Stony Brook Southampton to Host its First-Ever 5k Run/Walk

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y., April 2, 2009 – A new road race will take place on Eastern Long Island. Stony Brook Southampton’s 1 st Annual Martin Schoonen 5K Run/Walk is open to those 16 and up and will take place exclusively on the scenic Shinnecock Hills 82-acre campus, winding over rolling hills, by an historic 18 th -century Windmill and 21 st -century Wind Turbine, the SBS Greenhouse and Organic Garden, past sandy bajas, the Avram Theater and Gallery, Chancellors Hall, the soon-to-be-opened environmentally certified Library and back again.

The race takes place, rain or shine, on Sunday, April 19, with registration at 8 a.m. and the race starting at 9 a.m.

Advanced registration is $10 for high school and college students/$20 for non-students. Registration the day of the event is $15/$25. The first 150 registrants will get a commemorative Stony Brook Southampton T-shirt.

Proceeds will benefit the Martin Schoonen Scholarship Fund to be awarded to a Stony Brook Southampton student. To register, please go to www.stonybrook.edu/southampton .

Dr. Schoonen was interim dean of Stony Brook Southampton in its first two years of existence, trailblazing new majors and courses while overseeing the growth of the new campus. He was succeeded as campus leader by Dean and Vice President Mary C. Pearl last month. Dr. Schoonen is still a professor of Geochemistry with Stony Brook University, where he leads the Aqueous Geochemistry Lab. He received his Ph.D at Pennsylvania State University and joined Stony Brook in 1989. His academic interests include environmental chemistry, groundwater chemistry, geochemistry and astrobiology. Dr. Schoonen's research group is currently working on the hydrogeochemistry of Long Island. He has also been the lead author of numerous articles in respected academic journals. Along with his studies in the Central Pine Barrens of Eastern Long Island, Dr. Schoonen has supervised research projects of the Long Island aquifer system.

In its second year, Stony Brook Southampton, a model of sustainability that was featured in The New York Times this past summer and on “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” and “The Today Show” this past spring, is continuing with its plans to build one of the nation’s truly green campuses.

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