State University of New York at Stony Brook

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{{Infobox University |name=State University of New York
at Stony Brook |image=Image:StonyBrookUseal.jpg |established=1957 |type=Public |president=Shirley Strum Kenny |city=Stony Brook |state=NY |country=USA |faculty=1,902 |students=22,011 |undergrad=14,287 |campus=Suburban, 1,100 acres (4.5 km²) |free_label= Athletics |free= 16 sports teams |mascot=Seawolf |website= StonyBrook.edu }}

The State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNYSB), also commonly referred to as Stony Brook University (SBU), is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York (about 65 miles east of Manhattan, New York). Stony Brook is one of the four university centers of the State University of New York and has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students.

Stony Brook has been ranked among the top 100 national universities in the United States and among the top 50 public national universities in the country in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. The survey marks the fourth time that Stony Brook has received either worldwide or national recognition in such a poll.

The University tied for 97th in the U.S. News rating of national universities, which the magazine defines as universities that "offer a wide range of undergraduate majors as well as master's and doctoral degrees; many strongly emphasize research." Stony Brook was tied for 45th in the category of top public national universities. Stony Brook's engineering program was tied for 67th for universities whose highest degree offered is a doctorate; the university was one of only 36 cited for its undergraduate research/creative ideas. Stony Brook also ranked 24th in least debt among national universities.

Stony Brook has also been ranked the 136th best university in the world and in the top 50 in North America by The Times Higher Education Supplement; ranked 10th among U.S. public universities by the New York Times; and ranked among the top 150 universities in the world by the Institute for Higher Education in Shanghai.

Stony Brook students are, however, among the "Least Happy Students," according to an unscientific survey done by the Princeton Review, which ranked Stony Brook 4th in the category, behind only the Colorado School of Mines, the United States Coast Guard Academy, and the University of Mary Washington.

1 History
2 Academics
3 The Campus
- 3.1 Branch campuses
  - 3.1.1 Manhattan
  - 3.1.2 Southampton
4 Athletics
5 Notable faculty
6 Notable alumni
7 Notable research and discoveries at Stony Brook
8 Organizations
9 External links

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History

The university was founded in 1957 as the State University College on Long Island with about 100 students enrolled. The first temporary campus was at the William Robertson Coe Planting Fields estate in Oyster Bay. Originally, Stony Brook was a college for preparing secondary school teachers in mathematics and the sciences. Since 1962. the campus has been located on land donated by philanthropist Ward Melville. The original donation consisted of over 400 acres (1.6 km²), but the campus has since grown to about three times that size.

The Stony Brook campus was initially concentrated around what was called G-Quad (now Mendelsohn Quad), and almost all offices were located here. Classes took place in the Humanities building, and some classes were still offered at Oyster Bay. However, the 1960s and 1970s witnessed rapid growth under university president John S. Toll. More buildings were erected on campus, and academic programs and enrollment grew.

During the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War, Stony Brook was a hotbed of activism — so much so that it was given the nickname "Berkeley of the East." The school is also notable for its numerous conflicts with the government of New York State, often over budgetary considerations. One of the better known controversies centers on the University Hospital that now dominates the campus's skyline and how its construction [reportedly] nearly bankrupted the state.

In the 1990s the school underwent a project to revitalize the campus. Numerous buildings were renovated, including the Student Activities Center, as well as each residential quad. More recently, the school has completed construction of a massive Asian-American Center that was funded largely by a donation from Charles Wang. The university also constructed a stadium as well as new apartments for undergraduates. Renovations were recently completed on the original Humanities building, and new apartments continue to be built.

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Academics

The University is divided into numerous schools:

College of Arts and Sciences
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
School of Dental Medicine
College of Business
School of Health Technology and Management
School of Professional Development
Graduate Program in Public Health
School of Medicine
School of Nursing
School of Social Welfare
Harriman School for Management and Policy
Marine Sciences Research Center

Stony Brook is also one of only ten national universities awarded a 1998 National Science Foundation recognition award for integrating research and education. In 2001 it became a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU), an invitation-only organization of the top 62 research universities in the U.S. The University generates $160 million annually in external research funding and has an annual $2.5 billion economic impact on the region. Template:Ref

Several doctoral programs at the university are highly ranked at the national level. Stony Brook co-manages Brookhaven National Laboratory through Brookhaven Science Associates, a 50-50 partnership with Battelle Memorial Institute. This makes Stony Brook one of the few universities that run federal laboratories. Stony Brook is also one of the few public schools in New York to have a medical school and dental school.

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The Campus

Image:StonyBrookUlogo.jpg The main campus is located at the geographic midpoint of Long Island, approximately 60 miles east of New York City and 60 miles west of Montauk. It is split into three portions: West Campus, East Campus, and South Campus.

