100 Notable alumni of
Stony Brook University
Updated:
Stony Brook University is 500th in the world, 189th in North America, and 175th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from Stony Brook University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Adrien Brody
- Occupations
- television actorvoice actorfilm produceractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Adrien Nicholas Brody is an American actor. Prolific in both independent films and blockbusters, he has received various accolades including two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award with nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award.
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Pat Benatar
- Occupations
- singersongwritersinger-songwritercomposeractor
- Biography
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Patricia Mae Giraldo is an American singer and songwriter. In the US, she has two multi-platinum albums, five platinum albums, and 15 US Billboard top 40 singles, while in Canada she had eight straight platinum albums, and has sold over 36 million albums worldwide. She is a four-time Grammy Award winner. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
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Dominick Reyes
- Occupations
- mixed martial arts fighter
- Biography
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Dominick Vincent Reyes is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Light Heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). As of January 27, 2026, he is #10 in the UFC light heavyweight rankings.
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Joy Behar
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- Graduated with Master of Arts
- Occupations
- voice actorchildren's writercomedianwriterfilm actor
- Biography
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Josephine Victoria "Joy" Behar is an American comedian, television host, actress, and playwright. She co-hosts the ABC talk show The View, on which she has appeared since the beginning of the series. For her work on The View, Behar won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2009. She hosted The Joy Behar Show on HLN from 2009 to 2011 and Joy Behar: Say Anything! on Current TV, from 2012 until the channel switched formats in August 2013. Behar's latest weekly late-night talk show, Late Night Joy, aired on TLC in 2015. She also wrote The Great Gasbag: An A–Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World.
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Keiko Fujimori
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- Studied in 1993-1994
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi is a Peruvian politician and business administrator. Fujimori is the eldest daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori and Susana Higuchi. From August 1994 to November 2000, she held the role of First Lady of Peru, during her father's administrations. She has served as the leader of the Fujimorist political party Popular Force since 2010, and was a congresswoman representing the Lima Metropolitan Area, from 2006 to 2011. Fujimori ran for president in the 2011, 2016, and 2021 elections, but was defeated each time in the second round of voting.
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Colin Quinn
- Occupations
- screenwritertelevision actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Colin Edward Quinn is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He first gained widespread attention for his work as a cast member and writer on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2000, and he became known for anchoring Weekend Update, the show's news parody segment. Prior to SNL, he was best known as the announcer/sidekick/co-host on MTV's 1980s game show Remote Control. Following his departure from SNL, Quinn went on to host Comedy Central's late-night panel show Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, where he and a panel of New York's big names in stand-up comedy discussed and debated news stories of the day. Notable film work includes his role as Dooey in A Night at the Roxbury, Dickey Bailey in the Grown Ups films, and playing Amy Schumer's father in the film Trainwreck. Comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey, Chris Rock, and Dave Attell have cited Quinn as the quintessential "comic's comic" and New York comedian.
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Momina Mustehsan
- Occupations
- singer
- Biography
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Momina Mustehsan is a Pakistani singer and songwriter. She studied biomedical engineering and applied mathematics at Stony Brook University, from where she graduated with double majors.
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Laura Schlessinger
- Occupations
- radio personalitywriterchildren's writerpsychologistsocial worker
- Biography
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Laura Catherine Schlessinger, commonly known as Dr. Laura, is an American talk radio host and author. The Dr. Laura Program, heard weekdays for three hours on Sirius XM Radio, consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal advice and often features her short monologues on social and political topics. Her website says that her show "preaches, teaches, and nags about morals, values, and ethics." She is an inductee to the National Radio Hall of Fame in Chicago.
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Vinay Pathak
- Occupations
- television actorfilm producertelevision presenteractor
- Biography
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Vinay Pathak is an Indian theater and film actor. He has starred in many films including Khosla Ka Ghosla, Bheja Fry, Island City and Johnny Gaddaar and had a supporting role in movies like Jism, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and My Name Is Khan.
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Buck Dharma
- Occupations
- singersongwriterguitarist
- Biography
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Donald Brian Roeser, known professionally as Buck Dharma, is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is the sole constant member of hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult since the group's formation in 1967. He wrote and sang vocals on several of the band's best-known hits, including "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Godzilla" and "Burnin' for You".
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John L. Hennessy
- Occupations
- businesspersonentrepreneuruniversity teacheracademicengineer
- Biography
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John Leroy Hennessy is an American computer scientist and chairman of Alphabet Inc. Hennessy is one of the founders of MIPS Technologies and Atheros, serving as 10th president of Stanford University from 2000 to 2016. He was succeeded as president by Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Marc Andreessen called him "the godfather of Silicon Valley."
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Glenn Dubin
- Occupations
- investorfinancier
- Biography
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Glenn Russell Dubin is an American billionaire hedge fund manager and the Principal of Dubin & Co. LP, a private investment company. He is the co-founder of Highbridge Capital Management, founder of Engineers Gate, and a founding board member of the Robin Hood Foundation.
