Stony Brook University SUNY Korea

While it may not be the season for beach going and barbecues, people continue to work and gather outside in many settings. Is that cause for concern in these latest stages of the pandemic, and new variants? Not necessarily, but a new study indicates that low wind speeds and stale air are associated with a higher incidence of contracting COVID-19 when people socialize outside — perhaps as much as 45 percent more compared to when winds are stronger. Led by Sean Clouston, associate professor in the Program in Public Health, and the Department of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, the study is published in BMC Infectious Diseases.     The findings are based on COVID-19 incidence in Suffolk County, NY, from March 16, 2020, to December 31, 2020, from public health data of more than 96,000 cases. The researchers used these data in combination with daily reports by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the region’s average wind speed and maximal daily temperatures.     “The issue is really about an increased danger of infection spread in the presence of stale air as opposed to indoor versus outdoor settings,” explains Clouston. “The findings imply we are all safer when air flow is more significant.”     Clouston and colleagues developed a statistical modeling program which determined from the public health data and weather reports that warmer days with little wind when people socialized outside resulted in significantly more COVID-19 transmission. Their overall analysis revealed that days with temperatures ranging from 16 to 28 degrees C (approximately 61 to 82 degrees F) where wind speed was less than 8.85 kilometers per hour (approximately 5 mph) had significantly increased COVID-19 incidence compared to similar days with an average wind speed of greater than 8.85 kilometers per hour.

Project Sunshine has partnered with the Faculty Student Association (FSA) to organize and host a fun and interactive event to help children at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. On Wednesday, December 1, head over to East Side Dining from 1 pm to 2:30 pm to join others to make holiday cards for pediatric patients. As you get into the holiday spirit, listen to performances by the Stony Brook Vocalists while sipping complimentary hot cocoa provided by FSA.     Project sunshine holiday hero article photoProject Sunshine is a nonprofit organization with chapters on college campuses across the country. Their mission is to provide free social, educational, and recreational programming for children and their families as they face medical challenges. Stony Brook University’s chapter is dedicated to volunteering weekly at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, as well as leading initiatives on campus in support of the children and families there. They seek to restore a sense of normalcy to the pediatric healthcare environment and spread cheer to the children undergoing treatment.      Anthony (Tony) Gentile, facilities manager for FSA, donated dozens of plants that he nurtured in his own home for Project Sunshine to use for their fundraiser. “It warms my heart when we are able to collaborate with student groups to help them achieve their goals and bring the campus community together,” stated Gentile.     Juliana Welk ‘22, Biology, Project Sunshine chapter leader, explains, “Through our plant sale, this event will raise funds for Project Sunshine, which goes toward providing much needed resources to pediatric patients.” These resources include Sending Sunshine kits, which are craft and activity kits that are sent to children’s hospitals across the country and other programs as per the discretion of Project Sunshine Nationals. Meanwhile, the cards made at the event will be sent to children at local hospitals to read.      Project Sunshine holds many other fundraising events throughout the year. These include their annual Masquerade ball in February, the recent Tie-Dye fundraiser, plant sales, and benefit shows, among others. Sending Sunshines are hosted monthly so that craft kits can be put together and sent out to pediatric patients nationwide.

Have you ever thought of taking your idea to the SUNY level? Well, these students did!     The first annual SUNY Long Island Pitch competition between Stony Brook University, SUNY Farmingdale, and SUNY Old Westbury was held on November 16, 2021. The entrepreneurial development event gave students from each of the schools a chance to compete for more than $1,000 in prizes.     The competition took place virtually, with a combination of a live Q&A session, which gave students an opportunity to interact with successful business people, and asynchronous videos between presenters. The distinguished panel of judges deliberated on 10 incredible ideas from the students.     The first-place winner of the competition from Stony Brook was Soulo, a toe-nail clipper for older adults. Joshua Zhu, a second-year medical student in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, is the creator of Soulo. The second-place winner from Old Westbury was SunChok, healthy chips that curb your appetite; and the third-place winner from Farmingdale was Spider Shield, which makes bulletproof clothing.     The judges for the event — Derek Peterson, Gwen Cheni, Phil Rugile, Lionel Chitty and Edward Verlander — all have extensive entrepreneurial experience.     This multi-campus competition among several institutions was a unique learning experience for the students, and the judges provided excellent recommendations to everyone who took part in this event. These young professionals are now on their way to setting the stage for new ideas to emerge throughout the Long Island community.     — Arlene Alvarez

Samuel Grushevsky, a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Stony Brook University, has been elected as a fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) “for contributions to algebraic geometry and Teichmuller dynamics, and service to the mathematical community.”     Grushevsky is deputy director of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University. His research interests include algebraic and complex geometry, relations with number theory, integrable systems and mathematical physics. He received the 2015 F.W. Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation and was named a 2015 Simons Fellow in Mathematics.     Fellows of the AMS have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication and utilization of mathematics. They are recognized by their peers for their contributions to the profession.     “It is an honor to welcome a new class of AMS fellows and to congratulate them for their notable contributions to mathematics and to the profession,” said AMS President Ruth Charney. “We extend our thanks to the nominators and members of the selection committee for their help in highlighting the outstanding achievements of their colleagues. Congratulations 2022 fellows!”  

