The 2010 International Research and Education in Engineering (IREE) Program, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and organized by Purdue University, is now accepting applications for the 2010 grant cycle. IREE 2010 awardees will receive a stipend (US$4,000 for graduate students and US$3,000 for undergraduate students) to conduct engineering-related research in China from May - August 2010. Additionally, grant awardees will receive allowances for: an orientation program; travel to and housing/meals in China; plus a re-entry program. The 50 students (20 undergraduate and 30 graduate students) that receive the IREE award will spend 10-12 weeks working on frontier engineering research projects in university, industry, or government labs in China.

Applicants must be currently enrolled and in good academic standing as degree-seeking undergraduate OR graduate students at a U.S. institution of higher education. They must also be able to express both a demonstrated interest in a field of engineering related research, and a desire to work in China. Finally, strong preference will be given to United States citizens or nationals, or permanent residents of the United States. In addition, women, underrepresented groups, and students from schools with limited research opportunities are particularly encouraged to apply.

The IREE Program was initiated by the National Science Foundation (ENG/EEC) in 2006 to promote enhancement of global competency of 21st century engineering professionals, development of collaborations with engineering researchers abroad, and providing students with opportunities to experience the life and culture of a another country. It enables early-career researchers in the U.S. to gain international research experience and perspective. IREE also seeks to enhance U.S. innovation in both research and education, as well as enable connections between the research programs of NSF's divisions with the education of students.

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Five accomplished College alumni were honored on March 3 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City with 2010 John Jay Awards for distinguished professional achievement.

Brian C. Krisberg '81, an attorney; Frank Lopez-Balboa '82 and Tracy V. Maitland '82, both from the finance sector; David Rosand '59, the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History; and Julia Stiles '05, a stage and film actress, were joined by alumni, faculty, students, family and friends at the black-tie event, which drew more than 600 attendees and raised more than $1 million for the John Jay Scholars Program.

Board of Trustees Chair William V. Campbell '62 welcomed the guests and introduced Columbia College Alumni Association President Geoffrey J. Colvin '74, who introduced and thanked the dinner's co-chairs. One of the co-chairs, Louis De Chiara '82, introduced the keynote speaker, Marit Perlman Shapiro '10, a John Jay Scholar, who spoke on behalf of all John Jay Scholars. Each of the honorees was later presented the award by a John Jay Scholar.

Shapiro, a Los Angeles native, spoke of how the Scholars Program has impacted her career choice. After working in a hospital in Madagascar "finding [herself] in a delivery room," she decided she wanted to be an obstetrician and plans to focus her work either in developing countries or inner cities in the United States. Columbia and the Scholars Program, Shapiro said, "taught me flexibility, taught me the value of continued learning, taught me the importance of service to my community and taught me to have enthusiasm."

Dean Michele Moody-Adams, attending her first John Jay Awards Dinner, addressed the attendees and thanked the honorees for "setting such stellar examples of all a Columbia College education will allow one to achieve." She quoted from a letter written in 1785 by John Jay [Class of 1764] about the importance of making a "proper degree of education" available to all and described the honorees as "people who have done extraordinary things with that 'proper degree of education' provided by this great institution."

The evening concluded with the Clefhangers singing  Sans Souci and Roar, Lion, Roar.

-Lisa Palladino; photo by Eileen Barroso

RISE is a summer internship program for undergraduate students from the United States, Canada and the UK in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, earth sciences and engineering. It offers unique opportunities for undergraduate students to work with research groups at universities and top research institutions across Germany for a period of 1.5 to 3 months during the summer. RISE interns are matched with doctoral students whom they assist and who serve as their mentors. The working language will be English. All scholarship holders receive stipends from the DAAD to help cover living expenses, while partner universities and research institutes provide housing assistance.

RISE internships were first offered in 2005 to applicants from the US and Canada. Following the first intake of around 100 students in 2005, the number of participants has increased steadily. In 2009 as many as 364 candidates (out of 1,149 applicants) were awarded an internship. Due to its great success, the program has now been extended to the UK.

Rhodes Scholar Raphael Graybill, pictured here at the U.S. Capitol, where he worked as a summer associate for the Senate Finance Committee (Image credit: James Frisk) On Nov. 18th, Columbia College student Raphael Graybill '10 found out that he was selected as a 2010 Marshall Scholar. Just three days later, after two days of interviews in Seattle, he was told in person that he had been chosen to attend Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Graybill is the second Columbia College student in two years to be selected for both the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships.

Originally from Great Falls, Montana, Graybill has decided to accept the Rhodes Scholarship to pursue a master's degree in politics, focusing on political theory. He is particularly interested in understanding how media shapes opinion and political action.

"At Columbia, I've had great faculty and advisers who are deeply invested in their work-not only as it stands in the academy, but for how it engages with the world as well," said Graybill, who also credits his peers for the education he's gained both inside and outside the classroom. "It's a privilege everyday to get to attend class and engage with some of the most interesting, passionate and smart students out there."

In addition to his demanding academic schedule, the undergraduate is also captain of Columbia's ski and snowboarding team and serves as an auxiliary police officer with the New York Police Department's 26th Precinct. Once a week, he dons a uniform and patrols neighborhoods in Upper Manhattan.

His work on political and social issues is exhaustive: In 2008, he was the youngest member of Montana's delegation to the Democratic National Convention, and in 2009, he was a summer associate at the U.S. Senate Finance Committee's majority staff, working on health care reform. He has also worked for Senator Max Baucus's office in Washington D.C. on foreign policy, defense, intelligence and veterans' issues; held positions in the Democratic Party, including statewide field coordinator for an attorney general campaign; and worked as a staff aide for the Montana Democratic Party. He is also involved with the Lutheran World Relief foundation as a member of its President's Council.

