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Maryland Moments, June, 2005 University Initiatives (Rankings, Honors, New Programs) The Washington Post: "The University of Maryland's Alumni Hall of Fame is getting a new home. The new $33-million, privately funded Riggs Alumni Center complex opens Saturday. Plaques and portraits that were taken down during renovations to the Student Union several years ago will be on permanent display there." Inducted into the second class of the University's Hall of Fame on Riggs's opening night were: Connie Chung, B.S. 1969, Journalism; Lawrence G. David, B.S. 1969, B.A. 1970. Business, Arts & Humanities; Raymond Davis, Jr., B.S. 1937, M.S. 1940, Life Sciences; Carleton S. Fiornia, M.B.A. 1980, Business; Jon D. Franklin, B.S. 1970, Journalism; Liz Lerman, B.A. 1970, Arts & Humanities; Manning Marable, Ph.D. 1976, Arts & Humanities: Russell E. Marker, B.S. 1923, D.Sc. (Honorary) 1987; Tobin J. Marks, B.S. 1966, Life Sciences; Thomas V. "Mike" Miller Jr., B.S. 1964, Business; Renaldo Nehemiah, B.A. 1981, Arts & Humanities; Thomas R. Norris, B.S. 1967, Behavioral & Social Sciences; Michael Olmert, B.A. 1962, Ph.D. 1980, Arts & Humanities; Robert H. Smith, B.S. 1950, Business; Morgan B. Wooton, B.S. 1956, Health And Human Performance; Gary Williams., B.S. 1968, Business. The NSF awards Edward Redish, professor of physics, a Director's Distinguished Scholar award for "having achieved not only ground breaking results in research, but for... strong teaching and mentoring skills and major educational contributions." The NSF: "Redish, a physicist at the University of Maryland, was active in nuclear physics for over 25 years. He organized and chaired the high-profile 1989 meeting on cold fusion that played a major role in establishing a more scientific perspective on this phenomenon. Since 1992, Redish has focused on physics education research. He leads a group that is building learning environments to help students develop a better understanding of scientific knowledge." UM is again among the leaders in educating minority students, as the journal Black Issues in Higher Education publishes its undergraduate rankings, which are based on number of degrees awarded. Top 25 programs:
Cheng-I Wei is named dean of the College of Agricultural and Natural Resources. He will begin his new job Sept. 1. Wei is a professor and associate dean of research and graduate studies at the College of Human Environmental Sciences at Oklahoma State University. He has held that position since August 2002. He takes over from Bruce Gardner, who was serving as interim dean. New Dean Is Named for Public Policy Steve Fetter begins his term as dean of the School of Public Policy on July 1. Fetter, a public policy professor, replaces Jacques Gansler, who is now serving as vice president for research for Maryland, and William Galston, who served as interim dean. Fetter has directed the School's international security and economics specialization as well as its environmental policy specialization, and served as associate director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute. Following the recent announcement of the creation of UM's Center for Integrated Nano Science and Engineering, Nariman Farvardin, dean of engineering, is named to a steering committee for the Chesapeake Nanotech Initiative. The committee will oversee three working groups. The nano-biotech group will look at possible ways the region's robust biotechnology industry might feed into the market. The industry-clustering group will consider other slices of the local nanotech sector. The best-practices group will study management/leadership development and education among other issues, officials said." The A. James Clark School of Engineering at UM and two University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute entities are to partner in an emerging field that could change the way drugs are developed and diseases detected. The agreement between the two University System schools brings together a "critical mass" of life science researchers and engineers to develop tools and materials that address limitations in medicine and life science research programs. The UMBI affiliates are the Center of Biosystems Research in College Park (not a part of UM) and the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology in Rockville. Provost William Destler appears with the presidents of George Mason University and Southeastern University in the District at a business roundtable in Bethesda. Destler, according to the Associated Press, addressed two areas. He echoed other leaders in warning parents and students about the conflicting forces of state funding cuts and increasing demand. "He insisted that state budget cuts have forced Maryland to depend on tuition increases just to keep the status quo... (he) said the school can't afford to increase enrollment." Destler and the other education leaders also said "many of the world's best students are shunning the region, and the United States in general, in favor of such countries as Canada, Australia and New Zealand because they have much more flexible visa policies." Over 60 graduate and undergraduate students representing engineering, architecture, business, landscape architecture, art, and journalism hold a ground breaking ceremony on campus as they