All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Chess “Final 4” Comes to UMBC

As the UMBC community continues to honor the men’s basketball team’s historic first appearance in the NCAA Division I Tournament, the campus is positioned to host the 2008 President’s Cup, known as the “Final Four of College Chess,” on April 5-6.

Admission is free and spectators are invited to attend this United States Chess Federation (USCF) National event, which determines the 2008 National Collegiate Chess Team Champion. All matches will be held in the UMBC Game Room (2nd floor of The Commons).

To get the campus community excited about hosting the Final Four, UMBC has organized “Chess Week,” a week’s worth of events, activities and giveaways leading up to the 2008 President’s Cup. Events include a pep rally, a giant chess match between some of UMBC’s finest chess team members and much more.

The President’s Cup features the top four American college chess teams from the prestigious 2007 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. This year’s finalists are “Pan Am” champion University of Texas-Dallas (UTD), UMBC, New York University (NYU) and Miami-Dade College (MDC).

Rounds 1 and 2 will be held 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., respectively, on April 5. Round 3 is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 6, with a tiebreaker match (if necessary) at 2:30 p.m.

UMBC’s legacy as a chess power includes four Final Four victories (2003-2006) and seven Pan-Am titles (1996, 1998-2002 and 2005). UTD is a three-time Final Four champion and a six-time Pan-Am winner.  

UMBC and UTD are the only Final Four winners since the event’s 2001 inception. Alan T. Sherman, director of the UMBC chess program and organizer of the 2008 Final Four, considers NYU and MDC to be respectable challengers for this year’s championship.

“We eagerly await the opportunity to avenge our narrow second-place finish to UTD at the Pan-Am,” Sherman says.

UMBC features four International Grandmasters: Sergey “The Stealth” Erenburg (Board 1, Israel), Timur Gareev (Board 2, Uzbekistan), Pawel “The Polish Magician” Blehm (Board 3, Poland) and Katerina “The Kiev Killer” Rohonyan (Board 4, Ukraine). Rohonyan, a senior computer science major, will remain at UMBC to study for her PhD.

The President’s Cup uses a Team Round Robin format scored by total individual points. Each team has four players and up to two alternates. Standard USCF rules apply.

Throughout each round, international Grandmaster Sam Palatnik will provide free move-by-move commentary in Commons Room 329. All games will be broadcast move-by-move at www.monroi.com.

(3/31/2008)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Hold Fast to Dreams

Hailed as a national model for preparing students of all backgrounds for careers in science and engineering-related fields, the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program will mark its 20th anniversary April 4 and 5 with a scientific symposium and celebration expected to draw 600 participants from across the nation.

Nearly 200 Meyerhoff alumni will join students, families, mentors and supporters in honoring the program’s success. The weekend includes poster sessions and scientific presentations demonstrating the talent and accomplishments of Meyerhoff alumni and students; panel discussions on “Building a Diverse Science and Engineering Workforce” and “Diversifying the Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. Pipeline” featuring Meyerhoff alumni, mentors and supporters; and department open houses.

“Our Twentieth Anniversary event is a special milestone for a program that has already established many milestones in advancing diversity in the STEM fields,” said Michael Summers, chair of the symposium, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of chemistry and biochemistry. “The impact that Meyerhoff alumni have on the world as scientists, medical doctors, engineers, educators and more is inspiring. We are especially excited that corporate and foundation partners and representatives from federal agencies will attend in order to connect with Meyerhoff talent.”

Earnestine Baker, executive director of the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program, said, “The Meyerhoff Program’s success is built on the premise that, among like-minded students who work closely together, positive energy is contagious. By assembling such a high concentration of high-minority students in a tightly knit learning community, our Meyerhoff Scholars continually inspire one another to do more and better. Therefore, it is fitting that we bring our alumni back to campus to reconnect, share research and network.”

Currently, 200 Meyerhoff alumni have completed graduate degrees, and 250 more are in graduate school. “The Meyerhoff program is truly making a difference,” said LaMont Toliver, director of the Meyerhoff Scholar Program. “Meyerhoff Scholars are twice as likely to graduate with a science or engineering major than students who decline the scholarship offer. Their GPAs in science, math and engineering are higher, and they are significantly more likely to enroll in a graduate program in a technical field.”

