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NEWS
March 2003
"News
from the College of Life Sciences
at the University of Maryland, College
Park"
NEWS ITEMS
- The
Dean's Message
- Academic
Calendar
- Upcoming
Events
- International Conference
on Acoustic Communication by
Animals
- Gifts
to the College
- Faculty
Recognition
-
Faculty in the News
- Alumni
News
- Funding
Alerts
- How
to Post Your News
FROM
THE DEAN
As
you are aware, the University's
budget is under siege; Governor
Ehrlich's budget proposed a 5% cut
in our total institutional budget,
and the legislature is contemplating
additional cuts. A one-year delay
in construction of the Bioscience
Research Building, previously scheduled
for completion in 2006, has also
been proposed. If you care about
the College and the University,
it is vital that you communicate
your concern to your legislators,
preferably in person, but otherwise
by letter and email. Contact information
is available on the University's
web site. A petition developed by
the System, which was sent to you
electronically last week, will take
less than five minutes to complete
and is equally important. Please
do not delay!
Planning
for the Bioscience Research Building
has now reached the point where
an equipment list must be submitted
to Facilities Management no later
than the end of March. I have asked
a small group of faculty to spearhead
this effort and to work with the
faculty as a whole to make sure
that we make wise decisions. If
you have thoughts about this, please
share them with Caren Chang, Chuck
Delwiche, Matt Hare, David Mosser,
Steve Mount, Betsy Quinlan or Jerry
Wilkinson.
Congratulations
to Margaret Palmer, who organized
and chaired a wonderful symposium,
Accelerating Mathematical-Biological
Linkages, jointly sponsored by NIH
and NSF. Attendance exceeded expectations
by 25%, and there were some wonderful
talks. Dr. Joel E. Cohen, Professor
and Director of the Laboratory of
Populations at Rockefeller and Columbia
Universities gave a remarkable keynote
address titled "Mathematics
Is Biology's Next Microscope…Only
Better; Biology is Mathematics'
Next Physics…Only Better."
This
is the time of year when faculty
searches begin to come to a close.
The College has been running searches
in all four departments as well
as for the Center for Bioinformatics
and Computational Biology, and we
hope to have some good news to announce
soon. Thanks to everyone who participated
in this process.
This
is also the time of year when we
host prospective graduate students.
The open houses for CBMG, MOCB,
BEES and CONS were crowded with
talented applicants, and there is
every reason to expect that our
graduate programs will continue
to grow in size and quality. I appreciate
the opportunity to participate in
these recruiting events.
Each
year at this time, the University
hosts the Maryland Junior Science
and Humanities Symposium, which
is funded by the U.S. Office of
Naval Research, the U.S. Air Force
Office of Scientific Research, the
U.S. Army Research Office, and LFSC,
CMPS and ENGR. The symposium is
designed to recognize student talent
and interest high-school students
in science, engineering and mathematics.
The College organizes and runs this
program. For the past two years,
Assistant Dean Amel Anderson has
had this responsibility and has
been ably assisted by College staff.
This year's program was very successful,
with 90 high-school students and
25 teachers from about 50 schools
participating. Papers and posters
for this event are selected in highly
competitive processes, first in
the high schools and then at the
University. Twenty-four students
were finalists in the poster competition,
and nine students competed in the
even more selective competition
for best paper. Students also toured
several campus laboratories. Keynote
speakers were Professor Bill Bentley
from Chemical Engineering and James
Dula, Deputy Chief Administrator
for Health and Human Services for
Prince George's County. Thanks to
everyone who helped to make this
event a success.
More
than 30 current HHMI Undergraduate
Research Fellows presented research
posters at the fourth annual HHMI
Research Symposium March 6. These
undergraduates receive support for
their faculty-mentored research
through a grant from the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute. The keynote
speaker was Terry Chase, an alum
and CEO of Chesapeake PERL, Inc.
Thanks to Dr. Kaci Thompson, who
organizes this event.
As
spring approaches, we can hope that
snow days are behind us and that
the campus will soon be in full
bloom again. Enjoy your spring break
and the final phase of this academic
year.
Norma
Allewell
Dean
ACADEMIC
CALENDAR
March
7: Deadline for nominations for Life
Sciences Faculty/Staff Awards
March
24-30: Spring Break
April
14: Last Day to Drop with a "W"
May
14: Last Day of Classes
May
22: Campus Commencement, Comcast Center,
7 p.m.
May
23: College of Life Sciences Commencement,
Ritchie Coliseum, 9 a.m.
UPCOMING
EVENTS
March
3-4: Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium. See www.life.umd.edu/JSHS/symposium.html
for more information. Campus
contact: Amel Anderson (aanders@deans.umd.edu)
March
7: Spring Open House for Admitted
Students
March
21-23: AIBS (American Institute
of Biological Sciences) meeting,
"Bioethics in a Changing
World." Key Bridge Marriott
Hotel (across the Key Bridge
from Georgetown, DC) at 1401
Lee Highway, Arlington, VA.
