Emily Behnke is the Director of the GROW (Grants for Research, Opportunity and Workforce) Support Unit at SUNY System Administration. GROW assists SUNY institutions in developing large, multi-investigator, multi-campus proposals in response to funding opportunities. In her previous roles as Director of Sponsored Programs at Empire State University and Assistant Vice President of Clean Energy Programs at SUNY Polytechnic Institute (now part of University at Albany), Ms. Behnke has extensive experience in grant writing and administration (over $100M from federal and state sources), project and personnel management, and financial reporting. Ms. Behnke holds a BA in English and an MBA from the University at Albany.
Heather Hage is Vice President Industry & External Affairs for The Research Foundation for the State University of New York. Devoted to stakeholder engagement and community building through authentic and articulate communication, Heather oversees SUNY RF's external relations, corporate communications, government affairs, technology transfer, and industry-facing business systems, and is managing director of SUNY's Technology Accelerator Fund. A graduate of Hamilton College and Albany Law School, where she was managing editor of the Journal of Science and Technology, Heather's professional background includes media relations, telecommunications, IP management, and corporate finance. An active investor and board member, Heather is the recipient of SUNY RF's 2015 Woman of Excellence award for outstanding service, exemplary support of women in leadership, and a distinguished career.
Jay Barclay is the Research Foundation for SUNY (RF) Operations Manager for SUNY System Administration and Integrated Services Sponsored Programs Operations. He is responsible for oversight of sponsored programs administration. This includes all aspects of pre-award and post-award administration such as proposal development, grant and contract negotiation, award establishment, accounts receivable and cash management, procurement, accounts payable, human resources and payroll, grant reporting, and both internal and external audit. He also serves as the responsible official for conflict of interest management and as the Human Protections Administrator in conjunction with the external Institutional Review Board
Mr. Barclay has over 20 years of experience in finance and administration in both the private and public sectors. In 2003, Mr. Barclay joined the RF as a sponsored programs employee for a portfolio of New York State funded grants and contracts, he served as the Manager of Finance and worked his way into the role of Director of Finance and Administration. In 2008, Mr. Barclay joined the SUNY System Administration Sponsored Programs Office as the Director of Business Operations as well as the role of Principal Investigator for the SUNY Urban Teacher Education Center (SUTEC).
Mr. Barclay earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Union College.
Dr. Meera Sampath is associate vice chancellor for research at the State University of New York where she is responsible for advancing SUNY's system-wide research mission with special focus on AI research, innovation, strategic partnerships, and advocacy. She is also the executive director of the SUNY-IBM AI Research Alliance. Prior to joining SUNY, Meera held various technical and management roles at Xerox Research including vice president of innovation, founding director, Xerox Research Center India, and principal scientist. Meera received her B.E., M.Tech., and Ph.D., all in electrical engineering, from Anna University India, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, respectively. Her current research interests are in socially responsible automation, human–technology collaboration, and the role of technology and education in creating jobs for the AI era. Meera is a recipient of the University of Michigan's Alumni Merit Award and the University's Distinguished Dissertation Award. She holds 15 US patents and is active on a number of education-focused boards.
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Allison Newman works closely with the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic development to advance the SUNY agenda for scientific research and economic development. She provides guidance and assistance in the areas of strategic communications, marketing and priority program implementation.
She previously served as Senior Advisor for External Affairs and Government Relations overseeing communications, messaging and marketing to support the mission and vision of SUNY. She was responsible for advocacy, outreach, and collaboration at the local, state, and federal levels.
She has spent her career in New York State public service and higher education, most recently serving as Associate Vice President of External Relations and Administration at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). During her 15-year tenure at RPI, she also served as Acting Vice President of Strategic Communications and External Relations, Assistant Vice President for Government and Community Relations, and Director of Community Relations. While at RPI, she developed programs and strategies that helped the university stand as a national leader in research and education and developed key partnerships within the community and government to compound the impact of the university's work.
Prior to RPI, she was Director of Corporate Relations for the NYS Higher Education Services Corporation and held multiple positions in the NYS Office of the Governor, serving both Governors Mario Cuomo and George Pataki.
Ms. Newman received her B.A. in economics and legal studies from Wheaton College.
Brian Goldstein joined the New York Small Business Development Center (NYSBDC) in May of 2001 as the coordinator of the Self Employment Assistance Program. After the events of 9/11, Brian was appointed the Coordinator of the NYSBDC disaster recovery efforts in New York City. In 2002, he became the Director of Operations, tasked with oversight of field operations at all regional centers, the NYSBDC MIS Department, and oversaw the design and implementation of the programs data collection system. In addition he oversaw various special programs including the NYC Veterans Service and Assistance program, Entreskills, a program designed to help high school students learn entrepreneurship. After hurricane Sandy in 2012, Brian again coordinated the NYSBDC response to the disaster. In July of 2017, Brian was promoted to State Director for the NYSBDC. Brian has traveled to China leading NYSBDC business delegations fifteen times starting in 2004. Before joining the NYSBDC, Brian was in corporate sales and marketing for various companies and was The Career Services Coordinator at Bryant & Stratton Business Institute. He has a B.S. from SUNY Oneonta in Sociology and a M.P.A. in Public Management and Public Policy from Russell Sage Graduate School.
