• UM, MIPS, Announce Research Projects
  Baltimore Business Journal: "The University of Maryland announced 17 research projects between Maryland companies and university faculty to develop new commercial products. The projects combine $3.4 million from participating companies and $1.4 million from the Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program (Clark School), which has supported research projects with more than 400 different Maryland companies since 1987. Funding supports research in labs of participating faculty, who work with partner companies to advance their technology products. The University of Maryland, College Park is helping with 10 projects, the University of Maryland in Baltimore has four projects, the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute has two and the University of Maryland on the Eastern Shore has one. Company partners include 14 startups and three small companies. Projects are subject to final contract negotiations."

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• Klose to Head UM's J-School
  Maryland Daily Record:   "Kevin Klose, former president of National Public Radio and a 25-year veteran of The Washington Post , has been appointed dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. Klose's appointment takes effect on April 13, university officials announced. He succeeds Thomas Kunkel, who left the school in July to become president of St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis. In addition to his work at NPR and the Post , Klose is a former associate director of the U.S. Information Agency. The Philip Merrill College of Journalism prepares students for careers in newspaper, magazine, broadcast news, newsletter and online journalism fields."

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• UM's Extraordinary Improvement in Graduating Black Students
  
  The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education surveyed U.S. flagship universities to determine which schools improved the most in graduating black students. UM, which raised its graduation rate by 20 percent, from 46% (1998) to 66% (2008), ranks No. 4 on the JBHE list.

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• UM Ranked Among Globe's Most Cybersavvy Universities
  
  UM'S Web site, http://www.umd.edu , was ranked  No. 19 in the world by the largest public research firm in Spain, the Cybermetrics Lab .  The Web site ranks the top 4000 colleges and universities out of nearly 15,000 institutions around the world.  Using previously issued rankings by U.S. News & World Report on the Top 20 U.S. Public Universities as a template,  UM would be No. 9 among its public university peers.

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• University Reshuffles Funding for East Campus Project
  
  Gazette Newspapers:   "Officials at the University of Maryland, College Park, say the East Campus Redevelopment Initiative is moving forward as planned despite a delay in securing full financing.  Ann Wylie, UM interim vice president of administrative affairs, said the university is taking longer than expected to obtain loans, but that the project is on schedule to break ground by 2010.  Wylie said UM has had to bring in different lenders, which took longer than expected, but that the school has "much more than half" of the $530 million needed to complete the first phase of construction.  East Campus is a $900 million mixed-use town center project which will span 38 acres over the eastern edge of campus, straddling Paint Branch Parkway and bordering Fraternity Row and Old Town.  'We all believe when we're ready to [break ground], we'll be ready to do it,' she said. 'We have to believe in a year from now the financial situation is going to get better.'  East Campus is expected to provide relief to UM's housing shortage with more than 1,500 one-, two- and four-bed graduate and undergraduate apartments, as well as a grocery store, movie theater, concert hall and possibly a luxury hotel."

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• Clark to Build $80M UM Residence Hall
  
  Washington Business Journal :  "The University of Maryland picked Clark Construction Group LLC to erect a new $80 million residence hall to help meet the growing need for undergraduate housing on campus.  Oakland Hall -- named for the city in Maryland -- is the first new residence hall on the College Park campus since New Leonardtown opened in 1982.  Clark Design/Build, a division of the Bethesda-based construction firm, will lead the design and construction of the eight-story, 200,000 square-foot cast-in-place concrete building that can house 650 students.  It will be built alongside the existing Denton Community residence halls on the campus' north side. The layout will primarily consist of four-person units with double-occupancy bedrooms sharing a bathroom."

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• UM Co-Directs State of Md. Language Preservation Report
  
  Maryland Daily Record:   "A state task force co-directed by the University of Maryland  (Catherine Ingold, director, UM's National Foreign Language Center) and the State Department of Education concludes in a new report that the state is 'uniquely positioned' to help meet national foreign language needs by tapping its abundant pool of well-educated, bilingual speakers. The Task Force on the Preservation of Heritage Language Skills, created by the General Assembly, is the first state-sponsored effort of its kind in the nation. Maryland ranks third among the states for the proportion of foreign-born population with college degrees, the task force reported."

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• UM Co-Directs State of Md. Language Preservation Report
  
  Maryland Daily Record:   "A state task force co-directed by the University of Maryland  (Catherine Ingold, director, UM's National Foreign Language Center) and the State Department of Education concludes in a new report that the state is 'uniquely positioned' to help meet national foreign language needs by tapping its abundant pool of well-educated, bilingual speakers. The Task Force on the Preservation of Heritage Language Skills, created by the General Assembly, is the first state-sponsored effort of its kind in the nation. Maryland ranks third among the states for the proportion of foreign-born population with college degrees, the task force reported."

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• Maryland Joins National Effort to Train More Math/Science Teachers
  
  Recognizing the need for more math and science teachers in middle and high school, UM joined a collaboration of public universities and university systems nationwide in committing to the Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative (SMTI). SMTI was announced during the annual meeting of the  National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) annual meeting last November in Chicago. Nearly 80 institutions made a preliminary pledge at that time. Today, the number of institutions committing to SMTI continues to increase and has surpassed the original goal of 100 universities.  "By joining this collaboration, the University of Maryland has the opportunity to focus our on-going efforts to improve the teaching of mathematics and science," said College of Education Dean Donna Wiseman, who is the SMTI liaison for Maryland.

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• Smith School to Launch Finance Masters
  Financial Times :  "With an eye on the changing financial landscape, the Robert Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland in the US is launching a new programme.  The Master of Science in Business: Finance will help prepare students to work in a financial industry that is being reshaped by government regulation and intervention.  Smith faculty have been working with the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as advising multinational corporations and financial institutions over the past months. Participants will have the advantage of these insights and will also take classes in Washington DC.  'The global financial crisis has changed the way we think about finance,' says the dean of the school, G Anand Anandalingam.  'Now more than ever there is a need for industry professionals with a solid understanding of evolving financial models for banking and debt management, corporate governance and management.' "
  

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• UM Students Get Great Excuse for Tardiness
  
  WRC-TV, Washington :  "If there has been a rash of University of Maryland students showing up an extra four minutes late for class, they may not be at fault.  The chapel bells, which many students use to gauge how late they are, have been ringing four minutes late this semester after being broken for most of the fall semester, the Diamondback reported.  The company that repairs the computer system that controls the bell's chiming is short-staffed, and thus, repairs will be tardy, as well.  Most students are wise to the problem, so they should have adjusted by now.  School officials said they received more calls about the bells not sounding at all last semester than they have about the bells ringing late this semester."

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• New UM System Policy to Cut Textbook Costs
  
  Baltimore Sun :  "State university students should see a 20 percent to 30 percent reduction in the total cost of their textbooks under a policy that will take effect next fall. ... The affordability policy, approved unanimously last week by the Board of Regents, urges faculty to retain books for multiple semesters so students can buy them used. 'The fact of the matter is, when you're teaching 18th-century American history, the material doesn't change that much,' Regent David Nevins said. The policy also requires professors to make available purchasing information, such as the book's ISBN and edition number, to students months before classes start so they can search for competitive prices."

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• Teach-In Celebrates Charles Darwin's Legacy
  
  UM celebrated the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, Feb. 9 to 13, with a week-long teach-in on the College Park and Shady Grove (University System of Maryland) campuses. On his official birthday, Feb.12, there was a birthday cake celebration and a number of classes dealing with Darwin and his legacy.

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• UM Hosts Cybersecurity Competition
  
  Campus Technology :  "The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business has launched a competition that invites participants to ponder how best to protect sensitive data on networks and online. The $1,000 Gordon Prize in Managing Cybersecurity Resources will be awarded to the best essay submitted that provides and describes a clear, innovative solution to the problem associated with managing cybersecurity resources. 

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• UM Hosts Physics Olympics Trials
  
  Physics Today:   "The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) today announced the top 400 students chosen to advance to the Quarter-Final round of U.S. Physics Team selection. Nearly 4,000 students participated in the Fnet=ma Exam in January. The top 400 students have been posted by AAPT at www.aapt.org/physicsteam/ quarterfinalists.cfm .  About the Olympiad: The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program is a joint initiative of AAPT and the American Institute for Physics (AIP). AAPT began the program in 1986 to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. The International Olympiad is a nine-day competition among pre-university students from more than 80 nations. This year's Olympiad, the 40th, will be held in Mérida Yucatán, México, July 11th to 19th, 2009.  U.S. Physics Team Selection: AAPT is responsible for recruiting, selecting and training teams each year to compete in the International Physics Olympiad Competition. This selection process begins in early January when high schools register their students to participate in the Fnet=ma exam. Each year approximately 400 top scorers on this first test advance to the quarter-final round of competition.  A third exam, student transcripts, and letters of recommendation are used as the basis for selection of the 24 members of the U.S. Physics Team. In May these students travel from schools all over the United States, to the University of Maryland-College Park to the Physics Team Training Camp. There they engage in nine days of intense studying, mystery lab, daily exams and problem solving."

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• Clarice Smith: Serving the Arts Locally With a Global Perspective
  
  WRC-TV, Washington:   "With a vibrant array of artists, students, and audiences, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (CSPAC) is at the heart of the arts community in College Park and surrounding areas.  This enormous cultural facility, located on 17 acres of the University of Maryland's campus, is home to two major concert and recital halls, four theaters, a grand pavilion, and dozens of classrooms and studios where the arts are constantly redefined. Even just walking into the building puts you into a scene right off of Broadway, with a grand staircase awaiting in the center after you enter and decorative balconies and curtains everywhere.  CSPAC presents almost 1,000 events each year, spanning all performing arts disciplines from dance to theatre to spoken word. With various provocative performances, workshops, lectures, dialogues and other events featuring visiting artists from around the world, as well as students and faculty from the university's academic departments of music, dance and theatre, CSPAC has gained the reputation as a world class center for the arts."

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• UM, PG Partner: A Path to Higher Education
  
  Gazette Newspapers:   "More than 1,000 middle and high school students and their families, all concerned with the path to higher education, attended a Latino college prep event Saturday at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Prince George's County Public Schools teamed with the university to present a day of workshops, campus tours and a college fair for the 13th annual event, 'A College Education is Within Your Reach.' ... Javier Montenegro of UM's Office of Admissions said many immigrant parents aren't familiar with the way America's higher education system works or feel no connection to the university culture.  Montenegro said college attendance isn't an expectation in Latino communities the way it is in others and sometimes the need for students to work to help their families prevents some Latinos from attending college."

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• Major Gift Takes Driskell Center to New Heights
  
  The David C. Driskell Center at UM took another step towards becoming a national leader in the field of African American Art.   A generous and valuable gift of 227 works of art by more than one hundred twenty African American artists from the Jean and Robert Steele Collection will enhance the permanent art collection of the Driskell Center, which focuses on the visual arts and culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora. The gift will help ensure the strength and vitality of the Driskell Center art collection for future generations of scholars, students, artists and the general public.

