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"Car Coach" to open UB at Sunrise Downtown speaker series
Lauren Fix, B.S. '86, one of the leading automotive experts in the nation and a frequent guest on national television and cable network shows, will open the "UB at Sunrise Downtown" speaker series with a presentation titled "Driving Ambition," to be held Oct. 12 in the Hyatt Regency, 2 Fountain Plaza.
Presented by the UB Alumni Association, the Sunrise series provides a convenient forum for the Western New York business community, UB alumni, faculty, staff and friends to learn about topics of human interest and current concern from members of the university community and others.
The sessions will begin at 7:30 a.m. with a continental breakfast and networking. Presentations will begin at 8 a.m. and conclude promptly at 9 a.m., with opportunities devoted within that timeframe for questions and answers
Business First of Buffalo is the series sponsor.
Fix, known professionally as The Car Coach™, has made several appearances on "Oprah!," "The Today Show," "Inside Edition" and "The Early Show," among others. She is co-host of "Talk 2-DIY Automotive" on the Do-It-Yourself Network, which is distributed to 22 million households in the U.S. Her new show, "Get Car Smarts," will debut on PAX television this fall.
A champion racecar driver and author of three books, Fix resides in Williamsville and owns Automotive Aspects, Inc., a consulting firm in Amherst. Her presentation, "Driving Ambition," will offer insight into how she became proficient in the automotive field and parlayed that knowledge into a career, and how anyone else can do the same.
Fix's presentation will be one of more than 50 inaugural events being held during October in conjunction with the investiture of John B. Simpson as UB's 14th president.
Other upcoming series speakers will be Bernard Tolbert, M.S.W. '72, BS '71, vice president of security for the National Basketball Association and former special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Buffalo, who will talk about security at sports events on Nov. 17, and Michel Bruneau, director of the UB Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), who will discuss "One Destructive Earthquake per Week in Buffalo—Where and Why" on Dec. 15.
To register for the entire series, or for individual presentations, call the UB Office of Alumni Relations at 829-2608. A fall series subscription is $32 per person; $25 for UB Alumni Association members. Subscriptions must be made by Oct. 8
Reservations for individual presentations are $12 per person or $10 for UB Alumni Association members and must be made five days prior to each presentation.
For more information about the UB at Sunrise Downtown Speakers Series, call Michael Jankowski in the Office of Alumni Relations, at 829-2608.
Witches, identity theft to be topics of noon lecture series
The public's fascination with evil witches and the issue of identity theft will be the topics of two lectures to be held this fall as part of the UB at Noon for Distinguished Alumni Luncheon Series.
Formerly known as the Senior Alumni Series, the programs will be held in the Center for Tomorrow North Campus, beginning with lunch at noon followed by the speaker's presentation, which will end at 1:30 p.m. and include a question-and-answer session. The series is geared toward alumni and friends who graduated before 1963 and for members of the UB Employee Alumni Chapter.
The series will begin on Oct. 13 with Phillips Stevens, Jr., associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, who will discuss "Our Fascination with the Evil Witch."
Stevens, who has conducted fieldwork in West Africa and the Caribbean, is the recipient of two awards for excellence in teaching and the author of many publications on cultural anthropology. Of all Halloween creatures, he says, the most enduring is the night-flying, child-stealing, murderous, cannibalistic witch. Fears of similar creatures have terrified people throughout history and in most of the world's cultures. In the 1980s, entire American communities were panicked by fears of Satanists who allegedly conducted similar, horrible deeds.
Stevens currently is working on a book on magic, sorcery and witchcraft.
Last year, as many as 10 million Americans—at the cost of $53 billion to the U.S. economy—were victims of identity theft. Paul Moskal, J.D.'79, B.A.'76, chief division counsel in the Buffalo office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, will be the featured speaker on Nov. 17, when he will outline ways people can protect themselves against identity theft.
Identity theft occurs when an individual's credit card, social security number or other identifying information is obtained and items are either purchased with those credit card accounts, or new accounts are opened, and then used. Moskal will advise participants on how to better protect themselves when using credit and debit cards or ordering online via the Internet.
Cost of each presentation is $14 for UB Alumni Association members and $16 for non-members. Call the Office of Alumni Relations at 829-2608 at least five days prior to each program for reservations.
For more information, call Michael Jankowski in the Office of Alumni Relations, at 829-2608.
Music department offers concerts for the budget-conscious
The Department of Music is offering a wealth of concerts this academic year for the budget-conscious music lover at UB.
