Gardella to receive Schoellkopf Medal
Joseph A. Gardella Jr., professor of chemistry and biomaterials, and associate dean for external affairs for the College of Arts and Sciences, has been selected to receive the 2002 Jacob F. Schoellkopf Medal from the Western New York Section of the American Chemical Society.

	GARDELLA

The award, which honors an individual in the Niagara Frontier for outstanding work and service in the fields of chemistry or chemical engineering, will be presented to Gardella at the group's annual dinner on May 30.

In making the selection, the jury cited Gardella "for professional contributions that have impacted the lives of many in the Western New York community by facilitating interactions between citizen organizations, local businesses, industry and government, and providing environmental expertise."

He also was recognized "for innovations in polymer surface science research with various biomedical applications, and for excellence in the teaching of chemistry and outstanding mentorship."

A UB faculty member since 1982, Gardella is a member of the Environmental Task Force and chaired the group from 1995-99. Affiliated with the Environment and Society Institute, he is a former member of the organization's Steering Committee.

He has worked with numerous citizens groups, among them the Hickory Woods Concerned Homeowners Association, whose members believe their properties, built on the site of a former steel company, are contaminated. His undergraduate chemistry students have analyzed air and soil samples from the South Buffalo subdivision.

Scuto named AVP
Donna L. Scuto, director of grants and contracts services, has been promoted to assistant vice president for sponsored program services.

In this position, Scuto will be responsible for coordinating post-award grant activities of various units of University Business Services, serving as the primary liaison with the Research Foundation System Administration and the university community regarding Research Foundation business systems, establishing training programs for system and compliance training, updating and maintaining the Sponsored Programs Handbook and preparing and distributing the monthly campus research newsletter.

Scuto joined the UB professional staff in 1976.

Austrian poet to read
Austrian author, poet and translator Lilian Faschinger will read from her work from 12:30-2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Poetry and Rare Books Room, 420 Capen Hall, North Campus.

A coffee reception will follow the reading, which is sponsored by the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender and co-sponsored by the Graduate Group for German and Austrian Studies.

Prolific and multi-talented, Faschinger has written four novels, two volumes of poetry, two volumes of short stories and several radio plays.

Satirical and feminist in tone and substance, her work challenges Austrian society and its repressive institutions.

For further information, contact IREWG at 829-3451.

Choreographers to be showcased
The Department of Theatre and Dance will present "Young Choreographers Showcase," a dance concert showcasing the department's young dancers and choreographers, April 26-28 in the Black Box Theatre in the Center for the Arts, North Campus. Performance times are 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Tickets for "Young Choreographers" are $5 and may be purchased at the CFA box office from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and all Ticketmaster locations. For general information, call 645-ARTS.

WBFO to sponsor 9/11 presentation
"Living in America Post 9/11" will be the topic of a presentation at 7 p.m. Monday in the theatre in Allen Hall, South Campus, sponsored by WBFO 88.7 FM, UB's National Public Radio affiliate.

Guests will be Ethan Casey, who has edited two books about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath; Siva Vaidhyanathan, one of the writers of an essay in Casey's second book, "Dispatches from a Wounded World," and Jim Wittebols, a professor of communication studies at Niagara University and WBFO analyst.

The presentation will be free of charge and open to the public. It will be broadcast live on WBFO, and also can be heard online at www.wbfo.org.

Fulbright to open competition
The 2003-04 competition for Fulbright and related grants for graduate study or research abroad in academic fields and for professional training in the creative and performing arts will open on May 1.

Full grants provide round-trip international travel, maintenance for the tenure of the award, a research allowance and tuition waivers, if applicable. Travel grants provide round-trip international travel and are available to selected countries to supplement maintenance awards from other sources that do not provide funds for international travel or to supplement the applicant's personal funds. All grants include supplemental health and accident insurance.

UB students interested in applying for a Fulbright grant should contact Mark Ashwill, Fulbright program adviser, in 224 Clemens Hall, North Campus for brochures, application forms and further information. The UB Fulbright program Web site can be found at http://wings.buffalo.edu/fulbright. The deadline for receipt of applications is Sept. 20.

SUNY signs self-audit agreement
SUNY Chancellor Robert M. King and EPA Regional Administrator Jane M. Kenny have signed an historic environmental-audit agreement that commits SUNY to a comprehensive, five-year environmental self-audit program.

Under the agreement, SUNY will conduct self-audits at a mix of campuses, reaching all campuses by the end of the agreement in February 2007. For each violation it finds and reports, SUNY will verify to EPA that it is taking quick action, usually within a couple of months, to both fix the problem and prevent it from recurring. In some cases, EPA will allow SUNY to audit a representative sample of its facilities for a particular potential violation.

