Noah McKenna '08

Noah McKenna of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, participated in the Bard-Rockefeller Semester in Science (BRSS) during his junior year. Part of Bard College’s ongoing partnership with the internationally respected Rockefeller University, BRSS is a one-semester program in New York City designed for advanced science students, particularly those in the fields of neuroscience, biochemistry, molecular biology, developmental biology, biophysics, and genetics.

McKenna’s research took place in the sensory neuroscience laboratory of James Hudspeth, who is F. M. Kirby Professor at Rockefeller and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. McKenna participated in a project studying the details of the hair cells in the human inner ear. When these cells die—from loud sound or with age—hearing is lost. McKenna’s part of the research sought to learn what causes stem cells to form new hair cells. “Does the signal come from the hair cell or the stem cell?” said McKenna. “If we can figure out the exact signal, then one day we might be able to reactivate the hair cells in human ears and restore hearing.”

McKenna spent 35 hours a week in the laboratory, in addition to classes and assignments. “Research takes a huge amount of time,” he said, “but in order to get anything done that I can be proud of, I have to put in the hours.”

In addition to laboratory work, BRSS students take specially designed courses at Rockefeller and in the Bard Globalization and International Affairs (BGIA) Program. At BGIA, McKenna took Issues in Global Public Health. He found the required reading especially thought provoking, and said the course complemented a career goal: “I love research for a number reasons, but I can see myself doing research only if it has the potential to save lives or abate suffering.” Otherwise, he said, he sees himself going into medicine or civil engineering, “establishing sustainable public health systems.”