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Stony Brook University

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A humpback whale with propeller scars in inshore waters of the New York Bight. A humpback whale surface feeding in inshore waters of the New York Bight. Image taken under NOAA Permit No 26260. Credit: Thorne Lab, Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

Concerns about the connection between offshore wind farms and whales strandings are likely just a lot of hot air.

Pictured from left, Lesley Thorne with lab membersChelsi Napoli, PhD candidate; Nathan Hirtle, PhD candidate; and Josh Meza-Fidalgo, Research Associate.

In a recent study published in the journal Conservation Biology, Lesley Thorne, Associate Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University, and David Wiley, Research Coordinator for NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, pointed to vessel strikes as an important driver of the increase in humpback whale strandings.

To address concerns about whether the development of offshore wind farms led to the death of these cetaceans, Thorne and Wiley compared the distribution and timing of humpbacks between 1995 and 2022 relative to anthropogenic factors, such as vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, as well as elements associated with wind farm development.

“We know that there is a narrative out there suggesting that the surveys used for site assessment and characterization are factors” in these whale strandings, said Thorne. “Studying strandings, mortalities and injuries of large whales is important as it can provide information” about the relative impact of different threats.

The researchers found that New York and Virginia were hotspots of mortalities and serious injuries, with a subset of strandings confirming that vessel strikes were the cause of serious injuries or death.

A number of parts likely played a role. Beginning in 2016, vessel traffic in New York and New Jersey increased at the same time that observers noticed an increase in humpback whales.

These whales have also expanded into new foraging areas in recent years, regularly using inshore New York waters as a foraging ground starting around 2011.

The increase in the population of menhaden, which are a fatty, energy-rich forage fish, in the mid 2010s also expanded humpback whale feeding ground.

Menhaden tend to form dense surface schools in shallow coastal waters in mid-Atlantic states such as New York. These cetaceans often use surface foraging behavior to feed on menhaden, which could make them more vulnerable to vessel strikes.

Understanding and appreciating the causes of these strandings could lead to informed decision-making, in developing offshore wind farms and in creating responsible regulations for various vessels around the time whales might be foraging.

Wind farm activity

During the time these scientists studied humpback whale strandings, seven wind turbines were constructed and then operational. 

Looking at humpback strandings, the highest number of strandings in Rhode Island and neighboring states during the unusual mortality event occurred in years following construction, including 2017 and 2022, and not in the year when construction occurred. 

In Virginia, the highest number happened years before construction.

Their assessment of these patterns did not suggest a link between strandings and site assessment and characterization surveys for offshore wind development. Survey authorizations increased over the course of the unusual mortality events and primarily occurred between New Jersey and Massachusetts, whereas elevated patterns of strandings did not follow this pattern.

In the year 2016, Massachusetts had one survey authorization related to offshore wind.  Massachusetts, however, showed a lower number of strandings relative to other years, while the area from North Carolina to Rhode Island had higher strandings.

Thorne and Wiley are not involved in the stranding response. They used the data from the National Marine Mammal Strandings Database, which provides standardized data on marine mammals strandings collected by strandings responders.

They studied changes in the location and timing of humpback whale strandings, and of humpback whale mortalities and serious injuries that were caused by vessel strikes and entanglements.

To be sure, Thorne emphasized that their study focused on humpback whales, which are the species that strand most frequently. Other large whale species have different distributions, foraging and habitat preferences, which clouds the picture for any broader analysis.

Vessel strikes

The biggest increases in strandings occurred from Rhode Island to Virginia.

In the waters near New York and Virginia, strandings had some of the highest increases. Stranding responders confirmed the prominent role of vessel strikes in mortalities and serious injuries near these states.

As for the whales, they have also changed their spring and summer feeding ranges. Until more recently, the southern feeding range extended much further north, to the Gulf of Maine as well as areas farther north, such as Iceland and Greenland.

While humpbacks have foraged in New York waters periodically in the past, they have been consistently feeding in these waters during the summer since 2011.

The whales are following one of their food sources, as the population of menhaden has increased off the south shore of Long Island and in other mid Atlantic states.

Juveniles have also used the waters off the coast of Virginia as a supplemental feeding ground.

“We know that vessel strikes, along with entanglement in fishing gear, are the major threats to large whales around the world,” said Thorne.

When boats are moving more rapidly and whales are feeding in regions with a higher density of vessel traffic, such mortality events are more likely.

Possible solutions

For starters, the scientists urge further study to add to the body of research, including a more thorough understanding of the movements and habitat use of humpbacks and other large whales. 

Additionally, assessing the abundance and distribution of prey species will contribute to an understanding of habitat use and the health of large whales.

She also suggested further work to analyze feeding and feeding in shallow coastal habitats with the risk of vessel strikes.

Slowing ships down reduces the risk from a vessel strike.

“There’s a lot of interest in how we can better use dynamic management instead of management that is focused on fixed areas and times,” said Thorne.

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Yi-Xian Qin

Yi-Xian Qin, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Stony Brook University, was recently elected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He is also Director of the Orthopaedic Bioengineering Research Laboratory and Co-Director of the Institute for Engineering-Driven Medicine.  

Professor Qin’s expertise and contribution in science are in the areas of biomechanics and mechanobiology in musculoskeletal tissue adaptation and cellular regulation, space medicine, and nanomaterials. His research has been focused on developing novel approaches for promoting tissue engineering and regeneration and translation through physical regulation and characterization of tissue quality, as well as evaluating the mechanisms responsible for tissue remodeling and their translation. 

Andrew Singer, Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences said, “This is a well-deserved recognition for Professor Qin who is a brilliant and dedicated researcher, an alumnus of our mechanical engineering program and a leader in our College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.”   

The East Setauket resident is among the pioneers who discovered bone’s ability to rapidly adapt to its functional environment, bone fluid flow, and regeneration to dynamic signals. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed articles, and related books and chapters, as well as several US patents. Some of his patents include ultrasound diagnostic imaging and therapeutics, as well as mechanical stimulation, technologies for musculoskeletal diseases like osteopenia and fracture with the potential of bone loss prediction in microgravity in long-term space mission and clinical impacts. 

