Arthur And Barbara Gelb To Deliver Fall 2006 Rudin Lecture October 19

Arthur and Barbara Gelb, award-winning writers and authorities on the life and work of playwright Eugene O’Neill, will deliver the Fall 2006 Rudin Lecture 5:30 p.m. Thursday, October 19, in The Great Hall of Shepard Hall on the CCNY campus. The program is titled “Eugene O’Neill: Universal Symbol of Integrity Why It Was Worth Spending 50 Years Decoding His Credo.” The Gelbs are authors of O’Neill, the seminal best-selling biography, published in 1962. In 2000, they published the first volume of their projected two-volume rewritten biography of Eugene O’Neill and are currently at work on the second volume. Together with filmmaker Ric Burns, they co-wrote Éugene O’Neill: A Documentary, which debuted on PBS last March. Arthur Gelb, who attended CCNY, spent 45 years on the editorial staff of The New York Times, rising from copy boy to managing editor. Barbara Gelb has lectured and conducted seminars on Eugene O’Neill at universities in the United States and abroad. She also wrote “My Gene,” a one-act play based on O’Neill’s third wife, Carlotta Monterey, in which Colleen Dewhurst starred in the 1987 production at the Public Theatre. More on this story. 

Martha Gold Elected to Institute of Medicine
Dr. Marthe R. Gold, Arthur C. Logan Professor and Chair of Community Health and Social Medicine at The Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, has been elected to the Institute of Medicine. Election to the Institute is “considered one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health,” according to Institute President Harvey V. Fineberg. It recognizes “people who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care and public health.” Dr. Gold, who joined the Sophie Davis faculty in 1997, has had extensive involvement with healthcare policy. From 1990 to 1996, she served as a senior policy advisory on economic and financing issues for prevention clinics and public health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 1993, she participated in the Clinton Task Force for Health Care Reform. She also served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee to Evaluate Measure of Health Benefits for Environmental, Health and Safety Regulation, whose report. "Valuing Health for Regulatory Cost-Effectiveness Analyis, was issued this year. Dr. Gold joins eight other CCNY faculty members who hold memberships in the three U.S. National Academies.

Johana Rivera Named Registrar
Johana I. Rivera has been appointed City College’s new Registrar. Ms. Rivera joins from Brooklyn College, where she served for 16 years in the Registrar’s Office. In that time she worked and or managed every area of the Registrar including Transcripts, Degree Audit, Record Maintenance, Registration, Transfer Evaluations, the Information Center and Scheduling. “Johana’s extensive background in working in the registrar’s office at another CUNY college has given her a broad range of experience in virtually all aspects of college registration worked,’ said Celia Lloyd, Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management. “Her knowledge and leadership skills will enable her to play an important role in City College’s growth.” At Brooklyn College, Ms. Rivera developed, maintained and oversaw the Transfer Equivalency System (Domestic Institutions Transfer Systems – DITS), developed, designed, implemented and maintained the on-line scheduling program (Course Scheduling System – CSS) as well as coordinating the imaging of over 960,000 records. A Brooklyn resident, she holds a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Brooklyn College.

Biomedical Engineering Receives $2.5 Million NIH Grant
The Department of Biomedical Engineering has received a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will be used to create a “national urban model for minority biomedical engineering education.” Proceeds will be used to award NIH Scholarships, which will cover full tuition and summer research stipends, to as many as 20 high-achieving undergraduate biomedical engineering majors from underrepresented groups. Additional elements of the program include hands-on research experiences, a new mentoring program pairing undergrads with Ph.D. candidates, a new outreach program to the biotech industry and expanded outreach to New York City high schools. In addition, undergraduate scholars will be paired with advanced Ph.D. candidates in biomedical engineering who will serve as mentors and receive stipends out of the grant. NIH Scholars in their freshman and sophomore years will be assigned to Teaching Fellows paid from the grant, as well, who will help them in core math and science courses that are prerequisites for advanced coursework. The Department of Biomedical Engineering will also initiate an industrial outreach program with select biotech companies and a recruitment program targeting science teachers and college advisors at select New York public high schools. More on this story.

