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Western media often portray Middle Eastern societies as rigid and resistant to change. However, Dr. Lou Marinoff, CCNY Professor and Chair of Philosophy sees a “great awakening” taking place in that part of the world. Professor Marinoff’s view is based on observations from a trip last month to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where he was a speaker at the Third Biennial Festival of Thinkers held for students at the Higher Colleges of Technology. The event was organized under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nayhan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. It attracted

Marco Tedesco Says Record Low Resulted From Simultaneous Positive Phases for Two Climate Drivers The 30-year record low in Antarctic snowmelt that occurred during the 2008-09 austral summer was likely due to concurrent strong positive phases for two main climate drivers, ENSO (El Niño - Southern Oscillation) and SAM (Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode), according to Dr. Marco Tedesco, Assistant Professor of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at The City College of New York. Professor Tedesco, who is also on the doctoral faculty at the CUNY Graduate Center, added that Antarctic snowmelt levels should

The advertising profession is challenged to achieve a level of diversity that reflects the demographics of New York. The City College of New York (CCNY) Media & Communication Arts Department and The One Club are teaming to hold a special event that looks to address this, especially on the creative side. They will jointly screen the documentary “Art & Copy,” which portrays the work and wisdom of some of the most influential copywriters and directors of our time, at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, December 1, in CCNY’s Great Hall. The showing, the film’s first screening at a college in New York, will be

As a predecessor to the creation of a public art exhibit in St. Nicholas Park next spring, The City College of New York (CCNY) hosts a reception and panel discussion on public art and its impact on New York City 4 – 8 p.m. Tuesday, December 1. At the reception, to be held in the Cohen Library Gallery located in CCNY’s North Academic Center, students from The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture and the Art Department’s M.F.A. program will exhibit proposals for a new assemblage piece to be shown in the St. Nicholas Park in the spring. Panelists for the discussion, which follows and

Since 2005, the City College chapter of Engineers Without Borders (CCNY-EWB) has been working to bring fresh water to small villages in rural Honduras. Earlier this month, chapter leaders Svetlana Fisher and Joanna Bonfiglio gave a presentation on their efforts to a panel on water issues held at the United Nations as part of Rotary International Day. Later that day, CCNY-EWB was feted at a fundraiser cocktail party held by Rotaract at the United Nations, a young professionals division of Rotary. Rotary International is a worldwide service club with over 33,000 chapters. One of the goals of all

For about 35 years, Dr. Joseph L. Birman, ’47, Distinguished Professor of Physics at The City College of New York (CCNY) has advocated for the rights of repressed scientists, first in the former Soviet Union and later in China, Cuba, Iraq, Iran and the United States. Now he is to be honored for “his tireless and effective personal leadership in defense of human rights of scientists throughout the world” as one of three recipients of the American Physical Society’s (APS) Andrei Sakharov Prize for 2010. Professor Birman is to receive the award, named for the Russian theoretical physicist who

“Informality,” the new student journal of The Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, won the Center for Architecture Foundation 2009 Douglas Haskell Award for student journals. The award is meant to encourage student journalism in the areas of architecture, planning and related topics. Its $5,000 grant provides supplemental funding for ongoing publication of student-edited architecture journals. The journal promotes open discussion and intelligent criticism among architecture students on ideas, theories and experiences. With minimal interference by the administration and faculty

Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (Cuzco, 1539 – Córdoba, 1616) was the son of a Spanish conquistador and an Incan princess who would become the first great Spanish-American writer and the first historian of the New World born in the Americas. “The Royal Commentaries,” his history of the Incan Empire and its conquest by Spain, is considered by many scholars to be the most elegant and complete accounting of the rise and fall of this civilization in what is now Peru. Last month, Dr. Raquel Chang-Rodríguez, Distinguished Professor of Hispanic Literature and Culture at CCNY and the CUNY Graduate Center

In 2006, Dr. Robert P. Anderson, CCNY Associate Professor of Biology, co-authored a paper that introduced a mathematically rigorous method for modeling species’ geographic distributions, based on known occurrences and environmental factors including climate. The paper, “Maximum Entropy Modeling of Species Geographic Distributions,” has become one of the most-referenced sources on the topic, being cited 192 times to date, according to Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch.com. According to Professor Anderson, much of the paper’s attention stems from the ability of the approach it describes to predict

Biologist Susan Lee Lindquist will deliver the Fourth Annual Sharon Cosloy-Edward Blank Lecture at The City College of New York (CCNY) 4 p.m. Thursday, November 19, in Room 95, Shepard Hall. The title of her talk will be “Engineering Simple Cells to Study Complex Human Diseases.” A reception will follow the lecture in Room 150, Shepard Hall. Dr. Lindquist is Professor of Biology at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a member and former director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She specializes in protein