Alenka Copic graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. She obtained a PhD in Cell Biology from University of California at Berkeley in 2006. Her research focus is on dissecting the fundamental processes of protein transport between intracellular compartments, using the tiny budding yeast as a model organism. She is currently a Columbia Science Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences.
Peter deMenocal is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. At Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University he uses stable isotopic and other geochemical analyses of marine sediments to understand how and why past climates have changed, with a specific interest in placing contemporary climate change trends within the context of climate changes during the prehistoric past. Current areas of research include: stability of warm climate periods, African monsoonal climate, ancient cultural responses to rapid climate change, and the role of climate change in evolution of early human ancestors. He was awarded the Lenfest Columbia Distinguished Faculty award in 2008 and is Editor in Chief of the scientific journal
Earth and Planetary Science Letters. In 2008-2009 Peter was the winner of Earth and Environmental Sciences Best Teacher Award.
He has a B.S. in geology from St. Lawrence University (
cum laude), an M.S. in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, and a Ph.D. in geology from Columbia University. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by St Lawrence University in 2009.
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David Helfand graduated from Amherst College and received his doctorate from the
University of Massachusetts. He has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 1978
and currently serves as Chair of the Department of Astronomy. He was a recipient of the
Columbia Great Teacher award in 2002. His research interests include large-scale
structure as derived from radio surveys, the origin and evolution of neutron stars and
supernova remnants, and active galactic nuclei and the cosmic X-ray background.
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Joy Hirsch has recently been recruited to Columbia University Medical Center as Director
of the Functional MRI Research Center. The new Center is focused on the investigation of systems within the brain
that govern cognition, perception, and disease-based applications for neuroimaging. Medical and graduate-level educations
as well as multi-investigator collaborations are a high priority. Prior to her recruitment to Columbia she founded the fMRI
laboratory at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and pioneered the introduction of brain mapping procedures for clinical
applications as well as neuroimaging investigations of bilingualism. Her current research interests are focused on
understanding the neurocircuitry that governs early and late visual processes, second-language acquisition, and cognitive
control such as conflict and error monitoring. She was previously a Professor at Yale University in the Neuroscience Program
and the Department of Ophthalmology after receiving her Ph.D. at Columbia University.
Kathryn Johnston is an Astrophysicist, interested in understanding how our own Galaxy formed. She pursues this goal using a combination of close collaborations with observational colleagues and computer simulations of galactic collisions. She arrived in this field following an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Cambridge University, a PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics from UC Santa Cruz and a postdoctoral position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She joined the Columbia Astronomy Faculty in Fall 2006, after spending 7 years as an assistant professor at Wesleyan University
Donald C. Hood received his B.A, from SUNY Binghamton (Harpur College) and his
doctorate from Brown University. He is the James F. Bender Professor of Psychology at
Columbia University, where he has served as a faculty member since 1969. He received
the Mark van Doren Award for Outstanding Teaching from Columbia College in 1993. His
research is focused on the biological basis of vision including the electrical activity of
human photoreceptors, analysis of human visual receptor activity using the
electroretinogram and sites and mechanisms of retinal diseases. New techniques -
multifocal electroreinograms and multifocal visual evoked potentials - are employed to
assess the sites and mechanisms of diseases of the retina and visual pathways.
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Ivana NikolicHughes is a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry.
She graduated from Caltech with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, with Honors, in 1999. While at Caltech, she was the recipient of three prestigious summer research fellowships and conducted research in novel therapeutics at the University of Nis in Serbia, at ETH in
Zurich, Switzerland and at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Dr. Hughes earned her PhD from Stanford University in 2005, working in the Department of Biochemistry as an American Hearth Association Fellow. She studied enzymatic catalysis and protein evolution in the alkaline phosphatase superfamily. Prior to teaching in Frontiers of Science, Dr. Hughes taught General Chemistry at Columbia.
David Kagan received his BA in mathematics and physics from Columbia University in 2002 and his PhD in Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University in 2007. His main interests are in quantum field theory and string theory and he is currently a Columbia Science Fellow at the Physics department's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics (ISCAP).
Don Melnick is Thomas Hunt Morgan Professor of Conservation Biology in the
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (E3B) at Columbia University.
