March 20, 2020: Urgent Guidance Laboratory Research Activities-COVID-19

In view of the announcement by Governor Cuomo today, and in an effort to protect the health and safety of Stony Brook students, staff, and faculty, all laboratory-based research activities must be ramped down by 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 21st.  The only exceptions will be critical activities, including care of animals, maintenance of unique reagents, and monitoring of essential equipment and materials.  Research that is directly related to COVID-19 may continue providing that health and safety guidelines are observed.  If a lab or core facility has a need for such critical maintenance, one person must be designated as essential with authorized access; there may be an additional person designated as a back-up.  We encourage PIs to share critical maintenance responsibilities where possible to reduce the number of personnel on campus.  The names of these individuals with essential authorized access must be provided to the Chair and Dean.  No other access to Stony Brook research laboratories will be permitted.  We will continue to assess the situation at regular intervals.  This documentmay be helpful for PIs as they ramp down their lab operations.

Faculty should direct their students and postdocs to continue research and scholarship (e.g., analyzing data, writing and reviewing manuscripts, preparing presentations, developing new grant proposals, convening online discussions with students and lab staff, etc.) at their home as best possible.