If you want to build a career fighting climate change, here are eight “green” degrees to consider:

1. Environmental Science

Environmental science majors study the science behind environmental challenges like climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction. You’ll learn to analyze ecosystems, guide conservation efforts, and conduct research that informs public policy.

Students in Fordham’s environmental science program do fieldwork alongside scientists at The Calder Center, the University’s biological field station on 113 acres of protected forest preserve in Armonk, New York.  

2. Environmental Studies

As an environmental studies major, you’ll examine the “human” side of climate change, taking data from the natural sciences and blending it with a strong foundation in the humanities and social sciences to explore political, economic, and societal solutions to environmental issues.

“One of the central areas of work is environmental justice, the idea that traditionally marginalized socio-economic groups should not have to disproportionately bear the burdens of climate change, especially when they are not the main parties responsible for it,” said John van Buren, director of the environmental studies program at the University.

Graduates of Fordham’s program have gone on to build successful careers in government, law, business, urban planning, environmental organizations, public health, and more.

3. Business

You probably don’t think of environmentalism when you think of business, but the reality is the fight against climate change requires industries to develop more sustainable practices. That means business leaders need the skills to build ethical supply chains, create more environmentally friendly products, and implement corporate responsibility strategies. 

Students at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business can choose a concentration or minor in social innovation and sustainable business, preparing them to lead profitable businesses that also benefit people and the planet.

4. Biological Sciences

Biology is not only fundamental to understanding the impact of climate change on living systems, it’s also key to addressing the crisis. 

“Biologists are providing critical information on how climate change is affecting the crops we depend on for food, as well as the impact on endangered species and the spread of infectious diseases,” said Steve Franks, professor in the Department of Biology at Fordham. “They’re also helping to develop ways to reduce climate change by creating innovative and sustainable approaches to agriculture and many industries.”

5. Urban Studies

An urban studies major focuses on the design and management of cities, opening doors to a career in city planning, environmental consulting, or community development, where you can work to create cities that are more climate resilient. 

“I believe that urban studies programs are becoming more and more important to the climate movement as they provide students with the academic foundation to understand not only how cities can contribute to climate change, but also to develop ways to ameliorate its worst impacts,” said Maria Biskup, director of Fordham’s undergraduate urban studies program.

6. International Studies

Majoring in international studies can prepare you to combat climate change on a global scale. This field equips students with an understanding of the complex dynamics between countries, cultures, economies, and the environment. 

After graduation, you could choose a humanitarian career path, or go into journalism, the public sector, education, and more—all fields that provide ample opportunities for climate work.  

Ian Muir Smith, who graduated with an international studies degree from Fordham in 2022, went on to organize a UN-endorsed youth climate conference with other Fordham alums. 

7. Political Science

A political science major prepares you to influence legislation, promote international cooperation, and lead advocacy efforts in the public and private sectors, including those focused on climate change. 

Graduates can work in government agencies, NGOs, or international organizations, advocating for climate-friendly policies and helping to implement global climate agreements like the Paris Agreement.

8. Journalism

Journalists have the power to hold industries and governments accountable—a vital role when it comes to the climate crisis. Majoring in journalism can prepare you to report on policy debates, environmental disasters, and the ways marginalized communities are impacted by climate change. A journalism degree can also serve as a strong foundation for careers in communications, media management, marketing, and more.

But what about the birds that are rescued and brought to wildlife rehabilitators? In August 2021, Ar Kornreich, a Fordham biology Ph.D. student who is working on a dissertation about catbirds, began investigating how many of those birds also succumb. 

“I knew not all birds die immediately, and I wondered if there had been any research on birds that make it for a while before they die,” said Kornreich, who uses they/their/them pronouns.

“It just seemed like a no-brainer that states should have that info.”

In fact, Kornreich discovered that there is no one place where one can easily access this information. So they filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with eight state agencies tasked with regulating the wildlife rehabilitators. They requested records regarding avian building collision cases between 2016 and 2021. Eventually, they received responses from six states, Washington D.C., and several privately run rehabilitators.

Findings

Kornreich and their co-authors published their results on Aug. 7 in the paper “Rehabilitation outcomes of bird-building collision victims in the Northeastern United States” in the journal PLOS ONE.

