Stephanopoulos' UB lecture is rescheduled

The lecture by ABC-TV news political analyst George Stephanopoulos slated for yesterday at UB has been rescheduled for March 29 because of an unexpected news assignment.

The lecture, part of UB's Distinguished Speaker Series, will be held at 8 p.m. on Wednesday in the Center for the Arts Mainstage Theatre on the North Campus.

Tickets purchased for the March 22 lecture will be valid for the March 29 presentation.

Yeh named chair of Gynecology, Obstetrics

John Yeh, professor and vice-chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Minnesota, has been named chair of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at UB, effective May 1.

Yeh holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and earned his medical degree from the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine. Following a residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, he completed a fellowship in fertility and reproductive endocrinology at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Yeh joined the Harvard Medical School faculty in 1987, where he conducted research in the field of reproductive endocrinology. He joined the University of Minnesota in 1997, where he was responsible for the department's research and strategic planning. He also served as executive director of the Women's Health Program at Regions Hospital in Minneapolis and director of the residency program in obstetrics and gynecology.

He is co-author of a 1991 book, "Legal Aspects of Infertility," and is writing the manuscript for a book on growth factors in reproductive medicine.

Madhavan Nair named to NIH study section

Madhavan Nair, research professor of medicine and microbiology, has been named to the National Institute of Health's AIDS and Related Research Study Section, Center for Scientific Review, through June 30, 2003.

As a member of the study section, Nair will be contributing to the national biomedical-research effort by reviewing grant applications submitted to NIH and recommending them to the appropriate NIH national advisory council or board.

Members of study sections are selected on the basis of their research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors.

Blue and White Club breaks scholarship goal

Members and volunteers of the Blue and White Club broke their $300,000 goal for this year's athletic scholarship fund drive with a record-breaking total of $369,342 pledged during the month-long drive.

Organizers of the drive said the magnitude of the support from the community is critical if UB's student athletes are to compete on an even playing field in the intensely competitive world of NCAA Division I athletics.

The Blue and White Club was established in 1995 to provide scholarship support for deserving student athletes, to promote UB athletics and to bridge the gap between UB and the community.

In a related development, the family of Walter Heymann, a UB alumnus and former football player, has established a scholarship fund for the Division of Athletics in honor of Heymann.

The $65,000 gift will be used for football athletic scholarships, as noted on the plaque outside the newly named Walter Heymann Meeting Room in UB Stadium. Bulls offensive backs will use the meeting room to review game film, to learn new plays and to work out position specifics.

Human subjects to be focus of workshop

The Office of the Vice President for Research will sponsor a Human Subject Workshop to be held April 13 in the Center for Tomorrow on the North Campus.

The workshop will consist of two sessions: a morning program on regulatory measures and overlapping federal regulation, intended for institutional review boards, and an afternoon program for principal investigators that will look at the history and ethics of, and developments in, human-subjects protection.

The workshop will be led by Jeffrey M. Cohen, associate director for Education in the Office of Protection from Research Risks, Department of Health and Human Services, and Paul W. Goebel, Jr., of the Office of Education Programs.

Participants are encouraged to register in advance by contacting Edward Zablocki, coordinator of industrial relations and economic development in the Office of the Vice President for Research, by phone at 645-3321; fax, 645-6792, or email, zablocki@research.buffalo.edu.

Moral philosopher O'Neill to deliver Hourani lectures

Timely and undying issues about ethics and politics will be analyzed by Onora O'Neill, one of the world's most respected moral philosophers, during the six-part George Hourani Lectures in Moral Philosophy, to be held next month at UB.

"Action, Reason and Judgment" is the title of the series, which will be held at 4 p.m. April 4, 6, 7, 11 and 14 in 280 Park Hall on the North Campus. The April 12 lecture will be held in 141 Park Hall. The lectures will be free and open to the public, but pre-registration is requested. Call 645-2444, ext. 132, for more information and reservations.