begin to construct their entry in the Department of Energy's 2005 Solar Decathlon. (The competition takes place against team from other U.S. universities in October.) From the team's home page: "A team of students from the University of Maryland laid the foundation for a completely solar-powered house Thursday, hoping to top the last team's success in a nationwide competition. Around 8 a.m., a student driving a forklift maneuvered a pair of 50-foot-long, 1,200-pound wooden beams onto the network of stilts that will eventually hold aloft a house powered entirely by solar energy." The students will donate the home to the Montgomery County Parks Service after the competition. The National Institute of Aerospace in Hampton, Va., is dedicated. UM is one of seven founding education members; the others are Georgia Tech, Hampton, North Carolina A&T, N.C. State, Virginia and Virginia Tech. Students may attend the Institute and, if they choose, pursue an advanced degree in aeronautical engineering at the Clark School of Engineering. The Chronicle of Higher Education spotlights 10 classrooms from across the country that display the "most promising or unusual methods of teaching with technology." One of the 10 examples is videoconferencing that "allows students at the University of Maryland and the Mexico City campus of the Monterrey Institute of Technology to model a joint business venture." Roberta Lavine, associate professor in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, teaches her students a "grasp of both the Spanish language and international business issues regarding the United States and Mexico.... Ms. Lavine has lots of technology at her fingertips. In the 'teaching theater,' which is available to other classes as well, each student in the classroom has a computer at his or her seat, and the seats are arranged in a U shape. The student computers can operate individually or can be controlled from one of the two instructor computers at the front of the room. Display screens in the front of the room can show what is happening on any computer in the room. Video cameras can record live video from several directions, for use in videoconferencing. UM and business and legal information services company Lexis-Nexis announce an alliance to preserve images of the U.S. Serial Set Maps while making the maps easily accessible and searchable online. The U.S. Serial Set is a vast historical resource that contains an ongoing collection of U.S. Government publications compiled under a directive of Congress, and consequently traces virtually all aspects of American history, including trade and commerce, military history, geography, scientific exploration, and anthropology. "The information in the Serial Set is arguably the most important historical information source in GPO's (Government Printing Office) long history," said Dr. Charles Lowry, University of Maryland Dean of Libraries and professor of the College of Information Studies. Gary Bowden, architect and professor of practice at the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, is co-designer of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, which opens June 25. The Baltimore Sun: "The $33 million building at Pratt and President streets was constructed to celebrate African-Americans in Maryland who have overcome obstacles and gone on to make lasting contributions to society. Who better to have designed it, then, than Philip Freelon and Gary Bowden, two of the country's most successful African-American architects, men who have refused to be thwarted by obstacles in their own lives?" The Merrill College of Journalism creates an endowed chair in honor of the late Shirley Povich, a sports columnist at the Washington Post for 75 years. The Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism will be a full-time teaching position held by an award-winning sports journalist. The chair will be created in part by a $500,000 gift from Povich's children -- David, a partner at the Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly; Lynn, a veteran journalist and former senior editor of Newsweek; and Maury, longtime television personality and producer. Maury Povich is married to former CBS and CNN news anchor Connie Chung, a 1969 Maryland journalism graduate. Science & Technology
NASA: "El Nino and La Nina play with the populations of microscopic ocean plants called phytoplankton. That's what scientists have found using NASA satellite data and a computer model.... The computer model showed that during El Nino periods, warm waters from the Western Pacific Ocean spread out over much of the ocean basin as upwelling weakens in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Upwelling brings cool, nutrient-rich water from the deep ocean up to the surface. When the upwelling is weakened, there are less phytoplankton, making food more scarce for zooplankton that eat the ocean plants. During La Nina conditions as in 1998, the opposite effect occurs as the easterly trade winds pick up and upwelling intensifies bringing nutrients like iron to the surface waters, which increases phytoplankton growth.... In a study published in... (an) issue of Geophysical Research Letters, Wendy Wang and colleagues at the University of Maryland Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, College Park, Md., found that changes