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The Television Academy has honored Boris FX, the leading developer of visual effects plugins and applications, with three Engineering Emmy Awards. The Boris FX products Sapphire, Mocha Pro, and Silhouette have each been recognized for their technical achievements and contribution to the world of television. Bardian Ross Shain is the chief product officer for Mocha, and he accepted the award at the 71st Engineering Emmy Awards ceremony on Wednesday evening, October 23, 2019, at the JW Marriott Hotel Los Angeles. 

“Cybersecurity remediation at hospitals appears to be slowing down doctors, nurses, and other health professionals as they offer emergency cardiac care,” writes Bard alumnus Nsikan Akpan.

The BrainStorm Neuroscience Pitch Competition awards grants to young researchers for innovative projects in brain research. Bard psychology major and Memory Lab manager Michael Greenberg ’20 won for his team’s proposed research into “hacking” the brain using mindfulness meditation to strengthen self-control and autonomy. The $15,000 grant will enable the MemLab team, led by Bard professor Justin Hulbert, to move their project forward.

Matthew Junge, Bard College Assistant Professor of Mathematics, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation in the amount of $190,868 for research into multitype particle systems. The grant comes from the NSF's Division of Mathematical Sciences Probability Program.

Interacting particle systems with random dynamics are fundamental for modeling phenomena in the physical and social sciences. Such systems can be used to describe chemical reactions, as well as the spread of disease, information, and species through a network. These models often become more meaningful when multiple particle types are incorporated. For example, the celebrated First Passage Percolation model describes the spread of a single species through an environment; the incorporation of competing species enriches the model. This project seeks to study more realistic variants of well-known models for chemical reactions, epidemic outbreaks, and the spread of information as to deepen our understanding of important phenomena from across the sciences and further develop the mathematics that helps explain them. The project will involve the training of undergraduate students.

In summer 2020, Professor Junge will use a portion of the NSF grant to run a Tiny Mathematics Research Community at Bard that vertically connects undergraduates, graduates, postdoctoral researchers, and professors in a retreat-style research workshop.

Professor Junge joined the Bard faculty this fall, coming to Annandale from Duke University, where he served as William W. Elliott Research Assistant Professor of Mathematics. He received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Washington, where he also earned MS, BS, and BA degrees.

His areas of interest include probability, statistical physics, and mathematical biology. Professor Junge’s research takes a probabilistic approach to particle systems from physics and biology, including models for chemical reactions, species proliferation, and epidemic outbreaks. He also studies random structures from classical mathematics and computer science, such as permutations and fragmented spaces.

This semester, he is teaching Probability and Calculus I, as well as supervising a research project with two Bard undergraduate students. He also teaches in the Bard Prison Initiative, alongside Mathematics Program colleagues John Cullinan and Japheth Wood.