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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.

U.S. News & World Report ranks New Jersey Institute of Technology’s (NJIT) graduate computer information technology programs 17th among the “Best Online Programs” offered by universities throughout the country — up 21 slots since last year. NJIT also offers other online programs that were mentioned by the report, such as the MBA and graduate programs in engineering.

From ribbon-cuttings and rankings to appointments and awards and more, this past year saw many milestones and achievements at NJIT — with promise for a fruitful 2018. Here are just some of the university community's noteworthy accomplishments and happenings in 2017.

When a federal inspection team inadvertently released three million gallons of heavy metal-laden waste from a century-old, defunct gold mine near Silverton, Colorado into the Animas River, Lucia Rodriguez-Freire was one of the first responders on the scene.

The research that Assistant Professor of Physics Cristiano Dias is pursuing has the potential to expand our knowledge of phenomena that can affect the creation of dangerous obstructions in undersea pipelines transporting natural gas and the formation of protein-based fibers in the brain related to diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Ronald Rockland, chairman of NJIT’s Department of Engineering Technology, and John Wiggins, a senior lecturer in the department and coordinator of the Construction Engineering Technology and Construction Management Technology programs, clearly belong to the latter category.

With two major grants from the U.S.

The team of chemical engineers was honored for their “enabling technology” at the organization’s 37th Edison Patent Awards Ceremony on November 3. They were among 12 winners in 2016.

<p>Carla Jones ’94 did not always envision herself in the career-coaching profession per se, but as an NJIT student she was continually involved in activities where she was helping someone or improving something. And looking back on her decision to study industrial engineering, she even chose a major closely connected to working with people to improve systems or processes.</p>

Lego building blocks and a chance conversation at a scientific conference have led to a discovery about water droplets on the International Space Station (ISS) with down-to-earth applications that could range from the production of better inkjet printers to more precise techniques for manufacturing polymer fibers and microelectronic devices, and improvements in mass spectrometry.