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Daniel Dunaief

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Weisen Shen. Photo by John Griffen/SBU

By Daniel Dunaief

Like so many others during the pandemic, Weisen Shen has had to pivot in his job.

An Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Stony Brook University, Shen has historically focused his efforts on understanding the geothermal heat flux, or the movement of heat from the core of the Earth, in Antarctica.

Constrained by travel restrictions created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Shen has decided to put his 180 seismometers to good use on Long Island.

“We have seismometers that stay in the basement of our building,” Shen said. “We can’t use them in Antarctica because of the travel ban and other complexities, and we want to make use of them in our community to understand the geology of Long Island.”

Shen is looking for students who might be interested in geology and who might like to plant a seismometer in their backyard, gathering information about how the flow of seismic waves deep beneath their homes and backyards reveals details about the structure, temperature and composition of the land miles below the surface.

Shen, who lives in Syosset, installed a seismometer in his own backyard, which has allowed him to see the signal from the local train station in Sayville. “We seek help from [the local community] to allow us to deploy a seismometer in their back or front yard for a month or so,” Shen said.

Planting a seismometer would involve digging a 15 centimeter by 15 centimeter hole that is 5 inches deep. Shen and his team would cover it. The seismometer wouldn’t need local electricity because it has a lithium battery. 

After about a month, the scientists would dig it out, put dirt back in, and return the backyard to the way it looked prior to taking these measurements.

The machine doesn’t make any noise and does not pick up any sounds from inside people’s homes.

The signal will contribute “to our understanding of the Earth,” Shen explained, including details about the crustal and mantle structure, seismic activities, and the Earth’s vibrations due to civil activities such as the rumbling of trains.

Shen is “more than happy to share data” with the people who host his seismometers. He also expects to produce a research paper based on his studies from Long Island.

He is charging the batteries and testing the instruments and plans to plant them in the field as early as the end of February.

People who would like to participate can reach out to Shen by sending him an email at [email protected]. Please include “Volunteer Long Island Imager” in the subject line.

Recent Antarctica Studies

While Shen is focusing his geothermal expertise on Long Island, he hasn’t abandoned or ignored Antarctica, a region he has focused research efforts on because of the vulnerability of the ice sheet amid climate change. He is also interested in the geothermal structure in the area, which reveals information about its geology and tectonics, which remain mysteries residing below the ice. 

Grounded during the pandemic, Shen spent several months gathering and analyzing considerable available data, hoping to understand what happens deep below the frozen surface.

“We are trying to analyze so-called ‘legacy data’ that has been collected over the past two decades,” he said.

On a fundamental level, Shen is trying to quantify how much heat is coming out through the crust, which includes heat coming from the deeper earth in the mantle and the core as well as within the crust.

Traveling beneath the oceans towards the center of the Earth, which would be considerably hotter and more difficult than 19th century author Jules Verne’s fantastic fictional voyages, would expose people to temperatures that increase, on average, about 10 to 30 degrees celsius per kilometer.

Some of the heat comes from the way the planet formed. In addition, unstable isotopes of potassium, uranium and thorium release heat as they decay, which mostly happens within the Earth’s crust. 

In areas with large ice sheets sitting on top of the land, the geothermal heat can melt some of that ice, creating a layer of water that accelerates the ice sheet movement. Indeed, pulling an ice cube across dry ground takes more energy than dragging that same cube across a wet surface.

Moving ice more rapidly towards the periphery will increase melting which, coupled with climate change, could increase the amount of water in Antarctica, particularly in the western region.

Comparing the two ice melting effects, Shen believes global warming, which is more rapid and has shorter term outcomes, plays a more important role in changing the liquid characteristics of Antarctica than geothermal heating, which is longer term.

In collecting available legacy data, Shen analyzed information from the entire western part of Antarctica, as well as parts of the central and eastern regions.

Using a measure of the geothermal heat flux, Shen found some unexpected results, particularly on Thwaites Glacier, beneath which he found a large area with elevated geothermal heat flux. 

Studying geomagnetic data, he compared their results with the results from geomagnetically derived results. In the future, he will combine the two different methods to improve the assessment. 

In a publication last summer in Geophysical Research Letters, Shen presented a new map of the geothermal heat flux for Antarctica with a new resolution of 100 kilometers by 100 kilometers, which is a much higher resolution than earlier studies, which are typically done at 600 kilometer by 600 kilometer ranges.

In West Antarctica, he found a more modest heat flux, despite the area being more tectonically active.

Finally, a major take of the paper, Shen said, is that the Thwaites glacier has a high geothermal heat flux, which could explain why the ice moves more rapidly and readily.

As for his future work, in addition to exploring the seismology of Long Island, Shen said he would pursue his National Science Foundation grant to look for additional water in the boundary between the ice sheet and the mantle.

He is working on “using high frequency seismic records to look for data,” he said.

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Valentina Bisogni. Photo from BNL

By Daniel Dunaief

Nature plays a wonderful game of hide-and-seek with its secrets.

One day, Joan might be searching for, say, an apple tree in the forest. Joan might consider all the elements that appeal to an apple tree. She might expect the journey to take two hours but, to her surprise, discovers a tree on the way.

