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Stony Brook University Hospital

Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH) has been recognized as a 2024-25 Best Hospital by U.S. News & World Report, ranking in the top 15 in the state. SBUH climbed to a No. 12 ranking overall in New York State out of more than 153 hospitals statewide, up from No. 13 in the state last year. In addition to ranking in the top 8% overall in New York State, SBUH also rated high performing in 5 adult specialties nationwide, including Geriatrics, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Urology and Pulmonology & Lung Surgery. The announcement was made in a press release on July 16.

“We are immensely proud to be recognized by U.S. News for our commitment to excellence in patient care,” said William A. Wertheim, MD, MBA, Officer in Charge, Stony Brook University and Executive Vice President, Stony Brook Medicine. “This recognition is a testament to the dedication, skill, and compassion of our entire Stony Brook Medicine team and reflects our unwavering focus on providing patients the highest quality of care.”

“This honor highlights Stony Brook University Hospital’s continued efforts to deliver the highest quality care to our patients,” said Carol Gomes, MS, FACHE, CPHQ, Chief Executive Officer at Stony Brook University Hospital. “I am grateful to our entire team for their tireless efforts ensuring that our patients receive the comprehensive treatment and support they deserve.”

The evaluation of SBUH includes data from Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital and Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital, which make up the Stony Brook Medicine healthcare system.

U.S. News evaluated nearly 5,000 hospitals across 15 specialties and 20 procedures and conditions; only 11% of evaluated hospitals earned a Best Hospitals ranking. Hospitals awarded a “Best” designation excelled at factors such as clinical outcomes, level of nursing care and patient experience.

“For 35 years, U.S. News has been a leading resource for patients navigating their health care decisions,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News. “A ‘Best Hospital’ recognition empowers patients to seek out medical care from the best of the best to treat their illness or condition.”

To calculate the Best Hospitals rankings, U.S. News evaluated each hospital’s performance on objective measures such as risk-adjusted mortality rates, preventable complications and level of nursing care. The Best Hospitals Specialty rankings methodology and Procedures & Conditions ratings methodologymeasure patient outcomes using data from millions of records provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This year, among other methodology refinements, U.S. News incorporated new data on care provided to patients with Medicare Advantage insurance and on care provided to outpatients, nearly doubling the number of patients included in its annual data analysis. The Procedures & Conditions ratings are based entirely on objective quality measures.

For more information, visit Best Hospitals.

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Dr. Allison McLarty
Dr. Henry Tannous

Two Stony Brook Heart Institute (SBHI) cardiothoracic surgeons have been inducted into the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS). Member inductions are reserved for a limited number of select physicians each year and SBHI has the distinction of having two cardiothoracic surgeons as AATS members. Henry Tannous, MD, Chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery and Co-Director, SBHI, was inducted during AATS’s 104th annual meeting on April 29th and Allison McLarty, MD, Director, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Program and Co-Director, Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) Program, was selected by the AATS for induction in 2020. The membership recognizes expertise, innovation and outstanding reputation for clinical excellence in both adult cardiac and thoracic surgery.

“It is an honor to have been inducted into the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and to be acknowledged among so many esteemed researchers, clinicians and clinical leaders,” says Dr. Tannous. “I am immeasurably grateful to join this noteworthy group of individuals, including my accomplished colleague Dr. McLarty. Our entire cardiothoracic team is focused on one goal — to deliver the best in surgical outcomes to our patients.”

From Dr. McLarty, Stony Brook’s first AATS inductee: “Being a part of the elite AATS community is humbling and inspires me daily to be even more resolute and unwavering in my pursuit of cardiothoracic excellence. It is a pleasure to extend my congratulations to Dr. Tannous.”

Stony Brook’s Chair of the Department of Surgery, Apostolos Tassiopoulos, MD, shared his congratulations, “Drs. Tannous and McLarty have truly set a benchmark in their striving for quality cardiothoracic care — their hard work and dedication are always evident, and this honor is well deserved. Placing Stony Brook among the most advanced facilities in the U.S., our skilled and dedicated heart and lung surgeons and our growing cardiothoracic program continues to raise the bar for cardiac and thoracic care here on Long Island.”

Founded in 1917, the prestigious AATS is composed of more than 1,500 of the world’s foremost cardiothoracic surgeons from 46 countries and recognizes the height of professional achievement and significant contributions of those at the top of their field.

