Stony Brook University

Yi-Xian Qin

Yi-Xian Qin recognized by the BMES for his groundbreaking research on bone tissue response

Yi-Xian Qin, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the Renaissance School of Medicine and in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook University, will receive the 2025 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES)  Christopher Jacobs Award for Excellence in Leadership.

The annual award, established in 2019, honors the memory and contributions of Christopher R. Jacobs, PhD, co-founder and council member of the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE) Special Interest Group (SIG) under BMES. It recognizes individuals who demonstrate exceptional leadership excellence within the Cell and Molecular Bioengineering community. Leadership is broadly defined and includes efforts in education, service and publication/dissemination of knowledge related to the CMBE field.

Dr. Qin’s expertise and leadership at Stony Brook is broad. He is also Director of the Orthopaedic Bioengineering Research Laboratory and Co-Director of the Institute for Engineering-Driven Medicine.

An innovator whose work in the field of bone research has significantly advanced scientific  understanding of how bone tissue responds and adapts to various functional environments, bone fluid flow and regenerative responses to dynamic stimuli, Dr. Qin has published more than 180 peer-reviewed articles as well as related books and chapters and U.S. patents. His patents encompass groundbreaking technologies such as ultrasound diagnostic imaging, therapeutic applications, and mechanical stimulation for musculoskeletal diseases like osteopenia and fractures. These technologies hold promise in offering numerous clinical benefits and predicting bone loss in microgravity during long-term missions in space.

“It’s a great honor to receive this prestigious award, which allows us to enhance bioengineering and bone tissue regeneration research in mechanotransduction and translation in the Stony Brook community,” says Dr. Qi, a resident of Setauket. He described Dr. Christopher Jacobs as a pioneer in the field of cellular and molecular engineering who discovered the role of primary cilia in bone cells and its role in mechanotransduction for cell differentiation and tissue regeneration.

Dr. Qin will deliver a lecture and be honored with the award at the 2025 BMES CMBE Conference in Carlsbad, California, from January 3 to 6.

He earned both his master’s degree and PhD from Stony Brook University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. His contributions to the field have earned him Fellowship status in several prestigious organizations, including the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR), the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE), and the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). Dr. Qin also serves as Executive Editor-in-Chief for Mechanobiology in Medicine, an Elsevier journal.

Established in 1968, the BMES has more than 6,800 members and is the leading professional society for faculty, students, researchers and industry professionals in biomedical engineering. The mission of the BMES is to promote a collaborative and inclusive community to advance human health through education, discovery and translation.

 

Caption: Stony Brook University goes car free. Photo by John Griffin/Stony Brook University

Stony Brook University has won this year’s Car Free Day Long Island, with the  highest number of pledges on a college campus, 892 people, who will go car free for at least one trip.

Car Free Day is an international event celebrated in September where people are encouraged to travel car-free, opting to instead ride public transit, a bicycle, travel by carpool, or walk. This year, Car Free Day Long Island was held on September 22, 2024. This was the 12th year Long Island has participated in the event.

Stony Brook University has been participating in Car Free Day Long Island since 2013 with the aim of getting  students, faculty, and staff to participate in alternate ways of traveling to reduce carbon emissions. The event aligns with Stony Brook’s sustainability goals, and also promotes the use of its Wolf Ride Bike Share program and coincides with its recent recognition as a Bike Friendly University. To spread the word this year, coordinators sent out emails to students and employees as well as posted on the Stony Brook University Office of Sustainability’s Instagram.

“Participating in initiatives like Car Free Day Long Island helps to bring awareness to the power of collective action when approaching climate solutions,” said Erin Kluge, sustainability coordinator, from Stony Brook University’s Office of Sustainability, which led the university’s participation. “Incorporating alternative travel options in our routine when possible is one of the many great ways we can help lessen our carbon footprint.”

“A great part of Car Free Day Long Island is that it helps put our reliance on our vehicles into perspective. While the event reduced carbon emissions, the awareness it sparked will continue to have lasting effects,” said Environmental Studies major Max Cruz, ‘25.

