News Briefs
Inside Science
USNSF Awards Purchase Nearly $2M
Joseph Skrivanek, PhD, Distinguished Service Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mark Jonas ’03, PhD, Associate Professor of Biology, and Athar Abdul-Quader, PhD, Associate Professor of Mathematics/Computer Science together received a major grant of $1,998,661 from the National Science Foundation to train and support 34 undergraduates in the disciplines of biochemistry, biology, chemistry, and mathematics/computer science in a program they call “Finding Common Ground: Support and Preparation of Students for Interdisciplinary STEM Careers.”
Funded through the NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM), which enables academically talented, low-income students to pursue successful careers in promising STEM fields, Finding Common Ground will provide selected four-year and two-year transfer students with significant scholarships, faculty and peer mentoring, and academic and social support to build a strong community among the cohort.
“Purchase College is in a unique position to accomplish one of the major goals of the grant; to increase the transfer and graduation rates of community college students
who transfer to Purchase and finish their four-year degree in STEM disciplines,” says Professor
Skrivanek.
The program aims to ensure students leave ready to thrive in a competitive job market.
Professor Marin Kosut’s Book Named Best of the Year
The California Review of Books named Art Monster: On the Impossibility of New York by Professor of Sociology Marin Kosut one of its 10 Best Books of 2024, calling it “insightful, compellingly readable, and funny.”
Published by Columbia University Press, the book explores the margins of the professional art world through artists working behind the scenes in galleries and museums. Kosut examines artistic labor devaluation, gentrification’s impact on cultural life, and the push toward professionalization.
Described as “ethnography, memoir, tirade, and love letter,” the work draws from 10 years of fieldwork and Kosut’s experience co-founding artist-run spaces in Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Chinatown.
Professor Stephen Cooke Creates New Chemistry and the Illustrations to Explain It
Professor of Chemistry Stephen Cooke’s research and artwork were featured on the cover and inside cover, respectively, of two major scholarly journals: Chemical Physics Letters and Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.
Funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant, Cooke’s work explores uranium, thorium, and cerium bonding using high-powered laser pulses to synthesize metal-containing molecules. His team fires lasers at rotating metal surfaces in a vacuum chamber to initiate new chemistry.
Understanding these bonds has implications for reducing nuclear waste. Cooke creates his own scientific illustrations and animations to visually explain his work, making complex chemistry more accessible to broader audiences.
Major Reforestation Grant Benefits Campus and Students
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Allyson Jackson secured a $499,943 grant from New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation to restore nearly three acres on campus as part of Governor Hochul’s “25 Million Trees by 2033” initiative.
The grant allows Jackson to hire student interns to help transform a 2.8-acre plot overgrown with invasive species by planting 1,800 trees using traditional forestry methods alongside the innovative Miyawaki method, which employs high-density planting to accelerate growth and resist invasive species. The restored forest will provide carbon capture, wildlife habitat, and cooling effects.
Math and Computer Science Club Visits IBM Research
Associate Professor Lee Tusman led Math and Computer Science Club students to the Thomas J. Watson Research Center, the global headquarters of IBM Research, to witness up close quantum computer systems and an AI-optimized supercomputer.
The iconic Yorktown Heights facility is home to over 1,500 scientists who work on breakthrough technologies in quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors.
Awards, Honors & Nominations
2025 Grammy Awards: Big Night for Jazz Studies
Purchase alumni triumphed at the 67th Grammy Awards, with Samara Joy ’21 winning her fourth and fifth Grammys for Best Jazz Performance (“Twinkle Twinkle Little Me”) and Best Jazz Vocal Album (A Joyful Holiday). Jaylen Petinaud ’20 earned his first Grammy as drummer on the winning Hell’s Kitchen Original Broadway Cast Recording (Best Musical Theater Album).
Other nominees included: Cyrille Aimée ’09 (Jazz Studies), Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for À Fleur De Peau; Lucy Kalantari ’98 (Studio Composition), Best Children’s Music Album for Creciendo; and Assistant Professor Silas Brown ’10 (Studio Production), Best Engineered Album, Classical for Andres: The Blind Banister.
Princess Grace Honors
Hannah Garner ’15 (Dance, Arts Management minor) received the 2025 Princess Grace Award for Choreography. The founder of 2nd Best Dance Company pushes creative boundaries in work described as clever, engaging, and full of whimsy. “Her work seeks beauty in failure, explores limits of the body, and finds solace in the humor of being human,” writes the Princess Grace Foundation.
SUNY’s Highest Student Achievement Award
Medha Chandwani ’25 and Carver Fell ’25 received the prestigious 2025 Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, SUNY’s highest student honor. Chancellor Dr. John B. King, Jr. presented awards to 193 students systemwide.
Chandwani, completing dual Chemistry and Visual Arts degrees in three years with a 4.16 GPA, served as Pre-Med Club President and Chemistry Learning Assistant. Her interdisciplinary senior project explored oil blends in resin projection alongside an exhibition of her paintings.
