Welcome New Faculty!

Great faculty are the bedrock of great universities.  As faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences, our new colleagues will be the teachers and mentors of  tomorrow’s leaders.  As scholars, they will advance creativity and knowledge that inspires our imagination and changes the world’s understanding of nature, humanity, and culture.  Please welcome these outstanding individuals!

• Jason Paradis
  

  Department of Art Full time Lecturer   Jason Paradis is an artist and curator from Canada who now lives and works in the New York area. He received his MFA from Stony Brook University. Jason’s work has been displayed in several exhibitions in and around New York City as well as across the United States and Canada.  Recent exhibitions have been at the Saratoga Art Center, the Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, and OMNI Gallery in New York. Solo shows have been at Twist, etc and Seed Space in Nashville, St. Joseph’s College, and Modern Fuel in Kingston, Ontario Canada. He regularly curates for the Carriage House at the Islip Art Museum.
• Daniel Amarante
  

  Department of Chemistry Lecturer   Daniel received a BS in Chemistry from St. John's University and a PhD in Chemistry from Stony Brook University. His research focuses on synthesizing inorganic complexes that have biological/medical (e.g. anticancer agents), technological (e.g. solar cells) and catalytic applications. Cancer and renewable energy are critical areas that require additional research and focus in order to improve our way of life. By understanding the photochemical and photophysical properties of these inorganic complexes we can, in turn, develop new medications and more efficient light-harvesting materials. Daniel’s areas of expertise include inorganic chemistry, bio-inorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, analytical chemistry, X-ray crystallography, and catalysis. 
• Alicia Mullaley 
  

  Department of Chemistry Lecturer   Alicia Mullaley earned her PhD at SBU’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Prior to SBU, Alicia was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Manhattan College in the Department of Chemistry. There, she founded a new college-recognized club, Women in STEM. She also served as a mentor for undergraduate research projects and developed a curriculum for a new major in environmental science. Alicia has a general interest in atmospheric and terrestrial/marine ecosystem research and investigates climate-chemistry interactions through laboratory, field and modeling studies. She is currently a co-investigator on a funded NY State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) grant, measuring wintertime volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for air pollution applications.
• María Pérez-Urdiales
  

  Department of Economics Full time Lecturer   María Pérez-Urdiales is a Lecturer at the Department of Economics. Her research focuses on Environmental Economics, especially the design of residential water demand side policies in the context of drought emergencies. Her work has been published in academic journals, including Resource and Energy Economics, Environmental Economics and Ecological Economics. Besides her academic research, she has also worked on policy-oriented projects with Think Tanks and Public Agencies in California. Prior to joining SBU, she worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) in Paris and at the School of Public Policy at the University of California Riverside. 
• Natasha Vitek
  

  Department of Ecology and Evolution  Assistant Professor  

  Natasha Vitek a paleontologist studying the evolutionary consequences of variation in the fossil record. She measures the shapes of modern and fossilized animals to link what we know about today’s world to the long timescales of the past. Her current research focuses on how species have survived previous episodes of climate change and how factors like development, nutrition, and their community could have shaped their responses.

• Mohamad Ballan
  

  Department of History Assistant Professor   Dr. Ballan’s research focuses on the intellectual, political and cultural history of the pre-modern Mediterranean world, with an emphasis on Iberia and North Africa during the late medieval and early modern era. He is particularly interested in political thought, historiography, intercommunal relations, and borderlands between 1250 and 1500. His current book project examines the phenomenon of the "scholar-statesman" in the late medieval world. 
• Eun Hye Lee
  

  Department of Mathematics Lecturer    
• Dzmitry Dudko
  

  Department of Mathematics Assistant Professor   Dzmitry Dudko is originally from Belarus, from a small settlement called Oktyabrsky. He received his bachelor’s degree in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. He received his PhD in 2012.  His research interests lie in the field of complex dynamics.  
• Christopheren Nomura 
  

  Department of Music Artist-in-Residence, Voice  

  Since making his New York City debut, Baritone Christòpheren Nomura has performed throughout the world, hailed as one of classical music's "rising stars" by the Wall Street Journal. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions including a four-year Fulbright Grant to study with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hermann Prey and Gérard Souzay. He holds a Masters degree and Artists Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music. 

