Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor Mark Robson CC’77; GSNB’79, ’88; SPH’95. Photo: Luca Mostello

A new endowed legacy professorship at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences will recognize and support exceptional faculty in plant biology.

The Rutgers University Board of Governors approved the creation of the Robson Endowed Legacy Professorship on Oct. 1. The professorship was established through a gift from Mark Gregory Robson and Patricia Mykalosky Robson.

Robson first came to Rutgers in 1973 as an undergraduate at the newly established Cook College. He earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Rutgers and began his Rutgers career in 1979. Today, he is a distinguished professor of plant biology, associate vice provost for graduate education at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and dean of the School of Graduate Studies.

“I have spent my entire adult life at Rutgers, first as a student, where I had wonderful teachers, and then for many decades as a teacher, where I have had exceptional students,” said Mark Robson. “I feel truly fortunate to have been the beneficiary of an education at a public land-grant university. We felt strongly that this was an appropriate way to demonstrate our commitment to teaching and service excellence at Rutgers.”

Teaching and mentoring have been a significant part of Robson’s Rutgers career. In 2024, he received the Sustained Career Teaching Excellence Award, recognizing his decades of teaching and commitment to student success. His other honors include the Daniel Gorenstein Memorial Award in 2021, the Clement A. Price Human Dignity Award in 2020 and the Chancellor’s Award for Global Impact, among others.

Robson’s ties to Rutgers began even before he became a student. He grew up on a New Jersey farm, where his family interacted with Rutgers agricultural agents and participated in 4-H. 

The professorship is designed to honor, retain or recruit an exceptional faculty member in plant biology, with a preference for someone who demonstrates a passion for educating students or goes above and beyond what is required of them. It will support teaching, research and professional activities in the field.

Rutgers’ Board of Governors approved the creation of legacy professorships in 2020, allowing current, emeritus and retired faculty members and their families to create endowed positions honoring their legacy at the university.

This article first appeared in Rutgers Today.

Daniel Burd SEBS’26 using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to identify and analyze the materials used in food packaging in Dr. Kit Yam’s laboratory in the Rutgers Food Science Building.

Two semesters of experiential learning in Rutgers’ food packaging laboratory helped Daniel Burd transform classroom knowledge into award-winning research with real-world applications for the food industry.

When Daniel Burd first arrived at Rutgers after earning an associate degree from Brookdale Community College, he knew he loved food science because it brought chemistry and biology to life. What he didn’t yet know was how much he would enjoy asking research questions that didn’t have obvious answers.

During Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, Daniel spent his senior year at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) immersed in undergraduate experiential learning through the laboratory of Kit L. Yam, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Food Science. The two-semester experience gave Daniel the opportunity to apply engineering, chemistry and food science to solve practical challenges facing the food industry while working alongside faculty, graduate students and industry partners.

The experience proved transformative.

Daniel’s contributions in Yam’s Packaging Laboratory—from supporting industry-funded packaging studies to advancing graduate research on controlled-release systems for fresh produce—earned him the prestigious Virginia Dare Award in Spring 2026. The award recognizes undergraduate students who demonstrate exceptional potential for a future career in food science through research excellence and reflects the impact of Daniel’s experiential learning journey.

Daniel Burd SEBS’26, food science major.

Today, Daniel is a 2026 SEBS graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Food Science and is continuing at Rutgers in the Master of Business and Science program in Applied Food Science and Technology.

“The chance to gain hands-on experience in a laboratory specifically focused on food science inspired me,” said Burd. “This experience allowed me to become much more involved in research and see how concepts from class are applied to real problems.”

Through the SEBS Experiential Learning (EL) program, Daniel joined one of the nation’s leading food packaging research laboratories, working alongside Rutgers graduate researcher Eric Chan, who provided day-to-day mentorship and guided Daniel’s development as a researcher while introducing him to increasingly sophisticated laboratory techniques, experimental design and scientific problem-solving.

Daniel began by assisting graduate researchers with experiments, preparing samples and collecting data. As Daniel’s confidence and technical skills grew, so did his responsibilities. He became proficient in a range of analytical techniques, including gas chromatography (GC-FID), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), microbiological testing, oxygen transmission rate testing, water activity analysis, and texture and color analysis.

Before long, Daniel was contributing directly to research focused on active food packaging technologies, shelf-life extension and food quality.

One major project involved helping develop controlled-release delivery systems for 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), a compound that slows the ripening of climacteric fruits such as apples, pears and bananas by inhibiting the effects of ethylene. Working with Chan, Daniel helped evaluate a novel dual-satchel controlled-release system designed to regulate the release of ethylene and 1-MCP, ultimately helping fresh produce reach consumers at its optimal stage of freshness while reducing food loss during transportation and storage.

Daniel also contributed to industry-funded studies evaluating modified-atmosphere packaging for fresh produce, investigating how factors such as heat-seal integrity, oxygen transmission and packaging defects influence product quality over time. In another research project, he helped evaluate antimicrobial packaging films for ready-to-eat foods by comparing shelf life, product quality and microbial activity between treated products and control samples.

For Daniel, the work demonstrated how research can have immediate practical applications.

“I’m particularly proud of working with real products you can find in the store and contributing data that influences commercial decisions,” he said.

The laboratory experience also transformed the way Daniel approached scientific problems.

“One of the biggest lessons I learned is that experiments rarely work exactly the way you expect them to the first time,” Burd said. “I learned to troubleshoot, analyze what was happening, adjust my approach and understand why something wasn’t working instead of simply repeating the same procedure.”

Daniel Burd preparing agar media for microbiological testing used to evaluate food safety and shelf life as a part of Dr. Kit Yam’s food packaging research in the Rutgers Food Science Building.

