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 From
the Dean
We
seem to be developing a tradition
of challenging events in September.
This year it was Isabel. I hope
that everyone has recovered from
the disruption at this point. We
are fortunate that damage to the
campus was minimal.
Six
new members have been appointed
to the College's Board of Visitors,
selected from nominations of the
current Board, faculty and staff
after broad consultation. They are:
Terry Chase, an alum and CEO of
Chesapeake Perl, Inc.; David Clayton,
Vice President for Scientific Development,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute;
David Corey, Professor of Neurobiology
at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts
General Hospital; Andrew DePristo,
an alum and Senior Director, IS
Research, at Amgen; Cecil Pickett,
Executive Vice President of Discovery
and Research with Schering-Plough
Research Institute; and Linda Powers,
Managing Partner, Toucan Capital.
I am still following up with one
other nominee. We thank the new
Board members for their willingness
to advise and advocate for the College
and look forward to welcoming them
to the October Board meeting.
Over
the summer, chairs and senior staff
worked with me in updating the College's
strategic plan. We will be presenting
it for discussion to departments,
our Board of Visitors and other
groups within the College in the
near future. I look forward to your
comments and suggestions.
One
of the new activities that our current
HHMI grant supports is the revamping
of tracks through our undergraduate
curriculum by teams composed of
faculty, graduate students and postdoctoral
fellows, in consultation with undergraduate
representatives. A request for proposals
will be distributed soon, and we
look forward to receiving a number
of exciting proposals.
Copies
of the new brochure that describes
our undergraduate programs are now
available. This brochure was written
by senior staff in the Dean's office,
led by Meredith Brittain with the
design assistance of the Office
of Public Relations. We anticipate
that it will raise our undergraduate
programs to even higher levels of
success. We will be sending out
some copies of this brochure; if
you do not receive one or would
like more, we encourage you to request
them by emailing brittain@umd.edu.
 I was pleased to attend the annual dinner
of Minority Access, Inc. and to
present Dr. Earlene Armstrong with
an award acknowledging her contributions
as a role model for members of underrepresented
groups. I am also very pleased that
alumnus David Wells has created
a scholarship fund to honor Assistant
Dean Amel Anderson for his work
with students, particularly members
of underrepresented groups. Congratulations
also to Dr. Spencer Benson, who
has been appointed the Director
of the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Planning
for our third annual Bioscience
Research and Technology Review Day
on November 5 is well underway,
under Gene Ferrick's capable leadership.
I encourage faculty to incorporate
this opportunity into their classes
so that our students are able to
participate. If there are colleagues
you would like to invite, please
send their names and addresses to
Gene (gene@umd.edu),
and he will send them postcards
about the event. A reminder: Although
the event is free, registration
is required.
The
ever-changing face of information
technology presents ongoing challenges
to the College's Information Technology
Group. A report below summarizes
projects that this group has successfully
completed recently or that they
are currently working on. Our thanks
to them for their ongoing efforts
to provide a first-class IT environment.
October
7: Faculty/Staff Convocation
November
7: Last Day to Drop with
a W
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-
Edna Hokenson, for $40,000 to support
the Dr. Edna O. Hokenson Endowed Fellowship
- An
anonymous donor, for contributing $2,000
to established the Department of Chemistry
and Biochemistry Graduate Award Fund
- Jeffrey
Clifton Cole, for a contribution to the
Zoology Fund in support of Dr. Eugenie
Clark's Research
- Fernando
D. Padilla, for a contribution to the
Dean's Fund
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Faculty
Recognition and In the News
 Dr.
Spencer Benson, CBMG, has been
appointed the Director of the Center
for Teaching Excellence (CTE). Dr.
Benson has served his academic department
as director of both undergraduate
studies and honors. He is a former
Lilly Fellow, recipient of the CASE-Carnegie
2002 Maryland Professor of the Year
Award and the 2003 Maryland Board
of Regents Excellence in Teaching
Award.
Dr.
Marco Colombini, Biology, has
been elected to the University Senate.
Dr.
Michael Cummings, Biology and
the Center for Bioinformatics and
Computational Biology, is quoted in
a September 11 New York Times
article.
