NEWS May
2001
"News from the College of Life Sciences at the University
of Maryland, College Park"
NEWS ITEMS
1. The Dean's Message
2. Upcoming Events
3. Faculty
Recognition
4. In
the News
5. Congratulations
6. Student/Alumni News
7. Maryland Day Thank
You
8. Help
Save the Smithsonian's Conservation and Research Center
9. Funding
Alerts
10. How
to Post Your News Here
FROM THE DEAN
I'm very pleased to announce
that the College has successfully hired two faculty members this past
month. Coincidentally, both were undergraduates at Oberlin College!
Dr. Jonathan Dinman will
be joining the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics as
an associate professor in January, moving from the University of Medicine
and Dentistry of New Jersey and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Dr. Dinman received his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School
of Hygiene and Public Health, where he worked with Dr. Alan Scott.
His postdoctoral work was with Dr. Reed Wickner at the National Institute
of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases. He studies the regulation
of gene expression by ribosomal frameshifting in yeast and the role
of this process in eliminating viruses from the cell . His research
interests make him a most welcome addition to our virology group.
Dr. Eric Haag will be
joining the Department of Biology as an assistant professor in January.
Dr. Haag is currently a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Judith Kimble
at the University of Wisconsin, where he is working on the evolution
of sex determination in nematode worms. His graduate work was done
with Dr. Rudy Raff at the University of Indiana. He will be an important
player in the "evo-devo" (evolution of development) group assembling
in the Department of Biology under the leadership of its chair, Dr.
Jeffery.
Discussions with other
possible hires are in progress and I expect to have further announcements
next month.
The spirit and talent
of the College were ably displayed at the Faculty and Student Awards
ceremony last week. Dr. Lyle Isaacs won the Junior Faculty Award,
Dr. Jerry Wilkinson the Faculty Research Award, Ms. Deborah Morrin
the Staff Award, Dr. Jeff Jensen the Teaching and Course Development
Award and Dr. Beth Gantt the Service Award. A special Lifetime Achievement
Award was presented to Millie Lindenberger, for her many years of
effective and dedicated leadership and service in the College. Thanks
to the Selection Committee, to Bob Infantino, who chaired the event,
and to Bill Higgins for his retrospective on Millie's career.
Maryland Day on Saturday,
April 28 was truly splendid, with wonderful weather, an abundance
of members of the University community in brilliant red T-shirts,
throngs of Maryland citizens of all ages clearly enjoying the festivities
and many interesting exhibits. Our information session was filled
to overflowing, and Anne Simon's X-files talk, the biotech bakeoff,
insect petting zoo, bone collection room, infectious disease display
and face painting were all very popular. Thanks to all who participated!
Eden Garosi reports that
the number and quality of our freshmen admits are keeping pace with
last year's class, and in fact are a little ahead. This has been an
uphill battle, and Eden and everyone who has worked with her in recruiting
deserve a lot of credit.
Please reserve the evening
of May 23 for the College graduation, and the morning of May 24 for
the all-University graduation. It's very important to students and
their parents that the faculty and staff who have been critical to
our students' success be there to honor them and meet their families.
Dr. John Holaday, President and CEO of Entremed will be the guest
speaker, and I know he has put a lot of thought into how to give a
brief but memorable talk.
Many of you are aware
of the crisis about the future of the Smithsonian's Conservation and
Research Center. Jim Dietz and David Inouye are our two point people.
For recent information, see the article below and go to http://CRCforever.50megs.com/.
This is the time of year
when many awards are announced nationally. As you will see below,
a number of our faculty and staff have been honored. Our congratulations
to all of them!
Norma Allewell
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UPCOMING EVENTS
The Last Day to Withdraw
from all classes is May 15. Technically, this is a withdrawal from
the University and students should speak to their advisors first.
Commencement Activities
- The College of Life
Sciences will hold its graduation ceremony at 7:00 p.m. on May 23
in Ritchie Colosseum. Faculty are asked to attend and should arrive
at 6:00. The procession begins with the faculty at 6:30.
-The University Convocation
will be held on May 24 at 9:00 a.m. If you wish to march with the
faculty you should arrive at 8:00 a.m. in the faculty robing area
in the back of Cole Field House.
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FACULTY RECOGNITION
Michele R. Dudash,
Biology, was just awarded a $248,000 USDA grant from the National
Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program, Biology of Weedy and
Invasive Plants entitled "The role of inbreeding in invasiveness:
linking phenotypic plasticity and inbreeding in Mimulus guttatus in
home and novel environments." Michele is currently on leave from the
Department of Biology but will be returning to campus this August.