That’s what happened to Valentina Bisogni, a physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Bisogni, who works at the National Synchrotron Lightsource II, wanted to figure out how the thickness in a magnetic film affected traveling modes involving the spin property of electrons, known as spin waves. Specifically, she wanted to control the energy of the spin wave.

This might be important in future devices that involve passing along information through an electron’s spin rather than through charge, which is the current method. Controlling the spin wave could be another way to optimize the performance or improve the efficiency of future devices.

Transmitting charge creates unwanted heat, which can damage the components of an electronic device and limit its usefulness. Heat also creates energy inefficiencies.

Valentina Bisogni with a collection of tomatoes in a garden in Bellport Village. Photo by Claudio Mazoli.

Bisogni, who arrived at BNL in 2014, has been working on a beamline called Soft Inelastic X-ray Scattering, or SIX. Each of the new beamlines at the nearly billion-dollar facility has its own acronym and number that corresponds to their location in the accelerator ring.

Before she planned to apply an electric field that might control the spin wave, however, Bisogni figured she’d explore the way thinner iron materials affected the spin.

That’s when the metaphorical apple tree appeared, as the thickness of iron films, that were as thin as one to 10 nanometers, helped control the spin wave before applying any electric field.

“This result was not expected,” Bisogni said. This was preparatory work to a more detailed, dedicated study. 

“Not having had any benchmark of iron crystals in general with the technique I am using, it was logical to study this system from a bulk/ thin form to a very thin film,” she explained in an email.

Bisogni and a team from Yale University recently published the results of this work in the journal Nature Materials.

While this unexpected result is encouraging and could eventually contribute to the manufacture of electronic devices, Bisogni said this type of discovery helps build a fundamental understanding of the materials and their properties at this size.

“For people assembling or designing devices or wave guides, I think this is an ingredient that has to be considered in the future,” Bisogni said.

This kind of result could enable the optimization of device performance. When manufacturers propagate a signal based on spin dynamics, they would likely want to keep the same frequency, matching the signal along a medium from point A to point B.

The effect of the thickness on the spin was like a power log, which is not quite exponential as the experimenters tested thinner material, she said.

Bisogni plans to continue with this collaboration, as the group is “excellent in preparing and characterizing this kind of system.”

In the bigger picture, Bisogni is focused on quantum materials and altering their spin.

She is also overseeing the development of a system called Opera, which copies the working conditions of electronic devices. Opera is the new sample environment available at SIX and is developed within the research project to copy device-working conditions in the beamline’s measurement chamber.

Bisogni ultimately hopes her work may improve the energy efficiency of electronics.

A resident of Bellport Village, Bisogni lives with her partner Claudio Mazoli, who is the lead scientist for another beamline at the NSLS II, called the Coherent Soft X-ray Scattering, or CSX.

Bisogni said the couple frequently enjoy exchanging ideas and have an ongoing active collaboration, as they share several scientific passions.

The couple met at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France when they were working in the same lab.

Bisogni was born and raised in Spoleto, which is in the province of Perugia in the center of Italy. Bisogni speaks Italian and English as well as French and German after her work experience in France, Germany and Switzerland.

Bisogni said she and Mazoli are “very food-centric” and can find numerous epicurean opportunities in the area of Long Island and New York City. The weather is also similar to home, although they miss their family and friends from Italy.

The couple purchased a house together during the pandemic and have been doing some work to shape the house to their needs. They remodeled the bathrooms in an Italian/ European style, purchased a German washing machine and dryer and painted some walls.

In the summer, Bisogni, who likes to eat, cook and grow vegetables, enjoys spinach, tomatoes and light-green zucchini.

As for her work, Bisogni is currently pleased with the state of her beamline, although she said its development took considerable team effort and time during the development, construction and commissioning.

At this point, her research team includes two and a half permanent scientists and two post-doctoral scientists. Within the team, they have two post-doc researcher positions looking to fill, one for her research project and another dedicated to her colleague’s research project.

Ultimately, Bisogni is excited with the opportunities to make fundamental discoveries at work.

“It is, in general, very exciting, as most likely you are doing something for the first time,” Bisogni explained in an email. “It is true that you may fail, since nobody is going to tell you if what you are doing is going to work or not, but if you get it right, then it is extremely rewarding.”

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Photo from Pixabay

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

For the past week, I’ve had birds on my brain.

For starters, Central Park birders headed to the famous urban greenway recently to catch sight of a snowy owl, the first time people documented the presence of the bird in the park in about 130 years. 

I wrote to a bird expert, Noah Strycker, who is both a celebrated avian author, having written “Birding without Borders,” and a master’s candidate at Stony Brook University in the laboratory of Heather Lynch, a penguin scientist and the IACS Endowed Chair for Ecology & Evolution.

Strycker responded to numerous questions about the owl and the snowstorm that blanketed the region earlier this week.

In response to a question about exactly what might bring a snowy owl to the city, Strycker suggested that these birds often “irrupt,” a word for traveling greater distances than normal, south from their normal Arctic range in winters following good breeding summers. 

“Their appearance in New York may be related to an abundance of lemmings in the Arctic last summer,” Strycker wrote. In other words, these well-fed birds may have been able to journey further from the Arctic after a bountiful summer.

While Strycker didn’t catch sight of the owl this time, he did see one on Long Island last winter. They appear on the south shore almost every year, although it’s unusual to see one in Central Park because they prefer beaches and open areas, which are closer to a normal tundra habitat.

