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SPRING 2018 VOL. XXVII, NO.1 UB LAUNCHES $650 MILLION CAMPAIGN By Mary Cochrane helping us secure our vision. From the Vice Provost....3 “Our Boldly Buffalo campaign will ampli- n April 30, UB launched a fund- fy UB’s mission of transforming ambitious, Ellen Dussourd Retires.........4 raising campaign that is the larg- dedicated students into thoughtful lead- O est in university history and the ers and change-makers who have an im- UB Start-up Goes Global..5 largest in the history of the State measurable impact on our region and the University of New York system. world,” Tripathi added. “It will further the Healthcare in Jamaica.....7 Fogarty Grant for Jamaica...9 Global Innovation......... 10 Food Lab.....................11 Live-in-Labs.........12 Bangladesh............13 Aid to Syria........................14 Sustainability Program in Costa Rica......................15 Buffalo in Venice.............16 Language Support.........17 Boldly Buffalo: The Campaign for UB seeks work of our award-winning faculty, whose to raise $650 million to deliver transforma- research discoveries made here in Buffalo One World Cafe.............18 tive changes for the public research univer- will help millions of local and global citi- sity, Western New York and the world, ac- zens improve their environments, their Margaret Atwood..........19 cording to UB President Satish K. Tripathi. health, their prosperity and their commu- “Our historic campaign is taking place nities.” during an incredible regional renais- Rodney M. Grabowski, UB vice presi- International Activities of sance—truly one of the boldest periods in Faculty & Staff..............21 dent for university advancement, said the the history of UB and the City of Buffalo,” university already has secured more than said Tripathi. $451 million through the campaign, and Directory......................27 “With this campaign, we affi rm our com- propelled improvements across the univer- mitment to an even brighter future here sity. UB International and around the globe. As we look forward, “Boldly Buffalo is a campaign about im- Visit the Offi ce of International and consider our shared aspirations for UB pact, and it already has begun to benefi t Education website at: and our students, we recognize inspiring our students and faculty, our region and http://www.buffalo.edu/ generous support from our alumni, friends our world,” Grabowski said. “Gifts from internationaleducation and community members is essential to generous alumni and donors have to date continued on p. 2 2 BOLDLY BUFFALO others. His wife, Saraswati Bahethi, is SSAI’s corporate sec- continued from page 1 retary and treasurer. “We would not have a successful business today without funded 109 scholarships and fellowships, and established the education and training I received at the University at 13 endowed chair and professor positions.” Buffalo,” Bahethi said. One of these positions is the Peter A. Nickerson, PhD, Gifts like these are what Boldly Buffalo is all about, Professor and Chair in the Department of Pathology and Grabowski said. Anatomical Sciences, established by the beloved longtime “With this campaign we are encouraging our alumni UB professor who died in 2017 and left a $4.5 million be- and friends to think boldly, to act boldly and to be inspired quest to the Jacob School of Medicine and Biomedical Sci- by what UB can accomplish with their active support and ences. investment,” Grabowski said. “There is so much at the uni- Through campaign gifts, UB has constructed new build- versity that engenders pride. The campaign will help us ings, including the downtown home of the Jacobs School — named to honor the Jeremy M. Jacobs fam- ily for lifetime giving and contributions to the university, includ- ing their historic $30 million campaign gift — and created new centers, such as the CAMPAIGN FOR UB CAMPAIGN Stephen Still Institute for Sustainable Transportation and tell that story.” Logistics in the schools of management and engineering, Peggy and Jeremy Jacobs, a UB alumnus, are the honor- established through engineering alumnus Still’s $4 million ary campaign co-chairs. Jeremy Jacobs has been chair and gift last fall. trustee of the UB Foundation, and chair of the UB Council “This ongoing effort truly is transformational for the uni- since 1998. The couple and their family are the university’s versity,” Grabowski said. largest donors. Noting that nearly 61,000 donors have made 160,000 “UB feeds Buffalo’s high-skilled workforce, it is the re- gifts to the campaign thus far, ranging in size from $1 to gional hub of artistic and cultural expression, and it is the more than $30 million, Grabowski emphasized that “each engine of Buffalo’s thriving medical industry,” Jacobs said. is as important as the next, because they combine to make “With this campaign, we have the opportunity to further a tremendous impact.” magnify the university’s impact on Buffalo.” A total of 10,505 alumni made their fi rst-ever gifts to The campaign