Last year, Car Free Day was celebrated in 3,100 cities in 50 countries. The event draws participants in a variety of fields, from interested parties to organizations committing to the pledge. This year, 3,912 Long Islanders pledged to go car free.

Of the organizations involved in the final pledge count, categories included participants from colleges, healthcare, companies, municipalities, libraries, and nonprofits. In the colleges category, Stony Brook out-pledged other participants by four-fold, with NY Tech coming in at 196 pledges and Farmingdale State College with 99 pledges.

 

Super Vision exhibit

Stony Brook University, 100 Nicolls Road, Stony Brook will present a free Art Crawl on Wednesday, Oct. 9 from 1 to 3 p.m. The University host a variety of renowned art galleries that provide unique spaces and opportunities for cultural and artistic exchanges and collaborations. Oct. 9th’s Art Crawl will unite  the university’s galleries through a series of free guided tours led by expert curators. Guests may join at any point on the tour.

Schedule

1pm | Charles B. Wang Center, Skylight Gallery 

Yarnscapes: Mulyana’s Environmental Tapestries

Renowned for his imaginative use of crochet techniques, artist Mulyana creates large-scale installations and soft sculptures that evoke themes of nature, sustainability, and community. He transforms simple yarn into mesmerizing pieces of art, bringing to life colorful, whimsical installations through crochet, stitching, and knitting. On view through December 10.

1:30pm | Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery, Staller Center for the Arts, Level 1

Nicole Cohen: SUPER VISION  features videos and photo-collages that explore perception as viewed through interior spaces and architectural environments. Cohen’s work often overlays past and present imagery, including vintage magazine pages, domestic interiors, period rooms, historical paintings and iconic architectural spaces to comment on socially constructed space. On view through October 18.

2pm | Gallery Unbound, Staller Center for the Arts, Level 3

Young Maeng, Non-Human Ontology + AI Humanity. Young Maeng’s work explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and traditional painting techniques like Korean ink and acrylic.

2:30pm | Melville Library, Lawrence Alloway Memorial Gallery, Level 1

Diana Salomon, Do They Look Like Me? MFA graduate student solo exhibition. On view through October 15.

For more information, call 631-632-7240.

Patrick Meade. Photo by John Griffin/Stony Brook University

Stony Brook University’s Patrick Meade, professor in the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP), was recently elected to a fellowship with the American Physical Society (APS).

Meade was elected for his pioneering research and leadership in particle theory and phenomenology, including signatures of gauge-mediated supersymmetry, top partners, long-lived particles, Higgs sectors, phase transitions of the early universe, and the science capabilities of proposed facilities.

“I’m honored to have my contributions recognized by my peers in the APS,” Meade said, who is also a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Physics and Astronomy. “And to join so many of my excellent colleagues in Physics at Stony Brook who have previously been selected as fellows.”

The APS Fellowship recognizes members for their outstanding efforts to advance physics. No more than one half of one percent of the Society’s membership are elected each year. Fellows must be a member of the APS in good standing.

“We’re delighted to learn that Patrick Meade has been named an APS Fellow,” said George Sterman, director of the C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics and distinguished professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. “Patrick’s important contributions address questions like the nature of dark matter, how elementary particles get their masses, and how the early universe evolved. Internationally, he is a recognized leader in preparations for the next major accelerator facility. At Stony Brook, Patrick is a valued colleague, and a highly effective teacher and mentor.”

Meade joined the YITP at Stony Brook University in 2009. He earned his PhD in Theoretical Physics from Cornell University and participated as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Study.

Linda Devin-Sheehan, who works with the League of Women Voters, in front of one of the event’s tents. Photo by Gabby Daniels

By Gabby Daniels

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, Stony Brook University’s Center for Civic Justice wants to ensure that the student body is prepared to exercise its rights. 

