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Stony Brook University

Photo from Stony Brook Athletics

The Stony Brook football team fell to Fordham, 45-14, on Oct. 15 at Jack Coffey Field in the Bronx. Freshman quarterback Charlie McKee earned his first-career start for the Seawolves and tossed two touchdown passes in his second collegiate game.

 Stony Brook got on the board with 10:36 to play in the fourth quarter when freshman quarterback Charlie McKee found redshirt sophomore Tedy Afful for a 30-yard touchdown pitch and catch on fourth and six. It was Afful’s first career touchdown catch as he became the fourth different Seawolf to haul in a touchdown pass this season.

McKee threw his second touchdown of the night late in the fourth quarter when he found graduate wide receiver Khalil Newton from four yards out. For Newton, it was his second touchdown catch of the season and fifth of his career.

On the defensive side of the ball, Stony Brook was able to force one turnover. Redshirt senior defensive back Isaiah Givens laid a hit on Fordham’s Trey Sneed that jarred the ball loose and was recovered by graduate linebacker Reidgee Dimanche.

“Fordham is a very good football team and we didn’t represent ourselves correctly. Offensively, we continued to struggle. Defensively, we played well early, but it was hard to hang on. We went up against an offense that has performed to this level all season,” said head coach Chuck Priore.  It’s tough, but our kids will play hard in between the white lines,” he added. 

Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY: Fall on campus

Stony Brook University has welcomed a trio of new leaders to its campus over the last several months. Provost Carl Lejuez, Vice President for Marketing and Communications William Warren, and Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Jed Shivers recently shared their goals for Stony Brook and their excitement at joining a flagship university for the State University of New York educational system.

Carl Lejuez. Photo from Stony Brook University

Provost Lejuez

As provost, Carl Lejuez is responsible for the faculty, staff and students at Stony Brook University.

Lejuez, who has asked that people call him by his first name instead of trying to pronounce his last name — which, by the way, is Lejh way— makes a concerted effort to forge connections on campus.

“Whenever I introduce myself, I don’t say, ‘Provost,’” he said. “I say, ‘Professor in the Department of Psychology.’ I don’t believe I can be a credible leader of the faculty if there’s not a sense of sitting in their shoes and understanding the implications of the strategic and practical decisions we make.”

Lejuez, who grew up in Secaucus, New Jersey, earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Emory University and his Master of Arts and PhD in clinical psychology from the University of West Virginia.

As a first-generation college student, Lejuez feels inspired by the opportunity for students to come through a place with world-class research in an environment that cares about student success.

For first-generation students, in particular, he recognizes the need to forge connections with professors.

These close bonds help “take what’s happening in the classroom, which may be esoteric knowledge, and turn it into a passion and understanding,” providing students with the opportunity to see how what they’re learning in a textbook applies to the world.

He wants to expand the scope and reach of these hands-on experiences for students, while recognizing “how much goes into it from faculty and staff,” he said.

Lejuez believes the ability of professors to conduct extraordinary and groundbreaking research should dovetail with their commitment to being accomplished educators.

“We are setting the expectation from the start,” he said. “When you are tenured here, when you are progressing and doing well, you are excellent in both research and teaching.”

Stony Brook has a Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching that provides support for professors who may need polishing or improvement in inspiring and educating students.

Stony Brook looks closely at student evaluations, while also examining other data in assessing its teachers.

Lejuez, who recently served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Connecticut, supports strong and growing areas for the university, including clinical psychology, quantum information systems, and climate science, among others.

“These are areas that Stony Brook has a real opportunity to develop and part of my role has been thinking about how do we identify incredibly strong areas and areas that are able to emerge that way and fuse it with growing fields,” he said.

Lejuez believes in academic excellence and in diversity and equity.

He hopes to broaden the range of countries and regions from which the university is recruiting students and faculty.

Lejuez describes Stony Brook as “one of the best kept secrets of public universities,” ranking first in the state in public schools, according to the 2022-2023 US News and World Report ranking.

“Our goal is now to remove the best kept secret part,” Lejuez said.

William Warren. Photo from Stony Brook University Marketing

Raising SBU’s profile

This is where William Warren, vice president for Marketing and Communications, comes in.

Warren has worked in numerous corporate and academic jobs, including most recently as the chief marketing and communications officer at the University of Utah.

