Obituaries

Dale M. “Mike” Landi, a former vice president for research at UB, died May 25 in East Amherst after a brief illness. He was 84.

Landi joined UB in 1987 as vice president for sponsored programs, and in 1992 became vice president for research when the two vice presidential roles were merged as part of a reorganization.

During his tenure at UB, Landi oversaw the university’s compliance with federal and state regulations regarding the protection of human research subjects, responsible conduct in research, investigator disclosure and other ethical issues associated with research. He was also UB’s Strategic Analysis and Planning Officer regarding sponsored research.

He retired from UB in 2004.

A native of Cleveland, Landi received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, a master’s in management science and a PhD in operations research and computer science, all from Northwestern University.

He began his career with the Rand Corporation as a logistics researcher. He was part of a team that helped New York City’s airports plan for the future. His work so impressed city officials that they hired him as an assistant budget director during a funding crisis in the early 1970s, and then as an assistant police commissioner under Mayor John Lindsey during the corruption scandal exposed by then-Det. Frank Serpico.

Landi returned to the Rand Corporation in 1973 as director of a program focused on NATO and European affairs. A few years later, he became vice president for national security research, a position he held for eight years. He was lead author of a report urging Washington and Moscow to establish better lines of communication than a single hotline in case of a nuclear crisis.

He worked at Rand until he took the position at UB.