Spring 2011 Issue - Lehman College

Research
Research by Lehman Faculty—and Students— Continues to Enlarge Our Knowledge
In 2010, Lehman faculty and students added to our understanding of the environment, healthcare,
education, and a host of other issues. Here is just a sampling.
Professors Marilyn Aguirre-
Molina and Luisa N. Borrell
(Health Sciences) published the first
research to put the health concerns
of Latino men into a broader context.
Race, in particular, they found, is a
powerful factor in determining an
individual’s health status.
Dr. Stuart Chen-Hayes (Counseling,
Leadership, Literacy, and Special
Education) spearheaded the creation of
a new DVD that is the first to focus on
equity-based school counseling, with an
emphasis on ensuring academic, career,
and college success for all the nation’s
K-12 students.
Recent research by Reem Jaafar, a physics
doctoral student at Lehman, may ultimately
lead to faster computers and larger memories.
She studied spin-rotation effects in a
magnetic molecule that is bridged between
two conducting leads and presented a new
quantum theory for measuring the movement
of such a molecule in an electrical circuit. A magnetic molecule
is the smallest nanomagnet that one day can become part of a
computer memory unit.
Professor Edward Kennelly’s lab (Biological
Sciences) has developed a process
to help identify the phytochemical fingerprint
of black cohosh, a plant widely used to treat
the symptoms of menopause.
Professor Sandra Levey
(Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences) put years
of research and classroom experience into her
book to help teachers with their students who
speak a language other than English. The number
of those students already stands at five million.
Professor John Locke (Speech-Language-
Hearing Sciences) published a new book in
which he examines the evolution of eavesdropping
and traces its history from the
intense surveillance of the hunter-gatherers
to celebrity watching and our use of social
media like Facebook and Twitter.
The Uganda Landslides:
How One Lehman Professor Is Helping to
Prevent Future Disasters
Almost 300 people were buried alive on March 1, 2010 when
a landslide struck their village in Nametsi, Uganda. Dr. Yuri
Gorokhovich (Environmental, Geographic, and Geological
Sciences) visited the area last summer
and is using high-resolution
satellite imagery to assess the stability
of the mountain slope on which the
village rests and better predict future
landslides. With this latest analysis, he
found that twenty-nine households
were in the immediate path of the next
potential landslide.
To help prevent another
disaster, he proposed
that a series of vertical
bars be placed in rows
both above and below
the scarp on the mountainside,
which would
be monitored twice a
month, especially during
the rainy season, to track
the rate of the landslide
movement. Using this
simple monitoring system,
researchers could
then predict the speed of
Professor Gorokhovich (top) created
this map, with a satellite image
provided by eMap International
(www.emap-int.com).
the landslide movement, as well as the effect of rain on landslide
development. Analyzing high-resolution satellite imagery,
along with village records of landslide occurrence, and field
investigations can establish landslide-prone zones.
Residents from Nametsi and thirteen surrounding villages
were displaced to a camp area that is now functioning at more
than double the capacity, and with very limited resources,
leaving people from high-risk areas with nowhere to go for
refuge. This research will help villagers avoid future disasters
and human casualties.
38 Lehman Today/Spring 2011