The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com News Friday, January 8, 2016 — 3 today’s high-tech innovations: the brain. “I wasn’t solving the world’s problems, and I wanted to be closer,” Gaidica said. “I had talked about the brain much before at this TEDxFlint talk, and it makes a lot of sense for an electrical engineer. The brain runs on electricity, and so it kind of just became this problem that I really wanted to get into.” Gaidica spent the next year traveling and writing a book about our brain’s asymmetries, “Left: A History of the Hemispheres.” In his research, he documented the history and science of the left and right sides of the brain and explored the question of why individuals are right- or left-handed. “This is a really interesting question, not only in humans, but through evolution,” Gaidica said. “It’s really kind of a mysterious thing.” Though Gaidica has a background in engineering, image processing, software and hardware, he said studying brain asymmetries allowed him to begin using an engineering approach to study neuroscience. Despite his unconventional path to the subject, Gaidica is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in neuroscience and conducts Parkinson’s disease research at the University, also working as a graduate student instructor. Gaidica uses his coding and engineering skills to design 3D printed devices and circuit boards, as well as write software to analyze the data coming out of brain imaging and neural recordings. “If we can understand the circuit behind it and what’s changing in the circuit, that then leads us to the therapies and the drugs, and the interventions, the surgeries,” Gaidica said. Forbes described Gaidica’s path as “eclectic,” recognizing his hard work and diverse achievements. Though he appreciated the praise, Gaidica emphasized it just means he has to continue working hard to prove himself worthy. “These recognitions are great, and they’re useful tools to help motivate you,” Gaidica said. “But it doesn’t make the work any easier. It doesn’t change the number of hours that you have to put in, and that’s the stuff that I enjoy.” Andrej Lenert Inspired by the efficient use of solar energy, postdoctoral research fellow Andrej Lenert is working to explore clean energy. Lenert attended the University of Iowa as an undergraduate, receiving a degree in mechanical engineering. Following graduation, he then went on to obtain a master’s degree and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Although he launched his educational career with a more traditional mechanical engineering curriculum, he said the program became more interdisciplinary as he continued his graduate studies. Currently, Lenert is a postdoctoral researcher at the University, working with the Nanoscale Transport Lab. There, he studies energy transport across small-length scales and materials with structures on the nanometer scale. The research he conducted for his Ph.D. paved the way for his work at the University. At MIT, part of his research focused on combining solar-thermal and photovoltaic systems to reduce waste. “I really kind of identified the biggest bottleneck in terms of efficiency in that technology,” Lenert said. “And that was conversion of heat as thermal radiation into electricity. As a student, Lenert found himself drawn to topics involving energy, utilization and environmental engineering. He said his motivation to pursue mechanical engineering stemmed from his interests in solving problems related to clean energy. Noting the importance of clean energy and the contemporary challenges of global warming, he said the most fascinating aspect of clean energy is the way it bridges complex and interdisciplinary topics in science. “It starts off with the solar system. How we get sunlight as our natural resource really depends on the solar system and the nature of our earth rotating,” Lenert said. “And the length- scales shrink all the way down to the atomic level where we’re trying to engineer materials that have new properties or have new functionality. Then, there’s everything in between.” Lenert is now applying to faculty positions, hoping to mentor aspiring scientists and continue to contribute to the science community through his research and discoveries. FORBES From Page 1 a 2015 news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Though paid sick leave could help protect workers financially should they develop a serious illness, Veenstra noted that paid sick leave is not mandatory under the Affordable Care Act or the Family Medical Leave Act, though access to benefits differ among some occupational groups. She also said researchers found patients without paid sick leave hold a much higher personal financial burden than those with that benefit, even when controlling for factors such as the patient’s income, education level and health insurance. To determine what constitutes a financial burden, the study considered factors such as whether the patient had to borrow money, had difficulties paying off their credit cards or had to reduce spending on necessities and luxuries. Veenstra said it was not just the fact that patients retained their jobs that led to the reduced financial burden; rather, it was crucial that patients maintained an income during cancer treatment even if they needed time away from work. While the colorectal cancer is an ideal model to look at the impact of paid sick leave on employment and financial outcomes for cancer patients — due to being one of the most common cancers among men and women — Veenstra said the study’s findings would apply to patients with other cancers. She added that she and the other authors of this study plan to further their research by looking into and how other job support benefits aside from paid sick leave impact patients’ long-term financial burden. “What we are hoping to find out in our other studies is whether there are other job support benefits like disability or extended time off or other things like that,” she said. “They may be helpful to alleviate some of the burden that cancer patients face.” Regenbogen said job benefits that aid patients with cancer in receiving appropriate chemotherapy would not only have significant financial improvements for patients, but could also improve their clinical outcomes. He added that said policy advocacy — specifically, arguing in favor of more availability for job benefits — and understanding how cancer therapies are designed could also help patients with long-term illnesses. “Patients face a trade-off to complete their therapy and their ability to support their families,” Regenbogen said. “Time off without pay may not really be time off at all for a patient who cannot afford to take that time off. For a lot of patients, there really is a clear trade-off between ability to complete therapy and ability to support their families. I think a lot of patients end up choosing to complete their therapy, but at real harm to their financial well-being.” STUDY From Page 1 wrote. “While we evaluate many factors, this grant was awarded to U of M on the basis of the school’s excellence in STEM and in preparing students for careers of the future.” The grant will fund a variety of programs within the College of Engineering and the Ross School of Business, specifically