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Professor Kai Shum’s Pursuit Pays Nano Dirt
If as Winston Churchill suggested “luck is the residue of design,” then BC Physics Professor Kai Shum’s dogged year-long pursuit of relationships with both public and private sector nano-technology research leaders has resulted in hitting what appears to be a significant research jackpot as part of the College’s effort to raise its scientific profile.
Due largely to Professor Shum’s patience and his professional reputation in both academic and in corporate research circles, the College recently announced a formal joint research arrangement with the private-sector FirstNano, a division of CVD Equipment Corp, in the area of optoelectronics. This area of research will inform the development of semi-conductor technology using ultraviolet light emitting chips. Matching financial support from CUNY CAT and NYSTAR, both public entities designed to prime the research pump, also played a major role in reaching the agreement.
While this promising research arrangement is exciting, the origin of the relationship is equally interesting. Professor Shum, a native of China who received tenure in CUNY in 1987 and who joined the BC faculty two years ago, began courting FirstNano following some scientific window shopping at the parent company, CVD.
“They had the machinery and technology that was ideal to do this work, “said Professor Shum. “We had the researchers willing and able to do it, but not the money needed for the equipment.”
Undeterred, Professor Shum persisted and finally prevailed in reaching a mutually beneficial arrangement.
“This type of research is essential to keep Brooklyn College to stay in the race for PhD granting status in CUNY, especially in Physics.”
Photo above, from left: Ph.D. candidate Zhuo Chen with Professor Kai Shum. Not in photo, BC Physics Professor Mim Nakarmi, co-principal investigator in this project
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Addis Directs Final Play to
Start Career
William Addis may be in his last semester at Brooklyn College, but he's still brimming with enthusiasm about directing his final and most proundly challenging play - playwright Joe Calarco's Shakespeare's R & J, as in Romeo and Juliet. A New Jersey native, Addis is an M.F.A. candidate—the ultimate degree in his field—who also successfully directed Beth Henley's Am I Blue? at BC last year.
An artistic director at a company he founded nine years ago in Troy, NY, Addis has experience working with professional actors in more traditionally staged plays—including Shakespeare's standard pieces—in summers past. He also teaches introduction to acting at other schools in New York City.
"My work at the College is different in that I get to work with students who are beginning to shape their careers, and I enjoy this," he says.
Directing this play was very challenging, he adds, because it is Shakespeare by way of another playwright. "I have to navigate through his choices. It is a much more drastic adaptation that I would have done. Here, the actors play multiple roles, the stage and the props are very basic. As challenges go, this one is exciting to have to take on."
Set in a contemporary all-boys' Catholic school, Calarco's adaptation explores masculinity, sexuality, and the coming-of-age process. "The choices are interesting because, as you know, there were no women actors in Shakespeare's era. It was all done by men."
To obtain his MFA, Addis, who transferred from Drew University two years ago, must write a thesis about this latest project, including his impressions about the play, his own role as a director, and the reception the play gets from the audience. "The thesis will allow me to explore my work with the students, the characters, and the plot. You get to analyze what worked and what didn't."
Performances of Shakespeare's R & J will be held at 7:30 PM on April 10-12 (Thurs-Sat) and at 2:00 PM on April 12-13 (Sat-Sun). Tickets are $5. For more information, call the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts box office at
(718) 951-4500, or visit http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/theater.
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