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August 20, 2008 8:45 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, October, 2005
University Initiatives
(Ranking, Honors, New Programs)
President C. D. Mote, Jr., who is also Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering, receives his award "for the creation of a comprehensive body of work on the dynamics of moving flexible structures and for leadership in academia." The Academy: "Dr. Mote's research has significantly impacted the design and control of flexible dynamic systems and high-speed moving continua. As a leader in education, he led Berkeley to one of the largest capital campaigns of any state-supported university. As president of the University of Maryland, he has transformed it into a contender for the top ranks of universities and major player in the economic life of the state and region. He has authored more than 300 publications; holds patents in the U.S., Norway, Finland and Sweden; and has mentored 56 Ph.D. students."
The Associated Press: "The National Security Higher Education Advisory Board includes former CIA Director Robert M. Gates, Texas A&M's president; former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, a member of the Sept. 11 Commission and president of the New School University in New York; and C.D. 'Dan' Mote Jr., president of the University of Maryland, College Park." Mote is one of 17 presidents named by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.
Jose Emilio Pacheco, distinguished university professor in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, is given the 2005 International Poetry Prize of Granada (Spain), awarded to honor Granada poet Federico Garcia Lorca. More than 30 poets from Spain and Latin America were considered for the prize. (Pacheco lives with his family in Mexico City, but is a full time member of the Maryland faculty. He offers two graduate classes each spring.)
UM's Center for Advanced Study of Language opens its new home in the university's M Square Research Park, which will be the largest research park in the Washington region. CIA Director Porter Goss states the need for the center is obvious, given a paucity of linguistics talent to wage the war on terrorism. CASL is a federally funded university-affiliated research center, a unique partnership between academia and the federal government. Founded in 2003, it is now the largest language research center in the U.S., and its director, Richard Brecht, expects the current staff of 100 researchers and staff to double.
As the public expresses concern with the amount of mercury in fish, UM's new Center for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture Policy launches the first comprehensive resource directory on the Web--www.realmecury facts.org.--for the public. Researchers want to get the message out that fish should be eaten: the benefits outweigh the concerns. The site promotes the understanding of the science behind making healthy purchasing decisions.
The Center for Food, Nutrition and Agriculture Policy also makes news for co-authoring a study that shows consumption of carbonated soft drinks from school vending machines has virtually no impact on adolescent obesity. The study appeared in the journal Risk Analysis. It was authored by the center's Richard Forshee and Maureen Storey and Michael Ginevan of Exponent, a scientific consulting firm in Washington, DC. Dr. Forshee: "Using the very best data and applying a worst-case scenario of soft drink consumption from school vending machines demonstrates that the impact of soft drink consumption from school vending machines on body mass index (BMI) as minimal. In our view, these data show a very modest impact, if any, on adolescent overweight."
UM's student Solar Decathlon team wins the People's Choice Award as the favorite home of the thousands of visitors to the 2005 Solar Decathlon on the National Mall. The team finished eighth in the overall competition. Maryland and 17 other college teams from around the country and several foreign countries transformed the Mall into a solar village to compete for the 2005 Solar Decathlon title, sponsored by the Department of Energy.
Science & Technology
Steven Salzberg, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and a researcher at the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), is the senior author of a paper in the journal Nature. The paper is the most comprehensive picture to date of how influenza viruses evolve and transmit. Released as the 2005-06 flu season is commencing, the researchers provide a unique snapshot of the rapidly evolving flu virus in a human population--and a new strategy for surveillance. Steven Salzberg: "The study demonstrates that these influenza subpopulations, or variant strains, represent a pool of genetic resources that the influenza virus can draw upon. Pockets of distinct flu strains spread locally, with flu evolving in different directions. Then, when one strain mingles with another, a new, dominant strain can emerge."
The rush to green Mt. St. Helens, the volcano that erupted in 1980 and sterilized a 60-square-kilometer area, is slowed by caterpillars, according to research led by William Fagan, a theoretical econolgist and lead author of a paper in The American Naturalist. Fagan: "Typically ecologists have thought of the plant recovery process as interactions just between plants.... Classical studies of primary succession have de-emphasized the importance of insects for the spatial spread of plants, but we found that insects are having a major impact on the recovery of plant life at Mount St. Helens. This is an example of ecological interactions that runs counter to conventional wisdom."
The department of material science and engineering's Greg Oberson and Sreeramamurthy Ankem develop a modification of titanium alloys that expands their uses and makes them safer. Titanium alloys are used in products such as biomedical implants and aircraft, mainly because of their high strength, low density and corrosion resistance. But titanium alloys will deform over time, even under relatively low stresses at room temperature. The researchers altered the microstructure of the alloys, making it possible to make titanium components more resistant to deformation.
The American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education ranks UM's program in the College of Health & Human Performance third in the nation. The top 10 rankings: 1 (tie), Penn State, Connecticut; 3 (tie), Maryland, Arizona State, Illinois; 6, Massachusetts; 7, Indiana; 8 (tie), Columbia, Oregon St., South Carolina.
Aerospace engineering is experimenting with miniature helicopters for the U.S. Army that would fly en masse through a building, each acting as a node in a network relaying sensor information to a control station. If a wall blocks transmission, the pack would re-route the data through the network back to the operator console. According to Flight International: "The micro helicopters carry a small communications unit called the Mote, which uses Bluetooth 2 wireless technology to transmit high-bandwidth signals up to 30m (100ft)."
Society & Culture
Ron Walters, professor of government and politics and director of the African American Leadership Institute, was among the organizers of the "Millions More Movement, 10th Anniversary Commemoration of the Million Man March" that took place in mid-October. The march in Washington commemorated the original Million Man March of 1995, which filled the National Mall.
A study of more than 500 teenagers found that new young drivers take risks on the road, but that parents can help reduce risky driving behavior. UM public health professor Kenneth Beck says teen drivers who have had their driver's license less than a month had a noticeable amount of risky driving behavior. "But we found that when parents and teenagers agree on driving conditions and consequences for unsafe driving, there is less risky behavior. When there was discord between parents, the teens were more likely to be risky drivers."
Williams Evans, professor of economics, and Andrew Hyland of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, oversee a study on the effects of a smoking ban in Montgomery County restaurants. A hot topic in the region, the media react with a flurry, as the reports says that over two years of the ban there has been little effect on tax revenues of restaurant employment.
The Washington Post: "Maryland's highest court denied a condemned man's bid... for a hearing to show that his sentence was rendered illegal by racial and other inequalities that his attorneys, citing a state-sponsored study, argue are pervasive in the application of the state's death penalty law.... The unanimous decision left unclear whether the court intends to address issues raised nearly three years ago when University of Maryland researchers announced that they had found disparities, by race and location, in the state's death penalty process. The researchers, led by criminal justice professor Raymond Paternoster, found that prosecutors were far more likely to seek the death penalty for black suspects charged with killing white victims...."
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