Pavlos Kollias, a professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University, is part of a new NASA Earth Science mission that aims to yield new information about tropical storm clouds during their lifecycles — data that will help scientists better understand and predict the behavior of dangerous tropical storms and address a significant issue of climate change. The $177 million mission involves use of novel radars systems and research collaboration from Stony Brook and other institutions.     Climate change is increasing ocean temperatures and making it more likely that storms will intensify more often and more quickly — a major reason that NASA is supporting this mission and research — which could potentially teach us more about storm clouds and their actions than has ever been understood before.     The initiative, expected to launch in 2027, will study the behavior of tropical storms and thunderstorms, including their impact on weather and climate models. Specifically, investigators will address why convective storms, heavy precipitation, and clouds occur, and exactly where and when they form. The mission will be a collection of three CubeSats flying in tight coordination, called Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS).     Kollias and his Radar Science team are leaders in the development of next-generation atmospheric observing approaches to study atmospheric processes at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales. These approaches will provide the foundational knowledge to significantly improve weather and climate predictability.     For the INCUS mission, his team will assist on the development of L2 satellite data products, in particular the retrieval of the profiles of vertical air motion from radar constellation observations. Their project, set to start in early 2022, will involve Kollias, research scientists from his group, along with undergraduate and graduate students.     “The INCUS  mission will study the vertical motions through storms using a constellation of three satellite-based radars (CubeSats) that will sample the same storm during different stages of the its lifecycle,” explains Kollias, who is also an atmospheric scientist with the Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, of which Stony Brook is part of the management team.     “The vertical transport in convention, or convective mass flux, remains one of the great unknowns in weather and climate. INCUS will be our first opportunity to document these motions over the tropical oceans and the dependency of their properties on environmental factors,” he emphasizes.     Technological advancements are revolutionizing the way scientists observe Earth from space, and Kollias adds that continuous miniaturization of sensors and the availability of deployable radar antennas makes the use of distributed observations based on a convoy of identical radars a novel and economical approach to studying convective dynamics and lifecycle from space.     Professor Susan van den Heever at Colorado State University is the principal investigator for INCUS. The mission involves the work of several NASA Centers around the country and university partners, including Stony Brook, City College of New York and Texas A&M University.

