Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis placed second on Long Island Business News’ List of the Top 25 Most Powerful People in Long Island Education. Four others from Stony Brook made the list as well: Eden Figueroa (#10), associate professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy; Richard Reeder (#11), vice president for research; Jason Trelewicz (#15), associate professor, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering and core faculty of the Institute for Advanced Computational Science; and Richard Gatteau (#17), vice president for student affairs and dean of students.
“We were impressed by the amazing accomplishments achieved by these educators, but also by their incredible ability to pivot in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Joe Dowd, editor and associate publisher of Long Island Business News.
Among President McInnis’ many accomplishments, she was commended for playing a key role in Long Island’s economic development and for inspiring the campus community during the COVID-19 pandemic to work collaboratively using positive reinforcement for observance of coronavirus guidelines. She and the University were recognized by SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, and Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force Deborah Birx as a role model for “doing things right” — stopping the spread of COVID in a challenging university environment while protecting the broader community.
As head of the Quantum Information Sciences & Technology Group at Stony Brook, Professor Figueroa is a scientist and educator who is mapping out the potential of a better and more secure Internet of the future. He is a national expert on quantum physics and at the forefront of quantum internet research.
Under Dr. Reeder’s leadership, Stony Brook’s research expenditures exceeded $260 million last year, and there are more than 2,000 funded research projects and more than 400 unfunded projects. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he assembled a team to safely ramp down research, and when conditions permitted, developed a plan to return more than 1,000 researchers safely to campus in stages.
Professor Trelewicz is an innovator in the field of energy research, specifically focusing on enabling technologies for fusion energy to be realized as a practical, carbon-free source of power. His expertise and research focus on designing and understanding the materials needed to establish fusion energy’s technical and commercial viability.
Dr. Gatteau was instrumental in the creation of the Academic Success Team, an interdisciplinary team representing academic, student affairs and administration. As a result of his leadership, Stony Brook has increased graduation rates 18 percent over the past seven years, which translates into 2,350 more students graduating on time, $32 million saved in tuition fees and $133 million in additional earning capacity.
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