Researchers Find Tiny Calcifications That May Trigger Fatal Heart Attacks
Researchers from The Grove School of Engineering and other institutions have confirmed the presence of minute calcifications in the fibrous thin cap that forms between lipid-filled lesions and the bloodstream. The discovery supports a new hypothesis to explain what causes the thin cap to rupture, triggering catastrophic coronary events that kill over 300,000 Americans annually. The theory posits that calcifications that become lodged in the thin cap layer can cause the thin cap to rupture when they become de-bonded, or detached, by stress-induced cavitation (small bubbles) that form at the interface between the calcific particle and the surrounding tissue. The calcifications, which are too small to be detected through conventional in vivo imaging techniques were observed through confocal microscopy and microcomputer tomography (micro CT). “The micro CT images picked out the calcified cells like stars in the sky,” said Sheldon Weinbaum, Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, Future steps would include more extensive studies to determine the frequency and location of calcifications within the fibrous cap and a demonstration that stress-induced caviation would cause interfacial bonding, Professor Weinbaum said. The findings were reported September 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. More on this story.

Ten Students Named City College, Mellon Mays Fellows
The City College Fellowships Program has announced the names of 10 outstanding undergraduates chosen as City College and Mellon Mays Fellows for 2006-07. The Fellowships, funded by the Ford Foundation and Mellon Foundation, respectively, support high-achieving students interested in careers in advanced research and college-level teaching. The five new City College Fellows, and their majors, are: Je Hi An, Biomedical Engineering; Maria Komartsova, International Studies; Karen Levit, English Literature/Jewish Studies; Xavier Martinez, Political Science; and Michael Zawoiski, Mathematics. The five students named Mellon Mays Fellows, and their majors, are: Emmanuella Anyanwu, Biology; Kenya Mitchell, English Major/Creative Writing; Christopher Negron, Physics; Justino Rodriguez, History, and Charmel Rogers, Music. Both programs provide faculty mentoring, pre-graduate school advising, supplemental funds for travel, research and academic training and a three-credit Fellowship seminar. City College Fellows receive stipends of $1,000 per semester for up to six semesters and can compete for a $10,000 graduate school scholarship. The Mellon Mays Fellowships, for students from underserved minorities, provides $1,000 stipends for each semester of a Fellow’s junior and senior years plus summer stipends of $3,000 for the two summers of their Fellowship. In addition, the Mellon Foundation provides Fellows up to $10,000 to repay graduate or undergraduate loans.

Towers Opening Celebrated September 28

CCNY President Gregory H. Williams (r.), Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Lois Cronholm and CUNY Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer Allan H. Dobrin cut ribbon at September 28 party to celebrate the opening of The Towers, the first residence hall ever built on the CCNY campus.

CWE Attains Division Status
The Center for Worker Education (CWE) has officially become the division of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). The CUNY Board of Trustees approved the change at its June 26 meeting. Effective September 1, CWE is known as the Division of Worker Education. The Center for Worker Education name will be retained for the facility that houses the Division. Currently, it is located at 99 Hudson St. in Tribeca, but is relocating to 25 Broadway in Lower Manhattan early next year. The Division of Worker Education has only one department, Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, with Harriet Alonso, a Professor of History, its newly elected chair. She will be a voting representative in the Faculty Senate and the Faculty Council of CLAS, as well. “Becoming a division of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences gives the program significantly greater control over its operations as well as a greater voice in the college’s academic affairs,” said Provost Zeev Dagan. “President Williams joins me in congratulating Dean Lemons and everyone at the new Division of Worker Education.” More on this story. 

Ed School Partners for Model Leadership Training Project
CCNY’s School of Education has teamed with the National Executive Service Corps (NESC) to create a pilot leadership development program that combines classroom training, apprenticeships and coaching from private sector executives. Entitled Academy for Promising Leaders in Urban Schools (APLUS), and funded by a $195,000 grant from the Goldman Sachs Foundation, the program is preparing 19 master teachers in New York City Region 10 to become assistant principals within a year. “The program aims to establish a model for school leadership development and succession continuum beginning with teachers beginning their administrative careers,” said Phyllis Durden, CCNY Associate Professor of Education Leadership. In addition, the program will help Region 10, which includes the Upper West Side, Harlem and northern Manhattan, address its immediate and long-range needs for qualified administrators. The participating teachers have been designated APLUSFellows, and have received stipends covering the full cost of tuition and supplies for the program, funded out of the Goldman Sachs Foundation grant. They were honored at a kickoff hosted by the Goldman Sachs Foundation. NESC is a nonprofit that provides management consulting and business advisory serves to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut nonprofits and public sector organizations. More on this story. 