Fell, a Psychology major with a 4.12 GPA, served as Psi Chi President and researched cognitive development. Both students presented research at the 43rd Annual James Utter Natural and Social Sciences Student Research Symposium and demonstrated exceptional leadership in academics and campus involvement.
Top Ten
U.S. News & World Report placed Purchase at #8 on its list of Top Public Schools among National Liberal Arts Colleges for 2026 and #30 for Top Performers on Social Mobility among national liberal arts colleges, a mark of how well colleges serve low-income students. The Psychology BA program also made the list of Top Undergraduate Psychology Programs.
Faculty Film Shorts
Best Short Doc at PIFF
Associate Professor of Communications Megan Rossman received the Best Short Documentary award at The Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF) for her new film, We’ll Carry On Alright, a win that renders the film eligible for the Academy Awards. JoAnna Hensel ’20 (Communications) and Jessica Jimenez ’20 (Playwriting and Screenwriting) worked on the film as production and research assistants.
Wild Animals at Woodstock
The horror short Wild Animals, produced and executive produced by Lecturer in Communications Melissa Rodriguez ’13 (Cinema Studies, Screenwriting minor) with Jamie Simiele ’26 (Film) as production coordinator, premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival in October.
Acetone Reality at NYFF
New Media Associate Professors Michael Bell-Smith and Sara Magenheimer’s experimental video premiered at the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center in September. Lauded for its “inventive use of artificial intelligence,” Acetone Reality uses animation, found images, and the professors’ own video recordings to explore the nature of meaning through blocky pixels, smeared colors, and cryptic iconography.
On Campus
Annual Science Symposium Renamed for Founding Professor
This year marked the 43rd Annual James Utter Natural and Social Sciences Student Research Symposium, held Saturday, May 3, 2025. The event was renamed this year to honor Associate Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies and Biology James Utter, who championed its founding back in 1982.
Distinguished Authors Speak
The Durst Distinguished Lecture Series brings renowned literary voices to Purchase every year, creating rare opportunities for students at a small public liberal arts institution like Purchase to engage with major contemporary writers.
This fall’s lecturers included Jesmyn Ward, the historic winner—first woman and first Black American—of two National Book Awards for Fiction for Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) and Salvage the Bones (2011). Her most recent novel, Let Us Descend (2023), was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, Time, and The New Yorker, among others.
Next was Laila Lalami, the author of five books, including the national bestseller The Dream Hotel (2025). The Moor’s Account (2014) won the American Book Award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.
Percival Everett visited in November. His most recent novel, James (2024), won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Kirkus Prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named one of the 10 best books of the year by The New York Times.
Stage & Screen
On Broadway
Carter Hudson ’09 (Acting) returned to his theatrical roots in David Cromer’s adaptation of George Clooney’s acclaimed film Good Night, and Good Luck at the Winter Garden Theater for his Broadway debut. Known for his starring role in six seasons of FX’s Snowfall, Hudson played CBS correspondent Joe Wershba opposite George Clooney’s Edward R. Murrow.
Micah Stock ’11 (Acting) returned to Broadway in Little Bear Ridge Road, costarring Laurie Metcalf, in a performance being hailed by The Hollywood Reporter as “a revelation.”
Stock plays a struggling gay writer who returns to his small Idaho town and locks horns with his razor-tongued aunt, played by Metcalf. The play is on a limited run at the Booth Theater.
Purchase Power in Numbers
Two debuted on Broadway at once when Jasai Chase-Owens ’17 (Acting) and Daniel Bravo Hernández ’24 (Acting) appeared together in Sam Gold’s Romeo+Juliet at Circle in the Square last fall.
Season three of HBO’s hit series The White Lotus featured Parker Posey (Acting) and Sarah Catherine Hook ’17 (Voice and Opera Studies) as mother and daughter Victoria and Piper Ratliff. Hook noted their shared Purchase connection helped them bond on set.
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning showcased three generations of Acting BFA alumni. Ving Rhames ’78–’80 returned as Luther Stickell, the only actor besides Tom Cruise to appear in all eight franchise films. Shea Whigham ’93 reprised the role of government agent Jasper Briggs from Dead Reckoning, while Sydney Cole Alexander ’15, known for her role (and smile) in Apple TV+’s Severance, made her franchise debut as helicopter pilot Lt. Cmdr. Bennet.
DANCE magazine’s prestigious “25 to Watch” list for 2025 features three from Purchase. Dava Huesca ’19 gained viral attention starring in Broadway’s Cats: The Jellicle Ball, while Symara Sarai ’19, a BESSIE Award winning choreographer and Urban Bush Woman member, captivates audiences with bold solo work. Gilbert T. Small II ’09, Company Director at Gibney Company, creates work that drives human connection as he “elicits rigor, athleticism, and exquisite performance quality.”