The SCY-QNet facility envisioned across Stony Brook, Columbia, Yale and BNL. The end nodes will have atomic-based Quantum Internet Processing Units (QPUs) and Quantum Frequency Converters (QFCs). The intermediate nodes will deploy Entanglement Sources (ESs), Quantum Memory Banks (QMBs), and Entanglement Swapping Stations to facilitate the generation of long-distance entanglement via quantum repeaters. Image design courtesy of L. Castillo-Veneros, Stony Brook University.
The National Science Foundation launches its first 5 pilot projects under NQVL
Stony Brook University is leading a new project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST) in the United States. The project is one the first five under the NSF’s National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NQVL) program. Each project receives $1 million in funding. The Stony Brook-led project is in collaboration with Columbia University, Yale University, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL).
Global research with quantum computing and quantum networks is taking place with the goal of developing a quantum internet, a network of quantum computers, sensors, and communication devices that will create, process and transmit quantum states and entanglement. The emerging technology is expected to not only enhance society’s wider internet system but also provide certain services and securities that the current internet cannot provide.
Titled “Wide-Area Quantum Network to Demonstrate Quantum Advantage (SCY-QNet),” the project involves a process to build a long-distance 10-node quantum network to demonstrate quantum advantage through quantum communication and distributed quantum processing, which would enable secure and privacy-preserving long-distance communications systems.
“This project has the potential to boost the scaling of quantum computing systems via quantum networks, forming a first version of the Quantum Internet,” says Eden Figueroa, PhD, Principal Investigator, and Presidential Innovation Endowed Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University, and Director of the Center for Distributed Quantum Processing. Figueroa also holds a joint appointment with BNL.
“To realize this ambitious vision, we have assembled a team of the leading quantum physicists, electrical engineers, and computer scientists in the region,” adds Figueroa.
“We are thrilled to have received this inaugural award from the National Science Foundation alongside our partner universities,” says Nina Maung, Senior Associate VP for Research Development and Partnerships at Stony Brook University. “It represents the considerable efforts each institution has dedicated to re-envisioning the future of quantum information science research, bond by a shared sense of the importance of collaborative scientific discovery for societal advancement.”
Figueroa and colleagues say that the project will not only advance science and the internet but also cultivate a quantum-ready workforce.
For more details and perspective about the project and its collaborators, see this SBU news story. For more about the NSF’s NQVL program and all five pilot projects, see this link in the NSF newsroom. For more details on the grant for the Stony Brook-led research team, see this NSF awards page.
After the removal of former head coach Chuck Priore in Nov. 2023, the Stony Brook football team has found his replacement in hopes that brighter days are ahead.
Finishing the 2023 season with an 0-10 record — the worst in program history — was not the way the Seawolves hoped to bounce back from 2022 that ended with a 2-9 finish. Just under a month after removing Priore, Stony Brook hired former Western Michigan University offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Billy Cosh to fill the role.
Cosh, 32, a resident of Smithtown, started his coaching career at Concord University in 2015, soon getting the position as a graduate assistant and quarterbacks coach for Indiana from 2016 to 2017. Cosh made the move to the Virginia Military Institute in 2018, serving as the wide receivers coach in 2018 and 2019, then getting promoted to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
Cosh jumped to Richmond in 2022 where he led a top 20 offensive SP+ rating, advancing to the second round of the FCS playoffs in his lone season. After serving as offensive coordinator at Western Michigan for the 2023 season, Cosh was named the third head football coach in Stony Brook history. At 31 years old, he became the second-youngest current head coach in NCAA Division I football.
Coaching at Richmond in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) — the same conference as the Seawolves — Cosh said he has “always admired Stony Brook from afar.” In his first head coaching position, Cosh will look to pull the Seawolves out of the cellar.
“I knew this place has a chance,” Cosh said. “I knew they had the capability, so that’s kind of what attracted me to the job.”
Football is in Cosh’s blood. Bouncing around from place to place during his upbringing, he is the son of Chris Cosh who played linebacker for Virginia Tech from 1977 to 1981. Chris coached for 40 years at multiple FCS schools such as UNLV, Maryland, Michigan State, South Carolina and many more. He currently serves as an analyst at Western Michigan.
Billy Cosh (right) set to coach Seawolves football for the 2024 season. Courtesy Stony Brook Athletics
“I thought my dad had the coolest job in the world,” Cosh said. “I was like a sponge; I was around the game all the time. I got to see different players that played in the NFL and watched how they work and watched how coaches coached, it was really unique.”
Cosh was raised with his brother, James, who went on to play football at the United States Naval Academy from 2007 to 2011. James is currently a scout for the Chicago Bears in the NFL.
Being brought up around football, Cosh was destined to be a star on the field. Attending Arundel High School in Gambrills, Md. from 2006 to 2009, Cosh won the job of starting quarterback his junior year. He went on to break seven state records that season including most passing yards (3,909) and touchdowns (56), but it paled in comparison to his senior season.
Cosh’s senior year was special, throwing for 3,913 yards and 56 touchdowns. He set Maryland state records for career completions (594), passing yards (7,433) and touchdowns (112), finishing his high school career with a 22-3 record and leaving college coaches clamoring to have him on their team.
Though Cosh’s achievements on the field spoke for themselves, he credits playing with future NFL wide receivers RJ Harris and Alec Lemon for much of his success at Arundel.
“That kind of made a big difference,” Cosh said. “I wasn’t a great player, but I was very appreciative of the guys around me.”
When the college recruitment process came around, the choice was rather simple for Cosh. At the time, his father was the defensive coordinator at Kansas State University. A chance to play at a Big 12 school and have his father guide the way was too good for Cosh to pass on, deciding to play college football as a Wildcat.
Unfortunately, when things seem too good to be true, they often are. Cosh’s coaches opted to give him a freshman redshirt his first season at Kansas State, meaning he would be sidelined and not see action the entire season.
Looking ahead to his sophomore season, Cosh realized there may not be an opportunity for him to play anytime soon. With three quarterbacks on the roster that were returning the following season, all of them were ahead of him on the depth chart. He was paid a visit by James Madison University’s head coach Mickey Matthews who told Cosh he would have a better opportunity playing for him, so Cosh made the move.
Transferring to James Madison for his sophomore year hoping that he would have the chance to play, Cosh’s wishes were not answered. Again, Cosh was at the bottom of the depth chart and did not see action the entire season, later claiming that the move from Kansas State was one that he regretted.
“I really made a rash decision to leave, Coach [Bill] Snyder told me I would regret it, and he was right in some ways,” Cosh said. “I went [to James Madison] and was kind of told I wasn’t good enough, which was probably true, I wasn’t the greatest player, but I was never really given a shot.”
Cosh realized that he would have to step down a level if he wanted to get any real playing time, opting to transfer again, this time to Butler Community College in the NJCAA. Making the move in hopes to impress scouts and get back to the Division I level, Cosh did just that.
Stony Brook football is set to open the 2024 season on Aug. 31 at Marshall University in West Virginia. Courtesy Stony Brook Athletics
Stepping down a level gave Cosh the opportunity to see the field, but the talent pool in the NJCAA was very deep. He played with “12 to 15” future NFL players and against current All-Pro players such as Tyreek Hill, Alvin Kamara and Cordarrelle Patterson.
Cosh’s lone junior college season was described as a “rebirth” for him by Butler head coach Troy Morrell. He turned heads by throwing for 2,856 yards and 25 touchdowns in 2012, but he would soon face another obstacle. Cosh tore his ACL in the NJCAA junior college championship game and lost to Iowa Western, 27-7.
Despite the sour ending, Cosh reflects on his time at Butler fondly.
“I loved that time,” Cosh said. “I loved my teammates. I loved the coaching staff … so that was awesome.”
Despite the injury, Cosh had impressed college scouts enough to receive some offers. He committed to the University of Houston before the conclusion of the 2012 season, successfully making his way back to the NCAA Division I level.
However, Cosh soon faced another roadblock. His commitment to Houston came before the injury to his knee, something that he thought would lead the team to pulling his scholarship. To Cosh’s surprise, the Cougars chose to keep him around.
Still rehabbing his ACL tear, Cosh missed the entire 2013 season due to injury. He made his debut in 2014, and though he only saw the field three times at Houston, he was able to end his college career on his terms, not others’.
Though Cosh’s time at Houston was underwhelming on the field, it was where he met his wife, Kelsey.
Being around the game of football his entire life, Cosh has faced plenty of adversity throughout his career. Due to these challenges, it makes sense that Stony Brook Athletic Director Shawn Heilbron believes that Cosh is the man for the job to bring the Seawolves back to relevance.
Kenny Spurrell is a reporter with The SBU Media Group, part of Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism’s Working Newsroom program for students and local media.
Jesús Pérez Ríos at the New York Public Library in 2023. Photo by Anne Martinez Hoth
By Daniel Dunaief
When he’s looking to relax, he builds and rebuilds some of the LEGO sets in his house in East Setauket. One of the things he likes best about being on Long Island, where he’s lived for the last two years, is that he can be alone to think and develop new ideas.
