You will always be part of the UB family - stay connected, and involved.
With much of our country and the world navigating an uncharted course through the short- and long-term impact of COVID-19, we extend our most heartfelt and best wishes for the health and safety of you and your families. Our concerns and support extend beyond our own community to all who are affected by this health crisis. We know that many of our alumni and friends across the world are being impacted by this issue, and we continue to keep you in our thoughts during these challenging times.
As you may know, the University at Buffalo has implemented a distance learning model for our students and is moving to a remote work accommodation for our faculty and staff to the extent possible. It’s important to share that, in this ever-evolving situation, our two guiding principles are the health and safety of our community, and the continued academic progress of our students.
In many ways, it is your ongoing support of UB that enables the university to provide the resources to support our community in these difficult times. Whether your gifts have been to the UB Fund, or to a specific scholarship or research initiative, each and every day we put your contributions to work where they will have the maximum impact at UB. Thank you for your investment and commitment to UB.
While we won’t be able to see you in person at UB programs and events in the short term, we are working on ways to keep your connection to UB – and to each other – strong. Pursuant to recent University, CDC and local health department guidelines, all alumni, in-person gatherings, including events, conferences, meetings and other forums, are being cancelled or postponed until at least early June.
Noteworthy Alumni
Media effects and persuasion; Misinformation, conspiracy theories, and extremism; Computational social science; Health and science communication; Political communication
Yotam Ophir (PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 2018) studies media effects, persuasion, misinformation, conspiracy theories and extremism. His work combines computational methods for text mining, network analysis, experiments and surveys to study media content and effects in the areas of political, science, and health communication.
Dr. Ophir authored and co-authored more than 40 peer-review academic papers, published in journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), American Journal of Public Health, Health Security, Tobacco Regulatory Science, Risk Analysis, PLoS One, Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Public Understanding of Science, Journal of Public Health, Health Communication, Communication Methods and Measures, and more. His coauthored book on the 2020 Presidential Elections in light of COVID-19, “Democracy amid Crises: Polarization, Pandemic, Protests, & Persuasion” was published in 2022 by Oxford University Press. His book “Misinformation & Society” is expected 2024.
Dr. Ophir is the head of the Media Effects, Misinformation, and Extremism (MEME) lab at the University at Buffalo, a member of the Center for Information Integrity (CII) at the University at Buffalo, and a distinguished fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.