Challenges Lead to Breakthroughs Across the School

Andrew Brooks

 

Several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Jay Tischfield, Distinguished Professor of Genetics, spoke publicly of how the crisis had re-defined his work with sudden force.

“SARS-CoV-2?” Tischfield quipped during a Scarlet Speakers event. “Five months ago—never heard of it.”

Jay TischfieldJay TischfieldYet in April, a little more than a month after the coronavirus struck New Jersey, the lab led by Tischfield and fellow genetics Professor Andrew Brooks—RUCDR Infinite Biologics—had developed the first saliva test for the coronavirus. And in May the lab and its partners received federal approval for testing kits allowing people to collect their own saliva and send to a lab for results.

“If you would have asked me six months ago, would I ever be testing for virus, I would have given you a firm no,” Tischfield said. “We didn’t do that kind of work.”

The saliva test was a major breakthrough that drew worldwide attention. But the strong sense of public mission that it required—and the ability to rethink, regroup and shift direction to address a fast-developing crisis—was evident throughout the School of Arts and Sciences since the onset of the pandemic.

We need your courage, creativity, and problem-solving skills in a world that is deeply challenged... you will be called upon to contribute to the greater good and to help with the healing and recovery of our world.

—Executive Dean Peter March
2020 Convocation

Johanna Schoen, a professor of history, spent spring break revamping her medical ethics class so her students could take a deep dive into urgent pandemic-related issues like the allocation of ventilators and access to healthcare.

Ulla Berg, a professor of anthropology and Latino and Caribbean studies, launched a research project to explore the risk of virus transmission in northern New Jersey jails and detention centers that house immigrant detainees.

Eddy Arnold, meanwhile, a structural biologist who helped to discover two anti-AIDS drugs, decided to apply his expertise in deadly viruses to this new health crisis.

“My group is very motivated to see how we can help in the wartime effort,” said Arnold, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

Students also met the moment.

Undergraduates taking Richard Miller’s Signature Course, “Writing After the End of the World” responded to his call for stories, films, poetry, and other creative works documenting their quarantine experience. Miller was stunned by the quality and quantity of what he received and has created a website to display the work.

Peter MarchPeter March

“The students were making these direct connections to the challenge of repairing and recovering psychologically from this profound disruption,” he said.

Alumni like Larry Agron, meanwhile, stepped forward with philanthropic support to help students facing financial challenges.

And at the virtual Convocation that closed out the 2019-2020 academic year, Executive Dean Peter March spoke to the gravity of the moment, recalling the words that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke to college graduates during the Great Depression. Roosevelt told students in 1932 that they would be needed to rebuild the world.

“This holds true today,” March told the Class of 2020. “We need your courage, creativity, and problem-solving skills in a world that is deeply challenged. Whether you aspire to be a doctor, an anthropologist, a novelist, computer scientist, you can be assured that you will be called upon to contribute in some way to the greater good and to help with the healing and recovery of our world.”

Photos:  Nick Romanenko

 

 

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Access Online is the electronic publication of the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences.
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