Warren hopes to raise “the profile of Stony Brook and really claim the sort of credit and attention this institution deserves,” he said.

Previously at Coca Cola, among others, Warren welcomes the opportunity to support Stony Brook.

“You want a challenge that’s exciting and doable,” he said. “That means having a fabulous thing to market that is possibly undervalued.”

Warren divides marketing into earned and paid media. For the former, he hopes to do the hard work of building relationships with national reporters, who can spread the word about the achievements and experts available at Stony Brook.

Warren plans to continue to work with regional and local reporters, while engaging in an ongoing effort to share the Stony Brook story, including publicizing initiatives such as the Simons Stem Scholars Program that supports minority students entering the scientific fields.

As for the paid piece, Warren sees opportunities in several dimensions.

“The great thing about the paid marketing campaign is that it’s adaptable to all kinds of purposes,” he said. “Student recruitment can use the campaign to get the right students. We can use the campaign to help us recruit great faculty.” It can also be adapted to “attract more donor support.”

Any marketing effort, however, needs to remain grounded in truth.

“You want to go out there with a message that resonates and that faculty will see and say, ‘That’s what we offer,’” Warren said. “We are not blowing smoke.”

A marketing campaign includes a host of elements, such as the best execution and photography that supports the message.

An evolved campaign could include a new slogan for the school.

The “Coke is it” campaign reinforces the idea of authenticity, as consumers can be sure it is “exactly what you think it is,” Warren said. “It never disappoints. It’s always consistent and is part of the American culture.”

In developing a slogan for Stony Brook, which Warren said is less important than the message behind it, he wants to hone in on the handful of characteristics that capture the personality of the university.

In reflecting on the differences between commercial and academic marketing, Warren noticed that academics tend to be more skeptical.

“You have to work to make them allies,” he said.

Outside of his marketing role, Warren, who had initially pursued a PhD in history at Rice University, shared an interest in teaching. At the University of Utah, he taught an American economic history class and, at some point, would also consider teaching at Stony Brook.

Since arriving on Long Island, Warren has enjoyed kayaking. He is also a former violinist and enjoys the opportunity to relax with music.

A return to the Northeast

After over four years as vice president for finance and operations/ chief operating officer at the University of North Dakota, Jed Shivers is returning to the Northeast, which is similar to the cultural and environmental feel of his childhood home in Storrs, Connecticut.

Shivers, who is senior vice president for finance and administration at Stony Brook, enjoys walking through the quad and in wooded areas around campus.

After living in the plains, which has “its own beauty,” Shivers appreciates the SB campus, which has “more trees,” and includes a view of the fall foliage outside his office window in the Administration Building.

Ready to embrace the opportunities and challenges of his job, Shivers said the university community is preparing a strategic plan for the next five years or so, which he will follow with a campus master plan.

In preparing for that plan, he is working with a firm that will survey all research space on campus and determine its current functional use, occupants and intensity of use.

He is also focusing on facilities that assist with the delivery of education and is hoping to conduct a similar survey of educational spaces.

To provide managers and executives with actionable financial information, the university is also engaged in a process to improve its business systems in human resources, budgeting, accounting and financial management. 

With a “ high rate of system failures around campus” creating a “significant problem” for the university, the building and infrastructure at Stony Brook are all aging at the same time, Shivers said.

Campus Planning, Design and Construction and Campus Operations and Maintenance work constantly to deal with these issues and fix problems as quickly as they can, Shivers added.

The immediate need for deferred maintenance issues is over $1.5 billion, which dwarfs any campus close to comparable size in the SUNY system.

The SUNY Construction Fund and SUNY leadership has provided funds to alleviate a small but substantial part of those critical issues, he said. The university is also engaged in conversations with the Construction Fund and the Division of Budget on ways to use funds for optimal results.

Shivers was delighted for the chance to “get into a place where president [Maurie Mcinnis] was forming her team,” he said. He saw this opportunity as a chance to be a part of leadership “on a ground floor-ish kind of a way.”

He embraces the challenge of working through the SUNY system.

Consistent with mandates from McInnis since her arrival, Shivers would like to create a consolidated financial statement for Stony Brook and all its affiliated entities.

