Long-distance running has always captivated the imagination -- just visit a few running sites on the Web and note how often the word "mythic" is used to describe either a particular marathon or runner. The University at Buffalo has its own mythic messengers -- "Two Daves and Two Joes" -- four State University of New York Chancellor's Award winners who are long-distance runners.

The University at Buffalo's commitment to sustainable energy use and "green" building principles was underscored today as members of the university community gathered at the Creekside Village apartments to unveil a plaque citing the certification of the complex's community center as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building.

Students in an upper-level computer software engineering class at the University at Buffalo are helping to solve a real-world problem -- and restore a sense of independence to persons with speech and motor disabilities -- by designing augmentation communication devices.

The first demonstration of reduction-oxidation, or redox, chemistry in RNA -- a critical missing link in the experimental evidence for an ancient RNA world -- was reported Sunday by University at Buffalo chemists in Nature Structural Biology online.

The world can expect more SARS-like outbreaks in the near future due to evolving cultural, environmental and economic conditions that provide viruses with new opportunities to infect humans, according to an expert on infectious disease and geographic medicine at the University at Buffalo.

When officials communicate the dangers of volcanic hazards to local populations, one picture may be worth a thousand words. Keeping that sentiment in mind, scientists at the University at Buffalo working on volcanic hazard mitigation have left no technology untapped as they create images of past volcanic flows in order to better predict future ones.

The University at Buffalo has received a grant of $1,999,200 from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation of Las Vegas to establish a Geriatric Center of Excellence in its School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Non-essential employees at the University at Buffalo were sent home at 1 p.m. Friday and university offices closed for the remainder of the day, after New York State Governor George E. Pataki closed state offices across New York State in an effort to help reduce the demand for power on the electrical system in the wake of Thursday's power outages.

W.W. "Woody" Maggard, president of Reichenbach Technologies, has been appointed associate director for the University at Buffalo Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach.

Victor Paquet watches workers work -- over and over again. An expert on ergonomic job analysis and workplace injury prevention, the University at Buffalo assistant professor of industrial engineering is looking for patterns of repetitive movement that may cause injury to workers on the job.

When Jim D. Atwood became the chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University at Buffalo in 1998, he said he wanted to make freshman chemistry "a little less hated." And with about 30 percent of freshmen flunking out of General Chemistry 101, he had a tough job ahead of him. Now, five years later, having instituted major changes in the freshman chemistry courses, Atwood and his faculty have succeeded beyond their most ambitious dreams.

Amid the human catastrophe that is AIDS in Africa, the absence of health-care systems and practices that are taken for granted in other parts of the world routinely hampers efforts to care for patients even when assistance is being provided by international organizations and charities. But in Zimbabwe, a native son who is the nation's first pharmacologist is helping to remove these obstacles and provide meaningful care to HIV/AIDS patients as the result of a joint program between the University at Buffalo and the University of Zimbabwe.

Squeezing the toothpaste from the wrong end, sneering at her cat or putting the toilet paper roll on backwards can irk your partner no end, even after decades together. But new or old relationships, says a prominent social psychologist from the University at Buffalo, are far more likely to be ruined by one partner's low self-esteem.

In an innovative approach to easing the chronic nursing shortage, the School of Nursing at the University of Buffalo, in partnership with the Catholic Health System and the Kaleida Health System, is launching a fast-track degree program that allows persons who hold a bachelor's degree in another field to receive a bachelor's of science in nursing in 12 months.

Internationally distinguished ontologist Barry Smith, Julian Park Professor of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo, has received a $535,000 grant from the European Union's 6th Framework Programme on Research and Technological Development (FP6) to support his work in the field of medical informatics.

A 47-week international tour of the Tony Award-winning musical "Fosse" will begin at the Center for the Arts with a two-week residency leading up to public performances at 8 p.m. Sept. 18 and 8:30 p.m. Sept. 19 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus.

Barbara Bono, associate professor in the Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been appointed director of UB's Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender for 2003-05.

Issues of importance to women, including research, education, health and legal issues, will be in the forefront Sept. 22-26 as UB celebrates its second annual Gender Week. Sponsored by the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender (IREWG), informally known as the Gender Institute, the theme of the week will be "Gender Matters." All events will be free and open to the public.

A pioneer in cancer prevention who appreciated his "quality education," Ralph T. Behling, M.D. '43, has pledged $1.5 million to the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to establish a chair in dermatology.