Lehman Today Online Magazine Lehman Today Fall 2015 | Page 15

Being a Student Means Being a Researcher Lehman College is dedicated to incorporating students into the research process. Lehman students enjoy the opportunity of working on social science discoveries or mathematic theorems or logging lab hours with scientists like Professor Stephen Redenti, a molecular biologist, who recently received a grant from Nikon Instruments toward his ongoing research in the development and regeneration of retinal and other central nervous system tissue. “It is a great experience when students realize they have figured out how to do something that no one has ever done,” said Professor Katherine St. John of the Mathematics and Computer Science department. “It gives them the opportunity to work collaboratively with a team that’s passionate and to contribute and follow a project through.” St. John, whose current research focus is on phylogenetic tree reconstruction, is the recipient of a National Science Foundation grant, as well as a 2014 Simons Collaboration Grant. The chance to work with a professor paid off greatly for 2014 Lehman graduate Ebenezer Laud Vivienn Ewul. He researched materials for bone regeneration with Andrei Jitianu, a chemistry professor, who was recently awarded a $605,000 three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (given to fewer than 10 research groups per year nationwide) to investigate forming corrosion protection coating. “Our work exposed me to a lot of characterization methods in the areas of material scienc