Andrea Goldsmith will be Stony Brook University's 7th President. Photo courtesy of SBU
By Daniel Dunaief
Stony Brook University has named Andrea Goldsmith as the downstate flagship public university’s seventh president.
Goldsmith, who will start her tenure at Stony Brook on August 1st, has been the dean of engineering and applied sciences at Princeton University since 2020. She has been a dean, researcher in engineering, technology company founder and faculty member at Princeton and at Stanford University and Caltech.
Goldsmith will take over for Richard McCormick, who had been interim dean of the university after former president Maurie McInnis resigned last year to become president of Yale University.
”I would like to congratulate Goldsmith on her appointment as the next president of this prestigious university as I believe she will undoubtedly serve Stony Brook admirably,” Kathy Hochul (D), governor of New York, said in a statement.
Goldsmith’s research interests are in communications. control and signal processing and their application to wireless communications, interconnected systems and biomedical devices. She founded and served as Chief Technology Officer of Plume WiFi and of Quantenna Inc. and is on the board of Directors for Intel, Medtronic, Crown Castle and the Marconi Society. She has also served on the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology from 2021 to 2025.
At Princeton, Goldsmith helped establish the Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute. She also developed interdisciplinary research in robotics, blockchain, wireless technologies and artificial intelligence.
Andrew Singer, the Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook, has known Goldsmith for over 25 years.
“She’s a fantastic choice,” Singer said in an interview. “She’s a community builder” and an innovator and has been a “highly visible and strong proponent for the intellectual communities she’s been a part of.”
The newly named SBU president was the founding chair of the IEEE Board of Directors Committee on Diversity and Inclusion and served as President of the IEEE Information Theory Society, as founding Chair of the Student Committee and as founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory.
Goldsmith will be joining Stony Brook at a time when the school has developed significant momentum in a number of areas. The university has risen in the rankings of US News and World Reports, climbing to 58th among national universities and 26th among public universities.
The university also secured a $500 million commitment from Marilyn and the late Jim Simons through the Simons Foundation, which was the largest unrestricted gift ever made to a U.S. education institution.
The university is also in the process of leading the developmentof a $700 million climate center on Governors Island.
During McCormick’s tenure at Stony Brook, which started last August, he outlined ways to improve and build on the university’s success, while also recognizing the need for investment.
McCormick highlighted how Stony Brook had an estimated $2 billion in deferred maintenance.
In an oral history interview with Mary Ann Hellrigel of the IEEE History Cente conducted on February 2, 2022, Goldsmith shared that she grew up in California, where she lived with her mother Adrienne Goldsmith after her parents got divorced. Her mother was an animator for cartoon shows, including “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.”
She is married to Arturo Salz and the couple has two children.
Goldsmith spent part of what would have been her senior year in high school as a singer in Greek night clubs before starting college.
Goldsmith has a Bachelor’s in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and an MS and PhD in electricity engineering from UC Berkeley.
Smartphones are an attractive nuisance not just during family time, when parents might otherwise struggle to see anything other than the top of the heads of their children, but also during school.
Lauren Hale. Photo courtesy of Stony Brook Medicine
In a recent research letter published in JAMA Pediatrics, scientists led by Lauren Hale, Professor in the Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University, found in a study of 117 students from the ages of 13 to 18 that smartphone use during school hours typically consumed an average of about 1.5 hours. That’s about 23 percent of a typical school day.
“School time should be a time for being present,” said Hale. It should involve interacting with peers and learning from teachers. “When a quarter of your day is spent with your finger on the phone” students are missing opportunities for academic and social growth.
The study, which was funded by the Della Pietra Family Foundation, comes as Governor Kathy Hochul (D) has unveiled a plan to restrict cell phone use during the day for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
The governor’s plan allocates $13.5 million for pouches, cubbies and other storage devices and comes as other states and countries seek to limit the kinds of distractions that diminish learning and that prevent face-to-face social interactions.
The JAMA study “really does underscore the need to help children reduce their screen time, both at school and at home,” said Kris Perry, Executive Director of Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development.
At this moment, “we are seeing a crisis in childhood that is highly correlated with the introduction of the smartphone and social media platforms,” Perry added.
In the JAMA Pediatrics study, the researchers found that a quarter of the participants spent more than two hours on their phone during school.
The top five most used apps or categories, other than internet browsing, were messaging, Instagram, video streaming, audio and email.
The study may underestimate the amount of time typical students spend on their phones, in part because the participants in the research knew that their phone use was being tracked.
Study design
The students in the study, who were divided almost equally between boys and girls and who came from a representative sampling of different backgrounds, completed a 15-minute smartphone-based survey and installed RealityMeter to measure their smartphone use.
The researchers examined data from these students, whose phones sent signals throughout the day about the time they are using the phone.
The average number of hours these students were on their phones during the day was 5.59, which excludes other electronic devices such as video games, desktop computers or laptops.
To be sure, the survey didn’t analyze the times during the day that these students were on their phones. Some of these participants, for example, could have used their smartphones during their lunch or free periods rather than during calculus classes or lectures about American History, French or any other subject.
“We didn’t have the granularity of each student’s schedule to know” when the phone usage was the highest, Hale said.
Still, using the phone instead of interacting directly with students in the room, at a lunch table, or in a hallway is a “missed opportunity for eye-to-eye contact in real life,” said Hale.
In the study, about 22 percent of the participants indicated that their parents restricted their phone use when they are at home.
The data for this group during school tracks, however, closely with the students who said they didn’t have any such similar phone restrictions at home. The study also compared phone usage for students whose parents attended college with those who didn’t attend or finish college.
