Natural Disasters

Mark Frank has spent two decades studying the faces of people lying when in high-stakes situations and has good news for security experts. "Executing Facial Control During Deception Situations," a new study he co-authored with former graduate student Carolyn M. Hurley, PhD, reports that although liars can reduce facial actions when under scrutiny, they can't suppress them all.

The University at Buffalo will host the international workshop "Probabilistic Analysis of Volcanic Hazards" on May 16-19. Conference participants will include geologists, volcanologists and statisticians from several nations, who will consider current methodologies used in the analysis of volcanic hazards, including probability, randomness and statistical measures, in order to help define priorities for future research.

The 2011 earthquakes that struck New Zealand and Japan, research on improving nuclear power plant design, earthquake engineering research in the U.S. in the next quarter century and improving resilience of buildings, bridges and critical infrastructure are all on the agenda at Quake Summit 2011, Earthquake & Multi-Hazards Resilience: Progress and Challenges, in Buffalo, NY, June 9-11.

Each year, American drivers waste an estimated 3.7 billion hours, or the equivalent of five days, sitting in traffic, burning 2.3 billion gallons of fuel. Students at the University at Buffalo will soon be learning how to reduce that waste, creating less congestion and cleaner air, thanks to an IBM grant to Adel Sadek, PhD, UB associate professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has chosen Andrei M. Reinhorn, PhD, Clifford C. Furnas Professor of Structural Engineering at the University at Buffalo, to receive the 2011 Nathan M. Newmark Medal.

Puneet Singla, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University at Buffalo, was recently chosen to receive a prestigious Air Force Office of Scientific Research award to develop more robust mathematical models to assess space situational awareness. The highly competitive Young Investigators Research Program award will fund Singla's research into "Information Collection and Fusion for Space Situational Awareness."

The outcome of Haiti's March 20 presidential election will determine much of the country's political future, but this week, more than 250 Haitian architects and engineers will take the future of Haiti's reconstruction into their own hands when they attend the third UniQ-UB/MCEER Earthquake Engineering Seminar in Port-au-Prince.

The design of next-generation nuclear power plants and other critical energy facilities will undoubtedly be influenced by the Japanese tsunami and its devastating effects on Japan's nuclear reactors, says Michael C. Constantinou, PhD, professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering at the University at Buffalo.

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of northern Japan and the tsunami it triggered demonstrate the need for an integrated approach to preparing for, mitigating and responding to extreme events, say researchers at the University at Buffalo, MCEER and the UB Center for GeoHazards Studies, who spoke to media in a briefing Friday on UB's North Campus. Video commentary from UB faculty experts is available here: http://bit.ly/eeUn1S

Scientists and engineers at the University at Buffalo and UB's MCEER (Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research) will be available to discuss with media the powerful magnitude 8.9 earthquake that struck the northern coast of Japan and has triggered tsunamis and evacuations throughout half the world.