A researcher at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions has found a change in the brain that occurs after drug use and that may contribute to drug addiction.

This semester, the University at Buffalo will celebrate its decades-long commitment to environmental conservation while exploring the climate change crisis and other critical environmental issues through a series of speakers and activities under the theme "A Greener Shade of Blue."

The University at Buffalo School of Management's Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) will hold informal open houses for individuals interested in the CEL Core program from 5-7 p.m. on Feb. 12 and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 20 in the Jacobs Executive Development Center, 672 Delaware Ave.

Sujata Yalamanchili of Williamsville has been elected to serve a two-year term as president of the alumni association of the University at Buffalo School of Management.

"The significance of the Department of Media Study at Buffalo for the media age is comparable to the influence of other historical institutions of art history such as Black Mountain College in North Carolina or the Bauhaus." Those words introduce a major exhibition at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany, which has a worldwide reputation as a cultural institution.

"Southpoint: from Ruin to Rejuvenation," is a traveling exhibition of jury-selected entries in a 2006 competition for proposals for a Universal Arts Center on the site of the Renwick Smallpox Hospital ruin in Southpoint Park on New York City's Roosevelt Island. The exhibition, which opened the Spring 2007 Exhibition Series sponsored by the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, will run through Feb. 16 in the school's James Dyett Gallery.

The School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo, which annually brings more than 20 major national and international architects and regional and urban planners to Buffalo as speakers, has announced its 2007 Spring Lecture Series. They include stars in the architectural firmament from the U.S., Spain and Britain.

Top University at Buffalo professors will make presentations aimed at increasing public awareness of rapidly advancing fields in the 2007 Cutting Edge Lecture Series, five Saturday-morning seminars sponsored by UB's College of Arts and Sciences.

Thomas J. Linsmeier, a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), will speak on "Financial Reporting Issues Facing the FASB" at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 22 in the Center for Tomorrow on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus.

Robert Shibley, professor of architecture and planning, as well as director of The Urban Design Project in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, has been appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne to serve a three-year term on the Federal Commission on the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor.

Award-winning filmmaker Elliot B. Caplan will open the Spring 2007 Humanities Institute Lecture Series at the University at Buffalo with his new feature-length documentary film, "Hidden Things: A Children's Story."

Author Marc Gunther will speak on "Compassionate Capitalism: How Corporate America is Changing for the Better" at 7:30 p.m. March 27 in the Screening Room in the Center for the Arts on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus.

A committee studying the future of the University at Buffalo's intercollegiate athletics programs has scheduled two meetings -- on Feb. 22 and Feb. 27 -- to obtain input from the community.

A University at Buffalo psychologist says it's a series of neurochemical processes and external stimuli that that have to come together in a precise way -- not aphrodisiacs and other elements --that explain the beginning of a romantic relationship.

Barbara Nevergold, Ph.D., is one of five individuals to be honored this year by the State of New York with a 2007 Dr. Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award. The award is one of the state's highest honors for humanitarian service and pays tribute to New Yorkers who have made major contributions to human and civil rights.

Daniel Hess, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, has won the 2006 Best Paper Competition sponsored by the University Transportation Research Center (UTRC) at City University of New York.

Future students who are seeking a degree from the University at Buffalo School of Social Work will have access to more scholarship assistance, thanks to a bequest gift for $423,701 from alumna Jean Schumacher Cook.

The Buffalo Public Interest Law Program (BPILP) will host its 12th annual auction at 6 p.m. Feb. 23 in the Lafayette Tap Room, 391 Washington St. Organized by University at Buffalo Law School students, the event is the primary fundraiser for fellowships allowing UB law students to accept unpaid public interest summer positions. BPILP provided 16 summer

The University at Buffalo will celebrate its 17th annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD) before the UB women's basketball game versus Ohio on Feb. 21.

Jean-Michel Cousteau, ocean explorer and environmentalist, will speak at the University at Buffalo at 8 p.m. March 1 in the Mainstage theater in the Center of the Arts on the North (Amherst) Campus, as part of the university's Distinguished Speakers Series.

A University at Buffalo program that exemplifies the university's commitment to creating a pipeline to public higher education for kindergarten through high school students has expanded from one to two Buffalo schools, thanks to a $485,000 grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation.

