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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, October, 2001
Towards Being Best: New Programs, Initiatives
The university's facilities master plan committee posted a draft of its work at www.inform.umd.edu/campusinfo/masterplan and announced it was looking for input from the campus community. Their work envisions maintaining our architectural heritage, embracing the wider community and reflecting the mission and values of a world class university. The environment�fewer cars on campus and more green space�is key to the master plan.
The goal of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, to index 116,000 hours of video and memories of more than 50,000 people, falls to the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and IBM. Over five years, the institutions will develop voice recognition of a number of languages to help record histories of Holocaust survivors. The New York Times: "The technology, to be developed over five years...poses some daunting challenges."
Richard Howe, former president of Pennzoil, donated his unique collection of literature on mechanical musical instruments to the Performing Arts Library of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Bruce Wilson, director of the library, says the six tons of items are "the best collection of textual information of mechanical musical instruments" in the world. Maryland received the collection after Howe looked at three other universities, three museums, a collectors' society, the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution.
The University of Maryland launched a Center for Scientific Computation and Mathematical Modeling, a new high performance computing partnership with the Deep Computing Institute of IBM, and an applied mathematics and scientific computation graduate program. Dean Steve Halperin of the College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences believes Maryland will be a leader in the embryonic field of scientific computation, which marries scientists, mathematicians and computer scientists.
The new Chemistry Teaching Building, now underway behind the Chemistry Building, was officially celebrated on October 25. The $23 million addition will provide state-of-the-art teaching and research laboratories for organic chemistry and biochemistry. More than 1,200 students, approximately 300 of them chemistry majors, will have classes in the new building.
Maryland is headquarters for the Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning, one of five new centers receiving $10 million each in funds over the next five years from the National Science Foundation. The NSF wishes to "encourage and improve teaching and research in science, technology and mathematics."
The university spent $650,000 in private funds on a marketing campaign which included prime time television commercials intended to boost the local reputation of its research and academic programs. Maryland "Zoomed" into the spotlight with advertisements during the university's football match-up with Florida State on ABC television, NFL football games, the World Series and popular shows like 60 Minutes, ER and West Wing. Ads also appeared in the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post.
Gov. Parris Glendening's proposal to build a "Purple Line" inside the beltway to ease traffic congestion and curb sprawl in the Washington suburbs was endorsed by local jurisdictions and the university. The line would run between Bethesda and New Carrollton and feature stations at the National Institutes of Health, Walter Reed Hospital and campus.
The University of Maryland's Academy of Leadership received a $1.6 million grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to build an association of more than 1,000 prominent Americans who have served as Kellogg fellows. Its goal: to strengthen community leadership in the United States.
The Institute for Global Chinese Affairs is targeting China's interior with training programs preceding the country's entry into the World Trade Organization. A skilled transition requires the government and business communities to be on par with global norms, In the landlocked interior, it is especially important as it is still burdened as an economic backwater.
Faculty, Staff Achievements
Norma Allewell, dean of the College of Life Sciences, won the Emily M. Gray Award from the Biophysical Society for her contributions to biophysics teaching and attracting new students to the discipline.
Victor Munoz, department of chemistry and biochemistry, and Sarah Tishkoff, department of biology, were among 24 Packard Fellowship winners for 2001. The fellows represent 22 universities, including Yale, Cornell, University of California, Berkeley, Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The university is one of only two institutions to have more than one winner this year.
The Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society selected physics researcher Jiumm-Wei Chen for the 2002 Dissertation in Nuclear Physics Award. The award recognizes a recent Ph.D. in nuclear physics.
Research, Significant Discoveries
Galen Dively, professor of entomology and extension specialist, along with five other scientists in the U.S. and Canada studied the effect of BT corn on the monarch butterfly. Their findings helped lead the EPA to extend approval of two types of the valuable, but debated, product for seven years.
Christopher Reynolds, assistant professor of astronomy, and his research colleagues proposed that black holes, "windowless, cosmic dungeons," in fact produce great energy. The astronomers discovered an intense glow, with the intensity of "10 billion Suns" around the black hole, a revolutionary development, since black holes are so dense no light is supposed to escape from them.
Astronomers are scratching their heads about a recent observation of a galaxy 50 million light-years from Earth...Scientists from the University of Maryland, the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Gemini Observatory have determined that galaxy M87, one of the closest of its type to Earth''s solar system, is missing a key feature in a massive black hole that sits at its center.
William Evans, professor of economics, and Jeanne Ringel of the Rand Corporation released a study published in the American Journal of Public Health that states increasing taxes will slow smoking among pregnant women.
Outreach in the Community
On his first trip to the United States since the September 11 attacks, former South African president Nelson Mandela spoke to 10,000 in Cole Field House at the annual Sadat Lecture for Peace.
"New Beginnings: Japan in the Immediate Postwar Years, 1945-1949," was displayed at the Enoch Pratt Library, the first time a portion of the Prange Collection was shown in the U.S. after a tour of Japan. Assembled by former faculty member Gordon Prange, who was chief historian in post-war Japan under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the collection is housed in McKeldin Library as the most comprehensive depository of publications issued in Japan during the World War II years.
In response to multiple occurrences of anthrax, the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources created an anthrax information website. The site includes fact sheets prepared by the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at UM, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Missouri University. The anthrax website address is http://www.agnr.umd.edu/anthraxResources.html.
In the News: University People Earning Media Attention
Arab And American Students Debate on Campus, for ABC's Nightline
Twenty Arab Fulbright scholars and 20 American graduate students from
the university met in November at a seminar sponsored by the university
and Amideast. ABC's Nightline filmed part of the proceedings, which were
also covered by the Middle East Broadcasting Network, Voice of America
and local and regional channels.
Jehan Sadat, senior fellow at the Center for International Development and Conflict Management, received the Pearl Buck Award from Randolph Macon Woman's College for her accomplishments in advancing women's rights.
The Baltimore Sun: "The time has come at last for political theorist Benjamin Barber. His 1995 book "Jihad vs. McWorld" is now climbing toward best-sellerdom." Barber appeared on network news telecasts and was quoted in the most influential papers in America. In a unique switch, he engaged in a discussion of global justice between sets of a sold-out Beastie Boys MTV concert in New York. Proceeds from the evening went to victims of the terror attacks.
Elisa Harris, a former National Security Council staff director who specialized in preventing the proliferation of biological and chemical weapons, appeared on CNN and CBS network interview shows, and her expertise appeared in papers from the New York Times to the San Francisco Chronicle. Harris is a research fellow in the School of Public Affairs.
Paul Simon, former U.S. Senator from Illinois and chairman of the board of the National Language Center located at the university, wrote to the Washington Post about the nation's "appalling deficiencies in foreign language expertise." Center director Richard Brecht is a national figure in the movement to train linguists for intelligence purposes.
Linda Clement, vice president for student affairs, appeared on a panel at the College Board Forum in Denver, discussing readiness of educators to deal with events like September 11. Clement's department not only had to react to Sept. 11 with efficiency, but also to September 24 when a tornado struck campus.
A long awaited and highly publicized study conducted by the College of Education lauded the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program with some qualifications. The test is administered to all students during their time in the state's schools to measure academic progress. The Maryland Assessment Research Center for Educational Success is directed by Robert Lissitz, director of the College's department of measurement, statistics and evaluation.
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