As for the rare birds Strycker has seen in the area, he said he got to see a Western Tanager and an Ash Throated Flycatcher in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn this fall. These are birds from the western part of the country, which don’t visit the Empire State too often.

Vagrant birds, which occur in areas outside their typical range, can appear in the area, a byproduct of a wrong turn during a long migration. So, what happens to birds during a snowstorm, I wondered.

For the snowy owl, if he were still here, the precipitation probably wouldn’t have been much of a problem, as his name suggests.

“Flying through falling snowflakes isn’t as much of an issue as flying in high winds, which do, occasionally, literally blow birds off course,” Strycker wrote.

During the storm, many bird species will tuck themselves in a protected spot, like in a dense tree to ride out the flakes.

Noah Strycker with a northern saw-whet owl

“This is a good time to watch your hedges and evergreen trees, which provide nice cover in the winter,” Strycker suggested.

Strycker said people could do seed eating birds — like sparrows, finches, cardinals, doves, chickadees, and jays — a favor by restocking a feeder before a snowstorm.

“They will all come to bird feeders for sunflower seeds and suet,” he said.

Snowy owls, on the other hand, don’t need handouts or feeders. They find their food, typically small mammals, by using their keen senses of sight and hearing. Shaped like a disc, an owl’s face concentrates faint sounds of rustling under the snow, allowing it to find prey it can’t see.

Strycker has always wanted to find an owl footprint in the snow, which looks like a snow angel. The owl lands on the snowy landscape to find its prey and lifts off, leaving footprint evidence of its meal.

As for the effect of the snow on a bird’s survival, Strycker said most of the birds in the area manage through the colder months.

“Snowstorms have been occurring in New York for a very long time, so birds that spend the winter here have mostly adapted to surviving them,” Strycker wrote.

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Steven Matz hurls a pitch from the mound. Photo by Clayton Collier

The Toronto Blue Jays are getting much more than a 29-year-old lefty pitcher from the New York Mets.

In a trade in which the American League East team sent pitchers Josh Winckowski, Sean Reid-Foley and Yennsy Diaz to the Mets, the Blue Jays are adding Steven Matz, a hometown hero, who has stayed in touch with his roots, as well as a three-time nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award.

A graduate of Ward Melville High School, Matz continued to inspire his former coaches and students, remaining humble and approachable despite the glitz and glare of a baseball career that included a memorable start in the 2015 World Series against the Kansas City Royals.

“Every year, [Matz] will come back” to Ward Melville High School, said baseball coach Lou Petrucci. “He’s very accessible. If you ask him to do something, he does it.”

One day, Petrucci said of his former pitcher, Matz did bus duty at W. S. Mount Elementary School.

“He signs autographs and takes pictures with all the kids,” Petrucci said. “If he goes to Murphy [Junior High School], he signs autographs for hours.”

In 2015, in addition to making his pitching debut on the field for the Mets, Matz started Tru32, a charitable foundation designed to help first responders and those who serve in the NYPD, FDNY and US military. Matz wore the number 32 as a member of the Mets.

In April of last year, Matz donated $32,000 to first responders and hospitals in New York City in the midst of the spring surge in cases. Matz donated $12,000 to Elmhurst Hospital in Queens and $10,000 to the New York Fire Department and Police Departments.

Through Tru32, Matz has provided 32 tickets during the season to first responders.

Matz also helped families caring for children who need medical attention through Angela’s House.

Tru32 hosts a bowling fundraiser called “Strikes for Steven,” that raises money for scholarships for the children of first responders who died in the line of duty.

Picked by his hometown team in the 2009 draft, Matz made his Major League Baseball debut June 28, 2015, against the Cincinnati Reds. He won the game 7-2, contributing three hits, including a two-run double.
Petrucci appreciated the storybook nature of Matz’s debut.

“He was playing in New York, in front of all his friends,” Petrucci said. “It was an unbelievable thing for Three Village.”

Petrucci expected that Mets ace Jacob deGrom, who contributed to the Tru32 scholarships, would be disappointed that he is no longer teammates with his close friend. When Matz married Taylor Cain in Alabama, deGrom celebrated at his two-day wedding. Mets left fielder Brandon Nimmo also attended the nuptials.

Petrucci said Cain, who is in a country band with her two brothers called the Cain Trio, can also hit a baseball.

When the Mets were scouting Matz, then general manager Omar Minaya noticed that Matz’s baseball skills weren’t confined to the pitcher’s mound.

“Lou, this kid can hit,” Petrucci recalls Minaya saying. “Of course, he can,” Petrucci thought. “He’s a baseball player.”

During six seasons with the Mets, Matz compiled a 31-41 record and had a 4.35 earned run average.

Matz battled through several injuries before and during his time with the Mets, each time returning to the sport he loved.

“He works hard every day,” Petrucci said. “He wants to compete.”

One of Petrucci’s favorite items from Matz’s career is the World Series ticket from 2015, when Matz pitched into the sixth inning, allowing seven hits and only two runs while exiting a game without a decision that the Mets wound up losing, 5-3.

The Ward Melville baseball coach knew that Matz had considerable talent when he saw him practicing at All Pro Sports Academy in Bellport.

