Alberto Rey one of 11 named to Distinguished Professor of SUNY

Distinguished Professor Alberto Rey

Albany, N.Y.-- Alberto Rey of the Visual Arts and New Media Department was one of 11 faculty members from six SUNY campuses to be promoted to Distinguished Professor by the SUNY Board of Trustees at its March meeting.  The promotion is to a tenured University ranking that is conferred for consistent and extraordinary accomplishment.

“The Distinguished Professorship recognizes and rewards SUNY’s most preeminent faculty, reflecting the SUNY System’s pride in faculty accomplishment by promoting professors to a rank that is unachievable at the campus level,” said SUNY Chancellor John R. Ryan. “I commend each of today’s recipients for this hard-earned recognition.”

Rey has achieved a national and international reputation as an artist. His paintings are included in major collections such as the Museo del Barrio, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Galeria Nina Menocal in Mexico City. He has provided original and significant contributions to both American Art and Cuban American Art. Read more about Distinguished Professor Rey.

“The talent, dedication and accomplishments of the faculty we honor today serve as models for others to aspire to and well reflect the high quality of the research and teaching available at the State University of New York,” said Board Chairman Thomas F. Egan. “The achievements of these professors serve as an inspiration to us all.”

“It is the faculty who are the basis of quality in any university,” said SUNY Provost Risa I. Palm. “It is a pleasure to recognize the accomplishments of the new SUNY Distinguished Professors. Each of these individuals represent outstanding accomplishment, and we are very proud to honor each of them with this designation.”

Recipients are nominated for this honor by their respective campus presidents, for having achieved national or international prominence and an established reputation in their field of expertise. The other recipients are: 

• Thomas Baroni, a professor of Biological Sciences at SUNY Cortland, is known both nationally and internationally as a leader in the field of tropical mycology. He has made significant contributions to the area of systematics and biogeography of the mushroom-forming fungi. He is one of the world’s leading experts on the diversity and systems of microfungi.
• Stephen Cole, a professor of Sociology at SUNY University at Stony Brook, is an internationally respected sociologist whose work is marked by extraordinary depth and breadth. He has made seminal contributions to the sociology of science and to understanding the dynamics of social stratification by race and gender.
• Colin Drury, a professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, is universally regarded as one of the foremost experts in the field of ergonomics, the study and design of “systems of people and machines.” He has developed methodologies and tools that have led to substantially reduced lower back injuries in the work place and has reduced the chance for human error in aviation accidents and injuries.
• George Lee, a professor of Engineering at the University of Buffalo, is a pioneer in the fields of earthquake engineering research and structural engineering. He has helped to build cross-national bridges in the field of earthquake research worldwide. People around the world have reaped the benefits of his research.
• Mark Lenzenweger, a professor of Psychology at Binghamton University, is a renowned researcher in the area of personality disorder. His finding that personality disorder features show substantial variability over time strikes at the heart of prior assumptions. He has made substantial contributions to understanding schizophrenia.
• David Mark, a professor of Geography at the University at Buffalo, is consistently named as one of the most productive, creative and integrative academics in Geography. His work in spatial cognition revolutionized the Geographic Information Science (GIS) field. He has achieved unparalleled recognition in this area.
• Makau Mutua, a professor of Law at the University at Buffalo, is a world renowned scholar and activist. He has made enormous impact in the area of human rights law. His impact is truly global in scope, shaping human rights study and political practice throughout the world.
• Thomas O’Connor, a professor of Romance Languages and Literature at Binghamton University, has achieved national and international recognition for excellence in the field of Spanish Golden Age studies. He has been a major force in furthering and enriching the study of Spanish classical theatre. He casts new literary and historical light on the period.
• Stephen David Ross, a professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at Binghamton University, is an unusually talented philosopher with an international reputation. He emphasizes complexity over reductive simplifications and a celebration of diversity over unification. He brings a unified metaphysical and epistemological conception of human beings and the work they do.
• Qasim Zaidi, a professor of Vision Science at the State College of Optometry, is a leader in the field of vision science. He has made seminal contributions to scientific work in color constancy and 3-D perception. He is also an expert in the field of visual perception.
  
  The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating more than 417,500 students in 7,669 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu