Professor John T. Wen has been named the Russell Sage Professor and head of the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering (ECSE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He will begin his new roles on Jan. 1, 2019.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has elected Peter Fox, data scientist and professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as a Fellow of the society, in recognition of his “distinguished, innovative, and sustained fundamental contributions in Earth and space science informatics and data science research, education, and service.”

Four researchers affiliated with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have been named in the 2018 Highly Cited Researchers list, which recognizes influential scientific researchers and their institutions across the globe.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ranks sixth nationally in its overall engineering program, according to rankings published by College Factual, a source of data analytics and insights on college outcomes.

James Hendler, the Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web, and Cognitive Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been selected by the National Academy of Public Administration for inclusion in its 2018 Class of Academy Fellows.

The use of pressure to alter semiconductor properties is showing increasing promise in applications such as high-performance infrared sensors and energy conversion devices.

A paper published in Nature Communications by Sufei Shi, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, increases our understanding of how light interacts with atomically thin semiconductors and creates unique excitonic complex particles, multiple electrons, and holes strongly bound together. These particles possess a new quantum degree of freedom, called “valley spin.” The “valley spin” is similar to the spin of electrons, which has been extensively used in information storage such as hard drives and is also a promising candidate for quantum computing.

The National Science Foundation has awarded $15 million to a team of environmental and earth science data researchers, including researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, who are providing tools and infrastructure that improve access to vast amounts of scientific data.

Web scientist and Tetherless World Research Constellation Professor Deborah L. McGuinness has been selected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.