External Advisory Board
The purpose of the External Advisory Board is to increase the visibility and awareness of the Chemistry Department, to promote opportunities for its faculty and students, and to provide valuable intellectual support and advice to the Chair.
Four of our most distinguished and successful alumni serve on the Chemistry Department’s External Advisory Board. They are highly regarded and well-respected leaders in their industries who value the importance of a Stony Brook Chemistry education in the 21st century business and research world.
- John N. Bonfiglio, PhD ’80, CEO and interim Board member, Avipero; Executive Board member, Sequella.
- James DiLorenzo, PhD ’67, CEO and Founder, WaveArray; Senior Director, BlackBerry RF, Inc.
- Kevin Koch, BS ’83, Edgewise Therapeutics, OrbiMed
- John Piwinski, BS ’76, JJPiwinski Consulting
-
Ingrid Yin, PhD '02, Co-Founder, Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager, MayTech Global Investments
Members of the External Advisory Board are working together to help the Department strengthen its ties with alumni. They encourage fellow alumni and friends to become engaged in meaningful ways with the Department. They enrich the educational experience for today’s student body by utilizing connections for internships, and sharing real world perspective on the research and education activities of the Department.
John N. Bonfiglio received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1976 while working with Professor Frank Fowler. He received his Ph.D. in 1980 in Organic Chemistry from University of California at San Diego with Professor Michael Garst.. Subsequently, he completed a post doctoral fellowship at the University Of California Berkeley under Professor Bob Bergman.
John started his career with 11 years at Allergan pharmaceuticals completeing his MBA at Pepperdine University in 1992. He spent 3 years at Baxter HealthCare before starting a career in small biotech companies. He rose to the position of CEO at Peregrine Pharmaceuticals where he turned around the financially strapped public company. John has over 30 years’ experience in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry Including over 20 years as a C-level executive in the biotech industry. He is currently a Board member and interim CEO for Avipero , executive Board member for Sequella and recently joined the Board of CoronaVax developing therapeutics for long-term Covid sufferers.
Jim DiLorenzo received his PhD from Stony Brook in 1967 with Robert Schneider, and was a postdoctoral at Yale with Mort Kaplan working on chemical implications of the Mossbauer effect.
He spent 17 years at AT&T's Bell Laboratories, concluding his tenure there as department head of special materials and devices His research at Bell Labs involved Gallium Arsenide a material central to the electronics industry. He is well known for his work on that material. Jim served as Vice President of Research and Development at Microwave Semiconductor Corporation and joined Raytheon in 1989. He served from 1996-1999 as a General Manager of Raytheon Microelectronics, a division of Raytheon Electronics, the commercial electronics group of Raytheon Company. After Raytheon, Jim served as the President of Signal Technology Corporation and as its Chief Operating Officer. He has been Chief Technical Operations Officer at Paratek Microwave, Inc. since June 2009 and served as its President and Chief Executive Officer. He has over 30 years of senior management experience in the semiconductors, military and commercial wireless electronics.
Kevin Koch is a native New Yorker who received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1983 from the State University of New York at Stony Brook with majors in Chemistry and Biochemistry. After working at Ciba-Giegy Corporation in the Chemical Process Research Group, he studied at the University of Rochester where he received a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry working with Professor Andrew S. Kende. He was awarded both the Sherman Clarke and Elon Huntington Hooker Fellowships for his research on the total synthesis of Lankacidin C and oxidative enolate-phenolate couplings.
In 1988, Kevin moved to Pfizer Central Research and held various positions including Project Coordinator for the Cellular Migration and Immunology Teams. In 1995, he joined Amgen Inc. as Associate Director of Medicinal Chemistry as leader for the Protease Inhibitor and New Leads project teams. In 1998, Kevin along with Anthony Piscopio, K.C. Nicolaou and David Snitman founded the venture financed biotechnology company, Array BioPharma. Array became a public company in late 2000 and has grown to a staff of more than 270 professionals, focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of targeted small molecule drugs to treat debilitating and life-threatening diseases. Array has invented and advanced 20 compounds into clinical development for the treatment of cancer, arthritis, pain, diabetes and asthma since inception. In 2013, as many as five, pivotal, phase 3 clinical trials will be initiated with Arrays MEK inhibitors for the treatment of skin, lung, ovarian and thyroid cancers. Kevin was an Array board member from 1998 to 2012 and is the co-author of over 50 publications and 30 patents. He currently holds the position of Director of Drug Discovery at Biogen-Idec.
John J. Piwinski received his B.S. degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1976 while working with Professor Frank Fowler. He subsequently received his Ph.D. in 1980 in Organic Chemistry from Yale University with Professor Frederick Ziegler.
John then joined Revlon Health Care as a Senior Scientist working in the cardiovascular diseases area. In 1983 he moved to Schering-Plough where he worked in the respiratory diseases group. At Schering he held positions of increasing responsibility and eventually oversaw Chemical Research as Vice President from 1999 to 2003 and Group Vice President from 2004 to 2008. In this position he was responsible for overseeing drug discovery in chemistry in Kenilworth, New Jersey in the areas of respiratory, inflammation, cardiovascular, CNS, oncology and infectious diseases. In 2008 he became the Site Head and Group Vice President of Schering-Plough’s Cambridge, Massachusetts site. Research at the site focused on medicinal chemistry, affinity-based screening and optimization, bioNMR, protein science and biologics. Merck acquired Schering-Plough in 2009 and continued to operate the Cambridge site until the end of 2010. He is currently Principal of JJPiwinski Pharma Consulting, LLC in Lebanon, New Jersey and consults in the areas of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery, including small molecule lead discovery and optimization. He has over 30 years of experience in medicinal chemistry from project initiation to delivery of candidates for clinical development.
Ingrid Yin received her Ph.D. from Stony Brook in 2002 under the mentorship of Professor Nicole Sampson.
Ingrid has extensive global investing experience, with specific expertise in identifying investment opportunities in Asia and in healthcare. At the 2018 SupChina Women’s Conference, Ingrid was chosen as the U.S. recipient of the Female Rising Stars Award.
Prior to co-Founding MayTech, Ingrid served as the Managing Director of China Equity Research at Oppenheimer & Co. Previously, she led China research as a Senior Research Analyst at Brean Capital, after as well as an Asian Equity Analyst at Wellington Management, and a global healthcare specialist at Sirios Capital Management and Jefferies Asset Management.
Before her career in finance, Ingrid was a Research Fellow and Senior Research Scientist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Ingrid is a board member of Gilda’s Club. She earned her B.S. from Beijing University, an M.B.A. from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from SUNY Stony Brook.