Lecturer
M.S., 1974, Stony Brook University
In his long association with Stony Brook University, Steve Englebright has been curator of Geology and has taught numerous courses including Long Island Geology and the Natural History of Long Island. In the early 1980s, Englebright led the effort to preserve the Long Island Pine Barrens and is credited with articulating the connection between the preservation of the Pine Barrens ecosystem and protection of the sole source aquifer which it overlays as a public health imperative to safeguard the drinking water of 1.5 million residents.
Englebright’s interest in the interface of science and society in the policy area of public health led him to public elected office where he served in the Suffolk County Legislature and, since 1994, in the New York State Assembly. Englebright’s background in science and education is unique in the state legislature and his skill at translating technical concepts and findings into meaningful public policy has enabled him to craft laws that have relevance to our lives and health. A leading proponent for the use of clean, renewable energy, Englebright authored New York’s solar and wind net-metering laws in the 1990s and successfully pushed in 2008 for the expansion of solar net-metering to include all utility customer classes.
Additional legislative accomplishments include the Pesticide Use Registry Act of 1996 and the ban on the sale of baby bottles and other childcare products containing the estrogen-disrupting chemical bisphenol-A (BPA). Steve Englebright received his BS from the University of Tennessee in 1969 and a Master of Science in Geology (Paleontology/Sedimentology) from Stony Brook.