The children of college graduates used the phone about 30 minutes less per school day.
Combination of factors
Several factors may have contributed to any potential increase in the use of smartphones in school.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the lockdown and remote learning, students relied on technology to log in to their classrooms. Adolescents who couldn’t interact with each other in person also spent considerable time texting and interacting with each other on social media.
Additionally, various apps have enhanced their platforms to encourage users to stay on them for longer periods of time.
“The algorithms know that I like Shih Tzus, so I keep getting reels for tiny white dogs doing tricks,” said Hale. “If they put up cats, I wouldn’t watch.”
The same is true for adolescents, who see sports clips or other content regularly that compels them to stay online and that may interfere with their ability to learn in class or to socialize with people around them.
These apps and the devices adolescents use could provide information about usage patterns.
“I would love to see social media platforms share more information,” said Hale.
Perry added that parents act as important role models for their children when it comes to screen time. “What you’re modeling is going to be replicated,” she said. “Things that adults do without thinking, their children are copying.”
Next steps
Hale indicated that the research team has just finished collecting a second wave of data on the same participants. The scientists will be following up to see screen use patterns as well as any observed changes in mental health and physical well being.
The recent work published in JAMA Pediatrics is a “descriptive baseline” of smartphone usage in school, said Hale. She suggested that researchers need to conduct further research to understand the impact of phone usage patterns on education. “We need replication in science” to uncover more details over a larger population for smartphone use.
Like Gov. Hochul and others who have focused on this issue, Hale believes these personal electronics may hinder the learning process.
“I’m concerned about kids losing precious school hours to distracting devices,” Hale said. When students go to school, they should “be ready for learning and social time. That’s what’s going to make a difference in their education.”
Florence Aghomo in Madagascar. Photo courtesy Florence Aghomo
By Daniel Dunaief
Don’t say “no” to Florence Aghomo.
A graduate student at Stony Brook University who was born and raised in Cameroon, Aghomo’s ability to get past no, don’t, and shouldn’t led to a continent-hoping life complete with a recent compelling discovery in the rainforest of Madagascar.
Working on her PhD research in the laboratory of Distinguished Professor Patricia Wright, Aghomo went north in Ranomafana National Park when almost every other researcher has gone south in the national park. She was searching for a type of lemur called the Milne-Edwards’s Sifaka when she came upon a large hole on a steep surface.
The fossilized hippo bones, including a tusk and a mandible. Photo courtesy Patricia Wright
She suggested to her guide that it was a cave. Her guide insisted she was wrong. When she spoke with Wright, her advisor also was unconvinced.
Aghomo, however, was sure that what she saw was similar to the caves she studied in the class of Adjunct Lecturer Dominic Stratford, who has a dual position at Wits University in South Africa.
In November, several months after Aghomo’s initial discovery, a team of scientists trekked into the remote part of the rainforest in the north.
“It’s very, very difficult terrain,” Wright said.
The group found 13 caves, one of which, to their amazement, contained fossilized bones.
“This is impossible,” Wright recalled thinking. “Bones don’t fossilize in the rainforest. Everyone knows that.”
But, as the evidence suggested, they can and they do.
The researchers initially thought the unexpected bones were a pig.
“I’m saying, ‘No, it’s not a wild pig,’” said Wright. “That is a hippopotamus. They couldn’t believe it.”
Indeed, while three species of pygmy hippopotami have been discovered in parts of the island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent, none have been discovered in the rainforest.
Once the group at Centre ValBio, the research station in Ranomofana National Park run by Wright, confirmed the discovery, Wright immediately took two actions.
First, she wrote to Stratford.
“This is what we found and it is your fault for teaching Florence how to look for a cave,” Wright said. “It’s your responsibility to come over and help us. I’m not a paleontologist and you are.”
Stratford described the first few weeks after the discovery as frantic, as he had to grade papers, apply for a visa and make complicated travel plans – all before any possible rain washed away this remarkable discovery.
Stratford was thrilled with the finding.
“It was great to know that something you teach at Stony Brook University in the middle of the Northeast has helped somebody make a discovery on the other side of the planet in a rainforest,” said Stratford. The discovery “couldn’t be further away from where we are right now, sitting here in the snow.”
She Wright also wrote to the Leakey Foundation to secure emergency funds to bring experts to the area quickly before the rainy season threatened to wash away this remarkable find.
“This was a really great opportunity to use these emergency funds and is exactly the kinds of things we want to do,” said Carol Ward, co-chair of the Scientific Executive Committee for Paleoanthropology at the Leakey Foundation. “To find a cave system in this rainforest that’s preserving these fossils is really special.”
Acidic rainforest soils make the discovery of fossils in these areas rare.
Seeing the bones
Once Aghomo was able to see the fossilized bones, Wright appreciated the variety of information they these fossils might contain.
The bones had a mandible with molars that “look like flowers,” Wright said. “They had a really nice wear pattern.”
Based on the amount of wear on the teeth, Wright estimates that the individual hippo might have been a young adult when it died.
The collection of bones also included a tusk and several leg bones.
Stratford, who helped carefully excavate the bones with researchers from the University of Antananrivo (Tana), believes this pygmy hippo likely died in the cave. He is hopeful that they might find other parts of the same hippo’s skeleton that got washed into different parts of the cave.
Relatively speaking, this hippo has a smaller cranium and longer legs than similar species on the island nation. Wright suspects that the hippo is a different species from the three that have been categorized in Madagascar.
The bones are sitting in a refrigerator at CVB and Wright hopes to bring them to Stony Brook by some time around May, when Stratford and others might be able to examine them.
