High school sweethearts Steve and Shelly Heller were part of Stony Brook University’s third and fourth graduating classes in 1963 and 1964, respectively. They married the weekend after Shelly graduated and went on to have successful careers shaped by the education they received at Stony Brook. Wanting to give back to the university that laid the foundation for their success and motivated by the state endowment match and Simons Infinity Investment match opportunities, the couple established a new endowed chair at Stony Brook in cheminformatics. But how did this couple from Richmond Hill come to leave their legacy at Stony Brook University?
The Early Days at Stony Brook
During his sophomore year, Steve transferred to Stony Brook to study chemistry. He was among the university’s first students, back when it was called the State University Center on Long Island at Oyster Bay. “It was a unique experience, as Stony Brook was very new at the time,” recalled Steve. “It seemed that there were more faculty members than students, so you never had a problem if you needed help.” And because it was such a young university, Steve said he was getting the same opportunities that graduate students would get in terms of research and lectures, but as an undergraduate student. For example, he said he was the first technician in Professor Paul Lauterbur’s nuclear magnetic resonance lab. “There were two machines in his lab, and he taught me how to use both of them,” Steve said. “And he wouldn’t let anyone else use those machines, except me.” While working in the lab, Professor Fausto Ramirez, a phosphorus chemist, wanted to use the machine to test a theory, and “Lauterbur would only let him use the machine if I ran the experiment,” said Steve. “Ramirez was so pleased with the results, he included me in not just one but four publications in the prestigious Journal of the American Chemical Society — something very unusual for an undergraduate student.” Lauterbur was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2003 for his work, which made the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) possible.
Shelly started the same year at Stony Brook on the Oyster Bay campus but as a freshman. She commuted her first two years and lived on the Stony Brook campus for her junior and senior years. “I was there the first year that campus opened,” Shelly recalled. “There were two academic buildings and one dormitory — the G Dorm. It was a good place to be at that time.” Shelly said there was a lot of academic freedom to be creative while she was at Stony Brook. While also earning her degree in chemistry, she took a job at the computer center on the new campus. “I didn’t know much about computers, but I learned pretty quickly,” she said.
Pioneers in Their Careers
After graduation, the Hellers moved to Washington, D.C., where Steve attended graduate school and earned his PhD at Georgetown University. “Because of the unique experience I had at Stony Brook as an undergraduate and all of the research I did, I was able to get my PhD in three and a half years,” said Steve. “I learned and researched things at Stony Brook that other undergraduates didn’t learn until graduate school.” His first job after getting his PhD was with the Department of Defense to develop and test drugs that would help with nuclear radiation. Throughout his career, he worked at a number of United States government labs in scientific databases and chemical information, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). At the NIH, he worked in the computer division. “When I was hired, they were looking for chemists who didn’t want to work in the lab — they would work on computers,” he said. For creating the initial version of the database and search software, Steve has been called the father of the NIH/EPA/NIST mass spectral database and the father of the IUPAC International Chemical Identifier (InChI), a nonproprietary, open-source identifier for chemical substances that can be used in printed and electronic data sources, thus enabling easier linking of diverse data compilations. “Looking back, I’m one of the pioneers of doing chemistry on computers, but to me, it was fun and interesting to think of ways to use computers to get scientific data,” Steve said.
While Steve was in graduate school, Shelly searched for a job in chemistry and had an experience that stuck with her to this day. “I applied for a job with the FBI, and after they took me on a tour, they said, ‘We don’t hire women as chemists, we hire them as secretaries,’” Shelly recalled. “After having a good cry, I went to a placement agency and got a job as a computer programmer at the Planning Research Corporation.” She later worked for IBM and decided to earn her master’s and PhD in computer science. She taught at a few universities and landed at George Washington University, where she was the associate dean for academic affairs on the Mount Vernon campus and a professor of engineering and applied science. “Because of that moment in my first job search, I have spent my academic career recruiting and retaining women in STEM,” Shelly said.
“I want to hold doors open for women in science, particularly within engineering and computer science.”
The Ability to Influence Potential
The couple is enjoying retirement with their three children and seven grandchildren, though Shelly is still teaching and Steve is consulting for NIH. As they started to update their wills, they felt that their job now is to leave the world a better place than when they started their careers. “The idea to establish this professorship was the concept of holding the door open for the people behind us,” Shelly said. “A professor is a force multiplier and has the ability to influence potential.” Both feel that supporting a faculty member provides an opportunity to build a foundation and retain the best and brightest in science.
“Our faculty members are pioneers in their field. They share their own knowledge and research, and they inspire our students with hands-on learning,” said Richard L. McCormick, interim president of Stony Brook University. “By establishing this professorship, Steve and Shelly Heller are fueling momentum in the field of cheminformatics and allowing the next generation of faculty members to make their mark on Stony Brook and, in turn, the world.”
When Steve and Shelly learned about the New York State and Simons Infinity Investment match opportunities, they knew now was the right time to establish the Dr. Stephen R. Heller Endowed Chair in Cheminformatics. “It’s pretty amazing that our gift will be tripled in value,” Shelly said. “There are so many opportunities in this world, and we wanted to take advantage of these matches to promote excellence in the field of cheminformatics, data science and STEM.”
“This professorship will allow us to support a faculty member to complement Stony Brook’s existing strengths in computational chemistry and enhance the research profile of the Department of Chemistry across the country,” said David Wrobel, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Funding for the Dr. Stephen R. Heller Endowed Chair in Cheminformatics is eligible for both the New York State endowment match program and the Simons Infinity Investment Match Challenge, which will triple the impact this endowment gift will have on Stony Brook. For more information, visit stonybrook.edu/endowments. If you have interest in or questions about endowments or the match opportunities, contact Scott Barrett, interim vice president for advancement, at (631) 632-9128 or Scott.Barrett@stonybrook.edu.
-Christine McGrath