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Maryland Moments, October, 2007 (Green Initiatives, New Programs, Awards) The harvest of honors on the National Mall was prolific. In addition to its second place overall in the decathlon, sponsored by the Department of Energy, the Terrapin team of architecture and engineering students won the BP Solar People's Choice Award by amassing the most votes for visitor favorite. The Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany took first place. "The ingenuity, commitment and capability of the LEAFHouse team were truly remarkable, and that was before the LEAFHouse took second place in the Solar Decathlon," said University of Maryland President C.D. Mote, Jr. "By finishing second out of the twenty worldwide university participants who were invited, the LEAFHouse illuminated another great moment for the University of Maryland. A most hearty congratulations to the entire team and its sponsors." From the Solar Decathlon Web page: "At the beginning of the week, people wondered if the Maryland team would have a home-field advantage because they are so close to Washington, D.C. As the week progressed, and Maryland won the Communications contest and was second in Architecture, Market Viability, and Lighting, it became clear that Maryland didn't need any advantage. The Communications Jury praised their excellent Web site and house tour. The Architecture Jury said the house definitely belonged in the top tier. The Lighting and Market Viability juries also had high praise. They were one of seven teams to score a perfect 100 points in the Energy Balance contest." UM also took first place in the National Association of Home Builders' Marketing Curb Appeal contest and also was recognized by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers for "Integration for Renewables for Sustainable Living." President C.D. Mote Jr. spoke at this year's Potomac Conference, sponsored by the Greater Washington Board of Trade. Capital News Service: "The strengths of the Greater Washington region could make it highly competitive in green industries, said C.D. Mote Jr., president of the University of Maryland, College Park. Mote pointed to the robust research and development industry in Maryland and Virginia and the region's highly educated population, which he said increases sensitivity to the global warming issue. Students, however, understand the area's environmental problems far better than middle- aged people, he said. 'If this room were filled with university people, we would be much farther advanced than we are today,' Mote said. 'Young people get it.' In the next 10 years, Mote said students and faculty at the university will have an even greater understanding of the environmental issues facing the planet, since sustainability will become a key part of the curriculum." The College of Agricultre & Natural Resources announces plans for a "green" building at the Central Maryland Research and Education Center in Howard County. American Farmer: "The proposed building would be the new headquarters for the research farm, as well as the new home for other university and Extension programs. 'This is going to provide the future of research and the future of sustainability and the nature of agriculture,' said Dr. Cheng-i Wei, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. ... It will be the first platinum-certified green building by the United States Green Building Council on a land grant university campus and will allow the university to do better research, education and outreach three of the tenets of the land grant system." A UM report, The U.S. Economic Impacts of Climate Change and the Costs of Inaction, is the first to pull together and analyze the previous economic research on the subject, along with other relevant data, in order to develop a more complete estimate of costs. Voice of America: "Researchers say inaction in responding to the challenges of climate change in the United States will cost billions of dollars. In a new report, researchers at the University of Maryland warn that the costs of global warming could place major strains on U.S. government budgets, personal income and job security. Matthias Ruth was the principle investigator of the study and heads the university's Center for Integrative Environmental Research. He says researchers are exploring strategies for curbing these emissions, but implementation of many of those strategies has been hindered because of their cost. 'Changing technologies, changing land use, changing consumption behaviors, all of those are quite costly,' he said. 'What has been forgotten in the debate though is the fact that not making the changes that are necessary is costly as well. We already experience the impact of climate change on agriculture, on forestry, on industry, on transportation, as well as the water and energy sectors of our economy.' "