Alumni Association Presents Finley Awards to Playwright, Physician
The Alumni Association will present its John H. Finley Award to Emmy Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally and Dr. Muriel Petioni, M.D., at its 126^th Annual Dinner Thursday, October 26, 2006 at The New York Marriott Marquis. Mr. McNally, a constant presence in New York theatre for over 40 years, will be honored for his prolific work, which has earned him recognition as one of the greatest living American dramatists. Dr. Petioni will be recognized for her leadership in the medical field and for establishing health initiatives for women. The Alumni Association will also confer Townsend Harris Medals on six distinguished alumni: Martin Cohen, ’70, co-Chairman and co-CEO, Cohen & Steers; Terrence (Terry) Elkes, ’55B, Principal and co-owner of Apollo Partners Ltd.; Jane Tillman Irving, ’69, TV and radio journalist; Dr. Walter A. Orenstein, ’68, a leading experts in the field of immunization; Dr. Eva J. Pell, ’68, Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School, The Pennsylvania State University, and Dr. Alfred S. Posamentier, ’66MA, Dean of CCNY’s School of Education and an internationally recognized mathematics educator. More on this story.

School Of Education Marks 85^th Anniversary With ‘New Educator’ Conference
Approximately 300 school-based and university-based educators will come to CCNY Saturday, October 21, for a one-day conference, “The New Educator: Building and Sustaining Learning Communities in Challenging Times,” which celebrates The City College School of Education’s 85^th anniversary. Attendees will hear two keynote speakers: Sonia Nieto, Professor Emeritus of Language, Literacy and Culture, University of Massachusetts, who will appear at the opening session, and Pedro Noguera, Professor in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, and Director of the Center for Research on Urban Schools and Globalization, who will deliver the concluding address. In addition, they can attend their choice of 19 breakout sessions presented in a variety of formats. The event concludes with a special performance by the Youth Dance Company of the American Ballroom Theatre, who were featured in the movie Mad Hot Ballroom, followed by an award presentation to the group’s founder Pierre Dulaine. Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer will present the award to Mr. Dulaine on behalf of The City College School of Education, the Harlem and Heights Historical Society, Community Board 12 and the 33^rd Police Precinct. More on this story.

Library Hosts Reception October 23 for Morris Cohen Exhibit
Cohen Library is hosting a reception 6 p.m. Monday, October 23, in the Atrium for “Morris Raphael Cohen: The Golden Age of Philosophy at CCNY, 1906-1938, an exhibit celebrating the life and achievements of the library’s namesake, now on display through November 22. Professor Cohen, a member of the Class of 1900, taught at CCNY from 1906 through 1938. The exhibit, which spans his teaching career at CCNY, includes documents and photographs from the City College Archives collection and biographical sources. The reception will feature welcoming remarks by President Gregory H. Williams and a talk by Professor of Philosophy David Weissman titled “Morris R. Cohen: His Philosophy and Role at City College.” Professor Weissman is the author of numerous books including most recently, The Cage: Must, Should, and Ought from Is (2006), and Lost Souls: The Philosophic Origins of a Cultural Dilemma (2003). For more information on the Morris Raphael Cohen exhibition at City College, please call (212) 650-7609. More on this story. 

CCNY Initiates Summer Program at Spain’s U of LaRioja
City College foreign language majors can now spend part of their summers studying in Spain, while paying CCNY tuition rates, thanks to a new permanent liaison established with University of La Rioja in Logroño. Thirteen students – nine undergrads and four graduate students – participated in the pilot exchange program. Accompanied by Professor Dulce García, they spent four weeks at the University, where they were enrolled in two classes and earned six credits. The courses, taught by University of LaRioja professors of Literature, Cultural History and Spanish Linguistics were divided into five one-week units. Topics included History of the Spanish Political Comic, History of Spanish Art, Literature of the Civil War and Spanish Lexicology. Professor García taught a graduate linguistics course as part of the program, as well, and accompanied the students on visits to Spanish cities and cultural sites. Professor Garcia, along with Foreign Languages and Literature Chair Juan Carlos Mercado, Deputy Dean of Social Sciences Marina Fernando and University of LaRioja personnel organized the group, trip and academic program, which will be offered annually going forward. Professor Mercado noted that beginning next year students could apply financial aid toward tuition for the program.

Family Affair 1: Arthur Kornberg’s Son, Robert, Wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry
City College alum and Nobelist Arthur Kornberg, ’37, has a Nobel Prize-winning prodigy. Son Robert Kornberg was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a process called transcription, which explains how genetic information is transmitted in the cells of humans, animals and fungi. The Kornbergs are one of just six pairs of fathers and sons who have received Nobel Prizes. Alas, the younger Kornberg did not follow in his father’s footsteps and attend CCNY. Rather, he chose to attend the school CCNY alumnus Andrew Grove, ’60, called “the City College of the bourgeoisie,” Harvard.

Family Affair 2: Professor Anshel, Daughter Devise Lightweight Security Algorithm
SecureRF Corp., a Westport, Conn.-based company founded by CCNY Professor of Computer Science Michael Anshel, his daughter, Dr. Iris Anshel, and his son-in-law, Dr. Dorian Goldfeld, has introduced a secure RFID (radio frequency identification) tag solution employing a breakthrough in cryptography they developed. The security solution, called the Algebraic Eraser™, employs an algorithm based on infinite group theory and works on quick iterations of small numbers. This enables it to provide the same level of security as existing security algorithms that require computing capabilities too great for RFID tags. SecureRF sees applications for the technology in high-value asset tracking, monitoring and anti-counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical, defense and homeland security sectors. Professor Anshel, a SecureRF board member, holds four patents related to the technology. Iris Anshel, a member of the CCNY Class of ‘XX, who serves as the company’s Chief Technology Office, has experience in the commercialization of security technology. Dr. Goldfeld, who also served on the board, is a Professor of Mathematics at Columbia University, a Sloan Fellow and has won the Cole Prize in Number Theory.

Martin Pope, ’39, Receives Royal Society’s Davy Medal
Alumnus Martin Pope, ’39, is the 2006 recipient of the Davy Medal, an award presented annually by The Royal Society, the national academy of science of the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, for outstanding recent discoveries in chemistry. Dr. Pope, Professor Emeritus at New York University, was honored for his pioneering work in the field of molecular semiconductors, which has become an important area of semiconductor science and technology. His discoveries include dark charge injecting contacts, which are the basis of essentially every organic semiconductor, and electro-luminescence in organic semiconductors, which opened a field in semiconductors that led to the development of modern light-emitting diodes. While at CCNY, Pope assisted in nuclear experiments being conducted at nearby Columbia University by Enrico Fermi and other key figures in the development of nuclear fission. Last February, Pope returned to CCNY to deliver the second lecture in the Distinguished Lecturer Series on Advances in Photonics sponsored by the CUNY Center for Advanced Technology in Photonics Applications. Pope joins a roster of Davy Medal recipients that includes Marie Curie, Pierre Curie and Linus Pauling.

Rishi Raj Elected Faculty Senate President
Rishi Raj, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, was elected President of The Faculty Senate October 3 at a meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. He succeeds Professor Philip Leonhard. The Senate is the Faculty’s voice on governance issues at City College. Members discuss faculty concerns and present them to the Administration. Professor Raj has taught at CCNY for 31 years and served stints as Dean for Administration and Associate Dean of the School of Engineering. He has served in the University Faculty Senate, as well. Professor Raj is the author of four books and 80 papers. He recently received a Congressional Award for his work with the United States Navy and a community service award from the Borough of Emerson, N.J., where he resides.

New Exhibit Features Community Center Designed by Dean Ranalli
The Saratoga Ave. Community Center, a 5,000 square foot New York City Housing Authority facility designed by George Ranalli, Dean of the School of Architecture, Urban Design & Landscape Architecture, is a featured exhibit in “Going Public 2: City Snapshots and Case Studies of the Mayor’s Design and Construction Excellence Initiative.” The exhibit runs through December 30 at the Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place. The project involved the renovation of an existing facility and the addition of a 3,500 square-foot wing. It has received coverage in Architecture, Architectural Record and The New York Times.  More photos of the project can be seen on Dean Ranalli’s studio website.

From the President

I know that with all of the terrific events going on around campus, it is often difficult to choose one over another. I do hope, however, that you will join me at the Samuel Rudin Distinguished Visiting Scholar Lecture by Arthur and Barbara Gelb on Eugene O’Neill on Thursday evening. Of course, we all know that The New York Times is the nation’s “paper of record” – and here we have a former editor of the Times and his wife speaking about their half-century study of America’s most influential playwright.  This promises to be a wonderful evening, and I hope to see you there.

I would also like to congratulate the faculty and Professor Rishi Raj on his recent election as chair of the Faculty Senate.  I know that we all share a strong commitment to the mission and the students of CityCollege, and I look forward to working closely with Dr. Raj and the Senate as we move this great institution forward.  

Gregory H. Williams

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