Archives
People etc.
Feedback sought for "UB 2020"
Members of the university community are encouraged to submit comments or ask questions regarding the university's academic planning process.
Such feedback is being accepted at the "UB 2020" Web site at http://www.buffalo.edu/ ub2020/. Click on "feedback" in the lower left-hand corner of the page.
Questions and comments submitted via the online form will be routed to staff members who will bring the issue to the attention of the appropriate planning committee. All comments will remain anonymous unless the user provides his/her name and email address.
Film in classroom to be topic of workshop
Have you ever thought about using feature films in your literature, history or cultural studies classes, but hesitated because of a fear that the film itself would take over the class and preclude critical activity? You may need to show only portions of a film, or of more than one film, to provoke discussion and further viewing, reading and writing.
Barbara Bono, associate professor of English and director of the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender, will discuss using feature film in the classroom during a workshop scheduled from 1-2:30 p.m. Nov. 12 in 120 Clemens Hall, North Campus.
The workshop will be presented by the Center for Teaching and Learning Resources.
Bono will illustrate some simple interactive and critical techniques for the comparative evaluation of three very different screen versions of Shakespeare's "Hamlet"—Laurence Olivier's 1948 version, Kenneth Branagh's 1997 version and Michael Almereyda's 2000 version—by focusing on their renditions of the classic "To be or not to be" soliloquy.
Bono received training in a variety of interactive techniques for the teaching of Shakespeare in the lower grades at the 1996 Folger Shakespeare Library NEH Summer Institute on "Teaching Shakespeare." She regularly teaches courses on Shakespeare pedagogy and Shakespeare and film, in addition to more traditional scholarly offerings.
The workshop is free of charge, but advance registration is required. To register, visit http://www.buffalo.edu/ctlr or contact Lisa Francescone at lcf@buffalo.edu, or 645-7328, and provide your name, department and email address.
UB incubator welcomes 4 new companies
The University at Buffalo Technology Incubator has welcomed four new companies and completed improvements that bring new amenities and state-of-the-art technology to its entrepreneurs and their employees. A fifth new company will be moving into the incubator next month.
Planning also is under way for new buildings in the Baird Research Park on Sweet Home Road in Amherst that is home to the incubator, according to Woodrow "Woody" Maggard, associate vice provost in the Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach.
Maggard said the site has been master-planned for three additional buildings, including one that will extend off of the current building. "We anticipate that within the next one to two years we'll break ground for new buildings," he added.
Plans also are under way for placing incubators at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in downtown Buffalo and on the UB South Campus, he said, although no timetable has been set.
"By incubator standards, we are at capacity," Maggard noted. "Our occupancy is close to 100 percent, but we have left some space open for future growth of our current members. Small companies can grow very rapidly and we need to be flexible enough to accommodate that growth."
The incubator is home to 18 companies, including an affiliate company that has the home base for its U.S. operations there. The newest members include:
GBNow, LLC, which opened its headquarters in the incubator in July, has satellite/sales offices in Rochester and New York City. The company offers a Web-based software technology platform designed to assist businesses in competing for contracts and grants from the federal government.
GeneObUSA, Inc., joined the incubator as an affiliate member in September. GeneObUSA and its sister Canadian company, GeneOb, are involved in public-health genomics for obesity and conduct DNA testing and target drug discovery.
Lynx Technologies, Inc., and Absolute Energy, Inc., owned by the same entrepreneur, joined the incubator in August. Lynx provides server-room hardware and systems integrations services, while Absolute Energy provides energy purchasing and management services for consumers of large amounts of energy.
A fifth company, Virmatics, LLC, a UB faculty start-up developing bioinformatics software that provides automated tools for biomedical researchers, will join the incubator this month.
Capital-improvement projects at the incubator have included its conversion to a WiFi zone. With its wireless network access completed over the summer, many employees enjoyed working outside during their lunch hour. Renovations also were made to the conference room, including new tables, chairs and carpeting, making it a flexible meeting space for up to 25 people.
"One of our much-needed renovations was the acquisition of a backup generator," Maggard added. "A power surge or lack of power could be devastating to these small companies who are manufacturing sensitive products or conducting critical business operations." The backup generator will be able to power normal business operations for the entire building.
