“It’s particularly exciting to see how data science is being used to enhance ethically informed and motivated research,” said Ann Gaylin, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. “I’m also pleased to note how this research aligns so closely with GSAS’s mission of graduate education for the global good.”

Social Media’s Impact on LGBTQ+ Students

Xiangyu Tao, a fourth-year doctoral student in the applied developmental psychology program, used survey data to illustrate social media’s effects on LGBTQ+ students. She found that the more time the students spent on social media, the more discrimination and hateful language they were exposed to, which caused higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression.

Tao’s research also found that while LGBTQ+ students reported some positives regarding social media, such as finding a community and resources online, they did not outweigh the negatives. She shared her findings with members of the undergraduate Queer Student Advisory Board who had some insights.

“[A] member brought up that positives that happen on social media fade away when you close your phone, but the negatives on social media, like discrimination, will linger and impact a person’s mental health,” she said.

Making Scientific Advancements

Understanding the relationship between brain activity and behaviors is a main focus of neuroscience, said Rabia Gondur, an integrative neuroscience major who graduated from Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 2022 and is currently part of the accelerated master’s program in data science in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

“How do we relate these rich, complex naturalistic behaviors to their simultaneously recorded neural activity? With our research we are trying to answer this question,” she said.

But Gondur noted that oftentimes models for documenting these, are “restricted to only one data modality, so either neural activity or behavior, but usually not in conjunction.”

With Stephen Keeley, an assistant professor of natural sciences, Gondur worked to combine existing models to better show how that conjunction of neural activity and behavior is related. She gave an example of a fly and showed how the model tracked both the neural activity in the brain taking place and what the behavior of the fly was, such as moving its left limb or right limb.

“We hope that [this combined]model can be a general tool for understanding the relationship between the brain and behavior,” she said.

Nolan Chiles, a senior at Fordham College at Rose Hill majoring in integrative neuroscience, worked with chemistry professor Joshua Schrier to conduct research on a classification algorithm that he hopes, with some additional work, can be used for drug discovery.

“The predominant way that we discover new drugs, say for HIV, [is by trying]to find molecules that are effective in inhibiting infection,” he said.

Traditionally this is done through a method called “High Throughput Screening,” which involves testing many molecules, often blindly, Chiles said, for how effective they are.

“This is often costly and time inefficient, and so we are beginning to find other ways of using computational prescreening so that we can cut down on the number of molecules that we actually have to evaluate in the lab,” he said.

Data Poisoning

Courtney King, a doctoral student in computer science who received her master’s degree in the subject from the Graduate School of Arts and Science in 2022, worked with Juntao Chen, an assistant professor of computer and information sciences, to examine how an “attacker” can manipulate data to make something like a chatbot do something it was not made to do.

King gave the example of the chatbot Tay from Microsoft, which was “not supposed to be able to be taught offensive language,” but “through policy poisoning, Twitter users were able to make her say racist things.”

“Data poisoning is reported as a leading concern for industry applications,” King said.

Their research helped to identify a “potential vulnerability” where an attacker can trick the machine learner into “implementing a targeted malicious policy by manipulating the batch data,” such as a chatbot saying racist phrases. By pointing out this vulnerability, the researchers showed that it is crucial for a system to “actively protect its stored data, and specifically its sensor data, for trustworthy batch learning.” King’s paper stated that future work could include exploring how to detect or protect against this type of attack.

Breadth and Depth of Research

Other presentations included a look into Project FRESH Air and how the citizen science program uses monitors to detect air quality at schools in the Bronx and Manhattan; how functional difficulties, such as vision impairment, can be mapped by region; and how algorithms can be used to identify data vulnerable to ransomware attacks.

Gaylin praised all of the presenters, particularly the graduate students, for their research.

“It’s heartening to see that graduate students in the first cohorts of our two newest programs—the Ph.D. in computer science, and the dual master’s degree in economics and data science—have hit the ground running,” she said. “These students are our future.”

