Stony Brook University announced Andrea Goldsmith as its new president, culminating its replacement search that began last year when Maurie McInnis left to take the same position at Yale.
McInnis’s replacement also has an Ivy League connection. Goldsmith is currently the dean of Princeton University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Goldsmith, who received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley, will take office as Stony Brook’s seventh president on August 1, 2025.
She won the prestigious Marconi Prize in 2020 for her pioneering contributions to wireless communications and network theory. Previous awardees include Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, and Nobel Laureate Charles K. Kao.
Stony Brook Rising
Traditionally seen as a commuter school, Stony Brook has gained national notoriety in recent years, also becoming more competitive. The median SAT score of incoming freshman has risen from 1200 in 2010 to 1410 in 2024.
But the choice of Goldsmith may reflect Stony Brook’s ambitions to rise in the ranks of the country’s engineering schools.
Stony Brook University is currently ranked 63rd in U.S. News’s Best Engineering Schools list. In New York state, it trails Cornell, Columbia (Fu Foundation), NYU (Tandon), Rochester (Hajim), RPI, and Buffalo.
Research Funding in Focus
Both the SUNY Board of Trustees and Governor Kathy Hochul highlighted Stony Brook’s reputation as a top research university in their statements congratulating Goldsmith on her appointment.
Fundraising will be a big part of Goldsmith’s job as university president. She may be tested early on to see whether she can attract private funding for costly, cutting-edge engineering and scientific research as federal funding opportunities are likely to remain uncertain or in decline.
As university president, Goldsmith will also oversee Stony Brook Medicine, ranked by Healthgrades as one of America’s 50 best hospitals for 2025, and its Renaissance School of Medicine.