University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

James J. Whalen, a professor of electrical engineering at UB for 40 years, died May 26 in Brandywine Assisted Living in Litchfield, Conn., after a long illness. He was 76.

A native of Meriden, Conn., Whalen attended Cornell University on a Navy ROTC scholarship, earning a BSEE with distinction in 1958. He pursued graduate work in electrical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University while serving as a U.S. naval officer at the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md., earning a MSE in 1962 and PhD in 1969.

He joined the UB electrical engineering faculty in 1970 as an assistant professor, attaining the rank of associate professor in 1977 and full professor in 1981. He was chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 1995-98, and held the post of director of undergraduate studies from 2001-10.

Whalen’s research was in electromagnetic compatibility, microwaves and semiconductor electronics, with a primary interest in the measurement, prediction and suppression of electromagnetic interference (EMI) in analog and digital integrated circuits. He and members of his research team published more than 40 scholarly papers on the subject.

He taught graduate courses on site at Moog Industrial Group in East Aurora, and online in EngiNet. He was one of the founding faculty members of the SUNY Electrical Engineering Online Program, now offered by Stony Brook University.

In addition to teaching and research at UB, he worked for the U.S. Air Force, both at Griffis Air Force Base in Rome, N.Y., and at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where he was involved in an ongoing project on the use of nanosecond dc and rf pulse techniques to characterize gallium arsenide field effect transistors and microwave integrated circuits.

He also assisted the New York State Police with radar testing and served as a consultant for McDonnell Douglas, Universal Energy Systems, the Southeastern Center for Electrical Engineering Education in Orlando, Fla.; the Northeast Consortium for Engineering Education in Syracuse; and Wyle Laboratories.

Whalen was a senior life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), as well as a member of the Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu Engineering Honor societies. He also was a member of the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Credentials Certification Panel, which advises the National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers on the certification of EMC engineers, and headed the subcommittee that prepares the EMC Certification Exam.

Visitation will take place from 4-8 July 15 in Amigone Funeral Home, 8440 Main St., Clarence. A funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. July 16 in Our Lady of Peace Roman Catholic Church, 10950 Main St., Clarence, followed by a private burial.

Contributions in lieu of flowers can be made to the Dr. James Whalen Scholarship Fund, UB Foundation, PO Box 900, Buffalo, NY, 14226-0900.

Abdias Do Nascimento, UB professor emeritus of American studies and an icon of the Brazilian civil rights movement, as well as an actor, painter, poet and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, died May 24 in Brazil. He was of 98.

Often called “a national treasure” by his countrymen and a hero to many, Nascimento was a native of Brazil and a civil rights activist since the 1930s.

As a young man, he traveled South America with a group of poets calling themselves the “Santa Irmandad Orquidea,” or the “Holy Brotherhood of the Orchid” and developed an interest for the dramatic arts. Returning to Rio de Janeiro, he received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1938.

In 1944, founded Brazil’s Black Experimental Theater and notably starred in “Orfeu da Conceição,” a play by well known Brazilian playwright Vinicius de Moraes, which later was made into the Academy Award-winning film “Black Orpheus.”

He held graduate degrees from the Higher Institute of Brazilian Studies and Brazil’s Oceanography Institute, but because of his intense involvement in the country’s black civil rights movement, was forced into exile by the country’s military regime in 1968.

He moved to the United States, where he held positions as a visiting professor at several universities, including the Yale School of Drama.

Nascimento joined the UB faculty as a visiting professor in 1970, and in 1971 founded the chair in African Cultures in the New World in the Department of American Studies’ Puerto Rican Studies Program.

He returned to Brazil in 1983 to found the Afro Brazilian Studies and Research Institute, and continue his fight for the rights of the African-Brazilian people, especially in the areas of education and the culture.

After the end of the 1964-85 Brazilian military dictatorship, Nascimento was elected to the federal Chamber of Deputies, where he focused on promoting legislation that addressed racial problems. In 1994, he was elected to the Brazilian Senate, where he served until 1999, and in 2004 was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He also held positions as the Rio de Janeiro state secretary for human rights and citizenship, and as federal congressman.

Nascimento was the author of several books, including “Orishas: The Living Gods of Africa in Brazil” (1995), which used his poetry and painting to deeply immerse reader in such African-centric religions as Asante, Egyptian, Ewe and Vodun in a Brazilian context; “Africans in Brazil: A Pan-African Perspective” (1992); “Mixture of Massacre: Essays in the Genocide of a Black People” (1979); “Racial Democracy in Brazil, Myth or Reality: A Dossier of Brazilian Racism” (1977); and “Black Mystery” (1968).