University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: September 6, 2007

Name: Jennifer L. Gaynor
School: College of Arts and Sciences
Department: History
Academic Title: Assistant Professor
Academic Degrees: Ph.D., history and anthropology, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Areas of Special Interest: Southeast Asia, maritime history

What I most like about teaching is seeing the internal light bulbs go on-that look that students have when they "get" something, especially when it's a result of collective discussion.

Name: Marc Kiviniemi
School: Public Health and Health Professions
Department: Health Behavior
Academic Title: Assistant Professor
Academic Degrees: B.A., psychology, University of North Carolina-Asheville; Ph.D., social psychology, University of Minnesota
Areas of Special Interest: Health decision-making; applications of social and cognitive psychology to public health issues

My work examines how the feelings people associate with health behaviors, such as associating positive feelings with eating "comfort foods," influence their decisions about engaging in those behaviors. I currently am exploring how these feelings influence adults' engagement in diet and exercise behaviors and adolescents' decisions about substance use.

Name: Theresa Runstedtler
School: College of Arts and Sciences
Department: American Studies
Academic Title: Assistant Professor
Academic Degrees: Honours B.A., history, York University, Toronto; M.A., Ph.D., forthcoming October 2007, African American studies and history, Yale University
Areas of Special Interest: Intersection of race, gender and resistance in popular culture; transnational black history encompassing English, French and Spanish destinations; multiracial and multicultural histories; the history of empire and globalization; black Canada

I used to be a performer—a dancer and actress—in Toronto during and after university. Teaching gives me the chance to get my performance "fix" in the classroom. Yet, by far, mentoring students is the most rewarding part of the job.

Name: Gottfried Strasser
Schools: Engineering and Applied Sciences and College of Arts and Sciences
Departments: Electrical Engineering and Physics
Academic Title: Professor
Academic Degrees: M.S. and Ph.D., experimental physics, Innsbruck University
Areas of Special Interest: Nanotechnology, semiconductor science and technology, optoelectronic devices

Some of my current projects involve THz devices, Quantum Cascade lasers, quantum dots and the growth of semiconductor nanostructures.

Name: Eun-Hye Enki Yoo
School: College of Arts and Sciences
Department: Geography
Academic Title: Assistant Professor
Academic Degrees: M.A., Seoul National University; Ph.D., University of California-Santa Barbara
Areas of Special Interest: Geostatistics, GIScience, public health and environmental modeling, spatial hedonic modeling

I currently am working on several papers demonstrating potential applications of geostatistics to the social sciences, including the fields of demography and real estate. My main focus is on developing statistical methods that allow for the combination of incompatible spatial data (in terms of spatial scales and boundaries) in a consistent manner, while accounting for data constraints if they exist.