“Programs like ASPIRES are game changers,” said Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. “Through this type of support, women—and others who are underrepresented in STEM—see themselves as belonging, see themselves as mathematicians and scientists, and see themselves as successful.”

Through the NSF-funded University program, first-year students receive annual scholarships, which range from $1,000 to $10,000, for their four years at Fordham; guidance in and out of the lab; and funding for their undergraduate research. Scholarships for their first year of study are funded by NSF; the remaining three years, the scholarships are funded by Fordham. In total, the grant will sponsor four student cohorts. The first will serve as mentors to incoming scholars. 

Last fall, the University was awarded $1 million to be granted over five years for ASPIRES, which stands for Achievement in STEM through a Program of Immersive Research Experience and Support. Awarded by the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program, the grant is intended to help increase the number of college students pursuing careers in STEM, especially those who come from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the field.

“In the analysis that was done for the grant, a disproportionate number of Fordham STEM majors or students intending to pursue a STEM major leave STEM or don’t go on to STEM fields,” said Robert H. Beer, Ph.D., associate dean for STEM and pre-health education at Fordham College at Rose Hill. “The idea behind the grant was that if we put this program in place freshman year, students that might be at the risk of leaving a STEM field or major would stay.” 

To qualify for the program, students must indicate an interest in a STEM major on their college applications, demonstrate strong academic performance in high school, and show financial need. 

“This is really early exposure and access to faculty, research, and the idea of research,” said Christie-Belle Garcia, assistant dean for student support and success. “The way the program is set up is to give them an upper hand in being able to access these [resources].” 

Early Exposure to Lab Life

ASPIRES not only pays for part of students’ tuition, but also funds their future research projects, offers a year-long research seminar that shows students how to create their own research projects, and hosts a six-day Summer Bridge Program that introduces students to the campus before the semester starts. 

From Aug. 18 to 23, this year’s ASPIRES students explored the Rose Hill campus and toured the chemistry, biology, and physics departments. They saw several lab experiments performed by professors and student research assistants, ranging in subject from crystals to cell mitosis to electrons. The students were also treated to meals in Manhattan and the Bronx, as well as activities like zip lining at the Bronx Zoo and navigating an escape room in the city. 

“In the first week of the students being here, they were exposed to faculty in a small group setting,” Garcia said. “Throughout the course of the year, the goal is to provide them with the necessary skills to be able to participate in research by the end of their first year of college.” 

The First Cohort

Twelve undergraduates were selected from approximately 400 candidates, said Beer. 

One student, Sonola Burjja, is originally from Europe. As a high school student in Albania, she said she placed among the top three students in several biology state olympiads. But it wasn’t until she moved to the U.S. in her senior year of high school that she was able to conduct complex science experiments in her classes. 

“In Albania, we didn’t have much research or opportunity,” said Burrja, a biology major on the pre-med track. “[At Fordham] I’ve already scheduled an appointment with one of the deans involved in research to talk about different opportunities. I’d like to do something that is related to people’s lives … to the medical field.” 

Most of the ASPIRES students live on campus. But a few students commute from the Bronx, like Dogunhe Trawally, who rides the Bx15 to the Rose Hill campus several times a week. He said he’s taking five courses this semester: one in English composition, one in Islamic history, one in sociology, and two in computer science. 

“Technology is this evolving theme that’s part of our lives,” said Trawally, a computer science major. “So I thought, what other way to make a change in the world than to do something that people are already into, that has changed so many lives?” 

Another ASPIRES student, Ora Kalaj, said she’s fascinated by the chemical makeup of cosmetic products. Last summer, she interned at a French skincare company called Biologique Recherche, where she not only learned about the marketing side of the business but also the technical side. 

“There was a seminar where the executives of the company came to talk to the estheticians-in-training about the chemical makeup of the products,” said Kalaj, adding that the experience helped narrow her interest in the field of chemistry. 

In the future, she said she envisions herself as a chemist or chemical engineer. But for now, Kalaj—a chemistry major from Eastchester, New York—is concentrating on the next four years. 

“I’m really excited to participate in scientific research because I never did anything like that in high school,” she said. “I’m excited to work with people who are as passionate as I am.” 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $113,000 grant for the acquisition of a high-resolution atomic force microscope for interdisciplinary nanoscience research. With chemistry professor Ipsita A. Banerjee, PhD, as principal investigator, a group of faculty from the departments of biological sciences, physics and engineering, and chemistry cooperated on the grant to obtain equipment which they will share.

“This award is really exciting, especially since the NSF’s Major Research Instrumentation Program only funds about one-fourth of the applications it receives, and this is the second MRI award we’ve gotten in two years.” said Kris Wolff, director of the Office of Sponsored Programs. The 2015 grant, for a liquid-handling robot, went to Jason Munshi-South’s lab in the biological sciences department.

The Russo family has provided more than $180,000 in funding towards purchasing a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Robert D. Russo, MD, FCRH ’69, is a member of the University’s President’s Council and Fordham’s Science Council, which aims to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in part by modernizing the University’s technological capabilities.