The article mentions the Center's
plan to use a computer program that
harnesses unused processing power
of volunteers' computers. This spring
2004 project will analyze DNA sequence
data to study molecular evolution,
including the bacteria that cause
tuberculosis and leprosy.
Dr.
Galen Dively, Entomology, received
a 3.5-month, $9,500 grant from the
USDA Agricultural Research Service
for "Evaluating Chronic Exposure
of Monarch Larvae."
Dr.
William Fagan, Biology, published
two articles in the August issue of
BioScience:
 Dr.
Catherine Fenselau, Chemistry
and Biochemistry, is quoted in a September
3 Washington Times article
and a September 11 Gazette
article
about the role of her research team
in developing a new technique to help
the FBI track anthrax spores. Dr.
Jeff Whiteaker, a postdoctoral
researcher who worked on the project,
is also quoted in the Gazette
story.
Dr.
Douglas Gill, Biology, was honored
with an invitation to join the faculty
at Williams College, Williamstown,
MA, as a Distinguished Visiting Professor
of Biology for Academic Year 2003-4.
Williams College is currently the
number one liberal arts college in
the United States and is also the
academic residence of the newly named
Poet Laureate of the Library of Congress,
Louise Glueck.
In
August, Dr. William Jeffery,
Biology, taught a section on "Evolution
and Development of Molgula"
in the University of Paris's ERASMUS
course at the Station Biologique,
Roscoff, France.
Dr.
Kennedy Paynter, Director of the
MEES program, is mentioned in a September
23 Washington Post article
that relates the worries of ecologists
about Chesapeake Bay damage caused
by Hurricane Isabel.
A
September 10 article
in Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette
features Dr. James Reveal,
Professor Emeritus, CBMG. Dr. Reveal,
the co-author of Lewis and Clark's
Green World: The Expedition and Its
Plants, has always been fascinated
by the plants the explorers brought
back from their journeys. Next summer
Dr. Reveal will traverse the country
collecting the same plants Lewis and
Clark did. Funded by the National
Geographic Society, the project will
compare the plants of today with those
brought back by the duo using today's
genetic testing.
Dr.
Lawrence Sita, Chemistry and Biochemistry,
received a 2-year, $120,000 grant
from NIST for "Evaluation of
Organometallic Frameworks for Molecular
Electronics."
A
September 10 article
in USA Today features Dr.
Sarah Tishkoff, Biology, as one
of the 10 scientists named to Popular
Science magazine's "Brilliant
10" (first covered in the  September
newsletter).
Dr.
Gerald Wilkinson, Biology, and
lab members Dr. Philip Johns (postdoctoral
researcher) and Catherine Fry
(graduate student), are quoted in
the "Meiotic
Drive: Bickering Genes Shape Evolution"
article of the "News Focus"
section of the September 26 issue
of Science. Part of the article
discusses the researchers' efforts
to discover why some male stalk-eyed
flies produce only female young.
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Student
and Alumni Recognition and In the
News
 Seth
Coleman, a graduate student in
the BEES program studying with Dr.
Gerald Borgia, is quoted in a
September 22 article
at NationalGeographic.com about bowerbirds
mimicking other birds' calls to attract
mates. He described the results of
his three-year study in the Australian
bush at the Conference on Acoustic
Communication by Animals held on campus
at the end of July. Dr. Gail Patricelli,
an alumna who is now with the Cornell
Lab of Ornithology, is also mentioned
in the article.
Graduate
student Jibril Boru Hirbo and
Dr. Sarah Tishkoff, Biology,
received a 1-year, $10,000 grant from
the Leakey Foundation for "Study
of Human Population of Northern Kenya."
 Katie
Schneider, a Ph.D. student in
the BEES Program, received the James
G. Mitchell Award from the National
Speleological Society for the best
scientific paper by a young researcher
at the society's annual convention.
Ms. Schneider is researching the community
ecology of cave systems in the laboratory
of Dr. William Fagan.
Lauren
Wilson, a senior Zoology major,
is featured as one of four "4.0
Faces in the Crowd" in the September
30 issue of Sports Illustrated
On Campus. She balances playing
volleyball with maintaining a 4.0
grade point average.
