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Robert Crease, professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded the 2021 Institute of Physics (IOP) William Thomson, Lord Kelvin Medal and Prize. Crease has received this award for his 21 years writing Physics World’s outstanding “Critical Point” column, devoted to describing key humanities concepts for scientists, and explaining the significance of key scientific ideas for humanists.     Crease has written, co-written, translated, and edited nearly 20 books on the history and philosophy of science, several of which sprang from material in “Critical Point.” These books have been reviewed in places as diverse as The Economist, the London Review of Books, and the Wall Street Journal, and translated into a total of 10 languages. One book in particular, The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty, is about the real and fanciful impact that quantum mechanics has had on philosophy, culture, and life. The book stemmed from an innovative class that Crease and physicist Alfred Goldhaber co-taught at Stony Brook University.     “My sincere congratulations to Bob on his receipt of the William Thomson, Lord Kelvin Medal and Prize,” said Nicole Sampson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and distinguished professor of chemistry. “His decades-long contribution to the sciences from a humanist’s perspective, through his “Critical Point” column and numerous publications as well as inventive course offerings that blend the arts and sciences, is testament to the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration as we navigate our ever-changing world. I applaud Bob for his commitment to communicating ideas and knowledge from his own area of expertise for the benefit of other disciplines.”     Crease is also co-editor-in-chief of Physics in Perspective, whose mission is to “bridge the gulf between physicists and non-physicists through historical and philosophical studies that typically display the unpredictable as well as the cross-disciplinary interplay of observation, experiment, and theory that has occurred over extended periods of time in academic, governmental, and industrial settings and in allied disciplines such as astrophysics, chemical physics, and geophysics.”     “I’m thrilled to get this award,” said Crease. “The IOP, a century-old scientific organization, gave it to me for more than 20 years of writing the column, “Critical Point” for Physics World. It’s a good sign for the humanities, for the column explores the numerous intersections between humanities and the sciences. In a science-dominated world, I think, the vitality of the humanities is threatened, not by interacting too much with the sciences, but too little. By the way, Kelvin, the scientist for whom the award is named, occupied what at the time was called a ‘Chair of Natural Philosophy.’ ”     Other books include Philosophy of Physics, an IOP ebook, and the final portion of J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life, which was begun by physicist Abraham Pais and left incomplete with his death. Crease also edited Science Policy Up Close by physicist and U.S. Presidential Science Advisor John H. Marburger III. For these and other contributions to history and philosophy of science, Crease was elected a fellow of the APS and IOP.     Crease received BA from Amherst College and PhD from Columbia University. He has written more than 75 reviews, editorials, and other short pieces on philosophy, history, and science for academic journals and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Nature, Newsday, and more. Crease has also appeared on a range of radio programs, from the BBC to the offbeat “Talk Nerdy.”     “On behalf of the Institute of Physics, I warmly congratulate all of this year’s Award winners,” said Professor Sheila Rowan, president of the Institute of Physics. “Each and every one of them has made a significant and positive impact in their profession, whether as a researcher, teacher, industrialist, technician or apprentice. Recent events have underlined the absolute necessity to encourage and reward our scientists and those who teach and encourage future generations. We rely on their dedication and innovation to improve many aspects of the lives of individuals and of our wider society.”     The Institute of Physics is the professional body and learned society for physics, and the leading body for practising physicists, in the UK and Ireland. The IOP awards celebrate physicists at every stage of their career; from those just starting out through to physicists at the peak of their careers, and those with a distinguished career behind them. They also recognize and celebrate companies which are successful in the application of physics and innovation, as well as employers who demonstrate their commitment and contribution to scientific and engineering apprenticeship schemes.

USC SUNY Korea hosted 2021 Club Festival this week.     Second one was a "Da Capo Concert".     On Tuesday, November 30th, Da Capo, Orchestra & Chorus club at SUNY Korea had a concert at IGC Auditorium.     The title of the concert was "The First Concert". Hopefully lots of people had a chance to enjoy beautiful concert!

