UB Faculty, Staff, Librarians Receive Chancellor's Awards

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Three University at Buffalo faculty members, three librarians and four professional staff members have received the 1997 SUNY Chancellor's Awards for Excellence.

The Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching honors "superb" teaching at the undergraduate, graduate or professional level.

Recipients are Shahid Ahmad, Ph.D., associate professor of civil engineering; Michael P. Long, Ph.D., associate professor of music, and T.J. Mountziaris, Ph.D., associate professor of chemical engineering.

They were cited for "mastery of teaching, dedication to students, adherence to the highest academic standards and continued professional growth and scholarship."

The Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship recognizes "skill in librarianship, service to the campus, the university and to the field; scholarship and professional growth, and major professional achievements."

Recipients are Glendora Johnson-Cooper, associate librarian and collection development coordinator of the Oscar A. Silverman Undergraduate Library; Edward Herman, associate librarian in the business/government documents center, and Nancy A. Schiller, engineering librarian in the Science and Engineering Library.

The Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service honors accomplishments and sustained performance excellence "both within and beyond the position."

Recipients are Martha Barton, associate dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics; Sandra Fazekas, associate director of the Center for the Arts; Maryanne L. Mather, clinical research coordinator in UB's Center for Dental Studies in the Department of Periodontics, and Leonard F. Snyder, associate vice president and controller.

Shahid Ahmad, who also serves as associate chair and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Civil Engineering, specializes in geotechnical and earthquake engineering. A UB faculty member since 1982, he last year was named by students as the most favorite engineering professor. An honorary member of the Golden Key National Honor Society, he received the new faculty development award in 1987.

Ahmad holds doctoral and master's degrees from UB and a bachelor's from N.E.D. University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan. He lives in Williamsville.

Michael Long also is music-history coordinator for the Department of Music, where he has been a faculty member since 1990. He developed the department's World Wide Web site and collaborated on development of the local area network for provision of digitized multimedia reserve materials for on-site and distance learning. A resident of Amherst, Long teaches undergraduate and graduate-level music courses to music majors and non-majors.

He earned a doctorate and a master of fine arts degree from Princeton University, and a bachelor's degree, summa cum laude, from Amherst College.

T.J. Mountziaris came to UB in 1989 from the University of Minnesota. A past president of the electronic and photonic materials division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering, his research interests include thin film technology focusing on electronic, photonic and magneto-optical materials.

He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses and taught the first televised course from UB in the EngiNet series for Distance Learning with remote sites at Binghamton University and SUNY Stony Brook. A resident of Williamsville, he holds a degree in chemical engineering from the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki in Greece and master's and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering fom Princeton Univesity.

Glendora Johnson-Cooper, a resident of Buffalo, also is project manager for the University Libraries library residency program. She has encouraged more than 100 minorities to consider academic librarianship as a career in a field in which fewer than 5 percent are Native-American, Hispanic-American and African-American. Johnson-Cooper earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and a master's degree in library science, both from UB.

Edward Herman is the University Libraries contact person for the New York State Data Center. He trains staff to use government publications and provides government documents, business and microforms reference services to students, faculty members and individuals in the community. Before joining UB in 1977, Herman was with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He is associate editor of LIBRES, an electronic journal, and has authored chapters and library texts.

A resident of Snyder, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Hunter College and a master's degree in library science from Queens College.

Nancy Schiller, who lives in the Parkside neighborhood of Buffalo, joined UB in 1989 as engineering librarian in UB's Science and Engineering Library. She provides reference assistance in engineering and applied science, natural sciences, mathematics and computer science, and is liaison between the library and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Schiller earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master's degree with honors from the Columbia University School of Library Science. She formerly was senior technical writer and assistant publications director with Ecology & Environment Inc. and a free-lance copy editor with Buffalo-based Prometheus Books.

Martha Barton came to UB in 1986 as assistant for budget and personnel in the Office of the Provost. She was named assistant to the provost in 1988 and associate dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in 1995. Barton serves on the faculty's executive committee, is a presidential appointee to UB's Committee on Professional Evaluation and is a member of the Facilities Advisory Committee. Prior to coming to UB, she was executive director for Erie Community College/South Faculty Student Association.

A fitness instructor with Dance Spectrum in Lancaster, she has taught fitness and dance in several community education programs. Barton earned bachelor's and MBA degrees from Canisius College. She lives in West Seneca.

Sandra Fazekas plans and implements budget, supervises staff and volunteers, and solicits local, national and international user groups for the Center for the Arts. She came to UB in 1972 as a staff member in the School of Law and subsequently has served in various capacities in the Office of the Provost, the Faculty of Arts and Letters, School of Architecture and Environmental Design and the office of the senior vice president. In 1992, she became staff associate and events coordinator at the Center for the Arts and was named associate director this year.

Fazekas graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree from the UB School of Architecture and Planning. She lives in Tonawanda.

Maryanne Mather supervises clinical projects and teaches laboratory techniques to students and visiting professors in the Department of Periodontics. She has participated in and co-authored numerous scientific papers on research conducted in the department

Mather earned a bachelor's degree in medical technology from UB and joined the Department of Periodontics in 1967. A past president and a former board member of the Niagara Frontier Society of Medical Technology, she is a Tonawanda resident.

Leonard Snyder has been associate vice president and controller of UB since 1987, providing leadership and direction for administrative, general institutional and student-service operations. He joined UB in 1965 as an assistant accountant and became chief accountant in 1968. For nearly a decade, he was assistant vice president for housing and auxiliary enterprises, and was named assistant vice president and controller in 1986. Snyder has served as a member or chair of numerous university committees.

He served in the U.S. Army and received a bachelor's degree from Canisius College and an MBA from UB. He lives in Elma, where he has been involved in community activities.