The crew of 'Go Bananas,' Jason Dank and Ryan Matheson. Photo by Lynn Hallarman
By Lynn Hallarman
The reigning champion boat, Go Bananas, crewed by Jason Dank and Ryan Matheson, was soundly defeated by Doug Santo and Chris Voorhis in their seaworthy vessel, Yacht Rock, during the 13th annual Sikaflex “Quick & Dirty” Boat Build Competition held on Sunday, Aug. 11, at Harborfront Park in Port Jefferson.
After the race, the organization held a raffle drawing for a 12-foot fiddlehead double paddle canoe, custom-built by volunteers. Port Jeff resident Margaret Mansone was the big winner of the hand-built canoe raffle.
This year, six boats competed for the top spot mixed with confidence and trepidation, facing old rivals and hungry newcomers.
“We had a lot to prove,” Santo said in a post-race interview with TBR News Media.
The Long Island Seaport and Eco Center, based at the Bayles Boat Shop at Harborfront Park, hosts the race annually as part of a fundraiser to support its community-based educational activities.
The boat-building competition required teams to design and build a small boat within a five-hour time limit using only materials supplied by LISEC. Teams raced against the clock on Saturday, Aug. 10, to finish seaworthy ships in preparation for Sunday’s race.
Doug Santo and Chris Voorhis with their seaworthy vessel, ‘Yacht Rock.’ Photo by Lynn Hallarman
Prior to the race, judges Mayor Lauren Sheprow, former village trustee Rebecca Kassay, (now Democratic candidate for the state Assembly District 4,) and mother-son team Donna and Michael Antignano scored boat designs based on five criteria: uniqueness, neatness, construction, creative paint design and paddle design.
“We have learned from our past mistakes,” said Peter Charalambous, the captain of Winner II. As the 2019 champions, Charalambous and his fiancée, Sunny, have refined their building technique as they prepared for this year’s event to recapture their past glory.
Sadly, Winner II took on water and sank yards before the finish line.
Capsizing the start line, The Joey Z’s, was manned by Brian Tierney and Joe McNaughton, who “have no regrets.”
Heads held high, Mike DeMacia and Lyle Ross — crew of The Candy — gave it their all to the finish well behind the leaders.
Redeemed, Go Bananas was named the winner for best boat design, sharing top prize with Ken Callirgos and Matt Deveau, of The Wall, a paddleboard-style vessel. While some questioned whether a paddleboard qualifies as a boat, the United States Coast Guard recognizes it as such.
Go Bananas, Yacht Rock and The Wall raced in calm seas with precision and determination. In a surge of strength, Yacht Rock pulled ahead in the final seconds of a close contest for the win as the crowd’s roar reached a fevered pitch.
The Foundation for Wildlife Sustainability has announced it will host its first Family Fun Day at the Long Island Game Farm, 489 Chapman Blvd., Manorville on Thursday, August 22 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. [Rain date is Friday, August 23].
The day will feature engaging nature-themed experiences and encourage families to deepen their appreciation for wildlife and the natural environment. Brady Rymer and The Little Band That Could will perform.
“The Foundation for Wildlife Sustainability was formed in 2023 to connect people of all ages and abilities to the environment,” shares foundation executive direction Patricia Snyder. “This Family Fun Day encourages families to experience nature and wildlife in a fun, engaging, and informative manner that the Long Island Game Farm isrecognized for.”
The day’s events will include a celebration of the beloved capybaras with a “Happy Capy Day” theme, including games and challenges, a camel meet-and-greet, storytelling by Long Island authors, tortoise talk, interactive sing-a-long with singer songwriter Anne O’Rourke, face painting, scavenger hunt, family holiday photo station, and more.
“We are so excited to round out the summer with this incredible all-day event,” shares game farm president Melinda Novak. “The capybaras have become the top attraction this summer, and we’re looking forward to offering an engaging and educational experience for families to learn more about this fascinating species, as well as other game farm resident animals.”
Tickets for a family of four are available online in advance at wildlifesustainability.org/special-events for $31.25 per person or $37.50 per person at the door. Additional family members are $29 per person in advance, $30 at the door. Ticket sales support the Foundation for Wildlife Sustainability and its mission to connect people with wildlife and the natural environment through awareness activities and engaging experiences, and to support the work of the Long Island Game Farm.
Downtown Port Jefferson flooded during Superstorm Sandy. File photo
This week’s Port Jefferson Civic meeting devoted a great deal of time to all things flood-related.
Now, of course, flood prevention is not unique. It is something all communities think about — especially, a port town.
But, why did the Village of Port Jefferson feel so strongly about a little bit of water falling from the sky, that they have decided to implement a two-phase plan, to build infrastructure designed to aid areas “[vulnerable] to flooding, associated with individual and co-occurring flood drivers?”
