Welcome to the Office of Faculty Affairs at the Renaissance School of Medicine!

The mission of the Office of Faculty Affairs is to provide support to Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University faculty, particularly in the areas of career advancement, faculty development, professional satisfaction, faculty mentoring and faculty diversity and inclusion.


Call for nominations for the 2024 Faculty Awards

It is time again to recognize the excellent work being done by our faculty in teaching, clinical service, research, and mentoring — all critical aspects of the mission of the School of Medicine.
 
Two new calls for award nominations are in effect this year, an Award for Faculty Excellence in Student Mentoring at an Affiliate site, and an Award for Faculty Excellence in Clinical Practice in the Community.

Nominations will be accepted through midnight, July 31, 2024. Awards will be presented at our Annual Faculty Awards Ceremony in Fall 2024. Award recipients will have their name added to the award recipient plaque in RSOM and receive $1000.

 


Drs. Adam Singer and Susan Lane Appointed SUNY Distinguished Professors

Two members of our Renaissance School of Medicine faculty to the rank of Distinguished Faculty. Adam Singer, MD, FACEP, Interim Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, has been appointed as Distinguished Professor, and Susan Lane, MD, MACP, Director of our Internal Medicine Residency Program, Vice Chair of Education in the Department of Medicine and faculty member in the Division of General, Geriatric, and Hospital Medicine, has been appointed as Distinguished Service Professor. These appointments, made effective April 16, are a prestigious honor bestowed upon professionals of the highest caliber with a continued dedication to excellence.

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

The Distinguished Service Professorship is conferred upon instructional faculty who have 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 the nation—through sustained efforts in the application of intellectual skills drawing from their scholarly research interests to issues of public concern.

In their new appointments, Dr. Singer and Dr. Lane will work with other active members of the SUNY Distinguished Academy to encourage a renewed commitment to scholarship, quality instruction and service across SUNY campuses.

 

Adam Singer Susan Lane

Dr. Adam Singer
Department of Emergency Medicine

Dr. Susan Lane
Department of Medicine

After earning his medical degree at the Medical School for International Health (MISH) at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Dr. Singer completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital. His main areas of research include cutaneous wound healing, burns, tissue adhesives, pain management and cardiovascular disease. In addition to being credited with over 400 publications, including several in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA, Dr. Singer serves as Editor in Chief of Clinical and Experimental Emergency Medicine. He has received several million dollars in extramural research support from the NIH, BARDA, DOD and Office of Naval Research, as well as from industry, and he is the recipient of multiple national awards including the American College of Emergency Physicians Outstanding Contribution in Research Award and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s Junior Investigator Award.

Dr. Lane received her BA from Amherst College and MD from the University of Connecticut, then completed her Internal Medicine residency training at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester. Her areas of interest include graduate medical education, physician communication and health policy. Board certified in Internal Medicine, Dr. Lane currently serves as Vice Chair of the AAIM (Alliance for Academic Medicine) Board of Directors, and she is a member of the Board of Directors of the Alpha Omega Alpha (AΩA) Honor Society. She has won numerous awards for her research and excellence in education and leadership, including the RSOM Aesculapius Award for Excellence in Medical Education, the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) Inspire Award and the RSOM Department of Medicine Outstanding Service Award. This past April, Dr. Lane was also inducted as a Master of the American College of Physicians (MACP), the world’s largest medical specialty society—making her only the third Stony Brook physician to become an MACP.


Holly Colognato, PhD and Ken-Ichi Takemaru, PhD receive Chancellor's Awards for Excellence

Congratulations to Holly Colognato, PhD, and Ken-Ichi Takemaru, PhD, from the Renaissance School of Medicine's Department of Pharmacological Sciences, for being recognized as 2023–2024 Chancellor's Award winners. Dr. Colognato is the recipient of the 2023–2024 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service, an award developed by faculty for faculty, recognizing those who have demonstrated a record of sustained, superior service to a wide range of diverse constituents. Dr. Takemaru received the 2023–2024 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, an award developed by faculty in recognition of peers who have demonstrated a record of sustained scholarship in the sciences, humanities, and professional studies, or consistent creative productivity in the fine and performing arts.

 

Holly Colognato Ken-Ichi Takemaru

Dr. Holly Colognato
Department of Pharmacology

Dr. Ken-Ichi Takemaru
Department of Pharmacology


Carol A. Carter Elected to U.S. National Academy of Sciences

Carol CarterCarol A. Carter, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Stony Brook University Renaissance School of Medicine (RSOM), has been elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Carter is the 18th Stony Brook University faculty member elected to the NAS, and is only the second elected member from the RSOM. World-renowned virologist and Emeritus Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology Eckard Wimmer was elected in 2012.

