This article is from the archives of the UB Reporter.
News

Briefs

Published: Oct. 11, 2012

  • Manes to perform faculty recital

    Retired UB faculty member Stephen Manes will perform a piano recital at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12 in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North campus.

    A professor emeritus of music at UB, Manes has performed numerous recitals in Slee Hall over the years. Tomorrow’s program, titled “From Piano to Orchestra and Back,” will feature three works that normally are associated with their orchestral versions, even though two of them were originally written for piano.

    The program will begin with Ravel’s “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales,” eight waltzes influenced by Schubert. Manes then will play the 10 pieces that Prokofiev transcribed to piano from his two “Romeo and Juliet” orchestral suites.

    The second half of the program will feature Mussorgsky’s famous “Pictures at an Exhibition,” inspired by artist Victor Hartmann’s works, including “Baba-Yaga” and “The Great Gate of Kiev.”

    Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for faculty/staff/alumni, senior citizens and non-UB students, and free for UB students with valid ID.

  • New chief of nephrology division named

    Richard J. Quigg Jr., professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and former chief of its nephrology section, has been named the inaugural Arthur M. Morris Chair in Nephrology and chief of the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Medicine, UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

    The announcement was made by Anne B. Curtis, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine.

    The primary focus of Quigg’s research laboratory is to identify pathogenic mechanisms that underlie kidney disease. He is nationally and internationally renowned for his research into diseases of the glomeruli. Glomerular diseases damage the glomeruli, clusters of blood vessels that filter blood in the kidneys, letting protein and sometimes red blood cells leaks into the urine, ultimately interfering with proper kidney function.

    Quigg received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Boston University. He completed his medical residency at Stony Brook University, as well as research and clinical fellowships in nephrology at the Boston University Medical Center. He joined the University of Chicago in 1994 as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in 2001. Before joining the University of Chicago, he was an assistant professor at the Medical College of Virginia.

  • New track prepares Wall Street ‘rock stars’

    The School of Management is offering a new concentration that can help students land jobs as quantitative analysts—or “quants”—the latest variety of Wall Street rock stars.

    Quants are specialists who use their expertise in mathematics, finance and statistics to identify and solve complex issues for financial institutions. They have been called “the rock stars on the Street” by Phil Albinus, editor-in-chief of Advanced Trading, because “the more volatile the markets, the more valuable quantitative analysts become.”

    The new quantitative finance track for MS students in the School of Management offers various techniques and mathematical methods in finance, which will help students train for careers as quantitative analysts.

    “There is a high demand for graduates in this field, which makes the concentration an attractive option,” says David Frasier, assistant dean and director of graduate programs in the School of Management. “Starting salaries are also attractive—ranging in the upper five figures to low six figures.”

    “Financial markets have become more volatile and financial instruments more complex in recent decades,” notes Kee Chung, chair of the Department of Finance and Managerial Economics. “The quantitative track in our MS Finance program provides students with training to effectively manage risks and accurately assess the value of complex securities.”

    Other career options for graduates of the quantitative finance concentration include investment banking, trading, portfolio management and investment advisement.

  • DVD premiere to celebrate the Heights

    The University Heights Collaborative (UHC), a local grassroots organization dedicated to improving life in neighborhoods just west of the South Campus, will premiere a new video that promotes the area to prospective businesses and homeowners.

    The 13-minute video, “University Heights: Unique, Diverse, Affordable,” was produced by the UHC and students from the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts. It will be screened at 7 p.m. Oct. 24 in Allen Hall, South Campus.

    Narrated by UHC’s Fred Brace and scripted by community leaders Yvonne James-Brown and her husband, Gregory Brown, the video was a project of the Empowering Communities leadership training program supported by UB’s Office of Community Relations and the Independent Health Community Foundation.

    The screening also will serve as a fundraiser to benefit local organizations, among them the UHC, local block clubs, Gloria J. Parks Community Center, University Heights Tool Library, University Community Farmers Market and the Samuel P. Capen Garden Walk.

    General admission tickets are $25 and include a copy of the playbill and entrance to a reception.

    Visit the UHC website for information on purchasing tickets, as well as the DVD.