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August 20, 2008 8:58 AM |
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H9N2 Avian Flu Strain Has Pandemic Potential Back To School Experts - 2008 Edition UM Wins International Robot Competition UM's Fall Semester to Focus on All Aspects Of War |
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Highlighted News Items, August 15
College Presidents Seek Debate on Drinking Age
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Maryland Moments, February, 2002
Towards Being Best:
Rankings, Numbers, New Programs
A partnership between the Smith School of Business's Center for e-Service and IBM will research electronic government. The three-year agreement takes advantage of what the Center's director, Roland Rust, calls "faculty and students working with IBM to establish the business case for e-government."
The University of Maryland and Japan's Kanazawa Institute of Technology opened a new multi-million dollar, cutting edge laboratory to study the brain. Called the KIT-UMD MEG (magnetoencephalography) Laboratory, the lab's centerpiece is one of the nation's few MEG brain scanners. The scanner makes the Maryland lab one of the best of its kind in North America.
The Chronicle of Higher Education released the names of schools that attracted the most freshman National Merit Scholars. Maryland ranked No. 50 with 42, as did the University of Virginia. Only Johns Hopkins of Middle Atlantic schools had more (No. 28).
The Smith School of Business began an innovative executive education program, according to London's Financial Times. What's unique? The program is aimed at senior executives operating in heavily regulated industries, and a trip to federal prison is part of the education.
NASA's Deep Impact project, led by University of Maryland Professor Michael A'Hearn, passed a milestone on its road to a January, 2004 launch and a July 4, 2005 encounter with a speeding comet. The mission successfully completed a three-day critical design review that calls for punching a spectacular football field-sized crater seven stories deep into a comet.
As a result of a partnership between Maryland and Du Pont, university researchers are seeking to market baculoviruses as a mechanism to control insect damage on cotton and tomato plants. The viruses infect insects, but not humans or other mammals.
Faculty, Staff, Student Achievement
Howard Frank, dean of the Smith School of Business, and Jacque Gansler, professor in the School of Public Affairs, were elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Election to the Academy is one of the highest professional distinctions that can be accorded an engineer.
Judith Torney-Purta, Department of Human Development in the College of Education, was honored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, whose members work at educational research institutes in 55 countries. In its 40 years, IEA has given only 14 such Individual Honorary Memberships, and Torney-Purta is the first woman.
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The acoustical engineering firm that designed The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center won the Consulting Engineers Council of Maryland Grand Award for 2002.
- Susie Farr, executive director of the Center, received the Fan Taylor Distinguished Service Award For Exemplary Service to the Field of Professional Presenting. Given by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the award honors her for outstanding service as art presenter and as leader in the arts.
Having led Maryland's athletic program to one of its most fruitful stretches in its history, Athletic Director Deborah Yow signed a four-year contract extension through 2008.
Research, Signifcant Discoveries
Jane Clark, professor and chair of the department of kinesiology, chaired the task force that authored a groundbreaking study on the benefits of exercise for babies. "Although it may appear that sitting up, rolling over and crawling emerge naturally, these behaviors are clearly influenced by the parent and/or caregiver and the environmental stimulation available to the infant."
The Maryland Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO) and its University Technology Development Fund provide early funding of early stage technologies at universities. Receiving grants are:
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Ichiro Takeuchi, assistant professor of materials and nuclear engineering affiliated with the Center for Superconductivity Research, "Development of a Prototype High-throughput Thin Film Fabrication Flange." This device allows for a large number of thin-film samples, a combinatorial library, to be placed on a small chip. Such libraries permit a very rapid and systematic search of new materials with enhanced properties.
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Lawrence Sita, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, "Amidinate-Based Catalysts for Ziegler-Natta Polymerization." Sita has introduced a new class of homogenous amidinate based catalysts, ABCs, which allow for tailor-made novel plastics. ABCs have several advantages including high yields, easier synthesis, production of living polymers (polymers that continue to grow), and polymers made from a wide range of monomers.
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Michael Ohadi, professor of mechanical engineering, "Development of a Micro-Condenser of Source Integrated Smart Cooling Modules" Dr. Ohadi is a pioneer in the field of technologies based on ElectroHydroDynamics (EHD) and has started a Technology Advancement Program incubator company, ATEC. Ohadi plans to use funds to develop and test a component of his miniaturized cooling patch device, a micro-condenser as well as to file a patent application on this technology.
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Dr. Jeffrey Davis, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, "Self-Assembled Ionophores: Efficient Methods for Separation of Cesium Salts." Davis's technology on self-assembled ionophores can save billions of dollars in radioactive waste cleanup by allowing for the selective separation of radioactive cesium, a fission product produced by weapons testing and fission reactors. It not only will allow for reduction in waste size, but the isolated radioactive cesium can be resold for a source sterilization of food and medical products.
James Hendler, professor of computer science, is playing a key role in the creation of the successor to the World Wide Web. The Semantic Web will be a smart network that understands human languages and makes computers virtually as easy to work with as other humans.
A report issued by the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families said crime, violence and child abuse dominate the nation's media coverage of children, while care and health receive less attention.
Outreach: Campus People Aiding The Community
Typical of the research done across Maryland by faculty members, James Cohen, lecturer in urban studies and planning, conducted the most comprehensive independent examination of housing issues in St. Mary's County. His conclusion: "The county's economic development goals are deeply tied to the ability of workers to afford low income housing."
Students from Longfellow Elementary School in Columbia recorded the CD-ROM "This Is Who We Are" as they competed in the annual Maryland Black Saga competition, the brainchild of Charles Christian, professor of geography. An adult songwriter decided to put his feelings to music after he attended a Longfellow meeting about Black Saga.
Newsmakers: University People, Projects Earning Media Attention
Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, is one of the leading Mideast experts in the world. Besides regularly doing opinion/editorials in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Baltimore Sun, the government and politics professor is heard on domestic and international radio and television networks. His survey of the feelings of the Saudi Arabian elite towards the U.S. and Israel was just one of many research initiatives given wide publicity.
Ron Walters, professor of government and politics and director of the African American Leadership Institute, is on a Reparations Coordinating Committee seeking recompense from corporations who benefitted from slavery. The group of scholars, lawyers and activists include Harvard professor Cornel West, defense attorney Johnny Cochran and founder of the TransAfrica Forum, Randall Robinson.
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