Dr. Robert M. Hoyte is a Distinguished Teaching Professor of organic chemistry at SUNY College at Old Westbury. He received his bachelor's degree (with honors) from Long Island University, then master's and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers University. He began his teaching career in higher education at Medgar Evers College-CUNY (1971-72), moving to SUNY College at Old Westbury in 1972, his current affiliation. He has served three terms as a Department Chair during his academic career.
Dr. Hoyte has held several research positions including as Assistant Scientist, Brookhaven National Laboratory (1968-71); Research Collaborator, Departments of Biochemistry and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (1975-80); Visiting Fellow, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Yale University School of Medicine (9/80-8/81 and 9/90-8/91); Visiting Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Yale University School of Medicine (9/98 – 6/99); Research Affiliate, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Yale University School of Medicine (1/82-8/90, 9/91-8/98, 7/99-1/10).
His research activities have centered on nuclear medicine and related areas of steroid chemistry with the aim of developing sensitive imaging agents and probes of steroid hormone responsive organs and tissues. Involvement of undergraduate students in research has been an integral part of his career in which he secured over $12.9 million in grant funds to support research and training activities that encourage underrepresented minority students to pursue careers in the biomedical sciences. He has served in leadership positions on research and educationally focused committees of the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ford Foundation, and the American Chemical Society.
Dr. Robert M. Hoyte was born to working-class parents in New York City where he and an older brother were educated in public schools. He was the first in the family to complete a college education. In 1987 he married Cheryl P. Browne, Dr.P.H., and they have one daughter, who is currently a fourth-year medical student at the University of Tennessee. The Hoyte family resides in Dix Hills, NY.
