of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering

Celebrate, Promote, Inform in Service to Connecticut

Volume 41, 3 /  June 2026

This month, Connecticut celebrated the passage and signing of the Connecticut Artificial Intelligence Responsibility and Transparency (C.A.R.T.) Act. This is a landmark achievement in policy implementation, backed by expertise in science and technology. As Senator James Maroney said, “[the legislation] strikes the right balance between protecting Connecticut residents and fostering innovation.”

Getting to this point was a long and steady endeavor by Sen. Maroney, Rep. Delany, and collaborators of the Connecticut General Assembly’s AI Caucus. The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) played several roles in supporting the development of evidence-informed policy that went into the Act. This showcases how CASE continues o advocate for the application of science and technology to human welfare and economic well-being.

After years of work, the final C.A.R.T. Act had strong bipartisan support and was a collaborative effort within the Connecticut General Assembly and with the Executive Branch. From the initial working group on AI, co-led by CASE member Nick Donofrio in 2023, to the drafting of the Act this legislative session with strong support from CASE’s Science and Technology Policy Fellow Stephen Nichols, CASE provided expert guidance that led to a successful Act.

Looking ahead, CASE is uniquely positioned to apply our expertise across the diverse challenges facing the state and nation. In recognition of CASE’s contributions, the C.A.R.T. Act utilizes the Academy for several tasks, including co-leading the next working group and identifying liaisons to legislative leaders.

At the same time, across fields as diverse as Energy to Public Health, our ten Technical Boards are working to understand the challenges facing Connecticut, in which CASE can provide insight. For fifty years, the Academy has been delivering skillful evidence-informed advice that has supported Connecticut’s economic growth and well-being. We welcome these opportunities to help shape Connecticut's future.

Sincerely, 

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.

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

Science and Engineering Notes from Around Connecticut

CASE Member Kumar Venkitanarayanan has been appointed Dean of UConn's College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR), starting July 1. A 27-year veteran of the UConn community, he assumes the role after serving as interim dean, senior associate dean, and associate dean for research and graduate education — a tenure that helped double CAHNR's extramural funding and surpass this year's fundraising goal of $6.45 million. He will also serve as director of the Connecticut Cooperative Extension System and the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station. Read more.

Governor Ned Lamont announced a Stage 2 Drought advisory for Fairfield, Middlesex, and New Haven Counties due to significantly low streamflow in water bodies across the region, reduced rainfall, and increased wildfire risk across the state. Before today’s announcement, there was no drought declaration statewide. A Stage 2 drought advisory is an alert stage, indicating an emerging drought that could potentially affect water supplies, agriculture, and natural ecosystems. It is the second of five levels under the Connecticut Drought Preparedness and Response Plan, with Stage 1 being the lowest and Stage 5 the most severe. Read more.

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) received a $34K grant from the John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation, a supporting organization of the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation, to map and monitor at-risk bee species across the state. Connecticut is home to over 397 wild bee species — and the yellow-banded bumblebee has declined by nearly 50% across its historic range. Led by CAES, in partnership with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, this research will help inform science-based efforts to conserve the pollinators that our ecosystems and food systems rely on. Read more.

Connecticut has allocated $22.5M in emergency aid for dairy farmers, funded by the state's Federal Cuts Response Fund. The relief is intended to address federally set milk prices that favor large-scale operations, increases in costs due to tariffs on fertilizer and equipment, and rising fuel prices linked to the U.S.–Iran conflict—all of which hit family-owned dairies in the state particularly hard. Read more.

CASE Member Craig Crews of Yale University was named the inaugural recipient of the Yale Founders Award at Yale’s Innovation Summit. Crews pioneered the field of targeted protein degradation and invented PROTACs — a fundamentally new class of medicines that harness the body's own cellular machinery to eliminate disease-causing proteins. That science just reached a landmark milestone: the first-ever FDA approval of a PROTAC therapy for breast cancer, developed by his New Haven-based company Arvinas. Read more.

New research by CASE Member and 2023 Connecticut Medal of Science recipient Akiko Iwasaki, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and professor of Dermatology, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, and Epidemiology at Yale, along with Mount Sinai collaborators, uncovers a major breakthrough in understanding long COVID. The study shows that in some patients, the immune system produces autoantibodies targeting brain and nerve tissues — leading to fatigue, brain fog, and pain common among sufferers. This provides some of the strongest mechanistic evidence so far that long COVID overlaps with autoimmune disease and highlights existing therapies that may eventually offer relief. Read more.

