Introduction

Rachel Coker

Director of Research Advancement

What is a research university?

Research universities like Binghamton offer baccalaureate

programs as well as graduate education leading to

master’s and doctoral degrees. At their best, these schools

unite faculty who are at the forefront of their fields with

high-quality graduate students and excellent

undergraduates in a broad spectrum of majors.

Binghamton is one of about 100 schools considered “high

research activity” campuses in the Carnegie Classification

of Institutions of Higher Education (another 100 or so are

listed as “very high research activity”).

By the numbers

• By the time they graduate, 32 percent of Binghamton

undergrads have worked with a faculty member on a

research project.

• Binghamton had research expenditures of

$31.7 million in 2013-14. That represents an increase

of nearly 25 percent in the last 10 years.

• Binghamton continues to be a leader in working with

industry. In 2013-14, 9.5 percent of sponsored

research at Binghamton was funded by corporate

partners. That compares to about 5 percent of

university R&D nationwide.

Binghamton undergrads

learn as much outside

the classroom as in it.

At many schools, undergraduates are

expected to soak up knowledge while

grad students and researchers produce it.

At Binghamton, undergrads conduct

research with real implications for

environmental science, Parkinson’s

disease patients and more.

Our research makes

electronic devices faster,

smaller and greener.

Binghamton’s Center of Excellence in Small Scale

Systems Integration and Packaging (S3IP), which

recently moved into a new $30M facility, has

contributed to breakthroughs in flexible glass and

solar cells and to advances that make mobile

phones more robust. S3IP’s Center for Energy-

Smart Electronic Systems, a National Science

Foundation Industry/University Cooperative

Research Center, partners with leading technology

companies to develop “green” data centers.

Where can you highlight this work?

Center of Excellence at the Innovative Technologies

Complex

The guy who invented

the lithium-ion battery?

Yeah, his lab is on campus.

Chemist M. Stanley Whittingham, father of the

lithium-ion battery, teaches at Binghamton, where

he directs a federally funded Energy Frontier

Research Center focused on perfecting the next

generation of batteries. “Within 10 years, every

vehicle will be hybrid or electric,” he recently told

Newsweek magazine.

Where does he work?

Science II and at the Center of Excellence

Experts at Binghamton are

changing the way people think

about teenage drinking.

The Developmental Exposure Alcohol Research

Center, led by neuroscientist Linda Spear and

funded by the National Institutes of Health, has

advanced our understanding of the effects of

alcohol on brain development. Spear’s research

reveals that alcohol changes the young brain in

ways that may cause problems throughout a

person’s life.

Where can you highlight this work?

Science IV and V

One of our labs is

among the quietest

places on earth.

Binghamton has an anechoic chamber (a room

without echo) built to the specifications of acoustics

researcher Ronald Miles, who has pioneered the

development of tiny microphones inspired by the

ears of a fly. The specialized lab in the Engineering

& Science Building is one of the quietest places on

earth. “If you got locked in, you could scream and no

one would ever hear you,” Miles says.

Where is this lab?

At the Engineering & Science Building

Faculty novelist Liz

Rosenberg just became a

best-selling author!

Liz Rosenberg’s latest novel, The Moonlight

Palace, enjoyed a period atop the Kindle best-

seller charts. Thanks in part to a special “Kindle

First” promotion, it reached more than 100,000

readers in the first month of pre-publication in fall

2014. The book, set in 1920s-era Singapore, is a

departure for Rosenberg, better known for novels

set in modern-day New York state as well as

poetry and children’s books.

Our biologists are working

on research that could lead

to a cure for acne.

Binghamton boasts some of the world’s foremost

experts in biofilms. (You can think of them as the

Sleuths of Slime.) These scientists say that the

stability and invulnerability of biofilms — that is,

communities of single-cell bacteria — may hold the

key to treating chronic diseases and conditions

such as sinusitis, acne, Crohn’s disease and

atherosclerosis.

Where is this lab?

At the Biotechnology Building at the ITC

If you have the right

algorithm, you can predict

the future.

Our scientists can predict the future using

nothing more than social media posts — and

really powerful algorithms. Binghamton systems

scientists Sarah Lam and Sang Won Yoon have

been working with alumnus Nathan

Gnanasambandam, a senior researcher at

Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center. They used

500 million tweets to develop algorithms that

paint a picture of everyday human dynamics —

and can predict an individual’s behavior hours

in advance.

Where do they work?

At the Engineering & Science Building

Do we have a culture of

innovation? Let’s just say

that even freshmen are

doing research.

The Freshman Research Immersion program

introduces undergraduates to research from the

time they arrive at Binghamton. The first FRI

students are pursuing research in biofilms,

neuroscience or smart energy. “What we offer

students through the Freshman Research

Immersion is a deeper educational experience that

gets them beyond textbook knowledge and helps

them learn about the excitement of discovery,”

Provost Donald Nieman says.

Want to hear more about Binghamton research?

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http://discovere.binghamton.edu/subscribe

Questions? E-mail me: rcoker@binghamton.edu