He earned both his MS degree and PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering from Stony Brook University.

The ASME Committee of Past Presidents confers the Fellow grade of membership on worthy candidates to recognize their outstanding engineering achievements. Nominated by ASME Members and Fellows, an ASME member has to have 10 or more years of active practice and at least 10 years of active corporate membership in ASME.

In addition to this recent honor, Professor Qin is also a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE), and International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

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Dr. Michael Kinch Photo courtesy of Washington University in St. Louis

Stony Brook University has announced that Michael Kinch, PhD, has been appointed as the inaugural chief innovation officer (CINO) for the university. Kinch brings extraordinary experience at the highest levels of industry and academia, including roles at Yale and Washington University—two institutions known for their cultures of innovation and demonstrated success translating knowledge into marketable solutions. He will report to the new incoming vice president for research, Kevin Gardner, beginning August 1, 2024 and will be a member of the president’s university council. He will also hold a faculty position in the university’s Department of Pharmacology.

As CINO, Kinch will lead the Office of Economic Development and provide direction and oversight of campus-wide initiatives related to accelerating innovation and economic development, including incubation and technology transfer. His efforts will focus on technology-based entrepreneurship, venture capital, and other sources of startup investment, as well as the research commercialization and economic development programs from faculty and student research and initiatives. In addition, Kinch and his staff will collaborate with departments and colleges/schools across campus to amplify the university’s service to advance Stony Brook’s economic impact on the region and develop partnerships with external entities that benefit the university and help advance economic development interests of these external entities.

 “As a leader who brings people together and who knows that research, scholarship and discovery are a universal language, Michael is an excellent leader to help the university realize its boldest ambitions to make a profound, positive impact on society for generations to come,”said Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis.

Kinch has worked extensively in higher education including in his most recent role as the executive dean of sciences at Long Island University where he creates and deploys innovative approaches to improve biomedical translation and entrepreneurship. He founded and directed the Center for Research Innovation in Biotechnology, which analyzes the sources of biomedical innovation.

Previous to that position, Kinch served as associate vice chancellor, founder of the Centers for Research Innovation in Biotechnology and Drug Discovery and professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University in St. Louis. There he helped lead entrepreneurship activities and founded the Centers for Research Innovation in Biotechnology (CRIB) and Drug Discovery (CDD), which analyzes innovation in the science and business of medicines. At Yale University, he founded and led the Yale Center for Molecular Discovery. He has been a lecturer at the Krieger Program in Biotechnology at John Hopkins University; associate professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, West Lafayette Campus at Purdue University; and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Kinch has worked in the private sector overseeing Research and Development as Vice President for Research and Development/Chief Scientific Officer at Functional Genetics, Inc. and Head of Cancer Biology & Translational Sciences at Medimmune, Inc. He is also the author of six books, has published extensively in peer-reviewed publications and participated in national media appearances and interviews about his research.

Kinch earned his PhD in Immunology from Duke University Medical Center and his BS in Molecular Genetics.

“I am excited by the incredible potential for innovative commercial development on Long Island in general and Stony Brook University in particular,” said Kinch. “The university has incredible expertise in key aspects of science and technology that are needed to address looming challenges, including but not limited to affordable and sustainable energy to biomedical applications.”

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Marie Parziale. Photo courtesy of Parziale

By Aidan Johnson

Port Jefferson resident Marie Parziale is running for the village board of trustees. Also known as Marie Johs — though her name will appear as “Marie Parziale” on the ballot — she announced her bid on May 29. She has been a resident of Port Jefferson since 1995 and works as the senior alumni career coach at Stony Brook University, along with being an elder and deacon at the First Presbyterian Church of Port Jefferson.

In an interview, she recounted how she got involved with the village early into her residency.

“I was lucky enough to have [former mayor] Jeanne Garant living a few doors down [from me], and we had a neighborhood community association. Of course, Jeanne was involved, and I jumped right in,” Parziale said, also describing how she helped on Garant’s mayoral campaign.

Parziale also took pride in discussing how she was part of the committee that worked with the architect that designed the inside of the Village Center, along with being on the parking committee and Vision 2010, a committee created to envision and discuss the goals and future of Port Jefferson by the year 2030.

“When I look back at the happiest times in my life I’m giving,” she said. “I really wanted to jump right back and do community work.”

One of her biggest issues is the revitalization of the downtown and uptown areas of Port Jefferson.

“I work at Stony Brook, and the person who hired me is the vice president of student affairs now, so he oversees residential life, and we have an issue there that there’s not enough housing for students. Upper Port is one stop away [on the Port Jefferson Branch of the Long Island Rail Road],” Parziale said.

She explained her vision of providing a place for graduate students in the uptown area, which would allow more room on the Stony Brook University campus for first- and second-year students.

“What’s missing in this village up there is … a good, vibrant energy, a young energy,” Parziale said, describing an area that would include coffee shops and bookstores.

Parziale also said that a stronger village police presence was needed in the Upper Port area.

“If code had a presence up there, there would be a level of safety, and then people will be willing to come in and invest. I know the developers are building, but we don’t want empty shops like we have down here,” she said.

Parziale praised Mayor Lauren Sheprow for “keeping us up to date on her promises,” though the candidate expressed a need to better amplify this to the community.

“I think what maybe could be better is that she’s got some wonderful things on the website that’s explaining it, but it sounds like people aren’t going there, so maybe a little bit better PR [to be able to] better amplify all that’s being done.”

Parziale is joined by two other candidates for village trustee, Xena Ugrinsky and Kyle Hill, for the two open seats. A meet the candidates night for the three candidates will take place on June 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Port Jefferson Village Center.

