Faculty&StaffBillboard

Ralabate is third recipient of the award, which previously went to Gene Kelly and Sharon Dante, an internationally recognized dance educator. The award is presented in recognition of dance artists' dedication and contributions to the field.

Ralabate directs the jazz dance program at UB and recently completed a nationwide choreography and teaching tour. In 1993, the Chicago chapter of the National Association of Dance Masters of America presented him with an artistic achievement award.

A former U.S. and North American Latin ballroom dance champion, he has taught for major dance organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada. A past director of the Mr. Dance of America Scholarship Competition, he is a former international board member of the Fred Astaire Performing Arts Association.

HELP CLEAN UP IN BEECH SWEEP '96 AT UB!
Your help is needed for a clean-up job to improve area waterways! Volunteers will clean up the university's portion of the Great Lakes Watershed-Lake LaSalle and a section of Ellicott Creek-during the eighth annual Great Lakes Beach Sweep on Saturday, Sept. 21 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Volunteers aged 16 and older will clean up and document the type of debris found along campus waterways as part of the International Coastal Cleanup sponsored by the Center for Marine Conservation. Data gathered from around the world is categorized to determine steps needed to reduce or eliminate dumping of debris.

Interested in joining Beach Sweep? Contact Helen Domske, associate director of the Great Lakes Program/New York Sea Grant Extension Educator at 204 Jarvis Hall, 634-3610 or 645-2088. Participants will meet Sept. 21 at 9:30 a.m., rain or shine, near the entrance to Jarvis Hall, next to the Furnas Parking Lot. Certificates will be awarded to each participant. Garbage bags, gloves and data cards will be provided.

Last year, more than 5000 volunteers from New York State cleaned up 82,000 pounds of trash, with 80 different types of trash removed from more than 228 miles of lake shoreline, creeks and other waterways.

SCIENCES ALUMNI LECTURE TO FOCUS ON INTERNET
Anyone interested in sharpening their skills on the Internet can come to "An Introduction to the Internet From a Western New York Point of View," to be held at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30 in Room 210 of the Natural Sciences Complex, North Campus.

The lecture, free and open to the public, is part of the UB Sciences Alumni Association lecture series.

James R. Gerland, associate director of the Division of Computing and Information Technology at UB, and one of the founders of Buffalo Free-Net, will discuss how to take advantage of the Internet's informational resources, including access to electronic mail, electronic news, discussion groups and millions of electronic information resources.

WNY sites such as Buffalo Free-Net and the WNY Web will be highlighted. The talk is for those who have never surfed the Net, as well as for those who have some familiarity with it.

Gerland, who is president of the UB Sciences Alumni Association of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, will explain what the Internet offers, how to get connected to the Internet, what hardware and software are necessary and how best to use search engines.

HORNE IS JUDGE, PRESENTS PAPER AT CAIRO FESTIVAL
Maria S. Horne, assistant professor, Department of Theatre and Dance and director of the International Artistic and Cultural Exchange Program of the UB Center for the Arts, has been serving as a judge for the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre 1996 awards. The festival was held Sept. 1-11 in Cairo, Egypt.

Horne was invited to present a paper, Sociological Aspects of the Latin American Theatre in the United States of America, at the festival's main academic event.

LASSER IS DISTINGUISHED MEDICAL ALUMNUS
Elliott C. Lasser will be honored as Distinguished Medical Alumnus by the Medical Alumni Association of the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at a dinner in his honor to be held on Friday, Sept. 27, at The Park Country Club of Buffalo.

Lasser is professor emeritus at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. A pioneer in contrast material research in diagnostic radiology, he is known worldwide for his work in that discipline. His early research reported on X-ray contrast material-protein interactions that now serve as universal screening tests for the pharmaceutical industry in developing new contrast materials.

A native Buffalonian, Lasser graduated from Harvard University and earned his medical degree from UB in 1946. He developed an interest in radiology during a two-year term in the U.S. Navy, and went on to complete a three-year residency in the field at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, where he received a master's degree in radiology.

Lasser returned to Buffalo in 1953 as chief of diagnostic radiology at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He left in 1956 to head the Radiology Department at the University of Pittsburgh, and in 1968, became professor and chair of radiology at UC-San Diego School of Medicine.

He served as acting vice chancellor for the health sciences at UC-San Diego in 1979-80, then returned to teaching and research. Named professor emeritus in 1991, he continues his research at the university.

Lasser has received many honors, including gold medal awards from the three major radiology societies, and the Harry Fisher Award for excellence in radiology research.

MILLER IS MEMBER OF NSF COMMITTEE, GIVES LECTURES
Russ Miller, professor of Computer Science, is a member of the review committee for the National Science Foundation's Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program, a follow-up to the NSF Supercomputer Center Program.

Miller has given several talks in the past month, including an invited talk in August at the XVII Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography in Seattle, Wash., at which a paper and poster were presented. He spoke Aug. 19 at the Crystallographic Software Workshop sponsored by the Advanced Photon Source group of Argonne National Laboratories. He continues to serve as coordinator of education for the IEEE Technical Committee on Parallel Processing.

SILS TO OFFER GRADUATE COURSES ON INTERNET
The School of Information and Library Studies (SILS) will offer two distance learning graduate courses on the Internet during the spring semester of 1997. The courses, Intellectual Freedom and Academic and Research Libraries, will be taught by Associate Professor John Ellison. Academic and Research Libraries is an on-line seminar with the class interacting with 25 professional academic librarians from around the U.S. For more information, contact the professor at ellision@epix.net or call 326-6915.

SULEWSKI HONORED BY STATE DIVISION OF WOMEN
Joan Sulewski, associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics at UB, was honored Sept. 12 with the Governor's Award for Excellence at a luncheon given by the New York State Division for Women in Statler Golden Ballroom.

Sulewski, honored for health advocacy, is founder and director of a health-care program for women veterans that serves 1,000 patients and has more than 2,000 on a registry. She conducts outreach programs, works with military reserve units and has initiated educational and nutritional programs for women at Veterans Administration facilities.

Others honored included Muriel A. Moore, president of Buffalo State College and former vice president for public service and urban affairs at UB, for the field of education.

"VINYL MADNESS" SALE BENEFITS WBFO RADIO
Thousands of records, CDs and cassettes will be on sale at Vinyl Madness IV, to be held on Saturday, Sept. 28, and Sunday, Sept. 29.

The fund-raiser to benefit WBFO-FM 88.7, the National Public Radio affiliate operated by UB, will be held in Allen Hall, South Campus.

WBFO members can preview and purchase items beginning at 9 a.m. Sept. 28. The general public will be admitted for a $2 entrance fee from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The event will include rock, folk, lounge, classical, comedy, children's, pop, jazz, blues and others. Most records and cassettes will be $1.50. Specialty jazz records, CDs and other higher-value items will be $5.

Rare items will be up for bid by silent auction, including music by the Rolling Stones, Elvis, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Holly. A $1 registration fee is required for the auction. Final bids will be taken at 1 p.m. Sept. 29, with names of high bidders posted at 2 p.m.

Admission of $1 for the general public and bargain prices will be featured from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the sale's "Cleanup Edition" Sept. 29.

Donations of records, CDs and cassettes may be made from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 18 and Sept. 25 at Allen Hall. For more information, call 829-2880.

SCIENCE FORUM HOLDS ANNUAL LECTURE SERIES
The Western New York Science Forum is holding its 26th annual lecture series for teachers of all grades and subjects on most Wednesday evenings through January.

Most talks will be held from 7:30-9:30 p.m. in Room 170 in Millard Fillmore Academic Center in the Ellicott Complex, North Campus. Goal of the program, said George H. Nancollas, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, who began the lecture series in 1970, is to expose teachers to the most exciting developments in science so that they can encourage their students to become interested in science. More than 60 WNY teachers now participate.

UB faculty taking part in programs include: Charles E. Mitchell, UB professor of geology; Michael S. Webster, UB professor of biological sciences and Fred Stoss, librarian, UB Science & Engineering Library.

Lectures are supported by the UB Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. For more information, call 645-6800, ext. 2020, or 645-6800, ext. 2210.