To hear Jesús Pérez Ríos describe himself, he is “just a kid having fun.” An Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University, Pérez Ríos enjoys bridging scientific knowledge, applying his physics background to questions, problems and puzzles in other fields.
Recently, the Stony Brook physicist, who is also an affiliated faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Computational Sciences, collaborated with Stefan Willitsch, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Basel in Switzerland, to explore the forces that might be inhibiting the reaction between hydroquinone and neon.
In a paper published in the journal Nature Chemistry, Pérez Ríos, Willitsch and members of their teams described in detail several potentially opposing forces that affect the reactivity in the experiment.
Jesús Pérez Ríos at the Barnes and Noble in New York City in 2022 with Lego batman. Photo by Anne Martinez Hoth
“I started collaborating with [Willitsch] because he had accurate results, and it was hard to explain the observations,” said Pérez Ríos. “We had a hypothesis but needed to develop models to test it.”
Pérez Ríos described two interactions in detail. One is due to the long range atom-molecule interactions and the other comes from internal rotational dynamics.
With the experiments in Willitsch’s lab and the theory developed by Pérez Ríos and his colleagues, they highlighted the role of rotational quantum states in a hydroquinone-neon chemi-ionization reaction. A similar mechanism and approach may be suitable for other reactions as well, such as molecular ion-atom reactions.
These molecules are akin to puzzle pieces coming together. Instead of a two-dimensional alignment where pieces find each other and lock together in their complementary parts, these pieces also have rotational effects that can cause a misalignment.
“That is one of our key findings,” Pérez Ríos explained. “It is like the shape of the puzzle piece evolves depending on the molecule’s collision energy and internal state.”
The results presented in the scientific paper are in the realm of fundamental research, with no “immediate practical application in synthesis or catalysis,” explained Willitsch.
Nonetheless, the insights gained through this collaboration “leads to a better understanding of the relevant reaction mechanisms and thus enables a more efficient design of future chemical reactions.”
At this point, Willitsch has presented the work at several conferences, where he has found a receptive audience and expects it will “foreseeably stimulate further work in the field.”
A search for answers
Pérez Ríos explained that Willitsch had some possible explanations for his data, but he did not have a mathematical model to test his hypothesis.
Jesus Pérez Ríos in Port Jefferson in 2022. Photo by Anne Martinez Hoth
“He mentioned the experimental details to me and we discussed the data,” said Pérez Ríos, who has known Willitsch for about 12 years. “Then, we started to do calculations from our side.”
Pérez Ríos has a team of 7 PhD students, one postdoctoral researcher, one Master’s candidate and three undergraduates.
Members of his lab work on simulations of physical phenomena regarding atomic and molecular processes. Additionally, they work on machine learning applications to atomic and molecular physics, exploring ways to teach a machine classical mechanics or quantum mechanics through chemical reactions.
In the reaction he was studying, Willitsch was working with hydroquinone, which has two conformers. These are two molecules with the same chemical formula that have two different structures.
Willitsch was able to select for a particular type of conformer in its reaction with neon.
Pérez Ríos considered many possibilities and models, none of which was fully satisfactory.
An insight at a conference
When he was at an Air Force Office of Scientific Research review program in Washington DC, Pérez Ríos was considering the problem from numerous perspectives.
He had tried many possibilities, but none were convincing. He needed something new.
“I had the physical picture of the model during a conference: in a break, I started to work on the code, and, in a few hours, I had something ready to get some very preliminary results,” Pérez Ríos recalled.
Willitsch enthusiastically embraced the preliminary results and the group decided to make it more realistic, developing the version of the code to explain Willitsch’s data.
The dynamics simulations were ready in a month, with extra checks conducted for another month to ensure everything was correct. The joint effort took over a year and a half to produce a fulfilling explanation.
Many of Pérez Ríos’s collaborators come from different disciplines, which gives the Stony Brook Assistant Professor an opportunity to learn about a variety of topics. He has worked with particle, atmospheric, atomic and plasma physicists and spectroscopists and chemists.
Pérez Ríos suggested that a physics perspective can help in a variety of settings, even including household problems and daily challenges.
Echoing a theme from the main character Jason Nesmith (played by Tim Allen) in the movie Galaxy Quest, Pérez Ríos said, “you can never surrender.”
Pérez Ríos added that you “are the only one putting limits on yourself. However, you need to pick the battles worth fighting, which is a very difficult matter.”
More American than Americans
A resident of East Setauket where he lives with his wife Anne Martinez Hoth, Pérez Ríos grew up in Guardamar del Segura, a small town in Alicante, Spain.
The son of restaurant owners,Pérez Ríos said he didn’t travel during summers to the beach, the way many of his friends did.
When he wasn’t helping in the restaurant, he used his free time to learn about math, zoology, genetics, chemistry and physics.
He enjoys living on Long Island and in the United States. His wife suggests he is “more American than the Americans” because he likes the American job philosophy and the freedom.
At Stony Brook, Pérez Ríos teaches quantum mechanics to undergrads, some of whom say he is strict.
“I have a very particular approach focusing on learning to think rather than knowing how to solve a problem,” he said.
As a research partner, Pérez Ríos is an unusual find, bringing constructive and valuable insights to discussions.
“I have rarely collaborated with someone so energetic and broadly interested” as Pérez Ríos, Willitsch said. “I particularly value his pragmatic approach and that he is not afraid to leave his comfort zone to delve into totally new classes of problems, which have not been tackled before either by himself or others.”
Willitsch added that few scientists have the same broad knowledge of physics and chemistry, which is “vital to push this interdisciplinary frontier.”
Stony Brook University researchers are conducting a pilot program aimed at facilitating equitable public access to the Long Island Sound waterfront. Professor Anil Yazici, Undergraduate Director, Department of Civil Engineering; and Professor Elizabeth Hewitt, Department of Technology and Society, received a grant from the nonprofit New York Sea Grant (NYSG) program, which is being used to provide participants no-cost, round trip shuttleservice between their selected pick-up location and West Meadow Beach.
The free shuttles run every weekend of summer 2024 and can be requested by downloading a free app, which is available in both English and Spanish. As part of the project, rideshare participants will be asked to complete a survey to identify changes in attitudes toward the Long Island Sound environment.
The objectives of the project being conducted are:
To provide beach access to disadvantaged communities with limited mobility options
To determine if participants have an increased appreciation toward the Long Island Sound waterfront
To gauge if improved public beach access increases awareness of the environmental issues and climate change concerns for Long Island Sound and how the public sees its role within the overall ecosystem
To use ridership trends to assess long-term feasibility of the shuttle, such as future shuttle schedules, travel routes, the popularity of different beaches, and how much users are willing to pay for a transportation service
“Long Island is car-dependent, which can be a real barrier to accessing local amenities for some community members. We’re excited to provide a free shuttle to expand mobility options and Long Island Sound beach access to underserved populations this summer,” said Professor Elizabeth Hewitt, Department of Technology and Society.
“Having access to natural resources has been shown to improve health and quality of life, yet especially disadvantaged populations face transportation related barriers to utilize the natural resources. Our project addresses both transportation and environmental equity concerns by providing a transportation service for people who do not own a car or means to access Long Island Sound beaches. We welcome all Long Island communities to utilize our shuttle with their families,” said Professor Anil Yazici, Undergraduate Director, Department of Civil Engineering.
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About Stony Brook University
Stony Brook University — New York’s flagship university and No. 1 public university — is going far beyond the expectations of today’s public universities. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. With nearly 26,000 students, more than 2,900 faculty members, more than 200,000 alumni, a premier academic healthcare system and 18 NCAA Division I athletic programs, Stony Brook is a research-intensive distinguished center of innovation dedicated to addressing the world’s biggest challenges. The university embraces its mission to provide comprehensive undergraduate, graduate and professional education of the highest quality, and is ranked as the #58 overall university and #26 among public universities in the nation by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges listing. Fostering a commitment to academic research and intellectual endeavors, Stony Brook’s membership in the Association of American Universities (AAU) places it among the top 71 research institutions in North America.
Satellite image of the phytoplankton bloom. Photo courtesy NOAA
By Aidan Johnson
From a young age, children are taught that the ocean isn’t actually blue but is simply reflecting the color of the sky. However, the ocean recently took on a turquoise color not caused by the sky but by organisms called phytoplankton in the water.
Phytoplankton are tiny, commonly single-celled photosynthetic organisms in bodies of water that are carried by tides and currents and are too weak to swim against them.
Along the South Shore, all the way from Montauk to Brooklyn and spanning about 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, there is an algal bloom full of a specific type of phytoplankton called coccolithophores, explained Christopher Gobler, a professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.
According to Gobler, this particular type of phytoplankton has a shell that’s made of calcium carbonate, which is the same substance that clam shells are made of, albeit to a much larger degree.
“What can happen is that after [the coccolithophores have] grown for a while, the shell begins to dissolve and then they might start dying off,” he said in an interview. “And so the coloration seems to be from the dissolution of that shell. It looks green, but it’s really just the interaction of the calcium carbonate with the seawater and the sunlight that collectively leads to that color.”
Gobler also clarified that the coccolithophores do not pose a direct health risk to sea life, but instead “fuel the food chain.”