“Steven, you’re going to get drafted,” Petrucci recalled telling his young pitcher. “He had unbelievable stuff.”

Petrucci called his friend Ed Blankmeyer, who coached St. John’s baseball for 23 years and is now the coach of the Brooklyn Cyclones, to talk about Matz.

Blankmeyer told Petrucci, “just don’t mess it up.” Petrucci said that was the “best advice he ever gave me.”

The high school coach said his former player taught him about the game of baseball and about “being humble. How many coaches” send players to the big leagues?

In addition to Matz, Ben Brown, who was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies and has played for three seasons in the minor leagues, and Anthony Kay, who is a pitcher on the Blue Jays, attended Ward Melville.

While they are both currently on the Blue Jays, Matz and Kay, who is four years younger than his new teammate, share a high school distinction.

After Matz pitched the last game of his senior year, freshman Kay toed the rubber in the first game of the next season for Ward Melville.

“They’re going to pitch back-to-back [for Toronto] one day,” Petrucci said. “I hope to go watch it.”

Petrucci appreciates that his former players have the opportunity to live out the childhood dream of so many on Long Island, carrying their hopes and aspirations north of the border.

Echoing Dennis Quaid’s portrayal of Devil Rays pitcher Jim Morris from the movie, “The Rookie,” Petrucci said, “He gets to play baseball every day. Whatever professional you know … who wouldn’t want to trade places with him?”

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Ducks at Niegocki Farms in Mount Sinai enjoy the snow Feb. 1. Photo by Tricia Niegocki

Suffolk County officials urged residents to stay home during a winter snowstorm that’s predicted to add a foot or more of additional snow and will pack winds that could gust as high as 50 miles per hour.

Tricia Niegocki of Niegocki Farms in Mount Sinai took this photo of her son going out to feed the farm animals Feb. 1.

“We ask people to stay off the roads today,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said at a press conference at the Department of Public Works Maintenance Shed in Commack.

Bellone and Suffolk County Police Department Chief Stuart Cameron urged residents to be careful when shoveling snow, particularly if they are unaccustomed to physical exertion, to check on older neighbors and relatives, and to be careful with snow blowers.

“Never put your hand in a snow blower,” Cameron said. Cameron said a resident tried to clear the chute of his snow blower during the last storm and injured his hand.

Bellone said residents who are in need of heating assistance can call (631) 854-9100. Residents who have non-emergency issues can call 311, while anyone dealing with an emergency should call 911.

At around 1:30 a.m. on Monday morning, a car sideswiped a police car. The officer went to the hospital with minor injuries and was released.

Cameron said the officer had been in his car at the time of the accident. Had he been outside the car helping a motorist, he could have been killed.

The overnight accident “highlights the dangers [officers] face when they’re stopped,” said Cameron, who added that the county has had a “variety” of accidents that are related to the storm.

Gaynor Park in St. James is transformed into a winter wonderland Feb. 1. Photo by Rita J. Egan

“If you have to go out, please be very cautious,” Cameron said.

Bellone said the storm and efforts to remove snow will last more than a day, especially as wind pushes snow back onto the roads.

“This is something we’ will be dealing with throughout tonight and into tomorrow,” Bellone said. Snow plows will still be on the roads tomorrow.

Suffolk County has shut down busses today and will provide notifications and updates about tomorrow.

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Qiang Li. Photo courtesy of BNL

By Daniel Dunaief

Decades ago, most people could only tune to shows like The Jetsons to imagine interactive televisions in which people could see each other during conversations.

Qiang Li. Photo courtesy of BNL

In modern times, hand held devices and laptop computers have turned those science fiction ideas into everyday realities, as people can tell their phones to call their mom, to provide the outdoor temperature or to help them recall the name of a movie they saw decades ago.

These helpful technological devices, however, may some day go the way of the clunky desktop computers of yesteryear, as scientists around the world work to turn the vision of a quantum computer into a reality.

Scientists hope to develop a next generation of quantum computer that is faster, smarter, more flexible and more energy-efficient than current technological devices. They hope these devices could be the key to future technological breakthroughs, inspiring them to figure out how to bring the theory to life.

Collaborating with scientists at Ames Laboratory in Iowa, Qiang Li, SUNY Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University and Leader of the Advanced Energy Materials Group at Brookhaven National Laboratory, recently published a study in the journal Nature Materials that provided fundamental information that might contribute to the field of quantum computers.

The group of scientists, which included Li’s PhD student Pedro Lozano, discovered a light-induced switch that twists the crystal lattice of a semimetal, turning on an electron current that the team believes is nearly dissipationless.

When currents move through wires between utilities and people’s homes and offices, that current encounters resistance, losing energy along the way, as if the movement towards the home created a tax on the journey. Similarly, dissipation inside an electronic device can sap some of the energy needed to transmit information or a signal, reducing the effectiveness of the process.

Li and BNL physicist Genda Gu synthesized, patterned and characterized the material at BNL, while Jigang Wang, a senior scientist at Ames Laboratory, performed the light-induced lattice twisting. The team helped create the light-induced switch.

Li described the effort as “fundamental research” and cautioned that any such advancement is more of a principal study, rather than a step closer to making any new qubit (the basic unit of quantum information) device.

“This is an experimental study to show that this is possible,” Li said. “It’s a demonstration of feasibility that you can harness chirality for building quantum information systems.”

