March 5, 2018: University Senate Report

Office of the Provost

Appointment of Paul Shepson as Dean of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences

Appointment of Paul Shepson as Dean of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Paul B. Shepson, the Jonathan Amy Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, and of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, and currently the Division Director for Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences at the National Science Foundation, will become the new Dean of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences on July 2, 2018.

A native of Elmira, Paul Shepson obtained a B.S. in Chemistry from the State University of New York -- College at Cortland, and a Ph.D. in analytical/atmospheric chemistry from Pennsylvania State University. Paul worked for Mobil Oil Corporation in 1982, before moving to a research position in the Atmospheric Sciences Research Laboratory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina), from 1983 to 1987. In 1987, he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at York University in Toronto, where he was also made Director of the York Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry. Seven years later, Paul joined the faculty at Purdue University. For five years, between 2008 and 2013, he was Head of the Purdue Department of Chemistry, and was also the founding Director of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center. Paul’s research group focuses on issues related to the exchange of gases between the surface and the atmosphere in a variety of environments - the Arctic and other coastal marine environments, urban environments, and mid-latitude forests. His research approaches involve the construction of unusual platforms from which to study the atmosphere, including tethered balloons, ice-tethered buoys, and the utilization of his group’s aircraft, the Airborne Laboratory for Atmospheric Research (a Beechcraft Duchess Light Twin). Paul is passionate about understanding and communicating about climate change and its impacts and related constructive problem solving. He is an accomplished aviator with instrument, commercial, and multi-engine ratings. The author and co-author of over 215 scientific publications, Paul is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2015, Paul received the American Chemical Society Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology.

IACS Research Day 2018

The Institute for Advanced Computational Science's (IACS) third annual Research Day will take place on Wednesday, April 4, 2018. Presentations will be made by 2017 IACS Junior Researcher Award Winners Alena Aksenova (Linguistics), Bento Goncalves (Ecology &
Evolution), Maria Barrios Sazo (Physics & Astronomy) and Rathish Das (Computer Science) in addition to a poster session. Lunch will be provided for all attendees. Registration is required to attend.

If you are an IACS faculty member or student and would like to present a poster, please include your poster title on the registration form. Upon review, you will be contacted by IACS for instructions regarding poster setup instructions. Poster printing assistance is available.

Registration deadline and poster files are due Monday, March 26.

For more information, please visit https://www.iacs.stonybrook.edu/event/events/research-day2018

School of Journalism Presents “My Life As” Speaker Series with Gretchen Carlson

Stony Brook’s School of Journalism is pleased to announce their next “My Life As” Speaker Series guest, Gretchen Carlson. On Wednesday, March 7, Carlson will speak at the Student Activities Center Sidney Gelber Auditorium about her successful career as a co-host of “Fox and Friends” and decision to come forward and stand up to sexual harassment at her workplace – an action that helped propel a movement to create change, prompted important conversations, and empowered many others with the confidence to do the same. Carlson’s new book, Be Fierce, a New York Times bestseller, which chronicles her journey, was released in October
2017.

Since 2006, Stony Brook University has welcomed more than 60 prominent journalists from a  variety of different publications. This "My Life As" event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required.

For more information, please visit gretchencarlsonmla.eventbrite.com.

Samir Das Named Chair of the Department of Computer Science

Following a competitive national search, Samir Das, previously Associate Dean for Research for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been appointed Chair of the Department of Computer Science. Das was named interim chair of the Department in August 2017. Previously, he was a division director in the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) as well as the graduate advisor in the Computer Science Department.

Das is a professor in the Department of Computer Science, where he has been a faculty member since joining Stony Brook in 2002. His research interests are in wireless networking and mobile computing, and he has co-authored more than 120 peer-reviewed articles on these topics, mostly with his graduate students. He is a co-author of the widely used AODV protocol used for routing in ad hoc wireless networks. According to Google Scholar, the number of citations to his work exceeds 45,000, making him one of the most cited authors in his area. Das has been a PI or co-PI of extramural research grants and contracts worth more than $14 million since
coming to Stony Brook. He is a past NSF CAREER award winner. He chaired technical program committees of premier conferences in the area of mobile computing and served on the editorial boards of several top journals in computer networking.

On campus, Das undertook several leadership positions playing a leading role in CEWIT from the days of its early planning. He also served as one of its division directors since its inception. In his role as associate dean of research, he helped synergize the college’s research endeavors along several strategic thrust areas, and establish critical proposal development support and new seed funding initiatives