Southern Connecticut State University's Connecticut Health, Athletic, and Mental Performance (CHAMP) Center helps individuals make more informed decisions about their health and fitness. The center provides advanced testing and personalized assessments — from VO₂ max and DEXA scans to strength, balance, and performance analysis — serving both athletes and everyday people. Since opening in 2024, CHAMP has combined faculty expertise, student involvement, and state-of-the-art technology to deliver data-driven insights that assist clients in improving performance and understanding their overall well-being. Read more.

Yale Library is testing a new system that allows students to search its catalog directly through AI assistants like Claude. Built on the model context protocol (MCP), the tool transforms natural-language questions into deep, semantic searches of the library's catalog and digital collections, highlighting resources that traditional keyword searches might overlook. Early testers note that seeing results sourced directly from the library's curated data increased their trust in AI-generated answers. Read more.

Connecticut's Senate Bill 4 passed both chambers with strong bipartisan support and was signed into law. The law requires automakers to show tariff cost estimates on new vehicles, mandates disclosure of personalized algorithmic pricing, and enhances data privacy protections, including limits on the sale of precise geolocation data. It also creates a one-click process allowing Connecticut residents to delete their personal data from registered data brokers. Read more.

At the 12th annual Yale Innovation Summit in New Haven, panelists, including Yale's Michael Crair, CASE Member Christine Broadbridge from Southern Connecticut State University, CASE Member Pamir Alpay from UConn, and Allison Schwartz from D-Wave Quantum Inc., agreed that developing both technical and non-technical workforce pipelines is essential for Connecticut's quantum future. Alpay and Crair are the UConn and Yale leads, respectively, for QuantumCT. They noted that the state has already established itself as a top-tier quantum hub, citing the high-quality research from state universities and the growing presence of quantum companies as evidence of Connecticut's momentum. Pamir Alpay, UConn's provost, called for a "K through gray" education strategy to prepare the workforce for the disruption quantum technology will bring. Read more.

Unilever is investing $270M to develop a new Global Innovation Center in New Haven, with an expected opening in spring 2029. The facility will function as the company's U.S. and global R&D hub for personal care, beauty, and wellbeing products, replacing its current facility in Trumbull. Supported by both state and private funding, the project will utilize AI and quantum computing to speed up product innovation and is projected to employ around 300 people. Read more.

Henkel Corporation is making its largest non-manufacturing investment in North America in over a decade in Trumbull, where it is building a new Center of Research and Development consisting of three buildings totaling over 110,000 square feet. The facility will accommodate more than 200 employees across 27 laboratories and three pilot plants, with an expected opening in late 2027, bringing high-quality jobs and significant growth to the community's grand list. Campus amenities will include a cafeteria, EV charging stations, and outdoor workspaces. Read more.

Two CASE Members have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2026. Erika J. Edwards, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale, director of the Marsh Botanical Garden, and acting director of the Peabody Museum, is a plant evolutionary biologist whose research reconstructs how traits like C4 and CAM photosynthesis have evolved repeatedly in response to shifting climates. Daniel I. Bolnick, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut and president of the American Society of Naturalists, studies how ecological interactions—such as competition, parasitism, and immunity—maintain genetic variation within natural populations, with much of his work focused on three-spined stickleback fish. Both were recognized in the Academy's Evolution and Ecology section as part of a 2026 class of more than 250 new members. Read more.

Connecticut has increased its investment in youth robotics, now surpassing $6M since 2024. The funding, provided by the Manufacturing Innovation Fund, supports FIRST Robotics and RECF programs for students from elementary through high school, with a strong emphasis on expanding access in underserved communities and Alliance Districts, which together serve 44% of Connecticut's public school students. Connecticut's advanced manufacturing sector accounts for more than a tenth of the state's GDP, but the workforce has shrunk by over 140,000 jobs since 1990 and is aging faster than it is being replaced. Programs like FIRST and RECF report that more than 80% of participants pursue STEM majors in college. Read more.

UConn has launched the UConn Shipbuilding Initiatives, uniting research, workforce development, supply chain innovation, and international partnerships within a single coordinated framework. Three CASE members are leading the effort: Initiative Director and engineering professor Richard Christenson describes it as "a coordinated academic framework to help industry and government partners address those challenges while strengthening the region's role in national maritime readiness," while Interim Vice President for Research Lindsay DiStefano notes that the initiative builds on Connecticut's rich shipbuilding history — from the whaling industry to the first nuclear submarine to today's General Dynamics-Electric Boat. "A thriving shipbuilding industry is vital to our economy and workforce, as well as national security and commerce," said UConn President Radenka Maric. "The UConn Shipbuilding Initiatives underline our commitment to the research and instruction necessary to meet the evolving needs of such a critical sector for our state, region, and country." Read more.