They and their co-authors found that of the 3,033 birds that were rescued in these areas, about 60% didn’t ultimately make it: 974 died during treatment, while 861 had to be euthanized. The data also revealed that birds were injured more often during the autumn months, and concussions were the most common injury. 

These numbers—and the estimates that can be drawn from them—suggest that bird collision deaths far exceed one billion each year in the U.S., the paper says.

“There’s a huge blind spot in those birds that hit buildings and survive, at least for a little while, and looking at rehabilitation data can help remove that blind spot and help us make more informed decisions about conservation and preventing window collisions for bird populations,” Kornreich said. 

There are gaps in the data. The State of New York refused to release the data for all 62 counties in the state, for instance, so Kornreich limited their request to 10 counties in the New York metropolitan region. 

The data also came in formats as varied as PDF files and handwritten pages that needed to be painstakingly transcribed. What had initially seemed like an easy project that could be done while the world was on lockdown during the pandemic turned out to be anything but, said Kornreich. 

“It was funny; I had to buy the state of Pennsylvania a USB drive so that they could send me all of their data,” they said, laughing.

“I completely underestimated how much work it was going to be.”

Working with a Fordham Grad

To help make sense of the data, Kornreich partnered with Mason Youngblood, a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for Advanced Computational Science at Stony Brook University. Dustin Partridge, Ph.D., GSAS ‘2020, from the NYC Bird Alliance, and Kaitlyn Parkins, GSAS ’15, from the American Bird Conservancy, served as advisors and co-authored the paper.

Kornreich said they’re hopeful that this research will help wildlife rehabilitation improve their desire and ability to share information. Just as hospital administrators share data on how patients fare after entering their doors, so too should wildlife rehabbers be open, they said.

“There is a very active community of rehabbers who are constantly swapping information and doing their best to make sure that their triage is data-driven and they’re using the most successful treatments,” they said. 

“But sometimes the rehab, scientific, and policy community’s transmission of information isn’t the most efficient. Some people in the scientific community look down on rehabbers and say they’re not really making a statistically significant difference, but I think that they are. They’re on the front lines of this crisis, so it is important to get their data and their viewpoints into this conversation.”

A graduating senior and valedictorian at Fordham College at Rose Hill, Tejiram was accepted to three medical schools. She’s planning to attend the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan next year. 

“Medicine is so much more than just the [coursework]—there’s a heart to medicine,” she said. “It involves bonds of compassion; you’re there for somebody, and not only just to be there to feel with them, but to do something about it.”

Ahead of graduation, Tejiram, who is on the pre-health track, shared some advice for students interested in medical school. 

Explore unique research opportunities—when you’re ready.

Tejiram didn’t start working in a lab until her sophomore year, which she said allowed her to adjust to college and better understand the science behind the research.

Since then, she’s worked on two different research projects. She studied diseases such as age-related blindness in the vision lab of Silvia Finnemann, Ph.D., where she worked on a project that tests treatments for mice with vision defects. 

She also worked with Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., on a clinical research project at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens—her hometown. The project aimed to engage at-risk patients and reduce medicine avoidance.  

“For some patients, I’ve been able to see them from the beginning to the end of the study, which has been really great,” she said. “I’m really excited to see the impact.”

Look for lessons that translate. 

In both research projects, Tejiram said she was looking for lessons that “can be easily translated” for medical school.

“For example, I do live tissue imaging,” she said. “It’s taught me how to balance precision and also time efficiency because you have a short window of time to work with the tissue. I think that’s going to be really important going into the fast-paced environment of medicine.”

Through her work at Elmhurst Hospital, Tejiram said she’s gained strong patient skills. 

“Being able to sit with them and talk with them and hear their stories—I think I’m going to need that … so they can trust me as their physician,” she said. 

Make a plan for applying to med school.

Tejiram said that the application process lasted about a year, so planning things like coursework and when to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) was essential. Fordham advisors helped her navigate the process.

“I started applying in junior year—I had to take the MCAT, and then I had to do the primary application,” she said, noting that schools also send a secondary application. 

She spent last summer writing essays and submitting secondary applications before interview season started in the fall. She got her decisions starting in February. 

Expand your studies beyond your major courses. 

Tejiram minored in bioethics, an area she discovered after taking a philosophical ethics course through Fordham’s core curriculum. 

