Five assistant professors at Stony Brook University have been named recipients of the Stony Brook Trustees Faculty Award. Each will receive up to $20,000 to support research, scholarship, and art-making.
“Early career awards like these are essential to empowering our faculty as they grow their careers and pursue bold, innovative research,” said Mónica Bugallo, vice provost for faculty and academic staff development and professor of electrical and computer engineering. “We are grateful to the Stony Brook Foundation for its continued investment in research excellence through this program, and proudly celebrate this year’s outstanding awardees.”
The awards are designed for full-time second-term assistant professors who have completed a review after at least three years at Stony Brook. The recognition is given to those with a strong record of early-career research and academic achievement.
Rafael D’Andrea’s project will assess theoretical models used in assisted colonization—a conservation strategy that introduces at-risk species into new ecosystems—by comparing them with real-world case studies. The goal is to develop practical tools that help guide future conservation efforts.
Wenbo Li’s work focuses on understanding how social media use affects youth mental health, especially as artificial intelligence becomes more common on these platforms. His project builds on prior studies involving digital interventions and AI literacy, aiming to inform ethical policies regarding AI in social media.
Fernando Loffredo leads an international effort exploring how art and artifacts moved across Latin America and the Pacific Rim during Spanish and Portuguese colonial rule. His project includes collaborative seminars at Lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia, along with events intended to foster dialogue within the university community about cultural exchange under colonial power structures.
Jack McSweeney is studying ocean dynamics off Long Island’s south shore by collecting data on internal waves—subsurface phenomena that influence coastal water properties but remain poorly understood due to limited observation. This work seeks to create a multi-year dataset for the region, which could benefit fisheries management, hurricane forecasting, and offshore wind planning.
Vivian Miranda is advancing research into dark energy using data from NASA’s upcoming Roman Space Telescope. Her project combines three areas: investigating cosmic expansion physics, examining interactions between dark energy and other particles, and developing artificial intelligence tools for faster analysis of astronomical data.