Stony Brook University, in collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Cornell University (CU) and FERMI National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), has established the Ernest Courant Traineeship in Accelerator Science & Engineering. The program is supported by a $2.9 million, five-year grant from the High Energy Office of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).     The new program is named after renowned accelerator physicist Ernest Courant who, as a long-time physicist at BNL, laid the foundation of modern accelerator science. Courant also taught for 20 years as an adjunct professor at Stony Brook. The traineeship is offered through the Center for Accelerator Physics and Education (CASE).     CASE is a joint center between BNL and Stony Brook, with three main goals of training scientists and engineers with the aim of advancing the field of accelerator science, developing a unique educational program that will provide broad access to research accelerators, and expanding interdisciplinary research and education programs utilizing accelerators.     CASE focuses on four specific areas identified by the DOE as “mission critical workforce needs in accelerator science and engineering”: physics of large accelerators and systems engineering; superconducting radiofrequency accelerator physics and engineering; radiofrequency power system engineering; and cryogenic systems engineering, especially liquid helium systems.     Vladimir Litvinenko, professor of physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and senior scientist at BNL, said the DOE is specifically looking to groom the next generation of scientists in those areas because “that’s where they have a shortage of skilled labor, and they really want us to help address that.”     Research to understand and manipulate matter and energy using accelerators has led to the creation and commercial production of modern electronics and has had numerous applications in areas like radiation treatments for cancer, food safety, oil discovery, and searching for weapons of mass destruction. The understanding that accelerator science and technology has provided of matter and energy is also critical in space exploration and exploitation in terms of creating instrumentation, understanding space radiation, and creating new propulsion systems.     The graduate level curriculum consists of courses and practical training at accelerator facilities of the collaborating institutions, and thesis requirements. Each participant has a supervisor guide their training.     Students in the traineeship program who complete four courses of the core program — 12 or more credits in accelerator science and engineering — and earn a B+ or higher in each course will be issued a certificate in Accelerator Science and Engineering with specializations including the four areas listed above.     The traineeship is available to all students. Participants who are U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. residents are eligible for funding provided by the DOE grant. The expectation is that the traineeship can be completed in two years and students can pursue their research interest beyond the program.     Litvinenko said the program will help students get a job involving accelerators, and appeals to a wide range of students from across the sciences.     “One of my students who was interested in accelerators just really loved mechanical things,” said Litvinenko. “She was working in a garage before she came here. Other students might be interested in a more experimental hands-on experience, and others might be attracted to the diversity of the field, because accelerator science involve a broad range of sciences. It incorporates electrodynamics and mechanics, but there’s also quantum materials as well as complex systems like cryogenics.”     “Participating in the CASE Accelerator School has been a great experience,” said Pietro Iapozzuto, a physics researcher at Stony Brook whose career dream has been to work in particle physics. “The classes teach you practical skills that will be needed to work in top government research facilities. The program has given me the opportunity to learn theoretical, computational, and experimental skills in order to become a proficient accelerator physicist. It also prepared me to participate in internship opportunities at the CERN laboratory and Brookhaven.”     “I’m an electrical engineer but I have had the pleasure of working with physicists in recent years,” said Thomas Robertazzi, professor and IEEE Fellow, Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering. “What I have come to realize is if our society is ever to have the type of the appealing technologies we see in shows like Star Trek, it will take physicists like the ones in the traineeship program to discover and invent them.”     Litvinenko said the current talent shortage is attributed to the attraction of engineers to the booming mobile device field.     “So many engineers today are working on iPhones and other mobile devices,” he said. “But in accelerators we use really high-power systems, which is a very different scale and design. It’s older technology that’s no longer taught in regular universities, but still it’s extremely important. This is one of the things which we hope to offer next year to students.”     Irina Petrushina ‘19, a research assistant professor who co-teaches a course on RF superconductivity for accelerators within the traineeship program, said the traineeship offers students a unique opportunity to explore the world of accelerator physics and engineering.     “One can get a taste of accelerator physics and learn the basic concepts of accelerator operation in Fundamentals of Accelerator Physics, and more experienced students can learn about specific topics of interest such as cryogenic systems or computational aspects,” she said. “In addition to the direct interaction with the world-renowned experts, the students get to perform some hands-on experiments using one of the accelerators at BNL. The proximity and close collaboration between Stony Brook and BNL present an amazing opportunity to immerse yourself in the day-to-day life of an accelerator scientist.”     Litvinenko said there is also a very practical aspect to the program: “Many of our students are landing jobs before graduation. I think this is not always true about academia and graduates and this may be reason why this certificate and the very real possibility of finding a good job is an additional attraction. In the end, students want to have a successful career.”     — Robert Emproto

Two high-impact computational science projects that include Stony Brook University faculty from the Department of Physics and Astronomy have been awarded supercomputer access from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science for 2022 through its Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program. Through these awards, the research teams will be able to access the leadership-class supercomputers at DOE’s Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.     The first project, “Approaching Exascale Models of Astrophysical Explosions,” includes Principal Investigator Professor Michael Zingale and co-investigators Associate Professor Alan Calder, Postdoctoral Associate Alice Harpole and PhD student Maria Barrios Sazo.      Building on more than a decade of work, this project aims to produce models of burning and flame propagation on neutron stars as models for X-ray bursts (XRBs), investigate white dwarf mergers and the role of magnetic fields, and explore the end state of massive star convection. These are all multiscale, multiphysics problems whose calculation requires the coupling of hydrodynamics, magnetic fields, reactions, gravity and diffusion. The team’s XRB simulations will provide insight into the rapid proton capture process nucleosynthesis, connect with observations, and probe the structure of the underlying neutron star. A suite of white dwarf mergers, with and without magnetic fields, will be modeled, allowing the team to probe this system as a possible progenitor for Type Ia supernovae. Finally, the massive star research will provide important input (and an open simulation framework) to the core collapse modeling community.     Assistant Professor Sergey Syritsyn is a co-investigator on the other project, “Internal Structure of Strong Interaction Nambu-Goldstone Bosons.” This project aims to carry out precision lattice QCD calculations of the inner structures of the pion and kaon—the Nambu-Goldstone bosons in strong interactions — to determine their electromagnetic form factors, Fock-space distribution amplitudes, parton distribution functions and generalized parton distributions. These calculations are intended to provide experimental programs, such as the Jefferson Lab 12 GeV upgrade and the future Electron-Ion Collider, with comparisons and predictions. The results will help answer fundamental questions regarding spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in strong interactions, flavor symmetry violation, color confinement, and the origin of the mass of hadrons. Additionally, the distribution amplitudes are important inputs for deeply virtual meson production processes that are used to map out 3D images of the proton.

