Al has studied sphingolipids for nearly forty years and his laboratory and collaborators have contributed to our understanding of sphingolipid structure and function, metabolism, and interrelationships between sphingolipids and disease. He and Dr. Cameron Sullards, who is now with Avanti Polar Lipids, were the directors of the Sphingolipid and Glycosphingolipid Core Laboratory for the first decade of LIPID MAPS®, and he now serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee.

Chiara Luberto is an Associate Professor of Research in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Stony Brook University and the Interim Leader of the “Cancer Lipids and Metabolism” research program at Stony Brook Cancer Center. Ever since her undergraduate studies, Chiara has concentrated on different aspects of lipid biochemistry and metabolism, and the roles and functions of specific classes of lipids in infectious disease and cancer biology. A particular interest of Chiara’s research has been the development and optimization of analytical tools to study and understand the intricacies of sphingolipid metabolism.

Yusuf A. Hannun, M.D. is the Director of the Stony Brook Cancer Center and the Joel Kenney Professor in Cancer Research. Yusuf’s research over the past 4 decades has been in the areas of lipids, protein kinases, and signal transduction. His novel contributions to science in the field of lipid biology have opened up a new field of investigation centered on the study of sphingolipids and their roles in biology and therapeutics.