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Pendergast to head research center
David R. Pendergast, professor of physiology and biophysics and adjunct professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been appointed director of the Center for Research and Education in Special Environments (CRESE) in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The appointment was effective Jan. 1.
Pendergast succeeds Claes E. Lundgren, who has directed the center since its inception in 1985. Lundgren is relinquishing the position to concentrate on his research projects, several of which he is conducting in collaboration with Pendergast. He will remain involved in the center as associate director.
Pendergast, who has been the center's associate director since 1991, studies a broad range of human adaptations to exercise on land, in water and in outer space. Internationally known in the field of exercise and environmental physiology, he currently is working with the U.S. Navy to improve performance in extreme environments. This work includes developing a system to protect divers in extreme temperatures, as well as locomotor and respiratory muscle training. He also is conducting research with colleagues on exercise metabolism, muscle diseases and improving the performance of competitive swimmers through training and drag-reducing swimsuits.
CRESE houses specialized facilities that allow researchers to study human physiology in extreme conditions—heat, cold, high and low humidity, high and low atmospheric pressure, high and low gravity—and contains a unique annular (doughnut-shaped) pool and water-filled hyperbaric chamber, allowing specialized aquatic research.
Pendergast received the Albert R. Behnke Award from the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) in June in recognition of his scientific contributions to advances in the undersea or hyperbaric (high atmospheric pressure) biomedical field. He also received an Exceptional Scholar Award for Sustained Achievement from UB in 2004.
Founder of "Arabs for Israel" to speak
Nonie Darwish, freelance writer, public speaker and founder of "Arabs for Israel," will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday in 112 Norton Hall, North Campus.
Born in Cairo, Darwish grew up in Gaza, which at the time was under Egyptian control. Her father, General Mustafa Hafez, directed the Fedayeen terrorist group that killed hundreds of Israelis in the 1950s and was the victim of the first targeted assassination carried out by Israel.
Darwish, who earned a bachelor's degree in sociology/anthropology from the American University in Cairo, was an editor and translator for the Middle East News Agency and immigrated to the United States in 1978. Through "Arabs for Israel," she works to promote reconciliation, acceptance and understanding between Arabs and Israelis.
Her UB talk will focus on culture and conflict in the Middle East, radical Islam and her recent book, "Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror."
The talk is sponsored by the Jewish Student Union and the Buffalo chapter of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East.
Gifted Math Program seeks students for fall class
The Gifted Math Program is accepting nominations of outstanding sixth-grade mathematics students submitted by schools and parents for its Fall 2007 entering class.
A three-hour battery of tests, including the math section of the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, will be administered in March to about 200 nominees for the 60 available places in the new class.
The Gifted Math Program, in its 27th year, enrolls approximately 250 students from secondary schools in Erie, Niagara and Orleans counties.
The program offers advanced math courses, which replace math classes in students' home schools and are designed to challenge students with high levels of ability. Students in grades seven to 10 study an enriched and accelerated math program; 11th and 12th graders take university-level courses in calculus and linear algebra. They complete about four semesters of university-level mathematics as part of the six-year program and may accumulate a total of 22 college credit hours.
Classes meet Mondays and Wednesdays on the North Campus. Seventh and eighth graders attend class from 3:30-6 p.m. and senior high-school students meet from 6:15-8:45 p.m.
A review group established by the National Science Teachers Association, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the American Association of School Administrators has recognized the program as one of 10 outstanding math-science activities nationwide.
Betty J. Krist, professor emerita of mathematics at Buffalo State College, and Gerald R. Rising, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus in the UB Department of Learning and Instruction, Graduate School of Education, are the founders and co-directors of the program.
Informational meetings for the families of nominated students and others interested in the program will be held at UB in February.
For more information or to obtain a schedule of information meetings, call Anne Szczesny, Gifted Math Program administrator, at 645-2455, ext. 1045, or visit the program Web site at http://giftedmath.buffalo.edu.