Mohammed Zaki, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor and head of the Department of Computer Science, has been named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellow. AAAS fellows are elected annually to recognize their extraordinary achievements in research, teaching, and technology, as well as in communicating science to the public. Election as an AAAS fellow is considered a lifetime honor. Past Fellows have included luminaries like Thomas Edison, W.E.B Dubois, Grace Hopper, Ellen Ochoa, Herbert Simon, and Steven Chu. 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Deborah McGuinness has been elected a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) “for significant contributions to the semantic web, knowledge representation and reasoning environments, and deployed artificial intelligence applications.” AAAI is a nonprofit scientific society that promotes research in artificial intelligence and its responsible use. The AAAI fellows program recognizes people who have “made significant, sustained contributions to the field of artificial intelligence.”

Are there other Earth-like planets? Is there extraterrestrial life? In the quest to find planets that orbit stars other than the sun, “Earth 2.0” is the Holy Grail. Earth 2.0 is a planet similar enough to Earth to enable the existence of life as we know it. It would be the right temperature for liquid water, and it would orbit a star with a steady supply of light. Ideally, it would be close enough that we could imagine going there or at least sending a probe to explore it.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has a long history of training the next generation for career preparedness. With signing of the $250 billion CHIPS and Science Act, the U.S. need for career preparedness has never been greater. The new BYOND – Build Your Own NanoDevice — curriculum at RPI is an interdisciplinary program that invites students from the School of Engineering and the School of Science to work side by side in the lab and classroom. The increasing demand for nanotechnology and semiconductors creates a need for more advanced cleanroom operations. At RPI, the Micro and Nanofabrication Clean Room (MNCR) facility within the Center for Materials, Devices, and Integrated Systems (CMDIS) is offering the BYOND program for undergraduate students to start building a foundation and training for this career path. 

Propofol is the most commonly used drug to induce general anesthesia. Despite its frequent clinical application, it is poorly understood how propofol causes anesthesia.

Gaetano Montelione shared his expertise on proteins, protein design, and their impact on humanity

It is believed to be exceedingly rare and slow, but if it actually exists, it would redefine the laws of physics: it’s called neutrinoless double beta decay (NDBD). Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Ethan Brown, associate professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, has received a $285,000 grant from the Department of Energy to contribute to the nEXO experiment to prove that NDBD exists.

On 9/11, lawmakers from both parties unified in their response. Just over 20 years later, Congress is distinctly partisan, clashing on everything from the January 6 insurrection to COVID to climate change. Why? Many blame widespread and widely believed misinformation and disinformation.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Professor Catherine Royer will be honored as a 2023 Society Fellow of the Biophysical Society.

A few years ago, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Sasha Wagner, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, proved false what scientists had thought for years. Soot-like molecules that formed an ancient carbon pool deep in the Pacific Ocean did not, in fact, originate from wildfires on land.