University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: May 3, 2007

REV-UP program to recognize volunteers

The 17th annual REV-UP Recognition Ceremony and Reception will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday in 102 Goodyear Hall, South Campus, in conjunction with the May meeting of the Emeritus Center.

Emeritus Center members also will elect new members for the board of directors at the meeting.

The speaker will be Scott Nostaja, interim vice president for human resources and special assistant to the president. Nostaja will discuss the components of a good workplace.

Nostaja also will assist in presenting the REV-UP members with certificates of appreciation, as well as recognizing representatives from departments benefiting from REV-UP volunteers.

The ceremony will recognize 71 REV-UP members who together contributed nearly 2,700 hours of volunteer service to 19 UB departments from May 2006 through April 2007.

Since the inception of the REV-UP program in March 1990, more than 52,000 hours of volunteer service have been given to UB by its retirees.

For further information about the REV-UP program, contact Leila (Lee) Baker, REV-UP manager, at 829-2271 or bakerl@buffalo.edu.

Physics summer institute set

High school students who love physics and the arts may apply for UB's second annual Physics & Arts Summer Institute for high school students, sponsored by the Department of Physics, College of Arts and Sciences.

The purpose of the program, which runs from July 9 through Aug. 3, is to involve high school students in communicating the excitement of physics to the public, according to Doreen Wackeroth, assistant professor of physics, who developed the summer institute with funding from a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER grant she received.

Students who have taken high school physics and who will enter 11th or 12th grade in the fall may apply. Up to eight students will be accepted; the application deadline is May 15.

Students enrolled in the program will build an exhibit on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that will become part of the permanent Physics & Arts Exhibition in Fronczak Hall that honors, celebrates and demystifies the discipline for the general public. When it comes online in the near future, the LHC, located near Geneva, Switzerland, will be the world's most powerful particle accelerator, designed to recreate the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

Under the direction of Depew High School science teacher Craig Uhrich and a student who "graduated" from last's year's physics summer institute, participants will design explanatory materials, such as posters, Web pages, audio tours and other materials, to go with the exhibit that they develop.

They also will attend lectures by UB professors on particle physics and on the arts, take a one-day excursion to Fermilab's particle accelerator near Chicago, learn how to conduct scientific research online from UB's science librarians and lead members of the public on tours of the physics exhibit once it is complete.

High school physics students and teachers interested in the institute should apply at ubexpo@gmail.com or contact Wackeroth at 645-2017 x175.

For more information about the summer institute, go to http://www.physics. buffalo.edu/pasi.

Winners of Panasci contest announced

For the second year in a row, providing products and services to biotechnology firms was the common denominator for the two teams that won more than $40,000 in cash and services in UB's annual Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition (Panasci TEC).

Panasci TEC, now in its fourth year, awards seed money and business services to the teams that present the best plan for launch of a viable new business.

John M. Aletta, Elvira Gomez Aletta, Timothy J. Lukasiewicz and John C. Hu won first prize for their proposed business, CH3 BioSystems.

The company will provide high-performance ingredients for the discovery of protein methylation pathways in cells and tissues, and will help scientists understand and treat certain cancers, HIV, heart disease and neurological diseases. Clients will include both basic science research and clinical laboratory communities. CH3 BioSystems aims to establish a niche in the biotechnology market by focusing on the rapidly expanding field of protein methylation biology (PMB) with world-class support services and a constantly evolving product line.

"Throughout this competition we have been fortunate to work with many top business leaders in the Western New York community," says Lukasiewicz. "These connections not only helped us to move our concept forward, but also helped us establish critical relationships for continued success. We look forward to strengthening these relationships and being an active part of growing the Buffalo biomedical corridor."

Adds John Aletta: "The future possibilities are what excite me most about winning the Panasci Technology Entrepreneurship Competition. Our team hopes to promote not only new business opportunities for the Western New York area, but also the enterprise of scientific research discovery across the nation."

The competition is designed to bring students from science and technology disciplines together with students or recent graduates from the School of Management to maximize their business-and-scientific potential and create viable businesses in Western New York. Lukasiewicz received his Executive M.B.A. from UB in 2003 and currently is enrolled in the school's information assurance advanced certificate program. Hu is a junior at UB, majoring in computer science and biomedical science.

The first-prize package, valued at more than $30,000, includes $25,000 in seed funding and one year of legal services from Jaeckle Fleischmann and Mugel. This year's winners will be eligible to advance to the Golden Horseshoe Business Challenge on May 31 to compete for an additional $100,000 in start-up capital.

The second-place prize of $10,000 in start-up funding went to Deliverex for a proposal to offer biotech and pharma companies a lipid-based nanoparticle that has been demonstrated to improve the effectiveness of drugs while overcoming toxicity, delivery and dosing issues that plague many of the already-approved and development-stage drugs.

The Deliverex team is made up entirely of UB students and alumni: Joseph Colangelo, M.B.A. '08; Timothy Dee, M.B.A. '04; Douglas Smith, Ph.D. '04, JD '08; Aaron Peng, Ph.D. '09; and Ranata Bator, B.S. '05, M.B.A. '07.

Carrel to receive alumni award

Alan S. Carrel, J.D. '67, vice dean of the UB Law School, is one of five graduates of the UB Law School and one non-alumnus who will receive Distinguished Alumni Awards for their valuable contributions to the legal profession and community at the 45th annual UB Law Alumni Association meeting and dinner being held tonight in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.

Carrel will receive his award for his commitment to public service.

"We are fortunate at UB to have such remarkable alumni and friends," said UB Law School Dean Nils Olsen. "Alan is an exceptionally worthy recipient. His leadership and accomplishments have contributed enormously to our Law School, community and legal profession."