There are a few reasons. The first one is that this problem is not small, at all. It is much more dire than the flooding of yesteryear. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Long Island’s sea level has risen 13 inches from 1880. Just to put that figure into perspective, the global average is 8-9 inches. Secondly, warming temperatures have created hurricanes, with intense conditions, putting our island at increased storm surge-induced flooding, (for this factor, the South Shore is at a much higher risk.) And, lastly, Port Jefferson’s unique geography. Being situated on the harbor front, the village becomes susceptible to the strong flooding a confined harbor can induce.
Additionally, the area’s high groundwater table means that the soil does not have much capacity for additional water, thus exacerbating surface runoff, on an already small watershed. The geography of Port Jeff is, truly, unique, as it is a valley, which creates the imperfect opportunity for water to run down, from all directions — affording it the nickname “Drowned Meadow.”
So, what can we, as a community, do to prevent floods from disrupting our livelihoods? While this issue requires the careful care of our local government, as it is a truly serious issue, here are a few general suggestions:
• Consider purchasing a sump pump, to prevent basement or crawl space flooding.
• Ensure new building and development does not occur in flood-prone areas, or historic hurricane tracks.
• Merge nature-based solutions and infrastructure, to enhance resilience. An example would be improving upon infrastructure in need of flood safeguards, or replenishing beaches, to avoid erosion, and ensure the land’s natural slope and profile stays intact.
• Minimize your greenhouse gas emissions, to reduce the risk of severe storms. Starting is as easy as purchasing home appliances that are Energy Star — products approved by the EPA — certified, and lowering the thermostat.
• Bolster awareness. Talk to neighbors about the dangers of climate-influenced natural disasters, and generate community action. We need it
Kimberly Christian. Courtesy Rocky Point Union Free School District
The Rocky Point School District welcomes Kimberly Christian, as its new director of math, science, technology, business education, career and technical education, and family and consumer sciences. Dr. Christian will continue to advance initiatives in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics for the district.
Christian earned an undergraduate degree in biology from Cornell University, a Master of Arts in Teaching Biology, a doctorate in science education, and certification in school district leadership from Stony Brook University.
In her new role,Christian aims to provide all students with a comprehensive, 21st-century education to develop information literacy, critical thinking, and analytical skills. She is known for her motivation, innovation, and problem-solving skills. She hopes to foster productive, collaborative relationships among colleagues, parents, students, and community members.
“I am pleased to join the Rocky Point community,” Christian said. “It is a privilege to work alongside our talented educators, supportive staff, and enthusiastic students and families. I look forward to advancing initiatives that will drive student success and inspire a passion for learning.”
Christian has been a science teacher at Smithtown High School East since 2004, where she taught AP Biology and Project Lead the Way: Medical Interventions, as well as Regents Living Environment and Oceans. She contributed to curriculum development and implementation and maintained innovative instructional practices, integrating technology and differentiation.
For the past decade, Christian has served as an instructional specialist at Smithtown High School East, where she facilitated dialogue between colleagues and district leadership. Her work included participating in the science curriculum committee, aligning K-12 science instruction with NYSSLS, and coordinating standardized testing administration, including local and state exams. She also collaborated with the district’s science director on master scheduling, managed materials acquisition, and provided professional development during conference days and department meetings.
She co-authored “NGSS-Based Teacher Professional Development to Implement Engineering Practices in STEM Instruction,” published in 2021 in the International Journal of STEM Education, and “NGSS Teacher Professional Development to Implement Engineering Practices in Science Instruction,” presented virtually at the 2020 International Conference of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching in Portland, Oregon.
Stony Brook University named physician-scientist Dr. Imoigele “Imo” Aisiku as chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Renaissance School of Medicine, starting Aug. 15.
A national leader who has dedicated his career to critical care and neurocritical care in emergency medicine, Aisiku worked for more than a decade at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Aisiku, who was born in Nigeria and raised in Brooklyn and Auburn, Massachusetts, found several factors appealing about the Stony Brook role.
“My immediate family is predominantly in the Northeast” stretching from New York to Richmond, Virginia,” he said. Additionally, he suggested that numerous aspects of the role were “right in my area of expertise.”
His experience at Brigham and Women’s Hospital involved integrating systems, and he recognizes the opportunity to deploy that skill set at Stony Brook, where he will help integrate the emergency department at different hospitals.
He also has considerable experience in critical care, which is a strength at SBU.
“There are some natural synergies that you couldn’t script” he added, including strong clinical interest in stroke, telehealth, critical care and a desire to develop a systems integration model
Indeed, before he came to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Aisiku worked at the University of Texas at Houston. UT Houston/Memorial Hermann was one of the earliest to be named a JCAHO Comprehensive Stroke Center.
