Addictions Experts to Offer Spring Seminars, Presented by UB's Research Institute on Addictions

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) is presenting a spring seminar series featuring national experts beginning on March 4.

The four-part series is free, open to the public and held on designated Fridays at 10 a.m. on the first floor of the RIA building at 1021 Main at Goodrich Street, on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

The opening presentation by Kenneth E. Leonard, PhD on March 4 is entitled "The Social Environment and Adult Alcohol Use: How Drinking Shapes and is Shaped by Friends and Family Relationships." Leonard is a senior research scientist at RIA and research professor and vice chair for research in UB's Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He is nationally known for his research on alcohol's relationship to marriage and family, parenting and infant development as well as bar and domestic violence.

On April 1, Mark Muraven, PhD, will present "Improving Self-Control." Muraven is associate professor of psychology and area head of the doctoral program in the University at Albany's Department of Social-Personality Psychology. He is currently investigating how to improve coping by building self-control, how practicing self-control lowers the risk of smoking relapse and the role of self-control strength and restraint in alcohol relapse. Muraven did his post-doctoral research at RIA.

On April 15, J. Scott Tonigan, PhD, research professor in the University of New Mexico's Department of Psychology, will present, "The Benefits of Alcoholics Anonymous: What Research Does and Does Not Tell Us." His research specialties include the measurement of substance use and its consequences, 12-step programs and understanding the mechanisms that explain the benefits of AA, including spiritual growth, altruism, narcissism, and perceptions of AA-specific social interactions.

The series closes on May 20 with "Cue Reactivity, Reduced Response to Alcohol and Mechanisms of Person-Environment Vulnerability" presented by Marsha E. Bates, PhD, research professor of psychology at Rutgers University's Center of Alcohol Studies and director of its Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. She is currently investigating mechanisms of behavior change initiation and building high-risk, high-payoff interdisciplinary approaches to alcohol-related problems via mechanism-based strategies.

For more information about the seminars, contact RIA at 716-887-2566.

The Research Institute on Addictions has been a leader in the study of addictions since 1970 and a research center of the University at Buffalo since 1999.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.