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May 13, 2022
David Gruber Becomes a Distinguished Professor,
Highest Rank for CUNY Faculty
CUNY has conferred the title of Distinguished Professor on David Gruber, a scholar, explorer, inventor, and marine biologist in Weissman's Department of Natural Sciences. Distinguished Professor is the highest rank a CUNY professor can achieve.

Gruber has studied sea creatures from the South Pacific to the Arctic. His scholarly research has been widely published in scientific journals like Nature, and his work in collaboration with other researchers includes discovering more than 180 species of fluorescent fish. His discovery with others of biofluorescence in a reptile, a Hawksbill sea turtle, was listed by National Geographic as one of the “top 20 scientific discoveries of the decade” for “Seeing animals’ unexpected sides.”

He was awarded the 2019 Lagrange Prize, the greatest international recognition for complex systems science, for his research on the "conservation of biodiversity, protection of resources and the safeguarding of ecosystems.”

“David Gruber’s research and scientific contributions are truly thrilling," said Weissman Dean Jessica Lang. "He is creative in his approach, asks big questions that captivate a global audience, and has advanced scientific discovery on so many fronts. His dedication to environmental science and awareness inspires our students in the classroom and in the field. The Weissman School of Arts and Sciences is proud to celebrate this wonderful recognition of Professor Gruber’s many accomplishments.” 

Gruber is also a master of communicating his research to the public. Major media outlets including The New York Times and PBS routinely feature his work, and his TED Talk on fluorescence in sea animals has been viewed more than 2.5 million times. His collaboration with the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory on the invention of a robot with soft noodle-like fingers than can handle jellyfish without inducing stress was widely recognized. His latest passion, Project CETI, is a large-scale interdisciplinary collaboration that uses artificial intelligence to decode the communication of whales. Read more here.
Faculty Publications, Honors, and Media Mentions
WEISSMAN PROFESSORS WIN PRESIDENTIAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS
Three Weissman professors received Presidential Excellence Awards from Baruch President S. David Wu.

They are Professor Lisa Blankenship, who got the English Presidential Award for Service; Professor Hagop Sarkissian, who won the Philosophy Presidential Award for Teaching (full-time); and Professor Heather Gittens, who won the Communication Presidential Award for Teaching (adjunct).

The award is conferred upon outstanding faculty for distinguished teaching, scholarship and research, or service. Each winner receives a $1,000 honorarium.
FELLOWSHIP: Professor Els de Graauw (Political Science) was awarded a fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study to live and work in Amsterdam for 10 months. She'll be on leave from Baruch for the 2022-23 academic year, working on a book tentatively titled Grassroots Democracy: How U.S. Cities and States Integrate Immigrants. Among the questions she'll be researching are how and to what effect have the growing number of city and state immigrant affairs offices addressed the societal integration of US immigrants and refugees, and what explains differences in integration narratives, policy approaches, and outcomes across US cities and states.

CHRON ESSAY: The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article by Professor Rafael Walker (English) titled "Who Gets to Write About Whom? Rejecting cross-cultural representation is simplistic and dangerous."

DANCE RESEARCH: Professor Eva S. Chou (English) and her co-author Dr. Lee G. K. Singh (Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center) published an article, “The Establishment of Beijing Dance School in the First-Hand Report of Soviet Specialist O. A. Il’ina​: Introduction, Translation, Notes,” in Dance Research: The Journal of Dance Research.

UKRAINE LITERATURE: Ian Singleton, an adjunct in the English Department, has published a novel, Two Big Differences, about Ukraine; an essay on a volume of Ukrainian poetry about war edited by Harman Creative Writing Fellow Oksana Maksymchuk; and translations of Ukrainian poetry (links here and here).

CUBA QUOTE: Professor Ted Henken (Sociology and Anthropology) was quoted in The New York Times in an obituary of former Cuban diplomat Ricardo Alarcon.
 RECOGNIZING PROFESSOR EMIRATA ALVANY ROCHA
Professor Emirata Alvany Rocha, who recently retired, was the only member of Weissman's Mathematics Department to have been named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. She received this honor in the organization's Inaugural Class of 2012, and was feted and recognized for it at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she served as an Executive Officer.

It was "an incredible honor and a recognition of significant research accomplishment," said Math Department Chairman Professor Warren Gordon. Rocha specializes in the theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras, and is known for her computation of the characters of the Virasora algebra.

Only 19% of the 1.5 million biographical articles on the English Wikipedia are about women. Rocha is among them.
Student and Alumni News
ALUMNA WINS FULBRIGHT: Weissman alumna Tiannis Coffie ’19 has won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) award to work in Brazil while serving as a cultural ambassador.