In addition to enjoying his strolls through the quad, Shivers has appreciated the opportunity to join other sports and school enthusiasts in supporting college teams and cultural life on campus. He and his wife Sandee have been married for almost 30 years.

Outside of work, Shivers said he does “everything badly,” but is enthusiastic about it. That includes golf, tennis, skiing and bike riding. To get in shape for the 100-mile North Fork ride, which he’s never done, he has started riding his indoor bike close to five days per week.

Pixabay photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

My grandmother was a worrier. 

Even she, however, would have had a hard time worrying about other major challenges, problems and threats during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That, it turns out, was also true for the world during COVID when it came to discussions about the threat from climate change.

In a recent study published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Oleg Smirnov, associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Stony Brook University, examined the level of concern on Twitter about climate change during 2020 and 2021 and compared those numbers to 2019, the last year before COVID.

According to the pool of finite worry, which Princeton professor of Psychology Elke Weber developed, environmental and climate concerns decline amid worries about other major threats.

Smirnov found that the total number of tweets that mention climate change dropped to 5.6 million in 2020 and 5.3 million in 2021, from 8 million in 2019. This, Smirnov points out, occurred despite an increase in Twitter users, more climate disasters and more climate news in 2021.

“The psychological foundation tell us that people may only really respond to one threat at a time,” Smirnov said in an interview. The anxiety and the reaction to that threat may be limited because it requires major energy.

“Maybe, for biological reasons, [people] put all their energy into responding to the most immediate threat,” Smirnov added.

By tracking daily tweets and various measures of COVID cases, Smirnov found on a finer scale as well that discussions of climate change diminished amid higher infections and mortality.

For every thousand new COVID-19 cases in the United States, climate change tweets decreased by about 40.5 tweets per day. Every thousand new deaths resulted in 3,308 fewer climate tweets.

While Smirnov understood the need to focus on the pandemic, he suggested a lack of concern about climate change could disrupt efforts to protect the planet

“This has profound implications,” Smirnov said. “Without a focus on climate change, without an emphasis on its importance, there is less urgency and less pressure on politicians to do something about it.”

Even in better times, climate change efforts are “fragile,” he said, which adds to the uncertainty about the ability to address the challenge adequately.

Indeed, even the sentiment analysis, in which Smirnov reviewed the emotional content of words used to describe climate change and the threat to the planet and humanity, became less negative during the worst of the pandemic.

When asked about the possibility that climate change concerns might have declined during COVID in part because the carbon footprint declined amid travel restrictions and slowdowns in industrial production, Smirnov likened such an approach to short-term fasting or extreme dieting.

While spending a few days on these extreme diets can reduce a person’s weight over the course of days, such an approach provides “no substantial improvement in your health” longer term, he said.

So, what about now, as concerns about the pandemic abate, people have stopped wearing masks and schools and stadiums are full?

Smirnov plans to continue to collect Twitter data for the remainder of this year, to see whether a return to normalcy brings the focus back to the threat from climate change.

As for his own experience, Smirnov recognized that climate change took a back burner amid the worst of the pandemic.

“My attention certainly was hijacked by COVID-19, despite the fact that climate change is part of my work,” Smirnov said. In April of 2020, Smirnov recalled worrying about where his family would find food instead of thinking about greenhouse gases and rising sea levels.

In the present, Smirnov remains concerned about the kind of tipping points and climate inertia that threatens the future.

Ever the worrier, my grandmother might be relieved enough by the less virulent form of the virus and the availability of vaccines and treatment to return to worrying about the threat climate change poses.

Pending approval from the village's Board of Trustees, the East Beach bluff, pictured above, could soon undergo significant transformation. File photo by Raymond Janis

As the clubhouse facility at Port Jefferson Country Club dangles precariously upon the edge of the East Beach bluff, coastal engineers are discussing a proper course of action.

Coastal erosion has encroached dangerously near the clubhouse facility which, without intervention, could fall off the cliff within years. The Village of Port Jefferson Board of Trustees is working to curtail the issue in a two-phased effort. Construction of a toe wall at the bottom of the slope began in August and is ongoing [See video, below].

Now the village board is considering its upland options, deciding whether to preserve the clubhouse or retreat inland. One such option is a steel wall, estimated at $3 million, to be installed between the clubhouse and the bluff. [See story, “Port Jeff mayor estimates $3M for upper wall, trustees debate erosion mitigation strategy at village country club.”]

