There are currently over 13,000 unsolved forensic cases aiming to identify unknown human remains in the U.S. alone (NamUs, 2025), but NJIT graduate researcher Maria Castagnola is helping pioneer new DNA-based forensic methods that may one day lead to breakthroughs.
Researchers from four universities, including New Jersey Institute of Technology, are expanding a network of ham radio operators in North America to better track how the earth’s upper atmosphere is impacted by natural phenomena such as geomagnetic storms and lightning.
Billions upon billions of soot particles enter Earth’s atmosphere each second, totaling about 5.8 million metric tons a year — posing a climate-warming impact previously estimated at almost one-third that of carbon dioxide.
Now, researchers say the climate-altering properties of these particles can change within just hours of becoming airborne, rather than days as previously assumed.
For more than a year, Ray Wooden sat in a Pennsylvania jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Now, he’s free after two recent graduates and a current student of NJIT’s forensic science program uncovered key digital evidence that helped clear his name.
Wooden’s ordeal began in January 2024, after he tipped off police about a woman involved in a local home invasion, which led to the arrest of the woman and her boyfriend, who was found illegally carrying a firearm but later released on bail.
Microplastics and nanoplastics — tiny fragments shed from everyday plastic products — are increasingly found in our food, water, soil and even inside the human body. Their accumulation has been linked to fertility issues, metabolic disorders and other potential health risks in animal models. Yet detecting these pollutants has remained a time-consuming challenge.
Less than 13% of our plastic waste is truly recycled today, with most consumer plastics either downcycled into lower-quality products or joining the billions of tons discarded in landfills and oceans each year. But what if our plastics could be endlessly recycled, like aluminum?
As Director of NJIT’s Polymer Laboratory for the Advancement of Sustainable Technology and Innovative Chemical Synthesis (PLASTICS), Trevor Del Castillo aims to do just that.
A first-of-its-kind study traces the rise of ant- and termite-eaters, reveal
Jordan Hu ’89, CEO of RiskVal Financial Solutions, and a distinguished alumnus of New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), has been named the 2025 New Jersey winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. The honor celebrates entrepreneurs who are building and leading high-growth, innovative companies that are transforming industries and creating positive impact.
How do organisms adapt — or fail to adapt — to dramatic environmental changes, particularly those caused by human activity?
It’s a question driving Brock Shahinian’s research at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), leading to two of the nation’s most prestigious undergraduate honors: a 2025 Goldwater Scholarship and distinction as NJIT’s first-ever Udall Scholar.
Katya Cunha took the stage at Commencement 2025 amid a wave of major honors — NJIT’s Presidential Award, selection as Jordan Hu College of Science and Liberal Arts' gonfalon carrier and the sole national recipient of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors Undergraduate Award, a distinction that may now help launch her career as a forensic chemist.
