The City College of New York Hosts
Einsteins in the City Conference

(l-r) Dr. Arthur Kornberg, 2005 INTEL Science Winner David Bauer (Class of 2008), Dr. Herbert Hauptman, Dr. Leon Lederman, Dr. Jerome Karle, Lev Sviridov

By Nazneen Malik

The City College of New York (CCNY) recently held its first international, multidisciplinary, student research conference in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Einstein Papers. The two day, Einsteins in the City, conference featured a panel discussion with Nobel Laureates and CCNY alumnae, Dr. Arthur Kornberg, Dr. Herbert Hauptman, Dr. Jerome Karle, ad Dr. Leon Lederman, and presentations by students and researchers from across the country.

Students at the undergraduate, masters, and PhD levels had the opportunity to present their research during poster sessions and received positive feedback from Nobel Laureates, Dr. Herbert Hauptman, and Dr. Jerome Karle, who also acted as judges in the poster competition.

“This has been a truly terrific conference and an incredible event for City College,” stated Gregory Williams, President of the City College of New York as he described the event as part of the second golden age of CCNY. He also thanked the Nobel Laureates for their presence at the event, saying “you really have reached your hands across generations showing your interest not only in City College but in the young scientists who are going to be the Nobel Laureates of the future.”

In the past, CCNY has held annual poster presentations. However, they were limited to City College students and never invited Nobel Laureates before, says Dr. Laurent Mars, Assistant Dean of Science at CCNY and a member of the organizing committee. He noticed that in previous years, most of the projects students worked on dealt with science and engineering. At this conference, however, the committee tried to encourage and incorporate other fields of study like the behavioral and social sciences. “Even now the majority of posters were still coming from science and engineering but I think that as we grow and get more recognition we will eventually be able to attract other fields,” he states confidently.

Manoj Sharma, a student who won first place in the Ph.D category from CCNY, explained that his love for science stems from his curiosity to know how things work and that his interest in participating in the contest was to meet the Nobel Laureates. In fact, due to the novelty of the event, conference organizers were unsure as to the kind of turnout it would produce despite the many volunteers who helped spread the word. Nevertheless, 250 poster submissions were accepted.

Other winners included Merlin Brito from The City College of New York, and Hannes Boehm of the Vienna University of Technology who received first place in the undergraduate and masters categories, respectively. As for the Ph.D candidates, due to the high quality of their research, Gina Cantone, and Jing Zhou from the City University of New York, and Purushothaman Srinivasan from New Jersey Institute of Technology, all received first place.#