State University of New York at Stony Brook

The State University of New York at Stony Brook, known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island, about 50 mi east of Manhattan. Founded in 1957 and located at its present site since 1962, Stony Brook University is one of the four university centers and is considered a flagship institution of the State University of New York. The main campus is home to more than 24,500 students, and 138,560 alumni. The University is organized by schools and colleges, including the Medical, Dental, Nursing, and Graduate School, and several branch campuses including Stony Brook Manhattan, whose operations were consolidated in 2010, and Stony Brook Southampton, whose operations were reduced to the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences and the MFA Program in Writing and Literature also in 2010. Stony Brook is one of 61 leading research universities in the U.S and joined the American Association of Universities (AAU) in 2001. Stony Brook University Medical Center, completed in 1980, is Suffolk County’s only tertiary hospital and Level 1 Trauma Center, and the only academic medical center in Suffolk County&mdash;larger also than any in Nassau County. The University also co-manages Brookhaven National Labs under a contract under the authority of the U.S. Department of Energy.

History
The university was founded in 1957 as the State University College on Long Island with about 140 students. 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 in Stony Brook on land donated by philanthropist Ward Melville. The original donation consisted of more than 400 acres (1.6 km²), but the campus has since grown to about three times that size. Among the four SUNY University Centers, Stony Brook is the only one that was founded after the SUNY system was established.

The Stony Brook campus was initially concentrated around what was called G-Quad (now Mendelsohn Quad), and almost all offices were located there. 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.

Throughout its first 50 years, Stony Brook has undergone a number of changes in its logo and on how it is named. In 1957, while it was still located in Oyster Bay, it was officially called the State University College of Long Island at Oyster Bay. A year after, it was changed to State University Center on Long Island at Oyster Bay.

When it moved to its present campus in Stony Brook in 1962, it became officially known as the State University of New York at Stony Brook, or SUNY-Stony Brook (SUNY-SB). Another form used in documents was University at Stony Brook (USB) as can be seen in one of the previous logos. Today, the university is known and marketed as Stony Brook University, with the new logo designed by Milton Glaser.

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 completed construction of a massive Charles B. Wang Asian American Center that was funded, in part, by a $52 million donation from Charles Wang. The university constructed Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium for $22 million in 2002. Recently new apartments have been added for undergraduates. Renovations were recently completed on the original Humanities building and existing undergraduate residence halls. New residence halls continue to be built, such as a new hall just completed according to green-building specifications. Recently, a donation of $60 million was made by retired math professor Dr. James Simons for the construction of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics.

Due to its long history as a concert venue, the university was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006.

In 2011, the American Chemical Society designated Stony Brook's Chemistry Department a National Historic Landmark for its development of the MRI under the supervision of Paul Lauterbur.

Although Stony Brook is a state institution, private philanthropy plays an ever-increasing role in the development of the university. Stony Brook's endowment, managed by the Stony Brook Foundation, amounted to more than $95 million in fiscal year 2008/2009; the Foundation manages assets in excess of $235.5 million.

Academics
Stony Brook was one of ten national universities awarded a National Science Foundation recognition award in 1998 for their integration of research and education. In 2001 it became a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an invitation-only organization of the top research universities in the U.S., currently having 62 members. In the last three years two Nobel Prizes were awarded to professors for their work conducted at Stony Brook. The University has an annual $4.65 billion economic impact on the region. Stony Brook co-manages Brookhaven National Laboratory through Brookhaven Science Associates, a 50-50 partnership with Battelle Memorial Institute. Stony Brook is also one of two public schools in New York to have a medical school and a dental school, the other being State University of New York at Buffalo.

Research
The School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) is the SUNY center for marine and atmospheric research, education, and public service. More than 300 graduate and undergraduate students from 16 different nations currently work and study at SoMAS. The School's students study coastal oceanographic processes and atmospheric sciences in a natural and academic setting that offers abundant opportunities for conducting field work, solving real problems in both local and distant environments, and learning to express their opinions in the weekly seminars. The Marine Sciences Research Center, the original institute for marine studies, was incorporated into the new School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SOMAS) on June 15, 2007.

