SUNY Board of Trustees Appoints Faculty to Distinguished Ranks

Troy – The State University of New York Board of Trustees approved the appointments of 26 faculty to distinguished ranks – the highest system honors conferred upon SUNY instructional faculty.

 

“SUNY has now conferred its highest faculty honor upon more than 880 current and retired professors from across the system,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. “In doing so, we proudly recognize the extraordinary achievements of our teachers, scholars, and mentors, all of whom serve as stellar examples of SUNY's commitment to excellence."

 

“It is with great pride that we recognize the brilliant scholars and teachers whose service merits one of the SUNY distinguished ranks,” said Board Chairman Carl T. Hayden. “The Board joins with the recipients’ families and campuses in celebrating their academic, service, research, and teaching accomplishments.”

 

Since the program’s inception in 1963, SUNY has appointed 883 faculty to distinguished ranks, as follows, including these most recent appointments: 291 Distinguished Professorships; 266 Distinguished Service Professorships; 323 Distinguished Teaching Professorships; and 3 Distinguished Librarian Professorships. For more information about SUNY’s faculty award program, please click here.

 

The Distinguished Professorship is conferred upon individuals at SUNY’s state-operated campuses who have achieved national or international prominence and a distinguished reputation within the individual’s chosen field. This distinction is attained through significant contributions to the research literature or through artistic performance or achievement in the fine and performing arts. The candidate’s work must be of such character that the individual’s presence will elevate the standards of scholarship of colleagues both within and beyond the individual’s academic field. It must also be of such quality that students and scholars on other SUNY campuses could and do benefit by lectures and seminars or other appropriate presentations the faculty members might bring to them. Appointment constitutes a promotion to SUNY’s highest academic rank and is conferred solely by the SUNY Board of Trustees. The expectation is that individuals so appointed will be accorded such support as is appropriate to the individual’s academic endeavor, consistent with the resources of the campus, including a salary above the mean salary for full professors. Receiving this promotion today are:

 

• Michael D. Berzonsky – SUNY Cortland: During his 40-year career at the SUNY College at Cortland, Professor Berzonsky has distinguished himself internationally as a prolific researcher and scholar in the fields of cognitive psychology and identity styles. He has more than 70 publications in major peer-reviewed journals, has authored two books, and has edited two others.  He serves on seven editorial boards and presents frequently at international and national conferences. His recommenders consider Dr. Berzonsky a pioneer and major contributor to the psychology field, and his research is regarded as precedent-setting. His Identity Style Inventory has been adopted world-wide and has been translated into a host of non-English languages. In 2006, his work was highlighted at a major conference in the Netherlands, “European Conference on the Theory and Measurement of Identity Style.” In 2009, he was the invited to be the keynote speaker for the 18th Conference of Developmental Psychologists, in Wroclaw, Poland. Professor Berzonsky received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities in 2008, as well as the College at Cortland’s Outstanding Achievement in Research Award (2008).

 

• Guyora Binder – University at Buffalo: Professor Binder is recognized as one of the leading legal academics in the United States today. His extraordinary and widely acclaimed body of work as a leading author, thinker, and teacher in the fields of criminal law and law and literature places him at the pinnacle of the academy. Professor Binder is widely acclaimed as a scholar and writer. He has been listed among the "50 Most Prolific Law Professors" in Jalnes Lindgren and Daniel Seltzer’s, "The Most Prolific Law Professors and Faculties," 71 Chicago-Kent Law Review 781 (1996). The sheer volume of substantive and highly quoted articles in the top law reviews in the country is an unequivocal index of the high quality of his work and a mark of academic excellence. He has been rated by successive UB Law students as one of the best and most attentive teachers. Professor Binder has chaired the Appointments Committee seven times.  Currently, he is the chair of the President's Review Board, and was its member from 2001-04.  The totality of Professor Binder's work, teaching, and service is extraordinary.