Dr. Stephen J. Thomas is an infectious diseases physician-scientist at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. He is a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology and serves as Interim Vice President for Research and Director of the Upstate Global Health Institute. His prior Upstate leadership roles include Chief of Infectious Diseases, Chair of Microbiology and Immunology, and President of the Medical Staff.
Before joining Upstate, Dr. Thomas served as a U.S. Army Medical Corps officer at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, concluding as Deputy Commander for Operations. In that role, he helped lead more than 2,100 scientific and support professionals across four continents and an annual operating budget exceeding $300 million.
His work focuses on infectious diseases and biomedical countermeasures. He has led or contributed to vaccine, drug, and biologics programs targeting dengue, Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever, influenza, rabies, chikungunya, Zika, Ebola, MERS-CoV, and opioid use disorder. During COVID-19, he served as global coordinating principal investigator for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine efficacy trial. He earned his MD from Albany Medical College and completed his medical training at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Capital Consortium.
Mark Schmitt, PhD, has served on the Upstate Medical University faculty for over 24 years teaching both medical and graduate study students. Mark earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1985 and a doctorate from Dartmouth College in 1991.
Mark joined the faculty in 1994 as an assistant professor the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, following a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. He was named full professor in 2010 and Dean of the College of Graduate Studies in 2013. As of July of 2018, Mark has also served as Interim Vice-President for Research and Operations Manager for the Research Foundation.
Mark’s externally funded research has focused on the biogenesis and structure of a small non-coding RNA that is part of a ribonucleoprotein complex call RNase MRP. Biologically this work has looked at control of the cell cycle by ribonucleases, and mitochondrial RNA import. He has trained a number of Masters, PhD and postdoctoral students, along with undergraduates in his laboratory. He continues to teach both medical and graduate students.
Dr. Bloomfield brings more than 30 years of experience in research and graduate education to the College and an outstanding record of internationally recognized research on retinal neurophysiology. The NIH (National Institutes of Health), through the NEI (National Eye Institute), has continuously funded his research on retinal amacrine cell function since 1988, as well as other grants from NIH and NSF (National Science Foundation).
Dr. Kesavadas was the founding director of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Health Care Engineering Systems Center (HCESC), the largest endowed center in the University of Illinois system. In the center he managed research, IP and commercialization, data warehouse management (HIPAA), regulatory affairs, IRB and human subject protocols, student exchange, graduate programs, external partnerships, government relations, etc. HCESC has 186 members and affiliates. The Center collaborated and funded research in engineering, social and behavioral sciences, education, applied health sciences, medicine, and veterinary medicine. Twenty research laboratories and institutes, and affiliated hospitals, including Mayo Clinic, are supported through the program. A professor of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a member of the inaugural faculty of the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine, Dr. Kesavadas was named a distinguished University Presidential Executive Leadership Fellow in 2019.
Dr. Kesavadas previously served as a faculty member at the University at Buffalo, where he advanced his research interests in medical robotics, virtual reality/augmented reality in healthcare, manufacturing automation and design of systems.
Dr. Kesavadas received his B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calicut, India in 1985, his M.Tech degree in Aircraft Production Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1987, and his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University in 1995.
Dr. Venu Govindaraju, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, is the founding director of the Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors. He received his Bachelor's degree with honors from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1986, and his Ph.D. from UB in 1992. His research focus is on machine learning and pattern recognition in the domains of Document Image Analysis and Biometrics.
Dr. Govindaraju has co-authored about 400 refereed scientific papers. His seminal work in handwriting recognition was at the core of the first handwritten address interpretation system used by the US Postal Service. He was also the prime technical lead responsible for technology transfer to the Postal Services in US, Australia, and UK. He has been a Principal or Co-Investigator of sponsored projects funded for about 65 million dollars. Dr. Govindaraju has supervised the dissertations of 30 doctoral students. He has served on the editorial boards of premier journals such as the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Biometrics Council Compendium.
Dr. Govindaraju is a Fellow of the ACM (Association of Computing Machinery), IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), the IAPR (International Association of Pattern Recognition), and the SPIE (International Society of Optics and Photonics). He is recipient of the 2004 MIT Global Indus Technovator award and the 2010 IEEE Technical Achievement award.