Wesleyan's Science and Technology Studies program turns 50 this year. Founded in 1975 as Science in Society, the program was built on the idea that science, technology, and medicine are shaped by — and shape — politics, economics, culture, and power. Fifty years on, its faculty are asking deceptively simple questions about AI, health care, and who benefits from technological change. Read more.

Yale chemists have built the first standalone "artificial leaf" that turns sunlight, water, and CO2 into methanol. This process is 32 times more efficient than prior alcohol-producing artificial leaf designs. The work, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, is a milestone for the Center for Hybrid Approaches in Solar Energy to Liquid Fuels (CHASE), a DOE-funded Energy Innovation Hub spanning Yale, UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State, and UPenn. The system points toward a potentially scalable path to store solar energy as liquid fuel while pulling CO2 from the air. Read more.

Michael Winter, CASE Member and RTX Chief Scientist, argues that it’s not a choice between burning fuel OR consuming electrons. It’s about AND when it comes to where hybrid-electric propulsion is actually headed. Batteries are still about 40 times heavier than jet fuel for the same amount of energy, making all-electric flight impossible for the foreseeable future. The real near-term gains come from reimagining the gas turbine as a cyber-physical system: using electric components to handle transient operations while fuel sustains steady cruise. A series of demonstrators is already in progress, from urban air mobility to regional turboprops to single-aisle commercial aircraft. Read more.

CASE Member Gregory Sotzing, a professor of Chemistry at UCONN, along with collaborators at Purdue University, has developed a hemp-derived thermoplastic that could replace petroleum-based plastics like PET, the material used in water bottles, food packaging, and flexible electronics. The research shows that CBD, the cannabinoid most linked to personal wellness, can be polymerized into a durable, stretchy, water-resistant plastic that is also chemically recyclable. Perhaps most notably, it can withstand boiling water — a property very few bio-based plastics can match — and replaces bisphenol-A, a known endocrine disruptor found in conventional polycarbonates. Read more.

Known as the father of green chemistry, CASE Member Paul Anastas coined the term at the EPA in the 1990s and now leads Yale's Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. His new article, with colleague Andrew Marr of Queen's University Belfast, clearly explains why the field is moving from the margins to mainstream industrial strategies. Chemistry doesn't need to be made "less bad." It can be redesigned from the molecule up so waste becomes a feedstock and harm is engineered out from the start. And the market is catching on. In the Moore Foundation's Green Chemistry in America 2026 survey, more than 90% of US R&D and tech leaders familiar with the field said it provides a competitive advantage. As stated in The Stockholm Declaration on Chemistry for the Future, ”sustainability without innovation is impossible, and innovation without sustainability would be ruinous.” Read more.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced $9.5M for Connecticut to address PFAS and other emerging contaminants in drinking water. This is notable because PFAS remains one of the highest-profile water-quality and public-health issues nationally and in Connecticut. Read more.

Connecticut's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has announced 18 grant recipients under its newly created Long Island Sound Ecosystems Grant Program. Over $7.8M has been awarded to municipalities and nonprofits across the state, with projects focused on improving water quality, enhancing ecosystem resilience, and improving fish passage. Funded efforts include coastal marsh restoration, dam removal, living shoreline construction, and green stormwater infrastructure upgrades. Read more.

Yale has played a significant role in the SenNet initiative through an interdisciplinary team of investigators, including CASE Members Rong Fan, the Harold Hodgkinson Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science and of Pathology at Yale School of Medicine (YSM); Stephanie Halene, Arthur H. and Isabel Bunker Professor of Medicine (Hematology) and professor of pathology; Yuval Kluger, the Anthony N. Brady Professor of Pathology; Vishwa Deep Dixit, the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Pathology and professor of immunobiology; and Ruth Montgomery, professor of medicine and professor of epidemiology (microbial diseases) at YSM. Their expertise spans aging biology, immunology, pathology, hematology, computational biology, and data science. Read more.

Connecticut has confirmed its first measles case of 2026 in an unvaccinated Hartford County adult who recently returned from international travel. The individual is hospitalized and in stable condition. Over 2,073 measles cases have been reported nationally in 2026, on track to surpass 2025's total. “Vaccination continues to be the best way to protect yourself and your family from measles,” said DPH Commissioner and CASE member Manisha Juthani, MD. Connecticut's MMR vaccination rate is 98.2% at kindergarten entry. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are about 97% effective. Read more.

