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Maryland Moments, January, 2004 University Initiatives (New Programs, Rankings, Awards)
The Smith School of Business further insured recognition as one of the better business schools in the world as London's Financial Times ranked it No. 18 in the U.S. and No. 27 in the world. A year ago, the school was ranked No. 23 and No. 33, respectively. In another category, Maryland was No. 4 among U.S. public universities (No. 7 last year). Among U.S. schools, UM was No. 1 in "value for the money" category (also No. 1 last year); No. 9 in "placement rate"; and No. 9 in "salary increase".
C.D. Mote Jr. led a study by the Greater Washington Board of Trade and the Potomac Conference that encouraged the region to pursue more private sector business. Mote expressed the great need for a large "anchor company" to be a leader of the region's tech business. The report also encouraged a better effort to tranfer technology research from institutions like UM to the private sector. Mote stressed the region had to go beyond depending on government for tech business.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. proposed a capital budget that included $58.2 million to fund a biological sciences building on campus. President C.D. ‘Dan’ Mote Jr. said he was thrilled that the budget contained the funding; William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, called the funding for public university captial projects "an extraordinary commitment to higher education."
DataStream Conversion Services was awarded the Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Award for technology service, presented by the Maryland Technology Development Corp. Mark Antsey, CEO of DataStream: "Our location at TAP (Techonlogy Advancement Program, Clark School of Engineering) provides access to the skilled workers critical to knowledge– based business." (TAP has graduated 47 companies, creating over 1,000 jobs; $778 million is invested in TAP companies.)
Celadon Laboratories, a Hyattsville biotech software firm and graduate of the Clark School’s business incubator program, won a $730,000 contract from the National Cancer Institute. The firm's software is used to help researchers deconstruct and analyze DNA. Celadon has been self-funded since its inception and spent more than three years in the Technology Advancement Program.
Susan Schwab, professor in the School of Public Affairs and former dean, was appointed by President Bush to the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Board of Visitors. Her appointment comes at a time when the institution is under scrutiny for its handling of student sexual assault complaints. Science & Technology
Eric Kasischke, associate professor of geography, is a member of a group of researchers who reported in Science that year–to–year changes in the concentration of carbon dioxide and methane can be linked to world fire activity associated with the El Ni�o-La Ni�a cycle.
NASA's Earth satellite observing systems are helping the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service improve the accuracy and timeliness of information it provides about crops around the world. FAS information is crucial in decisions affecting U.S. agriculture, trade policy, and food aid. NASA and the University of Maryland are providing the FAS with observations and data products from instruments on NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites and from the TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellites.
A software program written by Ben Bederson, director of the Human–Computer Interaction Laboratory, allowed NASA to show 3D photos of Mars's surface after the landing of the Spirit spacecraft. Togl (an acronym for "Tcl/Tk and OpenGL") makes it easier to combine traditional interfaces with 3D visualizations.
Jordan Goodman, professor of physics and chair of the department, heads a committee of scientists who aim to create a laboratory deep within a discarded gold mine in South Dakota. The Homestake Mine was where Nobel Prize winner Raymond Davis, Class of ’37, did research for many years. (Davis was affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania and Brookhaven Laboratories when he received the Nobel in 2002.)
William Arbaugh, assistant professor of computer science who alerted the tech world about hacking loopholes in a popular wireless Internet program, was invited to be a member of a commando-type "Red Team" that proves it easy to enter the new Internet voting machines being used by the state of Maryland. Gathered in Columbia, Md., Arbaugh and his teammates encountered many insecure portholes. (Before coming to UM, Arbaugh was senior technical advisor in the Office of Advanced Network Programs at the National Security Agency.)
Researchers a UM, the University of California-Berkeley, Rowan University and Virginia Tech developed a new technique for making nanostructures that have both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties. So–called ferroelectromagnetic materials could be used to help convert electric energy into magnetic energy, and vice versa, in devices such as transducers, sensors and actuators. Society & Culture
According to UM researchers, treatment for many young children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should also include treatment for their parents. Psychologist Andrea Chronis was the lead author of a report that found parents of childen with the condition are 24 times more likely to have the disorder themselves, as compared with parents of children without ADHD.
As part fo the Chesapeake Series, an ongoing set of panel discussions on homeland security held on Capitol Hill, experts on intermodal transportation gave a briefing to the media on what has been done and what needs to be done to protect the nation's ports. The series is led by UM and co-sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Universities Consortium for Homeland Security. One of the experts was John Porcari, the former transportation chief for the state of Maryland, who commented on security at the Baltlimore harbor. He is now vice presdient for administration at UM.
Gerrit Knaap, executive director of the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education, wrote a report for the National Center for Housing and the Environment Report. "Engaging in land market monitoring provides communities across the nation with a tool that can make Smart Growth smarter." John Laub, professor of criminology and criminal justice, compiled data on the life stories of 500 Boston men, born in the 1920s, who were sent to reform school as teenagers. More than 52 of the men were re-interviewed in their 70s, completing what has been called the longest-running study on crime in the world. Some of the 500 continued a life of crime, of course. Of those who went straight, Laub found one thing stood out as the key turning point: They got married.
The Program on International Policy Attitudes, which has been in the news for its polls on the Iraq war, released a poll on how Americans feel about U.S. Trade Policy. The poll found more than one-half the people surveyed (53 percent) supported increased international trade in principle, but were dissatisfied with how the Bush administration deals with the effects of trade on American jobs, the poor in other countries and the environment.
Paul Shackel, professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Heritage Resource Studies, wrote a successful grant proposal to the National Science Foundation for funds to learn more about the first black community in the United States located near Barry, Ill. The $230,000 grant allows a three-year study of tract of land that was the site of New Philadelphia, a community developed by Frank McWorter, a former slave, in the 1830s.
The media world covered the Democratic New Hampshire primary with more depth thanks to Kathleen Kendall, visiting professor of communication, who since 1988 has slogged through the New Hampshire snow as candidates to run for President are selected. Kendall made herself available to numerous media outlets to shed light on the byzantine world of primary politics. She wrote the book on primaries, Communication in the Presidential Primaries: Candidates and the Media, 1912-2000.
Lawrence Gordon, is among the most prolific authors of accounting in the world according to a new study. Gordon was ranked as the 35th most prolific accounting author in a study published in the 2003 edition of Advances in Accounting. Gordon is Ernst & Young alumni professor of managerial accounting and information assurance and director of the Ph.D. program at the Robert H. Smith School of Business.
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 Information provided by the Office of University CommunicationsEmail University Communications at emailum@umd.edu |
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