“Carol has been active in translational research and has exploited her discoveries for the identification of new antiviral compounds,” said David Thanassi, professor and Zhang Family Endowed Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. “Her research illustrates the power of basic science to lead to unexpected insights and generate new avenues for therapeutic development.”

Carter was one of 120 new members elected by their peers at the NAS annual meeting on April 30, bringing the total number of NAS members to 2,617 since the society’s inception in 1863. Approximately 500 NAS members have earned a Nobel Prize.

“Frankly speaking, I’m stunned, thrilled and honored to be joining the company of those I have admired throughout my career,” said Carter. “This recognition from the Academy opens the door to the possibility of shining more light on feasible ways to approach targeting non-traditional cellular systems for drug discovery, systems that have long been exploited by viral pathogens for their production.”

Carter is best known as an early pioneer in HIV research. At the onset of the AIDS pandemic, she advanced understanding of the viral-encoded protease and purified the viral capsid protein for structural and biochemical studies. She has also conducted research on Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Virus-2 (SARS CoV-2), pathogens causing organ transplant rejection and COVID-19, respectively.

In 2001, her groundbreaking research, published in PNAS, identified an interaction between HIV and a host protein (Tsg101) that is essential for the assembly and budding of HIV viral particles from infected cells. Her findings opened a new field of research on host factors in microbial pathogenesis and suggested the possibility of targeting host proteins for developing antimicrobial therapeutics, with implications beyond HIV.

Carter has also served as a member of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Advisory Council from 2007 to 2011. She received the Stony Brook University Presidential Award for Promoting Diversity and Academic Excellence in 2013, and the Suffolk County, NY, Martin Luther King Jr Commission Public Service Award in 2016.

Currently, she collaborates with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory DNA Learning Center staff and Stony Brook Faculty in the RSOM, the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, School of Health Professions, and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, in efforts to mentor high school students interested in pursuing careers in health sciences professions.

She continues her research focus on several areas, including the role of cellular proteins in assembly of HIV and other members of the Retrovirus family; Tsg101 structure/function analysis; and antiviral drug development, to name a few.

Carol A. Carter received her PhD from Yale University in 1972. She has been a faculty member at Stony Brook University since 1975.


Congratulations to 2023 School of Medicine Awards Winners!

Getu Teressa Hwan Kim Joshua Dubnau Markus Seeliger Cordia Beverley

Aesculapius Award for Excellence in Medical Education

Dr. Getu Teressa, Dept. of Medicine (Hospital Medicine)

Early Career Research Excellence Award

Dr. Hwan Kim, Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology

Senior Research Excellence Award

Dr. Joshua Dubnau, Dept. of Anesthesiology

Senior Research Excellence Award

Dr. Markus Seeliger, Dept. of Pharmacological Sciences

Excellence in Student Mentoring Award

Dr. Cordia Beverley, Dept. of Family, Population & Preventive Medicine

Jessica Seeliger Jason Kim Sandeep Mallipattu Henry Tannous Grace Natalie La Torre

Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring

Dr. Jessica Seeliger, Dept. of Pharmacological Sciences

Excellence in Resident/Fellow Mentoring

Dr. Jason Kim, Dept. of Urology

Excellence in Faculty Mentorship

Dr. Sandeep Mallipattu, Dept. of Medicine (Nephrology and Hypertension)

Excellence in Clinical Service

Dr. Henry Tannous, Dept. of Surgery

Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award Presented by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation

Dr. Grace Natalie La Torre, Dept. of Medicine (Palliative Care)


Women in Medicine Research Day

Juanita Merchant17th Annual Women in Medicine Research Day will take place on March 6, 2023, 9am-2pm, in MART Auditorium. This year's event will feature a guest speaker Dr. Juanita Merchant, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at College of Medicine Tucson at University of Arizona. She will give a talk entitled "The HNF1A variant provides a genomic landscape for EO-CRC to develop in the setting of a specific diet type."

To download the complete program of the event, please click here.


 
Faculty Mentoring Workshops

May 30, 2024: Your Mental Health Matters: Practical Tips & Personal Anecdotes (Adam Gonzalez, PhD, and Cynthia Cervoni, PhD), 12-1pm, zoom

May 1, 2024: NIH Loan Forgiveness (Dr. Sandeep Mallipattu), 12-1pm, zoom

 

To more information, please contact Kimberly Malamutt.