School of Science, Health and Technology

Dean’s Faculty Research Excellence Award

It is an award given to a faculty who has significant publications over the years and who have published the highest number of quality research papers in peer-reviewed research journals in the year of the award.

Faculty on Spotlight for Research 2007 and 2008


Alam Nur-E-Kamal, Ph. D.	Dean Patwary, Dr. Kamal, Dr. Ann Brown (Deputy Chair) and Dr. Anthony Udeogalanya (Chair, Biology Department

Dr. Alam Nur-E-Kamal received Dean’s Research Excellence Award in both 2007 and 2008. He is a Professor of Biology, a Doctoral faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center, and an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Pharmacology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
Dr. Kamal obtained his B.Sc. (Honors.) and M.S. degree in Biochemistry, and his Ph.D. degree in molecular biology from the University of Tokyo. Before he joined MEC, he served as a faculty in the University of Dhaka, United Arab Emirates University, and in the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He conducted his postdoctoral research at the Ludwig Institute for cancer research, Melbourne, Australia, and served as a Visiting Professor at Institute for Immunology and Molecular Biology Free University of Berlin, Germany. Dr. Nur-E-Kamal is an award winning teacher who has supervised several doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, undergraduates and research technicians.

Dr. Kamal has been working on biology of cancer cells especially genes which control growth-signaling process in human cells, and converts a normal cell to a cancer cell. He has discovered peptides, which kills specifically cancer cells. He applied techniques of biotechnology to produce these peptides (potential cancer drugs), and patented them in the U.S.A. Dr. Kamal has published more than 50 research papers in peer reviewed prestigious international journals. His articles appeared on the front page of journals several times. His research is currently supported by a grant from a Reckitt Benckiser Inc. He gave several seminar presentations of his work as an invited speaker/ keynote speaker.
Dr. Kamal received the Medgar Evers College Presidential Research Award (2007), MEC Center for Teaching and Learning Research Award (2007), School of Science, Health and Technology Research Excellence Award in both 2007 and 2008. Dr. Kamal is a member of the American Society of Microbiologist and International Society for Stem Cell Research. For further info: http://www.mec.cuny.edu/academic_affairs/science_tech_school/biology/alam_kamal.asp

Faculty on Spotlight for Research 2009


Homeira Pajoohesh, Ph.D.	Provost Elizabeth Nunez, Dr. Pajoohesh and Dean Patwary

Dr. Pajoohesh is the recipient of 2010 Dean's Research Excellence Award. She is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics. She did her Ph.D. from Shahid Beheshti University, Iran. She joined MEC in 2007. Prior to joining MEC she worked at Georgia Southern University for one year. She has been conducting research involving undergraduate students at MEC. Her primary research interests are topology and lattice theory. She has received PSC-CUNY and LSAMP grants to support her research. She has published 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals including three papers in 2009.

Faculty on Spotlight for Research 2010


Dr. Michele Vittadello	President William Pollard, Dr. Vittadello, PECS Department Chair Dr. Amoa, Dean Patwary, and Provost Johnson

Dr. Vittadello received Dean’s Research Excellence Award in 2011. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences in 2003 from the University of Padua in Italy with Dr. Vito Di Noto. In his Ph.D. thesis, he focused on the synthesis and spectroscopic/electrochemical characterization of cationic polymer networks for energy storage and potentiometric transductor applications. He spent two years (2003-2005) as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Steve Greenbaum at the City University of New York - Hunter College, working on solid state NMR spectroscopy of ion and proton conducting materials for electrochemical power sources (batteries and fuel cells), ion exchange membranes and silicon-based aerogels. He was a post-doctoral research associate at the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (2005-2008) with Dr. Ahmad Safari, working on the development of an energy research program including free-form fabrication of solid oxide fuel cells, direct-write of microbatteries, low temperature fuel cells and piezo-electric materials. While at Rutgers, he was awarded funding by the Rutgers Energy Institute (2007-2008), and worked with Dr. Paul Falkowski on research in photosynthetic bio-hydrogen production. He is primarily interested in the investigation of fundamental physical-chemical properties of nanomaterials and biomaterials with potential applications in the field of energy storage/generation and chemical sensing. His work appeared in several articles published in international journals such as, J. Phys. Chem., Macromol. Chem. and Phys., Electrochim. Acta, J. Electrochem. Soc., Solid State Ionics, J. Power Sources, Inorg. Chim. Acta and ChemSusChem. Throughout his research career, he has held teaching positions at CUNY - Borough of Manhattan Community College, The College of New Jersey and at Rutgers University. He has mentored undergraduate and graduate students. In the Fall of 2008 he joined the faculty at CUNY - Medgar Evers College as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the PECS Department, with a joint appointment as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Rutgers Energy Institute. He has been appointed (Fall 2008) to the doctoral faculty of The Graduate School and University Center’s Ph.D. Program in Chemistry of the City University of New York. He is being funded by the Airforce (AFOSR) to work on the bottom-up reconstruction of the Z-scheme of photosynthesis in a photoelectrochemical system for hydrogen generation.