Dominic Seraphin
M.S., Class of 1969

Dominic Seraphin began his computer career in the U.S. as a systems analyst / grad student in the days when the Computing Center contained one massive machine that took up most of the building, and students lived in there doing punch cards for their programs.  He is currently the Director of Systems Support, Division of Information Technology, and what that one machine used to be able to do, we each now have sitting on our desks, and for the University, Dom is responsible for - here's what the official website about his area says:

The Systems Support Department architects and maintains the computing infrastructure for University wide applications.  We administer and manage electronic mail systems and web servers and provide the environment for running Administrative Applications. The following are among our major responsibilities:

- Sun Solaris operating environment
- IBM OS/390 and VM operating systems
- Oracle relational databases
- Instructional Computing system support
- Application File servers
- Support of Library Systems (NOTIS and new ExLibris Aleph)
- Lotus Notes
- PeopleSoft

The department is responsible for computer system hardware, operating systems, databases and other supporting software as well as system security, performance, and management of computer accounts. We research and evaluate new and emerging technologies, provide technical guidance, planning and recommendations on new hardware and software acquisitions to improve and expand on existing computing capabilities and services for the University.

So Dominic certainly has a lot he's responsible for!

And how did it all start?  The following is a short history he wrote about becoming an alumnus - and it is also a fascinating history of computing in academia.

I was teaching Mathematics in Bombay University in India after completing a Masters in Mathematics from the same University in 1960.  A flyer came to our Math Department from Stony Brook announcing a graduate program in Computer Science some time in 1967.  Computer Science was just evolving into an academic discipline at that time.  I applied to Stony Brook for admission into the Computer Science graduate program and was admitted with a Fellowship for financial assistance.

I came to Stony Brook for 1967 Fall semester as a graduate student to the (then) Department of Applied Analysis in the Computer Science graduate program.  (Applied Analysis later on split into two Departments - Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Computer Science.)  After one year of full time graduate work, I started working in the Computing Center as a Programmer Analyst in September 1968 and continued as a part time graduate student.

Dr. Daniel Tycko (originally a Physicist -- there were no Computer Science graduates yet then) was my thesis advisor for the Masters thesis on  "Electromagnetic Showers and Pseudo Random Number Generators".

I graduated in May 1969.

dseraphin@notes.cc.sunysb.edu

S. Dominic Seraphin
Class of 1985

S. Dominic Seraphin received his B.S. from Stony Brook in 1985 and is
currently the Vice President for Business Development at St. Joseph
Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland.  He also holds a Masters Degree
in Health Services Administration from George Washington University. 

While at Stony Brook, he was active with Polity Student Government, was elected as the Sophomore Class Rep, COCA, new student summer orientation, and was a resident assistant with Hand College in Tabler Quad.  He met his wife Lori at Stony Brook.  They have been married for 14 years and reside with their 3 children in Baltimore.

dominicseraphin@chi-east.org

Dr. Arun Seraphin
Class of 1991

Dr. Arun Seraphin is a congressional staffer on the minority staff of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services.  His areas of responsibility include the Department of Defense's science and technology and information technology programs.  (Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is on this committee.) 

Prior to this, he worked on the United States House of Representatives Committee on Science and in the Office of Senator Joseph Lieberman.  Previously, Dr. Seraphin was at the Institute for Defense Analyses, a Pentagon think tank, where his research included work on a variety of defense technologies.  He holds a Ph.D. in Electronic Materials from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he performed research on silicon nanotechnology, and bachelor's degrees in Political Science and Engineering Science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

At Stony Brook, Dr. Seraphin was an active organizer of I-Con (the campus' annual science fiction convention) and the treasurer of the Polity Programs and Services Council.  He currently serves as a member of the Stony Brook
University Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Dr. Letha Seraphin
Class of 1995

Dr. Letha Seraphin graduated from the Honors College with a B.S. in Biology in 1995.  She then attended SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse College of Medicine, graduating in 1999.   After finishing a residency in Internal Medicine at The George Washington University Medical Center last year, she is currently completing a fellowship in Infectious diseases and lives in Arlington, Virginia.