Those experiences reinforced concepts Daniel had encountered in courses such as Food Chemistry, Food Engineering, Food Microbiology and Food Analysis.

“In class, I learned why oxygen, moisture, temperature, microorganisms and packaging properties affect food stability,” Burd said. “In the lab, I was able to see those relationships directly. Concepts I learned in class became working knowledge that affected the decisions I made every day.”

Ironically, one of Daniel’s most challenging classes became one of the most valuable.

“Food Analysis was probably my least favorite course because it was difficult to understand why so many analytical techniques mattered,” he said. “Working in the lab with those same instruments gave me a completely different appreciation for what I had learned.”

Beyond technical expertise, Daniel says experiential learning strengthened skills that are difficult to develop in a traditional classroom.

“Besides developing technical skills, I learned how to communicate with my teammates, solve problems systematically and collaborate on decisions that affected not only my work, but the entire lab and the companies we worked with.”

One of Daniel’s proudest accomplishments wasn’t an experiment at all.

While working in the laboratory, Daniel helped mentor high school interns conducting research projects for the Regeneron Westchester Science and Engineering Fair (WESEF), one of the nation’s largest regional science competitions.

“It was incredibly rewarding teaching them and watching them gain independence in the laboratory,” he said.

Yam says Daniel’s experience illustrates the purpose of experiential learning at Rutgers.

“Daniel’s growth reflects the value of experiential learning in building curiosity, confidence and the ability to tackle real-world challenges,” said Yam.

That undergraduate experiential learning experience continues to shape Daniel’s career. He remains involved with Yam’s laboratory while pursuing his graduate studies and is contributing to the next phase of a USDA-backed research project focused on food-grade antimicrobial disinfectant technology designed to improve food safety during the pre- and post-harvest handling and distribution of fresh produce.

Looking ahead, Daniel hopes to build a career in food research and development where scientific discovery leads to practical innovations.

“I want to contribute to technologies that make food safer, higher quality and more sustainable,” Burd said. “This experience showed me that research isn’t about immediately finding answers. It’s about asking questions, working with others, testing ideas and continually improving. That’s the skill set I know I’ll need throughout my career.”

Sue Beurskens, Rutgers Cook College, Class of 1992, has donated everything from whole blood to platelets and plasma.

As the U.S. faces a blood supply crisis, one Scarlet Knight has made it her mission to help provide critical blood donations. Sue Beurskens, associate athletic director for marketing, has been a blood donor since 1993 and has logged over 150 donations over those three decades.

What began as a chance encounter has evolved into a decades-long commitment to helping others through this lifesaving act. While working at one of her first jobs at Herman’s World of Sporting Goods, the company was conducting a blood drive and needed one more pint to reach their goal. Beurskens was approached to put the company over their 40-pint goal and initially she didn’t think she would be a suitable candidate, but it turned out she was the ideal person.

From that point on, a super donor was born. Beurskens, who graduated from Rutgers Cook College in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science & Sports Studies, has donated everything from whole blood to platelets and plasma. Her A+ blood type makes her the perfect candidate for platelet donations, which she has committed to providing on a regular basis. “You never know when you might need it,” said Beurskens. “I’d like to know that it would be there if I ever needed a blood transfusion. Any of my family members who have needed it, they’ve been able to get it. It’s just one of those things, doing something good for another human being.”

Rutgers Athletics is teaming up with Abbott and the Big Ten Conference for the “We Give Blood” drive, a nationwide competition to help address the blood supply shortage. The 18 Big Ten schools are vying for the most recorded donations with the winning institution earning a $1 million grant from Abbott to advance student or community health.

Blood donations at any blood center in the U.S. between August 12 through December 4 can count toward the competition. Donors in the New Brunswick area are encouraged to attend any of the upcoming drives:

• 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sept. 16, Commons at the Yard, 40 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ
• 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sept. 17, Commons at the Yard, 40 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ
• 12 p.m. – 6 p.m., Oct. 6, Rutgers College Avenue Gym, 130 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ

Beurskens was inspired at a young age while watching her grandmother battle an illness that required blood donations, which a family friend came forward to provide. At seven years old, Beurskens remembers watching that series of events and being fascinated by the process. Years later, her mother became sick and needed transfusions as part of her treatment. Those two experiences reinforced the significance of giving back in this way.

“It’s very important to me,” said Beurskens.

Over her decades of donating blood, Beurskens knows her efforts have gone a long way toward saving the lives of others. On one occasion, she had the rare opportunity to witness that impact firsthand. In a full-circle moment, Beurskens was able to help the son of a family friend with a platelet donation while he was seriously ill and in need.

“One whole blood donation can save up to three lives,” said Beurskens. “Platelets are more used for cancer patients, so because of my mom’s history it was a big thing for me.”

Beurskens remembers hitting the 100-donation mark just prior to the pandemic and in the six years since she has almost matched that number. While much of the world was shut down, the critical need to support the blood supply continued and Beurskens saw it as an ideal opportunity to increase her volunteerism. Her personal and professional schedules didn’t provide many avenues to give back but during the pandemic, being able to donate blood became her calling.

“I don’t have a lot of time to volunteer as much as I would like with other things,” said Beurskens. “So, I consider this my way of volunteering and giving back in some shape or form.”

She has continued that commitment, making her most recent donation on Sunday, September 13 – her 158th donation and counting.

Text GIVEBLOOD to 222688 to register your donation through the Abbott/Big Ten We Give Blood campaign and select Rutgers as your school of choice to help the Scarlet Knights win. 

This article first appeared on the ScarletKnights website.

