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Stony Brook University

#14 Tyler Stephenson-Moore takes a shot during last Saturday evening's game. Photo from Stony Brook Athletics

The Stony Brook men’s basketball team went toe-to-toe with Yale in front of an energized crowd inside Island Federal Arena on Dec. 3. The Seawolves put forth a valiant effort as they were led by senior guard Tyler Stephenson-Moore and graduate guard Aaron Clarke, who each posted 20-point outings. Despite the Seawolves’ efforts, the Bulldogs were able to narrowly pull away, 77-72, to improve to 8-1 on the season. 

Clarke made his Stony Brook debut and gave the Seawolves a lift off the bench as he scored 20 points in 22 minutes. The graduate checked into the game with 15:44 to play in the first half and scored his first points as a Seawolf at the 13:29 mark when he knocked down a three-pointer.

Stephenson-Moore led the way offensively for Stony Brook as he scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Stephenson-Moore helped fuel an 8-0 run in the second half as he drilled a three to cut Yale’s lead to 67-62 with 8:04 to play. 

The Seawolves and Bulldogs traded blows down the stretch. Stony Brook was able to get within two points of the lead three times over the final eight minutes of the game, but Yale came up with an answer on each occasion. With 1:06 to play in the contest, Clarke converted a pair of free-throws to make it 72-70. Yale returned the favor by cashing in on two free-throws on the ensuing possession with 43 seconds to play to go up, 74-70. A second-chance layup by graduate forward Frankie Policelli cut the Bulldog’s lead to two points, 74-72, as he cleaned up a missed three by Stephenson-Moore with 15 seconds to go. 

Yale was able to convert its free-throws down the stretch and go on to win by the final score of 77-72. The five-point margin of victory was the second-smallest of the season for Yale, its smallest margin of victory was three points when it defeated Hawaii, 62-59, in overtime earlier this season. 

“This [experience] is something we can build on,” said head coach Geno Ford after the game. “Tonight we played hard and we played well — it just wasn’t quite well enough to beat a really, really good Yale team From a coach perspective, I’m disappointed we lost … but we took a huge step forward and this is by far the best we’ve looked.”

Up next, the team will travel to Rhode Island to take on Brown on Dec.9. A quick turnaround finds the Seawolves back at Island Federal Arena on Dec. 12, for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off against Sacred Heart.

Anastasia Warren recorded her third 20-point performance of the season at last Saturday's game. Photo from Stony Brook Athletics

The Stony Brook women’s basketball team battled tough, but was ultimately edged by Bucknell, 64-58, on Dec 3 in Sojka Pavilion in Lewisberg, PA. Graduate guard Anastasia Warren paced the Seawolves with a game-high 20 points as she recorded her third 20-point performance of the season and first since November 14, against Iona.

The Bison outlasted the Seawolves in a back-and-forth contest. The score was tied a total of 11 times and the lead changed five times. Stony Brook led 46-42 with 1:59 to play in the third quarter following a pair of free-throws by sophomore forward Sherese Pittman. Bucknell used a 10-2 run that carried over into the fourth quarter to take a lead it would not relinquish.

Stony Brook battled until the final buzzer as it cut the Bison lead to as little as three points with 22.6 seconds to play. With 22.6 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Warren knocked down a three-pointer off a feed from senior guard Gigi Gonzalez.

 Bucknell was able to close the game out down the stretch as Tai Johnson converted three of her four free-throw attempts over the final 22.6 seconds to give the Bison a 64-58 advantage, a score it would hold on to win by.

Warren finished as the game’s leading scorer with 20 points. The guard shot 9-of-23 from the field and 2-of-8 from three-point range. She grabbed four rebounds and swiped a season-high tying three steals. It marked Warren’s third 20-point game of the season as she also scored 20 points against Manhattan on November 10 (28 points) and against Iona on November 14 (28 points). Her 23 field goal attempts were a career-high.

Graduate forward Nairimar Vargas-Reyes nearly recorded a double-double with nine points and a season-high 12 rebounds. She shot 4-of-8 from the field and six of her 12 rebounds were of the offensive variety. The forward has pulled down 10 or more rebounds in four games this season. Sophomore forward Sherese Pittman scored nine points on 3-of-10 shooting, dished out a career-high five assists, and recorded three rebounds. Graduate guard Daishai Almond scored seven points, while senior guard Gigi Gonzalez totaled five points, four rebounds, two assists, and two steals.

Stony Brook won the battle for the boards by outrebounding Bucknell, 35-31.

“Bucknell is a good team that challenged us today. We will learn from this and continue to get better,” said head coach Ashley Langford after the game.

