The Optical Society of America is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the journal Optics Letters. For this anniversary, they published the list of the most cited papers from the journal. Chris' 2001 paper on laser micromachining using low-energy, high repetition rate trains of femtosecond laser pulses is the 34th most cited paper of all time in the journal, with 628 citations as of January 2017. https://www.osapublishing.org/ol40/most-cited-OL-papers.cfm

Congratulations to Amanda Bares, a 6th year PhD student in the lab, for winning an Emil Wolf Outstanding Student Paper Competition prize at the Optical Society of America, Frontiers in Optics conference last week in Rochester, NY. Her paper, "Hyperspectral Imaging in Live Mouse Cortex Using a 48-Channel Multiphoton Microscope", was chosen as a finalist during the paper review process. Finalists were judged on their conference presentation based on their work's technical advances and value to the technical community of interest, and their skill of public presentation.

Chris recently discussed some of our ongoing work using optical techniques to determine the cause of reduced brain blood flow in Alzheimer's disease.

Link to video at The Optical Society

Cornell's new Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) program, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was profiled in Science Careers. One track in Cornell's BEST program focuses on science policy and is led by Chris Schaffer.

Chris Schaffer was elected by the faculty to serve on the University Faculty Committee. This committee serves as a primary liaison between the university administration and the faculty and also acts as the executive committee for the faculty senate (where Chris is also serving as a senator). Chris' term will begin this summer and run through 2017.

Cornell's new Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) program, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was profiled in Science Careers. One track in Cornell's BEST program focuses on science policy and is led by Chris Schaffer.

A blog post on the AAAS Member Central website describes the goals of Chris Schaffer's new science policy course, BME 4440 Science Policy Bootcamp: From Concept to Conclusion. This course is being offered for the first time this Fall, with an enrollment of about 20 undergraduate and graduate student scientists.

There are too few scientists who understand how they might contribute to public policy. In an effort to address this problem, Prof. Chris Schaffer and Dr. Catharine Clark were recently awarded a faculty fellowship from the Cornell Center of Engaged Learning and Research. This award will be used to support a new and innovative course entitled “Science Policy Bootcamp", slated for implementation in the Biomedical Engineering Department in Fall 2013. In addition to academic and administrative support from the Center of Engaged Learning and Research, Faculty Fellows will receive a stipend of $2500.

To celebrate the month of March as National Women's History Month, the Scientista Foundation at Cornell University wanted to highlight some of our favorite women in STEM. Many times the achievements of women are overshadowed by those of their male counterparts or credited to the work of their male colleagues. We wanted to take the time to celebrate, a scientist a day, their achievements and their lasting contributions to not only the scientific world, but also the world we live in today. Today's post is our first faculty interview video featuring Scientista's current faculty advisor, Dr. Nozomi Nishimura.

Link to the Facebook Post

Chris will spend his sabbatical next year in Washington, DC working as a Congressional Science Policy Fellow. This program is organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the fellowship Chris received is jointly funded by the Optical Society of America and SPIE. Chris will be placed in the office of a representative or senator and will provide advice, from the perspective of a professional scientist, on science policy issues, education, health care, climate change, energy, and other pressing policy problems. An article in the Cornell Chronicle and a press release from the OSA each discuss Schaffer’s upcoming fellowship.