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Research Newsletter VOLUME 5, ISSUE 2 SPRING 2010 Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research Research Newsletter HIGHLIGHTS CUNY’S JOSEPH BIRMAN HONORED Page 1 Human Rights Advocacy FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY Distinguished Professor Joseph Birman receives Sakharov Prize Page 2-3 On February 14th 2010, Dr. Joseph FACULTY SPOTLIGHTS Birman (Cum Laude, '47), Distinguished Flor Henderson Professor of Physics at City College received the Brett Sims prestigious Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Vicki Flaris Thought at the “April in February” meeting of Tak Cheung the American Physical Society (APS) in Page 4 Washington DC for his nearly 35 years of New Undergrad Research Program advocacy in defense of the human rights of Research Office has started the scientists worldwide. In 2006, he received the new CUNY Summer Undergrad Heinz Pagels Award from the New York Academy Research Program (C-SURP) of Sciences, and his efforts were also honored by the 1994 publication, Theories of Page 10 Matter: A Festschrift for Professor Joseph Birman (World Scientific Pub.). CAREER Grant Incentive Program Research Office to provide 10% Continued on Page 20 supplement to 2010 CAREER Awards winners at CUNY Page 11 Harvesting Energy from Air Flow Yiannis Andreopoulos (CCNY) et al. use piezoelectrics to harvest Greetings from the electricity from exterior of planes Page 13 Vice Chancellor CUNY Nobel Science Challenge BMCC Sophomore Kimberly Thompson wins Grand Prize When you perform a broad search for “collaborative research” on the Page 16 Deforestation not cause of Mayan National Science Foundation website, you will get more than 20,000 hits. This is collapse? just a single indicator that many federal funding agencies such as the NSF and the Cameron McNeil (Lehman) et al. NIH are making the promotion and expansion of collaborative research initiatives find evidence that forests one of their primary objectives. This is not news to most researchers who are very increased near Copal during Fall familiar with this trend towards funding collaborative projects—which often Page 22 require the inclusion of faculty from multiple disciplines and sometimes from across Sticky Nature of Amyloids multiple institutions. This trend will only gain momentum as we tackle emerging Peter Lipke (Brooklyn) and complex problems that necessitate a multi-pronged approach such as global colleagues patent new method of warming, future energy sources, and the neurological problems associated with ‘declumping’ biofilms aging to name but a few. Continued on Page 23 www.cuny.edu/research Page 1 VOLUMEVOLUME 5, 4, ISSUE ISSUE 2 2 SPRINGWINTER 2010 2008 In this issue, we highlight four Community College faculty with creative research programs FACULTY SPOTLIGHT FLOR HENDERSON ASSISTANT PROFESSOR BIOLOGY, HOSTOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE Bonner Loren Dr. Flor Henderson has a personal as well as a professional mission at Hostos Community College in the Bronx, where she has been an Assistant Professor of Biology for the past seven years. Most of her students are immigrants who face certain challenges in their schooling, like language barriers. participate as a field research assistant with a Smithsonian group Dr. Henderson is all the more willing to put in the long hours to in Manu National Park in southeast Peru. It was a pivotal moment make sure they are well prepared for their futures in the in her career as a scientist. During a three-day canoe ride up the sciences. Manu river, Dr. Henderson was so struck by the palms that lined the river that she ended up dedicating the rest of her career to “Working here has meaning because I’m also an immigrant. I studying them. recognize the struggles, “ she said. She eventually came to the United States and earned a Ph.D. Dr. Henderson grew up in Peru and studied biology as an in Biology from the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research has undergraduate at Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del focused on the evolutionary developmental biology of palms, with Cusco. During her final year of study, she was invited to the goal of gathering new information of the palm family to Continued on Page 17 FACULTY SPOTLIGHT BRETT SIMS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MATHEMATICS, BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMM. COLLEGE Filippazzo Joe Dr. Brett Sims sees math everywhere. Sure, he’s been a theoretician for a decade and a Professor of Mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College for the past eight months, but his ability to model complicated systems extends far beyond his field of mathematical electrophysiology. Sims has a theory about higher education and the true role of mathematics — the study of electrical flow through organic the undergraduate student that, for him, is as simple as two plus tissue. two. Sims points out that most students have more trouble with “The idea for me has always been to cultivate the minds of the definition of a derivative than they do creating a model and students, leading them toward a research paradigm,” Sims says. composing a formula to describe