Science and Technology

A $500,000 gift from Ravinder K. Bansal, Ph.D., and his wife, Pratibha Bansal, M.D., of Clarence, to the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences will be used for costs associated with the construction of a new engineering building on UB's North (Amherst) Campus.

Did God make scientists? Most of them don't think so. The first systematic analysis in decades to examine the religious beliefs and practices of elite academics in the sciences supports the notion that science professors at top universities are less religious than the general population, but attributes this to a number of variables that have little to do with their study of science.

A four-year study on iron metabolism within cells, an essential process that impacts both iron deficiency and iron toxicity, conditions responsible for a multitude of human diseases, is underway at the University at Buffalo funded by a $1.16 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

In a publication selected as a "2007 Hot Article" by the journal Biochemistry, University at Buffalo chemists report the discovery of a central mechanism responsible for the action of the powerful biological catalysts known as enzymes.

The University at Buffalo's Office of Science Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR) has announced that licensing and research agreements have been completed with Reichert, Inc., paving the way for developing and marketing a cell volume cytometer (CVC), whose applications include the detection of drug/cell interactions, bacterial sensitivity to antibiotics and cancer cell susceptibility to chemotherapeutic agents.

Martin K. Casstevens has been named business formation and commercialization manager for the Office of Science, Technology Transfer and Economic Outreach (STOR) at the University at Buffalo.

The UB Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology (UB CAT) is funding University at Buffalo researchers working with 13 life sciences companies and organizations in Buffalo Niagara as part of $1 million in annual support provided by the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) to the UB CAT.

A symposium on "Emerging Developments in Multi-Hazard Engineering" organized jointly by MCEER, headquartered at the University at Buffalo, and the Architectural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers(ASCE) will be held Sept. 18 at the McGraw-Hill Conference Center in New York City.

Monica Ridgeway, a University at Buffalo undergraduate entering her senior year, knows that when people think of a scientist, they usually think of a white male in a lab coat; but not too far in the future, she hopes they will envision someone more like herself, a young African-American woman with a head full of braids who is curious about correlations between frozen mud and global warming.

Assemblywoman Crystal D. Peoples and Lockheed Martin will be honored at the University at Buffalo's Business Partners Day luncheon to be held at noon on June 14 in the Adam's Mark Hotel.