Aisiku was the medical director of their neurosurgery intensive care unit, which had one of the first mobile stroke units in the country. The unit was a collaboration between EMS, neurology, the stroke division, EM and the ICU.
A mobile stroke unit can provide critical and timely diagnostics and care for people having a stroke, which can not only save lives but can also lead to a dramatic improvement in the outcome after a stroke event for patients.
Stony Brook currently has two mobile stroke units and is working on adding a third.
“I hope to leverage what is the strength of Stony Brook with my experiences” and strengthen any weaknesses in a bidirectional manner, said Aisiku, who will report to Peter Igarashi, dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine.
For his part, Igarashi was eager to welcome the new addition to the emergency department.
“We are thrilled that Dr. Aisiku will lead Stony Brook’s remarkable team of emergency physicians,” Igarashi said in a statement. “As a pioneering physician-scientist in neurocritical care, and as an emergency medicine scholar and researcher, Dr. Aisiku will help advance our capacity to save lives and care for critically ill patients in the years to come.”
Evolutionary change
The new emergency department chair is hoping to learn more about Stony Brook’s strengths and weaknesses before implementing any changes.
“I hope to make a change and a difference,” Aisiku explained in an email. “I believe it is prudent to aim for evolutionary change and, if there is an opportunity, for positive revolutionary change.”
His goal is to see the department grow from a regional strength to a national and even an international strength.
He plans to develop partnerships with other chairs and departments and hopes to enhance programmatic and faculty development.
Aisiku also hopes to develop opportunities for faculty at Stony Brook, including in areas that involve research. He would like to see the department earn more National Institutes of Health and federal funding.
DEI experience
An accomplished physician, researcher and administrator, Aisiku also has considerable experience building and encouraging opportunities for underrepresented groups in medicine.
Aisiku was the founder and director of the Offices of IDEaS, which stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Social Justice, in Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he credits a team of faculty administrative staff and supportive chair for the success of that effort.
Aisiku “played a crucial role in the development of the office of IDEaS,” Jayelani Hall, administrative manager for Emergency Medicine and the Office of IDEaS at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, explained in an email. Aisiku’s vision for creating an inclusive environment and commitment to equity and diversity were “instrumental in shaping the initiatives and programs that define IDEaS today.”
IDEaS has launched several initiatives, such as the Profile in Diversity Series and the SPAK Grant program, which provides funding to projects that advance diversity, equity and inclusion.
The office established scholarship programs to support underrepresented students pursuing careers in medicine and health care, Hall added.
The president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital named Aisiku endowed Distinguished Chair in Health Equity and Diversity.
The broader Stony Brook area extending to New York City “draws diverse and international people to the region,” Aisiku explained. “While I acknowledge that [DEI] is an area of controversy in our country, I believe continuing to strive for diversity has a significant role for the development of our youth all the way to impacting our patients.”
In speaking with the leadership of the hospital and medical school, Aisiku believes his diversity goals are “aligned in these efforts” as he looks forward to developing strategies that will lead to diverse students, residents and faculty.
In addition to providing opportunities to students in the health care field, a more diverse population of caregivers enhances the patient experience, Aisiku contends.
A diverse health care force provides greater opportunity for patient choice and advocacy, he added.
Aisiku, who has master’s degrees in business administration from Goizueta School of Business and a master’s in clinical research from Rollings School of Public Health at Emory University, would like to partner with the business school and the school of public health, among others, to build diversity, which may broaden and enhance his efforts in this area.
People who have worked with Aisiku appreciate his commitment and openness to those around him.
Aisiku is “known for his compassion and dedication both as a physician and as a leader,” Hall wrote. “He consistently goes above and beyond to ensure that his patients receive the best care possible and his commitment to equity in health care is evident in all his endeavors.”
Hall suggested that the Stony Brook community is fortunate to have Aisiku in this role.
“Given his track record, I fully expect him to engage deeply with students, faculty and community members, fostering connections and driving positive change,” Hall explained.
From left to right, Robert Samuel Decosta Higgins, Jayelani Hall, Imoigele Aisiku, Ron Walls and Mike VanRooyen, at a ceremony for Aisiku. Photo courtesy Imoigele Aisiku
Telehealth experience
Over a decade ago, Aisiku started iDoc Telehealth Solutions, a telemedicine company dedicated to critical and neurocritical care and tele-stroke services, with the goal of providing this type of care to people in areas that didn’t have enough clinicians with that experience.
Since then, he has become co-CEO of a public company called VSEE Health.
He expects to pass the torch on to other executives. His commitment is to the university as his obligation to the company is for about four more months.
