Azenon found home base in Russell Science

Jonathan Azenon ’24 arrived on campus in the fall of 2020, during the pandemic. While many of his classmates were learning virtually from home or their residence hall rooms, he was in the new Russell Science Center much of the year working hands-on with his faculty.

“It was cool to see Russell Science be able to switch gears to make sure education was still happening during the pandemic,” Azenon said. “Even though we had to be six feet apart, the professors were able to work with us. That’s something I was super grateful for.”

Azenon has been using the new facility—part of the Greater > Than campaign’s $35 million Science Facilities Project—literally year-round. For the past two summers he has participated in the Cornell Summer Research Institute. 

He came to Cornell from Culpeper, Virginia, intending to become a doctor. Then he discovered a new passion.

“Barbara Christie-Pope taught the intro biology course as a research project, and we got to develop a whole project. I decided to see if cinnamon could inhibit bacterial growth—and it did! After that I decided I wanted to keep doing this.”

That summer Assistant Professor of Biochemistry Catherine Volle and Associate Professor of Chemistry Jai Shanata ’05 invited him into their labs. That is when he fell in love with science, he says, “And Russell Science Center has been my home base since then.”

This year his research is taking him around the world.

During Block 2 he and Volle presented at an American Chemical Society conference. Block 3, Professor of Geology Rhawn Denniston sent him to a lab in Venice, Italy, to analyze stalagmites. He will present on that research at a conference in Chicago during Block 4. Finally, he’ll present with Volle again at a conference in San Diego Block 6.

He’s declared two majors: biochemistry and molecular biology, and French. When he’s not studying Azenon is a resident assistant at Pauley-Rorem, a chemistry tutor, the Diversity Committee student representative, International Student Services student manager, women’s soccer manager, and he works at Cole Library.

“It’s about taking advantage of these opportunities,” he said of his Cornell experience. “Cornell does its part helping students achieve their full potential. As you can see, I’ve done a lot in just two years, and I’ve got two more years to go.”