With chirality, electrons have a handedness based on whether their spin and momentum are aligning in the same or opposite direction.

Once electrons have chirality, they can travel much easier, enabling a more direct and predictable route from one place to another.

Scientists like Li would like to create physical systems that enable them to control the chirality, preventing the spin from switching from one direction to the other.

Numerous factors can disrupt the chirality of an electron, including imperfections in the material.

A pulse-triggered light-induced switch can change the topology of a Weyl semimetal, making it possible to enable the movement of electrons that are nearly dissipationless. “For pure electronics, even computer chips, electrons consume a lot of energy because of electrical resistance,” Li said. “A chiral current [however] will travel without resistance, in ideal cases without chirality flipping.”

Chiral electrons travel through the semimetal at a speed as high as 1/300th of the speed of light and can travel considerably further before a collision that alters its direction, speed, or other particle properties. The mean free path, which is the average distance a particle will travel between such disruptive events, for a typical metal is nanometers. By contrast the chiral electrons can move micrometers, which is thousands of times longer.

An unperturbed chiral electron could travel further distances over shorter intervals, carrying preserved coded information without losing much energy during movement. 

Scientists have sought ways to create a path through which electrons travel with this predictable spin. They can break chiral symmetry by applying a magnetic field, which led to the discovery of the chiral magnetic effect by a team of scientists from BNL and Stony Brook University, including Dmitri Kharzeev, in 2014.  

For this work, Li received the Brookhaven Science and Technology Award in 2019.

“Using a magnetic field is problematic for some computations,” he said. Besides, people don’t want a “big magnet around your computers.”

Another way is to send in the laser pulse, creating left-handed or right-handed polarization.

To determine the ideal pulse to change the material, Li and Wang partnered with several theorists from Ames Lab and Ilias Perakis, Professor and Chair of Physics at the University of Alabama — Birmingham.

The theorists conducted detailed analysis of the lattice vibrations and the ideal pulse energy needed to break symmetry in the Weyl semimetal. “There is a very strong collaboration between the theorists and the experimentalists,” Li said.

While the research remains fundamental and is unlikely to generate a specific product any time soon, Li said it has “attracted a lot of attention” from other scientists and is a significant step forward in establishing the basic principles for topology-enabled quantum logic and information systems.

Li and Wang have been collaborating on this project for about two years as scientists around the world are in a “horse race” to produce results in the arena of quantum computing.

A resident of Setauket, Li and his wife Meiling Shih, have two children. Shih, who worked in the Stony Brook Pharmacological Science Department and later at Morgan Stanley, is retired and is now a volunteer instructor of a Tai Chi class for local seniors, 

Li enjoys jogging and runs a few miles every other day.

Down the road, Li hopes to address how to make the two quantum bits talk to each other.

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William Shakespeare statue in Verona, Italy. Photo from DepositPhotos

By Daniel Dunaief

Daniel Dunaief

Many years ago, Madonna, and the rest of us, were “Living in a Material World.”

Well, it seems to me that we are now living in an allegorical world.

You see, we’re on a boat that’s in rough seas. We are in the middle of a Corona storm, with howling winds that threaten to rip the sails off the masts.

At the same time, the boat has numerous leaks, while the waves from the right and from the left crash into the ship.

The modern day Montagues are blaming the waves from the left for causing the danger to our ship. Without those waves, we would be able to head off in a glorious direction toward a better sunset.

At the same time, the Capulets are shouting at the waves on the right, suggesting that they have interrupted the magnificent journey, making the ship spin and rock out of control.

Never a dull moment on that ship of ours, the former captain of the ship, who reluctantly removed his steely grip from the wheel, is facing an imminent investigation from a team comprised mostly of the Capulets, who have recruited a few members of the Montagues to engage in an extensive trial.

The majority of the Montagues have a Greek chorus that laments the terrible state of affairs and encourages the new captain, whom they don’t particularly like or trust, to make sure their way of life continues and their voices continue to be important in the search for Truth, Justice and the American Way.

At the same time, the Capulets have lined up a group of people who are just as earnest and eager in their beliefs, urging the captain to ensure the future safety of the ship and all its inhabitants.

Passing people buffeted about in life rafts, some Montagues urge the captain to move on and to focus resources and efforts on the people aboard the ship. Some Capulets, on the other hand, believe the people who built the ship in the first place were, at one time or another, adrift in life rafts themselves and would like to provide refuge and safety to these wayward travelers.

All the while, the Corona winds, which started our violently, calmed down quite a bit during the summer, and have increased in intensity following Thanksgiving and the December holidays, have increased in their intensity, tearing holes in the sails and threatening to pull at the seams of the stars and stripes.

Somewhere in the middle of the ship, people who don’t define themselves as either ardent Montagues or Capulets are tending to the wounded, preparing food for others, ensuring law and order, and making the kind of shields that deflect the wind, protecting individuals and the group.

The howling wind has made it difficult for the Capulets and the Montagues to hear each other, but that hasn’t stopped either of them from pointing fingers or from blaming the other side for the condition of the waterlogged ship.

People on this American vessel have heard that ships from other nations have made it out of the storm and are enjoying calmer seas, with warm sunshine and gentle breezes.