At every gathering of Meyerhoff Scholars, UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski reminds students of the importance of persistence, asking them to recite the Langston Hughes poem expressing that sentiment:

“Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.”

A symbol of the Meyerhoff Program’s culture and a reminder of the importance of their shared goals, these words reinforce the value of investment in personal aspirations and those of an entire community.

Hrabowski said, “UMBC has become a national model for excellence and inclusiveness in higher education. Science magazine has identified the Meyerhoff Program as one of the nation’s leading initiatives ‘for training minorities and women scientists,’ specifically citing ‘institutional leadership’ as one of the program’s strongest components because our leading faculty and staff have embraced the program.”

For more information on the Meyerhoff program, visit www.umbc.edu/meyerhoff.

(4/1/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Exploring the Ethics of Synthetic Life

The J. Craig Venter Institute recently announced the creation of the world’s first wholly synthetic bacterial genome. For better or worse, this achievement by the celebrated and controversial scientist and his team marked the beginning of human-designed life on Earth.

On April 2, the entire UMBC campus community and the public are invited to an interdisciplinary symposium, “The Ethical Implications of Synthetic Life.”  A panel featuring top experts in bioethics, genomics and policy will discuss the social, political and moral implications of this rapidly growing technology with vast potential to be either friendly or a 21st-century Frankenstein.

The symposium was organized by Andrea Kalfoglou, assistant professor of sociology/anthropology in the health administration and policy program, who has studied reproductive and genetic ethics for nearly 20 years. Kalfoglou was already developing an ethics lecture series when she arrived at UMBC six months ago.

Then she met UMBC interdisciplinary studies major Laura Dress, who recently completed her capstone project on standardizing and regulating synthetic genomics. The two attended a lecture by Venter on his new autobiography and his latest commercial venture in synthetic genomics, which crystallized the symposium’s focus.

The panel features Kalfoglou’s friend and colleague Glenn McGee, author of New York Times best seller Beyond Genetics, and editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Bioethics, along with top experts from The Johns Hopkins University, MIT and the International Center for Technology Assessment.

Kalfoglou hopes the symposium is an opportunity for a broad cross section of the UMBC community to explore this important issue of synthetic genomics.  She said, “For the moment, the promise is more hype than hope; however, genetic technology moves much faster than the regulatory process.  Huge corporations like Dupont are investing heavily in synthetic genomics development, so it is coming whether we are ready for it or not.

“The advantages of synthetic genomics are open to the imagination,” said Kalfoglou. “We might be able to produce cheaper food, clean water and clean, cheap sources of fuel. But, like any new technology, this will develop within our social and economic system that is not always focused on using technology to the betterment of humanity.”  

“There are issues of justice in terms of who will reap the benefits and whowill bear the burdens. There are also reasonable concerns that the technology could be used for nefarious purposes including bioterrorism, and, like many new technologies, there will be unanticipated consequences. For instance, we might create an organism capable of cleaning up oil spills, but those new organisms could have unexpected negative effects on the environment,” added Kalfoglou.

“The Ethical Implications of Synthetic Life” is free and open to the public. The event will be held at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2 on the seventh floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library, with a wine and cheese reception to follow.  Signed copies of Beyond Genetics will be available for purchase. For more information, visit www.umbc.edu/synthlife.

(3/26/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Theatre Addresses Scarcity of Roles for Women

The Department of Theatre presents the third annual IN 10 Festival, featuring new theatrical works for young actresses and all audiences, including the winning play of UMBC’s IN10 International Short Play Competition, by Francesca Sanders, a work by IN10 finalist Shirley King, and the world premiere of two commissioned short plays by renowned playwrights Tina Howe and Naomi Wallace.

Inaugurated in 2006, the annual IN10 International Play Competition seeks to address the scarcity of strong roles for young women in contemporary American plays. By creating an international competition for 10-minute long plays that feature solid acting opportunities for young actresses, the Department of Theatre hopes to help commence a new era in contemporary playwriting. The winner is awarded a $1,000 cash prize and performances at the Festival. Additionally, each year the IN10 Festival and International Play Competition commissions a new work by a noted playwright.

