Natural Disasters

During the past decade, residents of Pasto, Colombia, and neighboring villages near Galeras, Colombia's most dangerous volcano, have been threatened with evacuation, but compliance varies. With each new eruption Colombian officials have grown increasingly concerned about the safety of the residents who live within striking distance of Galeras. Now, geologists from the University at Buffalo and the Universidad de Narino have organized a workshop in Colombia designed to tackle the communication issue.

Modern glaciers, such as those making up the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, are capable of undergoing periods of rapid shrinkage or retreat, according to new findings by paleoclimatologists at the University at Buffalo.

On April 6, a powerful earthquake struck central Italy, near the medieval town of L'Aquila, about 75 miles northeast of Rome. Gian Paolo Cimellaro, a graduate of the University at Buffalo's doctoral program in earthquake engineering and a visiting professor at UB. Cimellaro arrived in Buffalo on April 8; he was in Rome when the Paganica earthquake struck on Monday morning.

David C. Duchscherer, PE, president, Wendel Duchscherer Architects and Engineers of Amherst, was honored as the University at Buffalo Engineering Alumni Association's 2009 Engineer of the Year: Shaping the Way People Move.

In 2007, University at Buffalo computer scientist Sargur Srihari, Ph.D., one of the world's experts on pattern recognition and its application to fingerprints and handwriting, was selected by the National Academy of Sciences to serve with other national experts on its Committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community. The NAS released the panel's findings in a report called "Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward"

After a collective trauma, such as Thursday's crash of Continental Flight 3407, an entire community (or even the nation) can be exposed to the tragedy through media coverage and second-hand accounts, according to Mark Seery, Ph.D., University at Buffalo assistant professor of psychology.

Snow that blows and drifts across roadways has long troubled road maintenance crews and commuters alike, creating treacherous driving conditions and requiring additional maintenance resources to mitigate the problem. Now, a University at Buffalo engineer has led the development of "SnowMan," a user-friendly, desktop software package that puts cost-effective solutions to the snow drift problem at the fingertips of highway designers and road maintenance personnel.

News of any earthquake spreads quickly among the dozens of earthquake engineering researchers and students at the University at Buffalo. But Wednesday's magnitude 6.4 quake in southwest Pakistan held particular interest for two researchers visiting UB and MCEER this semester from Pakistan's NWFP University of Engineering and Technology in Peshawar.

A new transportation research specialization at the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will provide New York State's government agencies and municipalities with access to innovative technologies and systems that address critical transportation issues facing the region and the nation.

Andre Filiatrault, Ph.D., Eng., a professor at the University at Buffalo and leading expert on shake-table testing of structural and nonstructural building components, has been elected to a two-year term as director of MCEER, a national center of excellence focused on multi-hazard engineering, headquartered at UB.