To be sure, he wants to ensure there are no conflicts of interest in his roles at Stony Brook and in the decision about how and in what ways the university can continue to build telehealth capacity.
“If there is an opportunity to enhance an area, with full disclosure, there can be pathways to achieve things that improve the patient experience while separating ‘church’ and ‘state’ so to speak,” he explained in an email.
Morana Lasic, interim chief diversity & inclusion officer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, suggested that Aisiku has served as a personal and institutional resource for a wide range of people.
Aisiku “works with those who are yet to enter the medical field and need mentorship, just as he does with institution presidents,” Lasic explained in an email. “He empowers those on his team and pays special attention to those who are often forgotten in mentorship (such as young administrative staff.)”
Lasic added that Aisiku was generous with his time and has reached out to her with emails and new thoughts and ideas at any time of day.
“Just like the rest of his life, his sleeping schedule is unique and his own, and he wears an Oura ring (which tracks sleep patterns) just to confuse it,” Lasic said.
In his research, Aisiku has focused on three areas: traumatic brain injury, subarachnoid hemorrhages and acute respiratory distress syndrome/sepsis.
Aisiku is living with his wife Diana, who is a nurse, and their 4 1/2-year-old son Myles in Westbury. They are in the process of searching for a home.
Outside of work, Aisiku has a black belt in the martial art of Jeet Kune Do, enjoys working out and played Division 3 tennis and basketball, at Worcester State University. He is also a motorcycle enthusiast.
As for his likely contribution to the Stony Brook community, Lasic, who has been at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for 25 years, suggested that she anticipated he would continue on an impressive journey.
Aisiku is “one of the most innovative leaders in academic medicine I have seen in a long time,” she wrote. “He is a true role model in his ability to connect with those around him.”
Keria Hammer shoots for the Wildcats in a summer league match up against Bay Shore. Photo by Bill Landon
1 of 9
Tessa Cooke powers past a defender for the Wildcats in a summer league match up against Bay Shore. Photo by Bill Landon
Madeline Kavanaugh settles the ball for the Wildcats in a summer league match up against Bay Shore. Photo by Bill Landon
Shealyn Varbero pushes up-field for the Wildcats in a summer league match up against Bay Shore. Photo by Bill Landon
Ava Gengler clears the ball for the Wildcats in a summer league match up against Bay Shore. Photo by Bill Landon
Olivia Pesso maneuvers mid-field for the Wildcats in a summer league match up against Bay Shore. Photo by Bill Landon
Keria Hammer shoots for the Wildcats in a summer league match up against Bay Shore. Photo by Bill Landon
Shealyn Varbero heads the ball for the Wildcats in a summer league match up against Bay Shore. Photo by Bill Landon
Olivia Pesso settles the ball for the Wildcats in a summer league match up against Bay Shore. Photo by Bill Landon
Shealyn Varbero pushes up-field for the Wildcats in a summer league match up against Bay Shore. Photo by Bill Landon
By Bill Landon
Shoreham-Wading River girls varsity soccer team looked to build on the success of their 2023 campaign when the Wildcats won another Suffolk County Class A title and Long Island championship. The team advanced to the state championships last November at Cortland High School before losing the Class A final to Rye.
The Wildcats faced off against Bay Shore in Islip High School summer league action Thursday, Aug. 8. It was Ava Gengler’s foot that stretched the net to take the early lead. On a corner kick, Olivia Pesso floated the ball up high in front of the net where Abigail Cooke headed the ball in for the insurance goal. Shoreham-Wading River inked the 2-0 victory in the fourth game of the tournament with two games remaining.
The Wildcats launch their 2024 season with a home opener Sept. 11 when they will host Mount Sinai. Game time is slated for 4:30 p.m.
Art Billadello objects to the word “divisive” headlining a TBR news article [Aug. 1] about the gigantic “In Trump We Trust” sign put up on a building at the main intersection of Port Jefferson, right across from the ferry terminal. He ignores the obvious: Of course a sign like that is divisive.
This was not a campaign sign. It was put up in January 2020, immediately before President Joe Biden’s [D] inauguration and shortly after the attack on the U.S Capitol sparked by the lie that former President Donald Trump [R] hadn’t lost the election. Some 20 feet long and some 3 feet high, it was displayed on the building’s second story balcony. It took our national motto, “In God We Trust,” and swapped out “God” for “Trump.” How is that not divisive?