“And so for the present time at least … we can call it a neutral deposit,” he said.
The bloom already seems to be dissipating, according to Gobler, which means that the sky will once again take credit for the water’s blue appearance.
TAKE A BOW: Above, the winners of this year's Stony Brook Film Festival, from left, Daniel Rashid and Reilly Anspaugh (Chauncey), Tathagata Ghosh (If), Zach Finger (Mimesis), Axel Dahan (On the Paths Awakened), Ryan Ward and Mackenzie Leigh (Daughter of the Sun), Bradley Gallo (Audrey’s Children), Mediha Alhamad (Mediha), and Barnabas Toth (Mastergame). Photo from Staller Center
The 29th annual Stony Brook Film Festival, presented by Island Federal Credit Union, wrapped up with its closing night awards ceremony on July 27.The evening recognized the outstanding new independent films screened at the festival, which was held at Staller Center for the Arts at Stony Brook University from July 18 to 27.
This year’s festival brought together hundreds of directors and filmmakers and featured 36 films from 19 countries of which 13 standouts received awards.
GRAND PRIZE WINNER Mediha Alhamad, the subject and co-writer of the Grand Prize Award-winning ‘Mediha,’ with festival director Alan Inkles. Photo from Staller Center
Mediha took home the Grand Prize Award. Directed by Hasan Oswald, this masterful documentary chronicles the journey of a young Yazidi girl returning from ISIS captivity. Using her camera to process her trauma, she documents her experience while rescuers continue to search for her missing family members. The Grand Prize is given to films that have ‘wowed’ both the audience and the jury beyond what could be contained in the simple phrase ‘best film’ in this or that category. Mediha is the 11th film in the festival’s 29-year history that has received a Grand Prize and only the second time awarded to a Documentary Film.
Two short films won the audience’s hearts, resulting in a tie for this year’s Audience Choice Award for Best Short. The winners for this category included two of the youngest filmmakers to win an award in the 29-year festival history. Mimesis, a drama about a struggling alcoholic actor who finds solace in an audition for the role of therapist, and On the Paths Awakened, a WWII-era story of two French teens facing intimate conflicts as the resistance recruits them. The festival’s youngest filmmakers directed the two winning short films: 20-year-old Zach Finger from Long Island and 19-year-old Axel Dahan from France.
One feature that truly captivated the audience was Running on Sand, which took home the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature. Adar Shafran directed this heartfelt crowd-pleaser about a refugee from Israel who, facing imminent deportation, is mistakenly identified as a Nigerian soccer star at the airport. The film highlights the precariousness of refugees’ lives, the power of second chances, and the complex intersections of identity and survival.
The Spirit of Independent Filmmaking Award is for filmmakers who use a distinct indie perspective to bring their stories to life vividly. It is reserved for filmmakers who have created a standout film with very few resources, financial or otherwise. “When it looks and sounds great, plays great, creates its own world, and you would never suspect how hard the filmmakers worked to bring it to life on screen, then you’re watching the kind of film we give these awards to,” said Festival Programmer, Kent Marks.
Daughter of the Sun secured the honor of this year’s award. This vintage-feeling, breathtaking fantasy tells the story of a man with Tourette’s Syndrome and supernatural powers and his 12-year-old daughter navigating life on the run.
The festival also announced that one of the films received an especially rare award in the 2024 Dr. Gabriel Sara Humanitarian Award. In 2022, the Stony Brook Film Festival created an inaugural prize in honor of Dr. Gabriel Sara, who worked wonders in cancer at Mount Sinai in New York by treating patients with dignity through song, dance, and teaming up with some of the most caring individuals in healthcare. He went on to play a role not unlike himself in the film opposite Catherine Deneuve.
This year, the festival hosted a non-competing sneak preview of the film. Titled Audrey’s Children, it tells the story of Dr. Audrey Evans, who brought new treatments to pediatric cancer patients in the U.S. and went on to co-found The Ronald McDonald House.
The Jury Award for Best Short went to Where We Belong, the Jury Award for Directing given to Mastergame, and the Jury Award for Best Feature went to The Strangers’ Case. (To listen to a podcast interview with The Strangers’ Case writer and director Brandt Andersen with TBR News Media reporter Daniel Dunaief, visit www.tbrnewsmedia.com.)
Mastergame director Barnabás Toth, who attended the awards ceremony, said, “Being here as a filmmaker is special. Coming here is like a therapy, a cure for any kind of artist because people who create are appreciated here. So please continue to keep it that way.”
