Samina Raja, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, has been awarded a $105,000 contract from the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus to study physical activity levels among the 6,000 employees on the medical campus in relation to improvements made to its infrastructure and streetscape.

Five teams of students and alumni from the University at Buffalo will compete for cash and services in excess of $40,000 in the final round of the annual Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition on April 25.

A $500 scholarship was awarded to each member of the winning team in the University at Buffalo School of Management's inaugural Steven C. Verney MBA Case Competition.

Brothers Vinod K. Rustgi, M.D., and Anil K. Rustgi, M.D., along with their mother, Kamla Rustgi, are honoring their father's memory by endowing the Moti Lal Rustgi Professorship in the Department of Physics in the University at Buffalo's College of Arts and Sciences.

Douglas H. Clements, a University at Buffalo professor who has spent his career ensuring that underrepresented children's potential to learn math does not go unrealized, has been named a member of the President's National Mathematics Advisory Panel.

Four University at Buffalo faculty members -- Francis M. Gasparini, David A. Gerber, William J. Jusko and Frank C. Zagare -- have been named UB Distinguished Professors for achieving distinction and being leaders in their fields.

The rate of growth of total research and development expenditures at the University at Buffalo more than tripled during the 2006 fiscal year. Funding rose to $297.9 million, an increase of $30.6 million -- or 11.5 percent -- over the previous year.

State University of New York Chancellor John R. Ryan will be on hand when the University at Buffalo recognizes outstanding student and faculty achievement during the third annual Celebration of Academic Excellence, to be held April 19 in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.

The University at Buffalo's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, which has produced 6,000 graduates, many of who are some of the field's most renowned innovators, will mark its 40th anniversary with a two-day program to be held April 13 and 14.

The University at Buffalo's Center for 21st Century Music will continue its impressive offerings this month with a concert featuring the Slee Sinfonietta, UB's professional chamber orchestra, presenting an intriguing program of computer music.

In recognition of the support that Edmond J. Gicewicz and his wife, Connie, have provided to the University at Buffalo's athletics program, the UB Athletics Hall of Fame will be renamed the Dr. and Mrs. Edmond J. Gicewicz Family UB Athletics Hall of Fame.

The American Educational Research Association today bestowed its Early Career Award on Jaekyung Lee, an associate professor of counseling, school and educational psychology in the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education whose research focuses on educational equity and achievement.

The University at Buffalo will hold a retrospective and reflective memorial service for the late John C. Mohawk on April 30 from 3:30-7 p.m. in the Drama Theater and Atrium, Center for the Arts, North Campus. The service will be open to the public.

In conjunction with an upgrade of the Oracle/Research Foundation (RF) Business System, the system will be shut down from the close of business on April 20 through April 30.

University at Buffalo President John B. Simpson received an honorary doctorate degree from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology last week during a ceremony welcoming freshman students to the university in Tokyo.

A handful of key construction projects are proposed to begin this spring and summer as the University at Buffalo prepares to undergo a vast physical transformation in keeping with the objectives of UB 2020 and UB's comprehensive physical plan.

As a conversation starter, legal research may seem too esoteric of a topic. But add to the discussion a little atmosphere -- lunch at an Italian cafe, the chattering of fellow diners, a touch of jazz music in the background -- and now you have the makings of an Internet talk show. More specifically, you have a podcast on important ideas in law and society.

A major gift from Frederick J. Kogut, who earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University at Buffalo in 1960 and 1965, respectively, will help promote rural development in third world countries, especially on the African continent, as well as helping rural communities in upstate New York.

Kathryn A. Foster, director of the University at Buffalo Regional Institute, will serve as co-investigator for the Network on Building Resilient Regions, a recently launched initiative funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Nils Olsen announced today that he will step down in December as dean of the University at Buffalo Law School to attend to personal and family health issues.

University at Buffalo President John B. Simpson today issued a statement noting that the thoughts and prayers of the UB community go out to the victims, their families, and the entire Virginia Tech community following a mass shooting at the Virginia university.

University at Buffalo President John B. Simpson today issued a statement assuring students, parents, faculty and staff that UB places the highest priority on making our campus a safe place to study, live and work.

The work of African-American playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, one of the most acclaimed and exciting playwrights working today, will be the focus of two free public events at the University at Buffalo on April 26 and 27.