Thanks to the generosity of two dedicated donors, Fordham has just significantly strengthened its commitment to science education.

On Sept. 26, the University installed three accomplished scholars as new faculty chairs in the STEM fields: Silvia C. Finnemann, Ph.D., a Fordham biology professor whose research focuses on eye-cell function; Hans-Joachim Hein, Ph.D., a Fordham math professor who has earned international recognition for his geometry research, and Joshua A. Schrier, Ph.D., a chemistry professor and researcher who recently joined Fordham’s faculty from Haverford College. The three assumed the Kim B. and Stephen E. Bepler Chairs in Biology, Mathematics, and Chemistry, respectively.

“This evening’s ceremony and installation of the new Bepler STEM faculty chairs redefines what it means to study the sciences at Fordham,” said Frederick J. Wertz, Ph.D., interim dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

The endowed professorships not only bolster Fordham’s commitment to the STEM fields—they also reshape the legacy of the donors who made them possible: the late Steve Bepler, FCRH ’64, and Kim Bepler.

“Kim and Steve’s dedication to advancing the sciences has and will continue to foster countless opportunities for future generations of talented Fordham students eager to transform the world in which we live,” said Wertz.

Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, said the couple were among “the most remarkably generous supporters the University has ever known.”

The chairs were funded using part of a $10.5 million gift made by Steve’s estate and Kim in July 2017. The gift also funded a chair in physics, which has yet to be filled.

A Salute to Kim and Steve Bepler

Fifty-four years ago, Steve Bepler graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill. He rose to become senior vice president of Capital Research Global Investors, received an honorary doctorate from Fordham, and served as a University trustee. His widow, Kim, serves as a Fordham honorary trustee fellow. 

“Kim Bepler has devoted much of her time to philanthropy since retiring in 2002 as director of business development at Cahners Travel Group,” said Mast. “The Beplers’ legacy and incredible impact on our students’ lives and education continues to thrive and live on through Kim.”

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, said Kim shared Steve’s enthusiasm and at times, he said, “I think she was the person who sparked his enthusiasm.” 

Together, the couple made many significant gifts that will benefit Fordham students for years to come. They established two other endowed chairs—one in theology, the other in poetics; created scholarships; helped restore the University Church; and supported several programs across the University. Next month marks two years since Steve’s untimely passing in 2016.

“I often teased Steve when he was alive that he was one of the few people who said a prayer for generosity, and God heard his prayer,” said Father McShane, to a round of laughter.

Kim said her husband was generous, but he shied away from the spotlight.

“He would have frankly taken great exception to naming the STEM chairs after him. So, Father, when you get to heaven, you have some explaining to do,” she said. The crowd chuckled.

Father McShane recounted a memory of Steve wandering through the Rose Hill bookstore. The clerk, wondering if he was the father of a student, asked if he needed help. Steve declined, but when he continued to meander, the clerk returned. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“Steve, with his disarming honesty, said, ‘Look, there are so many books I didn’t read when I was in college, I’m trying to make up for it now,’” Father McShane recalled. “He was not only a person who lived to be generous. He lived to learn.”

“May your lives, personal and professional, be marked by similar passions: passion for family, passion for education and the openness to discoveries every day,” Father McShane said, looking directly at the three honorees. “Live to be generous—with your talents, with your wisdom, with your love of learning.”

The Three Faculty Chairs

From eye health to quantum gravity to energy technology, the work of the new Bepler chairs spans several scientific disciplines.

Finnemann’s research has shed light on what causes blindness and how it can be prevented. Specifically, it focuses on the cell biology and diseases of the eye, particularly age-related macular degeneration—the most common cause of adult blindness in the United States. Her work has led to more than 50 publications in widely acclaimed international journals. At Fordham, she has helped the biology department obtain critical grant support from the National Institutes of Health, and she received the 2013 Fordham Award for Excellence in Teaching. She serves on the editorial board of Nature’s Scientific Reports and consults for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/NIH.