The Festival’s Opening and Closing Night Feature and Short films were also recognized, including Director Aexandre Arcady of The Blond Boy From the Casbah (Opening Night Feature), Christopher Doll, Director/Producer and Karoline Herfurth, actress of One Million Minutes (Closing Night Feature), Daniel Rashid, Director of Chauncey (Opening Night Short), and Tathagata Gosh, Director of If (Closing Night Short).
In addition to Island Federal’s generous support as presenting sponsor, additional sponsors for the Stony Brook Film Festival included News 12 Long Island; Campolo, Middleton & McCormick, LLP; Suffolk Arts and Film; Strata Alliance; and WLIW/PBS.
Friend or foe? The question isn’t as easy in the world of molecular biology as it might be after captains pick players for a team.
An important biomolecule in one context could trigger the growth or spread of cancer, while in another system or organ, that same signal might suppress or stop the development or growth of a disease that can threaten people’s health.
So it is for G-proteins, which, in some tumors, serve as tumorigenic signaling hubs that participate in invasion and metastasis and promote inflammation and immune evasion.
In tumors “there was this notion that it works in a certain way, driving tumor development and progression,” said Mario Shields, Associate Professor of Research Pathology at Stony Brook University. “We had that original hypothesis when we investigated it in pancreatic cancer. We found that it’s the opposite.”
Indeed, when the specific proteins he studies, called G alpha 13, are absent, mouse models develop well-differentiated tumors that reduce their survival.
“My research now is to understand why it’s playing the opposite role that we initially expected,” Shields, who joined Stony Brook in July after six years at Northwestern University.
Having worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the lab of Mikala Egeblad from 2012 to 2018, Shields is returning to the Long Island area with a focus on defeating a problematic type of cancer that steals precious time from people and robs families of important members.
“I have come to appreciate the dire situation of people who are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,” Shields said. “We need to figure out how to lower the curve.”
A recipient of the National Cancer Institute’s Moonshot Award, Shields is one of the first 11 Cancer Moonshot Scholars who received a total of $5.4 million.
The program, which was launched by the Biden administration in the summer of 2023, seeks to advance cancer science while diversifying the pool of early-stage researchers and approaches to research that NCI funds.
The goal of the program is to inspire and support scientists from diverse backgrounds, including those from underrepresented groups in the biomedical sciences.
The NCI award, which Shields brings with him to Stony Brook, will support his efforts.
Egeblad, who is now Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Tumor Microenvironment, has stayed in contact with Shields since he left her group. The work he’s doing is “very important” in understanding the “basic mechanism of pancreatic cancer progression” as he has been “very successful in making discoveries and raising funds for his research.”
Egeblad appreciates his contribution to her lab. Shields “was responsible for establishing our research program in pancreatic cancer,” she explained. “Before he joined my lab, I had only worked on breast cancer and [Shields] established the various models to also study pancreatic cancer — models that we are still using.”
Building on CSHL work
At CSHL, Shields worked in Egeblad’s lab and received advice and oversight from David Tuveson, Cancer Center Director at CSHL, who developed the mouse model Shields uses.
Shields has been using human and mouse cell lines to interrogate the mechanism of action of these G proteins in suppressing cancer.
At Stony Brook, he plans to use patient samples to develop patient-derived tumor specimens.
The major hub of what Shields is studying is the mTOR pathway, which stands for mammalian/ mechanistic target of rapamycin. First isolated in a bacteria on Easter Island in the middle of the 20th century, rapamycin is an immunosuppressant drug.
Any defects that activate the mTOR pathway can lead to the growth and development of cancer.
A developing field
Shields explained that the G protein he is studying, G alpha 13, is a “niche” area right now, with few other labs pursuing the same mechanistic pathway. The G proteins are of more interest to molecular pharmacology and drug design.
In his studies, Shields hopes to use the information on the response to changes in the protein to predict how patients respond to therapy that inhibits the mTOR pathway.
Specifically, he is exploring how alterations in the microenvironment can cause the tumor to progress in pancreatic cancer.
Shields has found some “interesting dependencies” in the mechanism he’s studying. In the first year of work at Stony Brook, he would like to figure out how Ga13 regulates mTOR signaling, as the current context dependency is vague.
The gene that codes for this protein is not heavily mutated. Shields anticipates that a threshold level of the protein may be responsible for conveying its benefit in suppressing cancer, rather than a specific mutational change.
He is eager to explore whether nutrient availability plays a role in cancer progression through the reduction in this G protein. He has exploring that in vitro and is curious how that will translate at the organismal level.
Returning to Long Island
Shields had recently been Research Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
Having worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Shields felt comfortable moving back to the Long Island area.
“Stony Brook is a good place to do research,” said Shields.
Additionally, Shields was impressed with the number of people who had presented their research from Pathology Chair Kenneth Shroyer’s lab at a conference.