launches publicly at a time of great mo- UB. And more than 100 donors have pledged gifts of $1 mentum for the university. This year, in U.S. News and million or more, “including several that came in this week World Report, UB achieved its highest rank ever among as we prepared to make this historic announcement,” the nation’s best public national universities, at No. 41. Grabowski said. And, in the category of the nation’s best universities – Saraswati and Om Bahethi made one of those gifts, giv- public and private – UB has risen 24 spots over the past ing $1 million to the UB physics department for student decade, more than any institution in the Association of scholarships. American Universities. In 1967, Om Bahethi traveled to UB from Jodhpur, India, UB students have won top academic awards in recent to pursue a PhD. He arrived with $7 in his pocket, three years, including Truman, Goldwater, Marshall and Udall weeks into the fall semester. He had been hired to teach scholarships; National Science Foundation fellowships; a class and, having arrived late, was afraid he wouldn’t Fulbright awards; and the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. receive the teaching stipend, leaving him with no income. Several UB faculty have received prestigious awards of But UB’s international student offi ce hired an instructor to late, including membership to the National Academy of temporarily teach the class until Om reached Buffalo, and Engineering; a career award from the American Society for had Om’s stipend waiting for him, a gesture Om said he Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics; and a National has never forgotten. Science Foundation career award, one of the highest hon- Today, Om Bahethi is chairman of SSAI, which provides ors NSF offers to early-career faculty. scientifi c and technical support services to federal science Campaign co-chairs Dan and Gail Alexander of Canan- agencies including NASA, the NOAA, USDA and many daigua, New York, are UB graduates who met as students, continued on p. 4 FROM THE VICE PROVOST 3 any foreign policy observers have noted with Ordinary citizens are typically not familiar with the alarm the administration’s ongoing efforts to critical role of career diplomats in maintaining our for- M hollow out the Department of State, leaving eign policy and defending American interests around the that agency with a reduced cadre of experienced experts globe. who can advise the president, the secretary, and the ad- This impressive brain trust has evolved over many years ministration on critical geopolitical and national security to support America’s many relationships and engage- issues. Despite assurances by Mike Pompeo, the new Sec- ments throughout the world. Without these individuals’ retary, to bring “swagger” back to the department, there specialized and extensive knowledge of foreign languages, is no evidence as yet that this critical human resource defi - cultures, histories and ideas, US diplomacy simply could cit will be addressed. not function. It is reported that up- A useful analogy wards of sixty percent of might be drawn in the top-ranking career diplo- sphere of higher educa- mats have retired or left tion. There is no doubt the service, and that ap- that our institutions, plications to the foreign and particularly major service are down by fi fty research universities like percent. Earlier this year my own, have come to the McClatchy Newspa- rely increasingly on in- pers reported that in ad- ternational education dition to leaving many experts who serve as senior positions unfi lled chief diplomats for their at the State Department, institutions. FROM THE VICE PROVOST the administration is Given the rapid glo- promoting far fewer ca- balization of higher ed- reer foreign service offi - ucation, these senior cers to senior positions, international offi cers thus blocking career advancement and further encourag- (SIOs) have become invaluable to their presidents and ing departures. The administration has also proposed dra- provosts as they seek to establish and leverage strategic matic cuts to the department’s budget. international partnerships that help advance their institu- The notion that administration can do without such ex- tional missions and foster positive, mutually benefi cial re- pertise and that the president and a small circle of advi- lations with other universities around the world. sors can adequately manage US foreign policy is naïve and Identifying suitable partners and cultivating successful misguided to a dangerous degree. Yet this appears to be and mutually rewarding relations with them requires a the way the administration prefers to operate, with the diplomatic expertise comparable to that of senior State President agreeing to negotiate directly with Kim Jong-un Department offi cials. Indeed, it is not uncommon to fi nd of North Korea, without the groundwork that seasoned retired career diplomats transitioning to SIO roles at major diplomats would normally undertake to better ensure a universities.