Hein’s research on quantum theories of gravity was published in the most selective journal in mathematics. He is one of the world’s leading experts on gravitational instantons—a key concept in quantum theories of gravity—and has earned international recognition for his research in differential geometry. Hein has held appointments at Imperial College London, the University of Nantes, the University of Maryland, and as of 2016, Fordham.

Schrier’s expertise is in the computational design of new materials in information and energy technology. He has authored 44 peer-reviewed papers and secured more than $8.6 million in external funding. Schrier was a Fulbright scholar at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin and a Luis W. Alvarez postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This is his first year at Fordham.

After accepting their engraved medals, the three new chairs explained their research under the 47-foot-high sloped ceiling and stained-glass window of Tognino Hall. They used layman’s lingo and pictures: a purple cross-section of a human eye, a crumpled piece of graph paper that illustrated warped space, the iconic black-and-white shot of Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue, and robots with googly eyes.

Salma Youssef, FCRH ’20, the student speaker at the event, said that the new professorships enhanced math and science education at Fordham.

“Having access to such innovative, forward-thinking professors is a major reason why the STEM fields at Fordham are thriving and growing,” said Youssef, a George and Mary Jane McCartney Research Fellow. “Seeing faculty supported by Fordham donors like the Beplers is inspiring to all students like me who want to pursue academia and scientific research.”

Over the past 15 years, Fordham’s number of endowed chairs has more than tripled to reach 71, including the new Bepler chairs.

“Steve believed a world-class university should have a world-class science program,” Kim said. “We are on our way.”

Its neutral color scheme has been swapped with brighter shades: lime, emerald green, and sundry shades of blue. There are new touch-screen computers, glass whiteboards, and ceiling lights. And a dividing wall has been demolished, creating a continuous, looping corridor in its place.

“It looks more modern, tech-wise,” said Annie Nguyen, a junior computer science major. “It’s aesthetically better and has more space for students.” 

Over the past three months, the third floor—home to Fordham’s computer and information science department at Rose Hill—has received a $5 million makeover. Half of it was funded by a state grant; the other half came from Fordham funds, said Marco Valera, vice president for facilities management.

Making Strides in STEM

The third-floor transformation was spurred by Fordham’s growth in the STEM field, said Xiaolan Zhang, the chair of the computer and information science department. Over the past decade, undergraduate enrollment in STEM has more than doubled. Graduate enrollment in STEM has septupled, according to Fordham’s Office of Institutional Research.

“When I started in this department, we had maybe eight or nine graduate students,” said Palma A. Sisca, the computer and information science department administrator. That was in 2011. “We have close to 300 now.”

And since 2008, the percentage of women among the total number of STEM majors has increased—a fact that has not been lost on the students. 

“Statistically [nationwide], women are underrepresented,” said Nguyen, a Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship for Women in Science recipient. “But in my classes at Fordham, it’s not as uneven as I thought it would be.” Almost half of her classmates are women, she estimated.

Accordingly, a new ladies restroom—complete with a full-length mirror—and an all-gender restroom have been built on the third floor.

But one of the most striking improvements took place in the labs and classrooms. In the old classrooms, students shared long desks along three tiers, Nguyen said. They now sit in individual tablet arm chairs on a single plane.

The old labs seated students around the perimeter of the room. Now, the desks are clustered together to encourage collaboration among their peers. They also feature brand-new, black touch-screen Dell computers. Instructors can project any computer display to the classroom’s new flat-screen TV, and share a student’s coding work with the whole class. And with the press of a button at the edge of the table, the computer sinks into a slot, leaving more space for students to conduct hands-on projects on the table surface.

Clearing Space for Robots and Drones

The department-wide renovations extend to the JMH’s Robotics and Computer Vision Laboratory, where students operate drones with little black propellers—small enough that they can fit in the palm of your hand—and moving robots with sensors. Picture a little red version of Wall-E. They conduct indoor experiments that could assist, for example, human responders in disaster recovery efforts.