When I moved to this area over 35 years ago there were no political signs outside of election season, let alone a gigantic sign erected in the middle of town three months after the election, implicitly claiming God-like status for the losing candidate. All that changed after 2016. After that election was over and Trump won, his flags and banners didn’t come down. They remained prominently displayed throughout his entire term. Then, when Trump lost in 2020, the Trump flags and banners still didn’t come down after the election. Why is that? What is the purpose of this other than to provoke and inflame division within our community? It’s not exactly the kind of thing expected of a good neighbor. It expresses the opposite of what unites us.
As for the letter writer’s attempt to draw a false equivalence between Trump and Biden as equally divisive, it’s just more gaslighting. The Biden administration passed the first major infrastructure bill in decades with bipartisan support, in spite of opposition from the extreme left and the extreme right. Trump, on the other hand has trafficked in race-baiting and ethnic stereotypes, hurled childish and vitriolic insults at his political opponents, and refused to disavow the most extreme and violent of his supporters, even to the extent of refusing to condemn their threats to hang his own vice president for performing his constitutional duty.
David Friedman
St. James
Local Dems put politics first
During interviews with TBR, several local Democrats could barely hide their excitement over the change at the tippy-top of their party’s ticket [“Local Democrats see new political energy and interest after Biden withdraws,” TBR News Media, July 25].
John Avlon said, “People are excited to be a part of something bigger than themselves.” Dems are becoming “fired up” about their political prospects.
Steve Englebright was especially upbeat: “Everybody who I’ve talked to is energized. … I see the ascension of a Democratic candidate … who is a woman of color, a woman of substance, in terms of her accomplishments, as validating the idea that women are equally ready” to serve in any political office.
Hitchhiking on that idea, Rebecca Kassay added, “I’m energized and inspired to be running with our first potential female president.”
Suffolk County Democratic Committee campaign manager Keith Davies saw all this as a “great opportunity for local candidates to not have to worry about exciting Democrats.” Davies also added those running won’t have to spend much time fielding questions about President Joe Biden’s “cognitive abilities.”
All that uncontested “happy talk” was weeks ago. Missing then and, as of this writing, missing now, is any substantive talk of policy from the two candidates atop their ticket.
Both the vice president, Kamala Harris, and her running mate, Tim Walz, currently remain basically mute regarding specifics on how they’d manage inflation, illegal immigration, two wars started on their party’s watch, growing antisemitism especially on college campuses, fracking, police funding or restarting ICE “from scratch.”
The aforementioned, a partial list of important issues, does not include Harris’ 2019 call for ending private health insurance.
Campaign staffers trying to “walk back,” some would say flip flop, on her more extreme and unpopular positions are a poor substitute for answering probing questions in her own voice.
But, perhaps the most troubling part of the interview was Davies’ apparent relief that Biden’s “cognitive abilities” may no longer be a pesky political liability. The implication, in this time of multiple global existential crises, is that the fitness of POTUS is off the table. This, despite the fact that Biden’s significant cognitive disabilities remained purposely hidden, until after his awful debate. How then, without careful, unbiased scrutiny, could we know if the current president is fit to run our nation for the next six months?
It’s that kind of deliberate media incuriosity that has cost them credibility and gotten us to the point where unchallenged partisans can put their politics first, and celebrate muted candidates, with little fear of blowback.
Jim Soviero
East Setauket
The community we love
Every Saturday, my husband Bill and I head for the Rolling Pin Bakery at the Three Village Plaza in East Setauket to load up with goodies. This Saturday, when we entered the store, the manager called us over and surprisingly gave us an envelope with a $20 bill in it.
It was found on the floor last week. They looked at the security video and lo and behold … it was us!
The point of all this is that it is really satisfying to know that we live in a community with such honest and caring people.
Thank you to the staff at the Rolling Pin Bakery. You made our day as uplifting as those raisin scones.
Patricia Martin
Stony Brook
Errors in Joseph ‘JOJO’ LaRosa Foundation article
I want to bring your attention to two errors in the recent article that was published about the Joseph “JOJO” LaRosa Foundation golf outing on Monday, July 29 [“Celebrating the life of JoJo LaRosa,” The Village Times Herald, Aug. 1].
The first being at the beginning of the article where you refer to our foundation in parentheses as “Forever JoJo Strong.” This is not accurate. JoJo’s father — and our dad — has a separate foundation with that name. JoJo and I’s parents are divorced and therefore made two separate foundations.
The second error that needs to be corrected is when you refer to “JoJo’s dad” based on a comment by my mom Gina. In the interview she said, “my husband” when referring to the person JoJo used to play with at St. George’s Golf and Country Club and that is because her husband is JoJo’s stepdad, not his father. As I mentioned above, JoJo’s father is not married to my mom and has a separate foundation from JJLF.
I do apologize for the confusion, however, these are very important errors that need to be retracted or revised.
Emily LaRosa, Vice President
Joseph “JOJO” LaRosa Foundation
Editor’s note: We regret these errors and thank Emily LaRosa for bringing them to our attention.