For more information about Dr. Tannous and Dr. McLarty, visit https://heart.stonybrookmedicine.edu/AATS

 

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Rachel Redhead. Photo by John Griffin/SBU

Stony Brook University Director of People & Culture, Rachael Redhead, has been awarded the State University of New York  (SUNY) Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service.

Working in a shared services model, which includes Finance & Administration (F&A), the Executive Office, as well as Marketing & Communications, Rachael’s responsibilities include oversight of human resource services for over 1,200 staff members across several diverse University areas including Budget, Financial Planning & Analysis; Enterprise Risk Management; Facilities & Services; Finance; HR; Marketing & Communications, Government & Community Relations, Athletics, and the Executive Office. During her tenure at Stony Brook, Rachael has implemented successful models for HR functions such as employee engagement, retention and training as well as provided organizational development and support from Central HR to various Divisions and Departments. She is also a leader of the F&A Alliance for Culture, Diversity & Inclusion at Stony Brook University.

The Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence are System-level honors conferred to acknowledge and provide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and to encourage the ongoing pursuit of excellence. Individuals nominated for these awards must meet all prescribed eligibility criteria and must be individuals of achievement, committed to the State University and its students, respected by the campus community and worthy of emulation by colleagues and students on the home campus and across SUNY.

“I congratulate Rachael on this well-deserved achievement,” said Jed Shivers, Senior Vice President, F&A. “She is an integral member of our F&A team, serving each of our VP areas and their unique goals, nuances and functions. Rachael consistently remains committed to treating each request, from each area, with her total focus, utmost attention and an enthusiastic attitude. She is always willing to help, and is someone who treats all members of our faculty, staff and student populations with respect, diplomacy and dignity.”

Rachael joined Stony Brook University in 2014 as an HR Coordinator in Finance & Administration. After working in F&A for three years, Rachael was recognized for her achievements and appointed to Senior Human Resources Business Partner of DoIT in 2017. In this position, she continued to assume additional responsibilities, routinely going above and beyond the scope of her role and was appointed in 2021 to her current position.

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Daniel Marx in front of one of the magnets at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Photo courtesy of BNL

By Daniel Dunaief

In a world filled with disagreements over everything from presidential politics to parking places, numbers — and particularly constants — can offer immutable comfort, as people across borders and political parties can find the kind of common ground that make discoveries and innovations possible.

Many of these numbers aren’t simple, as anyone who has taken a geometry class would know. Pi, for example, which describes the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, isn’t just 3 or 3.14.

In classes around the world, people challenge their memory of numbers and sequences by reciting as many digits of this irrational number as possible. An irrational number can’t be expressed as a fraction.

These irrational numbers can and do inform the world well outside of textbooks and math tests, making it possible for, say, electromagnetic radiation to share information across a parallel world or, in earlier parlance, the ether.

“All electronic communication is made up of waves, sines and cosines, that are defined and evaluated using pi,” said Alan Tucker, Toll Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at Stony Brook University. The circuits that send and receive information are “based on calculations using pi.”

Scientists can receive signals from the Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977 and now over seven billion miles away, thanks to the ability to tune a circuit using math that relies on pi and numerous mathematical formulas where the sensitivity to the signal is infinite.

The signal from the spacecraft, which is over 16 years older than the average-aged person on the planet, takes about 10 hours to travel back and forth.

“Think of 1/x, where x goes to 0,” explained Tucker. “Scientists have taken that infinity to be an infinite multiplier of weak signals that can be understood.”

Closer to Earth, the internet, radio waves and TV, among myriad other electronic devices, all use generated and decoded calculations using pi.

“All space has an unseen mathematical existence that nobody can see,” said Tucker. “These are heavily based on calculations involving pi.”

Properties of nature

Constants reflect the realities of the world. They have “a property that is fundamental and absolute and that no one could change,” said Steve Skiena, Distinguished Teaching Professor of Computer Science at Stony Brook University. “The reason people discovered these constants as being important is because they are relating things that arise in the world.”

While pi may be among the best known and most oft-discussed constant, it’s not alone in measuring and understanding the world and in helping scientists anticipate, calculate and understand their experiments.

Chemists, for example, design reactions using a standard unit of measure called the mole, which is also called Avogadro’s number for the Italian physicist Amedeo Avogadro.

The mole provides a way to balance equations, enabling chemists to determine exactly how much of each reactant to combine to get a specific amount of product.

This huge number, which is often expressed as 6.022 times 10 to the 23rd power, represents the number of atoms in 12 grams of carbon 12. The units can be electrons, ions, atoms or molecules.