More information: www.aibs.org/meeting2003
April
4: Spring Open House for Admitted
Students
April
14: Spring Open House for Admitted
Students
April
26: Maryland Day 2003. More
information: www.marylandday.umd.edu.
College contact: Gene Ferrick
(gene@umd.edu)
April
30: Reception for Honors Students,
Clarice Smith Performing Arts
Center Courtyard and Lab Theatre,
6 to 8 p.m.
May
7: Life Sciences Faculty/Staff
Awards, Room 1140 Plant Sciences
Building, 2 p.m. A reception
will follow (location yet to
be determined).
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. Graduate students and
post-doctoral fellows are strongly
encouraged to attend this on-campus
meeting and orally present their
work. In addition, the meeting
invites world-class immunologists
to give the keynote symposium.
Campus contact: Wenxia Song
(ws98@umail.umd.edu)
June
22-25: BIO 2003 Annual Convention,
Washington Convention Center.
The world's largest biotechnology
conference, organized by the
Biotechnology Industry Organization,
will bring together 20,000 life-sciences
leaders from around the world.
See www.bio.org/events/2003/
for more information.
July
27-30: International Conference
on Acoustic Communication by
Animals (see information below
and visit http://asa.aip.org/communication.html).
Campus contacts: Arthur Popper
(ap17@umail.umd.edu),
Robert Dooling (dooling@psyc.umd.edu),
Cynthia Moss (cmoss@psyc.umd.edu)
and David Yager (dy5@umail.umd.edu)
September
6: Academically Talented Open
House
September
26: Visit Maryland Day
October
13 (Columbus Day): Visit Maryland
Day
October
25: Academically Talented Open
House
November
11 (Veterans Day): Visit Maryland
Day
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATION BY ANIMALS
The Center for Comparative
and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing
(C-CEBH), in cooperation with the
Acoustical Society of America (ASA),
has organized the first International
Conference on Acoustic Communication
by Animals, to be held on campus July
27 to 30, 2003. The emphasis of the
conference is to integrate information
across animal taxa and to enable young
investigators and students to meet
and share ideas, data and methods
with more established investigators
in this growing and exciting field
of research. The keynote speakers
will be Donald Griffin (Harvard University),
Jack Bradbury (Cornell University)
and Darlene Ketten (Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution). Approximately 20 additional
invited speakers from around the world
will present talks, and there will
also be contributed talks and posters.
For more details, visit http://asa.aip.org/communication.html.
Organizers for the meeting are from
the Biology and Psychology Departments.
If you have any questions please contact
Arthur Popper (ap17@umail.umd.edu),
Robert Dooling (dooling@psyc.umd.edu),
Cynthia Moss (cmoss@psyc.umd.edu)
or David Yager (dy5@umail.umd.edu).
College Park faculty and students
interested in attending the meeting
should contact Allison Coffin (ac200@umail.umd.edu).
GIFTS
TO THE COLLEGE
Thanks
to:
--The
David and Lucile Packard Foundation,
for a $150,000 gift to support the
project "Evaluating the Status
of Our Nation's Rivers" (PI:
Dr. Margaret Palmer)
--The
March of Dimes, for a $150,000 gift
to support the project "An Analysis
of Germline Cyst Formation in Drosophila"
(PI: Dr. Margaret de Cuevas)
--The
Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP),
for a $110,000 gift to support the
project "Initiation of DNA Replication
in Archaea" (PI: Dr. Jocelyne
DiRuggiero)
--The
Elsa U. Pardee Foundation, for a $73,000
gift to support the project "Interaction
of BRCA2 and RB in Breast Cancer Suppression"
(PI: Dr. Jin-Shan Hu)
--Dr.
David Straney, for a $2,000 gift to
the Department of Cell Biology and
Molecular Genetics
FACULTY
RECOGNITION
Dr.
Spencer Benson, CBMG, has been
selected to receive the Regents' Faculty
Award in Teaching.
Dr.
Avis Cohen, Biology, was named
a Japan Society for Promotion of Science
scholar and was invited to visit Kyoto
University's Graduate School of Engineering
for one month. She visited a number
of engineering labs and lectured on
biological principles of motor control
as applied to robotic applications.
Dr.
Jonathan Dinman, CBMG, coauthored
the following two articles with UM
colleagues and others. The first article
appears in the March issue of Molecular
and Cellular Biology, and the
second was featured on the cover of
the February 2003 issue of the journal
RNA:
--Meskauskas, A., Baxter, J. L., Carr,
E. A., Yasenchak, J., Gallagher, J.
E. G., Baserga, S. J., and Dinman,
J. D. 2003. "Delayed rRNA processing
results in significant ribosome biogenesis
and functional defects." Mol.
Cell. Biol. 23:1602-1613.
--Plant, E. P., Muldoon Jacobs, K.
L., Harger, J. W., Meskauskas, A.,
Jacobs, J. L., Baxter, J. L., Petrov,
A. N., and Dinman, J. D. 2003. The
9Å solution: how mRNA pseudoknots
promote efficient programmed -1 ribosomal
frameshifting. RNA 9: 168-174.
Dr.
