At its May meeting, the Board of Trustees elected five new board members and recognized two members for becoming trustees emeriti.

New trustees

Patrick Cunningham

Patrick Cunningham is the retired chief executive officer of investment advisory firm Manning & Napier, Inc. In 2022, he came out of retirement to serve as deputy mayor under City of Rochester Mayor Malik Evans ���02 until 2023.

Cunningham spent 24 years at Manning & Napier and was instrumental in growing the company and bringing it public in 2011. He spent most of his early career in engineering, first as a field engineer in the energy sector and later as co-owner of an engineering consulting firm.

He has served on several community boards, including the Rochester Museum & Science Center, the Rochester Area Community Foundation, and Cancer Wellness Connection. A long-time leadership volunteer with the Wilmot Cancer Institute, Cunningham currently serves as chair of its advisory board and has provided generous philanthropic support, including funding to enable ovarian cancer research in honor of his late wife, JoEll.�� He is also on the campaign steering committee of .

Cunningham holds a bachelor���s degree from MIT. He resides in Rochester and has two adult daughters.

Elina Ianchulev ���97

Elina Ianchulev is chief outcome officer at RemoniHealth, a digital health company that enables remote management of chronic conditions such as AMD, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy.

Her career has spanned Wall Street, global consulting, and health tech innovation, and she spent more than 20 years at Deloitte Consulting advising C-suite leaders across healthcare and technology. Earlier in her career, Ianchulev worked in capital markets at Merrill Lynch and held a business development role at Alfamedic, a Harvard University-affiliated medical informatics startup.

After earning her bachelor���s degree in economics from 做厙勛圖, Ianchulev earned an MBA from MIT���s Sloan School of Management. She also studied at the London School of Economics.

Ianchulev and her husband, Sean ���95, are members of the University���s annual giving society, the George Eastman Circle, and also provide generous support to the University���s Strategic Opportunities Fund. They have two sons, including Alec ���28, and serve on the Parents Leadership Committee. They reside in Harrison, New York.

Akbar Rafiq ���98

Akbar Rafiq is chief investment officer at Fidera Vecta, a credit special situation fund. He has more than two decades of experience investing across global credit markets with a particular focus on complex and dislocated opportunities. He has held senior leadership and investment roles within leading global platforms, with responsibility spanning portfolio management, capital allocation, and credit strategy.

Prior to Fidera Vecta, Rafiq was a partner and head of European credit and co-portfolio manager for distressed and dislocated asset strategies at York Capital Management Europe (UK) Advisors. He also held roles at Deutsche Bank AG, Bear Stearns, and Alta Communications, Inc.

Rafiq and his wife, Lala ���99, have prioritized scholarship support in their philanthropy to the University, generously establishing the Rafiq International Endowed Fund. Members of the George Eastman Circle, the Rafiqs also support the Gwen M. Greene Center for Career Education and Connections.

After earning a bachelor���s degree in economics from 做厙勛圖, Rafiq earned an MBA from the London Business School. He and Lala have two children and reside in London.

Meredith Rowe ���93, ���95W (MS)

Meredith Rowe is the Saul Zaentz Professor of Early Learning and Development at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. She leads a research program on understanding the role of parent and family factors in children���s early language and cognitive development.

Rowe���s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other private foundations, and she has published widely in education and psychology journals. She was associate editor of the journal Developmental Science for ten years and is currently on the executive committee of the International Association for the Study of Child Language.

Since 2021, Rowe has been a member of the National Council. In 2025, she established the Rowe Family Scholarship to support students in human development at the Warner School.�� Rowe and her husband, Christian Hart Nibbrig ���95, are members of the George Eastman Circle.

After earning a bachelor���s degree in psychology and a master���s degree in human development from the Warner School, Rowe went on to receive a doctoral degree in human development and psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

She and her husband reside in Massachusetts with their three children.

Daniel Sabbah ���74, ���82 (PhD)

Danny Sabbah retired from IBM in 2015 as chief technology officer and general manager of IBM Cloud and Next Gen Computing. He spent more than 40 years at IBM, holding positions from research and software developer to general manager of various divisions within the company. He was responsible for creating IBM���s cloud platform and played a key role in driving the company���s successful expansion into internet software.

