HIGHLIGHTS

    Dr. Ruth Westheimer, known as “Dr. Ruth” to her listeners, will be the keynote speaker Tuesday, Feb. 15, at 8 p.m. in the Campus Center Ballroom on the main campus. Westheimer has been invited to the UAlbany campus as part of Sexuality Week, February 8-15, to educate students about responsible attitudes towards sexuality. Sexuality Week has been held for 17 years.
    “We are pleased to welcome Dr. Ruth as our keynote speaker,” said Estela Rivero, director of the University Counseling Center. “Each year Sexuality Week addresses the critical issues and choices faced by college students nationwide. Relationships, identity and reproductive and sexual health remain in the forefront as we enter the new millennium. We offer these programs in order to best meet the needs of our students by providing an educated and informed look at these issues.”
    Westheimer, who has a doctorate of education (Ed.D.) in the interdisciplinary study of the family from Columbia University, has a nationally-known radio program, Sexually Speaking. The program began in 1980 on WYNY-FM (NBC) in New York. One year later it became a live, one-hour show airing at 10 p.m., on which Westheimer answered call-in questions from listeners.
    Born in Germany in 1928, Westheimer was sent at age 10 to a school in Switzerland that became an orphanage for many German Jewish students escaping the Holocaust. At age 16, she went to Israel, where she fought for the country's independence as a member of the Haganah, the Jewish freedom fighters. Westheimer then moved to Paris, where she studied psychology at the Sorbonne and taught kindergarten. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1956, where she earned a master's degree in sociology from the New School of Social Research before studying at Columbia.
    Westheimer worked for Planned Parenthood for a time, and later studied under Dr. Helen Singer Kaplan at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center. She later participated in the program for five years as an adjunct associate professor. Westheimer is currently an adjunct associate professor at New York University. A fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, she has her own private practice, and leads regular seminars for residents and interns in pediatrics on adolescent sexuality at Brookdale Hospital, which is affiliated with Downstate Medical Center. 
    In addition to her radio show, Westheimer has been featured on both network and cable television. Her column, Ask Dr. Ruth, is syndicated by King Features. She is the author of 15 books, the most recent of which, Dr. Ruth Talks About Grandparents: Advice for Kids on Making the Most of a Special Relationship (co-authored with Pierre Lehu), was published in 1997. She is currently producing two documentaries: The first, No Missing Link, is about how grandparents transmitted values, particularly religious values, during 70 years of communism in Russia; the second is about her visit to the Trobriand Islands.

A complete schedule of Sexuality Week speakers and workshops is available on the Web at: http://www.albany.edu/feature2000/sexuality_week. 

Events for the week are being sponsored by the Middle Earth Peer Assistance Program, the University Counseling Center, and the Student Association.

Admission to Westheimer's speech is free for anyone with a school I.D. from UAlbany or any other school, as well as members of the National Association of Social Workers. All others will be charged $5 for admission. The program is approved for professional continuing education credits through NASW. There will be a reception and book signing after the program.

    Improved warning and forecast capabilities for the National Weather Service (NWS) and enriched research and academic programs in atmospheric sciences for the University at Albany are expected under a new and enhanced partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and UAlbany.
    The new partnership, known as the the NOAA-University at Albany Cooperative Institute for the Prediction of Hydrometeorological Hazards in the Northeastern United States, was recently created by an agreement signed by NOAA administrator D. James Baker and UAlbany President Karen R. Hitchcock. 
    According to Eugene P. Auciello, meteorologist-in-charge of the regional NWS Forecast Office, the Institute will “ensure a continued high-level of collaboration on weather-related research between the National Weather Service and students and faculty at the University at Albany.”
    “On the path to achieving this goal,” added Auciello, “significant benefits to science, education, professional development, and public service will be realized.”
    Formally referred to as the Cooperative Institute at the University at Albany, the new institute offers the following benefits:

  - increased professional development of the NWS forecast staff;
  - improved warning and forecast operations in support of hazard mitigation efforts; and, 
  - development of future generations of NWS personnel with a philosophical outlook embracing the coupling between operations and research. 

    Auciello pointed out that since the NWS moved its eastern New York and southwestern New England operations to the UAlbany campus in 1993, it has taken “enormous advantage of the University's research expertise in improving the accuracy and timeliness of predictions. Particularly in the areas of forecasting extreme winter weather events such as freezing rain and mixed snow and sleet conditions, and tornado prediction, NWS forecasters have benefited greatly.”
    As an example Auciello cited the 1998 tornado that struck Mechanicville and Stillwater, in which the NWS was able to provide 39 minutes of lead time before the tornado touched down. “This significant lead time was a critical factor, as Governor Pataki pointed out, for getting many people in the local area to safety,” he said.
    “That lead time was, in part, a result of one of our forecasters having worked with UAlbany Professor Lance Bosart and his students in their extensive study of the precursors of tornadic development. Our forecasters happened to recognize, well before the tornado struck, the exact precursor signature for such an event. Again, this is partly a consequence of the operational research previously conducted by UAlbany faculty and students.”
    The Cooperative Institute's benefits to UAlbany include:

  - enriched undergraduate and graduate academic programs;
  - enhanced external funding opportunities;
  - more educational, career and research opportunities for students;
  - fostering of strategic links among government and industry necessary to improve research and academic programs; and
  - enhancement of the prestige of the University at Albany through collaborative activities having a significant impact on operational forecasting practice.

    Auciello pointed out that interaction between NWS forecasters and UAlbany students and faculty has only intensified since the NWS moved into the University's new Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management (CESTM). “We've had four student interns each semester and over the summer, and the hands-on experience they've gained has been clearly beneficial,” he said. “In fact, the last three people we hired for competitive, full-time positions were University at Albany graduates.”
    Vice President for Research Christopher F. D'Elia commented: “The new, more formal institutional relationship will help the NWS and University partners develop more extensive cooperative research and education programs.”
    The Cooperative Institute will be managed by co-directors: Professor Daniel Keyser, a faculty member in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Auciello, in his role as meteorologist-in-charge of the NWS Forecast Office. CESTM will now become the Institute's home base.