The Buffalo News

HONOR ROLL

Published on February 21, 1999
© The Buffalo News Inc.

Russ Miller of East Amherst, University at Buffalo professor of computer science and engineering, has been appointed director of UB's new Center for Computational Research. He will oversee all operations.

A faculty member since 1985, Miller also is a senior research scientist at Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute and an adjunct professor of electrical engineering at UB. His primary research focus is the "Shake-and-Bake" method of molecular structure determination, a project on which he has worked for 10 years with Nobel laureate Herbert Hauptman, UB research professor of computer science.

Miller and other researchers at the institute have taken the Shake-and-Bake method and created a computer program called SDnB that is used worldwide to solve complicated molecular structures. The program is said to significantly enhance efforts in the area of rational drug design.

The author of numerous scientific papers, book chapters and the book "Parallel Algorithms for Regular Architectures," published by MIT Press, Miller has performed groundbreaking research in the area of parallel algorithms and architectures and has applied the technology to solve problems in image processing, computational geometry, graph theory, combinatorial optimization and computational crystallography.

He also is a consultant for Thinking Machines Corp. in Cambridge, Mass.

Miller received his bachelor's and master's degrees and doctorate from the University at Binghamton.

- Philip Coppens, Ph.D., of Williamsville, State University of New York distinguished professor in the department of chemistry at the University at Buffalo, has been named the first Henry M. Woodburn Chair of Chemistry.

Woodburn, who was dean of the UB Graduate School from 1953 to 1966, was an exceptional administrator and educator. He was a professor of chemistry from 1923 to 1972.

Coppens, a UB faculty member since 1968, has pioneered studies in the use of X-ray diffraction techniques to study the nature of bonding between atoms and molecules and crystals. He is the author of a textbook, "X-Ray Charge Densities and Chemical Bonding," published by Oxford University Press in 1997.

He is a recipient of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' prestigious Gregori Aminoff Prize and is a former president of the International Union of Crystallography, which brings together 40 national crystallographic organizations and encompasses about 10,000 crystallographers worldwide.

Coppens also has received the highest French national university honor for foreign scholars, Doctor Honoris Causa, from the University of Nancy and is a corresponding member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.

He is the author of more than 280 technical papers and articles and has served as president and vice president of the American Crystallographic Association. He is a member of the U.S. National Committee for Crystallography of the National Academy of Sciences.

- Franklin B. Krohn, a SUNY distinguished service professor of business administration at Fredonia State College, recently received the President's Award for Teaching Excellence from college President Dennis L. Hefner.

Krohn gave a talk titled "If Not Now, When?" during a campus ceremony honoring his 21 years' experience teaching marketing, advertising, sales and business to students at Fredonia State. He was selected for the president's teaching award by a committee of distinguished teaching professors at the college.

- R. Anthony Daily has been installed as commodore of Buffalo Yacht Club for 1999.

Other officers of the club, which has its quarters at One Porter Ave., include the vice commodore, Thomas D. Blanchard Jr.; rear commodore, Richard T. Fohl; fleet captain, Gail J. MacCleverty; treasurer, Thomas E. Ray; and secretary, Homer Fay.

- Josephine L. Slacer of Amherst, president of the Buffalo Retired Teachers Association, has been designated "an exceptional member of the teaching profession" by the New York State Retired Teachers Association.

Mrs. Slacer, who retired from teaching in 1983, taught all subjects, wrote curriculum, served as adviser for chess clubs and school papers and coached spelling bee and speaking contest entrants. As a wife and mother, she was involved in Scouting leadership and camp director activities.

Her teaching career included assignments in the Buffalo, Letchworth Central and Niagara Falls public schools and the Campus School at Buffalo State College. She graduated from D'Youville College with a bachelor of arts degree in English and social studies and received a master of science degree in education at Canisius College. Since her retirement, she has served on numerous committees involving education and, from 1993, served as a speaking contest judge for the Buffalo Optimist Club. Shealso became an ombudsman for people in an adult-care home after receiving a long-term care training certificate from the New York State Office for the Aging.

- Edward P. Reilly III of Hamburg has attained the coveted rank of Eagle Scout.

A member of Troop 483, sponsored by Reserve Fire Company in West Seneca, Reilly, 16, received his badge Feb. 7 along with two other new Eagle Scouts, Jon Claus and Jason Josker. He is a sophomore at St. Francis High School in Athol Springs and will be appearing in the school's spring production of "Music Man." He also is enrolled in the school's honors program.

His troop is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and is still being led by its original scoutmaster, Army Leonetti.

- Stuart C. Shapiro of Williamsville, professor and chairman of the department of computer science and engineering in the College of Arts and Sciences at UB, has been elected president and director of Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Incorporated.

KR, Inc. is a charitable organization that fosters research and communication on knowledge representation and reasoning.

Shapiro's research interests are the computational understanding of human level cognitive abilities, specifically the abilities that underlie natural language use, reasoning and rational acting.

A fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, Shapiro has served as a consultant on artificial intelligence for several companies. His books include "Techniques of Artificial Intelligence" (D. Van Nostrand, 1979), "LISP: An Interactive Approach" (Computer Science Press, 1986) and "Common LISP: An Interactive Approach (Computer Science Press 1992).

He is editor of "The Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence" (John Wiley & Sons, 1987, 1992) and is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Applied Software Technology. Shapiro is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Miller, Daily, Slacer, Reilly

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