Sports resides somewhere near the center of the currency of communication in our house.
In fact, recently our daughter, who is a gifted back row volleyball player despite just clearing five feet tall, and her brother, who is a lifelong baseball player, exchanged amusing anecdotes.
Our daughter attended a minor league baseball game with her friends. In the middle of a close game, she wondered aloud whether, with runners on first and second base and no outs, the batter would bunt.
“Huh?” one of her friends responded. “Why? What are you talking about?”
She tried to explain the strategy, but gave up after it was clear that her friends were more excited to go out together than they were to inhale the drama of a baseball game.
Her brother was watching Olympic volleyball with his friends. They didn’t understand much about back row hitting or trying to spike the ball on the second hit.
Our family enjoyed the parts of the Olympics we watched and, of course, discussed some of our favorite events.
One of mine was the 1,500 meter men’s race. All of the build up described the fierce on-the-track rivalry and off-the-track trash talking between Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Brit Josh Kerr.
The spotlight followed them from the moments before the race through the starter’s gun. While this one competition might not settle who is the fairest of them all, I mean, the better runner, it would give one of them a gold medal, presumably, and, perhaps more importantly, bragging rights.
Ingebrigtsen dashed off to the front of the pack, setting a blistering pace while maintaining what looked like a business-like attitude.
But then, a funny thing happened on the way to the expected finish. American Cole Hocker snuck around Ingebrigtsen’s left side, finding a higher gear and accelerating towards the finish. Kerr pushed towards the line as well, even as American Yared Nuguse closed the gap. At the end, it was Hocker first, Kerr second and Nuguse third, a mere hundredth of a second behind Kerr.
Oh, and Ingebrigtsen came in fourth.
It was such a delightful unscripted moment, particularly after humility seemed to be in such short supply between the favorites.
There are a few things we will not miss. We didn’t need extreme close ups of athletes who are doing as much in their chairs waiting to compete as we are watching them. At one point, Simone Biles, whose name you might have heard a few thousand times over the fortnight, took off her warm up jacket, which we all saw on TV. The announcer, lacking any other detail to share and exhausted from overusing the word “redemption,” decided to announce that she was taking off her jacket. You stuck the landing on that insightful observation, buddy boy.
So, now, here we are. The Olympics are over, the flame is out, the days of trying to avoid sports headlines until after watching the prime time replay are over.
We can go back to reading the important news of the day, assuming we can find some.
What’s changed in our house? Well, our dog is much happier. He probably has nothing against the Olympics, but we shouted at the TV much more often than we typically do during a baseball or basketball game.
We can consider the what ifs in our own lives. These Olympians train every day, eat the right foods, try to stay on a sleep regimen and forego other id-driven moments.
And then, on that day, they might win by a hundredth of a second or less.
At their best, they can inspire us, the way a new year sends people into a list making frenzy. If they can be so amazing, maybe we can, too.
Or, perhaps, we can figure out what else to watch or binge watch on TV. Oh, and there’ll be a winter games, assuming there’ll be a winter, in Italy in two years. Those athletes are undoubtedly doing everything they can to shave another hundredth of a second off their times.
Perhaps you don’t listen to the radio much, or at all. It’s a great way to turn to the latest news when we are driving in the car, where we in the suburbs spend so much of our time.
I have my dial set at CBS NewsRadio on 880 AM, and I flick it on whenever I am on the road. I will also listen to the all news station just before I go to sleep at night and right after I wake up in the morning. I am, after all, in the news business and need to be aware of what is happening both in the world and on Long Island. Besides, I have always been something of a news junkie. So you can imagine my disappointment when I heard the latest news from the station.
CBS NewsRadio will no longer broadcast the news 24/7.
The station gave no explanation, but of course I know why: not enough advertising.
The media is being devastated in the pocketbook. It’s not just newspapers that are feeling the squeeze to the bottom line. It is also television, cable and radio. Many people are getting their news from online and social media. But those sources are not vetted and subject to the higher standards of a free press or broadcasting. They often contain biased or even total untruths and can dangerously spread misinformation.
This is a genuine threat to our democracy, which can only exist if people are correctly informed of what is happening around them and thus can support those officials who properly represent them. Even The New York Times, with a huge circulation in New York, has now decided to stop endorsing candidates in the state.
Again, while the newspaper doesn’t give a reason for the omission it announced, I can fairly well guess why. It takes a lot of extra time and effort to interview candidates for national, statewide and local offices, and then to discuss the results and ultimately write up the endorsements. We know about that. And time means money.
Yes, endorsements sometimes result in hurt feelings and displeasure on the part of the party or candidates not selected, but that has always been a factor in elections. Unendorsed officials, political parties and the media need each other, and after an election, they resume their sometimes shaky relationship. That, in itself, is not a reason for discontinuing the highly valuable service for readers of publishing the impressions of journalists who cover the candidates on a regular basis and have privileged personal access to them during interviews. “It mattered because it helped keep candidates honest, from taking cheap shots and saying what’s popular instead of what’s hard,” was one observation from a political source.
The issue is money.
CBS NewsRadio offered a broad range of news categories, from international and national, to state and local information. It also gave health, economic, weather, traffic and sports overviews in a structured half-hourly schedule. All of that readily available news will be missed.
The pressure on news outlets is extreme today. Based on the old fashioned model, news has been supplied to the public freely with the underwriting of advertising support. But that model is broken.
Advertising has drifted to the much followed digital services like Google and Apple, leaving traditional media adrift. While some advertising continues to flow to these media, not enough does to sustain all the outlets.
For example, 6000 newspapers used to exist in the United States. Today, that number is about 2500 and are beset with financial woes. The New York Times decided to shift its base of support from solely advertising to the customers of their information, the readers. It installed a paywall for the readers. While that business strategy seems to be working for the NYT, it has so far failed any number of others.
Community news media are also suffering. “Truth of the matter is, who I elect to the school board affects me much more than who I vote for for president,” was said by one media specialist. We, too, need help.
Brookhaven Lab Senior Physicist Mary Bishai, who has been awarded a 2024 Department of Energy Office of Science Distinguished Scientist Fellowship, examines a board of microelectronics designed to operate in a cryogenic neutrino detector at 87 Kelvin (-303 degrees Fahrenheit). Photo by Kevin Coughlin/Brookhaven National Laboratory
Physicist Mary Bishai of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has been named a 2024 DOE Office of Science Distinguished Scientist Fellow. The honor recognizes her “enduring contributions at the intensity frontier of high energy physics in unraveling fundamental properties of neutrinos, extraordinary leadership and service to the particle physics community, and deep commitment to broadening participation through mentoring next generation scientists.”
As described in a DOE Office of Science press release issued on Aug. 13, the Distinguished Scientist Fellows program was established to develop, sustain, and promote scientific and academic excellence in Office of Science research through collaborations between universities and national laboratories. Bishai, one of four scientists being honored this year, will receive the award — which consists of $1 million in direct funding for her research — at a ceremony on January 14, 2025, where she will also deliver an online lecture and field questions about her career [registration link: https://science-doe.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/WN_p3QlS3XkRrS9leRYcscytw#/registration].
“It is an honor to recognize the outstanding research of these awardees,” said Harriet Kung, acting director of the DOE Office of Science. “They are advancing science solutions for the nation and taking on some of our biggest challenges in bioenergy, materials science, physics, and computing. I look forward to their continued success and impactful results, especially as they continue to move forward in their careers, inspiring a new generation of scientists ready to tackle the big questions and challenges of the future.”
Bishai has made understanding the properties of elementary particles her life’s work, and she has spent the last two decades at Brookhaven working to understand the properties of the elusive neutrino . Her leadership on neutrino experiments led her to be elected co-spokesperson of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) in January 2023. DUNE is a 1,400-person project with scientists from more than 30 countries and 200 institutions. This experiment will shoot neutrinos over a thousand kilometers from DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois through Earth’s crust to detectors deep within the Sanford Underground Research Facility(SURF) in South Dakota to see how these enigmatic entities change as they travel.
“This fellowship is a great honor,” she said. After spending her early career working at Purdue University and studying charm quarks at the CLEO experiment at Cornell University, Bishai transitioned to work at DOE laboratories. She reflected, “I have spent a rewarding career involved in leading particle physics experiments at the national labs, including 20 years at Brookhaven.”
Bishai is excited for DUNE’s possible insight into several fundamental questions in physics. Chief among those is why our universe is made of matter, or as she put it, “why we are here.” DUNE will allow scientists to look for differences between how neutrinos and their antimatter opposites, antineutrinos, behave. Finding a difference could help explain why the early universe — which should have contained the two in equal, mutually annihilating amounts — somehow favored the existence and persistence of matter. Observations by terrestrial detectors like DUNE of the energy and time distributions of neutrinos emitted by the Sun or during the explosion of a nearby supernova will also provide a clearer picture of how stars work.
Bishai’s outlook and enthusiasm extend beyond the science to the scientists themselves. “The most fun of all,” she said, has been guiding the next generation of researchers. “As a mentor, I am making sure that my students are integrated, making sure they understand what they’re doing, and I’m trying to talk about careers a lot,” she shared.
