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August 20, 2008 8:52 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, April 2006 University Initiatives
(150th Anniversary Celebration, Economic Summits, National Championships)
The weather was delightful, the 5,200 pound cake honoring our anniversary was delicious, and the fact that 75,000 visitors chose to spend their Saturday in College Park was extraordinary. Five-thousand faculty, staff and students manned the hundreds of events on the Explore Our World menu. The day began at 10 a.m. as President C.D. Mote Jr. cut the world's largest strawberry short cake, unleashing waves of happy cake-eaters across campus for many hours. Mote: "It's a tremendous experience. This is the only time of the year when you can see everything that goes on on the campus."
Newspapers, television and radio trumpeted the invasion of 'Fear the Turtle' statues, from Ocean City to Wasington to Baltimore and Montgomery County. The unveiling led up to the record-breaking Maryland Day 150th anniversary celebration on April 29. In the Baltimore Sun, Terry Flannery, assistant vice president for marketing and communications lauded "the creativity, excitement and pride (the artists) brought to them, it's 50 incredibly different ideas. There's a lot of vitality to it." Indeed, all the colors of the university and state rainbows were captured in the statues. The main encampment of turtles was the campus, where 30 were on display for Maryland Day.
A state economic summit is hosted by UM and President C.D. Mote Jr., gathering state education, business, science and technology leaders to the Stamp Union on April 26. Mote is a leader nationally in awakening the U.S. to its shortages in science and technolgy, having co-authored the National Academies' report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm. "I think the day went much better than I expected and as good as it could have," said Mote. Approximately 250 big hitters from the state listened to panel discussions about a variety of topics, from cultivating entrepreneurship to improving K-12 education. Mote said the general conclusion of the day indicated that Maryland is in good shape to be a leader in the technology and sciences — but it needs to shore-up its base. The UM president also authored an op/ed leading to the conference in the Maryland Daily Record, India, China and Maryland.
The Business Gazette: President C.D. Mote Jr. is on an advisory committee for the Greater Washington Initiative that reports the region has a greater gross national product ($246.8 billion) than most of the world's major metropolitan regions. "The fact that the Washington area had such a significant gross regional product in 2002 � the latest year for which data are available � compared with other metropolitan regions in the world was surprising, especially considering those other areas have much greater populations, said Timothy Gulden, a research fellow at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a member of the study�s advisory committee. 'The spillover from the federal government is a factor here, but that's not the only reason,' Gulden said. 'There is a strong technology sector, as well as defense and biotech."
Susan Schwab, a professor on leave from the School of Public Policy and former dean, is named to succeed Rob Portman, who is named the director of the White House Office of Management and the Budget. Schwab was Deputy U.S. Trade Representative.
The women's basketball, field hockey and men's soccer teams were among the national champion collegiate squads honored by President Bush at the White House on April 6. The star of the show was the Terrapin basketball team, who by serendipitous coincidence, had won their national championship the previous Monday evening. Good timing is everything, like Kristi Toliver making the crucial basket over a foot-taller taller Duke opponent as time ran out in regulation. Two side notes: Maryland was the only school to have three national champions represented on the South Lawn. And U.S. Senator Barbra Mikulski won a heap of North Carolina barbecue from Senator Elizabeth Dole for the national championship victory over Duke. But it just have easily have been for the Terrpain victory over No. 1 North Carolina in the national semi-final game.
Including the current and cumulative U.S. News graduate and undergraduate rankings, UM has all-time highs in Top 25 rankings (92) and Top 10 rankings (31). UM in the graduate rankings.