Dr. Nathaniel Cady is the Interim Vice President for Research and an Empire Innovation Professor at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Cady has active research interests in the development of novel biosensor technologies and biology-inspired nanoelectronics, including novel hardware for neuromorphic computing. He is also the executive director of the SUNY Applied Materials Research Institute (SAMRI) that funds collaborative research efforts between SUNY faculty and industry partner Applied Materials (AMAT). He earned his BA and Ph.D. from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
Dr. John C. Stella serves as Vice President for Research and is a professor in the Department of Sustainable Resources Management at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF). He is also an adjunct professor in Geography at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Public Policy. As VPR, Dr. Stella oversees ESF's sponsored research that tallies more than $18 million in expenditures annually. Since his appointment in 2021, he has worked on new strategic initiatives including faculty research clusters in ESF's core research areas and significantly expanded the recruitment of new research development and sponsored programs staff. He is also strengthening research partnerships with Syracuse University and Upstate Medical University, with whom ESF is creating new research centers and facility sharing agreements. Previously, he served as chair of ESF's Academic Governance Committee on Research from 2019–2021 where he expanded the scope and advisory role of the committee with the VPR's office.
Dr. Stella joined ESF's faculty in 2006. An ecologist by training, his interdisciplinary research encompasses global change in river ecosystems, forest ecohydrology, river and riparian restoration, and tree-ring isotope studies, with more than 55 peer-reviewed publications. He has secured >$7.5 million in collaborative research funding from the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, USDA Forest Service, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the French National Research Agency, among other sponsors. He serves on the boards of The Nature Conservancy - Central and Western New York Chapter and Onondaga Earth Corps, a Syracuse youth development and environmental program.
Prior to his academic career, Dr. Stella worked for nearly a decade in environmental consulting, developing restoration plans for rivers in California. He received his BA from Yale University, and his master's and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in environmental science, policy and management.
Dr. Richard J. Reeder is the Vice President for Research and Operations Manager for the Research Foundation. Dr. Reeder also serves as Associate Vice President for Brookhaven National Laboratory Affairs, acting as Stony Brook's liaison to the nearby DOE laboratory co-managed by Stony Brook University and Battelle Memorial Institute. Prior to these roles, Dr. Reeder participated in the Stony Brook-Battelle team that successfully re-competed the management contract for Brookhaven National Laboratory. He is currently a member of the Brookhaven Science Associates Board of Directors.
Dr. Reeder retains the position of Professor of Geochemistry in the Department of Geosciences, where he served as Chair for 2008-2013. Dr. Reeder's research interests span several areas in geochemistry, including structure and properties of disordered and amorphous solids, chemical behavior of heavy metals in the environment, and bioavailability of contaminants in environmental and remediation settings. He has focused particularly on applications of X-ray scattering and spectroscopy to natural and engineered materials of environmental relevance, making extensive use of synchrotron X-ray facilities at Brookhaven and other national laboratories. Dr. Reeder served as Director of the Center for Environmental Molecular Sciences, supported by the National Science Foundation, which included a partnership with Environmental Sciences at Brookhaven Lab. Dr. Reeder is author of more than 120 peer-reviewed articles. He has been a member of the Stony Brook faculty since 1980.
Bahgat Sammakia, a SUNY distinguished professor of mechanical engineering, is the vice president for research at Binghamton University. He is the founding director of S3IP, a New York State Center of Excellence, and is the director of the Energy-Efficient Electronic Systems Center (ES2) and the Center for Heterogeneous Integration Research in Packaging (CHIRP). Sammakia served as the interim president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute from December 2016 to June 2018.
Sammakia, who holds 21 U.S. patents and has published more than 250 peer-reviewed technical papers, is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the National Academy of Inventors and the IEEE. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Alexandria in Egypt and his master's and doctoral degrees from the University at Buffalo. A former IBM senior technical staff member, Sammakia joined Binghamton University's faculty in 1998.
Sammakia leads the Division of Research, which supports Binghamton University's success as a premier public, nationally recognized institution and leader in transformational research that benefits society. The division promotes and supports excellence in research and scholarly activities and fosters an environment of consciousness and responsibility that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship.
Clean Energy Community of Practice Research Fellow responsibilities include:
Professor Efstathiadis is a SUNY Research Fellow for Clean Energy. In this role, he helps manage the competition and subsequently the award portfolio by sharing technological expertise and advice to the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development. As a professor, he has managed research and development projects in photovoltaics, fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries, cryogenic power electronics, hydrogen production, superconductors, nanoelectronics, sensors and thermoelectrics. He has worked on preparing technology and collaboration plans and cultivated partnerships with industrial partners in several technology areas. He is Involved in technology commercialization through the insertion of nanotechnology innovations in renewable energy including solar technology, fuel cells, power electronics, superconductors, hydrogen and sensors.
Clinical Fellow responsibilities include:
Ms. Watson supports all aspects of clinical research campus and system wide, securing opportunities for collaboration and innovation, instituting best practice, and identifying challenges and corresponding solutions. Previously, Ms. Watson directed Upstate Medical University's Department of Neurology Research enterprise. The department's research portfolio included all major neurological disease presentations. Concurrently, Ms. Watson worked with the international ALS Consortium, working with approximately 150 academic research institutions world-wide, teaching and implementing gold standard clinical research practices and principals, while developing outcome measures for this body of research. Ms. Watsons' research interest is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. She is certified by several credentialing research organizations, and is licensed by the State of NY as a Respiratory Therapist.
