May 2025 News and Press from SoMAS

Photo Above: The participants of Vax to Flax 2025

Thank you to everyone who came out for Vax to Flax 2025! We hope to see even more faculty, staff and students next year. This year’s winners were  the SoMAS Students, implementing a double forfeit out of fairness. Congrats to Chris Gobler, the overall first place finisher (28:52.96) and first faculty/staff to complete the race and Phillip Yeh, the overall second place finisher (29:47.70) and first student to complete the race!

 

Congratulations to the graduates of the Class of 2025! The annual SoMAS Convocation event was held on Friday, May 23, 2025 at the Bauman Center for Leadership and Service. Students gathered with their friends and family and SoMAS faculty and staff to celebrate the completion of their journey at Stony Brook University. Dean Paul Shepson provided opening remarks after the processional and Dr. Chris Gobler gave the keynote address. Stony Brook University celebrated the 65th Annual Commencement earlier that day, with 4,835 bachelor’s degrees conferred — among the 7,640 degrees presented overall. There were also 1,950 master’s degrees, 675 doctoral and professional degrees and 280 certificates conferred at the ceremony. Graduates represented 46 states and 65 countries and ranged in age from 16 to 82.

 

Congratulations to Emily Fredericks (SUS), one of the URECA Researchers of the Month for May:

Emily Fredericks (BA, 2025 in Sustainability Studies)

Emily Fredericks is a Sustainability Studies major, concentrating in Societies, Economics, and Governance. Over the course of the past year, she conducted research under the direction of Dr. Tara Rider, focused on the Lithium Triangle in South America, and the relationship between a country’s economic structure and its efficacy in environmental preservation, especially in relation to the country’s local Indigenous population for her Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) honors thesis: for this project, she completed an analysis of Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile’s economic policy development over the past 5 decades and synthesized a policy recommendation for the United States if it were to continue domestic lithium mining investment. Emily has also enjoyed working on “A History of the Ashley Schiff Preserve”, a project under the mentorship of Dr. Adam Charboneau in collaboration with fellow senior Antonio Mochmann. In this project, she conducted research through interviews of key players in the transformation of the Ashley Schiff Preserve from a wild area to a memorial and vital green space on Stony Brook’s campus. Other work she has completed involves the Natural Shorelines Project, in collaboration with her SUS 401 class in spring 2024. On campus, Emily has worked in Student Engagement as a Student Support Specialist, as well as the Undergraduate Student Government as Chief of Staff. She has founded and been a part of E-Board for multiple clubs, including the Stony Brook Belly Dancers, for which she assists in teaching and holds the role of treasurer. Emily enjoys growing orchid varieties in her free time and loves the outdoors, especially the Adirondacks upstate. Emily plans to pursue a Master’s of Science in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Brooklyn College in the fall.

SoMAS faculty have been featured in episodes of the Collaborative for the Earth’s C4E Presents podcast:

• Garbage Air with Guanyu Huang
• Disproportionate Pollution with Mary Collins
• What Lies Beneath with Sharon Pochron
• Ecocriticism, Ethics, and Storytelling with David Taylor
• Insights from the Andes with Karina Yager
• Urban Planning After Disasters with Donovan Finn

 

Congratulations to Dr. Tara Rider, who has won the 2025 Provost’s Outstanding Lecturer Award!

Congratulations to Stefanie Massucci, who has received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service!

 

SBU News Features

• SBU Investigators Lead New Long Island Sound Projects in $10.4+M Research Suite
  • New York Sea Grant (NYSG) has announced a major investment — $6.8M in research funding, leveraging an additional $3.6M in matched dollars — for 13 projects across five institutions in New York and Connecticut — Stony Brook University (SBU), City University of New York (CUNY), Cornell University, University of Connecticut, and The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk — focusing on key aspects of Long Island Sound ecosystem.

• SBU Students Advocate for Environmental Justice on Capitol Hill

  • Two Stony Brook University students traveled to the nation’s capital to meet with U.S. Senators and Representatives during the Rachel Carson Council’s (RCC) second annual Advocacy Day.

• SBU Students Joining The New York Climate Exchange Summer Internship Program

  • Four Stony Brook University students have been selected to participate in the highly competitive New York Climate Exchange Summer Internship Program, joining a cohort of 13 undergraduate students from partner universities across the country. The eight-week program, running from June 23 to August 15, offers students the opportunity to work alongside climate experts and community leaders on pressing environmental challenges.

• Wearable Ecologies: Art Students Give Discarded Materials Second Life 

  • As part of Earthstock 2025, Stony Brook University art students got a unique opportunity to explore the intersection of environmental art, activism and fashion. The project, “Wearable Ecologies: Second Life of Discarded Materials” — part of a foundation class called “Art Ideas” taught by Nobuho Nagasawa, a professor in the Department of Art — called for students to create attire from waste.