“I realized how many ethical dilemmas come up in daily life, but especially in a field where you’re dealing with patients and human lives,” she said. 

Find supportive mentors and ask them for guidance.

When she was deciding if she wanted to go straight into medical school or take a gap year, Tejiram said she relied heavily on the advice of her Fordham mentors. 

“Those mentors, those support networks I found have been so instrumental throughout my whole journey, and I think it’s really important to remember that you don’t have to do it alone,” she said.

Remember, on the evening of May 18, New York’s Empire State Building will be illuminated in Fordham maroon for our graduates.

Aggressive Pigeon Behavior: Bridget Crosby, Taylor Goche, Cream Sananikone, and Van Tran

Going to school in New York City made these four biological science majors “fascinated by pigeons.” “I’ve noticed particularly how close pigeons get to us, how they’re foraging for food, how they’re really never alone,” Crosby said. “I’m just fascinated by pigeons, especially in Manhattan, in comparison to more suburban areas. We wanted to see whether there was a correlation between the aggressive behavior and the location that they live in.” Working with the Ecology Lab at Fordham, the team spent hours in four parks analyzing pigeon behaviors. They found pigeons were more aggressive in the urban parks—Bryant Park and Washington Square Park, compared to the more suburban parks—Van Cortlandt Park and Crotona Park, concluding that pigeons in more urban areas are more accustomed to traffic and people, prompting them to act more boldly.

Mental Health in Literature: Marianna Apazidis

A senior from Massachusetts who is double-majoring in psychology and English, Apazidis united her academic interests through research that examined the portrayal of mental health in literature, particularly in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. The novel centers on a protagonist often considered to be schizophrenic in literary interpretations. Apazidis received a summer research grant that allowed her to visit the Jean Rhys archives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, she conducted empirical research, first-hand interviews, and archival research to investigate why the novel’s protagonist is often diagnosed this way and whether this is an accurate portrayal of psychosis. “I started with psychology because I’ve always been interested in how people work and what makes them who they are,” she said. “I quickly found that English is a very similar parallel discipline. I think literature is one of the most important ways to study human nature.”

Detecting the Presence of Metals in Water: Eva Riveros

Riveros was drawn to chemistry as a tangible way to find environmental solutions. Her research project involved the development of a Thiazole probe—a solution that uses proton transfer and fluorescence to detect the presence of metals in water samples. Riveros hopes to eventually create strips using the solution that can be used more easily and efficiently. “One of the main applications we’re thinking of is drinking water, so safety,” said the junior from New Jersey. Riveros developed her love of research after completing the ASPIRES program, which gives incoming students practical exposure to labs and hands-on experimentation.

Religion as Rebellion: Christopher Supplee

Supplee’s interest in how shared narratives shape cultural experiences led him to research the role of Haitian Vodou in confronting the shared traumatic experience of slavery. Supplee applied the three-part trauma recovery theory from Dr. Judith Herman, a leading expert on trauma, as a basis to examine the migration of Vodou from Haiti to the United States. “I look at how the enslaved population used [the practice of]voodoo as a means of maintaining their humanity under the dehumanizing conditions of slavery and rebuilding the community bonds that were separated through the TransAtlantic slave process,” said Supplee, an English and theology major from Philadelphia, “but also making new ones as a result of the diverse peoples that were coming from or transported from the African continent,” he said.

Additional reporting by Kelly Prinz.

A Visa lottery winner finds her path to medical school

Growing up in Albania, Sonola Burrja never imagined that she would move to Mamaroneck, New York, and study in the United States. But when her family won the U.S. government’s Diversity Immigrant Visa program lottery in 2018, the plan changed.

“The plan was that my younger brother and I get educated outside of Albania, which would probably result in our … not going back, [but]when we won the U.S. lottery, my parents saw it as a great opportunity for the entire family to stay together,” says Burrja, who graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill in May.

Now, just five years after moving to New York, she’s a first-year student at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. And she can’t imagine not having gone to Fordham, where she joined the pre-health program, majored in biological sciences, minored in German, and was part of the University’s inaugural group of ASPIRES scholars. Partially supported by the National Science Foundation, the program—which stands for Achievement in STEM through a Program of Immersive Research Experience and Support—provides a select group of undergraduates with scholarships for their four years at Fordham, guidance in and out of the lab, and funding for their undergraduate research. 