The Stony Brook Student Nurses’ Association collaborated with Stony Brook University Emergency Management, Outreach, and Training on STOP THE BLEED®, a course that allowed nursing students to learn different strategies to recognize what life-threatening bleeding is and how to intervene in a community setting.     The event was held Nov. 15 in the Health Sciences Center lecture hall. Students volunteered their time to become certified to participate in future STOP THE BLEED® events for the university and the local community.     University Police and Emergency Management staff demonstrated the proper ways to stop bleeding by applying tourniquets, showing nursing students how to use commercial tourniquets provided in ambulances and schools, and how to use everyday objects, such as neck ties, rulers, pens, and branches if they’re out in the community. Different anatomic locations were identified as the highest risk of bleeding and how applying pressure and quickly packing deep wounds can save lives.      Stop the bleed group     “Educating competent nurses is key to protecting the health of the public who may unexpectedly be involved in a sudden motor vehicle accident on the road or a boating accident around Long Island or other sudden tragedy at home,” said Annette Wysocki, dean of the School of Nursing.  “Because nurses are the largest group of healthcare providers, roughly three nurses for every physician, they are the providers that are most likely to be the first ones on the scene to act during an emergency. These workshops are important for our students so we can be sure they are prepared to be the expert clinicians we expect and might all need in the future to help when an unexpected emergency happens to us.”     Tania Prudencio Martinez, a senior nursing student and the Co-Breakthrough Into Nursing director for the Stony Brook Student Nurses’ Association, organized the event, which included 50 nursing students.     More than 1.5 million people have now been trained to STOP THE BLEED®, and the national campaign’s goal is to train 200 million. The purpose of the campaign is to better prepare the public to save lives if people nearby are severely bleeding.

When COVID hit, theaters around the country scrambled to find a way to continue operating. Like many other industries, some theaters began creating online performances that could be viewed from the safety of the home, with varying degrees of success.     “It’s so tough to make the transition from live theater,” said Ken Weitzman, an associate professor in the Department of English and affiliated faculty with the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, “But what struck me is that the one-person play, where you’re looking at just one face… was much better suited to that format.”     Where many saw a challenge, Weitzman saw an opportunity. His play, Fire in the Garden, was originally written in 2011 and performed live that same year. However, the one-man piece not only seemed like it would translate well to the new format, but also seemed very pertinent to current moment.     Fire in the Garden tells the story of a new father who has become obsessed with Norman Morrison, a devout Quaker from Baltimore who, in 1965, drove to the Pentagon and lit himself on fire with his one-year-old daughter in his arms in protest of the U.S. policy in Vietnam. The play’s narrator, struggling with the challenges of modern fatherhood, finds himself haunted by Morrison’s act, and with questions of what it means to be a father in what increasingly feels like a mad world.     “The play, in a way describes its own artistic process,” Weitzman said of his inspiration. When he wrote the play his wife was pregnant with their first child, and he was struggling with some of the same questions as the play’s narrator. “I was figuring out what I thought it meant to be a father. What are the moral imperatives that come along with it? What are the responsibilities? What’s different about being a father now than it used to be?”     The original stage play, which ran 90 minutes, was condensed down to a 50-minute video in deference to the shorter attention spans that many people have for online performances. The new format, which gives the impression that the narrator is creating a video for his son, creates an intimacy that brings the narrator’s heartfelt questions about fatherhood, and the horror of Morrison’s actions, into sharp relief.     “The play ultimately is a call to action as related to activism in general, but climate change in particular, especially for parents,” Weitzman said.     Rendered beautifully by Lord of the Rings actor Sean Astin — who came onto the project at the behest of Jim Glassman, who directed the play for the New Jersey Repertory Theater Company — the play was recently chosen for the United Solo Festival, an annual international festival for solo performances and the world’s largest solo theatre festival. It presents a selection of local and international solo performance productions in a wide variety of styles, including puppetry, dance, improv, musical, and drama. The festival has featured more than 1,000 productions from all over the world since it began in 2010, and this year launched a new virtual platform to present shows and masterclasses for its global audience and theatre enthusiasts online.     Fire in the Garden was selected for the festival in the summer of 2021 and should run on the festival’s online platform for at least a year.     In the meantime, Weitzman is focusing on his work with students at Stony Brook as well as working on a new play. Much like Fire, his upcoming play will also pull a bit from both history and issues that have been in the news currently. It will explore the founding of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which was one of the first Native American boarding schools in the United States, telling the story of the school and of a historic football game that took place there in 1912, where the Native American team from Carlisle faced off against U.S. Army students from West Point.     The story was particularly on his mind because of the recent discovery of unmarked graves found on the grounds of such schools in both Canada and the U.S., and because of the overlooked significance of those two schools playing each other at that particular moment in history.     “It’s barely twenty years since [the massacre at] Wounded Knee,” Weitzman explained, “so some of these students’ fathers and grandfathers had actually fought each other on the battlefield, and now here they are in this football game where the lead player for West Point is Dwight Eisenhower, a future president, and the lead player for Carlisle is Jim Thorpe, the most famous athlete of his era.”     Weitzman is also spending a lot of his energy as a staunch advocate on campus for the theater department and the importance of the arts in general, particularly in trying times. “I think a lot of my work with students right now is using theater as a way for them to process this insane time that we’re all living through.”     — Lynn Brown

