Q YOUR INVITATION TO OCTOBER 2 HOMECOMING INSIDE! THE MAGAZINE OF Queens College

VOL. X, NO. 1 FALL 2004

Spotlight on the Sciences USE ENCLOSED ENVELOPE TO RESERVE TODAY! THIS IS YOUR ONLY NOTICE!

FOR ALL ALUMNI COME BACK FOR THE DAY – CATCH UP ON A LIFETIME HOMECOMING DAY SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2004 9:30 AM – 5:30 PM

The day begins with registration and continental breakfast at 9:30 am in the Music Building and continues with lectures, exhibits, campus films, lunch with classmates, and campus tours. President Jim Muyskens will present 50th Anniversary Medals to the Class of ’54. There will be special hospitality for the classes of ’44 and ’54 and a closing reception at 4:30 pm. Dress is casual. Wear comfortable shoes. Bring your yearbook, photos, and camera!

Due to planning requirements (catering, seating, etc.), you must register by Monday, September 13. (Early replies greatly appreciated.) Sorry, we will not be able to accommodate walk-ins. Do you know graduates not in our database? Invite them to Homecoming and enjoy the day together.

Visit www.qc.cuny.edu/alumni_affairs for latest Homecoming details.

FREE ON-CAMPUS PARKING

See you October 2! COMMENCEMENT 2004 June 3 was a beautiful day for the college’s nearly 4,000 graduates and their families. Students received warm congratulations from U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall ’72, and a number of other dignitaries. Honorary doctorates were awarded to jazz great Jimmy Heath, the founder of the jazz studies program at the college, and research scientist Jeffrey Kordower ’80 (see page 14 for a profile). Once again, the complete Commence- ment ceremony was broadcast live on the Web and is available for viewing on Q the QC homepage (www.qc.cuny.edu). THE MAGAZINE OF Queens College

THIS ISSUE: In the first of a series of special themed issues, we examine the sciences at Queens, the research being done by faculty and the careers our students have made after graduation.

Photon Initiative: Finding a New Way to Look at Cancer ...... 4 By Bob Suter

Fashioning a Liberal Arts Curriculum for the 21st Century ...... 6 By Donald Scott

Fall 2004 Festival of Art . . . . . 9

Alumni Notes ...... 13

What Can You Do with a Science Degree?...... 14 By Leslie Jay & Donna Shoemaker

QC News ...... 16

Vol. X, No. 1, Fall 2004

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS Maria Terrone

EDITOR John Cassidy

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Dyanne Maue

STAFF WRITER Jacquelyn Southern

DESIGNER Georgine Ingber Photos: Nancy Bareis cover, pp. 2-6, 16 (Halperin), 17 (Heilman, Michels); Kathryn McGlynn, back cover We welcome your letters. Send them to: Q Magazine, Queens College, CUNY, Kiely Hall 1009, Flushing, NY 11367

Cover: Bonnie Gersten (Chemistry) working with students in her lab (see page 4). 3 Bonnie Gersten encourages students to work with her in the laboratory. “You don’t need to be the next Einstein to work well in the laboratory setting,” she says. Photon Initiative: Finding a New Way to Look at Cancer By Bob Suter

While the glint of gold may blind some, for at universities including Rockefeller, FIGHTING KLINGONS AND CANCER Bonnie Gersten (Chemistry) it offers a new Cornell, and Columbia. Mention the word photon and, for way of seeing. And it may mean hope for “Dr. Gersten’s research,” said Russell many, it conjures up images of Captain many afflicted with one of mankind’s most W. Bessette, executive director of NYS- Kirk launching bursts of photon torpedoes lethal maladies. “It’s a project to use TAR, “could lead to the creation of biosen- at an attacking Klingon spaceship in a Star biosensors for cancer detection,” she says, sors that improve our ability to detect can- Trek battle. That scenario may seem a little describing her novel concept for a nonsur- cer at an earlier stage, and it will also farfetched, but, like much of science gical way to detect lung cancers using a strengthen Queens College’s role in devel- fiction, it does have theoretical underpin- combination of fiber optics and nanoparti- oping new biotechnology innovations.” nings in current scientific thinking. cles of gold. In receiving this grant, Gersten is fulfill- “There’s nothing fantastic in this,” Gersten was recently selected to receive ing part of the mission of the City explains Lev Deych (Physics). “Light can a $200,000 grant for her project. The pres- University of New York’s Photonics exert pressure. As such, it can move things, tigious James D. Watson grant was award- Initiative, a universitywide effort launched it can crack things, it can crush things,” he ed in May by the New York State Office of in 2000 to make CUNY one of the coun- explains in soft, modulated tones resonant Science, Technology and Academic try’s premier research centers in photonics. with his origins in Tajikistan, one of the Research (NYSTAR). Only ten awards Photonics seeks to use laser beams, fiber former Soviet Republics. Deych, who were given statewide to, in Governor optics, and as-yet-to-be-developed materi- came to Queens in 2001, was the first to be George Pataki’s words, “our finest young als and technologies to create new ways to hired under the Photonics Initiative. biotechnology scientists and engineers.” use light energy (photons) in the fields of “Deych and Gersten are building on The awardees, who all have received their medicine, communications, and military strengths that exist at CUNY and at Queens doctorates in the last five years, are based defense. as well,” observes Thomas Strekas,

. 4 Q THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE FALL 2004 Dean of Mathematics and Natural unlike one of those early semiconductor puters. And, as semiconductors were the Sciences, referring to the presence on cam- pioneers. Only, where they were trying to substance essential to creating the last great pus of Harry Gafney (Chemistry), theoreti- find better materials to transmit electronic technological revolution, the next revolu- cian Alexander Lisyansky (Physics), and impulses, he is working on better materials tion may be built on photonic crystals. Azriel Genack (Physics). to transmit impulses of light. “What is new about photonic crystals,” “Genack really developed the concept of “In a way we’re getting back to the days Deych says, referring to the micro-sized the photonic band gap,” Gersten says, refer- when people would transmit information by elements Gersten is creating in her lab, “is ring to the area of photonics that is the focus setting fires on hills,” he says, pausing to let now we’re devising ways to control light of research at Queens. She then explains that image take hold, then adding: “but in a propagation in a much more sophisticated how the concept, which has been around lit- much more sophisticated way. If there is way.” Some of the applications he foresees tle more than a decade, is propelling her light, it means one thing. If there is no light, include optical switches, new types of opti- efforts: “It’s really opened up an area of it means another. If light is this intensity, it cal filters, and so-called super lenses more engineering. . . . The physics has been devel- is one bit of information; if it is that intensi- sophisticated than anything we have now. oped. Now, what can we do with it?” ty, it is another bit of information.” “It’s a nice goal to replace wires with Prior to coming to Queens, Gersten had “The main idea of photonics is to find fibers,” explains Deych, “but, once you get worked as a materials engineer at the Army ways to monitor wave light, to send light to the smaller and smaller scale, you have a Research Lab in Aberdeen, MD, with where we want it to go, to change the prop- lot of problems controlling light,” which is which she still maintains a working rela- erties of light the way we want to change it the very essence of his research funded by tionship. “I’m primarily interested in syn- and then use it for various applications. a grant from the Air Force Office of thesis of materials and developing them for And this has been done for a long time Scientific Research. new applications,” she says. For example, already,” he says, citing the use of optical Despite the demands of research, stu- Gersten has worked with boron carbide fibers and lasers. dents come first for Deych and Gersten. nanoparticles and nanowires to improve the Indeed, Deych spent part of his summer hardness of armor. She is also researching BUILDING A BETTER LASER recruiting students at Moscow State ways to enhance the receptivity of antennas. But science always looks for a better University for QC’s graduate program. “Photonic band gap,” she continues, “is way. Deych proceeds to explain the con- “I'm also here to teach undergraduates the frequency in which light is not permit- cept of controlled spontaneous emission of how to do research,” says Gersten. “I ted.” Some of the same materials she is light, a way to theoretically transmit light have five students I'm presently working working with for armor applications may, over great distances with minimal or no with this summer and I have one graduate when combined with the right substances, loss. This is the most important step in cre- student and one post doc. What I’m try- produce photonic crystals that can control ating more efficient types of lasers. There ing to do,” she declares emphatically, “is aspects of laser light. This could lead to is also the potential to use photonics with make a difference. And, if nothing else, at more precise applications. And this is semiconductors to create significantly least teach my students how to make a where her research in chemistry ties in with faster, more energy-efficient optical com- difference.” Deych’s research in physics.

A FIRE ON A HILL “The name photonics,” Deych observes dryly, “is a kind of a misnomer. It just sounds cool. In a broad sense it encom- passes almost all literature in optics. In a more narrow sense, when people talk about photonics they have in mind more modern types of structures in which light exhibits rather unusual properties Ð artificial struc- tures which hadn’t been designed or creat- ed ten years ago.” Deych uses the analogy of the develop- ment of semiconductors, the materials that made possible the personal computer and other technologies that have changed the ways we work and communicate. “Scientists looked at them as trash that could not be used because they were extremely unpredictable. It’s only as scien- tists devised ways to purify these sub- stances that they became suitable material. This is when the whole revolution began.” Lev Deych’s summer plans included encouraging students at Moscow State University to study physics at Queens. “If I convince 10 people to apply, I will consider the trip a success.” Deych finds himself in a position not

. FALL 2004 Q THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE 5

In Queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the nation, cultures once oceans away are now next-door neighborhoods. Our campus has become a microcosm of this global society. In what ways should our curriculum enable students to thrive in such diversity?

Fashioning a Liberal Arts Curriculum for the 21st Century

By Don Scott, Dean of Social Sciences

t the beginning of the spring process; Yale University completed a Computers were experimental objects in 2003 semester, President James study last year; and this spring Harvard the 1970s, and there was no Internet to AMuyskens invited the Queens University issued a report calling for sig- disseminate information in microseconds. College community to address the ques- nificant changes in the core curriculum it Information literacy has a very different tion of what we want our students to had established in the mid-1970s. meaning today than even 10 years ago, know and be able to do as a result of much less 30. Technology plays a larger their college education. He established a The Task Force embraced President role in our lives than at any other time in special Task Force on General Education Muyskens’ challenge as an opportunity, history. What role should the college play Ð composed of faculty from all four divi- rare in any academic lifetime, for the in making technology understandable? sions and all professorial ranks Ð and college community to address the most Usable? How do we help our students challenged it to think deeply about what fundamental questions facing it. It takes address the moral and ethical issues asso- is the ideal undergraduate curriculum. seriously the college’s motto, “We Learn ciated with that technology? At the end of its three-semester effort, in Order to Serve.” A vision of the uni- the Task Force would prepare a compre- versity as a humane force in a global In Queens, the most ethnically diverse hensive final report and set of recom- society has guided its discussion and county in the nation, cultures once oceans mendations. deeply influenced its recommendations. away are now next-door neighborhoods. At the end of their undergraduate career, Our campus has become a microcosm of President Muyskens’ call for a thorough our students should have gone beyond this global society. In what ways should review of general education is especially simply acquiring knowledge and analyti- our curriculum enable students to thrive in timely as it has been nearly a quarter cal and communicative skills; they such diversity? The ever-faster speed of century since the college last did so. In should be prepared to take their place as transportation and information transfer that time, unprecedented changes have citizens of the world. mirrors the quickened pace of daily life. swept the world, especially in the ways How can we best prepare our graduates to in which knowledge is created, organ- The explosion of knowledge over the make intelligent decisions in the face of ized, and disseminated. These changes past three decades demands a re-exami- such rapid change? In an increasingly cyn- require us to review and, if necessary, nation of what our students, as educated ical society, what role can education play revise our curriculum to ensure that it citizens, should know and be able to do. in addressing ethics and the nature and serves the mission of the college and the Entirely new disciplines have arisen, meaning of a participatory democracy? needs of our students. enormous volumes of new information have been added to established fields, here is an even more compelling The college is not alone in undertaking and “the” literary canon now extends reason for Queens College to this examination of general and liberal across the globe. How can we absorb and Tundertake a review at this time, a education. Indeed, our sister institutions accommodate this new knowledge and reason that goes to the heart of the pro- in CUNY are engaged in a similar prepare students to understand it? foundly democratic and uniquely

Left: Dean Donald Scott in front of the newly renovated Powdermaker Hall . FALL 2004 Q THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE 7 American mission with which the college evaluate different viewpoints; to under- How the was founded and which it has long con- stand how different kinds of arguments tinued to serve. Today, unfortunately, are constructed Ð to recognize the Task Force Worked many would argue that liberal education assumptions and purposes that inform In spring 2003 the Task Force conducted is a relic of the past, suitable only for the them Ð and evaluate them; and they need a series of faculty and student forums, few who can afford to attend expensive, to learn how to construct their own logi- solicited opinions from across the com- well-endowed private institutions. The cal and persuasive arguments. munity, and presented its initial report to truth, of course, is just the opposite. The the President. That fall the President liberal education that a diverse, heavily hese two concerns have shaped the released the report, which served as the immigrant-based, urban public institution Task Force’s report and recom- framework for yearlong discussions. such as Queens College has been dedicat- Tmendations. In an academic world During the fall the Task Force held a ed to is more essential than ever. in which knowledge is increasingly frag- mented, specialized, and professionalized series of faculty forums on the report; members met with chairs’ committees For thousands of students otherwise cut while also crossing disciplinary bound- off from the possibility of higher educa- aries in unprecedented ways, general edu- of each division, as well as with the tion, Queens offers access to an education cation must enable students to make con- Undergraduate Curriculum Committee that leads to a better life. Just as impor- nections across course and disciplinary of the Academic Senate. In addition, the tant, the college has long provided its stu- boundaries and between their education coordinator and other members of the dents with a more profound kind of entry and the constantly changing world. Task Force met regularly with the presi- into a broader world of knowledge, Moreover, the Task Force believes that dent, vice president, and chairs of the understanding, and appreciation, expand- general education should not be confined Academic Affairs Committee of the ing the mind and heart, while fostering to a set of courses taken only at the outset Student Government. In late November of a student’s undergraduate career; it understanding of the ethical dimensions the Student Government held an open must extend throughout the whole of it. of individual and collective behavior and forum on the report that members of the responsibility. Accordingly, it recommends a two-tier system of areas-of-knowledge require- Task Force attended. ments, with three courses, designed Two issues have dominated the national On the basis of these discussions, the around integration and synthesis, to be discussion of general education. The first Task Force organized working groups to has to do with the character of knowledge taken in students’ last two years. examine four key dimensions of general itself. As Vartan Gergorian, president of education: The Entry Experience, Areas the Carnegie Corporation and former The capacity for critical thinking is also a president of Brown University and the fundamental goal that must be addressed of Knowledge, Suffusing Critical Abilities New York Public Library, put it, “The through the course of a liberal education. throughout the Curriculum, and An fundamental problem underlying the dis- But rather than consider “critical think- Integrative Capstone Experience. jointed curriculum [that characterizes ing” a discrete “ability” to be taught in a These working groups, with over 60 most of higher education] is the fragmen- few basic courses, the Task Force has tation of knowledge itself. Higher identified a set of core critical abilities faculty and staff members, met intensive- Education has atomized knowledge by that constitute critical thinking. It recom- ly for eight weeks in the spring and pro- dividing it into disciplines, sub-disci- mends that these abilities be incorporated duced a number of suggestions. Finally, plines, and sub-sub-disciplines Ð breaking into general education requirements, and the Task Force drew heavily on the it into smaller and smaller unconnected that the responsibility for equipping stu- efforts of these groups and the ideas fragments of academic specialization.” dents with these abilities be suffused generated in various forums to produce This is not a trivial problem, for as throughout the curriculum and embedded its final Report and Recommendations. Gergorian says, “understanding the nature in courses at every level. of knowledge, its unity, its varieties, Task Force Members its limitations, and its uses and abuses The Report and Recommendations of the Ali Ahmed, Comparative Literature is necessary for the success of our President’s Task Force on General June Bobb, Africana Studies and democracy.” Education will be presented to the college English community on September 1 for discus- Martin Braun, Mathematics The second issue has to do with what is sion and debate, consideration by the Mary Bushnell-Grenier, Elementary often referred to as “critical thinking.” Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Education and a vote by the Academic Senate. The Raymond Erickson, Music Few refrains have been more insistent in members of the Task Force look forward Allan Ludman, Earth and the many recent calls for reform than the to a lively discussion and feel confident Environmental Sciences need for “critical thinking.” Students that the final result will be of great bene- Frederick Purnell, Philosophy must understand that knowledge is con- fit to all our students and the reputation Robin Rogers-Dillon, Sociology structed from “data” and “evidence” of the college. Donald Scott, Dean of Social Sciences (themselves subject to debate and dis- and Professor of History, Coordinator pute); they need to learn to identify and

. 8 Q THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE FALL 2004 SPECIAL PULL-OUT CALENDAR QUEENS COLLEGE FALL 2004 FESTIVAL OF ART Your guide to the best of the arts in Queens

Clockwise from top left: author Tom Wolfe, Diagonal Route by Professor Emeritus Clinton Hill, Still Life with Amphora and Fish by artist Yiannes, Louis Armstrong with wife, Lucille, Clara’s Dream: A Jazz Nutcracker, QC music director, Michael Mossman, choreographer Yin Mei.

10 AUGUST 20–OCTOBER 24, 2004 LOUIS ARMSTRONG HOUSE MUSEUM 23THURS 27WED IN HIS SPARE TIME ALUMNI COMPOSERS CONCERT: Leo Kraft QUEENS COLLEGE ORCHESTRA: Maurice Louis Armstrong was a world-famous trumpet ’45 and Friends, with Morey Ritt ’65, piano. Ma Vlast player, vocalist, and actor. He per- Peress, music director. , (My LeFrak Concert Hall, 12:15 pm. formed an average of 300 concerts Country). LeFrak Concert Hall, 12:15 pm. each year, with his frequent tours to all parts of the world earning 30THURS him the nickname “Ambassador FACULTY RECITAL: Jan-Piet Knijff performing Satch.” This exhibit looks at how on the Maynard-Walker Memorial Organ. LeFrak Pops passed frequent lulls in his busy touring Concert Hall, 12:15 pm. schedule, and explores the private world of the offstage Louis Armstrong. The Museum is locat- ed at 34-56 107th St., Corona, NY 11368. For information, call 718-478-8274. OCTOBER Maurice Peress 7 THURS 28–31THURS–SUN ALUMNI CONCERT: Daijiro Ukon (MA ’04) SEPTEMBER THE COLLEGE PLAYS: A festival of world conducting the Queens Sinfonietta in Pierrot premiere short plays in college settings, SEPTEMBER 9–OCTOBER 27, 2004 Lunaire by Arnold Schönberg. LeFrak Concert directed by Susan Einhorn. Rathaus Hall, M 11. QUEENS COLLEGE ART CENTER Hall, 12:15 pm. Rosenthal Library, 6th Floor Thurs, 7 pm; Fri & Sat, 8 pm; Sun, 3 pm. $13/$10 QCID, seniors, alumni. For ticket infor- DENNIS CADY: BY LAND OR BY SEA, OCTOBER 13–DECEMBER 15, 2004 mation, call 718-997-3095. PAINTINGS, PRINTS AND SCULPTURE, GODWIN-TERNBACH MUSEUM 1982–2004 Klapper Hall, Room 405 GALLERY TALK AND RECEPTION: RECENT ACQUISITIONS: 1998–2004 Thursday, September 9, 5–8 pm. New York A selection of gifts generously donated to NOVEMBER landscape painter Dennis Cady, based in New the Museum by alumni and friends since 1998, York City and the Hudson Valley, will exhibit representing works in all media, periods, and NOVEMBER 2, 2004–JANUARY 9, 2005 over 50 works, including paintings, prints, water- cultures. Free public programs include a LOUIS ARMSTRONG HOUSE MUSEUM colors, and sculpture. His richly colored land- LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME: LOUIS walk-through of the exhibition and guest scapes, including those of the Hudson Valley, ARMSTRONG AND THE WOMEN lectures by noted curators and scholars. Long Island, the Catskill and Adirondack regions, IN HIS LIFE Hours: Mon–Thurs, 11 am–7 pm; Sat, and the Northwest from where he hails, capture From his grandmother, to his mother 11 am–5 pm. For program information and the spirit of the land and the changing moods and sister, to his four wives, women played an schedules, call 718-997-4724. of each unique setting. Hours: Mon–Thurs, important role in the development of Louis 9 am–8 pm; Fri, 9 am–5 pm. Closed weekends Armstrong as man and musician. The Museum and holidays. 17 is located at 34-56 107th St., Corona, NY SUN 11368. For information, call 718-478-8274. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT 20 ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION: American MON Premiere of Felix Mendelssohn’s Humboldt NOVEMBER 3–DECEMBER 23, 2004 FACULTY RECITAL: Art Songs and Operatic cantata, James John, conductor. Elebash Recital QUEENS COLLEGE ART CENTER Arias. Meredith Parsons McComb, soprano, and Hall, CUNY Graduate Center (5th Avenue and Rosenthal Library, 6th Floor Charles Burkhart, piano. LeFrak Concert Hall, 34th Street), 3 pm. YIANNES: CERAMIC SCULPTURE 12:15 pm. Co-sponsored by the Foundation for Hellenic Culture, New York City. Queens College Gallery 21THURS Talk and Reception: Thursday, November 4, 5–8 QUEENS COLLEGE CHOIR AND CHORUS: pm. The Greek-born sculptor and multimedia James John and Cindy Bell, conductors. artist known as Yiannes will exhibit his clay sculp- LeFrak Concert Hall, 12:15 pm. tures, spanning several decades of work. Yiannes, who teaches in the Art Department of Queens College as well as in its Continuing Education pro- 21–24THURS–SUN gram, utilizes various materials with his clay, such THE COLLEGE PLAYS: A festival of world as wood, rope, wire, and glass, to achieve maxi- premiere short plays in college settings, mum expression. His metaphorical works, rich directed by Susan Einhorn. Rathaus Hall, M 11. with symbolism, also convey something of the Thurs, 7 pm; Fri & Sat, 8 pm; Sun, 3 pm. land and earth of his Greek heritage. Hours: $13/$10 QCID, seniors, alumni. For ticket Mon–Thurs, 9 am–8 pm; Fri, 9 am–5 pm. information, call 718-997-3095. Closed weekends and holidays.

3WED VOCAL SEMINAR PERFORMANCE: Claudio Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea in a new English translation staged by David Eagle Creek by Dennis Cady Leighton. LeFrak Concert Hall, 12:15 pm. 10WED 22MON 9–12THURS–SUN QUEENS COLLEGE ORCHESTRA GALA QUEENS COLLEGE PERCUSSION DANCE CONCERT: Directed by Yin Mei EVENING CONCERT: Maurice Peress, music ENSEMBLE: Michael Lipsey, director; special Critchell, featuring choreography by guest director. Mozart concertos featuring David guest David Cossin. Music of Ralph Shapey. artists Eiko & Koma. Goldstein Theatre Jolley, horn, Daniel Phillips, violin, and Morey LeFrak Concert Hall, 12:15 pm. Mainstage. Thurs, 7 pm; Fri & Sat, 8 pm; Ritt, piano; Edward Smaldone, Trio Concertino Sun, 3 pm. $13/$10 QCID, seniors, alumni. (world premiere). LeFrak Concert Hall, 7:30 pm. 23TUES For ticket information, call 718-997-3095. EVENING READING: A Tribute to Roger QUEENS COLLEGE GRADUATE AND Straus. With Jonathan Galassi, Jamaica Kincaid, DIRECTORS SYMPHONIC WINDS CONCERT: 11 Richard Sang, director. LeFrak Concert Hall, SAT Norman Manea, Susan Sontag, Derek Walcott, 7:30 pm. QUEENS COLLEGE CHORAL SOCIETY and Tom Wolfe. Roger Straus, of Farrar, Straus WINTER CONCERT: Joseph Haydn’s Lord & Giroux, was one of the most important pub- Nelson Mass, James John, conductor. Colden lishers in contemporary literature, a “brash and 28SUN Auditorium, 8 pm. $15 orch, $13 mezz; $2 opinionated grandee who presided for nearly six KIDSCLASSICS: Brass. First concert in a series alumni discount. For ticket information, call decades over the book-publishing company that designed to teach youngsters about the parts of 718-793-8080. (The New York Times). bore his name . . . ” Music the orchestra in a fun way. Pre-concert activities Building, 7 pm. $15. For ticket information, call and Fun Book included. Recommended for chil- 12 718-793-8080. dren ages 5–10. LeFrak Concert Hall, 3 pm. SUN Single Tickets: $12. Five-Event Series: $40. For NEWSDAY FAMILY THEATRE tickets or information, call 718-793-8080. CLARA’S DREAM: A JAZZ NUTCRACKER: 15MON Inspired by the Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn QUEENS COLLEGE BRASS STUDIO RECITAL: jazz version of Tchaikovsky’s fairy tale ballet, David Jolley, instructor. LeFrak Concert Hall, 30TUES Clara’s Dream is a high voltage, swinging, and 12:15 pm. EVENING READING: Cynthia Ozick. The sophisticated modern-day classic where the National Book Critic Circle Award-winning dancers wear tap shoes, the nutcracker gets a 17 author of the novels The Shawl, The Messiah of red zoot suit, and Clara gets whisked away to WED Stockholm, The Puttermesser Papers, and forth- a posh 1940s nightclub! Colden Auditorium, 7 QUEENS COLLEGE WIND ENSEMBLE: coming Heir to the Glimmering World, has been pm. Adults: $15, Children 12 and under $12. Michael Lipsey, conductor. LeFrak Concert described by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as “one For tickets or information, call 718-793-8080. Hall, 12:15 pm. of the finest and most imaginative writers of our time.” In addition to reading from her work, Ms. 13MON 18THURS Ozick will also be interviewed by Leonard Lopate. Music Building, 7 pm, $10. For ticket CHORAL COFFEE BREAK: Holiday Songs LONG ISLAND COMPOSERS ALLIANCE information, call 718-793-8080. and Carols. Queens College Choir and Chorus, CONCERT: LeFrak Concert Hall, 12:15 pm. James John and Cindy Bell, conductors. Norman and Carole Barham Rotunda, Rosenthal Library, CHORAL COFFEE BREAK: Queens College 12:15 pm. Choir and Chorus, James John and Cindy Bell, DECEMBER conductors. Norman and Carole Barham Rotunda, Rosenthal Library, 12:15 pm. 6MON AN EVENING OF CHORAL MUSIC: 19FRI Queens College Choir and Chorus, James John GUEST PERFORMANCE: and Cindy Bell, conductors. LeFrak Concert Sharmila Daniel, soprano, and Andrew Hall, 7:30 pm. Saderman, piano. Highlights from Puccini’s La Bohème. LeFrak Concert Hall, 7:30 pm. 7TUES GRADUATE 21 STUDENT COMPOSERS KidsClassics SUN CONCERT: Bruce Saylor, CECILE LICAD, PIANO: coordinator. First of five events in the LeFrak Concert Hall, Colden Center Classical 7:30 pm. 19SUN Concert Series. LeFrak KIDSCLASSICS: Woodwinds. Second concert Concert Hall, 2 pm. Single in a series designed to teach youngsters about Tickets: $34; Five-Event Series: the parts of the orchestra in a fun way. $140. For tickets or informa- Pre-concert activities and Fun Book included. tion, call 718-793-8080. Recommended for children ages 5–10. LeFrak Concert Hall, 3 pm. $12. For ticket information, Cecile Licad call 718-793-8080.