Rutgers–New Brunswick alumni John CC’09 and Jennifer Cifelli MGSA’08 in the Unionville Vineyards tasting room in Ringoes, New Jersey. Photo by Allison Freeman.

Alumni couple who met as students in the Rutgers Glee Club and the Kirkpatrick Choir look welcomed fellow alumni to enjoy wine and charcuterie at a Rutgers Takes the Garden State event at Unionville Vineyards on September 20.

John Cifelli, a meteorology major turned vineyard manager, and Jennifer Cifelli, a music teacher turned restaurant owner, attribute their combined love of Rutgers, singing, and Scarlet Knights football for bringing them together.

John Cifelli cuts grapes during the harvest at Unionville Vineyards.

John, who began working in the hospitality field while at Rutgers–New Brunswick, and Jennifer, a former elementary and middle school music teacher, co-own Blawenburg Bistro in Montgomery Township. The bistro is the caterer that prepared the accompaniments for Rutgers Takes the Garden State: Day at Unionville Vineyards in Ringoes, where John is general manager.

The couple was excited to welcome alumni for a fun-filled day on September 20, which included a behind-the-scenes tour of the vineyards and the winery, wine tasting, and connecting with fellow alumni. The tour featured a short hike around the grounds with its red barn, rolling hills, vineyards, and tasting room.

“I tell people that Unionville Vineyards is unique in that the grapes are grown here, they’re farmed here, and everything is done here,” John says.

Choral Proposal

The Cifellis’ Rutgers romance started when the two met at a social gathering for the Rutgers Glee Club and the Kirkpatrick Choir in 2005. John was a member of the Glee Club, and Jennifer sang with the Kirkpatrick Choir.

After graduation, the couple attended the annual Christmas in Carol & Song concert at Kirkpatrick Chapel on the College Avenue campus in New Brunswick, when John proposed to Jennifer. They married at Kirkpatrick Chapel in 2011.

John, who grew up in Ewing Township in New Jersey and graduated from Notre Dame High School in Lawrence, worked full time at several restaurants, including the Stockton Inn so he could work his way through Rutgers. He began at the restaurant as a food runner and worked his way up to general manager.

He also served as executive director of the Garden State Wine Growers Association and of the Winemakers Co-Op, a small group of wineries focused on fine wine production. While working at the vineyards, he was the part-time meteorologist for NJTV News and worked as a consulting meteorologist for 10 years.

John and Jennifer Cifelli, pictured here at the Insight Bowl in 2005, share a love of Rutgers football.

At Unionville Vineyards, a former peach orchard, each day is different. “Every day, there is a new challenge and the challenges never end,” he says. “There are a lot of different ways to build and grow and mostly improve what we are doing here. My goal is to grow the best wines on the East Coast.”

Jennifer, who grew up in Warren, New Jersey, attended Rutgers Prep. After graduating from Rutgers, she worked as an elementary and middle school music teacher before opening Blawenburg Bistro in Montgomery, New Jersey.

Meteorology and the Vineyards

Although not currently a meteorologist, John uses what he studied in the meteorology program, as the weather has a tremendous impact on growing grapes. “John will go out at two or three in the morning to keep the grapes from freezing,” Jennifer says.

His responsibilities are vast and include growing grapes across 40 acres at sites in Princeton, Hopewell, and Ringoes, as well as overseeing sales, marketing, hospitality, website management, compliance, storytelling, blogs, and social media.

“I do everything, including taking out the trash,” he says. “The only thing I don’t do here is I don’t make the wine, and I don’t drive tractors.”

Busy Fall

Fall is the busiest time of year for the winery and Blawenburg Bistro, with numerous vineyard weddings, making it challenging for the Cifellis to find time to attend home football games, which they have enjoyed together for more than two decades.

John and Jennifer Cifelli enjoy spending time with their children, Michael, 8, and Easton, 11. Photo by Allison Freeman.

They fondly recall a trip to Phoenix in 2005 when the Scarlet Knights played the Arizona State Sun Devils in the Insight Bowl, the first bowl game for Rutgers outside New Jersey. The couple, along with Glee Club and choir friends from their student days, often traveled across the country to attend Rutgers games.

Overall, their time at Rutgers, which brought them together, means a lot to both of them. “Rutgers was life-changing,” Jennifer says. “It gave me the degree and career that I wanted for the first 12 years of my adult life.”

Rutgers runs in the family on both sides. John’s father, Joseph Cifelli GSE’78, earned a master’s degree at Rutgers, while Jennifer’s mother, Rhonda Rapps GSAPP’75, received her doctorate in psychology. (Jennifer’s maiden name is Rapps.)

The couple’s Rutgers experience meant so much that it influenced the name they chose for their daughter, Easton, after Easton Avenue, a street on the Rutgers College Avenue campus that runs through the commercial district in New Brunswick. “Our time there meant enough to us to name our first child after the main thoroughfare,” she says.

This article was updated from the original Rutgers University Foundation story.

Oceanographers Joe Gradone (at left) and Corday Selden will serve as co-chief scientists on a 25-day Atlantic research expedition aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor (too).

Two early-career scientists will lead an international team on a 25-day expedition in the Atlantic Ocean 

Oceanographers Joe Gradone GSNB’25 and Corday Selden are preparing to step into the most consequential assignment of their careers so far.

Corday Selden, an assistant professor in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, brings expertise in biological and chemical sampling to the expedition, helping connect ocean mixing with marine life and chemistry. Photo: Luca Mostello

On Aug. 7, they will board the research vessel Falkor (too) in Bridgetown, Barbados. Two days later, the ship will leave port, carrying Gradone and Selden into the Atlantic Ocean as co-chief scientists leading an international team of 19 scientists on a 25-day research expedition.

