Research Foundation Board Member Dr. Samuel L. Stanley, Jr.
On July 1, 2009 Samuel L. Stanley, Jr., M.D. became the fifth president of Stony Brook University. Stony Brook’s reach extends from its 1,000-acre main campus on Long Island’s North Shore—encompassing the main academic areas, an 8,300-seat stadium and sports complex, a performing arts center, Stony Brook University Medical Center, The Health Sciences Center, and The Long Island State Veterans Home—to Stony Brook Manhattan, the new Research and Development Park, three business incubators, and the new Stony Brook Southampton campus on Long Island’s East End. As president of this world-class University, Dr. Stanley joins the leaders of a select group of prestigious academic institutions including, Cornell, Princeton, Stanford, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of Chicago in co-managing and collaborating with a national laboratory.
A Seattle native, Dr. Stanley has a Bachelor of Arts degree in biological sciences (Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of Chicago and earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1980. He completed his resident-physician training at Massachusetts General Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.
In 1983 Dr. Stanley began a fellowship in infectious diseases at Washington University School of Medicine. He rose through the ranks in the school’s Department of Medicine to become a professor of medicine in 1999, and in 2004 was appointed a professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology in recognition of the collaborative and interdepartmental nature of his research.
As Vice Chancellor for Research, Dr. Stanley was responsible for the university’s research missions, overseeing an enterprise that generated more than $500 million for sponsored research from a wide array of funding sources. As the university’s institutional official responsible for all compliance programs, he oversaw the university community’s adherence to guidelines governing laboratory animal care and research involving human volunteers.
His areas of oversight also included development of research policies, management of grants and contracts, the continuing education of faculty and staff regarding research regulations, issues related to conflict-of-interest and research integrity, and intellectual property and technology transfer.
Dr. Stanley, who has had long-running and substantial research support from the federal government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), is an expert in the biological mechanisms cells employ when responding to infectious agents such as parasites, bacteria, and viruses-a process commonly called the inflammatory response. Enhanced defense against infection was a key focus of his research. He also focused on specific genetic factors that might make serious side effects more common in some persons receiving vaccines.
Among the several research grants that Dr. Stanley led or contributed to, is the nearly $37 million grant from the NIH to create the Midwest Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, based at Washington University. The multi-institutional center is developing methods to rapidly identify new pathogens and find means to control or neutralize them.
Dr. Stanley serves on the Nominating Committee.