Research at SUNY changes lives every day, and it will continue to do so into the future. Entering its fifth year, the SUNY GREAT award incentivizes current and incoming SUNY graduate students to compete for prestigious federal fellowships to support their education at SUNY’s top programs.
Meet the 2024 SUNY Graduate Research Empowering and Accelerating Talent program cohort!
This year, the cohort includes 27 exceptional SUNY awardees who have successfully competed for nationally recognized fellowships from key federal agencies including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Defense. As part of the award, these scholars will receive an additional $5,000 in flexible funding for research expenses, professional development, and stipend supplements.
These rising SUNY stars are paving the way with their entrepreneurial spirit and innovative research in a wide range of fields. “The curiosity and creativity of these SUNY GREAT awardees bring the potential to improve lives, fuel new companies, and expand the frontiers of basic human knowledge,” Dr. Susan Brennan, Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science at Stony Brook University and SUNY Research Fellow for Innovation in Graduate Education, says of this year’s recipients.
Visionary projects take time, energy, and funding to see actionable results, and SUNY GREAT helps empower this process through direct support. In their own words, some of the SUNY GREAT awardees described how this program will assist in major research efforts:
“These funds will enable the recruitment of specific participants crucial for addressing my research questions in the field of auditory cognition,” said Nathan F. Gillespie, University at Albany, who is researching Cognitive, Neural, and Behavioral Sciences. “I use computational models to study how people perceive sound. The purpose of my work is to shed light on the cognitive processes that enable us to comprehend complex auditory information in domains like speech and music.”
“[This award] will allow me to present my research at international conferences,” said Nicholas Brennan, Upstate Medical University, who is studying unique models of mitochondrial dysfunction to investigate a mechanism of muscle loss. “My work may help in developing new therapies for treating muscle wasting in mitochondrial disease and potentially in aging.”
“The SUNY GREAT award will be helpful in pursuing the research to cover data-related expenses,” according to Sarah Barkley, of Stony Brook University, who is focusing on social psychology. “Social and emotional processes shape our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, inherent to how we interact with and understand the world.” She hopes to use this research to identify neurobiological markers that help us predict, characterize, and treat psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.
“I will use these funds to run chemical analysis on otoliths [fish], which will be a core component of my graduate research,” said Leah Davis Rubin, from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, whose study in environmental biology, is to use data in the form of zooarchaeological remains, historical landings data, and oral history to illuminate important impacts of tourism and global seafood markets on the practice of subsistence fishing and the role of subsistence fishing in food sovereignty and security.
“The SUNY GREAT Award will significantly mitigate the financial challenges of graduate studies, allowing me to allocate more attention and resources to my research,” said Alex Lemus, University at Albany, who is researching how healthy oral conditions can prevent widespread diseases such as dental caries and periodontitis.
“My research is field-based, and these funds will help me [travel] to my site for equipment maintenance and data collection,” said Christian L. Bright, of SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, who is investigating how reinvigorating plant communities are influencing the carbon ecosystem services provided by wetlands.
“My research is theoretical because it is unfunded. With funds available, we’ll be able to begin implementing this theory and simulations in a real-world environment,” said Adam DeHollander, of the University at Buffalo. As part of the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research department, DeHollander is using artificial intelligence techniques to measure crowding in hospital emergency departments to suggest decisions to improve efficiency. “My research is to make better patient prioritization decisions to decrease ER crowding without requiring additional financial resources.”
“The SUNY GREAT funds would help progress my degree by helping me purchase lab supplies and textbooks and by providing as an additional source of funding for academic workshops and conferences,” according to Marie Francoise Millares, of Stony Brook University, whose research involves investigating novel materials and battery design to advance energy storage technologies. “By exploring these avenues, I am to enhance the efficiency, durability, and sustainability of battery development… and anticipated significant advancements in battery technologies for electric vehicles and paving the way for a cleaner, more accessible energy grid infrastructure globally.”
“The SUNY GREAT fund will allow me to showcase the novel physiology research from our group… engage in impactful inter-institutional collaborations and provide funds to complete my in vivo experimentation,” said Tyler Rolland, of the University at Buffalo. In physiology, “I simulate Type 1a (read: “type one-A”) supernovae, investigating the variables that influence how stars explode. These efforts expand our understanding of the universe and increase the accuracy of cosmological predictions.”
And these are just a few of the noteworthy individuals from this year’s awardee class. Check out the full list of winners and their research initiatives: 2024 SUNY Great Award Recipients
SUNY GREAT is headed up by Dr. Susan Brennan and supported by Jacquie Spano, SUNY System Program Manager; this is just one way they offer support and guidance to the students across SUNY campuses.
Are you a SUNY student in a STEM field who loves research and is looking for a leg-up? Be sure to check out the webinars that SUNY offers to help you hone your competitive edge:
- SUNY’s NSF GRFP Application Development webinar series
- Are You Ready for Graduate School? Finding Fellowship Funding
- Applying to NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program
- Winning Strategies for GRFP (and How to Get Started)
- Write! (As if Your Career Depends on it)
To access these webinars, please contact Jacquie Spano at [email protected]
The full SUNY Press Release Available Here
Above Photo Grid Images: In alphabetical order, left to right
Image 1:
- Sarah Barkley, Clinical Psychology / Stony Brook University
- Nicholas Brennan, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology / Upstate Medical University
- Christian L. Bright, Environmental Science / SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
- Kaelyn Burns, Epidemiology and Environmental Health / University at Buffalo
- Adam DeHollander, Industrial and Systems Engineering: Operations Research / University at Buffalo
- Dylan Ehrbar, Biological Sciences and Biology / University at Albany
- Beryl Guterman, Microbiology and Immunology / University at Buffalo
- Nathan F. Gillespie, Cognitive Psychology / University at Albany
- Xiao Han, Microbiology and Immunology / Stony Brook University
Image 2:
- Eunice Kim, Pharmacology / Stony Brook University
- Connor Lawhead, Clinical Psychology / Stony Brook University
- Alex Lemus, Biological Sciences / University at Albany
- Steven M. Lewis, Genetics, Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) / Stony Brook University
- Marie Francoise Millares, Materials Science and Engineering / Stony Brook University
- Ava Nederlander, Electrical & Computer Engineering / Stony Brook University
- Jennifer Jiyoun Park, Molecular and Cellular Pharmaco/ Stony Brook University
- Achamaporn Punnantinont, Oral Biology / University at Buffalo
- Melissa Rasmussen, Physics and Astronomy / Stony Brook University
Image 3:
- Tyler Rolland, Physiology and Biophysics / University at Buffalo
- Leah Davis Rubin, Environmental Biology / SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
- Shaunna Simmons, Microbiology and Immunology / University at Buffalo
- James St. John, Materials Science / Stony Brook University
- Janelle Baetiong Talavera, Biological Sciences / Binghamton University
- Courtney Tello, Cellular Biology and Biochemistry Department / Stony Brook University
- Theresa Wrynnm, Oral Biology / University at Buffalo
- Lucia Yang, Genetics, Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) / Stony Brook University
- Victoria Zoccoli-Rodriguez, Microbiology and Immunology / Upstate Health Center
