Athula Attygalle, Stevens mass spectrometry expert, collaborates in Columbia University "Biosphere 2" project 

Dr. Athula Attygalle, the director of the Biodiversity Program at Stevens Institute of Technology, has been invited by his colleagues to collaborate in future projects at Columbia University's Biosphere 2 Center and to help organize an upcoming "Chemistry of the Biosphere Symposium," to be held at Biosphere 2.

Biosphere 2 Center is Columbia's western campus, located outside of Tucson, Ariz, devoted to deepening the understanding of earth systems vital to the policies and decisions that will affect earth's future.

"Professor Koji Nakanishi, Columbia's Centennial Professor of Chemistry and Director of Research at Biosphere 2 Center Chemistry Unit, invited me to investigate the invasion of Biosphere 2 by the pantropical ant-species Paratrechina longicornis," said Attygalle.

"I have conducted extensive research - about 50 papers out of the 125 I have published are on ant chemistry - on the chemical ecology of ants. Dr. Volker Witte from the University of Frankfurt, Germany, is my collaborator on this project. The Humboldt Foundation sponsored him to join me as postdoctoral research fellow because I am a former Humboldt fellow. We plan to study how these ants use chemicals, more specifically pheromones, for communication."

Attygalle is a professor and program director in Stevens' Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the Imperatore School of Sciences and Arts. Before joining Stevens, Attygalle spent 12 years at Cornell University as the director of mass spectrometry facility, where he collaborated with Dr. Eloy Rodriguez, the director of the Punta Cana Biodiversity Lab, Dominican Republic, where Attygalle also conducts research and oversees internships of Stevens students.

The uniqueness of Columbia's Biosphere 2 Center is its focus on understanding the interaction between environmentally induced chemical responses and consequential biological responses of organisms, particularly plants and insects, via natural products. The large-scale synthetic communities of plants and soils inside the Biosphere 2 Laboratory provide the "model" environments needed for these studies. These mesocosms offer unique research opportunities to study "system-level" responses to controlled and measured environmental conditions, such as atmospheric composition and light exposure.

At present, the Chemistry unit is conducting three experiments, including: the role of ultraviolet light on natural products chemistry, biosynthesis and insect biology; chemically mediated moth-hostplant interactions under varying environmental conditions; and a comprehensive chemical characterization.

Equipped with a 3.1 acre, glass-enclosed research laboratory, and offering academic programs in earth systems for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as educational programs for 180,000 annual visitors and local school children, Biosphere 2 Center pursues a mission to foster informed leadership and intelligent stewardship of the planet.

Through Attygalle's work, Stevens looks forward to rich and productive research collaboration.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.  

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