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Education, No. 24
Counseling and Personnel Services, No. 1
Special Education, No. 7
Education Psychology, No, 6
Higher Ed Administration, No. 6
Education Policy, No. 13
Curriculum and Instruction
Admin/Supervision, No. 15
Elementary Education, No. 11
Secondary Education, No. 12
Business
Management Info Systems, No. 6
Part-Time MBA, No. 13
Supply Chain/Logistics, No. 12
Entrepreneurship, No. 17
Management, No. 21
Production/Operation, No. 24 Engineering, No, 15
Aerospace, No. 11
Civil, No. 23
Computer, No. 16
Electrical, No. 13
Mechanical, No. 24 Information Studies, No. 13
Archives and Preservation, No. 2
Health Librarianship, No. 5
School Library Media, No. 3
Services for Children, No. 5
Information Systems, No. 12 Computer Science, No. 13
Artificial Intelligence, No. 9
Systems, No. 16
Programming Language, No. 15
Computer Science, Theory, No. 22 Earth Sciences
Geochemistry, No. 10 Mathematics, No. 20
Applied Mathematics, No. 12
Math, Analysis, No. 18
Math, Geometry, No. 15 Physics, No. 15
Atomic, Molecular, Optical, No. 10
Plasma, No. 5
Quantum, No. 10
Cosmology/Relativity/Gravity, No. 12
Nuclear, No. 12
Condensed Matter/Solid State, No. 10
Melanie Lidman of Lexington, Mass., a Spanish and journalism major, writes a first-hand account of her experiences over spring break for The Boston Globe. "My current school, the University of Maryland, sent 130 students and staff to volunteer in Louisiana over spring break last month with the National Relief Network, a nonprofit that brings groups to disaster areas to help with rebuilding efforts. Rose Golder-Novick, another Lexington High graduate, and I were among those seeing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina firsthand. Our work for the week, as for the majority of volunteers in Louisiana these days, was gutting houses. Everything had to go, from the beds to the broken dishes to the door frames to the drywall, even the kitchen sink."
Science & Technology
Worm Procreation: 50 Ways to Become Your Lover
When it comes to love among worms, there's more than one way for a gal to leave her lover and still keep the worm population booming. In a study published in Developmental Cell, UM biology professor Eric Haag shows with genetic analysis that, while the female sex of two very closely related nematodes both evolved from female ancestors to become hermaphrodites--organisms containing both male and female sex organs--they did it in different ways. "Both species we studied have the same trick of hermaphroditism," says Haag, "but the way they pull it off is different." The finding is evidence, Haag says, that similar evolutionary innovations can be achieved in different ways. "It shows there is more than one way to skin a cat."
The journal Nature: "Did you know that there are scientists who study deaf budgies? I didn't. But this mysteriously titled paper has brought the field to my attention: Perception of complex sounds in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) with temporary hearing loss. Robert Dooling at the University of Maryland, College Park is an expert in this odd field, having studied the hearing of budgies for many years. In this latest investigation he and his team taught the birds to distinguish between two similar budgie calls, and then used a large dose of antibiotics to kill off the birds' hair cells. A month or so later, when the hair cells grew back, the birds more or less recovered their hearing but had lost some of the ability to distinguish these same sounds. It took them a few days to re-learn the skill."
NASA's Science Mission Directorate awards two grants to UM. One supports Earth-Sun System science goals and remote sensing programs with a grant of over $400,000. "NASA solicited proposals for a new Ocean Vector Winds Science Team to support the analysis and interpretation of ocean vector winds and other applications derived from Earth-observing satellite missions carrying scatterometers and polarimetric radiometers." The second grant of over $600,000 is to support the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite program. "The primary purpose of the satellite is to record ice sheet elevation changes, examine relationships between observed ice changes and polarclimate and improve estimates of their contributions to global sea level rise." Both missions support the Vision for Space Exploration, NASA's long-term plan to return astronauts to the moon and extend exploration to Mars and beyond.
Chris Reynolds, associate professor of astronomy, is co-author of research that discovers "the most energy-efficient engines in the universe," according to the Associated Press . "The results were surprising because the types of black holes studied were older, less powerful and generally considered 'boring,' scientists said. But they ended up being more efficient than originally thought -- possibly as efficient as their younger, brighter and more potent black hole siblings called quasars. Quasars spit out blinding light so scientists can't measure individual energy efficiency for them, said... Christopher Reynolds of the University of Maryland. But if they could, they'd probably be even more efficient, based on indirect calculations, he said."
