Protecting Lives, Preserving the Future

All of our lives changed irrevocably on 9/11, but our practice has yet to catch up with the diverse perils around us. The mission of research universities to create new knowledge harnesses the forces of inquiry and imagination to address this complex and multi-faceted need by inventing and innovating in the service of homeland security and national defense. This publication presents a sample of the varied and wide-ranging ventures through which the activities and products of Stony Brook research seek to keep us safer. If you are looking for an R&D partner or an opportunity to support innovation with potentially life-saving impact, or if you just want to be better informed about this most important field of endeavor, please read on.

Using modes of inquiry from biomedicine to engineering to the study of human behavior, University researchers are providing answers and asking new questions. The results of these inquiries range across the broad spectrum of security needs from intelligence and early warning to interdiction at the border and throughout the country to protecting both people and critical infrastructure against catastrophic threats to emergency preparedness, response and remediation. A few examples: developing an easily stored agent, capable of inhibiting anthrax Lethal Toxin, that is orally available and readily administered to large populations; adapting a materials science technique for tracking the deformation of stressed metals to enhance existing biometrics for facial recognition; developing new approaches to automate intrusion responses to prevent or limit the magnitude of “hacker” attacks; developing a new device to detect contraband plastic explosives with improved effectiveness and dramatically reduced cost, based on innovative instrumentation developed to conduct cutting edge experiments in particle physics; improving response to mass casualty attacks by applying sociological analysis to the challenges of timely mobilization, information dissemination and the “worried well” response to panic.

At Stony Brook, this extraordinary scope and volume of work has a positive environment for success. Included by distinguished national and international reviewers among the top 150 universities in the world, Stony Brook is the only institution in the country with two National Science Foundation materials centers — in thermal spray and polymers — and the only campus in New York with two State-designated Centers for Advanced Technology — in medical biotechnology and sensor systems — and has on its faculty recipients of both the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology. It leads the 64-campus SUNY system in earning competitively-awarded federal research and originated the only two drugs from any SUNY campus that have been approved by the FDA.

Over the last five years, Stony Brook has also been the SUNY leader in technology transfer, whether measured by licensing fees, invention disclosures, issue patents, or executed licenses. The campus has a complete suite of economic development programs, from R & D collaboration and advanced technology assistance to foster innovation to the nurturing of new enterprises in its three incubator facilities—programs that accelerate the commercialization of new technologies for rapid dissemination to end users in the public and private sectors. The projects described here are a modest representation of the depth and breadth of Stony Brook's commitment to the research disciplines that bear on homeland security. Much more needs to be done and our faculty colleagues are rising to these challenges. We invite you to join us!