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NSF renews UB's industry/university research center
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
UB's Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Biosurfaces (IUCB) has been renewed as a "national center" by the National Science Foundation for a five-year term, with anticipated funding during the period from federal, state and industry sources expected to exceed $1 million.
IUCB has a partner research site at the University of Memphis.
Robert E. Baier, professor in the Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences in the School of Dental Medicine and executive director of IUCB, says the UB-based executive site for the center earned renewal of its designation as a national center through support from indoor air-cleaning industries in New York State and its work as principal investigator in Western New York for the multi-million-dollar NYSTAR-EQS Center, a 12-institution consortium funded by the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research. NYSTAR-Environmental Quality Systems Center, headquartered at Syracuse University, is working through IUCB with air pollution-control experts from Clarkson University and Buffalo State College to assess potential health affects from motor-vehicle traffic crossing the Peace Bridge at the U.S./Canada border at Buffalo.
The University of Memphis site of IUCB earned its designation, Baier says, due to multi-million-dollar investment in its FedEx Institute and support from the regional biomedical industry.
Moreover, with more than 35 percent of its engineering students being African-American, the University of Memphis provides exceptional training opportunities to a population that is generally underrepresented in scientific fields, he added.
Director of the Memphis site is M. Shah Jahan, chair of the university's Department of Physics. Director of the UB site is Anne E. Meyer, UB research associate professor in the Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences who currently serves as president of the U.S. Society For Biomaterials. Meyer and Jahan will organize the 32nd national meeting of the Society For Biomaterials, to be held in Memphis in April 2005.
The recent renewal marks the 4th consecutive, five-year, "national center" designation for IUCB from the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center Program, managed by the NSF's Division of Engineering Education and Centers. IUCB also receives support from the NSF's International Division in recognition of its work with a similar program at Malmo University in Sweden.
IUCB is one of only 50 such centers across the country designed by the NSF, each with a different and specific focus. While the centers are university-based and catalyzed by a small investment from NSF, they primarily are supported by industry members, with the goal of benefiting the regional and national economy.
Thus, IUCB's research focus has changed over the years as the chair of its industrial advisory board has changed, Baier notes.
In the center's first term, the board was chaired by American Cyanamid Corp., and research focused on making successful biomedical implants in support of the center's acknowledged leadership in developing dental implants.
In its second term, the board was chaired first by Procter & Gamble Corp., and then by Smith Nephew Richards, Inc., with research focusing on development of superior cleaning and comfort products for oral and eye care. New products developed by researchers affiliated with the center achieved yearly sales of $100 million, Baier says.
In its recently completed third term, the board was chaired by representatives of Johns Manville Corp. and CertainTeed Corp., leading the center's faculty and students to work on protecting respiratory health by understanding, predicting and controlling the fine particles that occur in building air from dirty ducts or construction dust.
The new IUCB board is chaired by National Indoor Environmental Quality Research, Inc., a Western New York-based firm dedicated to improving environmental quality via advanced research, training and education, leading to the center's research focus on air quality.
Baier notes that there are important homeland security aspects of the center's new research program that will be of special interest to federal laboratories and military agencies, as well as to local and worldwide package-delivery organizations.