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• Maryland Heads to Desert to Debut Its Green Pitch
  
  Business Gazette:   "Two state agencies are staking out a presence at a national conference for green businesses for the first time this week.  The Department of Business and Economic Development and the Maryland Energy Administration have partnered to attend Retech 2009, the Renewable Energy Technology Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas. The trade show, which runs Wednesday through today, is expected to draw more than 2,000 representatives from businesses of all sizes.  ... In Las Vegas this week, Maryland is also represented by the University of Maryland, College Park's A. James Clark School of Engineering and several green technology companies, including BP Solar of Frederick; Green Connected of Ellicott City; greeNEWit of Columbia; and Cambridge International of Cambridge."

People

• Pease: UM Professor Wins Inspire Integrity Awards
  
  The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS)  announced that John Pease, associate professor of sociology at UM is the  recipient of NSCS's Inspire Integrity Awards.  The Inspire Integrity Awards are the nation's only student-nominated faculty awards that recognize professors for their commitment to inspiring and instilling integrity in their students. Dr. Pease was honored for the significant impact he has had on the lives of his students through classroom lectures, activities, and curriculum, and for his capacity to instill a high degree of personal and academic integrity.  He will receive a personal stipend of $3,000 and an additional $2,000 contribution made in his name to the University of Maryland's general scholarship fund.

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• UM Graduate Prepares for Next Shuttle Mission
  
  Teacher, scientist, world traveler, aquanaut, astronaut, Terp.  NASA Mission Specialist Richard Arnold II has just about done it all on this earth. On February 19, he'll extend his experiences to another world... traveling to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Shuttle Discovery.  During the 14 day journey of NASA's STS-119 mission, Arnold will take three of a scheduled four space walks to install the fourth and final set of solar array wings and a truss element for the ISS. Once installed, the extra power from the panels will allow the ISS crew size to increase to six following the installation of a Japanese research module scheduled for next May.
  
  Other UM astronauts :  Judith Resnik, one of the astronauts who perished in the Challenger explosion, received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 1977; Paul Richards, a 1991 graduate of campus with a master's degree in mechanical engineering, spent March 8-21, 2001, in space on the STS-102 Discovery mission to the International Space Station. He presented University of Maryland President C. D. Mote, Jr., with a banner he took on his first mission into space at a ceremony during Maryland Day 2001. William (Willie) McCool, who died aboard the space shuttle Columbia, received his master's degree in computer science from the university in 1985. Richard "Ricky" Arnold II (M.S., Marine Biology, UMCP, 1992) was selected as a member of the 2004 class of astronaut recruits.

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• Auto Task Force Includes Cabinet-Level Secretaries
  
  Detroit News:   Ed Montgomery, an economist and dean of Behavioral & Social Sciences, is appointed to Obama's Presidential Task Force on Autos. ""The White House late Friday said the Presidential Task Force on Autos will include the secretaries of a host of federal agencies, with much of the day-to-day work being done by staff members designated by each task force member.  The task force, co-chaired by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and White House National Economic Council director Larry Summers, will include the secretaries of Transportation, Commerce, Labor, Energy, OMB director, EPA administrator, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change and chair of the Council of Economic Advisors."

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• Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes
  
  The New York Times released a Feb. 18 story featuring English  professor Marshall Grossman, who criticized students for expecting A's by merely fulfilling what was asked of them..   He enjoyed celebrity status as his remarks on "student grade entitlement"  became an Internet favorite -- to him, the default grade is a C.  For three days, his remarks sparked the most e-mailed story sent from the Times Web site, and it spawned a score of commentaries related to the story.

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• Some Students Opt to Skip Class and Buy Notes Online
  
  WJLA-TV (Washington):   "After years of reports about college students buying tests answers and pre-written papers, there's evidence more and more college students are finding ways to skip class and buy their notes.  University of Maryland sophomore Alex Mogul just earned a few hundred bucks to put toward spring break.  'So far I've cashed out for about 280 bucks,' she said. 'I'm going to Mexico.'  Here's how it works: Mogul takes notes in class and uploads them to the Web site KNeTWiT.com. She earns points to put towards cash or gifts.  'People would join and I'd earn points for them and they'll get to use my notes. And if someone missed class, they could just log on and get my notes from there,' Mogul said.  Web sites like KNeTWiT, GradeGuru.com and ISleptThroughClass.com are part of a growing campus trend: taking note-sharing electronic.  American University professor Kathryn Montgomery isn't surprised about this latest online 'resource' for students.  '[Y]oung people love to go online to live their lives, share their friendships,' she said.  Students can pay for notes they missed, or download them for free on some Web sites. But not all note-sharing is online.  'I'm not going to lie, UM senior Jess Spangler admitted. 'I bought the whole semester of notes and I've kind of gotten to the point where I don't go to class because I knew that I had my notes.' "

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• Chinese Institute of Engineers awards Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs President Jeong Kim Lifetime Achievement Award
  
  Newsdesk :  Alumnus Jeong Kim, President of Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs, was named recipient of the 2009 Chinese Institute of Engineers (USA) Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award.  The award recognizes Asian-American engineering professionals with a record of significant personal achievements, contributions to academia, public service and industry.  As President of Bell Labs, Dr. Kim oversees a world-renowned research institution.  UM's Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building was dedicated in 2005.