Innovation in Graduate Education Research Fellow responsibilities include:
Susan Brennan is a SUNY Research Fellow for Innovation in Gradate Education. She is passionate about graduate education and research. She is particularly interested in uniting policy and practice surrounding issues facing graduate students, including their funding, mental health, professional development, and impacts in the world. As a professor of Cognitive Science in the Department of Psychology, with affiliations in Computer Science and Linguistics, she focuses her research on psycholinguistics, verbal and nonverbal communication, and the human use of technology. She has conducted research at Atari, Apple, and Hewlett Packard Labs on topics including computer-generated caricature, mediated communication, and natural language and speech interfaces. From 2015-2018 she served as Program Director at the National Science Foundation for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program. A first-generation college student, she received her bachelor's degree from Cornell (anthropology), M.S. degree from MIT (from what is now known as the Media Lab), and Ph.D. from Stanford in psychology.
Mary Beth Curtin serves as Assistant Vice President of Strategic Research Initiatives for the Division of Research at Binghamton University. In this role, she supports the Vice President for Research in efforts to enable the successful implementation and execution of the campus research strategy and initiatives as developed by the faculty and senior administration, and in line with the campus road map. Previously she served as founding Associate Director for the University's New York State Center of Excellence in Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging and Administrative Director for the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center in Energy-Smart Electronic Systems. She also served as the University's Director of Federal Relations where she managed research-based legislative initiatives to advance the University's mission and priorities with federal officials, their staff, and related agencies. Mary Beth spent 15 years in the University's office of Sponsored Programs Development advancing to the level of Senior Grand and Contract Administrator. Mary Beth has a Certificate in Government Acquisition and Contracting, a MAT degree in Teaching, a MA in Biological Sciences, and a BA in Biological Sciences, all from Binghamton University. A graduate of the 2016 HERS Wellesley Institute, Mary Beth is a Certified Research Administrator, has served on the Board of Directors of the Binghamton University Alumni Association and is active in the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP).
Katie Keough is the Director of Research Development at Upstate Medical University. She earned her master's in public administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in 2001 and her undergraduate degree from the University at Albany in 1997. She is responsible for supporting research development through seeking funding opportunities, managing internal bridge and pilot grant programs, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, supporting large strategic research initiatives, and facilitating critical communication between investigators, departmental, and central university staff, and collaborating institutions. Ms. Keough has been involved in university research development and administration for over 13 years. In addition to her experience in higher education, she spent over 10 years in the non-profit sector grant writing and administering projects funded by federal, state and local agencies, including national and local foundations. Ms. Keough is the co-chair for the Affiliated Medical Center (AMC) affinity group of the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP).
Nina Maung-Gaona is the Associate Vice President for Research and the Deputy Operations Manager for the Research Foundation at Stony Brook University (SBU). In this role, she oversees strategic research development initiatives, human resources, finance and research administration operations for the Office of the Vice President for Research. Previously she served as the Assistant Dean for Diversity in the Graduate School and Director of the Center for Inclusive Education at SBU. In this capacity, she was PI/PD of numerous NIH and NSF funded programs which focused on workforce development and broadening participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Prior to coming to Stony Brook in 2000, Maung-Gaona worked for the United Nations and was based in various locations around the world supporting humanitarian and development activities. She holds a PhD in Technology, Policy and Innovation, a Master's in Public Administration and Policy and a Bachelor's in Sociology and International Perspectives. She is a proud alumna of two SUNY institutions: Stony Brook University and the University at Albany.
Chitra Rajan is the Associate Vice President for Research Advancement at the University at Buffalo (UB). She joined UB in August 2015. Prior to coming here, she was the Associate Vice President for Research at Iowa State University since 2005. Before coming to Iowa State, she was at the Albany Medical Center in Albany, N.Y., and before that, at Siena College, also in Albany, N.Y. She obtained her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Ottawa, Canada, in 1991.
Rajan's role at UB is to help promote and advance the research mission by helping develop research capabilities across campus in all disciplines. As such, she is involved in many aspects of the university's efforts that help meet this goal: help manage interdisciplinary research centers and institutes (including program reviews); build partnerships and collaborations internally and externally; assist with the preparation and submission of large grant proposals; help administer and implement large funded grants during initial stages; and organize and develop a broad range of professional development and mentoring programs for faculty and students.
