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Human Gut Microbiome Will Be Topic for December 8 Address Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon, M.D., will deliver the 5th Annual Sharon Cosloy-Edward Blank Lecture at The City College of New York 4 p.m. Wednesday, December 8. His topic will be “The human gut microbiome: dining in with trillions of friends.” The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place in Room 250, Shepard Hall, and will be followed by a reception in Room 150, Shepard Hall. Dr. Gordon is the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and director of

George Ranalli, under whose tenure as dean the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York has been transformed into a first-tier design school, will be awarded the Sidney L. Strauss Award from the New York Society of Architects. Dean Ranalli, who has led the school since 1999, will be recognized for outstanding achievements within the architectural profession at the society’s annual awards dinner, November 18. “I felt there was no better choice for this award at this time than George Ranalli,” said David J. Millner, first vice president of the New York

Event Picks Promising Early-Career Engineering Faculty from Across the Country Dr. Raymond Tu, assistant professor of chemical engineering in the Grove School of Engineering at The City College of New York, is one of 53 young researchers and educators nationwide invited to attend the National Academy of Engineering’s 2010 Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium. The event, which will bring together innovative, early-career engineering professors from more than 40 institutions, will be held December 13 – 16 in Irvine, Calif. Professor Tu, who was voted the Grove School’s teacher of the

President Staiano-Coico to Confer Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters, Upon Him Mario Vargas Llosa, the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature, will deliver The City College of New York’s President’s Lecture 5:30 p.m. Thursday, November 18, in the Great Hall of Shepard Hall on the CCNY campus at 160 Convent Avenue, Manhattan. Prior to his address, CCNY President Lisa Staiano-Coico will bestow upon him the honorary degree Doctor of Letters. Mr. Vargas Llosa’s topic will be “Return of the Monsters.” His lecture comes two weeks after the launch of his latest novel, “El sueño del celta” (“The Celtic's

Four scientists will participate in a panel discussion on projects under way in the Dominican Republic and their impact on the country’s economic development. The event, presented by the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute (CUNY DSI) takes place 4 p.m. Saturday, November 6, Room 1/203, North Academic Center, The City College of New York, 160 Convent Avenue, Manhattan. The four panelists and their topics are: • Dr. Jorge E. González, NOAA-CREST Professor, Grove School of Engineering, The City College of New York, “Expansion of Lake Enriquillo: Observations and Environmental Causes.” • Dr. Yolanda

Honored for ‘Five Decades of Extending Fundamental Health Services’ and Leading Through Example Dr. H. Jack Geiger, a founding faculty member of the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at The City College of New York, who has focused his career on health, poverty and human rights, has been awarded the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism. He was honored at a dinner during The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship (ASF) Conference, held October 16 in Baltimore, M.D. A co-founder and past president of Physicians for Human Rights and Physicians for Social Responsibility, Dr. Geiger is

The City College of New York Division of Science announces 18 events for the month of November featuring scientists from prominent universities and research institutes from across the United States and Germany. All are free and open to the public and held in the Marshak Science Building, unless otherwise noted. Listings of event times, speakers, topics and room numbers follow. November 1 , 12 noon: Salzberg Chemistry Seminar Series, Dr. Michael Mirkin, professor of chemistry, Queens College, “Charge-transfer processes at electrochemical nanointerfaces,” Room 1027. November 1 , 12:15 p.m

In a collaborative effort, The City College of New York’s advertising/public relations program (AD/PR) in the media and communication arts department and the art department’s electronic design and multimedia program (EDM) swept the New York City Police Foundation’s 2010 advertising competition. They took the top three prizes in the print category, besting teams from Pratt Institute and Parsons The New School for Design. “We’re extremely proud of this achievement, especially since it offered a unique opportunity for our two programs to collaborate in a cross-disciplinary way,” said Professor

Recent work by Dr. David Lohman , assistant professor of biology at The City College of New York, suggests the Philippines, considered by biologists to be a “biodiversity hotspot,” could have more unique species of birds than previously thought. If that proves to be the case, it could have important ramifications for conservation practices there. Many of the animal species found in the Philippines are endemic to this nation, which is made up of more than 7,100 islands. For example, 64 percent of its land mammal species and 77 percent of its amphibians are not found anywhere else. However, only

Replacing the asphalt pavement in parking lots with permeable grass-pavers that can withstand car traffic and sustain biomass would not only improve their aesthetics but help fight global warming. That idea was one of the elements of a winning proposal submitted by a team of landscape architects from the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at The City College of New York in the Long Island Index’ “Build a Better Burb” competition. The team, consisting of Denise Hoffman Brandt, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, and Alexa Helsell and Bronwyn Gropp, May 2010 graduates of