The election is on Tuesday, June 18, at the Village Center from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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Martha Stansbury. Photo by Chelsea McKenna,  Finishing Touch

Stony Brook University’s Economic Development Office has named Martha Stansbury director of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Stony Brook. It was announced by Peter Donnelly, Associate Vice President for Technology Partnerships, Economic Development. Stansbury has worked with SBDC at Stony Brook as the center administrator since 2017 developing budgets as well as managing operations. She will report to Donnelly in her new role.

Stansbury will oversee a team of eight at SBDC at Stony Brook. The Center is located at the university’s Research and Development Park (Building 17) in Stony Brook, New York.

SBDC at Stony Brook provides free, one-on-one, confidential business advising in areas including business planning, marketing, fiscal management, access to capital and technology transfer. The Center will help  assist entrepreneurs, business and industry leaders to solve  their problems and  increase productivity and profitability.

“Martha will bring a wealth of experience, passion and vision to SBDC at Stony Brook in her new role,” said Donnelly. “Martha’s commitment to community engagement is also evident through her many external roles including as a member of the Women Economic Developers of Long Island serving in the roles as vice president and president. Martha has also been a trustee of the Three Village Chamber of Commerce and was voted in 2020 to her present role as treasurer. Last year, Martha received the Chamber’s Roy Dragoda Award for 15 years of community service with the Chamber and voted as the 2024 Member of the Year for her contributions to the Chamber’s financial management system.”

The New York Small Business Development Center (NY SBDC) comprises 20 campus-based centers and outreach offices (including the SBDC at Stony Brook) across New York State. NY SBDC  is overseen by the State University of New York (SUNY) System Administration. Since 1984, NY SBDC has helped 582,806 state residents. $8.7B has been used so far to start or expand businesses with 263,997 jobs created/saved. It is part of the US Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), which funds the NY SBDC.

“I am honored to have been given the opportunity to lead the Small Business Development Center at Stony Brook as the New York State-wide network embarks on its 40th year, “ said Stansbury. “Together with the Center’s experienced NYS Certified Business Advisors and support from Economic Development, I will endeavor to increase the economic impact our Center has in the small-to-medium-size enterprise arena throughout Suffolk County.”

Previous to her present position, the East Setauket resident has also served as a management consultant where she provided facility management of Stony Brook University’s Business Incubator and Agriculture Consumer Center. She also served as a business manager for Gallery North; a management consultant,  accounting systems manager for an international LCD distributor ; assistant to the director of development at Boston College; and a Commercial Real Estate Analyst for the Bank of New England. Stansbury  earned her MBA from Fordham Gabelli School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and teaching from Boston College.

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Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis celebrates with Class of 2024 graduates on May 17. Photo courtesy Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

The New York public university that could is looking for a new president.

Maurie McInnis, who started her tenure as president of Stony Brook University four years ago, is resigning to become the president of Yale University, effective July 1st. She will become the first permanent female president of Yale.

McInnis, who earned master’s degrees and a doctorate at Yale, is leaving Stony Brook after important wins and achievements for the university, several of which the Simons Foundation helped make possible.

The State University of New York plans to oversee the leadership transition until the downstate flagship university can find its seventh president.

“It has been a pleasure working with Maurie McInnis these past few years,” Marilyn Simons, chair of the Simons Foundation, said in a statement. Her “leadership at Stony Brook has left it in a strong position” and she is “confident that Stony Brook’s supporters will continue to invest in and build upon its successes.”

Maurie McInnis is the sixth President of Stony Brook University. Photo courtesy Stony Brook University

Reached by the Times Beacon Record Newspapers on the day of the announcement, some faculty expressed appreciation for McInnis’s contribution and for the positive momentum for the university.

“It’s a huge loss for Stony Brook University,” Heather Lynch, IACS Endowed Chair of Ecology & Evolution, wrote in an email. “President McInnis has been an effective advocate for our institution and has led a number of major initiatives that will pay dividends in the years to come.”

Governors Island win

During McInnis’s tenure, which started in March of 2020 just as the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic was causing dislocation in communities and universities around the world, Stony Brook was named the anchor institution of the New York Climate Exchange research center on Governors Island.

Competing against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University and a group co-led by CUNY and The New School, Stony Brook University won the rights to develop the project with the support of a $100 million donation from the Simons Foundation and $50 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The exchange will house a 400,000 square foot, state-of-the-art campus dedicated to research, education and public programs that address climate change.

The center, which will cost $700 million to construct and is expected to open in 2028, will run solely on electricity generated on site and will generate enough power to provide some energy to the city. It will also be one of the first sites in the country to achieve True Zero Waste, and will meet all of its non-potable water demand with rainwater and treated wastewater.

“President McInnis inspired Stony Brook students, faculty, and staff to be bold and to confront global challenges like climate change,” Kevin Reed, Associate Provost for Climate and Sustainability Programming explained in an email. The Climate Exchange will provide a path for the development of local solutions to climate impacts in New York and beyond.

“The impact of her leadership at Stony Brook will be felt for years to come,” Reed added.

Simons Foundation donation

Last year, the Simons Foundation agreed to donate $500 million over the course of seven years to Stony Brook University. The university plans to use the gift, named the Simons Infinity Investment, for student scholarship for a diverse student body, endowed professorships, research initiatives, development of new academic fields and clinical care.

The gift from the Simons Foundation and the Climate Exchange win are “outstanding achievements at Stony Brook,” said Shirley Kenny, who was president of Stony Brook University from 1994 to 2009. “She is certainly to be congratulated for these and other achievements.”

During McInnis’s tenure, Stony Brook also reached its highest ever rankings among U.S. News and World Reports Best Colleges listing. The magazine named SBU the top ranked public university in New York, the 26th highest ranked public university in the United States, and the 58th highest rank in its 2024 Best Colleges guide. The University was ranked 93rd in 2022.

