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August 07, 2008 8:11 PM |
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UM Wins International Robot Competition UM's Fall Semester to Focus on All Aspects Of War Anthrax /Bio-Chem Attacks Rare, Records Show 1925 Recording Makes National Archives Registry |
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Highlighted News Items, August 7
Building a More Responsible B-School
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Maryland Moments, August, 2003
University Initiatives
(Rankings, New Programs)
The 2004 edition of Kaplan Publishing's "Unofficial, Unbiased Guide to the 328 Most Interesting Colleges," listed Maryland as one of 37 "Hot & Trendy" colleges and universities, according to a nationwide survey of high school guidance counselors, for the second year in a row. The book also lists Maryland as one of the best values in higher education, also for the second year in a row. The "Best Value" list is based on guidance counselors' perceptions of "the quality of education against the cost," and also includes Michigan, North Carolina, Penn State, Virginia and Duke. Maryland also made the list of schools considered to have "Changed for the Better." That list comprises schools the guidance counselors "applaud -- for the strides they've taken in changing for the better in the last couple of years." That list also includes Michigan, Virginia, Stanford, Princeton and Yale.
A year ago, Maryland cracked the Top 20 rankings for U.S. Public Universities for the first time at No. 18. In this year's U.S. News & World Report ratings, Maryland moved to No. 17.
The university has 68 programs (overall university, undergraduate, graduate) ranked in their respective Top 25 categories and 50 programs ranked among Top 15 schools.
The 2004 undergraduate rankings:
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The Smith School of Business ranked No. 17
- Individual programs ranked are:
- E-Commerce No. 4
- Entrepreneurship No. 9
- Finance No. 19
- International business No. 16
- Management No. 14
- Management Information Systems No. 6
- Production Operations/Management No. 17
- Supply Chain Management/Logistics No. 10
- Individual programs ranked are:
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The Clark School of Engineering ranked No. 25
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Individual programs ranked are:
- Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical No. 9
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Individual programs ranked are:
The University of Maryland is among nine universities that received a share of a $50 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to research national security issues. The goal of the grant is to "increase the ability to evaluate, assess and address the threat posed by chemical, biological and nuclear research that can be used for nefarious purposes."
UM landscape architecture students have designed a North Gate Park along Route 1 that would be a bellwether of what the university and the City of College Park hope the highway corridor will come to look like. The student design for the park, which borders the Paint Branch creek across Route 1 from the College Park Fire Department, includes the following amenities: Brick gate entrance relecting university architecture; clean and safe bike and pedestrian access; pathway and overhead lighting throughout; sidewalks set 15 feet in from Route 1; bus shelter; two bridges crossing Paint Branch to the campus; and a wall etched with tree and plant identifications. The park would have shrubs and flower plantings for four distinct areas - orchard (native grasses that recall the agricultural history of the area and the university); wildflower meadow; stream buffer (native trees); and rain garden to filter runoff.
The university will require all freshmen applicants to take a standardized writing test beginning with the class entering in 2006. The test will strengthen our the review applicants for admission and increase the ability to predict success in college.
Science & Technology
Sarah Tishkoff, assistant professor of biology, is named one of Popular Science magazine's Brilliant Ten for her work in molecular anthropology. �From the genes of living people, she divines the story of human origins. Sarah Tishkoff realized how far she'd strayed from the scientific mainstream when she found herself processing blood samples in a centrifuge she'd hooked to the battery of her dusty Land Rover near a village in the Ngorongoro district of Tanzania. Tishkoff, 37, searches for human origins not by hunting for ancient skulls but by examining the 'fossil' in our genome: genetic mutations that are passed down through the generations.�
Ellen Williams, Distinguished University Professor of Physics and director of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, participated on the National Nuclear Energy's 15-member advisory committee, which finished a report to the Energy Department in the spring.
Researchers at the university developed a technique to help the FBI track deadly anthrax spores. The FBI asked chemistry professor Catherine Fenselau to turn her mass spectrometry lab to the forensic task of sleuthing how bacillus spores, such as anthrax, are prepared. "There are several common types of chemicals that are used to grow anthrax spores," Fenselau said. "One is agar and another is a blood-based medium containing heme. People tend to develop and use their own recipe to grow the spores. By analyzing for traces of these media, we can say a lot about how the spores were grown."
Martha Connolly, who served as faculty member at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and later as co-founder of a biotechnology firm, is the new director of the Maryland Industrial Partnership program. Connolly has been involved in the state's biotechnology community since she was the first woman to graduate from Johns Hopkins University biomedical engineering doctoral program. MIPS, a part of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, offers funding for collaborative research and development projects between companies and University System of Maryland faculty.
In the debate over whether predictions of environmental disasters are valuable, some say every warning is a good one. Others charge that environmentalists too often cry, "The sky is falling," about warnings that fizzle out as false alarms. A study published in the the journal Science by agricultural economist John List applied economic theory to the question, analyzing the costs vs. the benefits of environmental warnings. It finds that when the bottom line is money, the benefits of environmental initiatives outweigh the costs, even when predictions don't pan out.
The cruel season of wildfires ravaging Western forest fires resulted in a lot of work for the department of geography, which works with NASA and the U.S. Forest Service to provide immediate information from satellites for firefighters to combat fires.
Society & Culture
A study led by a Maryland researcher under the auspices of Smart Growth America was published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, and earns enormous publicity for its assertion that living in the suburbs, where a resident has to drive to survive the daily routine, tends to produce obesity when compared to residents of urban areas who tend to walk. Reid Ewing, research professor at the National Center for Smart Growth and lead author: "There are lots of reasons why we should work to contain sprawl. This could be another important reason."
Kenneth Beck and co-researchers in the department of public and commuity health interviewed more than 800 Maryland drivers and found that one out of nine people surveyed admit to being "hurried" and engaging in more types of high risk driving behavior than non-hurried drivers. Hurried drivers are more likely to drive at least 20 miles an hour over the speed limit, drive aggressively and have more traffic accidents than non-hurried drivers. And you can't tell from looking at drivers if they might be one of the "hurried" personalities. The driving style seems to cut across age, gender, geography and ethnic lines.
 Fall '03 : |
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Information provided by the Office of University CommunicationsEmail University Communications at emailum@umd.edu