Philanthropy

Althea Luehrsen, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) in the University at Buffalo School of Management since 2001, has been named assistant vice president of corporate and foundation relations at the university.

The University at Buffalo has established the Institute for Jewish Thought, Heritage and Culture, a multidisciplinary research and academic degree-granting center that will focus scholarship on the critical role that Judaism has played in the development and communication of Western thought.

Oliver P. "O.P." Jones, M.D., the widely beloved professor who inspired awe and sometimes trepidation in generations of anatomy students at the University at Buffalo, will be remembered in a lectureship created in his honor through the generosity of a former student and his spouse.

The Department of Family Medicine in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has received the largest gift in its 38-year history. The $500,000 gift from the Rev. and Mrs. Brendan Griswold will provide funding for UB faculty to conduct primary-care research in health disparities.

A $500,000 gift from Greatbatch, Inc. to the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will support scientific work through the Greatbatch Professorship in Power Sources Research in the departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Electrical Engineering.

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo has been awarded a $287,182 grant by the John R. Oishei Foundation to establish a program that will bring the performing arts and artists into health-care settings to enhance the healing environment for patients and caregivers in Western New York.

Inspired by the work of internationally known pioneering neurosurgeon L. Nelson "Nick" Hopkins III, M.D., the chairman emeritus of Merrill Lynch and Co. has made a gift of $1.5 million to the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to establish an endowed fund to name a neurosurgery chair in honor of the distinguished physician.

Orin Smith, retired CEO of Starbucks Corp., hadn't seen former University at Buffalo president and current law professor William R. Greiner in more than 30 years. Yet one day Smith picked up the phone and called the UB Law School development office, seeking a way to honor his former teacher. The conversation resulted in Smith making a tribute gift of $200,000 in honor of his mentor.

Emeritus Professor Robert F. Berner, who had a 36-year career at the University at Buffalo, will support the work of doctoral candidates in the UB School of Management through an endowed gift. He also is supporting the UB Graduate School of Education in honor of his late wife, Ruth L. Berner, who did graduate work there, and the Millard Fillmore College, where he served as dean for more than 20 years.

A $148,328 grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation will establish a multidisciplinary task force for ontology-based IT support for large-scale field studies in psychiatry at the University at Buffalo.