The City College of New York Hosts
Einsteins in the City Conference
|
(l-r)
Dr. Arthur Kornberg, 2005 INTEL Science Winner David
Bauer (Class of 2008), Dr. Herbert Hauptman, Dr. Leon
Lederman, Dr. Jerome Karle, Lev Sviridov |
By Nazneen Malik
The City College of New York (CCNY) recently held its first
international, multidisciplinary, student research conference
in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Einstein Papers.
The two day, Einsteins in the City, conference featured a panel
discussion with Nobel Laureates and CCNY alumnae, Dr. Arthur
Kornberg, Dr. Herbert Hauptman, Dr. Jerome Karle, ad Dr. Leon
Lederman, and presentations by students and researchers from
across the country.
Students at the undergraduate, masters, and PhD levels had
the opportunity to present their research during poster sessions
and received positive feedback from Nobel Laureates, Dr. Herbert
Hauptman, and Dr. Jerome Karle, who also acted as judges in
the poster competition.
“This has been a truly terrific conference and an incredible
event for City College,” stated Gregory Williams, President
of the City College of New York as he described the event as
part of the second golden age of CCNY. He also thanked the
Nobel Laureates for their presence at the event, saying “you
really have reached your hands across generations showing your
interest not only in City College but in the young scientists
who are going to be the Nobel Laureates of the future.”
In the past, CCNY has
held annual poster presentations. However, they were limited
to City College students and never invited Nobel Laureates
before, says Dr. Laurent Mars, Assistant Dean of Science
at CCNY and a member of the organizing committee. He noticed
that in previous years, most of the projects students worked
on dealt with science and engineering. At this conference,
however, the committee tried to encourage and incorporate other
fields of study like the behavioral and social sciences. “Even
now the majority of posters were still coming from science
and engineering but I think that as we grow and get more recognition
we will eventually be able to attract other fields,” he
states confidently.
Manoj Sharma, a student who won first place in the Ph.D category
from CCNY, explained that his love for science stems from his
curiosity to know how things work and that his interest in
participating in the contest was to meet the Nobel Laureates.
In fact, due to the novelty of the event, conference organizers
were unsure as to the kind of turnout it would produce despite
the many volunteers who helped spread the word. Nevertheless,
250 poster submissions were accepted.
Other winners included Merlin Brito from The City College
of New York, and Hannes Boehm of the Vienna University of Technology
who received first place in the undergraduate and masters categories,
respectively. As for the Ph.D candidates, due to the high quality
of their research, Gina Cantone, and Jing Zhou from the City
University of New York, and Purushothaman Srinivasan from New
Jersey Institute of Technology, all received first place.#