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Bargonetti
Awarded $100K Research Grant
Associate biology professor Jill Bargonetti has been awarded
a $100,000 grant from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation
for her research on estrogen influences on the p53 tumor suppressor
protein in breast cells. Bargonetti’s research will explore
a novel area that presents a potentially new model for breast
cancer prevention and combination drug treatment.
The BCRF grant enables Bargonetti to conduct pioneering research
while also nurturing the talents of up and coming scientists.
Her research team includes Hunter PhD student Nicoleta Catalina
Arva and research technician Kathryn Talbot, both of whom, according
to Bargonetti, are indispensable to her research.
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Hunter Film Professors Nominated for an Emmy
Hunter
film professors Tami Gold and Kelly Anderson have received an
Emmy award nomination in the “Outstanding Individual Achievement
in a Craft: Directing” category for their documentary
Every Mother’s Son.
The documentary deals with the topic of police brutality in
New York City as told through the eyes of three mothers who
lost sons to police violence. The film premiered at the 2004
Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. It also
aired on the PBS program P.O.V.
The documentary is up against stiff competition. The other nominees
include Arlington: Field of Honor; Beah: A Black Woman Speaks;
My Architect; Ten Days to D-Day and The Fight. The winners of
the 26th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards will be announced
on September 19 in New York City.
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Hunter's Brazill Receives Presidential Award
At a White House ceremony Monday, June 13, Hunter College Biology
Professor Derrick T. Brazill received the highest honor bestowed
by the United States Government on young scientists –
the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award (PECASE) –
for his groundbreaking work in understanding how organisms monitor
and regulate the density of cells in different tissues, which
are important in further understanding fundamental processes
in cell growth and development.
Brazill, an assistant professor of biological sciences, is one
of 58 young innovators this year to receive the PECASE. Established
by the White House in 1996, the PECASE program each year honors
approximately 60 scientists and engineers who, early in their
careers, have already blended excellence in pioneering research
and service to their communities through scientific leadership
and outreach activities.
Brazill is one of 20 PECASE winners selected by the National
Science Foundation (NSF) from among the most recent NSF Faculty
Career Development (CAREER) Program awardees. The CAREER award,
bestowed upon fewer than 400 scientists and engineers each year,
is the NSF's most prestigious award for new faculty members.
In 2004, Brazill received a $625,000 NSF CAREER Award over five
years for his research to uncover and study the genetic regulation
of cell density sensing by using the social amoeba Dictyostelium
discoideum as a model.
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WNYC Host Leonard Lopate Addresses Hunter
Grads; Ellen Barkin Receives Honorary Degree
Leonard Lopate, host of the long-running and wide-ranging
New York City radio talk show, The Leonard Lopate Show,
on WNYC delivered the keynote address to Hunter graduates at
the college's 191st commencement on Wednesday, June 8th.
During graduation, actor Ellen Barkin received a Doctor of Fine
Arts from Hunter. Barkin, known for her stage and screen roles,
has a leading role in the movie, Palindromes, due out this summer.
Lopate, who studied with artist Mark Rothko in Hunter's MA Program
in Art from 1968 to 1971,
is celebrating his 20th year on air as host of his program on
public radio. His two-hour daily show has been described as
an "on-air salon of the city's intellectual life." His guests
have included celebrities, politicians, poets, painters, novelists,
filmmakers, chefs, scientists, and a number of Nobel and Pulitzer
Prize winners.
Some 2,000 graduates received their degrees at the Hunter commencement,
which took place at Radio City Music Hall.
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Fukuyama Asks “Do We Really Know How to Promote Democracy?”
On May
24th at the Kaye Auditorium at Hunter College, renowned political
economist Francis Fukuyama addressed the question “Do
We Really Know How to Promote Democracy?” in a lecture
sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association and the National
Endowment for Democracy. Dr. Fukuyama is a professor of international
political economy at the Johns Hopkins University’s Nitze
School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington,
D.C., and has worked with the RAND Corporation and the Policy
Planning Staff of the U.S. Department of State. The event drew
over 250 attendees, including students and professors from Hunter,
as well as professionals from the development, finance, and
civil society sectors.
