Volume 2, Issue 1 - Weebly
Transcript of Volume 2, Issue 1 - Weebly
The doctoral program
in nursing science at
the Graduate Center,
CUNY, has signed an
agreement for academ-
ic cooperation with the
School of Nursing at
the Autonomous Uni-
versity of Tamaulipas
(UAT), Mexico, and
the establishment of an
exchange program be-
tween the two insti-
tutions. UAT is a Mexi-
can public university
and has campuses throughout the state of Tamaulipas. One of its four schools of
nursing is based in Nuevo Laredo, on the U.S.–Mexico border.
Nursing Science signs agreement for academic cooperation with school of nursing in Mexico 1-2
News from Susan L. Epstein’s machine learning lab 2-3
Doctoral faculty accomplishments, City Tech physics department 3
Meet the American Mathematical Society Fellows 4-5
CUNY graduate research highlighted in Albany 6-7
Graduate Center, CUNY, collaborates with CapraCare on a medical mission to Haiti 8-9
Research Center in Barbuda 9-10
Jia Ma wins Horst Schulz Prize for 2013 11
Awards, Fellowships and Grants 12
Presentations 12
Publications 13-15
Appointments and Honors 16
Other Achievements 16
Inside this issue:
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Volume 2, Issue 1
March 2013
Nursing Science program signs agreement for academic cooperation with school of nursing in Mexico
At the signing on November 16, (l. to r.) Francisco Cadena San-
tos, Benjamín Galván Gómez (Mayor of Nuevo Laredo),
Keville Frederickson, and Martha Whetsell, a member of the
GC’s doctoral faculty in nursing science.
“Happenings in the Sciences” is published quarterly by the
dean of sciences in the provost’s office at the GC. The news-
letter is designed to help us keep in touch with each other,
and what is happening throughout the scientific world at the
GC.
Please help us keep the newsletter up to date by submitting
information of activities and awards (see last page for infor-
mation).
The cooperative program in nursing science is the first of its kind within the doctoral nursing pro-
gram at CUNY. Dr. Francisco Cadena Santos, director of the School of Nursing at UAT, who was present
at the signing, praised the GC for this move, calling it “a great achievement. . . one that many universities
in Latin America and the world would like to realize.”
Beginning January 2013, the new agreement permits nursing science faculty and doctoral students
at both universities to teach and/or study in the partner institution. The GC nursing science doctoral pro-
gram plans to sign similar agreements with the University of Antioquia, Colombia, and the University of
Panama, allowing students and faculty at both these institutions to participate in collaborative doctoral
work.
This important initiative is another step forward for the GC toward establishing its presence in the
international academic community and providing a forum for the exchange of intellectual and cultural ide-
as. “This agreement also recognizes the growing Latino population throughout CUNY and the New York
City community and the effects of globalization on health and social justice,” said Keville Frederickson,
executive officer of the GC’s doctoral program in nursing science.
Page 2 HA PPE NI NGS I N T HE S CI E NCE S
News from Susan L. Epstein’s machine learning lab
Susan L. Ep-
stein, a member
of the doctoral
faculty in com-
puter science, is
based at Hunter
College, where
she runs a Ma-
chine Learning
Lab. She has
had concurrent
funding from the
National Sci-
ence Foundation
on at least three
projects at a
time for several
years, a record at
Hunter College.
The research areas, though quite diverse, are fo-
cused on artificial intelligence (AI): constraint satis-
faction, human–machine dialogue, human–multi-
robot search and rescue, and protein–protein inter-
action networks. Professor Epstein’s interests lie in
pragmatic problem solving, where she focuses on
how to represent knowledge to a computer and how
a machine can learn. She and her students have giv-
en a number of talks in 2012.
• “Toward Habitable Assistance from Spo-
ken Dialogue Systems” described a project in
which a computer learned how to have a dialogue
with people, at Innovations in Applied Artificial
Intelligence in Toronto, the world’s premier con-
ference for applied AI.
• “Learning Algorithm Portfolios for Paral-
lel Execution” described work on an algorithm that
runs on a CUNY supercomputer to solve constraint
satisfaction problems, at the Sixth Learning and
Intelligent Optimization Conference (LION-12) in
Paris, the international conference for AI and
mathematics.
• “Adaptive Parallelization for Constraint
Satisfaction Search” described applications of that
algorithm, at the Symposium on Combinatorial
Search (SoCS 2012) in Niagara Falls, Canada, a
cutting-edge conference on pure and applied
search.
• “A Hybrid Paradigm for Adaptive Parallel
Search” described a paradigm for solving con-
straint satisfaction problems, at the Eighteenth
Conference on Principles and Practice of Con-
straint Programming in Quebec City, the world’s
premier conference for work in constraint satisfac-
tion.
• “Discovering Protein Clusters” described
how a computer can drive scientific discovery, at
Photo courtesy: Hunter College
The accomplishments of the doc-
toral faculty in the Physics De-
partment at New York City Col-
lege of Technology, since Fall
2012, include a scholar award,
lectures, and presentations outside
of the United States, as well as
publications in peer-reviewed
journals.
The Kavli Institute for
Theoretical Physics (KITP) in
Santa Barbara, California, named
Oleg Berman KITP Scholar for
2013–15. There are currently
three physics faculty members at
City Tech who are KITP Schol-
ars, the others being Giovanni
Ossola and Justin Vazquez-
Poritz.