Researchers are hoping to answer several questions about the animal, including the age of the fossil as well as the food in its diet based on whatever they can extract from the teeth.
Searching other caves
Researchers, meanwhile, have discovered a tusk from another hippo in another nearby cave.
Wright is excited about the possibility of finding other fossilized bones in caves created by granite boulders that tumbled down a steep slope. Some of the caves have water running at the bottom of them, which can be meters down from their entrance. Scientists used ropes to descend into the caves.
Wright, who has won a range of awards from her research on these quirky lemurs and was the subject of the Morgan Freeman-narrated film “Island of Lemurs: Madagascar,”believes some of these caves may reveal a whole new set of fossil lemurs.
Wright hopes to return to Madagascar next summer to do the rest of the excavation with paleontologists.
As for Aghomo, the eagerness to blaze her own trail that led her to find these caves in an isolated area is part of a lifelong pattern in which persistence and a willingness to follow difficult paths has paid off.
When she was younger, Aghomo wanted to work in the forest. Her father, Jean-Marie Fodjou, however, suggested such difficult physical work might not be especially challenging for a woman.
Her father didn’t think she would be comfortable walking distances in difficult terrain, crossing rivers, and carrying heavy loads.
Aghomo, however, recognized that it’s “something I want to do.”
The path to Stony Brook wasn’t immediate either. The first year she applied to the graduate program, she sent her application to the wrong department.
In her second year, she was accepted in the Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences but found it difficult to get a visa. Finally, in her third year, she was accepted and received her visa.
This past December, Aghomo won the Young Women in Conservation Biology Award from the Society for Conservation Biology, which recognizes the work of young women in Africa who advance conservation biology.
Recently, Aghomo was back home with her father, who is “so proud of me.”
While she didn’t listen to his advice about staying out of the rainforest, he is pleased that he urged her to pursue her interests to the best of her ability.
“He told me, ‘Do it as well as you can,’” said Aghomo.
Despite the challenge of trekking to parts of a Madagascar rainforest that others don’t generally visit, of following her own path into the forest and of persisting in her efforts to start a PhD program at Stony Brook, Aghomo remains committed to following her own path.
She is hopeful that the discovery of fossils in a few caves in Madagascar leads to additional searches in other rainforests.
After this finding, perhaps paleoanthropologists will “think of searching in Central African countries for fossils.”
As for Ward, she believes the fossilized bones from an extinct species might provide information about human interactions with the world and climate and environmental change that “we might learn from today. There might be lessons about what’s happening now that [we can get] buy looking at what happened in the past.”
We recognize and register the temperature as soon as we leave our climate controlled house, car or office and step foot outside.
Cold, windy air might cause us to raise our shoulders, protecting our necks the way frightened turtles might pull back towards the shell when they sense a threat.
We have developed a real feel temperature or a “it feels like” temperature. Yes, it’s 28 degrees, but it feels like 12, which, to some, is more like negative 20.
How people experience temperature varies widely. An 85 degree day, with bright sunshine, could make one person feel as if he’s ready to conquer the world and is absorbing the sun’s energy.
Another person, say me, for example, might step out into that same temperature and instinctively search for shade, an air conditioner or a place near the water.
Many of us have friends, coworkers, spouses, children or roommates who prefer temperatures that are diametrically opposed to our own heat or cold sensitivity.
If my house were, say, 66 degrees, I would likely feel comfortable, while my wife would probably come into my home office wearing a sweater, gloves and a frown.
Taking out the financial part of the equation, people can and often do battle for control of the thermostat.
Differences between the sexes can explain some of this temperature disconnect.
Beyond describing the different cultures, expectations, communications and score keeping between men and women, the metaphor from the book “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” also might aptly capture the temperature differences, as Venus, with its gaseous carbon dioxide atmosphere, is the hottest planet and Mars is the fourth hottest. Neptune, incidentally, is the coldest.
While the gender generalization may apply in some cases, that’s never been my family’s reality. My daughter and I tend to run hotter, while my wife and son are cooler and prefer some heat as a counterbalance.
During the extremes of either season, half of the family is comfortable while the other half is either looking to dive into a pool of ice water or is eager to sit with a book near a roaring fire.
Many years ago, my wife and I attended a spectacularly hot college reunion. Well, it was incredibly hot for me. My wife left my side for a moment and returned with some ice cubes. She dumped them down my back and was shocked when I didn’t arch my back or pull my shirt out of my waist to dump the ice on the floor. The ice provided welcome relief.
The moderate middle tends to keep the family happy, as no one is complaining about uncomfortable extremes.
Given temperature sensitivities in our house, we all tend to be closest to our temperature best in the fall and spring.
Of course, as with everything else in life, different stages bring different temperature sensitivities.
When my wife was pregnant with each of our children, her body ran much hotter. We took winter walks that would have been almost inconceivable, so to speak, before we conceived.
The passage of decades, however, has changed how I experience temperature. I have become much more comfortable sitting in a warm baseball stadium and am not so tough when confronted with single digit temperatures.
To be sure, I’m still not able to wallow in a jacuzzi or an unusually hot pool for any length of time without feeling as if my skin is starting to boil.
Recognizing that what constitutes comfortable temperatures varies, I wonder why people so often imagine hell as a place with fire and brimstone.
The poet Robert Service wrote a wonderful and lengthy poem about Sam McGee, which a bus driver recited from memory when my wife and I took a trip to Alaska. With beluga whales we could see surfacing in the distance as we drove along the coast, she shared “The Cremation of Sam McGee” about someone who left Tennessee to search for gold in the Arctic only to discover that the cold was much easier to find than gold.
