Judy Scales-Trent, professor of law, has received a Fulbright award to conduct research and teach in Senegal during the 2000-2001 academic year.

Scales-Trent will teach a course in comparative constitutional law to doctoral students at the law school at Université Cheik Anta Diop, a pre-eminent university in West Africa.

She also will conduct research on women lawyers in the country, exploring the factors in their background that led these women to a professional career, how female lawyers are treated in the workplace and the organizational goal of Association des Femmes Juristes, the Senegalese association of women lawyers.

Scales-Trent will teach and conduct her research in French, the official language of Senegal.

She is one of approximately 110 Americans who have been selected by the Fulbright program to reach or conduct research in 27 African countries during 2000-2001.

A researcher at UB has received a two-year, $260,000 "Special Creativity Extension" grant from the National Science Foundation.

The grant was awarded to Luis A. Colon, associate professor of chemistry, in recognition and support of his work in developing and obtaining a patent for a new hybrid glass material that could replace traditional silica materials for the analytical-separations columns that are ubiquitous throughout the chemical, pharmaceutical, environmental and biotech industries.

The NSF's objective in providing a two­year extension on an original grant is to offer a small percentage of "the most creative investigators an extended opportunity to attack adventurous, 'high-risk' opportunities."

Colon will use the grant extension to further study the physical and chemical properties of the hybrid material and design improved ones with even more diverse applications.

New on-campus student housing and research on bipolar disorder will be among the topics featured during July on "UB Today," the program highlighting UB faculty, staff, students and programs airing on Adelphia cable.

Guests will be Dennis Black, vice president for student affairs, who will be on-site at the South Lake Village student apartment complex, and Carolyn Korsmeyer, professor of philosophy, who will discuss her new book, "Making Sense of Taste: Food and Philosophy."

In addition, Uriel Halbreich, professor of psychiatry, will explain a new treatment program for patients with bipolar disorder and Deborah K.W. Walters, associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, will discuss a new initiative that promises to provide a unique experience for students, as well as research services to Western New York companies and non-profit agencies.

The program, sponsored by the UB Alumni Association, airs throughout each month at 6:30 p.m. Sundays on Channel 18 International and Channel 10 in Lancaster, Clarence, Orchard Park and Elma, and at 9 p.m. Mondays on Channel 18 International.

"Race and the Law: Critical Discourses Exploring Law and Society Methods and Traditions" will be the theme of the Law and Society Association's Eighth Summer Institute July 5-9, hosted by the Christopher Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy.

UB is one of three universities chosen to host the rotating annual event because of the Baldy Center's excellence in socio-legal studies.

Featured at the July institute-which is one of several events planned to celebrate the Baldy Center's 25th anniversary-will be nationally recognized faculty members who will discuss their theme-related scholarly work and provide advice, instruction and mentoring to advanced graduate students and junior faculty members from across North America.

UB faculty may attend portions of the institute on a space-available basis by contacting the Baldy Center at 645-2102.

UB faculty and staff members can learn the "10 Steps to a Happier, Healthier Life" by attending "Business Days 2000" Tuesday and Wednesday in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

"Business Days 2000," presented by University Business Services, will provide participants with the opportunity to learn about changes in business procedures, sharpen their skills and find our what's new within the university.

Sessions will be offered from 9 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. both days and will address such topics as performance evaluations, income fund reimbursable (IFR) accounts and affirmative-action search procedures. Tours of the Campus Mail center, the Center for the Arts and Alumni Arena will be offered.

Among the highlights will be the keynote presentation, "10 Steps to a Happier, Healthier Life," to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday. The speaker will be Tena M. Garas, a registered nurse who specializes in teaching people the art of turning negatives into positives, relearning their sense of humor and understanding the physical and psychological benefits of laughter.

The "Business Days" program also will feature a presentation on OASIS, the new Research Foundation business system, at 11 a.m. Wednesday. The session will focus on project definition and status, training and transition, calendar of events and the impact on department administration and project directors.

A hot dog/hamburger roast to benefit SEFA will be served at noon each day on the upper balcony of the Mainstage Theatre and on the patio overlooking Lake LaSalle.

All presentations and tours will be free and open to all faculty and staff members. Registration is encouraged and can be done via the "Business Days" Web site at www.business.buffalo.edu/businessdays or by calling Joan Thompson at 645-5000, ext. 1315.