Photo from Stony Brook Athletics

The Stony Brook women’s basketball team earned a 63-58 victory over Texas A&M — Corpus Christi on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24 to secure a sweep on its Puerto Rico trip. Stony Brook was paced by a trio of student-athletes who scored in double figures en route to its first-ever win over the Islanders.

The Seawolves were led by graduate forward Nairimar Vargas-Reyes who scored a career-high 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting in her return to her native Puerto Rico. Five of Vargas-Reyes’ 14 points came in the fourth quarter as she helped Stony Brook pull away from Texas A&M — Corpus Christi.

After trailing, 26-22, at the halftime break, the Seawolves outscored the Islanders, 41-32, in the second half to seal their fourth win of the season. Stony Brook forced 17 turnovers and scored 21 points off of those turnovers which aided its tenacious defensive effort on Thursday.

Junior guard Shamarla King and sophomore forward Sherese Pittman joined Vargas-Reyes as the Seawolves’ double-digit scorers. King came off the bench to score 12 points, while Pittman followed up her career-high performance against High Point with her first career double-double today with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

“Non-conference is all about learning lessons for March. I’m glad we were able to experience playing back-to-back games because that will benefit us in the CAA tournament… obviously, I’m really happy we won while learning. We are continuing to gain experience and several players are stepping up and flourishing in their roles. Really happy to leave here 2-0,” said head coach Ashley Langford.

The Staller Center’s Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery recently opened a new exhibition entitled Revisiting 5+1, developed in conjunction with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s current feature exhibition, Frank Bowling’s Americas.

Examining a critical moment at the junction of abstract art, racial and gender politics, and student activism at Stony Brook University, Revisiting 5+1 is a reflection on the historic 1969 exhibition of abstract art 5+1, presenting works by the original artists, alongside a new selection of major works by Black women working in abstraction.

Revisiting 5+1 features work by the six artists in the 1969 exhibition (curated by and including artist Frank Bowling) each of whom created vivid experimental abstract paintings and sculptures. Alongside Bowling, the show presents major work by Melvin Edwards, Daniel LaRue Johnson, Al Loving, Jack Whitten, and William T. Williams, showcasing their early practices of the 1960s and ‘70s. In collaboration with Distinguished Professor of Art Howardena Pindell, Revisiting 5+1 adds a related yet distinct group of six Black women artists, who were also trailblazers in abstraction. Alongside Pindell, the exhibition features works by Vivian Browne, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Betye Saar, Alma Thomas, and Mildred Thompson, including a never before shown 1971 film by Saar.

Photographs of the 1969 exhibition by Adger Cowans and Tina Tranter and original archival research present new findings on 5+1, while university records and photographs provide contextual history of the concurrent Black Student Movement taking place on campus. The 1969 exhibition coincided with the first semester of courses in a new Black Studies Program, created in response to student activism.

Revisiting 5+1 provides new insight into the significance of the dynamic university context, demonstrating the important history of university-based exhibitions organized by Black artists. At a time when Black artists working in abstraction encountered barriers in both the White mainstream art world, which valued works in abstraction but not those by Black artists, and the Black Arts Movement, which rejected abstract art as apolitical, university galleries provided a unique platform outside the confines of the mainstream art world for engaging with ongoing debates around the relation between art and racial politics.

The accompanying catalog includes archival photographs of 5+1 by Adger Cowans and from the Frank Bowling Archive, four scholarly essays, and profiles of artists included in the exhibition, an interview with Howardena Pindell, as well as a tribute to Pindell’s achievements by Lowery Stokes Sims.

This exhibition honors Howardena Pindell’s four decades of working with art students at Stony Brook University on the occasion of her retirement from teaching. The artistic excellence and social activism that mark her own career have also informed her teaching, setting an example for students and faculty alike. Colleague Katy Siegel says of Pindell’s tenure, “The university has been extraordinarily fortunate to have Howardena’s brilliant presence over the years; she has brought in peers including Maren Hassinger and Kay WalkingStick, and taught generations of younger artists like Athena LaTocha with extraordinary generosity.” After the current academic year, Pindell will become a Toll Professor, leaving full-time teaching but remaining a student mentor.

The original 5+1 artists include Frank Bowling, Melvin Edwards, Daniel LaRue Johnson, Al Loving, Jack Whitten, and William T. Williams. Revisiting 5+1 also presents the work of Vivian Browne, Adger Cowans, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Howardena Pindell, Betye Saar, Alma Thomas, and Mildred Thompson.

