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Brookhaven National Laboratory

Education April 16, 2019

Stony Brook grad students soar in NSF nominations

By GREGORY ZELLER // Stony Brook University dominated the field Tuesday as 18 SUNY graduate students were named candidates for prestigious National Science Foundation fellowships. All told, five State University of New York campuses were represented in this year’s NSF Graduate Research Fellowship nominees. The University at Albany, Binghamton University and the University at Buffalo each posted two nominees, and the SUNY Polytechnic Institute in upstate Oneida County added one. But SBU ruled the SUNY…

Opinion March 12, 2019

Co-creator: U.S. must get back on the Maglev track

By JAMES POWELL // Our 20th century highways are failing us in the 21st century. The American Society of Civil Engineers grades U.S. highways as D-minus, with a cost of $2 trillion just to repair our crumbling bridges and roads, not including money to meet the ever-increasing truck and car traffic, which causes more congestion and delays. Our obsolete highway system doesn’t meet modern transport needs, and is killing us. Forty-thousand persons die annually in…

Newsletters December 14, 2018

No: 365: Electrons, hackathons, gadget gifts and yes, America, there is a climate change

  Golden mettle: Congratulations, dear reader – you’ve reached the 50th Friday of 2018 (go ahead and count, if you don’t believe us) and the end of another busy week of socioeconomic innovation. You are to be commended. It’s Dec. 14 out there, and we have plenty of interesting days to choose from – it’s international Monkey Day and, here in the USA, National Salesperson Day. Because it just sounds so badass: But we’re going…

Technology December 3, 2018

Microscopic imaging for any science? You better ThINC

By GREGORY ZELLER // Stony Brook University is living large at one of the smallest ideas it ever had. If you’re a multinational fragrance company based on Long Island, or a marine scientist studying trace elements in North Shore shellfish populations, or a civil engineer trying to mitigate South Shore coastal erosion in an era of climate change-charged superstorms, you’re likely familiar with SBU’s Thermonuclear & Imaging Nanoscale Characterization Laboratory. Others probably don’t give ThINC…

Awards and Events November 28, 2018

Ten LI scientists earn prestigious AAAS fellowships

By GREGORY ZELLER // Ten Long Island scientists have received a prestigious peer-selected distinction, selected as 2018 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The high honor, a members-only selection by other AAAS members, recognizes “scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications,” according to Stony Brook University, which led the Long Island region with six fellows placed among this year’s 416 total honorees. Two Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory…

Newsletters July 18, 2018

No. 323: Energystics sets sail, the Brookhaven IDA bites down, SBU researchers cash in and Adelphi gets Shiggy with it

Half-full: Welcome to Wednesday, July 18, and the midpoint of another busy week for the Long Island innovation economy. To our readers in Uruguay, a very happy Constitution Day. Intelligent design: Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Intel Corp., founded July 18, 1968, in California. The wrong stuff: And it was July 18, 1938 when Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan landed in Ireland after a 28-hour flight from Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, though his filed…

Newsletters June 8, 2018

No. 313: Takeuchi triumphs, the CPC goes global, the domestic innovations of yesteryear and serenity now (also, Mars has gas)

Don’t know how you did it: But you did it, dear reader – it’s Friday, five more productive work days are in the books and the weekend is upon is. It’s June 8 all over the world (or will be, depending on what time this hits your inbox). And while it’s celebrated on different dates in different countries, it’s Engineer’s Day today in Peru. Please celebrate responsibly. A good day for domestic innovations: Engineers all…

Newsletters May 30, 2018

No. 310: Remaking the Nassau Expressway, recognizing Feinstein’s finest and why your laundry may soon be fungus-fresh

It’s still May? Strange but true, dear reader – Memorial Day is already two days gone and still the month of the emerald and the Crataegus monogyna has another day to go. Which must mean today is Wednesday, May 30 – Parliament Day in Croatia, Mother’s Day in Nicaragua, Indian Arrival Day in Trinidad and Tobago and, here in the States, a sort of midpoint of our shortened workweek. Burning devotion: The Maid of Orleans’…

Economic Development May 10, 2018

Heavy-hitting LI BioMentor Initiative makes it official

By GREGORY ZELLER // A high-octane effort to unite regional bioentrepreneurs with qualified business mentors has formally launched – though the Long Island BioMentor Initiative is already quite busy. The LIBMI officially accepted its first program applications in a “launch event” Thursday morning at the de Seversky Mansion on the New York Institute of Technology’s Old Westbury campus. But the BioMentor Initiative is already a year into a “pilot phase,” according to founding mentor Mark…

Newsletters May 9, 2018

No. 304: The Piano Man ages, the yacht club sets a new course and Feinstein’s codebreakers show some real nerve

Happy National Bike to School Day: And a glorious National School Nurse Day to you, dear readers, part of what we trust is a peaceful and joyous National School Nurse Week. It’s May 9, 2018, and together we’re hurdling the hump of another busy week of Long Island socioeconomic progress. Drawing board: We come to you today on the 264th anniversary of a truly noteworthy innovation – the very first newspaper political cartoon, which appeared…

The Debrief May 3, 2018

Debrief: One year in, NYIT Prez Foley sees LI’s promise

Decades of high-level experience in university-based research and strategic planning, including 10 months at the helm of the New York Institute of Technology, infuse everything Hank Foley says about higher education and its role in the larger socioeconomic scheme. Foley, who succeeded former provost and interim NYIT President Rahmat Shoureshi in June 2017 and was “officially installed” last month, came to New York from the University of Missouri system, where the longtime executive VP (and…

Invention May 1, 2018

SBU science runs wild among 2018 NAI inductees

By GREGORY ZELLER // Innovation abounds among the 15 Stony Brook University faculty members being welcomed today into the National Academy of Inventors. The national academy’s SBU chapter, which debuted in 2016 with an intellectually staggering 30-member opening class, was scheduled to induct 15 new members Tuesday evening during its annual meeting at the university’s Charles B. Wang Center. The latest inductees span a wide range of scientific disciplines, from Dennis Galanakis – an SBU…

Awards and Events April 27, 2018

Top honors for women leading Adelphi, SBU innovation

By GREGORY ZELLER // Two of the top women inside the Long Island innovation economy have earned prestigious national and international honors. Adelphi University President Christine Riordan, the first woman to fill the office and already regarded as a diversity pioneer, has been ranked among the “Top 25 Women in Higher Education” by Diverse Issues in Higher Education, a fairly self-explanatory (and highly influential) online news and resource hub. And Esther Sans Takeuchi, a distinguished…

The Debrief April 13, 2018

Debrief: CSHL’s Whiteley fills shoes, answers needs

A seasoned veteran of scientific- and medical-research commercialization, Andrew Whiteley stepped up this month to take over Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s technology-transfer operations from Teri Willey, who served five years as CSHL’s vice president of business development and technology transfer and is off to her next adventure, running an Indiana-based VC fund. Whiteley, who in 2015 was named the laboratory’s first-ever Executive in Residence, assumes control of a dedicated team focused on licensing, business formation,…

Newsletters April 11, 2018

No. 297: On laboratory funding, adaptive reuses, ‘living’ foods and the Attack of the NASA Space Bees

It’s April 11 out there: And it’s hump day, dear readers, the midpoint of another busy week for the Long Island innovation economy. Put a little spring in your step with this rundown of the Best Songs About Wednesday, as compiled by the list-makers over at Ranker.com. Frozen in time: After departing Southampton, England, a day earlier and making stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, the HMS Titanic steamed into the open Atlantic on…