21-Year-Old Doctoral Grad Receives National Science Foundation Grant
Alex Pyron has been studying in CSI Biology Professor Frank Burbrink's lab since he was 17. Perhaps that seems like a good time to start college, but what is remarkable is that he began his graduate program at that age, after receiving a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Piedmont College in Georgia at 16. During his tenure at CSI and the CUNY Graduate Center, Pyron has racked up two Master's degrees and a PhD.
Reminiscing on what it has been like studying under Burbrink, along with fellow PhD candidate Tim Guiher, Pyron says, "Tim and I were Frank's second and third PhD students, so it's been kind of a learning process for all of us. Our research program has been less structured. It opened us up to a wider range of research questions, rather than focusing on single projects. Frank and I have published seven or eight papers on various subjects in evolution and systematic biology. Working here and working with Frank has been very different than it would have been anywhere else. It's more of a free-form learning experience."
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Greetings!
The CSI Celestial Ball reached for the stars and raised over a half-million dollars for student scholarships. More than 330 people braved the season\'s first winter flurries in support of the College of Staten Island\'s first annual scholarship gala at the Richmond County Country Club.
Community leaders joined together with CSI faculty, staff, and students to celebrate a CSI education, and the transformational experience that a scholarship can provide to students and their families.
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Ruane Receives Prestigious Graduate Women in Science Fellowship
 Sara Ruane, who has been working toward her PhD in Biology Professor Frank Burbrink's lab since 2007, has been named a Graduate Women in Science Fellow. Ruane explains that Women in Science is "a nonprofit organization that specifically gives awards to women in science as an underrepresented minority." This honor follows Ruane's two other awards during her tenure at CSI, the 2009 Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fund from the American Museum of Natural History and a 2008 Explorers Club Grant.
In discussing her work at CSI, so far, Ruane says, "I have been in the lab the shortest amount of time [compared to Burbrink's other PhD students], and I've previously traveled with Frank, doing research with him, done some fieldwork with him, and I decided that this lab would be a good fit, as far as having freedom to work on your project and take it in different directions, and being able to collaborate with other people." Read More>
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CSI Doctoral Student Studies Snakes with the Help of a 2009 CUNY Research Grant Doctoral candidate Tim Guiher is in his fifth and final year in CSI Biology Professor Frank Burbrink's lab, hoping to receive his PhD this spring. He has also received a 2009 Doctoral Student Research Grant, adding to the recognition that he received through his selection for a 2008 Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fund grant from the American Museum of Natural History.
When asked about his research, Guiher begins by discussing the unique environment in Burbrink's lab. "One of the benefits of working here in this lab is you have one project that you're kind of focused on for your dissertation but then you've got several projects that you can work on simultaneously, either collaboratively with Frank or other collaborators that Frank might be working with, and there have been a lot of different questions that we get to ask here. Secondly, right now, people [who are studying] systematics [the study of the diversification of life on the planet Earth, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time] kind of go through this transition zone-methodologically and theoretically, so the approaches that we take toward the questions that we ask have really drastically changed since I got here four years ago. So, approaches to the questions that we were asking when we first came in have really evolved along with the field as these new methods have come along." Read More> |
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President Morales Recommended for Another Three-Year Term at AASCU
 The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) has just recommended CSI President Dr. Tomas D. Morales to another three-year term on their Board of Directors, effective 2010.
Shirley Theimer, AASCU Executive Secretary to the President, commented, "AASCU is pleased to announce that President Tomás Morales, College of Staten Island, CUNY, was one of four directors elected by the AASCU membership on November 23, 2009, to a three-year term on the AASCU Board of Directors. Election to the Board of Directors is a highly esteemed honor and responsibility, conferred by presidential peers." Read More>
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