Author: lehman

BRONX, N.Y. — The Lehman College Community Band will present a benefit concert, entitled “Music for Haiti,” at 1 p.m. on Sunday, February 21, in the Lovinger Theatre. Led by Professor Alan Hollander, the band will perform a variety of pops, Broadway favorites, marches and other arrangements for symphonic wind band, composed by George Gershwin, Percy Grainger, John Philip Sousa, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cole Porter and others.

The concert, cosponsored by the Department of Music and Lehman Stages, is free, but donations are requested. All funds raised will go to the American Red Cross to help with its disaster relief efforts in Haiti.

For more information, contact the Lehman Music Department at 718-960-8247 or [email protected].

A senior college of the City University of New York, Lehman is located at Goulden Avenue and Bedford Park Boulevard in the northwest Bronx and is accessible by bus as well as the #4 and “D” subway lines. Free attended parking is available.

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Media Contact: Marge Rice / 718-960-4992

BRONX, N.Y. — The Virgin of Guadalupe has long been a powerful religious symbol for Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. Now it also has become an important political symbol in their push for immigration reform.

Lehman Professor of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies Alyshia Gálvez explores that symbolism in her most recent book, Guadalupe in New York: Devotion and the Struggle for Citizenship Rights Among Mexican Immigrants (New York: NYU Press, 2009). Using ethnographic research to illuminate Catholicism as practiced by Mexicans in New York, she studies how religion and politics intersect in the activities of undocumented Mexicans as they struggle to gain U.S. citizenship.

While conducting research in Northern Chile’s desert region, Professor Gálvez became interested in religious brotherhoods. “These organizations were some of the only groups that continued to assemble throughout the 17 years of military dictatorship,” she says. “I knew there was something deeply empowering and even political about these organizations, even while they told me they were interested only in paying homage to their patron saint.”

In New York City, Professor Gálvez found very similar organizations with an explicitly activist stance, organizations called Guadalupan Committees that are parish-based groups dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe and the empowerment of their members. Every December 12, for example, thousands of Mexican immigrants gather at New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral for the mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s feast day. They kiss images of the Virgin, wait for a bishop’s blessing—and they also carry signs asking for immigration reform, much like political protestors.

Professor Gálvez adds that it is through Guadalupan devotion that many undocumented immigrants are finding both the will and the vocabulary to demand rights, immigration reform and respect. “I hope that readers will come to have a greater appreciation for the incredible efforts immigrants in our city make to be heard and respected,” she says, “and the urgency of comprehensive immigration reform.”

Contact: Keisha-Gaye Anderson / 718-960-8013

BRONX, N.Y. — Research by Lehman Chemistry Professor Manfred Philipp is shedding new light on the possible causes of mental retardation—specifically about the gene historically associated with this condition.

The research, conducted by Dr. Philipp and colleagues at the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities on Staten Island, concludes that mutations in this gene disrupt the correct balance of steroids in the brain, leading to neurological problems later in life. Until now, it has not been clear exactly how or why this gene is required for normal brain development.

Their findings about the HSD17B10 gene product were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The HSD17B10 gene product, an enzyme called HSD10, processes many types of steroids and steroid modulators—certain compounds that act on the steroid receptor. The gene also controls the breakdown of a particular amino acid, isoleucine. The mutations analyzed in the research help explain the biological function of HSD10 and how the enzyme’s amino acid sequence affects its activity.

Co-authors of the paper, entitled “Mental Retardation Linked to Mutations in the HSD17B10 Gene Interfering with Neurosteroid and Isoleucine Metabolism,” included Song-Yu Yang, Xue-Ying He, Simon E. Olpin, Vernon R. Sutton, Joe McMenamin, Robert B. Denman and Mazhar Malik.

Dr. Philipp earned his doctorate in biochemistry from Northwestern University and joined the Lehman faculty in 1977. Also a professor in the biochemistry and chemistry Ph.D. programs at the CUNY Graduate Center, he has taught bioinformatics and biopharmaceuticals as a Fulbright Scholar at the Catholic University of Portugal.

Dr. Philipp has been program director for research-based student support programs at Lehman funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as co-program director of Bridges to the Baccalaureate at Bronx Community College and Lehman College, also supported by the NIH.

