Academics

Zoltan Haiman (Astronomy)

How black holes shaped a universe before galaxies

Black holes one billion times as massive as the sun were already present in the universe when it was less than one billion years old. The growth of these black holes is believed to be self-limiting because infalling gas makes them more massive but also produces a radiation that prevents gas from falling in faster than a certain theoretical maximum rate. But the infall rate must exceed this theoretical maximum, otherwise the universe could not have those massive one-billion-year-old black holes.

Thomas Jessell, Center for Neurobiology (Biomedical)

Molecular code for key aspects of nervous system development deciphered

Thomas Jessell’s research has defined many of the principles that are now understood to govern the specification of neuronal types and the formation of their specific synaptic connections. Using the spinal cord as a model system, he deciphered the molecular logic that directs the generation of motor, sensory, and interneurons, as well as the steps that drive their assembly into circuits that mediate reflexive behavior, motor coordination, and central nervous system pattern generation. This image shows an identified spinal neuron that relays sensory information about limb position. (Image provided by Dr. Adam Hantman)

David Schiminovich (Astronomy)

Satellite GALEX charts history of star formation

Work by Professor Schiminovich, a leader in the development of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a NASA ultraviolet space telescope, has shown how the production of stars in the universe has seen a rapid decline over the past 10 billion years. The solid line and hatched region chart this decline, moving from right to left toward the present day. Inset images show the GALEX satellite and ultraviolet image of the spectacular Pinwheel galaxy.

Dana Pe’er (Biological Sciences)

Decoding Genetic Variations and Regulatory Networks

Dana Pe’er pioneered the use of Bayesian networks, computational models that represent influences and interactions between variables, to understand the structure and function of molecular networks. Her research focuses on developing experimental and computational methodologies to decipher how a cell senses the environment and how its regulatory network processes signals, with a focus on how mutations cause dysfunctional regulation in cancer.

Lawrence Shapiro (Biomedical)

Workings of key metabolic enzyme unraveled, a boon for diabetes/obesity research

Lawrence Shapiro, a member of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, uses X-ray crystallography to study the mechanism of proteins implicated in diabetes and obesity. The Shapiro lab recently determined atomic-level, three-dimensional structures of the AMP-activated protein kinase, a central regulator of energy homeostasis in all eukaryotic cells and an exciting potential therapeutic target for diabetes and obesity.

Gerard Karsenty, CUMC (Biomedical)

Skeleton found to be an important endocrine organ

Bones are typically thought of as calcified, inert structures, but researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have shown that the skeleton is an endocrine organ that helps control our sugar metabolism and weight, which makes it a major determinant of the development of type 2 diabetes.

Elena Aprile (Physics/Applied Physics)

This new device can detect dark matter, the never-found state of matter that current theory says should make up 90 percent of the universe.

The universe is believed to be made up of two kinds of matter—ordinary matter that our daily experiences make us aware of, and dark matter that is much more abundant but whose composition remains a mystery. Physicist Elena Aprile and her team of thirty investigators are performing experiments to understand exactly what dark matter is and what kinds of fundamental particles it contains. These physicists intend to capture dark matter particles colliding with their XENON-10 detector. Understanding the composition of dark matter will have a profound effect on our views of the universe and its origins.

Norma Graham (Psychology)

Mathematical Models of Visual Processes

Graham’s research attempts to uncover and describe the hidden stages of visual processing, the many stages now known to intervene between the light acting on the eye and human conscious perception. The neural substrate of these stages is known to be in the back part of the brain, but little is known about what these stages do. Graham and her team derive predictions from theories about these hidden stages, embodied in mathematical models, then compare these predictions to the perceptions that human observers report when they see carefully chosen visual patterns.

Andrew Marks, Departments of Physiology and Medicine (Biomedical)

A defect in calcium channels has been found to be associated with heart failure. This discovery may guide future heart-attack treatment research.

Andrew Marks of the Departments of Physiology and Medicine has made a major contribution in the molecular biology of heart failure. He has found that the calcium release channel known as the ryanodine receptor becomes defective in heart failure. Detailed analysis of the receptor has led to the generation of new candidate drugs that effectively treat heart failure in animal models of the disease.

Ronald Mincy (Social Work)

Study reveals plight of African-American males.

In his book Black Males Left Behind, Professor Ronald Mincy sheds light on how the broad economic gains of the 1990s failed to reach black men, especially in urban areas. They lag at the bottom of nearly every measure of social engagement that sociologists measure. Undereducated and without jobs that pay meaningful wages, many are unable to support their families, which they often abandon. Their children grow up without the benefit of a father, thus, at least for this demographic, continuing the cycle of poverty.

Ronald Breslow (Chemistry)

Synthesis of new cancer-fighting compounds.

Ronald Breslow has been instrumental in synthesizing some 1,000 new chemical compounds that fight cancer, among these SAHA (suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid). SAHA induces cancer cells to transform into normal cells or commit suicide by inhibiting enzymes that are known to silence certain genes that allow tumor cells to proliferate when left unchecked. SAHA successfully completed clinical trials and has been approved as a new cancer chemotherapy.

Richard Seager, Mingfang Ting, Yochanan Kushiner (Climate Change)

Their work illuminates the understanding of how anthropogenic climate change will impact the arid regions of the American Southwest.

The impact of anthropogenic climate change (that is, due to human activity) on the arid regions of Southwestern North America has implications for the allocation of water resources and the course of regional development. The findings of a new study, appearing in Science, show that there is a broad consensus among climate models that this region will dry significantly in the twenty-first century and that the transition to a more arid climate may already be underway. (Photo: Eric Nyre)

Janet Currie (Economics)

By unearthing new empirical data, Currie makes the case that social programs for families with children are remarkably effective.

“More than a decade of research has convinced me that social safety net programs generally accomplish their goals and are a crucial part of the continuing fight against poverty among children. If we truly believe that our children are our future, we must protect these programs against those who would dismantle them and move forward with reforming them to face the twenty-first century.”

William Zajc, Brian Cole, Miklos Gyulassy (Physics/Applied Physics)

Physicists use an ion collider to recreate the matter state quark-gluon plasma, which has not been extant since the universe’s first moments.

Columbia experimental physicists William Zajc and Brian Cole, along with their colleague Miklos Gyulassy, are leaders in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratories. This nuclear physics experiment has succeeded in creating quark-gluon plasma, a state of matter not known to exist since the first few microseconds after the beginning of the universe. This discovery connects physics to the study of the origin and development of the cosmos.

Colin Nuckolls and Philip Kim (Physics/Applied Physics)

Modified nanotubes might work as cutting-edge molecule sensors.

A single-walled carbon nanotube has been bridged with an individual molecule. Using this approach, Nuckolls and Kim have been able to make robust single-molecule devices that are sensitive to their environment.

Frances Champagne (Psychology)

Professor Frances Champagne is currently conducting analysis of neuropeptide levels in brain tissue from rodents who received a prolonged period of mother-infant contact early in development. This contact has consequences for the reproductive behavior of offspring and has been shown to alter social and maternal behavior.

Kara Walker (Visual Arts)

Provocative artworks infuse the eighteenth and nineteenth century art of silhouetting with a contemporary intellectual perspective.

Visual artist Kara Walker, hailed at 37 as among the most important and influential artists of the day, is best known for her silhouette tableaux on gender, race, and the old South. She is the only living artist to be given a showing at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.