Innovation New Jersey
  • Home
  • Our Coalition
    • Contact Us
  • News
  • Resources
    • State Supports
    • Federal Supports
    • Higher Ed Supports
  • Join Us

Innovation News

Everything Innovation. Everything New Jersey.
Follow us and stay connected.

Celebrating a Day of Revolutionary Thinking at Rutgers; Notable Alumni from Across the Globe Return to Their Alma Mater

10/26/2016

0 Comments

 
New Brunswick, NJ — It’s been a remarkable 12 months for Rutgers.
 
In May, President Barack Obama punctuated Rutgers’ yearlong 250th birthday celebration, becoming the first sitting president to deliver the university’s Commencement Day address.
 
A series of memorable activities throughout the year focused the university community on students, faculty, staff and administrators of the distant past and the present whose special achievements greatly impacted and enriched the Rutgers legacy.
 
Now, the university is set for a powerful conclusion to the memorable year: A Day of Revolutionary Thinking.  On November 10 — its actual 250th birthday — Rutgers is hosting a group of notable alumni, who will present talks in Camden, Newark, New Brunswick and Piscataway.
 
These talks will transfer the knowledge gained by these distinguished graduates to current Rutgers students, who will in turn become the alumni and world leaders of tomorrow.
​Rutgers’ special guests include a former White House executive pastry chef, a cybersecurity CEO, a New Jersey Supreme Court associate justice, a physician who was at the forefront of the treatment of pediatric HIV/AIDS and a punk rocker.
 
They are among 80 notable Rutgers alumni from across the globe who were nominated by faculty members who invited them to share their diverse points of view with students and to demonstrate how learning at Rutgers contributed to their successes.
 
The lineup of invited alumni presenters in New Brunswick, highlighting Rutgers’ global reach, includes Ella Watson-Stryker, honored by TIME magazine as a 2014 Person of the Year for her work as a frontline responder with Doctors Without Borders during the Ebola crisis in West Africa; Kagendo Murungi, a Brooklyn-based Kenyan filmmaker, producer and writer with a background in international sexual and gender rights advocacy; and Michelle Dickinson, a senior lecturer in engineering at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, known as “Nanogirl” in her live science show for children.
 
On the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences’ Campus in Newark, New Jersey Medical School presents two alumni who are innovative thinkers in medicine.
 
During the early 1980s, James Oleske was among the first to recognize that the disease that would come to be known as AIDS could be transmitted at birth. He spent his career treating and advocating for children with HIV/AIDS and terminal illness.
 
John Bach, who treated actor Christopher Reeve after his spinal cord injury, is a champion for using noninvasive respiratory management options over tracheostomies — reducing infections and improving patient quality of life and survival for certain conditions.
 
“John’s life history is extraordinary; he took care of Andreas Papandreou, the prime minister of Greece,” says Robert Schwartz, professor and head of the Department of Dermatology at New Jersey Medical School.  “Invasive respiratory support is very expensive, and John’s contributions can make a difference in the cost of health care.”
 
When seeking alumni leaders to speak to his class, Louis Masur in the Rutgers University-New Brunswick Department of American Studies sought graduates who exemplify the versatility of an American Studies degree. His two invitees run the gamut: Shane Myers, director for immigration and visa security for the National Security Council, and Lenny Kaye, a pioneering punk rock guitarist and composer, known for his work with the Patti Smith Group.
 
Myers will explore what it means to be “America,” and not just “American” while abroad in his presentation “America Abroad — Diplomatic Reflections.” “How other countries perceive America is a particularly timely issue,” says Masur. “Myers’ long experience in the State Department as a diplomat will open up that discussion.”
 
In his presentation, “Rock and Roll and Rutgers,” Kaye will perform musical storytelling to transport the audience into his personal world of rock music from the 1960s to today.
 
“The take-aways from the talks are for students to pursue their passions,” Masur says. “Come to school, learn how to think, acquire skills and then see where the journey takes you.”
 
The School of Communication and Information hosts a panel of broadcast journalists who will discuss, among other topics, the presidential election and the changing face of journalism.
 
The journalists include Mike Emanuel, who covers Hillary Clinton’s campaign; FOX correspondent Rich Edson; CBS Newspath correspondent Wendy Gillette; CBS News producer Sean Herbert; and NBC senior talent coordinator Jessica Kurdali.
 
William Yosses, the White House’s executive pastry chef from 2007 to 2014 who earned a master’s degree in French at Rutgers, will give a chef’s perspective of how things work in the kitchen —including applied physics, bio-chemistry and imagination.
 
In his lecture-demonstration, “The Magic and Science of Cooking,” Yosses will demonstrate the scientific process of creating two dishes – a fruit cloud and a chocolate ganache – and discuss how a degree in French translated into his career as a chef.
 
Rutgers University-Camden will present lectures by 20 alumni who will be inducted into the Rutgers-Camden Finest assemblage of distinguished alumni that evening.
 