To access the complete research paper, visit www.pnas.org/content/106/35/14820.full?sid=3ef63b08-3345-4708-9c6f-d1ef8dd93618

Contact: Keisha-Gaye Anderson / 718-960-8013

BRONX, N.Y. — Award-winning businesswoman and author Deborah Rosado Shaw will deliver the keynote address at an all-day conference on Wednesday, February 24, at Lehman College. Her talk, entitled “Dreaming Big,” will take place at 3:30 p.m. in the East Dining Room and is free and open to the public.

Rosado Shaw grew up in the Bronx, in the country’s poorest Congressional District, before earning a scholarship to Wellesley College. She went on to start her own multi-million dollar company, Umbrellas Plus, LLC and negotiated deals with such major corporations as Costco, Toys-R-Us, Wal-Mart and the Walt Disney Company.

With the publication of Dream BIG! A Roadmap For Facing Life’s Challenges and Creating the Life You Deserve, she became the first Hispanic to write a self-help book for a major publisher. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, ABC, and CNN and is the founder of Dream BIG! Enterprises.

Listed among the 100 Most Successful Latinas in the U.S. for three years in a row (2001-2003), Rosado Shaw has won a slew of awards, including the Small Business Administration’s Women of Enterprise Award and the Dialogue on Diversity’s Entrepreneurial Excellence Award. In 2001, she was named the 2001 Hispanic Businesswoman of the Year by the National Hispanic Business Group. Today, she speaks around the world, addressing issues of personal empowerment, diversity and entrepreneurship and advises American Express, Avon, IM, JPMorgan Chase and other Fortune 500 companies.

The conference, designed to encourage students to pursue their dreams, is sponsored by Lehman’s Career Services Center. A senior college of the City University of New York, Lehman enrolls more than 12,000 students and offers over 100 undergraduate and graduate programs in the arts and sciences, business, education and other professional areas, including a new interdisciplinary major in environmental sciences.

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Media Contact: Joseph Tirella / 718-960-5746

Prof. Vincent Prohaska of Lehman College’s Psychology Department has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Eastern Psychological Association. Prof. Prohaska, who joined the Lehman faculty in 1990, will serve a three-year term beginning June 1, 2010.

Founded in 1896, the Eastern Psychological Association is the oldest regional Psychological Association in the United States. It advances the science and profession of psychology through annual meetings, where members present their work in a professional and scientific setting.

Prof. Prohaska, whose research interests include memory, procrastination and plagiarism, recently served as President of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in psychology, an organization in which he has long been active. In 2001, while serving as faculty advisor to the Lehman chapter of Psi Chi, he received the Florence L. Denmark Award, which is presented annually to one faculty advisor “for outstanding contributions to Psi Chi and psychology.” In that same year, the Lehman chapter won the Ruth Hubbard Cousins Award for “best achieving the purpose of Psi Chi to encourage, stimulate and maintain excellence in scholarship of the individual members in all fields, particularly in psychology, and to advance the science of psychology.”

A graduate of Bronx Community College and Adelphi University, Prof. Prohaska earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago. In 1997, he was chosen as Lehman’s “Teacher of the Year.”

For more information, please contact Joseph Tirella at 718.960.5746 or at [email protected]

BRONX, N.Y. — The Theatre Program at Lehman College will present a fresh take on an old tradition March 3-7 with The Bronx Vaudeville Company: Live at The Lovinger, An Evening of Music, Magic and Mayhem. Performances will begin on Wednesday, March 3, at 3:30 p.m. and run through Sunday, March 7, at 3 p.m., with Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 for general admission and $10 for seniors and non-Lehman students. For reservations or more information, call 718-960-8025 or log on to www.lehmanstages.org.

The Bronx Vaudeville Company: Live at The Lovinger is a modern reinterpretation of the old Vaudeville shows of the 1920s and 30s, featuring eight acts or “turns” of song, dance, comedic theatre and magic. Taking their cue from the definition of Vaudeville as “popular entertainment,” the creative team of Felix Otero, Amy Larimer, Alan Baboff and Dante Albertie—along with a company of Lehman students and alumni—have created a show that Albertie calls “unforgettable, with a big heart and an even bigger sense of humor.”

Albertie, who is director of Lehman Stages, adds that this is “a wonderful show for the entire family and perfect for junior high and high school groups.” The production showcases the young artists in the College’s Theatre and Dance Programs, which aim to present work that enlightens and entertains the community, while providing important training for their students.

A senior college of the City University of New York, the Lehman campus is located on Goulden Avenue and Bedford Park Boulevard West in the northwest Bronx and is accessible by bus, as well as the #4 and “D” subway lines.