“Further discussions [with Shroyer] indicated we have areas of common interest in terms of pancreatic cancer,” Shields added.
Shields appreciates the greenness of Long Island. When he worked at CSHL, he enjoyed walking on trails and enjoyed the variety of fall colors.
Shields brought one person with him from Northwestern and plans to have a lab of about six people.
As for running his lab, Shields plans to “be patient” and to “see where people are coming from and what they are capable of” as he takes on the role of mentor for members of his lab at Stony Brook.
Shields hopes to inspire and encourage under represented groups to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
Egeblad suggested that Shields is warm and calm, which “helps those entering the field really take to his instruction.” She added she believes he is an inspiration to many young scientists.
With President Joe Biden’s decision to end his reelection campaign, major players in the Democratic Party, including the president, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have officially endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the 2024 Democratic presumptive presidential candidate.
As a result, TBR News Media had a question for locals: “How will this change impact the race to the presidency?”
— Photos by Toni-Elena Gallo
Kaylee and Emily, Ronkonkoma
Both girls expressed shock, but excitement, at the decision.
“I couldn’t believe it, I just found out,” Emily said.
Kaylee thinks that Harris’ presidential bid has given hesitant voters an “opportunity” to vote for a candidate possibly more competent than Biden, and more competent and likable than former President Donald Trump (R).
“Kamala running has made this election more competitive and serious than before,” she added.
Kaylee also voiced that she thinks Harris will “surprise people” during the upcoming debates with her intelligence.
Vic and Sheila Meneghini, Ronkonkoma
Grandparents to Smithtown school district students, Vic and Sheila Meneghini expressed the opinion that if “Kamala stays the nominee, there won’t be much of a difference [in voter choice] because of her alignment with Biden.”
They think that more women may vote, as Harris has the chance to be our first woman president.
The couple, additionally, shared that voting for Harris will probably be more enticing than voting for Biden, if you are a Democrat, which will affect some change, regarding voting turnout.
Vic, however, doesn’t think there’ll be much movement in voting, “as people have already made up their minds” if they are going to vote Democrat or Republican.
Vic and Sheila declined for their picture to be taken or other personal information to be included.
Eric and Cole, Massachusetts and New Hampshire
Eric, a Stony Brook University visitor, is “glad someone [who is of advancing years] isn’t going to be in office anymore. But, I don’t really have a big political view.”
As someone in his 20s, he would appreciate younger presidential options.
In addition, Eric feels people are likely to vote for the wrong or shallow reasons — because they view the election as a popularity contest, don’t like the candidates as people, and vice versa.
He wants to see people focus “on the issues,” as he is a “middle-class guy” who wants to live a decent and prosperous life.
Neither candidate “is doing anything to help me, right now,” he said.
Cole echoed his friend Eric’s sentiments, saying, “It is interesting to have a different face, who is not as old, and will stir the pot a little bit. But whatever these candidates do is not really going to affect my day-to-day life much at the end of the day.”
David, Long Island
David thinks that this change will encourage “more women and people of color to vote.”
Also, he expressed that making Harris the Democratic nominee “will give the [party] a better chance of beating Trump,” but he does not foresee any major developments coming in the wake of Biden’s decision.
David declined for his picture to be taken or other personal information to be included.
Person utilizing coding software on a computer. Pixabay photo
By Aramis Khosronejad
With the rise of artificial intelligence and the seemingly ever-changing technological world, the main question coming from educators and parents is how the new generation is going to adapt and thrive in the dawn of this new era. Stony Brook University’s new summer camp aims to prepare them.
Located in the university’s Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology, the program is a collaboration between Stony Brook and Sunrise Technology.
The program has yielded extremely impressive results and received international attention, attracting students from as far as Hong Kong. This largely has to do with the outreach program managed by Rong Zhao, the director of Stony Brook’s CEWIT, which strives to engage students from local high schools on Long Island. Zhao said that the “demonstration” of the self-driving car models “is the biggest attraction.”
The camp is important, according to Zhao, because it shows students that such advanced technology such as self-driving cars and AI isn’t something to fear. “[It isn’t] this mystical, futuristic thing … it’s tangible … [the students] think, ‘Wow, I can code this.’ It is, in the end, the future generation that we’re helping.”
By teaching students to understand that advanced technologies such as AI aren’t something far off into the future but is our current reality, the camp aims to prepare the new generations to adapt to this inevitable future.
According to a report in Forbes by MIT and Boston University, AI will replace as many as 2 million manufacturing workers by 2025. With such rapidly approaching change, preparing the new generation to adapt to this future is paramount. This kind of preparation is exactly what this interactive AI summer camp aims to do, according to Zhao.
