E A R T H & A TMo SPH E R IC SCIENC E S - The City College of ...

City 

SCollege 

of 

New York 

CUNY 

Biology 

Earth & atmosphEric sciEncEs 

Chemistry 

MatheMatics 

Physics 

Division of Science 

Annual Report 

2010-2011

Table of Contents 

5 6 4 8 

123 7 9 

Chapter 

New Faculty and Staff P.4 

Chapter 

Facility Upgrades P.10 

Chapter 

Bringing Science to the 

Community and Beyond P.12 

Chapter 

Centers & Institutes P.18 

Chapter 

The Division in Numbers P.26 

Chapter 

Faculty, Staff & Student Awards P.32 

Chapter 

Curricular Innovations P.40 

Chapter 

Spotlight on Supporters P.46 

Chapter 

In Memoriam P.48 

Dean’s Message 

As described on the pages that follow, the 

2010-11 academic year was packed with exciting 

developments: arrival of new faculty and 

staff, forefront research symposia, notable 

professional honors, innovative curricula, and 

creative community outreach. Guided by our 

Annual Retreat discussions and current university 

priorities, the activities of the City College 

Division of Science were centered on students, 

faculty, and our surrounding communities. 

Recent initiatives to build a strong student body 

included recruitment that spanned high school 

through Ph.D. levels, intensive pre-enrollment 

tutorials, peer mentoring, online advisement 

scheduling, and walk-in tutoring. We launched a 

new interdisciplinary M.S. program in Sustainability 

with the Spitzer School of Architecture 

and Grove School of Engineering (GSOE), 

developed a Modern Materials course for 

chemists and chemical engineers, and began the 

approval process for B.S., M.S., and B.S.-M.S. 

programs in Biotechnology, Biology, Chemistry, 

and Biochemistry. A GSOE-Science team 

added major Department of Education support 

for a Hispanic-targeted initiative in Earth 

Sciences and Environmental Sustainability to our 

ongoing minority-focused training programs 

funded by the National Science Foundation and 

National Institutes of Health. Our 2010-11 

Bachelor’s graduates won numerous awards 

and admission to both medical and doctoral 

training programs. 

To advance CUNY’s goal of becoming a 

research-intensive university while continuing 

to serve a diverse student population, the 

Division achieved many milestones: awards 

(an American Academy for the Advancement 

of Science fellow, a Blavatnik Young Scientist 

finalist); research grants (National Science 

Foundation, National Institutes of Health, 

Department of Energy, Department of Defense, 

and others); high-impact publications; prestigious 

invited lectures and fellowships. Five of our most 

accomplished faculty members were awarded 

Endowed Professorships, and one other was 

designated as a CUNY Distinguished Professor. 

Our many influential research discoveries this 

past year were made through expeditions to the 

Greenland ice sheet and to the Panama Canal 

rainforest; they included the design of a sugarbased 

oil recovery system, technologies for artificial 

blood, energy storage, and photonics. We also 

partnered with broader research consortia to 

address current challenges in energy, materials, 

human health, and the environment. 

Finally, the Division hosted community-building 

events for students, staff, faculty, and neighbors 

across Harlem and CUNY: our annual Research 

Poster Session, Cross-cultural Explosion (party!), 

ACCESS Research student journal, and Einsteins 

in the City conference; communication 

via Taste of Science student-faculty interchanges 

and the Science Forum Intranet; Service Learning 

courses on relationships of food to the environment 

and health. We also shared our newest 

professional findings at the CCNY Alumni 

Association meeting, at robust departmental 

seminar series, in a pedagogical workshop, and 

at high-end symposia on topics from Structural 

Biology to Laser Light Scattering to Group Theory. 

Ruth E. Stark, Acting Dean of Science 

Distinguished Professor of Chemistry 

The City College of New York 

Division of Science / Annual Report 2010-11 

3

Chapter 

New Faculty & Staff 

Christian Wolf / Associate Professor 

Mathematics Department / Fall 2010 

Dr. Wolf ’s training in mathematics began at the 

University of Munich in Germany, where he also 

studied physics, and at the Technical University of 

Munich where he earned his PhD. Dr. Wolf came 

to City College from Wichita State University. 

His research is in the area of dynamical systems. 

In his work he uses tools from ergodic theory, 

real and complex analysis, geometry, dimension 

theory and thermodynamic formalism. “Studying 

dynamical systems,” he says, “is a way of understanding 

how the world works. Everything that 

changes under time evolution can be modeled by a 

dynamical system. Examples are the movement of the 

planets in the solar system (n-body problem), population 

growth, and the development of diseases.” 

Tamara Kucherenko / Lecturer 


Tamara Kucherenko is originally from Ukraine, 

where she studied mathematics. She came to the 

US to pursue her doctoral studies at the University 

of Missouri, and then held a post-doctoral 

position at UCLA as a member of the functional 

analysis group. 

At City, Dr. Kucherenko has taught Calculus I & 

II, as well as Differential Equations and Combinatorics. 

“I like the small classes, and the fact that 

I am teaching a sequence of courses,” she says. 

“This allows me to get to know students individually, 

and it is very gratifying to see them in one 

course after another.” In addition to teaching, Dr. 

Kucherenko is doing research with Dr. Christian 

Wolf on the geometry of rotation sets for dynamical 

systems. Under a state-administered grant 

program designed to improve student academic 

achievement, she is working on bringing more 

technology into the classroom through the development 

of computer-based homework assignments. 


5

6 

Kyle C. McDonald / Professor 

Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department / Spring 2011 

Dr. McDonald is a highly respected researcher 

with over 20 years’ experience in microwave remote 

sensing of terrestrial ecosystems. Following 

a long association with NASA’s Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory at Caltech, he has joined City’s faculty, 

where he was awarded the Terry Elkes Professorship. 

His research activities have involved 

the application of microwave remote sensing 

techniques for monitoring boreal wetlands and 

seasonal dynamics in boreal-arctic ecosystems as 

related to ecological and hydrological processes. 

Dr. McDonald holds a doctorate in Electrical 

Engineering from the University of Michigan, 

Ann Arbor and degrees from Georgia Tech and 

Johns Hopkins. He was attracted to City by 

the opportunities for interdisciplinary research 

being generated by the CUNY Environmental 

CrossRoads Initiative, the CREST Institute, and 

the Sustainability in the Urban Environment 

program. “Environmental science is taking off at 

CCNY and CUNY, and it is exciting to be part 

of shaping an institution’s future.” 

Ana Carnaval /Assistant Professor 

Department of Biology / Fall 2010 

Dr. Carnaval holds a PhD in Evolutionary Biology 

from the University of Chicago and did a 

post-doc in Evolutionary Biogeography at UC 

Berkeley. Her lab studies spatial patterns of biodiversity 

and their underlying evolutionary and 

ecological processes, with the aim of improving 

biodiversity prediction and conservation in 

tropical regions. She conducts extensive field 

work on biogeographic changes in the Brazilian 

Atlantic rainforest, in cooperation with teams 

from UC Berkeley and Brazilian universities. 

Dr. Carnaval is a new member of the NOAA 

Cooperative Remote Sensing Science and 

Technology Center (NOAA-CREST), based 

at CCNY. Her lab has also received an NSF 

grant to study montane phylogeography in 

the Atlantic Rainforest. 

Dr. Carnaval was recently invited to the White 

House for the launching of the NSF’s Flexibility 

in the Workplace policy, which promotes support 

and retention of women and girls in STEM careers. 

Christine Klusko /Administrative Coordinator 


Christine Klusko is a true CUNY product. She 

holds a BA in English and an MA in Corporate 

Communications from Baruch College, where 

she was a basketball player and then Director of 

Operations and Assistant Coach to the women’s 

basketball team. She also served as Office Manager 

in Baruch’s Office of Communications and 

Marketing and as an adjunct faculty member in 

its Departments of Marketing and International 

Business and Communications Studies. 

Ms. Klusko intends to apply her organizational, 

communications and leadership skills to her work 

in the Department of Biology. “I would like the 

office to be an accessible facility which helps 

both faculty and students and effectively represents 

the department to the world beyond City,” 

she says. One of her specific goals is to facilitate 

the formation and functioning of student clubs 

within the department. “I love the fact that there 

is always a new challenge, and CUNY offers 

many areas in which to grow and learn.” 

Kamilah Ali / Assistant Professor 


“I was looking for a university where there 

would be good opportunities to continue my 

cardiovascular research,” says Dr. Ali. “The research 

emphasis of CUNY’s Decade of Science 

convinced me that City College was the place.” 

Dr. Ali holds an MS and a PhD in Pharmacology 

from Yale. In the course of her graduate 

work she focused heavily on biochemistry and 

physiology. She came to City from the University 

of Kentucky, where she was a Research 

Assistant Professor in Nutritional Sciences. 

Dr. Ali’s current research is on Apolipoprotein 

D (apoD), a minor protein associated with HDL 

cholesterol. Her purpose is to determine the 

role of apoD in atherosclerosis. In this work, 

her lab uses mice and cell culture studies to 

determine whether apoD plays a role in the 

formation of atherosclerotic plaques in blood 

vessels or helps modulate plasma cholesterol 

levels by decreasing the levels of oxidative stress 

or inflammation in blood vessels.

Lia Krusin-Elbaum / Professor 

Department of Physics / Fall 2010 

Dr. Lia Krusin-Elbaum comes to CCNY following 

20 years as a research staff member at the prestigious 

IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, where 

she pursued her interests in diverse complex 

materials and systems. A Fellow of The American 

Physical Society, she has received 10 IBM Invention 

Achievement Awards and holds almost 30 

US patents and patent applications. She earned 

her PhD in solid state physics at NYU. When 

asked what brought her to City, she says, “Education 

is very important to me. I had post-docs in 

my lab at IBM, but I wanted to teach younger 

students. I also felt that academia would offer me 

a broader platform and a longer time-line for 

fundamental research.” 

Dr. Krusin-Elbaum continues her partnership 

with the T.J. Watson Center, and she is co-Director 

of the NSF funded CCNY-Columbia MIRT 

(Materials Interdisciplinary Research Teams) 

program. These connections give her CCNY 

research colleagues and students access to IBM’s 

state-of-the-art infrastructure and Columbia’s 

facilities. 

Iris Falquez / Animal Care Technician 

Anthony Pacheco / Animal Care Technician 

Science Division / Fall 2010 

The Division of Science’s Animal Care Facility 

provides essential support to in vivo research. 

