Tara Alvarez, a professor of biomedical engineering who studies the links between visual disorders and the brain and develops novel devices to identify and treat them, has been named a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Alvarez joined approximately 150 new fellows, who represent the top 2 percent of the medical and biological engineering community, at an induction ceremony this past weekend at AIMBE’s 2018 annual meeting at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.

Robert Cohen ’83, ’84, ’87, a biomedical engineer and entrepreneur who specializes in orthopedic joint replacement implants, years ago envisioned the convergence of advanced materials, new fabrication methods and robotic-assisted surgery to maximize motion restoration. In 2010, his New Jersey company, Pipeline Orthopedics, the developer of implants with porous metals designed to improve the fixation of device and bone, entered a strategic alliance with Mako Surgical Corp. in order to use Mako’s robotic systems in the operating room to help place its implants more precisely.

Five NJIT students —  Ivan Mitevski, Kiera Nissen, Omar Qari, Priya Rajbabu and Michael Vitti — have been named 2018 Governor’s STEM Scholars, an honor that is providing them with unique opportunities to learn from and network with New Jersey STEM professionals, research organizations, academic institutions and state policymakers. They join their fellow scholars from universities, high schools and academies throughout New Jersey in attending STEM conferences and field trips, and in participating in a team-based research project.

NJIT inventors, including a growing number of ambitious student entrepreneurs, are beating new paths to the marketplace.

Most recently, Treena Arinzeh, director of NJIT’s Tissue Engineering and Applied Biomaterials Laboratory, won a grant from the University City Science Center in Philadelphia to commercialize technology to reduce the recovery time and cost associated with bone graft procedures.

From large-scale weather or environmental disaster predictions and efficient design of vehicles and power generators, to understanding how bacteria propel themselves and how nutrients are delivered to different organs in our body at the cell level — researchers will need to find new ways of studying the complex flow of liquids, gases and plasmas that drive or characterize intricate climatic, transportation and biological systems.

Peter Engler was four years old when his family fled Berlin in the wake of Kristallnacht, the infamous “Night of Broken Glass.” Stateless, their passports stamped “J” for Juden by the Nazis, the Englers made their way to Shanghai, one of the only free ports in the world at the time. Soon after arriving, they were confined to a mile-square Jewish ghetto by Japanese occupiers.