 

• Tony Conrad – University at Buffalo: Professor Conrad has been an internationally recognized experimental artist for more than 40 years and has produced foundational work in a number of areas. One external evaluator calls Conrad's early experimental film The Flicker “One of the most important experimental films to be produced in the last 60 years.” In music, he was a pioneering force in the development of Minimalism, and this aspect of his work is the subject of an important critical study published last year by ZONE/MIT Press. Another external evaluator calls Professor Conrad "one of the most inspirational and influential figures working today in that elastic zone between experimental music, film and visual arts.” This year, he was an invited artist at the Venice Biennale, and his many other recent performances and exhibitions include Whitney Biennale and the Biennale de Lyon.

 

• James A. Gardner – University at Buffalo: Professor Gardner is one of the most accomplished law professors in the country. Professor Gardner is recognized throughout legal academia as a person who has transformed his field and set the standard for new thinking in the area of state constitutional law. He is highly prolific and has unequivocally demonstrated the highest levels of productivity of anyone at UB Law and beyond. Professor Gardner has published 13 articles in the top 25 most cited law reviews. His works have been cited over a thousand times. He is a frequent commentator in both state and national media on constitutionalism and elections law and has been voted the best teacher in the Law School. Professor Gardner has accomplished these feats even as he carried a full teaching load and, lately, senior administrative posts at the University. He currently occupies the demanding position of Vice Dean for Academics. Professor Gardner also serves as the Director of the Edwin F. Jaeckle Center for State and Local Democracy.  

 

• Michael Kimmel – Stony Brook University: Professor Kimmel is an internationally known figure in the sociological and historical study of gender and masculinity, with an unmatched record as a researcher, teacher, and mentor. He played a pioneering role in developing the now flourishing interdisciplinary study of masculinities and is now perhaps the pre-eminent scholar in that area. Professor Kimmel has written or edited 20 books, published scores of journal articles and chapters and hundreds of reviews and commentaries. He has founded and edited a key journal, delivered keynote addresses at conferences on every continent, and presented expert testimony in a range of judicial settings. Professor Kimmel has become a highly influential public intellectual, whose work continues to have an indelible impact on scholarly trajectories while also shaping policy development and the public understanding of masculinity. He has trained a generation of young scholars and provided institutional and scholarly visibility for the work of a cohort of important gender researchers.

 

• Ronald N. Miles – Binghamton University: Professor Miles is a rare combination of a thinker and innovator with the ability to turn scientific theories into engineering wonders. He has successfully interwoven the fields of neurobiology, mechanics, and acoustics to develop a biomimetic sensor with exceptional directivity for hearing and applications. His work has the ability to improve the quality of life for an estimated 500 million people worldwide who suffer from hearing loss. Dr. Miles’ scholarship includes over on hundred publications in leading journals,, national and international conferences, invited lectures, and workshops. Over the past 11 years, he has received more than $11 million in continuous funding from NIH and another $5 million to date from other federal, state, corporate, and charitable sources. He received the largest, single-principal investigator grant in the history of Binghamton University – $6.5 million from NIH in 2003. He is the recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the University Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Research Foundation Outstanding Inventor, and the Chancellor’s Award for Research in Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

 

• Cristanne Miller – University at Buffalo: Professor Miller began her academic career at Pomona College, a leading liberal arts college where she held the position of W.M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor. She came to UB as the Department Chair of English, one of the largest and most diverse departments in the College of Arts and Sciences. In conjunction with that appointment, she is also the current holder of the Butler Chair and maintains an active and well-respected scholarly oeuvre in American poetry, particularly the work of Emily Dickinson. To date, she has published four books (with two others in process), has generated numerous journal articles and edited compilations, and has been invited to present over 40 scholarly papers during the course of her career. She has served as the reviewer of critical books and poetry for the Library Journal, is the Editor of The Emily Dickinson Journal, and for several years served on the Publication Board for the Modern Languages Association. Professor Miller is a major figure in American Poetry scholarship and has garnered national and international acclaim for her work.

 

• Timothy F. Murphy – University at Buffalo: Professor Murphy is an outstanding physician-scientist. His research, continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1983, focuses on nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis, important pathogens in otitis media (ear infections) and lower respiratory tract infections in children and adults with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). A goal of his work is to develop vaccines to prevent these infections, with specific outer membrane proteins being evaluated as potential vaccine antigens. Dr. Murphy has been honored as the Niagara Frontier Inventor of the Year (1992, 1996, and 1998) for his work in developing vaccines and holds vaccine patents in five countries. In addition, a COPD Study Clinic supported by a grant from the Department of Veteran Affairs has been running continuously since 1994. These studies will enable appropriate therapeutic pharmacological and immunological targeting to treat these infections.

 

• Todd Sacktor – SUNY Downstate: How the brain stores long-term memory is a fundamental question in biology. Professor Sacktor’s lab discovered the first molecular mechanism that maintains long-term memory. This discovery was based upon experiments on a form of synaptic plasticity in the brain, termed Long-Term Potentiation (LTP). Dr. Sacktor showed that the mechanism for maintaining LTP over time involves a unique, persistently active kinase, called Protein kinase Mzeta, a form of PKC discovered in the Sacktor lab. He and colleagues showed that this mechanism not only maintains LTP, but underlies the persistence of long-term memory. As published in Science, inhibiting Protein kinase Mzeta with a drug caused the erasure of memories that had been learned a day, or even a month before. This work on Protein kinase Mzeta and memory was highlighted as one of the ten “Breakthroughs of the Year 2006” by the editors of Science. Recently, in another paper in Science, Professor Sacktor and colleagues showed that increasing Protein kinase Mzeta in the brain enhanced old, faded memories. These results represent a fundamental breakthrough in understanding the biological mechanism of memory storage, with important implications for neurology and psychiatry.

 

• Bahgat G. Sammakia – Binghamton University: Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the New York State Center of Excellence in Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging, Professor Sammakia’s path-breaking and innovative research has principally addressed (i) the thermal management of electronic devices and (ii) electronic systems integration and packaging. The knowledge generated by his work has helped address the enormous challenges posed by increased thermal dissipation for devices that keep shrinking in size, but increasing in thermal capacity and functional capability. Professor Sammakia has published over 150 well-cited articles in peer-reviewed journals and at highly selective conferences. He has co-authored a book and has contributed to seven book chapters. Over the past decade, his research funding has exceeded $30 million and has been provided by federal sources (including NSF, DARPA, NASA, Army Research Labs, and NNSA), industry (including IBM, Corning, Xerox, GE, Analog Devices, and National Semiconductor), and by New York State.  Professor Sammakia holds 14 U.S. patents and has filed over 20 invention disclosures during the past decade. He is an ASME fellow and editor-in-chief of the ASME Transactions Journal of Electronics Packaging. Professor Sammakia has been recognized through numerous awards including the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research, Chancellor’s Promising Inventor’s Award, and the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.

 

• Frank R. Vellutino – University at Albany: Professor Vellutino joined the University at Albany faculty in 1966 and is currently Professor of Educational Psychology and Director of the Child Research and Study Center. Dr. Vellutino is known internationally for his seminal scholarship in the field of reading education and learning disabilities. His research has reframed the ways in which scholars, practitioners, and policy makers think about learning, literacy, and disability. His seminal book, Dyslexia: Theory and Research, is an enduring classic in the field. Professor Vellutino's research has attracted more than $16 million in grants from federal, state, and private sponsors. He also serves frequently as a consultant and advisor to education agencies and organizations. He was recently inducted into the International Reading Association's Hall of Fame in recognition of his substantial contributions over a sustained period. In addition to his scholarship, Professor Vellutino is a valued teacher and mentor at the University at Albany, as well as a dedicated campus citizen.

 

• Shelemyahu Zacks – Binghamton University: Professor Zacks is a celebrated statistician of immense international stature who, quite literally, wrote the book on applied probabilistic statistics. He has influenced his field through his innovative and ground-breaking research. His extensive writing includes several benchmark books and well over 130 research articles in leading mathematical journals. His vast editorial work combined with his superior mentoring of young colleagues and students have had a significant impact on the field of probabilistic statistics that extends well beyond mathematics. Zack’s research is of extraordinary breadth and depth. It sparks with brilliance and originality, pioneering, and shaping new fields of research, while advancing and profoundly impacting many others. Examples are design of experiments, statistical inference, Bayesian analysis, sampling from finite populations, predictive analysis, sequential analysis, reliability, and applied probability. He has applied his strong theoretical background to a variety of real-world problems, creating new methodologies in such diverse fields as quality control in industrial settings, stochastic control of production processes, reliability issues in engineering, tracking problems of moving objects, and design and analysis of experiments in pharmaceutical and medical research.

