Eight from SBU Named SUNY Distinguished Faculty for 2023-24 (2024)

Eight Stony Brook University faculty members have been appointed to the rank of State University of New York (SUNY) Distinguished Faculty by the SUNY Board of Trustees for 2023-2024.

The honored faculty members include:

Distinguished Professor: Daniel Raleigh, professor, Department of Chemistry; Adam Singer, professor and interim chair, Department of Emergency Medicine; and Jacobus Verbaarschots, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Distinguished Service Professor: Joanne Davila, professor and chair, Department of Psychology; Susan Lane, professor and vice chair of education, Department of Medicine; Lawrence Martin, professor and director of the Turkana Basin Institute, Department of Anthropology; and Laszlo Mihaly, professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Distinguished Teaching Professor: Marci Lobel, professor, Department of Psychology.

“This prestigious honor is bestowed upon professionals of the highest caliber. Such recognition is a true testimony to your professionalism, leadership, and commitment to excellence,” said Stony Brook University President Maurie McInnis. “All of us at Stony Brook University are extremely proud of all you have accomplished. On behalf of the entire University community, thank you for your outstanding service to Stony Brook.”

“Appointment to a Distinguished Professorship at the State University of New York is a difficult rank to attain. The selection criteria are rigorous and exacting,” said SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr. “Your dedication to the highest principles of your profession and your continuing contributions to SUNY are a source of pride and inspiration for us all.”

SUNY’s Distinguished Faculty Rank programs encourage ongoing commitment to excellence, kindle intellectual vibrancy, elevate the standards of instruction and enrich contributions to public service. They demonstrate SUNY’s pride and gratitude “for the consummate professionalism, the groundbreaking scholarship, the exceptional instruction and the breadth and significance of service contributions of its faculty.”

The Distinguished Professorship is conferred upon faculty who have achieved national or international prominence and a distinguished reputation within the individual’s chosen field through significant contributions to the research and scholarship, or through artistic performance or achievement in the fine and performing arts.

The Distinguished Service Professorship is conferred upon instructional faculty having achieved a distinguished reputation for service not only to the campus and the university, but also to the community, the State of New York or even the nation, by sustained effort in the application of intellectual skills drawing from the candidate’s scholarly research interests to issues of public concern.

The Distinguished Teaching Professorship is conferred upon instructional faculty for outstanding teaching competence at the graduate, undergraduate or professional levels. Teaching mastery is to be consistently demonstrated over multiple years at the institution where the Distinguished Teaching Professorship is bestowed.

About the Faculty

Joanne Davila has advanced clinical psychology as a scientific discipline and in this work has foreground diversity, equity, and inclusion. Davila led the department’s clinical psychology graduate program for nine years and is currently department chair. She served as Editor of one of the premier journals in clinical psychology, served as president of the Society for the Science of Clinical Psychology and president of the Board of the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System, the accrediting body for science-based doctoral programs. Davila is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the Association for Psychological Science. Davila received a 2018 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service.

Susan Lane, MD, serves as vice chair of Education and director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at the Renaissance School of Medicine, and is an expert in medical education. Lane has dedicated her career to advancing the education of the next generation of physicians as a leader in innovation and health policy for Graduate Medical Education to implement guardrails for future deployment of physicians in training. As chair of the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) Health Policy Committee, Dr. Lane helped to develop GME advocacy materials for the American College of Physicians, leading policy efforts to expand residency slots. Recently elected vice chair of the Board of Directors for the AAIM, Lane is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society Board of Directors.

Marci Lobel is a “pedagogical star,” according to her peer reviewers. In addition to having taught approximately 13,000 undergraduates, Lobel created the innovative Psychology of Women’s Health course, which inspired similar courses at other institutions. A fellow of the American Psychological Association, Lobel was twice acknowledged for her excellence in mentoring. In 2010, she founded the Stony Brook Child Care internship and serves as its faculty sponsor. Founder and leader of the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program, she has received 15 awards for teaching and mentoring, including the department’s Teacher of the Year award (four times) and Stony Brook’s student-nominated Godfrey Excellence in Teaching award (twice). She received a 2020 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Lawrence Martin served as director of International Programs, dean of the Graduate School, and associate provost at Stony Brook. In 2007, along with Richard Leakey, he developed, built, and directed two field stations in northern Kenya. His work at the Turkana Basin Institute (TBI) supports science education and research for over 100 Kenyan and international students in one of the world’s most remote and underserved areas. To date, scholars and students from nearly 100 institutions and more than 25 countries have used the TBI facilities to advance research and education. He has also provided expertise in accreditation and assessment to the National Research Council, the Association of American Universities, and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Laszlo Mihaly served for six years as chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and another six years as graduate program director. He also served as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. As chair, he guided the astronomy section to significant growth and integration with other departmental groups in cosmology and astrophysics, and launched research tracks in accelerator science and physics education. He currently serves as co-chair of Stony Brook’s accreditation review steering committee. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received a 2003 award for Excellence in Teaching and a 2017 award for Excellence in Faculty Service.

Daniel Raleigh is a world leader in the biophysical analysis of protein folding and protein amyloidosis. The unfolded state determines the stability of globular proteins, and the early intermediates in protein aggregation determine the onset and severity of disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and type-2 diabetes. Raleigh has developed new approaches to enhance protein stability and novel methods to study protein folding and aggregation. His team has defined the toxic species produced during pancreatic amyloidosis and has defined a new mechanism of beta-cell death in diabetes. He has designed soluble, bio-active variants of amylin suitable for hormone replacement therapy in diabetes. A member of the National Academy of Inventors, Raleigh also serves as the president of the international Protein Society.

Adam Singer, MD, is an international leader in the management of wounds generated either by burns or by diabetes. Adopted by the Food and Drug Administration for clinical trials, his Wound Evaluation Score and his Stony Brook Cosmetic scale have created metrics for evaluating the size and extent of a wound. His research has led to the approval of novel topical skin adhesives for burns and incisions as well as provided protocol for the rapid and selective debridement for burns and for the prevention of infection. He has developed novel animal models to study wound healing and to grow human skin xenografts on immunodeficient animals. He is well-known for diagnosis of acute, diverse conditions such as acute coronary syndromes, heart failure, and sepsis. Twice named an Outstanding Consultant by the Annals of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Singer received the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s 2011 Excellence in Research award.

Jacobus Verbaarschot is a world expert in theoretical nuclear physics. His research focuses on the development and application of random-matrix theory in quantum many-body systems and in quantum field theoretical models. Random matrix theory describes the fluctuation properties of both chaotic and complex quantum systems, with application systems such as atomic nuclei, quantum dots, and resonant cavities. Verbaarschot derived the VW7 formula for cross-section fluctuations in the statistical theory of nuclear reactors. He also investigates non-perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics, the force that binds protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei. A fellow of the American Physical Society, he has held both the Max-Planck and James H. Simons fellowships. Verbaarschot received a 2020 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.