On December 21, Giovan-
ni Ossola gave an invited lecture at the “VIII Avogadro Meeting on String Theory, Supergravity and Gauge
Theories” at Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy. The title of his presentation was “A New Perspective on
Scattering Amplitudes.”
From January 13 to 23, Roman Kezerashvili gave a cycle of lectures and seminars, at Tbilisi State
University and the Institute of Physics, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, on two topics: “Solar Sailing: Con-
cepts and New Development” and “Bose-Einstein Condensation and Superfluidity of Exitons and Polari-
tons.”
(l. to r.) Justin Vazquez-Poritz, Roman Kezerashvili, Giovanni Ossola, Oleg Berman.
Photo: Courtesy of Physics Department, New York City College of Technology
Doctoral faculty accomplishments, City Tech physics department
V OLU ME 2, ISSU E 1 Page 3
the AAAI Fall Symposium on Discovery Informat-
ics: The Role of AI Research in Innovating Scien-
tific Processes in Arlington, Virginia, a cutting-
edge conference sponsored by the Association for
the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
• “Similarity and Plausible Recommenda-
tions” described work on constructing plausible
book recommendations to patrons of a library, at
Advances in Cognitive Systems in Palo Alto, the
leading international conference for cognitive sci-
ence and computer science.
In the past year she has also coauthored
three journal papers and nine conference papers
with her students and collaborators. For details see
publications section.
Page 4 HA PPE NI NGS I N T HE S CI E NCE S
Meet the American Mathematical Society Fellows
The American Mathematical Society (AMS) selected its first class of AMS fellows to recognize their
“outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of
mathematics.” Seven members of the doctoral faculty in the Ph.D. Program in Mathematics at the Graduate
Center, CUNY, were selected as inaugural fellows based upon their outstanding mathematical achieve-
ments: Gilbert Baumslag (City), Jason Behrstock (Lehman), Linda Keen (Lehman, EO Graduate Center),
Alvany Rocha (Baruch), Dennis Sullivan (Graduate Center, Queens), Lucien Szpiro (Graduate Center),
and Alphonse Vasquez (Prof. Emeritus, Graduate Center).
Professor Gilbert Baumslag, author of the MAGNUS combinatorial group
theory software package, has been at the Graduate Center for many years
and is also director of the Center for Algorithms and Interactive Scientific
Software at City College. Baumslag’s most highly cited paper (written with
colleague Myasnikov and coauthor Remeslennikov) developed a completely
new theory of algebraic geometry over groups. This paper led to the solution
of the fifty-year-old Tarski Conjecture by his CUNY colleagues: Kharlam-
povich and Myasnikov. One of his earlier works, jointly with Solitar, intro-
duced key counterexamples now known as the Baumslag–Solitar groups,
which are essential to the understanding of geometric group theory. He is
also known for his two-part treatise which introduces the parafree groups.
Professor Jason Behrstock is CUNY’s youngest AMS Fellow. His most
cited work concerns the asymptotic geometry of the mapping class group
and the Teichmüller group. This led to a major paper written with Minsky
and published in Annals on the large-scale geometry of the mapping class
group MCG(S) of a compact surface S, of genus g, and with b boundary
components. He was awarded the Feliks Gross Endowment Award for
Outstanding Scholarly Achievement in 2009 and a Sloan Fellowship in
2010. In 2011 he gave a plenary address to the AMS on his breakthrough
research with Neumann, which provides a quasi-isometric classification of
three manifold groups.
Professor Linda Keen is currently executive officer of the Ph.D. Program in Math-
ematics. Her research concerns Riemann surfaces, hyperbolic geometry, complex
analysis, and hyperbolic dynamics. She is particularly famous for the Collar Lem-
ma which controls the areas around geodesics in hyperbolic surfaces; this has ap-
plications in a variety of fields including Teichmüller Theory and Complex Dy-
namics. Her research on the Teichmüller Theory of the punctured torus has led to
significant contributions to the study of Kleinian and Fuchsian Groups. In Com-
plex Dynamics she is widely known for her work on the dynamics of entire and
meromorphic functions. She is also well known for her work with Series on Pleat-
ing Invariants. Among her many honors, Linda Keen gave an AMS Address in
1975 and was selected as the Emmy Noether Lecturer in 1991.
V OLU ME 2, ISSU E 1
Professor Alvany Rocha has served on the doctoral faculty in mathematics
at the Graduate Center, CUNY, since 1990 and as executive officer from
2001 to 2004. She was also a member of the AMS Committee on Science
Policy. In 1993 she gave an AMS Invited Address on minimal representa-
tions and conformal symmetry. She is most well known for her work com-
puting the characters of the Virasaro algebra. This highly cited work of hers
has been applied to compute the energy momentum tensor in conformal
field theory.
Distinguished Professor Dennis Sullivan holds the Einstein Chair of Sci-
ence at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Among his many awards are the 1971
Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry, the 1981 Prix Élie Cartan of the French
Academy of Sciences, the 1994 King Faisal Prize, the 2004 National Medal
of Science, the 2006 AMS Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement, and the
2010 Wolf Prize in Mathematics for “his contributions to algebraic topolo-
gy and conformal dynamics.” His work led to the complete classification of
simply connected manifolds with a given homotopy type. He also proved
the Adams Conjecture. His Rigidity Theorem for Kleinian Groups has ap-
plications in Thurston’s Geometrization of three manifolds, and his No
Wandering Domains Theorem lead to the classification of the dynamics of
iterated rational maps of the Riemann sphere. He is currently the principal
investigator of an NSF FRG grant on Algebraic Topology. Lucien Szpiro was appointed Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center,
CUNY, in 1999. He specializes in Commutative Algebra, Diophantine Geom-
etry, and Arithmetic Algebraic Geometry. He is currently the principal investi-
gator of an NSF FRG grant on Number Theory which funds a postdoc in the
mathematics department as well as three doctoral fellows. He won the Fonda-
tion Doistau-Blutel Award in 1987 “for his work in Commutative Algebra and
Algebraic Geometry and for his contribution to G. Faltings’ proof of the Mor-
dell conjecture.” Szpiro is also widely known for his 1997 paper (written with
Ullmo and Zhang) on the uniform distribution of small points. More recently
Szpiro has written fundamental papers on elliptic curves and on rational func-
tions.
Alphonse Vasquez, professor emeritus at the Graduate Center, CUNY, gave an invited AMS plenary ad-
dress in 1982 on his collaborative work with Thomas on Hilbert Modular Varieties. He is also famous for
his work classifying flat Riemannian manifolds with Charlap and related results with Raymond. In addition
to his theoretical academic research, Vasquez has worked directly with mathematicians at IBM’s Watson
Labs and has spent many summers conducting classified research at the Institute for Defense Analysis. He
also worked on the design of a radiation shield for the first nuclear-powered surface vessels at Bethlehem
Steel’s Fore River Shipyard.
Page 5
Page 6 HA PPE NI NGS I N T HE S CI E NCE S
CUNY graduate research highlighted in Albany
Fourteen CUNY doctoral students were selected to participate
in “Boosting the Power of SUNY and CUNY: A Celebration of
Graduate Research,” held in Albany on February 26. Noah
Burg, Rebecca Croston, Carlos Penaloza, Corinna Singleman,
Melissa Russo, and John McLaughlin represented the biology
program; Bryce Peterson, the criminal justice program; Sam
Friedman, computer science; Tetiana Nosach, Michael
O’Keeffe, Arthur Parzygnat, and Stephanie Fiorenza, physics;
and Susan Gray and Sarita Austin, the speech-language-hearing
sciences program.
The one-day event was sponsored by the SUNY Univer-
sity Faculty Senate in partnership with CUNY faculty and took
place in the Legislative Office Building. During the course of
the event, members of the state legislature and the visiting pub-
lic had the opportunity to view a selection of student posters
featuring a wide variety of graduate research at CUNY.
About the graduate students’ research
Rebecca Croston (Hunter) presented “Spectral Tuning and For-
eign Egg Rejection in American Robins (Turdus migratorium):
Implications for Coevolutionary Theory.” Advisor: Mark Hau-
ber (Assoc. Prof., Hunter, Biology and Psychology)
Noah Burg (Hunter) presented “Predicting the Ecological Impact of an Introduced Parasitic Bird (Vidua
macroura) and Its Hosts.” Advisor: Mark Hauber (Assoc. Prof., Hunter, Biology and Psychology)
Carlos Penaloza’s (Queens) poster was titled “Mechanisms for Sex Dimorphic Cellular Sensitivity.”
Advisor: Zahra Zakeri (Prof., Queens, Biochemistry and Biology)
Corinna Singleman’s (Queens) poster was titled “Investigating the Effects of PCB Pollution in Our Wa-
terways Using Zebrafish as a Model.” Advisor: Nathalia Holtzman (Asst. Prof., Queens, Biochemistry
and Biology)
Melissa Rosso (Hunter) presented “Exploring Mechanisms That Inhibit Growth Arrest and Death of
Cancer Cells.” Advisor: Jill Bargonetti-Chavarria (Prof., Hunter, Biochemistry and Biology)
John McLaughlin’s (Hunter) poster was titled “Developmental Regulation by Small RNAs during Dro-
sophila Oogenesis.” Advisor: Diana Bratu (Asst. Prof., Hunter, Biochemistry and Biology)
Bryce Peterson (GC) presented “Costs and Characteristics of Escapes from Custody: Information for
State and Federal Policy Makers.” Advisor: Jeff Mellow (Prof., John Jay, Criminal Justice)
Photo: Courtesy Research Foundation for
SUNY
Page 7 V OLU ME 2, ISSU E 1
Sam Friedman (GC) presented “Modeling Cities by Integrating 3D and 2D Data.” Advisor: Ioannis
Stamos (Prof., Hunter, Computer Science)
Michael O’Keeffe’s (Lehman) poster was titled “Magnetization and Rotations on the Nanoscale.” Advi-
sor: Eugene Chudnovsky (Dist. Prof., Lehman, Physics)
Arthur Parzygnat’s (City) poster read “Configuration Spaces.” Advisor: V. Parameswaran Nair (Dist.
Prof., City, Physics)
Tetiana Nosach (Hunter) presented “Multinuclear Solid State NMR Studies of Materials Related to Elec-
trical Energy Storage.” Advisor: Steven Greenbaum (Prof., Hunter, Chemistry and Physics)
Stephanie Fiorenza (CSI) presented “Carbon Abundances from SDSS Globular Clusters: Exploring the
Origin in the Large Spread in [C/Fe].” Advisor: Charles Liu (Assoc. Prof., CSI, Physics)
Susan Gray (GC) presented “Exploring the Potential Morphological Instruction in Adult Literacy.” Advi-
sor: John Locke (Prof., GC, Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences)
Sarita Austin (GC) presented “A Therapeutic Treatment to Improve Conversational Skills in School-Aged
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Stories.” Advisor: Valerie Shafer (Prof., GC, Speech-
Language-Hearing Sciences)
Standing (l. to r.): Michael O’Keeffe, Carlos Penaloza, Sam Friedman, Noah Burg, Melissa Rosso, Arthur Parzygnat,
John McLaughlin, Bryce Peterson. Sitting (l. to r.): Corinna Singleman, Rebecca Croston, Tetiana Nosach, Stephanie
Fiorenza, Sarita Austin, Susan Gray. Photo: J. Heffler
Page 8 HA PPE NI NGS I N T HE S CI E NCE S
Graduate Center, CUNY, collaborates with CapraCare on a medical mission to Haiti
A collaboration between the Graduate Cen-
ter, CUNY, and the nongovernmental organ-
ization CapraCare resulted in a health assess-
ment trip to Fonfrede, Haiti. On February 16,
twelve health care providers and volunteers
traveled to Fonfrede. On the team were nurs-
ing faculty, political science faculty, and
doctoral students in nursing. The attendees
included Martha Whetsell (Assoc. Prof.,
Lehman, Nursing Science), two other mem-
bers of the nursing faculty from Lehman,
students Judith James Borga and Darcel
Reyes, and other volunteers. The leaders of
the team were Keville Frederickson, execu-
tive officer of the nursing program, and Jean
Pierre-Louis, a graduate of Brooklyn Col-
lege’s master’s program in public health, who is also CEO and president of CapraCare. Accompanying
them were William Ebenstein (University Dean for Health and Human Services, CUNY) and François
Pierre-Louis (Assoc. Prof., Queens, Political Science), who also serves as senior advisor to the Chancel-
lor’s Initiative in Haiti. Among the group were five Haitian Americans assisting with translation. Over the course of five days, the group examined more than five hundred children between the
ages of six and ten at five schools. The primary needs among the children were treatments for ringworm,
intestinal parasites, undernourishment, anemia, and ear infections. Two exceptions were noted: a boy
showed symptoms and signs of rubella, and a girl had a severe navel hernia. The group also examined adults during the length of their stay there, and found that their primary
health problems were high blood pressure,
skin lesions, vaginitis, and dental problems.
One of the volunteers, a master’s student in
public health at Lehman, is a dental hygienist.
She provided dental evaluations and cleanings
to nearly a hundred students and adults.
In all, the medical mission addressed
the needs of over 1,100 children and adults.
The highlight of the trip, however, was meet-
ing and providing a health assessment of Jean
Pierre-Louis’s 113-year-old grandmother. She
was found to be in excellent physical and
mental health and reported that her only prob-
lem was indigestion after she eats too much.
Although blind from cataracts, she refused to
consider surgery for their removal—
apparently hospitals are not a good place to
Darcel Reyes performing physical assessment and counseling.
Keville Frederickson, Martha Whetsell, and volunteers with
113-year-old Francillia Pierre-Louis, the oldest person living in
Fonfrede, Haiti.
spend any time!
The work added value to the mission of
CapraCare, which is to develop sustainable communi-
ty health programs assisting school-age children be-
tween five and nineteen and their families living in
Fonfrede, which has a population of 20,000 and was
devastated by the 2011 earthquake. One of
CapraCare’s volunteers remarked that the work ac-
complished with CUNY’s support added much need-
ed credibility to CapraCare in the community.
Research Center in Barbuda
V OLU ME 2, ISSU E 1 Page 9
Darcel Reyes with students
Barbuda, home of a GC-CUNY experimental station, is the smaller sister island of the Caribbean nation
of Antigua and Barbuda. The station is home to collaborating anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists,
education specialists, geographers, and environmental scientists, as well as artists in residence. Scientists
at the station are studying long-term human ecodynamics, or the relationships between people, place,
and the environment—from initial peopling of the island to today. Field methods, tools, and technologies
from many fields are brought together to form a transdisciplinary initiative that will further our under-
standing of climate change and sustainable solutions for populations at risk. The initiator of the Barbuda collaborative studies is Professor Sophia Perdikaris, director of the
Human Ecodynamics and Research Center (HERC) at the GC and professor of anthropology at Brooklyn
College. She began her archaeological research in Barbuda in 2005. Over the last seven years, a number
of scholars from a variety of disciplines have visited Barbuda. In an effort to integrate research with
community need, Sophia Perdikaris and John
Mussington (principal of the Sir McChesney
George Secondary School in Barbuda), who
leads many other community initiatives, and Dr.
Reginald Murphy (Secretary General UNESCO
for Antigua and Barbuda and Associate Director
of HERC GC) began working together to inte-
grate scholarship with sustainable island living.
As a result of this collaboration, the Barbuda
Research Complex (BRC) was formed.
The BRC is the “home base” for a varie-
ty of projects and programs in Barbuda that fo-
cus on sustainability and resilience. In order to
investigate human ecodynamics with both aca-
demic and practical implications in mind, local
experts and US college students and faculty
came together in summer 2012 and January
2013 in the first Geographic Information Sys-
tems (GIS) field schools in Barbuda to collect
(l. to r.) Senator Calvin Gore, Reginald Murphy, Adjie Hender-
son (Associate Provost and Dean for Doctoral Sciences, GC)
Minister Trevor Walker, Sophia Perdikaris, Kelvin Punter
(Chairman of Barbuda Council)
Page 10 HA PPE NI NGS I N T HE S CI E NCE S
quantitative and qualitative data investi-
gating the connection between the human
ecodynamics of the past to those of the
present.
Sophia, John, and Reginald are
also using BRC to facilitate a number of
outreach and education projects, including
the research station (Barbuda Archaeolog-
ical Research Center or BARC), an aqua-
ponics research facility, three museum
spaces (Barbuda Museum, Barbuda Chil-
dren’s Museum, Traveling Exhibition
Space), land for the creation of a cultural-
ly and historically relevant botanic garden
(currently in the planning stages), and an
artists’ residency and studio space, as well
as collaborating with solar engineers for
applications of sustainable power solutions.
On January 18, 2013, the first Barbudan museum and an aquaponic research facility opened. The
museum spaces will house documents and computers allowing Barbudans to access various maps, histori-
cal documents, and archaeological artifacts pertinent to Barbuda’s history, natural environment, and cul-
tural heritage. This space will also exhibit artwork produced by the efforts envisioned in the artists’ resi-
dency program. Barbudans and visiting artists will explore themes of landscape, seascape, sustainability,
and people-environment interactions.
The BRC aquaponic facility was built in direct response to curricular needs by the Sir McChesney
George Secondary School and to government initiatives that have identified aquaponics as a livelihood
initiative countrywide. BRC’s facility is the first and only research facility in the country that allows local
secondary school students the use of the facility for fulfilling their curricular requirements. This facility is
critical for exploring options toward food security and locally based sustainable solutions that will enable
the production of food without further taxing wild resources.
The CUNY Research Station at Barbuda. Photo: Courtesy HERC
Opening of the museum. Photo: Noel Hefele
Jia Ma wins Horst Schulz Prize for 2013
V OLU ME 2, ISSU E 1 Page 11
The Ph.D. Program in Biochemistry held its fifth annu-
al Horst Schulz Prize on February 22 in the Elebash
Recital Hall. Named in honor of Professor Emeritus
Horst Schulz, the prize is awarded to a doctoral student
in biochemistry for the best peer-reviewed paper as first
author. Current or recent graduates of the Ph.D. Pro-
gram in Biochemistry compete annually for the prize.
The 2012 winner was Jia Ma for his first-author
paper “Fe2+ binds iron responsive element-RNA, selec-
tively changing protein-binding affinities and regulating
mRNA repression and activation,” Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America (PNAS) 109:22 (May 29, 2012), online May
14, 2012. PNAS, the official journal of the United States
National Academy of Sciences, appears weekly in
print and daily online and provides results of vital re-
search in the biological, physical, and social sciences.
Ma’s research was the result of collaboration
between seven scientists in four national institutions:
the Graduate Center and Hunter College, CUNY; Chil-
dren’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, Oakland,
CA; School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve Uni-
versity, Cleveland, OH; and University of California,
Berkeley. Ma conducted his research in the Hunter
College lab of his mentor Dixie J. Gross, professor of
Chemistry.
The selection committee for the prize consists
of the program’s admissions committee: eight members
of
the doctoral faculty in biochemistry and one bio-
chemistry doctoral student. Past award recipients in-
clude biochemistry alumni Drs. Leah Cohen,
Kelly Levano, Prerna Kaur, and Katrina Caroccia.
The prize ceremony began with greetings and
welcome from Biochemistry’s Executive Officer Ed-
ward Kennelly and Associate Provost and Dean for
Doctoral Sciences Adjie Henderson, following which
Ma presented his research and fielded questions from
the audience. Ma then received the prize, consisting
of a certificate and $1,000, from Professor Emeritus
Schulz. The ceremony was followed by a reception.
(l. to r.) Edward Kennelly, Adjie Henderson, Horst
Schulz, Jia Ma, Dixie Goss. Photo: Brian Olson
The audience in the Elebash Recital Hall. Photo: Brian
Olson
Jia Ma at the reception with students and faculty. Photo:
Brian Olson
Page 12 HA PPE NI NGS I N T HE S CI E NCE S
Awards, Fellowships, and Grants
BIOLOGY
Anjana Saxena (Asst. Prof, Brooklyn, Biochemistry and Biology) received the AACR Minority-Serving
Institution (MSI) Faculty Scholar Award in Cancer Research, to participate in the AACR 104th Annual
Meeting, Washington, DC, April 6–10, 2013.
Frank T. Burbrink (Prof., CSI, Biology) received a $650,000 grant from the National Science Founda-
tion, Systematic Biology section, for his project titled “An inclusive phylogeny for the Pseudoxyrhophi-
ine snakes in Madagascar.” The project involves collaboration with co-PIs Christopher Raxworthy and
Richard Pearson of the American Museum of Natural History. Prof. Burbrink has also received
$150,000 in funding from CAPES–Science Without Borders as a Special Visiting Researcher in Brazil.
His co-PI on this project is Adrian Garda (UFRN-Brasil).
Presentations
COMPUTER SCIENCE
Epstein, S. L., et al. 2012. “Applying FORR to human/multi-robot teams.” Human-Agent-Robot Team-
work Workshop at 7th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2012).
PHYSICS
Alexander Lisyansky (Prof., Queens, Physics) gave two invited talks:
Lisyansky, A. A., Andrianov, E. S., Dorofeenko, A. V. , Pukhov, A. A., and Vinogradov, A. P.
“Forced spaser oscillations.” SPIE Optics+Photonics, San Diego, January 2012.
Vinogradov, A., Andrianov, E., Dorofeenko, A., Baranov, D., Pukhov, A., and Lisyansky, A.
“Loss Compensation in Active Metamaterials Based on Spasers.” The 4th International Topical Meeting
on Nanophotonics and Metamaterials - Nanometa 2013, Tirol, Austria, January 2013..
Tetiana Nosach, a graduate student in physics (mentor Prof. Steven G. Greenbaum, Hunter, Chemistry
and Physics) presented “Single Crystal NMR Investigation of LiMPO4.” The Fall 2012 Materials Re-
search Society Meeting, Boston, December 2012.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Helen Cole, graduate student in public health, presented a poster, “Measuring chronic disease outcomes
for older black men in New York City: Prevalence estimates from a true community-based sample.” The
2012 NIH Summit on Health Disparities.
Page 13 HA PPE NI NGS I N T HE S CI E NCE S
COMPUTER SCIENCE
Susan L. Epstein (Prof., Hunter, Computer Science) has published a number of journal and conference
papers recently:
Epstein, S. L., et al. 2012. “Similarity and Plausible Recommendations.” Advances in Cognitive Systems,
2: 185–202.
Epstein, S. L., et al. 2012. “The Role of Knowledge and Certainty in Understanding for Dialogue.” Ad-
vances in Cognitive Systems, 1: 93–108.
Passonneau, R. J., Epstein, S. L., and Ligorio, T. 2012. “Naturalistic Dialogue Management for Noisy
Speech Recognition.” IEEE Journal of Special Topics in Signal Processing, Special issue on Advances in
Spoken Dialogue Systems and Mobile Interfaces, 6: 928–942.
Epstein, S. L., et al. 2012. “Discovering Protein Clusters.” AAAI Fall Symposium on Discovery In-
formatics: The Role of AI Research in Innovating Scientific Processes.
Epstein, S. L., et al. 2012. “Toward Habitable Assistance from Spoken Dialogue Systems.” Inno-
vative Applications of Artificial Intelligence.
Hixon, B., Passonneau, R. J., and Epstein, S. L. 2012. “Semantic Specificity in Spoken Dialogue
Requests.” In Proceedings of the 13th Annual Meeting of the Special Interest Group in Discourse and Dia-
logue, 257–260.
Ozgelen, A. T., Schneider, E., Costantino, M., Munoz, J. P., Epstein, S. L., Parsons, S., and Sklar,
E. I. 2012. “On Transfer from Multiagent to Multi-Robot Systems.” In Proceedings of Autonomous Ro-
bots and Multirobot Systems (ARMS) 2012.
Sklar, E., Parsons, S., Epstein, S. L., Ozgelen, A. T., Munoz, J. P., Abbasi, F., Schneider, E., and
Costantino, M. 2012. “Learning to Avoid Collisions.” In Proceedings of AAAI Fall Symposium on Robots
Learning Interactively from Human Teachers.
Yun, X., and Epstein, S. L. 2012. “Adaptive Parallelization for Constraint Satisfaction Search.” In
Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Symposium on Combinatorial Search.
Yun, X., and Epstein, S. L. 2012. “A Hybrid Paradigm for Adaptive Parallel Search.” In Proceed-
ings of Eighteenth Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP-2012).
Yun, X., and Epstein, S. L. 2012. Learning Algorithm Portfolios for Parallel Execution. In Pro-
ceedings of the 6th Learning and Intelligent Optimization Conference (LION-2012), Springer-Verlag.
EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Scott Larson (Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2010 alumnus). 2013. Building Like Moses with Jacobs
in Mind: Contemporary Planning in New York City. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
PHYSICS
Alexander Kheyfits (Assoc. Prof., Bronx CC, Mathematics and Computer Science; GC, Physics) contrib-
uted a chapter, “Growth of Schrödingerian Subharmonic Functions Admitting Certain Lower Bounds,” in
Advances in Harmonic Analysis and Operator Theory—The Stefan Samko Anniversary Volume, (Operator
Theory: Advances and Applications, Vol. 229), edited by A. Almeida, L. Castro, and F. O. Speck (Basel:
Birkhäuser, 2013), pp. 215–231.
Publications
Publications cont’d.
V OLU ME 2, ISSU E 1 Page 14
Oleg Berman (Asst. Prof., NYC College of Technology, Physics) and Roman Kezerashvili (Prof., NYC
College of Technology, Physics) published the following papers:
Berman, O. L., Kezerashvili, R. Ya., and Ziegler, K. 2012. “Superfluidity and Collective Properties
of Excitonic Polaritons in Gapped Graphene in a Microcavity.” Physical Review B 86, 23: 235404.
Berman, O. L., Kezerashvili, R. Ya., and Kolmakov, G. V. 2012. “On Nonlinear Dynamics of a Di-
polar Exciton BEC in Two-layer Graphene.” Physics Letters A376: 3664–3667.
Berman, O. L., Kezerashvili, R. Ya., et al. 2012. “Turbulence in a Bose-Einstein condensate of di-
polar excitons in coupled quantum wells,” Physical Review B 86, 4: 045108.
Steve Greenbaum (Prof., Hunter, Chemistry and Physics) published the following papers:
Gmitter, A. J., Halajko, A., Sideris, P. J., Greenbaum, S., and Amatucci, G. G., “Subsurface Diffu-
sion of Oxide Electrolyte Decomposition Products in Metal Fluoride Nanocomposite Electrodes.” Electro-
chimica Acta 88: 735–744.
Hassoun, J., Verrelli, R., Reale, P., Panero, S., Mariotto, G., Greenbaum, S., and Scrosati, B. 2013.
“A Structural, Spectroscopic and Electrochemical Study of a Lithium Ion Conducting Li10GeP2S12 Solid
Electrolyte.” Journal of Power Sources 229: 117–122.
Sassin, M. B., Greenbaum, S., Long, J. W., Stallworth, P. E., Mansour, A. N., Hahn, B. P., Petti-
grew, K. A., and Rolison, D. R. “Achieving Electrochemical Capacitor Functionality from a Traditional
Battery Material: Conformal, Nanoscale LiMn2O4 Coatings on 3-D, Device-ready Carbon Nanoarchitec-
tures.” Journal of Materials Chemistry A, DOI: 10.1039/c2ta00937d 1, 2431-2440.
Roman Kezerashvili (Prof., NYC College of Technology, Physics) and Justin Vazquez-Poritz (Asst.
Prof. NYC College of Technology, Physics):
Kezerashvili, R. Ya., and Vazquez-Poritz, J. F. 2013. “Effect of a Drag Force due to Absorption of
Solar Radiation on Solar Sail Orbital Dynamics.” Acta Astronautica 84: 206–214.
Kezerashvili, R. Ya., and Vazquez-Poritz, J. F. 2013 “Can Solar Sails be used to Test Fundamental
Physics?” Acta Astronautica 83: 54–64.
Vadim Oganesyan (Asst. Prof., CSI, Physics) and Gregory Boutis (Asst. Prof., York, Chemistry and
Physics ):
Morgan, S., Oganesyan, V., and Boutis, G. S. 2012. “Multispin Correlations and Pseudo-
thermalization of the Transient Density Matrix in Solid-state NMR: Free Induction Decay and Magic
Echo.” Physical Review B 86, 21: 214410.
Giovani Ossola (Asst. Prof., NYC College of Technology, Physics):
Mastrolia, P., Mirabella, E., Ossola, G., and Peraro, T. 2012. “Scattering Amplitudes from Multi-
variate Polynomial Division.” Physics Letters B 718, 1: 173–177.
Allen Tesdall (Asst. Prof., CSI, Physics):
Tesdall, A. M., and Hunter, J. K. 2013. “Self-similar Solutions for the Diffraction of Weak
Shocks.” Journal of Computational Science 4, 1–2: 92–100.
Keyfitz, B. L., Tesdall, A. M., Payne, K. R., and Popivanov, N. I. 2013. “The Sonic Line as a Free
Boundary.” Quarterly of Applied Mathematics 71: 119–133.
Page 15 HA PPE NI NGS I N T HE S CI E NCE S
Publications cont’d.
Bo Wen (Physics, February 2013 alumnus) and Ms. Shiqi Li, graduate student in Physics (mentor Dist.
Prof. Myriam Sarachik, City College, Physics):
Subedi, P., Kent, A. D., Wen, B., Yeshurun, Y., Sarachik, M. P., Millis, A. J., Lampropoulos, C.,
and Christou, G. 2012. “Transverse Field Ising Ferromagnetism in Mn12-acetate-MeOH.” Physics Review
B 85, 13: 134441.
Mokashi, A., Li, S., Wen, B., Kravchenko, S. V., Shashkin, A. A., Dolgopolov, V. T., and Sarachik,
M. P. 2012. “Critical Behavior of a Strongly-interacting 2D Electron System.” Physics Review Letters 109,
9: 096405.