Yu Sun, founder and CEO of Sunrise Technology, explained in an interview with TBR News Media how the camp works. It consists of three main activities for students: Lectures where students will listen to a professor speak on the coding process; computer labs where students will be able to apply what they learned from the lectures; and lastly, a project where students will develop and deploy their own self-driving car models.
The program will “give the students an idea of how these self-driving programs work using their own unique design, which also keeps them engaged,” Sun said. She believes that, regardless of whether parents or students are interested in STEM, “AI is such an up-and-coming buzz and parents want students to be exposed to this field.”
“How can we turn this into an educational opportunity which will have a real impact?” Zhao asked. The future is here already, and teaching students how to thrive and adapt to it is essential.
The program spans over two sessions: The first consisted of two weeks from July 8 to 19, and the second session will consist of another two weeks from Aug. 5 to 16. Students from 9th to 12th grade are eligible for the summer camp.
There are very few prerequisites for this program. The second session of the program is still available for any interested high school students.
Stony Brook University announces that noted Kenyan entomologist and evolutionary biologist Dr. Dino J. Martins will begin serving as the director of the world-renowned Turkana Basin Institute beginning on September 1, 2024.
Martins has served as the CEO of TBI (Kenya) Ltd. since August 1, 2022, and has been affiliated with TBI since 2011. In this transition from CEO for TBI’s Kenya operations to serving as director across the entire TBI operation, Martins will lead vision and strategy to build upon the institute’s legacy as a critical site of research and discovery around some of the biggest questions of our time concerning our origins, our current role and responsibilities and, most critically, our future on a changing planet. Martins will oversee all Institute activities including recruitment, hiring and evaluation of faculty and postdoctoral researchers; development of facilities and fundraising.
Martins will succeed Dr. Lawrence Martin, who has served as the director of TBI since 2007 and will be named TBI director emeritus, taking on a new role to support TBI’s fundraising efforts by organizing and leading donor visits to Kenya as well as working on several other projects for the university.
“As Lawrence and Dino have worked hand-in-hand over the last several years, this will be a seamless transition in the leadership of TBI. I am grateful to Lawrence for his outstanding leadership of TBI, and I look forward to working with Dino to build upon the incredible foundation that has been established and to elevate TBI to even greater heights,” said Carl Lejuez, Provost of Stony Brook University.
Martins earned his PhD in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University in 2011 before joining TBI as a postdoctoral fellow at Stony Brook University. Martins had previously graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology from Indiana University and with a M.SC. in Botany from the University of KwaZulu Natal. Martins taught in the TBI Origins field school every semester it has been offered since spring of 2011, when the field school began.
Upon completion of his postdoc, Martins took on the position of resident academic director of the TBI Origins Field School and served for three years before accepting the position of executive director of the Mpala Research Center in Laikipia, Kenya, which is overseen by Princeton University, the Smithsonian Institution, the Kenyan Wildlife Service, and the National Museums of Kenya. During his seven years as director, Dino worked to improve the operations and finances of Mpala and expanded the number of institutions conducting research there.
Martins’ research in the Turkana Basin has included the description of new species of bees, including some of the most ancient lineages of bees known and the discovery of genera previously not recorded from Africa. Martins is also a Co-PI of the Turkana Genome Project, which is bringing together dozens of international scientists to look at the complex interactions among human genes, the environment and adaptation. Dino is actively building links and collaborations globally to expand the scientific frontiers of research at TBI. This includes building on the excellent fundamental research around human origins and evolution, to other disciplines that intersect with the fields of evolution and ecology, climate change and the future of sustainable human existence and development.
About TBI
The Turkana Basin Institute (TBI), a Stony Brook University Institute was established by the late celebrated paleoanthropologist, conservationist and Stony Brook University faculty member Richard Leakey. TBI’s mission is to facilitate the logistics of field research in the Turkana Basin, a remote region of sub-Saharan Africa, by providing permanent research support infrastructure. Fundraising to implement the project began in 2005 and funds have been raised every year since for the construction and running costs of two field campuses.
TBI today houses a sophisticated environment to support the research of scientists and students at its two field campuses, TBI-Turkwel and TBI-Ileret, as well as through an administrative support center in Nairobi. Each of the field campuses comprises 15 to 20 major buildings providing accommodation and dining facilities for up to 60 scientists and students as well as the permanent staff of about 40. In addition, there are multiple laboratories, classrooms for field schools, and conference facilities. TBI has purchased and maintains a Cessna 208 Grand Caravan airplane, which operates as Air Turkana, providing reduced cost flying for education and research that is subsidized by revenue from commercial charters.
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