SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY G U I D I N G
LIGHT
ONE CHEMIST'S BALANCING ACT Spiro Alexandratos tries to unify research mission of the City University of New^brk AMANDA YARNELL, C&EN WASHINGTON
existing expertise. In early 2001, CUNY created a research unit, headed by Alexan %rk City's Upper East Side, Spiro D. dratos, charged with improving CUNY's Alexandratos, formerly of the Univer research profile. sity of Tennessee, Knoxville, can gaze out at the city's skyline from any one of "Spiro's impeccable academic creden his three desks. These desks represent the tials and high profile in the scientific com three professional hats this chemistmunity make him well suited to guide tarned-administrator wears every day: In research at CUNY," Executive Vice Chan addition to serving as university dean for cellor Louise Mirrer says. "Not only does he research at the City University of New understand what it takes to make discov "York, Alexandratos is both a professor of eries—but also what it takes to commer chemistry at CUNY's Hunter College and cialize them." Ayear and a halfafter Alexan an associate editor of Industrial if Engi dratos was hired, Mirrer is pleased with the neering Chemistry Research. fit. "He's everything we were looking for." Most of Alexandratos' time, however, is spent at the biggest desk with the best view, COMING TO CUNY is also a homecoming where his screen saver proclaiming "City for Alexandratos. Born in New Y>rk City University of New York" announces his and raised in the Washington Heights loyalty to his newfound home. neighborhood of Manhattan, he received a B.S. in chemistry from Manhattan Col Of the colleges that make up the City lege in 1973 and a Ph.D. in organic chem University of New Y>rk, the first—now istry from the University of California, known as City College—was founded in Berkeley in 1977. After a four-year stint in 1847. CUNY's mission, "to educate the whole people," hasn't changed in 155 years. Today, the C U N Y system has nearly 200,000 students enrolled in its 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, two professional schools, and a graduate school spread throughout the city's five boroughs. CUNY has spent the past several years struggling to redefine itself as a world-class public university Spurred by questions about declining academ ic standards since academic require ments for enrollment in CUNY were eliminated in 1970, a 1999 study com missioned by the mayor's office con cluded that "access and excellence are CUNY's historic goals. But over the last 30 years, the 'access' portion of the mission has overwhelmed the univer sity, at the expense of excellence." Chancellor Matthew Goldstein and his administration responded, in part, by reinstating selective admission cri teria. But Goldstein also has pledged to reshape CUNY into an integrated TALL ORDER Alexandratos is charged with research university built on its colleges' uniting the research mission of CUNY.
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N HIS 8 0 T H STREET OFFICE IN NEW
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industry, he enjoyed a fruitful 19-year ca reer at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, during which he cofounded a company to commercialize an ion-ex change resin he developed as a professor. Alexandratos' primary goal—to unify and strengthen CUNY's research mis sion—is no small task. CUNY is the thirdlargest public university system in the U.S., and its member institutions, spread over New York City's 321 sq miles, have tradi tionally operated independently "The bulk of CUNY's resources have been directed toward our teaching mis sion," Alexandratos says. "Wisely spend ing our limited funds to effectively reinvigorate CUNY's research mission is one of our biggest challenges." So instead of scattering its funding ef forts among the many areas of expertise represented at CUNY, the university is concentrating its efforts in two areas: pho tonics and the biosciences (including neu roscience, macromolecular assembly, and cell signaling.) These areas were chosen be cause they build on existing expertise but still spread limited funds throughout the university system. The university is nur turing these areas by providing $1.2 mil lion for laboratory renovations and funds for hiring 12 new faculty members. With the help of Gerald L. Fetner and Gillian Small, both associate deans for re search, Alexandratos is laboring to identify and craft multidisciplinary, multicollege grant proposals to major external funding agencies, including the National Institutes -I of Health and the National Science ζ Foundation. These include proposals ; to fund research instrumentation, I ocean science, and macromolecular sci< ence—and each brings together faculo ty from three or more CUNY colleges. S " Wfe are working to make the whole of research at C U N Y greater than the sum of its parts," he says. IN JUNE, NSF funded the first such multicollege proposal—which brings together faculty from City College, Bronx Community College, andJohn Jay College —in the amount of $366,000, which will be put toward the purchase of a 500-MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. CUNY has also made two kinds of seed funds available to encourage "col laborative, universitywide teams to sub mit external funding proposals as a sin gle, stronger entity" Alexandratos notes. In February his office awarded the first four Groundwork Grants, which pro vide faculty teams with $50,000 with C & E N / J U N E 2 4 , 2002
