NEWS
January 2003
"News
from the College of Life Sciences
at the University of Maryland, College
Park"
NEWS ITEMS
- The
Dean's Message
- Upcoming
Events
- University
to Host 2003 Mid-Atlantic Immunobiology
Meeting
- Gifts
- Faculty
Recognition and In the News
- New
Faculty and Staff
-
HHMI Advisory Board
- Students
Spend Less Time Studying
- Funding
Alerts
- How
to Post Your News
FROM
THE DEAN
Welcome
back, and my best wishes for a very
happy and productive New Year! I
hope that the end-of-the-year holiday
rekindled your enthusiasm and replenished
your energy.
The old year ended with two inspiring
keynote addresses: at the College
Commencement by Dr. Willie May,
Chief of the Analytical Chemistry
Division, Chemical Science and Technology
Laboratory, NIST; and at the University
Commencement by Dr. Dorothy Height,
a major figure in the civil rights
movement. Both brought their perspective
on human rights-past successes and
future challenges-to bear on the
issues facing the United States
and the world today. Their talks
reminded us all of the critical
importance of leaders with wisdom
in these uncertain times.
If one of your New Year's resolutions
is to "clean up the lab and
my office," you will be able
to get help during the period of
January 13 through 24. Recycling
bins will be available throughout
our buildings, and dumpsters will
be waiting to receive equipment
and furniture whose useful lifetime
has expired. Refrigerant will be
removed free of charge, and assistance
in dealing with hazardous materials
will be available. For assistance,
contact the College's Facilities
Director, David Dalo (ddalo@umd.edu,
x54211). Facilities Management will
provide prizes, such as repainting
an office, to the "most improved"
group in each department. This is
an opportunity to improve the quality
of your life and the attractiveness
of your environment.
Dr. Margaret Palmer is one of the
organizers of an important symposium
in February that kicks off a series
of events sponsored by NIH and NSF
to highlight exciting opportunities
at the interface of math and biology
and to encourage collaboration across
that interface. The symposium will
be held February 12, 9 a.m. to 5
p.m., at Natcher Auditorium at NIH.
The keynote speaker is Joel E. Cohen,
who heads the Laboratory of Populations
at Rockefeller and Columbia. Individual
sessions will deal with Multispecies
Systems, Cell Structure and Function,
and Bioinformatics and Computational
Problems. There are great opportunities
for Maryland at this interface,
and I hope that many of you will
be able to attend this event. For
more information, contact Margaret
at mp3@umail.umd.edu.
Congratulations to Drs. Victor Muñoz
and Kerry Shaw, who have published
seminal papers in the past month.
Victor's paper on protein folding
appeared in Science; Kerry's,
on the risks of drawing evolutionary
inferences solely from mitochondrial
DNA, appears in PNAS. Congratulations
to both!
I'm pleased to announce that the
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
has hired Dr. Andrei Vedernikov,
an organic chemist, as an assistant
professor. Dr. Vedernikov is one
of several new appointments that
the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry will need to make in
the next few years to replace an
exceptionally large number of faculty
who are retiring.
The University has begun to receive
concrete information about the magnitude
of the budgetary cuts that lie ahead.
Although these cuts will require
us to make choices, there is every
indication that we will be able
to sustain and even build momentum
in critical areas. I will be prepared
to discuss our budgetary situation
with each department when I meet
with you at the beginning of the
semester. If you would like more
information in the meantime, please
feel free to contact me.
My very best wishes for the New
Year!