Today, Sabbah serves in a consulting capacity to numerous private equity and venture capital firms and is a senior advisor for Bridge Growth, LLC. In 2023, he coauthored his first book, The Heart of Innovation: A Field Guide for Navigating Authentic Demand.

At 做厙勛圖, he serves on the national councils for the and the . He is also a member of the steering committee for the For Ever Better campaign.

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the computer science department at 做厙勛圖, Sabbah generously established a distinguished professorship in computer science in 2024. This built upon his earlier endowed support for faculty research and strategic initiatives. Since 2008, he and his wife, Karen Dana Carlson, have been members of the George Eastman Circle. They reside in Briarcliff Manor, New York, and have two adult children.

Trustees emeriti

At the May meeting, two board members moved to trustee emeritus status. Both have completed three terms as voting trustees, and their leadership, counsel, strategic partnership, and philanthropy have advanced the University in many meaningful ways.

Nomi Bergman

Nomi Bergman, founder of Bright House Networks and 1010data, joined the board in 2011 and has served as chair of the Nominations and Board Practices, Advancement, and Student Affairs Committees. She also served as cochair of the campaign planning committee before the public launch of the For Ever Better campaign. The parents of two 做厙勛圖 graduates, she and her husband, Neal, consistently championed student life by opening their home to welcome incoming students and their families to the University of Rochester community.

Bergman has served on the national councils of both the Hajim School of Engineering and the School of Arts & Sciences, and as a member of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics Visiting Committee and the Hajim Dean���s Advisory Committee.

She provided early leadership that helped propel the Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence to the forefront of the field and has been a champion of neurological research and education, student leadership, and outdoor education.

Bergman received the Arts, Sciences & Engineering John N. Wilder Award in 2010 for her inspirational philanthropy.

Carol Karp

Carol Karp, former chief regulatory officer at Prothena Biosciences, Inc., joined the board in 2011. She has served as a member of the Academic Affairs, Compliance and Compensation, Executive, Facilities and Campus Planning, Investment, Joint Health Affairs, and Research and Innovation Committees. As chair of the latter, she displayed her strong commitment to innovative practices and respect for the University���s role in disseminating global knowledge.

Karp also served as the inaugural board vice chair, serving as an essential strategic partner to both the president and board chair in supporting the work of the University while exhibiting leadership over the Executive Committee and serving as an ex officio member of all other board committees.

She co-established the Carol ���74 and Sarah Karp ���11 Endowed Library Fellows Fund, elevating exceptional students to provide peer-led training on the University Libraries��� programs and services while contributing to the program���s leadership, service, and research development. Karp was also recognized with the Robert F. Metzdorf Award in 2020 for her contributions and meritorious service to the University Libraries.

Carl Chiarenza, an artist-in-residence and a professor emeritus in the at the 做厙勛圖, is being remembered as a notable American photographer and an erudite scholar.

Chiarenza, who died in May at the age of 90, was the Fanny Knapp Allen Professor of Art and Art History from 1986 until he retired in 1998. After retirement, he was named artist-in-residence and remained available for critiques and classroom visits.

Internationally known as a photographer specializing in abstract imagery, Chiarenza created photographs featured in more than 90 one-person and more than 280 group exhibitions since 1957. He authored numerous monographs and essays, as well as a seminal biography of American photographer Aaron Siskind called Aaron Siskind: Pleasures and Terrors��(Little, Brown and Company, 1982).

Beyond his contributions to photography and scholarship, Chiarenza was widely admired for his generosity and warmth.

���The multitude of things that distinguish Carl as a scholar and as an artist are all secondary to the fact that he was a fine human and a generous citizen,��� says , a professor of art and the chair of the Department of Art and Art History. ���I don���t remember many of the countless topics we covered over breakfast at the Frog Pond or Highland Diner in Rochester, but the warmth and wholly uncommon generosity of spirit is something I still embrace from every one of those times���they live with me.���

A trailblazer in photographic scholarship

Chiarenza earned an AAS in 1955 and a BFA in 1957 from Rochester Institute of Technology. He went on to earn an MS in 1959 and an AM in 1964 from Boston University.

