Research NewsletterIssue: ORN-2025-10

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SAVE THE DATE

CTR Workshop on Translational Research and Technology Innovations for PFAS Decontaminations

Sponsored by

NSF ART (Accelerating Research Translation) Program at NJIT

National Academy of Inventor (NAI) – NJIT Chapter

Co-organizers

Atam Dhawan, Senior Vice Provost for Research, NJIT; Executive Director – Center for Translational Research

Nick DeNichilo, Vice Co-Chair, NJIT Board of Trustees; Former President &CEO at Mott MacDonald – North America (retired)

Carol Walczyk, Vice President – Engineering, Veolia North America; Vice President – American Water Works Association

Date and Venue: April 24, 2025, 9.00 AM – 4.00 PM; Campus Center Atrium

Faculty, Postdoc and students invited for this great networking opportunity.

More than 150 people are expected to attend. Register and reserve your spot early.

Registration may close before the deadline.

Registration Required: Please RSVP and Register Here by April 9, 2025

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Brief Description: The Center for Translational Research is committed to promoting excellence in collaborative research, innovation partnerships, entrepreneurial pathways, education, training and infrastructure development to translate technology into applications with a high societal and economic impact. To follow up on the CTR mission to enhance the research, innovation and technology entrepreneurship ecosystem at NJIT, we have initiated a series of workshops on pathways to translational research and innovation partnerships, with panel discussions and breakout sessions giving faculty, postdocs and students an opportunity to interact with experts on early and advanced translational research, tech transfer, licensing and funding strategies for entrepreneurial activities. This CTR workshop is focused on translational research and innovative technologies for detecting and managing PFAS related contaminants in water, soil, air, infrastructure and consumable products.

Who Should Attend: Faculty, research staff, undergraduate and graduate students and postdocs and external partners including major NJ universities, industry, utilities, business accelerators, government and community stakeholders who are pursuing or are interested in translational research and innovative technology development for removing the PFAS related contaminations in water, soil, air, infrastructure and environment for sustainable societies should attend and would be benefited from the workshop.

Why You Should Attend: The workshop attendees will have the opportunity to learn about recent developments and current and future challenges in PFAS decontamination technologies and associated regulatory policies for its societal impact from the leaders in industry, academia and government sectors. Featured keynote presentations and panel sessions include stimulative and interactive discussions from:

• Government leaders addressing PFAS challenges and specific actions to safeguard public health and environment including elected officials and federal, state, regional departments and agencies.
• Industry leaders pursuing the development of PFAS decontamination and management technologies at global and start-up companies.
• Leaders from major research foundation and private organizations.
• Experts in academia from NJIT and leading NJ universities

In addition, the Industry-University-Community Showcase on Technology Innovations in PFAS Decontamination will feature more than 30 companies, academic research centers and laboratories, and global, national, state and regional utilities working in the cutting-edge of technology innovations and deployment for addressing the critical challenges of PFAS management in environment, soil, water, consumable products and infrastructure.

For further information, please contact Iris Pantoja (iris.pantoja@njit.edu)

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Recent NJIT Patents Issued by US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

Patent Title:   CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION OF ACTIVE PHARMACEUTICAL INGREDIENTS

NJIT Ref No.:  19-020

Inventor(s):     Sirkar, Kamalesh

Patent Application Status:  Issued Patent

Patent Issue Date: 3/4/2025

Patent No.:  12,239,943

Technology Licensing Status: Available 

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Recent NJIT PCT Patent Applications (Filed) 

Patent Title:   Method and System for Prompt Optimization for Secure Generation of Functional Source Code with Large Language Models (LLMs)

NJIT Ref No.:  24-021

Inventor(s):    Phan, Hai / Nazzal, Mahmoud / Khreishah, Abdallah / Khalil, Issa

Patent Application Status:  Filed PCT Patent Application

Patent Application Filing Date: 2/25/2025

Application Filing No.:  PCT/QA2025/050003

Technology Licensing Status: Jointly Owned

NSF: Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences

NIH: Investigator Gateway Awards for Collaborative T1D Research (R03)

Department of Defense/US Army/DARPA/ONR: Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Department of Defense Multidisciplinary Research Program of the University Research Initiative (MURI); Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Department of Defense (DoD) Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP)

Department of Energy: 2025 Exploratory Research for Extreme-Scale Science

NASA: Several Pending ROSES 2025 RFPs; ROSES 2024: A.52 Advanced Component Technology

National Endowment of Humanities: Humanities Initiatives

AWS unveils its quantum chip prototype, Ocelot: Amazon Web Services launched its first computing chip designed specifically to support quantum computing on Thursday, joining IBM, Microsoft and Google in debuting such products.  Created between researchers at AWS and the California Institute of Technology, the new Ocelot chip’s starring feature is its error-correcting architecture that prevents external noise from disrupting calculations the chip and its corresponding hardware are working to execute. In a press release, AWS noted that Ocelot’s architecture has the potential to reduce the resources needed for sufficient error correction by five to 10 times.  The qubits — or quantum bits — Ocelot uses are called cat qubits, in honor of physicist Erwin Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment, Schrödinger’s Cat, which is used to explain quantum superposition. Cat qubits are a type of superconducting qubit, and are superimposed in various states between 0 and 1. This property intrinsically makes cat qubits resistant to noise and capable of supporting quick error correction, both vital for quantum computing. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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OSTP director nominee promises to center ‘American leadership’ in emerging tech work: President Trump's pick for director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Michael Kratsios will prioritize emerging technologies should he be confirmed, he said in testimony during his Tuesday confirmation hearing.  Lawmakers sitting on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee asked Kratsios a litany of questions surrounding what his leadership would look like as OSTP director, focusing on how he would advance quantum information sciences, artificial intelligence and biotechnologies.  “I am committed to American leadership in emerging technologies, and to ensuring that all Americans benefit from scientific and technological advances,” Kratsios said in his opening statement. 

He later commented that four pillars characterize his ideal emerging tech national strategy: research and development, regulations, international collaboration and workforce –– all to maintain America’s competitive edge in AI development.  “Within the federal government, there's lots of levers that you can use to drive those efforts. It can be through grants and fellowships to researchers, and it can also be through lots of other programs to allow for training and reskilling,” Kratsios said. More information is posted on the NextGov website.