BUFFALO, N.Y. — University at Buffalo Law School Dean Makau W. Mutua will be a guest of President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, at a ceremony in the White House on Nov. 23 for his role as one of five international and national human rights experts who selected the recipient of this year’s Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

The award, presented by Ethel Kennedy, will be given to Magodonga Mahlangu and her organization, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). Mutua and the four other judges chose Mahlangu and WOZA for organizing more than 60,000 Zimbabweans in an ongoing campaign of non-violent action against injustice, exploitive social conditions and oppression of women’s rights.

Mutua — who was named dean of the UB Law School in 2008 — is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities in human rights law. He is an internationally known scholar who works on human rights issues around the world and serves as chair of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.

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Six UB scientists and engineers have won 2009 National Science Foundation CAREER awards, the foundation’s most prestigious award for junior investigators that recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of teacher-scholars “who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.”

Faculty who received the awards—members of the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences—join 16 UB faculty members who have active CAREER awards.

“This year’s round of CAREER award-winners demonstrates that UB’s junior professors are at the forefront of advancing innovative research and technologies that can improve the quality of life in the future,” says Jorge V. José, vice president for research. “From developing more efficient, wireless networks and superconducting nanostructures to more effective delivery of drugs and powerful machine vision systems, these CAREER award-winners demonstrate the power of the UB 2020 vision and its strategic strengths.”

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Esther S. Takeuchi, Greatbatch Professor in Power Sources Research in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been named a SUNY Distinguished Professor, the highest faculty rank in the SUNY system.

This is Takeuchi’s second major honor in as many months. She received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest honor awarded for technological achievement, from President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony held Oct. 7.

Takeuchi was one of eight SUNY faculty members appointed to the rank of Distinguished Professor by the SUNY Board of Trustees at its Nov. 17 meeting.

The rank is an order above full professorship and has three co-equal designations: distinguished professor, distinguished service professor and distinguished teaching professor.

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A new residence hall that embodies the principles of UB’s comprehensive physical plan, “Building UB,” is under construction on the North Campus.

The 600-unit South Ellicott Suites for sophomores will feature a “learning landscapes” concept designed to enhance student learning by blending residential, academic and recreational areas. The new facility is part of the plan to make the North Campus more dynamic, lively and attractive. It will become the model for future campus housing at UB, according to Joseph J. Krakowiak, director of University Residence Halls and Apartments.

“The entire first floor of the building will demonstrate the vibrancy of 24-hour-a-day academic activity, a key principle in the learning landscapes concept,” Krakowiak says. “The first floor has a wide variety of settings for classroom spaces for study groups and for individual study, and features a 2,000-square-foot Market Café with seating for 50 people.

“Casual study will be enhanced through the use of technology, lighting and flexible spaces.”

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Katherine Cumberland is teaching in Taiwan on a Fulbright scholarship.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Three University at Buffalo students were awarded Fulbright student scholarships for the 2009-10 academic year and are abroad studying and contributing to the health and education systems of other countries.

Meghana Gadgil, Katherine Cumberland and Catherine Dunning are among the more than 1,500 U.S. citizens who will study, teach or research abroad as Fulbright scholars this academic year.

Gadgil, of Berkeley, Calif., is a student in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She is conducting research on hand-washing interventions in rural and urban slum communities at the International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in Bangladesh as a means to combat diarrhea and respiratory illnesses, the two leading causes of illness and death among children in Bangladesh and in many other low-income settings.

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The School of Public Health and Health Professions (SPHHP) has earned full accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health for five years, the maximum for an initial accreditation.

Accreditation was the culmination of a rigorous multi-year, peer-review process. UB’s SPHHP now is one of only 43 schools in the U.S. to hold membership in the Association of Schools of Public Health.

“When the school was founded in 2003, the vision was to become accredited and join the first rank of public health schools in the country,” said Dean Lynn T. Kozlowski. “I’m proud that we have accomplished this on our first effort.

“This accreditation aids us in carrying out the mission of public health—to help prevent and treat health problems that shorten lives and sap the quality of life, and to train public health and health professionals in an environment focused on wellness, disease prevention, and environmental and population issues.

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UB’s annual celebration of International Education Week (IEW) will take to the road this year as the university’s international students visit Buffalo area elementary, middle and high school classrooms to share their culture and educational experiences in their home countries.

Running from Nov. 16-20, IEW is a joint initiative of the U.S. departments of State and Education to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to experience the U.S.

UB students from China, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Iran will go into local classrooms to present their cultures through story-telling, simple language lessons, crafts and presentations about their school experiences in their home country.

“Our goal is to increase the students’ cross-cultural awareness, curiosity and knowledge. It is our belief that the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, illustrate the need for more—not less—cultural sharing, awareness and education,” says Ellen Dussourd, director of International Student and Scholar Services at UB.

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The UB Law School is reinventing the way it prepares students for practicing law. With its new Legal Skills Program that integrates innovative and practical legal skills immediately into the curriculum, graduates will be better equipped immediately after they graduate to file a brief, cross-examine a witness or make a special pleading.

As part of the new program, students are given a framework of courses and experiences that encompass critical skills for the professional field. Highlighted throughout the curriculum are legal research and writing, litigation and non-litigation skills, and professional development.

Charles Patrick Ewing, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the UB Law School, is overseeing the program as vice dean for legal skills.

Dean Makau Mutua says the Legal Skills Program is focusing on skills “critical to the education of a well-trained, analytically sound and thoughtful lawyer,” noting that Ewing is “widely respected by colleagues, peers around the country, judges and the bar. He will bring enormous talents to bear on the organizational and instructional excellence that we expect of the Legal Skills Program.”

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“15 Days of Dance: The Making of ‘Ghost Light,’” a film by Emmy-award-winning artist and filmmaker Elliot Caplan that was produced and developed at UB, had its premiere screening recently at Lincoln Center.

Caplan is professor of media study and director of the Center for the Moving Image (CMI), an interdisciplinary initiative of the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Media Study.

In 2007, the CMI commissioned “Ghost Light,” a ballet choreographed by Brian Reeder for dancers from the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, as a gift from the City of Buffalo to the people of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

Caplan made an 18-hour film,”15 Days of Dance,” to document the creative evolution of the ballet. Excerpts from the film were presented on Oct. 22 in the Bruno Walter Auditorium in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Caplan, Reeder and ABT dancers all attended to discuss the excerpts.

It was the first of four programs in which different segments of the film will be screened. Other segments will be presented on Dec. 17, Feb. 11 and March 8, all with the principals in attendance.

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2009 marks the 40th Anniversary of the Department of African American Studies. In 1969, Dr. James Arthur Miller, now a professor of English and chair of American Studies at George Washington University, became the first director of the Black Studies Program at UB while a doctoral student in the English Department. Dr. Miller will join UB faculty, staff, students, and local UB alumni to share his experience building the Black Studies Program as a student, with students, as well as demonstrate the continued necessity for Black Studies programs today. Light refreshments will be provided prior to the event and an open question-and-answer session will follow.

More information here.