Before the renovations, there simply wasn’t enough space. Only one student could effectively run an experiment with the robots. Because of the new additions—workstations with shelves, a storage room, and a ceiling suspension system that holds cables and equipment—there is room for at least three students to run robotics experiments at once, and space for even more students to conduct other work, said Damian Lyons, founder and director of the lab. 

“It’s laid out as a lab, as opposed to just an accidental collection of tables,” said Lyons.

Those aren’t the only changes. Additional spaces—a faculty breakroom and a space entirely devoted to tutors and their mentees—have been created. The conference room and faculty offices have been upgraded. And the entrance to John Mulcahy Hall—the doors, terrace, and railings—was renovated to improve ADA access.

“We are now also one of the crown jewels of the University,” Sisca said.

For Guy Consolmagno, S.J., it has been both, perhaps in equal doses. In a talk on the Fordham campus on Feb. 26, Brother Consolmagno, the director of the Vatican Observatory, said that religion and science enjoy a long partnership in humans’ endeavor to understand the world in which they live.

“Studying science is an act of worship,” said Brother Consolmagno, a graduate of MIT, former Peace Corps volunteer, author, and research astronomer. “You have to have faith in the questions you are asking.”

Delivering the John C. and Jeanette D. Walton Lecture in Science, Philosophy, and Religion, Brother Consolmagno drew parallels between an unlikely pair: Galileo, a Renaissance man who created the telescope and changed science forever, and Pope Francis, whose concern for climate change’s effects on the world’s poor is aimed at reinvigorating the Catholic mission.

“Galileo Would Have Been On The Colbert Show”

Had he been born in the 20^th century rather than the 16^th, Galileo would have been world-renown, “a media star … just like Carl Sagan,” said Brother Consolmagno. “[He] would have been on The Colbert Show, the Tonight Show.” Although Galileo’s notoriety landed him in some trouble with the church in his day, said Brother Consolmagno, his important scientific discoveries set in motion a revolution on how scientists make assumptions about the universe. It moved science from the Golden Age of celebrating book knowledge of the past, to the scientific revolution of seeking knowledge for the future.

“Galileo was special because he had the telescope and was able to see and understand what he was seeing . . . the moon’s craters . . . the Orion Nebula,” said Brother Consolmagno. “And he was seeing things that were not in any book.”

“He understood why it mattered, and he knew it was important to tell the world.”

Laudato Si’: What Pope Francis Sees

Brother Consolmagno called the pope’s encyclical, Laudato Si’, an entreaty that doesn’t settle scientific questions but draws on today’s scientific research to conclude “the environment is reaching a breaking point that will cause a change in humanity that cannot be fixed by technology.” Francis says these ecological problems are symptoms of much deeper social justice issues, “symptoms that come out of personal sins” and our detachment from God.

“The pope is [offering]new assumptions, just as Galileo saw a new set of assumptions in how the universe works,” he said.

The pope’s call to action, said Brother Consolmagno, is for human beings to develop a new set of ethics, “a new idea of what is wrong” in the human relationship to nature and human ecology. Nature, like the human, is a creation of God; therefore it is mankind’s to care for like a sibling, not to own.

Nor are humans gods who can fix ecological degradation through technology, he said. Technology advances over time, but human ethics tend to waver: a technologically-advanced society may not necessarily solve the earth’s problems.

“Ask yourself who had better ethics: Nazi Germany? Or Socrates?”

By calling for a change in our humanity, the pope’s encyclical does much to demonstrate why science needs faith, said Brother Consolmagno.

“How do we know what change will be for the better? Ultimately, the Jesuit answer is, if it brings us—human beings who will never be God—closer to God.”

What many people don’t know about pigeons, says Carlen, a doctoral candidate who researches urban ecology and evolutionary biology, is that pigeons mate for life. Moreover, they work hard to keep the romance alive. When you walk down the street and see one pigeon fluffing its feathers and chasing after another, this is not a hapless bachelor pursuing an uninterested mate; this is a sign of a committed relationship.