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Chris Algieri
- Occupations
- nutritionistboxerkickboxer
- Biography
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Christopher Mark Algieri is an American professional boxer and former kickboxer. In boxing he held the WBO junior welterweight title in 2014 and challenged for the WBO welterweight title later that year; in kickboxing he was an undefeated ISKA World welterweight and WKA World super welterweight champion. Outside of boxing, Algieri works as a nutritionist.
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Jef Raskin
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Arts in mathematics
- Occupations
- university teacherwritercomputer scientistbusinesspersonprogrammer
- Biography
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Jef Raskin was an American human–computer interface expert who conceived and began leading the Macintosh project at Apple in the late 1970s.
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Shoucheng Zhang
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- In 1987 graduated with doctorate in physics
- Occupations
- university teacherprofessorphysicist
- Biography
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Shoucheng Zhang was a Chinese-American physicist who was the JG Jackson and CJ Wood professor of physics at Stanford University. He was a condensed matter theorist known for his work on topological insulators, the quantum Hall effect, the quantum spin Hall effect, spintronics, and high-temperature superconductivity. According to the National Academy of Sciences:
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David Gelernter
- Years
- 1955-.. (age 71)
- Occupations
- computer scientistwriteruniversity teacher
- Biography
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David Hillel Gelernter is an American computer scientist and writer. He is currently a professor of computer science at Yale University.
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Joe Nathan
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Joseph Michael Nathan is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants, Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago Cubs. Nathan started out his baseball career as a shortstop in high school and in college for Stony Brook, but converted to a pitcher after being drafted by the Giants. He worked his way through the minor leagues, alternating between spots in the rotation and the bullpen.
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Jon Oringer
- Occupations
- businesspersonstock photographer
- Biography
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Jon Oringer is an American programmer, photographer, and billionaire businessman, best known as the founder and CEO of Shutterstock, a stock media company headquartered in New York City. Oringer started his career while a college student in the 1990s, when he created "one of the Web's first pop-up blockers." He went on to found about ten small startups that used a subscription method to sell "personal firewalls, accounting software, cookie blockers, trademark managers," and other small programs.
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Ashoke Sen
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Ashoke Sen FRS is an Indian theoretical physicist and ICTS-Infosys Madhava Chair Professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Bangalore. A former Distinguished Professor at the Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Prayagraj, He is also an honorary fellow in National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) India. He is also a Morningstar Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Distinguished Professor at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study. His main area of work is string theory. He was among the first recipients of the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics "for opening the path to the realization that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory".
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Travis Jankowski
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Travis Paul Jankowski is an American professional baseball former outfielder and current first base coach for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, Rangers, Chicago White Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays.
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Vi Hart
- Years
- 1988-.. (age 38)
- Occupations
- composerYouTubertelevision producermathematician
- Biography
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Victoria "Vi" Hart is an American mathematician and former YouTuber. They describe themself as a "recreational mathemusician" and are well known for creating mathematical videos on YouTube and popularizing mathematics. Hart founded the virtual reality research group eleVR and has co-authored several research papers on computational geometry and the mathematics of paper folding.
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Carolyn Porco
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- In 1974 graduated with Bachelor of Science
- Occupations
- astronomerphotographerplanetary scientist
- Biography
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Carolyn C. Porco is an American planetary scientist who explores the outer Solar System, beginning with her imaging work on the Voyager missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the 1980s. She led the imaging science team on the Cassini mission in orbit around Saturn. She is an expert on planetary rings and the Saturnian moon, Enceladus.
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Michael Schudrich
- Occupations
- historianrabbi
- Biography
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Michael Joseph Schudrich is an American-Polish rabbi and the current Chief Rabbi of Poland. He is the oldest of four children of Rabbi David Schudrich and Doris Goldfarb Schudrich.
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Jameel Warney
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Jameel Marcus Warney is an American professional basketball player for the Seoul SK Knights of the Korean Basketball League (KBL). He played college basketball for the Stony Brook Seawolves, leading the team to its first ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament and graduating as the school's all-time leader in several career categories.
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Ben Shneiderman
- Occupations
- computer scientistengineeruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Ben Shneiderman is an American computer scientist, a Distinguished University Professor in the University of Maryland Department of Computer Science, which is part of the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park, and the founding director (1983-2000) of the University of Maryland Human-Computer Interaction Lab. He conducted fundamental research in the field of human–computer interaction, developing new ideas, methods, and tools such as the direct manipulation interface, and his eight rules of design.
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Carl Heastie
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Carl Edward Heastie is an American politician from New York. Heastie has served in the New York State Assembly since January 2001, and was elected Speaker of the New York State Assembly on February 3, 2015.