Some day, hopefully before too long, people on both sides will figure out a way to work together, to patch the holes in the sails, to help each other and to help take the ship to calmer waters.

The Corona storm isn’t passing on its own and the residents of the ship need to pull in the same direction to maneuver to the familiar, calmer seas, where residents of the ship can, once again, enjoy peace, good health and prosperity.

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Kimberly Lindeman and John Daly

John Daly doesn’t sit still for long.

John Daly, competing in a different race, finished 16th in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. File photo

Known for flying down winding tracks around the world at over 80 miles per hour with his head inches above the ice, Daly continued to move his life forward, even during the pandemic.

The 35-year-old Daly, who has competed in three Olympics and has retired twice, launched his second comeback, hoping to make the United States team that will travel to Beijing for next year’s winter games.

At the same time, Daly took a big step in his own life, getting engaged to Kimberly Lindeman, who is also a graduate of Smithtown High School.

Daly felt the same passion to race down mountains at breakneck speed, banking impossible turns as hoarse spectators urged him on and family and friends shook cowbells at the top of frozen mountains as he did when he first started racing almost two decades ago.

“If you still have the chance to compete, why not?” Daly said. “The drive is there. The passion is there. My life is great, but there’s nothing like another Olympic games.”

Indeed, Daly had a promising start to his second return to skeleton several months ago, when he placed first in Lake Placid at the USA skeleton selection races in November, earning a spot on yet another national team.

Daly “came in with no expectations of how he was going to do and just to see if he still had it,” USA Skeleton Head Coach Tuffy Latour said from Austria, where the team was preparing to compete in a World Cup event. “Apparently, he does, as he finished first in our team trials and put on a great performance. His sliding is as good, if not better, than I’ve ever seen him.”

Latour, who has led the American skeleton effort since the 2010 season, said he is pleased to have Daly compete for a spot on the Olympic Team.

“I’m sure [Daly] is going to build on all the skills and knowledge he’s built over the years,” Latour said. “He’ll put that to good use.”

Daly plans to compete in several races this year and next fall, where he hopes to score enough points to earn a chance for the nomination for selection as USA1 or USA2 next January 16th.

A talented sprinter who tapped into the kind of sprinter’s speed at the top of the race that is critical to success in the sport, Daly placed 17th in his first Olympics in 2010.

It was the 2014 competition that continues to play out in his mind and, in some ways, to drive him back to the mountains of the world, despite his antipathy for the cold, an irony not lost on him.

“I wish I was better at something else,” Daly said. “My hate for the cold is still there and strong. It hasn’t gotten any better. I just learned how to deal with it.”

“My hate for the cold is still there and strong. It hasn’t gotten any better. I just learned how to deal with it.”

— John Daly

On Feb. 15, 2014, a day Daly describes as the “worst of his life,” he was in prime position to earn that elusive Olympic medal, as he approached the top of the fourth and final heat in Sochi, Russia.

As Daly took those first explosive steps onto the ice, his sled popped out of the grooves, leaving him with a botched start that robbed him of his dream.

“I was literally 55 seconds away from getting that moment and it never happened,” Daly said. “It’s one of those things that doesn’t ever go away.”

Latour recalls that day as well, agonizing over how one of his American competitors missed out on a medal even as Daly’s long-time friend and now member of the coaching staff, Matt Antoine, earned a bronze that day.

“It was heartbreaking for me,” Latour said. “I’m certain it inspired him to come back for 2018 and now 2022. Everybody is chasing a medal. I don’t blame him one bit for coming back out and giving it another shot.”

As a 35-year-old, Daly recognizes that he has to plan his training and performing regimen appropriately.

“Training is still intense, but it’s less often,” Daly said. “I can’t go 15 rounds anymore. I don’t need to be great for the whole season: I just have to be great at the end of the season” when he feels he needs to be at the top of his game to ensure the best racing results.

This year, as Daly prepares for a possible spot on his fourth Olympic team, he and his teammates have a new way to prepare for competitions. The skeleton and bobsled team has a new ice push facility at Mt. Van Hoevenberg in Lake Placid, which is the first indoor ice push facility in the United States.

The center simulates the first 65 meters of a skeleton run, with a flat 25 meters and then a downhill section, which comes back up again. The center has three starting blocks and allows competitors to push on ice through the summer months, when they might otherwise train on dry land and lift weights.

Latour said the track in Beijing is “probably easy to get down, but is hard to produce a fast time.”

When Daly, who works as an account executive at medical device maker BardyDX, was trying to decide whether to return to the sport, he consulted with Lindeman.

“It was her idea for me to go back as well,” Daly said.

Lindeman suggested to Daly that his nephews and niece would see their uncle competing for a spot on the Olympic team, which would be “so special” for them.

John Daly and Kimberly Lindeman

Love During the Pandemic

Daly and Lindeman knew of each other in high school. Lindeman and Daly’s sister Kristen, who are two years younger than John, were friends in high school.

The couple connected in December of 2019, when Lindeman moved not far from Daly in Brooklyn. On their first date, which was Dec. 12, Lindeman wasn’t even aware that it was a date. She thought they might be hanging out as friends.

Originally, the pair planned to go out for drinks, but that turned into dinner and drinks. The date lasted over seven hours and would have likely continued except that the bartender announced last call.

“That’s a testament to how good of a time we were having,” Lindeman said.