“We congratulate [McInnis] on this prestigious appointment, merely the latest in her series of extraordinary professional accomplishments,” SUNY Chancellor John King Jr. said in a statement. Her “election is a testament to both her exceptional ability and the esteem with which Stony Brook is viewed by its peers. I know that we will have superbly talented candidates to choose from as we begin this search for [her] successor to lead one of the nation’s most prestigious public universities and a true engine of research innovation and social mobility.”

McInnis, like other college presidents, contended with challenges during this time, including protests related to Israel’s military action after Hamas’s attack on October 7.

McInnis “dealt with the recent demonstrations on campus in an effective manner,” Bruce Stillman, president of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and an Adjunct Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Stony Brook, explained in an email. He congratulated her on her appointment at Yale.

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY1) added that McInnis “deftly handled the Stony Brook protests and I am confident she will bring a needed dose of common sense to the Ivy League.” In an email, LaLota added that he has been “working with her for the last two years to ensure Congress is doing everything we can to support Stony Brook and I appreciate her fierce advocacy for the university.”

McInnis shared some thoughts on her tenure.

“I have been so proud to lead Stony Brook during this exciting time in its history,” McInnis said in a statement. “When I talk with other leaders in higher education, it is clear that they recognize Stony Brook is an institution on an upward trajectory, combining groundbreaking research with expanded opportunities for students from all backgrounds. I want to express my appreciation to all the faculty, students, and staff who are achieving great accomplishments. I am confident that Stony Brook’s best years lie ahead.”

 

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An international panel of sleep experts including researchers at Stony Brook University formally agree in a consensus statement that reducing pre-bedtime digital media, especially for children and adolescents, will improve sleep health. Getty Images

SBU Professor Lauren Hale Chairs the National Sleep Foundation’s panel that published a consensus statement

Since the smartphone’s emergence in 2007, digital screen time has ballooned in use over the years for children and adults. How use of smartphones and other digital screen devices affects sleep continues to be debated. In a review of 574 peer-reviewed published studies on the issue, an international panel of sleep experts selected by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) has drawn up a consensus statement about digital screen use and sleep.

The consensus statement, titled “The Impact of Screen Use on Sleep Health Across the Lifespan: A National Sleep Foundation Consensus Statement,” is published in Sleep Health, the journal of the NSF. They assessed studies on screen time and its effects on sleep including research on children, adolescents, and/or adults.

After an extensive review of this large collection of studies over the course of a year, the panel reached consensus on a number of key points.

They agreed that: 1) In general, screen use impairs sleep health among children and adolescents; 2) The content of screen use before sleep impairs sleep health of children and adolescents, and 3) Behavioral strategies and interventions may attenuate the negative effects of screen use on sleep health.

”Upon review of the current literature, our panel achieved consensus on the importance of reducing pre-bedtime digital media to improve sleep health, especially for children and adolescents,” says Lauren Hale, PhD, Chair of the Consensus Panel and Professor in the Program of Public Health at Stony Brook University, and in the Department of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook. “We also identified the gaps in the literature and the need for future research.”

The NSF provides recommendations for best practices to reduce the impact of screen use on sleep.

In summary, they suggest:

  • Avoiding stimulating or upsetting material near bedtime
  • Implementing early, regular, and relaxing bedtime routines without screens
  • Setting time limits around screen use, especially in the evening and at night
  • Parents talking with children about how using tech and screens can impact sleep
  • Parents modeling appropriate nighttime screen use for children

“The expert panel examined available scientific evidence, paying close attention to studies that examined whether, how, and for whom screen use might negatively impact sleep health. We found that stimulating content of screen use, particularly at night, has a negative effect on sleep health in young people,” adds NSF Vice President of Research and Scientific Affairs, Joseph Dzierzewski, PhD.

Lauren Hale and three other coauthors on the consensus statement were from Stony Brook University:  Gina Marie Mathew, Isaac Rodriguez, and librarian Jessica A. Koos, who helped identify the published peer-reviewed original research and literature reviews using databases, including the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed, Elsevier’s EMBASE, and Clarivate’s Web of Science.

Insufficient sleep duration is both widespread and associated with a higher risk of adverse health outcomes, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, and depression. Having inconsistent sleep schedules is also associated with adverse health outcomes. For more information about sleep health, see this NSF webpage on Sleep Health Topics.

 

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From left, Nilanjan Chakraborty, Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at SBU and IV Ramakrishnan, Professor of Computer Science, demonstrate how CART could hold a cup and move its arm. Photo by John Griffin/SBU

By Daniel Dunaief

Caretakers of those with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (or “Lou Gehrig’s disease”) have an enormous responsibility, particularly as the disease progresses. People in the latter stages of the disease can require around-the-clock care with everything from moving their limbs to providing sustenance.

IV Ramakrishnan, Professor of Computer Science and an Associate Dean in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook University, recently received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Army to lead a team that is building a Caregiving Robot Assistant, or CART, for ALS patients and their caregivers. 

The grant, which is for three years, will cover the cost of building, testing and refining a robot that a caregiver can help train and that can provide a helping hand in challenging circumstances.

Using off the shelf robot parts, Ramakrishnan envisions CART as a robotic arm on a mobile base, which can move around and, ultimately, help feed someone, get them some water and help them drink or open and close a door. They are also developing a special gripper that would allow the robotic arm to switch a channel on a TV or move a phone closer.

In working through the grant process, Ramakrishnan emphasized the ability of the robot, which can learn and respond through artificial intelligence programs he will create, to take care of a patient and offer help to meet the needs of people and their caregivers who are battling a progressive disease.

“As the needs evolve, the caregiver can show the robot” how to perform new tasks, Ramakrishnan said.

The project includes collaborators in Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Nursing, the Renaissance School of Medicine, and clinical and support staff from the Christopher Pendergast ALS Center of Excellence in the Neuroscience Institute at Stony Brook Medicine.

At this point, Ramakrishnan and his team have sent out fliers to recruit patients and caregivers to understand the physical challenges of daily living. 