Two new technicians have joined its team. 

They are Anthony Pacheco and Iris Falquez. 

They both love working with animals and are 

dedicated to ensuring that the facility is run in 

a conscientious manner, which observes all 

the proper protocols in animal care. 

For a decade before he came to CCNY, Anthony 

worked in animal care at Rockefeller University. 

There, he became a certified AALAS (American 

Association for Laboratory Animal Science) 

Assistant Laboratory Animal Technician. He is 

currently preparing to take the next exam to 

qualify as a Laboratory Animal Technician. Iris, 

who trained as a phlebotomist at Hostos Community 

College, has been an animal caretaker 

at Mount Sinai. She too is planning to acquire 

AALAS qualifications. They agree that the College 

is a wonderful place to work. 

Asohan Amarasingham / Assistant Professor 


Asohan Amarasingham has been interested in 

the mathematical and statistical foundations of 

emerging branches of the neural and cognitive 

sciences since attending the University 

of Virginia. At Brown, he earned an MSc in 

cognitive and linguistic sciences and a PhD in 

applied mathematics. Currently, Dr. Amarasingham’s 

research interests span topics in statistics 

as well as neural coding and computation, with 

an emphasis on questions raised by large-scale 

neurophysiological data sets, and their implications 

for our understanding of the dynamics 

and functional properties of neuronal circuits. 

“City College and the math department, in 

particular, have been very supportive of my 

efforts to work across two disciplines.” He and 

Dr. Adrian Rodriguez-Contreras, a neurophysiologist 

in the Department of Biology, have 

received a City SEED Grant, designed by the 

College to provide initial funding for new 

multidisciplinary research. Their project will 

further Dr. Amarasingham’s goal of infusing 

applied mathematics into the neural sciences. 

8 Division of Science / Annual Report 2010-11 9

Chapter 

Facility Upgrades 

The New Marshak PC Lab: A Student Initiative 

When Nahid Farzana was a CCNY undergraduate 

majoring in biology, she often ran 

across the street to the NAC building, and 

joined a long line of students waiting to 

print out a few pages, or use a computer 

terminal to do their homework. Marshak, 

she realized, needed its own PC lab to serve 

the needs of students in the Division of 

Science. And so, she acted. Each year the 

College collects a Tech Fee from students, 

and the resulting funds go towards improvements 

in technology. Nahid wrote a 

proposal for a Science Division PC lab. Of 

the many submissions, only 6 were accepted. 

Nahid’s was one of them, and it was funded 

to the tune of $50,000. 

As a result, science students now have a PC 

lab which contains 48 computers and a 

printer. As Nahid said in her proposal, this 

gives them access to software required by 

particular science departments and the ability 

to practice more and finish course work on 

time. “Dean Ruth Stark and Dean Laurent 

Mars were consistently supportive of this 

project,” she says. “And Michael Boydston- 

White, the Science Facilities Manager, and 

Zhihua (Karl) Li, the Director of Science 

Computing Services, made it all happen once 

we got the grant.” 

Nahid, who has since graduated, regularly 

sees the fruits of her ingenuity and perseverance. 

She is a college assistant in the 

Dean’s office preparing to take the MCAT 

and apply to medical schools. 

Streetscape Furniture Project 

The new planters and benches in front of Marshak are 

the gift of Callie Wronker BA ’67 and Steve Urkowitz 

BA ’64, MA ’68, Professor of English and Theatre 

1987-2007. They are the first project to be completed 

under the “Streetscape Furniture Project” for the beautification 

of the CCNY campus, which Ms. Wronker 

and Mr. Urkowitz are funding. 


11

Chapter 

Bringing Science to the 

Community and Beyond 

An Important Conference Highlights Structural Biology and NMR 

With the New York Structural Biology 

Center (NYSBC) located on campus, City 

College is an excellent place for experts in 

structural biology and NMR to congregate. 

NYSBC has been operating since 2002, 

with the principal goal of providing New 

York’s preeminent biomedical institutions 

with latest-generation instrumentation to allow 

their researchers to expand the limits of 

structural biology. With unrivaled facilities for 

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy 

(NMR) and Electron Microscopy (EM) as 

the backdrop, CCNY hosted 250 participants 

at the conference, Frontiers in NMR 

Spectroscopy: Biomolecular Structure, Dynamics 

and Interactions in March of 2011. 

There is a symbiotic relationship between 

advances in structural biology and 

NMR. “In living organisms, the spatial 

and temporal interactions of proteins and 

DNA underlie communication within 

and among cells, and with the external 

environment. Understanding the nature 

of biomolecular interactions in atomic 

detail is essential to shed light on these 

communication networks and to design 

alternatives when they are compromised 

by disease,” explains Dr. Ranajeet Ghose, 

CCNY professor of chemistry and conference 

organizer. “NMR spectroscopy 

has evolved as the premier technique for 

studying the structure and functionality 

of these complex bio-molecules.” The 

conference’s appeal transcended structural 

biologists, however. According to Dr. 

Ghose, it was a unique opportunity for 

researchers in other areas to learn more 

about NMR and evaluate its applicability 

to their work. 

“To make this a stimulating event, which 

provided a panorama of cutting-edge 

research, our speakers ranged from up-and- 

coming leaders to established grand masters,” 

says Dr. Ghose. They came from the Universities 

of Toronto, Illinois, Michigan, and Massachusetts, 

as well as Rutgers, the University of Texas 

Southwestern Medical Center, and NIH, 

speaking and fielding questions in sessions 

moderated by CCNY Dean of Science 

Ruth Stark and representatives of three 

New York City medical schools. 

The conference put a welcome spotlight 

on CCNY and its growing accomplishments 

in structural biology, as well as the 

opportunities it offers students, post-docs 

and faculty. “Structural biology is one of 

the major thrusts of CUNY’s Decade of 

Science, and increasingly, City College 

is a hub for the discipline,” concludes Dr. 

Ghose. “The conference delivered and 

celebrated that message.” 


13

Physics Symposium Honors Herman Z. Cummins 

In October, 2010, leading physicists from the 

US and abroad joined CUNY Chancellor 

Matthew Goldstein, CCNY President Lisa S. 

Coico and City College faculty members at a 

symposium to celebrate the life and work of 

the late Herman Z. Cummins, Distinguished 

Professor of Physics Emeritus at CCNY. 

For over fifty years, Dr. Cummins was a 

seminal, and highly honored, figure in 

the world of physics. When he came to 

City College in 1974, he established his 

laser spectroscopy laboratory as one of 

the leading research sites in the world. 

His cutting-edge investigations covered 

statistics of radiation-matter interactions, 

as well as elastic, quasi-elastic and inelastic 

light scattering and the application of light 

scattering techniques to the study of materials 

including bio-materials. His far-reaching 

and elegant experiments have provided 

extraordinary insight into problems ranging 

from the physics of phase transitions and 

the mobility of biological molecules to 

patterns created by growing crystals and 

the mechanisms that cause liquids to change 

into glass. 

The October symposium drew an exceptionally 

distinguished roster of speakers, 

who addressed developments in the areas 

of physics to which Dr. Cummins dedicated 

his career. They included: Dr. Manuel 

Cardona, Director Emeritus, Max-Planck- 

Institute for Solid State Research; Dr. 

Chandra Varma, Distinguished Professor 

of Physics, University of California at 

Riverside; Dr. Robert Leheny, Professor of 

Physics, Johns Hopkins University; and Dr. 

Harry Swinney, Sid Richardson Foundation 

Regents Chair of Physics, University 

of Texas at Austin. As importantly, the event 

was a time to remember Herman Cummins, 

the man. The symposium closed with 

friends from Dr. Cummins’s graduate 

student days at Columbia to the end of 

his career at City, who shared their reminiscences 

of a person who had touched 

so many. 

According to CCNY Associate Professor 

of Physics Jiufeng Tu, who organized the 

symposium together with Distinguished 

Professors Joseph Birman and Myriam 

Sarachik, the Department sees the event 

as the kick-off to a Cummins Lecture 

Series. “Dr. Cummins left the Physics 

Department a legacy of $20,000,” he says. 

“Thanks to other gifts, it has already grown 

into a $100,000 endowment. In addition 

to lectures this will fund the Cummins 

Scholarship to support a graduate student 

in Dr. Cummins’ field.” 

Einsteins in the City Spotlights Student Research 

“Transcending Boundaries; Communicating 

Across Disciplines,” was the theme of 

Einsteins in the City 2011, a.k.a. EIC 2011, 

the student research conference which 

brought 230 participants to CCNY last 

April. “Highlighting exemplary research 

from the undergraduate to the PhD levels, 

EIC 2011 is the premier forum for professional 

exchange among national and 

international student researchers,” is how 

the New York Academy of Sciences 

described the event, which alternates 

between City College and the Technical 

University of Vienna, where it is known 

as the Junior Scientists Conference. This 

year it also drew students and faculty 

from the Technical University of Graz 

and the University of Graz in Austria, 

several CUNY colleges and seven other 

US institutions. 

“This is a great networking event for our 

young scientists, and the poster and oral 

presentations provide wonderful opportunities 

for them to share their research,” 

said CCNY professor of chemistry, Dr. 

Maria Tamargo, chair of the organizing 

committee. “But, this year, it was not 

just about science and engineering. We 

had participants from the humanities, 

education and the social sciences. This 

really expanded the intellectual breadth 

of the event.” 

The plenary speakers reflected the conference’s 

commitment to an international, 

cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas and 

to collaborative research. They were: Dr. 

Roberta Maierhofer, Vice Rector for International 

Relations at the University of 

Graz and an associate university professor 

in its Institute for American Studies; Dr. 

Rob DeSalle, curator in the American 

Museum of Natural History’s Division 

of Invertebrate Zoology and a founder 

of its Conservation Genetics Program; 

and Dr. Charles Vörösmarty, professor 

of civil engineering in CCNY’s Grove 

School of Engineering, distinguished 

scientist at NOAA-CREST and director 

of the CUNY Environmental Cross 

Roads Initiative. 

The following day, EIC 2011 participants 

were invited to attend NOAA-CREST 

Day, which showcases CUNY’s cutting 

edge remote sensing and environmental 

research. 

14 Division of Science / Annual Report 2010-11 Division of Science / Annual Report 2010-11 15

CCNY-MSKCC Research Symposium 

Last June, the CCNY-MSKCC Partnership 

for Cancer Research, Training, and Community 

Outreach held its third annual research 

symposium in New York City, drawing over 

100 participants. The focus was translational 

research, which is essential to implementing 

the Partnership’s mission: building a stronger 

cancer program aimed at understanding 

cancer health disparities and their impact 

on racial and ethnic minority and socioeconomically 

disadvantaged populations. 

The Partnership is a collaboration between 

CCNY and Memorial Sloan-Kettering 

Cancer Center (MSKCC). Its research program 

brings together faculty and students 

from CCNY and MSKCC scientists. Its 

training programs aim to increase the number 

of underrepresented minority students 

prepared to enroll in and complete MD, 

PhD or MD/PhD programs and pursue 

cancer-related research careers; and its 

community outreach seeks to expand 

access to cancer screening and treatment, 

improve quality of care, and support health 

behaviors which enhance quality of life for 

the diverse underserved communities of 

which CCNY and MSKCC are a part. 

This year’s Symposium had two focuses: 

the bench to bedside aspect of translation 

and bringing clinical practice to the 

community. The program featured experts 

from CCNY, MSKCC and Charles Drew 

University of Medicine and Science in Los 

Angeles. The topics they addressed were of 

direct relevance to the populations which 

the Partnership is dedicated to serving. 

They included Obesity and Risk for Breast 

Cancer; Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparities: 

Translating Research into Practice, 

and At the Intersection of Cancer and HIV: 

What Do AIDS Service Agencies Need? 

Results of a Tri-State Survey. 

The Symposium concluded with a poster 

session in which 19 CCNY undergraduate 

and graduate students joined their mentors 

from the College and MSKCC in presenting 

their research. According to Nadia 

Noman, the CCNY-MSKCC training director, 

the event was a terrific networking 

opportunity for the student presenters and 

those in the audience, resulting in several 

new mentor/student research partnerships. 

Dr. Mildred Dresselhaus Addresses CCNY’s Women in Science 

In November of 2010, a luncheon organized 

by the Society of Women Engineers 

and the Society of Physics Students offered 

the CCNY community a rare honor: a 

talk by Dr. Mildred Dresselhaus, Institute 

Professor of Electrical Engineering and 

Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology, who spoke on “How to Succeed 

as a Woman Scientist/Engineer.” Dr. 

Dresselhaus has been on the MIT faculty 

since 1967. She is a native New Yorker who 

graduated from Hunter College and went 

on to a master’s at Radcliffe and a PhD 

at the University of Chicago. In her talk, 

she drew on her experience as one of the 

nation’s leading scientists. She has served as 

President of the American Association for 

the Advancement of Science, President of 

the American Physical Society, and Chair 

of the Governing Board of the American 

Institute of Physics. She has been Director 

of the Office of Science at the US Department 

of Energy and holds the US National 

Medal of Science. Her current research 

interests are in nanostructures, carbon 

nanotubes, bismuth nanowires and low 

dimensional thermoelectricity. 

The stellar professional accomplishments, 

however, are only part of Dr. Dresselhaus’s 

story. While dedicating herself to research 

and teaching, she was also a wife and 

mother, who raised four children. She is 

a passionate mentor of young women in 

the sciences, and her talk addressed “how 

to combine a happy family life with an 

active and rewarding career.” The room 

was packed with well over a hundred 

Service Learning in the Division of Science 

“Service Learning in Health and Wellness,” 

is a CCNY Division of Science course first 

offered in the Spring of 2010. It combines 

classroom learning with hands-on community 

experience, to introduce students 

to public health issues and careers and the 

potential impact of carefully targeted public 

policy. Students learn about threats to public 

health from the local to global levels, and then 

zero in on one particular challenge, with a 

view to making a difference at CCNY and 

in the Harlem community. 

In 2010-2011, the Fall semester was 

dedicated to the “Environmental Impact 

of Food.” According to Jyoti Kaushal, a 

CCNY biochemistry graduate, who taught 

the course and continues as its outreach 

consultant, “Students learned about the 

environmental price we pay for eating 

food which comes from far away, and 

how using local food sources can reduce 

our carbon footprint.” Students undertook 

three projects. They worked to bring 

a green market to campus. They collaborated 

with the CCNY cafeteria group on 

recycling, increasing the energy efficiency 

of vending machines, and buying produce 

from metropolitan area farms. And, they 

created a proposal for a roof top garden, 

which would grow food on campus, while 

decreasing energy consumption in the 

underlying building. 

In Spring of 2011, the theme was “Cancer 

and Food.” Harlem has the highest rates of 

prostate, breast, colon and lung cancer in 

New York City. The students studied how 

food plays a role in cancer, and set about 

showing the campus and Harlem residents 

how to mitigate their risk of the disease 

by changing their diets. They produced 

people, including CCNY President, Dr. 

Lisa S. Coico, and the Deans of Science 

and Engineering. Most important though, 

were the many undergraduate and graduate 

women, all aspiring scientists and engineers, 

who came to hear one of their professions’ 

glass ceiling breakers. In the words of Dr. 

Myriam Sarachik, Distinguished Professor 

of Physics at CCNY and a long-time 

colleague and friend of Dr. Dresselhaus, 

“When Millie and I started our careers, we 

were usually the only women in the room.” 

The turnout at Dr. Dresselhaus’s talk was a 

stunning reminder of how that has changed, 

and how City is encouraging women to 

excel in science and engineering. 

a “Healthy Living Guide,” which includes 

tips on how to read nutrition labels, healthy 

recipes, and easy to do exercises. And, they 

took their message to local events such as 

health fairs and earth day celebrations and 

to venues such as patient care centers. 

The course is offered through the City 

College Academy of Professional Preparation 

(CCAPP), in conjunction with a large 

group of partners from the public and private 

sectors, whose real-world experience 

helps CCNY students fulfill their mission 

of contributing to a healthier campus and 

community and introduces them to the issues 

inherent in public health careers. 


Chapter 

Centers & Institutes 

CASI & CENSES 

Center for Analysis of Structures and Interfaces & Center for Exploration of Nanaostructures in Sensors and Energy Systems 

Disciplines: Chemistry, 

Physics, and Engineering 

Research Teams: 21 

Student Trainees: 49 

Annual External Funding: 

$1.2 million (Over $25 million 

since 1988). 

Collaborating Organizations: 

1) Columbia University Nanoscale 

Science and Engineering 

Center (NSEC); 2) Shanghai 

Institute of Microsystems and 

Information Technology (SIM- 

IT), which is affiliated with the 

Chinese Academy of Sciences; 

3) NYU Materials Research 

Science and Engineering Center 

(MRSEC) REU summer programs. 

Research Highlights: 

This has been a year of broad 

research accomplishment in 

the Center’s three thrust areas. 

Research presentations have 

spanned areas such as methods 

for synthesizing monodispersed 

Surface-enhanced Raman spectra (SERS) 

of 4-mercaptopyridine (4-Mpy) on PbS 

quantum dots have been measured as a 

function of nanoparticle size and excitation 

wavelength. Fig. 1 shows micrograph of 

8.2 nm particles. For 514.5 nm excitation, 

Fig. 2 shows large enhancements of 

the 1278- and 1586-cm-1 bands occur; 

notable enhancements are also observed 

of the 780- and 682 cm-1 vibrational 

bands.These enhancements indicate a 

coupling between the electron transfer 

accompanying excitation at 514.5 nm 

argon ion excitation and specific vibrational 

motions of the pendant ligand. 

X. Fu, Y. Pan, X. Wang, J. R.Lombardi, J. 

Chem. Phys. 134, 024707 (2011). 

quantum dots; the designing of 

de novo protein dyads and triads 

to aid in solar energy conversion; 

and use of microfluidic beadbased 

microarrays as platforms 

to measure biomolecular ligand/ 

receptor binding kinetics. 

Publications in high impact 

journals include: 1) the use of 

carbon monoxide as a pretreatment 

agent to enhance the lowtemperature 

thermolytic release 

of hydrogen in a hydrogen storage 

material; 2) the development 

of room temperature and narrow 

intersubband electroluminescence 

from quantum cascade 

laser structures for use in mid- 

IR detectors; 3) the creation of 

a UV extended supercontinuum 

source for time-resolved and 

steady state spectroscopy. 

Additionally, a unique facility has 

been established via leveraged 

funding for femtosecond (10 -15 

second) temporal information at 

nanoscale STM resolution. 

Figure 1: TEM image of PbS 

nanoparticles. Average particle size 

is found to be 8.2 ± 1.0 nm. 

Research Areas 

1) Sensor applications: mid-IR 

sensors based on wide bandgap II- 

VI semiconductor devices; chemical 

and biological sensors from 

single-walled carbon nanotubes; 

and liposome-based arrays with 

nanoparticle markers for toxin 

detection. 

2) Energy systems: battery electrode 

nanomaterials; single-walled 

carbon nanotubes onto which 

electrocatalysts are attached for 

fuel cell applications; hybrid II-VI 

and III-V multiple quantum well/ 

http://casi.sci.ccny.cuny.edu 

http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/censes 

quantum dot high performance 

solar cells; and hydrate-based gas 

storage materials. 

3) Emerging technologies and 

novel characterization techniques: 

biologically inspired self-assembled 

nanostructures; cobalt-oxide-based 

thermoelectric materials and 

devices; surface-enhanced Raman 

spectroscopy (SERS) applied to 

the study of organic-inorganic 

hybrid nanomaterials; and femtosecond 

time-resolved scanning 

tunneling microscopy. 

Figure 2 (a) Raman spectrum of 4-Mpy powder; 

(b) Raman spectrum 4-Mpy adsorbed on a 8.9 

nm PbS quantum dot (514.5 nm excitation). 


19

LEVICH 

The Benjamin Levich Institute for Physico-Chemical Hydrodynamics 


1) Use of rheology, non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, 

and polymer physics to solve problems 

of interest in polymer processing. 2) Microscale 

numerical simulation in fluid mechanical 

systems. 3) Study of jammed matter, spanning 

from colloidal suspensions, dense emulsions to 

granular materials and glasses in search of unifying 

theoretical frameworks. 