Related: Inside the science at sea

The voyage is being made possible by Schmidt Ocean Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to oceanographic research that operates the 363-foot R/V Falkor (too) as a global platform for ocean science. Through a competitive selection process, the institute provides researchers with access to ship time, advanced technology, and technical support at no cost.

For Rutgers, the result is a rare opportunity: Two early-career oceanographers will lead an international team aboard a vessel equipped for ambitious, round-the-clock science. The ship carries eight laboratories, advanced sonar systems and high-performance computing capacity, allowing researchers to collect, process and interpret data while working far from shore.

“Schmidt Ocean Institute’s support gives Rutgers scientists and students access to extraordinary shipboard capabilities,” said Josh Kohut, dean of research at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and director of research at the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. “For Joe Gradone and Corday Selden, this expedition is both a major scientific opportunity and a defining career moment as they lead an international team studying processes that are difficult to observe but essential to understanding the ocean and its global reach.”

Joe Gradone, an assistant research professor in the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, studies physical oceanography and autonomous ocean platforms, including gliders that help scientists observe conditions beneath the ocean surface. Photo: Luca Mostello

The expedition will be Gradone and Selden’s first as chief scientists. Gradone, who graduated from Rutgers with a doctoral degree in Oceanography, is an assistant research professor, and Selden is an assistant professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences at the school. Together, they will plan daily science operations and manage dozens of interconnected research projects aboard a vessel moving through a changing sea.

Their partnership brings together distinct but closely connected areas of expertise. Gradone’s work centers on physical oceanography and autonomous platforms, including robotic ocean gliders that help scientists observe the ocean beneath the surface. Selden brings expertise in the biological and chemical sampling that will occupy much of the team’s time at sea. Together, they are trying to connect the ocean’s fine-scale physical structure with its chemistry and biology.

That combination will matter once the ship reaches the open ocean. The scientists will be studying a form of mixing called salt finger mixing, which occurs when water layers with different temperatures and salt levels interact. These small-scale movements may influence marine life, ocean chemistry and the movement of carbon through the sea.

The goal is to capture a range of those mixing conditions and understand how ocean circulation impacts mixing and, in turn, how it affects the living ocean.

“Do we capture the spectrum in salt finger mixing that we’re trying to capture?” Selden said, describing one of the central measures of success.

Some of that answer will come in real time. Instruments lowered into the water will send back information that can help the scientists decide where to sample next. If the team isn’t seeing what they hoped to find, they will work with the ship’s crew to adjust course.

“We’ll know that while we’re on the ship,” Selden said.

R/V Falkor (too) sails the South Pacific off the coast of Chile during a research expedition. Photo: Misha Vallejo Prut/ Schmidt Ocean Institute

Other answers will take longer. Some samples must survive the voyage, return to shore and undergo laboratory analysis before the scientists know what they contain. That delay is part of what makes ocean research both powerful and precarious.

Selden has experienced the risk before. She has been at sea when a freezer malfunctioned and samples were lost. She has seen samples contaminated or destroyed when an instrument failed.

“You can’t get them back once they’re gone,” she said.

Gradone knows a different version of such uncertainty. His work often involves sending autonomous platforms into the ocean and waiting for them to return.

“The ocean has a way of keeping what you send into it, that’s just the nature of the work,” he said. “I kind of jokingly, with gliders, say that, so far, my number of deployments equals my number of recoveries, and I probably just jinxed it by saying so. Knocking on wood it holds until we get the data we’re after this summer.”

The expedition will require scientific judgment, logistical endurance and a tolerance for uncertainty. 

For Gradone, the emotional weight of that responsibility is clear. When he imagines the ship leaving Barbados and turning toward the first research station, the feeling isn’t merely excitement.

“It’s awe,” he said.

He described the moment as a mixture of “anxiety,” “responsibility” and “gratitude.”

An aerial view of equipment stored in the Seawater Lab at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. The gear shown represents most of the 10,112 pounds of equipment being shipped for the upcoming Atlantic research expedition aboard the R/V Falkor (too). Photo: Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences

The scale of the task has become clearer as departure approaches. So has the importance of the people joining them.

The Rutgers group includes Gradone, Selden and oceanographer Travis Miles, along with doctoral students and technical staff. Other members of the party will contribute expertise in physical oceanography, marine biology, chemistry and zooplankton ecology.

Some are former advisers and long-time collaborators. Others are scientists at earlier stages of their careers whom Gradone and Selden are helping to train.

Selden sees the expedition as an expression of a distinctive culture within Rutgers oceanography.

Senior researchers actively support scientists at earlier stages of their careers. Former students become colleagues. Academic relationships continue across multiple generations. She herself first arrived at Rutgers as a postdoctoral researcher, ultimately earning a spot in the Presidential Postdoctoral Program.

Gradone entered Rutgers as a doctoral student of Miles, who had once been a student of Rutgers oceanographer Kohut. Selden’s own professional network aboard the cruise will include a former doctoral adviser with whom she has already completed several voyages.

The resulting department feels “familial,” Selden said, particularly at moments when an instrument fails or a plan must change quickly.

“You have a team that you trust,” she said, “because they’re people who just really, honestly, in a non-self-interested way want to help support you.”

The expedition arrives during what Selden calls a “building phase” in both of their lives. They are establishing laboratories, choosing research directions and deciding what kind of colleagues and mentors they want to become.

“This project is very important for both of us,” Selden said. “This is going to be a big component for both of us as we’re moving forward, establishing ourselves.”

This article first appeared in Rutgers Today.

