Science and Technology

Aug. 29., the day that Hurricane Katrina barreled ashore on the Gulf Coast, also was the first day of class for Geology 428/528, "Preventing Geologic Disasters," at the University at Buffalo. Even though he had already prepared a semester's worth of historical examples, Michael F. Sheridan, Ph.D., UB professor of geology, decided that day to ditch much of it and to focus, instead, on Katrina as the harshest of case studies.

Along with laptops and cell phones, more than 4,000 University at Buffalo students this fall will be packing a piece of gear into their backpacks that may make them feel like they're on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

After spending five hectic, sleep-deprived days on the Gulf Coast assessing structural damage to buildings in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, engineers from the University at Buffalo's Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) have returned home to start doing the scientific work that they hope one day will help curb structural damage from future severe events.

Alan H. Guth, Ph.D., a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the "father" of the inflationary theory of the universe, will give the 12th annual Moti Lal Rustgi Memorial Lecture at 4 p.m. Sept. 23 in Room 215 in the Natural Sciences Complex on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus.

Efficient and highly scalable new chemical synthesis methods developed at the University at Buffalo's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics have the potential to revolutionize the production of quantum dots for bioimaging and photovoltaic applications.

Reestablishment of wastewater and drinking-water treatment facilities is a critical step for rebuilding New Orleans, but it likely will take months to get those systems operational, according to wastewater treatment expert at the University at Buffalo.

Ten days after 9/11, University at Buffalo structural engineers were at Ground Zero investigating the collapse of the World Trade Center and surrounding buildings. Thus began a new era in anti-terrorism research at UB, whichi now has more than $21 million in active federal and state grants to develop and investigate new methods for combating terrorist threats and attacks

The rebuilding of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina gives the city an unprecedented chance to create new city neighborhoods that are economically and racially diverse, says University at Buffalo urban geographer Meghan Cope, Ph.D., associate professor of geography in the College of Arts and Sciences.

"The most critical problems related to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina are related less to the lack of technological solutions than to the absence of a sound national policy for dealing with such events," says Shahin Vassigh, associate professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo.

The hundreds of thousands of refugees from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina join 25 million people worldwide displaced by environmental catastrophes, events and processes, according to Lynda Schneekloth, professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo.