The Right Stuff

Plastic Tactics
As a Rutgers doctoral student, Thomas Nosker GSNB’83,’88 helped develop a system to break down used plastic soda bottles, propelling sales of recycled resin to make rugs and more. As a Rutgers professor, Nosker combined notoriously weak high-density polyethylene—milk-jug plastic—with polystyrene fast-food containers to create synthetic lumber so strong, it’s used to construct railroad ties and bridges. Watch a video.

Oral History
As a Colgate-Palmolive researcher, Anthony Volpe RSDM’60, GSNB’66* helped prove that mouthwash and toothpaste prevent tooth decay and gum disease. Larry Dobrin RSDM’75, New York City’s chief forensic dentist, teaches health care professionals how to recognize and report symptoms of child abuse. Pamela Alberto RSDM’80 provides a dental clinic for the people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic through Cheerful Heart, a unique mission administered by Rutgers School of Dental Medicine. 
 

Sunday Morning Ritual
For almost three decades, Kathy Ryan DC’78 has been photography director of the New York Times Magazine, one of the nation’s most influential publications. Her aesthetics and knowledge inform the arresting images on the award-winning magazine’s printed and  pixelated pages. “When it is good,” she says, “it slows readers down. And they stare at the picture.”

“Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.”
— Robert Pulcini CCAS’89, codirector of American Splendor and Cinema Verite

*A member of the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni