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Family Medicine receives gift
The Department of Family Medicine in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has received the largest gift in its 38-year history. The $500,000 gift from the Rev. and Mrs. Brendan Griswold will provide funding for UB faculty to conduct primary-care research in health disparities.
The Griswolds’ gift creates the Adelaide and Brendan Griswold Professorship in Health Disparities. It will provide the foundation for a future faculty position. More immediately, it will support a part-time faculty member and research and scholarly activity by medical students.
“The UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is grateful to the Griswolds for their generosity,” said Dean Michael E. Cain. “Endowed faculty positions enable UB to attract and retain the best and brightest physicians, strengthen our recruitment efforts, provide seed money to enhance the development of new technologies and research trials, and help the school to realize its goal of being recognized as a top-tier, nationally ranked medical school.”
The Griswolds, who are retired, made the gift after becoming aware of the shortage of family-medicine physicians and after learning about the role family physicians play in the care of underserved populations.
“We want to encourage medical students interested in working with the underserved to consider family medicine as a career choice, and we hope this will help,” they said.
Their daughter, Kim Griswold, is an associate professor in family medicine, psychiatry and social and preventive medicine at UB and a 1994 graduate of the UB medical school. She helped found the Family Medicine Research Fund, which has been integrated into the new professorship established by her parents.
Brown is next distinguished speaker
Magazine editor and author Tina Brown will speak at 8 p.m. March 5 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts, North Campus, as part of UB’s Distinguished Speakers Series for 2007-08.
Brown was only 25 when she became editor-in-chief of England's oldest glossy, The Tatler, reviving the nearly defunct 270-year-old magazine with an attitude and style that gave it a 300-percent circulation rise. She went on to become editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, and won four National Magazine Awards. In 1992, she became the first female editor of The New Yorker, raising newsstand circulation by 145 percent. In 2000, Brown was awarded C.B.E. (Commander of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth.
She is the author of a popular biography of Princess Diana, “The Diana Chronicles,” and has signed with Broadway Doubleday Publishing Group to focus on Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton in “The Clinton Chronicles,” scheduled to be released in 2010.
Tickets for Brown’s lecture are available at the Center for the Arts box office and at all Ticketmaster outlets, including Ticketmaster.com.
For more information, visit the Special Events Web site.
Libraries to award research prize
The UB Libraries, in cooperation with the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, have announced their sponsorship of the first annual UB Undergraduate Research Prize.
Two $500 prizes will recognize undergraduates who produce significant academic inquiries requiring the use of the Libraries, their information resources and collections. Research in all disciplines conducted by individual students or by student teams will be eligible.
Submissions must document the use and application of library and information resources—such as the Libraries’ Bison catalogue, print resources, electronic journals, Web site and other online research sources and the UB Archives or Special Collections—in any format, including online, print, and/or multimedia formats or Web sites.
The application deadline is March 28. Links to the application cover sheet, required faculty/instructor forms, the required support statement and prize criteria can be found at the Libraries Web site.
Entry components will be a 150-200 word abstract focusing on the use of information resources and tools, the final draft or report of the research project submitted in a form appropriate to the project and a letter of support from a faculty member or instructor who supervisors, oversees or assigns research projects.
Examples of research formats that would be considered are research papers, lab or clinical research, investigation, photography, film or video, product prototype development, a mapping or GIS project, artwork, an architectural model or project, database exploration, a field trip or site exploration or a Web site.
Prize-winning research will be featured on the Libraries’ Web site and the Web site of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities.
Repetto installations to open Feb. 28
Two large-scale installations in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts, North Campus, by New York City-based artist Douglas Repetto will open with a public reception from 5-7 p.m. Feb. 28 in the gallery. An exhibition walkthrough with the artist will begin at 5 p.m.
The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, will be on view through May 17.
Repetto’s installations in the first-floor gallery revel in madcap interactivity and DIY (do-it-yourself) technologies. “action at a distance” is a bewitching tangle of motors and pulleys, zigzags of rope, an otter theater, jangling bells, fireflies, switches, breath activators and rough steel. Small gestures made by visitors are amplified and transmitted via motors and rope, repurposed as the drivers of small dramas tucked into corners and nooks.
“everything, all at once” is a sudden condensation of sound and reflections: a dense net of hundreds of bells, mirrors, motors, lights and vibrations envelop the viewer.
These immersive performance and listening experiences attest to how the visual arts are being revolutionized by such new technologies as sensors and interactive performance systems.
Director of research at the Columbia University Computer Music Center, Repetto is an artist and teacher whose varied interests exemplify the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary art production today. His work, which includes sculpture, installation, performance, recordings and software, is presented internationally. He is the founder of a number of art and community groups, including dorkbot: people doing strange things with electricity, ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show, organism: making art with living systems and the music-dsp mailing list and Web site.
The UB Art Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with extended hours until 7 p.m. on Thursday. For information, call 645-6912.
PSS schedules video series
The Professional Staff Development Committee of the Professional Staff Senate will present “Fish and Pickles,” its spring 2008 Brown Bag Video Series, March 4-5 and April 1-2 on both the North and South campuses.
A brief discussion will follow the screenings of short videos. All screenings will take place from noon to 12:50 p.m.
The free series is open to all members of the university community.
“Fish” and “Fish Tales” will be screened on March 4 in 112 Allen Hall, South Campus, and on March 5 in 330 Student Union, North Campus.
In “Fish,” Seattle's world-famous Pike Place Fish Market serves as the backdrop for learning how to tap into the secrets of creating a super-satisfying work environment and even more satisfied customers.
A sequel to “Fish,” “Fish Tales” shows how four organizations are using the “fish philosophy” to create more energy, fun and effectiveness at work.
The videos “Give ’em the Pickle” and “Leadership Pickles” will be shown on April 1 in 330 Student Union and on April 2 in 112 Allen Hall
“Give ’em the Pickle” is top-selling customer-service video. Its sequel, “Leadership Pickles,” shows how leaders can better serve the people who serve customers.
Those wishing to attend the screenings should RSVP to the Professional Staff Senate office at 645-2003 or at pssenate@buffalo.edu.
Irish Rovers to perform in CFA
The Center for the Arts will present the Irish Rovers at 8 p.m. March 6 in the Mainstage theater in the CFA, North Campus.
For more than four decades, the Irish Rovers have charmed and entertained audiences around the world with their exciting stage shows. Throughout the years, these international ambassadors of Irish music have maintained their timeless ability to deliver a rollicking, rousing performance of good cheer. Their songs have become anthems of revelry and joy among generations of fans.
Tickets for the Irish Rovers are $25 for general admission and $15 for students and are available at the CFA box office from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and at all Ticketmaster locations, including Ticketmaster.com.
For more information, call 645-ARTS.
MFA students to exhibit work
“Tangential Reform,” an exhibition of work by 12 first-year MFA students from the Department of Visual Studies will open with a reception from 5-7 p.m. Feb. 28 in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.
The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will be on view in the second-floor gallery through March 22.
“Tangential Reform” features the artwork of David Andree, Shelby A. Baron, Michael Beitz, Morgan Calhoon, Andrew Engl, Abigail Hendrickson, Nina Leo, Ryan Legassicke, Clayton Letourneau, Naomi Marine, David Munson and Kara Newbauer. It includes a variety of mediums and styles, including sculpture, printmaking, video, painting, drawing, sculpture and photography.
UB Art Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with extended hours until 7 p.m. on Thursday. For information, call 645-6912.
Cherryholmes to perform
The dynamic award-winning family bluegrass band Cherryholmes will perform at 8 p.m. March 1 in the Mainstage theater in the Center for the Arts, North Campus.
The basis of Cherryholmes’ success lies in old-fashioned hard work, combined with shining-star talent. The six-member band embodies the American Bluegrass dream.
All band members take turns singing lead and showcasing their abilities. Their live shows feature twin fiddles, Irish step-dancing, classic country yodeling and old-time claw hammer, in addition to their dynamic bluegrass music.
Five short years after its founding, the Nashville-based band was named the 2005 International Bluegrass Music Association’s Entertainers of the Year.
The band has continued to receive industry nominations and awards, including a Grammy nomination in 2006 for its first commercial release, “Cherryholmes.” Its second release, “Cherryholmes II,” opened at number 1 on the Billboard charts in June 2007.
Cherryholmes also is a regular performer on the Grand Ole Opry.
Tickets for Cherryholmes are $22 for general admission and $15 for students and are available at the CFA box office and at all Ticketmaster locations, including Ticketmaster.com.
For more information, call 645-ARTS.
Typographers will present work
“Letters & Literatures,” a joint presentation by typographic designers Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes that is being sponsored by the McNulty Chair (Dennis Tedlock) in the Department of English, will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the Poetry Collection, 420 Capen Hall, North Campus.
The talk will accompany an exhibition of their work in the development of calligraphy and typography for oral languages that became literate around the same historic period.
The speakers say they will discuss such languages as Kiksht Chinook, an endangered indigenous language of the Pacific northwest; colloquial modern Irish; medieval Provencal; “a little K'iche',” a member of the Mayan family of languages; and “a smattering of Old English and ancient Greek."
Bigelow, a former MacArthur fellow, is the Melbert B. Cary, Jr. Professor of Graphic Arts at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the recipient of RIT's Frederic W. Goudy Award in Typography.
Holmes is an internationally known calligrapher and the designer of more than 100 typefaces, including Lucida Grande, an extra-large family of fonts that is the standard font for Macintosh OS X.
Lucinda is of note for being a highly legible font family featuring a consistent design style and weighting across many different languages and scripts. Holmes is president of the Bigelow and Holmes Studio, a San Francisco design studio interested in producing new typefaces suited to digital technologies.