State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. has announced the inaugural class of Simons Empire Faculty Fellows, a new research initiative supporting 16 tenure-track faculty positions across SUNY’s four University Centers. The appointments span neuroscience, mathematics, physics, quantum science, psychology, ecology and evolution, biological sciences, and engineering, bringing early-career researchers into laboratories working at the frontiers of computation, materials, brain science, and fundamental mathematics. Four fellows have been selected at each institution: the University at Albany, Binghamton University, the University at Buffalo, and Stony Brook University. The program is designed to strengthen SUNY’s research capacity while helping New York build a deeper, more interconnected scientific workforce.
The fellowship was established by the Simons Foundation and Simons Foundation International to stimulate hiring in mathematics and the basic sciences across New York State. Participating universities receive support through Simons Foundation International, while the program is administered by the Simons Foundation. Its emphasis on tenure-track positions is significant because such appointments provide researchers with the long-term institutional stability needed to construct laboratories, recruit graduate students, develop advanced instrumentation, and pursue ambitious projects whose results may take years to emerge. For SUNY, the initiative also forms part of a broader effort to double research activity across the system and increase the public impact of discoveries made on its campuses.
At the University at Albany, the fellows represent research areas that connect biological systems with advanced computation and physical engineering. Kristyn Lizbinski, an assistant professor of biological sciences, studies how neural circuits perform dynamic computations that allow animals to interpret sensory information and generate behavior. Her work addresses a central question in neuroscience: how networks of interconnected neurons transform changing environmental signals into decisions and actions. Susan Wardle, an assistant professor of psychology, investigates how the human brain processes visual information, a field that combines behavioral experiments with methods for examining perception and neural representation. Together, their research explores how the brain extracts meaning from complex sensory inputs.
The University at Albany’s two other fellows focus on technologies and mathematical structures that underpin the next generation of computing. Tahereh Jabbari, an assistant professor of nanoscale science and engineering, researches superconducting electronics, quantum-computing hardware, neuromorphic systems, cryogenic circuits, and radio-frequency and microwave design. Superconducting and cryogenic technologies can reduce electrical resistance and enable specialized circuits to operate at extremely low temperatures, conditions required by many quantum processors. Neuromorphic computing, meanwhile, seeks to reproduce aspects of the brain’s energy-efficient information processing through hardware inspired by neural networks. Kent Vashaw, an assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, works at the intersection of homological algebra, noncommutative algebra, and representation theory—areas that provide abstract tools for understanding symmetry, structure, and transformations across modern mathematics.
Binghamton University’s four fellows are pursuing questions ranging from the behavior of quantum materials to the mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence. Lebing Chen, an assistant professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, examines quantum materials and nanofabrication. Quantum materials possess electronic or magnetic properties that arise from collective behavior at microscopic scales, and their fabrication requires precise control over thin films, interfaces, and nanoscale structures. Sammy Luo, an assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, researches discrete mathematics, the study of countable structures that forms a foundation for computer science, network theory, optimization, and cryptography. Yahong Yeng, in the same department, investigates the mathematical principles underlying artificial intelligence, while Kunyan Zhang, an assistant professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, studies experimental quantum sensing and communications, technologies that use quantum effects to measure physical quantities or transmit information with potentially enhanced sensitivity and security.
At the University at Buffalo, the fellowship class brings together researchers studying the brain, disease, quantum devices, and advanced materials. Sang Soo Lee, a professor of biological sciences, examines how the brain regulates sleep and influences behavior. Sleep is governed by complex interactions among neural circuits, hormones, environmental cues, and biological clocks, and understanding these systems may offer insight into neurological and psychiatric conditions. Qing Cao, an assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences, studies how diseases including Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis damage brain cells. Sean Miller, an assistant professor of physiology and biophysics, develops models of the human brain and eye to aid the discovery of treatments for neurological and vision disorders. Such models can help researchers investigate disease mechanisms and evaluate therapeutic strategies before they reach clinical testing.
