Tiny particles in Earth’s atmosphere can have a big impact on climate. But understanding exactly how these aerosol particles form cloud drops and affect the absorption and scattering of sunlight is one of the biggest sources of uncertainty in climate models. Ogochukwu (Ogo) Enekwizu, a postdoctoral research associate in the Environmental and Climate Sciences Department at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, is trying to tame that complexity.

“Our task is to mimic what happens in the atmosphere by making a cloud in the lab,” she said.

New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Paul Profeta Real Estate Technology, Design and Innovation Center and the Martin Tuchman School of Management hosted their first “Innovation in Real Estate” symposium, a day featuring academic leaders, government officials and technology, real estate and construction professionals.

Since 2011, NJIT alumnus Marc K. Raoul ’10, an emergency management specialist for FEMA, has traveled across the U.S. and its territories to help communities recover and rebuild following hurricanes, floods and pandemics. A veteran of Hurricanes Sandy (2012), Irma (2017) and Maria (2017), he’s been a damage assessor, a disaster recovery planner and a proposal reviewer for towns and cities in New Jersey, Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, Missouri, California, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

Ecevit Bilgili, a professor of chemical and materials engineering who boosts the therapeutic efficacy of pharmaceutical drugs through nanoengineering, while also lowering the cost to design and manufacture them, has been elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

In his Particle Engineering and Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology Laboratory, Bilgili and his team develop, for example, nanoparticle formulations and processes that enable the immediate release of poorly water-soluble drugs and enhance the performance of long-acting injectable drugs.

Two of New Jersey Institute of Technology’s online graduate programs placed among the top 50 in this year's U.S. News & World Report rankings of American universities, with another breaking into the top 100.

NJIT was ranked No. 29 for its information technology programs, a two place jump from last year; and No. 47 for engineering, a 16-place rise. In addition, NJIT’s online master’s business program was ranked No. 95, and the online MBA was No. 132.

All ranked programs saw improved scores over last year, according to the publication.

A collaborative research group led by NJIT has been awarded a $788k grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to implement restoration and protection measures for polluted lakes and ponds within the state.

The grant is part of a $10M allocation announced by the Murphy Administration to develop water quality improvement projects across New Jersey, funding for which stems from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan that was appropriated by the state Legislature.

A research paper on metal carbides and nitrides is paying dividends for NJIT’s Meng-Qiang Zhao — eight years after it was published.

For the fourth straight year, Zhao, an assistant professor of chemical and materials engineering at NJIT’s Newark College of Engineering, has made Clarivate’s list of Highly Cited Researchers. Why? Chiefly because peers continue to cite the paper, which introduced a faster and safer way to synthesize MXenes, a family of novel 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides, according to Zhao.

NJIT researchers have received a $620,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to advance our understanding of the way in which soot particles from combustion of fossil fuels are driving climate change in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Associate Professor of Chemistry Alexei Khalizov and Associate Professor of Chemical and Materials Engineering Gennady Gor will lead the project, “A Multiscale Model for Restructuring of Atmospheric Soot Particles”.

Next up for NJIT biomedical engineering graduate Amal Shabazz: the Ph.D. program in bioengineering at the University of Maryland. But first, the Albert Dorman Honors Scholar has a 10-week summer internship at Pfizer in Andover, Mass.

Her four years in University Heights were filled with helpful mentors, key internships and welcoming peer groups that collectively helped opened the door to graduate school. In an interview, she shares what she gained and where she hopes it leads.