Ephraim Bryski ’22 — the URECA researcher of the month for December 2021 — is a senior civil engineering major who joined the Coastal and Hydraulic Engineering Research Lab of Ali Farhadzadeh, assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, as a freshman. Bryski works on designs to increase the effectiveness of oyster reefs for wave attenuation and shore protection. His previous work in Farhadzadeh’s group on the motion of flood-borne debris led to a URECA presentation in 2019 as well as a recently co-authored publication in the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering.      In his sophomore year, Bryski also joined the Materials and Mechanics Lab of Kedar Kirane, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he has learned to use molecular dynamics to study quasi-brittle strength distribution in silica, has analyzed the size effect of creep in brittle rock, and developed models of rock beams and run simulations in Abaqus.      In Summer 2019, Bryski participated in the NHERI REU (National Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure – Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program at O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, Oregon State University.      On campus, Bryski has been involved as a peer tutor in the Academic Success and Tutoring Center since September 2019, and as a member of the Concrete Canoe Team since 2019. He also served as secretary of the Stony Brook Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (August 2019-August 2021). Bryski plans to continue at Stony Brook in the accelerated master’s program in Civil Engineering following his graduation in May.    

While it may not be the season for beach going and barbecues, people continue to work and gather outside in many settings. Is that cause for concern in these latest stages of the pandemic, and new variants? Not necessarily, but a new study indicates that low wind speeds and stale air are associated with a higher incidence of contracting COVID-19 when people socialize outside — perhaps as much as 45 percent more compared to when winds are stronger. Led by Sean Clouston, associate professor in the Program in Public Health, and the Department of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, the study is published in BMC Infectious Diseases.     The findings are based on COVID-19 incidence in Suffolk County, NY, from March 16, 2020, to December 31, 2020, from public health data of more than 96,000 cases. The researchers used these data in combination with daily reports by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the region’s average wind speed and maximal daily temperatures.     “The issue is really about an increased danger of infection spread in the presence of stale air as opposed to indoor versus outdoor settings,” explains Clouston. “The findings imply we are all safer when air flow is more significant.”     Clouston and colleagues developed a statistical modeling program which determined from the public health data and weather reports that warmer days with little wind when people socialized outside resulted in significantly more COVID-19 transmission. Their overall analysis revealed that days with temperatures ranging from 16 to 28 degrees C (approximately 61 to 82 degrees F) where wind speed was less than 8.85 kilometers per hour (approximately 5 mph) had significantly increased COVID-19 incidence compared to similar days with an average wind speed of greater than 8.85 kilometers per hour.

USC SUNY Korea hosted 2021 Club Festival this week.     First one was a "Town Hall Meeting".     On Monday, November 29th, Club Executives had "Town Hall Meeting" at IGC Multi-Complex building.     They had meaningful time to look back on the year.

SUNY Korea’s Online Information Session was successfully held on November 26th through November 28th. 2 sessions in Korean and 2 sessions in English were conducted, reaching out to students worldwide. Along with the information about SUNY Korea and the admissions process, student ambassadors also gave a talk on why they chose to attend SUNY Korea and their experiences. Participants also had the opportunity to ask questions, making each session even more informative. Thank you for all those who were able to attend! If you missed the information session, check out the following events: [Open House] General information session and ask questions directly to Admission Counselors [Voice of History Makers] Talk to a SUNY Korea Student Ambassador to learn about their experiences at SBU or FIT [Application Support Center] 1:1 in-person counseling session with an Admissions Counselor for advice and support on your application. Register here: Click Here

Project Sunshine has partnered with the Faculty Student Association (FSA) to organize and host a fun and interactive event to help children at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. On Wednesday, December 1, head over to East Side Dining from 1 pm to 2:30 pm to join others to make holiday cards for pediatric patients. As you get into the holiday spirit, listen to performances by the Stony Brook Vocalists while sipping complimentary hot cocoa provided by FSA.     Project sunshine holiday hero article photoProject Sunshine is a nonprofit organization with chapters on college campuses across the country. Their mission is to provide free social, educational, and recreational programming for children and their families as they face medical challenges. Stony Brook University’s chapter is dedicated to volunteering weekly at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, as well as leading initiatives on campus in support of the children and families there. They seek to restore a sense of normalcy to the pediatric healthcare environment and spread cheer to the children undergoing treatment.      Anthony (Tony) Gentile, facilities manager for FSA, donated dozens of plants that he nurtured in his own home for Project Sunshine to use for their fundraiser. “It warms my heart when we are able to collaborate with student groups to help them achieve their goals and bring the campus community together,” stated Gentile.     Juliana Welk ‘22, Biology, Project Sunshine chapter leader, explains, “Through our plant sale, this event will raise funds for Project Sunshine, which goes toward providing much needed resources to pediatric patients.” These resources include Sending Sunshine kits, which are craft and activity kits that are sent to children’s hospitals across the country and other programs as per the discretion of Project Sunshine Nationals. Meanwhile, the cards made at the event will be sent to children at local hospitals to read.      Project Sunshine holds many other fundraising events throughout the year. These include their annual Masquerade ball in February, the recent Tie-Dye fundraiser, plant sales, and benefit shows, among others. Sending Sunshines are hosted monthly so that craft kits can be put together and sent out to pediatric patients nationwide.

Have you ever thought of taking your idea to the SUNY level? Well, these students did!     The first annual SUNY Long Island Pitch competition between Stony Brook University, SUNY Farmingdale, and SUNY Old Westbury was held on November 16, 2021. The entrepreneurial development event gave students from each of the schools a chance to compete for more than $1,000 in prizes.     The competition took place virtually, with a combination of a live Q&A session, which gave students an opportunity to interact with successful business people, and asynchronous videos between presenters. The distinguished panel of judges deliberated on 10 incredible ideas from the students.     The first-place winner of the competition from Stony Brook was Soulo, a toe-nail clipper for older adults. Joshua Zhu, a second-year medical student in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, is the creator of Soulo. The second-place winner from Old Westbury was SunChok, healthy chips that curb your appetite; and the third-place winner from Farmingdale was Spider Shield, which makes bulletproof clothing.     The judges for the event — Derek Peterson, Gwen Cheni, Phil Rugile, Lionel Chitty and Edward Verlander — all have extensive entrepreneurial experience.     This multi-campus competition among several institutions was a unique learning experience for the students, and the judges provided excellent recommendations to everyone who took part in this event. These young professionals are now on their way to setting the stage for new ideas to emerge throughout the Long Island community.     — Arlene Alvarez

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade turns 95 this year, and properly observing this landmark event requires a lot of clowns. “Half-baked holiday sweets” clowns, as Macy’s calls them, will be costumed as pies, cookies, and cakes. “Silly seaside” clowns appear as starfish and seahorses. “Spacey” clowns are astronauts, and—a new category this year—“first-responder” clowns, outfitted as firefighters and hospital workers. These and many more were dressed by a crew assembled and overseen by the parade’s costume crew chief, FIT adjunct faculty member Barbara Berman. This is her 20th parade.     Some things never change. As always, Berman and her team arrived at the New Yorker Hotel on West 34th Street at 4:45 am. There, they helped the 600 clowns, 300 float escorts, 159 teens, 75 stilt walkers and special characters, 2000 balloon handlers, 450 officials, 100 banner carriers and more, into their costumes. After performers complete the 2.5-mile procession from Central Park to Macy’s at Herald Square on West 34th and Broadway, Berman’s team will help them back into their street clothes. “The transformation is amazing,” Berman says. “Performers might arrive sleepy or a little grouchy, but after they walk that parade and see all the happy people? They come back euphoric.”     For the Green Giant parade float, Berman’s team dressed the float escorts as ears of corn and sunflowers. Universal Studios is presenting the Holiday Express float, with escorts outfitted as train engineers; and the South Dakota Office of Tourism will present a float that resembles—you guessed it—Mount Rushmore. (Escorts dress as park rangers.) Costume hems require special attention; if they get stepped on, the outfit can unravel, so Berman’s crew members are quick to provide hand-sewn solutions or, in a pinch, safety pins. “The styling certificate program in FIT’s Center for Continuing and Professional Studies has classes in hand-sewing, pinning, and taping,” Berman points out. She recruited part of her team from her class in PR and Special Events in the Fashion Events Planning and Publicity Program, where she serves as the lead teacher.      Because of COVID-19, parade proceedings will be slightly different this year. “It’s not back to normal because normal isn’t normal any more,” Berman says. Macy’s is taking every precaution to keep marchers and attendees safe. Berman’s team has been reduced from 100 to 85. Some participants were mailed their outfits to reduce density at the New Yorker, but that creates an additional challenge: “COVID put 20 pounds on a lot of people,” Berman says, “so we have to have emergency sizes available in a huge trunk near the start.” Tall, vertically oriented balloons require the handlers to stand close together, so they were omitted last year in favor of the horizontal balloons. In 2020, much of the event was curtailed, and certain segments were pre-recorded at Macy’s satellite spot at the New Jersey Meadowlands. The good news is, this year, the whole parade will be live.      Berman’s team helps keep the parade’s holiday spirit alive, and in 2008, Macy’s thanked her with a Rollie—a special award for working on the event. “Will I be working on the 100th?” she wonders. She thinks for a moment, then smiles. “Probably.”

