Archives
People etc.
Conserve energy: Do it in the dark
Computer and Information Technology is encouraging UB students to conserve energy by using power-management features to turn off computer monitors when not in use as part of the "Do it in the dark" campaign.
Students can go to http://www.buffalo.edu/ inthedark to learn more about the power-management features for their specific computer system. These features can save up to 95 percent of the power a monitor can use during an entire year. Students can download power-management features for Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems.
Participation in the campaign will enter students in a grand prize drawing for a 19-inch, LCD, flat-panel monitor donated by Dell Computers. The drawing will be held on Earth Day, April 22.
Students also can win additional prizes through the campaign. After a week of using power management, they will be asked to complete a brief survey that will earn them a "Do it in the dark" T-shirt or button, as well as participation in Tuesday promotional giveaways. On selected Tuesdays through Earth Day, students wearing the promotional T-shirts or buttons have a chance to win a new iPod mini. The Tuesday dates are available at the Web site.
For more information on contest eligibility, questions on power management, equipment and contacts, visit http://www.buffalo.edu/ inthedark.
Holiday Print Sale to be held
The Department of Art, College of Arts and Sciences, will hold the ninth annual Holiday Print Sale from 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Center for the Arts Atrium, North Campus.
Original prints by students, alumni and participants in the experimental Print Imaging Center's (ePIC) Community Printshop will be available for purchase.
Printing demonstrations by master printer Chunwoo Nam, a graduate student in the Department of Art, will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and prints from the "Print Media at UB" exhibition also will be on view.
A portion of the proceeds from each sale will benefit development programs for art students and ePIC.
For further information, contact Jeffery Sherven at 645-6878, ext.1369, or jsherven@acsu.buffalo.edu.
NYSTAR supports UB research developing "smart cards"
Researchers in UB's Center for Unified Biometrics and Sensors (CUBS) are developing a versatile smart-card system that incorporates a powerful ultrasonic fingerprint-identification technology developed by Amherst-based Ultra-Scan Corp.
They are developing smart cards embedded with multiple biometrics, or personal data about individuals, that will serve as a highly accurate method to identify individuals and have applications in areas ranging from national security to retail businesses.
The project is funded by a $100,000 grant from the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) with $50,000 each in matching funds from UB and Ultra-Scan.
"Virtually any place where you need people to show identification is a potential application for smart cards based on biometrics," said Venu Govindaraju, director of CUBS and professor of computer science and engineering.
"With this grant, CUBS and Ultra-Scan will research methods to combine several biometrics—for example, face, fingerprint and perhaps signature biometrics—on a single smart card, ensuring very high accuracy," he explained.
Ultra-Scan's ultrasonic, automated fingerprint-identification systems technology is able to read through dirt, grease and grime and raise scanning accuracy to levels that can virtually guarantee a person's identity.
"Developing advanced technology using biometrics enables smart cards to accurately identify and protect individuals in a variety of situations," said John K. Schneider, president of Ultra-Scan Corp.
"The transportation, health-care and retail sectors all will benefit from a smart card that could ultimately prevent credit-card or social-security fraud, as well as protect homeland security and help secure our borders."
CUBS will use the grant to help expand the marketability of Ultra-Scan's technologies by keeping them in compliance with current smart-card standards, researching ways to integrate them into smart cards and by testing and benchmarking them.
CUBS advances the science of biometrics to provide key enabling technologies to build engineered systems with a focus on homeland security applications.
Ultra-Scan Corp. is an identity-management solutions provider serving the health-care, government- and transportation-security, and financial markets.
Reading to be held in memory of Lyle Glazier
A reading in memory of Lyle Glazier, former UB faculty member who was instrumental in the founding of the Department of American Studies, will be held from 2-4 p.m. Nov. 30 in the Poetry/Rare Books Collection, 420 Capen Hall, North Campus.
Glazier, a poet, novelist and literary critic who taught in the Department of English from 1947-72, died on Oct. 21 in Bennington, Vt.
Friends and colleagues of Glazier's will read from Glazier's work and share memories of him. An exhibit of his books and some of his manuscripts will be on view for the event.
Glazier received a bachelor's degree from Middlebury College and master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University.
While at UB, he received two Fulbright awards, serving as Fulbright Chair of American Studies at the University of Istanbul and a lecturer at Hacettepe University in Ankara. He also served as the first chair of the interdepartmental major in American studies, which later became the Department of American Studies.
Glazier continued to teach after his retirement from UB in 1972, lecturing at universities in India, Turkey and Yemen.
Glazier authored numerous novels and books of poetry, among them "Summer for Joey," "Orchard Park and Istanbul" and "Azubah Nye," and the critical study "American Decadence and Rebirth."
Wilson named chair of Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences
John Xavier Wilson, professor of physiology and pharmacology in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, has been named chair of the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences in the School of Public Health and Health Professions, effective Jan. 1, 2005.
Wilson conducts research into the action and biochemistry of antioxidant nutrients and drugs, including Vitamin C. His work has been funded since 1983, and has resulted in more than 90 articles in scholarly journals, with several additional articles pending publication.
