Greiner to speak on WBFO Oct. 7
President William R. Greiner will take questions from UB and the Western New York community during a "Talk of the University" program to be held from 7-8 p.m. Wednesday on WBFO-88.7FM, UB's National Public Radio station. His guests will be Dennis Black, vice president for student affairs, and Naniette Coleman, undergraduate Student Association president. Call 829-6000 with your questions.

Atwood named chair of chemistry
Jim D. Atwood, professor of chemistry, has been named chair of the Department of Chemistry. A UB faculty member since 1977, he conducts research in inorganic and organometallic chemistry. His interests lie in reactivity and mechanistic studies of organometallic complexes.

A recipient of the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, Atwood has served as a Humboldt Research Fellow and a fellow with the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Program of Cooperation in Homogeneous Catalysis. Author of several textbooks and 120 scientific papers, he is co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Coordination Chemistry.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Southwest Missouri State University and a doctorate from the University of Illinois.

Bernardino to discuss health-care changes at "UB at Sunrise"
Michael E. Bernardino, vice president for health affairs, will discuss "How an Academic Health Center Copes in a Chaotic Environment" for the "UB at Sunrise" breakfast series, to be held from 7:30-9 a.m. on Oct. 13 in the Sheraton Inn on Walden Avenue, Cheektowaga.

Bernardino, who became the chief officer overseeing the clinical and collaborative activities of UB's five health-sciences schools on April 1, will discuss how UB will adapt to the revolution in the delivery and financing of health care that is affecting Buffalo's medical sector.

Before coming to UB, he was professor of radiology in the Emory University School of Medicine and director of managed care with the Emory University System of Health Care, Inc.

The cost of the "UB at Sunrise" lecture, which includes breakfast, is $10, Alumni Association members, and $12, general public. Reservations deadline is Oct. 9. Call 829-2608 for information or reservations.

Postal service honors CEDAR staff members
To mark its 15 years of research support totalling $35 million for UB's Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition, the U.S. Postal Service yesterday honored 14 individuals for their contributions to the center.

The U.S. Postal Service has installed the handwriting-interpretation system developed by the CEDAR team into its postal-distribution centers to automate the processing of handwritten addresses.

Led by Sargur Srihari, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, researchers in the center who developed and refined the technology have addressed one of the most difficult problems in artificial intelligence-reading human handwriting.

The researchers and administrative staff members are:

David C. Bartnik, technical manager; Venu Govindaraju, associate director; Rita Hamil-ton, research project staff associate; Terry A. Jones, scientific programmer; Philip Kilinskas, research scientist; Evelyn Klein-berg, senior research scientist; Ranga Setlur, research scientist; Vemulapati V. Ramanapra-sad, research scientist; Eugenia Smith, project staff associate; Lawrence Schnitzer, research scientist; Ajay Shekhawat, senior research scientist; Yong-Shul Shin, research scientist; Rohini Srihari, principal research scientist, and Wenn-Jen Yang, research scientist.

The staff members were honored yesterday in a ceremony in the Student Union. William Dowling, vice president of engineering for the USPS, presented the awards.

UB receives NSF grant for high-speed computer connection
The university has received $350,000 from the National Science Foundation as its share of a $1.75 million grant to a consortium of New York State research universities that will allow the group to hook into the VBNs, the very-high-speed backbone network service that ties together the supercomputing sites in the country.

The grant would aid the consortium-known as NYSERNet-in its NYSERNet 2000 Project, a partnership with the state to build a high-performance network infrastructure that parallels the New York State Thruway and will provide connectivity to the VBNs from New York City to Buffalo, says Hinrich Martens, associate vice president for computing and information technology. Travelers along the Thruway no doubt have noticed the huge spools of multicolored cables that were used to build the network, Martens says.

The VBNs is "the way to connect the states together into one network," says Jerry Bucklaew, UB network engineer and the university's engineering representative to NYSERNet.

Martens expects the connection to be ready by May.

NYSERNet, which, in addition to UB, includes all public and private research universities in New York State, was created as a not-for-profit organization in 1985 to advance the use of cutting-edge networking technology to support research and education.

A subgroup of NYSERNet consisting of UB, Columbia University, the University of Rochester, New York University and the Rochester Institute of Technology actually received the grant.

In addition, UB has joined Internet 2-the "next generation" of the Internet-a move administrators and faculty members say will improve and increase the scope of the university's research activities and keep UB a "player at the table" with the top universities in the country.

Internet 2 is the new network being developed by a consortium of 134 universities to support research activities and other data- and voice-communication needs that cannot be handled by the commercial Internet, says Martens.

The VBNs, which links the supercomputing sites at such universities as Cornell, Pittsburgh and Illinois, has been called the "fabric" that weaves the Internet 2 universities together.

Greater Niagara Frontier Dental Meeting set for Oct. 8-9
Advances in dental implants, materials, techniques and products will be among the topics presented at the 21st annual Greater Niagara Frontier Dental Meeting, to be held Oct. 8-9 in the Buffalo Convention Center. The event is sponsored by the UB Dental Alumni Association.

The program will begin each day at 8:30 a.m. and continue until 4:30 p.m. Members of the dental alumni association who have paid their dues are invited to attend a pre-meeting forum from 7-9 p.m. on Oct. 7 with dental school Dean Louis J. Goldberg, other members of the school administration and faculty members.

Noted Indian musicians to perform at UB on Oct. 4
An evening of classical Indian music featuring noted performers Ustad (master) Rais Khan, Ustad Rashid Khan, Samar Saha and Jyoti Goho will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday in Slee Concert Hall on the North Campus.

The event is co-sponsored by the Department of Music and TRIVENI, a local organization that, for more than a decade, has brought the best of Indian music, dance, film and other arts to Buffalo.

Well-known in India and other parts of the world for its skill and talent, the quartet will visit UB as part of a North American tour. Ustad Rais Khan, a child prodigy and direct descendent of court musicians traced back to the 15th century, plays the sitar and is recognized for his music in many Indian films. Vocalist Ustad Rashid Khan (no relation) has won many awards and performed to packed concert halls in India, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and the U.S. Samar Saha, on tabla, and Jyoti Goho, on harmonium, are faculty members of the renowned Sangeet (music) Research Academy in Calcutta.

Advance general ticket price admission is $15; $8 for students and senior citizens. At the door, tickets are $17 for general admission and $10 for students and senior citizens. Tickets are available through Slee Concert Hall box office at 645-2921.

Minority Student Graduate School Awareness Conference is Oct. 10
Students from all disciplines are invited to attend the second annual Minority Student Graduate School Awareness Conference, to be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 10 in the University Inn and Conference Center, 2401 North Forest Road, Getzville. The statewide event aims to provide minority students with information about the opportunities associated with attending graduate school.

Presenters will include professionals in various fields, graduate students, faculty members and graduate admission representatives.

The conference is free; complimentary breakfast and lunch will be served. It is sponsored by the National Science Foundation grant that funds the SUNY Alliance for Minority Participation Consortium (SUNY AMP) and the New York State Education Department grant that funds the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP).

Attendance is limited to 150 participants.

UB students can register until Tuesday by calling Shanna Crump at 645-2234.