 

The Distinguished Teaching Professorship recognizes and honors mastery of teaching at the graduate, undergraduate, or professional levels. For this prestigious tribute to be conferred, candidates must have demonstrated consistently superior mastery of teaching, outstanding service to students and commitment to their ongoing intellectual growth, scholarship, and professional growth, and adherence to rigorous academic standards and requirements. Further, to be eligible for nomination, a faculty member must have attained and held the rank of full professor for five years, have completed at least three years of full-time teaching on the nominating campus and10 years of full-time teaching within the SUNY system, and must have regularly carried a full-time teaching load as defined by the campus. Receiving this promotion today are:

 

·         Diane Fine – SUNY Plattsburgh: A member of the SUNY Plattsburgh Art Department since 1988, Professor Fine is known for exceptional teaching, award-winning creative work, and outstanding service to the college and community. Her major areas of scholarly expertise and teaching include printmaking, bookbinding, letterpress, papermaking, and two-dimensional design. She has dedicated herself to introducing students to printmaking and involving undergraduates – both art majors or not – in the world of art and in creative display and exhibition. Her printmaking workshop is the educational center of a creative community that cultivates the sharing of technical information and discoveries. Her collaborative style has resulted in numerous opportunities for her students, including exchange exhibitions with colleges and universities from Montreal to San Francisco. Professor Fine is an accomplished artist whose work has been featured in numerous national and international exhibitions. Her artist books are part of the permanent collections of 56 galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

 

·         John A. Fiorillo – Farmingdale State College: Professor Fiorillo came to Farmingdale State College in 1975 as an Assistant Professor in the Pre-Engineering Technology Department. Realizing his proficiency, five years later he was asked by his Dean and the College President to transfer to the Electrical Engineering Technology Department to aid in the development and growth of that department’s course offerings and the establishment of one of the College’s first baccalaureate degrees. Since that time, he has continued to work diligently to expand upon the mission of the School of Engineering Technology, the College and the University. Having been recognized with a Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1994, as well as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Long Island Region #1 Service Award (the world’s leading non-profit professional association for the advancement of technology with over 375,000 members in more than 160 countries), Dr. Fiorillo has continued to enhance his teaching mastery and deliver high-quality education to all students who, in their own words, are fortunate to have had him for a teacher.

 

·         Kurtis A. Fletcher – SUNY Geneseo: Professor Fletcher is Chair of Physics and Astronomy, and he is an exceptional teacher who has profoundly shaped the lives and careers of scores of students. His department is one of the strongest undergraduate programs in the country, according to the American Institute of Physics. Professor Fletcher has been an essential part of the growth and development of the department, especially through the recruitment and retention of majors attracted by his exciting teaching, careful mentoring, commitment to undergraduate research, and his talent for encouraging students to achieve at the highest levels. Professor Fletcher’s ability to make the complexities of a notoriously difficult field accessible to a wide variety of students is one of his greatest gifts. But equally as important as his connection to students through his discipline is his commitment to their personal growth and well-being. And this extends beyond his college students: he is leading an interdisciplinary multi-year project to make science accessible and engaging to middle school girls with an aim to increasing the number of women in science.

