Julie Basu Ray

Dr. Julie Basu Ray, an Associate Professor in the CBU School of Sciences, is truly a citizen of the world. As a native of Kolkata, India who moved to North America and found herself teaching at a university founded by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, she firmly believes that spreading education across the globe is a core principle of the Lasallian tradition.

Dr. Basu Ray earned her BS in Human Physiology from Presidency University in Kolkata and her MS in Human Physiology from the University of Calcutta. She relocated to Canada and completed her PhD in Cardiovascular Biology at the University of Toronto, then crossed Lake Ontario to the U.S. and conducted postdoctoral studies at the University at Buffalo in its Center for Developmental Biology of the Lung, Division of Neonatology, and Department of Pediatrics.

Prior to joining the CBU faculty in Fall 2021, she taught at LeMoyne-Owen College and Dillard University in New Orleans — where she still teaches in its DU-WISHES Summer Program for high school women in STEM programs. At CBU, Dr. Basu Ray teaches courses in Health Sciences Anatomy and Physiology, Microbiology, and Nutrition to undergraduates in the Health Sciences program and to students in the traditional BSN program, as well as Anatomy and Physiology in the Physician Assistant Studies graduate program.

She is also following her conviction that spreading education across the world is a core Lasallian principle by teaching three of her classes as part of an ongoing international collaboration with faculties and students from De La Salle Medical and Health Sciences Institute (DLSMHSI) in the Philippines as a part of the International Association of Lasallian Universities’ Collaborative Online International Learning (IALU-COIL).

COIL Project 1 is a collaboration with Marie Esthel Familiar at DLSMHSI, wherein students in CBU’s HSCI 113 Anatomy and Physiology I course work together with students at DLSMHSI to develop a survey to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding COVID among Nursing and Health Sciences students on the CBU and DLSMHSI campuses. This project started in Spring 2022, and findings are currently being prepared for publishing.

COIL Project 2 was a “mirror class” of HSCI 114 Anatomy and Physiology II with Clarence Witty Mendoza at DLSMHSI, which was launched in Fall 2022. Both Dr. Basu Ray and Dr. Mendoza delivered a lecture on the same topic — to students on the other campus. A memorandum of understanding between the two campuses is currently being planned for more such “mirror lectures” in the near future.

COIL Project 3 is a collaboration with Maria Teresa Basilides at DLSMHSI, which began in Fall 2022. In this project, students in CBU’s HSCI 116 Nutrition course collaborated with students at DLSMHSI in a research project presentation regarding caffeine addiction among teenagers and young adults in the USA and the Philippines. Using their research, they are developing a survey to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding common caffeine-drug interactions among Nursing and Health Sciences students on the CBU and DLSMHSI campuses.

We plan to continue these collaborative projects in my courses in the upcoming semesters,” Dr. Basu Ray says, “so students get to meet students from across the globe and learn about other cultures — without leaving their home and without spending a dime!