• Stony Brook University Earns STARS 3.0 Silver Rating for Sustainability

  • Stony Brook University has earned a STARS 3.0 Silver rating in recognition of its sustainability achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

• Scientific Synergy Between Stony Brook, Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • For nearly three decades, Stony Brook University (SBU) faculty and students have advanced scientific discovery through a special, collaborative relationship with one of the nation’s top research facilities, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL).

• Sustainability Alumni Share Career Insights at SBU Panel

  • Stony Brook University hosted its annual Sustainability Studies Alumni Panel on April 23 to bring together graduates and current students for an exchange of career insights.

• EOP-AIM Honors Outstanding Students at Annual Awards Ceremony

  • Honoring its pillars of academic excellence, moral leadership, civic engagement, integrity, and personal and social responsibility, the Educational Opportunity Program/Advancement on Individual Merit (EOP/AIM) at Stony Brook held its annual awards ceremony on May 1 at the DeVries Center. Yamile Joseph (EDP) and Enis Mata Santana (ENS) were recipients of EOP-AIM Outstanding Junior Awards

 

 

Latest Videos

• Maria Pachiadaki, OSAC 2025-05-02 “Dark Ocean Chemoautotrophy and Other Tales From Tiny Organisms With Big Impact
• Jie Zhang, TAOS 2025-05-07 “First View from TEMPO and Mobile Lab: Coastal High-Ozone Band Induced by NYC NO2 Plume“
• Ellen Pikitch, SLS 2025-05-07 “What lies beneath: unveiling changing biodiversity in New York’s First Hope Spot during more than a decade of restoration“
• SoMAS 2025 Convocation

 

Latest Publications

Yeh, P., & Colle, B. A. (2025). A Climatology of Cool-Season Precipitation Objects in the Comma Head of an Extratropical Cyclone. Monthly Weather Review, 1(aop).

Wallace, M. K., Kudela, R. M., & Gobler, C. J. (2025). Microcystin contamination of shellfish along the freshwater-to-marine continuum within US mid-Atlantic and Northeast estuaries. Harmful Algae, 145, 102860.

Indeck, K.L., Baumgartner, M.F., Lecavalier, L., Whoriskey, F., Durette-Morin, D., Pettigrew, N.R., McSweeney, J.M., Thorne, L.H., Gallagher, K.L., Edwards, C.R. and Meyer-Gutbrod, E, & Davies, K. T. (2025). Glider surveillance for near-real-time detection and spatial management of North Atlantic right whales. Oceanography, 38(1), 13-21.

Andres, M., Rossby, T., Firing, E., Flagg, C., Bates, N. R., Hummon, J., … & Gregory, L. (2025). Monitoring impacts of the Gulf Stream and its rings on the physics, chemistry, and biology of the Middle Atlantic Bight shelf and slope from CMV Oleander. Oceanography, 38(1), 54-60.

Jing, R., Heft-Neal, S., Wang, Z., Chen, J., Qiu, M., Opper, I. M., … & Bendavid, E. (2025). Decreased likelihood of schooling as a consequence of tropical cyclones: Evidence from 13 low-and middle-income countries. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(18), e2413962122.

Zhang, R., & Chang, E. K. (2025). Local finite‐amplitude wave activity of water vapor as a diagnostic of atmospheric river events. Geophysical Research Letters, 52(8), e2024GL114314.

Gruenburg, L.K., Nye, J., Lwiza, K. and Thorne, L.H. Vertical climate velocity adds a critical dimension to species shifts. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02300-6

Hill, D. T., Petroni, M., Jandev, V., Bendinskas, K., Brann, L. S., MacKenzie, J. A., … Collins, M.B., & Gump, B. B. (2025). Linking soil-metal concentrations with children’s blood and urine biomarkers in Syracuse, NY. Environmental Research, 121816.

Ansmann, A., Jimenez, C., Roschke, J., Bühl, J., Ohneiser, K., Engelmann, R., … Knopf, D.A., & Wandinger, U. (2025). Impact of wildfire smoke on Arctic cirrus formation–Part 1: Analysis of MOSAiC 2019–2020 observations. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 25(9), 4847-4866.

Ansmann, A., Jimenez, C., Knopf, D. A., Roschke, J., Bühl, J., Ohneiser, K., & Engelmann, R. (2025). Impact of wildfire smoke on Arctic cirrus formation–Part 2: Simulation of MOSAiC 2019–2020 cases. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 25(9), 4867-4884.

Chu, Y., Lin, G., Deng, M., & Wang, Z. (2025). Characteristics of Eddy Dissipation Rates in Atmosphere Boundary Layer Using Doppler Lidar. Remote Sensing, 17(9), 1652.

Curtis, T. H., Scannell, B. J., Metzger, G., Cahill, B. V., Paparo, C., Galuardi, B., … & Peterson, B. (2025). Scratching the surface: Swimming depths of multiple shark species in New York coastal waters and implications for aerial monitoring. Marine and Coastal Fisheries, 17(3), vtaf010.

Trapp-Müller, G., Aller, R. C., Sluijs, A., & Middelburg, J. J. (2025). Silicate weathering and diagenetic reaction balances in deltaic muds. American Journal of Science, Article-10.

