Reporter Volume 25, No.8 October 21, 1993

By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
News Bureau Staff

The nation's top corporate, academic and government science and
technology directors will meet at the university Oct. 25-27 for the
annual American Institute of Physics (AIP) Corporate Associates'
meeting. Hosted by the Calspan Corporation, UB and the Medical
Foundation of Buffalo, the meeting will feature presentations on basic
and applied research in physics and engineering, as well as new
directions for science policy in industry and government. 
The theme for the meeting is "Simulation: Be There Before You Get
There." This will be the first time the Corporate Associates' meeting
has been held on a university campus. 
Welcoming remarks will be made by UB Provost Aaron N. Bloch and
Calspan President H.R. Leland.
The scientific program and presenters will include:
n Findings from several recent studies of the structure of the cosmic
background radiation using ground-based, balloon-borne and satellite
(COBE)-based experiments that offer a glimpse of the physical
processes in the earliest moments of the universe; Philip Lubin,
professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. 
n New results from using scanning tunneling microscopy to examine
crystal growth atom by atom, and technological applications of the
technique; Max G. Lagally, E.W. Mueller Professor of Materials Science
and Physics at the University of Wisconsin.
n The latest successes from a new "minimal" method that routinely
solves molecular structures containing several hundred atoms, operates
on a workstation and takes just a few hours to come up with a correct
solution; Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Hauptman, president of the Medical
Foundation of Buffalo and research professor of biophysical sciences
and computer science at UB.
n The use of simulation in studying earthquakes and in engineering
structures able to withstand earthquakes; George C. Lee, dean of the
UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and director of the
National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research headquartered at
UB.
n Hypersonics and high-temperature gaseous chemistry; Michael G. Dunn,
vice president and research fellow at Calspan Advanced Technology
Center.
Key science policy issues also will be addressed at the meeting.
Trey P. Smith, director of physical sciences at the IBM Research
Divisions' T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, N.Y., will discuss
"The Microprocessor: An Information Revolution." According to Smith,
the microprocessor has produced a remarkable consolidation in
information technologies that has made the supercomputer and the
personal computer practically "next of kin." He will discuss his
company's aggressive move into parallel computing, its new
supercomputing center and two new centers for computational chemistry.

Charles V. Shank, director of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in
Berkeley, Calif., and professor of chemistry, electrical engineering
and computer sciences, and physics at the University of California at
Berkeley, will discuss "The Changing Role of the National
Laboratories" during a time of economic difficulty and in the
aftermath of the Cold War. He will talk about how, after more than 50
years of accomplishment, the U.S. Department of Energy's national
laboratory system now must alter its mission and seek new partnerships
with industry.
Other topics will include simulations and their use in studying the
greenhouse effect, the construction of small electronic devices,
microgravity and crystal growth, and mesoscopic electromechanical
systems. 
All technical sessions will be held on the UB campus.
The AIP Science Writing Award will be presented to Hans Christian von
Baeyer for his book, "Taming the Atom: The Emergence of the Visible
Microworld," (New York: Random House, 1992) at a dinner to be held on
Oct. 25 in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
At that time, the AIP also will present its Prize for Industrial
Applications of Physics to Leonard S. Cutler, Curt Flory and Robin P.
Giffard of the Hewlett-Packard Laboratories for applying a wide range
of basic physics and electronics to the design and improvement of
frequency and time standards, including a cesium clock, introduced in
1992, that is the most accurate and reliable timekeeping device in the
world. 
The AIP Corporate Associates include some 80 leading corporations and
laboratories that have joined AIP in carrying out its purpose of
advancing and diffusing the knowledge of physics and its applications
to human welfare.