This calendar is only a partial list of fall events. For complete listings, see next page for individual department contact information or visit www.qc.cuny.edu. Programs are subject to change. Call ahead for confirmation of artists, dates, and times. AARON COPLAND SCHOOL OF MUSIC donation of art to the Godwin-Ternbach EVENING READINGS The Aaron Copland School of Music presents an Museum, please call 718-997-4724. Queens College Evening Readings celebrates exciting series of mostly free events featuring Hours: Mon–Thurs, 11 am–7 pm; Sat, 11 its 29th Anniversary Season with readings and faculty, students, alumni, and distinguished am–5 pm. For information, call 718-997-4724 interviews with some of the greatest living guests. To receive a complete Music Calendar, or visit www.qc.cuny.edu/art/gtmus.html. writers in the world, from Nobel Laureate send your name and address to the School of Derek Walcott to Cynthia Ozick to Jamaica Music office (Music Building, Room 203A). Kincaid and Tom Wolfe. For information, call 718-997-3800 or access LOUIS ARMSTRONG HOUSE For information, call 718-997-4646, or visit the Events Calendar on the Web at Louis Armstrong House www.qc.cuny.edu/readings. To order Season www.qc.cuny.edu. 34-56 107th Street, Corona, NY 11368 Tickets, call the Colden Center Box Office Louis Armstrong was an international celebrity at 718-793-8080. who could have lived anywhere. In 1943 he and COLDEN CENTER FOR THE his wife, Lucille, settled in a modest house in Directions: www.qc.cuny.edu/directions PERFORMING ARTS Corona, Queens, where they lived for the Colden Center for the Performing Arts has been remainder of their lives. This unpretentious presenting the finest artists and attractions to house was Louis’s haven from the road, a home the metropolitan region since 1961, offering a where he entertained friends and neighbors, and sophisticated range of classical music, jazz, con- where he created a remarkable record of his life temporary entertainment, and children’s events. through his writings, collages, and home record- Colden Center is comprised of the 2,127-seat ings. The Louis Armstrong House offers hourly Colden Auditorium and the 489-seat LeFrak tours, interpretive exhibits, a gift shop, and spe- Concert Hall, a recital hall boasting state-of-the- cial events in the Armstrong garden. art acoustics and recording facilities. Both ven- Hours: Tues–Fri, 10 am–5 pm; Sat & Sun, ues are available for rental year-round. 12 noon–5 pm; closed on some holidays. BOX OFFICE HOURS: Mon, 10 am–4 pm; Wed, Admission: adults: $8; seniors, students, 12 noon–8 pm; Fri, 12–4 pm; Saturday, 10 and children: $6; Group rate: $6; Current am–2 pm. Discounts are available for groups, Members: Free. Group tours are available. seniors, students, and alumni. For informa- For information, call 718-478-8274, or visit The generosity of alumni and friends tion, to receive a season brochure, or to be www.satchmo.net. keeps the arts alive at Queens College. placed on our email list, please call 718-793- Be a patron of the arts by making a 8080, or visit www.coldencenter.org. tax-deductible gift to any of the THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG ARCHIVES departments listed below: Benjamin Rosenthal Library, Room 332 DRAMA, THEATRE & DANCE The Louis Armstrong Archives is the home of Aaron Copland School of Music The Drama, Theatre & Dance Department pro- Louis and Lucille Armstrong’s personal belong- 718-997-3800 duces four mainstage productions each season: a ings originally found in the Armstrong home. musical or opera (co-produced with the School Included in the collection are 1,600 sound Colden Center for the of Music), a classical play, a contemporary or recordings, 650 home-recorded audio tapes in Performing Arts 718-544-2996 world premiere production, and a dance con- hand-decorated tape boxes, 86 scrapbooks, cert. These are directed by our faculty and guest 5,000 photographs, 270 sets of big band parts, Department of Drama, artists. The department offers an intensive cur- 120 awards and plaques, and much more. Theatre & Dance 718-997-3090 riculum in all areas of theatre, literature, history, Between 100 and 200 new items are added to acting, directing, design, musical theatre, and the collection annually. The Armstrong Archives dance training in modern, ballet, tap, jazz, Asian is open to the public free of charge. Godwin-Ternbach Museum 718-997-4724 dance forms, Caribbean and African dance, as Hours: Open by appointment. For more well as dance history. information, call 718-997-3670 or visit For information, call the Arts Hotline at www.satchmo.net. Louis Armstrong House 718-997-3095. & Archives 718-997-3670