In 1973, he became the first person to earn an art history PhD in photography from Harvard University.

���Carl ruffled feathers there by intending to write a dissertation not only on a living ��artist, but on a photographer���two categories that had never before been found worthy in that department,��� recalls , a professor emerita of art history at 做厙勛圖. ���It is a tribute to his talent, and the force of his will, that he was allowed to proceed.���

Chiarenza lectured and conducted workshops at more than 100 institutions in 33 states during his academic career.

Before his tenure at 做厙勛圖, Chiarenza was a professor of art history at Boston University, where he served in the roles of chairman and director of graduate studies. He also taught at Smith College and Cornell University.

���He enjoyed teaching his lectures on the history of photography by starting with a cave painting,��� says artist and landscape designer Heidi Katz, Chiarenza���s wife of 48 years. ���He loved his smaller engaging seminars, some co-taught with colleagues from other disciplines. But finally, he loved being artist-in-residence with his own studio space on the University campus for several years after he retired.���

Finding mystery in the ordinary

Described by colleagues as a prolific and tenacious artist, Chiarenza worked predominantly in black and white, producing photography of collages made from materials such as torn paper and various foils.

His creative process often included the other art form about which he was passionate: music. ���He never worked in the darkroom or studio without music being a part of it,��� says Katz, adding that Chiarenza was a singer and musician who played the saxophone and clarinet.

Chiarenza���s works���from collages to single and multiple large format prints���are collected on , and catalogues include Journey into the Unknown, which accompanied a at the Eastman House in 2021.

An Eastman House description of the retrospective noted, ���Rather than create straightforward records of the cast-off materials that appear before his camera, Chiarenza photographically transforms them into new and provocative images. [��因 His photographs often bear little resemblance to their actual subjects and instead suggest mysterious worlds that viewers are invited to explore.���

A legacy in art and education

Chiarenza���s academic and artistic contributions leave a legacy in the worlds of art, photography, and research. The archive of his artwork is housed at the in Richmond, Virginia, and his papers are at Harvard University.

Along with his artistry. Chiarenza���s legacy includes the artists, students, and scholars he mentored throughout his career.

���When I turn the key to my studio, I bring with me an audience of three,��� says Topolski, adding that Chiarenza was a friend and mentor for 30 years. ���Along with my father, who gives me confidence and checks the standard of my craft, and my mentor from grad school who taught me how to embed meaning into process, Carl is there to remind me that what I do is wholly important as long as it is wholly genuine. And being genuine in my studio is respecting it relative to what envelops it���kinship and family.���

Chiarenza is survived by his wife and three adult children, Jonah, Gabriella, and Suzanne.

Plastic waste poses an urgent problem for our planet���s ecosystems, especially our waterways. Millions of tons of plastic waste enter Earth���s oceans every year, and plastic has been found in every part of the ocean, including at the bottom of the deepest ocean trenches.

Although some biodegradable plastics, or bioplastics, have recently been developed, these plastics were intended to break down in industrial compost facilities. In cold, dark ocean environments, they break down very slowly.

What if there were a way to avoid the problem of plastic pollution while still reaping the benefits of plastic���s durability, versatility, and low cost?

To help tackle this problem, , an associate professor in the ���s and her colleagues developed a reusable 3D-printed ���bio-sticker��� that uses bacteria to break down bioplastic. The sticker, described in in ACS Applied Polymer Materials, offers a controllable way to speed up plastic disintegration in environments where the plastic would otherwise linger for decades.

���This is a proof-of-concept that we could use living, engineered materials to help get rid of plastic in marine environments, making bioplastics more practical and environmentally friendly,��� Meyer says.

The project is part of a larger collaboration with marine microbiologist Alyson Santoro at the University of California, Santa Barbara; University of Rhode Island oceanographer Melissa Omand; ecologist Ryan Freedman from the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary; and industry partner .