Michael Jacobson serves as the Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Research Initiatives for the Division of Research at Binghamton University. In this role, he supports the Vice President for Research in efforts to enable the successful implementation and execution of the campus research strategy and initiatives as developed by the faculty and senior administration, and in line with the campus road map. He previously served as a principal investigator and project director at Binghamton University's Public Archaeology Facility where he helped government agencies and industry clients with cultural resource compliance and strategies for historic preservation. In support of these strategies, he developed community collaborations with descendant communities and other stakeholders to promote community sustainability by recognizing the value of cultural resources. Jacobson holds a doctorate and MA in anthropology from Binghamton University and a BA in anthropology from Fort Lewis College in Colorado. He is active in the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP) and serves on the leadership team of the NSF-funded center Advancing Research Impacts in Society (ARIS).
Professor Satyendra Kumar, Professor of Physics, is Associate Vice President of Research at the University at Albany (UAlbany). In this position, he mentors faculty scholars in their research and extramural funding efforts by teaching proposal writing courses and organizing workshops. He also serves as the Director of UAlbany's Ion Beam Laboratory.
Professor Kumar received his Ph. D. degree in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and completed postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After serving as Senior Physicist at Tektronix, Inc., he joined Kent State University as a physics faculty member.
Professor Kumar served as program director for the Condensed Matter Physics and the Biomaterials programs in the Division of Materials Research of the National Science Foundation. He was awarded the NSF Director's Award for Program Review Excellence in 2007.
He has received several prestigious awards, e.g., for "Best Basic Research leading to Inventions" from the Ministry of Science and Technology of S. Korea, "Innovative Research" from Northeast Ohio Technology Consortium (NORTEC), "Distinguished Award of the Council" by the Akron Council of Engineering and Scientific Societies, and the "Distinguished Scholar Award" of Kent State University. Professor Kumar was elected President of the International Liquid Crystal Society (2004-08). He has served or serves on the editorial boards of J. Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Liquid Crystals, Europhysics Letters, Modern Physics Letters, and Molecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals, among others.
Professor Kumar is an internationally recognized researcher in soft-condensed matter physics that encompass liquid crystals, liquid crystal-polymer composites, nanoparticle-doped liquid crystals, aqueous surfactant/dye solutions, and organized organic photovoltaics. He was a principal investigator in the NSF Science and Technology Center on Advanced Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials at Kent State University. He has published over 225 peer reviewed articles and delivered over 70 plenary, keynote, and invited talks, and 232 contributed presentations at professional conferences. He has edited/authored two books and is named inventor on 14 national and international patents.
Professor Kumar secured over $15 million in extramural grants for his research and participated in securing funding for the construction of three synchrotron x-ray beamlines at the Argonne and Brookhaven National Laboratories.
Dr. Ann Quiroz Gates holds the AT&T Distinguished Professorship and is a Provost Fellow at the University of Texas at El Paso. Gates is the past Chair of the Computer Science Department (2005-2008 and 2012-2020) and Associate VP of Research and Sponsored Projects (2008-2012). She is the Executive Director of the Computing Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI), one of NSF's eight National INCLUDES Alliances that promote the importance of inclusion and equity in advancing innovation and discovery. Formed in 2006 to address the low representation of Hispanics in computing, CAHSI partners with over 60 universities, industry, non-governmental agencies, and other entities from the public and private sector to accelerate change. Because of its evidence-based practices, CAHSI has been nationally recognized by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics as a "Bright Spot in Hispanic Education" in 2015 and has been added to the "What Works" database by Excelencia in Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to Hispanic student success in higher education.
Gates' research areas are software property elicitation and specification, and semantic-enabled technologies. Gates directs the NSF-funded CyberShARE Center of Excellence that advances interdisciplinary education and research. She was a founding member of the NSF Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure and served on the Board of Governors of IEEE-Computer Society 2004-2009. Gates was a member of the Naval Research Advisory Committee (2016-2018), AAAS Board appointed Committee on Opportunities in Science (2014-2017), and past member of the Computer Science Accreditation Board (2011-2013). Gates was a founding member of the Academic Alliance, National Center for Women & Information Technology. She received the 2015 Great Minds in STEM's Education award, the CRA's 2015 A. Nico Habermann Award, the 2010 Anita Borg Institute Social Impact Award, and the 2009 Richard A. Tapia Achievement Award for Scientific Scholarship, Civic Science, and Diversifying Computing. She was named to Hispanic Business magazine's 100 Influential Hispanics in 2006 for her work on the Affinity Research Group model.
Dr. Christini, a Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology, is the author of nearly a hundred peer-reviewed publications and has four issued US patents. He has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2004 and has also received funding from the NSF, the American Heart Association, and various foundations and organizations. He served as the Program Director on two NIH-funded training grants. He has served on multiple NIH and NSF review panels, serves as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Physiology, has served as a referee for more than 30 professional journals, and was elected as the co-Chair of the 2021 Gordon Conference on Cardiac Arrhythmia Mechanisms.