UM, NOAA, NASA and the American Meterorological Association host a two-day campus meeting, attracting some 400 people from across the U.S. The meeting came as UM research relesed the above report on the effects global warming on the U.S. "There is an urgency in dealing with climate change now that wasn't there two or three years ago" said Mary Glackin, deputy under secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "It's maybe much later than we think." The issue is particularly important to Maryland. Climate change in the form of higher temperatures, more intense hurricanes and longer droughts, plus rising sea levels, will hurt the state's economy more drastically than most other states, according to a report by the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research. A wide variety of options were explored. "Sure, seawalls should be studied," said Antonio Busalacchi, a professor atmospheric and oceanic science nd director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center. "But it's just one of many possible courses of action in response to climate change." The American Association for the Advancement of Science Council elects 471 members as Fellows of AAAS. Among them are five UM faculty members, who will be honored at the annual AAAS meeting in Boston, in February. Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences: Russell Dickerson, Professor and Chair, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science; Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Engineering: Patrick O'Shea, Professor and Chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering ; former director, Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics Geology and Geography: Ruth DeFries, Professor of Geography; Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center Linguistics and Language Science: David Poeppel, Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Laboratory; Professor, Linguistics; Professor, Biology Physics: Alexander Dragt, Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist, Dynamical Systems & Accelerator Theory, Superconducting Quantum Computing NASA: "NASA has assigned the space shuttle crew for Discovery's STS-119 mission, targeted for launch in the fall of 2008. The flight will deliver the final pair of power-generating solar array wings and truss element to the International Space Station. Air Force Col. Lee J. Archambault will command Discovery. Navy Cmdr. Dominic A. Antonelli will serve as the pilot. The mission specialists are Joseph Acaba, Richard R. Arnold II, John L. Phillips and Steven R. Swanson. ... Arnold, raised in Bowie, Md., earned a bachelor's degree in science and completed the teacher certification program at Frostburg State University, Md. He earned a master's in marine, estuarine and environmental science from the University of Maryland, College Park." Washington Post: "As a rite of autumn: The National Book Awards finalists were announced yesterday. Washington poet Stanley Plumly thinks the awards mean more to the poetry world than most other accolades. 'They have behind them the National Book Foundation -- the people who make the books and are responsible for the books,' he said. 'The Pulitzer Prize, oddly enough, is more of a journalistic award and the written arts sort of got glommed on it. This is a purer notice of the achievement in the art.' Plumly, director of the creative writing at the University of Maryland, is particularly attuned to this year's nominations because his collection Old Heart is a finalist. ... Though Plumly, 68, chaired the NBA poetry committee a few years ago, this is his first nomination. Awards for poets are few and far between; little indignities are not. He was in the running three decades back for a National Book Critics Circle award, but lost to Robert Lowell; he was a great poet, Plumly conceded, 'but he was dead.' " Uzi Vishkin is named an Innovator of the Year by The Maryland Daily Record. "Professor Uzi Vishkin, currently working for the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Department of Computer Science, identified the importance of parallel programmability in 1979. And unlike his colleagues, who proceeded directly to building parallel computers, Vishkin spent the next 15 years inventing parallel algorithms. Simply put, Vishkin has created a prototype of the next generation of personal computers -- a prototype capable of computing speeds 100 times faster than current desktops." Jacques Gansler, professor of public policy, co-chaired a National Research Council committee that recommended a Science and Security Commission be established. Associated Press: "The new Science and Security Commission should be co-chaired by the president's national security adviser and the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, said the council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences. It should include representatives from academic research institutions and national security agencies. ... 