Impact Through Excellence

The University at Buffalo is ranked among the leading public universities in the nation. Moreover, it boasts numerous Top 25 national rankings among its individual schools and academic programs.

Annual sponsored research expenditures are at an all-time high. Recognitions for scholarship, research, creative projects and clinical care are growing steadily.

But even more important than these quantitative measures, says UB President Satish K. Tripathi, is what happens with the knowledge generated.

“While we recognize excellence, in itself, as a worthy goal, we also recognize that we can claim only a partial victory if we achieve excellence without action.”

UB works to apply its standard of excellence to the defining problems of the day, and then puts into practice its collective knowledge and discoveries, Tripathi says.

Examples come from a wide range of groundbreaking research that is forging the next frontier in fighting antimicrobial resistance; advancing an immunotherapy approach to treating Alzheimer’s; leveraging AI to transform periodontal care; steering the remediation of toxic forever chemicals in the environment; paving the way to energy-efficient nanoelectronics; and taking on many other pressing issues.

It's endeavors like these that position UB among the best universities in the nation in the Times Higher Education’s 2024 Impact Rankings: UB placed No. 1 for Good Health and Well-Being and among the Top 5 for Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

Decades before smart devices were commonplace, UB was the site of pioneering AI research. Today, UB is known as a national and international powerhouse in the field. More than 200 faculty members are actively growing the capabilities and applications of AI for good, harnessing the technology to make medical procedures faster and more precise, ensure the integrity of information, and support resilient food systems, among numerous other endeavors.

In recognition of UB’s expertise, the Department of Education recently awarded UB $10 million in 2024 to establish the Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI and develop AI tools that will improve the reading skills of children. The previous year, the National Science Foundation awarded UB $20 million to establish and lead the National AI Institute for Exceptional Education, which aims to close the gap for children with speech and language processing challenges.

But it’s not only the nation’s most competitive funding agencies recognizing UB’s preeminence in AI research for social good. In 2024, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul designated UB the home of the statewide $400 million, public-private consortium Empire AI, placing the university and New York State at the epicenter of this critical technology for years to come.

Over the next 10 years, UB will see one of the most significant periods of growth and modernization in its history. Projects planned or underway amount to a $1.64 billion investment in the living-learning environment.

This historic building boom comes on the heels of the university’s successful Boldly Buffalo fundraising campaign, which closed with a record $1.1 billion in donor support. The effort allowed significant investments in faculty—with 46 newly endowed faculty positions—and enabled the creation of 336 new scholarships and fellowships, with a focus on attracting high-achieving students from all backgrounds.

Last fall, UB welcomed what is believed to be the largest cohort of new full-time faculty in its history as a state institution. The initiative, known as Advancing Top 25: Faculty Hiring, has attracted upwards of 200 promising and established researchers and scholars from across the country.

The growing faculty serves a robust student body. In fall 2024, UB surpassed for the sixth consecutive year its goal of enrolling more than 30,000 students, of which over 9,300 are graduate or professional students.

UB remains a top destination for talented students from throughout New York State and across the United States and the world. UB welcomed students from 109 countries to campus this year, and for the 22nd straight year has been listed among the top 30 institutions in the Open Doors Report on International Exchange.

UB attracts the very best students nationwide and worldwide because of the university’s commitment to academic excellence and its efforts to create a welcoming campus environment, say its leaders. UB students successfully compete for academia’s most prestigious distinctions, with an ever-increasing number of students receiving NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, NIH Awards, Goldwater Scholarships and Fulbright Awards.

University success drives economic success, and UB is proud of the meaningful ways it contributes to the ongoing resurgence of the Western New York region. Those ways include spurring scientific discovery and technological innovation, strengthening specialized workforces, and supporting entrepreneurial growth.

In the last three years alone, UB supported more than 1,400 industry partnerships and helped create 1,700 jobs. Looking forward, with its leadership role in a federally designated tech hub that has been awarded $40 million through the CHIPS & Science Act, UB is preparing to help transform the region into a nexus of semiconductor manufacturing, research and education.

Fueled by a passion to make a difference, the University at Buffalo is continually expanding its scholarly productivity and research portfolio, and as a result is a recognized model of educational excellence and innovation.

“As a public research university, we do all these things not for the purpose of rising in the rankings. These mission-driven priorities are all intended to achieve greater societal impact,” says Tripathi. “We want to make certain that our graduates are prepared to live and lead—to truly make a difference in our world.”