Profiles of 2001 Graduating Students

Michael De La Cruz follows the flow of research from the banks of the Hudson to medical school

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

When Michael De La Cruz graduates this Sunday, he will have left a small legacy along the shore of the Hudson River.

Michael De La Cruz '01, who researched the effects of pollutants in the Hudson River on a weevil that controls the invasive plant purple loosestrife, examines some experimental loosestrife in the Ecotoxicology Lab. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

For his undergraduate research project, De La Cruz, a biology major in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, examined the possible harmful effects of pollutants on a little-known weevil called Hylobius transversovittatus. Along stretches of the Hudson River, a beautiful but nasty, weedy plant called purple loosestrife crowds out other plants, effectively strangling the native plant life out of existence. The weevil, which eats the roots of purple loosestrife almost exclusively, acts as a natural biological control on the invasive plant. De La Cruz wanted to ensure that river contaminants are not harming the critter.

"The Hylobius may fail to control purple loosestrife if the insects do not successfully establish themselves, due to contamination," said De La Cruz. In the river, he said, heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and zinc work themselves from the water into the nearby soil and into the plants. Through the plants, the metals are consumed by the insects.

Preliminary results of his study show that heavy metals are affecting the physical development of the weevil, as the weight of the adult weevil and development time is increased. Bernd Blossey, the Cornell assistant professor of natural resources who is the adviser on De La Cruz's research, said these results are statistically significant but with very small effects, and the weevils should still be able to do their loosestrife-controlling work.

Long before he began tracking the Hudson's heavy metals, De La Cruz spent his formative years adapting from island to city life. Before grade school, he and his family lived in the seaside working town of Hatillo in Puerto Rico, near Arecibo on the island's northern edge. The town is known for its strong dairy production. Weekly, or sometimes twice a week, De La Cruz and his older brother would walk the half-mile-long, well-worn trail from his parents' house to his grandfather's dairy to fetch a few gallons of milk. De La Cruz always carried a gallon home. "A gallon of milk is pretty heavy for a 4-year-old to carry a half-mile," he said.

Just before he entered the first grade, his family moved to Brooklyn. De La Cruz, who spoke only Spanish, went from fetching farm-fresh milk to playing basketball in schoolyards, running bases in unorganized street baseball and using spare money to buy Topps baseball cards, Snickers, Twix and Doritos at neighborhood grocers.

De La Cruz carried the ethics of hard work from his childhood into and through his college years, and next fall he will enter the State University of New York's Upstate Medical School in Syracuse with the goal of becoming a cardiologist or obstetrician.

Blossey wryly questions his student's decision to go into medicine.

"In raising these weevils, it is considered good to get a 50 or 60 percent success rate. Michael can get a 90 percent rate," said Blossey. "He's a great researcher, he's extremely patient and dedicated. Surely I would rather have him stay in my laboratory or become an ecologist than lose him to the medical field. If his research is any indication, he's going to be a great doctor."