The University at Buffalo community is responding to Monday's shootings at VirginaTech with a series of events and activities in memory of the victims. At the same time, UB Counseling Services is reaching out to students feeling affected by, or having strong emotional reactions to, the tragedy, offering one-on-one support, as well as Web-based self-help information.

A formerly unknown action of the acetylcholine receptor channel, a protein that regulates the electrical activity of nerve and muscle cells, is described by biophysicists at the University at Buffalo in the April 19 issue of the journal Nature.

Novel, self-assembly techniques for fabricating inorganic nanomaterials that could pave the way for more efficient and powerful solar cells, chemical sensors and detectors currently are being developed by a University at Buffalo chemist.

The University at Buffalo is looking for some new angles on its campuses -- literally. The university has launched "Framing UB," a year-long photo and video contest for students, faculty and staff. Participants will be invited to submit digital images and brief commentaries about their favorite -- and not-so-favorite -- places on UB's North (Amherst), South (Main Street) and downtown campus centers.

Contrary to the unhappy experience of the first little pig, straw bale is a strong, cost-effective, exceptionally insulating, fire-resistant, sustainable, natural building system. University at Buffalo architecture students and community members -- cold, covered in mud and stuck with hay -- recently raised 130 50-pound "two-string" straw bales that will constitute the load-bearing walls of a community greenhouse on Buffalo's West Side.

The university community is advised that the Amherst Police Department is investigating a complaint of a sexual assault that occurred off campus in the parking lot of the University Village at Sweethome as a student exited her vehicle.

Just about anything anybody needs to start "going green" -- from energy-efficient light bulbs to fast-growing trees -- will be exhibited at an Enviro Fair to be held at 6 p.m. on April 27 in the lobby of the Alumni Arena on the University at Buffalo's North (Amherst) Campus.

In the name of raising environmental awareness, enterprising University at Buffalo students are turning their campus into a virtual -- and real -- playground this week as they conduct a final project for their class in "Pervasive Gaming," an emerging game genre in which virtual and real-life play come together.

When Buffalo Sabres center Tim Connolly took the ice for the start of the NHL playoffs after being sidelined for 11 months with post-concussion syndrome, his return in large part was due to a new treatment program developed by University at Buffalo researchers.

Kathryn A. Foster, director of the Regional Institute at the University at Buffalo has been appointed to the Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness created by Gov. Eliot Spitzer to identify opportunities for shared services and regional collaboration for the state's more than 4,200 local governments.

University Police received a call Wednesday afternoon (April 25) of a possible person with a gun on the South (Main Street) Campus. The witness observed someone with what appeared to be a gun wrapped in a shirt under a coat. University officers did a thorough search of the area, but did not find anyone fitting the description. UB Police increased its presence on the South Campus for the afternoon strictly as a precaution and notified University Residence Halls and Apartments and University Facilities to advise their staff on the South Campus.

Extraordinary: That's how University at Buffalo officials describe the response of area high schools to UB's invitation to hear former vice president and environmental activist Al Gore speak on what could be the defining issue of their generation: climate change.

When Cristanne Miller and Jerold Frakes joined the UB Department of English last fall, they took their leave, not only of excellent positions at prestigious institutions, but of Southern California's laid-back way of life and Mediterranean climate. The UB English department was the main draw, says Miller, its new chair, but it wasn't the only one.

For the second year in a row, providing products and services to biotechnology firms was the common denominator for the two teams that won more than $40,000 in cash and services in the University at Buffalo's annual Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition (Panasci TEC).

As part of the UB 2020 strategic planning process, the university has initiated a project to evaluate the many components that make up the current student systems and to explore ways to improve and integrate them.

Former University at Buffalo administrator Warren Bennis, an internationally known expert in leadership, and National Public Radio personality and UB alumna Terry Gross have been selected to receive honorary degrees from the State University of New York.

Five local high schools students involved in the University at Buffalo Biomedical STEP Program and Buffalo PREP Program participated in the National Science Bowl, a high-profile academic competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The team is the first all-female, all-African-American team to make it to the finals in 17 years of the competition.

How safe is my neighborhood? Who lives on my street, and who among them is a homeowner, a renter, a UB student? How can my block club reduce the crime on my street and connect with other block clubs? These and other questions were answered at the sixth annual UB community forum, "Knowing Your Neighborhood: Using Information to Preserve Quality of Life," held March 29 in Harriman Hall, South Campus.