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Kofi Awoonor
- Occupations
- novelistprofessorpoetdiplomatminister
- Biography
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Kofi Awoonor was a Ghanaian poet, author and diplomat. His work combined the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people with contemporary and religious symbolism to depict Africa during decolonization. He started writing under the name George Awoonor-Williams, and was also published as Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor. He taught African literature at the University of Ghana. Professor Awoonor was among those who were killed in the September 2013 attack at Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was a participant at the Storymoja Hay Festival.
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Ross Barkan
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Ross Elliot Barkan is an American journalist, novelist, and essayist.
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Rohini Godbole
- Occupations
- physicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Rohini Godbole was an Indian physicist and academic specializing in elementary particle physics: field theory and phenomenology. She was professor at the Centre for High Energy Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She worked extensively on different aspects of particle phenomenology over three decades, in particular on exploring different aspects of the Standard Model of Particle Physics (SM) and the physics beyond it (BSM). Her work regarding hadronic structure of high-energy photons outlined a variety of ways in which to study it and has had implications for the design of next generation electron positron colliders. She was an elected fellow of all the three academies of Science of India and also the Science Academy of the Developing World (TWAS).
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Kim Barnes Arico
- Occupations
- head coachteacherbasketball coachbasketball player
- Biography
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Kimberly Ann Barnes Arico is an American basketball coach and the current head coach of the Michigan Wolverines women's basketball team. She is the all-time winningest Michigan basketball coach. Previously, she was head coach of the St. John's Red Storm women's basketball team. She was inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.
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Charles R. Johnson
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- In 1988 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in philosophy and phenomenology
- Occupations
- man of lettersnovelistphilosopherliterary scholarscreenwriter
- Biography
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Charles Richard Johnson is an American scholar and the author of novels, short stories, screen-and-teleplays, and essays, most often with a philosophical orientation. Johnson has directly addressed the issues of black life in America in novels such as Dreamer and Middle Passage. Johnson was born in 1948 in Evanston, Illinois, and spent most of his career at the University of Washington in Seattle.
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Daniel Zamora
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Daniel James Zamora is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Toros de Tijuana of the Mexican League. Zamora played college baseball for the Stony Brook Seawolves and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 40th round of the 2015 draft. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets, for whom he made his debut in 2018, and Seattle Mariners.
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Renée DiResta
- Years
- 1981-.. (age 45)
- Occupations
- authorbusiness consultantmanager
- Biography
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Renée DiResta is a professor, writer and former research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO). DiResta has written about pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, terrorism, and state-sponsored information warfare. She has also served as an advisor to the U.S. Congress on ongoing efforts to prevent online and social media disinformation.
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David DeFeis
- Occupations
- singercomposermusician
- Biography
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David DeFeis is an American singer, songwriter and producer. He is the main composer, leader and sole constant member of the heavy metal band Virgin Steele.
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Eric Corley
- Occupations
- radio personalitydocumentary filmmakerhackerfilm directorjournalist
- Biography
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Eric Gordon Corley, also frequently referred to by his pen name of Emmanuel Goldstein, is a figure in the hacker community. He directs the non-profit organization 2600 Enterprises, Inc., publishes a magazine called 2600: The Hacker Quarterly (which has associated monthly meet-ups around the world), and hosts the hacker convention Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE). His pseudonym is derived from the fictional opposition leader in George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
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Tom Koehler
- Occupations
- baseball player
- Biography
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Thomas R. Koehler is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Koehler played college baseball at Stony Brook University for the Stony Brook Seawolves and was drafted by the Florida Marlins in the 18th round of the 2008 MLB draft. He played six seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Miami Marlins and Toronto Blue Jays. After not appearing in a major league game since 2017, Koehler retired in 2020 due to numerous injuries, and became a MLBA certified baseball agent with Pro Agents Inc.
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Peniel E. Joseph
- Occupations
- historianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Peniel E. Joseph is an American scholar, teacher, and public voice on race issues especially the history of the Black power movement. He holds a joint professorship appointment at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the History Department in at the University of Texas at Austin. Joseph joined UT Austin in 2015 from Tufts University in Massachusetts, where he had founded the school's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD). He founded the second Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD) on the University of Texas campus in 2016, and is director of the center.
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Steven K. Galson
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
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Steven Kenneth Galson is an American public health physician. He is currently a Senior Advisor at the Boston Consulting Group and Independent Board Member at Biocryst Pharmaceuticals and Elephas Biosciences. Until 2021 he was Senior Vice President for Research and Development at Amgen, the California-based biopharmaceutical company. He is also a Trustee and Professor-at-Large at the Keck Graduate Institute for Applied Life Sciences in Claremont, California. He is a retired rear admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and public health administrator who served as the acting Surgeon General of the United States from October 1, 2007 – October 1, 2009. He served concurrently as acting Assistant Secretary for Health from January 22 to June 25, 2009, and as the Deputy Director and Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the Food and Drug Administration from 2001 to 2007. As the Acting Surgeon General, he was the commander of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and, while serving as the Assistant Secretary for Health, was the operational head of the Public Health Service.
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Andrew Sega
- Occupations
- singercomputer scientistcomposerrecord producermusician
- Biography
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Andrew Gregory Sega, also known as Necros, is an American musician best known for tracking modules in the 1990s demoscene as well as for composing music for several well-known video games. He was a member of the synthpop duo Iris from 2001 until its disbandment in 2021. In 2020, he founded the dark wave duo Hallowed Hearts.
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Majid Mohammadi
- Occupations
- university teacheressayistsociologist
- Biography
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Majid Mohammadi is an Iranian-American author. He is the author of dozens of books in Persian, Arabic and English. Majid Mohammadi also is a faculty member at Tavaana: E-Learning Institute for Iranian Civil Society, where he teaches Persian-language online courses on civil society in Iran.
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Lalita Ramakrishnan
- Occupations
- microbiologist
- Biography
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Lalita Ramakrishnan is an Indian-born American microbiologist who is known for her contributions to the understanding of the biological mechanism of tuberculosis. As of 2019 she serves as a professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Cambridge, where she is also a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and a practicing physician. Her research is conducted at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB), where she serves as the Head of the Molecular Immunity Unit of the Department of Medicine embedded at the MRC LMB. Working with Stanley Falkow at Stanford, she developed the strategy of using Mycobacterium marinum infection as a model for tuberculosis. Her work has appeared in a number of journals, including Science, Nature, and Cell. In 2018 and 2019 Ramakrishnan coauthored two influential papers in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) arguing that the widely accepted estimates of the prevalence of latent tuberculosis—estimates used as a basis for allocation of research funds—are far too high. She is married to Mark Troll, a physical chemist.
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Harikesa Swami
- Occupations
- musician
- Biography
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Harikesa Das, formerly known as Harikesa Swami (Harikeśa Svāmī) and by the honorific Vishnupada (Viṣṇupāda), born Robert Campagnola, was one of the leading disciples of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and a guru within the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (commonly known as 'the International Society for Krishna Consciousness|Hare Krishnas' or ISKCON). He left ISKCON in 1998.
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Nikos Salingaros
- Occupations
- teacherphysicistarchitectural theoreticianmathematicianarchitect
- Biography
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Nikos Angelos Salingaros is a mathematician and polymath known for his work on urban theory, architectural theory, complexity theory, and design philosophy. He has been a close collaborator of the architect Christopher Alexander, with whom Salingaros shares a harsh critical analysis of conventional modern architecture. Like Alexander, Salingaros has proposed an alternative theoretical approach to architecture and urbanism that is more adaptive to human needs and aspirations, and that combines rigorous scientific analysis with deep intuitive experience.
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Craig Tracy
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Craig Arnold Tracy was an American mathematician known for his contributions to mathematical physics and probability theory.
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Mouhamadou Gueye
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Mouhamadou "Mo" Gueye is an American professional basketball player for the Windy City Bulls of the NBA G League. He played college basketball at the NCAA Division I level for the Stony Brook Seawolves and Pittsburgh Panthers.
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Kevin Killian
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- Graduated with Master of Arts
- Occupations
- poetnovelist
- Biography
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Kevin Killian was an American poet, author, editor, and playwright, primarily of LGBT literature. My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, which he co-edited with Peter Gizzi, won the American Book Award for Poetry in 2009.
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Abraham Silberschatz
- Occupations
- computer scientistengineer
- Biography
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Avi Silberschatz is an Israeli computer scientist and researcher. He is known for having authored many influential texts in computer science. He finished high school at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa and graduated in 1976 with a Ph.D. in computer science from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook. His research interests include database systems, operating systems, storage systems, and network management.
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Mohammad Hossein Adeli
- Occupations
- diplomateconomistpolitician
- Biography
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Mohammad Hossein Adeli is an Iranian politician, diplomat, economist and academic. He was the Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum from 2014 until 2018. He is the founder of Ravand Institute. He was the chairman of Iran's first Investment Bank Amin Investment Bank until 2011. In May 2014, he received the Order of the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan, Akihito, the highest Order given to any Iranian National for his important role in the Iran–Japan relations.
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Alexander Kusenko
- Occupations
- physicistresearcher
- Biography
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Alexander Kusenko is a theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, and cosmologist who is currently a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition, Kusenko holds an appointment of Senior Scientist at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU) since February 2008. He has served as a general member of the board of Aspen Center for Physics 2004-2019. Kusenko was awarded the status of Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2008 for original and seminal contributions to particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. In 2021, Kusenko was awarded a Simons Fellowship in Theoretical Physics. In 2021, he entered a $10,000 wager with Derek Muller over the possibility of sailing straight downwind faster than the wind, which he later conceded.
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Monica Martinez
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Monica R. Martinez is a Salvadoran-American, civil servant, educator and politician from the state of New York. A Democrat, she is a member of the New York State Senate representing the 4th district. Martinez has also served in the Suffolk County Legislature, representing the 9th district. She is a former Assistant Principal at East Middle School in Brentwood, NY.
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Bonnie Schneider
- Occupations
- weather presenter
- Biography
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Bonnie Schneider is a national television meteorologist and the author of Extreme Weather, published by Palgrave Macmillan. She appears on The Weather Channel. She previously worked for Headline News, and Bloomberg Television.
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Douglas Vakoch
- Occupations
- clinical psychologistastrobiologistpsychologistscience communicator
- Biography
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Douglas A. Vakoch is an American astrobiologist, search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) researcher, psychologist, and president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to transmitting intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations.
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Margalit Fox
- Years
- 1961-.. (age 65)
- Occupations
- writernon-fiction writerjournalistlinguistobituary writer
- Biography
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Margalit Fox is an American writer. After earning a master's degree in linguistics, she began her career in publishing in the 1980s. In 1994, she joined The New York Times as a copy editor for its Book Review and later wrote widely on language, culture and ideas for The New York Times, New York Newsday, Variety and other publications. She joined the obituary department of The New York Times in 2004 and authored more than 1,400 obituaries before her retirement from the staff of the paper in 2018. Since 2007, Fox has written several nonfiction books.
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Steve Levy
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Steven A. Levy is an American politician and lawyer who served as the seventh County Executive of Suffolk County, New York, elected on November 4, 2003. Originally a fiscally conservative Democrat, Levy joined the Republican Party in an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for governor.
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Nii Quaynor
- Years
- 1945-.. (age 81)
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- 1973-1977 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in computer science
- Occupations
- computer scientistengineer
- Biography
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Nii Narku Quaynor is a Ghanaian scientist and engineer who has played an important role in the introduction and development of the Internet throughout Africa.
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Doug McAdam
- Years
- 1951-.. (age 75)
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- In 1979 graduated with doctorate in sociology
- Occupations
- university teacheracademicsociologist
- Biography
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Doug McAdam is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. He did early work on the political process model in social movement analysis. He wrote a book on the theory in 1982 when analyzing the U.S. Civil Rights Movement: Political Process and the Development of the Black Insurgency 1930-1970. His other book Freedom Summer won the C. Wright Mills Award in 1990. He was the director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences between 2001 and 2005. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003.
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Abdul Wadud
- Occupations
- jazz musiciancellist
- Biography
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Abdul Wadud was an American cellist known for his work in jazz and classical settings. Jazz musician and fellow composer Tomeka Reid hailed Abdul Wadud's "Camille" in a 2020 feature in the New York Times on music that one could play to make friends fall in love with the cello.
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Kenneth Feder
- Occupations
- anthropologistarchaeologist
- Biography
-
Kenneth L. "Kenny" Feder is an emeritus professor of archaeology at Central Connecticut State University and the author of several books on archaeology and criticism of pseudoarchaeology such as Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology. His book Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum was published in 2010. His book Ancient America: Fifty Archaeological Sites to See for Yourself was published in 2017. He is the founder and director of the Farmington River Archaeological Project.
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Harald Braun
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Harald Braun is a former senior German diplomat who served as the Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations in New York from 2014 to 2017. In 2016, Ambassador Braun was elected vice president of the 71st UN General Assembly. From 2011 to 2014 he was State Secretary of the German Foreign Ministry.
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Nick Mamatas
- Occupations
- writernovelist
- Biography
-
Nick Mamatas is an American horror, science fiction and fantasy author and editor for Haikasoru's line of translated Japanese science fiction novels for Viz Media. His fiction has been nominated for a number of awards, including several Bram Stoker Awards. He has also been recognised for his editorial work with a Bram Stoker Award, as well as World Fantasy Award and Hugo Award nominations. He funded his early writing career by producing term papers for college students, which gained him some notoriety when he described this experience in an essay for Drexel University's online magazine The Smart Set.
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Dabuz
- Years
- 1993-.. (age 33)
- Biography
-
Samuel Robert Buzby, also known as Dabuz, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. player. In Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, he won several major tournaments and was ranked between 3rd and 6th best player in the world throughout the game's competitive history. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he was ranked 7th and 9th best for the first and second halves of 2019, respectively.
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Akwasi Yeboah
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
-
Akwasi Abeyie Yeboah is a British professional basketball player for Trabzonspor of the Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL). Yeboah competed for the Kent Crusaders of the English National Basketball League (NBL) and led the team to a championship in 2015. Yeboah played three seasons of college basketball for the Stony Brook Seawolves before transferring to play for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights as a graduate student for his final season of eligibility.
