DAY O'OOD, FOOTBALL, FUN nte I)sk of Jane Knap CONTEINTS To all my fellow Stony Brook alumni, I'm delighted to What's New On Campus 3 greet you as incoming president of the Stony Brook Ambulatory Surgery Center Opens; Asian Fall Festival at Stony Brook Alumni Association. Thanks to outgoing president Mark Snyder, I'm taking the reins of a dynamic organization Research Roundup 4 Geometry as a spy tool? Modern art on the with a real sense of purpose and ambition. Web-a new interactive medium. How a This is an exciting time to be a Stony Brook alum. Evidence turkey is helping Stony Brook researchers combat osteoporosis of a surging University is all around us. From front-page New York Times coverage of Professor Eckard Wimmer's synthesis of Extra! Extra! 6 the polio virus to Shirley Strum Kenny's ongoing transformation Former Stony Brook Press editor wins journalism's most coveted prize-the Pulitzer of the campus, Stony Brook is happening. Even the new and expanded Brook you're reading demonstrates that Stony Brook Catch Our Rising Stars 8 Meet is a class act. Stony Brook's student ambassadors- as they ascend the academic heights For alumni who haven't been back to campus in years, it's difficult to capture in words the spirit of Stony Brook today. Past and Present 10 A conversation with former University Even for those of us who come from an era when Stony Brook President John S. Toll and President Kenny was more grime than grass, today our alma mater is a source of tremendous pride--one of the nation's elite universities. Our Farewell, Bridge to Nowhere 13 The infamous Stony Brook landmark now diplomas look better every day. exists only as part of SBU's history My husband and I have been a Stony Brook family ever Homecoming 2002! 14 since our student days, and now more than ever. Bill serves on Fun, food, and football, capped off by fire- the Executive Committee of the Stony Brook Foundation. And works and evening entertainment while we feel we're giving back for a great education and a great Alumni Calendar 15 experience, frankly we stay so involved because it's really fun to September to December be part of what's happening here. We're on the ground floor of Let the Games Begin! 16 greatness. That's a very satisfying feeling. The new Athletic Stadium opens this fall to As you read this, the Alumni Relations office is launching much fanfare our National Alumni Council. It will give alumni everywhere a We Will Never Foget 17 chance to rejoin a growing family, and to get involved in many The members of our Stony Brook family will ways. All it takes is a visit to the Alumni Relations Web site be honored at commemorative services this year on September 10 and 11 (click 'alumni' at www.stonybrook.edu). But a look is worth a thousand words. Come back; visit the Class Notes 18 to 21 Donor Spotlight, Chuck Downey campus at Homecoming on October 19, and at our new Spring Remembering, Ted Goldfarb Reunion Weekend. I think you'll agree that Stony Brook is something to get excited about. Brookmarks 22 Recent books by Stony Brook alumni, faculty, and staff Jane Knapp '78 Flashback 23 President, Stony Brook Alumni Association Were You a Stick in the Mud? Compiled and written by Lynne Vessie What's New on Campus A New Home for their families. There are pediatric play areas Shakuhachi master Marco Lienhard and koto with furniture designed specially for children player Masayo Ishigure also will perform. Outpatient Surgery to make their experience a positive one. Soh Daiko is New York's premier taiko Stony Brook's new Ambulatory Surgery Located next to University Hospital, the drumming group. Formed by members of the Center is a spacious, state-of-the-art facility center is easily accessible for both patients New York Buddhist Church, the name "Soh" designed to create a comfortable, stress-free and surgeons with plenty of free parking. means peace, harmony, working together. In outpatient surgery experience for both adult Surgeons come from both the University's addition to drums, the group incorporates and pediatric patients. academic departments and surrounding com- bamboo flutes, brass bells, conch shells, and The 32,000-square-foot center has six oper- munity hospitals. For more information, visit gongs into its performances. ating rooms and two minor procedure rooms, all the center's Web site at www.sbdaysurgery.com Hanayui is a voice and dance group with the latest equipment and monitors. There or call (631) 444-9400. made up of Kodo members, Chieko Kojima is also a preoperative testing area for inpatient and Yoko Fujimoto, and Okinawan dance surgery, allowing patients to have their inpatient A Fall Festival for Yui expert, Mitsue Kinjo, who pooled their talents preoperative lab tests, EKGs, chest X-rays, and "Aki Matsuri"-Japanese for Autumn and