Ramakrishnan would like to know “what are the kinds of tasks we should be doing,” he said, which will be different in the stages of the disease. They know what kinds of tasks the robot can do within limits. It can’t lift and move a heavy load.

Once the team chooses the tasks the robot can perform, they can try to program and test them in the lab, with the help of therapists and students from the nursing school.

After they develop the hardware and software to accomplish a set of actions, the team will recruit about a dozen patients who will test the robot for one to two weeks. Members of the ALS community interested in the project can reach out to Ramakrishnan by email.

A biostatistician will be a part of that group, monitoring and calculating the success rate.

At this point, the development and testing of the robot represents a pilot study. After the group has proven it can work, they plan to submit a follow up proposal and, eventually, to apply for approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Ramakrishnan estimates the robot will cost around $30,000, which is about the same cost as a motorized wheelchair. He is unsure whether Medicare will cover this expense.

As a part of the development, Ramakrishnan recognizes that the first goal, similar to the Hippocratic Oath doctors take, is to do no harm. He and his team are incorporating safety features that make the robot withdraw automatically if it gets too close to someone.

A key part of the team

Members of the CART team: Vibha Mullick, and her husband, ALS patient Anuraag Mullick, are in the center. Back row, from left: Clare Whitney, Nilanjan Chakraborty, Theresa Imperato, C.R. Ramakrishnan, and Wei Zhu. Front row, from left, are Maria Milazzo and I.V. Ramakrishnan. Photo by John Griffin

Vibha Mullick, a Senior Web and Database Analyst in Computer Science and resident of South Setauket, will be a key team member on the project.

Mullick has been caring for her husband Anuraag Mullick, who is 64 and was diagnosed with ALS in 2016. Anuraag Mullick is confined to a wheelchair where he can’t swallow or breathe on his own.

“My husband also wants to participate” in the development, said Mullick, who spends considerable time reading his lips.

Caring for her husband is a full-time job. She said she can’t leave him alone for more than five or 10 minutes, as she has to suction out saliva he can’t swallow and that would cause him to choke. When she’s at work, a nurse takes care of him. At night, if she can’t get a nurse, she remains on call.

If her husband, who is in the last stage of ALS, needs to turn at night, use the bathroom or needs anything he makes a clicking sound, which wakes her up so she can tend to his needs.

 “It tires me out,” Mullick said. In addition, she struggles to take care of typical household chores, which means she can’t always do the dishes or wash the laundry. She suggested a robot could help caregivers as well as ALS patients.

In the earlier stages of ALS, people can have issues with falling. Mullick suggests a robot could steady the person so they can walk. She has shared the news about the project with other members of the ALS community.

“They are excited about it and encouraged,” she said. 

Origin of the project

The idea for this effort started with a meeting between Ramakrishnan and the late Brooke Ellison, a well-known and much beloved Associate Professor at Stony Brook University who didn’t allow a paralyzing car accident to keep her from inspiring, educating and advocating for people with disabilities.

Encouraged by SBU Distinguished Professor Miriam Rafailovich, who was a friend of Ellison’s, Ramakrishnan met with Ellison, whose mother Jean spent years working tirelessly by her side when she earned a degree at Harvard and worked at Stony Brook.

Ramakrishnan, who developed assistive computer interactions technologies for people with vision impairments, asked Ellison what a robot arm could do for her and mean for her. 

He recalled Ellison telling him that a robot arm would “transform my life,” by helping feed her, set her hair, or even scratch an itch.

“That moved me a lot,” said Ramakrishnan.

While CART will work with one population of patients, it could become a useful tool for patients and their caregivers in other circumstances, possibly as a nursing assistant or for aging in place.

Road to Stony Brook

Ramakrishnan, who is a resident of East Setauket, was born in Southern Tamil Nadu in India and attended high school in what was then called Bombay and is now Mumbai.

He earned his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology and his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin.

Ramakrishnan is married to Pramila Venkateswaran, an award-winning poet and is retiring this summer after 33 years as a Professor of English at Nassau Community College. The couple has two grown children, Aditi Ramakrishnan, who is a physician scientist at the Washington University in St. Louis and Amrita Mitchell-Krishnan, who is a clinical pediatric psychologist.

As for the work on CART, Ramakrishnan is eager to help patients and caregivers. The ultimate goal is to “reduce the caregiving burden,” he said.

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Marilyn Simons, left, and Jim Simons, third from left, toast the announcement of a $500 million contribution to Stony Brook University’s endowment with SBU President Maurie McInnis and Simons Foundation President David Spergel. File photo from John Griffin/ Stony Brook University

By Daniel Dunaief

James “Jim” Harris Simons, the founder of Renaissance Technologies and former Mathematics chair at Stony Brook University whose foundation donated over $6 billion to scientific and other causes, died on May 10 at the age of 86.

Simons, who was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Marcia and Matthew Simons, touched the lives of many across Long Island and the world. He shared a dry sense of humor with those fortunate enough to interact with him, compassion with those who, like him, had suffered painful losses and a readiness to contribute personally and financially in a host of settings, including creating the beloved Avalon Preserve in Stony Brook.

Simons developed an early proficiency in mathematics that helped him earn prestigious distinctions and awards and after he left academia, helped him develop an investment approach that enabled him to amass personal wealth estimated at over $31 billion. Simons, whose cause of death wasn’t released, was the 55th richest person in the world, according to Forbes.

In 1994, Simons co-founded the Simons Foundation with his wife Marilyn. He provided much more than financial support to numerous efforts around the world, including to local institutions such as Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Indeed, last year, the Simons Foundation gave a $500 million unrestricted gift to Stony Brook University, which is the largest-ever unrestricted gift to a public institution and over the course of seven years, will more than double the endowment for the school.

“Our university is infinitely better because of [Simons], and his passing leaves an enormous hole in the hearts of all who were fortunate to know him,” Maurie McInnis, president of Stony Brook University wrote in a letter to the campus community.

Simons served on the boards of institutions like BNL and SBU, offering well-received advice to leaders of these institutions and to the scientists conducting the kind of work that could one day help combat diseases and improve the quality of quantity of life for future generations.

“He really applied his talents toward trying to better [Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory] and to other area institutions,” said David Tuveson, director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center.

In addition to funding a range of scientific research, the Simons Foundation also supported research into autism. The Simons’ daughter Audrey was diagnosed with autism when she was 6 years old.

The Simons Foundation committed over $725 million to support autism research for more than 700 investigators in the United States and around the world, according to the Simons Foundation.

Simons was “the largest private funder of autism research in the world,” Matthew Lerner, formerly an SBU research associate professor and now an associate professor and life course outcomes program leader at A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, explained in an email. Lerner added that the “impact of his loss will be enormous.”

‘Smartest and richest guy in the room’

When Simons was part of the board at Brookhaven National Laboratory, he offered insights that benefited the institution and the talented researchers who came from all over the world to contribute.

“He always had hard questions,” said Sam Aronson, the lab director of BNL from 2006 to 2012. “That was really stimulating and scary at the same time, talking to the smartest and richest guy in the room.”

Aronson recalled that Simons never needed a cheat sheet from the staff to know what to ask people giving reports when Brookhaven Science Associates, which is a combination of members from Stony Brook University and Battelle and oversees BNL, met to discuss strategy and science.

During fiscal year 2006, a reduction in funding for the nuclear physics program meant that BNL would likely have to cut staff. Simons stepped in to contribute and help raise $13 million to ensure the continued operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or RHIC.

“That was showing evidence that the board who knew what we were doing scientifically really cared about us getting it done and were not looking for someone to fire,” said Aronson, who became director at BNL just after Simons helped spearhead the financial support.

In addition, Simons, who was committed to educating students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, took time to speak with students about his life experience and these fields.

Doon Gibbs, who retired as lab director at BNL last year, recalled coming to the facility early on a Saturday morning with one of his sons.

Simons was at the lab early on a Saturday morning, telling these students to follow their interests and to rely on their own judgment and decision-making and interests, rather than what other people advised or told them to do.

“That demonstrates the commitment he had personally” to education and to inspiring students, Gibbs said.

Simons inspired leaders at the top of their fields, offering inspiration and encouragement.

Stony Brook “went from the concept of being a great math and physics center to being a great university and [Simons] was all on board for that,” said Shirley Kenny, who was SBU president from 1994 to 2009. “There’s no question that I could dream bigger for Stony Brook because of [Simons].”

The geometric path

A gifted math student who first attended Brookline High School in Massachusetts and then moved to Newton High School, Simons earned his bachelor’s degree in three years from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958.

After he graduated, Simons and friends from Colombia decided to ride motor scooters from Boston to Buenos Aires. At the time, he didn’t own a motor scooter and had never ridden one.

After seven weeks, he and his friends got as far as Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. Recalling the harrowing trip, Simons had said he came perilously close to death and was sure his mother wouldn’t have allowed him to take such a trip had she known of the risks.

After his motor scooter adventure, Simons chose to attend the University of California at Berkeley because he wanted to work with Shiing-Shen Chern. When he arrived at Berkeley, Simons, who hadn’t met Chern at that point, was disappointed to learn that the Berkeley professor was on sabbatical for the year.

While Chern didn’t serve as thesis adviser for Simons, the two mathematicians did work together, producing the Chern-Simons theory, which has applications in math and physics.

After earning his doctorate, Simons, who regularly smoked cigarettes and preferred to wear loafers without socks, split his time between lecturing at MIT and Harvard and working at the Institute for Defense Analysis in Princeton, where he served as a code breaker for the National Security Agency.

Publicly expressing opposition to the war in Vietnam cost him his job at the IDA.

In 1968, Simons, who was married to Barbara Bluestein, made the fateful decision to join the then 11-year-old Stony Brook University, enticed by President John Toll to become the chairman of the Math Department.

Irwin Kra, who joined the Math Department at Stony Brook the same year as Simons, suggested the two mathematicians became “good friends immediately.”

Building on a passion that Simons would share with friends and colleagues throughout his life, Simons and Kra shared time on a small boat that Kra described as a “putt-putt.” The motor on the boat regularly broke and Kra’s job was to hand Simons tools while he went under the engine trying to repair it, which he successfully did many times.

Kra and Simons, who are both Jewish, got into trouble with Irwin Kra’s wife Eleanor when they brought lobsters to a lake the night before Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the year in the Jewish religion and does not typically involve consuming shellfish prior to the Day of Atonement.

As a mathematician, Simons won the American Mathematical Society Veblen Prize in Geometry in 1976, which Kra described as a “very distinguished award in differential geometry — he attacked extremely difficult problems.”

In 1974, Simons and his wife Barbara, who had three children, Elizabeth “Liz,” Nathaniel and Paul, divorced.

Simons married Marilyn Hawrys in 1977. Jim and Marilyn Simons had two children, Nicholas and Audrey.

Birth of Renaissance

In 1978, Simons left the Math Department at Stony Brook to start a company that would later become Renaissance Technologies.

Recruiting mathematicians rather than typical stock pickers or money managers, Simons, who was well ahead of his time in his approach to the market, wanted to develop computer programs that would analyze the markets, deciding when to buy and sell commodities, at first, and then stocks.

The so-called quant funds used the early equivalent of artificial intelligence to find trends in the way the investments they bought and sold — sometimes within a single day — moved, profiting from gains that didn’t rely on typical fundamental Wall Street research.

Over time, Renaissance Technologies’ Medallion Fund established a spectacular track record, with annualized returns of 66% before fees and 39% afterward from 1988 to 2018, according to Gregory Zuckerman, author of “The Man Who Solved the Market,” a biography of Simons.

Simons retired from Renaissance in late 2009, with an estimated net worth of over $11 billion.

Empathetic friend

Simons, who lost his son Paul at the age of 34 from a bike accident in 1996 and his son Nicholas in 2003 when he drowned off Indonesia, gave from his wallet, his intellect and his heart.