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Donny George Youkhanna
- Occupations
- university teacherwriteranthropologistprehistorianassyriologist
- Biography
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Donny George Youkhanna was an Iraqi-Assyrian archaeologist, anthropologist, author, curator, and scholar, and a visiting professor at Stony Brook University in New York.
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Sunita Jain
- Occupations
- children's writerpoetwriter
- Biography
-
Sunita Jain was an Indian scholar, novelist, short-story writer and poet of English and Hindi literature. She was a former professor and the Head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. She published over 80 books, in English and Hindi, besides translating many Jain writings and some Hindi literature into English. She is featured in the Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English and was a recipient of The Vreeland Award (1969) and the Marie Sandoz Prairie Schooner Fiction Award (1970 and 1971). The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2004. In 2015 she was awarded the Vyas Samman by the K.K. Birla foundation for outstanding literary work in Hindi. In 2015 she was awarded an honorary D.Litt. from the University of Burdhwan, West Bengal.
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Jaw-Shen Tsai
- Occupations
- physicist
- Biography
-
Jaw-Shen Tsai is a Taiwanese physicist. He is a professor at the Tokyo University of Science and a team leader of the Superconducting Quantum Simulation Research Team at the Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) within RIKEN. He has contributed to the area of condensed matter physics in both its fundamental physical aspects and its technological applications. He has recently been working on experiments connected to quantum coherence in Josephson systems. In February 2014, he retired from NEC Corporation, after 31 years of employment. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society as well as the Japan Society of Applied Physics.
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Burton Rocks
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Burton Evan Rocks is an American sports attorney, agent, and writer. Rocks collaborated with Yankee outfielder Paul O'Neill on the 2003 New York Times bestseller Me and My Dad: A Baseball Memoir.
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Patricia S. Cowings
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- 1966-1970 graduated with Bachelor of Science in psychology
- Occupations
- physiologistpsychologist
- Biography
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Patricia S. Cowings is an aerospace psychophysiologist. She was the first American woman to be trained as a scientist astronaut by NASA; though she was an alternate for a space flight in 1979, she did not travel to space. She is most known for her studies in the physiology of astronauts in outer space, as well as helping find cures for astronaut's motion sickness. She is credited in creating and patenting the autogenic-feedback training exercise (AFTE) used to treat astronauts.
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Risa Lavizzo-Mourey
- Occupations
- administratorphysician
- Biography
-
Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey is an American medical doctor and executive who served as president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation from 2003 to 2017. She was the first woman and the first African-American to head the foundation, which has an endowment of about $8 billion and distributes more than $400 million a year. She has been named one of the 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes several times, and one of The Grio's History Makers in the Making. She was elected a Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
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Tommy Brenton
- Years
- 1989-.. (age 37)
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
-
Thomas Brenton is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Stony Brook Seawolves of the America East Conference, where he won the 2013 Lefty Driesell Award, given to the top defensive player in Division I college basketball. Brenton also won the 2013 America East Conference Player of the Year, becoming the second player from Stony Brook to earn the award. He played professionally in Japan for the Link Tochigi Brex of the B.League from 2013 to 2017.
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Howie Klein
- Years
- 1948-2025 (aged 77)
- Occupations
- music promoter
- Biography
-
Howard Klein was an American writer, political activist, media personality, and onetime record label executive, DJ and producer. He was the president of Reprise Records from 1989 to 2001. He appeared occasionally as himself in music- and political-related film documentaries and received accolades for his stance against censorship and for his advocacy of free speech protection.
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Dhanish Karthik
- Years
- 1990-.. (age 36)
- Occupations
- actor
- Biography
-
Dhanish Karthik is an Indian actor who works in Hindi, Malayalam and English films.
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Marty Klein
- Occupations
- sex educator
- Biography
-
Marty Ralph Klein is an American sex therapist, author, educator and public policy analyst. Klein has spent his career supporting the healthy sexual expression of men, women and couples in a wide range of ways. He is critical of censorship, the concepts of sex addiction and porn addiction, as well as the anti-pornography movement. He believes that public policy relating to sexuality should be driven by scientific data rather than emotion, "tradition" or popular but untrue myths. He has been a participant in various state, federal and international court cases dealing with the First Amendment, obscenity, censorship and "harmful to minors" laws.
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Michael R. Anastasio
- Years
- 1948-.. (age 78)
- Occupations
- cellistpoliticianphysicist
- Biography
-
Michael Anastasio led two national science laboratories during a time of transition. He was the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and president of the Los Alamos National Security LLC, the company that operates the laboratory. He is the former director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The University of California Board of Regents appointed Michael R. Anastasio the director of LLNL on June 4, 2002. He started on July 1, 2002. In 2005 he became the president of the Los Alamos National Security LLC, and became the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory on June 1, 2006. During his directorship at Lawrence Livermore, the laboratory won 25 R&D 100 Awards and maintained its world-class leadership position in high-performance computing and its application to global climate modeling.
