Reporter Volume 25, No.6 October 7, 1993

Computer Science

Reelected chair of AI group:

Stuart C. Shapiro, professor of computer science, has been reelected
to a second two-year term chair of the Special Interest Group on
Artificial Intelligence of the Association for Computing Machinery
(SIGART), the principal society for computer science. 
	SIGART sponsors conferences, symposia, and workshops and
publishes a newsletter and conference proceedings about artificial
intelligence.
	Shapiro, a member of UB's faculty since 1977, served as chair
of the Department of Computer Science from 1984-90 and was acting
chair from 1978-79. He received his doctorate in 1971 from the
University of Wisconsin. The author of more than 100 technical
articles and papers, Shapiro has published several books, including
The Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence which in 1987 was named
Best New Book in Technology and Engineering by the Association of
American Publishers Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division. 

LAW
RECEIVES FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY AWARD: 
Charles Patrick Ewing, professor of law and adjunct professor of
psychology at the University at Buffalo, has received the 1993
Distinguished Contributions to Forensic Psychology Award from the
American Academy of Forensic Psychology. Ewing received the award at
the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. He
delivered an address entitled "Forensic Psychology in the 21st
Century."
	A UB faculty member since 1983, Ewing previously conducted a
private practice in clinical and forensic psychology. He is the author
of Kids Who Kill and Battered Women Who Kill: Psychological
Self-Defense as Legal Justification. He also has edited the text
Psychology, Psychiatry and Law: A Clinical and Forensic Handbook.. He
has authored or co-authored numerous law review articles, as well as
articles in scientific journals.
	EwingUs expertise in both law and psychology makes him a
frequent consultant and witness in criminal and domestic trials around
the country. He received a bachelor's degree from Syracuse University,
a doctorate in child and family psychology from Cornell University and
a law degree from Harvard.

chemistry
Named president of international body:

Philip Coppens, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry , has been
elected president of the International Union of Crystallography, the
body that joins together 38 national crystallographic organizations,
encompassing about 10,000 crystallographers worldwide. 
Since 1948, when the International Union was formed, the position has
been held by some of crystallography's most esteemed scientists,
including Nobel Laureates. As president, Coppens assumes
responsibilities for the Union's activities, scientific meetings and
publications, including five leading crystallographic journals. The
three-year term runs until August 1996.
A UB faculty member since 1968, Coppens also is principal investigator
for the State University of New York beamline at the National
Synchotron Light Source located at Brookhaven National Laboratory on
Long Island. In 1989, he has received from the University of Nancy the
highest French national university honor for foreign scholars, Doctor
Honoris Causa. He has been a visiting professor at Fordham University;
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Aarhus University
in Denmark and the University of Grenoble in France. He has lectured
extensively around the world and will be on a lecture tour of Japan in
January 1994.
Coppens has pioneered studies of the use of X-ray diffraction
techniques to study the nature of bonding between atoms in molecules
and crystals. Last year, Coppens was the principal author of the book
Synchotron Radiation Crystallography (London: Academic Press) one of
the first books describing the use of highly intense X-ray beams from
a synchrotron source in crystallographic experiments.