Stony Brook University announced that it will hire 25 new faculty members in the first of several cluster hiring initiatives that will add more than 250 new hires by 2020.
The 25 new faculty members will be added to the areas of behavioral political economy, biomolecular imaging, coastal zone management and engineering, photon science in conjunction with Brookhaven National Laboratory, and smart energy technology. The five areas were selected by a panel of 12 SUNY professors and academy members from a pool of 36 proposals.
The five proposals are being financed because they demonstrate several important characteristics to the university. They include a solid potential influence on the global and local academic community, allowing for greater synergy and interaction among faculty members in differing fields, and demonstrate the emerging importance of these new fields of study to the Stony Brook community.
Provost Dennis Assanis led the initial faculty cluster hiring initiative in the hopes of drawing in outstanding scholars to Stony Brook University.
“Every proposal we received was thoughtful, strategic and quite frankly, outstanding,” said Assanis. “The range of proposals funded this year hold great promise for helping us accomplish our teaching and research missions and can make a marked difference to our campus’ intellectual atmosphere.”
The university said it will request another round of proposals soon, and it seems that of the more than 250 planned hirings, roughly half will be interdisciplinary cluster hires and the remaining half will reinforce the core strength within the already established fields.
“The goals of the cluster hiring initiative are to strategically place Stony Brook University on the emerging frontiers of research and knowledge and to enhance our ability to shape new fields of discovery, learning and engagement,” said Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr in a press release.