“Without Avogadro’s number, it would be impossible to determine the ratio of particular reactants,” said Elliot Smith, a postdoctoral researcher at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory who works in John Moses’s lab. “You could take an educated guess, but you wouldn’t get good results.”

Smith often uses millimoles, or 1/1000th of a mole, in the chemical reactions he does.

“If we know the millimoles of each reactant, we can calculate the expected yield,” said Smith. “Without that, you’re fumbling in the dark.”

Indeed, efficient chemical reactions make it possible to synthesize greater amounts of some of the pharmaceutical products that protect human health.

Moles, or millimoles, in a reaction also make it possible to question why a result deviated from expectations. 

Almost the speed of light

Physicists use numerous constants.

“In physics, it is inescapable that you will have to deal with some of the fundamental constants,” said Alan Calder, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University.

When he models stellar explosions, he uses the speed of light and Newton’s gravitational constant, which relates the gravitational force between two objects to the product of their masses divided by the square of the distance between them.

The stars Calder studies are gas ball reactions that also involve constants.

Stars have thermonuclear reactions going on in them as they evolve. Calder uses reaction rates that depend on local conditions like temperature, but there are constants in these.

Calder’s favorite number is e, or Euler’s constant. This number, which is about 2.71828, is useful in calculating interest in a bank account as well as in understanding the width of successive layers in a snail shell among many other phenomena in nature.

Electron Ion Collider

The speed of light figures prominently in the development and calculations at Brookhaven National Laboratory as the lab prepares to build the unique Electron Ion Collider, which is expected to cost between $1.7 billion and $2.8 billion.

The EIC, which will take about 10 years to construct, will collide a beam of electrons with a beam of ions to answer basic questions about the atomic nucleus.

“It’s one of the most exciting projects in the world,” said Daniel Marx, an accelerator physicist in the Electron Ion Collider accelerator design group at BNL.

At the EIC, physicists expect to propel the electrons, which are 2,000 times lighter than protons, extremely close to the speed of light. In fact, they will travel at 99.999999 (yes, that’s six nines after the decimal point) of the speed of light, which, by the way, is 186,282 miles per second. That means that light can circle the globe 7.48 times per second.

The EIC will increase the energy of ions to 99.999% of the speed of light. With only three nines after the decimal, the protons will be traveling at a slower enough speed that the designers of the collider will make the proton ring about 4 inches shorter over 2.4 miles to ensure that the protons and electrons arrive at exactly the same time.

The EIC will attempt to answer questions about the mass and spin of the nucleus. They hope to understand what happens with dense systems of gluons. By accelerating nuclei or protons to higher energies, they will get more gluons and will look for evidence of gluon saturation.

“The speed of light is absolutely fundamental to everything we do,” said Marx because it is fundamental to relativity and the particles in the accelerator are relativistic.

As for constants, Marx suggested that its value might look like a row of random numbers, but if those numbers are a bit different, that could “revolutionize” an understanding of physics.

In addition to a detailed understanding of atomic nuclei, the EIC could also lead to new technologies.

When JJ Thomson discovered the electron, he toasted it by saying, “may it never be of use to anyone.” That, however, is far from the case, as the electron is at the heart of electronics.

As for pi, Marx, like many of his STEM colleagues, appreciates this constant.

“Once you look at the mathematical statement of pi, and how it relates in various ways to other quantities in math and physics, it deepens your appreciation of how beautiful the whole universe is,” Marx said.

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Stony Brook University. File photo

By Daniel Dunaief

Like colleges around the state and country, Stony Brook University is preparing for the possibility that New York State students will no longer be required to pass Regents exams to graduate from high school.

Stony Brook University Provost Carl Lejuez. File photo

During Covid-19, when many schools including SBU made reporting Scholastic Aptitude Tests, or SATs, or American College Testing, or ACTs, optional, the university continued to take a broader view of college applicants.

“The idea of holistic admissions has been something that has been gaining steam for a while,” said Provost Carl Lejuez in a wide ranging interview. Such an approach brings numerous potential student strengths into the admissions decision process.

“Judging by the success we’ve been having, we feel good about our ability to bring in the best students and help them succeed,” Lejuez added.

The admissions process at SBU has been considering additional factors, such as students’ educational experiences and opportunities, the adversity they experienced, and their trajectory and improvement.

A flagship public university, Stony Brook has become an important higher education entry point for students who are first-generation college applicants.

The university does not “want to make the process so onerous that it becomes less successful when you think of low income, first generation students who may not have a lot of the same opportunities” as students in wealthier, more established school districts, Lejuez said. The university wants to be “rigorous and equitable” in the strategy for bringing in the best students.