Sam is so spectacularly cold that he delights in the idea of being cremated when he inevitably dies.
For Sam, and perhaps many others, heat might be far preferable to a frigid afterlife.
SBU's David Wrobel with Wolfie. Photo by Anna Maria Gounaris
By Daniel Dunaief
David Wrobel, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University since August, can relate to the school’s students.
Like about a third of the students at the downstate flagship SUNY university, Wrobel is the first member of his family to attend college.
David Wrobel. Photo by John Griffin
“I’ve had the advantage of that social mobility that higher education can provide,” said Wrobel, who grew up in England. To have the opportunity to facilitate that for thousands of other students is “hugely important and meaningful.”
Provost Carl Lejuez appreciates Wrobel’s passion for education and for providing opportunities to students from a wide array of backgrounds and experiences.
“For first generation students, there are some challenges that even the most empathetic, well-meaning person may want to help with, but because they don’t have that experience, they don’t know,” said Provost Carl Lejuez. “He brings both the experience of some of the things these students are going through as well as the humanity and personality that is very empathetic.”
Indeed, for Wrobel, who was dean at the University of Oklahoma for six years before joining Stony Brook, his new job appealed to him because of the opportunity to use education to help students expand their horizons and seek new opportunities.
Stony Brook has been successful in the area of social mobility, enabling students “from more disadvantaged backgrounds coming to the university” to complete their degrees at a high rate, said Wrobel. Higher education can perform the role it should as an “engine of democracy.”
Wrobel, who is a tenured professor in the Departent of History, oversees the breadth and depth of offerings at Stony Brook.
Lejuez suggested that Wrobel relates well to students from every background.
“You never see him at an event talking to other administrators,” said Lejuez. “He’s trying to really get in there and talk to people and make them feel welcome.”
Indeed, within his first few weeks of arriving, Wrobel met with several students who shared their concerns about visual arts, particularly as the music and art departments are about to move during an HVAC renovation project.
Wrobel worked with the students and partners around the university, including staff, the fire marshal and others, to see where they can display artwork and perform music.
The Arts Everywhere effort, which is “big in spirit” but “small in funding” provides an opportunities for the “work of students to be better understood by other students on campus,” Wrobel said.
Research opportunities
As a member of the Association of American Universities, an exclusive club that recognizes universities committed to research and education, Stony Brook provides students with opportunities to contribute to the forefront of new information.
“We have undergraduates doing research on genes that are led by some of the most important scientists in the world,” said Wrobel. These students are “not doing research that is tangentially associated with important science. They are contributing to the research teams” that lead to societal and life improvements.
These research contributions across a wide range of fields can and should address the question some people have asked about the return on investment of a college education.
Students are working in fields such as quantum science, artificial intelligence, climate and health.
“We should take great pride in the fact that, as a university, we are answering that question: why does a degree matter,” said Wrobel.
‘Not a spectator sport’
From left to right: Bonita London, associate dean of research development and communications; Danielle Papaspyrou, senior administrator for staff and faculty affairs; AnnaMaria Gounaris, assistant to the dean; Michael d’Ambrosio, senior director of development; Lois Carter, assistant dean for faculty affairs and personnel; Rachel Rodriguez, director of communications; Carol Davies, assistant director for budget and finance, and David Wrobel, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Photo courtesy Stony Brook University
The university is incorporating into the degree programs the kind of learning experiences that prepare students for success in areas ranging from private and industry positions to government jobs.
Wrobel is eager to demonstrate how “education is not a spectator sport” with every prospective student and their parents. Students become a “full participant not just in learning existing knowledge, but in the process of creating new knowledge.”
At the same time, the university is committed to enhancing the abilities of its educators.
“You work to reward teaching excellence at every level,” said Wrobel. “You make it clear that teaching does matter.”
Teachers need to refine their approaches and methods based on the way students learn, which includes working with technology and its possibilities more effectively than in the past
Wrobel meets with the Dean’s Student Advisory Committee, which includes students from numerous majors, to learn about student needs. These can include expanding quieter study spaces or finding places for more collaborative work.
Additionally, the committee helps select outstanding teaching faculty.
“Faculty go to conferences to improve their research skills,” said Lejuez. “We want to think about teaching in the same way.”
Lejuez appreciates how Wrobel engages with students to understand what would improve the university’s learning environment.
The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching provides opportunities not only for those educators who might be struggling to connect with their students, but also for those who want to improve their craft, Lejuez said.
As a part of student evaluations of their educators, Stony Brook has improved the quality of questions in its educator evaluations for the spring semester, which Lejuez hopes encourages more students to offer valuable feedback.
A dedicated educator
In addition to serving as an administrator, Wrobel hopes to put his experience to work as an educator himself by next spring.
Wrobel could imagine leading or contributing to several possible classes.
He would enjoy teaching a graduate seminar that addresses the history of American thought and culture from the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War in the 1870’s to the end of the New Deal in the 1940s.
At the University of Oklahoma, he also taught an introductory survey class that first year students typically took. The course covered the period from the end of the Civil War to the present.
“I love the idea that I have the opportunity to engage with brand new students when they come to the university,” he said.
Wrobel would like to share a view of America from the Great Depression through the Vietnam War, focusing on John Steinbecks view of the core political and social debates of the time.
Steinbeck was “better than just about any other author at finding what is extraordinary in the lives of ordinary Americans,” said Wrobel.
As for his roles at Stony Brook, Wrobel is “thrilled to have the opportunity to help first generation students and other financially disadvantaged students find their way.”