Detection detective
Brookhaven scientists have been at the forefront of neutrino research for decades, developing complex detector technologies, including giant liquid argon-filled detectors and the cold microelectronics that read out their signals. Bishai’s work builds on that legacy.
“Brookhaven is where the first successful neutrino beam from an accelerator was produced as part of a Nobel Prize-winning experiment that established that neutrinos have ‘flavors,’ or different types. This was followed by Ray Davis’ groundbreaking Nobel Prize-winning experiment to detect solar neutrinos using a massive detector underground in the former Homestake Gold Mine in South Dakota. That experiment produced the first hint that neutrinos oscillate, or change, between different flavors. DUNE is the latest generation, using accelerator-produced neutrinos to further study neutrino flavor oscillations to learn more about our universe,” Bishai said.
Part of the challenge with all these experiments is that neutrinos have extraordinarily little mass, no charge at all, and interact with matter only rarely. So how exactly do scientists measure a chargeless particle that can fly through walls with ease while shapeshifting among three known flavors? The key is in detecting “fingerprints” neutrinos leave in the argon bath.
As in many of the earlier experiments, DUNE’s detectors will be deep underground to filter out other types of particle interactions. When incoming neutrinos enter the chilly, 87 Kelvin (-303 degrees Fahrenheit) pool of liquid argon, they’ll very occasionally interact with one of the argon atoms. Those interactions kick various charged particles out of the argon nuclei. Next, the charged particles set off a cascade of ionization, knocking electrons off more atoms in the argon bath. The interactions of the initial neutrino and the secondary charged particles with argon also generate flashes of light.
Scientists match the flashes of light, which travel almost instantaneously through the detector, with the later arrival of electrons freed by ionization as they strike electrodes on the sides of the detector.
“Because you know how fast it takes for the charge to go, and you know when the interaction happened from the flash of light, you can figure out exactly where the interaction took place inside the detector, and you can use computers to reconstruct the tracks,” Bishai said.
Then, it’s about fitting the puzzle pieces together. Since each neutrino produces different types of tracks, these tracks can be analyzed to pinpoint the flavor of the neutrino that created each track.
Keeping it inclusive — for data and people
Bishai has been recognized for being a relentless champion for the science of neutrinos and the scientific program of the DUNE experiment, starting from her role as project scientist when the DUNE collaboration was first formed in 2015 and subsequently as a leader of various physics working groups in the collaboration.
Throughout her career, and as DUNE co-spokesperson, she has worked consistently to bring others into the field.
As an example, she has mentored more than 20 young scientists, mostly through the DOE-funded Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship program at Brookhaven Lab and students who visited Brookhaven while participating in the African School of Physics. Bishai recalled how she worked with students to test hundreds of DUNE’s cold microelectronic chips by dipping them in liquid nitrogen that’s nearly as cold as the liquid argon will be.
“I learn more when I teach because I have to dig deep into the science myself, dig deep into the technical issues, to be able to then translate it into simpler concepts,” she said.
Bishai believes that giving students a chance to participate in DUNE — not just her own students but those of many scientists connected with the project — will help produce a workforce adept at “organizing large, collaborative, multidisciplinary efforts across the world.”
The cornerstone of a project this size is indeed making everyone feel welcome and ensuring that collaborators around the globe have access to the scientific data. “DUNE is moving to a very distributed approach in terms of analyzing and accessing data internationally,” she said.
Bishai is also working to cultivate an inclusive team atmosphere. As DUNE co-spokesperson, she helped launch a DUNE inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility group that is gathering demographic information and programs activities to increase representation.
Another initiative was instituting an orientation session at certain DUNE collaboration meetings. “Anybody who wants to come can learn about how collaboration decisions are made and how to join in the decision-making process,” Bishai said.
She has additionally prioritized increased involvement of early career staff, including members of the Young DUNE group, on DUNE committees and decision-making bodies. Bishai tries to make herself available to all collaboration members through both formal Q&A sessions and informal messaging platforms and email.
“Being co-spokesperson of the DUNE collaboration, you are elected to serve all collaborators regardless of seniority,” she said. “You have to lead by building consensus among a group of equals.”
Bishai earned her Bachelor of Arts in physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1991. She received her Master of Science and Ph.D., both in physics, from Purdue University in 1993 and 1999, respectively. She was a research associate at DOE’s Fermilab in 1998 until she joined Brookhaven as an assistant physicist in 2004. She rose through the ranks and has been a senior physicist since 2015. Bishai has played many roles in laying the foundation for a U.S.-based long-baseline neutrino experiment and became DUNE Collaboration co-spokesperson in 2023. In 2014, she was named Woman of the Year in Science by the Town of Brookhaven, and in 2015, she was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.
Prev