Zhibai Zhang, graduate student in physics (mentor Prof. Justin Vazquez-Poritz, NYC College of Technol-
ogy, Physics):
Vazquez-Poritz, J. F., and Zhang, Z. 2012. “Brane resolution through fibration,” Physics Review D
86, 10: 106001.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Nick Freudenberg (Dist. Prof., Hunter, Psychology and Public Health) and Michele Simon: “Newtown
Massacre as a Public Health Failure—and Opportunity” for the Huffington Post (Dec 19, 2012).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-simon/newtown-massacre-as-a-pub_b_2332237.html
Nick Freudenberg (Dist. Prof., Hunter, Psychology and Public Health) wrote a letter to the editor in the
New York Times titled, “Reversing Childhood Obesity.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/opinion/reversing-child-obesity.html?_r=0
Steffie Woolhandler (Prof., Lehman, Public Health) and David Himmelstein (Prof., Hunter, Public
Health) published “Canada’s Health Costs for Seniors Rising slowly: Points Way to Medicare Solvency.”
The article compares Canada’s health care costs to the United States’.
http://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/pfan-chc102412.php
Bill Sothern, a public health graduate student, was featured in the Daily News (Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013) for
his work on preventing mold growth resulting from Hurricane Sandy.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mold-plagues-homes-flooded-sandy-article-1.1259771
Appointments and Honors
V OLU ME 2, ISSU E 1 Page 16
PUBLIC HEALTH
Washington Heights CORNER Project, northern Manhattan’s only harm reduction–specific social service
agency, has named Taeko Frost, a public health student, as executive director starting January 2013. She has
been serving as program director since 2009, overseeing the development of on-site medical and primary care
services, case management, quality assurance, and evaluation. Taeko is also a member of the Community Ad-
visory Board of Community Healthcare Network.
Jose Nanin (Assoc. Prof., Kingsborough CC, Public Health) was appointed as codirector of the college’s
Community Health AS degree program.
Other Achievements
PUBLIC HEALTH
In November, the Environmental Occupational Health and Safety (EOHS) faculty at the CUNY School of
Public Health at Hunter College in association with the Metropolitan New York American Industrial Hy-
giene Association (AIHA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) collected and
distributed Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) for the Sandy Relief and Assistance Efforts.
May May Leung (Asst. Prof., Hunter, Public Health) and the graduate student Nutrition Club at Hunter
visited several classes at the Global Technology Preparatory Middle School in East Harlem and handed
out approximately 125 apples to community members outside the Silberman building, affirming the Nu-
trition program’s commitment to promote healthy eating in the community.
Franklin Mirer (Prof., Hunter, Public Health) was a member of the working group for International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs Volume 101. The monograph, which classified
eighteen chemicals as carcinogens, was authored by the members of the working group. Dr. Mirer had
substantial input into the assessments of DEHP (a plasticizer and suspected environmental estrogen wide-
spread in the environment) and diethanolamine (an ingredient and contaminant in personal care products
and metalworking fluids), as well as general comments on the cancer epidemiology of metalworking flu-
ids. For more information see: http://monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monographs/vol101/index.php
renece Berkley National Lab. An-
drew Rappe, University of Pennsyl-
vania.
WED APR. 10, Benedetta Mennucci
(University of Pisa, Italy) Troy van
Voohris (MIT)
Visit https://sites.google.com/site/
itsgccuny/theoretical-and-
computational-chemistry for up-to-
date information
MON., MAR. 25–THU., MAR.28
Frontiers of quantum condensed
matter physics: light, matter and
unusual devices of equilibrium
Venue: Rm 4102, GC, 9:00 am–6:00
pm
This workshop will bring together a
diverse group of experts working in
the burgeoning area of research into
quantum dynamics of dis-
equilibrated many-body systems.
FRI., MAR. 22, 4:30–6:00 pm Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing
(Ph.D.) Program Venue: Rm 8301, GC.
Please RSVP by Mar, 15 to nurs-
FRI, MAR. 22, 1:30-4:30 pm
Steps in STEM: Promoting Wom-
en within Science, Technology, En-
gineering, and Mathematics Ca-
reers.”
Venue: Proshansky Auditorium, GC.
A panel discussion and career fair for
all including high school and college
-aged students.
ITS Events
Seminars in theoretical and com-
putational chemistry
Venue: Rm 4102, GC, 3:00–6:00 pm
WED, APR. 10, Jeff Neaton, Law-
Rapid advances in fields of cold
atoms, ultraclean semiconductor
devices, nuclear magnetic reso-
nance and structural dynamics ne-
cessitate a meeting such as this that
will focus on some of the most re-
cent and exciting developments
both in experiments and theory.
Organizational emphasis is placed
on spontaneous small group discus-
sions rather than dense presentation
schedule. Lunch and coffee breaks
will be served.
Registration is required for this
event, please contract va-
Visit http://www.bnl.gov/
fqcmp2013/ for more details.
Spring 2013 Events
THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK Factoid: There are over five hundred members of the CUNY doc-toral science faculty associated with the Graduate Center—a rich-ness of intellectual capital that few other universities can match. This consortium, along with institutions such as the Brookhaven Laboratories, the New York Botanical Garden, and the American Museum of Natural History offer a unique combination of wide-ranging, interdisciplinary research and training possibilities as well as focused areas of concentration.
Published by Office of the Provost
Purnima Thakur, Editor
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Email submissions to: [email protected]
Office of the Associate Provost &
Dean for Doctoral Sciences
EXPLORE US ONLINE THROUGH
www.gc.cuny.edu
Twitter: The Graduate Center @CUNYGradCenter
Facebook: The Graduate Center
Page 17 HA PPE NI NGS I N T HE S CI E NCE S