DiMaria, C. A., Jones, D. B., Ferracci, V., Bloom, A. A., Worden, H. M., Seco, R., … & Mak, J. E. (2025). Optimizing the temperature sensitivity of the isoprene emission model MEGAN in different ecosystems using a Metropolis‐Hastings Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 130(5), e2025JG008806.

Kong, X., Ammann, M., George, C., & Knopf, D. A. (2025). Atomic and Molecular Ions in Atmospheric Chemistry: Interfacial Reactivity, Emerging Mechanisms, and Future Perspectives.

Cohen, A. B., Klepac‐Ceraj, V., Bidas, K., Weber, F., Garber, A. I., Christensen, L. N., … & Taylor, G. T. (2025). Vertical microbial fluxes in a modern permanently redox‐stratified lake provide insights into organic carbon sequestration and benthic–pelagic coupling during the Proterozoic Eon. Limnology and Oceanography.

Fragano, C. G., & Colle, B. A. (2025). Validation of Offshore Winds in the ERA5 Reanalysis and NREL NOW-23 WRF Analysis Using Two Floating LiDARs in the New York Bight. Weather and Forecasting.

Gobler, C. J., Kramer, B. J., Lusty, M. W., Thraen, J., & McTague, S. (2025). The ability of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to degrade saxitoxin-, microcystin-, anatoxin-, and non-toxin-producing strains of the harmful cyanobacterium, Dolichospermum. Journal of Environmental Management, 387, 125696.

 

Latest Press Headlines

Newsday: Stony Brook University to offer new climate sciences major, as student demand and job prospects grow

• Long Island’s largest higher educational institution, Stony Brook University, is launching a new undergraduate major in climate sciences this fall, aiming to help students understand the scientific, social and economic impacts of environmental change and prepare for so-called “green” careers.

The East Hampton Star: On Horseshoe Crabs and Largest Clams

• Horseshoe crab monitoring in New York State this year starts on May 10. The New York Horseshoe Crab Monitoring Network, a combined effort of the State Department of Environmental Conservation, Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Marine Program, and Stony Brook University encourages public participation in its annual horseshoe crab monitoring program at 30 sites throughout the state’s marine district.

Newsday: A study links chemical in plastics to cardiovascular disease. Experts say there are ways to reduce risks.

• At least one scientist said reducing exposure is not so straightforward. David Tonjes, a research associate professor with the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University, said it’s important to be aware that using plastic comes with a health cost but because plastic is so pervasive “figuring out how to tread lighter is really difficult.”

WSHU/NPR: Policy and peace of mind

• Connecticut Republicans say Senator Murphy’s town hall tour of red states is signaling a run for higher office. Stony Brook University loses a grant from the Navy. Connecticut nonprofits say the proposed state budget would do little to help them out. Plus, what does Avelo’s future look like in New Haven?

East Hampton Star: Water Report From C.C.O.M. for May 8

• C.C.O.M. tests water quality at locations in Montauk, Amagansett, and East Hampton twice per month in May and will test weekly beginning in June. In collaboration with the Gobler Lab at Stony Brook University, the group also samples for harmful algal blooms in the summer months. That testing will resume on June 2.

East End Beacon: State of the Bays at the Hampton Bays Alliance

• In-water remediation approaches involving seaweeds and bivalves have locally ameliorated nitrogen loads, algal blooms, and ocean acidification. At Stony Brook, we have identified cost-effective technologies that dramatically reduce the delivery of nitrogen and other contaminants from individual homes to water bodies.

The Statesman: “Hope Comes From the Little Things” — Dr. Martins’ Earthstock Address inspires conservational awareness

• On Monday, April 19, Director of the Turkana Basin Institute Dr. Dino Martins gave the Earthstock Keynote Address in the Charles B. Wang Theater. The title of the address, “Hope Comes From the Little Things”, centered on entomology (the study of insects) and his focus on connecting with local and indigenous knowledge in science and conservation efforts.

New York Times: To Take on Trump, Think Like a Lion

• One late afternoon long ago at the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, I was with a group of birders when we located a pride of sleeping lions. As evening approached, they yawned big-fanged yawns and slowly roused. About 10 in total, scarred veterans and prime young hunters. (Written by Carl Safina)

27 East: Saving the World with the Humble Water Fern

• Back in the Eocene the water fern helped transition hothouse Earth into an ice age. In this talk, Stony Brook University’s Sharon Pochron will describe ongoing efforts to use this nature-based phenomenon to offset current carbon emissions.

27 East: From Plankton to Whales- Why Our Local Waters Are Worth Protecting

• Born and raised on Long Island (New York), Chris Paparo has been exploring the wilds of the island for over 30 years. As a wildlife photographer, writer and lecturer, he enjoys bringing public awareness to the diverse wildlife that calls the island home. His passion for coastal ecology, fishing and the outdoors led him to obtain a BS in Marine Science from LIU/Southampton and currently manages the new Marine Sciences Center at the Southampton campus of Stony Brook University. Fri, Jun 6, 2025 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM at the Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum