Last year when we reported on the extraordinary $150 Million gift by the Simons Foundation to Stony Brook University (read the blog), we noted that part of the gift was earmarked for new research faculty hires as part of the SUNY 2020 Plan. Indeed the goal is to hire as many as 250 new researchers into the SUNY System by the year 2020--100 at the Stony Brook campus. The first 25 of those positions will be in 5 "clusters," which were recently selected from a larger pool of program proposals in the first round of the University's interdisciplinary faculty cluster hiring initiative. Rather than approving individual faculty members, or even allotting funds to individual departments, SBU is looking at using this unprecedented opportunity to strengthen its interdisciplinary programs through this clustered hiring of faculty who will work within a department but also as part of a larger team.
[Image courtesy of Newspaper.li]
According to Stony Brook Provost Dennis N. Assanis:
“Every proposal we received was thoughtful, strategic and quite frankly, outstanding. The range of proposals funded this year hold great promise for helping us accomplish our teaching and research missions and can make a marked difference to our campus’ intellectual atmosphere. They are aimed at addressing society’s most vexing challenges through the collaboration of natural, life, and social sciences; technology; medicine; humanities; policy; business; and the arts.”
This year the five selected programs that will each hire 5 new faculty members are:
- Behavioral Political Economy
- Biomolecular Imagining
- Coastal Zone Management and Engineering
- Photon Science at the Joint Stony Brook-Brookhaven National Laboratory Photon Science Institute (JPSI)
- Smart Energy Technology
Three of these clusters include strong life science components. The Biomolecular Imaging program is currently recruiting for two structural biologists in tenure-track positions, to be based in the Departments of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacological Sciences, and/or Neurobiology and Behavior as appropriate. The Coastal Zone Management and Engineering cluster will be made up of faculty from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), the Departments of Ecology and Evolution, Geosciences, and Mechanical Engineering. [In the wake of Sandy, we can only imagine that this developing interdisciplinary area will be an important research hub on the hard-hit island.] The Joint Photon Sciences Institute (JPSI) is a collaborative research effort between Stony Brook and the Brookhaven National Lab nearby (see below). JPSI will be hiring faculty with interests in Biochemistry, Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, Geoscience, Material Science, and Mineral Physics to engage in research in materials design and function, energy, and drug design.
[Brookhaven National Lab aerial view, courtesy of their website]
The call for proposals for the next round of the interdisciplinary hiring initiative is already out and winners will be announced in 2013. We'll keep you posted as the 2012 cluster faculty are recruited and brought on board.
Biotechnology Calendar Inc. invites Long Island area biomedical and life science researchers to attend its 8th Annual BioResearch Product Faire™ event held at Stony Brook University to view life science products on campus on October 3, 2013. The event is an excellent place for researchers and suppliers of medical equipment and laboratory tools to meet and discuss the latest advances in technology.
Our Stony Brook BRPF event is the 3th in our big fall line-up of New York Metro Area shows, tentatively scheduled for these dates in 2013:
- 10/01/2013 -- Columbia University BioResearch Product Faire™
- 10/02/2013 -- Rockefeller University BioResearch Product Faire™
- 10/03/2013 -- StonyBrook University BioRearch Product Faire ™
See our full 2013 Nationwide Show Schedule for all other locations.
Click below for information on exhibiting at Stony Brook and a funding report on the university:
