Eliza Michalopoulou, a mathematician who develops acoustic techniques to reveal uncharted features of the ocean and the movements of its inhabitants, is this year’s winner of NJIT’s Foundation Excellence in Research and Innovation award.

Her field, geoacoustic inversion, uses signal processing and mathematical models to transform underwater sound waves into detailed information about the location of sources such as submarines and whales, and characteristics of the seabed. She studies how physical properties of the ocean shape the way sound travels beneath the surface.

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) hosted the second annual Nexus of Excellence Awards Oct. 8 in the Campus Center Atrium, celebrating the university’s faculty and staff whose achievements exemplify NJIT’s mission and values.

Building on last year’s inaugural ceremony, the 2025 event recognized honorees across categories that reflect NJIT’s Innovation Nexus 2030 Strategic Plan — spanning excellence in teaching, advising, mentoring, research, diversity and community engagement.

Jose Antunes ’19, ’20, ’25 spent nearly a decade at NJIT conducting research on the front lines of the fight against environmental pollution. Now, he’s among a select group of six scientists recently named New York State Science Policy Fellows, where his expertise will help shape science-based policymaking on issues affecting millions of New Yorkers.

Nearly half of adolescents and young adults with lingering symptoms of concussion suffer from eye coordination disorders that cause double and blurred vision, headaches and difficulties concentrating. 

“These conditions make it hard to read books, work on a computer or even use a smartphone, and the impact on cognition and learning can be severe. They also delay the return to sports, work and driving for young people,” said Tara Alvarez, a distinguished professor of biomedical engineering at NJIT.

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with three leading universities in India to advance academic and research collaborations, expand student mobility and strengthen innovation partnerships. All of these agreements were signed in the presence of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy during his trade mission to India. 

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.

When the vessel “King Gizzard” lined up for the final round of NJIT’s STEM Success Academy boat race, the stakes weren’t high in the traditional sense — just a stream of air and a small plastic boat floating on a narrow water track in NJIT’s Makerspace. But what was at play was far bigger: creativity, collaboration and the confidence to think differently.

Think twice about eliminating those pesky ants at your next family picnic. Their behavior may hold the key to reinventing how engineering materials, traffic control and multi-agent robots are made and utilized, thanks to research conducted by recent graduate Matthew Loges ’25 and Assistant Professor Tomer Weiss from NJIT's Ying Wu College of Computing.

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.

Rajesh Davé, a problem-focused inventor whose groundbreaking methods for re-engineering tiny particles have applications in such diverse areas as rocket fuels and explosives, high-value-added chemicals and pharmaceuticals, has been tapped for the Elsevier Particle Technology Forum Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).