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UB faculty members Paras N. Prasad, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, and Natalia M. Litchinitser, assistant professor of electrical engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, recently took part in Rusnanotech ’08, a major, international conference on the future of nanotechnology held recently in Moscow. Prasad gave the invited plenary talk, addressing about 2,000 scientists and officials from around the globe on “Nanotechnology and Engineering Challenges of the 21st Century.” He described the groundbreaking work that he and his colleagues are doing at the UB Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics. Litchinitser, who conducts research on nanophotonics and nonlinear optics, presented an invited talk about her research on "Metamaterials—Unparalleled Opportunities for Light Manipulation." The conference is part of a major, $5 billion effort to support nanotechnology that was recently announced by the Russian government. Prasad says talks regarding research collaborations between UB and Russian scientists are under way.
Susan D. Bentley-Camizzi, associate professor at the Educational Opportunity Center, a certified dental assistant and registered dental hygienist, has been elected Second District Trustee of the American Dental Assistants Association. She will represent the interests of hundreds of dental assistants in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Philip Coppens, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Henry M. Woodburn Chair of Chemistry, and Thomas Tomasi, professor of medicine, are among nine scientific pioneers with local ties to receive the 2008 Pioneers of Science awards from Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute.
Several faculty members in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences were invited speakers at the Second World Conference on Magic Bullets, held recently in Nuremberg, Germany. The conference focused on the discovery, development and successful use of “magic bullet” drugs/therapies in clinical medicine. Presenting papers were William Jusko, SUNY Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences; Alan Forrest, research professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice; and Donald Mager, assistant professor, Jerome Schentag, professor, and Wojciech Krzyzanski, assistant professor, all in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Jusko also received the 2008 Paul Ehrlich Magic Bullet Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Urban Design Project (UDP) in the School of Architecture and Planning has received four awards for its work in developing plans for Buffalo’s urban center, waterfront and Olmsted Parks system.
The International Economic Development Council awarded UDP an Honorable Mention for Neighborhood Development for “Queen City Hub: A Regional Action Plan for Downtown Buffalo,” developed on behalf of the City of Buffalo. The plan was based on more than 10 years of community outreach, planning and implementation. The plan also received the American Planning Association’s Outstanding Planning Award in 2005.
The UDP also received two Planning Excellence for a Best Practice Awards—one from the Upstate Chapter of the New York State American Planning Association and one from the Western New York Section of the chapter for “Queen City Waterfront—Buffalo Waterfront Corridor Initiative: A Strategic Plan for Transportation Improvements.” The waterfront plan is based on a clear and simple vision that Buffalo, once a waterfront city, will be a waterfront city once again.
The UDP received a fourth award, the Planning and Analysis Honor of Excellence Award from the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architecture, for “The Olmsted City—The Buffalo Olmsted Park System: Plan for the 21st Century, edited by Robert Shibley, director of the UDP, and Lynda Schneekloth, professor of architecture and planning. “Plan for the 21st Century” is a 20-year, project-by-project operations plan for rebuilding Buffalo’s Olmsted-designed parkland, which includes six large parks and their adjacent parkways and circles.
Shibley, a professor of architecture and planning and senior advisor to President John B. Simpson for campus planning and design, also is heading development of “Building UB,” the university’s comprehensive physical plan.
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