In the meantime, Stony Brook University recently completed its first full week after the departure of President Maurie McInnis, who had led the school for four years and is now the president of Yale University.

“The mark of a good leader is an organization that continues to thrive when they’ve gone and that is something, because they’ve created the right infrastructure and hired the right people and developed the right culture” that McInnis did, Lejuez said. “While folks are eager to have our permanent leadership in place, things are exactly how they should be.”

Indeed, Stony Brook in the coming days is expected to announce an interim president, who will take the reins for the university while the school conducts a national search, chaired by Stony Brook Council Chairman Kevin Law, for the seventh president.

Since McInnis’s departure, Stony Brook Medicine Executive Vice President Dr. William Wertheim has overseen operations as Officer-in-Charge.

Professor grades

In evaluating professors, Stony Brook uses student-driven evaluations. The university also has peer faculty observe classes and provide feedback.

“We are revising a lot of our promotion and tenure guidelines,” said Lejuez. “We’ve been very, very clear that you have to be an excellent teacher as well as an excellent researcher here at Stony Brook.”

Stony Brook emphasizes the importance of teaching at faculty orientation, where administrators urge new professors to visit and get to know the options available at the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching.

Through various assessments, SBU is working to ensure students are learning the lessons and ideas they should in classes.

The university made its first set of revisions this year by providing a midpoint feedback at the three-year mark for professors on a six-year tenure track throughout the university. Such feedback had been available for faculty in the College of Arts of Sciences previously.

“When you see professors who are struggling with their research or teaching, they should be getting feedback,” said Lejuez. “Sometimes they don’t get it until they’re going up for tenure. That’s not fair to the students or the faculty for that matter.”

To help students throughout their educational journey, Stony Brook invested several million dollars in increasing the number of advisors, while also increasing the support within the tutoring center.

These efforts have paid dividends, as the retention rate from first year to second year for students, which had been in the mid 80 percent range, is moving higher. Within two or three years, SBU would like to see that number reach 92 percent or more.

As for international efforts, the university plans to connect resources in places like the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya, Centre ValBio in Madagascar and SUNY Korea, which is a partnership between SBU, SUNY and the South Korean government.

“I, as well as several deans and faculty, have made trips to all three in the past year and we are increasing our support,” said Lejuez. “We have also been ramping up fundraising efforts.”

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Stony Brook University Hospital

Stony Brook University Hospital’s Cardiothoracic Surgery Program within the Stony Brook Heart Institute has earned a prestigious three-star rating, the highest rating possible, from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for its patient care and outcomes in mitral valve repair/replacement (MVRR) procedures and isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG or heart bypass surgery) procedures. The latest rating period is from Jan 2021 to Dec 2023. Stony Brook received its first three-star CABG rating in 2017, and has consistently received the top ratings since.

“The three-star ratings are reflective of our entire Heart Institute’s dedication — from surgeons, nurses, physician assistants and many other healthcare professionals — to delivering top-quality care and outcomes for our patients,” says Henry J. Tannous, MD, FACS, Co-Director, Heart Institute, Chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery and General T.F. Cheng Chair, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University. “At Stony Brook, patients can have the confidence of knowing they’re getting cardiac care from world-class cardiothoracic physicians at one of the top-rated facilities in the nation.”

The recent analysis of the STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database included data from 964 participants on cases between 2021 and 2023. Participating programs were rated on a range of one to three stars. The STS three-star ratings — one of the most sophisticated and highly regarded overall measures of quality in healthcare — that Stony Brook achieved is an “Overall Composite Score” for patient outcomes and quality of care for isolated CABG surgery procedures and MVRR procedures performed. It measures a surgical team’s performance before, during and after the surgical procedure. More than 95 percent of hospitals in the U.S. with cardiothoracic surgical programs submit data to the STS, and approximately 20 percent of participants receive the three-star rating for CABG and approximately 10 percent receive a three-star-rating for MVRR procedures.

“At Stony Brook Medicine, we take great pride in our long legacy of raising the level of cardiothoracic surgical care for our patients,” says Apostolos Tassiopoulos, MD, FACS, Chair, Department of Surgery; Chief, Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and Professor of Surgery, Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University. “We remain laser-focused on serving our community with all the best that only a University-based academic medical center can offer — the most advanced technology, an outstanding cardiovascular staff and the full spectrum of lifesaving cardiothoracic interventions.”