These composite brain images from the study of WTC responders reveal evidence of amyloidosis. Areas shaded in red and yellow indicate regions of the brain with amyloid. Image courtesy of Sean Clouston, Stony Brook Medicine
By Daniel Dunaief
Even over 23 years after first responders raced to the smoldering site of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, many emergency crews continue to battle the effects of their exposure.
With a combination of toxic aerosolized particles infusing the air, first responders who didn’t wear personal protective equipment and who had the highest degree of exposure have suffered from a range of symptoms and conditions.
Sean Clouston
In a recent study of 35 World Trade Center first responders in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, lead author Sean Clouston, who is a Professor in the Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine in the Renaissance School of Medicine, found evidence of amyloid plaques, which are often linked to Alzheimer’s Disease.
The paper links exposure to a neurodegenerative protein.
Research with World Trade Center first responders not only benefits those who worked tirelessly to try to find survivors and to restore the area after the attack, but also could help other people who inhale aerosolized toxins.
Indeed, such research could help those who are spending hours battling the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles, which have been consuming forests and trees, homes and commercial buildings, at a furious and uncontrolled pace.
People have a feeling that fresh air is safe, but what scientists have learned from their studies of the World Trade Center first responders is that “just being six feet away from a pile of rubble that’s smoldering, even if you can’t see that it’s dangerous, doesn’t mean it isn’t,” said Clouston. “There is at least some risk” to human health from fires that spew smoke from burned computers and refrigerators, among others.
Given the variety of materials burned in the fires, Minos Kritikos, Senior Research Scientist and a member of the group in the collaborative labs of Clouston and Professor Benjamin Luft, suspects that a heterogeneity of particles were in the air.
People in Los Angeles who are inhaling these particles can have them “linger in their circulation for years,” said Kritikos. “It’s not just a neurological issue” as the body tries to deal with carrying around this “noxious” particulate matter. Since most neurons don’t regenerate, any toxicity induced neuronal death is irreversible, making damage to the brain permanent.
Even in non-emergency situations, people in polluted cities face increased health risks.
“There is a recognition that air pollution is a major preventable cause of Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias, as noted by the latest Lancet Commission,” Clouston explained.
Two likely entry points
People who breathe in air containing toxic chemicals have two likely pathways through which the particulates enter the body. They can come in through the nose and, potentially, travel directly into the brain, or they can enter the lungs, circulate through the body and enter the head through the blood-brain barrier. The olfactory route is more direct, said Kritikos.
Minos Kritikos in front of Stony Brook Hospital.
The amyloid plaques in these first responders was found primarily in the area near the nose, which supports the idea that maybe inhaling the dust was the problem, Clouston said.
Once these chemicals enter the brain, Clouston and his team believe the body engages defenses that are designed much more for viruses than for toxic compounds. The immune system can encapsulate these chemicals in amyloid plaques.
Amyloid plaques, in moderation and under conditions that protect the brain against pathogens, are a part of a protective and helpful immune response. Too much of a good thing, however, can overwhelm the brain.
“When there’s too much plaque, it can physically disturb neuronal functions and connections,” said Kritikos. “By being a big presence, they can also molecularly and chemically react with its environment.”
A large presence of amyloid can be toxically necrotic to surrounding neural tissue, Kritikos added.
What the scientists believe they are tracking is the footprint of an adaptive response that may not help the brain, Clouston added.
Clouston cautioned that the plaques and cognitive decline could both be caused by something else that scientists haven’t yet seen.
The findings
The research, which used positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans to search for evidence of amyloid plaques, found evidence that doesn’t look like old age Alzheimer’s, explained Clouston. Usually these levels of plaques are not located in one spot, but occur throughout the brain during Alzheimer’s.
The immune response may be causing some of these plaques.
The amount of amyloid plaque doesn’t look like Alzheimer’s Disease and does not appear abnormal in the traditional way of testing, but with careful analysis of the olfactory system, the researchers can find elevated levels.
“I was surprised by how little amyloid was necessary to show this association,” said Clouston.
Researchers at Mt. Sinai have examined the effect of exposure to these same particulates in mice.
“The answer is very much similar to what we see in humans,” said Clouston. “That supports this work.”
To be sure, Clouston and Kritikos are hoping to build on this research. They are particularly interested in following up with participants to measure the rate of change in these plaques from the observed amyloid signals they measured at baseline.
“Doing so would enable us to calculate the rate of amyloid buildup allowing us to assess our responders more precisely, opening doors to possible therapeutic interventions such as the recently approved anti-amyloid therapies,” Kritikos explained.
Additionally, they hope to expand on the study beyond the 35 people who participated.
It is unclear whether tamping down the immune system could make patients better or worse. By reducing amyloid plaques, scientists might enable the harmful dust to cause damage in other areas of the brain. Alternatively, however, a lower level immune response with fewer plaques might, in the longer term, be better for the brain.
This study “does open the door for some of those questions,” Clouston said. Kritikos and Clouston plan to study the presence of tau proteins and any signs of neurodegeneration in the brains of these first responders.
“More research needs to be done,” Clouston said, which specifically targets different ways of measuring exposure, such as through a biomarker. He’s hoping such a biomarker might be found that tracks levels of exposure.
Future research could also address whether post traumatic stress disorder affects the immune response.
“It’s certainly possible that PTSD is playing a role, but we’re not sure what that might be,” said Clouston.
The researchers are continuing this research as they study the effects of exposure on tau proteins and neurodegeneration.
“We are hopeful that this will be an important turning point for us,” Clouston explained
From the Medditerranean to the Atlantic
Born and raised in Cyprus, Kritikos comes from a large family who are passionate about spending time with each other while eating good food.