The fourth Buffalo fellow, Saroj Chand, an assistant professor of electrical engineering, is developing scalable quantum sensors intended to improve quantum devices and reveal new materials for advanced technologies. Quantum sensors exploit properties such as superposition, entanglement, or the response of quantum states to external fields. In principle, these systems can detect magnetic fields, temperature changes, acceleration, or other signals with extraordinary precision. Making them useful outside tightly controlled laboratory environments, however, requires advances in fabrication, electronics, signal processing, and system integration. Chand’s work reflects the increasingly interdisciplinary character of contemporary science, in which electrical engineering, materials research, physics, and computation converge around practical quantum technologies.
Stony Brook University’s fellows extend the program into mathematical physics, photonics, ecology, and developmental neuroscience. Juan Muñoz-Echániz, an assistant professor of mathematics, researches gauge theory and low-dimensional topology. Gauge theory links mathematical structures to physical theories of forces, while low-dimensional topology investigates the properties of spaces and shapes in dimensions where subtle differences can produce profound consequences. Jacob Pettine, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, studies nanoscience, quantum materials, and ultrafast photonics, using extremely short light pulses to observe or control processes that unfold on ultrafast timescales. Yun Tao, an assistant professor of ecology and evolution, investigates organismal behavior, and Lisa Taxier, an assistant professor of psychology, studies plasticity in the adolescent brain—the capacity of neural circuits to change in response to development, experience, and environment.
University leaders said the appointments would strengthen research programs while creating new opportunities for collaboration across disciplines. University at Albany President Havidán Rodríguez pointed to efforts to develop artificial-intelligence systems that emulate some of the adaptability and efficiency of biological brains. Binghamton President Anne D’Alleva highlighted faculty research in AI, quantum materials, sensing, and mathematics. University at Buffalo President Caroline Attardo Genco described the fellowship as an investment in early-career researchers whose work connects basic discovery with translational science, while Stony Brook President Andrea Goldsmith said the new scholars would reinforce the university’s leadership in quantum materials, mathematical topology, ecological dynamics, and neuroscience. Their comments reflect a shared strategy: recruit researchers early, give them the resources to establish independent programs, and connect fundamental science to technological and societal needs.
The Simons Empire Faculty Fellows join a growing collection of SUNY research initiatives. Empire AI Beta, housed at the University at Buffalo, is expected to provide researchers at leading public and private universities in New York with access to large-scale academic computing. SUNY has also launched a Research Connect Portal featuring the profiles of nearly 7,000 researchers from 26 campuses, expanded the RNA Institute at the University at Albany, and established the SUNY Brain Institute as a multi-campus neuroscience effort. Other initiatives include the New York Center for AI Responsibility and Research at Binghamton, a biofabrication research and imaging facility at Buffalo, a Quantum Research and Innovation Hub at Stony Brook, and the SUNY Research Leadership Academy, which supports inclusion and public communication in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine. Together, these investments position the new fellows within a statewide research network intended to accelerate discovery, train scientists, and expand New York’s role in global science and innovation.
Subject of Research: Neuroscience, mathematics, physics, quantum science, artificial intelligence, biological sciences, psychology, ecology and evolution, engineering, and nanotechnology
Article Title: SUNY Announces Inaugural Simons Empire Faculty Fellows Across Four Research Universities
News Publication Date: August 18, 2026
Web References: Empire AI Beta; SUNY AI Symposium; SUNY Research Expo; SUNY Research Connect Portal; SUNY
References: State University of New York; Simons Foundation; Simons Foundation International
Image Credits: State University of New York
Keywords
SUNY, Simons Empire Faculty Fellows, neuroscience, quantum computing, quantum materials, artificial intelligence, mathematics, physics, brain research, nanotechnology, scientific research, New York State, higher education, faculty appointments
Tags: basic sciences research fundingcollaborative university research programsearly-career researchers in higher educationinterdisciplinary scientific researchlaboratory infrastructure for emerging scientistsneuroscience and quantum science researchscientific workforce development in New YorkSimons Foundation science fundingSUNY research fellowshipsSUNY University Centers research initiativessupport for fundamental mathematics and sciencestenure-track faculty support
