Nearly 50 Events to be Held in October in Conjunction with Investiture of UB's 14th President

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The richness and breadth of academics at UB will be showcased during the month of October, with nearly 50 lectures, symposia, workshops and conferences designated as part of the Inaugural Academic Program being held on campus in conjunction with the Oct. 15 investiture of John B. Simpson as UB's 14th president.

The events run the gamut, from the Rustgi Lecture in Physics and the fourth annual Buffalo Conference on Immunology to the George F. Hourani Lectures in Philosophy and the Reynold Scott and Sun Ra Arkestra Videoconference with the Zurich Jazz Institute of Switzerland.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee decided to include an "academic component" to the inaugural celebration to showcase the variety of important activities going on at the university, said Stephen C. Dunnett, vice provost for international education and co-chair of the committee along with Carole Smith Petro, associate vice president and general manager of WBFO 88.7 FM, and James A. (Beau) Willis, chief of staff in the Office of the President and special assistant to Simpson.

"We invited the university community to tell us what events should be part of the inaugural celebration and we were overwhelmed by the response," said Dunnett, who serves as chair of the subcommittee that put together the academic program. "We received a large number of proposals of events of great merit and appeal. What is extraordinary is that so many of these events were not organized specifically for the inauguration, but are part of an 'ordinary' semester," he said.

"The inauguration gives us a chance to celebrate all the great things that are happening at UB."

Dunnett stressed that the committee was impressed by both the quality and the quantity of academic events that were proposed for inclusion in the inaugural calendar.

"We consider these events to be the high points of the celebration, since they exemplify what a great research university is all about—the creation and diffusion of knowledge," he noted. "Many of the academic events, which span the entire university, are endowed or distinguished lectureships featuring world-class speakers at the leading edge of their disciplines. We also have a variety of symposia, conferences and workshops.

"UB's own extraordinary achievements in the areas of research, teaching and scholarship will be on display for both the university and the larger community to recognize and appreciate," he said.

Events sponsored by almost every school at the university, as well as other units on campus and affiliated with the university, such as the University Libraries, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR) and the Center for Teaching and Learning Resources, are included in the month-long academic program.

Among the lectures are the eighth annual Bonnie Bullough Lecture presented by the School of Nursing; "To Your Dental Health," a lecture by Sebastian G. Ciancio, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Department of Periodontics and Endodontics in the School of Dental Medicine; a speech by Greg D'Alba, chief operations officer for CNN, sponsored by the School of Informatics, and the Charlotte C. Acer Lecture presented by the Graduate School of Education.

Conferences, workshops and symposia include "Assessment for Academic Excellence" presented by the Center for Teaching and Learning Resources; Pharmacy Oncology Symposium 2004 sponsored by Roswell Park, and the Department of History symposium "Beyond the Line: North and South Atlantics and Global History, 1500-2000."

Exhibitions include "The Inauguration of the 14th President," an archival display honoring the 14 men who have served as chancellor or president of UB; "Harvey Breverman: Humanist Impulses, Selected Paintings, Drawings, Prints," featuring more than 200 works by the distinguished UB faculty member, and "Digital Futures," which includes faculty and student designs of learning environments, multimedia performance spaces and digital/analog construction presented by the School of Architecture and Planning and the Department of Media Study.

For the full schedule of academic events, visit the calendar of inaugural events at http://www.buffalo.edu/inauguration/event_list.html.