Natural Disasters

Researchers at CUBRC and the University at Buffalo's New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences are developing radically new drugs designed to cure viruses ranging from the deadly Ebola virus to the common cold, thanks to a major $8.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.

As electric power this week returned to the last of the homes and businesses in Western New York affected by the devastating October snowstorm, researchers at the University at Buffalo were discussing how tiny, nanoscale sensors could make power systems far more resilient.

University at Buffalo researchers and their collaborators at other institutions have been awarded a four-year, $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant, under the NSF Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams (NIRT) initiative, to develop semiconductor-based terahertz detectors that can be integrated seamlessly with conventional electronics. The grant is one of only 10 that the NSF has funded from more than 400 applications received.

When an explosion, accidental cremation or a fire set deliberately to cover a crime destroys a body, precious little may remain to link it to a life once lived. Yet even among the ashes, a team of forensic dental researchers at the University at Buffalo has shown that evidence exists that can help identify human remains when all else -- flesh, bones, teeth, DNA -- is lost.

Just weeks after the University at Buffalo and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute successfully conducted the first tests of seismic dampers for residential applications, the firm that manufactures the dampers, Taylor Devices, has made its first sale of the protective devices for a residence.

While it might be very difficult to detect benign chemicals that could make an explosive when mixed together, it is not nearly as difficult to detect traces of potentially dangerous chemicals on the fingers of individuals who recently have been in contact with them. At the University at Buffalo, researchers have proposed development of a biometric sensor that could detect such traces on the fingers of airline passengers.

Timothy J. Klein of Williamsville, B.S. '84, has been named 2006 Engineer of the Year by the Engineering Alumni Association at the University at Buffalo in recognition of his success as president, CEO and co-founder of ATTO Technology Inc., an Amherst-based computer electronics company.

To better reflect its mission of developing solutions to improve resilience against extreme events of all sorts, the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research headquartered at the University at Buffalo is shortening its name to MCEER.

A technology first used during the Cold War to isolate ballistic missile silos from vibrations will undergo its first test in a full-scale, wood-frame townhouse in the University at Buffalo's Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory to see if it would minimize earthquake damage to wood-frame homes.

When trying to lie your way through any situation, keep a tight rein on your zygo maticus major and your orbicularis oculi. They'll give you away faster than a snitch. So says a University at Buffalo social psychologist, whose revolutionary research on human facial expressions in situations of high stakes deception debunks myths that have permeated police and security training for decades.