Research expenditures across the disciplines at the University at Buffalo increased by nearly 7.7 percent to a record $348.2 million in the 2008 fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, according to the National Science Foundation. Read more.
Matthew S. Dryer, a professor in the Department of Linguistics, College of Arts and Sciences, has received a prestigious award from Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which each year honors renowned scientists and scholars from abroad. The award will permit Dryer to continue his work with Martin Haspelmath and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig on a worldwide database of language structures. Read more.
Sixty New York State pharmacists will be eligible for certification to administer flu and pneumonia shots after completing a training session at the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Certification will allow pharmacists to start providing, for the first time, this valuable service later this flu season. Read more.
University at Buffalo researcher Gregory A. Fabiano has been chosen by the White House to receive a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the nation’s highest honor for professionals at the early stages of their independent scientific research careers.
Fabiano, a faculty member in UB’s Graduate School of Education and an investigator with UB’s Center for Children and Families, is among 67 scientists recognized as the most promising American researchers in their fields. He specializes in research with children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Learn more.
Thanks in part to a $3 million grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation, the University at Buffalo announced that it is establishing a Department of Biomedical Engineering, a joint venture of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences that will focus on developing groundbreaking medical devices and therapies. UB is in the process of seeking state Education Department approval to offer undergrad and graduate programs in biomedical engineering, a new area of research that applies engineering techniques to the medical field. Read more.
Two University at Buffalo professors were chosen to participate in a National Academy of Engineering symposium highlighting the next generation of innovators. Associate professor of industrial and systems engineering Ann Bisantz and professor of chemical and biological engineering Mark Swihart were invited to attend the 14th annual National Academy of Engineering’s “U.S. Frontiers of Engineering” symposium, with Bisantz additionally being chosen to address the symposium. Read more.
Esther S. Takeuchi, Greatbatch Professor in Power Sources Research at the University at Buffalo, has been selected as a 2008 recipient of an Astellas USA Foundation Award, administered by the American Chemical Society. The award carries a $30,000 prize and an invitation to deliver an address as part of a half-day symposium during the 236th ACS National Meeting to be held in Philadelphia in August. Read more.
Four University at Buffalo faculty members were honored for their research and scholarship at the SUNY Research Foundation’s annual awards dinner held recently in Albany. The UB honorees are Robert J. Genco, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the departments of Oral Biology, and Microbiology; Andre Filiatrault, professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, and director of the Structural Earthquake Engineering Simulation Laboratory; Gilberto Mosqueda, assistant professor, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering; and Doreen Wackeroth, associate professor in the Department of Physics.
Genco received a Lifetime Achievement Award, while Filiatrault received an Outstanding Researcher/Scholar Award. Mosqueda and Wackeroth received a Rising Star Award from the Research Foundation. Read more.
A UB undergraduate was awarded the Morris K. Udall Scholarship for their third consecutive year, highlighting a string of UB students selected to receive prestigious national competitive fellowship and scholarship awards in recent weeks.
Aaron Krolikowski, a junior double majoring in political science and social sciences interdisciplinary - environmental studies, was selected as a Udall Scholar based on his commitment to a career in the environment, his leadership potential, and academic achievement. Krolikowski was also a finalist for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, UB’s first since 1992.
Junior aerospace and mechanical engineering major Bradley Cheetham was named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship recipient, with junior chemistry major Sabrina Peczonczyk and junior chemical and biological engineering major Jacob Weiner earning honorable mention. The Goldwater scholarship is awarded to students who have outstanding potential and intend to pursue advanced degrees in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering.
Seniors Kelly Miller and Stacey Pustulka were named fellows in the 2008 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship competition. The awards support highly qualified students pursuing graduate study leading to research-based advanced degrees in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Miller, a 2007 Udall Scholar, is majoring in environmental engineering; Pustulka is majoring in chemical and biological engineering.
From designing safer intersections to helping accident victims overcome their fears, a new driving simulation laboratory is open for business in the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. The state-of-the-art facility will be available for use by students, faculty and industry to conduct research on automotive and flight vehicles, driver behavior, acclimation of accident victims suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and even supplemental training of young drivers. Funded by a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, the simulator also has made it possible for UB to offer for the first time a unique course on road-vehicle dynamics. The course has generated so much enthusiasm on campus that a second semester is being taught this spring and the course will be offered again next fall. Read on.
