IESC 2021 Organizing Committee

Marjaneh Issapour - Co-chair

Director, Renewable Energy and Sustainability Center

Farmingdale State College

 

 

Marjaneh Issapour is currently the Associate Dean for Innovation and Economic Development in Sustainable Energy at Farmingdale State College.

Her area of research is Renewable and Alternative energy sources. She has expertise in statistical modeling of various energy related quantities and factors. She is also knowledgeable in networking technologies and has devoted most of her research to applications related to alternative energy sources; specifically, she has worked on statistical modeling for energy intensity. She is currently involved with drinking water quality research along with her students.

She is an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Senior member and currently chairs the Educational Activities Committee and Power and Energy Society of the (IEEE)-Long Island Section. She was the chair of IEEE- Long Island Section (2017). She is also a member of the Manufacturing and Technology Resource Consortium (MTRC) Advisory Board, Farmingdale State College's representative for the Engineering Joint Commission of Long Island (EJCLI), was the Chair of the IEEE-Long Island Section (2017), is on the IEEE Region 1 Board of Governors (BoG) with the position of Educational Activities Committee Chair (2018), is Farmingdale State College's representative for Long Island Regional Advisory Council on Higher Education (LIRACHE), is the chair of the USGBC's "Drive Electric Long Island" steering committee, a member of the workforce development subcommittee of American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), a member of the offshore wind wildlife & permitting of AWEA's subcommittee, and a member of PSEG Long Island's Environmental Advisory Committee.

She was the recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service by the SUNY Chancellor and Board of Trustees in 2007. The Chancellor's Award is a prestigious award within the SUNY system and is awarded only to those candidates who have a record of consistently superior performance and a long commitment to the SUNY system. She was recognized by the New York State Society Of Professional Engineers Suffolk County Chapter for excellence in leadership and performance as a professional engineer in education (2015), is the recipient of IEEE-Long Island’s Athanasius Papoulis Outstanding Educator Award (2017) and the “Excellence for Women in Technology Award”, from the Association of Technology Management and Applied Engineering (ATMAE) (2019).

 

Dr. David Smith - Co-chair

Director, Centre for Environmental Management

Coordinator, Institute for Sustainable Development

University of the West Indies

 

David has over 30 years post-doctoral experience in academia, civil society, the private sector and the United Nations; focusing on Sustainable Development, Biodiversity Conservation, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction. He is the Director of the Centre for Environmental Management and Coordinator of the Institute for Sustainable Development at The University of the West Indies (UWI). He is a member of the Independent Group of Scientists drafting the Global Sustainable Development Report 20191 for the UN and the Caribbean Chair for the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

The Institute for Sustainable Development focuses on Disaster Management, Environmental Management, Climate Change, Governance and Policy. Projects he has worked on included mapping disaster risk and hazards from earthquakes and floods for the Caribbean and developing a tool for Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into Disaster Risk Management3 for CDEMA. Several of his current postgraduates work on resilience issues for the Caribbean including resilience to the projected effects of climate change.

He worked as the Assistant Resident Representative (Programme) (ARR(P)) in the Jamaica Office of the United Nations Development Programme; and oversaw UNDP’s Environment, Energy, Climate Change and Disaster Management activities in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cayman Islands and Jamaica. He was the Country Office Focal Point for Disaster Management and Response and OCHA/UNDAC4 and the deputy chair for the UN technical team on emergencies (UNETE) for Jamaica.

He was a Regional Councillor and the Chair of the Business Committee of Council for IUCN, The World Conservation Union5 from 1994-2000. And sat on the Board of the Caribbean Conservation Association6 for five years and was President in 1995. He has consulted on small business management and the design of environmental financing mechanisms in Jamaica, Uganda, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago including carrying out debt-for-nature conversions and establishing conservation Trust Funds.

He is also a member of the Science Policy Advisory Committee of the Interamerican Institute for Global Change Research.

Dr. Henry J. Bokuniewicz - Member

Distinguished Service Professor

School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences

Stony Brook University

Celia Davidson-Francis - Member

Director of Alumni Relations 

Director & Coordinator - Regional Vice Chancellor's UWI STAT Ambassadorial Corps.