Ongoing investments in mental health infrastructure are yielding results. A Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) analysis showed that the launch of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline was associated with an 11% decline in suicide deaths among adolescents and young adults nationwide. The ten states with the highest increases in 988 usage experienced an even greater decline — 18% — and Connecticut is among those ten states. Connecticut's results demonstrate ongoing investment in crisis response. United Way of Connecticut's 988 answers 97% of calls within 5 seconds, consistently ranking among the top five in the nation for speed. Crisis call volume has increased nearly 350% since 988 launched in 2022, with over 55,000 calls handled in FY 2025 alone. In November 2025, Connecticut expanded to 24/7 local response for 988 chats and texts, with 21% of those contacts originating from youth under 18. Read more.

Connecticut has some of the worst air quality east of the Mississippi. Ozone remains the state's biggest air pollution problem, with motor vehicle emissions being the primary cause, and upcoming federal rollbacks and policy changes are likely to make it worse. Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes, the Department of Public Health Commissioner, and CASE Member, Manisha Juthani, express concern about the public health implications, especially for children and communities already experiencing health disparities. Read more.

CASE Member Cato T. Laurencin, the University Professor and Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at UConn School of Medicine, has been appointed to the Charles M. and Martha Hitchcock Professorship at the University of California, Berkeley for 2026–2027. One of Berkeley's most prestigious honors, it was established in 1885. The Hitchcock Professorship is awarded through competitive faculty nominations to researchers who have significantly reshaped their fields. Cato is widely recognized as the founder of Regenerative Engineering. This appointment reflects the global impact of his work at the intersection of materials science, stem cell biology, and clinical translation. Read more.

QuantumCT — the UConn, Yale, and Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development public-private partnership — has just launched four Phase 2 Pilot Projects that bring together university researchers and global industry partners to translate quantum science from the lab into real-world applications. The projects, supported by Microsoft, Pfizer, RTX, Quantinuum, and D-Wave, focus on quantum-secure communications, supply chain and logistics optimization, machine learning for drug safety prediction, and constrained optimization for aerospace and defense. What makes this notable isn't just the science; it's the model. Faculty from both UConn and Yale are working side by side with industry on domain-specific challenges that are important to Connecticut's key sectors: life sciences, national security, aerospace, and financial services. Read more.

CASE Member Victor Batista, the John Gamble Kirkwood Professor of Chemistry at Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, has dedicated decades to studying proton transfer reactions — the ones that happen in photosynthesis, enzyme catalysis, and even between base pairs in our DNA. The challenge: every theoretical approach has depended on approximations. Until now. Batista's team collaborated with the lab of 2025 Nobel laureate Michel Devoret, along with Google Quantum AI and UC Santa Barbara, to develop a superconducting quantum circuit that physically simulates quantum proton "tunneling" — with energy barriers that researchers can actually tune. The device has already revealed two previously unknown mechanisms in proton transfer, with implications for solar fuels, pharmaceuticals, and new materials. Read more.

The University of Connecticut has launched AI for ImpaCT, a university-wide initiative to advance AI in education, research, workforce development, and public engagement. CASE Member Pamir Alpay, Provost, is leading this effort, emphasizing that the future of AI depends not only on technological innovation but also on how it is applied — thoughtfully, responsibly, and with students and communities in mind. The initiative builds on existing efforts, including AI literacy courses, professional workforce training, and tools like ThoughtAmp, which helps faculty understand how students engage with AI-powered learning. For researchers, educators, and policymakers alike, AI for ImpaCT offers a repeatable model: a research university serving as a trusted resource—helping employers, communities, and legislators understand the opportunities and address the challenges AI presents. Read more.

Connecticut is investing $10.8M in transportation infrastructure projects in 17 municipalities through the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s Community Connectivity Grant Program. Funded projects include sidewalk construction, pedestrian signal upgrades, bicycle connections, greenway improvements, and traffic calming measures — all aimed at making town centers safer and more accessible. Since the program launched in 2019, 172 grants totaling over $84M have been awarded across the state. This round of funding reflects a clear policy approach: competitive, locally driven, and construction-ready to minimize administrative barriers while directing resources to areas where communities have already identified a need. Read more.