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• Former-Archivist of the US Weinstein Joins UM Faculty
  
  History News Network :  "Historian Allen Weinstein, most recently ninth Archivist of the United States, has joined the faculty of the University of Maryland, College of Information Studies -- Maryland's iSchool -- as a visiting professor. Dr. Weinstein resigned his post as Archivist this past December.  In announcing Weinstein's appointment Dean Jennifer Preece stated:  'We are honored to have Professor Allen Weinstein join the iSchool. He will challenge our students and faculty intellectually and substantially add to our growing reputation. Reading Allen's biography is inspiring; he has achieved and contributed so much as Archivist, leading historian and promoter of world peace and democracy. Allen will help us to reach out to leading figures in Washington and beyond.' "

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• Dance Teacher Founded UM Department
  
  Washington Post :  "Dorothy G. Madden, 96, a dance instructor and administrator who served as founding chairman of the University of Maryland's dance department from 1967 to 1972 and spent the past several decades teaching and mentoring in Europe, died Feb. 18 at a nursing home in London. She had had several heart attacks in recent years.  In 1962, she completed a doctorate in "dance as a creative art" at New York University. She was reportedly among the first to receive a degree in this field, which made a choreographed dance part of doctoral study.  She advocated this approach at Maryland, where she was affiliated from 1948 to 1977, and later at dance schools in London and Paris.  Dr. Madden had arrived at College Park as the sole dance instructor in the Department of Health and Physical Education, through which dance was offered as a minor. At her urging, the university added a dance major in 1957 and a separate dance department in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1967.  'That's what a university is for, isn't it?' she told The Washington Post in 1967. 'The total experience of man, including his artistic experience, should be included in the curriculum.' "

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• UM Alum Sergey Brin and Partner Larry Page on List of 'World's Most Powerful Billionaires'
  
  Forbes Magazine:  Forbes publishes its list of the world's most powerful billionaires.
  No. 18
  Sergey Brin and Larry Page
  "When people look for information, they're likely to turn to Page and Brin's creation: Google. Research agency Millward Brown called Google the most valuable brand in the world in 2008. Brin and Page met in computer science Ph.D. program at Stanford. Dropped out in 1998 to work on a search engine from a friend's garage. Took company public in 2004."

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• Alumna First Black House Master at Harvard
  
  The Harvard Crimson :    "Law School Professor Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. and Law School lecturer Stephanie Robinson have been chosen as the new masters of Winthrop House, and the first black House Masters in Harvard history, College Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds announced yesterday afternoon.  They will assume their new posts next fall, replacing Professor Stephen P. Rosen and Mandana Sassanfar, who called it quits after six years as the Winthrop House Masters, citing personal reasons for the decision.  The pick comes as part of a recent push by Hammonds to foster greater diversity among House Masters, a group that contains few minority members. ... Robinson, a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland, was named one of Ebony Magazine's 30 young African American leaders of the future in 1997. She presently serves as CEO of The Jamestown Project, a national think-tank compromised primarily of minorities and women that focuses on democracy."

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• UM Expert Testified on Greenhouse Gas Reduction Bill; Cost of Delay
  
  UM researcher Matthias Ruth, part of the Maryland Governor's Climate Change Commission,  testified before the state Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee as it opens consideration of the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act.  Ruth testified as part of a panel of the Commission's experts. He wrote Chapter 3 of the Commission report, the results of a study focusing on the costs of delay or inaction.  Ruth's study concludes that climate change will cost the Maryland economy billions of dollars, and finds that the state is particularly vulnerable to a "cascade" of economic consequences.  The Commission's Climate Action Plan was transmitted to Governor O'Malley last summer.

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• Announcing the 2009 Influential Marylanders
  
  The Maryland Daily Record named UM College Park Foundation Trustee Craig Thompson one of its 60 most influential Marylanders for 2009. Thompson graduated in 1992 with bachelor's degrees in both political science and Afro-American studies. He received his law degree from the University of Maryland Law School in 1995 and is currently a partner with the law offices of Venable, LLC.

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• Alumnus Wins Prestigious AAS Award Named for UM Faculty Member
  
  NASA :  A Maryland alumnus gathers in an award named for  Joseph Weber, a long-time member of the physics department, a half-century ago. "The American Astronomical Society announced prizes for distinction in astronomy and astrophysics for 2009, and an astrophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. was the recipient of the Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation.  The Joseph Weber Award for 2009 was conferred on Dr. Peter Serlemitsos in late January in recognition of his innovative contributions to X-ray detector and telescope designs that have enabled decades of scientific advances in high energy astrophysics. The full citation for the Joseph Weber Award gives details of two landmark inventions by Serlemitsos, in detector design and thin-film X-ray optics and mentions many space missions that his advances have benefited."

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• NASA's Neil Gehrels for Science Contributions
  
  NASA:   "Astrophysicist Dr. Neil Gehrels of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., has been awarded the Henry Draper Medal by the National Academy of Sciences, Washington. ... The Henry Draper Medal and a prize of $15,000 are awarded for an original investigation in astronomical physics. Gehrels earned his Ph.D. in physics from Caltech in 1981, and came to Goddard as a postdoctoral researcher in the same year. Among his many other honors, Gehrels and his Swift Science Team won the 2007 Rossi Prize from the American Astronomical Society's High-Energy Astrophysics Division. He is also the 2005 recipient of Goddard's John C. Lindsay Memorial Award for Space Science. Gehrels was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2008. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and an Adjunct Professor of Astronomy at the University of Maryland and of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State University."