Samuel Grushevsky, a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Stony Brook University, has been elected as a fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) “for contributions to algebraic geometry and Teichmuller dynamics, and service to the mathematical community.”     Grushevsky is deputy director of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University. His research interests include algebraic and complex geometry, relations with number theory, integrable systems and mathematical physics. He received the 2015 F.W. Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation and was named a 2015 Simons Fellow in Mathematics.     Fellows of the AMS have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication and utilization of mathematics. They are recognized by their peers for their contributions to the profession.     “It is an honor to welcome a new class of AMS fellows and to congratulate them for their notable contributions to mathematics and to the profession,” said AMS President Ruth Charney. “We extend our thanks to the nominators and members of the selection committee for their help in highlighting the outstanding achievements of their colleagues. Congratulations 2022 fellows!”  

SUNY Korea made an MoU agreement with the Incheon Institute for Talent and Lifelong Education on November 18th, 2021.     The areas of cooperation include 1)Active participation in the development of lifelong education-related curriculum and project operation promoted by both institutions. 2) Sharing of human and material infrastructure for the development of lifelong education. 3) Matters necessary for the establishment of a lifelong education network and the development of both institutions.     The participants of this agreement ceremony were President Wonki Min and 5 others from SUNY Korea and President Wolyong Kim and 5 others from Incheon Institute for Talent and Lifelong Education.

Pavlos Kollias, a professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, is part of a new NASA Earth Science mission that aims to yield new information about tropical storm clouds during their lifecycles — data that will help scientists better understand and predict the behavior of dangerous tropical storms and address a significant issue of climate change. The $177 million mission involves use of novel radars systems and research collaboration from Stony Brook and other institutions.     Climate change is increasing ocean temperatures and making it more likely that storms will intensify more often and more quickly — a major reason that NASA is supporting this mission and research — which could potentially teach us more about storm clouds and their actions than has ever been understood before.     The initiative, expected to launch in 2027, will study the behavior of tropical storms and thunderstorms, including their impact on weather and climate models. Specifically, investigators will address why convective storms, heavy precipitation, and clouds occur, and exactly where and when they form. The mission will be a collection of three CubeSats flying in tight coordination, called Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS).     Kollias and his Radar Science team are leaders in the development of next-generation atmospheric observing approaches to study atmospheric processes at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales. These approaches will provide the foundational knowledge to significantly improve weather and climate predictability.     For the INCUS mission, his team will assist on the development of L2 satellite data products, in particular the retrieval of the profiles of vertical air motion from radar constellation observations. Their project, set to start in early 2022, will involve Kollias, research scientists from his group, along with undergraduate and graduate students.     “The INCUS  mission will study the vertical motions through storms using a constellation of three satellite-based radars (CubeSats) that will sample the same storm during different stages of the its lifecycle,” explains Kollias, who is also an atmospheric scientist with the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, of which Stony Brook is part of the management team.     “The vertical transport in convention, or convective mass flux, remains one of the great unknowns in weather and climate. INCUS will be our first opportunity to document these motions over the tropical oceans and the dependency of their properties on environmental factors,” he emphasizes.     Technological advancements are revolutionizing the way scientists observe Earth from space, and Kollias adds that continuous miniaturization of sensors and the availability of deployable radar antennas makes the use of distributed observations based on a convoy of identical radars a novel and economical approach to studying convective dynamics and lifecycle from space.     Professor Susan van den Heever at Colorado State University is the principal investigator for INCUS. The mission involves the work of several NASA Centers around the country and university partners, including Stony Brook, City College of New York and Texas A&M University.