Simon Gabriel SEBS’21 owns Sunny Meal Club, in Paris, France.

The new Rutgers Alumni-Owned Business Marketplace connects alumni online. From a Parisian caterer to a Newark cafe, the recently launched marketplace champions businesses from across the globe.

“The launch of the marketplace of Rutgers alumni-owned businesses is an exciting development for all Rutgers alumni,” says Scott Owens, Rutgers associate vice president for alumni engagement. “We are thrilled to be able to foster more connections among alumni and create a thriving community of alumni businesses.”

Rutgers alumni event in Paris in February 2026.

Paris resident and Rutgers Ag and Food Economics graduate Simon Gabriel SEBS’21 added his catering business, Sunny Meal Club, to the marketplace when it first opened earlier this year. Businesses anywhere in the world owned by alumni from all Rutgers campuses are welcome to join. 

“It builds on my existing Rutgers network and provides a space where alumni can support one another, professionally and personally,” says Gabriel, who catered a Rutgers alumni event in Paris in February.

“For small businesses, especially like mine, it provides credibility, visibility, and a trusted community connection that can lead to collaborations, partnerships, and loyal customers.”

Many alumni business owners say their experience at Rutgers inspired them to become entrepreneurs and, in many cases, helped prepare them for success.

“My time at Rutgers University shaped my professional path by showing me that there are many more options within the food system other than farming and cooking, which is what I was doing before I got there,” says Gabriel, who grew up in Princeton.

“Studying food systems taught me to think holistically about business, sustainability, and community. It ultimately influenced my decision to build a business centered around food, hospitality, and bringing people together.”

Gabriel says he recalls grafting hazelnut root stock and scions in Associate Professor Thomas Molnar’s horticulture class at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. He relocated to France for love. “I moved to Paris because I ended up marrying a French woman whom I met at the farm I was working at in New Jersey and we have been together ever since,” he says. She was doing a volunteer program at the farm in the summer of 2017.

The marketplace features many long-term businesses like Thomas Sweet in New Brunswick, owned by Michael and Jennifer Schnurr, both 1987 New Brunswick graduates, the Asbury Park Brewery owned by Bob McLynn LC ’94, as well as some new businesses.

Simon Gabriel SEBS’21, third from left, and the team that catered the Rutgers alumni event in Paris, France, in February 2026.

This article is extracted from a longer story that first appeared on the Rutgers University Foundation website.

L-R: CCAA Awards Committee co-chairs Lee Schneider CAES’70, GSNB’72, GSE’88 and Dr. Linda Madison CC’80, GSED’94, ’02, pictured with the 2026 George Hammell Cook Distinguished Alumni awardees Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo CC ‘99; Dr. Luisa Castro CC ‘92; Rev. Chuck Coblentz CC ‘80; and representing the late Dr. James Applegate AG ‘64 were members of his family, including Jeff Applegate, Carol Applegate, and Jodi Applegate Stemler CC’94.

The legacy of the Cook campus was on full display on April 26 as alumni, students, faculty, family members, and friends gathered at Neilson Dining Hall to celebrate the newest class of distinguished alumni recognized by the Cook Community Alumni Association (CCAA).

The annual event honors alumni whose professional achievements, service, leadership, and impact exemplify the values of the Cook community and the broader Rutgers family. Through its Distinguished Alumni Awards program, the association presents two of its highest honors: the George H. Cook Award, recognizing undergraduate alumni whose accomplishments bring distinction to their alma mater, and the Dennis M. Fenton Award, recognizing graduate alumni whose work has made a significant impact within their field.

“It is always inspiring to hear from fellow alumni who have had such a positive impact on their communities and fields of research,” said Amanda Dougherty (CC’08), a member of the CCAA Executive Board.

L-R: Awards Committee co-chair Lee Schneider CAES’70, GSNB’72, GSE’88); Michael Quinlan CC ‘76, GSNB ‘78; Dr. Qingyu Meng GSNB ‘04; and co-chair Dr. Linda Madison (CC’80, GSED’94, ’02.

For Awards Committee co-chair Dr. Linda Madison (CC’80, GSED’94, ’02), this year’s honorees exemplified the enduring influence of a Cook education.

“Alumni of the Cook Campus continue to make their mark on the world and bring recognition to our beloved school,” Madison said. “This year’s awardees were among the most noteworthy and have had a profound impact on the health, education, and spiritual development of their fellow Americans.”

2026 George Hammell Cook Distinguished Alumni awardees were Dr. James Applegate AG ‘64 (who was honored posthumously); Dr. Luisa Castro CC ‘92; Rev. Chuck Coblentz CC ‘80, and Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo CC ‘99.

2026 Dennis M. Fenton Distinguished Graduate Alumni awardees were Dr. Qingyu Meng GSNB ‘04 and Michael Quinlan CC ‘76, GSNB ‘78.

The celebration welcomed Laura Lawson, executive dean of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, who joined alumni and guests in recognizing the accomplishments of this year’s recipients. Following a buffet luncheon, previous award recipients took their places at the front of the room to formally welcome each of the 2026 honorees into the distinguished ranks of Cook alumni recognized for excellence and service.

Throughout the afternoon, many honorees reflected on the experiences that shaped them during their time on the Cook campus. They spoke about lifelong friendships forged in classrooms and residence halls, faculty mentors who helped them discover their passions, and the resilience they developed while navigating the challenges and opportunities of university life. Their stories highlighted the lasting influence of the Cook community long after graduation.

The event also offered an important opportunity for current students to connect with accomplished alumni and see firsthand the many paths a Rutgers education can inspire. Student leaders in attendance found encouragement in the shared experiences and traditions that continue to unite generations of Cook graduates.