Revisiting 5+1 is curated by Stony Brook University Art History PhD candidates Elise Armani, Amy Kahng, and Gabriella Shypula in consultation with Distinguished Professor of Art Howardena Pindell and under the guidance of Katy Siegel, Distinguished Professor and Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Endowed Chair in Modern American Art, and Karen Levitov, Director and Curator of the Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery. The exhibition is supported by a grant from Stony Brook University’s Office of the President. Additional support is provided by a Humanities New York grant. A generous donation is provided by Hauser & Wirth Gallery, with additional funding from Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. Support is also provided by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Stony Brook University College of Arts and Sciences, Humanities Institute of Stony Brook, Art Department, and Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. The Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery’s 2022–2023 schedule is supported by a generous grant from the Paul W. Zuccaire Foundation.

Revisiting 5+1 is presented in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in conjunction with the exhibition Frank Bowling’s Americas, on view at the MFA Boston from October 22, 2022 – April 9, 2023, and traveling to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from May 13 – September 10, 2023. A digital component and display case are presented in collaboration with the MFA Boston and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Please check back for the digital component.

Hours: Monday-Friday 12-4pm and evenings of Staller Center performances and films. Email ZuccaireGallery@stonybrook.edu to schedule a visit outside of regular hours.

For further information, please call the Zuccaire Gallery at (631) 632-7240 or email ZuccaireGallery@stonybrook.edu. The Gallery website is: http://ZuccaireGallery.stonybrook.edu. Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @ZuccaireGallery.

Photo from Stony Brook Athletics

The Stony Brook women’s basketball team was led by a trio of student-athletes who scored double-digits, but it was ultimately not enough as the squad fell at St. John’s University on Nov. 19, 78-52, inside the Carnesecca Arena.

Junior guard Shamarla King registered a team and career-high 13 points after shooting 5-of-9 from the field and 2-of-4 from the free-throw line. The Virginia Tech transfer also notched six assists and a rebound in the defeat.

The Seawolves came out with a strong first quarter as sophomore forward Sherese Pittman scored the first six points for the squad, jumping to an early 6-2 lead. The Virginia native finished one point away from her season high with 12 points today and collected four rebounds, three on the offensive side.

After two made free throws by graduate forward Nairimar Vargas-Reyes that would give Stony Brook an 11-9 lead, St. John’s would go on an 8-2 run to take a four point lead heading into the second quarter. Vargas-Reyes collected her first double-double of the season and second of her career, as the forward scored a season-high 12 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

In the next 15 minutes of play, the Seawolves would hold off the Red Storm by cashing in on three pointers from senior guard Gigi Gonzalez, graduate guard Anastasia Warren and Vargas-Reyes. However, another late run by St. John’s gave the Red Storm a 35-26 lead heading to half.

In the second half, the Red Storm found their rhythm as St. John’s shot 57.1% (16-28) from the field and 61.5% (8-13) beyond the arc to take the victory, 78-52. 

The team was back in action on Nov. 23 when it took on High Point in its first game of the Puerto Rico Classico. Results were not available as of press time.

Photo from Stony Brook Athletics

Stony Brook put forth a valiant effort after trailing by as many as 17 points, but ultimately fell to Monmouth, 24-21, in the 2022 season finale at Kessler Stadium on Nov. 19.

The Hawks took a 17-0 lead before Stony Brook was able to get on the board. With 3:55 to play in the first half graduate defensive back Carthell Flowers-Lloyd stepped in front of a screen and picked off a pass by Monmouth’s Enzo Arjona and returned it for a touchdown. Flowers-Lloyd’s interception was the first of his career and it swung the momentum in Stony Brook’s favor heading into the second half.

After Monmouth and Stony Brook traded punts to start the second half, the Seawolves cut the Hawks’ lead to 17-14 after a 66-yard touchdown run by redshirt sophomore running back Ross Tallarico with 5:02 to play in the third quarter. Tallarico took the carry up the middle and rushed untouched into the end zone for the longest rush of his career.

The Seawolves continued to apply the pressure on the defensive end and that pressure resulted in a sack-fumble by graduate defensive end Eric Black. Black blew past Monmouth’s offensive line to strip-sack Arjona and redshirt junior linebacker Aidan Kaler recovered the fumble.

 On Stony Brook’s ensuing drive redshirt freshman quarterback Daron Bryden found Tallarico for a five-yard touchdown pitch and catch to give the Seawolves’ a 21-17 lead with 8:17 to play in the game. For Tallarico, it was his second touchdown of the game.

Monmouth took the lead, 24-21, with 7:32 to play when Arjona found Dymere Miller for a 72-yard touchdown and held on to win by that very score.

“I am really proud of how we competed. We’ve had a lot of adversity in regards to being a better football team; but our kids competed. Offensively, we were not able to generate much throughout the game. The parts kept on plugging, our defense made some stops, and we were able to convert some things. If you’re in the game in the fourth quarter, you got to try to find a way to win,” said coach Priore on his reaction to Saturday’s game.

Photo from Stony Brook Athletics

 The Stony Brook swimming and diving team picked up eight first place finishes en route to a 157-143 win over Siena in Loudonville on Nov. 19.

The Seawolves started the meet off with a bang, securing a first-place finish in the 200 medley relay with a final time of 1:50.20. The relay team was comprised of senior Reagan MacDonald, graduate Jess Salmon, junior Mary Kate Conway and freshman Michelle Vu.

Freshman Clara Armstrong kept the momentum rolling with a win in the 1000 freestyle with a final time of 10:54.66. Conway and sophomore Brenna McLaughlin followed behind with wins in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke, respectively.

 Senior Maddy Enda touched the wall at 2:11.23 to earn the win in the 200 butterfly and MacDonald clocked in at 2:07.66 for a first-place finish in the 200 backstroke. Junior Sara DiStefano and Vu closed out the day for Stony Brook with first-place finishes in the 3-meter dive and 100 butterfly, respectively.

The team is back in action on Dec. 2, when they compete in the ECAC Championships in East Meadow.

Image from Stony Brook Athletics

The Stony Brook University Athletics Department has expanded their partnership with Lidl to launch the “Hoops for Hunger” campaign. Lidl, recently ranked a top 5 U.S. grocer in the USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards, will donate one dollar for every basket that the Stony Brook men’s basketball team makes at Island Federal Arena throughout the 2022-23 season. All proceeds will be donated to Long Island Cares, a local food bank on a mission to feed Long Island’s food insecure.

“We want to thank the Stony Brook University Athletics Department and the men’s basketball team for joining with our corporate partners at Lidl to launch this very exciting Hoops for Hunger campaign,” said Paule Pachter, CEO of Long Island Cares.  “Lidl is one of our major corporate donors that donates thousands of pounds of food to assist The Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank in meeting the needs of 230,000 Long Islanders struggling with food insecurity. We’re also very grateful to the players on the Stony Brook men’s basketball team for getting involved in this campaign. Each ball scored will bring hope to those in need of emergency food assistance here on Long Island.”

At the completion of the 2022-23 campaign, Lidl will host an on-court check presentation revealing the total money raised throughout the season with representatives from Long Island Cares.

Daniel Knopf and Josephine Aller. Photo by John Griffin/Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

The ocean often serves as an enormous reflecting pool, showing a virtual image of migrating and water birds soaring on the wind, planes carrying people across continents, and clouds in multiple layers sporting various shades of white to grey.

Those clouds have more in common with the ocean below than just their reflection. In fact, some of the ice nucleating particles that help form the clouds come directly from the phytoplankton in the water below.

Daniel Knopf, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at Stony Brook University, and Josephine Aller, microbial oceanographer in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, have been teaming up to study the effect of sea spray aerosols on cloud formation in the ocean for 15 years.

Recently, the duo published a paper in the journal Science Advances, in which they simulated sea spray aerosols in laboratory tanks to reflect ocean conditions. They found that organic compounds released by marine microorganisms become ice nucleating particles.

“We performed ice formation experiments in our lab using particles generated from our tanks to determine under which conditions (of temperature and relative humidity) they form ice,” Knopf explained in an email. 

During specific temperature and relative humidity conditions, these sea spray aerosols, which are released when bubbles at the surface containing the materials burst or when wind carries them from the ocean into the air, initiate ice crystal formation.

Previous studies revealed that the water contains organic material from biological activity, but the researchers could not identify the specific type of nuclei.

“The current study closes this gap and identifies polysaccharides and proteinaceous matter” as the ice nucleating particles, Knopf explained.

Through work in the lab, Knopf and Aller showed that the particles produce ice crystals through two different pathways under typical atmospheric conditions. Ice can form either by water vapor onto the aerosolized particles or from liquid aerosol droplets.

From x-rays to climate models

Aller and Knopf explored the composition of individual particles using x-ray microscopy technology at the synchrotron light source at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. 

After digitally marking particles, the researchers transferred the particles to the x-ray microscope to determine their shape and composition.

“This allowed us to unambiguously examine the ice nucleating SSA particles and compare their organic signature with reference spectra of organic/ biogenic matter,” Knopf wrote.

Aller added that the research provides a clear picture of the conditions necessary for freezing.

“This study not only identifies the ice nucleating agent, but also provides the first holistic parameterization to predict freezing from SSA particles,” she said in a statement. “This new parameterization includes immersion freezing, as the INP is engulfed in a liquid, usually water, and the deposition ice nucleation where ice forms on the INP without any visual water.”

