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Office of the Provost
HomeAbout CommunicationsDecember 2019 senate report

December 2, 2019: University Senate Report

Office of the Provost

Provost Initiatives and Updates

Stony Brook Foundation Trustees Fellowships

The Stony Brook Foundation Trustees Faculty Fellowship is designed to enhance early careerstage faculty research, scholarship, and art-making. With support from the Offices of the Provost and the President, five Stony Brook Foundation Trustees Faculty Fellows will be selected through a competitive process. Each Fellow will receive a grant of $20,000 to develop a project of creative significance and notable impact. With the resources thus provided, Fellows will have an exceptional opportunity for professional growth and academic development. Fulltime second-term assistant professors are eligible for this award. Nominations are to be made by Deans or Center/Institute Directors. There is no limit to the number of nominations a Dean/Director may submit, but units are strongly encouraged to rank nominees and put forth only the strongest candidates. 

Stony Brook University Receives Over $957,000 in Funding through SUNY PRODiG Faculty Diversity Initiative

Stony Brook University will receive over $957,000 in funding from SUNY over a three-year period to support six faculty members as part of the new SUNY’s new PRODiG (Promoting Recruitment, Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Growth) Faculty Diversity Initiative. The goal of this system-wide initiative is to support SUNY campuses in their efforts to recruit and retain up to 1,000 early-to-mid-career professors from underrepresented groups by 2030.

The inaugural PRODiG recipients are:

    • Natasha Vitek, Assistant Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution
    • Amy Marschilok, Research Professor, Department of Chemistry
    • Ijeoma Opara, Assistant Professor, School of Social Welfare
    • Sara Hamideh, Assistant Professor, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
    • Yifan Sun, Institute for AI-Driven Discovery and Innovation
    • Carrie McDonough, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering.


PRODiG-supported faculty have been invited to attend the PRODiG Cohort Institute on December 3, which is the first event of the 2019 SUNY Diversity Conference in Albany. The 2019 PRODiG Faculty Cohort will convene for a full day of workshops and a welcome reception with SUNY Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson, many SUNY presidents, and members of the Board of Trustees.

Center for Digital Humanities Opens at SBU Libraries

On November 7, Stony Brook University Libraries officially opened its Center for Digital Humanities as a space for research, teaching, and learning in all disciplines related to the practice of the digital humanities. The Center, equipped with advanced hardware and software technology, is an intellectual meeting place for researchers applying digital practices to humanistic inquiry and for those using a humanistic lens to examine questions related to technology in all fields. The establishment of the Stony Brook University Libraries Center for Digital Humanities was funded in part by a gift from the Gladys Brooks Foundation.

SMART Cluster Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Stony Brook University celebrated the opening of its new SMART Cluster (Strategic MachineLearning Acceleration and Ray Tracing Cluster), a dual use GPU Cluster for both machine learning and visualization, in a ribbon cutting ceremony on campus on November 4. The hightech cluster will facilitate powerful AI-enhanced computational capabilities, high-end visual computing and analytics, and acceleration of data-intensive and compute-intensive processes.

The new technology also drives the recently upgraded Reality Deck 2.0, the largest immersive display in the world with 1.5 billion pixels, as well as Silo, a cylindrical immersive stereo display with 0.6 billion pixels. The SMART Cluster is also the first hardware-accelerated raytracing cluster for real-time cinematic quality rendering, allowing scientists, engineers, and physicians to visualize huge amounts of data.

The system could be utilized for a powerful cadre of research endeavors, ranging from climate change simulations to law enforcement. The technology will also enable medical advances, such as virtual colonoscopies so detailed that the computer could potentially detect polyps without human intervention.

Launch of the Journal of Network Music and Arts

Stony Brook University has officially launched the Journal of Network Music and Arts (JONMA), a collaborative effort between Music faculty and Stony Brook University Libraries. JONMA is the first complete peer-reviewed Open Access multi modal journal in the SUNY system. JONMA will publish research by artists, technologists, educators, and related scholars. The journal content will include articles, audio and video documentation, and reviews for books and recordings. Margaret Schedel, Associate Professor of Music, and Sarah Weaver, a graduate of Stony Brook’s Music Composition PhD program, created the Journal. To access JONMA, please visit https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/jonma/.

CAS Hub for Migration and Mobilities

The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) is developing an interdisciplinary Hub for Migration and Mobilities. This Hub is based on existing faculty interests in the global migration of people and ideas. Increasing Stony Brook’s attention to the global migration of people and ideas offers an important avenue for engaging with, and contributing to, communities around the University. The Hub will serve as an umbrella organization for multiple Institutes and Centers within CAS, including the Center for Changing Systems of Power (previously the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities). Dr. Charles Robbins, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Student Success and Dean of the Undergraduate Colleges, has been appointed Executive Director of the redefined Center. In addition to his administrative appointment, Dr. Robbins is a faculty member in the School of Social Welfare. His research and professional work focuses on issues of social justice, gender equality, men and masculinity, higher education and student success and intimate partner violence.