Also, the University co-manages Brookhaven National Laboratory, joining an elite group of universities – including the University of California, University of Chicago, Cornell, MIT, and Princeton University – that run federal laboratories. In the Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering area, some of the research centers of Stony Brook University are the Institute for Mathematical Sciences, the C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the[Nuclear Theory Institute, among others. In the biomedical sciences, Stony Brook houses the Center for Biotechnology and the Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, among many others. In March, 2008, the University received $60 million endowment from James Simons to establish the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics. The Louis and Beatrice Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology was established by a generous gift in 2008 from Dr. Henry Laufer.

In July 2007 Stony Brook won a grant from the Department of Defense to devise ways to prevent terrorists from corrupting computers, and another from the Department of Homeland Security to design a system to detect radiation without triggering false alarms.

The New York Center for Computational Sciences (NYCCS), formed in 2007, is a joint venture of Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Its centerpiece is an 18 rack Blue Gene /L and 2 rack Blue Gene/P massively parallel supercomputer based on the IBM system-on-chip technology, also known as New York Blue Gene supercomputer. In the June 2008 Top 500 supercomputer rankings New York Blue Gene/L was ranked 17th, and Blue Gene/P was ranked 75th. The total peak performance for both Blue Gene/L and Blue Gene/P consists 103.22 teraflops (trillion floating-point calculations per second).

Notable research and discoveries
There have been many notable research projects and important scientific discoveries at Stony Brook.

Admissions
Stony Brook University has become increasingly competitive as a result of an increase in applications to public schools during the recession. In 2010, the University decided to put a cap on admissions effective in 2011 as a result of a budget crisis. In 2010, 40.9% of 27,819 applications were accepted, with 2,700 of those 11,379 accepted students enrolling as freshmen in September.


 * Academic Profile of enrolling freshmen
 * GPA: 88 - 94
 * 38% in top 10th of graduating class
 * 72% in top quarter of graduating class
 * 95% in top half of graduating class

The middle 50% of the 2009 enrolled freshmen had the following score ranges: The average SAT score for the class of 2014 was 1251/1600
 * SAT Math: 590-690
 * SAT Critical Reading: 540-630
 * SAT Writing: 530-630
 * ACT: 25-29

West Campus


Stony Brook is located near the geographic midpoint of Long Island, approximately 50 mi east of Manhattan and 67 mi west of Montauk. Situated south of New York State Route 25A (North Country Road), the Stony Brook campus is divided into three parts: the West Campus, East Campus, and South Campus. The Long Island Rail Road Stony Brook Station is situated along the northern border of the 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. In 2010, the first residence hall at Stony Brook meeting the highest standards for green building design was opened. 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 8,300.

South Campus
The South Campus (Included as part of West 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, the Marine Sciences Research Center, and the Cody Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities.

Research and Development Park
On November 3, 2005, the University announced that it had formally acquired 246 acre of the adjacent Flowerfield property, originally owned by the St. James Gyrodyne Company of America, through eminent domain, three years after the University had expressed its desire to acquire the property.

Stony Brook is using this property as a Research and Development Park, similar to other university-affiliated science parks around the country. The campus will ultimately house ten new buildings. The first building, the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology, was completed in October 2008. Construction for the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center, designed by Flad Architects, commenced in the Summer of 2008 and is open as of spring 2010.

East Campus
The East Campus is separated from the West Campus by Nicolls Road (CR-97). It is home to the Stony Brook University Medical Center. The hospital is the largest in Suffolk County, and the attached Health Sciences Center (HSC) and Basic Science Tower (BST) houses numerous laboratories, the medical school, the nursing school, and numerous Allied Health programs. The Chapin Graduate Apartment Complex and the Long Island High Technology Incubator can also be found on the East Campus.

Manhattan
In 2002, the University established a presence in Manhattan with the opening of Stony Brook Manhattan. The original site was located at 401 Park Avenue South; a newer operation opened in late 2008 in the adjacent building on the third floor of 387 Park Avenue South. The University consolidated operations in 2011 to just the 3rd floor of 387 Park Avenue South, with a classroom entrance around the corner at 101 East 27th Street. The 18000 sqft site allows Stony Brook to offer professional and graduate courses targeted towards students in the city; undergraduate courses are held primarily during the summer and winter sessions. Conferences and special events take place throughout the year.

