of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering
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Celebrate, Promote, Inform in Service to CT
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Volume 36, 5 / October 2021
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A message to our readers... |
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The fall is always an exciting time for the Academy as we undergo our annual Call for Nominations for membership. As members begin to submit their nominations – which are due by Nov. 17 - I am always amazed by the incredible science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) talent in our state, which makes for a very competitive selection process. Ultimately those elected to membership serve to renew our organization and reconfirm the importance of STEMM to our state’s social and economic well-being.
To be considered, nominees must have achieved scientific distinction through significant original contributions in theory or applications and/or unusual accomplishments in the pioneering of new and developing fields of applied science and technology. Members are reminded that the Academy values diverse and inclusive participation in its membership and activities.
If you are interested in learning more about the Academy’s Call for Nominations, check-in with Terri Clark.
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Christine Caragianis Broadbridge, President CT Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE)
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CALL FOR NOMINATIONS |
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CASE Nominations for Membership |
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Nominations for CASE Membership are due by November 17. If you are interested in the process of becoming a CASE member, please contact Terri Clark at tclark@ctcase.org or visit the Academy's website for more information.
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CALL FOR APPLICATIONS |
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CASE Fellowship |
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CASE is accepting applications for a Two-Year Fellowship on building decarbonization for the Bureau of Energy at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Applications are due by November 19, 2021.
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SAVE THE DATE |
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CASE Annual Meeting |
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Save the date for the 47th CASE Annual Meeting & Dinner, Thursday, May 26, 2022, at the UConn Rome Ballroom in Storrs.
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Science and Engineering Notes from Around Connecticut
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Agriculture, Food and Nutrition |
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The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station issued a Quarantine Order with defined restricted areas for the spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula (spotted lanternfly). This insect poses a threat to Connecticut’s environment, residential areas, and agricultural interests, particularly forests, orchards, vineyards, and nurseries. Read more.
Governor Ned Lamont announced nearly $10 million in federal Coronavirus Relief Funding and American Rescue Plan Act funding will be distributed to support Connecticut’s dairy and aquaculture industries. Additional funds also will be available to extend the purchase CT Grown products through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Read more.
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Biomedical Research & Healthcare |
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CASE Member Lisa Lattanza, chair of the Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation, was presented with the 2021 annual Diversity Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). The award is given to AAOS fellows and emeritus members who demonstrate outstanding commitment to making orthopaedics more representative and accessible to the diverse population it serves. Read more.
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Communication & Information Systems |
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Katepalli Sreenivasan, an emeritus CASE Member and Dean Emeritus for NYU Tandon School of Engineering was a speaker at the 2021 NYU Abu Dhabi Institute presenting on what happens to the Earth when the Sun generates huge magnetic storms. Read more.
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Forty-two Connecticut companies are included in the 2021 edition of the annual Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America, including Shelton-based energy startup, Budderfly Inc. which helps businesses cut energy costs. The company had a three-year revenue gain of 22,486%, the largest percentage increase in Connecticut. Read more.
CASE Member Nicholas Donofrio, IBM Emeritus and IBM’s former executive vice president of Innovation and Technology, was spotlighted in the 50th Anniversary Edition of the National Academy of Engineering’s publication, The Bridge. His essay addresses the importance of bringing opportunities to talent, noting innovation is enabled by environments and organizations that foster open, collaborative, inclusive, multi-disciplinary thinking and working. Read more.
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Education and Human Resources |
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CASE Member Ishita Mukerji, Fisk Professor of Natural Science, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry, and director of the College of Integrative Sciences for Wesleyan University coordinated the university’s 2021 Summer Research Poster Session where students showcased their projects with peers, faculty, and the public. Read More.
CASE member and the 2015 CT Medal of Science recipient Joan A. Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale School of Medicine, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, received in 2021 a Wolf Prize and donated her portion of the prize to the Yale Center for RNA Science and Medicine. The Wolf Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in biomedical science next to the Nobel Prize, is awarded to scientists and artists for achievements benefitting humanity. Read more.
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Energy Production, Use, and Conservation |
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Connecticut’s Public Utility Regulation Authority (PURA) announced an update for its Equitable Modern Grid (EMG) initiative via a webinar on Oct. 14. Speakers included leadership from PURA and the Energy and Technology Committee of the CT General Assembly. Read more.
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CASE Member Paul Anastas, a Yale professor and the “Father of Green Chemistry," has been awarded the 2021 Volvo Environment Prize. The prize is awarded annually to people who have made outstanding scientific discoveries within sustainability. Read more.
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the Connecticut Urban Forest Council and the UCONN Department of Natural Resources and Center for Environmental Science and Engineering announced in September the new Urban Forest Equity and Resilience Grant Program. The program is available to municipalities and non-profit organizations in the state seeking to implement statewide urban forest canopy improvement. Read more.
CASE Member, Michael R. Willig and UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology is the 2021 recipient of the C. Hart Merriam Award from the American Society of Mammologists (ASM) on its 100th anniversary. Professor Willig is also the founding executive director of UConn’s Institute of the Environment, director of the Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering, and curator of mammals for the Biodiversity Research Collection. Read more.