Flow of a particle dispersion in a 

microfluidic device. The images show 

flow of a liquid containing about 10% 

solid particles past various obstacles of 

typical dimension 200 microns, showing 

a remarkable depletion of particles in 

the wake. The flow rate increases from 

top to bottom. A potential application 

would be to use the phenomenon to 

separate particles and fluid within a microscale 

device. (Shahab Shojaei-Zadeh 

and Jeffrey Morris) 

Disciplines: Physics, 

Chemical Engineering, 

Bioengineering, Chemistry 




$4 million 


1) Columbia University 

(IGERT); 2)University of 

Chicago (PREM); 3) New 

Jersey Institute of Technology; 

4) Bar Ilan University, Israel; 

others with individual 

Institute members 

www-levich.engr.ccny.cuny.edu/seminars.htm 


Among many accomplishments 

in 2010-2011, a team of researchers 

led by Professor Hernan 

Makse has shed new light 

on the way that information 

and infectious diseases proliferate 

across complex networks. 

Writing in Nature Physics, they 

report that, contrary to conventional 

wisdom, persons with the 

most connections are not necessarily 

the best spreaders. That 

kind of information could help 

epidemiologists target resources 

to reduce the spread of infectious 

diseases. 

Molecular dynamics simulation of the motion of a liquid drop on 

a solid surface driven by a wettability gradient; a water drop on a 

self-assembled monolayer of alkanethiol chains terminated with 

methyl or hydroxyl groups, where the (attractive) hydroxyl concentration 

increases from left to right. 

CAISS 

The Center for Algorithms and Interactive Scientific Software 


1) Cryptography 

2) Group Theory 

3) Statistical Analysis 

Disciplines: Computer 

Science, , Security, 

Mathematics 

RCMI 

Disciplines: Biology, Chemistry, 

Physics, Medical School 

Researchers: 32 

Student Trainees: N/A 


$2.3 million 

Collaborating 

Organizations: 1) RCMI 

Translational Research Network 

RTRN (www.rtrn.net/) 2) 

New York Structural Biology 

Center 3) CCNY/MSKCC 

Collaborative 

Cancer Center 

Conferences, Courses, 

Other Public Events: 

CCNY Molecular and Cellular 

Development Biology Seminar 

(Cancer, Neurobiology); 

Frontiers in NMR Spectroscopy: 

biomolecular structure, 

dynamics and interactions 

http://caissny.org/ 


The former Program Director 

and current Principal Investigator, 

Dr. Jerry Guyden, was named the 

E.E. Just Lecturer at the Annual 

American Society of Cell Biology 

Meeting. 

20 Division of Science / Annual Report 2010-11 Division of Science / Annual Report 2010-11 21 

Researchers: 3 



$457,000 


1) Biomolecular 

Structure & Function 

2) Cancer 

3) Neurobiology 

4) Immunology 



1) New York Group Theory 

Seminar (20 times each 

academic year) 2) Finitely Presented 

Solvable Groups March 

17-18, 2011 3) Topics between 

Mathematics and Computer 

Science at CUNY Graduate 

Center 4) Faces of Modern 

Cryptography at CCNY September 

9, 2011 5) Combinatorial 

and Computational Group 

Theory with Applications - a 

special session with 16 speakers 

over three days organized by 

CAISS for the joint congress 

of the American Mathematical 

Society and the South African 

Mathematical Society held at 

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan 

University in Port Elizabeth, 

South Africa, November 29-December 

3, 2011. 


CAISS is a research center where 

mathematicians and computer 

scientists collaborate on different 

projects. It has been intensively 

engaged in its cross-disciplinary 

mission involving group theory, 

cryptography, group-theoretic 

and statistical software and the 

development of games based on 

group theory. 

Research Center in Minority Institutions Center for the Study of the Cellular and Molecular Basis of Development 

Group theory is the branch 

of mathematics that studies 

symmetry, found in crystals, 

art, architecture, music, and 

many other contexts. 

From Visual Group Theory 

by Nathan Carter 

http://web.bentley.edu/ 

empl/c/ncarter/vgt/ 

http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/rcmi/ 

Cell and molecular biology with a focus on the mechanisms 

by which human cells become transformed to the 

malignant state: The goal of our research is to understand the 

process by which human epithelial cells come to acquire the 

properties of tumor cells derived from malignant neoplasms.

IUSL http://www2.ccny.cuny.edu/ci/iusl 

CUNY Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy & Lasers 

Disciplines: Physics, Electrical 

Engineering, Chemistry, Biology, 

Biochemistry 




1). Crystal growth and synthesis 

of materials for NIR laser applications 

2). Tunable solid-state 

laser LIGO/LISO development 

3). Optical physics of Cr4+ / 

Cr3+ doped novel type laser 

media 4). Prostate tumor detection 

using spectral polarization 

imaging, fingerprint absorption 

and tumor-receptor-targeted 

contrast agents 5). Singular optics: 


$290,000 


1) Corning 2) Lockheed 

Martin 3) Northrop 

Grumman 4) Intuitive 

Surgical 5) Vixar 6) Magne- 

Gas 7) Columbia University 

8) Harvard University 

phase and polarization vortices in 

Laguerre-Gaussian laser modes; the 

spin and orbital angular momentum 

of light 6). Energy conversion 

splitting water in H 2 and photovoltaic 

in hybrid solar cells 

See Full Research Project List at: 

http://www2.ccny.cuny.edu/ 

ci/iusl/research_main.cfm 


The major technical accomplishments 

this year are in: 

fluorescence and excitation biopsy 

techniques using Stokes Shift 

(see figure below comparing 

cancer and normal spectra from 

tissues); the design of novel 

twisted optical fibers for the 

CCNY-MSKCC Partnership 

City College of New York-Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center / Partnership for Cancer Research, Traning, and Community Outreach 

Disciplines: Chemistry, Biochemistry, 

Physics, Biomedical 

Engineering, Biology, Psychology, 

Economics, Community 

Outreach 




$1.75 million 


Memorial Sloan Kettering 

Cancer Center 

Conferences, Courses and 


CCNY-MSKCC Student 

Research Presentations 

Seminar, Translation Research 

Symposium. 

Research highlights: 

The Partnership develops and 

supports collaborative research 

projects between CCNY and 

MSKCC investigators. In 2011, 

seven new projects were funded 

in the areas of cell biology, immunology, 

health disparities, and 

biomedical research. 


1) Cancer research 

2) Reducing cancer 

health disparities 

generation of singular beams, 

such as Laguerre-Gaussian beams 

with orbital angular momentum; 

and the theoretical advancement 

in relationships between the 

states of spin and orbital angular 

momentum of light on higher 

order Poincare sphere. 

Comparison 

of spectra of 

cancerous and 

normal tissues 

using Stokes 

Shift Spectroscopy. 

http://u54.mskcc.org 

2011 Student Research 

Presentation Event 

MMA http://www.sci.ccny.cuny.edu/mma 

CUNY Institute for Macromolecular Assemblies 

Disciplines: Molecular Biophysics, 

Chemistry, Biochemistry, 

Physics, Chemical Engineering 




$9.6 million; more than $54 million 

since 2004. 


NY Structural Biology Center, 

NY Academy of Sciences, 

NYU-Polytechnic Institute, 

Rutgers University 



1) G Protein-coupled Receptors: 

structural biology, biochemistry, 

and genetics; 2) Protein Dynamics 

and Neurodegeneration: an 

NMR spectroscopic view; 

3) Biological Design: 4th Advances 

in Biomolecular Engineering 

Symposium; 4) Frontiers 

in NMR Spectroscopy: biomolecular 

structure, dynamics and 

interactions; 5) CUNY Structural 


1) Natural assemblies: protein drug 

targets, RNA splicing and translation 

complexes, fungal and plant biopolymers 

2) Engineered assemblies: peptides for 

biosensing, drug delivery, nanoelectronics 

3) Designed proteins and polymers 

for energy applications 

Biology Workshop; 6) Einsteins 

in the City Student Research 

Conference 


Notable research progress during 

the past year focused on biologyinspired 

macromolecular design, 

e.g., sugar-derived molecular 

gelators for oil spill recovery and 

controlled release of biological 

pesticides, protein-based photovoltaic 

devices and artificial 

blood. High-profile publications 

and presentations by MMA 

investigators at City College also 

focused on recognition processes 

in peptide, protein, and lipid assemblies 

that are relevant to drug 

design. In addition to numerous 

Federal grants, MMA faculty 

and students garnered awards 

and prestigious appointments 

from the American Association 

for the Advancement of Science, 

the American Physical Society, 

and the National Academy of 

Engineering. 

The response to environmental stimuli, which 

is essential to the survival of diverse flora and 

fauna, can guide the design of functional materials 

that are then synthesized in a laboratory. 

This cover page article (Shankar, B. V.; Jadhav, 

S. R.; Pradhan, P.; De Carlo, S.; John, G. “Adhesive 

Vesicles through Adaptive Response of 

a Biobased Surfactant,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 

2010, 49, 9509 –9512) uses the elegant adaptive 

response of Dionaea muscipula (the Venus fly 

trap) to illustrate the phenomenon. The thermo-responsive 

behavior of unsaturated alkyl 

chains in cardanol-taurine surfactants, which 

are reminiscent of homeoviscous alterations, 

led to a micelle-to-vesicle transformation and 

the formation of caviar-like adhesive vesicles. 


Chapter 

The Division in Numbers 

2011 Science Division Graduates 

Biology: 100 

(Undergraduate: 79 Masters: 13 Doctorate: 8) 

Chemistry: 41 


Mathematics: 31 


Physics: 12 

(Undergraduate: 9 Masters: 0 Doctorate:3) 

Earth & Atmospheric Sciences: 12 



25

Enrollment Statistics 

11% 

Transfer 

Students 

5% 

Masters 

4% 

Ph.D. 