Norma
Allewell
Dean
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Schedule
of Classes
January 6: Winterterm Begins
January 20: Dr. Martin Luther King
holiday
January 24: Winterterm Ends
January 28: First Day of Classes for
Spring 2003
February 10: Last Day of Schedule
Adjustment (Drop/Add)
March 24-30: Spring Break
April 14: Last Day to Drop with a
"W"
May 14: Last Day of Classes
Events
February 12: NSF/NIH Symposium, Natcher
Auditorium at NIH, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
(see Dean's Message). Campus contact:
Margaret Palmer (mp3@umail.umd.edu)
February 18: Terrapin Pride Day in
Annapolis
April 12: Alumni Association Gala
Awards
April 26: Maryland Day 2003. College
contact: Gene Ferrick (gferrick@deans.umd.edu)
May 16-18: The American Society for
Microbiology - Education Section
10th anniversary meeting, co-sponsored
by the College. Campus contacts: Spencer
Benson (sb77@umail.umd.edu)
and Ann Smith (as38@umail.umd.edu)
June 6-8: Mid-Atlantic Immunobiology
Meeting (see description below). Campus
contact: Wexia Song (ws98@umail.umd.edu)
UNIVERSITY
TO HOST 2003 MID-ATLANTIC IMMUNOBIOLOGY
MEETING
The
University of Maryland will host the
31st annual Mid-Atlantic Immunobiology
Meeting June 6-8, 2003. Dr. Wenxia
Song, CBMG, along with Dr. Donna
Farber and Dr. Kamal Moudgil of the
University of Maryland Medical School,
will organize this meeting.
For
more than 30 years, the Mid-Atlantic
Immunobiology Meeting has provided
a unique opportunity for immunologists
and related scientists in the area,
including Virginia, Maryland, West
Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware,
to meet and to communicate with each
other. This meeting, which about 100
people usually attend, has a traditional
emphasis on education. Graduate students
and post-doctoral fellows are strongly
encouraged to attend and orally present
their work. This meeting offers these
trainees a rare opportunity to present
and discuss their work in front of
a diverse audience. In addition, the
meeting invites world-class immunologists
to give the keynote symposium, which
is the highlight of the meeting.
Hosting
such a meeting will not only stimulate
immunological research at the University
of Maryland, but it will also allow
us to demonstrate the leadership role
of our university in the research
field. For more information, contact
Dr. Song at ws98@umail.umd.edu
or x57552.
GIFTS
Thanks to:
--Drs.
Wayne and Mary Hockmeyer, for contributing
$145K to the Wayne T. & Mary T.
Hockmeyer Endowed Fellowship Fund
(LFSC)
--Dr.
Edna Hokenson (Ph.D. 1966, Microbiology),
for her $60K annuity establishing
the Dr. Edna O. Hokenson Endowed Fellowship
to provide support for graduate students
in microbiology and immunology
--Dr.
Alfred Viola (Ph.D. 1955 Chemistry),
for completing payment of a $25K pledge
to the G. Forrest Woods Chemistry
Atrium Fund
--The
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust,
for an $11K gift to support the Golden
Lion Tamarin Study
--Dr.
Elisabeth Gantt and Dr. Raymond Gantt,
for $10K to support the Department
of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics
--Mr.
and Mrs. Nicholas A. DePalo, Sr.,
for establishing gift annuities of
$10K in memory of their son, Nicholas
A. DePalo, Jr., who received his B.S.
in Chemistry in 1974
--For
supporting JIFSAN with gifts of $5K
each: General Mills Corporation, Gerber
Products Company, Kellogg Company
and the Coca-Cola Foundation
--For
supporting Dr. Eugenie Clark's Zoology
Research Fund: Lillian Jo Hoffman
($5,400), Virginia Kendall ($1,800),
Judith Rubin ($1,800) and Mary Jane
Stoll ($2,700)
--Dean
Norma M. Allewell, for a $1K unrestricted
gift
FACULTY
RECOGNITION AND IN THE NEWS
Dr. Marco Colombini, Biology,
received a 4-year, $844,000 grant
from HHS - PHS/NIH for "Channel
Formation by Ceramides: Implications
on Apoptosis."
Dr.
George Helz, Chemistry & Biochemistry,
received a 3-year, $370,000 NSF grant
for "Geochemistry of Metal and
Metalloid Thioanions."
As
reported in the December 13 issue
of the journal Science, a team
of researchers at the University of
Maryland, led by Dr. Victor Muñoz,
Chemistry & Biochemistry, has
observed for the first time how some
proteins fold in a series of steps,
not one sudden motion. The discovery
could lead to a better understanding
of how proteins assemble and work
with each other and even give scientists
tools to predict how proteins will
act.
Click here
for Science article.
Click here
for UM news release.
Dr.
Margaret Palmer, Entomology and
Biology, received a 2-year, $150,000
grant from the David and Lucile Packard
Foundation for "Evaluating the
Status of Our Nation's Rivers."
The
Dallas Morning News quotes
Dr. Arthur Popper, Biology,
in an article about a study that lists
a cacophony of sounds under the sea.
To Dr. Popper, director of the Popper
Aquatic Bioacoustics Laboratory, "Sound
provides an animal with the gestalt
of what's going around it."
December 29. Click here
for article (free password needed).
Dr.
Kerry Shaw, Biology, reports in
the December 10 Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences
on "Conflict between nuclear
and mitochondrial DNA phylogenies
of a recent species radiation: What
mtDNA reveals and conceals about modes
of speciation in Hawaiian crickets."
The paper uses two different analytical
approaches (analysis of nuclear and
mitochondrial DNA) to address a question
at the heart of evolutionary biology:
How do new species arise? Click here
for article.
NationalGeographic.com
quotes Dr. Sarah Tishkoff,
Biology, in a discussion of when "man"
arrived in the evolutionary process:
"There's almost certainly not
an Adam or Eve.... Each of our genes
has its own history, which could be
passed on from different ancestors.
It's more likely that a lineage can
be traced back to a population of
50, 100, or even several thousand
people."
National Geographic, December
13. Click here
for article.
NEW
FACULTY AND STAFF
The
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
would like to welcome Dolores Jackson,
who started as the new Director for
Business, Finance and Administrative
Services in December. The College
would also like to welcome Dan
Peabody, a graduate student in
the CAPS (Counseling and Personnel
Services) program who has joined the
staff in the Student Affairs Office
as a Student Advisor.
Dr.
Andrei Vedernikov has accepted
an offer from the Department of Chemistry
& Biochemistry to join the department
as an assistant professor in inorganic/materials
chemistry in the fall of 2003. Congratulations
to the search committee who oversaw
this search. Particular thanks to
Dr. Bill Walters, the chair
of the committee, Dr. Larry Sita,
and Dr. Bryan Eichhorn, whose
efforts were invaluable to the success
of the search.
HHMI
ADVISORY BOARD
The
first meeting of the HHMI Advisory
Board was held on December 6, 2002.
This group consists of faculty representatives
from each department within the College
of Life Sciences and from other campus
units engaged in life sciences research,
along with representatives from the
local secondary schools and the biotechnology
industry. The Advisory Board will
meet twice a year to guide the development
of initiatives funded by our new $1.8M
HHMI Undergraduate Education grant,
which include continuing our undergraduate
research program, revamping key courses
in the biological sciences curriculum,
involving graduate students and postdoctoral
fellows in curriculum development
(to foster their development as future
faculty members), continuing a very
successful summer program for high
school students, developing a middle
school science camp and sponsoring
an annual science symposium for secondary
school teachers. Members of the advisory
board are:
Ibrahim
Ades (CBMG)
Catherine Carr, Chair (Biology)
Tom Castonguay (Nutrition & Food
Science)
Philip DeShong (Chemistry &
Biochemistry)
Robert Infantino (Dean's Office,
ex-officio)
William Jeffery (Biology)
Charles Mitter (Entomology)
David Mosser (CBMG)
Donald Nuss (Center for Biosystems
Research)
Joelle Presson (Dean's Office,
ex-officio)
Kaci Thompson (Dean's Office)
Barbara Thorne (Entomology)
Rochelle Slutskin (Anne Arundel County
Public Schools)
JoAnne Suzich (MedImmune, Inc.)
Sarah Tishkoff (Biology)
Robert Walker (Chemistry &
Biochemistry)