Conducting Ethical Research

Through ASPIRES, Burrja began collaborating with professors and conducting research almost right away—albeit not in the way she expected. It was March 2020, when COVID-19 spread to the United States, so her plan to conduct in-person research had to be put on hold in favor of a virtual research project.

“I was supposed to meet up with a researcher at Fordham that week that everything got shut down,” she recalls. Instead, she spent the summer working with Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., a psychology professor and associate dean for strategic initiatives at Fordham College at Rose Hill, studying statistical data on diabetes and COVID-19 comorbidity.

Burrja went on to earn three undergraduate research grants from Fordham to support her work with biology professor Marija Kundakovic, Ph.D. She joined the Kundakovic Lab to study the epigenetic effects of hormones in female brains. 

“I never knew that there were so many differences between female and male brains—and that somebody at Fordham was actually tackling this issue,” Burrja says, explaining why she asked Kundakovic to be her mentor. “I really thought it was very interesting because some conditions, for example, depression and anxiety, have a sex bias of females during their reproductive stage. There are some huge differences, and we still don’t know enough about this topic—and the brain generally is a very unexplored area.”

To help her navigate the ethical questions that need to be taken into consideration when conducting research, Burrja took Ethics and Research, a course that allowed her to “discuss some very difficult dilemmas” and think deeper “about some issues that don’t really come into our lives, but if you go into medicine or if you go into actually doing research, those issues might come up—and there are actual consequences to being on one side or the other.”

And they will come up: Burrja plans to become a doctor. She’s not yet sure what her specialty will be, but one thing in particular is a must.

“The patient interaction part is something that I would not want to sacrifice,” she says. “I would like to be able to speak with them and just be an advocate for them, especially working with underserved populations.”

Read more “20 in Their 20s” profiles.

“I haven’t pinpointed what I specifically want to work on, but I’m eager to do research that has some kind of positive impact on the world, whether that’s helping people or the environment,” Bonanni said. “I want my research to have a bigger purpose.”

Some student researchers focus on a single topic, but Bonanni has dabbled in several—and because of this, she sees the world differently, said a Fordham professor. 

“Her experience has given her a good view of different topics. She can ask questions that other people might not be thinking about,” said her academic advisor Patricio Meneses, Ph.D., associate professor of biological sciences. “This will benefit her when it comes to asking the next interesting or necessary question in science.” 

‘A Whole New World Opened Up’ 

Bonanni was born to a family of scientists in Niskayuna, New York. Her father is an electrical engineer at General Electric. Her mother, a longtime optometrist, pursued her career when there were few women in her field. Both inspired their daughter to become a researcher. 

Bonanni had always been fascinated by the natural world. In elementary school, she drew three-page pictures of different landscapes and the flora and fauna that lived within them. But in high school, Bonanni realized that science was more than a childhood interest. 

“When I took a biology course, it was like a whole new world opened up. I learned how the natural world works, how everything fits together in ecosystems, and how life functions. Once I knew that was a field, I was like, ‘Wow—that’s the one for me,’” she said. 

Growing as a Biologist at Fordham

In 2020, she enrolled at Fordham. She wanted to attend school in New York City, and she was drawn to Fordham’s Jesuit ideals.

“I knew that I could find a Catholic community at other colleges, but I liked how Fordham implements the Jesuit values in their course philosophy,” she said. 

Bonanni spent her first year on Zoom due to the pandemic. The following summer, she took two tuition-free classes. Among them was a genetics course with biology professor Edward Dubrovsky, Ph.D., whose work she loved so much that she asked if she could work in his lab. 

Throughout her sophomore year, they examined the genetic mutations responsible for cardiomyopathy, a disease that thickens heart tissue and can lead to death. Using fruit flies as a model for the human body, they explored a question: Where do the mutated genes that cause cardiomyopathy need to be located in order for symptoms to develop? Any cell in the body or specifically in the heart? (They later learned that the latter was correct.) 

Under Dubrovsky, Bonanni learned what it’s like to work in a real lab, versus a classroom. 

“When you’re in a research lab, you don’t know what the answer is. Sometimes things don’t go right the first time, but that’s just part of the research process,” Bonanni said. “That uncertainty is where discoveries are made.” 

The following summer, she studied in Australia through Fordham’s partnership with the School for Field Studies. For one month, she lived in the rainforest and conducted fieldwork on marsupials. 

“It was really cool to learn about how they came to be in Australia and set up field cameras to take pictures of marsupials passing by, like pademelons,” Bonanni said. 

Exploring Bronx Plant Life

She loved working with animals, but she also wanted to try working with plants. She had always enjoyed tending to her family’s vegetable garden, where they raised tomatoes, lettuce, squash, and beans. 

Last fall, she studied the spread of Japanese knotweed, an invasive species that has spread to the Bronx, in the lab of biology professor Steven J. Franks, Ph.D. She enjoyed the experience, but realized she preferred working with animal cells. 

Keeping the Earth Safe for Turtles

This semester, Bonanni started working on a project that combines her interests in cell and molecular biology and ecology. 

In the lab of Evon Hekkala, Ph.D., associate professor of biological sciences, Bonanni is studying green sea turtles, the largest hard-shelled sea turtle on Earth. Every year, these turtles return to the same beach to lay their eggs. The problem is only some areas are protected from poaching and other activities that prevent babies from hatching and safely making their way to the ocean. 

“If only specific areas are protected, then only specific turtle genes might be protected. That means you’re limiting the genetic diversity of the population,” Bonanni said. “A less genetically diverse population is less likely to survive diseases,” said Bonanni, who is now analyzing DNA from hatched turtle shells to assess their genetic diversity. 

The Wonder of the Natural World 

Bonanni wants to become a biologist. No matter what she focuses on, she says she wants to hold onto something that we often forget as adults—the wonder of the natural world. 

“Growing plants is so exciting when you really think about it,” said Bonanni, who once worked as a summer camp counselor who taught children how to water seeds into sunflowers. “The fact that a beautiful, green, lush thing can come out of a small seed is so cool. As adults, we sometimes lose the wonder associated with that. But when you look at a kid experiencing it for the first time, you remember how exciting it really is.”   

“I am inherently curious about how our body operates, especially the brain,” said Gallo, whose lab was awarded the five-year NIH grant this summer. “But I’m also very interested in science because of its power to create knowledge that could help people.”

Gallo is a Honduran-American neuroscientist. At age 18, he earned a scholarship to study in the United States. He became the first in his family to leave Honduras to pursue a college education in the U.S. (Gallo is not the first family member to work in STEM, however—his father is a civil engineer.) He went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of New Orleans and his Ph.D. in neuroscience and neurophysiology from Weill Medical College of Cornell University. For the next seven years, he worked in Columbia University’s psychiatry department, where he started as a postdoctoral fellow and then progressed to postdoctoral research scientist, associate research scientist, and assistant professor of clinical neurobiology. 

How Does Our Brain Control Our Motivations? 

In 2018, he became a faculty member at Fordham. He currently teaches cell biology to undergraduates at Fordham College at Rose Hill and students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In addition, he runs his own research lab on the second floor of Larkin Hall, which is devoted to understanding how our brain controls our motivated behavior. 

“What, in our brains, drives our desire to pursue rewarding things? What cells are important for making us willing to work hard at something? For weighing the costs and benefits of a potential decision?” Gallo said. “The goal of our lab is to pinpoint what cells in our brains are critical for some of these behaviors.” 

Scientists have already identified many brain regions that are involved in these behaviors, said Gallo. But they haven’t identified the individual cell types that are related to motivation, especially in the context of impulsivity.  

“Let’s compare this to a car engine. We know the engine is important for the car to run, but how do the individual components in that engine make it function? Our job in the lab is to try to understand the components of that engine—or those key brain cells—and how they work together,” he said. “Once we have enough knowledge about those specific cells, then one day, someone can design therapies that go right to the problem.” 

Understanding Our Impulsive Behavior in the Lab

In his new project funded by the NIH grant, Gallo is studying a small population of brain cells that is often overlooked: cholinergic interneurons. They make up about 2% of all brain cells in a key reward brain region. However, they have a wide range of control of neighboring cells, he said. 