The West Campus houses the majority of academic buildings and campus housing. It is the location of the original buildings at the Stony Brook site, including Mendelsohn Quad, which now serves as a residential quad. In addition to this quad, there are five other residential quads located on the West Campus, in addition to apartments for both graduates and undergraduates. The residential quads surround the Academic Mall, which contains the academic buildings. The center of the mall is the Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library, and around this building are academic buildings housing the arts, sciences, and engineering departments. The Student Activities Center is the focus of campus life and is located across from the library. The Staller Center sits adjacent to the library and contains the largest movie screen in Long Island's Suffolk County. The Stony Brook Sports Complex holds various facilities for athletics and the largest gym in Suffolk County with a capacity of more than 5,000 people. Behind the Sports Complex sits the Kenneth P. Lavalle Stadium, which seats 8,136.

The East Campus is separated from the West Campus by Nicolls Road. It is home to the State University of New York at Stony Brook Hospital and the Health Sciences Center. The hospital is the largest in Suffolk County, and the attached HSC houses numerous laboratories as well as a medical school. The Chapin Graduate Apartment Complex and the Long Island High Technology Incubator can also be found on the East Campus.

The South Campus is the smallest of the three and is separated from the West Campus by the Ashley Schiff Forest Preserve. It is home to the School of Dental Medicine and the Marine Sciences Research Center.

On November 3, 2005, the University announced that it had formally acquired 246 acres of the adjacent Flowerfield property, originally owned by the Gyrodyne Company of America, through the eminent domain process, three years after the University had expressed its desire to acquire the property. Stony Brook intends to use the property as a research and development campus with the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology, expected to be completed in 2008, as the first anchor research facility.

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Branch campuses

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Manhattan

In 2002 the University established a presence in Manhattan with the opening of "Stony Brook Manhattan." It consists of a small number of classrooms and facilities located on East 28th Street between Park Avenue South and Lexington Avenue.

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Southampton

In the fall of 2005, the University began offering an undergraduate marine sciences program, with teaching and research facilities at the campus of Southampton College, leased from Long Island University, on the east end of Long Island. On March 24, 2006, the University announced a final agreement for the purchase of the 81-acre Southampton College property from Long Island University with the intent to develop it as a full college campus focusing on academic programs related to the environment and sustainability. An enrollment of about 2,000 students is expected within the next five years.

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Athletics

Image:StonyBrookSeawolves.jpg The varsity sports teams are were formerly known as the Patriots, but were renamed and are currently known as the Seawolves. The basketball and volleyball teams play at the Sports Complex, while the football, soccer and lacrosse teams now play at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. There are numerous other fields located in the northern portion of West Campus that are used by the baseball and softball teams, as well as track, tennis and other sports.

Stony Brook joined NCAA Division I in 1999 and competes in the America East Conference with the exception of football which competes at the Division I-AA level in the Northeast Conference. On April 10, 2006, the University announced that the football team will compete as a Division I-AA Independent in 2007.

Recent notable success include the men's soccer team winning the 2005 America East Championship and reaching the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament, and the football team sharing the 2005 Northeast Conference Championship with Central Connecticut State University.

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Notable faculty

This list includes both present and former faculty members.

Jorge Benach, co-discoverer of Lyme Disease. Currently a professor and director of the Stony Brook Center for Infectious Diseases.
William Chittick, Islamologist, currently professor in the Center for India Studies at Stony Brook. [1]
Richard Clark, dermatologist and biomedical engineer, currently a professor in the Health Sciences Center at Stony Brook.
Lawrence Dutton, viola player of the Emerson String Quartet, 1977-present. Presently Artist in Residence in the music department at the Staller Center at Stony Brook.[2]
H. Bentley Glass, Geneticist
Allan Kaprow, developer of Happenings
Donald Kuspit, Noted art critic
Don Ihde, philosopher of science, currently a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Stony Brook.
Masayori Inouye, an early researcher in antisense RNA, was at the time (1984) on the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook [3].
Paul Lauterbur, winner, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine , 2003 for work in MRI in the seventies while he was at Stony Brook [4]
Chen Ning Yang, winner, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1957, shared with Tsung-Dao Lee for their theory on weak nuclear forces and parity, was professor at Stony Brook from 1965 to 1999 and is now emeritus [5]
Michael Kimmel, sociologist, currently professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Stony Brook.
John Milnor Fields Medal winning mathematician (1962), is Director, Institute for Mathematical Sciences at Stony Brook [6]
Shing-Tung Yau Fields Medal winning mathematician (1982), was an assistant professor at Stony Brook from 1972-4.
Louis Simpson Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Stony Brook