His research group is focused on improving the understanding of, and therapies for, cardiac arrhythmias. They primarily investigate biophysical mechanisms of electrophysiological instabilities and arrhythmia onset, from the subcellular to organ level. Because of the complexity of electrophysiological dynamics (both temporal and spatiotemporal), the team uses a multiscale approach that bridges the gap between physics and biology. Their experiments employ electrophysiological and imaging modalities, primarily at the cellular and tissue levels; they then use the experimental data to inform computational cardiac modeling that scales up from the single cell to the whole organ.
Prior to joining Downstate in June 2020, Dr. Christini was a tenured Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College. At Weill Cornell, he was Vice Dean of the Weill Cornell Graduate School. He also served as Director of the Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Computational Biology & Medicine from its founding in 2003 until 2019, Assistant Dean of Scientific Computing, Vice Chair of Basic Research in the Department of Medicine, and Director of Basic Cardiovascular Research.
Dr. Christini holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and both his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University.
From explorations focused on the development of new treatments and therapeutics to faculty and student-led research driving groundbreaking innovations in health and medicine, Dr. Christini is charged with developing, supporting, and driving strategic research programs at Downstate across a broad spectrum of interests from the basic sciences, to translational research, to clinical trials, to population research and health equity.
Dr. Jeff Cheek was elected President of the Research Foundation for SUNY on March 24, 2016. A researcher and scholar in the area of environmental health, his career spans over 25 years of progressive leadership experience in large public university system research-related operations, research administration and compliance. Dr. Cheek most recently served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Administration at North Carolina State University, where he was responsible for oversight of Sponsored Programs and Regulatory Compliance Services. Previously, he served as Associate Vice Provost for Research Compliance and Operations at University of Washington, where he led the development and implementation of research operations. As RF President, Dr. Cheek plays a key role in shaping SUNY's strategies for advancing research and grant activity. His hands-on interaction with core research business activity, faculty, research administrators and staff, aligns directly with the RF's mission and commitment to grow SUNY research and increase SUNY's impact on solving state, national and global challenges. Dr. Cheek earned his PhD and MS in Public Health from the University of California at Los Angeles and started his career in research serving as Assistant Research Professor, Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology at University of California, Davis.
Jennifer has received both a Masters in History and Public Policy from the University at Albany. Upon completing her graduate education, she worked as Project Staff for the Public Service Workshops Program (PSWP) developing training workshops for NY State Employees. In 2012, Jennifer joined Excelsior College where she worked as an Academic Advisor in the School of Health Sciences before moving to the School of Nursing to serve as the Director of Operations for the Clinical Performance in Nursing Examination (CPNE). Jennifer joined SUNY Poly in May 2019 as the Strategic Programs Lead in the Offices of Research Advancement and Graduate Studies where she supports strategic programs and projects. In the Summer of 2020, she was appointed as Deputy Operations Manager for the RF at SUNY Poly.
Dr. Joshi trained as a biomedical scientist and holds a PhD in Reproductive Biology from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. She received her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Zoology from the University of Pune, India. After two productive postdocs at Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medicine, she switched careers to research administration, accepting the position of Manager, Training Grants and Data Analytics at Weill Cornell Graduate School. In her role as Director of Research Programs Development at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, she oversees all initiatives from the SVPR's office and supports faculty in developing multi-PI grant proposals and institutional training grants.
Bahgat Sammakia, a SUNY distinguished professor of mechanical engineering, is the vice president for research at Binghamton University.
He is the founding director of S3IP, a New York State Center of Excellence, and is the director of the Energy-Efficient Electronic Systems Center (ES2) and the Center for Heterogeneous Integration Research in Packaging (CHIRP). Sammakia served as the interim president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute from December 2016 to June 2018.
Sammakia, who holds 21 U.S. patents and has published more than 250 peer-reviewed technical papers, is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the National Academy of Inventors and the IEEE. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Alexandria in Egypt and his master's and doctoral degrees from the University at Buffalo. A former IBM senior technical staff member, Sammakia joined Binghamton University's faculty in 1998.
Sammakia leads the Division of Research, which supports Binghamton University's success as a premier public, nationally recognized institution and leader in transformational research that benefits society. The division promotes and supports excellence in research and scholarly activities and fosters an environment of consciousness and responsibility that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship.
Dr. Shahedipour-Sandvik joined SUNY System Administration in December of 2020 as provost-in-charge and in May of 2022 was appointed by the Board of Trustees as Senior Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development. Prior to System Administration, Dr. Shahedipour-Sandvik worked at SUNY Polytechnic Institute where she was a professor and interim vice president of research and graduate studies. She will continue her faculty appointment within the nanoscale engineering college.
In the past 17 years, Dr. Shahedipour-Sandvik has secured over $12 million in research funding on federal, state, and industry levels, such as the National Science Foundation, Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, Army Research Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy, the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security, and the NY State research and technology agencies (NYSTAR), among others.