In the late 1990s, when Shirley and Robert Kenny were managing through the difficulties of leukemia treatments for their son Joel, Simon sent them on a trip to the Caribbean aboard his yacht.

The boat took them to St. John’s, St. Croix and other islands, providing them with a “wonderful vacation,” Shirley Kenny said. “It was just heavenly. It was a very, very happy memory. We had this joyous time before we had this terrible time and that’s thanks to [Simons.]”

Simons was also known to connect with the families of friends who were experiencing medical challenges or coping with grief.

After his son Paul died, Simons was searching for a way to memorialize him. He reached out to The Ward Melville Heritage Organization to purchase land in Stony Brook. Gloria Rocchio, president of the WMHO, took Simons on a tour of the property that would become the first parcel of land for Avalon Preserve. Simon stood on top of the hill and said, “This is it,” Rocchio recalled, leading to the first land purchase of the Avalon Preserve.

Since then, Simons has added to the preserve, which now includes about 216 acres of property.

Up until this year, Simons remained involved in the preserve, as he wanted to build a tunnel so people wouldn’t have to walk on the road to go from one piece of property to another.

That tunnel, which took years of planning, will be completed in August.

In describing the growth of the preserve, Rocchio recalled how Avalon had added 15 acres, which included a run-down house the donor stipulated couldn’t change.

One day, the trustees arrived and walked through a plastic curtain in the house and discovered the rest of the house was missing.

Simons explained that there were too many termites and the house had to come down.

“That was [Simons],” Rocchio said. “He found out the house was structurally not able to be saved.”

Suffolk County Legislator Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) recalled how important it was to protect that land.

“I have seen most of the nature preserves around the state,” Englebright said. Avalon is not only the “finest in the entire state” but one of the “best I have ever seen anywhere.”

While Avalon is a memorial to Simons’ son Paul, it’s also “a memorial” to Simons, Englebright added.By remaining undeveloped and continuing to protect the old growth forest, the Avalon Preserve prevents the water of Stony Brook Harbor from the kind of pollution that runoff from developed property might otherwise carry.

Simons “turned a terrible tragedy into a living legacy,” Englebright said.

Simons also honored his son Nicholas, creating the Nick Simons Institute in 2006. The institute provides training, support to district hospitals and advocacy for rural health workers in Nepal.

Jim and Marilyn Simons visited Nepal regularly, traveling to remote parts of the country and visiting eight hospitals that would become a part of the Nick Simons Institute.

A humble legacy

Despite the many ways Jim and Marilyn Simons, who earned her bachelor’s degree and her doctorate in economics at Stony Brook University, contributed to science and to the area, they remained humble and accessible.

Aronson suggested to Simons that he wanted to honor him personally for his timely and important contributions to the RHIC at BNL.

When Simons declined, Aronson asked if he could name one of the roads on-site after Renaissance, which Simons approved.

On one of the Stony Brook buildings that bears their name, the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Simons focused on the student and faculty experience. He wanted to make sure people in the building had a place to eat and didn’t have to trek to the dining hall.

“He wanted a good restaurant there,” recalled Kenny.

Apart from ensuring the building served food, Simons found a problem he wanted to fix. At the opening of the center, he noticed that the elevators were too slow, so he hired the person who built the center to create a separate, faster elevator which was attached to the building after it was completed.

Still contributing

Despite stepping away from the world of academia to become one of the most successful fund managers in history, exceeding the returns of titans like Warren Buffett, Simons still found time to contribute to the world of math.

Bruce Stillman, CEO of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, visited Simons’ office about six years ago. Stillman noticed a copy of a geometry journal on the coffee table and expressed his surprise that Simons was still reading math literature.

“What do you mean reading?” Simons replied, according to Stillman. He told the CSHL leader to open to a particular page, where he had co-authored an article.

“He was still publishing mathematics after being an extremely successful hedge fund manager,” said Stillman, who added that Simons was the largest contributor to CSHL. “He kept a lot of balls juggling in the air.”

Several people shared their appreciation for the opportunity to share relaxing and meaningful time aboard the various boats Simons owned over the years, including the 222-foot yacht called Archimedes.

Aronson took a trip around the harbor aboard the Archimedes soon after Simons had purchased it, describing the ride as akin to a “floating cocktail party.”

While on board, Aronson met famed Kenyan anthropologist and conservationist Richard Leakey. Aronson wound up going on a number of trips to Kenya to work on ways to apply green energy.

As for Kra, he recalled a time when he was supposed to take a trip aboard Simons’ boat. One of the engines broke and Kra suggested he postpone the journey.

Simons refused to cancel and suggested the boat would come in slowly to Miami and would travel slowly to the Caribbean, navigating in calmer, shallower waters, which it did.

Numerous people shared their admiration for a man who contributed and continues to contribute to the lives of educators and students.

Famed actor Alan Alda benefited from his interactions with Simons. He was “a huge force in so many people’s lives, including mine,” Alda wrote in an email. He was “as generous as he was smart. And he was scarily smart.”

With the help of the Simons, Alda helped found the eponymous journalism school at Stony Brook.

“I’ll always be grateful for his and his wife Marilyn’s contributions to the Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook,” and of course, he will have touched countless lives through his landmark gifts to Stony Brook University, Alda added. “He certainly put his love of knowledge to good use.”

Simons is survived by his wife, three children, five grandchildren, and a great grandchild.

Stony Brook University plans to celebrate Simons’s impact in the coming months.

 

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125 graduates of the Renaissance School of Medicine (RSOM) at Stony Brook University received their MD degrees in 2024. Photo by Arthur Fredericks

By Daniel Dunaief

On May 14, the Renaissance School of Medicine celebrated 50 years since its first graduating class, as 125 students entered the ranks of medical doctor.