'Unnecessary or ill-conceived restrictions could jeopardize the scientific and technical progress that our nation depends upon,' said Jacques Gansler, former U.S. undersecretary of defense and (former) vice president for research at the University of Maryland, College Park." Builder Online "Three students from the University of Maryland architecture program claimed the top three spots in the first-ever TCA/PCA Storm Housing 2007, a Tilt-Up Concrete Association- and Portland Cement Association- sponsored international competition that seeks conceptual designs for a storm-resistant housing complex along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. ... The program had a total of 141 students and faculty from 30 colleges and universities register for the competition, and a total of 56 entries were received. ... First-place honors went to Jonathan McKearin, an architecture graduate student at the University of Maryland. Using tilt-up concrete panels, McKearin's design includes townhomes with overlapping, interlocking volumes of bold color. ... Ritsaart Marcelis nabbed second place with a project that uses tilt-up panels in combination with recycled steel frame walls, floor, and roof assemblies. ... The third-place spot went to graduate student Artur Marques Kalil, whose homes address the street with front porches. Kalil's homes sit on 'stilts,' protecting the houses from storm surges and providing a place for garages and storage." Margaret Spellings, U.S. Secretary of Education, and Andrei Fursenko, Russia's Minister of Education and Science, announce grants awarded to three American and three Russian universities under the agreement, 'Improving Research and Educational Activities in Higher Education." UM and partner, the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, will lead a consortium to develop common curricula and teaching methods for the training of nuclear engineers. The other U.S. schools given grants are the University of Iowa and Indiana University. U.S. Department of State: "Typically, local businesses and private donors pledge a certain amount that will be donated to charity on behalf of each non-Muslim who fasts during daylight hours on the day of a Fast-a-thon. In addition, events like bake sales may be held to benefit a Fast-a-thon, as at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, where groups held such sales and also sold green T-shirts that read 'Fast to Fight Hunger.' (In Islam, the color green symbolizes a happy occasion.) At the University of Maryland, College Park, fasting students were asked to donate the money they would normally have spent on food that day to Oxfam America, a nonprofit organization working to end global poverty, student Namika Zaman told USINFO. She said 350 students participated, raising $1,380." "Entrepreneur and The Princeton Review Reveal the Nation's Top 50." UM is ranked No.14 among U.S. entrepreneurial undergraduate programs and No. 18 among graduate programs. [http://www.chesapeake.umd.edu/research/index.html] Maryland Daily Record: Drawing on the expertise of several University of Maryland campuses, Maryland Sea Grant has launched UM Chesapeake, a Chesapeake Bay media and public resource Web site. With input from the University of Maryland, College Park, the Maryland Sea Grant College, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute�s Center of Marine Biotechnology, the one-stop site offers a range of information on these institutions' Chesapeake Bay research and knowledge." Wall Street Journal: "For those who think Latin means Cicero's orations, caveat emptor. 'We're using an ancient language, but we're writing on a computer, not papyrus,' says Josh Rocchio, a graduate student and one of the most active editors (of Vicipaedia). ... 'There isn't anything that doesn't belong in Vicipaedia. You can write about Julius Caesar, or you can write about blue cheese.' ... Mr. Rocchio, 24 years old, might well be a poster boy for this new, hip Latin. Mention 'classics scholar,' and most people conjure up a tweedy fellow sipping port next to a bust of Ovid. Mr. Rocchio wears regulation battered T-shirts and jeans. In his spare time, he is the drummer in a rock band. He went to college intending to major in physics and math, but on a whim took a Latin class and fell in love. ... He is now a graduate student in Latin and Greek at the University of Maryland." Science & Technology New Scientist: "The world's first true invisibility cloak -- a device able to hide an object in the visible spectrum -- has been created by physicists in the US. But don't expect it to compete with stage magic tricks. So far it only works in two dimensions and on a tiny scale. The new cloak, which is just 10 micrometres in diameter, guides rays of light around an object inside and releases them on the other side. The light waves appear to have moved in a straight line, so the cloak — and any object inside — appear invisible. The cloak was built by a team led by Igor Smolyaninov at the University of Maryland, and borrows some ideas from the first theoretical design for an invisibility cloak, published by Vladimir Shalaev from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, US, earlier this year. Their breakthrough comes just a year after US and British physicists created an invisibility cloak that worked in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum. At that time, a visible light cloak was thought to be years away because of the much shorter wavelengths produced in the visible spectrum." Igor Smolyaninov is associate research scientist, electrical and computer engineering. Asian News International: "A researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park, School of Public Health, has found that moderate physical activity may help maintain memory function longer, maybe even for years, in people with genetic predisposition to Alzheimer's Disease. Bradley Hatfield has found that even for people who haven't been exercising, it might not be too late. 