SBU School of Medicine Educator and Anesthesiologist Named SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor
Dr. Stephen Vitkun, 28-Year SBUMC Physician, is Innovator of Simulated Medical Training
STONY BROOK, N.Y., July 9, 2010 – Stephen A. Vitkun, M.D., M.B.A., Ph.D., Professor in the Departments of 
Anesthesiology and Pharmacological Sciences at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, has been appointed to the rank of Distinguished Teaching Professor by the State University of New York. Dr. Vitkun was one of nine SUNY professors approved for appointment to Distinguished Teaching Professor, one of the highest academic ranks SUNY bestows on outstanding faculty within the SUNY system.
Dr. Vitkun’s academic and clinical career at Stony Brook University Medical Center has spanned 28 years. He began in 1982 as an Anesthesiology resident and rose in the ranks as a physician educator in that department. Dr. Vitkun completed a Fellowship in Pulmonary/Critical Care in the 1980s and expanded his teaching role as a Professor in Pharmacological Sciences and Clinical Health Sciences. A national expert in medical training using simulation, such as the use of computerized mannequins as patients, Dr. Vitkun has educated thousands of medical students, residents, and other physicians by way of simulation training.
“I am very pleased and honored to have been selected for this appointment,” said Dr. Vitkun. “I have always considered teaching on all levels to be one of my personal missions at Stony Brook and feel that the opportunity to teach is one of the main attractions to academic medicine. I greatly appreciate having been given the opportunity to teach at various levels and in various programs and schools within the University.”
In addition his training activities in the School of Medicine, Dr. Vitkun has run simulation-centered and other types of medical training in the Schools of Nursing and Health Technology and Management, and at undergraduate levels in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“Dr. Vitkun’s commitment to medical training in the School of Medicine and medical education for Stony Brook University Medical Center at large is paramount and has helped to greatly advance the educational mission of the entire institution,” says Richard N. Fine, M.D., Outgoing Dean of the School of Medicine.
“It is with great pride that we recognize SUNY’s most brilliant scholars and teachers and those whose service to the community and to SUNY merit the distinguished ranking,” said Board Chairman Carl T. Hayden. “We are grateful for their contributions to our students, to SUNY, the communities we serve and the body of knowledge in their chosen field of inquiry. The Board joins with the recipients’ families and campuses in celebrating their academic, service, research and teaching accomplishments.”
The Distinguished Teaching Professorship recognizes and honors mastery of teaching at the graduate, undergraduate or professional levels. For this prestigious tribute to be conferred, candidates must have demonstrated consistently superior mastery of teaching, outstanding service to students and commitment to their ongoing intellectual growth, scholarship and professional growth, and adherence to rigorous academic standards and requirements. Further, to be eligible for nomination, a faculty member must have attained and held the rank of full professor for five years, have completed at least three years of full-time teaching on the nominating campus, 10 years of full-time teaching within the SUNY System, and must have regularly carried a full-time teaching load as defined by the campus.
At the end of the 2009-10 academic year, the SUNY Board of Trustees approved the appointments of 24 faculty members to distinguished ranks. Since the program’s inception in 1963, SUNY has appointed 852 faculty to distinguished ranks. A total of 315 Distinguished Teaching Professorships have been appointed.
Dr. Vitkun, who went to Stony Brook University as an undergraduate, received a B.S. degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1979 and an M.D. degree from Dartmouth Medical School in 1982. He has also earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Pacific Western University in California (1988), and an M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee (2001).
Dr. Vitkun has been a recipient of the Stony Brook School of Medicine’s Aesculapius Award for Teaching Excellence and has been a Teaching Fellow of the School of Medicine. Dr. Vitkun has also received the President’s Award, and the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. He was elected to memberships in the International Gold Key Honor Society, Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha.
He lives in Setauket with his wife and two children.
Established in 1971, the Stony Brook University School of Medicine includes 25 academic departments centered on education, training, and advancing scientific research. The primary mission of the School is to educate caring and skilled physicians well-prepared to enter graduate and specialty training programs. The school’s graduate and specialty training programs are designed to educate medical specialists and investigators in the biomedical and clinical sciences to be well-prepared to advance the frontiers of research, clinical practice and education.
Part of the State University of New York system, Stony Brook University encompasses 200 buildings on 1,450 acres. In the 50+ years since its founding, the University has grown tremendously, now with nearly 24,700 students and 2,200 faculty and is recognized as one of the nation’s important centers of learning and scholarship. It is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, and ranks among the top 100 national universities in America and among the top 50 public national universities in the country according to the 2010 U.S. News & World Report survey. Considered one of the “flagship” campuses in the SUNY system, Stony Brook University co-manages Brookhaven National Laboratory, joining an elite group of universities, including Berkeley, University of Chicago, Cornell, MIT, and Princeton that run federal research and development laboratories. SBU is a driving force of the Long Island economy, with an annual economic impact of $4.65 billion, generating nearly 60,000 jobs, and accounts for nearly 4% of all economic activity in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and roughly 7.5 percent of total jobs in Suffolk County.
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