Education

Aug. 29., the day that Hurricane Katrina barreled ashore on the Gulf Coast, also was the first day of class for Geology 428/528, "Preventing Geologic Disasters," at the University at Buffalo. Even though he had already prepared a semester's worth of historical examples, Michael F. Sheridan, Ph.D., UB professor of geology, decided that day to ditch much of it and to focus, instead, on Katrina as the harshest of case studies.

Along with laptops and cell phones, more than 4,000 University at Buffalo students this fall will be packing a piece of gear into their backpacks that may make them feel like they're on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

Ten days after 9/11, University at Buffalo structural engineers were at Ground Zero investigating the collapse of the World Trade Center and surrounding buildings. Thus began a new era in anti-terrorism research at UB, whichi now has more than $21 million in active federal and state grants to develop and investigate new methods for combating terrorist threats and attacks

While the victims of Hurricane Katrina have begun to grieve by expressing their anger at the shortcomings of relief efforts intended to help them, they can not yet mourn the losses they have incurred because they themselves are still struggling to survive, says Thomas T. Frantz, a University at Buffalo professor who is an expert on bereavement counseling and grief education.

While Louisiana and Mississippi residents struggle to evacuate, to relocate and -- above all else, to survive -- many of the youngest among them face years of recovery from a variety of traumas Hurricane Katrina has dispersed upon them.

The University at Buffalo will host the 2005-06 Western New York Science and Technology Forum, a weekly lecture series for local science teachers.

Although scientists say there is no proven way to stop peer aggression and bullying behavior in young children, a psychologist at the University at Buffalo says that the consequences of the behavior are so serious for all parties involved that it should be stopped in its tracks by anyone who observes it.

Scientists from Europe, Asia and the U.S. will gather in Buffalo Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 for a symposium honoring the late Leon Farhi, M.D., a pioneer in the field of pulmonary medicine, environmental physiology and bioengineering. Farhi was a SUNY Distinguished Professor and chaired the Department of Physiology in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biological Sciences for many years.

It's only fitting that the world's greatest rock 'n' roll group has a supercomputer named after it. "U2" has been selected by the University at Buffalo's Center for Computational Research (CCR) as the name of its newest and most powerful supercomputer, a 1,668-processor Dell high-performance cluster that will be used to support university research ranging from genomics, to groundwater modeling to the monitoring of human-rights abuses.

Mark Ashwill, Ph.D., director of the World Languages Program at the University at Buffalo, has had a long love affair with Vietnam, a country that he says is "pulsating with energy and steeped in dreams." He has written a detailed and very well-received book about his "second country" that the American Library Association rates as "highly recommended."