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 From
the Dean
As
we begin a new calendar year and
a new semester, I wish you all the
best in both your personal and professional
lives.
In
this new year, we have both great
opportunities and significant challenges.
As the new Bioscience Research Building
moves closer to becoming a reality,
we will have to work to mitigate
the impact of construction; ramp
up recruiting efforts at all levels;
raise our fund raising efforts to
a much higher level; and plan for
the eventual relocation of faculty,
research programs and classes. Undergraduate
enrollments are increasing as the
result of enhanced recruitment and
retention—a very positive trend
in the long run, but one that increases
the challenge of scheduling and
staffing courses. External funding
of research, gifts and donations
continues to increase sharply. However,
we must absorb a 10% reduction in
state funding. Moving ahead in this
environment will require nimble
footwork.
There
is no more important investment
we can make than an ongoing commitment
to strategic planning. The white
papers drafted by the faculty teams
last semester represent a major
step forward in terms of mapping
our strategies for developing research
foci in biomaterials, comparative
and functional genomics, sensory
neuroscience and host-pathogen interactions.
I want to thank everyone who participated
in these activities for their work
to date. Feedback from the academic
programs subcommittee of our Board
of Visitors indicates that there
is more work to be done, and I will
be working with the chairs and team
leaders to refine the white papers.
Ongoing strategic planning is also
needed in all other aspects of our
activities—research areas not
encompassed in these white papers,
academic programs, outreach and
administration—and I will be
involving various groups in the
College in these activities.
I'm
pleased to announce that Dr. Simon
Levin, Moffett Professor of Biology
at Princeton University, will be
joining our Board of Visitors in
the fall of 2004, and Dr. Janis
Antonovics, Lewis and Clark Professor
of Biology at the University of
Virginia, will be joining the Board
in January 2005. Their expertise
in ecology and evolution will provide
leadership on the Board in these
areas.
 Congratulations
to the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry, which received NSF
funding for a new piece of instrumentation
for time-correlated single photon
counting. Congratulations also to
Professor Bryan Eichhorn in the
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
who was named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher
for 2004-5.
Ten
of our faculty are among the University's
major rainmakers, with current external
funding for research greater than
$500,000. They are Catherine Carr,
Jonathan Dinman, Catherine Fenselau,
George Helz, David Lineback, John
Ondov, David Poeppel, Anne Simon,
Daniel Stein and Heven Sze. Congratulations
to all.
Our
annual LFSC cleanup begins January
12 and runs through January 23.
This program has been very successful
in terms of enhancing the quality
and appearance of our buildings.
Please redouble your efforts to
get rid of equipment, supplies and
paper that have outlived their useful
lifetimes. If you have any questions,
please contact David Dalo (ddalo@umd.edu).
The
College will be hosting a program
on Working with Small Businesses
in February. This program is spearheaded
by Terry Chase—a member of
our Board of Visitors, a College
alum and the CEO of Chesapeake
Perl, a spinoff incubator company
from UM that specializes in manufacturing
novel proteins using baculovirus
technology. Other participants are
Dr. Martha
Connelly, the new director of Maryland
Industrial Partnerships, and
James Poulos, Executive Director
of the Office of Technology Commercialization.
There are some real opportunities
for us here, and I hope you will
make every effort to participate.
I
would like to thank Sara Via, who
has resigned as acting director
of the Center for Biodiversity,
for her efforts in developing a
vision for the Center and for her
congressional lobbying. I will be
meeting with faculty with interests
in this area to develop a plan for
moving forward.
Albert
Ades will be resigning as acting
director of the Molecular and Cell
Biology (MOCB) graduate program
as of July 1. I will be meeting
with the MOCB advisory committee
to discuss future plans for the
program.
The
College Undergraduate Program Committee
has forwarded the revised specializations
in our Biological Sciences major
to the departments for one final
review and a vote by the departmental
Program and Curriculum Committees.
I want to thank all the faculty
who worked on this project.
January
5:
Winterterm Begins
January
19: Dr. Martin Luther King
holiday
January
23:
Winterterm Ends
January
26: First Day of Classes
for Spring 2004
February
6:
Last Day of Schedule Adjustment (Drop/Add)
March
21-28:
Spring Break
April
9:
Last Day to Drop with a "W"
May
11: Last
Day of Classes
May
20: Campus
Commencement. Details to come.
May
21:
College of Life Sciences Commencement.
Details to come.
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For
gifts supporting JIFSAN: Kellogg Company
($15,000), H. J. Heinz Company ($10,000),
Procter & Gamble Company ($5,000)
and Monsanto Company ($5,000)
-
For
gifts supporting the G. Forrest Woods
Atrium: Alfred Viola ($5,000) and William
B. Walters ($2,000)
-
Steven
L. Rattner, for a $2,500 gift to establish
the Rattner Family Scholarship for undergraduates
-
For
gifts supporting Dr. Eugenie Clark's
Research: Virginia Kendall ($1,800),
Judith E. Rubin ($1,800), Mary Jane
Stoll ($900) and Ruthann Sturtevant
($900)
-
For
gifts supporting the Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry: Michael Doyle ($1,500)
and George Helz ($1,500)
-
For
gifts supporting the Dean's Fund: Dennis
Kurgansky ($2,000), Norma Allewell ($1,014),
Cheryl Sullivan ($1,034) and David S.
Youngs ($500)
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Faculty
Recognition and In the News
Dr.
Alfred Boyd, who retired in spring
2003 from the Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry, has been appointed
as Professor Emeritus, effective retroactively
to July 1, 2003.
Dr.