The parameterization can be applied in cloud-resolving and climate models to determine the climatic impact of ice crystal containing clouds, Aller added.

This type of modeling can help with climate models of the polar regions, which is heating at a rate faster than other parts of the world.

At this point, Knopf said the Stony Brook researchers have collaborated with scientists at NASA GISS who work on climate models to improve the understanding of mixed-phase clouds.

“We will make use of the newly developed ice formation parameterization in cloud-resolving models and compare the results to observations,” Knopf wrote. “Those results, ultimately, will be useful to improve climate models.”

Competition in the clouds

As for any surprises, Knopf added that it is “astonishing how biological activity in surface waters can be related to cloud formation in the atmosphere.” Additionally, he was amazed that the organic matter that nucleated the ice was similar independent of the water source.

Spectroscopically, the ice showed the same features, which allowed the researchers to combine the various data sets.

This means that different parts of the ocean do not need local freezing parameterization, which makes modeling the impact of oceans on cloud formation easier.

While sea spray aerosols can and do act as ice nucleating particles, the Stony Brook scientists added that other airborne particles also contribute to the formation of clouds. A heterogeneous mix of particles creates a competition among them for activation. Dust and certain fly ash serve as more efficient ice nucleating particles compared to sea spray aerosols.

During periods when sufficient water vapor is in the area, the sea spray aerosols can also be activated. When these organic particles do not become a part of clouds, they form supercooled droplets or float around as interstitial aerosols and get transported to other areas, Knopf explained.

As for the impact of global warming, Knopf suggested that such increases may first change the microorganisms’ activity and breakdown of chemical species in the ocean surface waters. “How this impacts the source of sea spray aerosols and ice nucleating particles, we do not know that yet,” he said.

The particular species of planktonic communities may change, as differences in nutrient levels could select for cyanobacteria over the normal mix of algal groups. That could cause a change in the exudates produced.

Locally, Knopf and Aller are working with Chris Gobler, Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook, in Lake Agawam in Southampton, which is prone to harmful algal blooms. The Stony Brook scientists are working to understand if the toxins produced by these algae are becoming airborne in sufficient mass.

“It may imply a health-related issue when aerosolized and one is close to the source,” Knopf explained. “There won’t be toxic clouds due to dilution and aerosol mass constraints.”

Knopf and Aller hope to continue to develop these models by combining their lab work with field data.

“This is an ongoing process,” Knopf said. “The more data we acquire, the more accurate the parameterization should become.”

Photo from Stony Brook Athletics

The Stony Brook men’s cross country team returned to competition today, at the 2022 NCAA Regional at Van Cortland Park. Six of the seven Seawolf runners finished within the top 80 of the field, with four student-athletes recording top 40 finishes, including two Seawolves placing inside the top 20.
 
As a team, the Seawolves finished sixth overall for the best finish out of any CAA team that competed at the NCAA Regional race. Northeastern came in eighth and Hofstra rounded out the conference teams in 27th.
 
The squad was led by senior Evan Brennan and graduate Robert Becker, as both All-CAA runners capped off their season with NCAA All-Region honors after their performances in the race.
 
For the second year in a row at the NCAA Regional Championship, Brennan was the top finisher for the squad and Becker finished second-best for the Seawolves. The senior took 12th-place after crossing the finish line in 29:45.9. Coming in shortly after Brennan to round out the top 20 was Becker completing the race in 20th (29:57.7).
 
Carlos Santos Jr.Shane HendersonConor Malanaphy, and Michael Fama all placed within the top 80 as they helped the Seawolves pick up a sixth-place finish in the Regional Championship.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

  • Brennan took 12th-place as he crossed the finish line in 29:45.9. He ran at a pace of 4:48 per mile.
  • Becker finished in 20th-place overall as he clocked a time of 29:57.7 and ran an average mile of 4:50.
  • Santos Jr. came in shortly after Becker in 36th-place with a time of 30:26.8.
  • Henderson took 39th-place with a time of 30:29.6, Malanaphy finished in 57th at 30:54.4 and Fama took home 70th with a time of 31:10.5.
  • Over 227 runners competed in the championship race on Friday.

“The men’s team closed out the season with another competitive performance in the Regional Championship; the goal going in was to challenge for a top four finish. They came up a little short taking sixth-place but it wasn’t for lack of effort, led by two very good runs from Evan and Rob, who earned All-Region honors. All seven guys that lined up gave it all they had on the day and can be proud of the effort they gave, not only today, but throughout the season,” said head coach Andy Ronan.