Drs. Michael Anbar, Professor Emeritus, and Ada Anbar, Ph.D., created an endowment within the University at Buffalo Foundation, to support a named annual lecture series in Biophysical Sciences in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Lectures are to be aimed to advance the scholarship of biophysics in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.
This gift was prompted by Dr. Michael Anbar's extended tenure in the Department of Biophysical Sciences, which marked the climax of his long and distinguished professional career. Having served as the second chair of the Department from 1977 to 1990, it is Dr. Anbar's goal that this gift serve to enhance the stature of Biophysics at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. It is the Donors' intent to promote excellence at the University by providing meaningful opportunities for faculty and students to exchange ideas with distinguished extramural scholars in the pursuit of new understandings of the dynamics of biological systems and their uses in medicine.
Michael Anbar, Ph.D. '53, completed his doctoral study at the Weizmann Institute of Science, affiliated with the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He then conducted postdoctoral studies at the University of Chicago from 1953 to 1955. Thereafter from 1955 to 1967 he rejoined the Weizmann Institute of Science serving as a Senior Scientist, Associate Professor, and Deputy Research Director of the Soreq Nuclear Research Institute. From 1967 to1977 he joined Stanford Research Institute where he served as Senior Scientist and Director of Technical Program Development. pan Cooperative Program in Natural Resources. In 1995 the Environmental/Exercise Physiology Section of the American Physiological Society presented him with its Senior Investigator Honor Award.
Subsequently, he was appointed to the faculty at the University at Buffalo where he served as Professor and Chairman of the University at Buffalo Department of Biophysical Sciences, 1977 to 1990; as Professor of Biophysics 1977 to 2002; Research Professor, Department of Biophysics, Roswell Park Memorial Institute, 1978 to 2002; Professor, Department of Dental Materials, School of Dental Medicine, UB 1978 to 2002; Research Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, 1991 to 2002; and Research Professor, Department of Surgery 1998 to 2002. While at the University, Dr. Anbar's work resulted in numerous papers, books and patents. After retiring from the University, Dr. Anbar continued his academic endeavors including writing, editing and industrial consulting in medical technology.
Similarly, Ada Anbar, Ph.D. '84, University at Buffalo's Graduate School of Education; M.A., Education and Hebrew literature, Spertus College, Chicago, '55, had a 20-year tenure as Adjunct Professor, instructor and lecturer in the University at Buffalo's Department of Learning and Instruction. Before commencing her professional affiliation with the University in 1979, Dr. Anbar was a teacher at the renowned Stanford University's Bing Laboratory Nursery School. Dr. Anbar also had the distinction of having worked as a teacher of emotionally disturbed children in Israel. Committed to understanding childhood development and promoting practical ways of fostering such development, Dr. Ada Anbar published her third parenting book, The Mother-Child Bond. Earlier publications have served as guides for professionals and parents nationwide, including The Secret of Natural Readers: How Preschool Children Learn to Read and How to Choose a Nursery School: A Parent's Guide to Preschool Education.
Eduardo Perozo, PhD
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Institute for Biophysical Dynamics and Center for Mechanical Excitability; Member of National Academy of Sciences/Academia de Ciencias de America Latina; Director for Center for Mechanical Excitability, University of Chicago
"Prestin Mechanotransduction and the Molecular Basis of the Cochlear Amplifier"
Ye Chen-Izu, PhD
University of California, Davis
"Mecahnical Load Effects of Regulating Cardiac Excitation~Ca2+ Signaling: Contraction and Mechano-Transduction Mechanisms"
Karl L. Magleby, PhD
University of Miami
"The Surprising Channel Mechanisms Underlying the de novo G275R BK Channelopathy"
George Makhatadze, PhD
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
"GFP-like Proteins Specifically bind Amyloid Fibrils and Inhibit their Formation"
Christopher J. Lingle, PhD
Washington University
"Regulatory Subunits: The Sine Qua Non Defining Biophysics and Physiology of Slo Family K+ Channels"
E. J. Chichilinsky, PhD
Stanford University
"Development of high-Resolution Artificial Retina and Implications for Brain Machine Interface"
Adam Cohen, PhD
Harvard University
"Bringing Bioelectricity to Light"
Markus Meister, PhD
California Institute of Technology
"Neural Computation for Visual Behaviors"
Ruth Nussinov, PhD
Investigator, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD
"How Can Computational Structural Biology Help Cancer Research?"
Yoram Rudy, PhD
Fred Saigh Distinguished Professor; Director, Cardiac Bioelectricity & Arrhythmia Center, Washington University in St. Louis
"Noninvasive Electrocardiographic Imaging (ECGI) of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Arrhythmias"
Dennis E. Discher, PhD
Robert D Bent Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania
"Stem Cell Fates Directed by Matrix and Myosin"
Richard Aldrich, PhD
Professor and Chair, Section of Neurobiology; Karl Folkers Chair in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research II, University of Texas at Austin; Member of the National Academy of Sciences
"Allosteric Mechanisms of Potassium Channel Gating"