8% 

Freshman 

2010-2011 Summary of New Research Grant Awards 

Departments External Funding PSC-CUNY Total 

Division $334,442 

Total: 

2684 

Non Freshman 

Students72% 

& Transfer 

Students 

Biology $7,060,988 $16,495 $7,077,483 

Chemistry $6,366,822 $39,484 $6,406,306 

EAS $756,671 $5,999 $762,670 

Mathematics $294,590 $40,183 $334,773 

Physics $3,723,432 $21,398 $3,744,830 

Total $18,536,945 $123,559 $18,660,504 

Number of Submitted Proposals 

Biology Chemistry Mathemetics Physics EAS 


50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

Percentage of research active faculty Proposal Statistics 

55% 

Active 

Total: 

116 

Faculty 

33% 

Pending 

27% 

Declined 

Total: 

158 

Awarded 

Proposals40%

Post Graduate Statistics: Medical and Veterinary School Enrollments 

2010 

30 Students 

(13 Undergraduates & 

17 Post-Baccalaureate 

Students) Entered 

the Following 

Medical Schools 

University of Wisconsin School of 

Veterinary Medicine 

Cornell University College of 


College of Veterinary Medicine at 

Washington State 

New York University College 

of Dentistry 

SUNY Downstate Medical College 

The Commonwealth 

Medical College 

SUNY Upstate Medical College 

Albert Einstein College 

of Medicine 

New York College of Osteopathic 

Medicine 

St. Louis University School of 

Medicine 

Ross University School of Medicine 

Pennsylvania State College of 

Medicine 

Rush University Medical Center 

Medical College of Georgia 

Drexel University College of 

Medicine 

St. George’s University School 

of Medicine 

Philadelphia College of Osteopathic 

Medicine 

Morehouse School of Medicine 

Touro College of Osteopathic 

Medicine 

George Washington University 

School of Medicine 

2011 

32 Students 

(20 Undergraduates & 

12 Post-Baccalaureate 

Students) Entered 

the Following 

Medical Schools 

Stony Brook University School of Medicine 

Meharry Medical College 

University of New England College of 

Osteopathic Medicine 

SUNY Downstate Medical College 

Boonshoft School of Medicine at 

Wright State University 

American University of the Caribbean 

SUNY Upstate Medical College 

Albert Einstein College of Medicine 

New York College of Osteopathic Medicine 

Ross University School of Medicine 

Baylor College of Medicine 

Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of 

Medicine at Hofstra University 

Temple University School of Medicine 

Mount Sinai School of Medicine 

Mayo School of Graduate Medical 

Education at Mayo Clinic 

University of Cincinnati College of Medicine 

University of Toledo College of Medicine 

Drexel University College of Medicine 

Nova Southeastern College of 

Osteopathic Medicine 

Western University of Health 

Sciences/College of Osteopathic Medicine 

of the Pacific - Pomona 

University of Cincinnati College of Medicine 

University of Buffalo School of 

Dental Medicine 

Cummings School of Veterinary 

Medicine at Tufts University 

University of Illinois College of 


University of Pennsylvania School of 

Dental Medicine 

Hours of Use of Equipment 


7344 Hours 

NMR600 

Total: 

15872.5 

hours 

1572 Hours 

Zeiss LSM 

510 Confocal 

1785 Hours 

MassSpec 

Major Core Facilities Equipment Available 

Confocal Microscopy Laboratory Zeiss LSM 510 System 

164 Hours 

Nikon TiE 

Flouresence 

2062 Hours 

NMR500 

494 Hours 

EM 902 TEM 

301.5 Hours 

NMR300 

1286 Hours 

EM SUPRA 55 

459 Hours 

XRD 

Confocal Raman Microscopy Laboratory MonoVista CRS-Upright SP 2750 

Electron Microscopy Laboratory Zeiss Supra 55 SEM • Zeiss DSM 940 SEM • Zeiss EM 902 TEM 

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory 300 MHz Varian Mercury • 500 MHz Varian Unity-Inova 

• 600 MHz Varian Unity-Inova for Liquids, with Cryo-probe 

• 600 MHz Varian NMRS for Solids and Liquids 

Nanotechnology Laboratory Lithography • Evaporation/Sputtering Deposition 

Mass Spectroscopy Laboratory 4000 Q TRAP LC/MS/MS System 

X-Ray Diffraction Laboratory PANalytical X’Pert PRO

Chapter 

Faculty, Staff & 

Student Awards 

Another CCNY Honor for Professor of Chemistry Mahesh Lakshman 

Since he came to City College in 2000, 

Dr. Mahesh Lakshman has received six 

CCNY Certificates of Recognition and 

the CCNY Outstanding Mentor Award. 

Most recently, he has been honored by 

President Lisa S. Coico with the 2011 

CCNY S.T.A.R. Award for Service, 

Teamwork, Action, and Results. 

Through major instrumentation grants, 

Dr. Lakshman has contributed significantly 

to developing the Chemistry 

Department’s research infrastructure. 

“Cutting-edge equipment is essential 

to accomplishing our research, and for 

attracting talented young faculty and students. 

Other departments in the Division 

of Science also derive significant benefits 

from this infrastructure development,” 

he says. 

His tireless administrative work has included 

service as Executive Officer of the CUNY 

PhD program in Chemistry. As chair of the 

Chemistry Department’s Masters Committee, 

he was instrumental in developing 

a new five-year, research-driven BS/MS in 

chemistry. This has also served as a working 

model for biochemistry. 

What Dr. Lakshman most values, however, 

is his mentoring of students, which 

is heavily intertwined with his research. 

His research in organic chemical synthesis 

pertaining to questions of biological 

interest has been funded by the NSF and 

the NIH. It covers three broad areas: 

nucleoside modifications, studies of the 

effects of environmental pollutants and 

DNA damage, and invention of new 

chemical methodologies. 

Dr. Lakshman involves students at all 

educational levels in his research, including 

high school. “My desire is to encourage 

high school students and undergraduates 

into careers in pure science, and to 

help graduate students and post-docs to 

become independent researchers,” he says. 

His deep commitment to the advancement 

of minority students in the sciences 

has been recognized by a Certificate of 

Appreciation from the Alfred P. Sloan 

Foundation. “Teaching,” he says, “is an 

integral part of my own learning.” 

Dr. Lakshman holds a PhD from the University 

of Oklahoma and was a Fogarty 

Fellow at the National Institutes of Health. 

He has been a Senior Scientist in industry. 


31

CCNY Students Succeed at Prestigious Biomedical Conference 

The Annual Biomedical Research Conference 

for Minority Students (ABRCMS) 

is a national conference designed to 

encourage underrepresented minority 

students to pursue advanced training in 

the biomedical and behavioral sciences, 

including mathematics. In 2011, the conference, 

which was held in St. Louis, drew 

approximately 3,400 participants, including 

undergraduate and graduate students, 

exhibitors, program directors, and administrators. 

Over four days, more than 1400 

students presented their research, in ten 

scientific disciplines. Of the 225 students 

recognized for their outstanding presentations, 

four were from City College. 

Two CCNY students, Sana Jaffery and 

Syeda Hasan, took honors in the Social 

and Behavioral Sciences & Public Health 

category. Sana is a PreMed/Post-Bac 

student, who came to CCNY with a BA 

in history from NYU. She had planned 

to teach, but health issues in her family 

convinced her to channel her passion for 

helping people through medicine. To 

build her science background before 

applying to medical school, Sana chose 

CCNY, which, she says, offered her 

excellence and affordability. As a student 

researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering 

Cancer Center (MSKCC), Sana’s project, 

The MSKCC Experience: Radiation 

Therapy for Early Glottic Carcinomas, 

won the Summer Clinical Oncology Research 

Experience (SCORE) Award for 

Excellence. Then, in November, it won 

kudos at ABRCMS. 

Syeda, a graduate of Stuyvesant High 

School, is a biology major in the Macaulay 

Honors College. She has done 

research in the CCNY/MSKCC Partnership 

Continuum of Undergraduate 

Research Training (COURT) program 

and in the SCORE program, where she 

first made the presentation which won 

her recognition at ABRCMS, “Validity 

of Self-Reported Data for Women with 

Breast Cancer: A Pilot Study.” Since 

coming to CCNY, Syeda has taken part 

in public health projects in New York 

and in Jamked, India. 

Julian Flores’s presentation on the role 

of rap/fzr in locomotory behavior of 

Drosophila melanogaster garnered him a 

best poster award in Neuroscience at 

ABRCMS. His CCNY research, under 

Dr. Tadmiri Venkatesh, has implications 

for the study of neurological degenerative 

diseases, which lead to motor defects. 

A senior in the Macaulay Honors College, 

Julian has honed his patient skills through 

programs at Columbia Presbyterian 

Hospital and by volunteering with an 

ambulance company in Costa Rica. He 

is deciding between his medical school 

acceptances and plans a future which 

includes translational research. 

Brian Mbamelu, a sophomore majoring 

in biology, has been doing research since 

he was a freshman. At ABRCMS, he was 

recognized in the Immunology category 

for his work on the progenitor potential 

of Thymic Nurse Cells, done at CCNY 

under Drs. Jerry Guyden and Michael 

Samms. Brian is a member of the City 

College Volunteer Emergency Squad, and, 

last summer, was an intern in the North 

East Regional Alliance Medprep Program 

at Columbia University Medical Center. 

He looks forward to an MD or MD/PhD. 

Associate Professor of Biology Robert Anderson 

is named a Blavatnik Finalist 

Each year, The New York Academy of Sciences’ 

Blavatnik Awards recognize the most 

noteworthy young scientists and engineers 

in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. 

Their accomplishments embody highly 

innovative, impactful, and interdisciplinary 

research. Dr. Robert Anderson is the first 

CUNY faculty member to be named a 

finalist for this honor. 

Dr. Anderson was selected for his novel 

work on computer techniques for modeling 

the potential geographic distributions 

of plant and animal species. He is developing 

methods that interface with Geographic 

Information Systems (GIS) to integrate 

occurrence records and environmental data 

and form a model of the species’ requirements. 

Such models harness vast stores of 

data in the research collections of natural 

history museums and herbaria. “In addition 

to academic studies in biogeography 

and evolutionary ecology, these techniques 

are also applied extensively for invasive 

species management, the effects of global 

climate change, and conservation biology,” 

he says. 

A key element of Dr. Anderson’s recent 

work has been the development and use of 

techniques based on machine learning, in 

particular from an area called maximum 

entropy (Maxent). According to CCNY 

Dean of Science Dr. Ruth Stark, “Anderson’s 

interdisciplinary work is linking 

computer scientists, statisticians, and geographers 

to provide polished links between 

ecological theory and the advanced mathematics 

of machine learning.” This work 

has had a huge impact: one publication that 

Dr. Anderson co-authored has been cited 

over 1400 times to date. He continues to 

refine Maxent to increase its capacity to 

help predict future patterns. According to 

Dean Stark, the ground-breaking software 

fulfills “the great need for tools that 

can analyze the increasing volume of ecological 

data.” 

Dr. Anderson combines his modeling 

research with ambitious fieldwork, to test 

the models and generate new data. He has 

conducted field studies in Colombia and 

Guyana, and has current programs in Venezuela 

and Costa Rica. A dedicated mentor, 

his students collaborate in all aspects of 

research, from the field to the museum to 

the laboratory. 

In addition to his position at CCNY, Dr. 