GEI Consultants is a Huntington Station-based consultancy firm that produced the engineering drawings for the upper wall. In a detailed email statement, Rachel Sa, GEI’s director of communications, summarized the plans for the project.

“The proposed wall at the top of the bluff will be effective at preventing further erosion and providing protection around the country club building,” Sa said. “The proposed wall consists of a new anchored steel sheet pile that is greater than 50 feet in vertical length and has been designed for an exposed height of up to 15 feet. The new steel sheet pile will be reinforced with new drilled soil anchors and a continuous wale system.” She added, “The proposed wall at the top of the bluff is, at minimum, designed to wrap around the perimeter of the country club building.”

If approved, the upper wall would be part of an integrated system, designed to work with the lower wall currently under construction at the toe. While critics have cited the limited shelf life of the upper wall, Sa contends the plan represents a long-term solution, even if the bluff erosion continues.

“The proposed Phase I and Phase II stabilization systems have been designed and are being constructed as a long-term solution to the observed erosion of the East Beach bluff,” she said. “If any further erosion does occur, the proposed wall system has the structural and geotechnical capacity to support and protect the country club building.”

But these plans are not without criticism. Ali Farhadzadeh is an assistant professor in the civil engineering department at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. He became familiar with the erosion issue near PJCC about a year ago when he and a team of colleagues met with village officials.

Over the last half decade, the East Beach bluff has lost considerable vegetation. Now coastal engineers are evaluating the village’s revegatation plans and how those plantings will work with the proposed upper wall. File photos from the Suffolk County Department of Information Technology, GIS Division

Farhadzadeh said the village is engaged in a two-front effort, with waves striking at the toe as precipitation upland generates substantial surface and internal runoff. While both forms of runoff contribute to the bluff’s erosion, his concerns center on the internal runoff, or water penetrating the soil and exiting through the bluff face. 

“My engineering judgment was that [the bluff erosion at East Beach] is most likely because of the runoff water from the parking lot and the tennis court going to the bluff soil,” he said. “Based on what we see, there is a large parking lot on top, which will generate a lot of runoff. There might be some evidence of erosion from the toe, but based on the pictures of the failure, my engineering judgment tells me that this is happening from the top.”

Sa says GEI’s proposed stabilization initiative adequately addresses these runoff concerns.

“The proposed Phase II project (upper wall) also involves a significant landscaping scope,” she said, adding, “This proposed work involves removing most of the tennis courts and replacing them with soil, native grasses, wildflowers and shrubs. This will significantly reduce the amount of impermeable surface, improve site drainage, and therefore help reduce runoff over the top edge of the bluff.”

Farhadzadeh acknowledges that the revegetation work will slow the erosion of the slope. However, the internal runoff penetrating through the bluff face will likely continue, leading to continued loosening of the soil and further failure of the cliff.

“These are going to extensively improve the situation,” the SBU assistant professor said, referring to the proposed plantings. “If you do that implementation, if you take care of the surface erosion, the toe erosion and also the internal erosion, that steel structure could stabilize the soil — basically stopping the soil underneath the structure from moving naturally. But if the failure continues, then the wall itself is going to fail.”

‘The proposed steel sheet pile walls will address potentially detrimental permeability conditions at the locations where they are installed.’

— Rachel Sa

Responding to this argument, Sa believes that the vegetation work will be sufficient to prevent further erosion, citing this approach as standard industry practice. 

“The proposed steel sheet pile walls will address potentially detrimental permeability conditions at the locations where they are installed,” she said. “It is common practice to use steel sheet pile structures to address these types of conditions — for example, constructing cofferdams to facilitate the dry construction of normally submerged structures/repairs. The remainder of the bluff slope will be protected against permeability conditions with the proposed vegetation and stabilization measures noted above.”

Given how close the clubhouse has come to the bluff’s edge, the village government is working with a sense of urgency. Mayor Margot Garant has stated that if the Board of Trustees favors the upper wall option, she would like to move forward quickly with a vote.

Farhadzadeh prefers a trial-and-error approach over rapid intervention. According to him, it would be wise for the village to install the vegetation and other mitigation measures, evaluate their efficacy in conjunction with the toe wall, and reassess the upper wall plans at a later time.

