News Releases

The desire to assign cosmic significance to the arrival of hurricanes Katrina and Rita is an example of humankind's ages-old need to find reason within chaos, according to University at Buffalo anthropologist Phillips Stevens Jr., Ph.D., a renowned expert on the origins, nature and meaning of cults, superstitions and cultural identities.

Effective mitigation of the drastic effects of extreme natural phenomena like hurricanes, floods, landslides and wildfires through integrated environmental management that includes the perspectives of geomorphologists and ecosystem scientists is the focus of the interdisciplinary 36th International Geomorphology Binghamton Symposium to be held Oct. 7-9 at the University at Buffalo.

The failure of levees in the wake of Hurricane Katrina points out the need for new technologies to strengthen levees and monitor their reliability, according to Deborah D. L. Chung, Ph.D., a University at Buffalo materials scientist and inventor of "smart concrete."

Three short weeks after they fled New Orleans, many victims of Hurricane Katrina housed in shelters in Texas are having difficulties dealing emotionally with the disaster, particularly with another destructive hurricane headed toward the state where they took refuge, according to Nancy J. Smyth, Ph.D., associate professor and dean of social work at the University at Buffalo.

Kathryn A. Foster, director of UB's Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth, talks about the mission of the institute and plans for the future in a Q&A published in the Reporter on Sept. 22, 2005.

The Wall Street Journal has ranked the University at Buffalo School of Management 13th among the top 47 regional business schools in North America, up two spots from last year's ranking.

Community leader Thomas R. Beecher, Jr., will receive the 2005 Edwin F. Jaeckle Award from University at Buffalo Law School and the UB Law Alumni Association at a luncheon to be held Oct. 22 in the Hyatt Regency Buffalo.

With the trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein expected to begin soon, the Jewish Law Students Association at the University at Buffalo Law School will host a multi-media presentation and lecture on a war-crimes tribunal from years past.

San Francisco -- SofTrek Corporation, an Oracle hosting and technology company, announced today at Oracle Open World that it has formalized membership in the Corporate Partner Program of the University at Buffalo's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.

UB, along with 10 other upstate New York colleges and universities, will present UNYTECH05, a venture forum designed to connect promising university-based start-up companies with potential investors, on Sept. 21 and 22 in the Buffalo Niagara Marriott, 1340 Millersport Highway.