Department Mission Statements

Some SBU departments have mission statements that articulate how their  area supports the institutional mission, school/college mission, and programs offered. A selection of departmental mission statements is available below.

Has your department created or updated a mission statement that is not reflected here? Let us know at EducationalEffectiveness@stonybrook.edu!

• Institute for Globalizaton Studies (CAS)
  The Institute for Globalization Studies (IGS) promotes interdisciplinary perspectives on the challenges, opportunities, and contradictions related to the processes of globalization. Within the College of Arts and Sciences curriculum, the Institute offers a Bachelor of Arts in Globalization Studies and International Relations (a major and a minor) that combines the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering to prepare future leaders in global policy-making, international service, diplomacy, and activism. Supported by a multidisciplinary advisory board, the IGS seeks to foster scholarly collaborations on the interactions between and within global to local scales, as well as the contradictions embedded in globalization, which often result in severe economic, political, and social inequalities among people marked by territorial borders. The IGS also pays attention to the effects that globalization processes have on the environment and how, in turn, ecological degradation is contributing to the proliferation of conflicts and the securitization of human rights.
• Institute for STEM Education (CAS)
  The Institute for STEM Education (I-STEM) is a major interdisciplinary STEM education center on the campus and has established a wide range of academic year and summer activities for faculty, graduate students, undergraduates and K-12 students and teachers. I-STEM’s mission is to provide comprehensive, high-quality STEM education that advances knowledge in the field. We work collaboratively across all levels of the educational spectrum to recognize, attract, nurture and develop talent. We expect that our faculty and the graduates of our programs will be leaders in the STEM education field through their production of new knowledge; the publication of their research in the leading journals; their presentations at state, national and international conferences and their influence upon key STEM policy initiatives. We believe that a sustained commitment to excellence in STEM education is imperative for the university and the nation.
• Philosophy Department (CAS)
  We aim to educate students to become self-motivated investigators who undertake their own projects, investigations, and research initiatives. There is no technological, social, political, scientific, or ethical transformation without the will to innovate.
• Political Science Department (CAS)
  The Department of Political Science is committed to excellence in research and scholarship, graduate student training, undergraduate teaching and learning, public outreach, and the promotion of responsible citizenship. It contributes to the generation of knowledge about politics and aims to deepen scholarly and public understanding of political institutions and the citizenry. The department seeks to prepare students for successful careers in government, academics, and the private sector. The Department provides training for PhD and MA students in cutting-edge approaches to the empirical study of political science to produce graduates with outstanding research, teaching, and professional skills.
• Undergraduate Biology Department (CAS)
  Provide a rigorous, engaging Biology curriculum that develops an interdisciplinary understanding of the living world and links learning to the excitement of discovery.
• Biomedical Engineering Department (CEAS)
  The mission of our Department of Biomedical Engineering is to fully integrate the cutting edge of engineering and physical sciences with state of the art biology to advance our understanding of biomedical problems and to use that science to drive the development of therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. The Department of Biomedical Engineering at Stony Brook University aims to provide students with an interdisciplinary view of the complex engineering problems facing modern medicine and the specific knowledge and skills necessary for undertaking advanced research and development in the broad field of biomedical engineering. Courses, colloquia, seminars, individual research and faculty-student interactions are at the core of this program, giving students both a broad depth and breadth of knowledge in biomedical engineering.
• Biomedical Informatics Department (CEAS)
  The mission of the Department of Biomedical Informatics of Stony Brook University is to advance biomedical knowledge through innovative data science education and research. The Department of Biomedical Informatics (BMI) is the home of biomedical data science research and education at Stony Brook University. We train and prepare students and postdoctoral researchers to become leaders in the field. Established in 2013 with a commitment of substantial resources funded through the Simons Gift and Simons Foundation endowments, coupled with SUNY 2020 grants, BMI is a key element of Stony Brook’s strategic plan. As we train the next generation of data scientists, we deliver innovative informatics research and applications to enhance scientific knowledge and healthcare delivery. Our interdisciplinary faculty, students, and data scientist staff conduct cutting-edge research in a wide range of areas including Clinical Informatics, Translational Informatics, Imaging Informatics, Pathology Informatics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Science. Stony Brook Medicine inspires and engages us to drive the development of concepts, methods, and tools to help fulfill its mission to deliver world-class, compassionate care to patients
• Institute for Advanced Computational Science (CEAS)
  Advance the intellectual foundations of computation and data, with high-impact applications in engineering and the physical, environmental, life sciences and the humanities; Grow our faculty and students emphasizing excellence and diversity in coordination with academic units across Stony Brook and with Brookhaven National Laboratory; Build a highly-productive, multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural environment for research and education; and Grow our research programs and facilities, and establish regional, national and international partnerships with industry, government laboratories and academia.
• Technology & Society Department (CEAS)
  DTS is characterized by a dual competence: First, we have the technical capacity for productive collaboration with our sister departments in the Stony Brook College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS), and second, we add social science expertise and humanistic sensibility to the shared goal of a holistic engineering education. Hence, smart engineering education is the core mission of the Technology & Society department.
• Clinical Laboratory Sciences Department (SHP)
  Our commitment to the students enrolled in the Clinical Laboratory Sciences Program is to provide the highest quality of education and technical skills in laboratory science. The Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences will facilitate professional development, provide leadership and direction, enhance the role of clinical laboratory scientists as integral members of the health care team and promote the laboratory profession.
• Health Science Department (SHP)
  The mission of the Health Science major is to provide the highest quality undergraduate education that integrates the principles of scholarship, ethics, cultural competency, communication skills, critical thinking, evidence-based practice, and civic orientation to meet the diverse regional needs of the evolving health care industry.
• Occupational Therapy Department (SHP)

