Christopher Aubin – Fordham Now https://now.fordham.edu The official news site for Fordham University. Fri, 19 Apr 2024 15:30:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://now.fordham.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/favicon.png Christopher Aubin – Fordham Now https://now.fordham.edu 32 32 232360065 New Summer Program Fosters a Research Community https://now.fordham.edu/science/new-summer-program-fosters-a-research-community/ Tue, 09 Aug 2022 23:44:07 +0000 https://news.fordham.sitecare.pro/?p=162617 From examining how sports affect the behavior of young men to studying DNA replication and repair to exploring camp fashion at the Met Gala, student researchers tackled a diverse group of topics on the Rose Hill campus this summer. As participants in Fordham’s first annual Undergraduate Summer Research Program, the group of 40 Fordham College at Rose Hill scholars lived on campus from May 31 to Aug. 4 and formed a research community.

Student researcher George Voelker presents on the reconstruction in Carroll Parish, Louisiana, 1863-1880.

“We had STEM, humanities, and social science students in the mix. One of our goals was to get them to learn how to present their research to a wide audience—and to learn about what the others are doing,” said Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill.

There have been summer research programs in the past, she said, but none that brought together the various disciplines and provided on-campus housing as well as a stipend. As in the spring and fall research programs, students also get a supply budget. There were regular cross-disciplinary events, such as a weekly lunch where faculty discussed their research interests with students. The program was entirely funded by gifts from donors.

Succinct, Efficient Presentations

Alexander Gannon on “Women at the End of Modernity: A Transfeminist History of May ’68 France and its Aftermath”

The program, which was organized by Psychology Professor Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., associate dean for strategic initiatives, and Christopher Aubin, Ph.D., associate professor of physics, culminated on Aug. 2 and 4 with succinct presentations. Each student had only five minutes to present their findings, which was then followed by about three minutes to take questions from an audience of fellow presenters and faculty.

“You just have a few minutes to tell someone why what you do is really important and if you can’t do it in that amount of time then maybe you don’t understand it well enough,” said Aubin. “It’s harder to give a short talk than a long talk and five minutes is definitely very short, but I always like to tell students that they need to learn how to make their elevator pitch.”

Mentoring Younger Students Provides Teaching Experience

As in years past, local high school students from the STEP Program were invited to assist the undergraduates in science research.

“Obviously it’s a win for the high school students because they get to work very closely with a more experienced student in the lab and they’ll just learn faster that way,” said Elizabeth Thrall, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry. “But it’s also a win for the undergraduate who’s mentoring a high school student because they get a better understanding of their project by teaching it and explaining to someone else.”

Thrall mentored rising seniors Michael Foster and Madeline Drucker on a project focused on a process known as translesion synthesis, a mechanism that is used for copying DNA that has been damaged. The process has implications for the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and the mutation of cancer cells. Drucker’s task was to make new bacterial strains that could be examined in the microscope, with Foster validating the work. It’s complex research that when undertaken by students during the school year often gets interrupted by other classes and activities.

Students from STEP present their research to their Fordham undergraduate mentors.

A Full-Time Focus on Research

“The program is unique because they just make so much progress in their research because they can devote themselves to it full time,” said Thrall. “Things that we do in the lab are very hard to fit in around classes, but when they’re there for a whole day, they can just be there for every step of the process. And I think that really helps them to see how everything fits together and take more ownership.”

Jackson Reynolds on “Numerical Simulations of the Strong Nuclear Force on a Personal Computer”

Foster, who is planning on pursuing a Ph.D. to become a professor, said the presence of a high school student in the lab gave him an opportunity to practice teaching. He was assigned to mentor high school senior Laura Maca Bella. Drucker took on a mentorship role as well.

“Laura was just fantastic at it. She took to it really quickly and it’s not easy stuff. It was a lot of information for her to get and not a lot of time. It was really gratifying to see her be able to run these experiments independently,” said Foster. “Madeline may not have worked as closely with Laura as I did, but she always tried and help explain things to Laura when maybe I had flubbed it.

Drucker said that flubs and mistakes are part of the nature of working in a lab.

“It’s a growing environment and you’re there to build off of each other and we learn from each other’s mistakes and move forward,” said Drucker. “If you notice somebody make a mistake, you’re there to help them. And that’s where it’s nice being here this summer; it feels like the pressure of school is kind of off and we can just do the science.”

The program was funded with gifts from several donors, including a significant gift from Boniface “Buzz” Zaino, FCRH ’65, a senior advisor at Royce Investment Partners. His gift helped forge the creation of the research community, providing for the on-campus housing and cross-disciplinary events.

Zaino, who worked his way through Fordham as a cater waiter, said he relished the time he spent on campus talking about philosophy with the Jesuits in the student center. In a phone interview, he said was pleased to hear that a similar atmosphere had evolved over the summer with students discussing their work with each other over coffee or lunch.

“Back then, we would philosophize over stuff that had nothing to do with the coursework, so hopefully the new program will grow to be the same thing so students can watch the reaction of their peers and expand on what they know.”