“They constantly do their mating dance,” said Carlen, who was featured this morning on WNYC. “That’s one way they keep up their pair bond.”

Find the full WNYC story—which also discusses pigeons’ surprising ability to distinguish Monet paintings from Picassos—here.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

It’s a sentiment that Nina Heyden, FCRH ’17, holds dear. Currently on a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom, she’s pursuing a Master of Science in Applied Economics and Data Analysis. She’s taking complex information, often big data, and boiling it down into digestible graphics, charts, and other discernible ways that visually convey what the numbers mean.

At Fordham, Heyden studied math and economics, where she got a foundation in econometrics and data analysis for work that she is continuing to do at Essex. Throughout her schooling, she said, she has set out to demystify complex economic concepts through visualization. As an undergraduate, she created interactive graphics to showcase the data behind the plight of the world’s migrant population.

“I am interested in social science research because it can influence policy and can affect the lives of a great number of people,” she said. “A visualization component is very important to explain trends to the general public and to policymakers in a clear and concise way. That’s why I find data visualization so compelling.”

Heyden said she learned about merging social justice with her academic strengths through Fordham’s Urban Plunge and the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice programs. She was also influenced aesthetically by her father, an architect, and her grandmother, a tapestry weaver.

“It concerns me to hear the statements that people make misinterpreting data on immigration, or not understanding the facts,” she said. “One thing that comes to mind is that there’s a lot of data that show that immigration can benefit a nation’s economy.”

Heyden began her examination of refugee and migrant populations by using data from the United Nations. At the University of Essex, she has access to the UK Data Archive, which holds one of the world’s largest collections of social and economic data. The longitudinal data, in particular, enables her to analyze trends using the same variables across time, “and often over several decades,” she said.

In the United Kingdom, as in the United States, anti-immigrant sentiment contributed to the nation’s election outcome of 2016. A study published in the British Journal of Social Psychology found that anti-immigrant prejudice played a major role in support for Brexit. To provide evidence to the Migration Advisory Committee, Heyden will be joining several economists in London to investigate how immigration impacts the U.K. economy, she said. The data will help inform policy within the context of Brexit.

Among the questions the group will be asking are: How does immigration impact productivity? And, does an increase in low-skilled workers encourage native workers to seek training and move into less physical, more communication- or cognitive-intensive occupations?

“Consensus from economic literature is that immigration is a net benefit to developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States,” she said. “In short, immigrants increase labor supply in addition to labor demand, and the U.K. labor market is flexible, adjusting quickly to shocks. Beyond integrating into the labor market, immigrants help to reduce the U.K. budget deficit by contributing more in taxes than they use in welfare and benefits.”

She reiterates that the truth is in the numbers.

“I’m interested in statistics because it can provide concrete answers to these problems that seem overwhelming,” she said. “And that brings me back to data visualization, because you can see the data clearly for yourself.”

• The Kim and Steve Bepler Chair in Mathematics
• The Kim and Steve Bepler Chair in Physics
• The Kim and Steve Bepler Chair in Chemistry
• The Kim and Steve Bepler Chair in Biology

The additional $2.5 million will be added to a fund for a new science building to be built eventually at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx, to which the Beplers have already given $7.8 million.

“Steve was a true man of Fordham, and Kim has honored him and us with her ongoing passion for Fordham’s noble mission and involvement in the life of the University,” said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “We are truly grateful for Steve and Kim’s extraordinary generosity and care for Fordham. This gift will help educate generations of scholars in the Jesuit tradition, and is an investment in the sciences at Fordham.”

The University is seeing growth in STEM disciplines, including a rise in science majors, the newly launched Fordham Center for Cybersecurity (the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security have designated Fordham as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education this spring), in addition to the University’s graduates traditionally high acceptance rates in U.S. medical schools.