This year, Healthgrades also named Stony Brook University Hospital as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care™ (2015-24). Stony Brook is one of only two hospitals in New York State to be named among America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care for ten years in a row.

About Stony Brook Heart Institute:

Stony Brook Heart Institute is located within Stony Brook University Hospital as part of Long Island’s premier university-based medical center. The Heart Institute offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary program for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. The staff includes full-time and community-based, board-certified cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons, as well as specially trained anesthesiologists, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, surgical technologists, perfusionists and other support staff. Their combined expertise provides state-of-the-art interventional and surgical capabilities in 24-hour cardiac catheterization labs and surgical suites. And while the Heart Institute clinical staff offers the latest advances in medicine, its physician-scientists are also actively enhancing knowledge of the heart and blood vessels through basic biomedical studies and clinical research. To learn more, visit www.heart.stonybrookmedicine.edu.

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File photo by David Ackerman
Steven Sandoval. Photo from BU

The Suffolk County Volunteer Firefighters Burn Center at Stony Brook University Hospital — the only designated burn care facility in Suffolk County, has 10 Safety Tips this July 4th Weekend as families celebrate the holiday.

Many will spend the holiday in their backyards for barbecues, cookouts or build fire pits where there’s a greater risk to sustain a burn injury. Steven Sandoval, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery and Medical Director of the Suffolk County Volunteer Firefighters Burn Center at Stony Brook University Hospital, says “I expect an uptick in patients around this time every year. Firework injuries range from facial burns to loss of digits or hands. Sparkler burns are also a common holiday injury. They burn at several thousand degrees and can cause second-or third-degree burns. The best way to prevent burns in the first place is with safety tips and precautions to eliminate potential dangers.”

  1. Fireworks are safe for viewing only when being used by professionals.
  2. Sparklers are one of the most common ways children become burned this holiday, even with a parent’s supervision.
  3. Do not have children around any fireworks, firepits, barbecues or hot coals. Teach them not to grab objects or play with items that can be hot. Go through a lesson where they learn to ask permission.
  4. Limit the use of flammable liquids to start your fire pits and barbecues. Use only approved lighter fluids that are meant for cooking purposes. No gasoline or kerosene.
  5. Don’t leave hot coals from fire pits and barbecues laying on the ground for people to step in.
  6. When cleaning grills, the use of wire bristle brushes can result in ingestion of sharp bristle pieces requiring surgery.
  7. If you are overly tired, and consumed alcohol, do not use the stovetop, fire pit or a fireplace.
  8. Stay protected from the sun. Use hats and sunblock, and realize that sunblock needs to be reapplied after swimming or after sweating.
  9. Use the back burners of the stove to prevent children from reaching up and touching hot pots and pans.
  10. Always use oven mitts or potholders to remove hot items from the stove or microwave. Assume pots, pans and dishware are hot.

“I want people to enjoy a safe 4th of July and reduce the risk of burn injuries. And, if burned do not go anywhere but a facility specializing in burn treatment,” says Dr. Sandoval.

As the only designated burn care facility for more than 1.6 million residents of Suffolk County, the Burn Center at Stony Brook University Hospital coordinates burn services throughout the county, and conducts training and research in burn care. The Burn Center also serves as a resource to neighboring community-based hospitals. Patients of all ages – from infants through geriatrics – are treated at the Burn Center.

To reach the Suffolk County Volunteer Firefighters Burn Center at Stony Brook University Hospital, call 631-444-4545.

For immediate help, call the burn unit directly at 631-444-BURN.

 

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Clockwise from top left, Musankwa sanyatiensis leg bones as they were discovered in the ground on Spurwing Island, Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe. Image courtesy of Paul Barrett; Musankwa sanyatiensis fossil bones in situ, after mechanical preparation, and after CT scanning. Image courtesy of Paul Barrett; and an artist reconstruction of Musankwa sanyatiensis showing position of fossil bones (in blue). Rendering by Atashni Moopen

By Daniel Dunaief

The dinosaur family tree has few members in Zimbabwe, as only four fossils have been found in the region.

Kimberley Chapelle

Recently, researchers from several universities, including Kimberley “Kimi” Chapelle, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomical Sciences in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, described a new species of dinosaur from a 210 million year-old fossilized hind leg in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

Reconstructing the entire dinosaur from the bones they discovered in Lake Kariba, the scientists, led by Paul Barrett from the Natural History Museum of London, estimated that this plant-eating sauropodomorph weighed about 850 pounds and was among the larger dinosaurs in the late Triassic period.