Congratulations to
Fred Khachik who won the Outstanding Invention of the Year 2000
award from the University. Great job, Fred.
Victor Munoz, Chemistry
& Biochemistry, received a two-year Petroleum Research Foundation
grant for $60,000.
Colin Phillips, Linguistics,
and David Poeppel, Biology, in collaboration with Prof. Kuniyoshi
Sakai from the University of Tokyo have been awarded a Human Frontiers
Science Program grant for basic brain research. The project has the
title "Brain mechanisms of syntactic processing." They will use EEG
and MEG (at College Park) and TMS and fMRI (at Tokyo) to elucidate
how and where in the human cortex sentence structure is computed.
This is a $750,000 award for three years.
The Cognitive Neuroscience
of Language Laboratory, co-directed by David Poeppel of Biology
and Linguistics, and Stephen Crain and Colin Phillips, both in Linguistics,
has entered into a research agreement with Kanazawa Institute of Technology,
Japan, which will result in their installing a 160-channel whole-head
magnetoencephalography (MEG) system in Marie Mount Hall this year.
This is only the third such instrument on the East Coast (MIT and
NYU Medical Center are the other two sites) and about the 10th in
the U.S. This high-end system has a value of ~4 million dollars and
considerably enhances our resources in the brain imaging/cognitive
neuroscience arena. President Mote will sign an agreement with the
Kanazawa representatives on May 10.
Joelle Presson
(Biological Sciences Program) and Bruce Jarvis (Chemistry &
Biochemistry) were named as Lilly CTE Teaching Fellows for 2001-2002.
They will join the other campus awardees to define issues and topics
of mutual concern and explore ways to increase the quality and value
of teaching and learning on campus.
An interdisciplinary proposal
to NSF for a Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team (NIRT) at College
Park has been funded. The investigators are Ellen Williams, Michael
Fuhrer, Chris Lobb ( all from Physics) and Larry Sita (Chemistry
& Biochemistry). Total funding is $1.2M, with $600K for year 1,
then $200K for years 2-4. They will investigate nanoelectronics and
Larry believes "we have a chance to establish UMd as one of the top
players in this field."
Congratulations are in
order for Bill Walters, Chemistry & Biochemistry who has
been awarded a Humboldt Research Award for Senior Scientists by the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. Congratulations, Bill.
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IN the NEWS
Jim Dietz was interviewed
on National Public Radio's "Living on Earth" show for the week of
April 27. The topic is conservation of golden lion tamarins in Brazil.
The text is available at http://www.loe.org/thisweek/thisweek.htm.
Jim was also quoted in a New York Times article titled, "Smithsonian
Plans Changes as Biologists Cry Disaster" (April 17, 2001). The article
concerns the proposed closing of the Smithsonian's Conservation and
Research Center.
Catherine
Fenselau was
quoted in a Science & Technology article titled "Probing Proteomes"
(April 2, 2001). The article discussed techniques used to analyze
global protein expression.
Web news: The Department
of Biology web site has been included in Natural Selection (http://nature.ac.uk)
a gateway to quality evaluated Internet resources in the natural world,
coordinated by The Natural History Museum, London.
Top
of page
CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to the
recipients of this year's College of Life Sciences Faculty/Staff Awards!
JUNIOR FACULTY -
Dr. Lyle Isaacs, Chemistry and Biochemistry
RESEARCH - Dr. Gerald
Wilkinson, Biology
TEACHING AND COURSE
DEVELOPMENT - Dr. Jeffrey Jensen, Biology
SERVICE - Dr. Elisabeth
Gantt, Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics
STAFF - Ms. Deborah
Morrin, Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Science Program
LIFETIME SERVICE AWARD
- Ms. Millie Lindenberger, Office of the Dean
Effie Shu, Jason Kahn
(Chemistry & Biochemistry), and Evan and Alison are happy to announce
the arrival of Roland Shu Kahn, at 9:42 a.m. on April 13. 4 lbs. 14
oz., 18 1/8 inches. Mother and baby are doing fine.
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STUDENTS/ALUMNI
Dr. Anamitro Bannerjee
(Ph D. Chemistry 1999) will be joining the faculty in the Chemistry
Department at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, ND. He
is currently a postdoc in George Hess's lab at Cornell University.