• João Luiz Rezende
  

  Department of Music Artist-in-Residence, Guitar  

  Two time Latin Grammy nominee guitarist, educator, and compose João Luiz Rezende began to play the popular music of his native Brazil professionally during his childhood and was later trained in classical guitar by his mentor Henrique Pinto. He holds a masters degree from Mannes College as a student of Michael Newman, and as the recipient of the Augustine Foundation scholarship he earned his doctoral degree from Manhattan School of Music where he studied with David Leisner. João is also the director of chamber music at CUNY Hunter College and the head of the guitar at SUNY Purchase.  

• Nirmali Fenn
  

  Department of Music Assistant Professor   Nirmali Fenn is a Sri Lankan-born Australian composer. She received her initial music education at the universities of New South Wales and Melbourne, graduating with high distinction. With the support of a prestigious Clarendon Fund Scholarship, she later completed her doctorate in music at Oxford University, UK. She has worked in the faculties of the University of Hong Kong, New York University, the University of New South Wales, and Yale-NUS College Singapore. 
• Roger Sher
  

  Department of Neurobiology and Behavior Assistant Professor   Roger Sher’s research focuses on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and neurodegeneration in general. His lab uses a combination of approaches from molecular genetics and cellular biology to unveil the molecular mechanisms that lead to neuronal degeneration. His research is supported by “ALS Ride for Life.” In addition to his research efforts, Dr. Sher will be directing an undergraduate course on cellular signaling and  participating in graduate teaching. 
• Anthony Steinbock
  

  Department of Philosophy Professor   Dr. Anthony Steinbock  holds a BA in theology from the University of Portland, a BA in Philosophy from the University of Portland, an MA from DePaul University, and a PhD from SBU. He has held academic appointments at the University of New Hampshire and Southern Illinois University.  Dr. Steinbock is a scholar of contemporary German and French philosophy, classical phenomenology, the philosophy of religion, social ontology, and aesthetics.  He is the author of six research monographs and translations, the editor of two book collections, and seven special journal editions.
• Ciprian Gal
  

  Department of Physics and Astronomy Research Assistant Professor   Ciprian is part of the Nuclear Experiment group in the Stony Brook University Physics and Astronomy Department. His main research focus is a central arm single electron analysis. His team tries to identify electrons coming from W decays and correlate them with differences in the spin alignment of the colliding protons that gave the W boson. 
• Ross Corliss
  

  Department of Physics and Astronomy Research Assistant Professor   Ross Corliss is an experimental nuclear and particle physicist at Center for Frontiers in Nuclear Science.  His research interests include the origins of proton spin, the properties of the quark gluon plasma (QGP), and searches for new physics in the dark sector.  He is currently focused on the sPHENIX project, a significant upgrade to the PHENIX experiment at nearby Brookhaven National Lab. 
• Cristina Khan
  

  Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Lecturer   Cristina Khan received her PhD in Sociology with a graduate certificate in Feminist Studies from the University of Connecticut. Her research and teaching interests include: feminist methodologies, sexualities, race/ethnic studies, body/embodiment, Latina/o/x studies, qualitative methods, sex work, and women of color feminisms. She is co-author of   Race & Sexuality   (Polity Press, 2018) and managing editor of the Wiley Blackwell Companions to Women's and Gender Studies, Sexuality Studies, & Feminist Studies. 
• Anna Cairney
  

  Program in Writing and Rhetoric Lecturer   Anna began her academic career as a High School English and Public Speaking teacher in Oregon. Before SBU, Anna was a Doctoral Fellow for the Institute for Writing Studies at St. John’s University. Her academic focus is in Composition and Rhetoric, and she is interested in the intersection of written, oral, and digital storytelling. Anna’s current research promotes writing support drawn from developmental literary editing. 
• Rashmi Rai
   

  Program in Writing and Rhetoric Lecturer   Rashmi K. Rai received her PhD in English from Northwestern University. She previously received the Champions Award for Teaching Excellence, awarded by the EOP Program at SBU. In 2000, she edited a successful multi-university multi-million-dollar grant proposal submitted to the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the NSF.
• Katherine D. Johnston
  

  Program in Writing and Rhetoric Lecturer   Katherine D. Johnston earned her PhD in English at the University of California, Riverside. She has published articles in American Literature, Twentieth Century Literature, and the American Indian Culture and Research Journal . She is currently completing her book project, Characterizing Profiles: Data Profiling and Literature in the Twenty-First Century .