Message from the Interim Vice Provost & Dean of Research
Dr. Joseph Rachlin
Lehman College is one of two public senior colleges in the Bronx, and as such it serves the community in many valuable ways. One of these is the development of new knowledge and its dissemination through a variety of means. The scientific innovation and scholarship being done at Lehman College is on the cutting edge of knowledge development.
Our faculty has a global reach as well as a local one. In addition to their personal research projects, they often serve as mentors to our undergraduate and graduate students. Two such programs are the annual Bronx Sci-Fest, which brings select high school students to the campus to work with our faculty, and the STEM Scholars program, which selects undergraduates from local community colleges for an intense summer of research working with members of our faculty, exposing several of these students to our state of- the-art research facilities in Science Hall.
The amazing work being done at Lehman by our faculty touches many disciplines. Professor William Harcourt-Smith who is involved in the study of the new hominoid fossil Homo naledi; or Professor Renuka Sankaran, who is researching ways to increase the nutritional value of crops such as wheat and rice; and Moira Sauane and Prabodhika Mallikaratchy, a biologist and chemist, respectively, both who are conducting groundbreaking research in the field of cancer treatment. Then there's Marilyn Aguirre-Molina, director of the CUNY Institute for Health Equity, and Martha Whetsell, a nurse specializing in pediatric care, both of whom are among the Lehman faculty involved in activities designed to improve the health of Bronx residents. Professor Andrei Jitianu, a chemist, works with graduate and undergraduate students and gives them the hands-on experience they need to pursue careers in the scientific fields. There is also Professor Christine Rota-Donahue whose work in the Lehman Speech and Hearing Center services benefits many of the young children from the community, and many other notable faculty members.
Lehman College takes pride in its commitment to scientific inquiry and to its local community. We hope that after reading about the variety of research being performed here, you will too.
