Technology Commercialization Leadership

Stony Brook is the technology commercialization leader of the State University of New York system, accounting for more than 96% of the licensing revenues that placed SUNY 15th nationally in the 2001 fiscal year, the most recent year for which comparative data are available. This marks the 3rd year in a row that SUNY ranked in the top 15, as a result of Stony Brook's returns. The Office of Technology Licensing has been responsible for between 30% and 70% of aggregate invention disclosure, licensing and patenting activity at SUNY's 13 doctorate-granting campuses in each of the last five years. The University is the source of the first two drugs thus far to receive FDA marketing approval from any SUNY campus, ReoPro^TM, which is recommended for the more than 250,000 cardiac angioplasties performed every year in the U.S., and Periostat^TM, the first systemic treatment for periodontal disease, which afflicts more than 25% of all adults.

Mission to Mars

Stony Brook Prof. Scott McLennan, Geosciences, has been selected a Participating Scientist for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission, which is designed to place two mobile scientific laboratories -- Athena Rovers, advanced versions of the very successful Pathfinder Sojourner Rover -- at different locations on the Martian surface early in 2004. The project will require an extended stay at the at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for mission operations during the time the rovers are working on the Martian surface. Prof. McLennan will investigate data on Martian rock and surface deposits to gain insight into the ancient climates of the planet and to contribute to NASA's overarching strategy of Mars exploration: "Follow the Water" -- the search for past life on Mars, understanding past climates and evaluating the planet for human exploration.

Prof. McLennan is Professor of Geochemistry and Chair of the Department of Geosciences at Stony Brook. At the University since 1987, he conducts research into the geochemistry of sedimentary rocks. Since 1998, McLennan's research has focused on employing experimental studies and geochemical data returned from the surface of Mars to understand the nature of the sedimentary processes that have operated on that planet during its history.

Helping Children with HIV/AIDS

Dr. Sharon A. Nachman, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Maternal-Child HIV Program at University Hospital, has received a 5-year, $6 million competitive renewal award from the National Institutes of Child Health and Development (NICHD) to continue her Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trial Unit. Stony Brook thereby provides the only access to federally sponsored HIV/AIDS clinical trials for Long Island's 2.6 million people. In addition to benefiting HIV-infected women, infants, children and adolescents here, this clinical research addresses the accelerating global problem of pediatric HIV/AIDS.

According to the United Nations Joint Program on AIDS, 3.2 million children under the age of 15 are infected with HIV/AIDS, a quarter of whom were infected in 2002 alone; similarly, 19.2 million women are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and a fifth of that total were newly infected in 2002. In the U.S., after years of aggressive education programs and declines in the incidence of HIV, it is a particular concern that more than half of new HIV infections among 13 to19 year-olds reported in 2001 were among females and most young women had acquired the virus through heterosexual intercourse.

Dr. Nachman receives over $1 million of funding annually, to provide HIV care and services, from Federal and State agencies as well as philanthropic and charitable organizations. Because of their weakened immune systems, complications and opportunistic infections represent an acute danger to HIV/AIDS patients; in addition to diseases affecting adults, including tuberculosis, hepatitis and cancer, HIV-infected children are also at risk for severe, potentially life-threatening, forms of the bacterial infections all children get, including conjunctivitis and tonsillitis. Dr. Nachman's national leadership focuses on these issues. She chairs both the Complications of HIV Research Agenda Committee and the Opportunistic Infections Subcommittee for the national Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group (PACTG), a joint effort of NICHD and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), that is the preeminent organization in the world for evaluating pediatric treatments and for developing new approaches to interrupt mother-to-infant HIV/AIDS transmission.

No Place Like a New Home

For more than a decade, Stony Brook has created new opportunities for undergraduate students to stretch their academic talents in collaboration with other students and one-on-one with faculty. Programs already in place include among others the Recognition Award for the Integration of Research and Education (RAIRE), Project WISE, (both of these funded initially by the National Science Foundation), the Honors College, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Research Fellowships, and the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URECA) program. A new opportunity now beckons with the creation of the Undergraduate College of Information and Technology Studies (ITS), the first of a planned series of six thematic colleges. Each college will be based in a residential quad and will offer a comprehensive program under the coordinated leadership of a faculty director, undergraduate college advisors, academic advisors, commuter student staff liaisons, and residence hall directors. The goal of the colleges is to enhance the first-year experience by providing students with a small community within a large campus. Other benefits include special seminars and activities, greater interaction with faculty, collaborative learning, and easy access to University resources.

ITS welcomed about 300 first-year student residents at the beginning of this academic year. In addition to students' regular academic program, the first-year academic curriculum of ITS consists of two one-credit courses designed to ease the transition to Stony Brook and to allow students to get to know facuIty and staff members in the friendly environment of a small class. Students interested in Engineering or Applied Science fields, including both students already admitted directly to a major in the College of Engineering and Applied science and those contemplating a career in these fields, are eligible to become members.

The college helps students to identify their abilities and interests and examine career possibilities for the future. Each student will benefit from individually tailored academic advising from a College Advisor and shared residential housing in Mendelsohn Quad on campus, which is also the home of the Science and Engineering Living Learning Center.

SUNY Recognizes Stony Brook Scholars

During the fall semester, SUNY honored several Stony Brook faculty members for their contributions to scholarship at Chancellor's Research Recognition Award dinners (Humanities) (Science) held in Albany. The dinners are part of a statewide effort to give greater visibility to SUNY research accomplishments and the faculty responsible for them. The faculty members were:

Marie Gelato, Endocrinology, founding Program Director of the NIH-designated General Clinical Research Center, student of the regulation of the Growth Hormone /Insulin-Like Growth Factor Axis especially in critical care, including the metabolic complications of HIV disease; she serves on an AIDS NIH study section and the FDA advisory board for all endocrine and metabolic drugs

Arthur Haas, Music, peerless pedagogue and harpsichordist, member of the Aulos Ensemble, one of the first American "original instrument" ensembles, whose accomplishments over the past three decades have given it pre-eminence in the early music movement, and Musical Assembly, particularly noted for his interpretation of French keyboard music and harpsichord music of the English Restoration

Kenneth Lanzetta, Physics and Astronomy, has pioneered new ways to understand the formation of stars and galaxies at the earliest epoch of the universe; using the Hubble Space Telescope, he and collaborators found that the earliest burst of star formation occurred considerably earlier than previously thought, thus forcing changes in our understanding of the early evolution of structure in the universe

K. Daniel O'Leary, Distinguished Professor, Psychology, a nationally prominent student of the causes, effects, prevention, and treatment of aggression and depression in families and close relationships; recipient of the 1993 Distinguished Scientist Award from the Clinical Division of the American Psychological Association

Miriam Rafailovich, Materials Science and Engineering, Director of the NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center in Polymers at Engineered Interfaces, whose work is leading to the development of new nanocomposite materials, including substrates for tissue engineering, cell culture and proteomics; high temperature composites for space, aviation, and automotive components, and new technologies for nanoscale lithography, microfluids, and molecular sensors

Nancy Tomes, History, prize-winning author whose work seeks to place issues in the history of medicine in their broader socio-cultural context and deepen understanding of the intersections between and among medical history, the popular mind and social policy

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