IACS Affiliate Faculty Allen Tannenbaum Appointed to SUNY Distinguished Ranks

Highest faculty honor given to “innovators and trailblazers in their chosen field” says Chairman McCall

Stony Brook, NY – November 16, 2015 – Seven Stony Brook University faculty have been approved by the State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees for appointment to the distinguished ranks as recommended by campus colleagues and SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. Appointed to the rank of Distinguished Professor are: Lawrence Dutton, a Professor of Viola and Chamber Music in the Department of Music; Benjamin Hsiao, Professor in the Department of Chemistry; Chang Kee Jung, a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy; Daniel Klein, a Professor in the Department of Psychology; Phillip Setzer, a Professor of Violin in the Department of Music; and Allen Tannenbaum, a Professor in the Institute for Advanced Computational Science. Appointed to the rank of Distinguished Teaching Professorship is Nancy Hollingsworth, a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Cell Biology.

“One of the highest honors we have as a Board of Trustees is to recognize SUNY’s leading faculty with one of our distinguished faculty rankings,” said SUNY Board Chairman H. Carl McCall. “These professors are innovators and trailblazers in their chosen field, teaching and mentoring students while advancing groundbreaking research and discovery in New York’s communities as well as world-wide. Congratulations to all of our newest distinguished faculty.”

“The SUNY distinguished faculty bring students the best of SUNY – quality teaching and instruction, innovative research opportunities, and engaging community service,” said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. “We are proud to recognize the leadership of our distinguished faculty and the extraordinary impact they have on SUNY students and campus communities. Many thanks and congratulations to this most recent class of distinguished faculty.”

“Those from Stony Brook University newly selected to receive SUNY Distinguished Faculty honors represent some of the top thought leaders, scholars and practitioners in their respective fields,” said Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD. “Their research and scholarly contributions are far-reaching in the areas of the physical and biological sciences, the arts, and computer sciences. On behalf of Stony Brook, I congratulate all seven on this well-deserved honor.”

 “The dedication, scholarly work, research and professional service of each of our faculty newly appointed as SUNY Distinguished Faculty ranks them among the best Stony Brook has to offer,” said Dennis N. Assanis, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Stony Brook University. “Their work will continue to enrich Stony Brook's academics excellence and inspire both fellow faculty and students in their respective fields.” 

Six Stony Brook professors are appointed to the rank of the Distinguished Professorship. This title is conferred upon individuals who have achieved national or international prominence and a distinguished reputation within a chosen field. This distinction is attained through significant contributions to the research literature or through artistic performance or achievement in the case of the arts. The candidates’ work must be of such character that the individuals’ presence will tend to elevate the standards of scholarship of colleagues both within and beyond these persons’ academic fields. One of those elected to this honor is IACS Affiliate Faculty member Allen Tannenbaum.

Professor Allen Tannenbaum is an extremely bright and prolific researcher, Dr. Tannenbaum and an outstanding educator in the areas of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. Google Scholar shows his total citations are 19,676 (and growing) with an H-Index of 61, i10-index of 231, and a G-Index (Publish or Perish) of 129. His leading paper on Feedback Control Theory, alone, has generated 2,826 citations. He is an internationally renowned scientist, with a worldwide reputation in a spectacular array of areas spanning from Computer Science to Medical Imaging to Systems and Control to Computer Vision to Applied Mathematics and to Image Processing. He is a recognized leader and pioneer in multiple disciplines, and has made fundamental contributions in algebraic geometry, control theory, image processing, computer vision, and biomedical imaging. In Computer Science, he has conducted major research in computer vision and image analysis.  He made significant contributions in many distinct applied areas, including geometric invariance theory for image processing, geometric flow for shape analysis and for image segmentation, statistical knowledge-based image segmentation, conformal flattening colonoscopy, and optimal mass transport for brain registration and warping. 

Since the program's inception in 1963, SUNY has appointed 1,023 faculty to the distinguished ranks, as follows, including these most recent appointments: 359 Distinguished Professorships; 303 Distinguished Service Professorships; 367 Distinguished Teaching Professorships; and 5 Distinguished Librarian Professorships. More information about SUNY’s faculty award program is  available online.