formed a performing group. histories/physicals all done in one visit. Festival-will be held on September 15 from The Japanese word "hana" means Consistent with the latest concepts in 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Student Activities "flower" and symbolizes the youthful energy ambulatory surgery, the center's recovery Center (SAC). The event, sponsored by the that Hanayui puts into their performances. area is divided into two stages. The first-stage Japan Foundation (New York) and East The word "yui" recalls the relationships room is a conventional recovery area that is Winds, Inc., is a fundraiser for the Asian formed in Japanese villages when one family set up for patients requiring more frequent American Faculty Staff Association (AAFSA). did not have enough members to plant its rice observation. But thanks to new, short-acting Cultural activities, which are free, will be or replace its thatched roof and neighbors anesthetics combined with minimally invasive held in the SAC's new multipurpose room, or other friendly parties came along to help surgical techniques, more patients safely including various demonstrations plus interac- them. What bound the villagers together bypass the conventional recovery process and tive events such as judo, kendo, origami, and was the spirit of "yui." 'Those who want to go directly to the second-stage room, where calligraphy. Performances will be held in the sing and dance, or just have a good time they can eat, visit with family, and relax before SAC auditorium. Tickets are $18 per person, watching, are welcome to become "yui" going home. $9 for students, $5 for children under 10, and friends, too. 1Torsrve per i(ii nc, lickes, In the planning stages, particular atten- $15 each for purchases of four tickets or more. which will be distributed on the db otfthe tion was given to the needs of children and The main acts are Soh Daiko and Hanayui. show. call (l Mi32 ti:20 Compiled and written by Shelley Colwell Research Roundup Cutting-edge scientific study culled from Stony Brook's best and brightest minds. Spies Like Us Today's secret agents use sophisticated gadgetry that would make even James Bond jealous. And who is helping these spies stay one step ahead of the bad guys? Computational geometers like Joe Mitchell, a professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics and head of the Computational Geometry Laboratory. Computational geometry is a subfield of computer science that studies the space and dimensional issues that surround us every day. In his lab, Mitchell uses various tricks and analysis techniques to design efficient algorithms to find the best solutions, quickly, on today's PCs. "Often the problems we address involve some form of optimization-how to find the shortest path, etc.," Mitchell explains. Consider the question of security cameras in an airport or an office building: How many of these monitors are needed to capture the clearest views of any possible suspicious activity, and where should they be placed? Mitchell's lab is now studying this problem, using "approxima- tion algorithms" with a heuristic (trial-and-error) approach. In what is called "greedy strategy," a camera is positioned to "see" as much of a room as possible; researchers then look at what is not being seen and the Internet. Many of her most recent works, though, have been mount another camera to scan as much of that area as it can, and so created specifically for the Web, using real-time video footage, on. The goal is to minimize the number of cameras, while maximizing animation, and text. Some of these "networked installations" let their effective coverage, says Mitchell. Once calculated, such efficient cybersurfers access information as well as contribute to the database. algorithms can then be applied to more general settings. How did this artist and writer find her way to the Web? "I Mitchell is also tackling "collision detection" for other virtual- began as a sculptor who could program and edit video, but over the reality applications. "Say you have a model of a large, complex sys- years my work has fused these elements," Erickson explains. Her tem, such as a Boeing 777, and you want to test if you can remove a studies in computer science also fueled her fascination with the pos- certain component, or perform a certain maintenance operation, with- sibilities of the Internet. "Communications technologies extend our out building a physical mockup of the airplane," he says. "Within a voices, eyes, hands, and 'presence' in space," she observes. "Shared virtual environment in the computer, using computer graphics, you events, experienced or seen through the media, connect people in can move objects around and know when they collide with other vir- strange and difficult ways." tual objects.