Stony Brook University, in collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Cornell University (CU) and FERMI National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), has established the Ernest Courant Traineeship in Accelerator Science & Engineering. The program is supported by a $2.9 million, five-year grant from the High Energy Office of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).     The new program is named after renowned accelerator physicist Ernest Courant who, as a long-time physicist at BNL, laid the foundation of modern accelerator science. Courant also taught for 20 years as an adjunct professor at Stony Brook. The traineeship is offered through the Center for Accelerator Physics and Education (CASE).     CASE is a joint center between BNL and Stony Brook, with three main goals of training scientists and engineers with the aim of advancing the field of accelerator science, developing a unique educational program that will provide broad access to research accelerators, and expanding interdisciplinary research and education programs utilizing accelerators.     CASE focuses on four specific areas identified by the DOE as “mission critical workforce needs in accelerator science and engineering”: physics of large accelerators and systems engineering; superconducting radiofrequency accelerator physics and engineering; radiofrequency power system engineering; and cryogenic systems engineering, especially liquid helium systems.     Vladimir Litvinenko, professor of physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and senior scientist at BNL, said the DOE is specifically looking to groom the next generation of scientists in those areas because “that’s where they have a shortage of skilled labor, and they really want us to help address that.”     Research to understand and manipulate matter and energy using accelerators has led to the creation and commercial production of modern electronics and has had numerous applications in areas like radiation treatments for cancer, food safety, oil discovery, and searching for weapons of mass destruction. The understanding that accelerator science and technology has provided of matter and energy is also critical in space exploration and exploitation in terms of creating instrumentation, understanding space radiation, and creating new propulsion systems.     The graduate level curriculum consists of courses and practical training at accelerator facilities of the collaborating institutions, and thesis requirements. Each participant has a supervisor guide their training.     Students in the traineeship program who complete four courses of the core program — 12 or more credits in accelerator science and engineering — and earn a B+ or higher in each course will be issued a certificate in Accelerator Science and Engineering with specializations including the four areas listed above.     The traineeship is available to all students. Participants who are U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. residents are eligible for funding provided by the DOE grant. The expectation is that the traineeship can be completed in two years and students can pursue their research interest beyond the program.     Litvinenko said the program will help students get a job involving accelerators, and appeals to a wide range of students from across the sciences.     “One of my students who was interested in accelerators just really loved mechanical things,” said Litvinenko. “She was working in a garage before she came here. Other students might be interested in a more experimental hands-on experience, and others might be attracted to the diversity of the field, because accelerator science involve a broad range of sciences. It incorporates electrodynamics and mechanics, but there’s also quantum materials as well as complex systems like cryogenics.”     “Participating in the CASE Accelerator School has been a great experience,” said Pietro Iapozzuto, a physics researcher at Stony Brook whose career dream has been to work in particle physics. “The classes teach you practical skills that will be needed to work in top government research facilities. The program has given me the opportunity to learn theoretical, computational, and experimental skills in order to become a proficient accelerator physicist. It also prepared me to participate in internship opportunities at the CERN laboratory and Brookhaven.”     “I’m an electrical engineer but I have had the pleasure of working with physicists in recent years,” said Thomas Robertazzi, professor and IEEE Fellow, Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering. “What I have come to realize is if our society is ever to have the type of the appealing technologies we see in shows like Star Trek, it will take physicists like the ones in the traineeship program to discover and invent them.”     Litvinenko said the current talent shortage is attributed to the attraction of engineers to the booming mobile device field.     “So many engineers today are working on iPhones and other mobile devices,” he said. “But in accelerators we use really high-power systems, which is a very different scale and design. It’s older technology that’s no longer taught in regular universities, but still it’s extremely important. This is one of the things which we hope to offer next year to students.”     Irina Petrushina ‘19, a research assistant professor who co-teaches a course on RF superconductivity for accelerators within the traineeship program, said the traineeship offers students a unique opportunity to explore the world of accelerator physics and engineering.     “One can get a taste of accelerator physics and learn the basic concepts of accelerator operation in Fundamentals of Accelerator Physics, and more experienced students can learn about specific topics of interest such as cryogenic systems or computational aspects,” she said. “In addition to the direct interaction with the world-renowned experts, the students get to perform some hands-on experiments using one of the accelerators at BNL. The proximity and close collaboration between Stony Brook and BNL present an amazing opportunity to immerse yourself in the day-to-day life of an accelerator scientist.”     Litvinenko said there is also a very practical aspect to the program: “Many of our students are landing jobs before graduation. I think this is not always true about academia and graduates and this may be reason why this certificate and the very real possibility of finding a good job is an additional attraction. In the end, students want to have a successful career.”     — Robert Emproto