University of the West Indies

 

Celia Davidson Francis, a youth and environmental advocate, leads alumni relations strategic programming for The University of the West Indies (UWI)’s graduate population as Director. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the UWI and a Master of Arts degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is currently pursuing her MPhil/PhD at SALISES (UWI, Mona) focusing on young people and climate change and is a member of the SALISES 50/50 Youth Cluster. She created and developed the Vice Chancellor’s UWI STAT (Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow) Ambassadorial Corps 15 years ago and has guided the group to continuously enhance a major mandate; that of increasing Caribbean climate advocacy, justice and action through the Climate Change Advocacy Action Network (CCAAN).

Louis Donofrio - Member

IEEE Long Island Section Chair

IEEE Long Island Power & Energy Society Vice-Chair

New York State Society of Professional Engineers, Vice-President of the Long Island Chapter

 

Louis D’Onofrio has many years of industry experience in the power industry as an Engineer and Project Manager. As an Engineer in the Substation Department, he was responsible for diagnostic testing of the electrical equipment; performing quality inspections prior to shipment of the equipment; and training of the technicians and engineers in the department. As a Project Manager, he was responsible for new substation installations and the interconnections for new power generation facilities. In 2016 Lou became a Senior Advisor for M.J. Beck Consulting LLC. He was on the team that provided support for the PSEGLI 280MW renewable portfolio. Lou had lead responsibility for two of the projects: the Shoreham Solar Commons 24MW facility that went into commercial operation in June 2018; and the 20MW Riverhead Solar 1 Project in Calverton that went into commercial operation in June 2019. In 2019, Lou became an adjunct instructor for the Farmingdale State College, Renewable Energy and Sustainability Center (RESC). He taught the Energy Industry Fundamentals course that was developed by the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD). Lou was invited to join the Executive Advisory Board for the International Energy and Sustainability Conference at Farmingdale State College. He chaired the Geothermal Energy pre-conference seminar on November 17, 2019. In 2020, Lou again taught the Energy Industry Fundamentals course at Farmingdale State College, and he is presently preparing to teach it as an instructor-led online course. 

Dr. Corrine Graham - Member

President

Graham International Consulting and Research Inc.

Designs by Dr. G

 

President, GRAHAM International Consulting and Research Inc. is a NYS Certified Minority Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) and Designs by Dr. G, an organic lifestyle brand that gives back 10 percent of its sales to charities throughout the USA. 

Dr. Graham has been recognized in 2019 by New York City SBS, (Small Business Services), for 2018 and 2019 WENYC (Women Entrepreneurs NYC) Mentor Role; LIBN Class of 2017 Long Island Business News Top 50 Most Influential Women in Business; Diversity in Business Awards and MWBE. 

She is a highly accomplished speaker, mentor, project manager, commercialization and technology transfer specialist, workforce and personal and professional development trainer and consultant to midsize, small and start-up business. A small business specialist with nearly two decades of experience across a diverse spectrum of businesses with revenues ranging from US$20m to US$500m.

In 2020 Dr. Graham participated on the UN SDSN (Sustainable Development Solutions Network-Youth Initiative) Youth Solutions Program Advisory Panel and co-authored chapter, The Entrepreneurial Journey in the Decade of Delivery.

Some appearances includes: Huffington Post, WLIW 21, Newsday, CBS 1010 Win, LIBN, Fios1-Money and Main Street, Innovate LI, APICS (American Production and Inventory Controls Society), SCORE and others. Dr. Graham is a staunch community advocate and partner and board member of community organizations throughout Long Island as well regional and international. 

Dr. Nazrul Islam - Member

Professor and Chairman, Computer Security

Farmingdale State College

 

Dr. M. Nazrul Islam is a Professor at SUNY – Farmingdale, where he is also serving as the Chairman of the Security Systems and Law Enforcement Technology Department. He has been in the academia since 1991 and worked at several renowned institutions, including Old Dominion University, University of South Alabama, University of West Florida, and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. 

Dr. Islam earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1991 and 1994, respectively. He then earned the Doctor of Engineering degree (equivalent to Ph.D.) from Muroran Institute of Technology, Japan in 1999. 

His research interests include optical communication, wireless communication, digital image processing, security technologies and solid state devices. He has received a patent on Optical Pattern Recognition. He has published more than 160 publications in refereed journals and conference proceedings. He has successfully completed several research projects sponsored by different federal and private institutions, including US Army, National Science Foundation, and Department of Energy. He is serving as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Optics and Laser Technology, and also an Editor of the Journal of Mathematical Problems in Engineering. He has also been actively serving as the Reviewer of numerous journals and Member of the Program Committee of several international conferences. He has been serving as the Publication Chair for several international conferences, including Long Island Systems, Applications and Technology (LISAT), International Energy and Sustainability Conference (IESC), and Signal Processing in Medicine and Biology (SPMB).