As an educator, Caitlin Franco ’04 has never been afraid to overcome boundaries to go far beyond for her students. So when early experiences in her career didn’t sit well with her, she didn’t hesitate to do something about it.      Working with a large population of students with disabilities, the 40 Under Forty alumna quickly learned that many of her students were not receiving all of the necessary tools for success. Franco made it her mission to ensure that all students were given an equal opportunity to excel. With this goal in mind, she opened a school of her own, with equality at the core of the school’s philosophy.     Thirteen years later, Franco’s work as executive director and founder of Equality Charter School is more important than ever. And while COVID-19 has challenged normal operations, she is more motivated than ever to continue her mission to support all students’ success — whatever that may look like.     Tell us about your journey from Stony Brook University to becoming the founder and executive director of the Equality Charter School.     After I graduated from Stony Brook with a Bachelor’s in English and education, I received my Master’s in education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I then started teaching at a charter school in Harlem before moving to a public school in the Bronx. My experiences teaching motivated me to start my own school, so I got together with two other educators and opened Equality Charter School in 2009.      Why did you decide to open a charter school?      When I first started teaching, I taught in a school where 60% of the population was students with disabilities. I hadn’t had much experience in this area, but I could see that the school had low expectations for those students, which didn’t sit well with me. In many cases, I felt those students deserved a lot better than what they were getting. This was one of the driving factors for creating the Equality Charter School, where we believe that it is not our role to decide what our students are capable of, but instead to give everyone the opportunity to excel.      What was the process like to get things started?     It was long. We had to put together a curriculum and essentially build our school’s philosophy and culture. Being a charter school, we also had to create a board and apply for grants to get started. So there was a lot of learning involved. It was a pretty extensive process that pushed me beyond being an English teacher.     On what principles was the Equality Charter School founded?     When we opened, we were different from many other charters in that we had restorative practices ingrained in our school culture. Out of the gate, we focused on educating students with positive reinforcements, rather than relying on a disciplinarian, consequence-based system. We wanted to be a school for any student , whether they were high-performing or struggling. That remains true to this day.     There are a lot of small schools in the city that cater to one type of student or program. One thing that sets us apart is that both our high school and middle  school are open to whoever comes to our doors. We have an adaptive program that meets all academic needs, and we prioritize social-emotional learning.      Why is it important to have charter schools like yours? What do you believe has been the biggest impact since you opened your doors?     Charter schools like ours provide choice. No one school is going to meet the needs of all students, so charter schools allow families to find school models that align with their values and support the strengths of their children.      When I think of the impact of our schools, I think of individual students. There are a lot of students who come in our doors who would do well wherever they went, but there are also many who get something unique at our schools, whether it’s a program we have or a staff member who really helps them. We’re proud of those situations. Some of our students have taken alternative pathways, and we have supported them and consider them successes because they’re on the path to where they need to go.     What can other schools and educators learn from Equality Charter School?     We accept all students as they come to us, and we adjust our program to meet their needs. People hear charter and think that means we don’t accept challenging students, but that’s just not the case. We’ve been able to show some real success over time with the most challenging students. We’ve had students who start with us in sixth grade and academically, they don’t look good on paper, and then in high school, we’re able to close the gap and get them across the finish line before they go off to college. Sometimes you don’t see the results for six or seven years, so it’s about keeping the long game in focus. That’s something our school model has really shown. Sticking with kids for the long haul has really paid off and I think that’s something special about us.     Can you share with us some of the most interesting moments in your career?     There’s never a dull moment. The thing that stands out to me the most is our staff members going above and beyond, especially during the pandemic. For example, our middle school principal drove to students’ houses during the pandemic just to give them chargers for their Chromebooks. We also had the social worker and assistant principal of our high school do home visits for some families. These are things that they don’t even mention because they think they’re part of their jobs, but I believe they are the unsung heroes.     How has your job evolved in the face of a global pandemic?     The job has evolved a lot. We spend a lot of time addressing changes related to COVID, and it has created a huge workload for us. We had to figure out how to teach in a different way while continuing to prioritize our scholars above everything else. First, we moved strictly to remote instruction and had to get up and running quickly. Then, we moved to concurrent teaching, with students both at home and at school. We felt that was the best model, but it’s been taxing on our staff. We’ve also done a lot of work to support the emotional well-being of our staff and our scholars. It’s a whole different world now.     What advice would you give to parents whose children are struggling in school due to the pandemic?     From an academic standpoint, it’s important not to focus on catching our kids up. The social-emotional needs of our children are so great right now that focusing on catching up is an unhealthy mindset. I would advise parents to create a new baseline for their kids, based on where they are now, and build on that, rather than focusing on where they think their children should be.      From a social-emotional standpoint, it’s important for parents to work with their schools to get as many resources for their kids as they can. There’s a lot of federal funding coming out now, so many schools have added social-emotional support staff. I think sometimes parents don’t know they have access to those services for their children.      If you could have a conversation with yourself when you were a student at Stony Brook, what advice would you give?     As a student, I was focused on the content that I would be teaching. I wish I understood back then that teaching is so much more than that. It’s really about raising young people and their social-emotional needs. While I knew it on some level, I didn’t understand how much of an influence you end up having on kids’ lives. I think I could have gotten more out of my program back then if I had known that.     -Kristen Brennan

