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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY—NEW BRUNSWICK
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 7, 2018
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Menendez secures 3rd term as NJ senator after victory against Hugin BRENDAN BRIGHTMAN STAFF WRITER
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez won his bid for re-election last night, defeating Republican challenger Bob Hugin in the process. RUTGERS.EDU
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) won re-election last night, defeating Republican candidate Bob Hugin (N.J.). His win gives him another six-year term in the U.S Senate extending until 2024. Menendez has represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate since 2006. With his win last night, he secured his third term as senator of New Jersey. Polls were closer than some expected in recent weeks, as Menendez continued to face criticism from his opponent over corruption charges, as reported by The Daily Targum. Near the end of October, the Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics released a
poll showing support for Menendez’s at 51 percent compared to Hugin’s 46 percent. Menendez ran a progressive campaign focusing on issues such as education, healthcare and the environment, according to his campaign’s website. Menendez is a product of public education and federal loans and understands how important it is to give every child a top education, according to his website. He said he knows that every child can only have access to top-quality education if he supports the schools, teachers and parents who encourage students to succeed. Along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), he has introduced the Bank on Students Emergency Loans Refinancing Act, which allows
U. to study plant cell wall creation with $1.5 M grant CATHERINE NGUYEN STAFF WRITER
A Rutgers team now has $1.5 million to use in studying optical tweezing: a Noble Prize winning technique that studies how the cell walls of plants are created. Sang-Hyuk Lee, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and his team, recently received the $1.5 million grant from the Department of Energy. Before optical tweezers, scientists were not able to “trap” micron-sized particles because they were too small to be grabbed mechanically, Lee said. To put a micron in perspective, the average width of a strand of human hair is approximately 100 microns. But, optical tweezers use light to grab particles, Lee said. Using a highly focused laser beam to provide an attractive or repulsive force, optical tweezers are able to trap these small particles and move them around. “It gives you a very powerful tool to manipulate the microscopic world as you want,” he said. “Rather than just observing passably what’s happening, you can actively engage in controlling the process.” As a biophysicist, Lee hopes to utilize this technique to study the process of exactly how plants’ cell walls are created. While plant biologists know the main components of cell walls and the proteins that help to construct them, it is still a mystery how these cell walls are made in the first place, he said.
“If you take a biology course or read a biology textbook, all it says is that it happens out of nowhere,” he said. “Biophysicists are especially interested in the mechanism.” In the past, Lee said scientists have used optical tweezing to determine very accurately the mechanics of molecules such as DNA and proteins. Since these molecules are even smaller than the size of a micron, SEE GRANT ON PAGE 4
student loan-borrowers to refinance high-interest debt, as reported by the Targum last month. He supports the America’s College Promise Act, which ensures free tuition for two-year colleges, according to the website. SEE VICTORY ON PAGE 4
Rutgers will analyze energy storage statewide with $300k in funding CATHERINE NGUYEN STAFF WRITER
The physics lecture hall on Busch campus is one of many buildings occupied by students majoring in the astrological sciences. CASEY AMBROSIO / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Sang-Hyuk Lee, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and his team will utilize a $1.5 million grant to study how the cell walls of plants are created. He is combining optical tweezing with another technique, super-resolved fluorescence microscopy, to complete his research. RUTGERS.EDU VOLUME 150, ISSUE 102 • UNIVERSITY ... 3 • OPINIONS ... 6 • INSIDE BEAT... 8 • DIVERSIONS ... 9 • SPORTS ... BACK
Rutgers University has been given $300,000 in funding from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) to further Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) clean energy agenda by performing analysis of the state’s energy storage needs and opportunities, according to the State of New Jersey website. Murphy signed the Clean Energy Act of 2018 earlier in May, which set goals of 600 megawatts (MW) of energy storage by 2021 and 2,000 MW by 2030. The analysis from Rutgers will supply the data necessary to achieve the energy storage targets set by the Act. “The ability to store energy is critical for our future and for accomplishing Gov. Murphy’s ambitious clean energy goals for New Jersey,” said NJBPU President Joseph L. Fiordaliso. “Energy storage systems will provide emergency back-up power for essential services, offsetting peak loads and stabilizing the electric distribution system, which ultimately will benefit the ratepayer.” Whether the use of renewable electric-energy storage systems will increase the use of electric vehicles in New Jersey and its potential impact on renewable energy production, are two of the factors that will be considered in Rutgers’ analysis. The energy storage report is expected to summarize the analysis, as well as discuss the possible benefits, costs and recommended ways to increase energy storage and distributed energy resources in New Jersey. The contract between the NJBPU and the University will last six months. It started last week on Thursday, Nov. 1.