Philip DeShong, Dr. Douglas
English, Dr. Daniel Falvey
and Dr. Robert Walker, Chemistry
and Biochemistry, received a 3-year,
$163,000 instrumentation grant from
NSF for "Time-Correlated Single
Photon Counting Instrumentation."
Dr.
Bryan Eichhorn, Chemistry and
Biochemistry, received a Distinguished
Scholar-Teacher Award from the University
for 2004-5. The award honors tenured
faculty members who combine outstanding
scholarly accomplishment with excellence
in teaching.
 Dr.
William Fagan, Biology, has been
invited to give a talk at the Gordon
Research Conference on Plant Herbivore
Interaction February 29-March
5 in Ventura, California. Dr. Fagan
will speak about "Plant and herbivore
stoichiometric composition: patterns
and dynamics across spatial scales."
Neil Gordon, a former chair of the
UM Chemistry Department, established
the Gordon
Research Conferences in 1931 "to
provide an international forum for
the presentation and discussion of
frontier research in the biological,
chemical, and physical sciences, and
their related technologies."
Dr.
David Inouye, Biology, was elected
Secretary to the Governing Board of
the Ecological
Society of America for a three-year
term. He will be the second BEES faculty
member on the Board, joining Dr.
Margaret Palmer, one of three
Members at Large of the Governing
Board.
Dr.
Raj Khanna, who retired in spring
2003 from the Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry, has been appointed
as Professor Emeritus, effective retroactively
to July 1, 2003.
 Dr.
David Lineback, director of the
Joint Institute for Food Safety and
Applied Nutrition, has been quoted
widely in the print media and was
interviewed on WTOP Radio December
24 about the case of mad cow disease
discovered in Washington State. His
advice to consumers at this point
is not to worry.
Washington Post December 25
article
Baltimore Sun December 27 article
Atlanta Journal Constitution
December 27 article
Dr.
Kennedy Paynter, Biology, is quoted
in a December 8 Associated Press story
(also reported as a WTOP radio news
item) about the disagreement of
scientists from three groups—including
UM researchers—on the best way
to restock the Chesapeake Bay with
oysters. He is also quoted in a December
17 Baltimore Sun article about
a killer parasite that has turned
up in a bed of Asian oysters being
tested in North Carolina.
Professor
Emeritus Dr. James Reveal published
the following article, which presents
the latest informtion of the ordinal
and family classification of the flowering
plants.
Angiosperm
Phylogeny Group [Bremer, B., K.
Bremer, M. W. Chase, J. L. Reveal,
D. E. Soltis, P. S. Soltis &
P. F. Stevens, compl.]. 2003. An
update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny
Group classification for the orders
and families of flowering plants:
APG II. Bot. J. Linn. Soc.
141: 399-436.
 Dr.
Kerry Shaw, Biology, was elected
Vice President of the Society
for the Study of Evolution for
2004. She also received a 3-year,
$300,000 grant titled "The Behavioral
Genetics and Evolution of Cricket
Song" from the NSF Division of
Integrative Biology and Neuroscience.
Student
and Alumni Recognition and In the
News
The
site of research by Dr. Raymond
Davis, winner of the 2002 Nobel
Prize in physics and an alumnus of
the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry,
is being explored as a potential site
for a national underground laboratory,
as reported in a January 2 Boston
Globe article.
Dr. Davis conducted studies on solar
neutrinos in Homestake mine, working
4,800 feet underground—a depth
at which cosmic interference present
on the earth's surface is screened
out. University of Maryland's Dr.
Jordan Goodman, Chair of the Department
of Physics, heads a review team for
the prospective laboratory.
Clarissa
R. Mathews, a Ph.D. student in
Entomology, received the President's
Prize, first place, for the Student
Paper Competition (oral presentation)
at the annual meeting of the Entomological
Society of America in Cincinnati,
Ohio, in October. Her paper was titled
"The Effects of Extrafloral Nectaries
and Ants on Biological Control of
the Oriental Fruit Moth."
 Master
of Life Sciences student Aedes
Scheer, of Yukon, Canada, is quoted
in a December 15 Canadian Broadcasting
article
about parasites in caribou. She discovered
a nematode that is infesting Porcupine
caribou, but more work needs to be
done to determine whether the nematode
is a newly found species or whether
it is a known parasite that has not
before infested Porcupine caribou.
Ms. Aedes, a high-school biology teacher
with veterinary nurse training, works
with Dr. Dale Bottrell and
Dr. Brett Kent, Entomology.
University
Honors Program Sponsors
Multidisciplinary Play
In
the spring, the University Honors
Program is sponsoring an original
one-woman play called "The Body,"
which is a powerful statement of what
it means to be human, to live in a
body, and to know that the body dies.
The play is an example of writing
across curriculums; when playwright
Sibbie O'Sullivan, an Honor Program
lecturer, began this project, she
read medical texts, science books
and history for their language and
facts, and then mixed them all together.
For the life scientist, the play can
be seen as an exercise in anatomical
language, the humanization of science
through humor and biography. But more
important than the play's pedagogical
applications is its capacity to make
the audience think and feel about
something people often take for granted
by using language that's funny, imaginative,
and deeply moving.
 "The
Body" will be performed by London-trained
actress Sarah Pleydell April 7 and
8 in the Clarice Smith Performing
Arts Center. A diverse audience from
both on and off campus is expected.
Please help to get the word out about
the play by cultivating student interest
in this project and, if you are a
faculty member, considering incorporating
the play into your classes. Please
contact the author, Sibbie O'Sullivan,
at sibbie@wam.umd.edu
if you have any questions.
How
to Post Your News
If
you would like to share your accomplishments
or other news, please send a note (and
any accompanying photos)
to Meredith Brittain at
brittain@umd.edu. Issues are usually sent at the beginning
of each month.
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