The gift honors Russo’s father, Robert D. Russo, Sr., MD, FCRH ’39, and Louis R. Del Guercio, MD, FCRH ’49. Dr. Russo refers to his two predecessors as “physicians for others.”

“A donation like this has a ripple effect,” said Robert Beer, PhD, chair of the chemistry department. “We were able to get the instrument, which attracted a new faculty member, and it shows that we’re an institution that is serious about upgrading technology and research.”

In addition, by trading in an older instrument, the University received a donation from the pharmaceutical company Roche and a $40,000 grant from TA Instruments, and was able to purchase a thermal gravimetric analyzer and rheometer. This summer the department also acquired an X-ray powder diffractometer at a cost of nearly $120,000.

Christopher Koenigsmann, PhD, assistant professor of chemistry, said that the new resources will help further distinguish Fordham’s research capabilities.

The SEM uses electrons rather than visible light. As typical wavelengths of visible light are 400 to 800 nanometers, said Koenigsmann, light microscopes cannot perceive an object, for example, that is two nanometers. The electron microscope’s much smaller wavelengths allow it to perceive objects with diameters as small as one to two nanometers—equivalent to the diameter of double helix strand of DNA.

The X-ray powder diffractometer looks at material composed of small crystallites. The instrument detects the material’s elements and how they are organized in the crystal structure.

“It’s a tremendously powerful instrument and it’s one of the essential characterization tools in chemistry,” said Koenigsmann.

He said that his lab is involved in a few projects to examine renewable energy technology. He is interested in increasing the cost-effectiveness and performance of solar cells and fuel cells in order to harness the energy of sunlight.

“In nanotechnology, synthesis is important,” he said. “But what’s equally important is being able to characterize the properties and be able figure out exactly what you have.”

On June 13 of this year, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa reentered the Earth’s atmosphere in a brilliant fireball of light, after a seven-year journey collecting samples from the asteroid Itokawa.

One lucky Fordham University junior was there to see it.

Erin Leidy, a physics major at the Rose Hill campus, was part of a team of international scientists aboard NASA’s DC-8 Airborne Observatory, a plane equipped specifically to observe and record reentry data. The team, which included scientists from the U.S., Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands, traveled to the Australian outback to witness the high-speed homecoming as the spaceship fell to the earth at a speed of 12.2 kilometers per second, or over 25,000 miles per hour.

As the only intern on board, participating through the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, Leidy not only witnessed the spectacle, but collaborated with NASA scientist Dr. Petrus Jenniskens on analyzing the ships’ re-entry spectra, or light waves, for the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.)

NASA’s flying laboratory has been used to study re-entry during the returns of the 2004 Genesis, the 2006 Stardust, and the 2008 ATV-1 missions. It is equipped with optical windows and an instrument known as ASTRO, a special spectrograph camera that can record high ranges of visible light spectra. That data is then analyzed to measure (through color and wavelength analysis) chemical elements present when the capsule streaks into the earth’s atmosphere, and ultimately to measure the effectiveness of the capsule’s heat shield and the conditions that ships are subjected to.

When a ship re-enters the earth’s atmosphere, its capsule typically separates from the main, larger “bus” of the spacecraft, which burns up in the atmosphere. A hot “shock wave” of energy is created on the capsule’s surface, compressing the free stream of air and resulting in tremendous heat buildup on the capsule’s shield.

Leidy’s part in the operation was to maintain ASTRO, keeping it in focus and saving images to a laptop. ASTRO was limited in what it could capture in a spectral photo of because it has a fixed mounting in the airplane and the Itokawa was traveling too fast to be in the field of view for long. But ASTRO was able to capture one image of the re-entry when it was at its “hottest,” that is, a spectral image of the capsule as it caused a shock wave and as material coming off the surface of the capsule penetrated that shock wave. It also got five separate spectral readings on the disintegrating bus as it plunged toward the earth.

The color photograph at the top of the page, taken by Leidy and Ron Dantowitz, shows the spectral images of the capsule (left) and bus fragments (right).

In addition to working on the research, Leidy was able to witness the event through a window on the plane: “It was spectacular – one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

The preliminary results from the images showed the presence of sodium, lithium from batteries on the ship, oxygen, calcium and a carbon plus nitrogen compound which Leidy says helps analyze the heat from the re-entry. The data will eventually help researchers reconstruct how objects interact in the upper atmosphere and even help build better heat shields.

“I feel really lucky to have had the opportunity to work with an international team of established scientists, as well as being given the responsibility of the instrument like ASTRO,” said Leidy, who hopes for a career in astrophysics and planetary science. “It taught me so much more than an experiment in a laboratory could have.”

In fact, said Leidy, this type of re-entry research is hard to recreate in a laboratory because of the incredible speeds involved.

“These airborne observations are rare occurrences,” she said.

And as for the material collected inside the capsule during the seven-year journey to an asteroid that orbits somewhere between Earth and Mars? It’s back to Japan for analysis.

– Janet Sassi