Asian American / Asian Research Institute
The City University of New York
Speakers gave a presentation to students at Borough of Manhattan Community College on the current situation and relief efforts happening in South Asia after the tsunami disaster.
Nehru E. Cherukupalli (a.k.a. C.E. Nehru) is Professor of Geology at Brooklyn College, CUNY. He hails from South India, had his schooling in Madras, India, and earned a Ph.D. in geology from Madras University. He also has a Master’s degree from Columbia University, New York. He has been teaching at Brooklyn College, City University of New York for over four decades and has been the past Chairman of the Geology Department. He served as the Interim Executive Director of the Asian American/Asian Research Institute of CUNY during 2006-2007. He has field experience in many places in India and in the United States and Canada. He has worked in mining operations in copper and iron ore mines in India. He has also worked on Moon rocks and he works on Meteorites and is a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He has considerable experience in teaching all levels of students at Brooklyn College and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Bhante Kondanna is a reverend from the Staten Island Buddhist Temple. He obtained an associate degree in Buddhist Philosophy in the University of Sri Lanka. Reverend Kondanna also has a Bachelor of Sciences in Social Work from York College as well as a Master's degree in Social Work from Fordham University.
Harendra Sirisena is a native of Sri Lanka. He graduated with a Bachelor of Sciences in Economics and Mathematics from the College of Staten Island and obtained a Master's degree in Economics and International Affairs in Columbia University. Mr. Sirisena is also a Ph. D. candidate in Economics in the New School University. He is actively involved in relief work with the disaster victims in Sri Lanka.
Dr. Thomas Tam was born on April 15, 1946 in Fujian, China, during the Chinese Civil War. He spent his childhood in Hong Kong where his parents had to rebuild their home from the ground up. Dr. Tam and his family immigrated to New York in 1964. He received BA in physics from City College of New York (1968), M.A. in film-making from Montclair State University (1978), M.P.H. from Columbia University School of Public Health (1980); and Ph.D. in SocioMedical Sciences from Columbia University (1983). He is Chairman of the Asian American Higher Education Council, and Executive Director of Asian American/Asian Research Institute, as well as the President of Oishi Movies, Inc. which produced a feature: Sunrise on Mulberry Street.
After graduating from City College of New York, Tam developed an active interest in community improvement in Chinatown, when he initiated a ten-day health fair which screened two thousand five hundred residents, leading to the establishment of Chinatown Health Clinic, now known as the Charles B. Wang Health Center. Tam’s career in community health continued when he became administrators of various City-wide health agencies. He taught at Columbia University, Herbert Lehman College, and St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
In 1989, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York as the first Chinese American member. Dr. Tam worked with a group of faculty members to establish the Asian American Higher Education Council, an organization which addresses critical issues concerning higher education in the Asian American community. Under Tam’s leadership, this organization has successfully organized numerous conferences and the creation of the Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI), where he served as Executive Director from 2001 to 2006.
In addition to his contribution to the fields of community health and higher education, Dr. Tam also has an abiding interest in movie making, an avocation which he has nurtured since college. He has produced many short movies which have been exhibited at various institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art. Tam has also founded the Asian American Film Festival in 1972, which became Asian Cine Vision, an organization with international recognition for showcasing movies from Asian/Asian American artists. Dr. Tam is a recent convert to Buddhism and has completed a documentary video, En Route to Lhasa.
Dr. Tam is survived by his wife Margaret, his daughter Anika, and step-children Emily and Victor.