The American Association of Immunologists will honor Binghamton University’s vice president for research with the Distinguished Service Award, recognizing his work with their Minority Affairs Committee.
This year the AAI, the world’s largest professional association of immune system scientists, will present Gerald Sonnenfeld with the Distinguished Service Award at the AAI’s national conference in Baltimore May 10.
Randy Brutkiewicz, a professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, succeeded Sonnenfeld as chair of the Minority Affairs Committee in 2005. Although the AAI usually recognizes only one of its 6,500 members each year, it will jointly recognize Sonnenfeld and Brutkiewicz this year.
“My role was to revitalize the committee and get it going, then Randy Brutkiewicz made sure its efforts continued after I stepped down,” Sonnenfeld said.
During his three-year tenure as chair of the committee, Sonnenfeld helped to establish a mentoring program and lectureship at the AAI’s annual meeting. The program is designed to boost participation from minority scientists in immunology research.
“Diversity is important because if people want to survive in this world, they have to learn how to interact with people who have had different backgrounds or opportunities from themselves,” Sonnenfeld said.
As BU’s vice president for research, Sonnenfeld is in charge of supporting all the research at the University, including research sponsored by outside agencies. He is also responsible for government affairs and economic development.
The award will highlight the administration’s interest in science research, and therefore help to attract high-caliber research students to BU, he said.
“It’s an exciting time for research at Binghamton,” Sonnenfeld said. “Despite the tough economic climate, our funding for research is running high, especially for things like patents and licenses.”
Dwaipayan “Deep” Sen, a graduate student who worked alongside Sonnenfeld from 2006 to 2008, said that he came to study immunology at BU because of Sonnenfeld’s presence.
“It was a perfect fit for me,” Sen said. “My research dealt with how the immune system is affected by space flight, and Professor Sonnenfeld had good collaborations with NASA in studying this area.”
Sen described Sonnenfeld as very encouraging toward his students.
“He’s a fantastic researcher and is always very busy, but he would still find time to discuss my work with me and help guide me in my research,” Sen said.