Dr. Alessandra Leri Selected as Newest Distinguished Chair

Alessandra Leri, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Chemistry, has been awarded a Distinguished Chair – one of the highest honors that Marymount Manhattan College can bestow on a faculty member. The award recognizes dedication to teaching excellence and prolific scholarly pursuits.

According to President Judson Shaver, who introduced the Distinguished Chair Program to the College in 2008, “Dr. Leri embodies the intent of the program with her tireless work in her field, her skill in inspiring students to learn and apply the knowledge they’ve gained from her classes, and her demonstrated ability to engage undergraduates in graduate-level and groundbreaking scientific research. Being a Distinguished Chair will enhance and support her ambitious scientific agenda and research with students.”

During her three years as Distinguished Chair, with the accompanying research funding and reduced teaching load, Professor Leri plans to devote the extra time and resources to scholarly pursuits. She explains, “I intend to make advances on several research projects, with the goals of publishing four peer-reviewed scientific papers and presenting results at three international conferences.”

Titles of her research projects appear below, along with names of Marymount Manhattan students and other collaborators on the experiments:

•Total Organochlorine in Vaginal Tampons with Christina Galifianakis ’11
•Chlorination of Aromatic Phytochemicals in Forest Ecosystems with Laura Herren ’11 and Ashley Pirovano ’13
•Lignin Degradation through Biochlorination: Nature’s Pulp and Paper Mill? with Ashley Pirovano ’13
•Investigation of Natural Bromination Processes in the Marine Environment with Dr. Lawrence Mayer (University of Maine), Dr. Bruce Ravel (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and Marymount Manhattan College students (TBD)

Due to Professor Leri’s efforts, as well as those of the Natural Sciences Department as a whole, Marymount Manhattan College has a growing reputation as an exemplar of closely mentored undergraduate research in science. Leri’s work during her term as Distinguished Chair will fortify that reputation. She says, “Although the Distinguished Chair position will reduce my classroom teaching requirements, it will increase the amount of time I can spend mentoring students on original research projects.”

Leri joined the Marymount Manhattan College faculty in 2007 and since then has developed a thriving research program in molecular environmental science with undergraduates in the Biology major. Her research interests lie in organic geochemistry, particularly the biogeochemical cycles of halogens. Her papers have made important contributions to overturning the long-established paradigm of halogens as unreactive inorganic elements in the environment.

Since her arrival at Marymount Manhattan College, Leri’s research has shown that natural organochlorine production is associated with fungal degradation of plant litter on the forest floor [Leri et al., Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2007]. She has shed light on the seasonal chlorination and dechlorination of soil organic matter [Leri and Myneni, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 2010]. She has also revealed that naturally produced organobromine is ubiquitous in both marine [Leri et al., Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 2010] and terrestrial [Leri and Myneni, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2012] environments.

Professor Leri recently turned her attention to organochlorine pollutants, specifically the by-products of disinfection in manufacturing and household processes. With undergraduates at Marymount Manhattan College, she has investigated the production of organochlorine in fabrics bleached using typical household laundering practices [Leri and Anthony, Chemosphere, 2013].

ABOUT THE DISTINGUISHED CHAIR PROGRAM AT MARYMOUNT MANHATTAN COLLEGE
Since the creation of the Distinguished Chairs in 2008, Marymount Manhattan College has recognized five professors, including Professor Leri. These faculty members have made significant contributions to their fields and have strengthened the reputation of the College. A Distinguished Chair is one of the highest honors that Marymount Manhattan College can bestow on a faculty member. The position is awarded competitively for the purpose of providing faculty members with the time and resources to produce major scholarly or creative works in their discipline.

DISTINGUISHED CHAIRS AND THEIR PROJECTS AT MARYMOUNT MANHATTAN COLLEGE: The program’s first two Distinguished Chairs, Professors Kathleen LeBesco, Ph.D., and Jason Rosenfeld, Ph.D., were selected in 2009. In alphabetical order, the Distinguished Chairs are:

Susan Behrens (Ph.D., Brown University), Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders; Distinguished Chair 2011-2014. During her term, Dr. Behrens has been working on two projects relating to grammar and the art of teaching. The first, Understanding Language in the Classroom: A Linguistic Approach to Better Teaching and Learning in College, is a handbook for college students, professors who teach in composition and those working with first-year students. She has signed a contract with Multilingual Matters, a UK publisher.

Editing is underway on her second project, The Three Rs: A Primer on the Nature of Language and Academic Discourse, a documentary composed of 19 interviews with students and professors on their experiences with college-level English. 

Kathleen LeBesco (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst), Associate Dean of Academic Affairs; Distinguished Chair 2009-2012*. Dr. LeBesco is writing, directing and producing a documentary film with the working title Fat Panic! Health, Morality and the Obesity Epidemic. This film is an extension of the research she has been conducting for the last 12 years.

*Dr. LeBesco was promoted from Professor of Communication Arts during her Distinguished Chair term. She has received a one-year deferment in her term to accommodate her new work responsibilities.

Alessandra Leri (Ph.D., Chemistry, Princeton University), Associate Professor of Chemistry; Distinguished Chair 2013-2016. See above for her project’s description.

Mark Ringer (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara), Professor of Theatre Arts; Distinguished Chair 2011-2014. During his three-year term, Dr. Ringer has conducted research and is presently writing his book, Freedom Plays: The Humanist Achievement of the Greek Theatre, which will examine the Greek invention of dramatic literature and performance in the fifth century B.C. As a Distinguished Chair, Dr. Ringer has traveled extensively in Greece to see rarely performed ancient plays in the fourth-century B.C. theatre at Epidauros, and to conduct research at the library of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Jason Rosenfeld (Ph.D., New York University), Professor of Art History; Distinguished Chair 2009-2012. The award supported Dr. Rosenfeld in writing and publishing three books on the radical 19th century British Pre-Raphaelite artists, including the first major monograph on the leading painter in the movement, John Everett Millais (Phaidon, 2012). During his term, he also co-curated an international exhibition on these preeminent avant-garde artists, which opened in September 2012 at Tate Britain, the National Gallery of British Art, in London. In February of 2013 the exhibition moved to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It then travels to Moscow’s State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (June 2013) and Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum (January 2014). In 2012 he also curated and wrote the catalog for the exhibition “Stephen Hannock: Recent Paintings, Vistas with Text” held at the Marlborough Gallery, New York.

Published: April 15, 2013