings of individual cells, allowing researchers to view a potentially unlimited number of different molecules. “If you are just able to look at one or two proteins, you’re missing the big picture,” says CASE Member Joerg Bewersdorf, PhD, Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Cell Biology and principal investigator of the work, “We can now image as many proteins and other features as we want, in a very elegant and fast manner.” Read more.

The Federal Highway Administration will be offering $250M in competitive grants over five years for cities, states, metropolitan planning organizations, and municipalities to advance multimodal solutions that reduce vehicular traffic in congested metropolitan areas. Read more.

Amtrak is seeking options to transform the company’s rail fleet to zero-emissions technology, supporting the US National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization by 2050. The company has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2045. It already has plans in place to purchase more than half of its electricity from carbon-free sources, with the goal of achieving 100 percent by 2030, and doubling ridership from 2019 levels to 66 million riders annually by 2040. Read more.

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), chair of the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, led a bipartisan group of Senators calling for the support of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s prioritization to implement connected vehicle technologies that improve American roadway safety and encouraged the DOT to accelerate Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) deployment. C-V2X is an intelligent transportation system technology that allows vehicles, roadside infrastructure, and nearby road users to share data and enable various roadway safety and efficiency applications. 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 National Academies Forum on Microbial Threats and Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders hosted a workshop to explore opportunities to advance research and treatment of infection-associated chronic illnesses. The illnesses discussed including COVID-19, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), persistent or posttreatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS), and multiple sclerosis (MS), share overlapping mechanisms and symptoms and have been inadequately researched. Recognizing these commonalities, speakers identified the need to advance research more comprehensively, translating to improved diagnostic and treatment options for patients across multiple conditions. Read more. 

Smart manufacturing technologies - from advanced sensors to new computing capabilities - have the potential to greatly improve the productivity, energy efficiency, and sustainability of the U.S. manufacturing sector. Successfully implementing these technologies is essential for ensuring U.S. competitiveness and providing new job opportunities for the U.S. workforce. This report explores promising technologies transforming the manufacturing sector and identifies the research and resources needed to accelerate smart manufacturing adoption industry-wide, and also identifies critical needs for education and workforce development for smart manufacturing, making actionable recommendations to support and train the next-generation manufacturing workforce. Read more.

Family caregiving is not simply an outside obligation that has no bearing on the workings of academic science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) as it affects the lives of so many people working and studying in colleges and universities around the country. This report describes how the labor and contributions of caregivers are often invisible and undervalued, reviews policies and practices that support caregivers, locally and nationally, describes best practices in policy implementation and design, highlights innovative practices, and offers actionable recommendations to higher education institutions, public and private funders, and the federal government. Read more.

Protecting privacy and ensuring confidentiality in data is a critical component of modernizing our national data infrastructure. The use of blended data - combining previously collected data sources - presents new considerations for responsible data stewardship. This report provides a framework for managing disclosure risks that accounts for the unique attributes of blended data and poses a series of questions to guide considered decision-making. Read more.

Many federal agencies provide data and statistics on inequality and related aspects of household income, consumption, and wealth (ICW). However, because the information provided by these agencies is often produced using different concepts, underlying data, and methods, the resulting estimates of poverty, inequality, mean and median household income, consumption, and wealth, as well as other statistics, do not always tell a consistent or easily interpretable story. Achieving an integrated system of relevant, high-quality, and transparent household ICW data and statistics should go far to reduce disagreement about who has how much, and from what sources. Further, such data are essential to advance research on economic wellbeing and to ensure that policies are well targeted to achieve societal goals. Read more.

Concerted efforts to deepen understanding of RNA modifications and their role in living systems hold the potential to advance human health, improve crop yields, and address other pressing societal challenges. RNA, which carries the information encoded by DNA to the places where it is needed, is amazingly diverse and dynamic. RNA is processed and modified through natural biological pathways, giving rise to hundreds, in some cases thousands, of distinct RNA molecules for each gene, thereby diversifying genetic information. Existing methods cannot discover all RNA modifications, let alone comprehensively sequence them on every RNA molecule. This report calls for a focused, large-scale effort to accelerate technological innovation to harness the full potential of RNA modifications to address pressing societal challenges in health, agriculture, and beyond. Read more.

Across multiple domains of science, engineering, and medicine, excitement is growing about the potential of digital twins to transform scientific research, industrial practices, and many aspects of daily life. A digital twin pairs computational models with a physical counterpart to create a system that is dynamically updated through bidirectional data flows as conditions change. This report identifies the foundational research and resources needed to support the development of digital twin technologies and presents critical future research priorities and an interdisciplinary research agenda for the field, including how federal agencies and researchers across domains can best collaborate. Read more.

Existing systems are not prepared to provide the mental health care services needed by the growing population of older adults. The National Academies Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders hosted a public workshop in May 2023 to highlight the current state of mental health care for older adults, outline the challenges they face, and explore potential long-term strategies and solutions for addressing unmet mental health needs. Discussions emphasized information about wellness and prevention, social determinants of health in aging populations, the impact of workforce shortages and gaps, the need for supportive healthy communities, and strategies to promote positive mental health. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop. Read more.

In the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, the U.S. Supreme Court removed the constitutional right to abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade, challenging and restricting the access and quality of American reproductive health care. In October 2023, the National Academies hosted a hybrid public workshop discussing new partnerships and methodologies in data generation, data integrity, data-sharing, and patient privacy needed to enable the health care and policymaking communities to understand the effects of resulting policies across the United States. 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

John Kadow, President
Alphina Therapeutics

Sten Vermund, Vice President
Yale School of Public Health

Eric Donkor, Secretary
UConn

Edmond Murphy, Treasurer
Lumentum (ret.)

Christine Broadbridge, Past President
Southern Connecticut State University

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Terri Clark

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
Karen Cohen

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

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.

COPYING PERMITTED, WITH ATTRIBUTION