Southampton
On March 24, 2006, the University completed the purchase of the 81 acre Southampton College (on the east end of Long Island) 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. Stony Brook expanded its original program, started in the fall of 2005, when it offered an undergraduate marine sciences program, with teaching and research facilities at the campus leased from Long Island University. An enrollment of about 2,000 students is expected within the next five years. Professor Martin Schoonen was appointed interim dean of Southampton campus on August 3, 2006, and conservationist Mary Pearl was appointed dean and vice president in March 2009.

As of April 7, 2010, the University has suspended residential programs and transferred sustainability programs to the main campus. The change was prompted by severe state budget cuts. Although the Marine Sciences and Graduate Writing programs are still in session at Southampton, undergraduates have been relocated to the main campus. As a result of the suspension of residential programs, all dining services and retail operations have been suspended by the Faculty Student Association. The old LIU radio station and National Public Radio affiliate continues to operate on the campus leasing its space from Stony Brook University.

SUNY Korea
In May 2009 the SUNY board of trustees granted Dr. Samuel Stanley Jr., authority to conduct negotiation measures towards a partnership campus between Stony Brook and the South Korean government. Stony Brook would be joining other universities in a univerCITY complex, potentially involving other schools such as North Carolina State University, George Mason, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, and Boston University. The campus would be a global university with intentions to offer a diverse learning environment while at the same time stimulating the economy in South Korea. With some financial assistance from the South Korean government students may be able to enroll at the proposed new campus in Songdo, South Korea, as early as fall 2011.

In July 2011, President Samuel Stanley Jr., announced that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in South Korea has approved the establishment of SUNY Korea in Songdo. The campus is expected to begin academic programs in March 2012 with an expected enrollment of 200.

Student Life
Stony Brook has wide variety of student run organizations on campus, which include sororities and fraternities, and a count of almost 300 recognized student clubs and organizations. The Undergraduate Student Government at Stony Brook University is trusted with the responsibility of budgeting the undergraduate student activity fee which funds most student run organizations on campus. Graduate students also pay a graduate student activity fee which is budgeted by the Graduate Student Organization. The campus has three student run newspapers released in a weekly basis: Stony Brook Statesman, Stony Brook Press, and Stony Brook Independent. Stony Brook has its campus wide public radio station, WUSB, which also serves most of Long Island and dedicates programming to Stony Brook athletics and other events on campus. Approximately 50% of the undergraduate population lives in campus with a strong commuter population.

Events
At the start of the fall semester the campus takes part in what is called Chillfest which is a month-long set of events and activities that take place across campus. This is also done in the beginning of the spring semester which involves events like Seawolves Basketball, comedy shows, performances at the Staller Center, and the display of films. Homecoming usually takes place about midway through the college football season which has been gaining popularity in recent years.

One of the more popular events at Stony Brook is the yearly Roth Pond Regatta which often drags dozens of competitors and thousands of attendees composed of students, faculty, staff, and alumni to witness the boat competition. The competition involves groups making boats out of cardboard and tape with the challenge to get across the Roth Pond first without sinking. 2011 marked the first year that the Roth Pond Regatta would be coupled with a concert. The concert was attended at capacity at nearly 4000 individuals and was headlined by Bruno Mars and Janelle Monae.

The Stony Brook Concert Series was revived in the 2010-11 academic year. SBCS brought acts like Jimi Hendrix, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd and many other artists to play on campus in the early years of Stony Brook. Weekly, throughout the academic year on Wednesdays, there is a period of two hours referred to as Campus Life Time in which events often take place in the academic mall for students, and no classes are in session. Among other popular traditions at Stony Brook is the yearly Strawberry Fest in which students gather at the academic mall to enjoy a wide array of strawberry treats combined with live music performances often held in the last week of April at Campus Life time.

RockYoFaceCase series takes place on Mondays every other week in the University Café in which local bands from the regional underground scene are brought to play on campus. The campus also hosts many lectures as part of the Provost Lecture Series. Personalities like Daniel Ellsberg and Ralph Nader have lectured at the university. Other popular events are the Earthstock and Shirley Strum Kenny Students Art Festival, the former promoting environmentally friendly living in a week-long festival with series lectures, displays, and concerts across the Academic Mall. Recently, the Undergraduate Student Government has sponsored a week long Human Vs Zombies game each semester which has proved to be popular at campus with many participants.