'We are trying to determine if physical activity slows or delays age-related change in the brain, particularly in those who are genetically susceptible to Alzheimer's Disease. Memory-related structures are among the brain regions that are affected in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's Disease and, importantly, physical activity results in the release of neurotrophins (factors that promote growth and repair of neural tissue), particularly in these regions. This has been clearly shown in animal studies. These neurotrophins would counteract the ravages of the disease,' he said." United Press International: "A U.S. analysis of the potential effect of climate change on river basins indicates many rivers will require interventions to protect ecosystems and people. 'As a result of damming and development, major rivers worldwide have experienced dramatic changes in flow, reducing their natural ability to adjust to and absorb disturbances,' said lead study author Margaret Palmer, director of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. 'Given expected changes in global climate and water needs, this could lead to serious problems for both ecosystems and people.' The researchers project river discharge under different climate and water withdrawal scenarios and combine that with data on the impact of dams on large river basins. The projections indicate every populated basin in the world will experience changes in river discharge -- some in which there won't be enough water to meet human needs." Margaret Palmer is professor of biology at UM. Phys.org"Among scientists, it is widely believed that there is no such thing as an aether -- a medium pervading all space that allows light waves to propagate, similar to how sound needs air or water -- but a part of its spirit may live on. A group of University of Maryland physicists have proposed a modern spin on the aether of old and have used it to make new predictions about the behavior of neutron stars. ... The UM researchers -- Christopher Eling, Ted Jacobson, and Coleman Miller -- describe their aether as a preferred state of rest at each point of spacetime. This preferred state would not be the result of something known, such as a gravitational field or cosmic background radiation, but may, they say, arise from the structure of empty space in quantum gravity theory." Society & Culture Peter Leone, professor of special education, uses his research to call attention to what he perceives is an injustice. Baltimore Sun: "School suspensions and expulsions have risen significantly in Maryland, with African-Americans, boys and special education students more likely to be disciplined, a University of Maryland researcher said yesterday. Peter Leone criticized the rising suspension rates, saying students who are suspended many times are more likely to end up in the juvenile justice system. 'When kids are suspended from school, what do you think they are doing?' Leone said. Students are more likely to get into trouble when they are left at home alone than when they are in school, Leone said at a forum sponsored by the Open Society Institute, a nonprofit that has funded projects in Baltimore to address urban problems." The fires that plagued Southern California prove to be a catastropy rivaling the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. The Christian Science Monitor: "One major bonus for the Federal Emergency Management Adminstration in this disaster, say observers, is that [FEMA Director David] Paulison is a 30-year firefighting veteran. ... But some critics have a different view, saying the San Diego episode shows that FEMA is too reactionary, and has given up on its earlier goal of preventing disasters rather than responding to them. 'The Bush administration and the federal government have still moved away from the FEMA approach of the '90s,' says R. Scott Fosler, senior fellow at the University of Maryland who has studied FEMA. 'That [approach] was to get both states and federal government to stop just responding to emergencies and instead look at why they occur and limit the liability ahead of time.' But he adds that 'FEMA has learned from its past and now has people of responsibility that have professional expertise.' "
James Quintiere, associate professor of fire protection engineering, is a frequent guest of TV news shows, explaining the origin of "fire tornadoes" which wreaked havoc in Southern California. WUSA-TV News, Washington visits campus to interview him and to witness how the phenomneon develops. (The piece was broadcast by stations across the U.S.) "It's beautiful and deadly at the same time. The phenomena is called a fire tornado and it's been popping up in the California wildfires. Wednesday evening, the University of Maryland's fire lab demonstrated what a fire tornado looks like and why it's so dangerous. A simulated wind tunnel causes flames to twist around each other into a column of fire that resembles a tornado. In real life, a fire tornado can grow larger and more powerful until it moves off its fuel source. That could put lives in danger as the tornado spins out of control. The university is studying the phenomena so firefighters can learn how to fight back."