Supported by a $5 million National Science Foundation grant as part of the NSF���s program, the group is testing the biodegradable bioplastic and developing solutions to accelerate breakdown.

Meyer, Santoro, and Omand additionally founded a start-up company called , which aims to make the ocean-degradable plastics available for various marine applications.

Rethinking ocean instruments

Ocean-degradable plastics will be vital for oceanographers, who are increasingly reliant on expendable, plastic instruments to observe and predict ocean phenomena. These instruments are often deployed in the ocean and never retrieved, adding to the growing amount of plastic in the sea.

���While these expendable��ocean sensors are revolutionizing ocean research, they inherently pose a threat to the same environments that they are studying,��� Meyer says. ���We need new materials that can allow oceanographers to monitor the oceans without creating plastic ocean waste that gets left behind.���

The team has partnered with a handful of oceanographic equipment manufacturers who have committed to replace all, or a large portion of, their traditional petro-chemical plastic parts with the team���s ocean-degradable materials.

���This will introduce new sustainability into the fields of ocean observation, reef restoration, and maritime defense,��� Meyer says.

Nature-inspired plastics

To create their ocean-degradable plastic, the team drew upon processes already found in nature. Their materials are based on a biopolymer called polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)���a polyester naturally made by bacteria. Because bacteria have been making this polymer for billions of years, other marine microbes have naturally evolved to break down PHB.

At UC Santa Barbara, Santoro and her lab partners culture new bacteria that can break down PHB. One focus of their work is to isolate bacteria that thrive in the cold conditions of the ocean.

���We found that there���s a huge need for biodegradable materials and there is a range of lifespans that users required for their items,��� she adds. The team spoke with regulators and nonprofits that deal with marine debris and found that some groups wanted a material that could disappear in a day, others wanted devices that would last a year, and yet others wanted to be able to trigger the degradation.

Bio-stickers that degrade plastic

This is where Meyer���s lab comes in. Meyer and the members of her lab have developed first-of-their-kind bacterial 3D printers. This revolutionary 3D-bioprinting approach allows them to embed PHB-degrading bacteria into engineered living materials.

The resulting ���bio-stickers��� are made with salt-tolerant bacteria suspended in a gel-like material. Users can place the stickers directly onto PHB-based bioplastics, where the bacteria remain alive and active for at least three weeks and speed up the material���s breakdown. The rate of degradation can be tuned by adjusting factors such as bacterial concentration or temperature. The stickers are also reusable, allowing them to be moved from one piece of plastic to another, and are stable and adhesive enough to be used in marine environments.

From prototype to ocean deployment

The team developed the bioplastics with input from industry partners and built a prototype with support from Omand at the University of Rhode Island, whose expertise in oceanographic sensor design helped shape the technology.

In collaboration with more than a dozen industry and government partners that committed to using the technology or supported the project in other ways, the researchers also tested how the bioplastics performed under different ocean conditions as well as how the material breaks down in marine environments.

The work could pave the way for engineered living materials that help create more sustainable, environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional plastics.

���After introducing our ocean-degradable bioplastic to ocean instruments, we plan to expand to other applications as well,��� Meyer says. ���Our tough plastics that break down in the ocean could be a great fit for aquaculture and fishing industries, ecosystem restoration efforts, maritime defense, or government agencies, such as the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) National Data Buoy Center.���

Editor���s note: The story above was initially published on October 6, 2022. It has been updated and republished to reflect new research related to the project.

做厙勛圖 faculty are leaders in their fields who are regularly recognized with regional, national, and international awards and honors for their professional contributions to research, scholarship, education, and community engagement.

As part of an ongoing series, we���re spotlighting their many and varied achievements.

Michael Burritt named to Percussive Arts Society���s Hall of Fame

���84E, ���86E (MM), the Paul J. Burgett Distinguished Professor and a professor of percussion at the , is among six extraordinary musicians named to the . The society cites Burritt as “one of his generation���s most accomplished percussionists.”

