News

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) alumnus Daniel Peat, Class of 2005, a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army National Guard, will be promoted to lieutenant colonel (LTC) at a ceremony at RPI’s Heffner Alumni House on Saturday, September 23, at 10 a.m. The ceremony is being hosted by Major General John Andonie, deputy director of the Army National Guard who earned his master’s degree in management from RPI in 2003.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has received a $1 million pledge to support the Rensselaer Student Union from Jonathan Kessler, Class of 1979 and 1982. Kessler retired in September 2020 as senior information architect for Computing System Innovations. The firm develops artificial intelligence software for government offices.

In partnership with the non-partisan League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will host the 2023 City of Troy mayoral candidate forum on October 3 at 6 p.m. at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). A reception will follow.  

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has established the Office of Strategic Alliances and Translation, a new area within the university that incorporates a number of key translational activities at RPI, including intellectual property and technology licensing, large-scale corporate partnerships, initiation and growth of start-up ventures, and translational campuses, including the Rensselaer Technology Park, as well as translational activities in New York City.

This past summer, a team of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students, with the guidance of a faculty mentor, pitched a winning design for a wearable, medical-grade device that monitors for atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation, or A-fib, is a potentially life-threatening heart condition that will affect an estimated 12 million people in the U.S. by 2030, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

What if microgravity holds the key to preventing the overheating of advanced electronics? That’s one idea behind an International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory-sponsored investigation that recently launched to station on Northrop Grumman’s 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission (NG-19). This week, the ISS crew is working on the experiment, which aims to improve the efficiency of heat transfer devices used in various technologies, from laptops to NASA’s Hubble Telescope.

Jie Lian, Ph.D., has been named the William Weightman Walker Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). An endowed chaired professorship is among the highest honors bestowed on a Rensselaer faculty member.  

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will announce the appointment of Kristie Bowers, Ph.D., as its new associate vice president and director of athletics at a press conference at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, August 23, 2023 at the East Campus Athletic Village’s main arena. Bowers comes from Boston University, where she has served as senior associate athletic director and senior woman administrator since 2019. She is succeeding Dr. Lee McElroy, who retired at the beginning of the summer after eight years with RPI. Bowers will be the first woman appointed to the role.

— The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced $26 million in funding geographically and institutionally diverse awardees, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), who will engage with additional partners and communities to further the conversation around consolidated interim storage of spent nuclear fuel.

Two RPI faculty emeriti will be prominently featured during the first half-day of a major international conference later this month. The 20th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-20), to be held Aug. 20-25 in Washington, D.C., is the premier gathering for experts in nuclear reactor thermal hydraulics and related topical areas. This meeting is held every two years.