The event held on Sept. 17, which is National Voter Registration Day, outside of Stony Brook’s Student Activities Center, students eagerly gathered in the plaza to be able to check their voter registration status, register if they have not already done so and learn more about important deadlines. 

With its first celebration in 2012, National Voter Registration Day is a nonpartisan civic holiday dedicated to celebrating the democracy of America. It helps people register to vote and educates communities on the topics at hand, as well as the current office members. Since its inception, more than 5 million Americans have registered.

“As I was walking back from class today, I saw that they were doing voter registration, and I said, ‘Oh, I should do it, too,’” said freshman Olivia Formicola.

“Having it on campus made it so much easier… I feel like I probably would not have done it if it was not here.” 

Evelyn Murphy, a student intern with the Center for Civic Justice, was thrilled with how the event was going. “We have had a great turnout today,” Murphy stated.

“So many people who I talked to today said they would not have registered if it was not convenient for them.” 

Murphy said the center wanted to ensure students had fun during the event as well.

“We do not just want people to register, but we want to make sure that they actually go out and vote on election day,” Murphy explained.

“We made sure that we added some silly things like ‘What fictional character would you vote for if they ran for president?’ and gave out stickers that say ‘Seawolves Vote,’ to take the pressure off and make people want to be here.” 

From an organizer’s standpoint, the whole point of the event was to get more students and young people to vote.

Linda Devin-Sheehan of the Suffolk County League of Women Voters partnered with the Center for Civic Justice to host the event. “The reason I am here is to get students registered,” Devin-Sheehan stated.

“We must fight for our democracy, and it starts with the younger generation.” 

Gabby Daniels is a reporter with The SBU Media Group, part of Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism’s Working Newsroom program for students and local media.

Ellen Pikitch, PhD, with the Explorers Club flag. Photo by Taylor Griffith

Ellen K. Pikitch, PhD, a long-time professor in the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), was recently awarded the Lowell Thomas Award for her accomplishments in field science and communication.

Presented by The Explorers Club and named for broadcast journalist and explorer Lowell Thomas, this annual award is given thematically to a group of outstanding explorers to recognize excellence in domains or fields of exploration. Pikitch was nominated for this honor by explorer Sylvia Earle. Previous winners of the Lowell Thomas Award include such luminaries as Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Kathy Sullivan, Sir Edmund Hillary, Kris Thompkins, and E.O. Wilson.

“Professor Pikitch has worked tirelessly for decades on ocean conservation issues,” said School of Marine and Atmospheric Studies Dean Paul Shepson. “How gratifying that her passion and dedication in service to the world’s oceans has been recognized with this prestigious award.”

Ellen Pikitch is an endowed professor of Ocean Conservation Science and executive director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science. Her research primarily focuses on ocean conservation science, with emphasis on marine protected areas (MPAs), fish conservation and fisheries sustainability, ecosystem-based fishery management, and endangered fishes.

Throughout her career, Pikitch has endeavored in research activities both nationally and internationally. For seven years, Pikitch served in various roles at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). During this time, she built a program to encompass field research operations in 18 countries spanning four ocean basins and spearheaded several successful ocean policy campaigns for the organization. Most recently, Pikitch served as lead investigator behind launching an eco-friendly, solar-powered, remote-controlled craft that gathers data on the species living underwater, called The DataXplorer™. Internationally, Pikitch has lent a hand in crafting public policy as Ocean Science Lead for the United Nations 10×20 Initiative and as Special Envoy to Palau. She is an active Fellow of the Explorers Club. Additionally, Pikitch is the recipient of several awards, including the Hope Spot Champion award, the Oscar E. Sette award, the Ocean Hero award, and several notable fellowships.

Founded in 1904, The Explorers Club is a multidisciplinary, professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration and resource conservation. Headquartered in New York City with a community of chapters and members around the world, The Explorers Club has been supporting scientific expeditions of all disciplines, uniting our members in the bonds of good fellowship for more than a century.

 

 

Prateek Prasanna and Chao Chen at the NCI Informatics Technology for Cancer Research meeting in St. Louis in 2022.