He earned his doctorate from the University of Bristol in England.
Kritikos met his wife Jennifer LoPresti Kritikos, who is originally from Shirley, New York, at a coffee shop in Aberdeen, Scotland, where he was doing postdoctoral research.
LoPresti, who works at Stony Brook as the Department Head Administrator for Biomedical Engineering, and Kritikos live in Manorville and have an eight year-old daughter Gia and one-year old son Theseus.
As for his work, Kritikos is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to research with Clouston and Luft, who is the Director of the Stony Brook WTC Health and Wellness Program.
“I’m happy to be in a position whereby our large WTC team (the size of a small village) is constantly pushing forward with our understanding for how these exposures have affected” the brain health of WTC first responders, Kritikos explained. He would like to continue to uncover mechanisms that underly these phenomena, not just for WTC responders but also for similarly exposed populations.
With temperatures soaring, the large gathering of friends and family used programs to fan themselves.
Sweat dripped down my back as I waited in a wooden chair amid bright sunshine to witness and celebrate my brother’s graduation from Colgate University. Thoughts of my brother mixed with a need to find shade and an ice cold drink.
I had attended several graduations before this one, including my older brother’s and my own from college. I recall my Ward Melville High School graduation being incredibly warm as well, but this one seemed longer and more protracted, perhaps because we had to drive several hours to attend.
I pondered all the phone calls to the 315 area code with my younger brother, who complained about the snow, the ice and the bitter cold temperatures, which was an enormous contrast to the stifling heat of that day.
The commencement speaker, Fay Vincent, was the commissioner of baseball at the time. His tenure started when his predecessor Bart Giamatti died of a heart attack at 51, eight days after banning Pete Rose from baseball for life for gambling on the game.
I thought about Vincent this week when I learned he had died at the age of 86 from cancer. I remember a surprising number of thoughts and ideas he shared during that momentous and proud day in our family’s life.
Fortunately, the sound system on that field was clear enough that I could hear almost every word he said.
He started off by saying that there’s no such thing as a good, long commencement speech. Similarly, there’s no such thing as a bad, short commencement speech.
The overheated audience laughed at both well-delivered lines, relieved that their children’s names would be called fairly soon.
He had three pieces of advice for these graduates. He recommended that they do something good. While that course of action depended on each person’s definition of “good,” he urged people to use their time effectively and to contribute something to society.
He then suggested that people do something well. Merely taking a job, moving on to graduate school, or doing some kind of internship wasn’t enough: graduates needed to commit to completing any task well, whatever that might be.
And, finally, he urged them to do something. That line also elicited considerable laughter from the appreciative crowd, who, by now, was eating out of his hand and wasn’t so sure they wanted this speech to end too rapidly.
He urged graduates not to return home and spend too much time pondering their future. They needed to go out and experience life. And, of course, once they took whatever next steps, they should remember to engage in good work while committing to doing it well.
Recognizing that the commissioner of baseball couldn’t get off the dais without sharing a baseball story, he also offered one about a rookie umpire.
The Houston Astros were playing the Yankees at the Astrodome in front of more than 50,000 adoring fans during their home opener.
Nolan Ryan, the ace of the team and one of the best pitchers in baseball who still holds the record with seven no hitters, was on the mound.
Mickey Rivers, the speedy Yankees center fielder, was stepping up to the plate. The umpire signaled for Ryan, who entered the Hall of Fame in 1999 as a Texas Ranger, to throw the first pitch.
The ball exploded into the catcher’s mitt. The fans waited as the seconds ticked by. The players looked in for the call. The umpire signaled weakly, “strike?” and extended his arm. The crowd cheered wildly as the catcher tossed the ball back to Ryan, who had started out his 27-year career as a member of the New York Mets.
Rivers took a step out of the box and smiled at the umpire. “Hey, it’s okay, blue,” Rivers said. “I didn’t see it either.”
Vincent told the story and offered his advice with such gusto and passion that I can still recall the speech and its effect on people all these years later.
Is it possible that Ryan was on another team during that speech and that another batter shared such relatable words to the umpire? Sure. But, I can remember the message, the charm and the encouragement (and, of course, the searing heat) as if I were sitting in that field yesterday, celebrating my brother’s graduation and appreciating Vincent’s word’s of wisdom.
The DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory doesn’t just provide educational opportunities for students; it can also inspire their teachers.
That was the case for PhD graduate Alexandra Nowlan, who worked in the lab of Professor Stephen Shea.
When Nowlan met her required teaching component at the center as a part of the graduation requirement for her doctorate, she found educating the next generation inspiring.
“It’s very rewarding to get kids excited about science,” said Nowlan.
Alexandra Nowlan giving a talk at CSHL. Photo from Constance Brukin
Indeed, Nowlan, who did her postdoctoral work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, has taken a job as assistant teaching professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the same institution. She is teaching two neuopsychopharmacology classes and is preparing for an advanced molecular pharmacology class in the fall.
“I was really drawn to outreach opportunities and put more of my focus into teaching,” she said. “The opportunity presented itself, so I jumped at it. I’m having a really good time.”
Established in 1988, the DNA Learning Center was the first site to focus on genetic education for the public, offering classes to students in 5th through 12th grades.
The Learning Center, with sites in five different locations in New York, provides classes and labs for 30,000 students each year.
Amanda McBrien, Assistant Director of the DNA Learning Center, observed Nowlan in action.
“She had a magnetic energy about her,” said McBrien. “She came in and was young, enthusiastic and cool all wrapped into one.”