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In-Young Ahn
- Years
- 1954-.. (age 72)
- Occupations
- ecologist
- Biography
-
In-Young Ahn is a South Korean scientist. She is known for being the first South Korean woman to visit Antarctica and the first Asian woman to become an Antarctic station leader. She is a benthic ecologist and is currently working as a principal research scientist for the Korea Polar Research Institute.
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Spencer Black
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Spencer Black is an American educator and retired politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Madison in the Wisconsin State Assembly for 26 years, and was Minority Leader for most of the 2001-2002 session.
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Lily McNair
- Occupations
- psychologist
- Biography
-
Lily McNair is an American academic administrator who served as the president of Tuskegee University, a historically black university in Tuskegee, Alabama, from 2018 to 2021.
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Jennifer Nassour
- Occupations
- lawyer
- Biography
-
Jennifer Ann Nassour is an American attorney and political figure. She served as the chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican Party from 2009 to 2011. She is also the founder of the Pocketbook Project.
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Dipankar Chatterji
- Occupations
- academic
- Biography
-
Dipankar Chatterji is an Indian molecular biologist and the Honorary Professor at Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, a multidisciplinary research institute under the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India. He is known for his pioneering research on bacterial transcription. He is a recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize and is an elected fellow of all the major Indian science academies. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2016, for his contributions to science and engineering.
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Sharon F. Terry
- Biography
-
Sharon F. Terry is an American health advocate in San Diego, California. She co-founded PXE International when her children were diagnosed with pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) in 1994. Her TEDMED talk from 2017 has been viewed more than a million times, and was the subject of the TED Radio Hour. In 2009, she was elected an Ashoka Fellow for her entrepreneurial work in engagement and the development of interventions for genetic conditions.
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Elijah Olaniyi
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
-
Elijah Olaniyi was an American basketball player who played for the Stony Brook Seawolves of the America East Conference and the Miami Hurricanes of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
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Muhammad El-Amin
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
-
Muhammad El-Amin is an American former professional basketball player. Until his arrest in May 2024, El-Amin coached high school basketball in Holt, Michigan and 8th grade basketball at MacDonald Middle School in East Lansing, Michigan.
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Hanspeter Pfister
- Years
- 1964-.. (age 62)
- Occupations
- computer scientist
- Biography
-
Hanspeter Pfister is a Swiss computer scientist. He is the An Wang Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and an affiliate faculty member of the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University. His research in visual computing lies at the intersection of scientific visualization, information visualization, computer graphics, and computer vision and spans a wide range of topics, including biomedical image analysis and visualization, image and video analysis, and visual analytics in data science.
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Heather Berlin
- Occupations
- neuroscientistneurologist
- Biography
-
Heather A. Berlin is an American neuroscientist and licensed clinical psychologist noted for her work in science communication and science outreach. Her research focuses on brain-behavior relationships affecting the prevention and treatment of impulsive and compulsive psychiatric disorders. She is also interested in the neural basis of consciousness, dynamic unconscious processes, and creativity. Berlin is host of the PBS Nova series Your Brain, the PBS series Science Goes to the Movies, the Discovery Channel series Superhuman Showdown, and StarTalk All-Stars with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. She also co-hosts the Science of Perception Box - the #1 Science podcast on Apple Podcasts during its run.
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Kevin M. McCoy
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering
- Occupations
- military officer
- Biography
-
Vice Admiral Kevin Michael McCoy is a native of Long Island, New York and joined the United States Navy in 1977. McCoy's last naval posting was as the 42nd commander of Naval Sea Systems Command. Since 2013 he is a President of Irving Shipbuilding Inc.
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Steven Englebright
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Steven C. Englebright is a former New York State Assembly member for the 4th District from 1992 until his defeat in 2022. He ran for Suffolk County Legislature in 2023 and won. In 2025, he ran for re-election and won. He is a Democrat.
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Mark D. Shriver
- Born in
-
United States - Occupations
- geneticist
- Biography
-
Mark D. Shriver is an American population geneticist. He leads genetic research at the Pennsylvania State University.
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Lasana M. Sekou
- Years
- 1959-.. (age 67)
- Occupations
- poetpublisher
- Biography
-
Lasana M. Sekou is a poet, short story writer, essayist, journalist, and publisher from the Caribbean island of Saint Martin.
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Mark Galassi
- Occupations
- astrophysicistprogrammer
- Biography
-
Mark Galassi is a physicist, computer scientist, and contributor to the free and open-source software movement. He was born in Manhattan, grew up in France and Italy, and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Rosina M. Bierbaum
- Years
- 1952-.. (age 74)
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- In 1985 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in ecology
- Occupations
- scientist
- Biography
-
Rosina M. Bierbaum is currently the Roy F. Westin Chair in Natural Economics and Research Professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy. She is also a professor and former dean at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE). She was hired in October 2001, by then-University of Michigan President, Lee Bollinger. She is also the current Chair of The Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) that provides independent scientific and technical advice to the GEF (Global Environment Facility that serves as a financial mechanism for several environmental conventions) on its policies, strategies, programs, and projects.
