Stony Brook University to honor former Vice President Joe Biden at annual gala

Former Vice President Joe Biden will be the guest of honor at Stony Brook University’s annual gala next month at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan.

According to university officials, Biden will be recognized for his outstanding career and dedication to the fight against cancer. The public is invited to purchase tickets for the April 19 event.

“Cancer touches us all in some way and at some point,” Biden said in a statement issued by the college Thursday. “Everywhere I go, people share their stories of heartbreak and hope. And every day, I’m reminded that our work to end cancer as we know it is bigger than just a single person.”

Biden, who served under President Barack Obama, led the White House’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, which seeks to double the rate of progress in preventing and fighting the disease.

Stony Brook President Dr. Samuel L. Stanley Jr. said the Cancer Moonshot has the potential to transform cancer research and prevention around the world.

Stanley said Stony Brook researchers and doctors are “pushing the boundaries of what we know about how best to diagnose, treat and ultimately prevent the disease that is responsible for more than 8 million deaths a year worldwide.”

The gala will be held at 6:30 p.m. at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers. For information on purchasing tickets, contact Tamara Leuchtenburg at 212-245-6570.

Other politicians, scholars, celebrities and luminaries who have been honored at the gala over the years include actors Julie Andrews, Alan Alda and Ed Harris, and Chinese physicist Chen-Ning Franklin Yang, a winner of the Nobel Prize for physics.