Now in its sixth year, the Brown Bag Concert Series will take place at noon on the first Tuesday of October, November, December, February, March and April in the lobby of Slee Hall, North Campus. The concerts showcase the talents of students and faculty in the Department of Music.
Coordinated by faculty member Cheryl Gobbetti Hoffman, this series of free, informal concerts presented over the lunch hour allows patrons to catch a glimpse of the kind of programming offered on a regular basis by the music department. Patrons may bring their lunch and enjoy free Starbucks coffee. A pair of complimentary tickets is offered to each attendee for a more formal concert the following month.
The first Brown Bag will take place on Tuesday.
Recitals are performed by students fulfilling their requirements for either a bachelor's (Mus.B.) or masters (M.M.) degree in music. All student recitals and student ensemble concerts are free and open to the public, and the first of the semester will be presented by graduate student Jeremiah Fox, a percussionist studying with faculty member Anthony Miranda. The concert will take place at 8 p.m. Sunday in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall. Information about this concert and others will be posted as it comes available on the Slee Hall Web site at http://www.slee. buffalo.edu/students.htm.
Monkey King to be performed by Beijing Opera
The Center for the Arts will present "Adventures of the Monkey King: A Beijing Opera" at 8 p.m. Oct. 8 in the Mainstage theater in the CFA, North Campus.
The performance will be one of more than 50 inaugural events being held during October in conjunction with the investiture of John B. Simpson as UB's 14th president.
Imagine a small army of performers somersaulting across the stage, twirling spears and tossing swords, executing superb martial art moves—all the while singing melodiously, costumed in magnificent silk brocades and multi-colored makeup. That is the theatrical wonder that audiences will find when they see "The Adventures of the Monkey King: A Beijing Opera." The tour was organized by Cornell East Asia Program and funded in part by the Freeman Foundation. The Center for the Arts is one of only 10 U.S. venues presenting the troupe.
Beijing Opera blends acting, dancing and live music with acrobatics and kung-fu style stage combat to create a breathtaking evening of drama. The dynamic, 17-member troupe of actors and musicians includes masters of the National Academy in China. This retelling of the Monkey King story, one of the Beijing Opera's most revered and accessible works, is presented in celebration of the Year of the Monkey. Some of the dialogue will be spoken in English.
Tickets for "Adventures of the Monkey King: A Beijing Opera" are $22 for the general public and $16 for UB students with ID. Tickets 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.
Tripathi to address Faculty Senate
Satish K. Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, will speak on the "Academic State of the University" at the next meeting of the Faculty Senate, to be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday in the Center for Tomorrow, North Campus.
For further information, contact the Faculty Senate Office at 645-2003.
Information research consultant Gary Price to speak at UB
Information research consultant, author and librarian Gary Price will discuss how best to take advantage of today's search engine capabilities in a lecture, "More than Google: Search Engines, Current Awareness and Tools of the Trade," to be held from 9-11 a.m. Oct. 7 in 330 Student Union, North Campus.
His lecture is free and open to the university community.
Price is the editor and compiler of "The Resource Shelf" http://www.resourceshelf.com, a daily electronic newsletter for news and other resources of interest to the online researcher.
He also is news editor of SearchEngineWatch http://searchenginewatch.com , an Internet site devoted to specialty search engines, and has compiled several well-known Web research tools, including Price's List of Lists http://www. specialissues.com/lol/ and Direct Search http://www. freepint.com/gary/direct.htm, a compilation of invisible Web databases containing information that is not easily or entirely searchable or accessible through more commonly familiar search engines.
Price is a frequent speaker at professional and trade conferences, a contributor to Searcher magazine and the co-author of "The Invisible Web" (Cyber Age Books). He and his work have been the subject of articles in a number of publications, including The Washington Post, The Guardian and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
He holds a master of library science degree from Wayne State University and a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas.
Price also will discuss career choices for informatics graduates and how they can market themselves in the work place from 1:30-3 p.m., also in 330 Student Union.
His visit is sponsored by the Division of University Advancement, the School of Informatics and the University Libraries.
For more information, contact Kristen Brill at kbrill@buffalo.edu or Ann Kutner at alkutner@buffalo.edu.
Concert to benefit CARES
A concert featuring the Gay Men's Chorus and Unitarian Universality Choir will be held at 5 p.m. Sunday in the Unitarian Universalist Church, 659 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo.
Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for students.
Proceeds from the concert, which also will feature master organist Drew Cantrill and other artists, will benefit the CARES program in the schools of Dental Medicine and Social Work. CARES provides dental care and other assistance to needy patients attending the dental clinic in the School of Dental Medicine. The program has helped more than 600 patients since its inception in 2001.