Five students receive Nancy Welch Awards
Five UB residential students have been named recipients of the Nancy Welch Award for developing, implementing or supporting creative and outstanding programs and projects to benefit the university student community.

The award is named for the former residential coordinator of UB's Rachel Carson College.

Brian T. Clare, a sophomore majoring in geology and astronomy, won the first-place award for his "Spaulbados Beach Party." Designed to provide a sense of community viewed as lacking among Spaulding Hall residents, the program also educated residents about the value of healthy nutrition and exercise while attempting to cope with a long Buffalo winter.

The second-place award went to Adam P. Haney, a sophomore communication major who was honored for developing a "Wanna Talk About Safety?" program.

Ivan Loh and Corrine Novak shared the third-place prize. Loh, a junior psychology major, was honored for his "Martial Arts Demonstration" program that educated residents about the history of martial arts and its associated principles of non-violence.

Novak, a senior psychology major, was honored for her "Brain Teaser" program designed to improve residents' knowledge of American history and international themes.

Honorable mention went to Michael C. Bernhard, a junior majoring in English and communication, for his "Let's Talk About Sex" program that provided freshmen with the option of discussing sexuality issues in a face-to-face setting in the residence hall, or by calling a health and human services expert at WRUB radio station.

Nickerson elected
Peter Nickerson, former chair of the UB Faculty Senate and a member of the SUNY-wide Faculty Senate, has been elected to the SUNY senate's executive committee for 2002-03, representing the health sciences.

A UB faculty member for more than 30 years, Nickerson served three terms as chair of the UB Faculty Senate (1993-95, 1997-99 and 1999-2001) and also has served as president of the Medical Faculty Council in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

A professor of pathology, Nickerson conducts research on the mechanisms of pulmonary and systemic hypertension in experimentally induced models of the disease.

Gift to support engineering labs
UB alumnus and retired computer software entrepreneur Larry Peckham and his wife, Nancy, have donated $250,000 to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences for the continuing development of undergraduate laboratories.

Mark Karwan, dean of the engineering school, said the flexibility of the Peckhams' gift is of "paramount importance to our school" because "maintaining up-to-date laboratories is key to the development of our students."

Karwan, who will disperse the money according the needs of the individual laboratories, added, "With this gift, Larry and Nancy show that they understand and appreciate the integral role technology plays in the fields of engineering."

"I hope we can give students the tools they need to accomplish their goals and earn degrees," said Nancy Peckham. "The university needs to keep pace, upgrading and matching today's constantly evolving technology."

Peckham, who earned his bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from UB in 1969, said he worked so hard to obtain the degree that it gave him confidence to "achieve anything I wanted to."

He worked for three years at Xerox before returning to UB to earn his MBA in 1974. To finance his studies, Peckham started his own computer software company, LPA Software, Inc.

After graduating No. 1 in his MBA class, Peckham worked alone for the next five years, developing LPA Software into an international business leader in the fields of defect-detection software and supply-chain management software for service parts

In 1998, a group of private investors bought a major share of the company, renaming it Xelus, Inc. In 2000, Peckham stepped down as company chairman.

Lichtenberger gives $250,000
H. William Lichtenberger, former chairman and CEO of the industrial-gases company Praxair, Inc., has donated $250,000 to the School of Management for the naming of a lecture hall in the school's new Alfiero Center.

The H. William Lichtenberger Lecture Hall will be used for instruction of undergraduate and graduate business students. It will be one of three dedicated learning spaces in the three-story Alfiero Center, which will contain facilities devoted to academic programs, student services and student clubs. The center will be built adjacent to and connected with the Jacobs Management Center on the North Campus, with construction beginning in 2003.

A 1966 graduate of the UB MBA program, Lichtenberger made the gift in recognition of the School of Management's contribution to his career success.

"During the course of my career, I have continually drawn upon the knowledge and skills I gained as a student at the School of Management," Lichtenberger said. "For that I am truly thankful. I hope this gift will help the school in its mission to prepare future business leaders."

"The naming of Lichtenberger Lecture Hall celebrates not only what one person has accomplished in his career, it celebrates what each of us is able to accomplish through hard work and pursuit of excellence," said Jerry M. Newman, interim dean of the School of Management and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor. "We are very thankful for Mr. Lichtenberger's generosity and we are honored to count him among our alumni."

The Alfiero Center, to be built at a cost of $7 million, will be named for the family of Western New York businessman Sal Alfiero, chairman and CEO of Protective Industries of Buffalo, who donated $2 million to the project in 2001.

Additional funding for the project is being provided by alumni and friends of the School of Management as part of UB's $250 million fund-raising campaign, one of the largest ever conducted by a public university in New York and New England.