“These Revolutionary Thinkers exemplify the impressive breadth of excellence that the Rutgers-Camden experience prepares its graduates to achieve,” says Chancellor Phoebe A. Haddon. “Having these alumni return to campus to share their insights is an amazing opportunity for our current students. We are proud to welcome these alumni home and to induct them into the Rutgers-Camden Finest alumni honor roll.”
 
The speakers include Camden Mayor Dana Redd and Camden County Metro Police Chief J. Scott Thomson, who are leading the successful effort to restore and revitalize the city, improve community relations and spur economic growth; Flora Darpino, Judge Advocate General for the U.S. Army and the first woman to lead the JAG Corps; Gene Muller, founder, president and CEO of Flying Fish, the world’s first virtual microbrewery and the first microbrewery in Southern New Jersey, and president of South Jersey Tourism; Walter MacDonald, president and CEO of Education Testing Services; and New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice Faustino Fernandez-Vina.
 
“Students will be both inspired and enlightened by the unique opportunity to learn from Justice Fernandez-Vina,” says Jay Feinman, distinguished professor, Rutgers Law School in Camden. “‘Justice Fuzzy’ possesses a remarkable personal story and a wealth of experience as a distinguished trial lawyer, Superior Court judge and now Supreme Court Justice. The rich and wide-ranging class discussion should be a highlight of the students’ law school year.”
 
In addition to the speakers, there will be a ringing of the bell at Old Queens in New Brunswick at 2:50 p.m. and fireworks can be viewed over the Raritan River on the New Brunswick Campus, from the Gateway Plaza in Camden and from Bradley Hall in Newark.
 
The lectures are open to the public and alumni, but spaces are limited and guests must register on the Rutgers 250 website.
 
 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Do not miss a single innovative moment and sign up for our newsletter!
    Weekly updates


    Categories

    All
    3D Printing
    Academia
    Acquisitions
    Aerospace
    Agriculture
    AIDS
    Algae
    Alumni
    Animals
    Architecture
    Astrophysics
    Autism
    Awards
    Big Data
    Bioethics
    Biofuel
    Biomedical
    BioNJ
    Bioterrorism
    Bit Coins
    Brain Health
    Business
    Camden
    Cancer
    CCollege
    Cellular
    Centenary
    Chemistry
    ChooseNJ
    Climate Change
    Clinical Trials
    Cloud Tech
    Collaboration
    Computing
    Congress
    Coriell
    Council On Innovation
    Crowdfunding
    Cybersecurity
    DARPA
    Defense
    Degree
    Dementia
    Dental Health
    DOC
    DOD
    DOE
    Drew
    Drones
    Drug Creation
    Einstein's Alley
    Electricity
    Energy
    Engineering
    Entrepreneurship
    Environmental
    FAA
    Fairleigh Dickinson
    FDA
    Federal Budget
    Federal Government
    Federal Labs
    Federal Program
    Finance
    Food Science
    Fort Monmouth
    Fuel Cells
    Funding
    Genome
    Geography
    Geology
    Global Competition
    Google
    Governor Christie
    Grant
    Hackensack
    HackensackUMC
    Healthcare
    Health Care
    HHS
    HINJ
    Hospitals
    Immigration
    Incubator
    Infrastructure
    International
    Internet
    Investor
    IoT
    IP
    IT
    Jobs
    Johnson & Johnson
    K-12
    Kean
    Kessler
    Legislation
    Logistics
    Manufacturing
    Medical Devices
    Med School
    Mental Health
    Mentor
    Microorganisms
    Molecular Biology
    Montclair
    NAS
    Neuroscience
    Newark
    New Jersey
    NIFA
    NIH
    NIST
    NJBDA
    NJBIA
    NJ Chemistry Council
    NJCU
    NJDOLWD
    NJEDA
    NJEDge
    NJHF
    NJII
    NJIT
    NJMEP
    NJPAC
    NJPRO
    NJTC
    Nonprofit
    NSF
    OpEd
    Open Data
    OSHE
    OSTP
    Parasite
    Patents
    Paterson
    Patients
    Perth Amboy
    Pharma
    POTUS
    PPPL
    Princeton
    Prosthetics
    Ranking
    Rare Disease
    R&D Council
    Report
    Resiliency
    Rider
    Robotics
    Rowan
    Rutgers
    SBA
    Seton Hall
    Siemens
    Smart Car
    Smart Cities
    Software
    Solar
    Space
    SSTI
    Startup
    State Government
    STEM
    Stevens
    Stockton
    Subatomic
    Supports
    Sustainability
    Taxes
    TCNJ
    Teachers
    Telecom
    Therapy
    Thermodynamics
    Transportation
    Undergraduate
    USEDA
    Verizon
    Video Game
    Virtual Reality
    Water
    WHO
    William Paterson
    Women In STEM
    Workforce Development

Home   Coalition   News   Resources   Events   Join Us
Picture
Innovation New Jersey Coalition
10 West Lafayette Street
Trenton, NJ 08608-2002
609-858-9507