The New York Power Authority (NYPA) joined with the University at Buffalo to announce a $7.5 million award to the university to construct a 1.1 megawatt solar energy array on UB’s North (Amherst) Campus. The solar array, consisting of approximately 5,000 photovoltaic panels, will generate clean energy directly from the sun for students living in UB’s apartment complexes.

It will be the largest solar installation on any college or university campus in New York State and one of the largest on any campus in the United States, according to the American Solar Energy Society. According to NYPA, UB’s North Campus solar array will reduce carbon emissions at UB by more than 500 metric tons per year.

Designed to produce 1.1 megawatts (1.1 million watts) of electricity, the UB solar array is expected to be operating by fall 2010. It will provide power to UB’s Flint, Hadley, South Lake and Creekside Village apartments, a total of 735 apartments, housing nearly 2,000 undergraduate and graduate UB students.

UB President John B. Simpson said UB “takes great pleasure in accepting this exciting grant from the New York Power Authority.”

“This grant not only recognizes UB’s long record of environmental leadership, but it commits us to a greener, more sustainable future that is exactly in keeping with the goals of UB 2020 and Building UB,” he said. Read more.

Two University at Buffalo engineering students have been selected to receive prestigious national scholarships. Christopher Llop, a junior double major in electrical and industrial engineering, was named a 2009 Morris K. Udall Scholar, while Claire Lochner, a sophomore electrical engineering major, has been named a 2009 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar.

Llop was selected as a Udall Scholar on the basis of his commitment to a career in the environment, his leadership potential and academic achievement. He is the fourth student in the past four years from UB to be awarded the Udall scholarship. The Goldwater Scholarship is awarded to sophomores and juniors who have outstanding potential and intend to pursue advanced degrees in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering. Lochner is one of 320 scholars chosen from 1,097 candidates from across the United States.

In addition, Anny Caceres, a junior at UB pursuing a degree in pharmacology and toxicology, was recognized by the Goldwater Foundation with an honorable mention, while Emily Bauer, a junior pursuing a biological sciences degree with an environmental design minor, was a finalist for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship. Read more.

On June 13, the most extensive exhibition of material from the world’s premier James Joyce Collection will open in Buffalo, N.Y., as part of the 21st International James Joyce Symposium.

“Discovering James Joyce: The University at Buffalo Collection,” will feature a vast number of personal and literary artifacts related to the 20th century’s most influential and intensely scrutinized writer.

The exhibit will remain in the university’s Anderson Gallery, One Martha Jackson Place, off Englewood Avenue, until Sept. 13 when it will travel to the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa and to other venues throughout the United States. Read more.