During a Fun with DNA course in the summer offered in conjunction with Women in Science, Nowlan was the “perfect role model,” McBrien added, who proved to be “utterly approachable” and enthusiastic, making her an engaged presenter.
Students can find information about these classes through the DNA Learning Center and can register for summer courses starting this week.
Recent publication
In addition to her professional journey into teaching, Nowlan recently published the results of a study she conducted in the journal Current Biology based on research conducted at CSHL.
Working with Shea and other scientists who followed her in Shea’s lab, Nowlan studied the way the mouse brain processes sensory signals such as odor and sound as a part of a pup retrieval process.
Important in the behavior of mothers and of surrogates who care for the young, pup retrieval helps ensure that developing mice stay closer to their mothers or caretakers.
“Pup retrieval is one of the most important things for mothers or caregivers,” Shea said in a statement. “It requires the ability to smell and hear the pup. If these things are both important, that may mean they merge somewhere in the brain.”
Indeed, during pup retrieval, neurons from an area of the brain called the basal amygdala carry smell signals to the auditory cortex, which is the brain’s hearing center. The basal amygdala is involved in learning and processing social and emotional signals, linking perception with emotion and social learning.
When Nowlan and others blocked the ability of maternal mice to access smell signals, the micedidn’t provide their customary parental pup retrieval.
Shea and his lab suspect that what’s reaching the auditory cortex is being filtered through social-emotional signals from basal amygdala neurons.
“We’ve known that pup odor is important,” said Nowlan. “People have eliminated odors and seen deficits.”
Deficits in vocalizations also can affect this behavior.
“The pathway that would allow olfactory signals to reach the auditory cortex was unknown and we’ve identified a pathway that is functionally capable of linking those two senses,” Nowlan explained.
A winding path
Nowlan, who grew up in Williamstown, Massachusetts, played rugby in college at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. While three concussions encouraged her to search for a non-contact sport, it also piqued her interest in neurology.
After she graduated, she worked for four years in the laboratory of Sandeep Robert Datta at Harvard Medical School, where she learned about the importance of the olfactory system.
At the Datta lab, she worked with then postdoctoral researcher Paul Greer, who let a flier on her desk about Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s graduate program.
“The umbrella program appealed to me,” she said. “You could get an education not only in the subject you’re interested in but you also had an opportunity to learn about cancer biology and plant genetics, which was exciting.”
Nowlan attended courses and meetings, interacting with top scientists across a range of fields.
The first year she lived in a house on campus near the water, where she and her fellow graduate students could see the lights of all the buildings at night.
“My classmates and I felt like we were at Hogwarts, this magical science camp,” she said.
Postdoctoral transition
When she was writing her PhD thesis, Nowlan became interested in motivated behaviors.
She had been following reports about the opioid epidemic and knew it was affecting Berkshire County, where she grew up.
She was curious about how opioid use disrupted noradrenaline signaling, which plays an important role in motivation, rewarding and the body’s stress response.
“I wanted to explore how these motivational circuits can get disrupted in examples where drugs that are commonly misused are involved,” she said.
She and others in the lab of Zoe McElligott at the Bowles Center were trying to understand various brain circuits as people undergo the painful experience of addiction withdrawal.
More information about these processes could reduce the negative experience and lead to better and perhaps more effective treatments.
Born on the same day
Nowlan met her husband Craig Jones, a Long Island native, through a dating app.
“I joked when we first met that the algorithm” from the app that brought them together was lazy, she said. They were both born on the same day, just hours apart.
Jones, who works as a user experience designer for fitness company Zwift, is “older and he won’t let me forget it,” said Nowlan.
As for her current teaching role, Nowlan is hoping to emulate the inspirational approach of Enrique Peacock-López, a college professor at nearby Williams College. In addition to coaching a soccer team with his daughter and Nowlan, Enrique-López took time to share chemistry demonstrations in primary school and to bring high school students into his lab.
Nowlan appreciated how Peacock-López connected with students.
“The way he made science exciting and accessible to members of the community is really inspiring,” said Nowlan.
Peacock-López has known Nowlan for decades.
“There’s a lot of satisfaction that I may have contributed a little bit with my grain of salt in their careers,” said Peacock-López. When he teaches, he seeks ways to motivate students to solve problems.
For younger children as a starter experiment, he works with reagents that reveal considerable color or that has fumes.
“They love to hear sounds or see colors,” he said.
Peacock-López’s advice to future teachers is to “interact with students” and get to know them.
A native of Mexico, he promised himself when he started teaching that he would treat students the way he would want to be treated.
As for Nowlan, she is eager to continue the teaching tradition.
“It makes me want to keep giving back and provide opportunities to educate the public about what we’re doing and why it’s interesting and important,” Nowlan said.
Her goal is to educate the next generation of neuroscientists and curious community members about how discoveries made in the lab are translated into treatments for disease.
Bird flu, which is a virus that has so far primarily infected animals, has affected a duck farm in Aquebogue.
Amid concerns about transmission, Crescent Duck Farm, which has operated as a family business since 1908, has had to put down close to 100,000 ducks.
At this point, health officials haven’t reported any cases of humans contracting the virus, although the farm, its workers and doctors have been looking out for signs of illness.
Local doctors suggested that the risk to humans from bird flu is limited to those people who have worked with or handled sick birds.
Dr. Adrian Popp, chair of Infection Control at Huntington Hospital/ Northwell Health. File photo
The virus “transmits easily from bird to bird, but so far transmission to humans has not occurred to my knowledge,” Dr. Adrian Popp, chair of Infection Control at Huntington Hospital/ Northwell Health and associate professor of medicine at Hofstra School of Medicine, explained in an email. “There is a theoretical possibility that this can occur, but so far, I think we are safe,” as New York State is monitoring exposed workers.