The first new dinosaur species described in the Mid-Zambezi Basin of Northern Zimbabwe in more than 50 years, the sauropodomorph survived a mass extinction event that wiped out about 76 percent of all terrestrial and marine creatures. The sauropodomoprh group includes animals like the enormous Brontosaurus, which came later in the evolution of the lineage. Chapelle was on the field expedition in 2017 when Barrett noticed the fossil sticking out of the ground.

The discovery was “extremely exciting, as there was a high chance it was going to be something new,” said Chapelle. “It was well-preserved in articulation and we knew the bones came from the same individual.” She participated in the lengthy process that involved excavating the rare find, creating a reconstruction, isolating the bones to look at the structure, describing the fossil and comparing it to other, closely-related dinosaurs to determine where it sits on the family tree.

The researchers named this species Musankwa sanyatiensis, using the name of the houseboat Musankwa on which they lived and worked as they searched for fossils during the dry seasons around the man-made Lake Kariba.

“Musankwa is cool because it’s one of only a handful of dinosaurs from Zimbabwe, a country with amazing fossil resources that have yet to be fully discovered,” explained Jonah Choiniere, a Professor in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg South Africa, who served as Chapelle’s PhD advisor. “Because we don’t have any specimens of Musankwa in similar-age rocks in South Africa, it tells us that during the Triassic period there might have been slightly different species groups of dinosaurs in the two countries.”

The Earth looked considerably different when this long-necked dinosaur was searching for its plant meal, as the land masses of the planet were combined in one supercontinent called Pangaea. In that time, Musankwa’s predators likely included meat-eating therapods and crocodile-like reptiles, which are ancestors of modern crocodiles.

Keep your head up

Hunting for fossils in Zimbabwe, which presented an opportunity for this kind of discovery, came with some challenges.

Kimberley Chapelle with Jonah Choiniere at Lake Kariba. Photo from Jonah Choiniere.

For starters, researchers lived aboard the houseboat Munsankwa, whose name in the Tongan dialect means “boy close to marriage.” Lake Kariba, which was created between 1958 and 1963 and is the largest artificial lake and reservoir by volume, gets “really hot in the summer and all you want to do is swim,” said Chapelle.

That, however, is ill-advised, as modern crocodiles roam the waters of the lake so regularly that people stay far from the shoreline.

To combat the heat, Chapelle drank plenty of water, applied regular sunscreen and wore large hats and long sleeves to keep the strong rays of the sun off her skin. Additionally, the researchers worked between morning and afternoon. The scientific expedition had an armed game ranger with them, to keep scientists safe.

“When you’re looking at fossils, you are always looking at the ground,” Chapelle said. At one point, she looked up and saw a hippo about 50 feet from her. “You have to remember to be aware of your surroundings,” she  said.

Field experience

Choiniere, who inspired his former student to consider entering the field when he first arrived at the University of Witwatersrand, saw Chapelle in action when she first did some field work.

Chapelle’s scientific curiosity never faltered, despite some significant field misadventures that included staying in a rotten old farmhouse without plumbing, sleeping in tents in the freezing cold in the backyard of a rural pub, hiking through brambles over the side of a mountain, and touring around Germany eating nothing but stewed cabbage and pork in brown sauce, and staying three to a hostel room to save money.

“In [Chapelle’s] case, there was never any doubt — she loved the field from day one and has never looked back,” Choiniere explained.

Choiniere believes Chapelle has a “unique skillset among paleontologists,” as her talents include math, observations of shape and structure, histology, three-dimensional data processing and field work. Beyond her diverse skills, Choiniere appreciated Chapelle’s time management skills and her pleasant demeanor, which enabled her to greet him with a smile even when he delivered his part later than she anticipated.

A promising LI start

Chapelle, who started working at Stony Brook at the end of January, is enjoying a return to New York. A native of Johannesburg, South Africa, she  had done a postdoctoral fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History in 2021.

A current resident of Rocky Point, Chapelle lives close to the beach. She and her husband Dominic Stratford, an Adjunct Professor at Stony Brook and Archaeologist and Associate Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, brought their Australian Shepherd named Shango with them.

A runner who recently completed the Shelter Island 10K and who loves taking pictures, Chapelle, who is the daughter of a doctor, originally thought she’d want to become a veterinarian. When she took a course in her third year of college with Choiniere, she was hooked by the link between evolution and anatomy.

As for the recent paper, Chapelle is pleased that people can read about this newly discovered dinosaur.