Coffie earned a BA at Baruch in corporate communication with a minor in journalism. She's now pursuing an MS in environmental policy and sustainability management at The New School.

Coffie taught herself Portuguese during the pandemic. “Brazil is said to possess ‘the body of America and the soul of Africa,’" she said. "As an American-Ghanaian, an ETA position in Brazil presents an opportunity to embrace a culture that mirrors both of my identities." She’s also “eager to learn about Brazilian approaches to climate and social justice issues. I hope my experiences in Brazil will equip me with diverse approaches for generating solutions for solving the climate crisis.”

Coffie expressed gratitude for support from Baruch professors and mentors Laura Kolb, Gisele Regatão, Elena Martinez, and Adriana Espinoza.
UNDERGRAD RESEARCH EXPO: You’ll be impressed and inspired by the work students presented at Baruch’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Inquiry Expo. You can see the work online here.

Take a look: There's a wide range of research across the humanities, arts, sciences, social sciences, and public affairs, including projects on Dada, Afrofuturism, COVID vaccines, medical devices, NYC parks, Spanish literature, Ramadan charity, and urban heat islands.
 
The students presented their studies in person on May 12 in the Newman Conference Center. Pictured above are student Jie Ying and Professor Rebecca Spokony with a display about Ying's fruit fly study, "Two JH Degradation Enzymes, Different Effects on D. melanogaster Growth." Read more about the expo here.
"WHAT IS HOME?" CONTEST WINNERS AND CELEBRATION
Student winners of the "What Is Home?" essay contest will read their essays at an in-person celebration, Tuesday, May 24, 12:30 pm to 2 pm. The event is presented by Baruch's Journalism Department and the Harman Writer-in-Residence Program. The event takes place at the Mishkin Gallery, 135 E. 22nd St. Lunch will be served. RSVP bridgett.davis@baruch.cuny.edu. Winning essays will be published online in Dollars & Sense.

The contest was judged by Professors Bridgett Davis and Gisele Regatão. Prizes were funded by Baruch alumnus David Shulman '64. Shulman came up with the idea of a student writing contest after reading Davis' memoir The World According to Fannie Davis. This is the second year for the contest. The winners are:
  • First Place ($1,500): Brianna Hobson, "Gangster's Paradise"
  • Second Place ($1,000): Sven Larsen, "Unidentified Dying Objects"
  • Third Place ($500): Tamanna Saidi, "Traveler/Musafir"
  • Fannie Davis Prize/Honorable Mentions ($200 each): Kenia Torres, "Home Is the Soul," James D. Reilly, Untitled; Siddrah Alhindi, "If These Walls Could Speak." ​
ANNOUNCING A NEW WEISSMAN COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
We welcome Daniel Jacobson as Weissman's new communications manager. He'll be handling social media, the newsletter, and the Weissman blog among other things. He holds a PhD in English from the CUNY Graduate Center and has taught English as an adjunct at Baruch. He's also been helping out with video, tech, and other tasks on a part-time basis for Weissman communications for the past year. You can reach him at daniel.jacobson36@login.cuny.edu.

He replaces Beth Harpaz, who served as Weissman communications manager and as the editor of this newsletter since April 2021. She has taken a job at The Forward. You can connect with her on Twitter @literarydj.
A HUMBLE THANK-YOU TO THE NEWSLETTER'S SECRET WEAPON
Huge thanks to Professor Josh Mills (Journalism) for backreading nearly every issue of this newsletter prior to publication. We are immensely grateful for his feedback on deadline, his unerring attention to detail, and his excellent suggestions.
NEW GRANT FOR BARUCH HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALISM PROGRAM
The Baruch High School Journalism Program has received a grant from the Revson Foundation. The grant provides $1,000 honoraria to support and encourage teachers who launch newspapers in New York City public high schools that don’t already have them.

The grant also provides honoraria to recognize teacher-advisors at high school newspapers that win “Newsies Best In NYC Public High School Journalism Awards” in a contest run by the Baruch program.

The Revson funding comes on top of a major grant for the high school journalism effort from the Google News Initiative to support the launch at least 25 high school newspapers by the end of 2023.

The Baruch High School Journalism Program promotes journalism education, school newspapers, and news literacy in underserved New York City high schools. It’s directed by Professor Geanne Belton (Journalism) with support from other Baruch faculty and students and Press Pass NYC.
Past newsletters here. Weissman blog here. Next issue, June 6.
Got news, feedback, or questions? Email baruchwsas@baruch.cuny.edu