The Staller Center for the Arts is home to the Stony Brook Film Festival which takes place yearly in the summer. Also, the Emerson String Quartet, a quartet who also contribute to the Department of Music perform multiple times a year. The Staller Center is funded by a foundation. In front of the Staller Center, the Staller steps serve as a gathering place throughout the spring for many students wishing to socialize.

Marching Band
The Stony Brook University Marching Band was created in 2006 and plays at athletic games and other events. The first public performance was at the September 2006 convocation. The band grew to 70 members the second year and added additional staff. The band traveled to the America East Men's Basketball Tournament in March 2007. By July 2008, the band had reached 100 members. The Stony Brook Marching band first participated in the NYC Columbus Day Parade in 2011.

Athletics
Stony Brook University’s intercollegiate athletics teams, known as the Stony Brook Seawolves, compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level and are members of the America East Conference for all sports with the exception of football which plays in the Football Championship Subdivision's Big South Conference. Historically the team was known as the Patriots while participating at the Division III level. In 1994 Stony Brook initiated a transition to Division I successfully completed by 1999 offering scholarships in a range of sports, it didn’t offer scholarships in football until 2006. Since then, the Seawolves have participated in the NCAA tournament in 16 different occasions across a range of sports and have received numerous conference tournament championships primarily in Baseball, Football, Men’s Lacrosse, Men’s Soccer, and Women’s Cross Country.

Administratively, the athletics department’s budget has seen a rise in expenses under director Jim Fiore from $9 million to slightly over $20 million and widespread support by donations which have led to the construction of a new Student-athlete development center funded by a $1.2 million gift by alumnus Stuart Goldstein, the reconstruction of the new Joe Nathan Field partially funded by a $500,000 donation by alumnus Joe Nathan, a new athletic performance center funded by a $4.3 million donation by alumnus Glenn Dubin, the reconstruction of the University tennis courts, a $3 million reconstruction project for the track and field, a $1.3 million renovation of the Pritchard Gymnasium, and an upcoming $20 million renovation of the Stony Brook University Arena with funds recently unfrozen by the State of New York.

In recent years the Seawolves have had increased success in the field particularly in the 2009-10 athletic season highlighted as one of the best performing season in the history of the University with five conference championships. Led by the football team with a Big South Co-Championship it was followed throughout the year with a string of championships by the Women’s Cross Country team, Men’s Soccer, Baseball, and Men’s Lacrosse who capped their season with a memorable NCAA Quarterfinal run, a first for the program with the largest crowd ever at LaValle stadium. The season also included a regular season championship by the Men’s basketball team falling short of their first NCAA bid but participating in their first ever post-season tournament, the National Invitation Tournament. Baseball captured their first ever win in the NCAA tournament despite being eliminated in the first round. With increased expectations, the 2010-11 athletic season followed up with another football Big South Co-Championship but a failure to capture the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament in a controversial tie-breaker rule that eliminated the team from contention the final day of the season. After increased expectations, the Men’s basketball team participated in their first conference championship game overcoming a season filled with injuries and adversity, the team came close to their first NCAA tournament berth but fell short at the end. The Men’s lacrosse team fell in the Conference championship game in a last second goal ending their 13-4 season short of the NCAA tournament after a quarterfinal run the previous season. The disappointment was followed by the Baseball team after earning a regular season championship with a school-record 41-10 season but were ousted early in the conference tournament. The season was highlighted by another outstanding performance by the Women’s Cross Country team in the NCAA Championship coming out ranked as the seventh best team in the nation.

However, the Seawolves returned to the spotlight in 2011-12 season after an off year. The fall season took the football team to new heights with a record-breaking nine game winning streak which led the team to a 9-4, 6-0 Big South season earning their third consecutive conference championship and first outright followed by an NCAA tournament berth which saw the Seawolves advance to the second round for the first time ever. The season included multiple sellout games at LaValle stadium, a first for the program. Men’s soccer returned to the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years after winning their third America East championship at home but fell in their first round match after penalty shootouts.

