Advancing Excellence 2024

Researcher Soo Lee, Empire Innovation Professor and Om P. Bahl Endowed Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, received a $1.5 million dollar grant this year from the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative to study the rare neurodevelopmental disorder FOXG1 Syndrome.  

Soo and Jae Lee, also in biological sciences, have focused their research on FOXG1 Syndrome since their daughter Yuna was diagnosed with the disorder at 2 years old. 

Adam Wilson in the Department of Geography, received more than $620,000 dollars in grants from NASA and UNESCO for his ongoing biodiversity survey of the Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. 

Adam’s research focuses on the spatial patterns and processes of biodiversity and ecosystem function. He uses remote sensing and field observations together with modeling to understand how ecosystems change through space and time.

Faculty members, Mishuana Goeman, Theresa McCarthy and Mia McKie, in the Department of Indigenous Studies received a $500,000 dollar Mellon Foundation grant to develop the Haudenosaunee Archive, Resource and Knowledge Portal, or (HARK). HARK will be a community-driven digital resource for the collection, preservation and dissemination of Indigenous research, teaching and learning. The portal is allowing indigenous people to tell their own stories with their own objects. An alternative archive of incredible value and power.

David Castillo in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures is a key member of a UB team that received, with PI Siwei Lyu from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, a $5 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation to create digital tools that help older adults better recognize and protect themselves from online deceptions and other forms of dis- and misinformation.

David is integral in this work because, as a humanist, he understands satire. Knowing how to recognize irony is a dying art, one critical to combatting disinformation in a digital age.

Krishna Rajan from the Materials Design and Innovation department that the College shares with the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, was appointed as chief scientist in the Energy Processes and Materials Division, part of the Energy and Environmental Directorate, of the U.S. government’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. 

Lourdes Vera is an environmental sociologist in the Department of Sociology and Environment and Sustainability. She used her research expertise to perform a true public service when she discovered that those lobbying to build a plastics production plant in Lockport, New York, used ChatGPT for research studies to support of the plant and the company’s bid for tax breaks. Lourdes ran the company-provided, “peer-reviewed” study through a program to analyze the text and concluded a majority of it was written using ChapGPT.

Melanie Aceto from the Department of Theatre and Dance and Tiffany Du Mochelle’s from Music created a site-specific, multi-disciplinary performance art tour, “Inhabiting Spaces.”

Artists Noah Breuer, Millie Chen, Joan Linder, Matt Kenyon, Reinhard Reitzenstein, Stephanie Rothenberg and Paul Vanouse, all from the Department of Art, have exhibited their work in shows in Buffalo, Brooklyn, Portland, Lincoln, Nebraska; and Canada; Italy; and in South Korea this past year.

Pianist, Eric Huebner, performed with the New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensembles five times last year.

Violinist, Melissa White, was a headline soloist at the Aspen Music Festival, one of the premier music festivals in the world. And, she performed at the Maverick Music Festival, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Philharmonic and was part of the Dublin Chamber Music series.