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Julieta Dobles
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
-
Julieta Dobles Yzaguirre is a Costa Rican poet, writer, and educator. She is a five-time winner of the Aquileo J. Echeverría National Prize and received the Magón National Prize for Culture in 2013.
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Lucy van Dalen
- Occupations
- long-distance runner
- Biography
-
Lucy Oliver is a New Zealand middle-distance runner, who competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics, in the Women's 1500 metres. Along with her twin sister Holly, Lucy attended Stony Brook University in New York until 2012, earning an undergraduate degree in sociology followed by a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MA/LS). She was chosen an NCAA All-American for outdoor track (2010, 2011 and 2012), indoor track (2011 and 2012) and cross-country (2011). She competed in the 3000 m at the 2014 World Indoor Championships. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she competed in the 1500 m and the 5000 m.
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Susan R. Wessler
- Occupations
- biologistbotanistgeneticist
- Biography
-
Susan Randi Wessler, ForMemRS, is an American plant molecular biologist and geneticist. She is distinguished professor of genetics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR).
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Yoonjung Han
- Occupations
- pianist
- Biography
-
Yoonjung "Yoonie" Han is a South Korean-born American classical pianist.
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Guoliang Yu
- Years
- 1963-.. (age 63)
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Guoliang Yu is a Chinese American mathematician. After receiving his Ph.D. from SUNY at Stony Brook in 1991 under the direction of Ronald G. Douglas, Yu spent time at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, the University of Colorado at Boulder (1992–2000), Vanderbilt University (2000–2012), and a variety of visiting positions. He currently holds the Powell Chair in Mathematics and was appointed University Distinguished Professor in 2018 at Texas A&M University. He is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
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Salvatore Torquato
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- In 1981 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in mechanical engineering
- Occupations
- naturalisttheoretical physicistuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Salvatore Torquato is an American theoretical scientist born in Falerna, Italy. His research work has impacted a variety of fields, including physics, chemistry, applied and pure mathematics, materials science, engineering, and biological physics. He is the Lewis Bernard Professor of Natural Sciences in the department of chemistry and Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials at Princeton University. He has been a senior faculty fellow in the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, an enterprise dedicated to exploring frontiers across the theoretical natural sciences. He is also an associated faculty member in three departments or programs at Princeton University: physics, applied and computational mathematics, and mechanical and aerospace engineering. On multiple occasions, he was a member of the schools of mathematics and natural sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey.
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John M. Kennedy, Jr
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
John M. Kennedy Jr. is a politician from Suffolk County, New York. In 2014, he was elected to Suffolk County Comptroller on the Republican ticket, garnering 53% of the vote.
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Kevin Kwan Loucks
- Occupations
- pianist
- Biography
-
Kevin Kwan Loucks is a Korean–American classical pianist, arts entrepreneur, and nonprofit executive. In September 2021, he was appointed chief executive officer of Chamber Music America in New York City. He previously served as Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, a presenting organization in residence at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA, and also served as Director of Innovation and Program Development at Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California. He co-founded Chamber Music | OC, an arts organization headquartered in Lake Forest, California, and is a founding member and current pianist of the award-winning piano trio, Trio Céleste.
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Kristina Curry Rogers
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- 1996-2001 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- paleontologistresearcher
- Biography
-
Kristina "Kristi" Curry Rogers is an American vertebrate paleontologist and a professor in Biology and Geology at Macalester College. Her research focuses on questions of dinosaur paleobiology, bone histology, growth, and evolution, especially in a subgroup of sauropods called Titanosauria. She has named two dinosaur species from Madagascar, Rapetosaurus, the most complete Cretaceous sauropod and titanosaur found to date, and Vahiny, so far known only from a partial skull. She and Jeffrey A. Wilson co-authored The Sauropods, Evolution and Paleobiology, published in December 2005. Her research includes field work in Argentina, Madagascar, Montana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
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Anne LeBaron
- Enrolled in Stony Brook University
- In 1978 graduated with Master of Arts in music composing
- Occupations
- university teachermusic educatorcomposer
- Biography
-
Alice Anne LeBaron is an American composer, harpist, academic, and writer.
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Michael I. Miller
- Occupations
- neuroscientist
- Biography
-
Michael Ira Miller is an American biomedical engineer and data scientist, and the Bessie Darling Massey Professor and Director of the Johns Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering. He worked with Ulf Grenander in the field of Computational Anatomy as it pertains to neuroscience, specializing in mapping the brain under various states of health and disease by applying data derived from medical imaging. Miller is the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Imaging Science, Whiting School of Engineering and codirector of Johns Hopkins Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute. Miller is also a Johns Hopkins University Gilman Scholar.