“From an engineering perspective, it doesn’t make sense to be rushing to the wall and building without making sure the recession [of the bluff] is reduced,” he said. “The wall is not going to stop the recession. The recession is going to be stopped by removing the water from the soil.”

On the other hand, Sa considers the upper wall a necessary measure that would act as a buffer to shield the clubhouse from further erosion. “In the event of areas of further erosion at the top of the bluff, the proposed wall will retain the soils beneath and around the country club building and protect this structure from the potential effects of this erosion,” she said.

‘The fact is you should stay away from the edge of the bluff.’ — Ali Farhadzadeh

In contrast to the upper wall plan, the village board is also contemplating whether to demolish the clubhouse and relocate the facility inland. Farhadzadeh prefers retreating away from the bluff.

“The fact is you should stay away from the edge of the bluff,” he said. “Based on what I’ve seen, it is probably too risky to maintain the existing facility.”

Sa disagrees with this assessment. Citing the village’s internal cost projections, she views the upper wall proposal as a cost-sensitive, viable alternative to managed retreat.

“The village is considering retreat/removal and replacement of the country club building at another inland location,” she said. “Rough initial estimates indicate that this may not be economically feasible. Therefore, GEI’s geotechnical engineers conducted bluff slope stability analyses and developed the double wall system as the best alternative given the site constraints.”

The village board will reconvene for a morning meeting on Monday, Oct. 17, at 9 a.m. Further discussion on the upper wall is anticipated during that meeting.

Teammates celebrate their victory on Saturday. Photo by Jim Harrison/ Stony Brook Athletics

The Stony Brook men’s soccer team came out on top on Oct. 8 with a 2-0 victory at home over CAA opponent College of Charleston. The Seawolves first scoring opportunity came in the 30th minute when freshman defender Jon Jelercic blasted a shot into the top left corner of the net. This was the first career goal for the freshman. 

The second goal was scored in the 71st minute by sophomore forward Jonas Bickus as he sped past the defenders and tapped the ball home. Jelercic and Bickus had the assist on each other’s goals. 

Senior goalkeeper Edmond Kaiser recorded a clean-sheet, tallying four saves. 

“We got a win and three points so we are obviously very pleased with that, but more importantly the way we played. We’ve been harping all season long that we have to defend well, compete, battle, and play together. Very happy about the clean sheet as well. We put ourselves in a position to win, very happy, very good performance,” said head coach Ryan Anatol.

“We changed our style of playing and the zone around the half line pressed the other team. I think the most important thing for us is the energy, which was totally different today. We are fighting more than ever. It feels special to have a goal and an assist today and I hope that I can keep it going,” said Jon Jelercic

“We won this game because we brought the energy to practice this week. Everyday we worked so hard and I think that we showed that on the field. We have to be focused and keep the same mentality moving forward,” added Jonas Bickus.

Photo by Jim Harrison/ Stony Brook Athletics

The Stony Brook University volleyball team extended its winning streak to three matches on Oct. 9 after defeating Hampton University in straight sets. This is the first ever weekend sweep for the Seawolves in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), as the squad notched a four-set victory Oct. 8 against the Lady Pirates.

The Seawolves were charged by the junior duo of Abby Campbell and Lauren Schmitz capturing a team high of 13 kills and 11 kills in the victory. For the weekend, the tandem led the squad in kills with Campbell capturing 27 and Schmitz having 24 in the conference sweep.

The squad had their hands full in the first set with the Lady Pirates that saw a tied score at seven different points in the set. But, the Seawolves did not fault or waver a lead the entire set and went on a 5-1 run at 20-19 to ultimately take the set, 25-20. Junior Leoni Kunz and Schmitz mashed two kills each in the final stretch to finish off Hamptons early momentum early in the match.

Following a powerful second set victory by Stony Brook, the Lady Pirates did not render, fighting to keep the match alive, as they went on a 9-0 run in the middle of the third set to take a 18-14 lead. However, the Seawolves stormed back later in the set, again going on a late run, scoring the final four points to take the final set, 26-24.

Defensively, junior Julia Patsos led the squad with her persistent and tenacious back-row play, as the libero collected a team-best 13 digs today and 24 overall for the weekend. The Long Island native has had 10 or more digs in 12 of 17 starts this season and now has 202 for the season.

