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-

ing@gc.cuny.edu

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-

dim.oganesyan@gmail.com

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: pthaku@gc.cuny.edu

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