Anderson is a research associate at the 

American Museum of Natural History and 

the National Museum of Natural History, 

Smithsonian Institution. A member of Phi 

Beta Kappa and a Fulbright Scholar, he 

received his PhD in biology from the University 

of Kansas. 


The Dean James Peace Professorships 

Three of the Division of Science’s finest 

researchers, Drs. Joel Koplik, Josh Wallman 

and Ron Koder have been named Dean 

James Peace Professors. (Sadly, Dr. Wallman’s 

death occurred while this Report 

was in press.) 

The professorships were established thanks 

to the generosity of entrepreneur and philanthropist 

Bert E. Brodsky, ’64, chairman 

and founder of Sandata Technologies and 

a pioneer in computer-automated billing 

and management services for the healthcare 

industry. Mr. Brodsky was awarded the 

Townsend Harris Medal for 2005 by the 

CCNY Alumni Association and received 

the honorary degree, Doctor of Humane 

Letters, at the College’s 2011 Commencement. 

The professorships honor James 

Peace, a former assistant dean of students 

in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 

who was also the director of the Finley 

Center, before becoming the chairman of 

the Department of Student Life at City 

College. They are awarded at the discretion 

of the CCNY president. 

Professor of Physics Joel Koplik is a member 

of the prestigious Benjamin Levich Institute 

for Physico-Chemical Hydrodynamics. 

Josh Wallman Joe Koplik 

Dr. Koplik’s research involves microscale 

numerical simulation in fluid mechanical 

systems. It has three thrusts. The principal 

area is the molecular dynamics simulation 

of fluid flows, which aims to understand 

fluid mechanical phenomena at atomic 

length and time scales which are not adequately 

handled by the usual continuum 

equations. A second research area concerns 

transport in porous and random media, 

with a current emphasis on the motion of 

particulate suspensions in fracture systems. 

A third topic is superfluid vortex dynamics, 

where computational fluid dynamics 

techniques are used to study the behavior 

of an ensemble of individual superfluid 

vortex filaments immersed in a background 

normal fluid flow, with the aim of understanding 

superfluid turbulence. 

In his Vision Laboratory at CCNY, Professor 

of Biology Josh Wallman has focused on two 

areas. The first is visual control of eye growth, 

a topic relevant to understanding why so many 

schoolchildren become myopic. Dr. Wallman is 

studying how the growth of the eye is modulated 

by the retina to achieve a good match 

between the focal length of the eye’s optics 

and physical length, so that images are sharply 

focused on the retina. The second is plasticity of 

saccadic eye movements (the fast eye movements 

we use in looking around the world) 

and their relation to attention. “When one 

looks around one’s surroundings, objects 

attract first one’s attention and then one’s 

eyes,” he explains. He is exploring whether 

these are two separate processes, a mental 

one and a motoric one, or if the eyes necessarily 

go to the locus of attention. 

Assistant Professor of Physics Ron Koder is a 

pioneer in the new field of synthetic biology, 

which has the potential to change the biological 

paradigm as much as molecular biology did 

20 years ago. “Synthetic biology,” he explains, 

“re-imagines the proteins that do the work 

of living cells as small modular devices, similar 

to electronic components like resistors and 

capacitors that can be reassembled into novel 

biological functions and systems.” In his lab, 

he says, “the current thrusts of our research 

aim at creating new enzyme-based cancer 

therapies and protein based biological solar 

energy devices – ‘green’ solar panels.” He 

concludes, “We believe that this novel combination 

- proteins designed de novo coupled 

with naturally occurring proteins - will enable 

us to move beyond the confines of biology and 

help us to solve many of mankind’s problems.” 

Ron Koder 

Three CCNY Students Were Named 2011 Salk Scholars 

In 1955, CCNY alumnus Dr. Jonas Salk 

developed the vaccine which bears his 

name and has saved millions from the 

scourge of polio. In gratitude, New York 

City offered him a ticker-tape parade. 

Instead, he asked that the money be used 

for scholarships. Since then, the Jonas E. 

Salk Scholarships have been recognizing 

young scientists of high ability, who, like 

Jonas Salk, are committing their professional 

lives to making other lives better 

through clinical medicine and biomedical 

research. 

In 2011, CUNY awarded eight Salk 

Scholarships, three of them to City College 

students. Recipients are selected 

on the basis of original research papers 

undertaken with prominent scientist/ 

mentors. Each scholar is awarded $8,000, 

spread over three or four years of medical 

school or PhD studies. 

The CCNY recipients were Deborah 

Ayeni, Maria Otazo and Joshua Usani. At 

City, in addition to racking up academic 

honors and engaging in top-flight 

Deborah Ayeni and Maria Otazo Joshua Usani 

research, they gave back to the community 

as tutors, mentors and workshop leaders. 

For all three, the impetus to study 

medicine came from family experiences. 

For Deborah, it was her grandmother’s 

death from cancer, for Maria, the impact 

of nurses and doctors during her 

brother’s illness, and for Joshua, watching 

his mother, a registered nurse, administer 

polio vaccinations in their native Nigeria. 

Now, they are attending some of the nation’s 

most prestigious medical schools, 

and they look back on CCNY with 

pride. “In some of my med school classes, 

I have felt better prepared than friends 

who went to the Ivies,” says Joshua. “My 

research at City was a transformative 

experience, and the Salk Scholarship has 

given me prestige,” says Deborah. 

Deborah is pursuing a PhD in pharmacology 

and experimental pathology at 

Yale University School of Medicine. She 

plans to design novel agents to treat 

cancer and work with pharmaceutical 

companies to bring drugs to developing 

countries. A biochemistry major, her 

CCNY research, under Dr. Barbara Zajc, 

was on the synthesis of trifluoromethyl 

vinyl compounds using the Julia Kocienski 

olefination. 

Maria, who earned her master’s in biology 

at City, is at Baylor College of Medicine. 

At CCNY, she pursued her interest 

in genetics in the lab of Dr. Shubha Govind, 

doing research on the evolutionarily 

conserved Notch pathway, which has 

been implicated in several types of cancer 

in humans. 

Joshua, the 2011 CCNY valedictorian, is 

at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. A 

biology major, interested in immunology, 

he did research under Dr. Jerry Guyden, 

studying the distribution of lysosomes in 

specialized epithelial cells in the thymus, 

which are crucial in T-cell development. 

While at Mt. Sinai, Joshua plans to continue 

doing research during the summers. 


The CCNY Alumni Association Honors a Key Member 

of the Science Division Team 

Nkem Stanley Mbamelu graduated from 

CCNY in 1999 with a BS in Biochemistry. 

She has since made her career in the 

Division of Science, where she serves the 

College with leadership and distinction. In 

2002, Mrs. Stanley Mbamelu was presented 

with the “City Woman of the Year” award 

for her “commitment and invaluable contribution 

to life at the College.” And, in 

June of 2011, she stood next to President 

Lisa S. Coico at the 159th Annual Meeting 

of the Alumni Association, having just 

accepted the 2011 Alumni Association 

Administrative Staff Service Award, “for service 

contributing to the quality of campus 

life above and beyond the call of duty.” 

Currently, as the Associate Director for 

The City College Academy for Professional 

Preparation (CCAPP), Mrs. Stanley 

Mbamelu coordinates CCAPP service 

learning, the Division of Science mentoring 

program, and the CCAPP Summer 

Program for Entering Freshman. She is responsible 

for creating the CCAPP Student 

Advisory Board, which initiated the Annual 

Cultural Explosion to celebrate CCNY’s 

diversity and introduce new students to 

current students, to make them feel part of 

City’s commuter campus. As the Assistant 

Director for the Science Advising Center, 

she supports students throughout their time 

at CCNY. She is also an adjunct instructor 

in the Division of Science, and somehow 

finds time to serve on such bodies as the 

CCNY Sustainability Committee. 

According to the Alumni Association 

Administrative Staff Service Award citation, 

“Many a student in the sciences has left City 

College eternally grateful to you. One of 

your fortes is assisting students to make appropriate 

connections and directing them 

to the right resources. You are renowned 

for going above and beyond the call of duty 

in your work. You can often be found at 

your desk on evenings and weekends assisting 

students. The Alumni Association takes 

enormous pride in your selfless dedication 

and considers you more than worthy of its 

Administrative Staff Service Award.” 

The Kaylie Prize for Entrepreneurship 

Thanks to a $3 million endowment established 

by Harvey Kaylie ’60 BEE, the 

Kaylie Prize for Entrepreneurship at City 

College is spurring students in science 

and engineering to translate their research 

into products for the marketplace. 

The 2010 Kaylie competition drew submissions 

from 35 teams. First place went 

to “Stoke Shift Innovation,” a team of 

four graduate students in physics, James 

Scholtz, Denis Sharoukhov, Laura Sordillo, 

and Giovanni Millione, and engineering 

student Wayne Parkinson. They were 

awarded financial support and housing 

for the summer to develop their product 

- an affordable, non-invasive device 

for instant cancer detection through light 

analysis. Dr. Robert Alfano, distinguished 

professor of science and engineering at 

City and director of CUNY’s Institute 

for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers, was 

the team’s advisor. 

Thanks to the miniaturization of components 

made possible by state-of-the-art 

technologies, the team was able to build 

a toaster-sized device, which previously 

would have taken up a table. It performs 

an “optical biopsy,” making cancer 

diagnostics easier and more accurate. The 

instrument beams light at tissues via thin 

bundles of fibers and collects it within 

the same bundle for analysis. It measures 

the Stokes shift, a difference in light 

between a standard and the target tissue 

or material, allowing doctors to detect 

the presence of cancer. Laura Sordillo 

will present the results of this work at 

the SPIE Optical Biopsy X conference in 

January 2012. 

For Laura, a master’s student who intends 

to pursue her PhD at the College, the 

competition was an opportunity to collaborate 

with people from a different 

discipline. “I learned a lot about the 

engineering side,” she says, “and we were 

able to showcase our research to people 

from a variety of fields, who are highly 

accomplished in their work.” According 

to Giovanni Millione, an Iraq War veteran 

who is a PhD student at City, “The competition 

exploited our ability and training 

in photonics to do something practical. 

Physicists spend a lot of time alone, 

doing fundamental research. It was 

great to develop a team attitude on a 

common project.” 

Laura and Giovanni have entered the 

Kaylie competition again in 2011, along 

with two undergraduates, Evgueni Chepelevski 

and Kamonsish Chakraborty. 