“This is years and years of work that gets put into this,” she said. “It also gives us a push to keep finding new things and publishing.”

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The festival opens with 'The Blond Boy from the Casbah.'

Stony Brook University’s Staller Center  for the Arts turns into a movie lover’s mecca when new independent films screen at the Stony Brook Film Festival on evenings from Thursday, July 18 to Saturday, July 27. The popular festival, now in its 29th year, will become a hub for some of the best filmmakers working today, a meeting ground for favorite actors and rising stars, and a showcase of new masterpieces as it pairs memorable short films with an array of features you won’t see anywhere else.

Presented by Island Federal, this year’s lineup boasts 36 films from 19 countries and kicks off with the U.S. Premiere of The Blond Boy from the Casbah, Alexandre Arcady’s semi-autobiographical dramedy about growing up in Algeria before emigrating to France as a teen. Festival Programmer Kent Marks describes the film as a “thought-provoking, unique journey through the past on the surprising path to self-discovery.”

Closing the festival is the U.S. Premiere of the German epic One Million Minutes, an inspiring true story that follows an over-worked family trying to find balance in their lives, starring festival-favorite Karoline Herfurth.

The festival will close with a screening of ‘One Million Minutes.’

While the films are never chosen with an overall theme in mind, oftentimes, a theme seems to emerge, and 2024 is no exception. “While our goal is to always program the best films we can find, this year, we gave ourselves the added goal of keeping an eye out for films that appeared to be on the lighter side so we could give our audience some extra laughs in their lives — something that we felt many people could use,” says SBFF & Staller Center Director, Alan Inkles. 

As festival-goers have come to expect, the 2024 schedule is still peppered with hard-hitting films, compelling dramas, and some very unique science-fiction.

This year’s festival features nine films from Stony Brook Film Fest Alumni. “Filmmakers depend on these festivals to help them get their films distributed so as many people can see them as possible and to gauge how a live audience is responding to their work – Our alumni love returning because we have a large, engaged audience and ensure they get the best showing and hospitality possible,” says Marks. “One of the most exciting parts for me is seeing these films up on the big screen and watching how the audience reacts,” says Outreach Director Paul Newland, “after spending so much time previewing these films, it’s truly exciting to see them have their big premiere in the festival, and our filmmakers love it too.”

One of the key features of the Stony Brook Film Festival is that there is absolutely no other way to see these films. 

“Netflix and streaming services are easy and comfortable, and we get that, but these films are not offered on streaming services. They’re films looking to get picked up for distribution in order to stream or play in theaters – a lot of people don’t get that – so this is the prime opportunity to be the first to know and to see some truly incredible films that you cannot see anywhere else,” says Inkles. This year’s festival boasts 17 world, U.S., East Coast, and U.S. premieres of features and shorts throughout the festival.

This year’s festival has a secret film—one that you will only know about if you come in person on July 21. The film—a major motion picture starring well-known Hollywood faces—was produced by a native Long Island filmmaker whose films have previously played the festival. It tells an inspirational true story with an amazing local hook. As with almost all films in the festival, a question-and-answer session between the filmmakers and the audience will follow the preview.

“We are very excited to have filmmakers from all over the world join us for their premiere screenings. Our audiences can gather in a huge theater with Long Island’s largest screen, to see movies the way they were meant to be seen,” said Inkles. 

Additional sponsors for the Stony Brook Film Festival include Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP; Suffolk County; Altice Media; and WLIW21.

FILM SCHEDULE

For a complete description of all of the films, visit stonybrookfilmfestival.com.

OPENING NIGHT
Thursday, July 18 at 7 p.m.

Short: Chauncey

Feature: The Blond Boy from the Casbah

Friday, July 19 at 7 p.m.

Short: Iron Lung

Feature: The Queen of My Dreams

Friday, July 19 at 9:30 p.m.

Short: Detox

Feature: Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

Saturday, July 20 at 7 p.m.

Short: The Hope Chest Has a Secret Drawer

Feature: The Strangers’ Case

Saturday, July 20 at 9:30 p.m.

Short: Two Cents & A Footlong

Feature: Take A Chance on Me

Sunday, July 21 at 7 p.m.

Short: The Grievance

Feature: SPECIAL SNEAK PREVIEW of a major motion picture produced by a SBFF alumni and Long Island resident

Sunday, July 21 at 9:30 p.m.

Short: Revived

Feature: Month to Month

Monday, July 22 at 7 p.m.

Short: Where We Belong

Feature: Marguerite’s Theorem

Monday, July 22 at 9:30 p.m.

