Rensselaer Biomedical Engineers Team Up With College of Saint Rose, Capital Region Artists To Teach Visitors About Nerves and Spinal Cord Injury Through Art

A large challenge for scientists and engineers is generating public awareness and understanding of their research. Several biomedical engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have collaborated with artists from the College of Saint Rose and the surrounding Capital Region to bring their research on healing the nervous system to the public through art.

The first workshop exhibition of their collaboration will be open to the public on May 11, from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. with guided tours occurring at 3:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Rensselaer. Between the tours will be an exhibit symposium from 4:15 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. to discuss the future of the collaboration, which is being funded in part by the National Science Foundation.

The exhibit focuses on the research being conducted in the laboratories of two members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer: Assistant Professor Guohao Dai and Assistant Professor Ryan Gilbert. The creation of the artistic works was led by Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Saint Rose, G.E. Washington. Washington was joined in the creation of the artistic works in the exhibit by Professor Kristine Tolmie, Amy Pollicino, Juan Ramos, Jason Cosco, and Saint Rose graduate assistants Melinda Crowther and Chris Skaggs. Several Rensselaer graduate students in the Biomedical Engineering Department have assisted in communicating the science to artists and in organizing the exhibit, including Courtney Dumont, Dianna Kim, Abby Koppes, Ryan Koppes, Anna Lorenz, Chris McKay, Nick Schaub, and Scott Wentzell.

Bioseparations Expert at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Recognized by Elite Scientific Societies

Belfort delivers his honorary lecture at his induction into the Institute of Bologna Academy of Sciences on March 12 in Bologna, Italy.

World-leading bioseparations expert Georges Belfort visited Germany and Italy last month as part of two prestigious honors from elite European scientific societies.

Belfort, Institute Professor and a member of the Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was recently elected a foreign corresponding member of the Institute of Bologna Academy of Sciences. He visited the academy in March to present his honorary lecture, “Combining Science and Engineering for Molecular Separations: Thoughts from a Career.” The academy was created in 1690 by 16-year-old astronomer Eustachio Manfredi, and has grown over the centuries into one of Europe’s most renowned scientific societies.

Additionally, Belfort was recently named a member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems. As part of the six-year appointment, Belfort visited the Institute in Magdeburg, Germany, with nine other international experts for a two-day session. The primary task of the board is to counsel the institute and to critically assess its scientific performance according to high international standards. The institute is one of 80 that make up the distinguished Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, an independent nonprofit research organization funded by the German government and named for the physicist who discovered quantum physics.

Celebrating 100 Years of Student Leadership, Service, and Devotion to Rensselaer and the Community

Twenty-five students have been inducted into the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Phalanx Honor Society for 2012. Phalanx honors student leadership, service, and devotion to the university, and celebrates those who have “worked to better the standing of Rensselaer both on and off campus.” New members are selected—or tapped—by the student members of Phalanx.

In remarks to the 2012 inductees and Phalanx alumni/ae shared during the recent centennial dinner celebration, Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson noted that Phalanx was the brainchild of the 1912 Rensselaer Student Council. “Its members realized that the best way to promote a rich extracurricular life on campus was to honor those who showed the most leadership in such activities.[1] In other words, that long-ago Student Council understood the power of example,” President Jackson said. “Today, the Phalanx Society still sets the standard, leading the Rensselaer campuses into the 21st century and showing us all what is possible, if one is only idealistic and energetic enough.”

Engineering Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Develop “Phantoms” To Make Medical Imaging Safer for Overweight Individuals

Image credit: Rensselaer/Ding

Most medical imaging equipment is not designed with overweight and obese patients in mind. As a result, these individuals can be exposed to higher levels of radiation during routine X-ray and CT scans.

A new study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is the first to calculate exactly how much additional radiation obese patients receive from a CT scan. Research results show the internal organs of obese men receive 62 percent more radiation during a CT scan than those of normal weight men. For obese women, it was an increase of 59 percent.

New technology developed at Rensselaer by nuclear engineering expert X. George Xu could help solve this problem. Xu’s research team created ultra-realistic 3-D computer models of overweight and obese men and women, and used computer simulations to determine how X-rays interact with the different body types. These models, known as “phantoms,” can help empower physicians to configure and optimize CT scanning devices in such a way that minimizes how much radiation a patient receives.