Speed cameras are coming to Connecticut highway work zones. The goal is straightforward: slow drivers down and protect the road crews working a few feet from active traffic. CTDOT plans to deploy up to 15 cameras at any given time, consisting of both stationary and mobile units, including some mounted in SUVs that can follow maintenance crews to guide-rail repairs, mowing, or litter collection. The state piloted this concept with just three cameras in 2023, and speeds dropped close to 20% in some work zones during active enforcement. 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).

As the world recovers from COVID-19, understanding how pathogens spill over from animals into humans is critical to prevention efforts. The National Academies' Forum on Microbial Threats convened a workshop examining how ecological, social, and technological factors shape the emergence of new infectious diseases, with a focus on the human-animal interface and laboratory biosafety. This proceedings volume summarizes the presentations and discussions from that event. Read more.

The science academies of the G7 countries — including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences — released three joint "S7" statements ahead of the G7 summit in Evian, France, offering science-informed guidance on three urgent global challenges. On the Arctic, the statement calls for immediate greenhouse gas reductions, strengthened international scientific cooperation, and meaningful engagement of Indigenous communities in environmental governance. On large satellite constellations, the academies urge improved space traffic management, stricter debris-mitigation standards, and an international treaty to secure the long-term benefits of low-Earth orbit deployment. On brain health, the statement urges G7 leaders to establish a standing Brain Health Advisory Council and mobilize public-private investment in neuroscience research and innovation. Read more.

A National Academies workshop explored how bidirectional interactions between the brain and peripheral organ systems — including cardiovascular, immune, and gastrointestinal systems — are reshaping our understanding of neurological and psychiatric conditions. Experts across neuroscience, medicine, public health, and engineering discussed how these interconnected systems influence disease mechanisms, risk, and resilience. Discussions emphasized moving beyond siloed approaches toward interdisciplinary collaboration, patient-centered perspectives, and care models that reflect the complexity of whole-body health. Read more.

While current assessments of researcher output and productivity at U.S. academic institutions capture important dimensions of scholarly activity, many evaluation rubrics rely heavily on traditional indicators of success, such as grant funding, publication counts, and citation metrics. The National Academies held a public workshop to explore opportunities to broaden researcher assessment and incentives within U.S. academic institutions. Speakers and participants discussed institutional case studies, emerging approaches, and practical strategies for recognizing and incentivizing contributions beyond traditional research outputs. This report highlights the presentations and discussions that occurred during the workshop. Read more.

Energy and water systems are deeply interconnected and increasingly under strain from extreme weather, aging infrastructure, population growth, electrification, and expanding data centers. This report examines how these interdependencies create both risks and opportunities for resilience. The report presents a vision for a DOE pilot program grounded in regional realities, emphasizing that technological innovation alone is insufficient — successful solutions must also address governance, financing, regulatory, and institutional factors. Through regionally diverse pilot projects, the report highlights the importance of cross-sector collaboration, adaptive management, and knowledge sharing as pathways to reduce systemic risk and build a more secure energy-water future. Read more.

Synthetic cells — engineered biomolecular systems designed to perform life-like functions — hold significant promise across health, environmental management, agriculture, and manufacturing. This report examines how to advance this emerging field responsibly. Key recommendations include establishing a coordinated national biotechnology governance strategy, modernizing biosafety and biosecurity oversight, and strengthening risk assessment infrastructure. The report calls for adaptive, evidence-based governance to ensure synthetic cell research remains safe, secure, and aligned with societal needs. Read more.

A new National Academies report, A Vision for the Manufacturing USA Program in 2030 and 2035, examines how the Manufacturing USA institutes — established over a decade ago to support advanced manufacturing research, technology development, and workforce education — can be strengthened as U.S. manufacturing productivity lags behind key competitors. The report offers recommendations across four areas: technology transfer, interagency and cross-network collaboration, regional manufacturing ecosystems, and workforce development, outlining a path for advancing U.S. manufacturing competitiveness over the next decade. Read more.

Federal investment in NIH-led research has driven major gains in pediatric health, yet experts broadly agree that child health remains in crisis, with rising rates of chronic disease and declining mental, emotional, and behavioral health. In response, NIH tasked the National Academies with examining its pediatric research portfolio and structure. The resulting report offers eight recommendations to guide NIH in integrating a pediatric and life-course focus across its research and funding priorities. Read more.

The Academy's mission is to "provide expert guidance on science and technology to the people and to the state of Connecticut, and promote the application of science and technology to human welfare and economic well-being." 

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

Ellen Sun, Treasurer
RTX Technology Research Center (Ret.)

John Kadow, Past President
Alphina Therapeutics

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Jeffrey Orszak

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Kerry Shea

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

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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