“I am very proud of our group for locking two wins in this weekend which is huge for our goals for the season. I thought we played really well offensively and made some adjustments defensively from yesterday that made a big impact,” said head coach Kristin Belzung.

Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis delivered the State of the University address on Oct. 12. Photo from SBU

During the latest annual State of the University address held on Oct. 12, Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis gave updates about the latest news and accomplishments at the educational institution in a prepared speech.

Toward the beginning of her address, McInnis quoted from the essay “The Pandemic is a Portal” by novelist and critic Arundhati Roy. The author compared a pandemic to a portal.

“We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

McInnis said earlier in the pandemic, the university was “in the midst of the pandemic; we were reeling from the effects of long-entrenched budget issues; we were working around the clock to care for our community; we were teaching online; and our staff were stepping up to the plate every day to keep the complex operations of this university running.”

Despite the obstacles COVID-19 brought, she said SBU emerged “as a flagship institution with a renewed commitment to our students’ wellbeing, reinvigorated support for our scholars and research, a stronger and expanded health care enterprise, and several major developments on the horizon —speaks to our university’s ability to adapt and grow. To imagine a better world. To fight for it.”

McInnis told those in attendance that SBU was named a flagship of the SUNY System and just earned its highest ranking from the U.S. News & World Report. The university rated No. 31 for public institutions and No. 1 public in New York state.

The university president said the four-year graduation and six-year graduation rate at SBU increased 18% points and 10 points, respectively, over eight years.

“In addition to these increases, we have nearly eliminated the equity gaps most universities face when it comes to graduation rates for Black, Latinx, underserved and Pell-eligible students,” she said.

The university is committed “to increasing our one-year retention rate to 92% and targeting a six-year graduation rate of 85% by 2030.” 

McInnis said the university wants to ensure “that Stony Brook’s campus culture promotes connection” and has reimagined its undergraduate colleges “connecting students across disciplines and fields under global topics.”

One example, the university president said, is the Vertically Integrated Projects Program that was inaugurated three years ago at the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The VIP program brings together undergraduates, graduate students and faculty “in multidisciplinary teams to work on real-world projects in research, design and entrepreneurship.” The program has grown from approximately 50 students to more than 500.

McInnis said the partnership between SBU and the Simons Foundation has resulted in the Stony Brook Simons STEM Scholars Program, which aims “to create pathways to successful STEM careers for underrepresented students and increase the diversity of students pursuing doctoral degrees in STEM.” 

McInnis said in 2022, for the first time, four SBU junior faculty members earned “the prestigious” Sloan Fellowship. There are also six Department of Education Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need awards, which helps to support graduate student research.

“We also just learned that the National Science Foundation will be funding three instrumentation proposals for Stony Brook University — marking the first time that all of our proposals submitted to the NSF MRI Program have been successful,” she added.

McInnis said during the address that the College of Business is now fully accredited. The university’s School of Communication and Journalism received the Inaugural Solutions Journalism Hub Designation this year and was one of only four universities to receive it.

She said, in 2022, 14 students received a Fulbright Fellowship, which they will used to fund their international research and teaching.

SBU has made a bid to become the anchor institution for the Governors Island Center for Climate Solutions, McInnis announced. She said if the university is selected it would develop the island “as a hub for climate-change solutions and innovations in New York.”

“Our proposal includes an interactive living lab with green-designed research labs, classrooms and mitigation technologies,” she said. “A Research and Technology Accelerator will nurture new ventures dedicated to solving climate change in New York and beyond, and academic programs will prepare students of all ages for different careers in environmental justice and climate change.”

The president also devoted part of her address to Stony Brook Medicine, which she described as “a differentiator on Long Island and in New York state.” She name-checked many individual students and professors throughout.

Midway through the address, representatives from the Graduate Students Employees Union interrupted the speech to say that they are not paid well. One said, “We deserve a living wage.” After the last person spoke, a few repeatedly shouted, “Living wage now.”

McInnis remained silent and allowed the representatives to speak. When they were done, she returned to her address.

Later that day, SBU officials released a statement that said they “recognize the high cost of living and stipend issues that our graduate students and other employees face here on Long Island.”