in phytoplankton amounts due to El Nino and La Nina not only affect the food chain, but also influence Earth's climate." According to a UM study, the Chesapeake Bay watershed has more stream and river restoration projects per river mile than any place in the nation. However, the study found, only five percent of the Chesapeake project records show that performance is being monitored. Conducted by biology professor Margaret Palmer and doctoral student Brooke Hassett, the report shows that while more than $400 million dollars have been invested in Chesapeake Bay stream and river restoration projects since 1990, written documentation that project monitoring was completed has been done at half of the national rate -- five percent for Chesapeake Bay streams, compared to 10 percent nationally." Avian influenza poses a serious threat to poultry producers in the Mid-Atlantic states and the DelMarVa peninsula, home to some of the nation's most productive facilities. The Center for Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine on the Maryland Campus of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine presents an avian influenza informational symposium June 14, at the Avrum Gudelsky Veterinary Center. Katherine Feldman, research associate in veterinary medicine, and Daniel Perez, assistant professor of veterinary medicine, are key presenters. Perez directs research which led to a record $5 million award given by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the project "Prevention and Control of Avian Influenza in the U.S." Uriel Safriel, visiting professor of geography, co-authors new research on the impact of expanding desert conditions. A Web report on the study says the changes could impoverish millions and quotes Dr. Safriel: "For centuries pastoral people lived in [dryland ecosystems] with minimal impact. This 'harmony' was a default result of smaller populations, low stocking rates, and large areas to forage on." Tanglewood conservatories of Denton, Md., which produces replicas of 19th century European conservatories, is hugely successful as it markets it niche products to a long line of affluent customers. Along the way, Tanglewood, which is run by UM alum Alan Stein, is helped in its business acumen by the Maryland Technology Extension Service of the Clark School of Engineering's Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute. The Baltimore Sun: "A team of consultants dissected the company's manufacturing process and recommended investments in technology aimed at boosting efficiency. 'Bottom line was, we said, "You need to change your whole concept from house-building to manufacturing," and that was abhorrent to Alan because he was an artistic man and an architect," said John Songster, a senior business consultant for the extension service. But Stein took the advice, buying software that allows the company to render its designs in three dimensions on a computer, then send the specifications of each part to the manufacturing floor for construction." Society & Culture
Marie Howland, professor of urban growth and development, and Jason Sartori, a graduate student, are quoted in news stories concerning a UM study that recommends ways in which Silver Spring growth can be better maintained. Small business owners, specifically, complain of a laundry list of problems caused by business evelopment. "I think this is an issue anyplace that you have successful revitalization," said Marie Howland. (Prices rise with demand.) "The question is how to decrease the negative impacts." The recommendations are made to the Montgomery County Council's Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee. The Annapolis Capital: "Archaeologists digging under a Historic District home have discovered a cache of artifacts that proves a West African religion called 'hoodoo' was practiced in Annapolis until at least the 1920s. A bundle of 40 nails, a clear glass spindle and a plate of glass etched with a checkerboard design had been carefully placed beneath the brick-floor basement, a University of Maryland professor working on the site said.... Professor Mark Leone led three graduate students on the dig for two weeks this month at the Adams-Kilty house on Charles Street, while the owners were renovating it. He said there's no evidence that the items were ever used for a malevolent purpose. In fact, the people who put them there probably did so in an attempt to keep ghosts -- or misfortune -- away." Free Frank Leaves Descendants a Legacy of Freedom 50 descendents of a freed slave, 'Free Frank' McWorter, hold a reunion amongst the farms of West Central Illiois to commemorate the founding of the first incorporated black town in 1836. Frank Shackel, director of UM's Center for Heritage Resources, oversees the on-going archaeological dig, which is affiliated with the National Science Foundation. Gerald McWorter, great-great-grandson of Free Frank who teaches at the University of Toledo, participates in a lecture series sponsored by the NSF as a part of an archaeological field school at the New Philadelphia site. "We hope to create an open dialogue with the family about our research," said Paul Shackel, who oversees the field school. "This is a very important first step." (The program is a cooperative project between the University of Maryland, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, Illinois State Museum, the New Philadelphia Association, and the University of Central Florida. The project was initiated and is also supported by the New Philadelphia Association.) The NOI is back on campus, fine tuning many of the nation's finest young musicians. The Washington Post and Baltimore Sun enthusiastically reviewed concerts by musicians selected from around the country to participate in the prestigious "music boot camp," that readies them for life as members of symphony orchestras. Maryland Named 'Good School for Athletes' Jeffery Lucas, assistant professor of sociology, and Michael Lovaglia, professor of sociology at Iowa, develop the Student-Athlete Performance Rate (SAPR) as a measurement of college athletic programs based on academic progress and academic success. The Iowa City Press-Citizen highlights the rankings' top ten schools (led by Michigan) and the bottom 10 (led by Texas A&M). The two professors' schools do well: UM is No. 12, Iowa No. 16. Lawyers for death row inmate Wesley Eugene Baker present an historic argument before the state's high court using a state-sponsored UM study to attempt to show that Maryland's application of the death penalty is racially based. Baker's case is one of five where the issue has been raised since the study by Professor Ray Paternoster was released in January 2003, but is the first to earn a spot on the docket of the Court of Appeals. Psychology Professor Michele Gelfand and Queen's School of Business professor Jana River combine for a study looking at harassment's impact on the workplace. Published in the current issue of The Academy of Management Journal, the study deals with 35 work teams in a United States food services company. The bottom line: "Work teams are less productive when there is a lecher in their midst." The Program on International Policy Attitudes releases another influential poll with eye-opening results. Among the findings: Africans strongly support military intervention authorized by the United Nations Security Council to stop serious abuses of human rights in their region, and U.S. respondents want their country to contribute troops to a multilateral operation in Sudan, the scene of horriffic abuses and genocide. Steven Kull, director of PIPA: "What is quite striking here is that even as the U.S. is tied down in Iraq and suffering daily casualties, a majority of Americans would support contributing troops to a multilateral operation in Darfur' This suggests that what is occurring there goes against strongly held values in the American public." The Prince George's County States Attorney's Office adopts a homicide reduction plan to combat the county's rising homicide rate. States Attorney Glenn F. Ivey, with the help of the University of Maryland, releases a plan patterned after a long-term homicide strategy that succeeded in Boston and was later used in Rochester, New York and the District. David Weisburd, professor of criminology and criminal justice, and his colleagues authored at PG's request, Investigating Gun Violence and Violent Crime in Prince George's County: A Problem Analysis. More Maryland News in June
The Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center hosts a "free wedding" contest and earns lots of Washington Post ink. The winning couple, alumni Remy Shafer and Casey Gomes, who met in 1999 while going through training to be resident assistants in the dorms, receive a $30,000 ceremony. "Remy and Casey's dream wedding, as it's now known on the University of Maryland alumni Web site, took place Saturday in College Park. They celebrated at the new alumni center, in the shadow of Byrd Stadium. The bridesmaids wore red, the color of the big M on the floor upstairs. Alums voted on the details, including her dress, the flowers and the food." The value of golf as business asset is analyzed by the Washington Post. "University of Maryland students this fall will be able to earn three credits as they learn how to schmooze with potential employers, clients and executives. In the 'Golf: For Business and Life' course, students will spend the semester in lectures by area business leaders, and, of course, on the greens. 'The goal is when you finish the semester, the person can go out and play a respectable round of golf,' said Jeff Maynor, director of golf for the university. In the course, students will hear how to interview or be interviewed while golfing, and to understand that ethics on the golf course are very much like ethics in the workplace. 'If you cheat in golf you cheat in business,' Maynor said." About 50 UM students lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffett in the penthouse of his Berkshire Hathaway headquarters in Omaha. During a private question-and-answer session, Buffett talks about China's growth and how to handle stress, among other things. He told students that taking a job for money is like marrying for money -- which is especially dumb if you are already rich, recalled Shai Dardashti, a senior finance major who organized the trip. Dardashti had dreamed of meeting Buffett since his early teens. "I have been reading about Warren Buffett since I was 13, writing letters to Berkshire offices since I was 17, and planning the trip for over a year and a half."  Fall '04 :
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