SleepTalker August 2022

James P. Dilger, PhD

   Dr. Tong Joo (TJ) Gan has stepped down as Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at Stony Brook Medicine to assume the position of Division Head of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Gan joined our department eight years ago as Distinguished Endowed Chair and Professor. Carol A. Gomes, Chief Executive Officer of Stony Brook University Hospital called Dr. Gan "an outstanding leader. He has developed and grown the clinical efforts of the department, expanding its footprint and reach, and greatly enhancing the efficiency and throughput of the operating rooms at Stony Brook University Hospital."

   During Dr. Gan's tenure, the number of peer-reviewed publications doubled to about 50 per year. The average annual number of conference presentations increased from 50 to 70. He maintained a high level of research productivity himself with over 100 publications from 2013 to the present. He encouraged faculty and residents to publish and helped them co-author 20 peer-review articles, 6 editorials and 3 book chapters. He enthusiastically supported basic science research projects in the department so that currently, all of the eight research faculty members had external grant support.

   Ms. Gomes also noted that "among his many other accomplishments, he established a formal faculty mentoring program, a wellness program and a gender and under-represented minorities committee that helped to increase these populations among faculty and staff." Personally, I thank Dr. Gan for his support of our departmental newsletter SleepTalker!

   Many of us enjoyed the farewell party for Dr. Gan in the MART [link to photos] on July 12. Best wishes, Dr. Gan, for much success in your new endeavor!

Amit Kaushal, MD

   I received the following note from the family of a patient:

   I recently had my son on 6/15/22 at Stony Brook University Hospital. I am reaching out to share my experience with a very down to earth and kind second year anesthesiology resident Dr. Chris Seiter. My phenomenal labor and delivery nurse, Alicia Kelly, shared that Chris was matched to a competitive fellowship at Vanderbilt University. He was very approachable and informative when explaining how epidurals worked and made me feel very comfortable and educated about choosing to have one during my childbirth experience. I was very impressed with his professionalism and care. Please pass along our gratitude for his hard work, knowledge, and expertise.

Dr. Maria Zapantis Joins Faculty

   We welcome Maria Zapantis, MD to our faculty! Dr. Zapantis graduated summa cum laude from the College of Mt. St. Vincent in RIverdale, NY and then went to the University of Patras School of Medicine in Greece for her MD degree. She then came to Stony Brook where she did an internship in Pediatrics. This was followed by a Residency in Anesthesiology; she served as Chief Resident during 1995-96. Dr. Zapantis spent four years working at the VA Hospital in Northport as a staff anesthesiologist and in the Pain Management Department. In 2000, she joined North American Partners in Anesthesia and worked at the Northwell Health System at Syosset until last month. Welcome back to Stony Brook, Dr. Zapantis!

Research News

   Sheed Itaman, graduate student in Dr. Grigori Enikolopov's lab, received a prestigious R36 Dissertation Award from the NIH, for using endogenous barcoding to study neural stem cells in Alzheimer's disease. Congratulations!

   Dr. Natalia Peunova received a SEED grant for her proposal "Evaluating Cilia Motion Coordination Using Machine Learning" with collaborator Dimitris Samaras from Computer Science. Congratulations!

      

Visiting Professor Dr. Susan Bartlett

James P. Dilger, PhD

   We welcome Susan Bartlett, DVM, DACZM, as our Visiting Professor on August 10. Dr Bartlett attended Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine and continued there as a postdoc in the aquatic animal health program. Subsequently, she was an intern at the Tuft University wildlife clinic. She returned to Cornell for a three year Zoological Medicine residency. After being on the faculty of Cornell for a year, Dr. Bartlett joined Zoo New England as the associate veterinarian. In 2010, she was awarded a diplomate from the American College of Zoological Medicine. Her publications illustrate her work with animals ranging from lobsters to elephants! She is currently Senior Veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo.

   Dr. Bartlett will present "Anesthesia of Zoological Species" at Grand Rounds on August 10. Welcome to Stony Brook, Dr. Bartlett!

Family News

   Matthew Wang, son of Joy Schabel and Edward Wang was selected to play in the World Lacrosse Championships and will be competing in Limerick, Ireland in Aug 2022. Congratulations!!

18^th Annual SARAS Completed

Srinivas Pentyala, PhD

   The 18^th annual SARAS (Science and Research Awareness Series) program has come to a successful close! For three weeks (July 11-29, 2022), 110 high school and undergraduate students met at our medical center to interact with more than 60 faculty and staff members from our Medical School. We organized the program under strict safety guidelines which was appreciated by the students and their parents. SARAS would not have been possible without the incredible support from administration faculty colleagues and staff. Details of the program, along with photos, videos, and feedback can be found at the SARAS webpage. Click here to view photos and videos from this year's program.

  

Excerpts of the feedback from students:

Excerpts of the feedback from parents:

James P. Dilger, PhD