He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Senior Member of SPIE (Society of Optical Engineers). He served the IEEE Long Island Section as the Chair in 2015 and several other roles as well as the Chair of the Photonics Society and Membership Development Society. Dr. Islam also served as the Chair of the IEEE Bangladesh Section in 2003-2004 and Vice Chair in 2002. 

 

 

 

Halden Morris

Life Senior Member 

IEEE Jamaica Section

Halden Morris is retired Professor of Career, Technical and Vocational Education of the School of Education, Faculty of Humanities and Education, The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona. He studied at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, USA, the University of Western Ontario, Canada and the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech). Professor Morris is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Jamaica and is a Life Senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Professor Morris is the recipient of the Brown Senior Scholar Award from Valdosta State University, USA (2015), the Prime Minister’s Medal of Appreciation for Service to Education (2009), and the IEEE Regional Professional Leadership Award (2007). He is also the holder of a United States small entity patent. Professor Morris served as a lecturer through to a principal lecturer at the College of Arts, Science and Technology, now UTech for 19 years prior to his employment at UWI as a lecturer and quality assurance professional in TVET for more than 25 years. He is the founder and developer of the Master of Arts in Leadership in TVET and Workforce Development (2010) as well as the MPhil/PhD in the same discipline (2015) at the UWI. He supervised more than 100 masters and PhD studies while employed at the UWI. He was also chair of the energy conservation committee from inception (2008) at the UWI. Prof. Morris has published many TVET related articles in peer reviewed international journals and is co-author of the book “Fundamentals of Fault Current and Grounding in Electrical Systems” and author/editor of the book “Issues in Career, Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Lessons for the Caribbean.” Prof. Morris has worked as a TVET consultant for numerous entities such as the World Bank, UNESCO, IADB, USAID, OECS, CDB, ACTI, CARICOM, CIDA, UWI Consultants, UTech, Sutherland Global, Govt of Qatar, as well as several Ministries across the Caribbean. He is also a Programme Evaluator (PEV) for the American Board for Engineering Technology (ABET) as well as the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ). He is founder of Halston (Electrical) Limited, a company which engages in Special Power Systems such as Uninterrupted Power Sources (UPS) and other clean energy sources for computers and control systems.

Halden Morris is retired Professor of Career, Technical and Vocational Education of the School of Education, Faculty of Humanities and Education, The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona. He studied at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, USA, the University of Western Ontario, Canada and the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech). Professor Morris is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in Jamaica and is a Life Senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Professor Morris is the recipient of the Brown Senior Scholar Award from Valdosta State University, USA (2015), the Prime Minister’s Medal of Appreciation for Service to Education (2009), and the IEEE Regional Professional Leadership Award (2007). He is also the holder of a United States small entity patent. Professor Morris served as a lecturer through to a principal lecturer at the College of Arts, Science and Technology, now UTech for 19 years prior to his employment at UWI as a lecturer and quality assurance professional in TVET for more than 25 years. He is the founder and developer of the Master of Arts in Leadership in TVET and Workforce Development (2010) as well as the MPhil/PhD in the same discipline (2015) at the UWI. He supervised more than 100 masters and PhD studies while employed at the UWI. He was also chair of the energy conservation committee from inception (2008) at the UWI. Prof. Morris has published many TVET related articles in peer reviewed international journals and is co-author of the book “Fundamentals of Fault Current and Grounding in Electrical Systems” and author/editor of the book “Issues in Career, Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Lessons for the Caribbean.” Prof. Morris has worked as a TVET consultant for numerous entities such as the World Bank, UNESCO, IADB, USAID, OECS, CDB, ACTI, CARICOM, CIDA, UWI Consultants, UTech, Sutherland Global, Govt of Qatar, as well as several Ministries across the Caribbean. He is also a Programme Evaluator (PEV) for the American Board for Engineering Technology (ABET) as well as the University Council of Jamaica (UCJ). He is founder of Halston (Electrical) Limited, a company which engages in Special Power Systems such as Uninterrupted Power Sources (UPS) and other clean energy sources for computers and control systems.

Anna Godas

Administrative Assistant

Renewable Energy and Sustainability Center - Farmingdale State College

 

Zachary Licht

Instructional Support Technician

Renewable Energy and Sustainability Center - Farmingdale State College