Biologist Gary Kleppel Advises Congressional Committee
By Karl Luntta
Gary S. Kleppel, an associate professor of biological sciences and director of the Biodiversity, Conservation, and Policy Program at the University at Albany, testified last month before a congressional committee on the impact of urban development on coastal areas and land use. The January 15-16 testimony was taken in Charleston, S.C.

The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy invited Kleppel to report on the Land Use - Coastal Ecosystem Study (LU-CES), a multi-year, regional study of the effects of changing land use patterns and coastal development on the natural and economic resources of the salt marsh estuaries of the southeastern United States. Kleppel heads the study.

“The environmental response to urbanization is well documented,” Kleppel said. “It degrades. However, we are finding that all types of urban development do not degrade ecosystems to the same extent.”

The goals of LU-CES are to develop an understanding of the mechanisms underlying ecosystem changes, and to develop models and tools that can be used by decision makers, particularly at the local level, to minimize and mitigate the negative impacts of changing land use patterns on coastal ecosystems. While the LU-CES project concentrated on coastal ecosystems in the Southeast, Kleppel envisions applications in Albany and across the nation. “By understanding how different kinds of land use affect ecosystems,” Kleppel said, “it is possible to design communities that do minimal damage to the environment. In the study that I head up, scientists from major universities and government labs are producing fundamental information about how various land uses affect the integrity of salt marsh ecosystems. Our team of resource managers, urban planners, senior scientists and data base managers is developing the procedure for packaging that fundamental information so that it can be output to a variety of potential user and interest groups to help them address specific problems related to urban development and environmental quality.”

The commission, charged with developing a national ocean policy, met in Charleston as the first stop on a national tour of nine regions around the country where public and expert input will be provided.

K-9 Officer Cody, pictured here with his handler, UPD Officer Kevin Krosky, has joined the University Police Department. The Albany County Sheriff’s Department was involved in the training of the 4-year-old, 65-pound Belgian Malinois, who was donated by Matt Tadross of Cooperstown, N.Y. Cody is certified by the Bureau of Municipal Police for patrol work. He reported for duty in January. Photo, courtesy of UPD.

UAlbany, Tribhuvan Team for Research
By Heidi Weber
The University at Albany and Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal, have entered into a three-year partnership through the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation (NSF) with partial support from the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Nepal for joint research investigations in the area of physics. It is the first award to any university in the United States under the U.S.-Nepal collaborative program of the International Program Division of NSF.

The research projects involve both experimental and theoretical investigations and are being conducted at both UAlbany and Tribhuvan University. The projects in environmental physics focus on ozone depletion in the stratosphere and ozone-ultraviolet interaction. The material physics projects involve optoelectronic devices and optical communications, chalcogenide glasses important in X-ray imaging and photocopying, and nano-structured materials important in solar photo-voltaic cells.

The project director is UAlbany’s Professor Tara Prasad Das, who is also the principal investigator on the project at the University. Members of both the U.S. and Nepalese teams will visit one another periodically during the course of the project for intensive discussion on the procedural aspects and the results of the investigations.

According to Professor Das, “The research fields that we are interacting on under the National Science Foundation sponsorship, especially in materials science, are of great current interest and will allow us to broaden the material physics program in the University’s physics department.”

For nearly three decades, Professor Das’s research group in UAlbany’s physics department has had an involvement in material research theory as well as in electronic structures of molecular and biological systems. Currently, Professor Das’s theory group is interacting with a number of research groups in the U.S., Japan, Germany, and India, as well as in Nepal.

UAlbany In The News
By Lisa James Goldsberry

The January 9 issue of The Chicago Tribune quoted Judith Barlow, professor of English and acting chair of the Department of Women’s Studies. The article “Is Gender-Neutral Wording One Facet of Equal Rights?” focused on New York State changing the wording of its constitution to gender-neutral language and listed the responses of three different people on the topic.

The February 14 edition of The Daily News featured UAlbany alum James Jones (B.A.’86, M.A.’95), who is now coach of the basketball team at Yale University. The article, “Bulldog Mentality Makes Yale Ivy’s Best,” focused on the path Jones took to his current position and his time spent playing for Richard “Doc” Sauers while at Albany. He also coached at UAlbany, stating that when he heard about the job opening, he called Sauers and offered to take a $50,000 pay cut just to get in the door.

The February 17 edition of Tokyo’s The Daily Yomiuri quoted Sandra Buckley, director of the Center for Arts and Humanities and currently a visiting professor at McGill University in Canada. The article, titled “Contemporary Japan Gets a Good Going-Over,” focuses on the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Japanese Culture, of which Buckley is general editor. In the introduction to the encyclopedia, she notes, “Cultural value is understood as not inherent or assigned but evolving, and in a constant state of re-negotiation.”

The February 17 issue of The Tampa Tribune featured UAlbany alum Ginny Brown-Waite, now a Republican state senator and president pro tempore of the Florida Senate. She stated that she owes much of her success to the public administration degree she earned at UAlbany. The article, “Scholarship Honors Family Firsts,” focused on a new prepaid scholarship program she announced that will go to a student who will be the first in his/her family to go to college.