Science and Technology

"Mr. Freeze," the Chem-E-Car designed by chemical engineering students in the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, finished fourth in the seventh annual Chem-E-Car competition held recently in Cincinnati.

The Center for Urban Studies in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning has received a three-year, $359,090 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to fund a comprehensive, university-assisted community development plan for two Buffalo neighborhoods in serious decline.

Finding compounds that bind to and inhibit an RNA sequence -- as a potential new approach to designing disease treatments -- is still very much a trial-and-error process, involving the tedious screening of millions of molecules against a single RNA sequence. Now, a University at Buffalo medicinal chemist is hoping to change that.

Dermatologists seem to agree that something in milk and dairy products may be linked to teen-age acne. But is it hormones and "bioactive molecules," as a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology suggested, or is there something else? University at Buffalo dermatologist Harvey Arbesman, M.D., says there could be something else: Iodine.

Male water fleas that scientists have never seen have made their debut in a University at Buffalo laboratory, providing biologists with their first glimpse of these elusive organisms. The UB research, opens a new window on the biological diversity of several species of water fleas that play major roles in freshwater food webs.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo involved in diverse fields in engineering and economics have been awarded a total of $1.5 million in faculty development grants from the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research.

If there is a common thread that runs through the many facets of Joseph A. Gardella's professional life, it's advocacy. A professor of chemistry at the University at Buffalo, Gardella advocates for the right of children to learn science, for the right of college students to have access to the best science education, for the right of disabled students to fulfill their highest potential, for the right of women and minority faculty members to experience advancement opportunities and for the rights of citizens to fully understand the environmental science that affects their neighborhoods and their health.

Kemper E. Lewis, Ph.D., is borrowing from an ages-old, medical-school teaching method, using "product dissection" to instruct his students in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Buffalo.

It took him 16 years of studying part time on nights and weekends while working full time and raising a family to complete his engineering degree at the University at Buffalo, but Felix Smist, B.S. '65, kept at it. To honor his father and help students who experience similar situations, Felix's son James Smist, B.S. '80, and his wife, Mary, have established the Felix Smist Scholarship at UB.

We love our wheels, even as we age, but when driving is no longer an option, many of us will be stranded by myriad obstacles unless public transportation systems are able to meet our changing needs.