$2 Million Fund Established by Former Calspan Engineer Will Support UB Aeronautical and Biomedical Research

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A fund of nearly $2 million established as the result of a bequest by a former research engineer at Calspan-General Dynamics Corp. will support research at the University at Buffalo under a new Innovative Research on Sensors, Instrumentation and Devices Program.

Gerald A. Sterbutzel, who died in 1998, began his career in aeronautical research with Curtiss-Wright Corp. in 1945. He joined the then Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in 1946, becoming branch head of Calspan's thermal research in 1970. In 1983, he left Calspan to help found Veritay Corp., a research firm in Amherst, N.Y.

In his will, Sterbutzel, who lived in Bowmansville, specified that the funds be allocated to support research relevant to aeronautical and biomedical applications.

While faculty from any academic unit at UB may submit proposals for funding, UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will administer the bequest.

Projects will be funded for $40,000 per year for one or two years. A total of eight projects will be funded in any given year.

Andres Soom, Ph.D., associate dean for research in SEAS, heads the oversight committee for the Sterbutzel Research Fund. Also serving on the oversight committee are Sriram Neelamegham, Ph.D., associate professor of chemical and biological engineering; Stephen Rudin, Ph.D., professor of radiology in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences; James Felske, Ph.D., professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and Kenneth Tramposch, Ph.D., UB associate vice president for research and associate professor of pharmaceutics and toxicology.