“It was a great event and an excellent opportunity to connect with past alumni, some of whom were involved with Alpha Zeta during their time at Rutgers as well,” said Kyle Garcia, a current student member of Alpha Zeta.

As the newest honorees joined a distinguished lineage of alumni leaders, innovators, educators, and advocates, the celebration served as a reminder of the enduring impact of the Cook campus and its graduates across communities, professions, and generations.

Read the biographies of the 2026 Distinguished Alumni honorees. Alumni interested in nominating a future recipient for either the George H. Cook Award or the Dennis M. Fenton Award can find additional information on the Cook Community Alumni Association’s website.

Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni inductee James F. Dougherty RC’74, GSNB’75 in the Rutgers–New Brunswick Honors College on the College Avenue campus. Photo by John O’Boyle.

James F. Dougherty was a Rutgers University–New Brunswick graduate student contemplating a career as a veterinarian in the mid-1970s when he took a break from working in a lab. 

“I went outside at lunchtime and there was this grungy little terrier-esque dog all covered with something,” he says. 

He picked up the filthy, smelly young stray that was roaming around Passion Puddle near Bartlett Hall on the Cook College campus and took it into the lab, washing it off in a sink. After removing the brown, muddy gunk from its black and white fur, Dougherty took the dog home to his apartment he shared with three other students. “We’ve got a dog,” he told them.

It would be his first dog. He had never lived in a home with a dog as a pet.

“I named her Molly—short for molecule—for whatever it was that was covering her body,” he says.

Dougherty in 2016 with dogs Liam and Declan, both soft-coated wheaten terriers. He now has a 12-year-old of the same breed named Ronan.

He later had Molly spayed at a veterinarian’s office in East Brunswick where he volunteered. When he moved to Philadelphia to study to be a veterinarian at the University of Pennsylvania, his mother took Molly in for him because his apartment didn’t allow pets.

Molly would go on to be a beloved member of the Dougherty family for 16 years and the first in a series of dogs he would own. She also would be one of many thousands of dogs and cats treated by Dougherty or veterinarians, including a roster of specialists, who worked at Metropolitan Veterinary Associates, a practice he cofounded in 1986. His accomplished and rewarding career ultimately would earn him the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

The inspiring moments of his veterinary career were numerous. “There always would be some way you could create joy for people in their lives and for their pets,” says Dougherty, who sold the practice and retired in 2023. 

“One of the greatest things in the world to see is when somebody drops off a blind dog in the morning and the ophthalmologist removes their cataracts,” he says. “The dog walks out into the waiting room and you see its tail start wagging. People usually start crying because their dog hasn’t seen them in a year or two. Observing things like that was great.”

The Road to Giving Back to Rutgers 

Dougherty’s kindness and generosity of spirit have not been limited to caring for animals. They have been in action at Rutgers for decades, both in volunteering and generous financial support of the university, particularly in the areas of LGBTQ+ issues and the Rutgers–New Brunswick Honors College. 

Born in South Philadelphia, he moved to Deptford in South Jersey with his mother when he was 8, where they lived with his grandmother. His mother worked as a barmaid at a corner bar and his grandmother worked for the phone company in Philadelphia, leaving as early as 4 a.m. each morning for the long commute by bus and train.

When he first visited Rutgers–New Brunswick in the late 1960s, he says he “immediately felt at home,” leaving behind painful memories of being bullied in elementary, middle, and high school. 

A first-generation college student, he earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences in 1974 and a master’s in animal science in 1975, graduating debt free. “I’ve always been very grateful to Rutgers for that,” he says.

Dougherty’s motivation to support Rutgers accelerated in the 1990s when he was cleaning up the basement of his late mother’s home and found a storage box full of documents pertaining to aid he had received from Rutgers more than 20 years before. He had been an undergraduate who benefitted from the Rutgers Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) program in addition to other need and merit-based scholarships. 

Rutgers–New Brunswick Honors College sophomore Nkosazana Burke-Douglas with Dougherty in the Dougherty Study lounge.

“I grew up not having any money and not being able to do many things,” he says. “I wanted to pay back what Rutgers gave me with interest.” 

Today, his generous financial gifts include support of the Rutgers–New Brunswick Honors College, where a room known as The Dougherty Study is dedicated in memory of his mother, Dorothy R. Urban, and his grandmother, Mary B. Robinson.

He also has given generously of his time. His extensive participation and volunteering include serving on many Rutgers committees, most notably the last six years on the Board of Governors, where he is vice chair, a position he will hold through the end of June. Dougherty previously served on the Board of Trustees from 2012–2020, where he served as chair and vice chair and was instrumental in establishing the Scarlet Promise Initiative, a foundational scholarship program at Rutgers that has raised millions and supported thousands of students. 

He also serves or has served in various roles, including the Rutgers University–Camden Board of Directors, the Rutgers–New Brunswick School of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council, and the School of Public Health Dean’s Leadership Council.

In addition to his support of Rutgers, he is a generous benefactor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, endowing the chair held by the first violinist and assistant concertmaster. He also funded the orchestra’s Pride Concert for the past two years.

A Champion of LGBTQ+

One of Dougherty’s key efforts has been to support inclusion and causes at Rutgers, including a $3 million gift in 2023 that established the Perry N. Halkitis Endowed Chair in LGBTQ+ Public Health. He has been an active supporter and volunteer for the Rutgers–New Brunswick Honors College LGBTQ+ Learning Collaborative and the Tyler Clementi Center Advisory Board. 

Dougherty spoke at the dedication of the university’s first Pride Bus.

In 2022, he funded the wrapping of the first Pride Bus, which featured a design celebrating more than 50 years of support for the LGBTQ+ community on the Rutgers–New Brunswick campus.