Hacker to deliver Silverman reading
Renowned poet, translator and author Marilyn Hacker will deliver the annual Oscar Silverman Poetry Reading at 7 p.m. tomorrow in 250 Baird Hall, North Campus.
The reading, part of the "Wednesdays at 4 PLUS" literary series, will be free and open to the public. The Silverman reading is held in memory of Oscar Silverman, distinguished UB scholar and teacher who chaired the Department of English and directed the University Libraries. He also helped to develop UB's extensive collection of 20th century poetry.
Hacker, professor of English at The City College of New York and a professor of French in the CUNY Graduate Center, has published more than 13 books of poetry, including "Desperanto: Poems, 1999-2002" and "Selected Poems, 1965-1990," which received the Poets' Prize.
She has received numerous other honors, including the Bernard F. Conners Prize from the Paris Review, the John Masefield Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America and fellowships from the Guggenheim and Ingram Merrill foundations.
In addition to the Silverman reading, the schedule for the final month of the Fall 2004 "Wednesdays at 4 PLUS" will feature a variety of readings and presentations, including a two-day session on film theory and poetry.
Matt Hart, co editor of the literary journal/art object Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking & Light Industrial Safety, will give a poetry reading at 8 p.m. today in the library in Huber Hall at Medaille College.
Brendan Lorber and Sasha Steensen will read at 8 p.m. Nov. 12 in the Hibiscus Room at Just Buffalo Literary Center, Suite 512 of the Tri-Main Building, 2495 Main St., Buffalo. Lorber is the editor of lungful magazine and author of "Corvid Aurora." Steensen is the author of "A Magic Book," winner of the 2004 Alberta Prize from Fence Books.
The final offering of the Fall 2004 season will be "Flicker at Buffalo: Correspondences in New Media, Film and Poetry" on Nov. 17-18, led by writer, film theorist and video artist Jalal Toufic. Toufic will give a talk on "Saving the Living Human's Face and Backing the Mortal" at 4 p.m. Nov. 17 in the Poetry/Rare Books Collection, 420 Capen Hall, North Campus. Later that day, there will be a film screening at 8 p.m. at Squeaky Wheel, 175 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo. Toufic will discuss "The Withdrawal of Tradition Past a Surpassing Disaster" at 4 p.m. on Nov. 18 in the Poetry/Rare Books Collection.
Toufic is the author of "(Vampires): An Uneasy Essay on the Undead in Films," "Over-Sensitivity," "Forthcoming" and "Undying Love or Love Dies." He has taught at the California Institute of the Arts, University of California, Berkeley, and at the University of Southern California.
All Wednesdays at 4 PLUS events are free and open to the public. For further information call 645-3810 or email mdunlap@buffalo.edu.
CTLR established Sarkin memorial workshop
In memory of Richard T. Sarkin, one of the most respected and requested instructors in the Center for Teaching and Learning Resources who died in a plane crash on Oct. 19, the center has established the Richard Sarkin Memorial Workshop on Teaching, to be held each year on the Friday before Thanksgiving.
Sarkin, associate professor of clinical pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, had been scheduled this year to lead a CTLR workshop on the Friday before Thanksgiving, as he had in past years.
The first Sarkin workshop, entitled "Arrows in the Quiver: Teaching Tips for Faculty," will be held from 1-2:30 p.m. Nov. 19 in 120 Clemens Hall, North Campus.
The program will celebrate Sarkin's contributions by having a number of UB's most distinguished teachers present their favorite teaching tip or method. Each of these teaching tips can be an "arrow in the quiver," to use a Sarkin phrase, for UB faculty members as they strive to expand their repertoires of teaching techniques.
The program also will include a brief memorial to Sarkin.
The workshop is free, but advance registration is required. To register, visit http://www.buffalo.edu/ctlr or contact Lisa Francescone at lcf@buffalo.edu or 645-7328.
Mikoll receives Jaeckle Award
The Hon. Ann T. Mikoll, the first woman elected to serve on a New York State appellate court and a lifelong advocate for the cultural and educational training of young people, received the 2004 Edwin F. Jaeckle Award from the Law School and the UB Law Alumni Association at a luncheon on Saturday.
The award, named for UB Law alumnus Edwin F. Jaeckle, Class of 1915, is the highest honor bestowed by the Law School and the Law Alumni Association. It is given annually to an individual who has distinguished herself or himself and has made significant contributions to the Law School and to the legal profession.