The winner of the 2008 IN10 Competition is Francesca Sanders, whose work, The Rudy, will be staged along with the work of another finalist, Markers by Shirley King. Directors will include UMBC theatre professors Alan Kreizenbeck, Xerxes Mehta, Lynn Watson (chair) and Susan McCully (IN10 founder).

The IN10 Festival will be held March 5-9. Click here for information about the plays, show times and ticket information.

(3/3/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Applying Life Lessons

Troy Grant, a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Culture, knows that years of research are ahead as he explores how to make education curricula more relevant and practical for at-risk students.

However, Grant, 38, also knows how far he has traveled from the New Haven, Conn., housing project where he grew up. A self-described “rambunctious” boy, Grant was placed in a school for developmentally disabled children when he was 9. At 11, authorities arrested him for breaking into a Woolworth’s store.

Grant persevered. He graduated from high school, joined the Air Force and completed his bachelor’s at City University of New York at 28 before earning his M.A. in Education from The Johns Hopkins University. Grant’s teaching experience includes several years at the New Era Academy in Baltimore.

“Here I am now, in a Ph.D. program. So the question I ask is, ‘What happened where education didn’t find a place for me when I was a child?’ ” Grant said. “What do you do with someone who has my kind of potential?”

Although Grant will explore those questions in his doctoral work, he has also addressed them in his book, An Autobiography of an Unknown Man (Spencer Publishing, 2005). The Barnes & Noble bookstore at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor recently honored Grant’s achievements with a signing and reading from the newly released second edition.

“Being in an interdisciplinary program such as the LLC program is quite a complement to my own unsettled thoughts about how the world has been constructed and structured, especially regarding inequality in education,” Grant said. “The LLC program encourages and pushes me to create new knowledge. My first year has been rather demanding but I feel better prepared as a result of the academic sharpening.”

For more about Grant, click here to view coverage from the ABC news affiliate in Philadelphia after he recited the U.S. Constitution before a live audience.

(3/3/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

A Scholar of Great Gravity

Senior physics major Philip Graff will follow the path of science greats Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking to Cambridge University as the second UMBC student in the past two years to win the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, one of the world’s most selective academic awards.

Graff, who will pursue a Ph.D. in physics, was one of just 45 U.S. winners chosen from more than 600 applicants and 119 finalists. He is UMBC’s second consecutive Gates Cambridge Scholar, following alumnus Ian Ralby ‘02, who won in 2007.

A native of Manalapan, NJ, Graff came to UMBC on a full scholarship through the University Fellowship program and is a member of the Honors College. “Philip’s combination of self-confidence, high social intelligence and understanding of his work made it very difficult for my colleagues to believe that he was only beginning his junior year,” said Markos Georganopoulos, research assistant professor of physics at UMBC and Graff’s mentor. “He built an excellent physics and mathematics background, which will serve him extremely well as he advances toward his Ph.D. His success is a living proof of what can be achieved at UMBC.”

For Graff, the Cambridge experience will be an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of some of history’s greatest physicists (such as Isaac Newton) and hopefully to meet a personal hero, Stephen Hawking of  A Brief History of Time fame. “It’s said that Cambridge has been home to more Nobel Prize winners than all of France, so it’s an amazing honor to study there,” said Graff. “I consider Hawking one of the great minds in the field, so I really hope to meet him.”

An astrophysicist, Graff studies what gravitational waves (caused by the interactions of binary stars and other massive bodies) can tell us about the large scale structure and history of the universe. He created a computer model of quasar radiation as an undergraduate at UMBC and worked with one of the world’s most sensitive scientific instruments, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), during a National Science Foundation fellowship at Caltech. His quasar work is the topic of a research paper currently under refereeing with the Astrophysical Journal.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarship was created in 2000 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which donated $210 million to establish the Gates Cambridge Trust. The award fully funds one to four years of graduate study in any field at Cambridge University. Other U.S. winners for 2008 included students from Harvard, Yale, MIT, Princeton and other prestigious universities.