Gallo’s project will tackle several key questions: Are these cells important for a specific motivated behavior—impulsive decision-making, a common trait of people with substance use disorders and other mental illnesses? If so, what is their genetic makeup? And how do these cells function while impulsive behavior is taking place? 

His team will investigate these questions using mice, which are able to make decisions about rewards and be impulsive, just like humans.

“We’re interested in how certain drugs can affect our brain processes to make us more impulsive. They can also cause impulsive behavior and a lack of decision-making abilities. Excessive impulsivity can seriously affect our health, from risky sexual behavior to how much we eat, or whether we take our medications. So if we can fully understand how the brain and all its cells work, in relation to impulsive behavior, then we might be able to target many different problems at once,” he said.   

Brain Research Relevant to the Bronx and Beyond

Gallo said that his research can seem inaccessible—a part of the “ivory tower” of academia. Even the title of his research project, “Cholinergic Interneuron D2 Receptor Function in Impulsive Behavior: Implications for Addiction,” sounds complicated. But his research has the potential to affect millions of people, he said. 

“The subjects that we study—mental illness, substance abuse disorder—are very relevant to our local community here in the Bronx and in New York,” said Gallo, who lives in Washington Heights with his wife and their two daughters. “Illicit drugs are inflicting harm on our health system right now. In the past, these disorders have been treated as a scourge on society. We have blamed people for not wanting to get better, but it’s really not their fault. Our brains are wired in a specific way, and drugs can make it difficult for us to resist addiction. We need to create better treatments and strategies that help people with these disorders.”

He credited his Fordham research team, which is largely made up of undergraduate and graduate students from the biological sciences and integrative neuroscience programs, with helping him reach that goal. In return, they helped him realize something about himself. 

“Mentoring younger generations is one of my favorite things about being here at Fordham. Some of my students may not know for sure that they want to pursue a career in science, but I enjoy inspiring them,” Gallo said. “Sometimes they don’t realize that they want to be a scientist—or that they even can. I hope to inspire them to pursue meaningful careers in solving the mysteries of the brain.” 

After earning a master’s degree in biology at Fordham five years ago, Anco moved to Wyoming to serve as assistant curator of the Draper Natural History Museum, part of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody. The museum, about 50 miles east of Yellowstone National Park, features a live raptor education program and introduces visitors to the sights, sounds, and smells of the region’s diverse ecosystems, from alpine to mountain meadow to plains.

Anco hadn’t considered museums as a career path until he worked closely with Fordham biology professor Evon Hekkala, Ph.D., conducting genetic research using historical African leopard specimens at the American Museum of Natural History. Beyond their educational mission, he realized, museums are “actively involved in research and, in some instances, conservation action.”

That’s what drew him to the Draper museum, which Anco said has been monitoring the occupancy, distribution, reproduction, and diet of golden eagles in the Bighorn Basin since 2009. He said he’s humbled and inspired by his work and where he does it.

“When I climb over a ridge and see how expansive this alpine landscape is, and that there’s literally no sign of human impact for miles and miles and miles, I get such a visceral feeling of raw nature that inspires me to care for it.”

Devin Rocks is still at least a year away from earning his Ph.D. in biology. But the Rockaway Park, Queens, native is already making a splash in the academic world, thanks to his work examining the role that fluctuating sex hormones can have on mental disorders such as anxiety and depression.

This spring, the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences honored Rocks with the Elizabeth Young New Investigator Award, and the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology awarded him its Welcome Initiative Award. In January, the Society for Neuroscience bestowed upon him the Trainee Professional Development Award.

The awards recognize both the promise that Rocks has as a scientist and the work he’s conducted at Fordham under the guidance of Marija Kundakovic, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology. Kundakovic’s lab has been focused on an acute problem: Women are twice as likely to have anxiety and depression than men, but little research has been done on the molecular level to figure out why—until now. In January, Kundakovic was awarded nearly $1.9 million in grant funding from the National Institute of Mental Health for her research.

Rocks, who graduated from Fordham College Rose Hill in 2017 with a B.S. in integrative neuroscience and is on track to earn a Ph.D. in biological sciences in 2022, has been a part of the research from the beginning. He was one of five co-authors of a 2019 paper published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications that showed how a microscopic cell component called chromatin changes its shape during the mouse ovarian cycle—especially when females experience a change in estrogen. Because the changes occur inside the brain area implicated in anxiety and depression, it may affect women’s vulnerability to an increased risk for these disorders.