Fukuyama opened his remarks by declaring that the United States
cannot impose democracy on a state from the outside; rather,
democratic transitions are promoted by those people within a
state who want democracy. Drawing from his academic background
and professional experience, Fukuyama outlined several theoretical
conditions conducive to democracy within any given state, and
then examined a number of historical and recent examples, focusing
on the Bush Administration’s current efforts in the Middle
East and Central Asia.
According to Fukuyama, at this point, the United States is “the
wrong agent for promoting this change, because its credibility
is disastrously low.” Asked about his views on the invasion
of Iraq, and whether or not he had spoken to then-Deputy Secretary
of Defense Paul Wolfowitz about it, he replied that he had never
supported the war, and although he had talked to Wolfowitz,
“it didn’t do any good.”
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Urban Planning Students Place 2nd in National
Competition
Hunter's
Graduate Urban Planning students took second place this year
in the JPMorgan Chase Community Development Competition.
Hunter competed against graduate schools from throughout the country
and continued a strong tradition of excellence in the competition.
Eleven
students, most of them completing their degree, worked under
the guidance of Professors William Milczarski and Alice Blank
to complete a comprehensive plan for the Bronx River Art Center.
The organization sought to re-habilitate their East Tremont
building, expand their programming, and capitalize on their
position along the Bronx River and the planned Bronx River Greenway.
Students
assessed the community need, researched the neighborhood and
the site, drafted detailed architectural plans, identified potential
sources of new funding, and created a 10-year financial plan.
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Film and Media Students Bring South Africa to Hunter College
Students and faculty took a virtual trip to South Africa on
Wednesday, April 6, as a group of students presented documentaries
and literary pieces inspired by their trip to South Africa.
Twenty students from the Film and Media Studies and Creative
Writing departments and Hunter professors Tami Gold (Film &
Media) and Jenefer Shute (English) went to South Africa in January
2005 to join University of Cape Town students and faculty in
a month-long program. The Hunter exchange program with the University
of Cape Town (UCT) was the first exchange program of a CUNY
college with a South African university.
Professor Larry Shore (Film & Media) explained how the students
fully integrated with the South African university and created
a unique partnership. Hunter students joined with students from
UCT to study and collaborate on projects. Under the direction
of faculty from both institutions, they produced four documentaries
while experiencing the culture, economy, society and life in
Cape Town.
At the presentation in the Presidents conference room, the audience
was treated to previews of the students documentaries which
included: The Road Ahead, Tomorrow is Today, Afrikaner Identity
and Search and Find. The documentaries focused on everyday aspects
of South African life, including the hardships, the transition
after Apartheid and youth sub-culture. At the closing of the
presentation, Dean Judith Friedlander said that the two countries
share a great deal because they are two countries that are both
struggling.
Each documentary will be shown in its entirety on Wednesday,
April 13 at 6:30pm at the Lang Recital Hall.
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Mens Volleyball Wins CUNYAC Championship
The
Hunter College mens volleyball team won its third consecutive
conference title at York College in the 2005 CUNYAC Mens Volleyball
Championship on March 24. The #1 seeded Hawks defeated #2 Baruch
in a thrilling five-game match, 3-2 (30-27, 30-24, 27-30, 29-31,
15-12).
Sophomore outside hitter Ronaldo Da Silva was named the tournaments
Most Valuable Player for helping lead the Hawks to a three-peat.
Da Silva tallied 37 kills and 35 digs in the semifinals and
finals including 31 kills and 25 digs in the championship match.
The Bahia, Brazil native hit an impressive .450 against Baruch.
Hunter freshman setter Brandon Caban and junior Joshua Concepcion
were named to the All-Tournament team. Caban had 70 assists
with only two ball handling errors in the championship match
while Concepcion recorded 10 kills and seven digs including
the winning point.
Hunter also won its third regular season title in as many years,
finishing with a perfect 14-0 conference record. The Hawks will
return to action on Saturday, April 2nd in a match versus #15
ranked Ramapo.
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Aronson Awards Go to Frank Rich, Seymour Hersh, Others
Four
writers and a cartoonist were named winners of the 2004 James
Aronson Awards for Social Justice Journalism, covering topics
from the situation in Iraq to economics to arts and culture.
Hunter
College, which administers the awards, announced the winners
on March 21. They are Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker, Peter
Gosselin of the Los Angeles Times, Naomi Klein of Harper's Magazine,
Frank Rich of The New York Times and cartoonist Bill Day of
The Commercial-Appeal of Memphis, Tenn.
Hersh
won for his series of articles on the Iraqi prisoner scandal,
while Klein reviewed the Bush administration's economic policies
in Iraq. Gosselin's three-part series looked at the financial
precariousness of American families, and Rich's work examined
the connections between media culture and society. Day was lauded
for his weekday cartoons, both for their content as well as
their appearance.
The
Aronson awards have been given by Hunter since 1990 to reward
investigative reporting on social justice issues. They are named
for Hunter communications professor James Aronson who died in
1989.
The
award winners will honored at a ceremony April 20.
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Assemblyman
Bing Honored by Hunter's Golden Key Society
Hunter College's Golden Key International Honour Society awarded
an honorary membership to Assemblyman Jonathan Bing on March
4th at its new member induction ceremony. Golden Key is an academic
honor society with chapters at over 350 universities around
the world, with the requirement for membership at Hunter being
a 3.5 grade point average. Assemblyman Bing was the keynote
speaker at the event, and as Hunter's representative in the
Assembly he has fought to restore the governor's massive cuts
to tuition assistance and opportunity programs. Assemblyman
Bing has also secured capital funding for the renovation of
a student lounge and a physics lecture hall at Hunter.
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Women Win CUNYAC Track & Field
Championship
The Hunter women's indoor track & field team won the Women's
CUNY Championship on February 27 with a total of 109 points.
York finished second (90), followed by CCNY (87), and Medgar
Evers (40).
The Hawks distance medley team of Wendy Samuel, Danielle Okoro,
Jennifer Zaccariello and Nat Bonilla won the gold with a time
of 14:41.36. Sophomore Shemayra Brathwaite won the gold in the
55 meter hurdles (9.03) and triple jump (10.28m) and grabbed
second place in the long jump (5.14m) and the high
jump (1.42m).
In addition to medaling in the distance medley relay, Okoro
won second in the 200 meter dash (26.09) and third in the 400
meter dash (59.7).
In the field events, senior B.J. McDuffie earned two medals;
second in the weight throw (11.74m) and third in the shot put
(9.8m). In her first conference championship, freshman Kisha
Forcheney placed third in the weight throw (10.19m).
Melissa Puz also earned a medal for the Hawks finishing third
in the 3,000 meter run with a time of 12:24.77.
This marks the third CUNY Championship for the Hunter women's
indoor track & field team since 1996.
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Hunter Receives Major Gift For Its
Writing Center
Hunter
College has received a major gift from alumna Anna C. Rockowitz
to help support the Hunter College Writing Center. A ribbon-cutting
ceremony took place on February 8 to rename the Center to "The
Dr. Murray and Anna C. Rockowitz Writing Center" in honor of
Anna and her late husband, Murray.
Before
a crowd of Rockowitz family and friends, distinguished public
officials, students and faculty, Hunter President Jennifer J.
Raab said that Anna Rockowitz's contributions will help Hunter
students achieve great success. President Raab also paid homage
to Murray's heart and integrity. "He was an extraordinary educator.
"He stood for the value of public education," said Raab.
Dr. Rockowitz was a distinguished educator and author who helped
over 1.5 million people receive their high school diplomas through
his best-selling book, How to Prepare for the GED High
School Equivalency Examination. His book is now in its
13 th U.S. edition.
"That
was the beginning of a friendship that did not last long enough,"
said Mrs. Rockowitz, Class of 1939, after sharing an amusing
anecdote how she and her late husband met as undergraduates
while rehearsing for a play. Mrs. Rockowitz also read a piece
of her husband's writing. "He will leave his fingerprints on
all those who knew him," she said.
The Hunter College Writing Center is a comprehensive resource
for the entire college community, offering tutorial and computer-assisted
instruction to students and technical support and development
to faculty and staff. Each week over 600 students visit the
Center. For more information about the Center, go to
http://rwc.hunter.cuny.edu.
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STUDENTS
IN THE NEWS FOR 2005
Theatre Students Perform in Beijing
Twenty-one students in Hunter's Theatre Department recently
took a two-week “trip of a lifetime” to the 2005
Biannual International Theatre Festival in Beijing. They returned
to the U.S. on October 30.
The students put on four performances of August Strindberg’s
“A Dream Play” for appreciative audiences at the
Beijing Central Academy of Drama. The production was first
staged in Hunter's Kaye Playhouse earlier this year.
When they weren’t busy performing or rehearsing, the
students had the opportunity to visit the Great Wall and other
famous spots in China.
“It was a wonderful experience to be able to combine
traveling there with work,” said Matt Black, one of
the theatre students on the trip. “You just dive into
the culture, and you dive into what you love. To exchange
ideas like this with people from around the world about their
approach to theatre was amazing.”
Accompanying them on the trip were Theatre Department faculty
members Bill Walters, who directed the performances, and Louisa
Thompson, who did the set design. Hunter was the only U.S.
college invited to perform at the festival.
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DeRise Named to National
Student-Athlete Committee
Hunter Track & Field athlete Mike DeRise has been selected
to represent the City University of New York Athletic Conference
(CUNYAC) and University Athletic Conference (UAA) as a member
of national Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee
(SAAC).
DeRise, a junior, won three individual gold medals last season
as he claimed first place in the weight throw at the CUNYAC
Indoor Track & Field Championships and in the hammer and
discuss competitions at the CUNYAC Outdoor Track & Field
Championships.
The NCAA Division III SAAC is composed of 24 student-athletes
representing Division III student-athletes from across the
nation. SAAC is a diverse group that has been selected
to speak on behalf of the 145,000 Division III student-athletes
to ensure that the student-athlete voice is heard within the
NCAA governance structure.
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Holzman Named CUNYAC
Athlete of the Year
For the second time this year Hunter junior Omri Holzman has
been named the top athlete in his sport. The distance specialist
was selected the 2005 CUNYAC Men's Outdoor Track & Field
Athlete of the Year.
Holzman was named the Co-Most Valuable Athlete of the 2005
CUNYAC Outdoor Championship and led
the Hawks to a second-place finish. Holzman won three
individual events (10,000 Meters, 5,000 Meters,
and the 1,500 Meters) and eclipsed
his own meet record with a time of 15:34.03 in the 5,000 Meters.
This recognition caps off a successful year
for Holzman who has earned a total of six individual medals
this year spanning back through the cross county and indoor
track & field seasons. Holzman was named the 2005 CUNYAC
Men's Cross Country Athlete of the Year for his outstanding
performances during that season.
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Hunter Grad Receives Competitive Medical
Fellowship
Naira Rezende, a June 2005 Hunter
College biology graduate, has been awarded a Howard Hughes Medical
Institute Gilliam Graduate Fellowship. Rezende is one of only
six graduate students in the nation to be awarded this prestigious
fellowship.
Rezende, who hails from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, was a member
of Hunter’s MBRS/RISE program and did research in Professor
Peter Lipke’s lab at Hunter. Last summer she worked in
a lab at Yale University School of Medicine, where she conducted
research on over-express DNA repair genes involved in developing
immune system memory. She will pursue a PhD. in biochemistry
and cell and molecular biology at the Joan and Sanford I. Weill
Medical College of Cornell University in the fall.
