Science and Technology

Twenty-first-century pharmaceutical breakthroughs require 21st-century drug discovery tools, such as computational or in silico molecular design and high-throughput screening of effective, new compounds. That's the theme of a University at Buffalo symposium to be held Sept. 11 on "Twenty-first Century Bioscience: In Silico Methods and High-Throughput Screening," which will feature a variety of cutting-edge advances in the field developed by researchers in Western New York and throughout the US.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, James N. Jensen, PhD, University at Buffalo professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering, says that probably the biggest lesson learned from that disaster was that municipalities and citizens now take orders to evacuate much more seriously. Jensen was one of six UB researchers that visited the Gulf Coast soon after Katrina hit, as part of a National Science Foundation-funded reconnaissance mission organized by UB's Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research.

A team of University at Buffalo students, all members of the UB student chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to spend a week in Houston in June at NASA's Johnson Space Center to test an experiment the students had designed in simulated weightlessness.

Workers will begin mowing, clearing and grading land adjacent to Flint Road on the University at Buffalo North Campus in September to make way for "The Solar Strand," a 1.1 megawatt solar-energy array designed by internationally renowned landscape architect Walter Hood and funded by a $7.5 million grant from the New York Power Authority.

With the Buffalo skyline as the backdrop, the roof of the Buffalo Museum of Science is the setting on Wednesday, August 18 for a free evening of talk about the universe, with thematically appropriate live music ("The Planets" by Holst) provided by the Long Winters String Quartet and public telescope viewing.

Each day, we exchange a mess of content through Facebook, Twitter, blogs, discussion boards and other online forums. What does this digital information reveal about our real selves, and how are companies and other organizations using our data? Rohini Srihari, who teaches classes on Web search and mining, understands the potential of data mining -- and the complicated concerns it raises.

Mike Lisieski, a University at Buffalo psychology major, plans to earn an MD/PhD in neuroscience but for now he appears to be the web's chief "cephalover," using his blog cephalove to carefully analyze research about octopuses and related animals and post stunning photographs of them.

The restoration of a central, 2.3-acre quadrangle at the University at Buffalo by a renowned landscape architecture firm showcases the kind of sustainable landscaping that will define campus grounds as UB implements its long-range plan.

Lawrence Wrabetz, MD, head of the myelin biology unit at San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, has been appointed director of the Hunter James Kelly Research Institute (HJKRI) at the University at Buffalo. Laura Feltri, MD, who heads the neuroglia unit at the Italian institute and is Wrabetz's spouse, also has been recruited to the HJKRI, which was established in 2004 by UB and the Hunter's Hope Foundation.

The University at Buffalo has announced a restoration and renewal project for the School of Architecture and Planning on the university's South Campus.