Dougherty says he was moved and troubled by the case of Clementi, a Rutgers student who took his own life in 2010. Dougherty has been a sponsor of a table including Honors leadership at the annual Tyler Clementi Foundation’s Upstander Legacy Celebration as well as a sponsor of an Upstander Legacy Lecture which brought Tyler Clementi’s mother to campus. 

He also has regularly provided words of encouragement. “My advice to current LGBTQ+ students at Rutgers would be to listen to your ‘inner voice,’” he wrote in a blog post for Student Affairs. “Don’t worry about what you think others think of you. Be brave. You always have a family—even if they are not related to you.” 

As for being inducted into the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni, Dougherty says he was honored to learn the news. 

“It just blew me away,” he says. “I never in a million years thought I would be in the Hall of Distinguished Alumni. When I looked at some of the past recipients, I didn’t think I was worthy of something like this, but I’m super proud and super happy about it.”

This article first appeared in Rutgers Today. Read more about the 2026 HDA Inductees.

Scientists looking for sources that generated life on Earth are considering hydrothermal vents of different types, from vents found in the deep sea to others created by meteor impacts.

Meteor impacts may have helped spark life on Earth, creating hot, chemical-rich environments where the first living cells could take shape, according to research integrated by a recent Rutgers University graduate. 

“No one knows, from a scientific perspective, how life could have been formed from an early Earth that had no life,” said Shea Cinquemani, who earned her bachelor’s degree in marine biology and fisheries management from the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in May 2025. “How does something come from nothing?”

Shea Cinquemani, who earned her bachelor’s degree from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in May 2025, has published a paper based on research she started during the spring of her senior year. Photo: Courtesy of Shea Cinquemani

Cinquemani is the lead author of a scientific review, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, examining where life may have first formed on Earth. The paper focuses on hydrothermal vents, places where hot, mineral-rich water flows through rock and emerges into surrounding water, creating the chemical conditions and energy gradients needed for complex reactions.

Her research points to hydrothermal systems created by meteor impacts as a potentially critical and underappreciated setting for the origin of life, strengthening the case beyond conventional deep-sea vent theories. Cinquemani said such systems would have been widespread on early Earth, making them especially compelling environments for life to begin.

The paper, co-authored with Rutgers oceanographer Richard Lutz, marks a rare achievement for a recent undergraduate whose work began as a class assignment and was transformed into a publication in a highly respected scientific journal.

“It’s amazing,” Lutz said. “You often have undergraduates that are part of papers – faculty choose undergraduates all the time to work on papers and projects. But for an undergraduate to be the lead author is a huge deal.” 

The project started in the spring of Cinquemani’s senior year in a course called “Hydrothermal Vents,” taught by Lutz, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. Cinquemani’s assignment was to examine whether hydrothermal vents on Mars could have been harbingers of life there.

“I was like, ‘I know nothing about this topic,’” she said. “Thinking about the origins of biology on another planet was like, whoa. Not sure how I’m going to do this.” The topic went beyond her usual comfort zone of biology and extended into chemistry, physics and geology, she said.

Distinguished Professor Richard Lutz emerges from the research submersible, Alvin, after a deep-sea dive. Lutz was part of the team that discovered hydrothermal vents.
Photo: Courtesy of Richard Lutz

Cinquemani expanded the assignment after graduation into a full scientific review of both impact-generated and deep-sea vent systems, which was accepted after what Lutz described as a demanding peer-review evaluation.

“I have never seen such a rigorous review process,” Lutz said. “There were 15 pages of comments and five different rounds of reviews. She had the patience and perseverance, and the paper turned out magnificently.”

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents have long been considered a possible birthplace of life. Discovered in the deep ocean in the late 1970s, these systems host entire ecosystems that thrive without sunlight. Instead of photosynthesis, microbes use chemical energy from compounds released by vent fluids, such as hydrogen sulfide, in a process known as chemosynthesis.

Some deep-sea vents are powered by heat from the Earth’s interior near volcanic activity while others are driven by chemical reactions between water and rock that generate heat without magma. This heat facilitates chemical processes and provides a warm oasis in the otherwise barren seafloor of the deep ocean. 

Cinquemani’s paper places more focus on a different category that has recently begun gaining attention: hydrothermal systems created by meteor impacts.

When a large meteor strikes Earth, the impact generates intense heat and melts surrounding rock. As the area cools and water fills the crater, a hot, mineral-rich environment can form, similar in some ways to deep-sea vents.

“You have a lake surrounding a very, very warm center,” Cinquemani said. “And now you get a hydrothermal vent system, just like in the deep sea, but made by the heat from an impact.”

To explore how these systems might support life, she examined research on three well-studied crater sites that span vastly different periods of Earth’s history. The oldest is the Chicxulub impact structure beneath Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, formed about 65 million years ago and later shown to have hosted a long-lived hydrothermal system. Next is the Haughton impact structure in the Canadian Arctic, formed about 31 million years ago. The youngest is Lonar Lake in India, created about 50,000 years ago, where the crater still contains water and offers clues about how these systems evolve over time.

Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor spew black smoke, which forms when super-hot vent water hits the cold ocean. Scientists view them as candidates for where life may have started, because they provide heat, minerals and chemical energy that early life could have used to form and grow. Photo: Richard Lutz

These impact-generated systems may last thousands to tens of thousands of years, giving simple molecules time to form more complex structures that could lead to life.

Scientists say such environments may have been especially important on early Earth, which experienced frequent asteroid impacts. In that sense, events often seen as destructive also may have helped create the conditions for life.

