Chemist Named Associate Director of Center For Computational Research

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Thomas Furlani has been appointed associate director of the Center for Computational Research, where he will oversee daily operations of the center, as well as develop opportunities for partnerships and collaborations in Western New York.

Furlani has been a research associate professor of chemistry at UB since 1994. He has served as principal investigator on grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health.

Furlani is working with other UB researchers on an NSF grant on "Structural Studies and Methodologies in Chemistry and Molecular Biology." This grant, along with matching funds from UB, provided the resources necessary to purchase the Center for Computational Research's new Silicon Graphics, Inc. Origin 2000 supercomputer.

Furlani also is a consultant to Q-Chem, Inc. of Pittsburgh, which specializes in the development of software for chemical applications.

Prior to joining the UB faculty, he was a principal chemist at Calspan, where he worked on a wide range of problems, including the application of high-performance computing to problems in computational fluid dynamics and computational chemistry.

Furlani earned a doctorate in chemistry from UB, which he attended on an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship. He earned his bachelor's degree from Buffalo State College.

Furlani is a resident of Orchard Park.