Stony Brook University’s annual Distinguished Doctoral Colloquium on May 19 brought together faculty, staff, students and family members to celebrate the five recipients of the prestigious President’s Award to Distinguished Doctoral Students. The event offered guests a glimpse into the research being conducted by Stony Brook’s top graduate students.
“This is the most prestigious award we give annually to doctoral students at Stony Brook,” said Celia Marshik, dean of The Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education, as she welcomed guests in the Center for Inclusive Education (CIE). “Through these talks, we celebrate graduate student research and accomplishments writ large.”
This year’s awardees represented a diverse range of disciplines — from biochemistry and chemistry to mathematics, materials science and English — demonstrating the broad impact of Stony Brook’s graduate programs. Each presentation translated research into an accessible introduction for a general audience, providing insights into real-world challenges and the solutions these scholars are advancing.
Marshik noted that all the presenters began their doctoral journeys between Fall 2020 and Fall 2021, amid the global upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They did graduate school backwards and in high heels,” Marshik said, referencing the classic metaphor about Ginger Rogers’ behind-the-scenes brilliance. “They not only overcame the traditional rigors of doctoral study but did so during one of the most uncertain periods in modern history.”
Despite those setbacks, each student completed their degree in six years or less, an achievement that was reflected by the university’s high academic standards and the competitiveness of the President’s Award.
Ian Outhwaite, from the Biochemistry and Structural Biology program, launched the presentations with a glimpse into his research on drug resistance in cancer. In his dissertation, Overcoming On-Target Resistance Mutations in Human Cancers, Outhwaite explored how cancer cells adapt to therapies and how researchers can outmaneuver those adaptations.
He described a scenario familiar to many oncologists: A treatment initially succeeds, only to falter as resistance emerges. “This is something we call kinetic resistance,” he explained. His research revealed that certain mutations allow cancer proteins to remain active despite drug binding, altering the protein’s shape or expelling the drug more quickly.
To combat this, Outhwaite and his team explored how drugs bind and unbind from proteins, designed potential dual-warhead compounds known as bitopic drugs, and worked on personalized medicine approaches that match drug combinations to specific mutations.
“This is a new way of thinking about resistance,” he said. “Even though the drug still binds, the mutation prevents it from doing what it’s supposed to.”
Reflecting on his journey, Outhwaite acknowledged the resilience required of doctoral researchers. “As anyone who works in the sciences knows, basically nothing works the first time,” he said. “There are technical challenges, intellectual challenges, and social challenges. Having a positive attitude and letting yourself make mistakes is key.”
Jason Withorn, from the Department of Chemistry, followed Outhwaite with an explanation of his work on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pathogen notorious for forming drug-resistant biofilms. His dissertation, Characterizing the Role of Heme and Nitric Oxide on Quorum Sensing and Virulence in the Biofilm Forming Pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, provided a new understanding of how biofilms can be disrupted to improve treatment outcomes.
“Biofilms are like jello fruit salads,” Withorn said, describing the sticky, protective matrix that encases bacterial colonies and shields them from antibiotics. His work focused on how nitric oxide (NO), a small gas molecule, can act as a native dispersal signal, prompting bacteria to revert to their mobile, more vulnerable state.
Withorn’s research identified a key regulatory protein, NosP, which may function as a dual sensor for nitric oxide and heme, a common molecule in the human body. This insight allowed his team to map signaling pathways that trigger bacterial dispersion, improving antibiotic access and efficacy.
“We’re hoping that if we can characterize this system, we can mimic these native dispersal signals and eliminate the need for new antibiotics,” he said.
Julia Brown, a PhD graduate from the Department of English, shifted the discussion to the ethics of care. Her dissertation, Flipping the Rx: Power, Performance, and (Health)Care, critiques conventional doctor-patient interactions and the shortcomings of narrative medicine training.
Brown argues that while traditional approaches aim to cultivate empathy through close reading of literature, they often rely on a narrow, predominantly white canon. More importantly, they may not foster the kind of structural awareness needed for equitable care.
“Doctors need to be familiar with theories that make visible the power structures shaping health and healthcare,” she said. “You can suggest someone take off work to heal a broken ankle, but if that person needs to pay their rent and eat, they won’t be able to.”
Drawing from performance theory, relational ethics, and an archive that includes the TV series House, stories from doctors of color, and Angels in America, Brown proposes a training model that emphasizes embodied knowledge, emotion, and patient individuality.
“What I’m arguing for is gradual change,” she said. “Empathy doesn’t have to be the end goal. Sometimes it’s not about imagining what it’s like to be someone else — it’s about feeling with, and really listening.”
The final presenter, Shuting Xiang from the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, discussed her research on single-atom catalysts for CO₂ and CO conversion. Her dissertation, Understanding Structure-Function Relationships in Single-Atom Catalysts for CO₂ and CO Conversion, combined machine learning with spectroscopy to probe the atomic structure of catalysts used to reduce greenhouse gases.
“In order to achieve effective conversion, we’re using single-atom catalysts due to their maximum atom efficiency,” Xiang explained. “Unlike nanoparticles, where most atoms are unused, single-atom catalysts ensure every atom plays a role.”
Xiang emphasized the importance of understanding how catalyst structure changes during reactions. To do this, her team employed in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy and machine learning algorithms to analyze the data and track atomic transformations.
“We can’t understand the structure just by looking at the data — it’s hidden,” she said. “So we apply clustering algorithms and neural networks to extract meaningful insights.”
Her work, already influencing how future catalysts are designed, also reveals the role of engineering in addressing global environmental challenges.
The fifth award recipient, Dylan Galt from the Department of Mathematics, was unable to attend the event to discuss his dissertation entitled A Generalized Connected Sum Construction for Compact Coassociative 4-Folds.
Marshik closed the event by praising the speakers for their ingenuity, persistence and impact.
“We’ve learned about promising new treatments for cancer and drug-resistant infections. We’ve learned how to improve clinical care through ethics. And we’ve learned how to tackle climate change with innovative technologies,” she said. “I’m so excited to see what our speakers today do as they go on. Please hurry up and fix the world for us. It’s so broken, and we really need all of your work.”
— Beth Squire
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