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Winter break for City College of New York undergraduates Seher Ali and Oneika Pryce this time around means three weeks in Jordan and Senegal, respectively, as Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholars. The two students are recipients of the competitive national award that provides support for overseas travel and research. A junior majoring in biotechnology in City College’s Division of Science, Ali travels to Amman, Jordan, on Dec. 28 for a stint studying Arabic at the Qasid Institute. The Brooklyn resident grew up in Pakistan speaking Urdu, a language whose alphabet is similar to Arabic. Ali

����Ӱҵ’s biomedical engineering professor Jacek Dmochowski uses ultrasound and lasers to stimulate the brain treating mental disorders as well as physical and mental wellness during deep space exploration missions. His research just got a boost from the National Institutes of Health’s Brain Research Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative and the Translational Research Institute for Space Health, in partnership with NASA. “The brain is sensitive to mechanical forces, and we think that we will be able to make the brain more or less active by sending in a

Award-winning poet and author Nicole Sealey is adding another accolade to her numerous honors. The Doris Lippman Visiting Poet in ����Ӱҵ’s MFA in Creative Writing Program is one of five winners internationally of 2019-2020 Hodder fellowships. The awards are presented by Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts. They provide artists and humanists in the early stages of their careers, with “much more than ordinary intellectual and literary gifts,” an opportunity to undertake significant new work. Sealey’s fellow nationally renowned co-recipients are: Visual artist

City College of New York historian Laurie Woodard is the recipient of a 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities faculty award for her book project on famed actress and civil rights activist Fredi Washington’s role in the Harlem Renaissance. Woodard’s award is among 13 nationwide to support advanced research in the humanities by teachers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and Tribal Colleges and Universities. Overall, 253 humanities projects nationwide will receive a total of $14.8 million in support from the NEH. Woodard is the fourth faculty

A new computational model developed by researchers from ����Ӱҵ and Yale gives a clearer picture of the structure and mechanics of soft, shape-changing cells that could provide a better understanding of cancerous tumor growth, wound healing, and embryonic development. Mark D. Shattuck, professor of physics at City College’s Benjamin Levich Institute, and researchers at Yale developed the new efficient computational model. It allows simulated particles to realistically change shape while conserving volume during interactions with other particles. Their results appear in the

The Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at ����Ӱҵ is collaborating with PS 161 for a presentation of Disney’s “High School Musical Jr.” This is the eighth collaboration with the Harlem-based school. The students of PS 161’s drama club have been working under the direction of Wendy Rojas, drama teacher and ����Ӱҵ education theatre alumna, and candidates in The Graduate Program in Educational Theatre. Candidates in the ����Ӱҵ Educational Theatre graduate program, directed by Jennifer Katona, provide artistic support to students in the drama club as they prepare for their

Former SA Pres. Kgalema Motlanthe to deliver Achebe lecture First published in 1958, Chinua Achebe’s “ Things Fall Apart” is hailed as the most widely read book in modern African literature. It’s sold more than 20 million copies and been translated into more than 50 languages. In celebration of the novel’s 60th anniversary, ����Ӱҵ and the Christie and Chinua Achebe Foundation host the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum Lecture on Dec 12. Former South African interim President and Deputy President Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe is the speaker, 6:30 — 8:30 p.m. in ����Ӱҵ’s Aaron Davis’

According to data from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in 2017 alone, 1,487 New Yorkers died from unintentional drug overdose. One New Yorker died every six hours from an overdose. More than eight in ten (82%) overdose deaths involved an opioid Fentanyl, a potent opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, was involved in 57% of the overdose deaths. By age group, the largest increase in the rate of overdose death was among New Yorkers 55 to 84. The topic of the next Mini-Medical School session at ����Ӱҵ will be “Opioids Everywhere: A

While his classmates in ����Ӱҵ’s MFA in filmmaking program wrap up another semester of exciting projects, Tomás Greer is bracing for an action-packed December in Asia with a martial arts setting. A first degree black belt, Greer, 23, is representing the United States and USA Karate at the World Karate Federation’s Shanghai Open in China. The competition runs through December 9. It’s the Jamaica, Queens, native’s eighth outing with the U.S. national team, and a continuation of his bid to make the Olympic squad. Karate will make its debut as an Olympic sport at the 2020

Joseph Barba, professor of electrical engineering at the Grove School of Engineering, is advancing the aims of the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program by building a social media platform designed specifically for students entering, continuing, or transferring into STEM majors at ����Ӱҵ. The project is being realized due to a $1.5 million grant over five years from the National Science Foundation. Principal investigator Barba along with co-principal investigators will develop the social media platform during the first year of funding, which supports community building