Michael D. Ehlers, a 1985 graduate of the School of Dental Medicine, has been elected president of the UB Dental Alumni Association.

Ehlers practices general dentistry, with offices in Holland, West Seneca and Boston.

He earned a certificate in general-practice residency from the dental school in 1986 and is co-editor of the UB Dental Report, the dental alumni's quarterly publication.

Charles A. Matlach, '76, was elected secretary. A UB clinical assistant professor in restorative dentistry, Matlach practices general dentistry in Boston. He is co-editor of the UB Dental Report.

Richard J. Lynch, '83, was elected treasurer. He practices general dentistry in Williamsville.

President-elect is David R. Rice, '94, who practices general dentistry in East Amherst. Rice also is clinical instructor in restorative dentistry at UB.

The Poetry/Rare Books Collection will host a conference on poet and novelist Robert Graves, the "Graves Conference 2000," today through Saturday in 420 Capen Hall on the North Campus.

Featured speakers will include Robert Creeley, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of English and Samuel P. Capen Professor of Poetry and the Humanities at UB, and Graves scholars Kevin Tierney and Norman Austin.

In addition, a meeting of the Robert Graves Society will be held tomorrow.

Graves, an English poet, novelist, classicist, mythographer and lecturer, lived from 1895-1985. He first was admired for the poems he wrote from the front as a combatant in World War I. He later became recognized as one of the finest love poets writing in the English language.

The Poetry and Rare Books Collection is the home of the Robert Graves Collection, a collection of more than 275 publications by Graves, excluding anthologies, periodical appearances and broadsides. The collection includes the scarce early pamphlets "Over the Brazier" (1916), "Fairies and Fusiliers" (1917) and "Treasure Box" (1919), as well as a signed and numbered copy of "The Marmosite's Miscellany" (1925)-which Graves wrote under the name of John Doyle-the first and second states of "Good-bye to All That" (1929), "Poems 1926-30" (1931) and "No More Ghosts" (1940), and various states and editions of the popular novels "I, Claudius"(1934) and "Claudius the God" (1934).

Books and manuscripts from the collection will be exhibited in 420 Capen during the conference.

The conference is supported by a grant from The Baird Foundation.

The English Language Institute (ELI) at UB this summer is conducting a special, six-week program for 18 educators from Haiti and 10 sub-Saharan African countries.

Participants in the summer institute, which began June 5 and runs through July 14, include high-school principals and headmasters, inspectors of secondary-education systems and ministry of education officials, directors of English-language programs and regional teacher advisors and teacher trainers. They represent Haiti and the African countries of Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cóte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal.

The program is funded by a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the U.S. Department of State. Janice A. Nersinger, director of overseas and customized programs for ELI, is coordinating the program.

The goal of the summer institute is to strengthen English-as-a-Foreign Language (EFL) programs in secondary schools in the participants' home countries by enhancing their management and organizational skills; familiarizing them with email and the Internet; broadening their understanding of U.S. institutions and culture, and assisting them in identifying, analyzing and solving the practical problems they face in the administration of EFL programs in their home countries. The four major topic/skill areas being addressed are managing teaching staff, student development, managing resources and computer skills for professional networking and development.

In addition to the five-week academic component at UB, participants will travel to New York City and Washington, D.C., for a week-long tour of relevant cultural and educational sites.

The Ernest Witebsky Center for Immunology at UB will sponsor on Aug. 4-6 one of the first scientific conferences to address the combined issues of diagnosis, treatment and the body's immune response to implants for temporomandibular jaw (TMJ) and joint disorders (TMJD)

Attending the conference, to be held in the Airport Radisson Hotel and Suites, 4243 Genesee St., Cheektowaga, will be physicians, dentists, immunologists, pain-management specialists and patients with TMJD.

The TMJ refers to the joints that enable movement of the lower jaw. There are a variety of treatments for TMJD when the condition leads to headaches, muscle pain and impaired jaw function. Among these are implants for partial and total joint replacements.

Paul J. Friday, author of "Friday's Laws: How to Become Normal When You're Not and How to Stay Normal When You Are," will be the keynote speaker at the opening session at 8:15 p.m. Aug. 4.

Chief of the Non-Invasive Division of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Shadyside Multidisciplinary Pain Program, Friday also will speak on the psychological effects of TMJD at 2:15 p.m. Aug. 6

For more information or to register for the conference, call 829-2848. The cost of the program is $50 before Aug. 1 and $55 after.