Discovery for a Changing World

 You plus a forward-thinking Binghamton equals new opportunities

Graphic novels to share anthropological case studies. Memes that explain mutualism in the biological sciences. TikTok and podcasts. Academic papers aren’t the only way to share discoveries in the liberal arts and sciences.

Chelsea Gibson, a lecturer in history, is just one of the educators helping to lead the new digital studies initiative at Binghamton University. Binghamton Fund donors are making opportunities in this area possible.

Thanks to the support, Gibson is leading faculty and graduate students in training sessions and workshops that explore how to integrate and use digital storytelling as a tool in their courses.

“Digital storytelling is a new way for people to communicate their research,” she said. “We want to encourage faculty to use these strategies in the classroom.”

 You help faculty soar

Discovery drives Binghamton’s ability to set the pace in a fast-changing world. That’s why donor investment in top faculty and their research, scholarship and groundbreaking enterprises are crucial, especially projects that connect disciplines across the University.

Dr. Karen Fuhrman Kerner ’86 and Michael Kerner ’86 stepped up by doubling their past commitment to Harpur College faculty after seeing the opportunities of their support showcased on campaign Launch Day April 9. Joined by additional donors to the Harpur College Advocacy Council Faculty Development Endowment, they helped:

Marvin Diaz, associate professor of psychology, advance his research and present his findings this past June at an annual Research Society on Alcoholism conference in Orlando, Fla. The support also fueled the dissertation project of one of his graduate students, who investigated the effects of prenatal methadone exposure on learning, memory and underlying neurobiological adaptations. “None of this work would have been possible without this funding,” he said.

Arnab Dey, associate professor of history, jump-start the manuscript of his second book, which examines the environmental and human costs and consequences of early globalization and the Industrial Age. “The grant was instrumental in providing the first round of archival field visits and source material collection” in India and London, and in facilitating the purchase of research monographs and other resources over the past two and a half years, he said. Binghamton Fund donors also supported travel as part of this project.

 You elevate the educational experience

Alumni, faculty, staff and friends are giving in memory of School of Management Dean Upinder Dhillon to support a new faculty fellow position — the first of its kind in SOM.

Support for the Dhillon Family Faculty Fellow, appointed for the first time in fall 2022, is intended to help in the recruitment or retention of outstanding faculty. “These faculty contribute to the prominence of the School of Management and serve as magnets to attract other scholars and doctoral students to the school,” said SOM Dean Shelley Dionne, MBA ’94, PhD ’98.

Dhillon died this past April at the age of 71, following an illness. He left behind a 21-year tenure as dean, joining the University as an assistant professor of finance in 1987. A Koffman Scholar, Dhillon received numerous awards over the years, including the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

“It is an incredible honor and very meaningful to me to be selected as the first Dhillon Family Faculty Fellow,” said Rory Eckardt, SOM associate professor of strategy. “Upinder Dhillon hired me at Binghamton University in 2014 and was always there to help and support me as a faculty member. He was a person of incredible integrity that worked tirelessly to advance the research, teaching and societal impact of the School of Management.”

The support provides an important tool to keep compensation packages competitive for productive faculty, which in turn, he said, helps SOM continue producing impactful and cutting-edge research and high-quality classroom instruction.

 You make groundbreaking work possible

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science established its first named professorship, with an alumnus filling the role.

Luis Rocha, PhD ’97, became the inaugural George Klir Professor in Systems Science in fall 2021. He leads Binghamton’s Complex Adaptive Systems and Computational Intelligence (CASCI) lab. He also is director of the Center for Social and Biomedical Complexity, between Binghamton and Indiana University, Bloomington.

The named professorship was established in memory of George J. Klir, a SUNY distinguished professor and systems science pioneer. Klir retired in 2007 after 38 years on the Binghamton faculty. He died in 2016 at the age of 84.

Klir was a co-advisor for Rocha’s doctoral dissertation. Now, Rocha is building on his late mentor’s groundbreaking work. As an accomplished scholar with national and international recognition, Rocha’s research interests center on complex networks and systems, computational and systems biology, and computational intelligence.

“I am particularly excited by obvious opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration with such areas as health, biology, psychology and others, leveraging strengths in the department and Watson College,” Rocha has said.