January 2023

We’re excited to announce the launch of a new immersive experience that allows guests to tour the CUNY ASRC from the comfort of their own devices!

A new study co-authored by Professor Andrew Reinmann shows how vegetation across New York City helps absorb a surprising amount of carbon emissions. He recently met with The New York Times to discuss it.

The NanoBioNYC program selected its first cohort of six CUNY graduate students, last year. Their training kicked off with a series of professional development workshops in Fall 2022 and continues throughout the new year, as they prepare for an immersive summer experience in three career tracks.

Alfredo Vidal Ceballos, a current student in his last year of the Biochemistry Ph.D. Program at the Graduate Center, first-authored a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “This experience has taught me about collaboration between labs with different skill sets, as well as given me an opportunity to practice my scientific writing,” say Ceballos, who’s interested in pursuing neuronal development and phase separation after graduation.

Creating metamaterials that trick sound and light may sound more like science fiction than science, but that is what Distinguished Professor Andrea Alù (Physics), founding director of the Photonics Initiative at the CUNY ASRC, does in his research. In a new article in Scientific American, the eminent physicist, a Blavatnik National Awards Laureate, describes in plain language his far-out inventions.

Professor Patrizia Casaccia, director of the CUNY ASRC Neuroscience Initiative, and Professor Robert Wright, environmental epidemiologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in collaboration with several CUNY colleges, have created the “MSSM/CUNY Climate Change Health Impact Interdisciplinary Research Initiative.” The initiative, which will fund transdisciplinary grants that focus on climate change and health, is anticipated to advance NIH efforts to reduce health threats from climate change and build health resilience, especially among those at highest risk, as “The ability to have air conditioning is probably now — in some instances — the difference between life and death,” says Dr. Wright.

One of the most important things about being a scientist, or a bearer of any type of knowledge, is sharing it, or “bringing home the snap peas,” as Beau Morton, director of environmental health and education at WE ACT, described it during their address to a group of CUNY STEM researchers, local community groups, advocates and other stakeholders. The audience gathered recently to learn more about the CUNY ASRC IlluminationSpace Hub (IS Hub), which was launched last spring as a collective space for science communication, outreach and education at CUNY.

Mucus gets a bad rap. Sure, the slippery, gelatinous goo produced by mucous membranes can be off-putting for some, but its capabilities are nothing to sneeze at. Organic mucus is a vital protective substance that allows bodies to perform essential functions, such as breathing, swallowing, and digesting. Animal mucus can provide filtrative, conductive, or adhesive functions that are useful to drug delivery and cosmetic industries. The downside about organic mucus, however, is its variability in samples and parasitic contamination, which can lead to structural degradation and toxicity. With the help of funding from the ASRC SEED Grant Program, Sophia Suarez, professor of physics at Brooklyn College, and colleagues are working to overcome these obstacles by studying synthetic mucus.

The Next Generation Environmental Sensor Lab (NGENS) is an open resource for environmental sensors, equipped with high-end reference instruments for: greenhouse gases, radiation, soil and water measurements, and more. In addition, the Sensor Lab manages the rooftop observatory and a design and fabrication facility to prototype and stage environmental sensors, enclosures, and fixtures.