A faculty member of Columbia since 1981, he was born and raised in and around New York City,
receiving his B.A. from NYU and his Ph.D. from Yale University. For over 25 years Professor
Melnick has used molecular genetics to understand aspects of the ecology, behavior, evolution
and conservation of vertebrates. This research has spanned organisms from frogs to elephants
and continents from Central and South America to Asia and Africa. His work has been published
in numerous technical journals and books, and covered by such popular media as The New York Times,
The International Herald Tribune, and Discovery Channel. Most recently, Professor Melnick assumed
the role of co-Chair of the U.N. Millennium Task Force on Environmental Sustainability, and with the
other co-Chair, Ms. Yolanda Kakabadse, the former Minister of the Environment of Ecuador, he has assembled
an international team that is charged with delivering an action plan for achieving environmental
sustainability to the U.N. Secretary General by 2005.
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Elnaz Menhaji-Klotz received her BA in Biochemistry from Barnard College and her PhD in Organic Chemistry from Yale University. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the synthesis of a biologically active marine natural product. Her research interests include new methods of catalysis for organic reactions and new click reactions. Elnaz is currently a Columbia Science Fellow in the department of Chemistry.
William H. Menke graduated from MIT and received his doctorate from Columbia University. He is currently is a Professor in the departmant of Earth & Environmental Sciences. William Menke's research uses seismic tomography methods to form images of the earth's deep interior. He has applied these methods to ridge axes and volcanoes in Iceland, fault systems in California, and mountains in the Himalayas.
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Eleni Nikitopoulos received a BA in Psychology at Tufts University and a DVM from Tufts University School
of Veterinary Medicine. In 2003 she received a PhD in Behavioral Biology from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
Her dissertation work concerned female sexual strategies in long-tailed macaques. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow
in the E3B department, studying cooperation and kinship in female blue monkeys.
Beth O'Shea graduated from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, with a Bachelor’s degree in Earth and Environmental Science (Honors) and a Ph.D in Geochemistry. Her research investigates the occurrence and distribution of arsenic in groundwater of Australia and the United States. In 2005 she joined the Dickinson College Geology Department, where she spent 2 years as Visiting Assistant Professor of Geochemistry. Beth also spent 4 years as a hydrogeologist assessing and remediating contaminated land with an environmental consulting company in Sydney. She is currently a Frontiers of Science Fellow at Columbia University, where she actively continues her arsenic geochemical research while pursuing her commitment to undergraduate teaching.
Ana Petrovic received a B.A. in Chemistry from Whitman College in 2003 and received the Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry from Vanderbilt University in summer 2007. Her research has involved structural investigations of chiral organic, inorganic and biomolecules via tandem implementation of three chiroptical spectroscopic methods (Vibrational Circular Dichroism, Electronic Circular Dichroism and Optical Rotatory Dispersion). Ana is a Columbia Science Fellow in the Department of Chemistry.
Robert Pollack is Professor of Biological Sciences, and Director of the Earth Institute’s Center for the Study of Science and Religion, at Columbia University and Adjunct Professor of Science and Religion at Union Theological Seminary. He is the author of more than a hundred research papers on the oncogenic phenotype of mammalian cells in culture, and has edited many books and reviews on aspects of molecular biology. His 1994 book, "Signs of Life: the Language and Meanings of DNA," received the Lionel Trilling Award, and has been translated into six languages. His latest work, "The Faith of Biology and the Biology of Faith: order, meaning and free will in modern science," was published in 2000. He is currently writing a Sloan Foundation-supported book on the moral, ethical and religious implications of the agendas of modern medical science.Dr. Pollack graduated from Columbia College with a major in physics in 1961. He holds a Ph.D. in biology from Brandeis University. He has been a Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia since 1978, and was Dean of Columbia College from 1982 to 1989.
Jacqueline van Gorkom received her Ph.D. from the University of Groningen. She has
been a member of the Columbia University faculty since 1988 and is the current chair of the Department of Astronomy. She uses radiotelescopes
to study the motions and evolution of galaxies and the large scale structure of the Universe.
Eliza Woo
graduated with a B.A. in Integrative Biology from the University of California at Berkeley in 2000 and received her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Stony Brook University in 2008. Her research uses biological invasions to answer fundamental questions in community ecology while informing practical conservation applications. Eliza is currently a Columbia Science Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences.
