Our Faculty

Background

A. Serdar Atav is a Bartle Professor in the Division of Nursing at Binghamton University's Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences. He retired from regular faculty service in 2024, at the rank of professor, after 37 years with the University. 

Atav completed his master’s and doctoral degrees in political science and government from Binghamton’s Harpur College of Arts and Sciences in 1985 and 1990, respectively. Before that, he obtained bachelor’s degrees in political science and business administration from Bogaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Atav joined Binghamton in 1982 as a teaching and research assistant in Harpur’s Political Science Department. He became an instructor in 1985 and a lecturer for the School of Nursing a year later. (The School of Nursing would become the Decker School of Nursing in 1989 and then Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences in 2019.) He was promoted to assistant professor in 1994, associate professor in 2001 and professor in 2015. He also held administrative and leadership roles in the Robert L. Kresge Center for Nursing Research for several years.

Atav has focused his research on health promotion and disease prevention, particularly concerning vulnerable populations and public health policy. He has led or participated in research throughout his career, garnering over $7.7 million in funding. He has also published numerous publications, given presentations, worked on grants and consulted on projects that reflect his focus on vulnerable populations and his expertise in policy, quantitative methods, evaluation and data analysis.

In 2002, Atav was awarded the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Most recently, he has taught in the graduate programs for Decker’s nursing and public health divisions.

Education

• PhD, political science, Binghamton University
• MA, political science, Binghamton University
• BA, political science and business administration, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey

Research Interests

• Vulnerable populations
• Opioid use and misuse
• Medicaid
• Affordable Care Act
• Health applications of system dynamics modeling

Teaching Interests

• Health policy
• Global health
• Research methods
• Applied statistics

Awards

• Best of Blue: CAAPI (Collaborative Appropriate Antibiotic Prescribing Initiative). Best Practices in Quality Improvement Partnerships. Awarded by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (National)
• Best of Blue: CAAPI (Collaborative Appropriate Antibiotic Prescribing Initiative) Special Jurors’ Award: Methodological Design. Awarded by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (National)
• Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2002-2003