She has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal papers, serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Electronic Materials, and is actively advising five PhD students, having graduated 10 PhD students previously, and supervised multiple master students and postdoctoral fellows. Her research is centered on physics and technology of photonic and electronic devices for lighting, power conversion, and sensing. Dr. Sandvik was appointed the first "Presidential Fellow" with the Research Foundation for SUNY in 2013, SUNY "Provost Fellow" in 2012, and was awarded "NY Governor's 2005 Woman of Excellence" for her professional accomplishment and contribution to the community. She received her Bachelor of Science in physics from Tehran University, and a PhD in solid state physics from the University of Missouri. Prior to joining SUNY Poly, Dr. Shahedipour-Sandvik held a postdoctoral fellowship in materials science and engineering and was a research associate in electrical and computer engineering, both at Northwestern University.
Beth Berlin joined SUNY System Administration as Chief Operating Officer in December 2020. Prior to joining System, Ms. Berlin joined SUNY Empire State College in December 2019 as Executive Vice President for Administration and Chief Operating Officer and was named officer-in-charge in August 2020.
Berlin brings extensive experience in education leadership, having served since 2013 as executive deputy commissioner of NYSED, before being named interim commissioner in 2019. She also previously served as acting commissioner in 2015. In that role, she managed the day-to-day operations of the Education Department, overseeing more than 700 school districts with 3.2 million students.
Berlin provides leadership, coordination, and support as the SUNY system fulfills its critical mission of delivering flexible, individualized, high-quality education for students across our 64 campuses.
Marcus Lambert joined SUNY Downstate in April of 2021 as Associate Vice President for Research Strategy & Operations. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and contact PI of the TRANSlational Program Of health disparities Research Training (TRANSPORT), a $10 million grant from the NIH to form a translational health disparities research program.
Prior to SUNY Downstate, Dr. Lambert was Assistant Dean of Diversity and Student Life at Weill Cornell Graduate School, where he led a $2.4 million NIH-funded Initiative to Maximize Student Development (IMSD) Program to increase the number of Ph.D. students from underrepresented backgrounds. Dr. Lambert received his Ph.D. in biomedical science from NYU Grossman School of Medicine and his B.S. from Howard University. He also holds an M.S. in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research from Weill Cornell Graduate School.
Jennifer Iacabucci joined the Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development in May 2022 as the Director of Strategic Programs and Partnerships and plays a leading role by enhancing strategic initiatives and partnerships through system-wide collaborations to stimulate research, innovation, and economic development programs. Jennifer comes to SUNY System Administration from SUNY Polytechnic where she served as Strategic Program Lead, Assistant VP of Research and Acting Operations Manager for SUNY RF. Prior to her work at Poly, Jennifer served as an academic advisor and director of nursing exam operations at Excelsior College. Jennifer holds a Master of Public Policy from Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University at Albany, a Master of Arts in History from the University at Albany, and a Bachelor of Science in History from SUNY Oneonta.
Bridget Almas joined the Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development in November 2021 as the Director of Data Innovation Strategy and plays a leading role in expanding existing and developing new initiatives to engage researchers, faculty, and students with data, by fostering a culture of entrepreneurship, innovation, and experimentation. Bridget has over 25 years of experience working in the field of software development in commercial, academic, and non-profit environments. Her most recent roles prior to joining SUNY System Administration were as the Director of Product Development at Equeum, a pre-market commercial financial technology software startup; as Executive Director and Software Architect for the non-profit Alpheios Project; and Sr. Software Engineer working on humanities research data infrastructures at Tufts University. She currently serves on the International Technical Advisory Committee of the Biblissima + Digital Humanities project. Bridget has previously been a member of the technical committees of the journal Revue Humanités numériques (Digital Humanities Review) and of the Distributed Text Services organization. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in French Studies from the University at Albany.
Dr. Kevin Gardner is the Vice President for Research at Stony Brook University where he oversees the University's research, innovation, and economic development functions. Stony Brook has a broad and diverse research enterprise and is a key partner in the economic development of Long Island and New York State. Dr. Gardner has extensive leadership experience in building and sustaining collaborations among universities, industries, regional government and Federal agencies that support science and technology, education, and economic development. Stony Brook University has a long tradition of getting new ideas out of the lab and into the world in partnership with the private and public sectors and as new ventures and Gardner is passionate about the role that knowledge creation can play in helping to solve problems and improve our world. In his research he has led several large multi-investigator research studies. He has been PI or Co-PI on over $60 million in awards, published over 100 refereed journal papers and directed over 40 graduate students.
Prior to coming to Stony Brook, Dr. Gardner served as the University of Louisville's executive vice president for research and innovation from 2020 to 2024. Gardner oversaw the university's research enterprise, including industry engagement, innovation, entrepreneurship and the translation of university discoveries to their greatest societal impact.
Dr. Gardner is a professor of civil engineering. Throughout his academic career his research focused on environmental engineering and science, contaminant behavior in the aquatic environment, contaminant release in post-industrial byproducts and wastes, and interdisciplinary sustainability science and engineering. His work focused on mitigating human impact on the natural world and collaborating with the many disciplines and public and private organizations needed to understand problems and develop solutions. Before arriving at UofL in 2020, Gardner spent 20 years at the University of New Hampshire as professor of civil and environmental engineering, center director and ten years in central research leadership, first as director of strategic initiatives and later as vice provost for research.