A Maryland researcher's work with nanotechnology has piqued the interest of the U.S. Air Force. The flexible nanocomposite polymer - like a light, super-strong plastic - can be molded into complex equipment such as a radar antenna on the nose of a jet, said Peter Kofinas, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Maryland. Kofinas has received a $367,000 grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to help fund the work in the hope his technology could be used to create such lighter, more durable equipment. He said the polymer coating, which is applied like latex, would also have the ability to protect electronic equipment from the damaging effects of electromagnetic energy.
UM astromoners who produced the spectacular Deep Impact mission are proposing two new missions that they think can help coalesce the cloud of cometary information into solid ideas about the nature of comets, how they formed, how they have evolved and what role, if any, they may have played in the emergence of life on Earth. Both missions would build on the highly successful Deep Impact mission that on July 4th 2005 smashed a probe into Tempel 1 to reveal that comet's interior, its fluffy structure and weak materials. Deep Impact was the first large scale experiment ever conducted on a comet. Michael A'Hearn, professor of astronomy and principal investigator for Deep Impact, and Jessica Sunshine adjunct professor of astronomy who would lead the proposed "Deep R" mission.
William Arbaugh, assistant professor at UM's Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, took his research to the public sector on encouragement from federal agencies and formed Komoku INc. The Washington Post: The company has a $200,000 contract with the Navy, a $1.1 million contract and a $100,000 small business innovative research grant from the Department of Homeland Security, and a $1 million contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.... Komoku has developed a PCI card that monitors a computer's operating system independently. The card is placed on the computer's input/output bus, which can share memory with the operating system at a fast rate. Komoku's card uses that capability to monitor the computer's operating system. It has its own co-processor and runs Komoku's software independently of the computer it's watching, making it immune to electronic attacks."
Society & Culture
Mark Leone, professor of anthropology authors The Archeology of Liberty in an American Capital: Excavations in Annapolis. The Baltimore Sun: " Mark P. Leone likes to look below the surface in Annapolis. Best known around the city as the man who heads the University of Maryland's digs under old houses, Leone recently published a comprehensive book that covers several centuries and classes of society in the state capital.... Leone hopes to stir debate about how to read the signs of the capital city's past.... Leading teams of students, the University of Maryland anthropology professor has spent the past 25 years digging up artifacts and mapping public spaces in the city's center."
The Baltimore Sun: "Growth-management laws in more than half of Maryland's counties - including much of the Baltimore region - are being misapplied by local officials in ways that inflate housing prices and aggravate suburban sprawl, according to a study released ... by University of Maryland researchers (National Center for Smart Growth and Education).... While Maryland's 1996 Smart Growth law attempts to steer new development to existing urban areas to preserve open space, adequate facilities laws seem to be frustrating that intent, said Gerrit Knaap, the research center's executive director."
Fatimah Jackson, professor of applied biolgoical anthropology, is among the 11 scholars and artists to received a Fletcher Fellowship to improve race relations in the U.S. and advance the goals of the landmark school desegragation case, Brown vs. Board of Education.
Romanian president Traian Basescu appointed a panel to study Communist-era crimes led by Romanian historian and political scientist Vladimir Tismaneanu, a government and politics professor at UM. The group includes former dissidents and scientists from Romania and abroad. A goal is to analyze human rights violations and the role of politicians and other individuals in maintaining the Communist system.
Faculty Member's Index to Music Periodicals Wins NEH Grant
H. Robert Cohen, professor of music, originated the international Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals which spans the 18th through 20th centuries. Now, the National Endowment for the Humanities gives $325,000 to create indexes of European and U.S. music, the composers, their tours and related materials. "The grant alone will lead to the publication of at least 12 volumes and 40 to 50 thousand annotated records," said Cohen.
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Information provided by the Office of University Communications