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NEWS October 2002

"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. Peer Mentors Reception
  4. Change to May 2004 Schedule 
  5. Faculty Recognition
  6. Faculty in the News
  7. Staff News
  8. New Bioinformatics Center
  9. Funding Alerts
  10. How to Post Your News Here

FROM THE DEAN

Perhaps the most important event for the College this month was publication
of BIO2010, a report from the National Research Council on "Undergraduate
Education to Prepare Biomedical Research Scientists." A distinguished
committee prepared this report: Lubert Stryer (chair), Ronald Breslow, James
Gentile, David Hillis, John Hopfield, Nancy Kopell, Sharon Long, Edward
Penhoet, Joan Steitz, Charles Stevens and Sam Ward. The report makes a
strong case for educating students for the biology of the future rather than
the biology of the past. It argues for Life Sciences majors acquiring a much
stronger foundation in physics, chemistry and mathematics (and for students
of those disciplines to acquire a firm base in the Life Sciences), and for
establishing connections between biology and other scientific disciplines so
that interdisciplinary thinking and work becomes second nature. It urges
that students be encouraged to pursue independent research as early as is
practical, and that students receive academic credit for independent
research done in collaboration with faculty or off campus. It recommends
that seminar courses highlighting cutting-edge developments be provided on a
continual and regular basis through all four undergraduate years. Finally,
it urges administrators to provide release time to revamp existing courses
and develop new ones.

Although some of the recommendations of this report are already in place at
College Park, there are others that we should consider. The College
Undergraduate Program Committee (previously known as the Super PCC) will be
considering the report this fall. The College has reserved copies to
purchase when published. I encourage you to check out the text online at
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309085357/html/.

Ballinger was selected as the architectural firm for the new Bioscience
building, and design has begun in earnest. Ballinger designed the Plant
Science Building, so we should be in good hands. They will be presenting at
a Town Meeting of the College within the next month or so.

Later in October you will receive a draft of a revision of the College
Governance document (Plan of Organization) that the College Advisory Council
worked on and approved last spring. The major purpose of the revision was to
make the document consistent with current practice. A vote of the faculty
will be required to put the changes into effect. Please peruse the draft
when it arrives and contact Ray St. Leger, the chair of last year's
committee, about any concerns.

The next few months will be busy ones. Check the schedule below for specific events. 

 

Norma Allewell

Dean

UPCOMING EVENTS

Schedule of Classes

November 12: Last Day to Drop with a W

Events
October 5: Academically Gifted and Talented Recruiting Open House

October 8: Faculty and Staff Convocation, 3:00-5:00pm, Main Chapel

October 8-9: Board of Visitors Dinner and Meeting

October 14: Undergraduate Admissions Visit Maryland Day

October 21-23: Chemistry & Biochemistry External Review Committee Visit

October 22: Bioforum in Greenbelt (www.mdhitech.org)

October 26: Academically Gifted and Talented Recruiting Open House

Proteome Society Meeting - "Proteomics: New Techniques and Novel Technology." The deadline to submit abstracts is September 30. Up to four oral presentations and six posters will be selected. Information can be found at http://www.proteome.org/3Events/f_events.htm. The Society will be meeting on campus in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry in October. Details will be sent as they become available.

November 7-9: Entomology External Review Committee Visit

November 8-10: Homecoming Weekend

November 11: Undergraduate Admissions Visit Maryland Day

November 14: Life Sciences Peer Mentors reception, 5 to 7 p.m. in the Baltimore Room, Stamp Student Union (for this College's fall 2002 freshman class)

November 19: Bioscience Research and Technology Review Day (www.bioscienceday.umd.edu)

November 21-23: Diversity Partners Visit

December 21: Life Sciences Commencement, 6:30 p.m., Memorial Chapel

December 22: Campus Commencement

February 18, 2003: Terrapin Pride Day in Annapolis

April 12, 2003: Alumni Association Gala Awards (nominations are due September 27, 2002)

May 16-18, 2003: The American Society for Microbiology - Education Section
10th anniversary meeting, co-sponsored by the College. Speakers will include
Dr. Rita Colwell, Director of NSF; Dr. Lee Shulman, President of the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; Dr. Kenneth Nealson,
Director of the Center for Life Detection Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Dr.
Eric Green, Chief of the Genome Technology Branch of the National Human
Genome Research Institute and Director of the NIH Intramural Sequencing
Facility.

 PEER MENTORS RECEPTION

The Life Sciences Peer Mentors will host a reception for the College's fall
2002 freshman class on November 14 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Baltimore Room,
Stamp Student Union. The Peer Mentor Program was launched in Spring 2002
with an enthusiastic group of nine Life Sciences upperclassmen. The program
is designed to provide undergraduates the opportunity to receive academic
guidance from their peers. The peer mentors are located in the Information
Resource Center (IRC) in Symons Hall, Room 1317. For more information on
this program, please visit
http://www.life.umd.edu/c-undergraduate/peer-mentor/.