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY which to do exploratory work intended to become the basis for an external funding proposal. The first eight Equipment Grants, which provide up to $75,000 to purchase equipment necessary to generate data for external funding proposals, were awarded in mid-May Alexandratos is also charged with delivering the fruits of CUNY research to society. Like other state and local governments, both the city and the state governments ofNew lifork hope that the commercialization of university research will spur local economic development. Working in industry and starting his own company prepared Alexandratos for the difficulties of translating university research to a commercial product. "It takes more than a good idea to succeed in the marketplace," he explains. "%u have to be aware of the eco-
DISPERSED CUNY's 11 senior colleges and six community colleges are scattered throughout the city's five boroughs
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nomics of any given process." Investing CUNY's limited intellectual property funds wisely is another major challenge. In 2002, the entire budget for patenting technology discovered at CUNY is a mere $200,000—enough to fund only about 20 patent applications. These funds must be shared among CUNY's 1,658 faculty with active research programs. To ensure that patents the university chooses to fund end up being commercialized, CUNY requests that faculty members identify a company interested in licensing the technology before approaching the research office for funding. "This approach has worked quite well," Alexandratos notes. Biology professor Marie T. Filbin of Hunter College developed a drug for spinal cord regeneration that the university is licensing to biopharmaceuti-
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cal firm Renovis. CUNY is also licensing a carbon-based adsorbent for the removal of hydrogen sulfide odor from water to Synargo Corp., a waste managementfirm.The technology was developed by chemistry professor TeresaJ. Bandosz ofthe City Col lege of New Ifork. "These are seed funds," Alexandratos says. "As successful licenses are generated, the amount dedicated to in tellectual property will grow." Alexandratos and his office also advise university administration about a wide range of issues relevant to research at CUNY For example, his office is offering possible ideas about how to develop the university's newest acquisition, Governor's Island. One idea is a marine science lab that would explore issues of concern to the Hudson River. ALTHOUGH NOT PLANNED that way, Alexandratos' background seems tailormade for his current job. But maybe most important, says longtime colleague Robin D. Rogers of the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, is that "he knows what it takes to do high-quality research." At Rohm and Haas, Alexandratos gained valuable insight into what makes a commercially successful product. Later, during his career at Tennessee, he teamed up with scientists from Oak Ridge Na tional Laboratory to create polymers based on ion-exchange resins that would be use ful for environmental cleanup. One of the resins is highly selective for radionuclides. In 1992, Alexandratos and E. Philip Horwitz of Argonne National Laboratory founded Eichrom Technologies to com mercialize the resin, called Diphonix. Widely used for removing actinide and transition metals from water, $3.4 million worth of Diphonix has been sold to date. The decision to leave Tennessee was dif ficult, Alexandratos says. "It was an excel lent place to do research." But when a for mer mentor from Manhattan College told him about the job at CUNY, he jumped at the chance. "This is the perfect job," he says. "I have a tremendous opportunity to make a difference at CUNY—to in some small way contribute to the research mis sion of the university" As a professor of chemistry at Hunter College, Alexandratos continues to devel op new selective, polymer-supported re agents. He is currently devising polymer beads capable of removing environmental contaminants such as methyl tert-butyl ether and arsenic from groundwater. 'Actively carrying out research is an ab solute must for me," Alexandratos says. He spends two afternoons per week in his lab HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
"Wisely spending our limited funds to effectively reinvigorate CUNY's research mission is one of our biggest challenges." at Hunter and spends his weekends read ing journals and reviewing his students' weekly progress reports. His research group—much smaller than his group was at Tennessee—includes two postdocs and a graduate student. Juggling his many duties is the toughest
part of his job, Alexandratos says. 'At Ten nessee, I used to complain that my office was two floors down from my labs," he jokes. "Now my office and my labs are a mile apart. But the walk—along Park Av enue, one of my favorite streets in my fa vorite city—seems much shorter." •
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