A native of Toronto, Wilson earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Toronto, and in 1982 received a doctorate in comparative physiology and pharmacology from that institution. Following his doctoral work, he spent a year as a postdoctoral scientist in the Endocrinology and Reproductive Branch of the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Md.
Wilson was an assistant professor of physiology at the University of Saskatchewan for two years before accepting a similar position at the University of Western Ontario in 1985. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1990 and in 1999 attained the rank of professor. He also earned a certificate in management from the Canadian Institute of Management.
He has held numerous administrative posts within the university, as well as in the external scientific community, including president of the Southern Ontario Neuroscience Association, co-founder of the Oxidative Stress Consortium, chair of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program Selection Panel and editor of Physiology Canada.
Two dental chairs named
Two new chairs, both active researchers, have been appointed to head departments in the School of Dental Medicine, effective this fall semester.
Carlos Munoz-Viveros, former professor of dentistry at Loma Linda University School of Dentistry and a specialist in biomaterials, has been named chair of the Department of Restorative Dentistry.
Frank Scannapieco, professor of oral biology, who has served as associate chair of the Department of Oral Biology since 2003, has been appointed to the chair position.
Munoz-Viveros received a D.D.S. degree from the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Urena School of Dental Medicine in his native Dominican Republic in 1978, and a second D.D.S. from Indiana University School of Dentistry in Indianapolis in 1981. He earned an M.S.D. in 1982 from Indiana University.
At Loma Linda, he served as director of the dental school's Biomaterials Research Center, where he did work in the areas of dentin bonding, advanced ceramic restorations, gingival esthetics and advanced dental materials. Results of his research have been published extensively in professional journals.
Scannapieco received his D.M.D. degree from the University of Connecticut in 1985 and his doctorate in oral biology from UB in 1991. He has been on the dental school faculty since 1987.
In addition to his teaching and mentoring activities, Scannapieco has conducted NIH-funded research for several years, studying the mechanisms of oral bacterial colonization and their implications for health and disease. He has published widely in professional journals.
Korean dance to be performed
The Center for the Arts will present "Reimagining Tradition: Korean Traditional Dance by Cho Heung Dong," at 8 p.m. Dec. 8 in the Drama Theatre in the CFA, North Campus.
The program will include court dances, various regional Shaman dances, Buddhist ritual dances and representative Korean folk dances, such as Sung Mu, Chungbu Salp'uri dance and T'aep'yongmu.
The program is part of a national tour organized and supported by the Korea Society, a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting greater awareness, understanding and cooperation between the people of the United States and Korea.
With a career spanning 50 years, Cho Heung Dong is widely acknowledged as a dancer who commands one of the most wide-ranging repertories of Korean traditional dance. Cho began dancing at the age of nine, and has become a representative of Korea through his mastering of many forms. One of the few male dancers of Korean traditional dance, his dance exudes vitality and spirit rarely seen in other contemporary performers.
Cho has won many honors for his work, including the choreographer prize at the Korean Dance Festival in 1981 and the Seoul Metropolis Cultural Prize in 1995. He was awarded culture and art prizes by the Korean government in 1995 and received a cultural decoration in 2000. In 1993, Cho became the youngest member of the Korean Art Academy. He has been the chief director of the Korean Dance Association since 1991, and arranged many dances for the 1998 Seoul Olympics. He was a principal dancer for the National Dance Company of Korea in 1983 and its artistic director in 1993. In 1997, he assumed artistic directorship of the Seoul Arts Group.
Tickets for the UB performance are $20 for the general public and $14 for students and are available in the CFA box office form 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations.
For more information, call 645-ARTS.
Dance performance scheduled
The Department of Theatre & Dance will present "Zodiaque Studio Dance Ensemble: Still Kicking" Dec. 2-5 in the Black Box Theatre in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.
Performances will be at 8 p.m. Dec. 2-4 and at 2 p.m. on Dec. 5.
Director William E. Thomas and Associate Director Joyce Lichtenberger use the performance skills of UB dance majors to showcase choreographic work by faculty, guest artists and advanced choreography students.
The upcoming dance concert will celebrate 10 years of training dancers and young choreographers through this sister company to Zodiaque Dance Company. An anniversary reception will follow the performance on Dec. 4.
Zodiaque Studio Dance Ensemble revels in its scope of artistic activity. In addition to a variety of choreographic styles, the music ranges from Bach to techno and from Zap Mama to India.Arie. It is this creative, experimental mix of movement and sound that helps the company to continue to progress at the cutting edge of contemporary dance.
Zodiaque Studio Dance Ensemble began 10 years ago under the name StudioWerks Dance Ensemble. The idea of creating a second company to Zodiaque Dance Company was suggested by dance professor Tressa Gorman Crehan and implemented by Linda Swiniuch, then director of the dance program. The first directors of the company were Tom Ralabate and Lynne Kurdziel-Formato.
Tickets for "Zodiaque Studio Dance Ensemble: Still Kicking" are $6 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.