At the time of Steve Bepler’s death, in October 2016, Robert D. Daleo, chair of Fordham’s Board of Trustees, said, “Steve Bepler was a trusted colleague and a very astute businessman. My heart goes out to Kim and his family on their great loss. Steve was generous with his time and gifts, and both genial and straightforward in his relations with his colleagues on the Board. I will miss his wisdom and his good company.”

Kim and Steve Bepler’s investment in Fordham’s mission is profound and far reaching, now totaling $31 million. Their gifts have created several other endowed professorships and scholarships, supported Fordham’s Catholic and Jesuit mission, and they have given generously to the Fordham Founder’s Scholarship Fund. Their generosity also had an impact on several Rose Hill buildings, including the University Church (and later a new organ), where the couple contributed toward its restoration. Two years ago, their philanthropy was recognized with the naming of Bepler Commons in Faber Hall. The Beplers are among the three largest donors to the University. Fordham honored the Beplers with the Fordham Founder’s Award in 2007, and in 2014, Steve Bepler was awarded the University’s highest honor, a Doctor of Humane Letters, at Fordham’s Commencement.

Steve Bepler worked as an investment professional for nearly five decades. After earning his M.B.A. at Columbia University School of Business in 1966, he began his career at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in the investment advisory department. He joined Capital Group in 1972 and remained there for four decades, rising to senior vice president and director at the company’s Capital Research Global Investors division. He also served as an equity portfolio manager at American Funds Washington Mutual Investors Fund, Capital World Growth and Income Fund, and EuroPacific Growth Fund. He and his EuroPacific Growth team were twice (1999 and 2009) recognized by Morningstar’s “Fund Manager of the Year” Awards in the international stock arena. In addition to his financial work, Bepler taught a course at Stanford University for more than a decade.

The Beplers were married in 2002. They gave generously to a variety of educational institutions and causes, including the Archdiocese of New York, New York Nativity Schools, and Cristo Rey New York High School in Harlem. Steve Bepler was also a benefactor and board member of the Forman School in Litchfield, Connecticut, Barnard College, the Inner-City Foundation, the Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C., and Fairfield University in Connecticut.

“Like her late husband, Kim Bepler exemplifies the Jesuit principle of men and women for others,” said Father McShane. “We are pleased beyond words that she has embraced the community of students and scholars at Fordham. Her kindness and generosity will not only change the lives of students for generations to come, but also exhorts us to become better women and men in the service of the University.”

“Oftentimes people follow the traditional path of medicine and nothing else, but I wanted to explore where my other talents and interests lied, beyond this medical barrier,” said Karakaya, a rising senior with a double major in biology and philosophy.

At the 2017 Calder Summer Undergraduate Research (CSUR) Symposium, held at the Louis Calder Center on Aug. 4, Karakaya and four other undergraduates in the CSUR program got the opportunity to share scientific research they worked on in the fields of ecology, conservation, and evolution.

Karakaya examined the fungal composition of the soil in undisturbed and disturbed woodlands of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to see if fungi were helping to restore sites that were disturbed by human interference, invasive species, and drought.

“If we better understand these communities of fungus in the soil that aid in the prospering of these plants, maybe we could apply that to microorganisms in the human intestines to help people with gastrointestinal issues,” she said.  “I think a lot of answers are already present in nature, but we don’t look to it as often as we should.”

For Joseph Gross, a rising senior who presented research on the effectiveness of catnip essential oil in repelling ticks, an understanding of how the popular herbal oil works to deter pests can improve public health.

“Lyme disease has been increasing over the years, and as we see more cases, it’s become a research focus to try and develop new methods,[other]than what we’ve been using,” he said.

Rising senior Linelle Abueg, teamed up with biologist Jason Munshi-South, Ph.D. associate professor of biology, for an exploratory study of genomes New York City brown rats to identify areas in their DNA where they might differ from other rats.

Other students were focused on conservation.