A just-published collection of essays, "Progressive Black Masculinities," edited by Athena D. Mutua, associate professor in the University at Buffalo Law School, focuses on reinventing the ideal of the black man, suggesting new models that transcend the cultural racism and violence of the old ideal.

The School of Social Work at the University at Buffalo has entered into an agreement with the Buffalo Public Schools to provide specialized group treatment and violence-prevention programs to help students who have been suspended return to their regular classrooms.

Kari Winter, associate professor in the Department of American Studies, will discuss "From Vermont Abolitionist to Virginia Slaveholder: Benjamin Franklin Prentiss and the Familial Politics of Antebellum America" on Feb. 28 in the inaugural Critical Studies Seminar presented by the University at Buffalo Humanities Institute.

UB Jobs, the new Web-based position-description and employment-application system for faculty, staff and administrative positions funded through the state, Research Foundation and UB Foundation, is up and running, and should improve greatly the experience for those hiring employees, as well as those looking for jobs.

"Poetics Plus," the poetry series presented by the Poetics Program in the Department of English in the University at Buffalo's College of Arts and Sciences, is back this semester with another lineup of notable poets.

Jonathan A. Dandes and Gerald S. Lippes have been reappointed to the 10-member University at Buffalo Council, the university's local governing council.

The "diabetes clock" may start ticking in women years in advance of a medical diagnosis of the disease, new research has shown.

The University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions is presenting a spring seminar series on addictions-related topics featuring national experts beginning on March 9.

A University at Buffalo medicinal chemist has identified compounds to target a ribonucleic acid (RNA) that causes a form of muscular dystrophy called myotonic dystrophy, or DM.

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present Evidence, A Dance Company at 8 p.m. on March 23 in the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. The company will also be in residence March 5-23.

"OCTET," an exhibition of artwork by first-year MFA students from the Department of Visual Studies at the University at Buffalo, will open on March 1 with a reception from 5-7 p.m. in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Over the past year, the University at Buffalo's Center for Computational Research has quadrupled computing power, upgraded its high-performance storage system and installed a new state-of-the-art visualization room. If that wasn't enough, it also moved its entire infrastructure, including a 2,000-processor supercomputer, from the university's North Campus into UB's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in downtown Buffalo.

More than a decade ago, the University at Buffalo made a major investment in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through a $17 million comprehensive energy-conservation project. With the final payment made on the loan that partially funded the project, UB now will realize $4 million in annual energy-cost savings as a result of the work that was done.

Long-held assumptions about sexual identity and gendered behavior have been turned upside down by a groundbreaking new study of the lives, roles and spiritual practices of the Mapuche shamans of southern Chile.

March concerts planned by the Department of Music will include "Piano Music and Comedy," in which Magnus Martensson, visiting assistant professor of music and music director of the UB Symphony Orchestra and the Slee Sinfonietta, will present another side of his musical talent.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Utah are beginning a clinical trial to test whether aspirin can improve a woman's chances of becoming pregnant and of maintaining a pregnancy to term.

The University at Buffalo and Jamestown Community College have signed a new dual admission program agreement designed to assist the transfer experience and increase the number of students transferring to UB with completed JCC associate degrees that include prerequisites for parallel degree programs at UB.

New digital technologies and broadband Internet access have increased digital piracy of music, movies and other creative products. But the threat of widespread digital piracy also has produced "copyright panic," spawning an illogical expansion of copyright protections in recent years, contends an intellectual property expert at the University at Buffalo Law School.

Wayne K. Anderson, dean of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, has announced he is stepping down as dean after nearly 10 years in the position and returning to the faculty as a researcher and educator.

The Honorable James Robertson, United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, will deliver the University at Buffalo Law School's annual Mitchell Lecture at 11 a.m. March 21 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo will present "Spider-Man Unmasked" at 8 p.m. on April 20 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Journalist, novelist, screenwriter, playwright and director Nora Ephron has cancelled her plans to participate in the University at Buffalo's Distinguished Speakers Series with a lecture on March 28.

"Good research universities are good business" for their surrounding communities, and UB, with its plan to grow by 40 percent in the next 13 years, is no exception, President John Simpson told members of the Western New York legislative delegation Feb. 8 at a meeting to discuss state support of UB programs.

An article in The Buffalo News focuses on UB President John B. Simpson's plans to grow UB by 40 percent.