The valedictorian of the class of 2014 is Gregory Badura. After graduating from Monroe Woodbury High School, Badura came to Iona because of the physics program.

“I knew I wanted to major in physics ever since high school,” Badura said. “I really loved my Honors and AP physics classes and came here because I was impressed with the faculty in the physics department.”

In addition to majoring in physics, Badura is graduating with a minor in math and almost minored in computer science.

All three of these subjects point towards Badura’s postgraduate plans. Next year, he’ll be entering the Ph.D. program for imaging science at the Rochester Institute for Technology. It’s the only program in the country.

“It’s a multidisciplinary degree that focuses on electrical engineering, physics and computer science,” said Badura.

This decision was not quite so cut and dry as his undergraduate major decision was.

“I spent all last semester applying to programs in medical physics, electrical engineering and imaging science,” he said. “I knew I wanted to go into something related to imaging but wasn’t sure which field exactly.”

The science focuses on images, from viewing the earth from space to zooming in on the smallest atoms, according to the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science’s website. Badura explained that the technology developed in the field can be used in a variety of ways from finding debris from the missing flight MH370 to MRI scans in a hospital.

Badura spent the last two years working on a similar project for his honors thesis. He and assistant professor of chemistry Dr. Thomas Castonguay used computer simulations to examine ways hydrogen-powered cars might be made to work in real life.

One of Badura’s favorite things about Iona is the ability to build relationships with professors. He said of Castonguay: “He was really amazing to work under and I learned a lot under his guidance. He was one of the best professors I have had at Iona.”

He credits Iona’s small size for allowing these relationships to grow.

“That’s something you can’t get at a bigger school and I know I will keep in touch with my professors long after I leave here,” he said.

Badura has also done research outside Iona. He spent the summer of 2012 as a National Science Foundation REU Scholar at Vanderbilt University researching actin, which he explained is the protein in our body that keeps our hands from exploding when we slap a wall.

“I modeled some ways that actin responds to particles moving through it in hopes of learning about how cancer cells travel through our body when they metastasize,” said Badura.

Last summer, he worked at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY working with imaging systems and radiation therapy techniques that medical physicists and radiation oncologists use to save lives.

“It involved a lot of computer science and really interesting physics,” he said.

In addition to being a physics major Badura has also been a campus minister, an Iona-in-Mission participant, and a member of the rowing team.