Commencement
Five-hundred and fifty students received a bachelor’s degree and more than 240 earned a graduate degree or certificate of advanced study at ceremonies in Utica and Albany on May 6 and 12 respectively.
The top three undergraduate degrees awarded by number of students were business administration, computer and information science, and mechanical engineering technology. SUNY Poly also marked its first graduate from the College of Health Sciences’ Health Informatics MS program.
The following are commencement videos and photos showing the ceremonies and bios for the speakers:
College of Engineering
College of Engineering Facebook photo gallery link.
Dr. Michael J. Hayduk is Deputy Director of the Information Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, New York. The directorate’s mission is to lead the development and integration of Air Force warfighting information technologies for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, and Cyber. Dr. Hayduk plays a key role in overseeing an annual budget of over $1.8 billion, leading the activities of over 1,200 scientists, engineers, administrative and support personnel, and is also responsible for coordinating AFRL’s Quantum Information Science research portfolio spanning six technical directorates.
College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business, and College of Health Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business, and College of Health Sciences Facebook photo gallery link.
Dr. Maria Irene Kontaridis, Executive Director, Gordon K. Moe Professor and Chair of Biomedical Research and Translational Medicine, and the Director of Research at the Masonic Medical Research Institute in Utica, NY, also holds a part-time faculty appointment as an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Department of Medicine/Division of Cardiology in Boston, MA. Locally, she serves on the Boards of the Mohawk Valley Economic Development Enterprises and the Kelberman Foundation (Autism).
College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering
College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (Albany Campus) Facebook photo gallery link.
Dr. Sasha Bakhru, Founder and CEO of Perosphere Technologies, is leading efforts to develop and commercialize next-generation coagulation diagnostics. He is a Perosphere Pharmaceuticals co-Founder (which was acquired by AMAG Pharma in 2019), Brown University Adjunct Professor of Medical Science, and Lecturer in Entrepreneurship. Dr. Bakhru is a founding member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Amylyx Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AMLX), and is an elected Fellow (2020) of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Notably, he is also the son of Dr. Hassaram Bakhru, Head of SUNY Poly’s Nanoscience Constellation and Distinguished Service Professor of Nanoscience, who is retiring this year after decades of service.
