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Summer school at T��ɫ��Ƶ for 36 outstanding students from two of war-torn Ukraine’s top specialized high schools for physics and mathematics began with a 12-hour bus ride from the capital Kyiv to the Polish border on the west.  It would take another six hours to get to Warsaw, Poland’s main city, from where the weary travelers caught a 10-hour flight to JFK. 

Conflict has a way of complicating the simplest of things in life. 

Until Aug. 12, however, normalcy returns to the lives of these young, gifted minds from the Kyiv’s (UPML) and the Kharkiv Physics and Mathematics Lyceum (KPML) No. 27, as they participate in a three-week research camp at The City College.

Dubbed “,” it’s the brainchild of CCNY Grove School of Engineering Professor Alexander Khanikaev, a pioneer of topological photonics and one of the world’s Highly Cited Researchers (HCR). Originally from South Ossetia, another war-torn region in the former Soviet Union, Khanikaev heard about the predicament of UPML’s talented students when approached to help raise funds for bomb shelters there.

“This school is really famous and is comparable to that of the Bronx High School of Science in terms of its contribution to training outstanding scientists in the former Soviet Union, and in the post-Soviet times,” he said. 

“In some respect this school has the same mission as CCNY in uplifting students from poverty by creating opportunities for them in various fields including STEM,” Khanikaev added. “I thought that it would be great to organize a summer school for these students so that they could escape the reality, at least for a short period of time, and reinforce their interest in the sciences.” 

Khanikaev’s initiative is supported by the Simons Foundation and the Office of Naval Research, who co-founded the summers school, as well as by The City College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. 

The outcome thus far is a cohort of some of Ukraine’s best and brightest high schoolers engaged in research -- ranging from photonics to creating materials for nanotechnology -- with at CCNY and the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC), a branch of the CUNY Graduate Center on the CCNY campus. 

In addition to Khanikaev and his state-of-the photonics lab, other mentors include , Einstein Professor of Physics at the Graduate Center, CUNY, with affiliation to CCNY, and a reputation as an internationally renowned metamaterials expert. 

The young visitors, mostly eighth and ninth graders, are grabbing the opportunity with open arms. 

Fourteen-year-old Zakhar Cherniak, a ninth grader at UPML, is nurturing his interest in metamaterials and nanostructures under Alù’s tutelage. As well as returning to the US for college – possibly at The City College. “Why not? After this trip, I’ll have lots of contacts at CCNY,” he said.

Sofia Siedlovska and Daria Ruban, ninth grade classmates at KMPL and both chemistry enthusiasts, are awed by their project in the lab of Maria Tamargo, a member of the National Academy of Engineering hailed for her contributions to molecular-beam epitaxy of semiconductor materials.

“We are working with the Professor on creating materials for nanotechnology. It’s really interesting research that will continue without us when we leave,” said Siedlovska. The 14-year-old aspires to be a surgeon who could, in the future, apply nanotechnology to her work.

Both Siedlovska and Ruban have also been inspired by their early research to return states-side for college.
  
Primary sponsors of the “Science For Ukraine” summer camp at CCNY include the Simons Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.

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About t��ɫ��Ƶ
Since 1847, T��ɫ��Ƶ has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.