Faculty and Staff Accomplishments – FEBRUARY 2009

Dr. Nada Marie Assaf-Anid, professor of chemical engineering, served as programming board chair for the Environmental Division at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Centennial Meeting in Philadelphia this past November. She chaired three sessions: One Hundred Years of Environmental Law and Policy; Water and Waste; and Inorganic Contaminants in Water. In addition, Assaf-Anid chaired the session The Global Engineer and presented the paper “Are We Preparing Our Students for a Flat World?” which was co-authored by Dr. Gordon Silverman, professor of electrical and computer engineering, William Zucker ’79 and Arthur Andrews ‘76. As a result of the conference, she will establish collaborations with engineering schools in Portugal and Brazil and attend two global conferences: The Eighth World’s Congress of Chemical Engineering in Canada and the ACHEMA Congress on Chemical Engineering in Germany.

In addition, Assaf-Anid was recently nominated chair of the Sustainability Section of the Environmental Division of AIChE. She chaired a session in December on Tutorials on Basic Technologies and Issues at the third annual AIChE Energy and Resources Conference, held at the Consolidated Edison Company of New York building, where she presented the paper “Tutorial on Water Purification Technologies.” Assaf-Anid submitted a proposal on Sustainable Solar Water Disinfection System for Agricultural Application in Rural, Developing or Low Incomes Areas to the Sustainable Vision Grants Program of the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). The proposal will be tested in rural areas in the United States and Lebanon.

Assaf-Anid, Silverman and Dr. Robert Mauro, professor of computer and electrical engineering, submitted a proposal titled Fully Automated Mobile Green-Fuel Factor in collaboration with Saunders High School in Yonkers, N.Y., to the Advanced E-Team Program of NCIIA. The proposal detailed biodiesel fabrication on a truck donated to Saunders by Yonkers’ Mayor Philip Amicone ’71. Assaf-Anid and chemical engineering graduate student Lauren De Sanctis ’08 have been invited to participate at the Youth Leadership Conference of G.O.A.L.S. for Girls: Propel Yourself Forward, to be held at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York.

Dr. Robert Sharp, professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been awarded two research grants from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to study the impacts of chloramines on metal corrosion and leaching in water distribution systems. The first award is for $49,500 to continue an ongoing disinfection research project. The second award for $88,000 is for the study of nitrification in distribution systems. The money from these two projects will be used to support graduate and undergraduate research assistants in the civil and environmental engineering departments. In addition, Sharp contributed the chapter Industrial Wastewater Management to the eighth edition of Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook published by McGraw-Hill. The handbook has been the quintessential source of chemical engineering knowledge for practicing chemical engineers and a wide variety of other engineers and scientists since 1934. Sharp’s environmental engineering graduate research assistants Matt Jessup ’08 and Steve Laun ’08 presented the paper “Impact of Switching from Chlorine to Chloramine Disinfection on Copper and Lead” at the New York State American Water Works Association’s Edwin C. Tifft Water Resources Symposium in Syracuse, N.Y., this past November. The invited paper was co-authored by Brent Gaylord ’08.

Dr. Jonathan Hartman and Dr. Yassir Samra, assistant professors of marketing, published the paper “Crisis Management: An Empirical Investigation of the Effects of Improvisation on New Product Development in the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Industries” in the journal Insights to a Changing World. In addition, Hartman and Samra published “Effect on an Improvisational Approach to New Product Development During a Crisis: An Empirical Study of NPD Teams in the Field of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,” which Samra presented at the proceeding of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in Philadelphia this past November.

Maria Rodriguez of O’Malley Library on March 6 will receive a “Volunteer Achievement Award” from the United Hospital Fund for her work at the North Central Bronx Hospital.

Judith Slisz, director of assessment, has been appointed to a two-year term on the new editorial board of The Journal of Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness, as of Nov. 7. The journal is a national periodical that publishes current significant scholarly contributions about assessment or institutional effectiveness in higher education. Articles are submitted by assessment investigators in every field relating to student learning outcomes, assessment processes in academic disciplines, institutional effectiveness planning, public policy or other research-based or theoretical analyses.

Lois Harr, director of campus ministry and social action, was on XM Radio’s Busted Halo Show with Father Dave Dwyer on Dec. 9. Speaking as a Catholic Relief Services fair trade ambassador and campus minister, she commented on fair trade as a good shopping idea for the holidays and how it is a form of economic justice. For more information about fair trade, click Here. In addition, Harr visited Kenya on Dec. 31 to meet with Br. Dennis and look into growing the relationship between Manhattan College and Christ the Teacher Institute for Education (CTIE). She also is trying to develop the relationship among CTIE, the Christian Brothers and CRS.

Dr. Margaret Groarke, assistant professor of government, appeared on BronxNet on Monday, Nov. 11 from 9:00-9:30 p.m. She spoke to host Gary Axelbank about the Nov. 4 election and her new book Keeping Down the Black Vote: Race and the Demobilization of American Voters.

Dr. Natalia Imperatori-Lee, assistant professor of religious studies, presented the paper “The Significance of Mestizaje in 21st Century Theology” at the L’Institut Catholique de Paris in Paris, France, this past October.

Dr. Michelle Saracino, associate professor of religious studies, presented the paper “Beyond Magical Thinking: Maternity as a Metaphor for Theological Anthropology” at the Catholic Theological Society of America in Miami, Fla., this past June.

Dr. Claudia Setzer, professor of religious studies, presented the paper “Woman Learners in the Ancient World” at the Columbia University New Testament Seminar this past September.

Dr. David Shefferman, assistant professor of religious studies, presented the paper “Transforming Tourism: Religion, Visual Culture and the Exuberance of Cuban State Spectacle” at the American Academy of Religion’s annual meeting in Chicago this past November.

Dr. Robert Geraci, assistant professor of religious studies, authored the book Human Nature and the Ethics of Progress: Power and Purpose in the 20th Century Religion, Science and Art.

Dr. Nicholas De Lillo, professor of mathematics and computer science, recently authored the paper “Simulation of Finite-State Automata Using Java 6.0. Part One: Preliminaries” as Technical Report 256, November 2008, which appears in the Technical Report Series of the Ivan G. Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Pace University.

Dr. Frederick Zenz, professor emeritus of chemical engineering, was listed among the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ top 100 chemical engineers of the modern era (post-World War II). Zenz was recognized for pioneering fluidization work. He is the founder of the Particulate Solids Research Institute and the author of Fluidization and Fluid-Particle Systems.