A native of Buenos Aires, Ruben received a B.E. in Chemical Engineering from the Cooper Union and a Masters and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University. He is currently an assistant professor at the Cooper Union, where he is actively involved in teaching various undergraduate chemistry courses. In addition, he has also taught courses at New York University, Columbia University, and the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. His current research interests include bioinformatics and applications of nanotechnology to chemistry and biology. In addition to math and science, Ruben has an affinity for tango dancing, karaoke and encaustic art.
As a young child, I remember often being asked by adult family members “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. My answer would change frequently, partly because I wasn’t really sure what career options were available to me and partly because my interests seemed to vary tremendously. Ironically enough when I was growing up I hated science. I didn’t think I had any particular aptitude for it, and I had trouble understanding abstract, intangible concepts. In 8th grade I turned down being placed in an honors earth science class, and in 9th grade I opted for the less rigorous physical science class.
"Ironically enough when I was growing up I hated science. I didn’t think I had any particular aptitude for it."
I did enjoy mathematics and art though, and was studying in advanced classes in both of these subjects. With these interests, as I started adolescence I aspired to be a graphic artist. Later, as I entered high school and was faced with the choice of going down the “Law and Humanities” track or "Math and Sciences" track, it was my enjoyment of math that motivated me to choose the "Math and Sciences" track - I reasoned that at least it had math in it. But because I had fallen behind in my science courses, I had to take both biology and chemistry in 10th grade.
It was at this point that I had met three of my most influential teachers. Mr. Wang was my biology teacher for the entire year, and I felt he was an amazing instructor. He had a clear talent for 
making the subject matter interesting and entertaining. For the first time in my life I felt like I really understood science! I still remember many of his mnemonic devices and demonstrations that brought the subject matter to life for me. Mr. Small and Mr. Peller were my chemistry teachers that year. They reminded me a bit of Abbott and Costello – very often one would step into the classroom of the other, rattle off a chemistry joke or two, and then leave! Again, the subject matter seemed to come alive and I was genuinely excited about science. At this point, when people asked me what I wanted to become, I would typically answer “a doctor”.
The summer after my junior year I was admitted to an internship program at The Cooper Union, a very small and prestigious university in New York. The students can only major in engineering, art or architecture. I participated in an intensive six week program in chemistry. My mentor, Prof. John Bové, created a lasting impression. I had never met anyone so knowledgeable! I vividly remember walking into his office and being completely blown away by the shelves that were filled to capacity with chemistry textbooks. He treated me (and the other participants in the program) as a colleague rather than as a high school student, and really caused me to develop independent thinking and reasoning. I remember telling him one time how much work a certain experiment was, and his response was “If it’s work you shouldn’t do it. Chemistry should only be fun” Those words have stuck with me to this day.
“My mentor, Prof. John Bové, created a lasting impression. I had never met anyone so knowledgeable!"
As I approached my senior year, college applications loomed near. I had to seriously think about what I wanted to do with my life. By this point I was still considering a career in medicine, but my favorite subjects were chemistry and math. I decided to major in chemical engineering and pursue these subjects further. The rest, as they say, is history – I wound up getting a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, as well as a master’s and Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry (I guess I couldn’t decide which aspect of science I liked the best so I decided to learn about them all!). It was also at this point in my life that I discovered my love for tango dancing and karaoke (sadly).
I have come full-circle and am currently an assistant professor at The Cooper Union, in the chemistry department. In addition I have taught courses at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York University, Polytechnic University (now the Polytechnic Institute of NYU), and Columbia University. In spite of the tremendous teaching load I still remain heavily involved in research. My doctoral dissertation involved the design, synthesis of HIV inhibitors, specifically small organic molecules that would selectively target HIV-1 TAR RNA. This area holds promise as a novel therapeutic strategy to combat the virus, and I have tried to encourage undergraduate students to continue this research. However, I pride myself on being very open-minded when it comes to scientific investigations, and prefer students to come up with their own ideas.
My research is focused on bioinformatics and applications of nanotechnology to chemistry and biology. I've worked on a variety of projects in the last few years, including:
