University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Jackson to exhibit at Albright-Knox

“Cummins Wide: Photographs from the Arkansas Prison,” an exhibition of photographs taken in 1975 inside the infamous Cummins Prison Farm by UB faculty member Bruce Jackson, will open Jan. 23 in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1285 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo.

The exhibition will be on view through May 10.

Jackson, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor of American Culture in the Department of English, has studied and documented the culture of prison life around the U.S. for more than 40 years.

Cummins Prison Farm in Lincoln County, Arkansas, became widely known following a 1970 ruling by a federal judge who found that conditions in the Arkansas state prison system were so poor that the entire system was unconstitutional. A year later, Jackson made the first of seven visits to Cummins, documenting conditions there from 1971-75.

“Cummins Wide” features 53 panoramic black-and-white photographs taken with a Widelux F6B camera, which allows the photographer to capture a field of view that is approximately 140 degrees wide—close to the field of view of normal human vision.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Jackson and his wife, Diane Christian, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of English, will screen their film “Death Row” at the Albright-Knox at 7 p.m. May 1 as part of the free Friday Gusto at the Gallery series.

Made in 1979 at the Ellis Prison Farm near Huntsville, Texas, the film documents daily life in the Texas prison cellblock for men condemned to death.

UB to join RecycleMania

UB is participating for the first time in RecycleMania, a national competition for colleges and universities designed to promote recycling and waste reduction efforts on campus.

For 10 weeks, beginning Sunday, participating institutions will report data and be ranked to determine which school has the highest recycling rate. The ultimate goal is to raise awareness of campus recycling programs and reduce overall waste generation.

Erin Moscati, an environmental educator with UB Green and UB’s point person for RecycleMania, notes that as the university moves forward with campus-wide efforts to fulfill its American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, recycling and waste minimization are two areas with great potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the university.

“Decreasing the volume of materials consumed on campus can reduce emissions associated with transport and methane emissions from landfills,” Moscati says, adding that greenhouse gas methane is 23 times more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide.

“Unlike many of the initiatives undertaken to reduce UB’s carbon footprint, recycling and waste minimization are activities that every member of the campus community can directly participate in on a daily basis.”

Moscati says UB Green staff members and volunteers will be educating the UB community about what can and cannot be recycled and promoting recycling in general:

• Members of the UB community will be able to take the recycling pledge and get information on recycling at the UB Green tables in the lobby of the Student Union.

• Members of UB’s Recycling Committee will be roaming the North and South campuses looking for recyclers. Those who are “caught green handed” will be awarded a “recycle” pin and a gift certificate to a local business.

• UB Green volunteers will collect materials for recycling and promote recycling at all UB Bulls basketball games.

A detailed description of the competition is available on the RecycleMania Web site.

Kolor to present first UB recital

Percussionist Tom Kolor, the most recent addition to the faculty of the Department of Music, College of Arts and Sciences, will present his first UB faculty recital at 8 p.m. Jan. 23 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

Kolor’s recital will launch the Department of Music’s concert schedule for the spring 2009 semester. Also on tap this month will be the annual Eastman Organists Day concert in which students from the prestigious Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester play UB’s Fisk pipe organ. The concert will take place at 8 p.m. Jan. 30 in Lippes Concert Hall.

Kolor, a specialist in 20th and 21st century music, says the program for his recital, entitled “Parisian Percussion,” features solo percussion music by composers who lived and worked in Paris.

“The works span four decades,” he says, “and include Iannis Xenakis' explosive classics ‘Rebonds’ and ‘Psappha,’ Rene Leibowitz's whimsical miniatures ‘Three Caprices’ and two pieces from Philippe Hurel's ‘Loops’ series that are inspired by both jazz and spectralism.”

For more information, call 645-2921 or click here.

Company supports new engineering building

Bird Technologies Group has given $200,000 to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences to advance research and education in UB’s RF/microwave systems program.

In honor of the corporation’s gift, space in the new engineering building to be constructed on the North Campus will be called the Bird Technologies Group Microwave Laboratory. The gift also establishes the Bird Technologies Group Fellowship Program.

Bird Technologies Group is a global supplier of radio frequency (RF) products, systems, services and educational solutions through hardware, software and components.

UB electrical engineering faculty Yong-Kyu Yoon, assistant professor, and James J. Whalen, professor, will lead the newly established Bird Technologies Fellowship Program, which will provide scholarship support for three students in electrical engineering. The students will work with the faculty on their research in RF components and integrated RF systems; millimeter wave/Terahertz components: antenna and waveguide; wireless sensors and actuators and microfluidics.