Queens College Art Center QUEENS COLLEGE ART CENTER 718-997-3770 GODWIN-TERNBACH MUSEUM Rosenthal Library, 6th Floor Klapper Hall, Room 405 The Queens College Art Center welcomes Conceived as a teaching institution, the Godwin- Queens College Evening Readings you to its seventeenth season in the Benjamin 718-997-4646 Ternbach Museum is a professional not-for-profit S. Rosenthal Library. The program features a art museum with a comprehensive permanent variety of exhibitions of modern and contempo- And when making a donation, ask your collection of 3,500 objects, ranging from the rary art, presenting the works of both emerging company if they have a matching-gift ancient world to the present day. Exhibitions, and established artists in diverse media. which alternate between showcases of the col- program or are interested in a lection and special presentations of contempo- Hours: Mon–Thurs, 9 am–8 pm; Fri, 9 am– corporate sponsorship. rary and historical significance, are designed as 5 pm. Closed weekends and holidays. For cultural and educational vehicles for students, information, please call 718-997-3770, or visit faculty, and public audiences alike. Recently we www.qc.cuny.edu/Library/art/artcenter.html. have received over 500 gifts of objects from alumni and friends of the museum. To make a Fall 2004 head of St. Paul’s School for Girls acoustics. My research field was food in all 50 states. Since publica- in Baltimore Ð Evelyn A. Flory is and is plasma physics. Now I am tion of their 1973 best-seller The retired and lives in Princeton. “In doing computer simulations of the Supermarket Handbook, the Gold- addition to the usual retirement plasma boundary in the DIII-D becks have coauthored several activities (travel, writing, family, tokamak at General Atomics Lab books on diet and lifestyle. Previ- etc.), I have set up my own busi- here in San Diego.” You can ously, David directed a community ness for selling my late husband’s contact Neil at [email protected] legal service program (after com- paintings. I can scarcely believe . . . 1959: Marian Kaplun pleting his BA in economics, he Q that I am only two years away from Shapiro began her professional life obtained his LLB from Brooklyn my fiftieth reunion!” she writes . . . as an English teacher, before return- Law School). The Goldbecks live 1957: Marvin Miller was ing to graduate school at Harvard in in Woodstock, NY . . . 1965: awarded a grant by the Puffin 1974. Since receiving a doctorate in Lynne Friedman (MS ’74) is a Alumni Notes Foundation to prepare a slide 1978, she has been practicing as a painter who lives in Kingston, NY. lecture on the Vatican and the psychologist, specializing in In May she had 1950: Virginia Lucas Freye Holocaust. Marvin previously trauma. Marian has written one her sixth solo and Henry B. Freye (né Freydberg) presented slide lectures on related professional book, chapters in show in New ’52 write that despite the passage of topics to religious groups, schools, psychology anthologies, and many York City at Noho more than 50 years, they still care libraries, Holocaust centers, Elder- journal articles. Recently, she Gallery in Man- about what goes on at their alma hostel groups, and historical soci- returned to her first love: poetry hattan, featuring mater. Henry was co-captain of the eties . . . The Boston University (she first published in QC’s Spec- work created QC soccer team and played in the School of Music recently honored trum). In the past three years she during an art Orchestra-Band. Henry and Virginia Joel L. Sheveloff, professor of has published in many small poetry residency in New Mexico, awarded met at the college and married in music and chair- journals and received six prizes. to her by the Helene Wurlitzer l954. Virginia went on to a career at man of the musi- Married for 44 years to Irwin Foundation in Taos. Lynne received Sloan-Kettering Institute, Ciba cology department, Shapiro, a physicist, she has two a doctorate in art education from Pharmaceutical, Duke University, with its highest married children and three grand- Columbia University’s Teachers and the University of California at teaching award, the children. Marian lives in Lexington, College. Her work is in the collec- San Francisco, where she authored Metcalf Cup. Joel MA, where she has a private prac- tions of Pfizer, McGraw-Hill, and or coauthored 13 scientific publica- has been teaching tice . . . 1962: Ira Greene (MA IBM . . . Robert Levy is president tions. Henry graduated from Duke at BU since 1964 ’65) is a partner in the Brooklyn of the New York University Medical School in 1959 and has developed and taught over law firm of Wenig, Ginsberg, Chapter of Tax and returned there for a pediatric 50 courses, ranging from medieval Saltiel & Greene LLP, which con- Executives Insti- residency, followed by a fellowship keyboard music to music in the centrates on complex real estate tute, the premier in allergy and immunology at Duke Soviet Union. His articles have and landlord-tenant litigation . . . professional organ- and CHMC in Boston. He joined been published in Current Musicol- 1963: Gary A. Leo is president ization for in-house the faculty of Brown University in ogy, Chigiana, Musica Poetica, and chief execu- corporate tax 1965 and started a private practice Symphony Newsletter, Critical tive officer of the attorneys and tax in Rhode Island and Connecticut, Inquiry, and other journals. Joel has ALS Association accountants . . . 1967: Ira which he continues on a part-time also conducted lecture series about (ALSA), the Strauber was awarded the national basis. Henry and Virginia have Bach, Handel, Domenico Scarlatti, nation’s preemi- C. Herman Pritchett Award for his three grown children . . . 1956: and contemporary musical issues. nent organization book Neglected Policies: Constitu- Marcia Ascher is an emerita pro- Joel, who earned his MFA and PhD in the fight tional Law and Legal Commentary fessor of mathematics at Ithaca from Brandeis University, is against amyo- as Civic Education (Duke Univer- College in Ithaca, NY. She has married to Thea Jones (’59) . . . trophic lateral sclerosis, commonly sity Press). The award is made by written several highly regarded 1958: Neil Wolf received his known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Continued on page 18 books on the relationship between master’s degree (1960) and doctor- Gary has more than 30 years of culture and mathematical ideas and ate (1966) in physics from the experience in management, on applications of mathematics to IN SYMPATHY Stevens Institute of Technology. fundraising, teaching, and training archaeology. Marcia has been a Neil was a physicist at the Gordon in the nonprofit sector. He most Getty Scholar at the Getty Center We extend our deepest sympa- Space Research Lab (1965-67), and recently served as senior vice for the History of Art and the thy to George Gubernikoff ’77 a professor at Dickinson College president for development at Humanities, and was twice named a on the sudden death of his wife, (1967-98). He writes that “I had an Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Dana Research Fellow at Ithaca Judith. George, director of clini- excellent education at Queens, and Angeles. Gary holds a master’s College . . . After a career as an cal cardiac services at Winthrop was well prepared for grad school. I degree in social work administra- educator Ð her last position being University Hospital in Mineola, also appreciated the well-rounded tion and planning from Rutgers NY, recently approached the col- program. The non-science courses University, and a master’s degree in lege with the idea of starting a LET’S KEEP IN helped me as a professor at Dickin- educational administration from Queens College Medical Alumni TOUCH son, a liberal arts college, where I New York University. For more Association (see Spring 2004 taught many courses on the history information, visit www.alsa.org . . . issue of Q). Our thoughts and Want to be informed by email of science and also science and 1964: David Goldbeck and his condolences are with George of important happenings at society (as well as physics courses, wife, Nikki, a nutritionist, are the and his family at this difficult the college? Then go to of course). The physics program at editors of Healthy Highways: The time. If you would like to extend www.qc.cuny.edu/QC_Foundation/ Queens was especially useful in Traveler’s Guide to Healthy Eating your sympathies to George, and click on Register for Email, classical physics. I remember good (Ceres Press, 2004). It lists over please contact Alumni Affairs. and complete the form. advanced courses in optics and 1,900 en-route alternatives to fast

. FALL 2004 Q THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE 13 What Can You Do with a Science Degree? Queens College graduates answer this question in laboratories, hospitals, on the open trail, and on the high seas

By Leslie Jay and Donna Shoemaker

Fighting the Most Frightening Illinois School of Medicine before moving mental tools and rigor that I needed.” Diseases to Rush in 1990 and establishing a nonhu- He didn’t have to look far to find the man primate center as the headquarters for cetaceans. “I have documented twenty Jeffrey H. Kordower his research. His recent efforts involve species of whales and dolphins in New He’s the director of the Research Center gene therapy, which holds tremendous York,” he adds. “That’s one-quarter of for Brain Repair in the departments of promise as a mean to arrest, and perhaps all the species in the world.” neurology, neurosurgery, and neuro- repair, the damage wreaked on patients’ A faculty member at the Fashion science at Rush brains. Better yet, at age 45, Kordower can Institute of Technology, where he has University Medical expect that some of his most exciting been a full professor for eleven years, Center in Chicago. work lies before him. “I love science,” he Kopelman co-founded CRESLI in 1996 He’s one of the says. “It’s been a great ride.” with a team of local scientists and educa- nation’s top author- tors. “I wanted to put my work where my ities in Parkinson’s, rhetoric was,” he explains. Today, he lives Huntington’s, and On the Whale Watch in Sayville and divides his energies Alzheimer’s dis- between the classroom and the field, lead- eases. He’s the Arthur Kopelman ing whale watches, conducting population Like a latter-day Captain Ahab, Arthur author of “about assessments, and promoting the rehabilita- Kopelman ’75 tracks whales. But he’s 200” papers and the recipient of more tion of stranded sea mammals and turtles. pursuing data, not revenge. As president grants than he can remember. He received He also makes occasional political waves. of the Coastal Research and Education an honorary doctorate from Queens “I recently testified against the Long Society of Long Island (CRESLI), he College at this year’s graduation cere- Island Power Authority’s plans to build monitors local marine environments and monies. So it’s surprising to learn that wind farms in the ocean without testing their rich plant and animal life. Jeffrey H. Kordower ’80 discovered his them first,” he says. “Our natural systems A native of the landlocked Jamaica calling by accident. “I stumbled into psy- are being stressed. There’s no political neighborhood, Kopelman began exploring chological research in the labs of Susan constituency for the offshore area.” waterfronts in his teens: He sailed the Fleischer and Richard Bodnar,” says Hudson River as a Kordower, a Forest Hills High School frequent volunteer grad who describes himself as just an From Dancer to Fitness Trainer on the Clearwater, average student until he was inspired by an environmental talented professors. Mary Kathryn study center housed Clearly, his trajectory since then has in a nineteenth-cen- Haltiwanger Schmitz been anything but average. Based at Epidemiological research was not what tury-style sloop. Queens for his graduate work at CUNY, Mary Kathryn Haltiwanger Schmitz had After earning a BA he completed his PhD in three-and-a-half in mind when she came to New York in in biology, he years—a period in which he published 10 1984. A former dance major who earned a stayed on the peer-reviewed papers on pain perception BA in economics from the University of Queens College campus for seven years, and analgesia. Kordower’s next stop was North Carolina at Greensboro, she teaching in the biology department and a postdoctoral program at the University planned to support herself in arts manage- working toward his PhD, awarded by of Rochester School of Medicine, where ment. Instead, she spent four years per- CUNY in 1982. “My doctorate was for he concentrated on neurodegenerative dis- forming with companies as varied as research on parasitic insects, but I started eases and published another 22 papers. Martha Graham and Avodah Ð a Jewish looking at whales as a grad student,” says He stuck with this topic in Chicago, liturgical dance troupe Ð before swapping Kopelman. “Queens provided me with the spending two years at the University of her slippers for sneakers and becoming a