In each lecture, O'Neill will propose ways of thinking about various components of the general topic of ethics and politics that meet demands that often are thought to be incompatible. They are "Thinking About Action," April 4; "Thinking About Practical Reason," April 6; "Thinking About Reason and Normalcy," April 7; "Thinking About Judgment and Institutions," April 11; "Thinking About Human Diversity," April 12, and "Thinking About Boundaries," April 14.

Principal of Newnham College at Cambridge, England, O'Neill insists that philosophy has practical implications. She was made a life peer as Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve for her leadership on such issues as hunger, justice and bioethics.

She has written widely on ethics and political philosophy, particularly on questions of international justice and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant.

Her books include "Faces of Hunger: An Essay on Poverty, Development and Justice," "Constructions of Reason: Exploration of Kant's Practical Philosophy" and "Towards Justice and Virtue."

The biennial George Hourani Lectures in Moral Philosophy honors the former chair of the Department of Philosophy, part of the College of Arts and Sciences. One of the world's foremost scholars in Islamic philosophy and Near East studies, Hourani died in 1984.

UB immunologist to present 30th annual Witebsky lecture

Internationally known UB immunologist and professor emeritus Ernst H. Beutner will deliver the 30th Annual Ernest Witebsky Memorial Lecture at 7:30 p.m. April 6 in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

"Immunopathology of Pemphigus: Past Progress and Future Directions" will be the topic of Beutner's presentation at 7:30 p.m. in Butler Auditorium, 150 Farber Hall, on the South Campus.

The lecture will be free and open to the public. It is sponsored by UB's Ernest Witebsky Center for Immunology and the Department of Microbiology.

Beutner's pioneering research led to a better understanding of the links between human immune-system components and skin disorders, including pemphigus, bullous pemphigoid and lupus erythematosus.

His work for some four decades helped define and standardize labeled antibody techniques for microscopy leading to improved diagnostic tests.

He has earned many honors for his work, including one of four prestigious awards from the American Skin Association, and others from the European Academy of Dermatology and the University of Trondheim in Norway.

He is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association of Immunologists.

Student advancement program honors Patterson, Heckman

The president and adviser of the University Student Alumni Board (USAB) at UB won top awards at a recent meeting of District II of the Association of Student Advancement Programs.

Michael G. Patterson, a senior majoring in business administration who has held various offices with USAB, was named the district's Most Outstanding Student Member.

Kathleen S. Heckman, assistant director in the UB Office of Alumni Relations, was named Most Outstanding Adviser.

Patterson was cited for the positive impact of his dedication, leadership, energy and enthusiasm on increasing USAB's membership, campus visibility and community-service activities.

Among the activities cited were Oozfest, UB's volleyball-in-the-mud tournament, and projects with the Buffalo and Erie County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Habitat for Humanity.

Patterson is a member of Golden Key National Honor Society.

Heckman was honored for her interest in and support of USAB.

A member of USAB when she was a UB undergraduate, Heckman earned a bachelor's degree in geography in 1992 and a master's degree in business administration in 1995, also from UB.

In her position with the alumni relations office, she coordinates and assists with various alumni projects and events, including homecoming, special-year reunion's and the "Meet a Mentor Career Networking Program."

"Starmites" to be presented in CFA

The Department of Theatre and Dance will present the rock musical "Starmites" April 6-9 and 13-16 in the Drama Theatre of the Center for the Arts on the North Campus. Performances will be held Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.

This fun and lively rock musical, directed and choreographed by Lynne Kurdziel-Formato, has been called "a space-age Peter Pan" and is set in a comic-book fantasy world that features the superheroic Starmites, a collection of "droids," the Arch Creep of Chaos, and a half-lizard, half-humanoid. The Tony-nominated show tells the coming-of-age story of Eleanor, a comic book-loving teenager who is transported into a parallel universe, eventually becoming Milady, Superhero of Innerspace.