“Wages and stipends are negotiated between the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations and the respective bargaining units. The current Graduate Student Employees Union agreement for state graduate assistant and teaching assistant student employees raises salaries and has a total compensation package that includes insurance, pension, paid leave, and a location adjustment among other benefits. This is in addition to tuition scholarships.”

Officials recognized it as a “longstanding issue.”

“At Stony Brook, we have consistently advocated for increases and funding to support such increases,” the statement read. “Additionally, we have increased graduate student employee stipends well above the contractual requirement and recently added to those stipends retroactive to Oct. 1, 2021, so that all State TAs and GAs received an increase proportionate to their appointments.”

The statement listed added support such as “student fee scholarships of up to nearly $1,800 for doctoral and terminal degree students. The university has also made available $1 million in Presidential Completion Awards. These awards provide stipend support and research funds.

McInnis concluded her address by saying, “At Stony Brook University — where our scholarship crosses over the arts, humanities, social sciences, STEM and medicine; where our research extends well past this campus and even beyond New York to countries all over the world; where our legacy has been defined by bravery, creativity and commitment to service — we are working to address the world’s pressing issues.”

Caroline Mota Fernandes Photo by Jonas Nascimento Conde

By Daniel Dunaief

Fungal infections represent a significant health risk for some patients, killing about 1.5 million people globally each year. Doctors struggle to provide medical help for some of these patients, especially those whose weakened immune systems offer insufficient protection against developing pathogens.

Invasive fungal infections, which people typically contract by inhaling them as spores, account for about half of all AIDS-related deaths.

Maurizio del Poeta, Distinguished Professor at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, has been studying ways to boost the body’s defenses against these potentially deadly infections, even among people with weakened immunities.

Recently, Caroline Mota Fernandes, a postdoctoral researcher in del Poeta’s lab, published research in the journal mBIO, a publication of the American Society for Microbiology, that demonstrated that a heat-killed, mutated version of the fungus Aspergillus conveyed protection in an animal model of an immunocompromised individual.

“The biggest news is that we can simply use the ‘autoclaved’ mutated version,” explained del Poeta in an email. “This version cannot be more dead!”

An autoclave is like a scientific oven: it raises the temperature or pressure. In this case, it can kill the mutated fungus, leaving only the mutated signal that primes the immune system.

The mutated and heat-killed version of the fungus, however, still provided full protection in a condition in a model of a weakened immune system.

“That means this formulation is highly stable and resistant to heat degradation,” del Poeta added.

Del Poeta’s lab had conducted similar research with another fungus called Cryptococcus.

By demonstrating that this approach also works with Aspergillus, del Poeta said the result “validates the cryptococcal vaccine (after all, it uses a mutant of the homolog gene, Sg11 in Crypto and SglA in Aspergillus.”

It also shows that protection exists under an additional type of immunodepression that is different from the one used in the cryptococcal vaccine.

The encouraging results, while in the preliminary stages, are relevant not only for immunocompromised people in general, but also for those who have been battling Covid, as Aspergillus was the cause of death for many patients during the worst of the pandemic.

Homologous genes

Del Poeta’s lab has focused on genes that catalyze the breakdown of steryl glucosides, which scientists have also studied in the context of plants. Crops attacked by various fungi become less productive, which increases the need to understand and disrupt these pathways.

“Folks working with plants started observing that these molecules had some kind of immunomodulatory property,” said Fernandes. “That’s where the idea of this steryl glucosides, which also is medicating fungal virulence, came from.”

The mutation Fernandes studied removed the sterylglucosidase gene sglA. Without the enzyme that breaks up the steryl glucose, the fungus had less hypha, which are necessary for the growth of the fungus. The mutation also changed the cell wall polysaccharides. Mice vaccinated with this heat-killed mutation had a one hundred percent survival rate in response to exposure to the live fungus.

“What was a very great achievement of our work was getting 100 percent protection,” said Fernandes. For immunocompromised people for whom a live attenuated fungus might threaten their health, the effectiveness of the heat-killed mutation proved especially promising.

In the experiment, she administered the vaccine 30 days before exposure, while providing boosters as often as every 10 days.

Fernandes, who started her post doctoral research in del Poeta’s lab in 2018, said several questions remain. “After this study, we are going to try to characterize exactly how this strain induces the immunity and protection to a secondary challenge of Aspergillus,” she said. Dr. Veronica Brauer, another post doctoral researcher in del Poeta’s lab, is conducting this research.