Daly said he was “hooked” after that first evening.

The next two dates were similar, with the pair staying out late into the night.

Just under three months from the start of their relationship, Lindeman and her father Bill, who share a birthday in the early part of March, had a large family birthday gathering.

Daly had met one of Lindeman’s two sisters and Lindeman figured she might as well “rip the band aid” and allow him to meet everyone else at the same time.

The evening went well for her suitor, as “everyone loved him. They thought he was wonderful.”

Indeed, just a few weeks later, the pandemic hit and Daly and Lindeman decided to quarantine together.

Her mom Valerie, who also grew up in Smithtown, and her father, who owned an insurance agency in Smithtown for 25 years, appreciated that their oldest of three daughters had company during this period of isolation, especially since then knew of Daly and his family.

Quarantining with Daly “accelerated our relationship so much,” Lindeman said. During the pandemic, the concentrated time together would either cause the relationship to meet its demise or to solidify their bond, Lindeman said.

Lindeman appreciated Daly’s ability to maintain a positive mindset and stay optimistic despite the challenging environment around them.

“We balance each other well,” Lindeman said. Daly “keeps my spirits up.”

“We were on the same page with all the important topics. I knew very early on that I had something extremely special.”

— Kimberly Lindeman

During their time in isolation, they did considerable cooking together. They also took drives and went hiking, as long as the weather wasn’t too cold. Lindeman also doesn’t appreciate the cold.

They also enjoyed Netflix marathons, watching “Tiger King,” “Love is Blind,” and “The Office,” which they rewatched several times.

During all the challenges of the pandemic, Lindeman and Daly said they appreciated the connection they had forged and the opportunity to spend time together.

“We tried to enjoy the time we had together,” Lindeman said. “A lot of new relationships didn’t have that.”

On Saturday, Jan. 15, just over 15 months since they started dating, Daly had put on a suit and said they were planning to go to one of her favorite restaurants.

Lindeman was worried he’d be cold sitting outside in his suit. Once she was ready to go, he brought her a video that he said she had to watch alone. The video, which she viewed alone in the bedroom behind a closed door, included scenes from their time together, with some videos she didn’t know he had recorded, including the two of them dancing in the kitchen.

After she finished the video, she opened the door and Daly had lit candles down the entire hallway. Daly said he knew Lindeman was unaware of his plans because she didn’t get her nails done.

After he proposed, Daly told Lindeman they weren’t eating out because they were going to celebrate, in a socially distanced way, with both of their parents and siblings. He assured her that he had rebooked a dinner reservation for the next Tuesday.

Lindeman said she wasn’t completely surprised, despite her lack of a manicure, because she and Daly joke that every month during a pandemic is like three-and-a-half months in a normal year.

“We both had a lot of life experience and we had a lot of those conversations about what we wanted out of life and was important upfront,” she said. “We were on the same page with all the important topics. I knew very early on that I had something extremely special. I knew whatever happened, good or bad, that I had him and we’d figure it out together and we were a team.”

As he prepares for the possibility of rejoining the Olympic team, Daly hopes the fourth time brings a long-awaited and hard-earned redemption on the ice from 2014, when he was less than a minute from his athletic dream.

Displaying the optimism and the perspective that appealed to his fiancée, , Daly recognizes that he’s been incredibly fortunate if his worst day includes missing out on Olympic hardware.

“If the worst thing that’s happened to me is that I went to my second Olympics and screwed up,” said Daly, “I’ve had a darned good life.”

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Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone introduced a plan Jan. 25 for the return of high-risk sports. Photo from Bellone’s office

High-risk sports such as basketball, wrestling and cheerleading can resume, days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) gave local health commissioners the green light to allow these sports to restart.

Suffolk County has developed a sports plan in connection with Suffolk County School Superintendents Association and Section XI Athletics.

“We know how important sports are in our kids’ lives,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said during a Jan. 25 press conference announcing the resumption of high-risk sports. “If we can get kids back on the field in as safe a way as possible, we know it’ll bring great benefits.”

As a part of the sports program, all student-athletes will have to take weekly tests for the COVID-19 virus. The county will provide free, rapid tests to school districts, which school nurses will administer.

“Testing is critical,” Bellone said.

New York State is expected to provide an initial allocation of 20,00 rapid tests and will look to provide more tests for schools to use each week.

Positive tests will result in a 10-day quarantine. Each coach is required to supply information to the Suffolk County Department of Health Services for an extensive contact tracing investigation.

The county issued several guidelines, including taking temperatures of players and coaches before practices and games, encouraging mask wearing whenever possible, enforcing social distances when student-athletes are not playing, minimizing equipment sharing, and requiring hand washing before and after practices and games as well as after sharing equipment.

The county also advised programs to play outdoors if possible and to use well-ventilated spaces.

Through Bellone’s office, the county has created the Champion of the Community Pledge, which encourages athletes to take numerous safety measures.

After they read the pledge, students will be asked to sign it and give it to the school.

As a part of this agreement, students accept that if they don’t honor their pledge, they “would be failing to comply with a legitimate school directive and pursuant to school and Section XI policies, students, faculty and staff will be subject to the appropriate accountability measures and disciplinary actions,” according to the pledge.

