June 2009
Dr. Samuel Stanley Tapped to
Succeed Dr. Shirley Strum Kenny as
Stony Brook University’s Fifth President
COMPILED
BY SALLY GILHOOLEY
The Board of Trustees
of the State University of New York has voted unanimously to name Dr. Samuel
L. Stanley Jr., Vice Chancellor for Research and professor in the Department
of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University in St. Louis, as the
new president of Stony Brook University effective July 1. He succeeds President
Dr. Shirley Strum Kenny who is retiring after 15 years in the position.
SUNY Board of Trustees
Chairman Carl T. Hayden congratulated and welcomed Dr. Stanley saying, “What
makes him the best person is not that he is a prominent biomedical researcher,
talented administrator and published scholar who serves on important national
committees, but that he was also presented with the Distinguished Service
Teaching Award from the students of Washington University.”
Welcoming Dr. Stanley,
Dr. Kenny said, “Dr. Stanley is an outstanding academician and researcher,
not to mention a very nice person. All of us welcome him warmly as the
next president of Stony Brook. I know he will be a great President for
this great institution.”
Remarking on the leadership
of Dr. Shirley Strum Kenny, Chairman Hayden said, “On behalf of the
entire SUNY community, I want to express deep appreciation to Shirley Kenny
for her 15 years of extraordinary service, leadership and commitment as
president of Stony Brook University. We are truly grateful.”
A dream job
Dr. Stanley said he was honored to have been selected and called his new appointment
a “dream job.” He explained, “This brings it all together
for me, the opportunity to lead a great research university…to help
faculty and students achieve more, and to make a difference…I’m
looking forward to working strategically with my new colleagues on the
faculty and staff, as well as students, alumni and others to build on this
remarkable trajectory of increased excellence, while solidifying its position
among the nation’s top research universities.”
After earning his B.A. in 1976 from the University of Chicago and his
M.D. in 1980 from Harvard Medical School, he interned at Massachusetts
General Hospital.
He did postdoctoral work in immunology at Washington University and was appointed
to its faculty in the Division of Infectious Diseases of Washington University
School of Medicine.
In 2003, Dr. Stanley became Director of the Midwest Regional Center for
Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research,
an NIH funded, multidisciplinary
research center. In 2006, he was named Vice Chancellor for Research and
has been published extensively. Under his leadership and guidance,
Washington
University’s
research funding has grown to a level of sponsored research of about $582 million.
Dr. Stanley is married
to Dr. Ellen Li, a renowned gastroenterologist, an MD/PhD who is also a
Professor at Washington University’s School of Medicine. Drs. Stanley
and Li have four children.
Dr. Shirley Strum
Kenny: Distinguished scholar, educator and administrator
In1994, Dr. Shirley Strum Kenny took the helm as the fourth President and first
woman President of Stony Brook University. With funding from the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching, she created the Boyer Commission on Educating
Undergraduates for the Advancement of Teaching whose 1998 report advocated
education to engage students with resources unique to research institutions
like Stony Brook and to conduct their own research. The University is reorganizing
curriculum along the lines recommended by the Boyer Report.
During Dr. Kenny’s tenure, Stony Brook enrollment increased from 17,500
to more than 23,000. She has directed major construction projects including
the Charles B. Wang Center, the 8,300-seat Kenneth P. LaValle stadium and Stony
Brook Manhattan at 401 Park Avenue South. In 2008, the Simons Foundation donated
$60 million, the largest single gift ever given to the State University of
New York, for the building of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics.Expansion has included the Student Activities Center, Academic Mall and
residence halls. The Athletics Program advanced to Division 1 and
there are new buildings
for Life Sciences, Humanities and Engineering.
Stony Brook University
Medical Center has completed Phase I of its $300 million expansion project
with a new wing housing the Women and Infants Center, expanded Emergency
Department and a Surgical Suite. In addition, new Heart, Cancer, Pain Management
and Ambulatory Surgery Centers have been opened. In 2003, The Matt and
Debra Cody Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities was completed.
With Battelle Corporation, Dr Kenny established Brookhaven Sciences Associates
to administer Brookhaven National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of
Energy.
Stony Brook Southampton, profiled in the cover story of this issue of Networking® magazine,
has been established. Construction at the 246-acre Research and Development
Park adjacent to the main campus will contain the Center for Excellence in
Wireless and Internet Technology and the Advanced Energy Research and Technology
Center, a cover story in Networking® magazine, April, 2008.
Dr. Kenny is the recipient of numerous awards including the Fulbright
Lifetime Achievement Medal, honoring Fulbright alumni whose careers,
civic and cultural
contributions have expanded the boundaries of human wisdom, empathy and perception.
She has been honored as Outstanding Woman at the University of Maryland,
Outstanding Alumna at the University of Chicago, Outstanding Alumna
of the College of Communications
at the University of Texas and Distinguished Alumna at the University of
Texas.
She serves on many boards
including JPMorgan Chase Metropolitan Advisory Board, Board of Directors
of Goodwill Industries of Greater New York and the Long Island Association.
Commenting on future plans, Dr. Kenny said,”I will return to the Washington,
D. C., area, where I have several projects planned. I am eager to begin on
a study of graduate education comparable to the Boyer Report on Educating Undergraduates
in the Research University, which I chaired. I have also been asked to be a
visiting professor at another AAU institution, which I may do some time in
the future. I have also been invited to serve on some boards. And since four
of my children and two of my grandchildren live in the Washington area, I will
probably spend more time in the kitchen than I have done for the past fifteen
years.”
Dr. Kenny has published
five books and many articles in the field of Restoration and 18th century
British drama and is a literary and textual historian. She is married to
Dr. Robert W. Kenny. They have five children and four grandchildren.
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