Joshua Fogel, a Brooklyn College economics professor, is used to having his research featured in the media. His scholarship – on a range of subjects from linking poor cognition and memory among elderly women to their watching soap operas to chronicling the positive impact internet research has on women with breast cancer – has made headlines across the globe.

His latest hot item is his research on health practices of consumers who purchase contact lenses online. His findings – that consumers who purchased contact lenses online were less likely to adhere to healthy eye care practices as recommended by their eye doctor – were featured on 42 television broadcasts, on wire services like Reuters and UPI, and in The Washington Post among many other major daily newspapers.

“Those who bought contact lenses at their doctor’s office followed a number of FDA recommendations more so than those who bought contact lenses elsewhere,” said Fogel, who is also a BC alum and has lived most of his life in Brooklyn. His subjects for the study were Brooklyn College students.

Fogel has conducted a host of research on three main topics—consumer behavior and Internet use, depression, and consumer health. He’s been at Brooklyn College for three and a half years and teaches courses such as Consumer Behavior and independent research in business and economics.

Zidile Loves Research

An undergrad majoring in psychology, Chaya Zidile recently teamed with Professor Joshua Fogel to co-author his research about online purchases of contact lenses.

“I took a business statistics class with Professor Fogel where he asked if anyone was interested in taking an independent research class with him,” she said. “Research is something that I have always been interested in.”

Chaya got involved in conceiving the study, designing the survey, collecting and analyzing the data, and reviewing the literature before drafting the manuscript.

“I think the hardest part was going around campus and trying to get 151 students to fill out my survey!” she notes. “But it was a valuable experience.”

The project paid off as the study’s results got a lot of attention from the media.

Chaya, who is in her third year at Brooklyn College, expects to graduate in 2009 before heading to optometry school.

Asked about her experience working with Professor Fogel, she said, “The project instilled in me a new love for research.”

A Brooklynite to the core, Chaya has always been a music lover. And now – you guessed it – she also loves research.