Catherine Fenselau, Chemistry
and Biochemistry, was appointed by
Tommy G. Thompson, the Secretary of
Health and Human Services, to serve
on the National Advisory Research
Resources Council of the National
Institutes of Health for a 4-year
term beginning February 1, 2003.
Dr.
Elisabeth Gantt, CBMG, has been
selected to receive the Regents' Faculty
Award in Research.
Dr.
John Moore, Chemistry and Biochemistry,
played a major role in two books that
were recently published; the second
book got an extremely positive review
in Physics Today:
--Building Scientific Apparatus,
3rd edition, by John ("Jack")
Moore, Christopher Davis and Michael
Coplan (with a chapter by Sandra
Greer).
--Encyclopedia of Chemical Physics
and Physical Chemistry, editors-in-chief:
John ("Jack") Moore and
Nicolas Spencer.
Dr. Robert Walker, Chemistry
and Biochemistry, was named a Sloan
Teacher-Scholar, an honor that recognizes
and supports young scientists and
scholars. He was one of 117 people
who were each awarded a $40,000 grant
from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Click here
for March 4 Chronicle of Higher
Education article. (Password required.)
The Office of Research and Graduate
Studies announced the following winners
of the General Research Board awards
for the 2003-04 academic year. The
awards allow faculty members to devote
time to a research project during
either a semester or the summer.
Dr.
Alexandra Bely, Biology
Dr. James Dietz, Biology
Dr. Sang Bok Lee, Chemistry
and Biochemistry
Dr. Kenneth Sebens, Biology
Dr. Jeffrey Shultz, Entomology
FACULTY
IN THE NEWS
Dr.
Earlene Armstrong, Entomology,
was featured for her work in mentoring
minority students on Howard University
television's Evening Exchange. The
program aired a special feature on
Armstrong that was followed by a roundtable
discussion hosted by Kojo Nnamdi (WAMU
Radio).
Dr.
Gerald Borgia, Biology, spoke
on Valentine's Day eve to the CBC's
Radio One show The Current about the
mating rituals of the bower bird.
"Peacocks might have plumage
and robins might sing a sweet song.
But, when it comes to mating, the
male bower bird knows how to impress
the ladies."
Click here
for February 13 Canadian Broadcasting
Company (audio). (Please scroll down
to Bower Bird.)
Dr.
Philip DeShong, Chemistry and
Biochemistry, talks about disposing
of old computers and the effect of
recycling plastic. DeShong says work
is being done on figuring out how
to make cell phones out of biodegradable
plastic. "The future of successful
recycling is twofold: Manufacturers
have to work on designing the 'problem'
out of the products...while consumers
have to make the effort to recycle
or reuse as opposed to dumping in
landfills."
Click here
for February 13 Washington Times
article.
Dr.
Bryan Eichorn, Chemistry and Biochemistry
and director of graduate studies,
says if tight restrictions being enforced
on the immigration of science students
from abroad causes too long a delay
for admission, it would be "absolutely
devastating." Gail Cassell, vice
president for scientific affairs,
Eli Lilly & Company, echoes his
thoughts from the private sector.
Video of chemistry department ran
with story.
Click here
for March 6 PBS: Nightly Business
Report transcript.
Dr.
Arthur N. Popper, Biology, was
the invited speaker in the "Monday
Night at Mote" speaker series
at the Mote Marine Laboratory (the
lab founded by Biology Professor
Emerita Eugenie Clark) in Sarasota
Florida in late January. The title
of the talk was "Fish Bioacoustics:
A Response to Dave Barry." Dr.
Popper and his colleagues have also
been in the news recently because
they conducted the first-ever study
of the effects of loud, man-made sounds
on fishes. The study appears in the
January issue of the Journal of
the Acoustical Society of America.
Click here
for February 10 Science Daily
article.
Click here
for February 10 United Press International
article. (Please scroll down to story.)
Click here
for February 11 New York Times
article.
Click here
for February 14 ABC Australia
article.
Dr.
Anne Simon, CBMG, is quoted in
a February 25 USA Today article;
she says the TV show CSI has
a "duty to not mislead the public
and scare patients." Simon served
as an adviser on another mega-hit,
The X-Files.
Click here
for February 25 USA Today article.
ALUMNI
NEWS
Dr.
Andrew DePristo, an alumnus who studied
with Distinguished University Professor
Millard Alexander while at Maryland,
has been appointed Senior Director of
Research Information Systems at Amgen
Inc.
Jeffery
Shupp, a 2001 graduate now in medical
school at the Medical College of Virginia,
was awarded the Society for Experimental
Biology and Medicine's Young Investigator
Award and the American Society for Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology's Travel Award.
He is continuing the research on class
II biowarfare agents that he started at
UM. This month he will present an abstract
at the conference on Future Directions
for Biodefense Research: Development of
Countermeasures, and this spring he will
give a talk at the Experimental Biology
Meeting in San Diego.
HOW
TO POST YOUR NEWS!
If
you would like to share your accomplishments
or other news, please send a note to Meredith
Brittain at mb446@umail.umd.edu. Issues are usually
sent at the beginning of each month.
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