The newly minted doctors completed an unusual journey that began in the midst of Covid-19 and concluded with a commencement address delivered by former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Dr. Fauci currently serves as Distinguished University Professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and the McCourt School of Public Policy and also serves as Distinguished Senior Scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.

“I have been fortunate to have had the privilege of delivering several commencement addresses over the years,” Dr. Fauci began. “Invariably, I have included in those addresses a reference to the fact that I was in your shoes many years ago when I graduated from medical school.”

This graduating class, however, has gone through a journey that “has been exceptional and, in some cases unprecedented,” Dr. Fauci added.

Indeed, the Class of 2024 started classes remotely, learning a wide range of course online, including anatomy.

“Imagine taking anatomy online?” Dr. Bill Wertheim, interim Executive Vice President for Stony Brook Medicine, said in an interview. “Imagine how challenging that is.”

Dr. Wertheim was pleased with the willingness, perseverance and determination of the class to make whatever contribution they could in responding to the pandemic.

The members of this class “were incredibly engaged. They rolled up their sleeves and pitched in wherever they could to help the hospital manage the patients they were taking care of,” said Wertheim, which included putting together plastic gowns when the school struggled to find supplies and staffing respite areas.

“Hats off to them” for their continued zeal and enthusiasm learning amid such challenges, including social issues that roiled the country during their medical training, Wertheim said.

Student experience

For Maame Yaa Brako, who was born in Ghana and moved to Ontario, Canada when she was 11, the beginning of medical school online was both a blessing and a curse.

Starting her medical education remotely meant she could spend time with the support system of her family, which she found reassuring.

At the same time, however, she felt removed from the medical community at the Renaissance School of Medicine, which would become her home once the school was able to lift some restrictions.

For Brako, Covid provided a “salient reminder” of why she was studying to become a doctor, helping people with challenges to their health. “It was a constant reminder of why this field is so important.”

Brako appreciated her supportive classmates, who provided helpful links with studying and answered questions.

Despite the unusual beginning, Brako feels like she is “super close” to her fellow graduates.

Brako was thrilled that Dr. Fauci gave the commencement address, as she recalled how CNN was on all the time during the pandemic and he became a “staple in our household.”

Brako will continue her medical training with a residency at Mass General and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where she will enter a residency in obstetrics and gynecology.

Mahesh Tiwari, meanwhile, already had his feet under him when medical school started four years ago. Tiwari, who is going to be a resident in internal medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, earned his bachelor’s degree at Stony Brook.

He was able to facilitate the transition to Long Island for his classmates, passing along his “love for the area,” recognizing the hidden gems culturally, musically and artistically, he said.

After eight years at Stony Brook, Tiwari suggested he would miss a combination of a world-class research institution with an unparalleled biomedical education. He also enjoyed the easy access to nature and seascapes.

A look back

Until 1980, Stony Brook didn’t have a hospital, which meant that the medical students had to travel throughout the area to gain clinical experience.

“Students were intrepid, traveling all across Long Island, deep into Nassau County, Queens and New York City,” said Wertheim.

In those first years, students learned the craft of medicine in trailers, as they awaited the construction of buildings.

Several graduates of Stony Brook from decades ago who currently practice medicine on Long Island shared their thoughts and perspective on this landmark graduation.

Dr. Sharon Nachman, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, graduated from Stony Brook Medical School in 1983.

In the early years, the students were an “eclectic group who were somewhat different than the typical medical school students,” which is not the case now, Nachman said.

When Nachman joined the faculty at Stony Brook, the medical school didn’t have a division of pediatric infectious diseases. Now, the group has four full time faculty with nurse practitioners.

The medical school, which was renamed the Renaissance School of Medicine in 2018 after more than 100 families at Renaissance Technologies made significant donations, recognizes that research is “part of our mission statement.”

Stony Brook played an important role in a number of medical advances, including Dr. Jorge Benach’s discovery of the organism that causes Lyme Disease.

Stony Brook is “not just a medical school, it’s part of the university setting,” added Nachman. “It’s a hospital, it has multiple specialties, it’s an academic center and it’s here to stay. We’re not just the new kids on the block.”

Departments like interventional radiology, which didn’t exist in the past, are now a staple of medical education.

Dr. David Silberhartz, a psychiatrist in Setauket who graduated in 1980, appreciated the “extraordinary experience” of attending medical school with a range of people from different backgrounds and experiences. He counts three of the members of his class, whom he met his first day, as his best friends.

Silberhartz, who planned to attend commencement activities, described the landmark graduation as a “wonderful celebration.”

Aldustus Jordan III spent 43 years at the medical school, retiring as Associate Dean for Student Affairs in January 2019.

While he had the word “dean” in his title, Jordan suggested that his job was to be a “dad” to medical students, offering them an opportunity to share their thoughts, concerns and challenges.

As the school grew from a low of 18 students to a high of 150 in 2021, Jordan focused on keeping the small town flavor, so students didn’t become numbers.

“I wanted to make sure we kept that homey feeling, despite our growth,” said Jordan.

Jordan suggested that all medical schools recognize the need for doctors not only knowing their craft, but also having the extra touch in human contact.

“We put our money where our mouth is,” Jordan said. “We put a whole curriculum around that” which makes a difference in terms of patient outcomes.

Jordan urged future candidates to any medical school, including Stony Brook, to speak with people about their experiences and to use interviews as a chance to speak candidly with faculty.

“When you have down time, you have to enjoy the environment, you have to enjoy where you live,” Jordan said.

As for his own choice of doctors, Jordan has such confidence in the education students receive at Stony Brook that he’s not only a former dean, but he’s also a patient.

His primary care physician is a SBU alumni, as is his ophthalmologist.

“If I can’t trust the product, who can?” Jordan asked.

As for Fauci, in addition to encouraging doctors to listen and be prepared to use data to make informed decisions, he also suggested that students find ways to cultivate a positive work life balance.

“Many of you will be in serious and important positions relatively soon,” Fauci said. “There are so many other things to live for and be happy about. Reach for them and relish the joy.”

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