Tickets are $10 for the general public and $5 for students. They may be purchased at the Center for the Arts box office Tuesday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m. and at all Ticketmaster locations, including Kaufmann's and Movies Plus. For more information, call 645-ARTS.

Delinquency to be topic of UB at Sunrise

UB sociologist and author Simon I. Singer will discuss delinquency and its control in Amherst-one of America's safest cities-at the UB at Sunrise community breakfast lecture to be held at 7:30 a.m. April 12 in the Center for Tomorrow on the North Campus.

Singer, a professor in the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, is nationally known for his book, "Recriminalizing Delinquency: Violent Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice Reform."

Tickets for the program, which includes a full breakfast, are $12 for UB Alumni Association members and UB faculty and staff, and $15 for all others. For information and reservations, call 829-2608. Visa and MasterCard are accepted.

UB at Sunrise community breakfast series is presented by the Alumni Association and supported by the Office of University Development, News Services, the Office of Publications and the Office of Public Service and Urban Affairs at UB.

Corporate sponsors are Adelphia and The Sheraton Four Points Hotel.

History of handwriting to be discussed

An historical view of handwriting as a communication tool, art form and debatable gauge of character will be the topic of the UB Senior Alumni luncheon to be held at noon on April 14 in the Center for Tomorrow on the North Campus.

Tamara Thornton, associate professor of history and author of "Handwriting in America: A Cultural History," will present a visual tour of handwriting's twists, turns and history as an elegant, sloppy, neat and sometimes illegible expression of "self."

Cost of the luncheon program, which is designed for UB senior alumni, their guests and spouses, is $12 per person. For more information or to make reservations, call the Office of Alumni Relations at 829-2608.

Series sponsors are Independent Health and Financial Education Resources.

Gift to CCR to speed up processor communications

You can never have a computer that's too fast. That's the thinking of researchers in the Center for Computational Research (CCR), who received a $139,680 equipment donation that will speed up processor communications nearly 100-fold.

Myricom, Inc. has donated leading-edge Myrinet interfaces and switches that have been integrated into the CCR dual-boot Linux/Solaris Sun Microsystems cluster.

Russ Miller, director of CCR and professor of computer science and engineering, called the cluster "unique in the field of scientific research" and said it will provide "a cost-effective advantage for CCR users."

With this additional networking equipment, CCR bolsters its place among the elite supercomputing sites around the world that are using cluster-computing systems for pioneering research.

Clusters provide an economical way of achieving high performance by distributing demanding computations across an array of commodity computers. Miller said Myrinet is a packet-communication and switching technology that is widely used to interconnect clusters of workstations, PCs or single-board computers. The Myrinet hardware also is capable of detecting and isolating communication faults, and can automatically switch to alternative communication paths.

Myrinet components are used by more than 1,000 research centers around the world, including many government agencies and universities, to link not only computers in clusters, but also computers in local area networks on campus.

Miller believes this new networking technology will allow CCR to greatly expand its capacity, allowing it to provide more computing cycles at lower cost to the UB and Western New York research communities. According to Miller, fewer than 10 universities in the U.S. have the capabilities of providing high-performance computing cycles as powerful as those available in CCR.

Faculty members from 40 research groups, covering 18 different departments at the university, are using CCR facilities. Students taking CCR's graduate-level courses in high-performance computing are using the cluster, along with researchers in chemistry, chemical engineering, and mechanical and aerospace engineering. In addition, the university has worked with such local research institutions as Roswell Park Cancer Institute and Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, as well as such local companies as Occidental Chemical, Praxair and M&T Bank.

UUAB to present jazz workshop, concert

The University Union Activities Board on Monday will present "A Day of Jazz," a workshop and concert presented by the Eric Mintel Quartet.

The quartet will present a free interactive workshop from 11 a.m. to noon in the Student Union lobby and a concert Monday evening in Harriman Hall on the South Campus. The concert is free for students and $5 for the general public; doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Founded by pianist and composer Eric Mintel, the quartet has performed at the White House and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.