Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Ann Bisantz, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and dean of undergraduate education. A fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), she is a pioneer in the fields of human factors engineering and cognitive engineering, which uses cognitive psychology and systems engineering methods to support or improve user cognitive processes and system safety. She has applied her expertise to solving grand challenges in domains such as healthcare, military systems, transportation and emergency management. She has received numerous awards and honors recognizing her exceptional contributions, including a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award, as well as the Paul M. Fitts Education Award and Mentor of the Year recognition from the HFES.

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Deborah Duen Ling Chung, PhD, is internationally renowned for her groundbreaking research in materials science and engineering, particularly multifunctional structural materials, thermal interface materials, electromagnetic interference shielding materials, and vibration damping materials. Her research led to the invention of smart concrete and structural capacitors, and propelled the field of smart materials and structures. She changed thermal interface materials design from thermal-conductivity-based to conformability-based design.  She also changed the paradigm of electromagnetic interference shielding materials design from electrical-conductivity-based to area-based design. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and fellow of ASM International and the American Carbon Society (ACS), Chung has published over 600 peer-reviewed articles (with over 47,000 citations), 10 books and 23 US patents. Chung received the UB President’s Medal, SUNY Chancellor’s Award, ACS Pettinos Award and an honorary doctorate from the University of Alicante, Spain. 

Department of Psychology

Craig Colder, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Psychology and an associate research scientist at UB’s Clinical and Research Institute on Addictions. A fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and an international authority on the development of adolescent substance use, he has conducted groundbreaking longitudinal studies that have established a foundational understanding of risk and protective pathways to substance abuse. He developed and validated tools for assessing the consequences of alcohol use in young adulthood and childhood temperament that have been translated into six languages. His recent work extends into related topics, including cigarette smoking and cessation, vaping and parenting approaches that can help reduce the harms of adolescent drinking.

Department of Medicine

Professor of Medicine, Jeffrey Lackner, PsyD, is an international authority in developing, testing, and disseminating low-intensity behavioral treatments for chronic pain disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The efficacy profile of the behavioral protocol he developed has made it the gold standard in his field. His team pioneered the use of neuroimaging to characterize neural biomarkers of symptom improvements in behaviorally treated patients. With National Institutes of Health support beginning in 1999, his research has helped revolutionize the way IBS is understood and treated and contributed to changes in clinical practice guidelines internationally. He is a fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association, Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, Association for Psychological Science, American Psychological Association, and Society of Behavioral Medicine.

Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology

Amanda Nickerson, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology and director of UB’s Alberti Center for Bullying and Abuse Prevention. A scholar, educator and leader, she is internationally renowned for her work to understand and prevent school crises. Her scholarship addresses interpersonal violence—such as aggression, bullying and abuse—and promotes safety and mental health in schools. Her rigorous methodological approaches, which incorporate racially, economically and geographically diverse samples, have resulted in over $8 million in external funding from federal, state and foundation sources. A fellow of the American Psychological Association, she is a frequently requested speaker and media expert on issues of school violence and bullying.

Department of Medicine

Sanjay Sethi, MD, is a professor in the Department of Medicine and the assistant vice president for health sciences in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He is an internationally regarded pulmonologist with a primary research interest in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). His seminal work at UB has furthered our understanding of how bacteria cause COPD exacerbations and contribute to chronic airway inflammation and the underlying mechanisms of impaired host innate immunity and bacterial strain variation. His contributions have fundamentally altered our understanding of the microbiome’s role in COPD and have had a profound impact on the treatment of COPD and respiratory infections.

Department of Chemistry

Eva Zurek, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Chemistry. A fellow of the American Physical Society, she is regarded worldwide for her research in computational condensed-matter physics and the chemistry of materials, and she is one of the field’s pioneers in studying materials in exotic environments. She designed and developed an open-source evolutionary algorithm for crystal structure prediction, which is widely used to predict new materials for use in novel technologies, including superconductors, super-hard materials and classes of nanomaterials. Her research also holds paradigm-shifting implications for understanding extreme environments in nature—from the depths of planets in the solar system to the vast number of new planets being discovered with potentially different compositions and chemistry.