Executive Director
STEM Makers of Africa
The New York Academy of Sciences has provided a platform to engage younger voices who view science as a solution to the world’s challenges. It has been an opportunity to leverage on solid networks, collaborate, and demonstrate leadership through Science and Technology. The Academy has built my belief in the capacity of mentorship.
Deputy Secretary
General of the Reproductive Health Special Committee of the China Population Culture Promotion Association
I joined the Academy to increase opportunities for exchanges with experts and become friends with them to explore more advanced knowledge and contribute to the scientific and technological progress of mankind.
PhD student
The Scripps Research Institute
The greatest benefit in joining the Academy was meeting and befriending like-minded people from all around the globe. It has been inspirational to see how the peers I met and I have all grown over the years. I was initially invited to be a young member of the Academy and later chose to remain close because I identified with the academy’s ideals and appreciated the continued impact of its programs on aspiring scientists, problem-solvers, and tactful leaders.
Specializing in digestive surgery
The Academy has offered opportunities for contact support and communications services as well as professional and personal development.
Student member
Joining the Academy as a young member has truly been a remarkable experience. Through the mentoring platform, I was able to connect with students across the globe and meet amazing mentors who have played a huge part in my life! I am grateful for all the skills I picked up from doing the challenges like scientific reasoning and critical thinking, which will surely go a long way!
Industrial Designer
National University of La Plata
The Academy has allowed me to interact with academics from all over the world, share reflections and undertake joint initiatives. Likewise, from meeting people from different cultures, I have been able to deduce various methodologies for applied research.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
I joined as a mentor in 2018 when I was a PhD student. I took part in academy’s mentoring programs, interacted with young students who wanted to learn more about STEM and in turn benefited by learning how to be a good mentor to young students.
Forensic Geochemistry and Mineralogy Consultant
I have been a member since December 1984 when I became an Elected Member of the Academy. I am heavily involved in forensic environmental work and have found the articles on energy, the environment, and related matters very useful in my endeavors over the years.
Published September 28, 2020
By Roger Torda
We wanted to know how our members are doing: how their work or education has changed; what obstacles they’ve faced; and what opportunities or new ways of approaching their research have emerged. Below are just a few of the stories they’ve shared with us.
We’re incredibly proud of the contributions Academy members have made during the pandemic, from research, to supporting their communities and families, to working at the frontlines. Here is one particularly inspiring story from a member who shifted his focus entirely as the pandemic began.
“As a PhD student in biomedical engineering, I am very used to doing work that I know won’t have a clinical application for at least 10 years. Earlier this year I found myself thrust into a position where my work would have a meaningful impact on patients the very same day. With widespread academic lab closures around the city, I decided to volunteer in SUNY Downstate’s pathology department. They needed scientists who had experience performing PCR, and I had just learned the technique a few months prior. The lab was severely understaffed for the workload and there was a very real chance that I would be exposed to the virus and become sick. However, I felt called to step in and provide support since I knew that getting timely test results could be a matter of life and death…I went from being a behind the scenes scientist to being on the front lines literally overnight…I know my story isn’t unique, so I applaud all frontline workers who stepped up and put themselves in harm’s way when it mattered.”
Remote learning, whether for a short time or longer term, hasn’t been an easy adjustment. But we’ve also heard stories from students and educators in our network about some of the upsides of these changes, including added perks that might be missed in the future.
“I have learned that my teachers, my school, my friends and I are resilient and that we are capable of coming up with creative solutions to problems when we’re faced with unforeseen uncertainties…Another perk is that we can all sleep in just that little bit longer as we don’t have to take into account travel time. Also, by sneakily switching my camera off I am able to learn and eat my breakfast simultaneously!”
“I’m in senior year of high school and it’s supposed to be the most important year as it sets the stage for higher education, but we’re lacking access to practicals and missing our experiments in the lab. However, I’ve tried experiments through virtual labs which gives me a sense of conducting the practicals and has enhanced my knowledge as well…Thankfully the Academy has provided virtual platforms like The Junior Academy which has been such a productive and collaborative platform which made quarantine more fun…All this virtual exposure to scientific papers, talks, and projects, has made me realize that STEM has no boundaries and we’re building the future!”
We even heard from one family with three Academy members, each finding ways to use their interest in STEM to make an impact during the pandemic.
“During the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was national lockdown in my country. This prevented me from going to teach students and from being in laboratory to conduct research…I resorted to volunteering online to fight COVID-19 by serving as a mentor in #AfricaVsVirus Challenge. My team designed a virtual classroom for online learning for K-12 to higher education, and it was one of the winning projects. I also volunteered as a mentor in Hacking COVID-19 Africa Challenge. Furthermore, I signed up as a mentor in Youth Innovation and DesignBootcamp 2020 on COVID-19, organized by the United Nations Economic Commission forAfrica (UNECA) and its partners. My team, which took first position, designed a kit containing self-sterilized face masks, an enhanced face shield, and a portable UV-light sterilizer for sterilizing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in hospitals and at home. So while in lockdown, I was still able to work remotely and contribute to global efforts to fight the coronavirus.”
“As a passionate STEM researcher, I was keen to learn how the novel infectious disease was transmitted and how to break the chain of infection in my immediate community. I promptly enrolled in an online course where I received training on key aspects of covid infection and immunity…As the country continues to navigate in the midst of the pandemic, I am still working in a virtual environment to break the chain of transmission and provide technological and non-technological solutions to challenges posed by the pandemic.”
