UB in the News

An article in the San Luis Obispo Tribune on people's fascination with celebrity quotes Elayne Rapping, professor of American studies, who says the stars have become our surrogate friends and neighbors, and studies have shown many people spend more time with television and computers than with friends and family.

Research conducted by David Sandberg, associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, on height and a child's social standing among schoolmates and the controversy over the use of human growth hormone to make children taller is the subject of an article that appeared in The New York Times Magazine.

An article in the Chicago Tribune on the subsidy dispute between Boeing and Airbus quotes David Pritchard, research associate at the Canada-United States Trade Center within the Department of Geography, who called predictions of a settlement of the trade dispute "just posturing."

An article in the Philadelphia Daily News on Delphi's bankruptcy filing and the economic ripple effects that are expected to be felt throughout the nation quotes Nallan Suresh, professor and chair of operations management and strategy in the School of Management, who says that "in the long term, bankruptcy could pave the way for taking a fresh look at the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing."

An article in the Business Week issue dated Oct. 17 reports that the National Theatre for Children (NTC) is performing 45-minute shows in New York for middle-school students, using sketch comedy to teach savings, budgeting and credit, and that Lewis Mandell, professor of finance and managerial economics, has been hired by the NTC to evaluate the impact of its new presentation.

An article in Macleans magazine looks at a poll conducted by UB and SES Research in Ottawa that surveyed resident of both countries on a wide range of issues from national security to energy policy, and showed the two nations defined more by our similarities than our differences. The article quotes Munroe Eagles, associate professor of political science and one of the people who first conceived of the study, who said that "what shows up clearly is that we share a great deal, including an interest in creating a secure North America."

The current issue of R&D magazine reports a research team headed by Paras Prasad, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and executive director of UB's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, has developed two novel approaches for fabricating quantum dots.

Andre Filiatrault, professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering and deputy director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), was interviewed on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight." Filiatrault joined a discussion about the earthquake in Pakistan and India and spoke about the need to improve the seismic resilience of buildings in the U.S.

An article in the Oct. 7 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education on young academics without tenure and blogging quotes Alex Halavais, assistant professor of communication, who says that blogs seem "threatening to those who are established in academia, to financial interests and to ... well, decorum."

An Associated Press article on youth culture testing the boundaries of gender identity and roles quotes Elayne Rapping, professor of American studies, who says she believes this experimentation will influence acceptance in a society where gender identities are already blurring.