Hall of Fame inductees represent a breadth of influence from the heights of orchestral innovation and jazz mastery to the frontiers of contemporary composition and world percussion. Burritt and his cohort will officially be inducted into the Hall of Fame during the lead-up to PASIC 2026 in Indianapolis this November.

Lauren Ghazal honored with Victoria Mock New Investigator Award

, an assistant professor and researcher at the , received the Oncology Nursing Society���s 2026 Victoria Mock New Investigator Award. The honor recognizes early-career researchers who are building a scientific foundation for oncology nursing practice.

As a family nurse practitioner and cancer survivor, Ghazal brings a unique perspective to her research, which focuses on improving the health and quality of life of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors. Her work also explores the financial toxicity of cancer care among AYAs, integrating her background in economics and healthcare.

As part of the Mock Award, Ghazal presented a lecture in April at the Oncology Nursing Society���s annual Congress, titled ���Advancing Equity in AYA Cancer Survivorship.���

Ali Goli named a 2025 Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar

, an assistant professor of marketing at , has been named a . The MSI Young Scholars Program recognizes outstanding early-career researchers in marketing, fosters crossdisciplinary collaboration, and strengthens connections between academia and industry. This year���s cohort represents some of the most promising scholars globally. Goli will join fellow 2025 MSI Young Scholars at a retreat in New York City later this spring.

Goli���s research spans digital marketing, advertising, public policy, customer loyalty, and behavioral economics. He teaches in areas such as marketing analytics, digital marketing strategy, and data-driven decision making.

Yanan Guo receives Distinguished Paper award at computer security conference

Assistant Professor����from the����is the senior author of a study that won a Distinguished Paper award at the��.

Guo and her colleagues from Zhejiang University in China and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore were recognized for their paper titled “Demystifying and Exploiting ASLR on NVIDIA GPUs.”

The conference is the premier forum for presenting developments in computer security and electronic privacy, and for bringing together researchers and practitioners in the field.

Frank Huo awarded American Chemical Society honor

, the Dean and Laura Marvin Endowed Professor in Physical Chemistry and an associate professor of optics, has received the in Theoretical Chemistry by the Physical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society.

The award by researchers who are in the first 10 years of their career as independent researchers.

Alex Iosevich named 2026 Simons Fellow in Mathematics

, a professor of mathematics, has been named a 2026 by the Simons Foundation���s Mathematical & Physical Sciences. The Simons Fellow Program extends academic leaves to a full academic year, allowing more time to focus on research.

Simons Fellows are selected based on their scientific accomplishments in the five years preceding the application and on the potential scientific impact of the work to be done during the leave period.

Bryanna Moore named Greenwall Faculty Scholar in Bioethics ��

, an assistant professor of health humanities and bioethics, of philosophy, and of pediatrics, will join the ,��a national career development award supporting innovative research on pressing ethical issues in clinical, biomedical, and public health decision-making.

Moore���s project will explore the role of��parents�����reasons in��pediatric��decision-making.

Simon faculty garner ���Connecting to Practice��� Award

泭硃紳餃 , along with coauthor and Simon Business School PhD student have received the ������ for their paper titled ���.��� Wu is the Susanna and Evans Y. Lam Professor and Pandey is an assistant professor at Simon.

The award, presented by the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section (FARS) of the American Accounting Association, recognizes research that meaningfully bridges academic insight and professional practice. The FARS Midyear Meeting typically receives 400 to 500 submissions each year.

Their paper examines how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act reshaped career pathways in public accounting, reducing on-the-job learning opportunities and altering the profession���s attractiveness. The study highlights broader implications for labor markets, professional mobility, and the pipeline of accounting talent.

Elena Prager named to Poets&Quants��� 2026 ���40 Under 40��� List

, an assistant professor of economics at Simon Business School, has been named to the 2026 ���40 Under 40 MBA Professors��� list by Poets&Quants, a prestigious annual recognition honoring the world���s most talented young business school professors.

A leading microeconomist, Prager has earned recognition for the impact of her research and teaching. Her work focuses on issues at the intersection of health economics, labor economics, and industrial organization, with recent work examining health insurance networks, hospital pricing, employer consolidation, and how public policy influences labor supply and program participation.