Rankings
In August 2008 U.S. News & World Report ranked SBU tied for 45th in the category of top public national universities and for 96th in the U.S. News rating of “best national universities, the only school on Long Island rate in the top 100. Previously in August 2007 U.S. News & World Report, for the sixth time, ranked SBU among the top 100 national universities in the United States and among the top 50 public national universities. The University was tied for 96th in the U.S. News rating of "best national universities," and tied for 45th in the category of "top public national universities." In January 2007 it was ranked 34th best value among the country’s public institutions for in-state students by Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

According to the United States National Research Council Rankings of U.S. doctoral programs, Stony Brook is ranked 40th in the average of nonzero scores, 22nd in Biological Sciences, 38th in Arts and Humanities, 44th in Physical Sciences and Math, and 39th in Social and Behavioral Sciences.

In 2009, Stony Brook was ranked as the 173rd best university in the world by the QS World University Rankings. According to the prestigious 2010 QS World University Rankings, Stony Brook University was ranked 194th moving down 21 positions from 2009. Furthermore, the Russian based the Global University Ranking 2009 placed Stony Brook among top 74-77 universities worldwide.

Stony Brook University is home to 16 of the highest ranked programs in graduate education in the nation, according to US News & World Report’s 2011 "America's Best Graduate Schools." The annual rankings focus on programs in Business, Education, Engineering, Law, and Medicine, and reflect data from surveys of more than 1,500 schools and more than 12,000 graduate programs.

Designated among the top 10 programs were Stony Brook's 4th-ranked Nuclear Physics program under the category of "Physics Specialty"; the 6th-ranked Geometry program categorized as a "Mathematics Specialty"; and the 9th-ranked Clinical Psychology program. The University's graduate program in Topology (categorized as a Mathematics specialty) was ranked 12th; the graduate program in Physics ranked 23rd; the graduate program in Mathematics ranked 24th; Earth Science ranked 34th; Materials Science (categorized as an Engineering specialty) was ranked 37th; the Computer Science graduate program was ranked 44th; and the graduate program in Chemistry ranked 49th.

In addition, the following programs remain in the "Top 50", having been previously ranked by US News & World Report's "America's Best Graduate Schools": Physician Assistant ranked 11th, Nursing-Midwifery ranked 29th, Political Science ranked 33rd, Sociology ranked 41st, Psychology ranked 50th and subspecialty: American Politics ranked 20th. In addition, the philosophy department is considered to be among the top programs in the United States for the study of continental philosophy, particularly in the area of phenomenology. 

The Wall Street Journal ranked Stony Brook University (SUNY) #8 amongst public universities sending students to elite graduate programs. 

The University was also ranked among the top 152 universities in the world by the Institute for Higher Education in Shanghai. It was also ranked among the top 100 universities in North and Latin America, with the Institute grouping it in the category of number 58-77. Joining Stony Brook in that grouping were such institutions as Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and Virginia. In 2001 it became a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an invitation-only organization of the top 61 research universities in the U.S. In 2007, the Princeton Review (not associated with Princeton University) #12 for Diverse Student Population, and is listed as one of the "Best Northeastern Colleges" and "America's Best Value College". The fall 2008 America's Best Colleges ranked by Forbes.com placed Stony Brook at #332.

Stony Brook is one of 40 public and private universities in the U.S. named a “Best Buy” by Fiske Guide to Colleges.

In 2011, U.S. News ranked these graduate programs in the top 50 in the nation:

 Nuclear Physics: 4th Geometry Math: 6th Clinical Psychology: 9th Topology Math: 12th Physician Assistant: 13th Physics: 23rd Nursing-Midwifery: 24th Math: 24th</li> Earth Sciences: 34th</li> Computer Science: 44th</li> Chemistry: 49th</li> </ul>

Notable faculty and alumni
Faculty Awards & Honors

Nobel Prize in Economics

Nobel Prize in Physics

Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Prize in Medicine

Pulitzer Prize

Crafoord Prize

Wolf Prize

Fields Medal

Abel Prize

National Medal of Science

National Medal of Technology

Benjamin Franklin Medal

National Book Critics Circle Award

Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize

Grammy Award

NASA Distinguished Service Medal

Obie Award

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Award

Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists

Fellows of Academic Societies

Fellows of the Royal Society (4)

MacArthur Foundation Fellows (3)

National Academy of Engineering Fellows (3)

National Academy of Sciences Fellows (13)

American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows (12)

Guggenheim Fellows (71)

Fulbright Association Fellows (54)

Sloan Foundation Fellows (41)

Rockefeller Foundation Fellows (11)

Institute of Medicine Members (3)