Prior Jaeckle Award winners include Hon. Charles S. Desmond, Frank G. Raichle Jr., M. Robert Koren, Manly Fleischmann, Hon. M. Dolores Denman and former UB President William R. Greiner.
The luncheon and award presentation followed the morning-long UB Law Alumni Convocation, an annual continuing legal educational program. The convocation's focus this year was "Emerging Developments, Changes and Updates in Professional Ethics."
Nils Olsen, Law School dean and professor, praised Mikoll, noting that "throughout her illustrious career, Ann Mikoll has brought honor to the Law School and to the legal profession. She has long served as a distinguished and respected jurist and has provided guidance to the school through her active and continuing membership on the Dean's Advisory Council. She is an exceptionally worthy recipient of the Jaeckle Award."
Prior to Mikoll's appointment as the first woman elected to a New York State appellate court, she had served as assistant corporation counsel for the City of Buffalo, for 14 years as a Buffalo City Court judge and was elected to the state's Supreme Court in 1971 and re-elected in 1985. She retired in 1999 as senior associate justice of the Appellate Division, 3rd Department.
Her entry into public life was preceded by lifelong civic activity, with special concern for the cultural and educational training of young people. For 21 years, she planned, supervised and executed youth programs for fraternal cultural organizations, teaching literature, poetry, music, singing and dancing to their young members. She is a 1954 graduate of the UB Law School.
Law Library is passport facility
The Law Library is now a Passport Acceptance Facility.
The certified passport agents in the library are authorized to distribute forms, accept completed paperwork, review required documentation and forward applications to the U.S. regional passport agency in Boston.
Stop by 211 O'Brian Hall inside the Law Library on the North Campus Monday through Friday to obtain passport forms and general information.
RIA to hold seminar series
The Research Institute on Addictions' (RIA) fall seminar series will continue on Nov. 12 with a discussion of the "Dual Reinforcement Model of Nicotine Self-administration and Smoking" by Anthony Caggiula, professor of psychiatry in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and chair of the Department of Psychology at Pitt. His research investigates how nicotine, stress, sex and individual differences lead to compulsive smoking.
The seminar series will conclude on Dec. 10 with a presentation entitled "Drinking Restraint and Risk for Alcohol Abuse" by R. Lorraine Collins, senior research scientist at RIA and research professor in the UB Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences.
Collins' current projects examine restraint and attributions in alcohol abuse, alcohol expectancies for malt liquor, self-control and risk of smoking lapse, risks for HIV among women bar drinkers and drug use and problem behaviors in minority youth. Collins is the co-training director of RIA's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism-funded postdoctoral research training program.
All seminars in the series, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 10 a.m. at RIA, 1021 Main St., Buffalo.
For more information about the seminars, contact RIA at 887-2566 or visit http://www.ria.buffalo.edu.
The Research Institute on Addictions has been a leader in the study of addictions since 1970 and a UB research center since 1999.
Eder to perform in CFA
After bringing down the house in the Center for the Arts during her concert here last April, celebrated singer Linda Eder will return to UB with her band and a 32-member choir to perform a special holiday concert at 8 p.m. Dec. 11 in the Mainstage theater in the CFA, North Campus.
Eder is a recording artist, concert sensation and Broadway star universally acclaimed for her incredible range, both vocally and stylistically. Constant comparisons to Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion and other great voices have secured her place among an elite group of singers.
Eder's first true national exposure was via "Star Search" in 1988, where she had an unprecedented 13 weeks of success. It also was through "Star Search" that she first met composer Frank Wildhorn, who was casting for the musical "Jekyll & Hyde." The show went on a 35-city tour before opening on Broadway in 1997. Eder's performance as Lucy earned her the Theatre World Award for Best Broadway Debut, as well as the Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Award Nominations for Best Actress in a Musical.
Her seven solo albums, as well as featured roles on the original Broadway cast album for "Jekyll & Hyde" and on the original concept albums for Wildhorn's other stage musicals, "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and "The Civil War," have won Eder critical and popular accolades.
Tickets for Linda Eder are $48, $44, $40 and $36, and are available at the CFA box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations.
For more information, call 645-ARTS.