Two high-impact computational science projects that include Stony Brook University faculty from the Department of Physics and Astronomy have been awarded supercomputer access from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science for 2022 through its Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program. Through these awards, the research teams will be able to access the leadership-class supercomputers at DOE’s Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.     The first project, “Approaching Exascale Models of Astrophysical Explosions,” includes Principal Investigator Professor Michael Zingale and co-investigators Associate Professor Alan Calder, Postdoctoral Associate Alice Harpole and PhD student Maria Barrios Sazo.      Building on more than a decade of work, this project aims to produce models of burning and flame propagation on neutron stars as models for X-ray bursts (XRBs), investigate white dwarf mergers and the role of magnetic fields, and explore the end state of massive star convection. These are all multiscale, multiphysics problems whose calculation requires the coupling of hydrodynamics, magnetic fields, reactions, gravity and diffusion. The team’s XRB simulations will provide insight into the rapid proton capture process nucleosynthesis, connect with observations, and probe the structure of the underlying neutron star. A suite of white dwarf mergers, with and without magnetic fields, will be modeled, allowing the team to probe this system as a possible progenitor for Type Ia supernovae. Finally, the massive star research will provide important input (and an open simulation framework) to the core collapse modeling community.     Assistant Professor Sergey Syritsyn is a co-investigator on the other project, “Internal Structure of Strong Interaction Nambu-Goldstone Bosons.” This project aims to carry out precision lattice QCD calculations of the inner structures of the pion and kaon—the Nambu-Goldstone bosons in strong interactions — to determine their electromagnetic form factors, Fock-space distribution amplitudes, parton distribution functions and generalized parton distributions. These calculations are intended to provide experimental programs, such as the Jefferson Lab 12 GeV upgrade and the future Electron-Ion Collider, with comparisons and predictions. The results will help answer fundamental questions regarding spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in strong interactions, flavor symmetry violation, color confinement, and the origin of the mass of hadrons. Additionally, the distribution amplitudes are important inputs for deeply virtual meson production processes that are used to map out 3D images of the proton.

Chalk FIT, an annual tradition since 2013, brings together fourth-year Illustration students to create chalk murals along the college’s concrete exterior walls. The illustrators paint with a chalk suspension to allow for precise detail and shading.     This year, Chalk FIT went up in late October and will be viewable through the fall semester, if not longer. The theme is “The New Normal”—a look at how students have persisted through the COVID-19 pandemic. About 80 students created panels, as well as 15–20 alumni from the class of 2021 who didn’t get to participate last year. Associate Professor William Low oversaw the project this year; faculty members Richard Elmer John Nickle, and Steven Tabbutt also included their classes in the project. “I think it’s a great way to show that we’re back in business,” said Dan Shefelman, chair of the Illustration and Interactive Media Department and the founder of Chalk FIT. “It’s also a way to show passersby all the different sides of FIT students: They’re political, they’re bright, they’re fun, and some of them are dealing with pretty dark issues.”     Shefelman pointed out two standout collaborations between students: a mural addressing suicide, by Rylie Coen and Brianna Kelly, and another, by Melanie Wong and Oscar Yohe Tapia, emphasizing the importance of imagination and fantasy while being stuck in front of a computer. “It brings a vibrance to the community,” Shefelman says. “People look forward to it, and now it’s back up.”