The Mount Mercy Alumnae Association will honor three graduates at its annual Mercy Honors Dinner Nov. 12 at Romanello’s South, 5793 South Park Ave., Hamburg. The Catherine McAuley Distinguished Alumnae honorees are Sister Mary E. Bendyna, class of 1979; Julia Hall, class of 1981; and Marianne Matuzic Myles, class of 1971. Cocktail hour begins at 6:15 p. m. and dinner will be at 7:15 p. m.

Dr. Julian L. Ambrus was elected president of the Catholic Academy of Sciences in the USA and was installed at the group’s 22nd annual meeting in Washington, D. C.

Ambrus, who has a long association with Buffalo General Hospital, along with his wife, Dr. Clara M. Ambrus, earlier this year received the Laureate Award at the Rochester meeting of the American College of Physicians.

Jill Kelly, co-founder of the Hunter’s Hope Foundation, and County Executive Chris Collins will receive a 2009 Communication and Leadership Award from Toastmasters District 65 at the Toastmasters Communication and Leadership Conference, hosted by Toastmasters International, at the Seneca Niagara Casino and Hotel in Niagara Falls next weekend.

Joelle Logue, a vice president of the YWCA of the Tonawandas, was elected president of the YWCA Northeast Regional Council during its recent annual meeting. She is a 10-year volunteer with the local group and served as president for five of those years. The Northeast region consists of 32 YWCAs. Active with the council since its inception, she was vice president and liaison to the Young Women’s Task Force in 2008-09. She also has chaired the Nominations Committee, and has been a longtime member of the Advocacy Committee.

On the national level she’s co-chairwoman of the World Relations Council, attended the 2003 World Council in Brisbane, Australia, and was a delegate and a presenter at the 2007 World Council in Nairobi, Kenya. Prior to the 2007 World Council, she visited YWCAs in Zimbabwe. In 2006, she traveled with a multinational YWCA delegation to China, where she visited YWCAs in Beijing, Xi’an, Hangzhou and Shanghai, and she recently returned from a World YWCAsponsored witness trip to Palestine.

Logue also serves as secretary of the World Service Council, a philanthropic arm of the YWCA devoted to funding projects of the World YWCA.

Trocaire College presented the 2009 Reflections Awards to George and Christina Eberl, Marion V. Grimes, and Gerard and Barbara Mazurkiewicz. The annual awards reception was held at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens and all funds raised from the event benefit the college’s scholarship endowment.

The Reflections Award was established in 1992 to honor individuals who have continually worked to achieve success, while sharing their talents for the benefit of others.

Kevin O’Connell, WGRZTV’s chief weatherman, was the master of ceremonies for the evening.

The Daemen College/Rosary Hill Alumni Association has named five individuals Distinguished Alumni for 2009. They are Sister Mary T. McCarrick, class of 1971; Barbara L. Capozzi, 1969; Dr. Michael

D. Ross, 1992; Michael G. Patane, 2005; and Susan A. Falsone, 1996.

John P. Richard, University at Buffalo professor in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been chosen to receive the 2009 Jacob F. Schoellkopf Award. The award, which honors an individual in the Niagara Frontier for outstanding work and service in the fields of chemistry or chemical engineering, is given by the Western New York section of the American Chemical Society. The local chapter has been presenting the medal annually since 1931, making it the oldest of its kind given continuously by the American Chemical Society.

The jury cited Richard’s “outstanding research in the field of physical organic and bio-organic chemistry.”

A UB faculty member since 1993, Richard has been interested in understanding how enzyme catalysts make slow reactions, fast.

Richard has edited 15 books, and published more than 160 papers in the chemical and biochemical fields.

Richard served for six years as secretary of the American Chemical Society’s Division of Biological Chemistry. He also has served as editor or editorial board member of several scientific journals.

He earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees in chemistry from Ohio State University and did post-doctoral work at Brandeis University and the Fox Chase Cancer Center. He also was a Herchel Smith Fellow in Organic Chemistry at Cambridge University. He previously was a faculty member at the University of Kentucky.