 

·         Lisa Ruth Merlin – SUNY Downstate: Professor Merlin joined the faculty in the Departments of Neurology and Physiology/Pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 1990 after completing medical school, residency training, and a research fellowship at Downstate. In recognition of her outstanding and innovative efforts in teaching at every level of the medical center, Dr. Merlin was appointed Vice Chair for Education in the Department of Neurology. As the consummate teacher, mentor, and role model, Dr. Merlin has left her mark on neuroscience courses ranging from the second year medical school Nervous System and Psychopathology Block, the third year Neurology clinical clerkship, the elective Scientific Basis of Neurology course, the Neurology Residency Program, and the graduate school Ph.D. program. Her unique contribution in the laboratory to the understanding of the role of metabotropic glutamate receptors in epilepsy have also served to enhance her role as a mentor and role model. She is that increasingly rare phenomena: a “Triple Threat." Professor Merlin has been recognized on a local, state-wide, and national level for her excellence as an educator. She received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2004, the Outstanding Educator of the Year of the Pre-Clinical Faculty 2008-2009 from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, the Distinguished Neurology Teacher Award from the American Neurological Association in 2009, and the Neurology Master Teacher Award from the COM Alumni Association, SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 2011.

 

·         James Pitarresi – Binghamton University: Professor Pitarresi joined the faculty at Binghamton University in 1988 and has demonstrated teaching excellence in essentially every form that teaching can take. He has excelled in teaching lower division courses, advanced undergraduate and graduate courses, and in mentoring professional engineers and faculty. Professor Pitarresi has a natural ability to connect with his students, which is reflected not just by the truly outstanding teaching evaluations achieved throughout his career but also by the respect he has earned from colleagues in engineering both within and beyond Binghamton University. His dedication and skill are surpassed only by his ardent commitment to preparing innovative and enthusiastic lectures and the manner in which he devotes extensive out-of-classroom time to teach and mentor his students. 

 

·         John Wadach – Monroe Community College: Professor Wadach’s innovations and leadership skills have propelled Monroe Community College’s (MCC) engineering sciences program to unprecedented success in enrollment, national competitions, and transferability. His influence as a professor and his tenure as chair of the department doubled enrollment, revitalized engineering advisement, and brought national recognition to the program. His students are seven-time TYESA Design State Champions and four-time ASEE Design National Champions, and excel after transfer at prestigious universities. Professor Wadach’s innovations in course development thoroughly restructured the engineering science curriculum at MCC. He anticipated weaknesses in MCC’s engineering graphics and electronic engineering courses, introduced state-of-the-art software packages, and initiated cross-departmental collaborations to modernize the curriculum and provide interdisciplinary training for students. Anticipating developments in the field, Professor Wadach created a curriculum that heralded advances at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), one of MCC’s main transfer institutions. Professor Wadach is a model teacher and advisor who lives, it might seem, for his students.

 

The Distinguished Service Professorship is conferred upon instructional faculty at SUNY’s state-operated and community colleges who have achieved a notable reputation for extraordinary service not only to the campus and to SUNY, but also to the community, the State of New York and/or even the nation, by sustained effort in the application of intellectual skills drawing from the candidate’s scholarly and research interests to issues of public concern. Further, many candidates for appointment have rendered influential service contributing at the international level. To be eligible for the nomination, service must exceed the work generally considered to be a part of a candidate’s basic professional work (professional committees, etc.) and should include service that exceeds that for which professors are normally compensated. More importantly, the service must extend over multiple years. Receiving this appointment today are:

 

• Jack A. DeHovitz – SUNY Downstate: Professor DeHovitz is a physician with a tremendous drive to succeed, but an equally strong desire to help others be successful as well. A leader in the field of AIDS early in the epidemic, he continues to occupy a position at the forefront of AIDS research, care, and policy today. A key liaison between Downstate and the problems of HIV around the world, his highly successful Fogarty fellowship program’s influence has been felt from the old Soviet Republics, to Eastern Europe and into Africa and Haiti. He has been a leader in the evolution of clinical care, as a member of initial committee established by the State of New York to develop statewide standards of HIV care. He runs one of the busiest AIDS clinics in the state, providing inpatient and outpatient care through a state-of-the-art medical home. Many individuals have been the recipients of his guidance at critical junctures in their lives and their careers. He has drawn individuals from an array of disciplines and continents into his orbit and has made them the beneficiaries of his energy, example, dedication, and advice.

 

• John W. Frazier – Binghamton University: A recipient of the Chancellors Award for Excellence in Faculty Service in 2009-2010, Professor Frazier has been a stalwart leader of Geography at Binghamton University since 1976. During his four decades at the University, his record of service within the Geography Department and more broadly across campus are unparalleled. Major themes that have emerged from his case include pioneer, promotion of diversity, leadership/ transformative/charting new directions, and an applied practitioner, as well as many references to his service to local planning agencies, industry, government, and community organizations. At a national level, Professor Frazier taught HUD's leadership and field offices how to use geographical analysis and tools and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to evaluate affordable housing and fair housing practices in minority neighborhoods. In the community, Professor Frazier has received grants and contracts to support graduate students, which also resulted in technical reports that have guided comprehensive planning, housing analysis, and GIS technology for a number of public agencies. Professor Frazier's leadership is unparalleled in promoting diversity through national and international conferences.

 

• Bryan R. Higgins – SUNY Plattsburgh: Throughout his career, Professor Higgins has applied his skills and knowledge as a geographer and planner to academic and administrative projects at SUNY Plattsburgh, in local and regional communities, and in half a dozen other communities in New York State, Minnesota, Canada, and Latin America. Supported by grants from national, state, and local agencies, his work on ecotourism, environmental and recreational issues, and housing and economic development has been of direct use to the communities commissioning and/or collaborating in it. This work has also resulted in more than 30 planning reports and documents and over a dozen academic publications. A leader in SUNY Plattsburgh's Geography Program and Planning Minor, he has also worked tirelessly to increase global awareness among students, faculty and staff, and the community through study abroad and faculty exchange programs, campus and community presentations, and incorporating global topics into the curriculum. Dr. Higgins has long been recognized by colleagues at home and abroad as a concerned and compassionate academic leader who focuses his intellectual and organizational skills on important matters of local, statewide, and global concern.

 

• Ted Schwalbe – SUNY Fredonia: Professor Schwalbe joined the SUNY Fredonia faculty in 1980 and was promoted to Full Professor in 1995. His expertise in the area of International Media forms the core of his extensive service roles. While chairing the Department of Communication for 17 years, he earned the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and created new majors in Public Relations and Journalism. As Coordinator of International Learning, Professor Schwalbe is credited with unsurpassed accomplishments in improving international learning opportunities for students and faculty, including international partnerships with universities in Turkey, India, and Bulgaria. Professor Schwalbe was the founding faculty of the SUNY Model EU press corps and served as president of the WNY/NP Fulbright Association Chapter 1999-2003 and remains a Board member. Professor Schwalbe's international impact is highlighted by four Fulbright Awards (Bulgaria, Swaziland, Hungary, and Namibia), one 2008-2010 U.S. State Department Turkish social issues film grant, and three USIA service grants. The USIA grants focused on public concerns as follows: 1) Albanian independent video journalism, 1984, 2) Southern Africa radio station development, 1996, and 3) Bulgarian radio management, 1997.

 

• Dennis E. Showers – SUNY Geneseo: Professor Showers has provided exceptional service to Geneseo, to the SUNY system, to the field of teacher education, and to national and international voluntary organizations related to science and math. He has made important contributions in support of shared governance at the college level and at the System level, including convening the SUNY campus governance leaders and chairing the University Faculty Senate Governance Committee. Professor Showers was actively involved in organizing the SUNY Urban Teacher Education Center and participated in the SUNY Working Group on Teacher Education Transfer. He has generously served his profession and colleagues by training with two accrediting agencies for teacher education programs, performing site visits, and offering assistance to SUNY campuses preparing for accreditation reviews. His commitment to service extends beyond New York State and even beyond the borders of the U.S. Professor Showers is a regular participant in the International Consortium for Research in Science and Mathematics Education, which disseminates globally the findings of science and math education research, and enables him to assist teachers and students in other countries.