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Media Contact: Marge Rice / 718-960-4992

BRONX, N.Y.—The Lehman College Chamber Players will perform works by Beethoven, Dohnanyi, and Brahms on Wednesday, February 17, at 12:30 p.m. in the Music Building’s Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited.

Performers include critically acclaimed cellist Andre Emelianoff, who is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and Lehman College; violinist Paul Roczek, professor of violin at the Mozarteum, in Salzburg, Austria; Daniel Panner, principal violinist of the New York City Opera; and pianist Diana Mittler-Battipaglia, professor of music and choral director at Lehman College.

The program will include Beethoven’s Piano Quartet in E flat Major opus 16, the Serenade for String Trio by Dohnanyi, and Brahms’ Piano Quartet in C minor opus 60.

A senior college of the City University of New York, the Lehman campus is located on Goulden Avenue and Bedford Park Boulevard West in the northwest Bronx and is accessible by bus, as well as the #4 and “D” subway lines.

For more information on the concert, contact the College’s Music Department at 718-960-8247.

Contact: Yeara Milton/ 718-960-7963

BRONX, N.Y.—What do family trees have to do with creating new flu vaccines?

Everything, according to Lehman College Mathematics and Computer Science Prof. Katherine St. John. She’s working on a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop new tools that will help model evolutionary changes, like those taking place in the flu virus.

“Each year, 36,000 people in the U.S. die because of the flu,” says Prof. St. John, “but scientists understand that the flu virus continues to evolve and that next year’s strain will be different. They build phylogenetic trees to anticipate what that next round of flu will look like.”

Just like a family’s geneaology, these trees show shared ancestry—the common links—among various biological groups. Working with 12 of her undergraduate students, Prof. St. John will develop new mathematical and computational tools that will enable scientists to compare, optimize, and visualize the various trees.

“If I have 50 different animals, then the number of possible trees tracing their ancestry would be more than the number of atoms in the observable universe,” she explains. Her goal is to use innovative math techniques to understand what such a space with all those trees would look like. That would improve a search engine’s ability to find the right information. This research has implications not only for understanding more about the underlying changes that take place from one flu season to the next but also for analyzing character evolution, gene expression, and many areas of conservation biology.

The $221,150 grant is provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Undergraduates working with Prof. St. John are funded through that grant, as well as through the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program, an NSF program that seeks to increase the quality and quantity of students successfully completing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics baccalaureate degree programs.

A graduate of Smith College, Prof. St. John holds a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles. She joined the Lehman faculty in 1999. A senior college of The City University of New York, Lehman currently enrolls more than 12,000 students and offers over 100 undergraduate and graduate programs.

Media Contact: Marge Rice / 718-960-4992

Dr. Yuri Gorokhovich

Even in densely populated New York City and its surrounding area, there are thousands of acres of vacant land that could be saved for conservation, according to a new study authored by Lehman College’s Dr. Yuri Gorokhovich.

Dr. Gorokhovich, whose findings were published in the December 2009 issue of The Journal of Coastal Conservation, studied the counties bordering Long Island Sound for the last two years after receiving a $74,000 grant from the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission.

He identified 744 individual parcels of vacant land at least five acres in size that could be set aside for conservation. In addition, he mapped out 122 contiguous clusters of vacant land—some 14,661 acres in total—in five counties: Westchester (246 acres), the Bronx (247 acres), Queens (1,246 acres), Nassau (2,036 acres) and Suffolk (10,885). Each land cluster, he says, could be used to make New York City and Long Island greener.

According to Dr. Gorokhovich, the report has been submitted to both the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Long Island Sound Study (LISS), and “it’s up to them to put these recommendations into action.” LISS is a cooperative effort created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the states of Connecticut and New York to protect and improve the health of the Sound. It involves researchers, regulators, user groups and other concerned organizations and individuals.

For Dr. Gorokhovich, the study was an outgrowth of his interest in New York City waters. For nine years, he worked for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, managing the GIS (Geographic Information Systems) group in charge of mapping the metropolitan area’s water supply.

A member of Lehman’s Department of Environmental, Geographic and Geological Sciences, he earned a master’s in engineering and marine geology from Odessa State University (Ukraine) and his doctorate in earth and environmental sciences from the CUNY Graduate Center. He also was an associate research scientist for the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University.

A senior college of the City University of New York, Lehman enrolls more than 12,000 students and offers over 100 undergraduate and graduate programs in the arts and sciences, business, education and other professional areas, including a new interdisciplinary major in environmental sciences.

Contact: Joseph Tirella / 718-960-5746