New student association combines science and diversity

05/05/2025

It was an experiment. When SUNY Cortland junior biochemistry major Bradley Blake mixed the sciences with social networking, he set off a chain reaction that bound together about 20 future Red Dragon scientists into a new chapter of a national organization for Black chemists and chemical engineers.

His solid academic credentials — a 3.5 grade point average — and buoyant personality made him the perfect inaugural president of the Cortland chapter of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), which launched about a year ago with 12 original members. Today, 10 of the members are recognized by the national organization.

“I like hanging with my friends,” said Blake, whose cheerful message to classmates about science research is “Just try it, the water will be fine.”

“It’s an outreach club so our main goal is outreach, which we haven’t done as yet,” Blake said. “Next semester we plan on traveling to different inner city schools and spreading the joy of chemistry while representing Cortland.”

Outside the classroom, laboratory and his busy campus life, Blake enjoys running a group that encourages students of color and friends to test their comfort level in the challenging world of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

“It has helped me in many ways, the first being responsibility and time management,” Blake said of his role as NOBCChE Cortland chapter president.

Blake, who is underwriting his own education, also has served as a Dragon Hall resident assistant, a peer tutor with Cortland’s Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) and a Corey Union summer conference assistant.

“I’ve struggled with taking on more than I can bear at times,” Blake said. “Being in a presidential role has allowed me to gain experience in planning and overall leadership.”

Since the northeast chapter inception, Cortland members have attended two conferences, last fall in Orlando, Florida, and this past April in College Park, Maryland. There, they mingled with peers and Black luminaries in chemistry and presented posters explaining their research.

“Bradley is very ambitious and industrious,” said NOBCChE faculty advisor Julius Green, a SUNY Cortland assistant professor of organic chemistry. Blake was Green’s research assistant in summer 2024 and through the 2024-25 academic year.

“He’s very quick at grasping difficult concepts and mastering some hard techniques,” Green said. “I’ll use the word ‘hard worker’ because he can get work done in one sitting that typically would take an undergraduate a week to do.”

Blake currently is training to manage Green’s two other student lab assistants this coming summer and next academic year.

“I think I’ve been doing chemistry for so long now that I understand what the expectations are as a lab manager,” Blake said. “But Dr. Green will be tying up the loose ends, giving me the full gist of the lab manager role.”

Blake was born on the Caribbean Island nation of Jamaica. When he was 11 he immigrated to the New York City neighborhood by that name and now lives in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., having become a U.S. citizen last year.

“My love for chemistry came from my mother, who told me I was going to become a doctor,” Blake said.

“I’ve been working since I was 14,” Blake said, describing various service industry after school jobs. “In high school, I used to go to class from 7 to 2. Then my shift at work started from 2:30 to 10 p.m. and I did that five times a week.

“Because I migrated from a different country, I didn’t really have a plan for what high school or what college I wanted to go to,” he said.

Blake nevertheless arrived at SUNY Cortland having passed nine high school Advanced Placement courses, mostly in STEM fields or scientific writing.

As a sophomore, Blake conducted summer microbiology research with Christa Chatfield, professor of biological sciences.

“Bradley did research with me as an LSAMP summer fellow in 2023 and for research credit in 2023 before switching his research interest to chemistry — where he found his real intellectual joy,” Chatfield said of Blake’s participation in the Cortland chapter of the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program.

“He is really dedicated to discovery and was very excited to share his research at a conference,” Chatfield said of Blake’s first STEM foray to the annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists, a mixture of professional development and scientific presentations occurring in Phoenix, Arizona.

Blake’s enthusiasm was contagious.

“He walked around repeating the names of all the chemicals over and over all week before his poster presentation,” Chatfield said. “I think we all could recite them by the end of the trip.”

“I found that it was what I loved,” said Blake, whose research work involves examining potential DNA-binding compounds in Green’s lab.

“Right now, he’s been doing pure chemistry,” Green said of Blake. “I’ve had him do a little bit of synthesis but mostly I’ve had him focus on what’s called UV-visible and fluorescent spectroscopy. It gives you information about the electronic structure of the compounds that we are synthesizing.”

For his upcoming eight weeks of full-time summer research in Green’s lab, Blake will be supported by the Zipp Summer Research Fellowship.

While at Cortland, Blake’s full-time summer laboratory work and conference experiences also were underwritten by the Undergraduate Research Council, the Chemistry Department, the Cortland College Foundation, the Cortland chapter of LSAMP, local fellowships and external grants including the National Science Foundation and Organic Syntheses.

In his short academic career, Blake has presented seven research posters and delivered one professional presentation, most recently presenting a poster of his research during Transformations 2025. He said seeing his name included in a published research paper would really synthesize his academic experience.

“I think I aspire to innovate,” Blake said. “I want to make my mark in chemistry or biology in some way, any way that I can. … I don’t aspire to gain anything, but more so like to give something.”

“I do think this club would help advance our members’ careers in science,” he said. “It leans in on a very nonscientific aspect of the profession which is networking and communication. We’re teaching skills you can’t get from a textbook, which are vital.”

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