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The Connecticut Department of Public Health announced that a third Connecticut resident tested positive for West Nile virus infection. This patient from Hartford became ill during the fourth week of August with encephalitis. The virus has been detected in mosquitoes from 34 Connecticut towns this season. It is the most common mosquito-borne disease in the U.S., reemerging every summer in Connecticut. Read more.
Graphic photos showing the severe consequences of smoking will be printed on all cigarette packages in the U.S. beginning Oct. 2022. According to CASE member, Theodore Holford, and Susan Dwight Bliss Professor Emeritus of Biostatistics and a senior research scientist in biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health, and colleagues from the Yale School of Public Health, their research indicates this measure will save an estimated 539,000 lives over the remainder of this century. Read more.
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Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin Company, will deliver the first of its digitally designed helicopters just off the production line to the U.S. Marine Corps. The CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter provides advanced capabilities that will allow Marines to go anywhere in the world where the mission requires heavy-lift logistics support. Read More.
Adoption of circularity has become a moral imperative to business leaders and cleaner hydrogen production is an enabler for circularity of the hydrogen economy and should contribute to lowering carbon emissions from road vehicles and commercial aviation. CASE Member Dr. Y. F. Khalil published recent articles related to hydrogen as an energy carrier and a promising cleaner transportation fuel (Khalil, Y.F., 2018) and cleaner production of hydrogen from glycerol, a byproduct of biodiesel production via transesterification of agricultural crops such as soybeans, rapeseed, sunflower, jatropha, palm, castor, etc. (Khalil, Y.F., 2021).
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Connecticut by the Numbers reported on the numerous new transportation laws in effect that impact vision screening requirements, cannabis use, out-of-state vehicle registrations, bus right-of-way, registration for seniors, back seat belts, distracted driving, mandated reporting, and yielding to pedestrians at crosswalks. Read more.
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Items that appear in the In Brief section are compiled from previously published sources including newspaper accounts and press releases.
Compiled and edited by Wendy Swift.
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From the National Academies |
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The following is excerpted from press releases and other news reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (nationalacademies.org).
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The National Science Foundation (NSF) has played a key role over the past several decades in advancing understanding of Earth's systems by funding research on atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, geologic, polar, ecosystem, social, and engineering-related processes. Today, however, those systems are being driven like never before by human technologies and activities. Given the urgency of understanding human-driven changes, NSF will need to sustain and expand its efforts to achieve greater impact. The time is ripe to create a next-generation Earth systems science initiative that emphasizes research on complex interconnections and feedbacks between natural and social processes. Read more.
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Starting in early childhood, children are capable of learning sophisticated science and engineering concepts and engage in disciplinary practices. They are deeply curious about the world around them and eager to investigate the many questions they have about their environment. Unfortunately, in many preschool and elementary schools, science gets relatively little attention compared to English language arts and mathematics. In addition, many early childhood and elementary teachers do not have extensive grounding in science and engineering content. This report evaluates the state of the evidence on learning experiences prior to school; promising instructional approaches and what is needed for implementation to include teacher professional development, curriculum, and instructional materials; and the policies and practices at all levels that constrain or facilitate efforts to enhance preschool through elementary science and engineering. Read more.
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Biometrics is one of the most powerful, but misunderstood technologies used at airports today. The ability to increase the speed of individual processes, as well as offer a touch-free experience throughout an entire journey is a revolution that is decades in the making. Airport Biometrics: A Primer is designed to help aviation stakeholders, especially airport operators, to understand the range of issues and choices available when considering, and deciding on, a scalable and effective set of solutions using biometrics. These solutions may serve as a platform to accommodate growth as well as addressing the near-term focus regarding safe operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more.
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As the largest generation in U.S. history - the population born in the two decades immediately following World War II - enters the age of risk for cognitive impairment, growing numbers of people will experience dementia (including Alzheimer's disease and related dementias). By one estimate, nearly 14 million people in the United States will be living with dementia by 2060. At the request of the National Institute on Aging of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America assesses the contributions of research in the social and behavioral sciences and identifies a research agenda for the coming decade, and offers a blueprint for the next decade of behavioral and social science research to reduce the negative impact of dementia for America's diverse population. Read more.
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Electric power is essential for the lives and livelihoods of all Americans, and the need for electricity that is safe, clean, affordable, and reliable will only grow in the decades to come. At the request of Congress and the Department of Energy, the National Academies convened a committee of experts to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the U.S. grid and how it might evolve in response to advances in new energy technologies, changes in demand, and future innovation, and the resulting report addresses technology development, operations, grid architectures, and business practices, as well as ways to make the electricity system safe, secure, sustainable, equitable, and resilient. Read more.
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A systematic review of how the US research system responded to COVID-19, including fundamental scientific studies on SARS-CoV-2, public health surveillance, epidemiological research, and development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines. The paper identifies challenges experienced by the biomedical research enterprise prior to the COVID epidemic and which impacted their ability to respond to COVID-19. Read more.
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The Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering |
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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
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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
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