  The Stony Brook Occupational Therapy Program has a five-part mission statement:

  • LEARNING: providing comprehensive graduate and professional education of the highest quality to current and future occupational therapy practitioners to meet the demands of 21st-century practice across the life span, enhancing their becoming critical reflective thinkers and lifelong learners;
  • SCHOLARSHIP: engaging in research and intellectual endeavors of the highest international standards in collaboration with other service providers in order to contribute to the body of knowledge related to the study of occupation and its immediate and long-range practical significance;
  • SERVICE: providing service to meet societal needs in neighboring communities and the wider geographic region through enhancing occupational performance and the facilitation of economic, personal, social, and aesthetic contributions by individuals and populations;
  • LEADERSHIP AND ADVOCACY: training occupational therapy practitioners to provide state-of-the-art innovative health care to assist persons to engage in meaningful occupation and full participation in society, serving as resources to health care providers, educational institutions, and human service communities, while striving to promote and strengthen the occupational therapy profession; and,
    • • GLOBALIZATION: supporting diversity in local and global contexts through positioning the Stony Brook University Occupational Therapy Program in regional, national, and global community initiatives and opportunities.
• Physical Therapy Department (SHP)

  The Stony Brook University Physical Therapy Program professes to:

  • Provide physical therapy graduate education of the highest quality
  • Engage in scholarship and intellectual endeavors
  • Engage in service to the University, the community and the profession
    • Provide leadership for the physical therapy community
• Physician Assistant Department (SHP)

  Our mission is to provide high-quality graduate-level medical education in an inter-professional environment that fosters critical thinking and life-long learning. We seek to develop in our students the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to be outstanding, compassionate health care providers. We promote professionalism, leadership, service, and an appreciation of ethical values and diversity. Physician assistant education at Stony Brook emphasizes comprehensive patient-centered medical care across the lifespan and our curriculum focuses on the principles of evidence-based practice and the importance of scholarly activity.

• Respiratory Care Department (SHP)

  The mission of the Stony Brook University Respiratory Care Program is to offer the highest quality medical education and clinical skills in a learning environment that fosters critical thinking, encourages professional leadership, inspires research, and instills a strong appreciation of ethical values and human diversity. This multifaceted program emphasizes critical care, acute care, neonatal/pediatrics, cardiac care, home care, polysomnography, and pulmonary diagnostics. Utilizing the standards established by the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC), the established curriculum provides students with the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to be outstanding patient care providers and encourages them to improve the overall health of their surrounding communities. For students who enter the Polysomnography Specialty Option (PSO), our goal is to prepare practitioners with demonstrated competence in the cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor (skills), and affective (behavior) learning domains of polysomnographic technology practice as performed by sleep disorders specialists.

• Pharmacological Sciences Department (RSOM)

  Our mission is to provide excellence in biomedical research, graduate and undergraduate education. Our faculty bring in more than $10 million annually in direct extramural support, and exciting findings are reported regularly in a host of premier journals.

• Physiology and Biophysics Department (RSOM)

  The primary mission of the Department of Physiology & Biophysics is to develop and maintain excellent research, teaching, and graduate and post-graduate training programs in molecular, cellular, and integrative physiology and biophysics.

• Program in Public Health

  The mission of the Program in Public Health is to promote the health of populations at the regional, national, and global levels by developing the next generation of public health practitioners and health management leaders, as well as through programs of excellence in research, community engagement, and service.