By Daniel Dunaief

Cancer often involves numerous small changes before it become a full blown disease. Some of these alterations are structural, as otherwise healthy cells make subtle shifts that favor out of control growth that often defies the immune system and threatens the health of tissues, organs and the entire body.

Associate Professor Chao Chen and Assistant Professor Prateek Prasanna, both in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Stony Brook University, recently received a four-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to continue to develop an enhanced breast cancer imaging tool that could detect some of those changes.

Using advanced mathematical modeling and machine learning and working with clinical collaborators in radiology, radiation oncology, surgery and pathology, the researchers are developing a tool called TopoQuant. They hope they can provide a way to look at the changes in tissue architecture that occur during the growth and development of cancer and during radiation treatment.

Receiving the grant means “other researchers also think highly about the subject,” Chen explained. “This further boosts our confidence and is an approval for our effort so far.”

By combining two-dimensional and three-dimensional data, the Stony Brook researchers, including radiation oncologist Dr. Alexander Stessin, hope to provide an analytical tool that helps doctors and patients confronting cancer all the way from the early steps the disease takes to the ways it resists various treatments.

The researchers are using tomosynthesis and MRIs, both of which are three dimensional, and conventional mammographs, which are two dimensional.

Stessin will work closely to evaluate the efficacy of the TopoQuant framework to provide a predictive and useful interpretation of breast images.

The diagnostic and prognostic tool these scientists are developing has potential applications outside the world of breast cancer. The deep learning technique could help analyze images and information for other types of cancer as well as for various neurological challenges.

“In the tools we develop, a lot of the algorithms are domain agnostic,” said Prasanna.

The approach should work as long as the researchers can get structure-rich imaging data. To be sure, while this approach has had some promising early results, it has to proceed through numerous steps to help in the clinic.

In the meantime, the researchers plan to use the funds, which will support salaries and travel budgets for researchers, to continue to develop TopoQuant.

Chen and Prasanna envision providing physicians with an explanation of why artificial intelligence is guiding them towards a particular decision.

Doctors could “place more trust in a system like this,” Prasanna said. “It lends interpretability to an analysis that is typically more opaque.”

Healthy cells

When health care technicians gather information about breast cells, they often focus on developments in and around the cancer cells.

“The premise of the work” Chen and Prasanna are doing is to look at signals “even in the normal [healthy] areas of the breast, Prasanna said. “It’s important for physicians to look at these normal areas before they begin any treatment. What our tool lets them do is extract these signals.”

The process of developing this tool started about five years ago, as the scientists shared ideas and did preliminary studies. The work became more involved and detailed around 2020.

“The challenge is to have a harmonic combination between mathematical modeling and deep learning,” Chen explained. “Incorporating principled math modeling into deep learning is important yet not trivial.”

In their work, the researchers used phantom data called VICTRE from the Food and Drug Administration. They used simulated magnetic resonance images and validated that the method can extract the tissue structure faithfully across different breast density types. They are also using data from The Cancer Imaging Archive for initial model development.

At this point, the researchers have some evidence that the alpha version of the tool has been “promising” in the context of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which they demonstrated in a paper they published in 2021.

The results from that study indicated different topological behavior of breast tissue characterized by patients who had different responses to therapy.

The researchers plan to continue to establish that the tools are properly characterizing what is happening. After that, they will validate the effort with a Stony Brook University Hospital cohort.

Clinicians from Rutgers are working with Chen and Prasanna and will do additional testing through external data sets.

Complementary skills

Chen and Prasanna, who have joint lab meetings and discuss their research every week, work in different parts of the campus. Chen’s lab is on the west campus, while Prasanna is in the east campus.

The researchers have combined their interests and skill sets to apply a computer science driven approach to medicine and the field of bioimaging analysis.

Chen does considerable work with topological information and machine learning. Prasanna, meanwhile, is also involved in the clinical world, combining his passions for engineering and medicine.