They are working on another biomedical 

optical advice, with Dr. Alfano as 

their advisor. 


Chapter 

Curricular Innovations 

BIOLOGY 

C.R.E.A.T.E.: Changing Biology Teaching at 

City and Across the Nation 

“C.R.EA.T.E.” (for Consider, Read, 

Elucidate hypotheses, Analyze data, and 

Think of the next Experiment) is an 

approach to teaching biology, developed 

by Dr. Sally Hoskins, Professor of Biology 

at CCNY, and Dr. Leslie M. Stevens, 

of the University of Texas. It eschews 

the traditional path of textbook readings 

and classroom lectures. Instead, students 

study a series of journal articles on a 

specific project, following a trail of “rejected 

hypotheses, unanticipated discoveries, 

and surprising findings that may 

shift paradigms.” Lectures are replaced 

by collaborative learning full of discussions 

and exercises, in which students use 

techniques, such as concept mapping and 

cartooning, to explore and apply what 

they have absorbed from their journal 

readings. 

C.R.E.A.T.E. is a response to what Dr. 

Hoskins calls the “knowledge explosion” 

in biology over the past three decades. As 

in other sciences, new technologies have 

made possible investigations at a pace 

and level which were once the stuff of 

dreams. It is a challenge for textbooks to 

keep up with this rapidly increasing flow 

of information, and for students to attempt 

to absorb it all without becoming 

overwhelmed. Instead of rote learning, in 

which students rely on memorizing textbook 

material, C.R.E.A.T.E. develops the 

cognitive skills of analysis, synthesis and 

evaluation, which fit them to think like 

scientists and empower them to consider 

science as a career. 

Dr. Hoskins introduced the approach 

to CCNY juniors and seniors in 2004, 

in Biology 355, “Analysis of Scientific 

Literature with C.R.E.A.T.E.” In course 

evaluations, students declared that now 

they were understanding material instead 

of memorizing it, that they no longer 

saw science as an elite occupation, but 

as a potential career, and that the thinking 

tools they had acquired were serving 

them in other courses, and in life. Another 

refrain was that they wished they 

had taken the course sooner, and this past 

fall, Dr. Hoskins introduced Bio 10050, 

“Intro to Scientific Thinking,” for entering 

freshmen. 

Three times over the past decade, enthusiastic 

CCAPP students have voted 

Dr. Hoskins “Teacher of the Year.” Since 

2003, C.R.E.A.T.E. has benefited from 

$1.5 million in NSF funding, and it is 

gaining traction across the country. Dr. 

Hoskins and colleagues have trained 16 

local faculty members to implement 

C.R.E.A.T.E. on their campuses, and in 

the summers of 2012 and 2013, they will 

train a further 100 from a national cohort 

of two- and four- year colleges and universities. 


39

CHEMISTRY 

PLTL and PLUSH: Peer Leadership in 

General Chemistry 

Peer leadership is a powerful teaching tool, 

and one which is being used to great effect in 

CCNY’s Chemistry Department. According 

to Associate Professor of Chemistry Glen 

Kowach two programs, Peer-Led Team 

Learning (PLTL) and PLUSH (Peer-Led 

Undergraduate Study Hall), are improving 

the performance of students in CCNY’s two- 

semester sequence of General Chemistry. 

PLTL, which is now an integral component 

of General Chemistry courses at CCNY, was 

developed in the early 1990’s as an attempt to 

improve the low passing rates of students 

in these introductory courses. It has since 

been adopted in STEM classrooms across 

the nation. In PLTL, undergraduates who 

have excelled in a STEM course are recruited 

to serve as peer-leaders in that course, working 

with small groups of new students in a 

collaborative workshop environment under 

the guidance of faculty. 

Recently, building on PLTL, the CCNY 

Chemistry Department has initiated 

PLUSH (Peer-Led Undergraduate Study 

Hall), a blended learning program which 

entails the use of online homework in 

a classroom environment. Advances in 

online content bundled with textbooks 

have led to the incorporation of online 

homework in coursework. PLUSH 

provides the supportive setting of a study 

hall with online access and guidance 

from a peer-leader, who advises on study 

skills and answers questions. According 

to Dr. Kowach, when the General 

Chemistry assignments were purely textbook-based, 

fewer than 75% of students 

in the initial course completed them, 

even in a workshop environment. The 

introduction of online homework and 

PLUSH has pushed that to 100%, showing 

that peer leadership and technology 

are a winning combination. 

MATHEMATICS 

Videos Help Students Succeed in Calculus 

Mastering the calculus sequence is essential 

to succeeding in science and engineering, 

and it can be daunting. In her 

Math 202 (Calculus II) course, Lecturer 

in Mathematics, Dr. Andrea Marchese, is 

using a “hybrid” approach, which combines 

on-line teaching and on-campus 

classes. It is yielding excellent results. 

Dr. Marchese has made screen-capture 

video lessons, which she posts on Blackboard, 

to replace live lectures, cutting 

the number of scheduled classes in half. 

Students watch these videos at their 

convenience during the week. While 

the initial impetus for the videos was 

scheduling flexibility, they have had other 

significant benefits. “Students find it very 

valuable to be able to pause, rewind, and 

replay the videos. On average, videos are 

watched two to three times per student,” 

says Dr. Marchese. This means that 

students can refer to the actual lectures, 

rather than notes, as they are attempting 

to work through textbook assignments 

and solve problems. Classes, which 

are no longer devoted to lectures, are 

dedicated to working on problems and 

answering questions raised by the videos 

and homework. The classroom becomes 

far more interactive, with more time to 

promote students’ understanding of the 

material on the syllabus. 

“Improvements in student success through 

the calculus sequence will have a positive 

impact not only on time-to-degree and 

retention, but also on students’ broader 

mastery of their primary science and 

engineering major courses,” says Dr. 

Marchese. “In addition, the independent 

learning skills needed for the hybrid 

format will enhance student preparation 

for the professional workplace.” Dr. Marchese 

also points out that the videos can 

be improved and reused in subsequent 

semesters, making for more effective and 

efficient teaching. 


41

PHYSICS 

Introductory Physics Labs Go On-Line 

Use YouTube to teach physics? Why 

not, thought Yunpu Li, a CUNY PhD 

student and senior teaching assistant in 

the CCNY Physics Department. In 2011, 

Yunpu, who also works as a research 

assistant with Dr. Carlos Meriles in 

magnetic resonance imaging, received 

the Outstanding Teaching Assistant of the 

Year Award in a competition sponsored 

by the American Association of Physics 

Teachers (AAPT). As a teaching assistant, 

she tutors, grades papers, teaches labs and 

sometimes subs for professors in their 

classes. Her extensive classroom experience 

has convinced her that modern 

technologies can be integrated into 

teaching very successfully, and that students 

respond well to visual learning. 

Yunpu is also a skilled film-maker, who 

has been producing videos and films for 

seven years. Combining that experience 

with her knowledge of the classroom and 

command of physics, she initially made 

two physics demos, which she posted on 

YouTube. The response from faculty and 

students was so positive, that she kept on 

going. Yunpu has now made 20 demos. 

They walk undergraduates through the 

labs which are an essential part of the 

introductory physics courses required for 

majors in physics, chemistry, engineering, 

architecture, and the pre-med program. 

They have been a big hit and the number 

of subscribers keeps growing. “I believe,” 

she says, “that the demos have lightened 

the burden on instructors and prompted 

more students to engage in laboratory 

activities.” Yunpu is currently modifying 

the demos based on feedback. “This has 

been a team effort, highly supported by 

faculty, staff, and students in the Physics 

Department,” she says “with particular 

help from graduate students, Lukas Zhao, 

Jian Li, Bo Wen, and Wei Liu.” 

EARTH & ATMOSPHERIC 

SCIENCES 

New Courses Prepare Students to be 

Environmental Professionals 

Workforce preparedness is a critical issue, 

and it is an area where the CCNY 

Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences 

plans to stay ahead of the curve. 

Through contact with professionals in the 

environmental/engineering consulting 

industry, the Department identified the 

need to provide more in-depth training 

in the multi-faceted process of Environmental 

Site Assessments (ESA). In response, 

it has begun offering the first full 

courses in ESA available in the tri-state 

area. In 2010-2011, Adjunct Assistant 

Professor Angelos Lampousis developed 

and taught courses on Phase I and Phase 

II Environmental Site Assessments at the 

undergraduate and graduate levels. The 

courses give CCNY students a competitive 

edge by fitting them with the skills 

their industry is looking for, sparing 

employers much expensive and time-consuming 

on-the-job training. The courses 

also appeal to non-matriculated students, 

who are already in the field and find they 

lack adequate preparation. 

Dr. Lampousis, who holds a CUNY PhD 

in Environmental Geophysics and is 

doing postdoctoral research at Rutgers- 

Newark on behalf of the EPA, explains 

that the courses have three components. 

Lectures address the American Society for 

Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards 

related to Phase I and Phase II Environ- 

mental Site Assessments, utilizing ASTM’s 

10 Standards for Students Package, and 

provide hazardous materials training. The 

laboratory component includes a refresher 

on the physical properties of minerals 

and rocks and instruction in mapping 

science. Finally, field-work provides 

hands-on training in conducting Phase I 

and II inspections and takes students to 

active remediation sites. 

To stay abreast of employers’ needs and 

generate opportunities for CCNY’s 

aspiring environmental professionals, the 

Department is developing strong collaborations 

with key industry stakeholders. 

These include the CCNY alumni 

network within the U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency (Region 2); the 

ASTM Committee E50 on Environmental 

Assessment, Risk Management 

and Corrective Action; and the company, 

Environmental Data Resources of Milford, 

Connecticut, a leading US provider 

of environmental risk information. 


43

Chapter 

Spotlight on Supporters 

Honoring Dr. Sharon Cosloy 

The late Professor Sharon Cosloy was an 

iconic figure at CCNY. A brilliant scientist, 

in the field of prokaryotic genetics, she 

published classic papers on mechanisms 

of recombination in bacteria and on the 

synthesis of the heme molecule. A devoted 

teacher, she was a role model and mentor 

to her students, and was always available to 

encourage and support them. An administrator 

of note, she chaired the Department 

of Biology for six critical years, during which 

she steered it on a new course towards cell 

and molecular biology and neuroscience. 

