News Releases

Bruce D. McCombe, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and longtime UB administrator who most recently served as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, has been named dean of the college after a national search.

It is clear that Congress and the major American political parties are more ideologically polarized than they were a generation ago, but are Americans themselves more deeply polarized? This and other questions about America's political identity will be discussed in "America Divided: The Polarization of American Politics," a symposium to be held April 17.

Have you shown up late for work, disappointed family members or discovered you couldn't remember what happened the night before because you had too much to drink? Are you concerned that you might have a problem with alcohol? One in every 13 adults suffers from alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence. In an effort to help people recognize the signs of an alcohol problem and, in turn, seek help, the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) will offer free, anonymous screenings for alcohol use disorders on National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD) on April 5.

At its 2007 annual conference this month, the Music Library Association (MLA) presented its rarely conferred Special Achievement Award to Nancy Bren Nuzzo of Williamsville, director of the Music Library and Special Collections Library of the University at Buffalo.

University at Buffalo's Office of Community Relations will host the 6th Annual UB Community Forum on March 29 from 7-9 p.m. in 105 Harriman Hall on UB's South (Main Street) Campus.

Coronary revascularization with stenting or balloon angioplasty combined with optimal medical therapy is no more effective in preventing a heart attack, other major cardiovascular events or death in patients with stable heart disease, than optimal medical therapy alone, results of a new study conducted in 50 hospitals in the U.S. and Canada has shown.

Students in most dental schools are taught to refer tobacco-using patients they encounter in their clinical training to call a "quit line." The University at Buffalo's School of Dental Medicine is taking a different tack. In one of the few such programs in the nation, third- and fourth-year UB dental students are using non-judgmental tobacco counseling to encourage their patients to quit.

Patients admitted to a hospital's intensive care unit already are seriously ill, so the last thing they need is a new infection. Unfortunately, statistics show that as many as 25 percent of all patients admitted to the ICU and placed on ventilators develop pneumonia, which can be fatal. Ironically, it turns out that the patient's own dental plaque is a major source of germs that cause ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Anne E. Meyer of Eggertsville, research associate professor in the Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences in the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine, and director of the UB site of the National Science Foundation-designated Industry/University Center for Biosurfaces, was elected chair of the Council of Societies of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) during the group's annual meeting held recently in Washington, D.C.

The University at Buffalo Alumni Association will honor 12 individuals with achievement awards at a black-tie gala to be held April 20 in the Adam's Mark Hotel, 120 Church St.