Robert Nelson, professor, School of Public Policy, writes an op/ed for The Wall Street Journal: "The fires in Southern California -- now having damaged more than 1,700 homes and blackened more than 500,000 acres -- are mainly burning in chaparral and coastal sage scrub, the native vegetation of the canyons and mountains. Historically, fires in these ecosystems burned through an area every 35-100 years, part of a normal ecological cycle -- so-called 'crown fires' that fully consumed the vegetation and began the growth process anew. In Southern California, intense fire thus is natural. Since the 1960s, moreover, the central policy goal of environmentalism has been to restore nature, seemingly posing a direct conflict with the goal to curb or eliminate fire. In environmental thinking, it is humans who are unnatural. Within wilderness areas, the cathedrals of environmentalism, Congress in 1964 officially declared a federal policy to keep them 'untrammeled by man.' " Christian Science Montior: "Despite the increasing violence, many educated urban-dwellers � part of a growing middle class of moderate, educated Pakistanis � find themselves stuck in the middle of a war that they are still reluctant to embrace as their own. The public's lack of ownership for the conflict has led to an emerging dialogue here as to whether meeting the Taliban threat with conventional military attacks will do more to incite violence than to quell it. There is also a growing perception among educated Pakistanis that it is America's failure in Afghanistan that has pushed Pakistan into the global war on terrorism and has emboldened extremes on both sides in the process. A poll released Wednesday by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland reflects an urban population that is divided on whether to send the Pakistani Army to the Northwestern tribal areas to 'pursue and capture Al-Qaeda fighters.' " Boston Globe: "So, how many cigarettes did you smoke last week? How many times did you 'engage in sexual intercourse'? What do you earn? Social scientists have a problem on their hands: People don't answer questions on sensitive subjects accurately. One survey of women wound up underreporting the number of abortions occurring nationally by about half, for example. (The answers could be cross-checked against hospital data.) And some researchers have found that people are even less likely to speak honestly about income than sex. Often, they just won't answer. (A curiosity about those sex questions: Asking them how often they 'have sex' leads to better answers than references to 'sexual intercourse.') According to Roger Tourangeau and Ting Yan, survey specialists at the University of Maryland and Michigan respectively, the problem is getting worse, because of homo sapiens' growing annoyance over surveys, period. (Think: call screening.) 'The need for methods of data collection that elicit accurate information is more urgent than ever,' they write in the latest issue of Psychological Bulletin." Roger Tourangeau is senior research scientist, Joint Program in Survey Methodology. Associated Press: "A new study has found that officials have not done a good job tracking whether state funds for public improvements have been concentrated in Smart Growth areas, as is required by law. The law meant to curb sprawl and encourage development in and around existing communities was adopted in 1997 under then-Governor Parris Glendening. The study to be published today by the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University of Maryland says without details on spending, it's tough to gauge how effective Smart Growth has been. However, research center director Gerrit Knaap says even if the law had been followed closely, it's not clear how well it would have limited sprawl since the amount of state money covered by the law was relatively small." Doug Besharov, professor of public policy and director of UM's Welfare Reform Academy, writes an op/ed for the New York Times. "According to a recent report from the Census Bureau, poverty fell from about 12.6 percent in 2005 to about 12.3 percent last year. That�s about 500,000 fewer people living in poverty, the first statistically significant decline since 2000. (In 2006, the poverty line was $20,614 for a family of four.) As usual, there was much commentary in the news media about poverty�s intractability: today�s poverty rate is hardly lower than it was in 1968, when it was about 12.8 percent. But a closer look at the experience of one group, Hispanics, tells a very different story."  Fall '07 :
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