Science and Technology

As it passes its 10th year in operation, the University at Buffalo's Center for Computational Research has plenty to celebrate: in the past 12 months, it has received more than $11 million in new funding, including two major competitive federal grants for advancing computational science and a New York State grant to make supercomputing more environmentally friendly.

Before the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, Haiti's engineers and architects had received little, if any, formal training in seismic design and construction principles. Haitian universities didn't offer any courses or programs that were dedicated to earthquake engineering.

Clusters of heated, magnetic nanoparticles targeted to cell membranes can remotely control ion channels, neurons and even animal behavior, according to a paper published by University at Buffalo physicists in Nature Nanotechnology.

It isn't easy being green, but Dennis A. Andrejko, FAIA, of Williamsville, associate professor in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, and a longtime proponent of sustainable architecture, has been elected vice president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), to serve 2011-2012.

"Building UB: the Comprehensive Physical Plan" has received a 2010 Professional Award in the category of Comprehensive Planning from the Western New York Section of the American Planning Association.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo conducting a neighborhood-scaled exploratory study that tested the association between the food environment, the built environment and women's body mass index (BMI) have found that women with homes closer to a supermarket, relative to a convenience store, had lower BMIs, and that the greater the number of restaurants within a five minute walk of a woman's home, the higher her BMI.

Modern marsupials may be popular animals at the zoo and in children's books, but new findings by University at Buffalo biologists reveal that they harbor a "fossil" copy of a gene that codes for filoviruses, which cause Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fevers and are the most lethal viruses known to humans.

Andre Filiatrault, PhD, director of the University at Buffalo's MCEER (Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research), will be available to discuss the magnitude 5.5 earthquake that struck on the Ontario-Quebec border this afternoon and was felt throughout the state.

Samina Raja, PhD, associate professor of urban and regional planning in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, is a community-based scholar whose work continues to earn national visibility and prestige in the fields of food security planning and community health.

Two former fellows of the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning have been selected to participate in the 12th annual International Architecture Exhibition at the 2010 Venice Biennale, Aug. 29 to Nov. 2.