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• NASA Goddard Astrophysicist Peter Serlemitsos Wins Joseph Weber Award
  
  NASA:   A Maryland alumnus gathers in an award named for  Joseph Weber, a  member of the physics department a half-century ago."The American Astronomical Society recently announced prizes for distinction in astronomy and astrophysics for 2009, and an astrophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. was the recipient of the Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation.  The award was conferred on Dr. Peter Serlemitsos ... in recognition of his innovative contributions to X-ray detector and telescope designs that have enabled decades of scientific advances in high energy astrophysics. The full citation for the Joseph Weber Award gives details of two landmark inventions by Serlemitsos, in detector design and thin-film X-ray optics and mentions many space missions that his advances have benefited. ... After graduating from the University of Maryland in 1966, Serlemitsos has worked as an astrophysicist at the X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory at NASA Goddard, joining Elihu Boldt, the founder of the group. Peter spent most of his active career in X-ray astrophysics with emphasis in the development of space-borne instrumentation. He has pioneered two types of instruments which have since been used extensively in the field: the large area multi-wire gas proportional counter and lightweight conical foil X-ray mirrors."
  

Society & Culture

• Russia and China 'Approval Down'
  BBC World Service: ""Global attitudes towards Russia and China are worsening, a poll carried out for the BBC World Service suggests. China's positive ratings fell six points over the year to 39%, while negative views of Russia jumped eight points to 42%, according to the survey. The survey was taken after President Barack Obama's election, but 43% still felt the US impact was negative. More than 13,000 people in 21 countries were interviewed for the poll, part of an annual survey of world opinion. It was carried out by international pollster GlobeScan with the Program on International Policy Attitudes (Pipa) (Public Policy) at the University of Maryland in the 10 weeks leading up to 1 February."

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• The Wizard
  The New Yorker: Pulitzer Prize-winning faculty member Louis Harlan, who won his award for the biography Booker T. Washington, The Making of a Black Leader, has his history compared to a just released biography by historian Robert Norrell, Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington. Harlan's two part biography was released in 1972 and 1984. "Even Harlan, who was never the ant-Washington partisan Norrell makes him to be, warmed to his subject. In 1983, he published a second volume of his biogrpahy, which won him the Pulitizer Prize. In his preface, Harland adopted a more sympahetic tone. He wrote that Washington's program 'gave purposoe and dignity to black working class lives of toil and struggle' and he marvelled at the 'number and diversity of those he enlisted in his coaliton.' "

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• Republicans and Latino Voters: Has the GOP Shifted on Immigration Reform?
  U.S. News & World Report: "As eyebrows went up once again in the Latino community, two conservative organizations released studies with very different takes on the (2008) election than the one offered by GOP leaders in the fall. First, the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that supports severe restrictions on immigration, published a report which concludes that the GOP's stance on immigration isn't actually what hurt the party with Hispanic voters. In 'Latino Voting in the 2008 Election: Part of a Broader Electoral Movement,' James Gimpel, a professor of government at the University of Maryland, argues that the Republican party gave up ground in the election across many demographic groups -- white males, for example -- and that Latinos, like all voters, were much more concerned with the economy than with immigration. 'There is little evidence that immigration policy was an influential factor in Latinos' choice between the two candidates once basic party predispositions are taken into account,' the report says. Gimpel dismisses the notion that Republicans might be able to woo Latinos by offering McCain- or Bush-style immigration reform. 'As long as Latinos remain in lower income brackets,' he says, 'an outcome virtually assured by sustained high levels of unskilled immigration, the Democrats will continue to maintain their lopsided edge.' "

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• Temporary Pleasures: Artist Linn Meyers
  
  Washington Express :  "Linn Meyers' new wall drawings unwind in epic proportion in 'Here Today,' her latest exhibition on display at the Art Gallery at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Meyers has a meticulous way with lines that results in intricate but naturally flowing patterns. Like her small-scale works, Meyers' new oversized efforts -- including one created with local sound artist Richard Chartier -- reveal Meyers' purposeful process to flattering effect.  The first piece explodes from the center of the front gallery's concave wall like a Big Bang, with forms resembling wisps of hair unraveling toward its edges. But the real spectacle is the lines themselves. Upon closer inspection one can see the interplay of color and motion in Meyers' work that gives it its unique, resonant quality.  'We were going to put a disclaimer on the door that said if you suffer from a seizure disorder, do not enter,' says Meyers jokingly."

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• Echoes of Vietnam War Crimes
  
  Philadelphia Inquirer :  A review of the book The War Behind Me; Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth About U.S. War Crimes, by Deborah Nelson (Merrill College of Journalism).  "As war crimes by U.S. personnel reverberate from Iraq around the world, journalist Deborah Nelson demonstrates, using the Vietnam War for her template, how such lethal behavior can escalate until it is out of control.  A former newspaper reporter, Nelson is one of the most experienced, talented investigative journalists alive. Earlier in her career, she never expected to use her investigative skills on something as quasi-historical as Vietnam War massacres of civilians during the late 1960s and early 1970s that were led by American soldiers.  Nelson, now a journalism professor at the University of Maryland, became involved in the reporting that resulted in her book during 2005, while working in the Washington bureau of the Los Angeles Times . The path to her remarkable book-length expose looks like this, in short."

