9 Things You Didn't Know About Binghamton University Research

2. Introduction
Rachel Coker
Director of Research Advancement

3. 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”).

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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.

14. Want to hear more about Binghamton research?
Sign up for Discover-e:
http://discovere.binghamton.edu/subscribe
Questions? E-mail me: rcoker@binghamton.edu