 

• S.N. Sridhar – Stony Brook University: Professor Sridhar has been a member of the faculty at Stony Brook University since 1980. He has conducted extensive research in a number of areas of linguistics.  They include bilingualism, sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, World Englishes (structure and functions of Indian English and other non-native varieties of English), teaching English as second language, descriptive linguistics, theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics, applied linguistics, and the history of linguistics. Professor Sridhar is recognized as the world’s leading authority on the linguistics of Kannada.  His works have been widely reprinted and cited.  He has regularly taught courses in Second Language Acquisition, Bilingualism, Language and Society in South Asia, and Introduction to Indian Civilization and directed graduate research in these and other area. Professor Sridhar has been held research grants from the National Science Foundation and others, and been twice a Senior Faculty Research Fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies. He has been designated Senior/Superior Scholar in the Humanities by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is the cofounder of South Asian Languages Analysis (SALA) which held its 23rd international meeting last year at Stony Brook University. He has been a plenary or keynote speaker at many international conferences, member of editorial board of journals such as World Englishes, and evaluator of several linguistics and Asian language programs, and funding agencies. Professor Sridhar was the founding Director of the Center for India Studies at the Stony Brook University, and served as its Director from 1997-2002 and again is currently Director since 2008. Professor Sridhar also successfully spearheaded the faculty effort for establishment of a new Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at Stony Brook, and serving as its Founding Chair from 2002 - 2008. The department currently teaches over 100 courses per year. Professor Sridhar founded the India Society at Stony Brook in 1989 and served as its President until 1995.
  
  

• Roy Steigbigel – Stony Brook University: Professor of Medicine since 1983, Dr. Steigbigel has demonstrated a sustained and committed effort to public service in education, clinical care, and the pursuit of research excellence over 27 years at Stony Brook University. He has built on his internationally recognized scholarly reputation in HIV/AIDS research to provide long-term, distinguished service extending to residents of Suffolk County, New York State, and the nation. His dedication to scholarship has exceeded professional boundaries, and has greatly enhanced the University reputation and public good.  Sustained, multi-tiered professional service at a local level is evident by establishment of the state-designated AIDS Treatment Center (1985), Rogers HIV Treatment Center in Southampton (1987), and as Founding Director of the HIV Treatment Development Center at Stony Brook in 1985 (attaining more than $8 million of research funding from NIH and industry). Dr. Steigbigel’s research published in highest-impact journals has laid the foundation for greatly improved HIV treatments, professional excellence highlighted by his major advisory role to the county and State Department of Health. He has provided national service to the U.S. Pharmacopeia Expert Advisory Panel on Infectious Diseases, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Veterans Administration Merit Review Board, the American Medical Association, and has served as National Principal Investigator for Merck Research Labs, positions collectively focusing on development and implementation of novel therapeutic strategies for HIV and influenza. 

 

The Distinguished Librarian Professorship is a prestigious tenured University rank that is awarded to librarians whose contributions have been transformational in creating a new information environment by providing access to information, sharing or networking information resources, and fostering information literacy. In extending its "distinguished" ranks to the library faculty, SUNY recognizes the accomplishments of all its faculty and assumes national leadership within the academy by becoming the first university system to so encourage and foster the full potential of the faculty status of librarians. The Distinguished Librarian rank honors and promotes the achievement of personal excellence, groundbreaking professional progress, and wide-ranging benefit to the academic community. This rank parallels the Distinguished Professor rank in terms of expected level of accomplishment and the rarity in awarding the rank. The Distinguished Librarian rank is open to State-operated campuses of the State University of New York. Receiving this appointment is:

 

• Ms. Trudi E. Jacobson – University at Albany: Ms. Jacobson joined the University at Albany library faculty in 1990, and is currently Librarian and Head of User Education Programs for the University Libraries. Ms. Jacobson is known nationally for her seminal scholarship in the field of information literacy instruction. Her nine books and many journal articles serve as a history of the transformation of librarians as agents for the development of critical thinking, research, and lifelong learning skills. Her valuable contributions to that movement are among her most important achievements because of their transformative impact on how academic librarianship is practiced today. Ms. Jacobson is the 2009 recipient of the Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian of the Year, the highest honor conferred by the Instruction Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. In addition to her research, Ms. Jacobson is a valued instructor and colleague at the University at Albany, as well as a dedicated campus and professional citizen.

 

About the State University of New York

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating more than 467,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses with more than 2.5 million alumni around the globe. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu 

 

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