Dr. Lindi Quackenbush serves as Interim Vice President for Research and is a professor in the Environmental Resources Engineering department at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF).
Dr. Quackenbush has worked at ESF for more than 25 years, serving as ERE Department Chair from 2018–2024. Her research interests cover a range of image processing and remote sensing application areas including forestry-related topics, such as developing tools to support forest classification and invasive species management, urban management subjects including object-oriented algorithms for impervious surface classification and linear feature extraction, and water-focused topics including riparian zone characterization and water quality monitoring.
Dr. Quackenbush received B.Surv. and B.Sci. degrees from The University of Melbourne, Australia in 1994. She moved to the US in 1995 and earned M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in remote sensing and image processing from ESF in 1998 and 2004, respectively. She also spent a year (1993) as an exchange student at the University of Maine in Orono, where she learned to appreciate cold weather. Dr. Quackenbush is a Fellow of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) and chairs the ASPRS Awards Program.
Dr. Quackenbush takes over the leadership of a research program that tallies about $20 million in expenditures annually. In her role, she is responsible for leading, promoting, and driving research programs at ESF, which over the past two years have added faculty clusters in the bioeconomy (carbon cluster), indigenous environmental science, terrestrial ecosystem restoration, water science, and urban sustainability. Additional faculty clusters are planned in data science and nanomaterials science.
Lisa Gilroy is the interim vice president for research at Binghamton University.
Gilroy holds a bachelor's degree as well as a Master of Public Administration from Binghamton University. A certified financial research administrator and certified research administrator, she is a member of the Council on Governmental Relations, the National Council of University Research Administrators and the Society for Research Administrators.
She has worked on campus since 1986, starting in the Small Business Development Center. She joined the sponsored programs office in 1988, eventually rising to director and, later, to associate vice president for research and operations manager for the Research Foundation at Binghamton.
Gilroy's service to the University was recognized with the Council/Foundation Award in 2014 and with the Winifred R. Widmer-Downey Empowerment Award from the Research Foundation in 2019.
Gilroy leads the Division of Research, which supports Binghamton University's success as a premier public, nationally recognized institution and leader in transformational research that benefits society. The division promotes and supports excellence in research and scholarly activities and fosters an environment of consciousness and responsibility that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship.
She and her team embrace the core values of the University: excellence, respect for the individual, integrity, diversity and accountability. The division provides high-quality service and fosters a collegial environment. Its goals include:
Daniel Noon is the Director of Research Development at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). In this role, he works closely with faculty, leadership, and partners to strengthen ESF’s research enterprise through strategic funding development, proposal support, and institutional initiatives. He previously served as Director of Proposals and Awards at ESF, prior to which he spent over a decade in resource and program management at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and later worked in international development managing grants and contracts.
Dr. JoAnne Hewett is a theoretical particle physicist, tenured faculty of the C.N. Yang Institute of Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University. Her research interests include particle physics beyond the Standard Model, dark matter, and hidden dimensions. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Hewett began her career as a postdoctoral associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and next worked as a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory. In 1994 she joined the faculty at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, where she was a professor in the Stanford Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics. She served as associate lab director of the Fundamental Physics Directorate and the chief research officer at SLAC. Hewett served as director of Brookhaven National Laboratory and president of Brookhaven Science Associates from 2023—2025. She has chaired the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel and was a member of the panel in 2004-2006 and again in 2016; in 2006 and 2014, she served on the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel; and she served as chair of the APS Division of Particles and Fields in 2016.
SUNY's strength begins with the thousands of faculty and student interactions that occur every day at each of its 64 institutions. Leading with data-informed strategic planning and decision-making, the Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development (ORIED) works enterprise-wide to expand the reach of SUNY’s world-changing research, scholarship and creative work by fostering university-wide collaborations, building strategic partnerships and advancing an entrepreneurial culture that generates local, regional and statewide economic impact.
The Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development (ORIED) is responsible for designing, directing, and expanding the footprint of SUNY's research, innovation, and economic development activities. Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development (ORIED) provides strategic direction to the Research Foundation for SUNY (RF). The work of the Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development (ORIED) is informed by the Research and Economic Development Committee of the SUNY Board of Trustees which provides oversight to programs seeking to extend the university’s scientific, technological, commercialization, and educational expertise.
The SUNY Research Council serves as an advisory council to the SUNY Board of Trustees, SUNY System Administration, campus leadership teams, and the leadership team of Research Foundation (RF) for SUNY. The Research Council provides deep and broad thinking and advice in research, innovation, and graduate education to SUNY. The work of the Council informs strategic and operational planning at SUNY’s Office of Research and Economic Development and the SUNY RF.
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