In 2025, she received the for a coauthored paper. She also serves as a contributing faculty member to Simon���s .

In the video below, Prager explains how market power impacts consumers, workers, and innovation in the modern economy.

Agnes Thorarinsdottir receives NSF CAREER award

The National Science Foundation has granted its most prestigious award for early-career faculty,��the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, to , an assistant professor of chemistry.

In ,��� Thorarinsdottir is developing transition metal coordination compounds with highly temperature-sensitive electrochemical properties.

Thermoelectric devices are important for the advanced manufacturing of instruments for energy generation, cooling and heating, wearable electronics, and healthcare. The fundamental knowledge gained from this project will enable a transformative approach to the design of next-generation thermoelectric devices that can convert waste heat into electricity for immediate or later use and employ electricity for cooling applications, as well as electrochemical temperature sensors that can operate continuously in remote locations.

Research in the Thorarinsdottir group focuses on applying the tools of synthetic molecular and materials chemistry to the design of new electrochemical systems that address challenges in energy, catalysis, and environmental sustainability. Emphasis is placed on harnessing variable-temperature electrochemistry and framework materials to facilitate the development of electrochemical systems that are suitable for electricity-to/from-fuels and heat-to/from-electricity conversions.

When a person goes into deep sleep, water-like fluid circulates around the brain, washing away metabolic waste linked to diseases such as Alzheimer���s. This process, known as the glymphatic system, was first described in 2012 by ���a pioneering neuroscientist and codirector of the 做厙勛圖���s .

But questions remain about the system���s mechanics���notably, how quickly the fluid circulates. Studying the circulation within a living brain is difficult without causing irreparable harm to a subject.

���You can put a microscope on a small patch of the brain and watch what���s happening there with a lot of detail, and we���ve worked with that type of data in the past, but it���s only a tiny view of the overall process,��� says Professor from 做厙勛圖���s . ���If you want to image whole brains, an MRI is a great approach because it gives you a three-dimensional view. But an MRI has serious limitations, too, the biggest of which is that it does not capture the fluid flow velocity, at least not for flows this slow.���

Kelley and his colleagues from 做厙勛圖, Brown University, and the University of Copenhagen turned to artificial intelligence for help. In a new published in Science Advances, they outline how they used physics-informed AI to determine fluid flow velocities from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Using videos of dye spreading across brain tissue over time, the neural networks the researchers built were able to deduce how fast the fluid flows and how permeable the brain tissue is.

The results showed that there are two main ways that the glymphatic system washes away particles in the brain such as the amyloid beta proteins linked to Alzheimer���s disease���and one of these ways is much faster than the other. The fast flow of the glymphatic system���s waterlike fluid moves at a few microns per second around the brain���s open regions such as the surface between the skull and the brain, while the slower flow of the waterlike fluid trickles through the brain���s deep tissue at a rate about 50 times slower.

So far, the researchers have been working to get baseline measurements of fluid flow in the brains of animals such as mice to inform the AI tools. In the future, they hope to be able to compare the fluid flow in healthy and sick brains as well as young and old brains, with aspirations to eventually study circulation in humans.

���We���re working hard toward being able to measure the flow of waterlike fluids in and around human brains because then the clinical applications get a lot more important and exciting,��� says Kelley. ���We hope to someday be able to see whether an Alzheimer���s patient has poor circulation in their brain or even screen for poor circulation earlier in life to try to stave off Alzheimer���s. Or we could check when somebody has been concussed to see whether the fluid circulation in their brain is disrupted. This study gets us a step closer.���

Kelley���s collaborators on the study include Brown University PhD student Juan Diego Toscano, 做厙勛圖 computational scientist Yisen Guo, Brown University PhD student Zhibo Wang, 做厙勛圖 PhD student Mohammad Vaezi, University of Copenhagen Associate Professor Yuki Mori, Brown University Professor George Karniadakis, and 做厙勛圖 Assistant Professor Kimberly Boster.

The NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and the NIH BRAIN Initiative supported this research.