Dr. Cosloy’s husband, Edward Blank, is a 

CCNY alumnus, who graduated in 1957 

with a degree in economics. Mr. Blank 

went on to become a pioneer in outbound 

telemarketing and a philanthropist and has 

served as the Jewish National Fund’s NGO 

representative to the United Nations. He 

has chosen to honor his late wife by supporting 

the College in which they shared 

a fervent belief and the department where 

Dr. Cosloy’s scholarship, teaching and leadership 

continues to be held in great respect. 

For the past six years, the Cosloy-Blank 

lecture series, which Mr. Blank established, 

has brought distinguished researchers in 

biology to CCNY. They have come from 

Princeton, The Rockefeller University, 

MIT, Washington University School of 

Medicine, and Harvard. The lectures afford 

CCNY students and faculty the opportunity 

to hear first-hand about the latest 

developments in biology, and they introduce 

visiting lecturers from prestigious 

institutions to the research being done 

on campus, raising the College’s profile 

in the scientific community. 

Mr. Blank has also established the Sharon 

Cosloy Professorial Fund to recruit a 

top-flight young biology research faculty 

member and an undergraduate scholarship 

to motivate promising students in 

biology. All three of these initiatives are 

playing a key role in promoting excellence 

in biology at CCNY. 

Mr. Edward Blank & Dr. Anuradha 

Janakiraman, recipient of the Sharon 

Cosloy Professorship. 

45

Professor Thomas Haines: A Lifetime of 

Dedication to CCNY 

For sixty years, as a student, faculty 

member, administrator, and innovator, 

Thomas Haines has dedicated himself to 

CCNY. In retirement, he continues his 

unstinting support for his alma mater’s 

mission of access and excellence. 

Professor Haines came to CCNY as an 

undergraduate in 1952. Having grown 

up in an orphanage, he found that 

CCNY, then-tuition-free, offered his 

only opportunity for a higher education. 

After his BS in chemistry and MS in 

education, he taught elementary school 

science. In 1964, while pursuing his doctorate 

at Rutgers, he returned to CCNY 

as a lecturer and soon was appointed an 

assistant professor of chemistry. Because 

CUNY lacked a biochemistry PhD 

program, Dr. Haines worked on the 

committee that established one, enabling 

his first PhD students to graduate from 

CUNY in that discipline. He is now 

Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry and 

Chemistry at the CUNY Graduate Center 

and CCNY. When he retired, he was 

appointed Visiting Professor at Rockefeller 

University, where he continues his 

research on the molecular architecture 

and dynamics of biological membranes. 

Dr. Haines considers his role in designing 

and founding the CUNY Medical 

School to be one of his most gratifying 

accomplishments. In the early 1970s, 

building on ideas first proposed at Johns 

Hopkins, he developed a curriculum 

for an undergraduate through two-year 

medical school, which he presented to 

CCNY President Robert Marshak. The 

three major goals of the program were to 

provide the inner city poor with 

access to medical education (a passion 

for Dr. Haines); to establish a program 

of high school admission to medicine (as 

practiced everywhere in the world but 

the US and Canada); and to emphasize 

primary care as a specialty in medicine. 

The new program became the Sophie 

Davis School of Biomedical Education, 

where Dr. Haines chaired Biochemistry 

for nearly 35 years. 

In retirement, Dr. Haines continues to 

direct the weekly CCNY Biochemistry/ 

Biophysics Seminar. At his invitation, 

leaders in the field come to the College 

to speak and also to meet with faculty 

and learn about the research being done 

on campus. He has also funded the 

Haines Science Alumni Scholarship, to 

be awarded each year to a student in biochemistry 

or biophysics. “For too long,” 

he says, “CCNY has been under-recognized 

for its contributions to science in 

America”. 

The Terry and Ruth Elkes Professorships: 

The Continuing Legacy of a Devoted Alumnus 

City College prides itself on being “a 

powerful avenue of access to the American 

Dream,” and Terry Elkes, one of the 

College’s most successful and devoted 

alumni, agreed whole-heartedly. He was 

born in the Bronx, became a lawyer, and 

rose to be president and CEO of Viacom 

International, and later president of 

Apollo Partners, which invests in media 

and entertainment companies. He never 

forgot the two institutions which were 

his pathways to success: CCNY and 

the University of Michigan Law School. 

CCNY was the springboard. In accepting 

the Townsend Harris Medal, the College’s 

highest alumni honor, Mr. Elkes said, “For 

me, what City College really represented 

was the only opportunity where someone 

with my background could obtain a first 

class education. It was a system that was 

based strictly on merit and tuition-free, 

and it was the gateway towards a career 

which I would not have been able to 

achieve. Today’s students deserve nothing 

less than that opportunity as well.” 

Terry Elkes graduated from City in 1955 

with a degree in Economics and Political 

Science and went on to earn a JD from 

the University of Michigan, where he 

met his wife, Ruth. They both believed 

fervently in public institutions of higher 

education, and sustained them through 

their generous and engaged philanthropy. 

Terry Elkes was a leading member of the 

City College 21st Century Foundation 

Board, and he and Ruth were named to 

the President’s Circle for their support 

of CCNY’s first capital campaign. 

Terry and Ruth Elkes shared a deep 

interest in science, and, during their 

lifetimes, they were instrumental in 

advancing the sciences at CCNY. They 

also believed that, to be competitive, 

public institutions must be empowered to 

compete for the best faculty. Their sons 

have honored both these convictions by 

establishing the Terry and Ruth Elkes 

Professorships in the CCNY Division of 

Science. True to the Elkes’s commitment 

to excellence in education, the professorships 

have gone to outstanding faculty 

members. Dr. Kyle McDonald, of Earth 

and Atmospheric Sciences, a leading 

researcher in microwave remote sensing 

of terrestrial ecosystems, holds the Terry 

Elkes Professorship. And, Dr. Gautam 

Chinta, of Mathematics, whose awardwinning 

scholarship spans number theory, 

automorphic forms and L-functions, is the 

newly appointed Ruth Elkes Professor. 


Chapter 

In Memoriam 

Harry Lustig 

Harry Lustig, a CCNY alumnus who 

served his alma mater as a professor, 

department chair, dean, provost and vice 

president for academic affairs, died on 

March 17, 2011 in Santa Fe. According 

to his friends, Professors Myriam 

Sarachik and Brian Schwartz, writing in 

Physics Today, “Harry lived a long, rich, 

and meaningful life. He will be missed 

by many for his strong commitment to 

justice and reason, his involvement in the 

world around him, his energy and 

creativity, his wit, and his deep and 

abiding friendship.” 

Born in Vienna, Austria, Dr. Lustig 

escaped with his immediate family from 

Hitler’s Europe. He arrived in New York 

speaking no English, and, two and a half 

years later, graduated from high school 

with top honors. During WWII he participated 

in the liberation of Europe, and 

then finished his education, earning his 

BS at City College and capping it with a 

doctorate in Physics from the University 

of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He 

then joined the CCNY Physics Depart- 

Juan Pajuelo 

Juan Pajuelo, a Senior College Lab Technician 

in the Physics Department, who 

had worked for City College for 24 years, 

passed away on February 7, 2011. Mr. 

Pajuelo’s sudden death of a heart attack 

was a great shock to all who knew him 

at CCNY. He was a key member of 

the Physics Department, who supported 

faculty and students alike and was highly 

invested in doing everything he could to 

help them succeed. He was known for 

his caring nature, sunny disposition, and 

ment to give back to his alma mater, and 

for the next 33 years played a major 

role at the College. As Chair of the 

Physics Department, he used an NSF 

grant to establish a center of excellence 

in physics, recruiting top talent to the 

department. As CCNY’s Dean of 

Science, he was instrumental in creating 

the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical 

Education, the Institute of Oceanography, 

and the Benjamin Levich Institute for 

Physico-Chemical Hydrodynamics. He 

retired as Provost and Vice President for 

Academic Affairs in 1986. 

Dr. Lustig enjoyed a second career at 

the American Physical Society, where he 

served for 10 years as Treasurer, greatly 

increasing the Society’s net worth and 

enhancing its educational, minority-outreach, 

and international programs. Ever 

the physicist, in 2000, he collaborated on 

a series of public symposia at the CUNY 

Graduate Center to coincide with the 

Broadway opening of the play, Copenhagen, 

which portrayed the wartime visit of 

Werner Heisenberg to Niels Bohr. 

great professional competence. A quiet 

but indispensable presence, he had a true 

genius for making labs run smoothly. 

Thanks to his eye for detail, faculty members 

always had the resources they needed 

at their fingertips. He was a special asset 

to new teaching assistants and to students 

in need of help. Juan Pajuelo made the 

Physics Department a better place, and he 

will be sorely missed. A memorial event 

in his honor was held in Marshak on 

September 15, 2011. 


Executive Officers: Ruth E. Stark, Acting Dean of Science (top left), Laurent Mars, Assistant Dean (bottom left), Millicent Roth, 

Deputy Dean, Undergraduates (top right), Elizabeth Rudolph, Deputy Dean, Graduate Studies/ Assessment (bottom right). 

50 Division of Science / Annual Report 2010-11 

Learn More About Our Programs At 

http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/prospective/science 

http://forum.sci.ccny.cuny.edu/ 

Contact Information 

Division of Science 

The City College of New York, CUNY 

Convent Avenue & 138th Street 

New York, New York 10031 

Office of the Dean 

Dr. Ruth E. Stark, Dean 

Marshak Science Building 

Room: MR-1320 

Phone: (212) 650-6850 

Fax: (212) 650-7948 

Email: dean@sci.ccny.cuny.edu 

Department of Biology 

Dr. Tadmiri Venkatesh, Chair 

Room: MR-526 

Phone: 212-650-6800 

Fax: 212-650-8585 

Email: biology@sci.ccny.cuny.edu 

Department of Chemistry 

Dr. Simon Simms, Chair 

Room: MR-1024 

Phone: 212-650-8402 

Fax: 212-650-6107 

Email: chem@sci.ccny.cuny.edu 

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Yue Chen 

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Dr. Jeff Steiner, Chair 

Room: MR-106 

Phone: 212-650-6984 

Fax: 212-650-6482 

Email: steiner@sci.ccny.cuny.edu 

Department of Mathematics 

Dr. Ralph Kopperman, Chair 

Room: NAC-8/133 

Phone: 212-650-5346 

Fax: 212-862-0004 

Email: math@sci.ccny.cuny.edu 

Department of Physics 

Dr. Marilyn Gunner, Chair 

Room: MR-419 

Phone: 212-650-6832 

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New York, NY 10031 

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