Doctors urged residents to see a healthcare worker if they have any contact with birds and they develop symptoms such as a fever, conjunctivitis (an eye infection that can include redness or watery eyes), or breathing issues.
“Monitor yourself for 10 days after exposure,” urged Dr. Aleena Zahra, infectious disease physician at St. Charles Hospital. “If you develop any symptoms, seek medical attention.”
The treatment for bird flu, which can affect people in ways that are similar to influenza, is to take tamiflu, which is more effective in the earlier stages of an infection.
“If you’re in contact with an animal that is sick, then that would be a potential risk factor,” added Zahra.
Zahra advised residents to avoid picking up a dead bird in their yard without gloves and other safety measures.
Dr. Sharon Nachmann, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, added that the jump to humans from other animals is rarely happening.
People who have become infected are typically recovering, although one person in Louisiana died from the virus.
Despite the relatively low risk, viruses have the ability to mutate, which could make them more transmissible and more dangerous.
CDC silence
At the same time, local doctors are concerned that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped publishing information on infectious diseases.
“This is an unprecedented attack on timely access to reports about transmission of various infectious diseases in the country and worldwide,” Popp explained. “It will lead to delayed prevention measures, poor health care, and potentially allowing infectious disease outbreaks to get out of control.”
Dr. Sharon Nachmann/Stony Brook Children’s Hospital
The CDC has created travel bans in the past, but has not closed its reporting on outbreaks, Nachmann said.
“It’s incredibly stressful,” said Nachmann.
Doctors added that they were missing the bigger picture that might offer important information about the source of an illness and the best possible treatment.
“We want to do the best for our patients. We want to tell them that this is working or that is not working and you need a different medication,” Nachmann said.
For right now, doctors are gathering information from state and local officials, said Zahra.
The CDC typically shares details about the specific type of infections in an area or region, its responsiveness to various treatments and its differential impact on any specific subgroup, such as children.
“It is sad to see how political, partisan measures are used to suppress sharing of scientific information between healthcare professionals,” Popp added.
Doctors are hoping for more and better information before too long.
“All we have now is a stop,” said Nachmann. “We don’t know what happens after the stop.”
Afew years ago, a friend of mine called the night before a major operation.
I could tell he was nervous. His usual, unflappable voice was weaker and unsteady, as if he weren’t sure how things would go and was reaching out for encouragement.
“There’s pretty much nothing you can do at this point,” I said. “You really don’t need to be sharp or focused or even attentive tomorrow. You better hope the doctor is getting plenty of rest and is at his best.”
“That’s true,” he laughed. “Maybe I should send over a good dinner or encourage him to go to bed early tonight.”
Doctors, like so many other people in other professions, deal with activities and routines that are unimaginable for the rest of us.
As a child, I watched my father slowly and carefully remove glass from the eyes of a construction worker who had been in an accident. I also sat in horror as he ate a steak just hours after being in surgery for most of the day to reconstruct the eye of a local patient who had suffered extensive trauma.
The medical world’s ability to get past the “ick” factor is pretty incredible. These professionals, on whom we rely for our overall health and for the health of our specific organs and systems, improve and extend our lives, offering the best of modern medicine to counteract the effect of bad habits, hidden genetic problems that can complicate and threaten our lives, and pathogens that cause damage and destruction.
Recently, I visited a urologist. If you’ve been reading this column long enough, you might recall that I’ve had kidney stones. These are exceptionally unpleasant, causing pain and vomiting, among other discomforts.
Long ago, I shuffled into an emergency room, bent over double from the pain. After I told the admitting nurse what was wrong, she didn’t even bother with paperwork or with taking my blood pressure. She immediately took me to a room, where another nurse almost instantly provided a painkiller. I am still grateful to them years later.
So, you see, I feel the need to monitor the health of this system to reduce the risk of future such episodes.
This year, I was meeting with a new urologist. I tried not to think about the parts that are unpleasant but that are much less problematic than a kidney stone.
He knocked politely on the door, as if he might have been delivering a dish of salmon with steamed vegetables and couscous.
Who is it? I was tempted to ask in a falsetto voice. What difference did it make? Anyone who knocked was coming in regardless of what I said.
He washed his hands – thankfully – sat down and asked me to tell him about myself.
“My health history?” I wondered.
“No, I mean, are you married, do you have kids, what do you do for a living?”
Well, I write about weird meetings like this. But enough about me, how do you do what you do? I wondered. No, I didn’t say that. I smiled and offered the 20 second tour of my life.
We even chatted about the Yankees losing Juan Soto to the Mets. Would they be better or worse this year?
After he asked me about my health history, he told me to lower my pants and underwear and put my elbows on the examining table.
“You’re going to feel some pressure as I examine your prostate,” he said.
I thought of my dog, whose head is often in my lap or near my face when they probe parts of his body he’d just as soon no human ever touched. He makes a face I imagine was similar to mine at that moment. Shocked expressions transcend species.
Afterwards, the urologist smiled at me, gave me a quick assessment and told me he wished me and the Yankees well this year.
Later, I tried to imagine sitting at a meal with him, chatting in an airport waiting room, or standing outside the backstop of a softball field as we waited for the chance to hit.
I couldn’t do it. Routine as his work might be for him and necessary as it might be for me, I struggle to disconnect from an exam that is a routine part of his work.
But, hey, I’m not anticipating that either of us will call the other on our birthdays this year. I’m glad he’s there, doing his thing and hope not to need additional services.
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