funding programs that promote minority groups in STEM fields such as the Center for Engineering Diversity and Outreach and the BBA Black Business Students Association. In an interview with the Daily, Dean of Engineering David Munson said GM has had a long standing relationship with the University. “GM has been a longtime supporter of our programs in engineering and the University overall,” Munson said. “We have a big research partnership with them and in addition they support other aspects of our programs.” Parker echoed this sentiment, citing the ways GM’s relationship with the University extends beyond this grant. “Our partnership with the University of Michigan runs deep,” she wrote. “Not only do we actively employ UM graduates, but we remain a dedicated partner in research and development and in advancing education through hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants over the years.” Munson said one of the primary programs that will receive funding from this grant will be the Center for Engineering Diversity and Outreach, which supports minority students within the College of Engineering. “CEDO has many different programs,” he said. “They work on making a welcoming climate for underrepresented minority students. They work on summer camps for students. They are involved in helping create academic success for underrepresented minority students.” Promoting STEM education within minority groups is important, Munson added, because for the country to remain competitive in those fields, non- white males will need to make up a more significant portion of the engineering workforce. “People realize that within just a few decades the current minority in the country is going to become the majority,” Munson said. “If we get to that point in time and we are drawing all of our engineering talent from what used to be the majority, predominantly from white males, then we are not going to remain economically competitive.” Both Parker and Munson said the industry’s future will be improved if today’s minority students are better supported in the STEM fields, such as through grants like this one. “Encouraging minority students to study STEM fuels the workforce pipeline with educated graduates that are prepared to compete in a global industry,” Parker wrote. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D–Dearborn) tweeted after the announcement to laud the University for winning the grant Munson said Dingell is right — the grant will increase the number of students who graduate with STEM degrees. “Whether you’re an unrepresented minority student or a woman student, I think you are probably at a little bit of a disadvantage,” he said. “These students are looking around the room and feeling out of place and may be underestimating their abilities. GRANT From Page 1 form of mechanisms such as the city’s Climate Action Plan. Ann Arbor City Council unanimously passed the plan in 2012, with over 80 steps to reduce the city’s cumulative gas emissions by 25 percent by 2025 and 90 percent by 2050. “Our plan, in spirit and in content, is consistent with the aims of the Paris agreement,” Geisler said. “The plan does not and could not articulate, from 2025 to 2050, how exactly we get there. But there’s a lot of big things that have to happen not only in the city but also, more broadly, throughout the state.” On the federal level, in August 2015 President Barack Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency introduced the Clean Energy Plan, which aims to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 32 percent by 2030 based on levels in 2005. Geisler said he expects the CEP will have a significant impact on the CAP’s goals. The city experienced an increase in overall emissions between 2010 and 2015 and called for a community effort to improve clean energy, according to Geisler. “Over 98 percent of emissions in Ann Arbor and community-wide are beyond the control of the municipality, so we really need a community- wide effort to raise awareness and build the kind of support that’s necessary to make sure that we’re doing our part in helping to meet these goals,” he said. “There will possibly be an improvement, though we don’t have all the data yet and we don’t think we’ll see a large increase, community-wide, in overall reduction.” The forum also touched on international efforts, namely the December 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. The 195 nations who attended conference, including the U.S., adopted several measures that would decrease carbon emissions in their respective countries. “I would suggest this mostly happened because people have started to seriously mobilize,” Garfield said. “However, while the Paris commitments are substantially verifiable, they are neither enforceable nor sufficient. I’d suggest here that we’ll only succeed in stabilizing global temperatures if people continue to mobilize and if local communities continue to act on their own.” In terms of the University — which currently accounts for 30 percent of the city’s carbon emissions — Dale highlighted recent policies and goals aimed at promoting sustainability on campus. She said one of the biggest goals the University has set, in compliance with the Climate Action Plan, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent of what it was in 2006 by 2025. “Unfortunately, in 2014 we were a little bit higher than we were in 2006 and that is largely because of the way the goal was set,” she said. “The goal does not factor in how we’ve grown as a university. Our energy use is going down, but we keep growing and growing. Overall, our usage is not decreasing as we would like to see.” Some further actions that will be implemented by the University, Dale said, are expanding the use of cogeneration at the University’s central power plant, establishing a fund for renewable energy demonstration projects, expanding current energy reduction programs such as Planet Blue Energy Management and seeking additional methods for greenhouse gas emissions. FORUM From Page 1 what would happen if Asian carp is introduced to the Great Lakes.” Overall, the increase in species could be minimal, Rutherford said. In terms of a decline, most fish spe- cies, including walleye, rainbow trout, gizzard shad and emerald shiner, could be affected according to the study, from 25 percent for most fish species, to 37 percent for a few plankton-eating species. “Although the decrease is not as bad as other people thought, or compared to what happened in the Illinois River, it is not that bad — but still, it is a very bad thing, especially for the sport and commercial fish species,” Zhang said. The same research team is now working to expand their research to predict the impact of Asian carp in the other Great Lakes, such as Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. They are also working on a study of the regional economic impacts stemming from Asian carp in Lake Erie. Zhang’s research This project was funded by the Environmen- tal Protection Agency through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the NOAA’s Center for Spon- CARP From Page 2 MATT VALLIENCOURT/Daily Mike Garfield, director of the Ecology Center, discusses how to best approach sustainability with Ann Arbor residents at the Ann Arbor Public Library on Thursday.