Meacham named chair of psychology
Jack Meacham, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been named chair of the department.

Internationally recognized for his research on human development, Meacham has been on the UB faculty since 1972.

His research interests, which include theories in developmental psychology, multicultural education, race and racism, have resulted in more than 100 publications in professional journals and many invited presentations.

In addition to earning the SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor honor this past April, he has received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Milton Plesur Award for excellence in teaching from the UB undergraduate Student Association. He was editor of Human Development from 1978-87 and of Genetic Epistomologist from 1990-92. He has been active on the national level in several professional organizations in his field.

Meacham received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Stanford University and holds master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. After receiving his master's degree, he spent two years working in Turkey with the Peace Corps.

Reisman recognized as distinguished medical alumnus
Robert E. Reisman, clinical professor of medicine and pediatrics, has been named the Distinguished Medical Alumnus for 1999 by the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

A 1956 graduate of the medical school, Reisman is an attending physician and allergist at Kaleida Health's Buffalo General Hospital and Children's Hospital.

He served for several years as co-director of the Allergy Research Laboratory and as a faculty member in the Division of Allergy and Immunology in the medical school.

Reisman has authored more than 200 articles, papers and book chapters, and served as co-editor of an allergy-immunology text published by the American College of Physicians.

He has received several awards and honors, including mastership in the American College of Physicians and a doctor of honoris causa from the University of Montpelier.

Hearing loss to be topic of Emeritus Center meeting
"Understanding Hearing: Hearing Loss and Hearing Aids" will be the topic of a meeting of the Emeritus Center at 2 p.m. Tuesday in 102 Goodyear Hall, South Lounge, on the South Campus. The speaker will be Nancy A. Stecker, clinical associate professor of communicative disorders and sciences.

Hearing evaluations will be provided before and after the program by Jeffrey Lezynski, a specialist in hearing evaluation and the fitting of hearing aids.

For further information, call the center at 829-2271.

Pharmacists to offer free advice at Fair
Lotions, potions, prescription and over-the-counter medicines, herbs and preparations can help you, hurt you or be a waste of money.

Western New Yorkers can find out which is which by attending the free Pharmacy Fair being held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 17 in the Center for Tomorrow on the North Campus.

New York State registered pharmacists, as well as faculty and students from the School of Pharmacy, will answer questions about the proper use and side effects of medications and offer advice about the dangers of taking certain combinations of drugs and how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

The pharmacists will offer a professional evaluation of any prescription, non-prescription or over-the-counter products, herbs and vitamins participants bring to the fair.

Immunology convocation to focus on cancer research
Exciting new developments and pitfalls in cancer research, diagnosis and treatment will be the focus of the 14th International Convocation on Immunology, to be held tomorrow through Monday in the Buffalo Marriott.

The convocation is sponsored by the Ernest Witebsky Center for Immunology at UB.

For more information, contact the Witebsky Center at 829-2901.

Fourth annual women's film festival to open today
"Alles Wird Gut" (Everything Will be Fine), an upbeat German film about two Afro-German women living in Hamburg, will open the Fourth Annual International Women's Film Festival at 7:30 p.m. today in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

This year's festival, "The World Through Women's Eyes," will include three feature films and three documentaries, five of which are directed by women. Organized by the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender (IREWG), the festival highlights the best of recent international films on women's and gender issues as presented by both men and women filmmakers.

All films will be shown at 7:30 p.m. in the Screening Room in the Center for the Arts. Tickets are $3.50 for students and seniors, and $4.50 for the general public.

For more information, call 829-3451.

The schedule is:

- Today: "Alles Wird Gut" (Everything Will be Fine), Germany, 1997. Italian-American director Angelina Maccarone takes a lighthearted approach in telling the story of the lives of two Afro-German women in Hamburg as they contend with racism and homophobia in German society.

- Oct. 14: "Regret to Inform," USA, 1998. Director Barbara Sonneborn, a Vietnam War widow, travels to Que Sahn, where she weaves into a documentary the stories of war widows from both North and South Vietnam, as well as the United States.

- Oct. 21: "Drylongso," USA, 1998. Director Cauleen Smith tells the story of Pica, a woman who sets out with a Polaroid camera to document the lives of the "endangered species" of African-American men in her community.

- Oct. 28: "Divorce Iranian Style," England, 1998. Directors Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini look at three women trying to combat biased laws and family rage in Iranian divorce court.

- Nov. 4: "The Devil Never Sleeps," USA/Mexico, 1996. Director Lourdes Portillo returns to her childhood hometown in Mexico to investigate circumstances surrounding her uncle's death. A panel discussion on "Women and Documentary Film" will follow.

- Nov. 18: "Coraje," Peru, 1998. Director Alberto Durant looks at the life and accomplishments of Maria Elena Moyand, a well-known defender of women's rights and anti-terrorism advocate in Peru who was killed in 1992.

Cystic fibrosis to be topic of Hermann Rahn lecture
Richard C. Boucher, Jr., William Rand Kenan Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will deliver the eighth Hermann Rahn Memorial Lecture at 5 p.m. Oct. 14 in Butler Auditorium in Farber Hall on the South Campus.

Boucher, who also serves as chief of the Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine at UNC, will speak on "Resolving Controversies on Airway Surface Liquid Physiology: A Key for Understanding Normal Airways Defense and the Pathogenesis of Cystic Fibrosis."

A reception will be held prior to the lecture at 4 p.m. in the Lippschutz Room in the Biomedical Education Building on the South Campus.

Boucher has conducted extensive research on pulmonary function and cystic fibrosis, and currently serves as the principal investigator on four grants, two of which are on cystic fibrosis. He is director of the Cystic Fibrosis/Pulmonary Research and Treatment Center at UNC and is co-director of the university's Gene Therapy Center.

In addition, he serves as associate editor for Experimental Lung Research.

Recovery of brain function to be topic of Perry lecture
Stimulating neuroplasticity and recovery of brain function after injury will be the topic of the 11th annual J. Warren Perry Lecture, to be held at 4 p.m. tomorrow in the Screening Room of the Center of the Arts on the North Campus.

The lecture, named for a former dean of the School of Health Related Professions, will be given by Brian Kolb, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada.

A poster session will be held from 2-4 p.m. and a reception will follow the lecture in the CFA Atrium.

Kolb's research focuses on plastic changes in the cerebrum that may underlie recovery from cerebral injury, organization of the frontal lobe of mammals and experience-dependent changes in the cortex.

He holds adjunct appointments at the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Calgary and a doctorate from Pennsylvania State University.

Student Health Center offers flu shot clinics
With flu season fast approaching, the Student Health Center will offer several flu-shot clinics for members of the university community.

The clinics will be held from 3-7 p.m. Oct. 13, 20 and 26 in the lobby of the Student Union on the North Campus. They also will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 23 and Nov. 13 in Michael Hall, and from 4-7 p.m. Nov. 3 and 2-7 p.m. Nov. 9 in 110 Squire Hall, both on the South Campus

The cost of the shot is $4.

Penny Tronolone, UB medical director in the Student Health Center, says the flu, which is caused by the influenza virus, can cause such symptoms as high fever, dry cough and severe muscle aches lasting for as long as a week.

Tronolone says influenza is highly contagious and is spread through the air by droplets from coughing.

She explains that the vaccine in the shots can prevent the virus, but that the shots must be given every year because the virus mutates.

Satellite program to address copyright law
"Libraries, Copyright and the Internet," a live satellite program addressing the basics of copyright law, will be held from 2-5 p.m. Oct. 14 in 120 Clemens Hall on the North Campus.

The program, co-sponsored by Millard Fillmore College and the University Libraries, will examine such topics as fair use and cyberspace law applications in a library setting, necessary restrictions of patrons' access to Internet-based resources and the liabilities of patrons, librarians and libraries for copyright violations.

The program will be the first in a series of four live satellite programs offered through the Public Broadcasting Service' Adult Learning Services. Other programs in the "Internet Issues in Higher Education" series will include "Online Testing: Assessment and Evaluation of Distance Learners," scheduled for Dec. 2; "Virtual Universities: Online and On-Target?" set for Feb. 3, and "How to Customize an Online Course," scheduled for April 6. All programs will be held from 2-5 p.m. in Clemens Hall.

Reservations for the Oct. 14 program can be made by calling MFC at 829-3131, emailing Janice Anderson at jfa@buffalo.edu, or registering via the Web at http://www.mfc.buffalo.edu.

Demonstration of Y2K software planned
A demonstration of Y2K remediation software will be presented from 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 14 in 120 Clemens Hall on the North Campus.

UB has purchased two site licenses for the software. ExcelRem will identify and fix Y2K dates in Microsoft Excel. AccessRem will identify and fix Y2K dates in Microsoft Access. These products are available for download to faculty, staff and students.

The demonstration, which will be free of charge and open to all members of the UB community, will be presented by representatives of H. Shanley & Associates. It will cover-for both software products-download and installation from UB's Web site, product overview, examples and product support.

Symposium to engage work of Austrian writer Karl Kraus
He is unknown to the American public, but the great Austrian writer Karl Kraus was a fin de siecle satirical phenomenon. A generation of European thinkers were persuaded by his cultural criticism, and, in turn, influenced American philosophy, mores and intellectual life throughout the 20th century.

Kraus will be the subject of a symposium sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, to be held from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16 in 280 Park Hall on the North Campus.

Kraus believed in the central importance of the moral and aesthetic qualities of language and used it with great precision, particularly in his aphorisms, which attacked all things he held responsible for the destruction of the best of the Austrian and European cultural tradition.

He had a marked influence on thinkers as varied as philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and playwright Bertholdt Brecht. He was particularly famous in his lifetime for his attacks on Freud ("Psychoanalysis is that disease for which it regards itself as the cure") and militarism (Kraus' "Last Days of the Human Race" is an unperformable apocalyptic stage play involving more than 500 characters).

The conference will feature talks on Kraus' role in the development of European feminism and discussions on the relationships between Kraus and Serbia, Kafka, Wittgenstein and Weininger.

For more information, contact Heidi J. Lechner at lechner@acsu.buffalo.edu.

Serbian poet, writer Albahari to speak
In contending with the policy of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Serbian President Slobovan Milosevic, David Albahari has had to face painful personal conflicts of his own. A noted Serbian poet and writer, Albahari is the son of Holocaust survivors and was head of Yugoslavia's Jewish community before emigrating to Canada.

Albahari has grappled with questions of identity, memory and history in his fiction, and continues to struggle with the fact that his own countrymen have perpetrated genocidal atrocities like those that afflicted the lives of his parents.

Albahari will discuss these and related issues at 8 p.m. today in Allen Hall on the South Campus in a talk titled, "What to Remember/How to Forget: The Uses and Misuses of Memory in Yugoslavia and Kosovo."

Albahari's presentation is part of the Wednesdays at 4 PLUS literary series. He will follow it with a reading from his fiction at 8 p.m. tomorrow in Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center.

Zodiaque to present "Aquarian Dawning"
The Zodiaque Dance Company's final offering of the century, "Aquarian Dawning," will be held Oct. 14, 15, 17 and 20-24 in the Drama Theatre in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

Performances will be at 8 p.m. weekdays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.

Guest choreographer will be Linda Swiniuch, who established the dance company 26 years ago. Tom Ralabate, assistant professor of theatre and dance, is the company's director.

Tickets are $10 for the public; $5 for students. For more information call 716-645-ARTS.

Allen to speak at "UB at Sunrise"
Research that shows that pets can reduce their owners' stress-related blood pressure and heart rate will be the topic of a "UB at Sunrise" breakfast, to be held at 7:30 a.m. Oct. 21 in the Center for Tomorrow on the North Campus.

Featured speaker will be Karen M. Allen, research scientist in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Tickets for the program, which includes a full breakfast, is $15 for the public and $12 for UB Alumni Association members.

The deadline for reservations is Oct. 18. Reservations can be made by calling 829-2608.