Abroad and At Home: Summer Research by YU Students

by Commentator Staff

As in past years, Yeshiva College students engaged this summer in a variety of prestigious research ventures. Their efforts reflect Yeshiva University’s continued excellence in producing men capable of contributing constructively to the at-large academic community.

Avi Robinson, YC ’03, won a National Science Foundation-sponsored fellowship at MIT’s Materials Processing Center / Center for Materials Science and Engineering. He joined 20 other undergraduates from across the United States and Puerto Rico who poured their efforts into a variety of materials projects. Robinson studied the controlled movement of liquids on flat surfaces through a reversible chemical reaction. “Half a centimeter a second may not seem so impressive, but you try putting a drop of water on a table and see how fast it goes,” explained Robinson. The most enriching parts of the program, according to Robinson, were learning the economic structure of MIT’s research system and experiencing MIT’s small but diverse Jewish community.

Five undergraduate men, Itzi Barr ’03, Gary Lelonek ’03, Yehoshua Levine ’03, David Rosenbaum ’03, and Joseph Sebeo ’03, along with four women from Stern College, participated in the annual Roth Scholars program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The ten-week program, sponsored by the Ernst and Hedwig Roth Institute of Biomedical Science Education, enables Yeshiva students to develop their career interest in biomedical science by conducting research at Einstein’s world-class facilities. “I was really excited to have an independent project set aside for myself in an active scientific laboratory,” said Levine, who plans to continue his research on the intracellular activity of the Avian Leukosis Virus envelope protein as his Senior Honors Thesis.

Although for the two previous summers Yeshiva College had placed a student at the Weizmann Institute’s selective Karyn Kupcinet International Summer Program, this summer the student researchers remained closer to home.

A number of students chose an increasingly popular option: staying at the Wilf Campus to work for their own professors.  The students were housed in an Independent Housing Program apartment and were paid $1500 for the summer. While the students generally enjoyed a positive experience, they expressed regret at certain social drawbacks and administrative complications that hindered their research. 

Amitai Bin Nun, a sophomore physics major, attempted with Professor Lenny Tevlin to mathematically model the herding habits of American bison. He valued working closely with a faculty mentor but lamented his relative isolation: “I had no research partners, and YU in the summer is generally moribund, unless of course, one likes to hang around with the native Dominican population.” Still, Bin Nun recommended research on campus for other aspiring students “provided that the specific task being considered is close to his heart.”             

Nassi Figdor ’02, Saman Souri ’02, and Dovid Tzvi Jacobs ‘03 all studied the interaction of E2 protein with DNA under the tutelage of biology professor Dr. A.K.M. Mollah. The research has application for combating cervical cancer. Also in the biology department, Moti Topolovsky worked with Dr. Susan Prattis on neurobiology of rats. “It was a great experience at conducting professional level research,” approved Figdor. Like Levine, Figdor intends to continue his research during the year, although he expressed worry that no budget has been established yet to fund his research. Moreover, he found certain facilities decisions confusing: “We are conducting research on the 14th floor of Belfer Hall, but the only -70°C freezer on campus is in the basement of Furst Hall.” Yet he considered the prime location to compensate for the various inconveniences. “The best part,” he concluded, “was working two minutes away from minyanim and a beis medrash.”