City College of New York Assistant Professor of Physics Cory Dean, who recently arrived from Columbia University where he was a post-doctoral researcher, and research teams from Columbia and three other institutions have definitively proven the existence of an effect known as Hofstadter’s Butterfly.

Alana Lewis, Susanna Nguy, Ivan Santiago and Emma Schatoff, members of The City College of New York Class of 2013, have been selected to receive the 2013 Jonas E. Salk Scholarship awarded by The City University of New York. All four students plan to apply the Scholarship’s $8,000 stipend toward medical school or PhD study.

“Juan Rodriguez and the Beginnings of New York City,” a monograph revealing information on the Latino identity of the first immigrant to settle in New York City, will be released to the public Wednesday, May 15, by the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute (CUNY DSI). Rodriguez, who was also known Jan Rodrigues, arrived in what was known as Hudson’s Harbor in 1613 and stayed until 1614.

Deadbeat Drums, a team of three Grove School of Engineering seniors, has won the first annual Zahn Prize for excellence in entrepreneurship. The team of Greg Knoll, Jeremy Neiman and Will Senisi took the top honor, besting three other finalists with their design of an electronic system to teach drumming, connected to an online progress-tracking and analysis tool. Their selection was announced May 6 at celebratory gala in Steinman Hall at The City College of New York following the final round of competition.

Dredging shipping channels to keep up with the changing needs of the container ship industry poses environmental risks. Contaminated material brought up from the bottom of waterways could threaten coastal habitats if not properly handled.

The City College of New York has substantially expanded its summer study-abroad programs, offering courses in 11 countries on five continents, up from five programs a year ago. Among the new options is the College’s first program for STEM majors, run in collaboration with Universidad de La Habana, Cuba. The programs are available to CCNY undergraduates as well as students from other institutions, and many still have space available.

Composer, pianist and jazz legend Ramsey Lewis and his Electric Band will perform at The City College of New York’s Aaron Davis Hall for the first time in a special Father’s Day Weekend Celebration 7 p.m. Friday, June 14. Jazz greats Henry Johnson (guitar), Joshua Ramos (bass) and Charles Heath (drums) will join Ramsey in this extraordinary concert.

In March, municipal leaders, scientists, engineers and designers met at The City College of New York for “Waterproofing New York,” a conference that explored the impact of past and future storms on five vital infrastructure systems. “Beyond Waterproofing,” a sequel to that event, presents the designer-participants approaches to re-imagining New York’s water/waste, power/data, circulation/fuel, parks/recreation and shelter infrastructure systems.

Dr. Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor of The City University of New York (CUNY) and a member of the CCNY Class of 1963, will be the keynote speaker at The City College of New York’s 167th Commencement Exercises, 10 a.m., Friday, May 31, on the CCNY campus.

Grove School of Engineering students – past and present – dominated the 2013 National Science Foundation Graduate Student Fellowship awards for The City College of New York this year. They garnered all eight fellowships conferred on CCNY graduating seniors and recent alumni.

The City College of New York will rename its Division of Social Sciences The Colin L. Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. The City University of New York Board of Trustees approved the name change at its April 29 meeting after hearing testimony from General Powell and students from the Colin Powell Center for Leadership and Service, the leadership and public policy center at CCNY established in 1997.

The City College of New York’s Division of Interdisciplinary Studies hosts the fourth annual “Is Hip-Hop History?” Conference 4 – 10 p.m. Friday, May 10, at the Center for Worker Education, 7th Floor, 25 Broadway, Manhattan. This year’s event honors Hip-Hop Appreciation Week.

“I was five months old when I came to this country, but those five months make all the difference in the world.” That statement by Arline, an undocumented immigrant and City College of New York undergraduate, opens “Living Undocumented: High School, College and Beyond,” a 17-minute film by CCNY Associate Professor of Education Tatyana Kleyn and Ben Donnellon.

“HANS RICHTER: Everything Turns – Everything Revolves,” a documentary by City College of New York Professor of Film Dave Davidson about the pioneering filmmaker, will have its premiere 1 p.m. Sunday, May 5, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles. Richter, who was a major force in redefining art and film in the 20th century, was also director of CCNY’s Institute of Film Techniques – the first documentary film school in the United States – from 1941 to 1957.

Undocumented for most of her earlier life in the United States, Natalia Saavedra yearned to travel and learn about other cultures. That led the Colombia native to The City College of New York, where she majors in international studies and has held several internships with United Nations affiliated non-governmental organizations [NGOs].

Among the researchers leading investigations tied to the NASA mission is Dr. Kyle McDonald, City College of New York professor of earth and atmospheric sciences. Professor McDonald, who is a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) researcher as well as an investigator with CCNY-based NOAA-CREST Center, led four data collection efforts to South America over places like the Pacaya-Samiria, one of the most extensively protected flooded forest areas in Peru.

City College of New York students Shannon Finucane, Corrine Quirk and Asha Whale have received Jeannette K. Watson Fellowships for 2013. Now in its 14th year, the Watson Fellowship program, which is supported by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, provides summer internships, professional development opportunities and mentoring for outstanding undergraduate students from 12 different New York City colleges and universities.

City College turns to one of its own to present the Ninth Annual Lewis Mumford Lecture on Urbanism: Distinguished Professor of Political Science Marshall Berman, who will speak 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2, in The Great Hall, Shepard Hall. His topic will be “Emerging From the Ruins.” The talk is free and open to the public.

The 13th Annual CUNY Jazz Festival, a gathering of bands and ensembles from across the CUNY system, takes place May 2-3 in Aaron Davis Hall, Theatre B, at The City College of New York, 135th Street and Convent Avenue, Manhattan. Trumpet player Tim Hagans, hailed by “The New York Times” as “a firecracker of a trumpeter,” will be the festival’s guest artist.

Preeminent public intellectual Walter Russell Mead will deliver the inaugural Anne and Bernard Spitzer Lecture at The City College of New York 4:30 p.m. Monday, April 15. Mr. Mead, who is author of the blog Via Meadia on The American Interest website, will address the state of America’s relationship with Asia, given recent growing turmoil in the region.