Athletes must stay safe, healthy and informed of COVID-19 updates, unite with team members and the community to have a memorable season, follow face mask, hygiene and social distancing guidelines, follow additional health and safety requirements, which may include testing and self-quarantining, operating in a healthy environment and completing daily declarations, lead by example and serve as a role model for team members and the community.

Boys and girls basketball, wrestling and competitive cheer will resume Feb. 1 and will conclude Feb. 27.

On average, more than 60,000 student-athletes participate in various high school sports during a normal school year.

Bellone also directed the Suffolk County Parks Department to work with Section XI to set up a fair process for districts to schedule cross-country meets in county parks.

Park sites that the county will make available for competition include West Hills County Park in Melville and Blydenburgh County Park in Smithtown.

The cross-country season will begin March 1.

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Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis. Photo from Stony Brook University

Stony Brook University has been at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic, as hospital staff has treated and comforted residents stricken with the virus, and researchers have worked tirelessly on a range of projects — including manufacturing personal protective equipment. Amid a host of challenges, administrators at Stony Brook have had to do more with less under budgetary pressure. In this second part of a two-part seriesPresident Maurie McInnis offers her responses in an email exchange to several questions. The Q and A is edited for length. See last week’s paper for an interview with Interim Provost Fotis Sotiropoulos.

TBR News: What are the top three things that keep you up at night?

President Maurie McInnis: My first and foremost priority is to make sure we never compromise or become complacent when it comes to the health and safety of our campus community. Another priority is to develop strategies for best working through our budget challenges, which were exacerbated by COVID-19. And the third thing that keeps me up at night — and fills my waking hours — is making sure I am doing all I can to bring our vast resources together so we can continue to uphold the mission and values of Stony Brook University.

TBR: How do you feel the University has managed through the pandemic and what are some of the strategies you found particularly effective?

McInnis: Stony Brook’s successes in keeping our doors open for in-person learning during the fall semester are well-documented. And I continue to be impressed by, and grateful for, what our entire campus community did to make that happen… From testing students before they came back to campus, to everyone joining together as a community to follow our safety protocols. COVID-19 has revealed our unique strengths — our community engagement, seriousness about academics, personal sense of accountability and collective responsibility for one another.

TBR: How do you feel the University has managed through the economic crisis?

McInnis: Even as the COVID crisis highlighted our strengths, it’s also shone a light on some problematic patterns — particularly in the area of budgets — that in previous years were able to slip by, for Stony Brook and other universities. Our priorities right now are to learn from this moment and build for a more sustainable future.

TBR: Even in the midst of historic challenges, what things still excite and inspire you about Stony Brook University?

McInnis: The short answer is that the things that drew me to Stony Brook initially are the same characteristics that excite and inspire me today. I’m talking about its commitment to a diverse and talented student body; faculty’s dedication to delivering world-class research, scholarship and patient care; its impressive record of high-powered research and student success; its role as a major economic engine in the region; and, its emphasis on community, civility and cross-cultural exchange. Our unique dual role as a top-rated, research-oriented university and hospital stood up to the test of the historically challenging year we’ve had.

TBR: How has Stony Brook’s hybrid learning platform differentiated it from other university online platforms?

McInnis: What made Stony Brook’s learning model so successful is the fact that we worked with areas across campus, intensely and continuously, to make sure we had the right fit for our school, students, faculty members, staff, community, everyone. A hybrid model made the most sense, safety-wise and to ensure the best academic experience.

TBR: If you weren’t in triage mode, what would you be doing?

McInnis: When I came to Stony Brook, I identified three areas that we will continue to focus on during, and post-pandemic, and as we tackle ongoing budget challenges. First, we will continue to support our world-class faculty. We’ll do that by creating an environment in which students succeed, and by continuing to enable cutting-edge breakthroughs in research and medicine. Second, we will embrace our own diversity to strengthen the intellectual and social environment at Stony Brook by creating a ‘one campus’ culture through increased multidisciplinary efforts. And third, we will continue to drive social and economic change on Long Island, in New York State and across the country by staying community-focused and engaging in partnerships that benefit the region.

TBR: What do you plan and hope for a year from now? What’s the best and worst case scenarios?

McInnis: I hope that we can use our experience during this pandemic to spark positive change for future generations of Stony Brook students, faculty and community members, and build on our strengths. We are the number one institution in reducing social inequality. And we need to continue to embrace our incredible impact in driving intergenerational socioeconomic growth and social mobility. Connecting students with opportunities after they graduate — from research positions to internships to career advising — will be important in expanding that impact.

I also want to build on our strengths as both a state-of-the-art healthcare facility and cutting-edge research institution. I want to bring these two areas closer together, blending our expertise across disciplines, as we’re already starting to do. We also plan to apply lessons learned from our shift to remote and hybrid learning.

TBR: Are there COVID research initiatives that Stony Brook is involved with that you hope to continue?

McInnis: Fighting the COVID-19 pandemic has required researchers from many disciplines to come together, demonstrating the depth and breadth of our capabilities. Stony Brook is involved in more than 200 dedicated research projects across all disciplines. These projects span 45 academic departments and eight different colleges and schools within the University, and I’m impressed with the caliber and sense of urgency with which this work is being done.

TBR: If you were offered the opportunity to take the vaccine today, would you?

McInnis: Yes, I would take it in a heartbeat, right now.

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