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• Many Men, A Plan, A Canal -- Panama
  
  Time magazine:   A review of the book The Canal Builders:  Making America's Empire at the Panama Canal , by Julie Greene (associate professor, history):   "Building the Panama Canal involved more than the moving of great steam-powered digging machines. The most difficult task was quickly establishing what amounted to a brand new nation. Cities had to be built, diseases had to be eradicated, and thousands upon thousands of workers had to be shipped in, and housed, and fed, and entertained, and jailed, and cared for, and buried when that caring for failed. Greene sees the Canal Zone as a melting pot whose constituent pieces never quite came together; her book explores the racial and economic conflicts that arose as a result. It's a purposefully different sort of history -- those looking for a straightforward account of the Canal's construction should search elsewhere -- and one that would benefit from a less academic tone. Dutiful in its delivery, The Canal Builders secures a largely anonymous group of people their place in history."

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• Ending Oil Dependency Will Save Money, Fight Terrorism
  
  Environmental Leader:   "FedEx chief executive officer Fred Smith, co-chairman of the Energy Security Leadership Council, envisions a future transportation system that does not rely on oil.  Smith said increased dependence on foreign oil represents the biggest threat to the U.S. economy and national security after terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. ... To reverse the trend, Smith, together with several military and business leaders, promote a transportation system that no longer relies on oil. They back the council's plan released in September for the electrification of short-haul transportation. Electrical power can be generated from solar, hydroelectric, wind, nuclear, coal or natural gas, reducing the nation's dependence on one fuel source or producer, he said. ... A study commissioned by the Energy Security Leadership Council finds that the policy proposals would result in significant benefits for the U.S. economy, remarked Smith.   Released Monday by the University of Maryland (Jeffrey Werling, executive director, UM's Inforum), and Keybridge Research, the study projects that if the U.S. reduces consumption of imported energy by 2050, it will result in higher employment and annual household income, less pollution, an improved trade balance and a higher level of federal tax revenue."

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• Muslims Reject Attacks on Civilians, but Not Always on U.S. Troops
  
  U.S. News & World Report :   "Large majorities in predominantly Muslim countries reject the use of attacks on American civilians to further political goals, a wide-ranging poll of Muslims finds. The survey, conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org (Public Policy) with support from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, covered Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Azerbaijan, and Nigeria. More than 70 percent of respondents in nearly all the countries polled said they disapproved of attacks on American civilians, suggesting that such attacks are ineffective as a means of achieving political goals. However, the poll, conducted July through September 2008, finds that large majorities support the al Qaeda goal of removing the U.S. military from Islamic countries. Some 87 percent of Egyptians, 64 percent of Indonesians, and 60 percent of Pakistanis agree with that goal. Also, large numbers, and in some cases majorities, approve of attacks on U.S. troops in Muslim countries."

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• Analyst Says Current Economic Crisis Could Impact Future U.S. Assistance to Africa
  
  Voice of America:   "U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday night made his first speech to a joint session of Congress, acknowledging difficult and uncertain economic times but promising the United States will rebuild and be stronger than ever.  Mr. Obama, who has been president for a month, called on Americans to pull together to confront challenges and take responsibility for the country's future.   Ron Walters, professor in government and politics at the University of Maryland told VOA t he current U.S. economic slowdown is likely to have some impact on future U.S. economic assistance to Africa under the Obama administration.  'I think it's bound to have a slowing effect on the rate at which the United States is able to continue its commitment not only to Africa but everywhere else around the world where international commitments are. I think what we see is the global problem of retrenchment. And when that happens, countries tend to cut some of their international commitments. How much of an impact, it can't be said right now because we don't know how quickly the economy is going to recover. So we're in an atmosphere of uncertainty, and it's difficult to predict with any degree of confidence of what is going to happen to economic assistance program right now,' he said.  Walters said while Africans have every right to expect some help from the Obama administration, it would all depend on the condition of the U.S. economy."

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• More Dads Influence Daughters' Career Paths
  
  New York Times:   "Fathers appear to be playing a bigger role in their daughters' career choices compared to men of previous generations.  Researchers from the University of Maryland used various data sets to study the career paths of 63,000 women born between 1909 and 1977. Given that more women today are entering predominantly male occupations in higher numbers compared to women of previous generations, the researchers said it has been difficult to distinguish between general societal changes and family factors that may be influencing a woman's career choices.  The question is whether fathers are passing on what the researchers called 'job specific human capital' to their daughters. The notion that fathers pass on job skills and work interests to their sons has been long established, but the trend hasn't been pronounced in girls, in part because women are relatively recent participants in the workforce.  ... About 6 percent of women born in the first decade of the study worked in the same field as their fathers. But about 18 percent of women born in the last decade of the study followed their fathers' footsteps. Although much of the increase is attributed to social influences, the study showed that about 20 percent of the difference is attributed to a father's influence.  By comparison, the percentage of men who followed in their fathers' career paths remained relatively unchanged at about 30 percent during the study period. The study wasn't designed to explore the reasons behind the change. However, it may be that today's fathers are spending more time with their daughters and passing on more skills and values related to their careers, said Judith Hellerstein, associate professor of economics at the University of Maryland. Another factor may be that daughters also are paying more attention to the fathers." 

