This Strategic Plan, “A Vision for SoMAS Science, Education, and Outreach Leadership, 2019-2024,” provides guiding principles, goals, objectives, and strategies for SoMAS’ success for the next five years and beyond. Since joining SoMAS in July of 2018, I have been continually impressed by the complementary skills, ideas and enthusiasm of the SoMAS faculty and staff, covering great breadth and strength in marine sciences, atmospheric sciences, and sustainability. The last discipline in that list can be thought of as an intellectual glue binding the School together in a shared mission. Indeed, SoMAS faculty and staff have always had a passion to do science in service to society. As our unofficial motto states, we are “Making Scientific Research Count.”

Challenges

We consider ourselves passionate stewards of a natural and sustainable Earth, at a time when we face a great many challenges. Climate change and all its impacts, e.g. new weather extremes, “wetter” tropical cyclones, sea level rise, more severe storm surge, coastal erosion, ocean acidification and its impacts, sea ice loss and associated loss of habitats, along with a host of other challenges related to human activities–species diversity and conservation, ecosystem threats, fisheries sustainability, microplastics, nutrient runoff, food security, waste management issues, and air quality, are issues we must all confront. Many of these impacts are most acute in coastal environments where the atmospheric, marine and terrestrial environments meet and interact. We are humbled by the magnitude and urgency of these challenges, yet energized to make lasting contributions through meaningful solutions using our combined talents.

For SoMAS, our focus on coastal resiliency issues is important because 57% of global population lives in urban environments, 40% lives within 100 km of an ocean, and 70% of greenhouse gases are emitted in urban environments. Our unique access to important coastlines and estuaries and a nearby living laboratory in one of the world’s great megacities, New York City, affords us an exceptional opportunity to address these issues.

Aspirations

The SoMAS strategic plan is our blueprint for greatness. Certain aspirations should be highlighted:

1. The pursuit of excellence in all of our undertakings.
2. Significantly increasing the size and impact of our research enterprise.
3. Building new state-of-the science facilities.
4. Reaching more students, and giving them experiences that build character and leadership potential.
5. Developing and supporting a diverse student, staff, and faculty complement that supports understanding, and wide-ranging problem-solving.
6. Developing and fostering functional and intellectual connection of disciplines across the Stony Brook University (SBU) campus, to enable us to lead in pursuit of global, regional, and local grand challenges.

Commitments

This Strategic Plan articulates our commitments to SoMAS faculty, staff, students, and to the University as a whole. Foremost is our commitment to excellence in scholarship, teaching, and mentoring of our students, faculty, and staff. Our vision of excellence translates into leadership in the university and in our communities. That leadership necessarily should translate into impacts for our stakeholders, which in turn strengthens our reputation and stature. We are committed to the highest quality educational experiences for our students that will transform the way they think about their potential careers and life options. Part of the student experience involves exposure to a diversity of viewpoints and approaches for problem solving, which is key to scientific productivity. We also commit to effective outreach with our stakeholders, regarding our efforts to ensure a substantial return on investment in SoMAS, and its faculty, staff, and students. It is a privilege to serve Long Island, the State of New York and the nation in the many ways we do, and we commit to regular and effective communication regarding our efforts and impacts and our students’ successes.

Opportunities

Climate change involves and connects (through exchanges of carbon, water, mass, and energy) the oceans, the atmosphere, and the many components of the Earth’s biosphere and the near-surface of the continental environments. In order to lead efforts to understand the connectedness and changes in these Earth components and manage the built environment, we must connect scientists, engineers and social scientists whose scholarship touches on those components. Thus, SoMAS has a responsibility and great opportunity to define new paths within SBU for collaboration and education regarding all components of Earth’s systems.

Spirit

The SoMAS family is a great group of people. Our future success lies in upholding our spirit of collegiality and excitement of shared purpose for meeting the challenges currently facing the Earth and its inhabitants. We embrace the values of diversity, equity and inclusion, striving to provide a safe, respectful, welcoming and intellectually stimulating environment for everyone.  We will lead by example, nurturing the next generation of global leaders and celebrating each other’s successes.

Paul Shepson, Dean of SoMAS

The School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) was originally established in 1965 as the Marine Sciences Research Center (MSRC) of New York State to serve as the SUNY-wide center for research in marine sciences. We have since contributed to the establishment of New York’s Sea Grant (NYSG) program in 1971 and more recently expanded the scope of our efforts to include atmospheric sciences and sustainability studies. Looking forward, this Strategic Plan was written by a committee with input from all SoMAS faculty and staff to articulate our ambitions and guide our actions over the next five years. We will evaluate our progress annually and revise our strategic plan every five years as our goals are met, as our School evolves, and as new challenges continue to emerge between society, the sea, and the sky.

SoMAS embraces and promotes the values of diversity, equity and inclusion. We strive to provide a safe, respectful, welcoming and intellectually stimulating environment for students, staff and faculty of all backgrounds and identities including but not limited to sex, race, religion, creed, socioeconomics, ethnicity, age, geographic origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, familial status, disability, political philosophy and veteran status. We believe firmly that these values are not only moral and ethical imperatives, but also foundational elements of holistic problem-solving that engages and values multiple perspectives and opinions leading to the pursuit and creation of the best science and the most innovative solutions to pressing environmental and societal challenges.

2018/2019 Strategic Planning Committee

This document was written in the Fall of 2018/Spring of 2019 by a Strategic Planning Committee consisting of Mark Lang (co-chair), Janet Nye (co-chair), Katherine Aubrecht, Steven Beaupré, Robert Cerrato, Ginny Clancy, Donovan Finn, Hyemi Kim, Daniel Knopf, Kamazima Lwiza, and Lesley Thorne. The document is based on input received from all faculty and staff at SoMAS.

Photos included in this document were taken by SoMAS students, faculty and staff.  The cover photo of the R/V Seawolf was captured by a drone operated by graduate student Julia Stepanuk. Additional photo credits to Victoria Adam, Josephine Aller, Justin Bopp, Hamish Bowman, Kurt Bretsch, Maria Brown, Steve Cluett, Brian Colle, Steve Englebright, Charlie Flagg, Shane Gallimo, Jennifer George, Natasha Gownaris, Chris Harter, Institute for Terrestrial and Planetary Atmospheres, Mark Lang, Kamazima Lwiza, John Mak, Chris Martinez, Janet Nye, Chris Paparo, Sharon Pochron, Donna Selch, Radar Science, Julia Stepanuk, Stony Brook Meteorology Club, Sustainability Studies Program, Lesley Thorne, and Nils Volkenborn.