The fellowship, being awarded for the first time this year,
provides support for Ph.D. studies in the life sciences to disadvantaged
students, including underrepresented minorities who participated
in HHMI's Exceptional Research Opportunities (EXROP) undergraduate
summer research program. The fellowship includes a one year
stipend of $24,000.
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Hunter Student wins Fulbright Grant
James
Jackson, a Hunter College senior, has won a Fulbright Grant
to Argentina. Jackson, a member of the Thomas Hunter Honors
Program and an American literature major and Spanish minor will
spend the next academic year teaching English at an Argentinean
university. Jackson was one of five students to receive the
teaching assistantship to Argentina in this nationwide competition.
Upon his return to the U.S., he plans to study for a dual degree
in Latin American Studies and law.
Hollie
Ecker, a master's degree student in Hunter's Communications
Sciences program, has been awarded a Fulbright Grant for her
research proposal in Italy. Ecker received her undergraduate
degree from Wesleyan University in art history and selected
Hunter's program in deaf education for her graduate studies.
Presently, Ecker is the only hearing intern of six tour guides
for deaf people at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her research
project in Rome will examine the various methods used to teach
art history to deaf children and adults. She will utilize the
skills she has learned in New York and look at the methods deaf
guides of art history use to lead tours for deaf students and
review its applicability for United States art museums.
The Fulbright Grant offers students the opportunity to do research,
study or teach English in a variety of countries throughout
the world. Students must have their bachelor's degree by the
time they begin their project abroad.
The application period for the 2006 - 2007 year opens May 1,
2005. Further information is available at:
http://www.fulbrightonline.org
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Stuteville Wins Undergraduate Aronson Award
Hunter
senior Sarah Stuteville was named the winner of the 2004 James
Aronson Award for excellence by an undergraduate student in
journalism. Stuteville, a media studies major, received the
award for her portfolio of richly reported, well-organized and
compellingly written news features set in the Brooklyn and Queens
communities.
Her
articles about a paramilitary program for 14-year-olds in Bedford-Stuyvesant,
immigrant activists in Corona, Coney Island's Little Pakistan
neighborhood and a violent Jamaica high school appeared in the
Indypendent, published by the NYC Center for Independent
Media.
She
will receive her award along with the winners of the 2004 Aronson
Award for Social Justice Journalism: Seymour Hersh of the
New Yorker, Peter G. Gosselin of the Los Angeles
Times, Frank Rich of The New York Times, Naomi
Klein of Harper's Magazine. Bill Day, the editorial
cartoonist of the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, won
the "Cartooning With a Conscience" award.
The
James Aronson Awards for Social Justice Journalism are awarded
annually by Hunters Department of Film and Media Studies.
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Williams to Attend Woodrow Wilson Summer Institute
Gwendolyn
Williams, a Hunter College junior, has been selected to attend
the Woodrow Wilson Junior Summer Institute at Princeton University
and will join a group of "extremely talented students from colleges
and universities all over the country," said Anne-Marie Slaughter,
Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International
Affairs.
Princeton's
Woodrow Wilson Junior Summer Institute strives to cultivate
the development of future leaders. Participants in the eight
week program are expected to be impressive academically, culturally
aware, socially sensitive, committed to public service, and
share a common vision about making the world a better place.
They will engage in curricular and extracurricular activities
that are designed to strengthen their cross-cultural competence
in making and implementing policy.
Williams,
a member of the CUNY Honors College, is pre-med, majoring in
psychology, with a minor in Spanish. She is a member of the
Golden Key International Honor Society and was recently chosen
for the National Institute of Mental Health Career Opportunities
in Research Education and Training Program (NIMH-COR). She was
named a University Scholar and has made the Dean's List for
the past three years. Recently nominated for the National Dean's
List, Williams has maintained a 4.0 GPA. She also volunteers
in the pediatric wing at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
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Hunter Student Wins Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies
Laurent Wrzesinski, a Hunter College senior, has won a 2005
Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies. Laurent,
an Africana & Puerto Rican/Latino Studies major and Women
Studies minor, will be pursuing a Ph.D. in American Studies.
