Best of 2022

(Re)discover some of our favorite feature stories of the year.

President Marc Parlange

Building a university for the future

The University of Rhode Island celebrated the inauguration of Marc B. Parlange as its 12th president on September 22, 2022. In his inaugural address, he reflected on the elements essential to building and leading a global research university.

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Professor Gretchen Macht and students reviewing election project research

Sustaining democracy

How do we sustain a republic? Restore faith in the election process, says Gretchen Macht, engineering professor and founding director of URI VOTES, a group with an engineer's approach to election science.

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A diver swimming over the rocky urchin barrens off California's north coast, holding a flashlight

Chasing awe and wonder

If you ask Jason Jaacks what motivates him, the award-winning filmmaker and photographer will say he’s chasing awe and wonder.

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Nicole O'Malley playing the guitar outside the Fine Arts Building

Why I Teach: Nicole O'Malley

Assistant clinical professor of music therapy Nicole O’Malley is director of URI’s music therapy program, now in its second year. The five-year bachelor's program trains students in healthcare therapies that improve the sensorimotor, cognitive, language, emotional, and/or social functioning of their clients.

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Erik Robles on set at the Gamm Theatre

The intention of one line of dialogue

'I went to school to gain knowledge,' says actor Erik Robles '22, who was a philosophy major at URI. 'Philosophy foregrounds the big questions. It’s asking the why; it’s asking the how. Without that, we are nothing.'

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Tracy

'I'm doing this for my Marines'

Tracy Santos ’24, president of the Student Veterans Organization, wants fellow veterans to know URI is a place that understands what it takes to return to the classroom after life in the service.

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Shark camp student holding a dogfish

Shark Camp

Professor Brad Wetherbee said the idea for the URI Shark Camp came to him after noticing that he wasn’t seeing a whole lot of diversity in his first-year classes. So, he created a camp to get younger students excited about studying marine life.

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Isobel McCullough recording the sounds of Narragansett Beach

Songs of the sea

For her undergraduate honors thesis, Isobel McCullough '22 decided to record the sonic profiles of seven southern Rhode Island beaches. The result—South County Soundscapes: Rhode Island’s Vanishing Coastline.

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Wave of the future

Through the innovative National Institute of Undersea Vehicle Technology, URI faculty and students are working directly with federal defense and private industries to advance naval technology and keep the U.S. submarine fleet ahead of the pack.

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URI photography professor Annu Palakunnathu Matthew

Making history more accessible through art

While researching the Partition of British India, Annu Palakunnathu Matthew discovered the untold story of 2.5 million Indians who fought in World War II. 'It’s a complicated history,' says the URI photography professor. 'As a result, these soldiers are not recognized in South Asia or globally.'

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