a traveling heart pulse. For the “Above all, I want to lead them in a direction that exercises their mathematicians out there, there exists a non-trivial solution to ability to discover.” Sims manages this by encouraging his this problem: Use language that students can identify with and remedial math students to help him conduct research in some of give them opportunities to exercise their intuition. the most advanced and perhaps consequential topics within Continued on Page 16 www.cuny.edu/research Page 2 VOLUMEVOLUME 5, 4, ISSUE ISSUE 2 2 SPRINGWINTER 2010 2008 FACULTY SPOTLIGHT VICKI FLARIS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CHEMISTRY, BRONX COMMUNITY COLLEGE Dan Z. Johnson Through her direct experience in the materials science industry, Dr. Vicki Flaris, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, maintains a strong research program in her classroom at Bronx Community College. Canadian National Research Council in Montreal. The students Before joining the faculty at BCC, she worked for over 15 were exposed to new innovations in the field through two years at ICI, BASF, Huntsman, and DuPont Canada. In 2007, she company visits. A collaborative project between Dr. Flaris and was named President of the Society of Plastics Engineers — a the Research Council also resulted — focusing on determining position generally not considered for community college the efficiency of a mechanical device in extruding plastic professors. Although she's quite busy with her teaching and membranes to create more holes, increasing porosity. research responsibilities, Dr. Flaris realizes that maintaining her Dr. Flaris' research focuses on environmentally-friendly industry contacts only strengthens her research goals at BCC. membranes and the physical properties of these membranes, The relationships that result from attending conferences, such as pore size distribution and surface porosity. Her goal is to being president of the Society of Plastics Engineers, and generally demonstrate to her students that this type of research is possible stepping outside of the classroom, can open doors for research on the Bronx campus — albeit without a true laboratory, collaborations. Recently, Dr. Flaris took six of her students to the Continued on Page 18 FACULTY SPOTLIGHT TAK CHEUNG PROFESSOR PHYSICS, QUEENSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE Filippazzo Joe Dr. Tak Cheung admits, “I never imagined a career like this,” reflecting on his career of 20 years at Queensborough Community College. But just as his work focuses on fluctuations and discerning patterns from seemingly random behavior, perhaps his particular academic track wasn’t such a program that also engages students and gets them excited about random walk. In fact, a closer look at Dr. Cheung’s research science applications. interests, teaching methods, and career path, reveals an “Queensborough has a non-traditional program that gives unmistakable pattern — the clear portrait of a dedicated students something extra that they wouldn’t get normally (at a teacher begins to emerge. community college),” Dr. Cheung said, “and it’s a good direction The Physics Department at QCC currently has 12 full-time for our program.” faculty who have worked out a particularly efficient arrangement Understanding the demands of instruction and research, the that benefits both professor and student, even within the narrow physics faculty at QCC have created an advantageous and window of two-year associates degrees. By fully incorporating unique arrangement in which they cover each other’s classes their research into their course work, Dr. Cheung and his QCC when a research opportunity presents itself. This allows each of colleagues have been able to sustain a rigorous research them to conduct strong research programs in light of the high Continued on Page 19 www.cuny.edu/research Page 3 VOLUMEINVESTOR 5, NEWSLETTERISSUE 2 ISSUE N°3 SPRINGFALL 2010 2008 Did You Know? The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research has established the CUNY Summer Undergraduate Research Program (C- SURP). City College Associate Professor of Biology and Director of CCNY’s MARC and RISE programs, Jonathan Levitt, has been named the Director of the C-SURP program. For the inaugural round, the program received over 100 applications, including a dozen from outside of CUNY. For more information, visit the CUNY Summer Undergraduate Research Program homepage at: <http://www.cuny.edu/research/sr/csurp.html> Who Are the Uninsured? No single topic drives the health care reform debate children, and close to 40% were not employed during the last more than the number of uninsured Americans. But what do twelve months. we really know about those 47 million who are without In order to determine whether lack of coverage means healthcare coverage? A new study by Baruch College lack of access to healthcare services, Drs. O’Neill estimated the Economics Professors June and Dave O’Neill provides dollar amount of healthcare resources received by the fresh insights into who the uninsured really are, and how the uninsured. The estimates indicate that, on a per-capita basis, the lack of coverage affects them.
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