Lauren Beglin, FCRH ’19, jumped at the chance to work with Craig Frank, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, on a study on the effect of cutaneous lipid composition on the growth of the fungus P. destructans. That fungus is the causative agent of White-Nose Syndrome, which has killed millions of bats over the past decade.

“Bats are such a critical part of our ecosystem,” she said. “They perform an estimated $22 billion worth of agricultural pest control, and they’re a major consumer of mosquitos.  They’re an important population of species that I’d like to see preserved in this area because our ecosystem benefits from them.”

As climate change continues to be a hot topic in science and politics, Connor Gilligan, a rising senior, said his evolutionary biology study on the effects of severe drought on California’s Brassica rapa plant may provide a unique perspective on the contentious issue.

“People can be resistant to the realities of climate change, and I think this really reinforces that indeed the climate is changing,” he said. “It’s important to see how different organism are contending with this.”

Over the course of the 10-week program, the students “lived, ate, and breathed” science, and it showed in each of their presentations, said Thomas J. Daniels, Ph.D., director of the Calder Center and co-director of its Vector Ecology Laboratory.

“We’re trying to make new ecologists,” he said. “That’s what the CSUR represents.

It’s a very hands-on, motivating opportunity for students to be introduced to science research at a level that they wouldn’t normally get as undergraduate students.”

Sarah Whorley, GSAS ’16, the keynote speaker of the symposium, said she hoped the students would be inspired to bring science engagement opportunities to the public.

“In normal, everyday conversations about sciences, we need to move away from jargon,” said Whorley, an assistant professor of biology at Daeman College.

“It’s important to train scientists and educators to not only be able to have that high-level conversation, but to reach new scientists and get more people involved and interested by being linguistically accessible.”

The 2017 Calder Summer Undergraduate Research (CSUR) Symposium was sponsored by the Louis Calder Center and supported by the National Science Foundation. 

The University Research Council presented the Outstanding Externally Funded Research Awards (OEFRA) to recognize the high quality and impact of sponsored research within the last three years and its enhancement of Fordham’s reputation—both nationally and globally.

Honorees in five separate categories included:

Sciences: Silvia C. Finnemann, Ph.D., professor of biology

Since joining Fordham University in 2008, Finnemann has secured over $3.65 million in grants from the National Institute of Health, the Beckman Initiative for Macular Research and the Retinal Stem Cell Consortium of New York State for her research on healthy eye function and age-related changes to eye cell function. These grants enable her to support a thriving laboratory where she has a team of graduate and undergraduate students and post-doctoral researchers.

Social Sciences: Celia B. Fisher, Ph.D., The Marie Ward Doty University Chair in Ethics and professor of psychology

Fisher has earned 12 major research awards and over $11 million from federal agencies over the past 20 years for her work in HIV and substance abuse prevention and research ethics. Recent awards have come from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

Humanities: Stephen R. Grimm, Ph.D., professor of philosophy

Grimm was awarded $4.5 million by the John Templeton Foundation and the Henry Luce Foundation to lead a three-year interdisciplinary initiative called “Varieties of Understanding: New Perspectives from Psychology, Philosophy, and Theology.” His grant is the largest externally funded research award in the humanities in Fordham’s history.

Interdisciplinary Research: Jennifer L. Gordon, professor of law

With grants from the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Foundation, Gordon pursued a three-year initiative to combat abuse and trafficking of Mexican migrant workers recruited to work in the United States. Partnering with the Mexican human rights organization ProDESC, she has developed a transnational pilot program set to launch this year to implement recommendations that have arisen from her research.

Junior Faculty Research: Marc N. Conte, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics

Conte received nearly $500,000 from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a division of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. In collaboration with a researcher from the University of Nebraska, he is using the grant to study how behavioral economics can improve auctions that induce farmers to set aside land for conservation and biodiversity.

In opening the ceremony, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, lauded the honorees for the fearless inquiry of their academic research, particularly at a time when truth and wisdom are being devalued in our society.

