Kudos

Tom Ulbrich, executive director of the School of Management’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL), has been named Small Business Advocate of the Year by the Amherst Chamber of Commerce.

The distinction honors an individual whose contributions promote the continued prosperity of small businesses in the region—someone who goes above and beyond the call of his or her own professional duties to ensure the small business community thrives.

Ulbrich accepted the award at the 2013 Small Business Awards Luncheon and Showcase held on May 17 at Samuel’s Grande Manor in Williamsville.

“At the CEL, we work every day to help create jobs and strengthen the Western New York economy,” says Ulbrich. “On behalf of my colleagues at the CEL and the School of Management, it’s an honor to be recognized by the Amherst Chamber and we remain committed to the support of local small businesses.”

 Established in 1987, the CEL provides participants with individualized and interactive education in entrepreneurship. More than 900 CEL alumni employ more than 22,000 Western New Yorkers, and their businesses are worth more than $2 billion to the local economy.

Ruth Mack, associate professor in the Department of English, has received two major fellowships: a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship to continue work on her current book project, “Habitual Knowledge: Theory and the Everyday in Enlightenment Britain,” and a fellowship to the Newberry Library in Chicago.

She has declined the Newberry fellowship, as well as one awarded to her by the UB Humanities Institute, to accept the Radcliffe Institute award.

Mack, who also serves as director of the master’s degree program in the English department, specializes in 18th-century British literature, historiography and history of literary criticism.

“Zooland,” a book authored by Irus Braverman, associate professor of law, received the Bronze Medal for outstanding book in current events from Independent Publisher as part of the online magazine’s annual IPPY competition.

The “IPPYs” – the Independent Publisher Book Awards – aim to bring increased recognition to exemplary independent, university and self-published titles.

Founded in 1983 as Small Press magazine, Independent Publisher is considered the voice of the independent publishing industry.

Andre Filiatrault, professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering and a former director of MCEER, UB’s internationally recognized center for extreme events research, is scheduled to give the keynote address at the 13th annual ROSE Seminar, an earthquake engineering conference held in Italy May 16-17.

The seminar, which bills itself as an opportunity for students to present and discuss their research with leading earthquake engineers, is part of program called “Understanding and Managing Extremes” at the Institute for Advanced Study of Pavia in Pavia, Italy.

Each year, a prominent scientist is invited to deliver the keynote speech. Filiatrault’s address is titled “Seismic Design of Nonstructural Building Elements: Why, How and Who?”