"Raphael is a terrific leader, as well as a great student," said Michael Pippenger, associate dean of fellowship programs at Columbia College. "That he was awarded both the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships is quite a feat and it speaks to the ways people recognize his commitment to public service and his potential for a very bright future."

The Marshall Scholarships were founded in 1953 to "commemorate the humane ideals of the Marshall Plan" and to "express the continuing gratitude of the British people to their American counterparts." This is the fourth year in a row that a Columbia student has been named a Marshall Scholar. Past scholars include Paul Sonne (CC'07), Emma Kaufman (CC'08) and Samuel Daly (CC'09).

Graybill joins 31 American men and women selected as Rhodes Scholars and will commence his studies at Oxford in October 2010. Rhodes Scholarships provide all expenses for two or three years of study, and may allow funding in some instances for four years. The scholarship was created in 1902 by the will of Cecil Rhodes, British philanthropist and African colonial pioneer. The first class of American Rhodes Scholars entered Oxford in 1904. Past Rhodes Scholarship recipients from Columbia include Jisung Park (CC'09) and Jason Bello (CC'08).

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Conrad H. Lung '72 received the Alexander Hamilton Medal, the highest honor paid to a member of the Columbia College family, at a black-tie dinner in Low Rotunda on November 19. The medal is awarded annually by the Columbia College Alumni Association to an alumnus/a or faculty member for distinguished service to the College and accomplishment in any field of endeavor.

Lung, who was born in Canton, China, recalled receiving a thin letter from Columbia when he was 18, which he surmised to be a rejection of his application for admission. "I do not remember so much the joy, but the utter disbelief and incomprehension," he said, upon learning he had been accepted and offered a scholarship and campus job that would enable him to attend. He described the Core Curriculum as "a life-transforming experience" and referred to Homer's Odyssey in speaking about his journey from an impoverished youth in China to business success in America. Speaking of Homer's hero, Lung said, "Instead of being hopelessly lost, he found himself at his destination, a different man."

President Lee C. Bollinger was joined by Dean of the College Michele Moody-Adams and Columbia College Alumni Association President Geoffrey J. Colvin '74 in presenting Lung with the medal. "You have always been a pioneer, a leader rather than a follower," Bollinger said, noting that Lung was the first Columbian of Asian descent to be presented with the medal since Wellington Koo (Class of 1909) in 1949, three years after its inception. "You saw a world that was changing long before globalization became a mantra for all of us, and you lobbied for Columbia College to become more and more involved in Asia," Bollinger said.

Moody-Adams praised Lung's commitment to "racial, ethnic and socio-economic diversity" at the College, as well as his ongoing "desire to connect students with alumni." Lung is one of the founders of the Asian Columbia Alumni/ae Association and was the group's first president, and, along with other alumni, assisted in the founding of the Columbia Club in Singapore and improved the link between Columbia and various Columbia Clubs in Asia.

Lung's family has become very much a part of the Columbia family. Lung spoke of how his two sisters followed him to New York and enrolled at Barnard, and his brother came to the College. It was while at Columbia that he met his "best friend of 39 years, and my wife of 35 of those years," Yin Yee Lung '74 Barnard. The couple has three children: Jennifer '01E, '08 P&S; Stephanie '04 and Jonathan '05E.

Stephanie Lung, who is president of Columbia College Young Alumni, delivered welcoming remarks and held up before the crowd of approximately 400 alumni, students, parents, faculty, administrators and friends in Low Rotunda her father's copy The Iliad that he had given her upon her acceptance. She drew a laugh when she told of how he had bet that she could not match his GPA, and that four years later, "I was very happy to parade, in his face, my higher GPA." Lung, who spoke afterward, attributed the difference to grade inflation but noted with pride, "Stephanie used to say that she was known at Columbia as Conrad Lung's daughter. Now, I'm known as Stephanie's father."

Lung majored in Oriental studies at the College, then earned a master's and an M.Phil. at Yale, where he taught briefly and was a tutor. In 1977, Lung was hired by a Hong Kong apparel manufacturer to start a marketing operation in New York, Wrightfox International, which was acquired by Jordache Jeans in 1979. He moved to Maurice Sassoon Jeans as v.p. of operations and in 1981 was hired by New York Jean Co. as e.v.p. in charge of merchandising and marketing.

Lung co-founded Sunnex, Inc., a manufacturer and wholesaler of women's career clothing that develops and markets five brands in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and China, in 1985. The next year, he co-founded Sun On-Sunnex International Holding Corp. in Hong Kong as a buying office for Sunnex. In 1987, Lung co-founded China Silk Enterprise Ltd., which operates manufacturing facilities in the People's Republic of China. In 1992, he co-founded Sun On Trust, a not-for-profit organization that performs charitable work in China.

In 2003, Lung sold Sunnex and its related companies to various Asia investors, and in 2004 he participated, with a group of Asia investors and two College alumni, in a leveraged buy-out of Mudd Jeans in New York. Lung then became its president. In the same year, he co-founded, with a group of College alumni, a consulting and boutique investment banking firm, Ivy Capital Management LLC, as well as a brand management and marketing firm, Collegiate Brand Management Group, both based in New York.

Lung has been extensively involved with the College and alumni affairs. He serves the College as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and as an emeritus member of the Board of Visitors. The College honored him for his distinguished professional achievements with a 2002 John Jay Award.

Alex Sachare '71 and Lisa Palladino