CHANGE TO MAY 2004 SCHEDULE

The Cabinet agreed to change the date of commencement in May 2004 and, in principle, in subsequent years, to allow for a "Senior Day" between the last day of the examination period and the day of commencement. The change in 2004 results in the following end-of-semester schedule:

Last day of classes: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 (unchanged)

Study Day: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 (unchanged)

Final Exams: Thursday, May 13 through Wednesday, May 19 (unchanged)

Senior Day: Thursday, May 20, 2004 (added)

Commencement: Friday, May 21, 2004 (moved back one day)

FACULTY RECOGNITION

Dr. Jonathan Dinman, CBMG, with colleague Nilgun E. Tumer, received a three-year, $360,000 NSF grant for "Pokeweed Antiviral Protein and inhibition of Ribosomal Frameshifting." In addition, a paper that Dinman co-authored with colleagues Jason W. Harger and Arturas Meskauskas, titled "An integrated model of programmed ribosomal frameshifting," was featured on the cover of the Sept. 2002 issue of Trends in Biochemical Sciences (Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 2002; 27: 448 - 454). Dinman's other recent publications include:

- Dinman, J. D., Richter, S., Plant, E. P., Taylor, R., Hammell, A. B., and Rana, T. M. "The frameshift signal of HIV-1 involves a potential intramolecular triplex RNA structure." Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2002; 99: 5331-5336.

- Kinzy, T. G., Harger, J., Schmit, A. C., Justice, M. C., and Dinman, J. D. "New targets for antivirals: the ribosomal A-site and the factors that interact with it." Virology, 2002; 300: 60 - 70.

Dr. Daniel Falvey, Chemistry & Biochemistry, and a team of Affymetrix researchers developed an improved method for growing DNA strands on semiconductor chips. Affymetrix, a California-based company that applies the principles of semiconductor technology to the life sciences, recently exclusively licensed worldwide rights to the University of Maryland's method for the synthesis of photolithographic solid-phase polymers from the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC). OTC has filed a patent application for the technology.

FACULTY IN THE NEWS 

Dr. Gerald Borgia, Biology, is quoted in a September 4 San Diego Union-Tribune article detailing DNA evidence that points to monogamy being the exception in the animal world. Check out http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20020904-9999_mz1c4monogam.html.

Dr. Ethel Dutky, Entomology, was credited with educating a Pennsylvania newspaper columnist about "Rose Rossette Disease" (Witches Broom). PhoenixvilleNews.com, September 18 http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=5403919&BRD=1673&PAG=461&dept_id=1 7910&rfi=6

Drs. Janice Reutt-Robey, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Ellen Williams, Physics, and post-doctoral researcher Konrad Thuermer were featured in C&E News discussing the topic of their forthcoming paper in Science: metal-oxide film formation. September 23 http://pubs.acs.org/cen/topstory/8038/8038notw4.html

The Times of London interviewed Dr. Anne Simon, CBMG, the scientist behind much of the success of the television program "X-Files" (September 9 http://www.inform.umd.edu/CampusInfo/Departments/InstAdv/newsdesk/Clips/2002 /0909simon.html). And a September 19 Hanover Evening Sun article covered Simon's speech at Gettysburg College about her role as X-Files scientific advisor.


STAFF NEWS

Ms. Dolores Jackson will be joining the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry December 1 as its Executive Director. Thanks to all the staff and faculty who met with the candidates, and special thanks to the search committee (Sandra Greer, Kay Morris, Lyle Isaacs, Bruce Jarvis, and Greg Silsbee of CAB) for their efforts to ensure that the department had the best candidates from which to choose.

There are several new faces in the Dean's Office. Suzanne Dawson will begin her position as Executive Administrative Assistant to the Dean on October 7. In addition, two UM alumni have joined the staff: Meldavid Manela, who worked for the Dean's Office as a student employee before he was hired as IT Coordinator, and Michael Paszkiewicz, who has started work as an Accounting Associate. A warm welcome to you all! 

NEW BIOINFORMATICS CENTER

Congratulations to Drs. Spencer Benson, Paul Bottino, Chuck Delwiche, Jocelyne DiRuggiero, Steve Mount and Ann Smith, all of CBMG, who recently established a Center for Teaching and Learning Bioinformatics with funding from the Center for Teaching Excellence. One of the major missions of the group is to develop exercises for learning bioinformatics that can be used throughout the curriculum. Their work is in response to a recommendation from the meeting of College faculty who teach genetics who met last year to review the College courses in genetics. They have one open meeting a month where speakers will be invited. The discussions will relate to designing exercises that can be used in our classrooms. Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in 1216 H. J. Patterson. At the November 5 meeting, Paulette Robinson of OIT will discuss campus tech literacy and opportunities, how OIT can help, and pedagogy and course design. Peter Cooper of the National Center for Biotechnology Information, who spoke at the October 1 meeting, runs workshops at NCBI, including one to be held October 3 and 4; see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Class/FieldGuide/nlm.html for more information.  

FUNDING ALERTS 

List of Funding Alerts - The list of funding alerts is lengthy. You can find it on the web version of the Newsletter at http://www.life.umd.edu/news-events/newsletter/. 

Community of Science Database of Funding - If you want information about the Community of Science database of funding sources go to the Office of Research Administration and Advancement at http://www.umresearch.umd.edu/ORAA/.

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. Issues are usually sent at the beginning of each month.
University of Maryland

COLLEGE OF LIFE SCIENCES*UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND* COLLEGE PARK, MD 20742
e-mail: life@umail.umd.edu Tel.: 301.405.2080