Dr. David Laman
(Ph. D. Chemical Physics, 1997) will be joining the faculty in the
Physics Department at Central Washington University in Ellensburg,
WA. He is currently a visiting faculty member at Appalachian State.
Willie E. May,
an alumnus of Chemistry & Biochemistry, has been chosen to receive
the 2001 Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Analytical Chemistry
Award, which is given by the American Chemical Society Analytical
Division and sponsored by the Waters corporation. This award will
be presented at the Fall ACS meeting to be held in Chicago on August
27, 2001. Dr. May
received his degree in
1977.
Congratulations to two
Goldwater Scholarship winners from Chemistry & Biochemistry: Anoma
Nellore a Biochemistry major and Emily Payne a Chemistry
major. This is a very prestigious award and we are delighted to have
two winners from the College.
The Nature Conservancy
has just mailed out a catalogue of publications from its International
Program, which included the following publications by CONS alumni
or faculty:
Freshwater Biodiversity
of Latin America and the Caribbean (Erick Toledo, M.S. CONS,
was one of the editors)
Nature in Focus: Rapid
Ecological Assessment (Gina Sedaghatkish, M.S. CONS, was one
of the editors)
Parks in Peril: People,
Politics, and Protected Areas (Katrina Brandon, Biology, was
lead editor)
Parks in Peril Source
Book (Jane Mansour, M.S. CONS, editor)
Rapid Ecological Assessment
Sourcebook (Gina Sedaghatkish , M.S. CONS, editor)
Wings from Afar: An Ecoregional
Approach to Conservation of Neotropical Birds in South America (Kevin
Skerl , M.S. CONS, was one of the editors)
El Estatus de la Conservacion
de la Herpetofauna de Panama (Gina Sedaghatkish, M.S. CONS,
was one of the editors)
The April 21 issue of
Science News has an article about the dissertation research on nectar
robbing by bees published by MEES student Joan Maloof (now
on the faculty at Salisbury State).
Top
of page
MARYLAND
DAY THANK YOU!
-From Gene Ferrick and
Jennifer Hayes-Klosteridis
A special
thank you goes out to the faculty, staff and students who helped
make Maryland Day a great success for everyone who visited our small
piece of the pie. In the Insect Petting Zoo, Lee and Sandy Hellman,
Earlene Armstrong, Amy Brown, Charlie Mitter, Mike Raupp, and Peggy
Wolf mesmerized children and scared the squeemish. Ann Smith and
Patty Shields were the chefs of the day in the Biotech Bake Off.
Kaci Thompson tried to show how bones could talk in the Bone Collector.
Norma Allewell fielded questions with Eden Garosi and Jenn Hayes-Klosteridis
to a packed house of prospective students and their parents. Anne
Simon wins the "keep a smiling face award" as she delivered her
famed "Science Behind the X-Files" talk, despite being supplanted
to another hall by a Muppet movie. The others who made the day run
smoothly were Millie Lindenberger, Linda Lachman, Wendy Loughlin,
Maggie Jenkins and a small army of students. Thank you, all!
HELP
SAVE the CONSERVATION and RESEARCH CENTER
The Smithsonian Conservation
and Research Center has been slated for closure. The Smithsonian wishes
to redirect the funds within the Institution. With the loss of the
CRC, the University of Maryland would lose the following.
1. An extended faculty
in biological sciences would be lost. 7 CRC faculty coadvised graduate
students in Biology in the past 10 years. 10% of BEES/BIOL students
are now coadvised by CRC faculty. A loss of these scientists will
decrease our ability to attract the best graduate students to our
programs.
2. Our ability to get
competitive grants will be reduced. SI faculty are co-P.I.s on several
grants, including our NSF training grant in the Biology of Small Populations.
3. Our ability to host
scientific meetings would diminish. SI scientists were co-hosts of
the recent congresses of the Animal Behavior Society and Society for
Conservation Biology. Both events were held here.
4. Research and training
facilities would be lost (e.g. molecular genetic labs, field sites
and animal collections for our students, faculty and interns).
To get more information
and see how you can help go to http://CRCforever.50megs.com/.
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FUNDING
ALERTS
List
of funding alerts
Click above to see a list
of funding alerts that may be relevant to the Life Sciences.
Top
of page
How to
Post your NEWS!
If you would
like to share your accomplishments or other news, please send a note
to Gene Ferrick at gferrick@deans.umd.edu.
Maintained by Gene Ferrick -
gferrick@deans.umd.edu.
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