From a very early age, Erica Cirino ’14, ’15 has felt a strong connection to nature.     “Nature was my refuge,” said Cirino, who grew up in Huntington, N.Y., near Caumsett State Park. “There was a wildlife hospital there, so when I was 15 and needed to fulfill community service hours, I went to the park and asked if I could work with wildlife and rehabilitation.”     That volunteering opportunity led to a paid position and later, a license as a New York state wildlife rehabilitator.     “I loved it so much, but it was very hard work, not only physically and mentally, but also emotionally,” she said. “I witnessed so much death and sadness, and I became very aware of the impacts that humans were having on wildlife. Most animals that came into our care were there because people had done something that harmed them, either intentionally or unintentionally. People can be terrible for various reasons, and our prolific use of plastic is one of those reasons.”     She saw birds with fishing line wrapped around their wings, animals with fishing lures down their throats, and other wildlife entangled in balloon strings.     “I realized that plastic was a terrible problem,” she said. “I saw it in increasing amounts in nature and I was aware of it, but it wasn’t apparent to me why this was happening.”     After years of working with and writing about wildlife, Cirino investigates how plastic has become a global threat in her first book, Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis, which was published on October 7 (Island Press). Cirino worked on the book for the better part of five years, including spending three years conducting research in Copenhagen, Denmark.             In it, Cirino takes readers on an international journey to meet the scientists and activists telling the story of the plastic crisis and actively seeking solutions. She discusses how plastic pollution threatens wildlife and human health, and explores the deeper environmental injustices plastic’s production and disposal forces on communities of color.     “I’m grateful to the people who shared their stories with me while I was researching my book because some of it’s really ugly,” she said. “Plastic is a scourge. It’s an amazing material, but look how it’s been weaponized against society. I dove in innocently and now I can’t stop swimming because there are so many nuances and layers, and it’s a crisis that I believe we can fundamentally address.”     Cirino completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies at Stony Brook, earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies in 2014, and a master’s in science communication in 2015. She initially considered wildlife rehabilitation as a career, perhaps becoming a field biologist, but her outlook changed when she took a freshman year course on environmental literature and film taught by Heidi Hutner, an associate professor of English and sustainability.     “Dr. Hutner was the first person to inspire me to take a creative approach to communicating what I felt and what I observed,” she said.     Hutner also introduced her to Carl Safina, an endowed professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, which opened some critical doors.     “He takes a literary approach to discussing the fundamental ways we could change in order to benefit wildlife and the planet,” she said. “I wanted to put my love of writing to use. My whole mission was to write a book about plastic.”     Cirino erica v     After graduating, Cirino went to work for the Safina Center to manage its outreach campaigns and media. She also began writing professionally. “I started freelance writing because I’m a very restless person and I believe in seeing things for myself,” she said. “I just have to go and figure it out. There’s a Jacques Cousteau quote, ‘We must go and see for ourselves,’  that speaks volumes to me.”     Cirino reported on various stories, including the persecution of endangered Mexican gray wolves and failure to protect endangered killer whales in the Salish Sea, before returning her sights to plastic.     “We’ve been kind of brainwashed by the corporations that make money off of our ignorance of plastic, literally,” she said. “For them, plastic is the perfect consumable; people just throw it away so they have to keep buying more and more, it makes corporations huge amounts of money, and for the most part consumers don’t think about any of this.”     In 2016, Safina was invited to go sailing on a research trip with Chris Jordan, an internationally known artist whose works depict mass consumption and plastic pollution, including a well-known photograph depicting an albatross cut open to reveal plastic inside its body. Safina was unable to go because of prior commitments, so Cirino was offered the opportunity in his place.     It proved to be a life-changing trip.     “I went on a boat with Jordan and seven Danish researchers,” she said. “It was the simplest possible boat you could imagine. We didn’t have a working refrigerator, shower or even a toilet. We had to eat food out of cans and bags.”     On that journey, the group conducted some of the earliest research in the Pacific that explored below the ocean’s surface.     “Even as late as 2016, it was not well-known that plastic completely permeates the oceans,” said Cirino. “It was unbelievable to see what the garbage patch actually looks like.”             The group was on the boat for 24 days, traveling more than 3,000 nautical miles from Los Angeles, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii, with no electronics except for the emergency satellite phone. No TV, no cell service — no distractions. “It was literally the fundamentals of living,” Cirino said. “I saw what really mattered, and that was the message I wanted to come across in my writing and in my book. What do we need to live? What can we live without?”     In the end, Cirino is trying to do all she can to support a healthy planet. Nothing illustrates her unflinching dedication to the cause more than her current undertaking — building a sustainable house in Connecticut that uses absolutely no plastic.     “It’s quite a challenge, but I want to walk the walk if I talk the talk,” she said. “I don’t want to be in the same place years from now; I want to be more knowledgeable, more empathetic and more understanding, hopefully in a world that has also gone through its own metamorphosis and is more accountable. There’s a lot of reporting about division, but I’ve worked with a lot of people that care, too, and that has given me hope.”     — Robert Emproto

Stony Brook University Hospital has received the American Heart Association’s Gold Plus Get With The Guidelines® Heart Failure Quality Achievement Award. The Gold Plus award, which Stony Brook has received for the third consecutive year, recognizes the hospital’s commitment to ensuring heart failure patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines grounded in the latest scientific evidence. The goal is speeding recovery and reducing hospital readmissions for heart failure patients.      “The award is a reflection of Stony Brook University Hospital’s commitment to excellence in heart failure care,” said Marc Goldschmidt, MD, director, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Center and medical director, Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) Program at the Stony Brook University Heart Institute.      Cardiology Front Row: Hal Skopicki, MD, PhD; Anne Marie Berggren, RDN, MS, CDN, CNSC; Lauren Weiss, RN; Monica Fox, RN; Lauren Pilato, NP; Ann Marie, Schneider, Social Services; Edlira Tam, DO, Associate Medical Director, VAD Program; Michelle Weisfelner Bloom, MD, Director, Outpatient Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Center; Marc Goldschmidt, MD, Director, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Center and Medical Director, VAD Program; Allison J. McLarty, MD, Surgical Director, VAD Program; Terri Springer, NP. Back Row: Philip Travaglia, RN, Clinical Documentation Specialist; Caitlin Borriello, NP; Jillian Fitzgerald, RN, VAD Coordinator; Nancy Utano, RN; Omar Blagrove, VAD Program Administrator; Peter Reilly, NP, VAD Coordinator; Stephen Handzel, RN, MS, Assistant Director, Nursing, Noninvasive Cardiology; Melissa Goldstein, RN “Research has shown that by adhering to clinical measures through the Get With The Guidelines quality improvement initiative, we can often see fewer readmissions and lower mortality rates,” added Edlira Tam, DO, associate director of the VAD Program at the Stony Brook University Heart Institute.     More than 6.5 million adults in the United States are living with heart failure. Many heart failure patients can lead a full, enjoyable life when their condition is managed with proper medications or devices and with healthy lifestyle changes.     “Being part of this initiative means that we continuously track our success in meeting evidenced-based clinical guidelines — all with the ultimate goal of delivering optimal outcomes for our patients,” said Hal Skopicki, MD, PhD, co-director, Stony Brook University Heart Institute and the Ambassador Charles A. Gargano Chief of Cardiology.      Michelle Bloom, MD, director, Cardio-Oncology Program and director, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Center at the Stony Brook University Heart Institute, added “Comprehensive care of our heart failure patients requires an entire team including specialized nurses, nurse practitioners, coordinators, physicians and researchers who can not only diagnose advanced cardiology disease but are experts at determining its cause and providing cutting-edge care.”     Stony Brook University Hospital’s Gold Plus Get With The Guidelines®– Heart Failure Quality Achievement Award is significant as it is the highest of six levels of achievement – Gold Plus, Gold, Silver Plus, Silver, Bronze and Participating.