Science & Technology

• Scientists Ponder Future After Carbon Satellite Crash
  
  New York Times:   "Nine years of work disappeared in five minutes yesterday when a NASA satellite crashed into the icy, black waters near the South Pole. Now climate scientists who worked on the ambitious effort to map the world's carbon dioxide are trying to figure out what comes next. ... Agency officials said yesterday that it appears the fairing, a nose cone that shields the satellite as it travels through Earth's atmosphere, did not detach from the satellite the way it was supposed to.  That left the satellite carrying extra weight that prevented it from reaching orbit. It likely crashed into the ocean near Antarctica minutes later, said John Brunschwyler of Orbital Sciences, which manufactures the Taurus XL rocket used in yesterday's aborted launch.  'Certainly, for the scientific community, it's a huge disappointment,' he said. 'It's taken so long to get here.'   Ross Salawitch (professor, atmospheric and oceanic sciences) of the University of Maryland, a founding member of the carbon observatory's science team, offered a sober firsthand account of the launch on his Web site. Many of the scientists who had traveled to Vandenberg Air Force Base to watch the launch did not realize it had failed until they returned to their hotel 45 minutes later, he wrote.  'When I walked into the hotel lobby, it was clear from the blank look on several hundred people's faces that something was terribly wrong,' Salawitch said. 'Those of us in the hotel had no contact with our friends and colleagues inside mission control ... about 40 of us lingered in the hotel lobby for about 2.5 hrs, from 2:30 a.m. until 5:00 a.m., to watch the press conference on a few laptops.'

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• Stream Restoration a Big Piece of Bay Health Puzzle
  
  Annapolis Capital:   "Sorely needed stream restoration can help the Chesapeake Bay recover from the onslaught of pollutants being washed from its 66,000-square-mile basin, but it's only one of several efforts needed to turn the tide.  That was the main thrust from three speakers at a forum on stream restoration sponsored by the Chesapeake Environmental Protection Association on Friday night.  Restoring miles of damaged waterways in Anne Arundel County is just "one of the puzzle pieces that make up the Chesapeake watershed," county Public Works Director Ron Bowen said.  His overview of the issue, noting some 300 miles of seriously degraded streams in the county's 12 watersheds - the land surrounding and feeding major bodies of water - was the first topic of the evening.  ... "Margaret Palmer, an expert on stream restoration and director of the University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratories (biology), also told those gathered that stream restoration is not the only answer.  In fact, some of her research indicates that most restoration work does not reduce a key bay pollutant, nitrogen. But some new techniques have shown promise, notably the Wilelinor stream restoration south of Annapolis that her lab has been studying for a few years.  But, like Bowen, she stressed the urgent need to fix streams sullied before stormwater regulations were introduced.  'To improve things we have to concentrate on already developed areas,' she said.  But she warned the effort to restore natural streams is off target.  'The dream of natural streams, give it up,' she said. 'Restoration should be more about maintaining ecosytem health' by whatever means work.  Maintaining and restoring forested areas is vital, as is reducing impervious surfaces and getting localities and individual property owners to reduce the runoff feeding into streams, the speakers agreed.  'It is all of the above,' Bowen said."

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• Tuning Up for Teleportation
  
  The second landmark research report, in the last month, to come out of UM regarding quantum physics 'teleportation, ' a Startrek -like phenomenon.  Physics' Chris Monroe, who co-authored a report in Science , led the first effort; Alberto Marino leads this breakthrough.   He co-authored a report in Nature .  Physics World synopsizes the latest development:  
  
  "A new technique for controlling the speed of 'teleportation' in quantum systems has been created by physicists in the US and the UK. The researchers have demonstrated a way of 'tuning' beams of light to distribute quantum information to specific points in space and time. Manipulating and storing data in this way is an important step towards developing new communication devices and eventually a quantum computer, say the researchers.   In quantum teleportation, the sender (Alice) instantaneously transfers the quantum state of a particle to a receiver (Bob). In 1997 physicists captured public attention by teleporting quantum states between 'entangled' photons for the first time. Entanglement is a feature of quantum mechanics that allows particles with two distinct quantum states to share a much closer relationship than classical physics allows.  Over the intervening 12 years teleportation has been demonstrated over increasing distances and between larger particles.  Now, Alberto Marino and colleagues have addressed a different challenge of quantum computing -- the need to control the flow of quantum information. In the experiment, two beams of light were 'entangled' then slowed down in a controlled manner as they passed through a cloud of hot rubidium vapour.  'In classic computing, information needs to arrive at the processor just at the right time. In quantum computing, exactly the same is true,' says Marino, a quantum-information researcher (physics, Joint Quantum Research Institute) at the University of Maryland."

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• Watchdog Report -- Latest Salmonella Outbreak Exposes Limited Protection in Food Safety
  
  Rochester Democrat & Chronicle :  "The latest salmonella outbreak (in peanuts) exposes vulnerabilities in the food industry and an inadequate system to protect consumers -- all of which comes as no surprise to health experts and food safety advocates.  Outbreaks of food-borne illnesses have become ingrained in a massively consolidated industry. Meat from a single farm or the ingredients from one manufacturer can travel across the country, with products susceptible to contamination at any point.  At the same time, federal officials hold little power to force recalls or oversee the daily production in a plant. Add to that the slow process of identifying a nationwide outbreak, the arduous guess-and-check work to trace the origin of the contaminant and the long lapse in time from the first illness to the first recall.  Given all these complexities, many health experts don't see an end to the outbreaks.  'Absolutely it will continue to happen until big changes are made,' said Sanford Miller, former director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and a senior fellow at the University of Maryland. 'The food industry has just exploded over the last several decades, and unfortunately, the FDA has not been able to keep up with this.' "

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• President's Obama's Call for FDA Investigation Should Address Funding Shortage, Expert Says
  
  Miami Examiner:   "President Obama's call for an investigation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is fine, but any reforms should look at the agency's chronic funding shortage, a veteran food safety expert says.  'His call for a study is fine, but the FDA has been investigated before, and the conclusion is always that they are under-funded. They just don't have the resources,' said David Lineback (research professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Life Sciences) , retired director of the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the University of Maryland.  In addition, the FDA needs a better trace-back system, so the origin of tainted products can be tracked down more quickly, and there should also be a review on the issue of whether the agency needs the power to order recalls. Right now,  it is the company's responsibility to order the recall,  Lineback told the Examiner.  Obama sounded the call for as the peanut butter product recalls continued to mount. Like other parents, Obama also expressed concern about his family's health; his daughter, Sasha, eats peanut butter three times a week.  As of today, more than 80 companies had ordered recalls of products containing peanuts, found in everything from cookies and crackers to dog treats.  Like Lineback, other food safety advocates have focused on the FDA's funding. They've also noted that this stems in part from the way the agency is organized; the agency's  duties are divided between safeguarding the nation's food supply, and being the drug watchdog.'The food part always gets the shorter end of the stick,' Lineback says."

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• Seeing the Forest and Trees Helps Cut Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
  
  Pacific Northwest Laboratory :  "Putting a price tag on carbon dioxide emitted by different land use practices could dramatically change the way that land is used -- forests become increasingly valuable for storing carbon and overall carbon emissions reductions become cheaper, according to research presented today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  'Without valuing the carbon in land, we risk losing large swaths of unmanaged ecosystems to agricultural crops and biofuels,' said speaker Leon Clarke of the Joint Global Change Research Institute in College Park, Md., a collaboration between the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., and the University of Maryland.  Most analysis of future global carbon dioxide output mainly consider carbon emissions from fossil fuels and industrial processes, or otherwise include only parts of the global carbon cycle. Some studies predict dramatic changes in how people use land as they cut down trees to grow food and bioenergy crops. This study is the first to value carbon in all natural and human systems." 

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• Evolution and Race -- Biologically, Race Is No Longer an Issue, Scientific Panel Agrees
  
  Cornell Daily Sun :  Physics' James Gates is part of a distinguished panel at Cornell.   "The panel discussion, part of a series of 'Darwin Days' events marking the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth Feb. 12, provided perspectives on what race meant to Darwin and what it means to evolutionary biologists today.  Sylvester James Gates, the John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland, said that the most interesting thing about pioneering scientists such as Darwin is that 'they are led on journeys of discovery, and they don't deny what comes out of that journey.'  Darwin, he said, understood the implications of his observations of peoples around the globe: that all humans evolved from a common source.  'He recognized the unity of the human race,' said Gates, who previously had delivered the second annual Beggs lecture Feb. 8 in Sage Chapel on science, faith and evolution. 'Without Darwin, this story of our connections to each other is not possible.'  He said: 'All of our science tells us what our religions tell us: that we're all brothers and sisters.' "

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• The Computer as a Road Map to Unknowable Territory
  
  Washington Post :  "In recent years, computational models have been applied in social contexts as diverse as battlefield situations, air traffic control and public health programs. The common theme is that leaders in every case are asked to make decisions in complex situations with uncertain outcomes.  At the University of Maryland, for example, computer scientist V.S. Subrahmanian and political scientist Jonathan Wilkenfeld have built a computational model to predict how different situations amplify the likelihood of violence in the Middle East. One conclusion of their model is that the militant group Hezbollah is more likely to lob rockets into Israel when elections are being held in Lebanon -- some proportion of the attacks are meant to impress a domestic audience. The conclusion is not necessarily counterintuitive: A skilled political watcher could have told you the same thing. But if pundits intuitively know how 100 different issues might influence outcomes, computational models can tell you the relative importance of each variable." 

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• Online Health Data in Remission
  
  Washington Post:   "The $19 billion prescribed in Congress's economic stimulus package to bring America's health-care records into the electronic age is a welcome opportunity for information technology firms seeking to build market share in a still-young industry. ... The anticipated demand for workers with technology skills who can help install medical record systems and then train physicians and health-care workers to use them will require training programs. Getting such programs off the ground is 'not an easy thing to do,' said Ritu Agarwal, director of the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.  'Study after study show that physicians in their small and medium-sized practices are extremely challenged with incorporating technology into their current flow. They haven't been able to afford it,' she said. 'We would anticipate seeing significant spending on training dollars . . . and if government is going to help pay for that, through some pilots and demonstrations, that will help move things along.' "

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• Cross-Dressing Rubidium May Reveal Clues for Exotic Computing
  
  NIST:    "Neutral atoms -- having no net electric charge -- usually don't act very dramatically around a magnetic field. But by 'dressing them up' with light, researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute, a collaborative venture of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland, College Park, have caused ultracold rubidium atoms to undergo a startling transformation.  They force neutral atoms to act like pointlike charged particles that can undergo merry-go-round-like 'cyclotron' motions just as electrons do when subjected to a suitable magnetic field. This extreme makeover for ultracold atoms promises to give physicists clues on how to achieve an exotic form of computation that would rely upon special 'fractionally charged' particles dancing around on a surface. ... With this goal in mind, postdoc Yu-Ju Lin (research associate, physics), physicist Ian Spielman and the rest of the JQI team have set out to make a gas of neutral atoms behave like electrically charged particles. They couldn't simply add electric charges to the atoms, or play around with electrons themselves because their mutual electrical repulsion would cause the cloud to fly apart."    Robert Compton (research associate, physics), Abigail Perry, graduate assistant, physics), Ian Spielman (adjunct assistant professor, physics), William Phillips (Distinguished University Professor, Physics), and James Porto (adjunct associate professor, physics) co-authored the research that will appear in Physical Review Letters .

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