Carrel practiced as a litigator in the law firm of Rosen, Yasinow, Roberts, Rich and Carrel until coming to the Law School in 1978. The first nonfaculty member to become an associate dean and the first to become a vice dean, Carrel has over the course of his career headed the offices of alumni relations, career services, development, publications and public relations in the Law School, and was actively involved in admissions and student services. He has served on the board of directors of the New York State Continuing Legal Education Program, the American Association of Law Schools Advancement Section, Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, the Volunteer Lawyers Project, and as chair of the Women's Bar Association, Western New York Chapter Long Range Planning Committee, among others.

Other awards recipients are Hon. Thomas Van Strydonck '73, administrative justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Seventh Judicial District, for his conscientious and diligent performance in the judiciary; Margaret W. Wong '76, managing partner of Margaret W. Wong & Associates Co., L.P.A., for her leadership by example as a private practitioner; Richard Lipsitz '43, of counsel, Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria LLP, for his many contributions to the betterment of the community; William E. Mathias '71, for his exemplary performance in business; and Frederick Attea, a nonalumnus who is a partner in Phillips Lytle, for outstanding service to the university and the community.

For more information on the dinner, contact the UB Law Alumni Office at 645-2107 or email law-alumni@buffalo.edu.

‘Selections’ at UB Anderson Gallery

"Selections From the Permanent Collection," an exhibition of important works from the UB Anderson Gallery's own collection, is on view through Aug. 5 in the gallery, One Martha Jackson Place, near the intersection of Englewood and Kenmore avenues.

The exhibition was organized by Robert Scalise, assistant director for exhibitions and collections at the Anderson Gallery. It features work by artists Joan Mitchell, Antoni Tàpies, Michael Goldberg and Sam Francis, among others.

The works selected for the exhibition represent artists who shared a long history with Martha Jackson and David K. Anderson, Jackson's son who opened the UB Anderson Gallery in 1991. These works, not always on public view at the Anderson Gallery, are historically important to the collection and to art history in general.

Jackson, who owned a gallery in New York City, regularly exhibited work by New York artists Mitchell, Goldberg, Lester Johnson, Norman Bluhm and Paul Jenkins. "Selections From the Permanent Collection" also includes work by Julian Stanczak, Clayton Pond and Seymour Boardman, artists that David Anderson exhibited during the early years of the Anderson Gallery.

The exhibition features a 1970-71 work by Mitchell, a well-known abstract expressionist painter, entitled "Ode to Joy." The painting is an instance of the artist working structurally in a triptych to order color and form in a rhythmic sequence.

Also on view is work by the California Bay-area artist Frank Lobdell, one of Jackson's gallery artists. Lobdell's long and distinguished career includes contributions to the abstract expressionist movement, such as the painting "November 1957," which is included in this exhibition.

An example of the work of Tàpies, another of Martha Jackson's gallery artists, also is featured in the exhibition. Scalise says that Tàpies, who was born in Barcelona, was introduced to Jackson through the influential French critic Michel Tapià. Consequently, Tàpies was given his first one-man show in the U.S. by Martha Jackson.

"Selections From the Permanent Collection" offers a glimpse into the groundbreaking and continuing contributions to the field of collecting perpetuated by Jackson and Anderson.

UB Anderson Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free.

Conference to focus on teaching biology, microbiology

The 14th American Society for Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators (ASMCUE) will be held May 18-20 in the Natural Sciences Complex, North Campus.

The conference for college-level instructors of biology and microbiology will focus on improving microbiology teaching and learning through plenary, poster and exhibit sessions.

Plenary talks will include "HIV at 25 years" by HIV/AIDS researcher Robert W. Doms, chair of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania; "Ecoepidemiology: Integrating Ecology with Infectious Disease Epidemiology" by Durland Fish, professor of epidemiology at Yale University; and "Microbial Genomics: Bizarre Bacteria, Extreme Environments and How They Interact" by Naomi Ward, assistant investigator at the Institute for Genomic Research.

Interactive workshops will focus on developing tools for teaching microbiology. Topics will include "Microbial Ecology: Opportunities for Inquiry-Based Learning"; "Exploring Active Teaching: How Not to Be a Talking Head"; and "Podcasting in Education: Lectures for the On-Demand Student."

Presenters also will cover teaching microbiology to pre-college students, microbiology in the nursing curriculum, the teaching of evolution and the use of microbial food safety issues to interest undergraduates in the field.

The ASMCUE conference is the annual educational meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, which will hold its research meeting in Toronto May 21-25.

For additional information about the conference, go to http://www.asmcue.org or contact Gerald Koudelka, chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, at 645-2362, ext. 101.

Road repair schedule announced

Facilities Operations, University Facilities, has announced the repair schedule, weather permitting, for several roads and parking lots on the North Campus, beginning May 16.

Unless otherwise noted, roads will remain open, although lanes will be reduced. Motorists should expect delays and plan their routes accordingly.

Should a situation exist that would seriously restrict the ability to conduct business, contact Ted Krygier, project manager, at 523-9891.

The schedule:

• Webster Road, St. Rita's Lane, Putnam Way, Ellicott Complex perimeter roads and Audubon Parkway: May 16-24.

• Webster Road from Coventry Entrance to St. Rita's Lane: May 21-22.

• St. Rita's Lane from Webster Road to Frontier Road: May 23.

• Governor's C and D Lots will be closed May 17-18 and May 24-30.

• Beane Parking Lot: north half closed May 25; south half closed May 30.

• Stadium Stone Road and maintenance parking area: May 29-31.

• Rensch Road: May 31 and June 1.

• Putnam Loop from Augspurger Road to Putnam Way, running parallel to the Baird A and B lots will be closed June 3.