. 14 Q THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE FALL 2004 fitness trainer. In the process, she turned a garden; cares for the burros and other ani- teenagers, Lee tries to keep her family on professional liability into her strongest mals on its farm; raises mealworms, the right nutrition track. At work, she asset. “I was always told I was thinking mice, and turtles; maintains the micro- has devoted her career to celiac disease too much,” Schmitz notes. “That’s bad scopic exhibit of pond life; and guides patients, who must follow a gluten-free in a dancer, but good in a trainer.” birders through Tilden’s nature trails. diet. To bolster her resume and her earnings, Growing up in the post-Sputnik era Once celiac disease surfaces, “you she enrolled in the fueled Kaplan’s passion for all things sci- have it for life,” Lee says. Celiac patients master’s program in entific. He thrived on geology, chemistry, not only have to shun wheat, rye, and exercise physiology and biology and pursued those interests barley, but they must be ever vigilant for at Queens. Soon she at the Bronx High School of Science. “I traces of the gluten found herself could not not be interested in science; it protein in soy , involved in a was all around me,” he says. “I grew up packaged foods, and groundbreaking at exactly the right moment.” cosmetics. If patients study that would Among the many moments at Queens let their guard down, demonstrate the College that Kaplan recalls, he tells of his they suffer from beneficial impact of first semester biology class, where each diarrhea. Once they physical activity on teenagers’ health. student dissected a lobster. Then students go on the gluten-free “Professor Paul Fardy basically turned learned to appreciate their research in diet, “the beauty of over the reins of the project to me,” another way: “The teaching assistant it is that the absorp- Schmitz recalls. “We did it at Hillcrest boiled the tails, and we had them with tive surfaces [in the small intestine] com- High School on a shoestring, using donat- melted butter.” pletely recover.” ed equipment and the help of graduate His fascination with invertebrates For two years Lee has been the students and undergrads in the physical took wing as a biology student at Queens research dietician at the Celiac Disease education program. I learned how much College, where he maintained the fly and Center at Columbia University’s College you can do for very little money.” parasite colonies of the professor who of Physicians and Surgeons in New York Upon receiving her MSEd in 1994, became his mentor: Peter Chabora City. She takes a special interest in chil- Schmitz took her investigative and budg- (Biology). It was Chabora who guided dren and recently published a cookbook etary talents to the University of Kaplan into graduate work at the for pediatric celiac patients. Lee teaches Minnesota, earning a PhD in kinesiology University of families how to cope by packing school and subsequently joining the faculty. California, lunches, taking gluten-free treats to birth- Now she’s in the third year of her first big Berkeley and pre- day parties, scrutinizing food labels, and grant, for a study of strength training in pared him to hold using grains like quinoa and . She obesity prevention. She’s also conducting his own in studying offers other tips on the disease in her research into the impact exercise can entomology. “Nutrition Corner” column (www.cdcc. have on the health of cancer survivors. Kaplan completed hs.columbia.edu/A_Patients/A05- Appropriately enough, Schmitz works out his MSc in 1979 at pNutrition.htm). regularly and limits her consumption of Berkeley. At Syracuse University Lee majored certain carbohydrates, but her choices “The two cor- in nutrition and had begun her master’s have nothing to do with the Atkins plan. nerstones of my life,” Kaplan believes, degree. To complete her MS, she chose “You can’t get a good in have been his enriching opportunities in Queens because “it has a great science Minnesota,” she complains. “And the biology and his liberal arts education at program and a great nutrition depart- pizza—ohhhhh.” Queens. That solid grounding led him to ment.” delve into classical music, collect the Her master’s thesis Ð published in the novels of Anthony Burgess, and commit November 2003 Journal of the American A Naturalist’s Trail to writing books when he retires in about Dietetic Association Ð was a large-popula- Alan Kaplan a year, at age 55. tion study of how celiac patients viewed While the West Coast has been home their quality of life. Their general outlook The Berkeley, CA second-graders gath- since 1972, “I’m still the Bronx boy that I on health was similar to the control group, ered around Alan Kaplan ’72 bypassed was,” Kaplan affirms. but they were negative when it came to the enticements of Tilden Regional Park’s how managing their disease affected life carousel, pony rides, and swimming lake. socially and at home. At a party or restau- Instead, they came to the Tilden Nature Learning to Live Without rant, for example, they must ask detailed Area to learn about insects by catching Wheat questions about every dish. them in nets. Celiac disease is more prevalent in Kaplan, the naturalist at the East Bay’s Anne Roland Lee Ireland and other northern European most popular park, says he’s known in the “Our lifestyles today are so hectic that countries than in the United States. Lee’s park district as the “go-to guy for dragon- we tend not to prepare food but to grab- own background is part Irish, though she flies, household pests, and yellowjackets.” and-go. That’s what gets us into trouble,” knows of no celiac disease in her family At Tilden, he has offered a science camp observes nutritionist Anne Roland Lee tree. This spring she presented her for 20 years. He also tends its butterfly (MS ’02). As a working mother of three research in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

. FALL 2004 Q THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE 15 to identify the factors that predict which children go on to develop AD/HD is the focus of a $2 million National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grant recently awarded to Halperin and his team at the Queens College Preschool Project (QCPP). “If we can identify who will develop Q AD/HD, we can have more focused early intervention with the children, and parent- ing behaviors can be modified,” he says. QC NEWS The five-year study will examine genetic and environmental factors and focus on children from the ages of three to five. Understanding Recent Science HHMI Funds College Cancer Suppressors for $800,000 Cathy Savage-Dunn (Biology) received Grants The college received a four-year, $800,000 a $720,000 four-year grant from the grant from the Howard Hughes Medical American Cancer Society to investigate $2 Million Grant for Institute (HHMI) for several initiatives in biol- cell-cell communication in animals using a ogy and neuroscience. Nearly 200 colleges genetically tractable model organism, the Research on AD/HD were invited to compete for the funding, roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans (pic- A significant number of preschool children based on their records of preparing students tured above). Cells communicate, or signal, are being medicated for hyperactivity and for graduate education and careers in science by releasing molecules that are sensed by aggressive behavior, research, teaching, and medicine. The grant other cells. These signals help to control characteristics typi- will enable Queens to award four two-year cell growth and function, while cancer cally associated with postdoctoral research-teaching fellowships in represents an escape from the normal AD/HD (attention- neuroscience and bioinformatics. With the regulation of cell growth and replication. deficit/hyperactivity help of faculty mentors, the four postdocs To understand the causes of and possible disorder). Although will both conduct laboratory research and treatments for cancer, a detailed under- the medication is design and teach courses in neuroscience or standing of the normal regulatory path- helpful for some, it bioinformatics. Recognizing that experience ways is essential. One important class of may be that many of in teaching is essential to a strong research signaling molecules regulates many aspects these children don’t program, HHMI hopes this will become a of cell function in diverse animal species, need it at all. “What national model for preparing scientists for and components of their signaling path- we know is that a faculty positions. The grant will also allow a ways act as tumor suppressors involved lot of young children seem impulsive and number of high school students (many from in human cancers. Through this funding, hyperactive, but for many of them it’s just minority groups underrepresented in the sci- Savage-Dunn’s laboratory will investigate a behavioral blip that disappears,” says ences) and QC undergraduates to work with the molecular, genetic, and cellular Jeffrey Halperin (Psychology). “But others faculty in the college’s laboratories. processes involved in cell communication do not outgrow their symptoms.” Trying via TGFb signals.

New VP for Student Affairs Global Warming Under Joe Bertolino has been appointed Vice President for Student Affairs, effective August 1. He succeeds the Microscope Burt Backner, who retired as Dean of Student Global warming is the focus of a $438,000 Affairs after 35 years of service to the college. National Science Foundation grant awarded Bertolino brings with him an exemplary profes- to Gary Hemming (Earth and Environ- sional and academic record, including awards for mental Sciences), who hopes to shed light administrative ability, service, and commitment to on whether current warming trends are a diversity. He spent the past eight years at Barnard dangerous aberration or a cyclical phenom- College, where most recently he was Dean of Community Develop- enon similar to others seen throughout ment. Previously he was Director of College Activities for SUNY earth’s history. His research looks at his- at Old Westbury and held administrative positions at East Strouds- torically high levels of atmospheric carbon burg University in Pennsylvania. Bertolino received a BS cum dioxide that have resulted from the burning laude in psychology and sociology from the University of Scranton, of fossil fuels, a major factor in global an MSW from Rutgers University, and an EdD from Teachers warming. Since carbon dioxide dissolves in College of Columbia University.