“A short while into the lockdown, I pondered how to use my time productively. … [This] included taking various courses to widen my scope and knowledge and attending workshops related to my STEM field to fully equip me with skills to enhance my professional growth and development…I had and still have the desire to contribute to fighting this pandemic, so I enrolled in the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medical and Health Sciences (MBRU) Community Immunity Ambassador Program which gave me new knowledge to share with my community and help stop the spread of COVID-19…I also participated in various challenges aimed at solving problems posed by the pandemic. This period is really invaluable for me because I can use it to gain new knowledge and skills, and spend quality time with my family.”
More than anything else, we heard how the pandemic is driving our network to think about the future and how we might use this time to learn lessons that can inform our work and collaborations in the years to come.
“I am on my third year of postdoc training, and I was planning to seek a new job at the beginning of this year. I was so disappointed when conferences got canceled, which are essential for job-hunting. But when the stay-at-home order began, I had more time to listen to my heart…I also took a series of zoom lectures on career development. Only during this special time have I had a chance to think seriously about my career path…Also, I have developed another hobby of writing manuscripts outdoors, where being surrounded by nature helps me stay focused.”
“I work in philanthropy and my work brings me into proximity with several STEM organizations…Going forward I will look to learn from STEM organizations of various sizes and scopes that have successfully implemented a remote working capacity and seek to share any information that might help organizations plan for future, similar situations.”
“My labs are unreachable but we are adapting the computational methods for our research, and now I’ve found it is easier and relaxing…In my view, COVID-19 has opened our eyes in many ways, not only to the bad but also to slow down. I think life is changing and after all this ends we shouldn’t try to get back to our past but should work to adapt.”
Also read: Upskilling Nurses to Handle the Worst of the Pandemic
Published February 12, 2018
By Marie Gentile, Mandy Carr, and Richard Birchard
When you’re a 200 year-old organization there are limitless stories to tell about the distant past. But we also love to share tales from our much more recent past, particularly when told by some of our members who have been with the Academy for decades.
Today, we want to share the insights and perspective of long-time Member Herb Klitzner, who joined the Academy in 1970, just as he was beginning his graduate studies. He went on to work on computer-based projects with a variety of organizations, from the Port Authority of New York to Nabisco to the City University of New York (CUNY).
I began my doctoral studies at CUNY Graduate Center in an innovative hybrid program combining Computer Science and Educational Psychology. I joined the then-existing Linguistics Section (because of my interest in cognition and developmental psycholinguistics) and was invited to participate in their Advisory Committee, as a graduate student representative.
A couple of particularly interesting things came up during my doctoral research. When I started in 1970, I was engrossed with the possibility of using mathematical quaternion group theory in cognitive models. I talked with Jean Piaget in 1971 at a conference and learned he had used them “from the very beginning” of his career. I experimented with these ideas for about three months and then put it aside for lack of finding local faculty knowledgeable in both quaternions and psychology to work with.
Then, in 1977, as a later part of my doctoral research and project development, I designed an innovative computer center for the blind at CUNY/Baruch College. The center still exists today, having served thousands of people for 40 years now.
Roughly 30 years after I first became interested in the subject, Ben Goertzel, an internationally-based artificial intelligence (AI) and mathematical researcher took up the same question with a research group he organized, and wrote an elegant theoretical paper representing working memory by using “mirrorhouses,” including reflected triangles and tetrahedra represented by quaternions and octonions
And more recently, I became fascinated with the quaternion field having a Phoenix-like nature, from a historical/developmental point of view. After initially giving a talk to the Academy’s Lyceum Society and publishing the talk, I was contacted by a number of researchers interested in the subject. One of them asked me to write a book chapter for Multisensor Attitude Estimation, which I did, describing the little-known but dramatic proliferation of research and application of quaternions starting in 1985, and continuing to the present day, which rescued quaternions from their obscure reputation.
Subsequently, I published a paper with Terry Marks-Tarlow and Martin Hay, describing the potential of quaternions to model trade exchange processes in a special way, and perhaps to model perspective-shifting processes in the brain.
My supportive matrix for this recent research came from the members of the Lyceum Society, which I joined in 2007. I joined because the Lyceum was presenting interesting programs at a monthly informal brown-bag lunch gathering at the Academy headquarters. As things turned out, joining gave me a second wind.
At the moment, I’m working on a book that grew out of a series of talks I gave at the Lyceum from 2009 through 2017. The Members of the Lyceum have offered much encouragement, advice, and humor, and many have become friends.
In my personal story, the success of this human chain of involvement and development began with the nurturing “think tank” atmosphere of the Lyceum Society, which increasingly functions as an imaginative and talented community within the Academy and a source of new perspectives. More of these Lyceum-catalyzed creative interactions and personal development stories can be expected to come in the future.
Established in 1993, the Lyceum Society is comprised of the Academy’s retired and semi-retired Members from diverse backgrounds and professions. Meetings feature lectures and discussions with scientists from around the world and also provide participating Members with the opportunity to give self-directed presentations and seminars based on their own specialties or new research interests. Learn more about the Lyceum Society and how you can join here.