Natural Disasters

In the spring of 2006, a paper published in a scientific journal by researchers at the University at Buffalo and two scientific institutions in Italy reported that approximately 4,000 years ago during the Bronze Age, Vesuvius produced an eruption that devastated the area now occupied by metropolitan Naples.

Long lines of passengers have an effect on the speed with which airport security screeners do certain aspects of their jobs, according to a study by researchers in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Buffalo. The study's findings demonstrate empirically for the first time that security screeners do speed up when lines are long, but only when inspecting laptop computers.

In its initial public demonstration, the world's first seismic testing apparatus for nonstructural components performed exactly as designed last Friday at the University at Buffalo and MCEER, providing engineers with the first realistic, experimental method of simulating and evaluating how earthquakes damage building equipment, contents and components.

A new testing facility at the University at Buffalo and MCEER is the world's first test apparatus specifically designed to subject costly equipment and mechanical systems in hospitals and other important structures to the precise floor vibrations that they experience during the strongest earthquakes.

University at Buffalo researchers studying the response to the 2006 "October Surprise" storm have concluded that the effective coordination of emergency services played a critical role in decision making during the crisis.

Are you a terrorist? Airport screeners, customs agents, police officers and members of the military who silently pose that question to people every day, may soon have much more than intuition to depend on to determine the answer, thanks to computer and behavioral scientists at the University at Buffalo.

University at Buffalo faculty members will share their expertise on a variety of topics during the UBThisSummer Lecture Series, "The World in Which We Live: Multiple Disciplines, Multiple Perspectives," to be presented on Wednesday afternoons this summer on UB's North (Amherst) Campus.

A symposium on "Emerging Developments in Multi-Hazard Engineering" organized jointly by MCEER, headquartered at the University at Buffalo, and the Architectural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers(ASCE) will be held Sept. 18 at the McGraw-Hill Conference Center in New York City.

Bridges that "dance" during earthquakes could be the safest and least expensive to build, retrofit and repair, according to earthquake engineers at the University at Buffalo and MCEER.

The 14th American Society for Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators (ASMCUE) will be held in the University at Buffalo's Natural Sciences Complex on UB's North (Amherst) Campus on May 18-20.