Kudos

To mark Women’s History Month, UB’s Educational Opportunity Center recently sponsored a conference, “Preparation Meets Opportunity: A Woman’s Pathway to Success.”

Mary H. Gresham, vice provost for educational collaboration and engagement, presented the keynote address. Other presenters included Mara B. Huber, associate dean undergraduate education.

More than 70 women attended the event, including EOC alumni Cynthia Coates (‘13), Loretta Small (‘14), Laythanette Shine (‘09), Vandelhia Crump (1999), Leona Boling Blackburn (1970s), Zola Lowery Crowell (1975), Colette Stephens (1986), Brenda Harris (1988) and Jacqueline White (‘14) and Margot Barrett Keysor, EOC’s alumni affairs and student development administrator.

A multidisciplinary research group at the UB-Toshiba Stroke and Vascular Research Center received first place for its poster presentation at the SPIE Medical Imaging 2015 meeting held last month in Orlando, Florida.

The group, led by Ciprian N. Ionita, research assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Stephen Ruden, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Radiology, demonstrated that 3-D printing could be used to create a “phantom” for neurosurgeons preparing to perform minimally invasive endovascular image-guided interventions (EIGIs), the preferred procedures for treating a wide range of vascular disorders. Neurosurgeons could become familiar with a patient’s vessel anatomy by using the phantom to practice on prior to the actual procedure, allowing for adjustments to be made before the patient is in the treatment room and reducing the risk of complications or delays.

First author on the paper, titled “Treatment planning for image-guided neuro-vascular interventions using patient-specific 3D printed phantoms,” is Megan Russ, a PhD student in medical physics; second author is Ryan O’Hara, a junior biomedical engineering major. Ionita is senior author.

UB Chef Seth Williams was awarded a gold medal at the 2015 Northeast Regional Culinary Challenge for his bison flank steak dish.

The competition took place on March 18 during the National Association of College and University Food Services’ (NACUFS) Northeast Conference held at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Although Williams earned a gold medal for his dish, he will not be moving on as the Northeast Region’s representative to the national Culinary Challenge taking place at NACUFS’ national meeting in July. Another chef also was awarded a gold medal, his dish scoring .02 higher than Williams.

Two chefs were awarded gold medals because they competed against an established standard, not against each other, according to Ray Kohl, marketing director for Campus Dining & Shops. Chefs were graded on a 40-point scale in the categories of organization, cooking skills and culinary technique, and taste.

Of the 10 dishes in the competition, the judges said that Williams’ dish had the best flavor of any of those presented, Kohl added.

This is Williams’ second medal earned in the regional Culinary Challenge. He earned a bronze medal last year for his lobster and grits dish.

Paresh Dandona, SUNY Distinguished Professor and chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at UB, has been named to the editorial board of Diabetes Care, one of the top journals in the field.

Dandona is founder of the Diabetes and Endocrinology Center of Western New York, which is sponsored by the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Kaleida Health. He is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in the treatment of diabetes and vascular disease.

A dedicated teacher, he has mentored many of the present-day leaders in diabetes health care and research.

Dandona also has been a prolific author, with more than 550 peer-reviewed publications and more than 1,000 additional publications. An expert in the treatment of insulin resistance, he discovered the anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective effects of insulin.

More recently, his work has led to the finding that diabetes and obesity are the major causes of male hypogonadism. His team is playing a leading role in defining novel treatments for Type 1 diabetes, and its dedication to teaching and training has led to the development of the largest endocrinology fellowship program in U.S.

Dnadona previously served on the editorial boards of Diabetes Care and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, both prominent journals in the field. He also founded the journal Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders.

A recipient of the UB Presidential Award for Faculty Excellence, Dandona received a PhD from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He holds a MBBS —bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery — from All India Institute of Medical Sciences.