The Advanced Science Research Center is celebrating 10 years of scientific discoveries and breakthroughs. Come and party with us as we look back on our greatest achievements thus far and look forward to many more ahead! Don’t miss out on this chance to learn more about our contributions to our community, science and the future of innovation!
Interested in sponsoring this event? For more information, please contact Miranda Tyson at miranda.tyson03@gc.cuny.edu
A Letter from ASRC Leadership
As the current executive director of the CUNY ASRC, I am proud and honored for us to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the opening of our Institute. As we continue this journey ahead, our commitment remains strong to improve human and environmental well-being through basic, applied, and interdisciplinary scientific discovery, education, and outreach.
Over the past ten years we have forged strong ties to connect our leading scientists across the five initiatives—Nanoscience, Photonics, Structural Biology, Neuroscience, and Environmental Sciences—and to collaboratively address complex questions relevant to the ongoing change across scales both in specific fields, across these initiatives, and society at large.
Together as the CUNY ASRC family, we promise to continue this path with distinction, as we are committed to positioning the ASRC as a leading source of expertise in these critical areas for CUNY, with CUNY, and with prominent or emerging members of the New York City and State academic and applied research ecosystems. To achieve this, we will embark on an even more intensive and focused journey of interdisciplinary exploration, nurturing innovative collaborations and forging strategic partnerships along the way.
Mark Hauber, Executive Director, CUNY ASRC
A Message From our Directors
Rein Ulijn, Ph.D. Director, Nanoscience Initiative
“The best part of working at the ASRC is to jointly tackle complex scientific problems with colleagues and students, and in doing this, finding new insights that take our research in a forward direction. The feeling of these aha moments never get old, and I feel lucky that there have been many over the past decade.”
Andre Alù, Ph.D. Director, Photonics Initiative
“I am most proud of the culture that we have established at the ASRC since its inception. As we enter the building, we can experience the drive and motivation of many young scientists that are carrying out top research activities in an inclusive environment, driven by passion and curiosity.”
Kevin Gardner, Ph.D. Director, Structural Biology Initiative
“I’m tremendously proud of how we’ve collectively taken an empty building in 2014 — and rebounded from 2020’s COVID challenges — to build dynamic and diverse teams of scientists, who both make discoveries within our labs and build communities together within CUNY and beyond.”
“I am most proud of the cutting-edge interdisciplinary science at the ASRC and of sharing our latest discoveries with the local community. This has been possible by partnering with the IlluminationSpace in order to promote science outreach throughout the year and share mindfulness practices during the monthly NeuroZen events.”
Charles Vörösmarty, Ph.D. Director, Environmental Science Initiative
“Our collective growth in terms of building a major intellectual community of researchers, growing our publication and funding portfolios, while at the same time educating the next generation of scientific leaders is genuinely impressive.”
“The very special approach that the ASRC has is twofold. First, it has such a high concentration of state-of-the-art instruments. You can collaborate with world-class faculty and staff, and you can use the instruments in either of the initiatives. That was mind blowing to me. Second, not only do these instruments exist but you are allowed to use them; you are trained on them and I cannot speak highly enough of the staff that train students.”
Jiye Son ’19
“The scientists, students, postdocs, faculty, and staff are truly passionate about the research that they’re doing and are so excited to share their knowledge and help one another. I think that love for science and love for collaboration really makes the ASRC feel welcoming. You can ask a lot of questions and learn about different topics within the different initiatives. That environment creates a really nice community of scientists who want to do their work.”
Anna Paltseva ’19
“I think that what makes the ASRC special is the space that they provide. It is very comfortable (physically) to be in and provides the technology, but also the unique human resources. Very supportive professors, senior staff, who encourage students and help them, and stay in touch with them.”