At this point, it’s unclear how long protection against a fungal infection might last.

“For us to estimate the duration of the protection, we have to have a more specific understanding of which immune components are involved in the response,” said Fernandes.

As of now, the mice vaccinated with the mutated and heat-killed fungus had no off target effects for up to 75 days after vaccination.

Fernandes is also working to characterize the mechanism of action of a new class of antifungal drugs previously identified by the lab, called acylhydrazones. She hopes to identify a new virulence protein in Cryptococcus as well.

Collaboration origins

Fernandes, who was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, first worked in del Poeta’s lab in 2013, while she was conducting her PhD research at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She was studying antifungal peptides and explained to the Brazilian government why coming to Stony Brook would contribute to her research.

Fernandes started studying fungi when she was in her second year of college at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

The daughter of two chemists, Fernandes said she grew up in a house in which she had pH strips, which she used to test the acidity of shampoo, water and anything else she could test. She also entered numerous science fairs.

Fernandes met her husband Jonas Conde, who is a virologist at Stony Brook University and who has studied Covid-19, when they were in nearby labs during their PhD research.

Residents of Port Jefferson, Fernandes and Conde have a four-month-old son named Lucas.

Having a child “motivates me to be better in my work and to set an example for him to be committed in doing some good for other people,” Fernandes said.

Del Poeta described Fernandes as being “extremely effective” in managing her time and has “extraordinary motivation.” He appreciates her commitment to her work, which is evident in the extra papers she reads.

Fernandes appreciates being a part of del Poeta’s lab. She described him as an “amazing” researcher and supervisor and said being a part of his group is “an honor.”

Del Poeta said Fernandes will continue to make mutants for additional fungi, including Mucorales and Rhizopous, for which antifungal therapy is not particularly effective.

Del Poeta added that the urgency of this work remains high. With several other Stony Brook faculty, he has submitted grants to study Sgl1 as a vaccine and antifungal target.

“Imagine [making] a drug that not only can treat the primary infection, but, by doing so, can potentially prevent the recurrence of a secondary infection?” he asked rhetorically. “Exciting!”

Photo from Wang Center

Stony Brook University’s Charles B. Wang Center, 100 Nicolls Road, Stony Brook will host a Bonsai Workshop in the Skylight Gallery on Wednesday, Oct. 12 from 1 to 3 p.m. Titled The Art of Bonsai, the workshop will be led by Robert Mahler of the Long Island Bonsai Society. Learn how to prune, shape, maintainand repot bonsai trees. This event is free  but registration is required by visiting www.stonybrook.edu or by calling 631-632-6353.

The team celebrates their win after Sunday's game. Photo from Stony Brook Athletics

The Seawolves used a gritty performance to secure their first-ever CAA win on Oct. 2 as they knocked off William & Mary in a five-set thriller. Stony Brook was paced by the trio of Leoni Kunz, Abby Campbell, and Kali Moore who all finished the match with 15 or more kills.

After capturing the first two sets, the Seawolves dropped the next two as the Tribe forced a deciding fifth set. Stony Brook overpowered William & Mary in the deciding set behind Kunz and Moore who tallied two kills apiece en route to a 15-8 win in the frame.

 The Seawolves left Williamsburg, Va. with a spilt after falling in straight sets yesterday afternoon to the Tribe. Stony Brook bounced back on Sunday to pick up its first-ever win against William & Mary by the final set scores of 25-21, 26-24, 22-25, 14-25, 15-8.

With the win, the Seawolves improve to a perfect 4-0 in matches that go five sets this season. Prior to today’s five-set thriller, Stony Brook knocked off Fordham (Aug. 28 at home), Georgetown (Sep. 3 at home), and Seton Hall (Sep. 11 on a neutral court) in five sets. Today’s victory was the Seawolves’ first road win in five sets since September 7, 2019, when they defeated Georgetown.

 “I couldn’t be prouder of the fight in our group. Coming back and working our way out of a poor performance yesterday is tough on short turnaround and being able to grit this out after some mid-match stress is huge. We definitely still had some moments we weren’t executing great and I think feeling that struggle and being able to grit out a W is something we needed to feel,” said head coach Kristin Belzung.