Stony Brook University recently held its annual Distinguished Doctoral Colloquium, recognizing five doctoral students with the President’s Award to Distinguished Doctoral Students. The event took place on May 19 and highlighted research from various disciplines, including biochemistry, chemistry, mathematics, materials science, and English.
Celia Marshik, dean of The Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education, emphasized the significance of the award: “This is the most prestigious award we give annually to doctoral students at Stony Brook.” She noted that the recipients began their studies during the COVID-19 pandemic and managed to complete their degrees in six years or less.
Ian Outhwaite from the Biochemistry and Structural Biology program presented his research on drug resistance in cancer. His work focuses on overcoming mutations that allow cancer cells to resist therapies. “This is something we call kinetic resistance,” he explained.
Jason Withorn from the Department of Chemistry discussed his research on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pathogen known for forming drug-resistant biofilms. He described biofilms as “like jello fruit salads” and explored how nitric oxide can disrupt these structures.
Julia Brown from the Department of English addressed healthcare ethics in her dissertation. She critiqued traditional doctor-patient interactions and proposed a training model that emphasizes embodied knowledge and patient individuality. “Empathy doesn’t have to be the end goal,” she stated.
Shuting Xiang from Materials Science and Chemical Engineering focused on single-atom catalysts for CO₂ conversion. Her work uses machine learning to analyze catalyst structures during reactions. “We apply clustering algorithms and neural networks to extract meaningful insights,” she said.
The fifth recipient, Dylan Galt from Mathematics, was unable to attend but was recognized for his dissertation on coassociative 4-folds.
Marshik concluded by praising the researchers' contributions: “I’m so excited to see what our speakers today do as they go on.”
— Beth Squire