Laurent is also a participant in Hunters Mellon-Mays Undergraduate
Fellowship Program.
The Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies is a nationally
competitive award and is designed to support exceptionally promising
students as they pursue advanced study in the discipline of
the humanities. Each year approximately 85 fellowships are available.
The fellowship covers full graduation tuition and required fees
for the first year of graduate study and a one year stipend
of $17,500.
Further information on the Fellowship is available at:
www.woodrow.org/mellon
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Hunter Student Selected as Humanity
in Action Fellow
Ankur Mangalagiri, a Hunter College sophomore, has been named
a 2005 Humanity in Action Fellow. The Humanity in Action Foundation
sponsors an integrated set of educational programs for university
students in America, Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands. Through
its education programs and internships, the Foundation works
to fulfill its mission to engage student leaders in the study
and work of human rights.
Ankur, a member of the CUNY Honors College and the Thomas Hunter
Honors Program. is enrolled in the BA/MA program in economics
with a minor in political science. Born in India, Ankur lived
there for fifteen years before moving to China for two years.
She then came to the United States to begin her studies at Hunter.
She is the president of Hunters United Nations Student Association
where she focuses on issues that have long interested her --
human rights and child labor.
Humanity in Action Fellows are selected on the basis of leadership
potential, academic achievement, the willingness to work with
others, interest in minority issues in Europe and America and
concern for human rights. College sophomores, juniors or seniors
are eligible to apply. The program selects 30 students from
U.S. colleges. Further information on the program is available
at their website:
http://www.humanityinaction.org.
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Hunter College High School Student
Wins Top Intel Prize
David Bauer, a senior at Hunter College High School, earned
top honors in the Intel Science Talent Search, winning the 1st
place prize and a $100,000 scholarship for developing a sensor
that detects exposure to toxic agents. Bauer, who competed against
39 other finalists from around the country, is New York Citys
first winner in eight years. His project was inspired by September
11 and he hopes that it will one day provide the city with an
immediate way of detecting a bioterrorist attack. Bauer received
another award this one from his fellow science contestants,
honoring him as the person who best personifies commitment to
scientific cooperation and communication.
The 17-year-old Bronx resident, who is president of the high
schools science club, plans to attend the CUNY Honors College
in the fall to study chemistry. Bauer is a product of the citys
public school gifted and talented programs and enrolled in Hunter
College High School in the seventh grade, after passing the
competitive entrance exam. Hunter High School is the top public
high school in the nation sending more students to Ivy League
colleges than any other public high school.
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MBRS Student Wins 1st Place at Science
Conference
Psychology major Adolfo Arellanos took home first prize for
his poster presentation at the 8th Annual CUNY Conference in
Science and Engineering on February 25. The Hunter junior, who
works in Hunter Psychology Professor Victoria Luines lab, presented
his research project, Chronic Methamphetamine Effects on Cognitive
Function and Dopamine Transporter Levels in Rats to conference
attendees.
Arellanos, an MBRS/RISE (Minority Biomedical Research Support/Research
Initiative for Scientific Enhancement) student, was one of 19
Hunter students who presented posters at the CUNY conference.
Eight MBRS and nine MARC (Minority Access to Research Careers)
students presented posters and two students gave oral presentations.
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Senior Wins Computing Research Honor
Hunter College senior Charles Davi, a computer science major,
has been named a finalist in the 2005 Computing Research Association's
(CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate competition. The CRA competition
recognizes undergraduate students in U.S. and Canadian universities
who show outstanding potential in computing research.
Davi
also recently learned that his paper "The Intersection
Number of an Infinite Graph," which discusses and extends
Paul Erdos' famous theory about finite graphs to infinite
graphs, has been accepted for publication in the New York
Academy of Sciences Journal, "Graph Theory Notes of New
York." The publication is due out this winter.
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