. 16 Q THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE FALL 2004 water, affecting its pH balance, Hemming has developed a tool Heilman and Michels Named that can accurately gauge the acidity of the ocean hundreds of thousands of years ago. The data can then be compared with what Distinguished Professors is already known about climate change to determine if the present The City University of New York has bestowed its highest high levels of carbon dioxide are part of a historic pattern. honor, the title of Distinguished Professor, on two more QC faculty members: Samuel C. Heilman (Sociology) and Corinne Michels (Biology). President James Muyskens Preparing a New Generation of Scientists introduced them at a CUNY Board Meeting on June 28. For the first time, the college is being funded by the NIH for the “Samuel Heilman’s work is required reading not only MARC program (Minority Access to Research Careers). Typically, for sociologists but also for anthropologists, economists, this program, which stresses biomedical research, only goes to students of religion and minori- colleges designated “minority-serving institutions” by their demo- ty affairs, and anyone with an graphics (over 50% minority students). Although Queens doesn’t interest in the forces shaping fit that profile, Zahra Zakeri (Biology) has managed to bring a our world,” Muyskens noted. A modified version of the program here with $244,377 in funding. member of the college’s sociolo- Six juniors and seniors will be chosen to conduct research with gy faculty since 1973, Heilman faculty mentors. Students will receive a stipend of $10,000, paid currently holds the Harold tuition, and additional funds for lab supplies and travel. Proshansky Professorship in Jewish Studies and Sociology at CUNY. His books, all of which An Exceptional Scientist are still in print, have won Susan Rotenberg (Chemistry) has received an Exceptional Project numerous awards, including the Award of $100,000 from the Breast Cancer Alliance. The awards National Jewish Book Award twice, for When a Jew Dies are granted on the basis of a project’s innovativeness, impact, Samuel Heilman approach, and feasibility. Rotenberg is keeping exceptional compa- and A Walker in Jerusalem. ny, as the three other winning researchers are affiliated with the He is currently finishing a new book, The Rise and Fall of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University, American Modern Jewish Orthodoxy? A graduate of and the Yale Cancer Center. Her research focuses on identifying Brandeis University (BA), New School University (MA), cellular proteins that cause a cancer cell to spread throughout the and the University of Pennsylvania (PhD), Heilman has body. This process – cancer metastasis – is poorly understood. also written a monthly column on the sociology of Jewry Rotenberg has identified protein kinase C as an enzyme that pro- for New York Jewish Week and is editor-in-chief of motes cell movement. She now hopes to identify the protein sub- Contemporary Jewry. strate(s) of this enzyme in order to better understand the chain of “If I were asked to explain in intracellular events that supports cell movement. two words what makes Queens an exceptional college,” Muyskens noted in introducing the second distinguished profes- sor, “my answer easily could be Corinne Michels. As a graduate of Queens College, she is a fine example of what someone with a first-rate liberal arts education can achieve. And now, as a teacher and researcher, she has few peers.” Michels graduated from Queens in 1963 with a Corinne Michels major in biology and a minor in chemistry. She joined the faculty in 1972, and since then has earned an international reputation for her research into the regulation of maltose fermentation in yeast, which helps to explain metabolism control in almost all living cells. Her work has been praised QC Alum at D-Day Ceremony: Arnold C. Franco ’43 (r) shakes as “pathbreaking,” “truly exceptional,” and “novel, unex- hands with French President Jacques Chirac after the ceremony pected, and exciting.” She has a remarkable record of at the American Cemetery in Normandy at Colleville-sur-Mer, funding for her research, including continuous support France, on Sunday, June 6, marking the sixtieth anniversary of from the NIH for almost 30 years. Michels’s textbook D-Day. President George Bush is in the background. Arnold, Genetic Techniques for Biological Research: A Case who was featured in the fall 2000 issue of Q, wrote a book Study Approach is widely used. about his wartime experiences, Code to Victory: Coming of Age in World War II.

. FALL 2004 Q THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE 17 Continued from page 13 chairman for the QC Alumni Asso- together (and his first ever), Satur- general manager of WRDW-TV in the Law and ciation in the Washington, DC day Night at the Beastro (Harper- Augusta, GA, and serves on the Courts Section of region, and has organized the Collins, 2004). Jane writes about CBS Television Affiliates Advisory the American alumni trip to Tuscany this Septem- attending orientation at QC: “The Board, as well as on the board of Political Science ber . . . Gary Morgan retired after speaker talked about math and said directors of the Georgia Association Association. Ira is 31 years in the New York City civil that ‘some of you might even meet of Broadcasters . . . 1974: a professor of service. Gary was also a psycho- your husbands or wives here.’ I Barry Bass earned an MS from political science at therapist and adjunct college profes- turned to a friend and said, ‘Like NYU in l977, a DDS from SUNY- Grinnell College sor. He recently began taking acting that would ever happen—I am Stony Brook in 1981, and a spe- in Grinnell, IA . . . 1968: Bob classes and has appeared in films, never taking a math course again cialty in oral and maxillofacial W. Strauss, a partner at Strasburger community and off-Broadway and I doubt meeting a husband.’ It surgery at Long Island Jewish & Price, LLP was honored by the theater, industrial videos, and televi- was 1967, campus revolution, the Hospital in 1984. He is in private Dallas Business Journal for being sion. Gary reports that he took one Vietnam War, and feminism. Well, I practice in oral surgery in Plain- legal counsel for acting course at Queens, where the met my husband the first day of view and Massapequa, NY, and is one of the Best seed may have been sown . . . college on the Quad. I was wearing associate director of the TMJ Real Estate Deals 1970: Alan Landes can still be an orange mini-skirt and he had Department at North Shore Univer- of 2003. The trans- seen at Queens, where he is enter- real long hair and sandals. He sity Hospital in Manhasset . . . action was cited ing his 25th season coaching the graduated with a BA in Mathemat- 1977: The New York State under the category men’s tennis team. In April the team ics. We married in my junior year, Society of Certified “Best Community gave him a milestone 300th career much to my parents’ dismay, saying Public Accountants Impact in the win. They also went to the NCAAs only beauticians get married at recently installed Greater Dallas Area.” Bob earned for the third time in three years, and nineteen—‘not that there’s anything Stephen F. Lan- his LLM (taxation) from New York Alan was named the ITA (Intercol- wrong with that,’ to quote Sein- gowski, a CPA and University (1976) and his JD from legiate Tennis Association) Division feld.” Jane has since published 50 partner of KPMG, Brooklyn Law School (1971) . . . II Coach of the Year. As a coach, children’s books and won several LLP, as its presi- 1969: David M. Guskin (MBA Alan says, “I’m not a whatever book awards, while Steven is an dent-elect. Stephen Univ. of Conn. ’72) is director of person.”Alan still plays tennis and, architect . . . 1973: Bradley has more than 25 years of experi- Artery Financial Services, LLC. In in warm weather, rollerblades 20 Mandell is a doctor of chiropractic ence in delivering audit and advi- addition, Dave is an adjunct profes- miles a day. His fourth daughter in Pasadena, MD. He is also an sory services in the public sector. A sor in the Business Administration was born May 18. Alan invites avid sailor on the Chesapeake Bay frequent speaker and thought leader and Economics Dept. of Mont- former players to call him at his and is building a 34-foot catamaran on governmental accounting, audit- gomery College. He was recently office: 718-997-2727 . . . 1971: . . . John L. Ray ing, and reporting, he joined selected as the precinct vice chair Jane Gabin, chair of the Carolina was named to the KPMG in 1994 after starting his for his election district and serves Alumni Chapter, is director of foundation board career with Ernst & Young in 1979. on the Parents’ Advisory Board for college counseling at the Chapin of the Medical Stephen and his wife, Lorna, have the University of Maryland, where School in Manhattan . . . Jane College of two children . . . 1978: Larry his daughter, Emily, is a junior. He Breskin Zalben and Steven Zalben Georgia. He is Russ obtained an MS in physics continues in his capacity as the (’69) have published their first book president and from the University of Pennsylva- nia in 1980. He then worked at Bell Laboratories and at Bellcore before FAMILY TRADITION LEADS TO SALK SCHOLARSHIP obtaining a JD degree from Fordham Law School. Larry is now Eleonora Khaimova ’04, a native of Uzbekistan, nurse. Following the Soviet break-up and national inde- a patent attorney at Lerner, David, Littenberg, Krumholz & Mentlik, received the Jonas E. Salk Scholarship, awarded to pendence in 1991, however, increasing anti-Semitism LLP, in Westfield, NJ. He writes: “I graduating seniors who show promise of becoming toward the ancient community of Bukharian Jews led have fond memories of my studies outstanding physicians. A psychology major at the col- most of the Jewish population to in the Physics Department includ- lege, she conducted over two years of neuroscience leave Uzbekistan. The Khaimova ing my classes with Profs. Lazar, research, leading to several peer-reviewed publica- family came to this country in 1994 Nueberger, Cotter, Garcia, Oren- tions, including one on which she is senior author. and began the process of rebuilding stein (both), Cadieu, and Shore and That distinction is rare, according to her research their personal and professional lives. my research work for Prof. Garcia. advisor and department chair Richard Bodnar. “From At Queens Khaimova excelled I feel my classes at Queens gave a my lab there have been three or four students in my academically, staying on the Dean’s good foundation for the analytical 25 years here who have been senior authors. What List, being inducted into the Golden Eleonora Khaimova work in my career.” Larry lives in you’re doing is entrusting an entire body of research Key National Honor Society, and serving as an editor West Orange, NJ (Lawrence.Russ. [email protected]) . . . to her,” he explains. Khaimova’s research, conducted of Nucleus, the journal of undergraduate scientific 1979: Helen M. Grady, associ- in Bodnar’s Laboratory of Opioid Pharmacology, con- research. She graduated with highest departmental ate professor of technical communi- cerns the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and behav- honors and won the Mitchell L. Kietzman Award for cation at the Mercer University ioral analysis of feeding in rats. Excellence in Psychological Research. School of Engineering, received the The scholarship will help Khaimova fulfill her dream Khaimova, who hopes to become a pediatrician, 2003Ð2004 Vulcan Award for of becoming a doctor. In Bukhara, the central Asian will attend New York Medical College in Westchester, Teaching Excellence “for her city where she grew up, both her parents were in which has awarded her a $20,000 scholarship in addi- outstanding contributions to under- medicine: her father as a pediatrician, her mother as a tion to her $6,000 Salk Scholarship. graduate education, student learn- ing and campus life.” Helen joined