“The chromatin is basically the packaging material of the DNA. The chromatin can either be open, which allows the genes to be turned on, or it can be closed, in which case the genes are turned off,” he said.

“The studies showed that, over the rodent estrous cycle, which is the rodent equivalent of the menstrual cycle, the fluctuating sex hormones are affecting whether this chromatin is open or closed and affecting certain genes.”

It’s not known exactly how the opening or closing of chromatin causes depression or anxiety, but connecting the two events together is an important step in the research.

Since that 2019 paper was published, Rocks has been conducting follow-up research that involves introducing a gene known as Egr1 into the brains of laboratory mice to mimic the changes that normally only happen during the estrous cycle. The results will be published as part of his dissertation.

“We can give mice extra copies of this gene in the brain region that we study, the ventral hippocampus, and this can mimic the effect you’d see from the fluctuating hormones. This gene seems to be playing an important master regulatory role,” he said.

Kundakovic, who joined Fordham in 2015 and began working with Rocks when he was in his junior undergraduate year, said “functional” studies that rely on live animals are vital to verifying studies that use computational analysis to predict whether one change (a change in estrogen) is connected to something happening in the brain (a change in chromatin structure) and behavior.

“You can do a big data-computational type analysis, and say, ‘Give me the predicted regulator of these chromatin changes that we are seeing.’ [In 2019], we did that, and we found a really good candidate in Egr1,” she said.

“What Devin did was he took the candidate that we have, and he was able to do a manipulation of the animals in which he could functionally relate the changes and say, ‘This is the regulator of the behavior.’”

Rocks still has more research to do. Now that he knows that introducing Egr1 into mouse brains can change their behavior, he’s planning to conduct experiments that show exactly how Egr1 affects chromatin.

“We want to see which changes in chromatin and gene expression that we see happening in normal animals over their estrous cycle are being regulated directly by Egr1,” said Rocks, who also teaches techniques in molecular biology to first-year graduate students.

The awards he received are gratifying, he said, given that he’s still completing his education.

“It’s an indication that the community is welcoming me as someone who will contribute to the field in the future and will continue to grow as a scientist, and so I’m really grateful for all of them,” he said.

The most challenging aspect of the research has been utilizing the full spectrum of research techniques required.

“A lot of labs will just do one of the techniques we do, like the genome-wide experiments. Learning how to do them and analyze all that data that comes out of it using bioinformatics analysis, and then also learning how to do animal surgeries—we combine so many different disciplines and techniques,” he said.

“It’s definitely been a challenge to keep up with all of that. It’s also really exciting though. Learning new things is one of my favorite parts of the job.”

Kundakovic was quick to note that when it was announced that Rocks had won the Elizabeth Young New Investigator Award, he was introduced as a “future leader in the field.”

“As someone who’s been working with him for the past five years, since he was an undergraduate, it’s really been my privilege to watch him grow as a person and a scientist,” she said.

“His dedication to his work, his passion; it’s just paid off really well. I think he’s on a really good path.”

“The field of neuroscience has been very male-centric. Most studies were historically done on males, and there wasn’t enough information on the female brain in general. This grant is not only a testament to the excellence of the project proposal, but also to the importance of this topic,” said Kundakovic, who learned she received the grant on Jan. 29. 

Kundakovic studies cellular changes in the brain on a molecular level using a mouse model. Her lab specializes in researching the molecular mechanisms behind hormonal changes during the ovarian cycle and how they can change female brain and behavior. Her research results could lead to the development of sex-specific treatments for mental disorders like anxiety and depression—disorders that are more prevalent in women than in men. 

In recent years, Kundakovic and her team discovered that chromatin, a microscopic cell component, changes its shape during the ovarian cycle, which also changes the way genes are expressed. Over the next five years of grant funding from the NIMH, they will build on their research and try to better understand how chromatin changes in brain cells can impact anxiety-related behavior, especially for female mice, in her project “Epigenetic regulation of brain and behavior by the estrous cycle.” 

“We are trying to understand how chromatin changes within brain cells affect cellular function and contribute to changes in behavior and which specific cells are really critical for changing behavior,” said Kundakovic. “With this new grant, we will be able to identify the specific brain cells that are really responsive to hormonal changes and reveal epigenetic regulators that are possible targets for drug treatment.”