A native of Gansu Province in China, Chen lives near New York City and commutes to the university two or three times per week, working the other days from home and meeting with students and collaborators by Zoom.

When he first joined Stony Brook in 2018, Chen was concerned about jumping into a different department.

After visiting the department and speaking with Chair Joel Saltz and other faculty, he developed greater confidence when he learned of their passion for research, their research philosophy and the chemistry within the department.

Six years later, he thinks it was “the best career decision” he made.

A native of Cuttack, India, Prasanna and his wife Shubham Jain, who is in the faculty of Computer Science at Stony Brook, have worked together professionally.

The couple enjoys hiking and has been to 47 of the 63 national parks. One of their favorite parks is Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

Prasanna’s father’s family includes many physicians and his mother’s is involved in engineering. In his career, he has combined the professional focus from both sides of his family.

Early in his career, Prasanna worked on a project that used a smart phone to obtain fundus images of the eye to predict diabetic retinopathy.

At the time, he thought “this is where I want to be,” he recalled.

By Lauren Feldman

Stony Brook University opened its doors for another CommUniversity Day on Saturday, Sept. 28. The event was held at the Academic Mall, central to the university’s main campus.

The open house showcases a variety of majors, clubs and houses of study available at the university.

“This is a celebration of all things [Stony Brook] University,” said Paul Newland, outreach director at Stony Brook’s Staller Center for the Arts.

Newland said letting the “community” aspect of CommUniversity Day is essential to the continued success of the university.

“It’s almost like a city here, and not everyone knows what’s happening at the university,” he said. “So it’s a way to invite the public in to see what’s going on, all the different opportunities at Stony Brook.”

And members of the community certainly seemed to be taking in all the university has to offer.

“I know I want to pursue something in medicine, but I’m not totally sure what specifically,” said Emily, a high school junior who is considering applying to Stony Brook. “I like how each department has their own booth. I definitely got a lot of information to help me think about my future.”

Introduced in 2017, CommUniversity Day has grown into a celebration of the university’s relationships with its community partners.

Around the Academic Mall, several majors, departments and clubs set up booths with information and fun activities.

“CommUniversity is one of our favorite events of the year,” said a member of the Women in Business organization on campus. “We get to give back to the community and show how much we love Stony Brook University.”

“You get to see all of the talents at Stony Brook,” added another member. “It’s so fun and really cool to see everyone get together.”

At the Speech Pathology group, visitors could spin a prize wheel if they could answer a speech/language based trivia question. The Study Abroad booth offered visitors a pin to place on a world map printout based on where they were from. At the dental booth, visitors were offered a free dental screening.

Two popular events for children, the Teddy Bear Clinic and Storytime with the Tooth Fairy, filled up fast, and there was a long line to bet on the rubber duck race. The Lego Booth, a new addition this year, was teaming with kids and adults alike, excited to participate in timed challenges or to simply sit, and stretch their creative muscles.

Also present were community partners, including the Three Village Chamber of Commerce, Girl Scouts of Suffolk County, local fire, police and first responders, as well as a plethora of local food trucks.

CommUniversity Day served as a platform for Island Harvest, and attendees were encouraged to bring two non-perishable food items to contribute to the food drive.

“It’s really sweet that [Stony Brook] does things like this,” said Terry, a Stony Brook mom. “I mean, it’s not just about the school – even though we love Stony Brook. It’s about helping our neighbors, and I think that’s really special.”

Richard L. McCormick, who is serving as the university’s interim president, called the day “an opportunity for our campus to join with our surrounding community and neighbors to talk, listen, collaborate, discover and celebrate just how lucky we are to be here, on Long Island, at one of the best universities in the world.”

Heather Lynch with Emperor penguins. Photo by Evan Grant

Stony Brook University Professor Heather J. Lynch, PhD, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the first Endowed Chair for Ecology and Evolution at the university’s Institute for Advanced Computation Science (IACS) has been awarded the 2024 Golden Goose Award for Unconventional Research that Yielded Unexpected and Impactful Discovery.

Caption: Heather Lynch with an Adélie penguin. Photo by Ron Naveen

Professor Lynch’s project, “From Poop to Protection: Satellite Discoveries Help Save Antarctic Penguins and Advance Wildlife Monitoring” which was funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA, looks at a way “to track penguin populations via satellite imagery, leading to the discovery of 1.5 million previously undocumented Adélie penguins and a whole new way to track wildlife.“ Professor Lynch shares this award with former IACS postdoctoral fellow Christian Che-Castaldo, PhD and Mathew Schwaller, PhD. Lynch also serves as the inaugural director of Stony Brook’s Collaborative for the Earth.

The Golden Goose Award celebrates federally funded research that may at first seem obscure or unconventional but has led to major breakthroughs in science and honors the importance of basic research, which aims to investigate unknown phenomena and advance current knowledge. The awards are hosted annually by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

“This is a tremendous honor for Professor Lynch. The Golden Goose recognizes that scientific discovery may not always follow a conventional path. Innovation is a hallmark of Stony Brook research, and Professor Lynch’s extraordinary research and dedication to addressing climate change is a stellar example,” said Carl Lejuez, Provost and Executive Vice President

“I’m hugely honored to have our work recognized in this way, and I remain as excited about the potential of satellite imagery as I was when we started this more than a decade ago,” said Heather Lynch. “I think we’ve only just scratched the surface of its potential for research and conservation.”

Professor Lynch’s research focuses on distribution and abundance of Antarctic wildlife, particularly on the development of remote sensing approaches to monitoring Antarctica’s penguin populations. She works closely with Antarctic policymakers to make sure they have the best available science at hand when deliberating measures for the area’s protection, and her discovery (with co-awardee Mathew Schwaller) of a major population of penguins in the Danger Islands directly led to the creation of a new Antarctic Specially Protected Area. She holds a doctorate in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University and earned a master’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a bachelor of arts degree in physics from Princeton University.

To see more about Professor Lynch and her collaborators’ Golden Goose award-winning research, go to YouTube.

 

The team celebrates their victory after Saturday's game. Photo courtesy of Stony Brook Athletics

Stony Brook football used a 287-yard output on the ground, including 158 yards and three touchdowns from Roland Dempster, to pick up a 22-3 win against Morgan State on Sept. 28 at LaValle Stadium. The Seawolves’ defense limited the Bears to three points, tallied nine tackles for loss and forced two turnovers in the victory.

Dempster averaged 6.3 yards per carry and tacked on 59 receiving yards. Johnny Martin III added 90 yards on the ground, averaging 6 yards per carry. As an offense, Stony Brook averaged 5.5 yards per tote.

Cal Redman reeled in four catches for 62 yards to pace Stony Brook’s receiving room. RJ Lamarre and Chance Knox reeled in a pair of catches as well. The Seawolves’ offense threw the ball just 20 times, carrying the ball 52 times and totaling 287 yards on the ground.

Tyson McCloud and AJ Roberts registered 10 and nine tackles, respectively, to lead the Stony Brook defense. Clarens Legagneur added three tackles, 1.0 tackle for loss, and a forced fumble and fumble recovery. Taylor Bolesta tallied three tackles, 2.0 TFL, and a sack in the win.

The Seawolves won the turnover battle in Saturday’s game, forcing two turnovers, with Stony Brook turning those takeaways into seven points. Stony Brook’s defense held up against Morgan State’s offense, allowing 259 total yards. The Seawolves kept Morgan State under 150 yards on both the ground and through the air, allowing 113 passing and 146 rushing yards.

“I was really proud of our defense today — they played outstanding. They played hard, ran the ball, made plays. I was proud of the effort of the guys, they deserve all the credit and all of our assistant coaches did a great job preparing our players,” said head coach Billy Cosh postgame.

Up next, the team hosts nationally ranked Villanova on Oct. 5. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. at LaValle Stadium, streaming live on FloFootball. To purchase tickets, call 631-632-9653.