The Career Center’s annual Diversity Recruitment Networking Event attracted a record number of students as well as employers on Nov. 5, providing students a valuable opportunity to build connections with employers who are focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.     “The Career Center has been developing diversity recruitment initiatives and programs for twenty years,” said Director of Employer Engagement and Diversity Recruitment Kimberly Joy Dixon. “That is what makes this event so special, the opportunity for students to connect with companies and organizations who are dedicated to these efforts and who are building a space this generation is excited to work in.”     The event, now in its 14th year, had been traditionally held in person with about 25-30 employers, but the switch to virtual last year — combined with the increased focus on diversity and inclusion among companies and organizations who value diversity —  has led to a dramatic increase in participation. Close to 90 employers took part in the event this year, and all employers who attended have a diversity mission statement and ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts in the workplace and recruiting strategies.             Student attendance for the Diversity Recruitment Panel more than doubled last year’s total, with 157. Companies including Stony Brook University Hospital, Henry Schein, Moody’s, Societe Generale, Amazon, and PSEG spoke about the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and how each of their companies create spaces for conversations around this topic. The panel was co-hosted by several student groups, including ColorStack, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Women in Computer Science (WiCS), C-STEP Club, Society for Women Engineers (SWE), Delta Sigma Pi, Latin American Student Organization (LASO) and Jubilé Latino.     The panel was followed by the Diversity Recruitment Job and Internship Fair, where students met with recruiters from more than 80 companies looking to hire Stony Brook talent; each company attending the fair has demonstrated a commitment to diversity. Students met one-on-one or in group virtual sessions with companies like GEICO, Canon USA, Northwell Health, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Moody’s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and many more.     Angel Velazquez ’22 “had a fantastic experience” attending the event. “I loved how employers were able to communicate how important diversity and inclusion are to them and how different perspectives have helped define their strategies in hiring equitably, and ensuring that their company provides an environment where people from all different backgrounds can be successful.”             “The Diversity Recruitment event opened my eyes to the progress companies are taking to make the workplace more diverse and inclusive,” said Destiny Dialene ’23.     Added Amaya McDonald ’22, “I realized the importance of diversity in the workplace and having an employer who values people’s differences.”     Employers who participated in the recruitment panel explained the importance of diversity to their companies.     “Part of diversity is bringing your whole self to work and being able to be welcomed in the totality of your experience,” said Irene Muldowney of PSEG. “There is a two-fold thing that needs to happen: Absolutely, we want the best of the best out there, that’s why we want to reach as many pools of talent as possible. But the second part of that is, once we get folks in, how do they feel? Are they going to stay? Do they want to stay?”     Added Dave Rodriguez of Henry Shein, “One of the important things is to be curious. Being curious drives learning. If we’re curious in our careers, it will be a healthy, long, successful one.”

The genomic revolution has enabled researchers to assess cell-by-cell genetic variations, but very few techniques exist to measure cell-by-cell metabolic variations, a more powerful way to understand cell responses to changing environmental conditions. Researchers from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), led by Professor Gordon T. Taylor, demonstrated that Raman microspectroscopy can accurately measure cell-by-cell variations in growth rates of the bacterium E. coli grown in a broth medium. They validated the Raman-based technique against independent traditional population-based spectroscopic and mass spectrometric measurements.     This montage, which is displayed on the cover of “Applied and Environmental Biology,” shows a bacterial cell population by way of a Raman microspectrophotometer and a measurement assimilation of carbon-13 of the population’s proteins. Detection of the carbon-13 enrichment in individual bacterial cells helps to calculate microbial growth rates at the single-cell level. Credit: T. Zaliznyak “The technique emerging from our laboratory can be applied to the study of free-living and host-associated microbiomes, which could prove crucial in understanding more about their functional responses to stressors,” said Taylor, director of the NAno Raman Molecular Laboratory (NARMIL) at SoMAS. “We also believe this is an enabling technology to examine individuality in cell populations and could have broad applications in microbiology, cell biology and biomedicine.”     Details of the technique and results are published in the American Society of Microbiology’s Applied and Environmental Microbiology. A visual of the technique is also highlighted on the cover of the journal edition.

As a crescent moon rose above the campus on November 8, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) at Stony Brook hosted its fourth annual Light the Brook event, continuing a tradition of lighting the Academic Mall as the fall semester winds down.     On a stage set by the fountain, several student and university leaders addressed a large group of attendees who were treated to brownies and hot chocolate, all gathered to celebrate the Seawolf community.     Light the night group All photos by John Griffin Anne Green ‘22, an environmental design major in the Honors College and chief of staff of the USG, welcomed the crowd and kicked off the event.     “Light the Brook instills a sense of community and belonging,” she said. “How different this semester has been with the vibrant energy that comes with being back in person. We aim to connect the ties of diversity among the student body and represent how we are all connected every day.”     Stony Brook President Maurie McInnis, accompanied by her Labradoodle, Angus, took the podium next.     “Last year Light the Brook was one of the few in-person events we had,” said President McInnis. “I can’t tell you how great it feels to see so many students gathered here tonight to honor the spirit of Stony Brook. Tonight we celebrate being Seawolves and being together.”     “This is the largest crowd we’ve had since this event began,” added Rick Gatteau, vice president for student affairs. “It’s a pleasure being here with you as we bring life and Stony Brook pride back to campus.”     USG President Manjot Singh, civil engineering ’22, described the event as “encompassing the essence of Stony Brook at this time of year,” noting that it was expanded this year.     “Light the Brook provides a sense of reflection on how we have all shined and persevered through the last two years,” said Singh. “This year is extremely special, because we expanded it to include a total of 75 trees and light posts throughout the Academic Mall, many more than in previous years. And we included sustainable solar options as well.”     Attendees were also treated to performances by the Stony Brook Vocalists, a co-ed a cappella group; Jubilé Latino, a Latinx-Afro-infused dance team; and the Seawolves Marching Band.     Cheryl Chambers, associate dean of students/director of multicultural affairs, described the event as a time to recognize our diversity and remember all that unites us.     “Tonight is a testament to how the Stony Brook community has endured,” she said. “As we light the brook, we should also remember to be a light to each other.”     — Robert Emproto