Changes like this are intended to increase the resources available to theProgram in BME, which received full-fledged departmental status in Dec. 2000.It is the first BME department in the 64-campus SUNY system to offer aBachelor’s degree in Bioengineering and an M.S. and Ph.D. in BiomedicalEngineering. The program receives funding from several organizations, includingthe National Institutes of Health, National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA), National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI),New York Sate Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR), theAmerican Heart Institute, and other private foundations.
The STAR Center is intended to provide cohesionwithin the BME Department. Some of the current faculty remains in the Centerfor Biotechnology in the Psychology A Building, while others are on the otherside of campus in the Health Sciences Center.
‘?It will benefit all the students andfaculty to have a permanent home for all the laboratories and classes in oneplace,’ said first year graduate student and BME major Erin McCormack.’?It is very exciting that there will be an entire new building for theBiomedical Engineering Department.’
On May 3, 2001, Governor George E. Pataki announced that Stony BrookUniversity had been awarded $15.7 million from NYSTARto create the research center. In addition, Stony Brook’s School of Medicinereceived a separate $930,000 Faculty Development Program award to help attractnew scientists and researchers for the research program. According to the SBUBME website, this deal represents ‘?one of the largest one-time academicresearch investments ever made by the State in the Long Island region.’
In November of 2001, President Shirley Strum Kennyannounced that a grant of $3 million had been made by the Whitaker Foundationto recruit new faculty, expand the undergraduate and graduate programs, anddevelop further interdisciplinary courses in bioinformatics, biosensors, andnanotechnology.
Partners in the STAR Center include Brookhaven National Laboratory and ColdSpring Harbor Laboratory.
Professor and Chair of the BME Department, Dr.Clinton Rubin, described the Center as a great development. ‘?A lot ofeducation happens through interactive learning. In this environment, studentsand faculty can work together,’ she said.
The facilities in the STAR Center will allow for an interactive mode oflearning, those involved said. The five-story building will be equipped with aBiomechanics Lab, a Lower Fiber Optic Lab, a Bioinformatics Teaching Lab, andan Interactive Teaching Lab large enough to hold 100 students who can uselaptops during lectures and seminars. The second floor will be home to theCenter for Sensor Systems, while the fifth floor will hold the Center forBiotechnology.
‘?The new building will help in forming aneven more united department since at present, BME research is spread acrossmany facilities on the campus,’ said first-year graduate student and BMEmajor Jennifer Segui. ‘?The new building will also provide excellentfacilities to allow for cutting-edge research.’
According to the NYSTAR website, the focal point of the STAR Center will befunctional genomics, which involves research to develop DNA fluorescencedetection technologies and the next generation of microarrays. The project isintended to create new algorithms for gene hunting and interaction and to developnanoscale diagnostics and therapeutics.
‘?We didn’t exist until recently, [but]now we are one of the mostselective departments on campus,’ Rubin said. ‘?Education isresearch and research is education. [The Center] will be an exciting place todo both.’
No information on the date of the building opening has been released.
For more information on the Program in BME or the STAR Center, visit
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