Zaino said that even in his own work he loves the part of his job that requires in-depth research.

“In my field when we talk about investment research for the stock market, you can always tell when someone does independent research because it’s the best kind of knowledge; it expands perspectives so they make better decisions,” he said. “Through research, you begin a process of inquiry that opens up worlds for students. It’s emboldening.”

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At Arts and Sciences Faculty Day, A Celebration of Scholarship https://now.fordham.edu/university-news/arts-sciences-faculty-day-celebration-comity/ Tue, 06 Feb 2018 18:42:47 +0000 https://news.fordham.sitecare.pro/?p=84925 In 16 years at Fordham, James T. Fisher, Ph.D., mined the sands of time to tell countless stories of American Catholics, in publications such as On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York (Cornell University Press, 2009).

On Feb. 2, Fisher, a professor of theology, used his final address to his colleagues to tell his own families’ story.

“I was determined not to do one of those ‘My family is crazier than your family’ kind of histories, because I wouldn’t know how crazy anybody else’s family is,” said Fisher, who is retiring in May to spend more time in California with his son Charlie, who is autistic.

“But the complementarity of [mine and Charlie’s]cognitive systems is such a positive thing, I started to get much more positive feelings about my own family’s history. I wondered about people who may help me understand who we are.”

Photo by Dana Maxson

He discovered, among other things, that his great grandfather moved from Brooklyn to Panama in 1906 to work as a plumber on the Panama Canal. There, he became Chief and Senior Sagamore of the fraternal organization the Improved Order of Redmen.

“They wanted to transplant all the putative virtues of white American Christian Republicanism to this utopian community on the Isthmus of Panama. The Improved Order of Redmen was one of these kinds of organizations,” Fisher said, noting dryly that membership was not, in fact, open to Native Americans.

“I had to readjust the longevity of my father’s side of the families’ devotion to the Roman Catholic Church. I’d been off by 12 to 15 centuries. My great grandfather was nobody’s idea of a Roman Catholic. He was in fact, a pagan.”

He died under mysterious circumstances, and Fisher’s great grandmother moved back to Brooklyn, where Fisher discovered she lived in Vinegar Hill, next door to William Sutton, the infamous bank robber who was credited with saying he did it, “Because that’s where the money is.”

His family, which would also later call Woodbridge, New Jersey, home, also belied the popular model of Catholic immigrants flocking to parishes to create a sort of “old world communal setting.”

Photo by Dana Maxson

“My father’s family presented itself as the ultimate exemplar of just that model, but empirically it was not true. They lived where the work was; they lived on the waterfront in Brooklyn, Manhattan and North Jersey,” he said.

And although his grandparents experienced the terror of a resurgent of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920’s, they did just fine in the end.

“They were homeless in the 1930’s. By 1946, because of the war, my grandfather worked up in his job, and sent their sons to the University of Notre Dame—the eighth wonder of the world for American Catholics,” he said.

Fisher’s talk was part of Arts and Sciences Faculty Day. This year, honorees included
Christopher Aubin, Ph.D., associate professor of physics, who was honored for excellence in teaching in science and math;

Jim Fisher, Ph.D.,professor of theology, who was honored for or excellence in teaching in arts and humanities

Christina Greer, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, who was honored for excellence in teaching social sciences;

Maryann Kowaleski, P.h.D., Joseph Fitzpatrick SJ Distinguished Professor of History and Medieval Studies, who was honored for excellence in teaching in graduate studies.

The evening also celebrates 12 members of the arts and science faculty who have been chosen to work together to discuss innovative teaching techniques. The group, which includes graduate students and cuts across campuses and disciplines, meets five times a semester for two semesters to share recent scholarship in the field of teaching stories, and techniques. This year’s cohort includes:

Emanuel Fiano, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology

Abby Goldstein, associate professor of visual arts

Henry Han, Ph.D., associate professor of Computer and Information Science

Carey Kasten, Ph.D., associate professor of Spanish

Christopher Koenigsmann, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry

Jesus Luzardo, Ph.D. candidate of philosophy, Graduate School of Arts and Science

Jason Morris, Ph.D, associate professor of biology

Meenaserani Murugan, Ph.D., assistant professor of communications

Silvana Patriarca, Ph.D., professor of history

Kathryn Reklis, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology

Margaret Schwartz, Ph.D., associate professor of communications

Richard Teverson, assistant professor of art history

Dennis Tyler, Ph.D., assistant professor of English

Alessia Valfredini, Ph.D., lecturer of Italian

Maura Mast, Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, Chris Aubin, who was honored with an excellence in teaching in science and math, Mary Ann Kowalski, who was honored with an excellence in teaching in graduate studies, Eva Badowska, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Fred Wertz, Interim Dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, who accepted the the excellence in social sciences teaching award on behalf of Christina Greer.
Maura Mast, Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, Chris Aubin, Mary Ann Kowalski, Eva Badowska, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Fred Wertz, Interim Dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, who accepted an award on behalf of Christina Greer.
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