St. John's News

Queens, NY - A small team of St. John’s University biology professors recently returned from a 10-day trip to Vietnam, where it met with biology faculty from Vinh University to lay the groundwork for a possible partnership and exchange program.

From May 18-20, three members of the St. John’s biology department — Dipak Haldar, Ph.D., Director of Graduate Studies in Biology; his wife, Jaya Haldar, Ph.D.; and Jay Zimmerman, Ph.D.,— held extensive meetings with the Biology Leadership Board of Vinh University (VU), located in the city of Vinh, in north-central Vietnam.

Calling the meetings “remarkable,” Zimmerman indicated that the Biology Leadership Board (composed of the senior faculty members in the department) showed significant interest in adopting some of the research methods espoused by the St. John’s biology department. He explained that Vietnam — a former developing country currently experiencing a spike in its economy — is beginning to shift its college-level teaching philosophy so that it more closely resembles that of the United States.

Photo Gallery

Until recently, Vietnamese education has followed the Russian model, which is noted for its emphasis on practical applications and criticized by some for its restrictions on student/faculty interaction. Conversely, the U.S. system is known both for its theoretical bent and its emphasis on hearty collaboration between students and professors at the doctoral level.

The recent meetings between the two biology departments hinged on these recent trends, says Zimmerman, who is the Chair of the St. John’s Biology Department. Vinh University, located in a heavily agricultural section of the country, has always boasted a biology department with a strong reputation in applied agriculture, food safety, biodiversity, ecology and conservation. What it lacks, says Zimmerman, are the molecular biological foundations that take the applications to a deeper level.

Enter St. John’s. As Zimmerman explains it, a partnership between the two universities would allow VU biology researchers to accrue the “molecular tools” needed to gain a certain level of expertise. “They’re very big on medicinal plants, for example,” says Zimmerman. “But now they want to know, ‘What are the active products of these plants?’ ‘What do they do?’ ”


Collaborative Projects Envisioned
Zimmerman says that both universities’ biology departments house researchers with “significant overlapping expertise. Our faculties could work together in collaborative projects,” he says, indicating that he would like to see VU faculty members researching and teaching on the Queens campus. Already, one VU professor has enrolled in a St. John’s Ph.D. molecular biology program, with a goal of exploring turtle conservation.

Other potential benefits of a St. John’s/VU partnership include:

• a Vietnam-based annual international biology conference
• a VU-based Center of Molecular Biology
• an opportunity for St. John’s students enrolled in “Tropical Biology” to travel each summer to VU, which sits near an expansive tropical rainforest, to do their field work
• an opportunity for St. John’s College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions to contribute to discussions relating to medicinal plants and chemistry

Though nothing has been made official, Zimmerman says he and his colleagues have introduced plans for an international biology conference in Vietnam next summer.

During the trip, Zimmerman found time to chat with VU students, whom he called “the most interesting kids,” about molecular biology and the U.S. educational system. “We couldn’t shut them up when I flew the discussion open to questions,” he recalls with a laugh. “They were really hungry to hear what it’s like in the American system.”

Currently, two VU alumni are enrolled at St. John’s.

There are only a few challenges to any foreseen partnership, the largest being the language barrier. Zimmerman says that VU faculty and administrators, for the most part, speak only Vietnamese and Russian. During last month’s meetings, Zimmerman and the Haldars required translators, some of whom were Vietnamese students currently studying at St. John’s.

Zimmerman and the Haldars are not the only St. John’s faculty members who have reached out to Vietnam this year, as a spate of joint projects have developed between that country and the University under the leadership of Hung P. Le, D.A., Assistant Dean for the Graduate Division of St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

According to Le, it’s all part of a multi-platform initiative conjoining academic, athletic, artistic and service-based elements to cement St. John’s into the new fabric of post-developing Vietnam. Last month, a group of faculty members and students from the St. John’s Department of Psychology traveled to the Far Eastern country, where they introduced their research methodologies to Hanoi National University of Education. On May 15, the St. John’s biology and psychology departments united in Ho Chi Minh City to cheer on the St. John’s volleyball team, in town for a tournament featuring several Asian national teams.

Le says he’s particularly excited about the VU discourse taking place. “2008 will be a fresh beginning between St. John’s and Vinh University,” he says, noting that the universities are close to designing a dual curriculum package. “This collaboration will continue to grown into a truly rich, bilateral relationship.”

One-Hundred and Twenty is the New 80
When he’s not facilitating partnerships, Zimmerman tends to his research, which focuses largely on the biology of aging. Thirteen years ago, he and his colleagues published a paper revealing that the reduction of a single amino acid in the diet of a rodent can enhance its lifespan by 45 percent.

The St. John’s professor remains optimistic that his findings on lifespan enhancement will one day lead to more significant results. “I’m sure this research could transfer to humans,” he says. “The current problem we’re facing is that humans can’t put up with the diet — it isn’t palatable.” In the next few months, however, Zimmerman and his colleagues plan to conduct a new test that alters the amino-acid structure in food in way that causes it to become surprisingly tasty.

“It might be that sweetening your coffee can be the fountain of youth,” he says enthusiastically.