. 18 Q THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE FALL 2004 the faculty of Mercer in 1991 after Navy Seaman Chen . . . Steven M. a decade of industry experience Cohen (MLS) was honored as one ALUMNI NEWS leading a technical communication of the 55 most innovative librarians unit. She earned her bachelor’s in the United States by Library degree in biology Journal. An assistant librarian for years at an overseas alumni tour from Queens Rivkin Radler, a law firm in Union- sold out so quickly,” notes University in dale, Steven created and is the Web Washington, D.C. chapter chair Kingston, Ontario, master of librarystuff.net, a library and trip coordinator David her master’s degree and information science Web log Guskin ’69. “Please let me know in biology from that serves about 2,700 visitors which destinations would inter- QC, and her doc- daily. He and his wife, Barbie, live est you for our 2005 trip.” torate in instruc- in Smithtown, NY . . . tional design and distance Wanted: Class education from Nova Southeastern WE REMEMBER Correspondents University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Can’t get enough of “Alumni 1949: Jeanne Knakal, editor- She lives in Macon, GA . . . Notes”? Then be a class corre- in-chief of the yearbook Silhouette, 1988: Halina Goldberg is editor spondent. You will collect and died January 2, 2004 at her home in of the anthology The Age of pass along news of your class- Spring Hill, FL. She had a master’s Hamlisch Named Chopin: Interdisciplinary Inquiries mates for Q. It’s a great way to in clinical psychology and studied Distinguished Alum (Indiana UP, 2004). Halina is an get in touch with old friends. in Columbia University’s Analytical Marvin Hamlisch ’68 has won assistant professor of musicology at Contact Alumni Director Joe Psychology Doctorate Program. For virtually every major award Indiana University. Much of her Brostek for more details. many years she worked in the that exists: three Oscars, four research concerns the cultural social services division of Cancer Grammys, two Emmys, a Tony, environment of Chopin’s Warsaw Oral History Project Care, NY and Misericordia Hospital three Golden Globes, and the . . . 1995: Demetris Nicolaides Another reason to come to in the Bronx. Later she had a Pulitzer Prize. He will soon add to is a professor at Bloomfield Homecoming on October 2: the private practice in Sausalito, CA, his trophy case the 2004 Distin- College. “The sound of the words Oral History Project will have an and did social work at Mary’s Help guished Alumnus Award from the Queens College brings only joy to exhibit in the Dining Hall. Visit Hospital and Harkness Hospital, American Association of State my heart,” he writes. “Twenty years them and find out how you can both in the San Francisco Bay Area Colleges and Universities ago I came to the USA and I add your memories to the col- . . . 1972: Steve Pasternack, (AASCU). Hamlisch was nominat- learned English at the ESL program lege's historical record. 54, died June 15 ed for this by QC President James at QC. Then I earned a BA in of an infection Muyskens. Past winners include physics and applied math as well as Q Magazine Updates following a trip to President Lyndon Johnson and an MA in physics at Queens. I went Be sure to check the college’s Rwanda. A jour- General Colin Powell. Among on to earn my PhD in physics at the Web site this November for a nalism professor Hamlisch’s numerous credits are City University of New York with Web-only update of Q. at New Mexico the groundbreaking musical A Queens as my base college. I State University Chorus Line and the scores of over learned to do original research with Missing Alumni for 21 years, 40 motion pictures, including The the help of a great thesis advisor, We have lost touch with many Steve was instrumental in efforts to Way We Were. He will receive his Professor Alex Lisyansky, and also of our over 100,000 alumni. In establish an open press in Rwanda. award at the annual meeting of learned to teach physics as a gradu- most cases they did not let us He was also involved in ongoing the AASCU on November 23 in ate student. Without a doubt QC know when they moved. efforts to strengthen free presses in Charleston, South Carolina. prepared me professionally and I Addresses can be updated online the emerging democracies of would not do anything different if I by going to www.qc.cuny.edu/ Africa, the Caribbean, and Eastern Pioneers Events was taken back in time and had to QC_Foundation. If you know Europe, for which he was awarded QC Pioneers – members of the start from the beginning” . . . alumni who do not hear from several Fulbright fellowships. Steve classes of 1941–1955 – are invit- 1998: Bridgit Pilchman the college, please let us know. held a master’s in journalism from ed to two special events this fall. Goldman is pursuing a PhD at Iowa State University and a doctor- The first is a tour of the Louis CUNY in the field of plant molecu- Send Us Your News! ate in communications from the Armstrong House, complete lar biology. As teaching assistant in We want to hear from you. Tell University of Tennessee. He wrote with concert and soul food, on QC’s Biology Department, she won us where you are, what you are two books and numerous articles on Sunday, September 12, 3–7 pm. a 2003 President’s Award for Excel- doing, and send a photo. Mail to: media law and ethics . . . 1974: Then join us Sunday, November lence in Teaching by a Graduate Anne Panepinot Ciccone died 21, at 2 pm for a concert by Alumni News Student . . . Dennis Velasco is a January 2003. She was the author pianist Cecile Licad, followed by Office of Alumni Affairs production editor in the Scientific, of Creating Bridges: The Art of a reception hosted by President Queens College Technical, and Medical Division of Utilizing Creative Skills in Day to James Muyskens & Mrs. Alda 65-30 Kissena Boulevard John Wiley & Sons. He is also the Day Living . . . 2004: Manny Muyskens. For more information Flushing, NY 11367 co-founder and publisher of Goldberg, whose experiences as a call 718-997-5554. www.fanalyze.com, a Web site Phone: 718-997-3930 translator during World War II were specializing in the world of fantasy Fax: 718-997-3924 highlighted in the fall 2000 issue of Italy Trip a Hit sports. Dennis lives with his wife, Email: [email protected]. Q, died this June, several weeks The Alumni Affairs-sponsored Tavia, and son in New Hyde Park, after receiving his BA in music. trip to Tuscany this September is Alumni Affairs Web site: NY . . . 2002: Zhuo Chen Manny was 86 years old. completely booked. “I am www.qc.cuny.edu/ completed eight weeks of U.S. thrilled that our first attempt in alumni_affairs Navy basic training and is now

. FALL 2004 Q THE MAGAZINE OF QUEENS COLLEGE 19 Q GALA HONORS PALMER AND WANN: Virginia Frese Palmer ’42 (left) was 15 years old when she entered Queens College during the Great Depression. Robert Wann ’82 (third from right) entered QC in 1980, a year after he had emigrated from Taiwan. Both were honored on June 23 at the Q Gala, which recognizes women and men who combine successful careers with a dedication to higher education. “Ginny and Robert, graduating 40 years apart, are proof of the timeless value of a fine lib- eral arts education,” noted President James Muyskens. “It offers you both the tools to succeed and the proper definition of success, which is serving others.” Ginny had a long career as a speech therapist, and Robert is Senor Executive VP and COO of New York Community Bancorp, Inc. This year’s gala raised over $860,000 to support scholarships and college programs. With Robert are Gala co-chairs (l-r) Muyskens, Joseph Ficalora (New York Community Bank), and Richard Goldstein (Alpine Capital LLC).

NON-PROFIT ORG. QUEENS COLLEGE U.S. POSTAGE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PAID FLUSHING, NY 65-30 KISSENA BOULEVARD PERMIT NO. 48 FLUSHING, NY 11367-1597