Dr. Sharon Lall-Ramnarine joined Queensborough in January 2004 and is a tenured Full Professor in the Chemistry Department. Her research focuses on designing and characterizing ionic liquids, liquid salts that are important components in advanced devices and technologies. Ionic liquids are attractive replacements for traditional liquids owing to their high conductivity, non-flammability, high thermal stability, ability to be recycled and lack of evaporation or contribution to air pollution. Dr. Lall-Ramnarine's current research focus includes designing ionic liquids to replace the flammable liquids used in batteries such as those in cell phones and laptops. Highlights of her collaborative research include synthesizing ionic liquids for the recycling of spent nuclear fuel and as superior electrolytes in batteries, supercapacitors and solar cells. She has held a research collaborator appointment in the Chemistry Division at Brookhaven National Laboratory since 2001 and conducts research there every summer with her research students.
Dr. Lall-Ramnarine has obtained 28 research grants from the Department of Energy, Con Edison, CUNY and other funding agencies. She has 23 peer-reviewed publications in prestigious journals, such as Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Chemical Physics and Chemical Communications. Her publications have received over 285 citations and 1000 reads from fellow researchers. She has given 31 research presentations (including invited presentations) at local, national and international conferences, and co-authored over 200 presentations with her research mentees.
Dr. Lall-Ramnarine has been active in involving Queensborough's students and faculty in professional society events. She has co-organized several research conferences. She has been Co-Chair/committee member of the student activities committee of the NY section of the American Chemical Society since 2005 where she co-organized the Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium (ACS URS) for 6 years. She co-founded the New York Regional Alliance for Ionic Liquids (NYRAILS) and has been the Assistant Director since 2004. In 2007-2008 she was Director at Large for the NY section of the American Chemical Society. She initiated Queensborough's student and faculty participation (as the first community college) in the NY ACS annual National Chemistry Week celebration.
Dr. Lall-Ramnarine is a strong advocate for undergraduate research as an integral part of the curriculum and she invests significant effort to provide research opportunities to large numbers of students. She served as the director of the CUNY Research Scholars Program and Coordinator of Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice at QCC from August 2016 to December 2018. She implemented Undergraduate Research Day at QCC, showcasing the research of over 100 faculty and students annually. She is the current chair of the campus research committee. She has mentored 34 QCC students, securing paid research internships for each and guiding them to deliver prize winning presentations. Her publications include 31 student co-authorships by 14 individual Queensborough students. She has involved her research students in her collaborative research at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Yale University, Rutgers University, several CUNY Colleges and Strem Chemicals Inc. Dr. Lall-Ramnarine is the 2018 winner of the Faculty Excellence in Scholarship award at Queensborough.
Dr. Lall-Ramnarine received her Ph.D. from The Graduate Center of CUNY, her M.A. from Queens College, CUNY and her B.Sc. from the University of Guyana. Outside of QCC, Dr. Lall-Ramnarine enjoys spending time with her husband Kumar and her sons Roshen (14 years old) and Julian (9 years old).