“Research is at the center of the academic enterprise,” he said, “enriching not only the Fordham community, but the community of the United States and of the world.”

Organized by the Office of Research and the University Research Council and sponsored by the Bronx Science Consortium, the daylong event also included grant education workshops, a forum of university researchers, and a keynote address by Dr. Walter L. Goldschmidts, Ph.D., vice president and executive director of the Office of Sponsored Programs at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

-Nina Heidig

August marks one year since students from the Brazil Scientific Mobility Program (BSMP) arrived on campus. Run by the Institute of International Education and supported by the Brazilian government, BSMP places top-achieving junior and senior students pursuing STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) at U.S. colleges and universities to gain global experience, improve their language skills, and increase international dialogue in science and technology.

The Fordham cohort—Aryadne Guardieiro Pereira Rezende, Tulio Aimola, Caio Batista de Melo, and Dicksson Rammon Oliveira de Almeida—have spent the year studying and researching alongside Fordham students and faculty.

“Fordham is a wonderful university. It teaches you to grow not just as a professional, but also as a person. I loved my semesters there,” said Guardieiro, a computer science major from Uberlandia, Minas Gerais.

Guardieiro worked with Damian Lyons, PhD, professor of computer and information science, on the use of drones to hunt and kill Aedes aegypti mosquitos, which spread diseases such as dengue and Zika virus, both of which are significant problems in Brazil.

“Different fields were available to research here,” said Batista de Melo, a computer science major from Brazil’s capital, Brasília. Batista de Melo researched with Frank Hsu, PhD, the Clavius Distinguished Professor of Science and Professor of Computer and Information Science, in Fordham’s Laboratory of Informatics and Data Mining.

“Our project used IBM’s Watson, which might not have been possible to use in Brazil, since it is such a new technology.”

The program has benefitted both Fordham and Brazilian students alike, said Carla Romney, DSc, associate dean for STEM and pre-health education, who oversaw BSMP at Fordham. Because it’s difficult for science students to devote a full semester to travel, the experience served as a sort of “reverse study abroad” for Fordham students.

“Having international students in the classroom has been an amazing internationalization experience for Fordham students, too,” Romney said. “It brings a different atmosphere into the classroom when you have students with widely divergent viewpoints and experiences. You get to know other cultures, other worlds.”

BSMP students complete two semesters of academic study at an American institution, followed by a summer of experiential learning in the form of internships, research, volunteering, or other types of “academic training.”

Earlier this summer, the four were joined by an additional 17 BSMP students who had been at other American colleges and universities and who took up residence at Fordham to undertake internships and positions at various New York City companies and organizations.

The experience was challenging both academically as well as personally, said Oliveira, a computer science major from Recife, Pernambuco who researched smartwatch applications in the Wireless Sensor and Data Mining (WISDM) lab with Gary Weiss, PhD, associate professor of computer and information science.

“The cultural shock was really unexpected, and for several months it made me feel uneasy,” Oliveira said. “Over time, I learned to overcome it. Being from a predominantly tropical country, I considered the winter to be the greatest challenge of all.”

In addition to culture shock, there was the inevitable loneliness, which Guardieiro said she felt deeply at times. However, she felt supported by her academic adviser and fellow students, and eventually came to love her newfound independence.

“I learned to never lose an opportunity to do what I needed or wanted to just because I did not have company to do so,” she said. “I learned to expose myself to new—and not always comfortable—experiences, and I was amazed with the results I got. I took dancing classes with great teachers, visited places like Wall Street companies and all kinds of museums, and visited many states by myself.”

The Brazilian government recently put a one-year moratorium on the scholarship exchange program, but Romney said Fordham would continue its partnership with the program when it resumes.

When it does, Guardieiro has advice ready for future Fordham-BSMP students:

“Don’t be afraid to do everything you want to… This kind of experience is given to us to learn as much as we can.”