Short: In the Night

Feature: Excursion

Tuesday, July 23 at 7 p.m.

Short: Split Ends

Feature: Free Money

Tuesday, July 23 at 9:30 p.m.

Short: Where Do Ants Sleep At Night

Feature: A Fantastic Relationship

Wednesday, July 24 at 7 p.m.

Short: exuvia

Feature: Mediha

Wednesday, July 24 at 9:30 p.m.

Short: [subtext]

Feature: Running on Sand

Thursday, July 25 at 7 p.m.

Short: Mimesis

Feature: Mastergame

Thursday, July 25 at 9:30 p.m.

Short: Bible Camp

Feature: Daughter of the Sun

Friday, July 26 at 7 p.m.

Short: The Overlook

Feature: After the Fire

Friday, July 26 at 9:30 p.m.

Short: On the paths awakened

Feature: A Real Job

CLOSING NIGHT
Saturday, July 27 at 7 p.m.

Short: If

Feature: One Million Minutes

CLOSING NIGHT AWARDS

9:30 p.m. Presented on stage.

Ticket information 

All screenings are held at Stony Brook University’s Staller Center for the Arts, 100 Nicolls Road, Stony Brook in the 1,000-seat Main Stage theater. Cinephiles will want to see all 36 films. There’s passes for that. For those who can’t, there are passes for that, too. All festival pass types come with guaranteed priority seating, Q&As with filmmakers, discounts, and other perks at partner locations, including local eateries and breweries, as well as a festival gift.

The Flex Pass is intended for those who aren’t sure about purchasing a 10-day pass. For $75, pass holders also receive entry to any five nights of the festival except for closing night.

A Regular Pass – $100 – also includes entry to all films and the closing night awards ceremony.

The Gold Pass VIP – $250 – also includes entry to all films, VIP First Priority reserved seating, and invitations to the Opening Night and Closing Night parties at St. Georges Golf Club in Setauket and on the rooftop at Curry Club at SaGhar in Port Jefferson, respectively.

Individual tickets  of $15 per person, $13.50 for seniors will be available after July 5. Tickets may be purchased at stonybrookfilmfestival.com/pass.

To learn more about the different membership levels and their benefits, call the box office at 631-632-2787 or visit www.stonybrookfilmfestival.com.

This article originally appeared in TBR News Media’s Summer Times supplement on June 20.

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Photo courtesy of Stony Brook Medicine

Breast cancer research at the Stony Brook Cancer Center is taking a long-lasting, impactful leap forward thanks to the generous support from the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund. The Fund, which has been supporting research grants at Stony Brook for the last 25 years, has established a new $5.5 million endowment that will be used in perpetuity to fund breast cancer research at Stony Brook Medicine.

Carol M. Baldwin dedicated her life to helping other women overcome the struggles associated with breast cancer after her own diagnosis in 1990 and enduring a double mastectomy. After raising her six children on Long Island, New York, she formed the Fund in 1996 with her family, friends and health professionals with a mission to fight and ultimately win the battle against breast cancer. That same year, Stony Brook dedicated the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Care Center in recognition of her efforts to raise funds for cancer research. The care center continues to operate today within the Stony Brook Cancer Center. In addition to cancer care, the center treats patients with benign conditions of the breast and offers community education on overall breast health and cancer prevention.

“Carol was very supportive of local women who were newly diagnosed and would become their advocate to make sure they received the right treatment,” said Brian J. O’Hea, MD, director of the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Care Center. “This newly endowed fund will allow the expert care and research to continue and will ensure Carol’s legacy will always live on here at Stony Brook.”

Over the past few decades, the Fund has provided seed grants to more than 100 researchers at Stony Brook Medicine as they investigate the causes, prevention and treatment of breast cancer. In memory of Carol, who passed away in 2022, the new endowed Fund will ensure that breast cancer research at Stony Brook will continue for years to come. With the State Endowment Match Challenge and the Simons Infinity Investment Challenge, this gift will have an impact of $16.5 million.

“Through the support of the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, our researchers will learn more about breast cancer, providing us better methods of detection and treatment,” said William Wertheim, MD, interim executive vice president of Stony Brook Medicine. “This endowed gift will allow that important work to continue in perpetuity as our researchers search for advances in technology and medicine.”

This past May, the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC) awarded the center a full three-year reaccreditation. According to O’Hea, NAPBC-accredited programs have demonstrated excellence in organizing and managing a breast care center to facilitate multidisciplinary, integrated and comprehensive breast cancer services.

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