The idea builds on decades of research into deep-sea vents while expanding the search for life’s origins into new territory.

Lutz helped explore these deep-sea environments several decades ago when they were still a scientific mystery. As a young postdoctoral researcher, he joined the first biological expedition to study hydrothermal vents and descended more than a mile beneath the ocean surface in the research deep-sea submersible Alvin, where he observed thriving communities of organisms in total darkness.

Those dives helped open a new field of research and shaped scientists’ understanding of how life can exist in extreme environments without sunlight.

“We have talked for many years about the possibility that life may have originated at deep-sea hydrothermal vents,” Lutz said.

Cinquemani’s work brings together those long-standing ideas with newer evidence that impact-generated systems also could play a role and may in some cases offer favorable conditions for early chemical reactions.

Scientists pilot the research submersible Alvin in the deep ocean to explore that world. Rutgers scientists have played an important role in discoveries made through Alvin. Photo: Richard Lutz

The implications extend beyond Earth. Hydrothermal activity is thought to exist on the ocean floors of icy moons such as Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus, and may have existed in impact craters on young Mars. If these environments on Earth can support the chemistry of life, they could become key targets in the search for life elsewhere.

For Cinquemani, the work is driven by curiosity.

“Humans are insanely curious beings,” said Cinquemani, who works as a technician at Rutgers’ New Jersey Aquaculture Innovation Center in Cape May, N.J., where she supports aquaculture research while preparing to pursue advanced study in marine science. “We question everything. We may never know exactly how we began, but we can try our best to understand how things might have occurred.”

Shelin Pompey (SEBS’26) proudly displays her handiwork restoring the living wall in the Floriculture Greenhouse on the George H. Cook campus.

What began as a grey, aging installation inside the Floriculture Greenhouse on the George H. Cook campus has been transformed into a vibrant, living work of art—thanks to the vision, persistence and creativity of Rutgers graduating student Shelin Pompey.

A senior majoring in plant science with a concentration in horticulture and turf industry at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS), Pompey took on the ambitious task as part of her experiential learning (EL) journey. The project: redesign and restore a living wall that was originally installed nearly 20 years ago by alumni Michael Coraggio and Ryan Burrows.

Pompey began her Rutgers journey in 2020 at the School of Arts and Sciences but transferred to SEBS in 2024, initially choosing to major in food science “but ended up loving plant science and switched majors!”

For her, the EL opportunity was more than an academic assignment; it was a defining moment.

Shelin Pompey (SEBS’26) restoring the living wall as part of her SEBS experiential learning experience.

“The living wall was grey and barren for months, while behind the scenes there was tons of research and prep,” Pompey said. “We really had to trust the process—but seeing it come back to life made everything worth it.”

The project was coordinated by Nrupali Patel, undergraduate program director of Plant Science, and supervised by Rutgers Gardens Assistant Director (Greenhouses) Daniel Jacobs. It required both technical expertise and creative vision, with Pompey involved in every stage—from repairing irrigation systems to selecting plant varieties suited for a vertical aquaponic environment..

“Shelin could not have done a better job with the project,” said Jacobs. “From day one, she asked thoughtful questions, set clear goals, and was attentive to every detail. She made biology-based decisions about plant selection and demonstrated both professionalism and a strong work ethic throughout.”

Behind the scenes, Pompey tackled real-world challenges that pushed her beyond the typical classroom environment.

“My most memorable obstacle was fixing a stubborn leak in the irrigation system,” she said. “It seemed simple at first, but it took weeks of trial and error before we found the right solution. In the end, we had to replace part of the pipe entirely, but that process taught me patience and problem-solving.”

Through that experience, Pompey deepened her technical knowledge while developing critical soft skills, like adaptability, resilience and collaboration.

“I learned that you could plan everything perfectly, but nature will still do its own thing,” she explained. “You have to stay adaptable and open-minded. The plants don’t follow your plan—you learn to work with them.”

The project also became a powerful example of mentorship and community within SEBS. Pompey credits Jacobs, greenhouse staff, faculty members and alumni collaborators for guiding her along the way.

“Research is important, but the most impactful lessons came from the people I connected with,” she said. “Learning to accept help and ask questions made all the difference.”

Shelin Pompey (SEBS’26) and her experiential learning project supervisor, Rutgers Gardens Assistant Director (Greenhouses) Daniel Jacobs, partway through the eco wall restoration.

With support from alumni—including EcoWalls founder Michael Coraggio, who provided plant recommendations and resources—the wall now reflects a renewed diversity of plant life and student-driven design.

Beyond technical growth, the EL experience reshaped Pompey’s outlook on her future as her SEBS tenure comes to an end in May.

“This project opened my eyes to how I can combine horticulture and art,” she said. “It showed me that creativity has a place in plant science and that I can build a career doing something that fulfills me.”

Looking ahead, Pompey hopes to continue working in green spaces—gardens, parks and conservatories—where she can merge environmental stewardship with creative expression.

“Plants teach us resilience, patience and growth,” she said. “I want to create spaces where people can connect with nature the way I have.”

Patel could not agree more and is working towards developing additional opportunities for students to connect.

“The Plant Science undergraduate program is currently developing new experiential learning projects in the floriculture greenhouse, with upcoming opportunities in hydroponics, flower bulb production and soil amendment assays—all in partnership with industry to build practical, career-ready skills,” she said.

For students considering experiential learning opportunities in any major, Pompey offers simple but powerful advice:

“Never stop learning and don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty.”

Through her work, Pompey has cultivated a lasting example of what experiential learning can achieve, fulfilling its goal to practically apply disciplinary knowledge, discover passions and build confidence to prepare students for what comes next.