Kundakovic said her research has taken on new meaning during the pandemic, an unprecedented period where more people than usual are struggling with their mental health, especially anxiety and depression. 

“The pandemic may widen the gender gap that we are already seeing in anxiety and depression,” Kundakovic said. “We will have even more women who are affected by these disorders.”

Elsa Au-Yeung

School: Fordham College at Rose Hill

Major: Biological Sciences

Minor: Bioethics

Current Job: Research Associate, Inflammation and Immunology, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

“One of the things I am the most grateful for from my experience at Fordham was actually learning about things not related to my major. Since we are required to take the core curriculum, I was exposed to so many different classes I never would have taken otherwise. These courses refined the way I think about virtually everything. Buddhism in America helped me discover my interest in Buddhism, and Intro to Bioethics challenged many preconceived beliefs I had about the health care industry and controversial ethicists.”

Read more of Elsa Au-Yeung’s story.

Reed Bihary

School: Gabelli School of Business

Major: Business Administration

Concentrations: Finance, Global Business

Minor: Economics

Current Job: Corporate and Institutional Banking Development Program Associate, PNC Financial Services

“Through the Gabelli School of Business, I was immediately taught the importance of networking, which helped me land multiple internships and gain a better understanding of which profession I wanted to pursue after graduation. The Fordham Mentoring Program helped to prepare me for interviews and expand my professional network. Connections I made with alumni through this program were pivotal in aligning me with the job I have today.”

Read more of Reed Bihary’s story.

Natalie Migliore

School: Fordham College at Rose Hill

Major: Journalism

Minor: Communication and Media Studies

Current Job: News Anchor/Writer, iHeartMedia

“Working at WFUV was hands down the best decision I ever made. It changed the trajectory of my life. I was going to be a business major, and walking into WFUV, I just fell in love with journalism. I wouldn’t have known about the position at iHeartMedia if it weren’t for having a connection from Fordham and WFUV. That reinforced [the importance of the]alumni network. Another thing I wouldn’t have gotten almost anywhere else was the small class sizes at Fordham. I built great relationships with my professors, and they’ve become great mentors to me.”

Read more of Natalie Migliore’s story.

John Morin

School: Fordham College at Rose Hill

Major: Political Science

Minors: American Studies, Mathematics

Current Job and Studies: Communications Associate, Regis High School; M.A. Candidate, Elections and Campaign Management, Fordham

“I was always surrounded by diverse experiences and perspectives, and the ability to have constructive conversations on complicated issues with my peers was amazing. The intro course for my American studies minor was one of the most important experiences I had. The professor, Diane Detournay, wanted us to challenge conventional thinking and advocate for needed change. The ideas she presented in class, I will always carry with me.”

Read more of John Morin’s story.

Finley Peay

School: Fordham College at Lincoln Center

Majors: Political Science, American Studies

Concentration: American Catholic Studies

Minor: Theology

Current Studies and Job: M.A. Candidate, Higher Education and Student Affairs, NYU; Graduate Assistant, Columbia University’s Office of University Life

“The biggest thing that I got out of Fordham was the breadth of the mentorship network. I got the best of both worlds participating in academics and student involvement at both Lincoln Center and Rose Hill. I’m still in touch with a lot of the administrators I worked with in the Office for Student Involvement. That’s one of the things I cherish the most: the number of people I met who genuinely care about students.”

Read more of Finley Peay’s story.

Julie Tin

School: Fordham College at Lincoln Center

Major: Psychology

Minor: Mandarin Chinese

Current Job: Human Resources Administrative Assistant, University Settlement, The Door, Broome Street Academy Charter High School

“Right now I work for a family of New York City organizations that give back to immigrant and low-income communities and provide services to disconnected youth. I had interned there during college, but I had little to no experience in the office setting before I was placed in Fordham’s Office of Alumni Relations for work-study. Through the staff’s guidance and instruction, I was able to develop data management, communication, and organizational skills that serve as the core of my professional abilities.”

Read more of Julie Tin’s story.

—Reporting by Chris Gosier, Adam Kaufman, Kelly Kultys, and Sierra McCleary-Harris