The University at Buffalo has earned full accreditation from the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP), a highly prestigious, national organization that assures the ethics of research on human subjects. The distinction, which took effect on Sept. 10, puts UB into an elite cadre of universities that includes Duke, Harvard, Stanford and Penn State.

“With this accreditation, UB has achieved the ‘gold seal of approval’ for our Human Research Protection Program and the institutional review boards involved in the review of all of the university’s 1,700 research protocols,” said Jorge V. José, UB vice president for research. “It means that an objective third party has evaluated UB’s program and said that it exceeds federal regulations and meets best-practices criteria.” Read more.

Esther S. Takeuchi, Greatbatch Professor in Power Sources Research in the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honor awarded in the U.S. for technological achievement. Takeuchi, a UB faculty member since 2007, is the first UB professor to receive this honor. She will receive the medal from President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony to be held Oct. 7. Read more.

In only his second career start, quarterback Zach Maynard earned Mid-American Conference East Division Player of the Week honors for his performance against the Pittsburgh Saturday. The sophomore completed 24 of 35 passes for 400 yards and four touchdowns, racking up the highest single-game yardage mark by a UB quarterback in the Bulls’ Division I history.  One of Maynard’s favorite targets, Naaman Roosevelt, who had six catches for 157 yards and 2 TDs, was named Honorable Mention Wide Receiver Performer of the Week by the College Football Performance Awards. Read more.

The Asian Studies Program at the University at Buffalo received a two-year, $172,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to expand the university’s undergraduate course offerings, academic exchanges and events related to South Asia. The university will use the funding to hire a new professor of South Asian Languages and Literature, expand its course offerings in the Hindi language, add Urdu – the national language of Pakistan – to the curriculum, provide scholarships for study abroad in India and organize performances and lectures concerning that region of the world. Read more.

The University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences held a ceremonial groundbreaking on Sept. 11 for the building it will call home in 2012, when pharmacy will become the first UB professional school in three decades to move onto the South (Main Street) Campus and back into the City of Buffalo. Kapoor Hall, named in honor of alumnus John N. Kapoor, is the third major construction project begun this year at the university. Read more.

For the third consecutive year, the University at Buffalo has enrolled the most academically talented freshman class in its history, based on the average SAT scores of the 3,197 new students who began classes this week.

The 2009 freshman class had an average SAT score of 1200, up a point from last year’s average score and up 8 points from 2007’s average score. Since 2004, the average SAT score of UB’s freshman class has increased 18 points. Read more.

Fall Open House, UB’s largest and most comprehensive on-campus event for prospective students, will be held on the North Campus on Saturday, October 17, 2009 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Fall Open House is a great way to learn all about UB: meet faculty and students; find out about academic offerings, research opportunities, and scholarship programs; tour the campus; see the residence halls; and get answers to all of your questions. Find out more.

If you can’t make it to UB’s Fall Open House on October 17, there is another opportunity to see all we have to offer. Our Fall Discovery Day for prospective students will be held on Wednesday, November 11 from noon until 3:00 p.m. You’ll get an overview of UB’s academic offerings, find out about student life, tour our academic facilities and residence halls, and meet with faculty and staff. Find out more.

While most teenagers were hanging out with their friends this summer, 13 ambitious young women proved that engineering is not just a career for men at the University at Buffalo’s 2009 NYSCEDII (New York State Center for Engineering Design and Industrial Innovation) Cyber Engineering Workshop.

“I wasn’t sure about being an engineer,” said Dana Voll. “I took the workshop to see if I was interested.”

Girls ranging from sophomores to seniors attended the program held in Norton Hall in August, which allowed them to explore the field of engineering. They got a head start on understanding the technology and skills engineering involves by working with professional engineers from Fisher-Price. They learned how to visually present data on a computer and brainstorm new products. Read more.

“Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo Venture: From the Larkin Building to Broadacre City,” is an exhibition focused on the context in which Buffalo became a locus for Wright’s architectural activities in the first decades of the 20th century.

It will be presented by the University at Buffalo Anderson Gallery Oct. 2 to Dec. 30.

The exhibition will be free of charge and open to the public in the Anderson, One Martha Jackson Place (off Englewood Avenue between Main Street and Kenmore Avenue).

The exhibition will present more than 130 objects, including those related to 22 buildings and projects — 11 built works and 11 unrealized projects — that resulted from Wright’s 32-year association with the forward-thinking executives of the Larkin Company, a once-prominent soap and mail order business based in Buffalo. Read more.