The
percentage of College of Life Sciences
students in special programs increased
this year to 60% (from about 50% last
year). Of the 379 freshmen enrolled
in the College of Life Sciences, 227
are in special programs: 137 (36%)
are College Park Scholars, and 90
(24%) are in Honors (which includes
the 48 students in Gemstone, or 12.7%
of students enrolled). Campus-wide,
37% of freshmen participate in these
special programs.
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Alumnus
Creates Scholarship Fund to Honor Assistant
Dean
 Dr.
David Wells, an alumnus who earned
his B.S. in Biochemistry in 1992,
is honoring his mentor, Dr. Amel
Anderson, Assistant Dean for Administration,
by creating a scholarship fund in
his name: the Anderson Legacy Scholarship
Fund. Scholarships will be awarded
on the basis of financial need and
academic merit (3.0 GPA or above),
and preference will be given to students
who are international students, first-generation
college bound or from disadvantaged/inner-city
backgrounds. To reach the goal of
an endowed fund of $25,000, there
will be a campaign this fall and next
fall to seek contributions from alumni,
family and friends. Wells has already
made the initial contribution, and
he is personally committed to seeing
that the goal is reached. The first
scholarship will be awarded by the
time Dr. Anderson retires.
Dr.
Wells, who went to Meharry Medical
College and currently practices radiology
in Joplin, MO, says he decided to
honor Anderson because he is "an
unsung hero who has made a difference
to many students at the College of
Life Sciences." He notes, "I
hope that the scholarship fund will
go to an underrepresented student
in the College of Life Sciences who
has achieved some level of excellence
and who has intentions of pursuing
post-graduate studies." The scholarship
will be managed through the University
of Maryland College Park Foundation.
For more information, contact Patty
Wang at pwang3@accmail.umd.edu
or 301-405-7764.
LFSC
Projects and Activities in the News
 An
article
in the July 2003 issue of Northeast
IPM News spotlights Maryland's Integrated
Pest Management (IPM) program, which focuses
on agricultural IPM, green industries
IPM and community IPM. The article mentions
the program's coordinator, Sandra Sardanelli;
Dr. Galen Dively, Dr. Michael
Raupp, Dr. Paula Shrewsbury and
Dr. Barbara Thorne, Entomology;
and graduate students Rob Ahern
and Ada Szczepaniec, Entomology.
For more information on the program's
focus areas and for links to related sites,
visit the newly renovated Web site at
http://www.mdipm.umd.edu/.
IT
Group's Recent and Ongoing Projects
 The
College Information
Technology Group (ITG) had a very productive
summer. The following highlights some of
the projects and initiatives that the Group
accomplished and continues to work on. Below
are some highlights; for the complete list,
see the College
IT Update page.
- New
E-Mail System Rollout
-
The University has started the process
of deploying a new e-mail system.
<more...>
- New
LIFENW deployment
- The
College-wide file and print server
was upgraded with new hardware and
server software. Benefits of the
upgrade include additional storage
space and the added capability of
Mac OSX users to access the server.
After all the pieces are in place,
LIFENW will be able to provide seamless
file sharing over a standard Web
browser from anywhere in the world.
- Planned
Bioinformatics Instructional Facility
- Dell
Computer Corporation and Apple Computer
Corporation are interested in possibly
contributing and offering assistance
with the construction of a dedicated
Bioinformatics instructional facility
for the College.
- New
Bioscience Research Building: IT Infrastructure
and Support
- The
ITG is working with our Director
of Facilities, David Dalo, and the
College to ensure that the infrastructure
for the new Bioscience Research
Building will accommodate leading-edge
research efforts and projections
for research needs and directions
in years to come.
-
Symons
Hall Network upgrade (LFSC/AGNR)
Life Sciences has partnered
with the College of Agriculture
and the Office of Information
Technology to increase the bandwidth
in the renovated wing of Symons Hall.
<more...>
-
Vector NTI
Training
-
Vector NTI is one of the
leading desktop Bioinformatics tools
available. <more...>
-
UTAP
Faculty Assignments
The Undergraduate Technology
Apprentice Program trains students in
basic online and classroom instructional
technologies.
<more...>
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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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