The State University of New York (SUNY) board of trustees has appointed Bahgat Sammakia as the interim president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, which has campuses in Albany and Marcy.
Sammakia’s appointment is effective “on or about” Dec. 1, SUNY Poly said in a news release issued Thursday.
Sammakia will continue in the position until a permanent president is appointed and will receive an annual state salary of $425,000, according to a separate news release from SUNY.
He’ll assume the responsibilities that Alain Kaloyeros previously held before he resigned on Oct. 11 following his arrest on federal and state corruption charges and subsequent suspension by SUNY.
Sammakia has served as the VP for research at Binghamton University since 2010, SUNY Poly said.
Besides his leadership role at Binghamton, Sammakia is a SUNY distinguished professor and “an internationally recognized scholar” in electronic-systems integration and packaging, the school said.
Prior to joining Binghamton University, Sammakia spent 14 years with IBM and held various management positions.
As Binghamton’s VP for research, Sammakia oversees state and federal-government relations, research advancement, technology transfer and commercialization, and economic development and entrepreneurship.
He is the founding director of the Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging (S3IP) Center and co-founding director of the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing, both New York State Centers of Excellence, SUNY Poly said.
Empire State Development’s (ESD) Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) funds 11 Centers of Excellence to “foster collaboration between the academic-research community and the business sector to develop and commercialize new products and technologies, to promote critical private sector investment in emerging high-technology fields in New York State, and to create and expand technology-related businesses and employment,” according to the ESD website.
The state created the program to “enhance and accelerate” the operations of recipient centers in the “facilitation of joint university-industry research and development, product commercialization, and workforce training,” the website says.
“SUNY Poly is world-renowned for its cutting edge academic programs as well as its leadership in next generation technology development, and I am honored that Chancellor Zimpher and the SUNY board of trustees have entrusted me to serve as interim president,” Sammakia said in the release. “I look forward to meeting and working with SUNY Poly’s talented faculty, staff, and students, as well as our partners in government and industry, as we continue to move the college forward.”
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