(2/25/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Leading the Field of Aging Services

The Wall Street Journal on February 16 featured 12 innovators and entrepreneurs in the field of aging services who are having “the biggest impact on the future of retirement” in America.  One-third of the “change agents” singled-out for honor are affiliated with UMBC’s Erickson School, including school founder John Erickson, faculty member Bill Thomas and a prominent student and a guest-instructor in the school’s new graduate program.

In an Encore-section cover story, “12 People Who Are Changing Your Retirement,” The Wall Street Journal identified the nation’s leading pioneers who are “shaping the way Americans will live, work and play in later life.”

Four of those 12 pioneers are affiliated with UMBC’s Erickson School, which is becoming a national center for thought leadership in the fields of aging services, policy and research.

John Erickson
Erickson Retirement Communities Founder and Chairman John Erickson was featured for his pioneering work to shape the way Americans age. Erickson has launched several enterprises intended to establish a new standard in retirement living, including Retirement Living TV and The Erickson School at UMBC.

Erickson helped launch The Erickson School of aging, management and policy in 2004 with a $5-million commitment. With an explicit focus on preparing leaders for the 21st century, the School provides professional education, public policy leadership and applied research. The School offers a B.A. and M.A. in the Management of Aging Services. (MAgS).

Bill Thomas
An internationally-recognized authority on aging, Bill Thomas is a professor at the Erickson School and a leader in the culture change movement to promote elderhood as an honorable and valuable position in our society. Thomas is founder of the Eden Alternative, a philosophy and program that de-institutionalized nursing homes world-wide over the past 20 years. Most recently he developed the Green House, a radically new approach to long term care where nursing homes are torn down and replaced with small, home-like environments where people can live a full and interactive life. Read more about Thomas’ unique views on aging at his blog, www.changingaging.org.

John P. Stewart
As Executive Director of the Baltimore City Commission on Aging and Retirement Education, John P. Stewart is responsible for advocating, designing, funding and delivering services to the City’s 105,000 older adults. In the fall of 2007, Stewart enrolled in the first class of graduate students in the Erickson School’s MAgS program. Stewart is working on a blueprint to make city services such as health care, transportation and employment more receptive to the needs of older adults.

Katherine Freund
In the 1990s, Katherine Freund developed the Independent Transportation Network in Portland, Maine, to provide car rides to older adults who can no longer drive. She is now president of ITNAmerica, which has grown into a national organization that provides affordable, round-the-clock rides to thousands of older adults. Freund was tapped as a guest-instructor to help launch the Erickson School’s graduate program in the fall 2007. 

Read the full Wall Street Journal story.

Watch John Erickson and Bill Thomas discuss the future of aging and The Erickson School.

(2/18/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Swimming and Diving Sweep America East Championships

The UMBC men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams became the first in the history of the conference to win back-to-back dual conference championships. The men’s team set a new championship meet record with 929 points and became the first team to ever win five straight conference titles, in addition to winning their 11th straight league title, while the women amassed a total of 741 points.

The women’s team entered the final day of competition 11 points behind meet leader Boston University and crowned three conference champions en route to their second straight conference championship. The men broke their own championship meet record of 920 points set in 2005 by scoring 929 points.

After earning his third second individual title of the weekend in the 200 butterfly, freshman Brad Reitz was named the Most Outstanding Male Rookie and senior Eric Skrabacz earned the Coaches’ Award for most points scored by a male senior over four years (142).

Click here for more information on the championships.

Pictured:
Justin Bronson (this page) won gold medals in the 100 and 200-yard freestyles and as part of the 400 and 800-yard freestyle relays, silver in the 500-yard freestyle, and bronze as part of the 400-yard medley relay.  His time of 1:38.65 in the 200 freestyle was a school record and the relay of Bronson, freshmen Brad Reitz and Keilan Freeman and junior Freddie Reitz set a new school record and America East Championship meet record with their time of 6:42.44.

Tina Cantwell (homepage photo) won gold medals in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events and as part of the 400-yard medley relay and bronze as part of the 200 medley relay.  Her time of 1:03.58 was a school record and the relay of sophomore Tereza Kaplanova, Cantwell, junior Daniele Surkovich and senior Lindsey Engler set a new school record and America East Championship meet record with their time of 3:49.11.

(2/18/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Alumni, Families Invited to “Pack the RAC” Sunday

The American East Conference-leading UMBC men’s basketball team needs the support of alumni, faculty, staff and students this weekend during the crucial home stretch of one of the best seasons in UMBC history. An alumni reception featuring food and family activities highlights the opportunity to cheer on the Retrievers on Sunday (Feb. 17).

The first-place Retrievers (17-7, 9-2 America East) will meet pre-season favorite Boston University at 4 p.m. this Sunday at the RAC Arena. The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) will televise the game, the last regular season home contest of the 2007-2008 season.

The UMBC Alumni Association is hosting an alumni reception in the Retriever Activities Center Club Room at 3:00 p.m. There will be BBQ-type fare and special giveaways for kids. If you are already a season-ticket holder, you’ll still need to register for the alumni reception. For more information, call 410/455-ALUM or email alum@umbc.edu. To register, go to retrievernet.umbc.edu/packtherac. WNST-AM is also sponsoring a “Family Day” at the game and a special coupon is available at www.wnst.net

(2/12/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Faculty Recognized for Research

UMBC’s science, technology and engineering community ended 2007 on a prestigious note as five faculty members were named as fellows or board members of international societies for excellence in their fields.

The honors are just the latest in distinguished careers for the professors, but carry special meaning because they indicate the respect of peers.

Julia Ross, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, and Tulay Adali, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, were both elected fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. It’s not the first time the two have been honored by the same organization, as both Ross and Adali received National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awards in 1997.

“It means a lot to be considered a peer in a group that represents the academy of biological and medical engineers,” Ross said. “I’m honored that others value the quality and impact of our research.”

Ross studies how drug-resistant forms of staph and other infections adhere and spread inside the body. In 2007, she received the American Society for Engineering Education’s Sharon Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education.

Adali is currently working on several projects funded by the NSF, National Institutes of Health and other agencies to develop new signal processing techniques to better understand how the brain functions. “Recognition is always rewarding, especially when it is least expected and when in such great company,” she said. “I’ve been fortunate to work with a bright group of graduate students on a fascinating array of projects, in a forward-looking academic environment fostered by UMBC.”

Shlomo Carmi, professor of mechanical engineering and former dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology, was recently elected to serve on the Board of Governors of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME). Carmi, who was named an ASME Life Fellow in 1992, has been a tireless advocate for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education over his exemplary career.

“Having a positive impact on society has always been my desire, so getting elected to the ASME Board of Governors provides me with a golden opportunity to serve the engineering profession and put UMBC on an important global stage,” said Carmi.

Ray Hoff, professor of physics and director of the collaborative NASA-UMBC research centers JCET and GEST, was recently named a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. Hoff’s expertise on air pollution, climate and the atmosphere has been reflected in a prestigious track record of collaborations with and honors from NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, Environment Canada, the European Economic Community and other earth science organizations. 

“I’m pleased and honored to have received a society fellowship at the same time as my colleagues,” said Hoff. “UMBC has clearly reached a point where awards and honors are becoming a larger part of the life of the campus. The story of UMBC as a prestigious place to do cutting-edge research is becoming more obvious to our peers and I hope that recognition spreads statewide.”

Govind Rao, professor of chemical engineering and director of the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology, was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Rao develops new technologies for biotechnology manufacturing. He has licensed several of his patents to Fluorometrix, a company he co-founded. His many other career honors include the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation and the 2001 Gaden Award from John Wiley for the most influential paper published in biotechnology and bioengineering.

“This level of recognition indicates that UMBC is finally coming of age,” said Rao. “We are a young institution and it simply takes time to mature and be recognized. It also shows the importance of picking a niche and excelling in it. We are too small to compete in every field, but in the ones that we do, we are stellar.”

(1/7/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

A Formula for Success

He’s a celebrated novelist whose second novel, The Age of Shiva (W.W. Norton & Company), will be released in February. But he’s also a mathematics professor who specializes in partial differential equations and is dedicated to fostering interest in mathematics among K-12 students and the general public.

Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Manil Suri – who will read from his new novel at UMBC on February 5 – compares his passions for both fiction writing and mathematics to a game of chess. “You need to track each piece along several future moves to see which option is the best,” he explained. “In mathematics, the chess pieces are variables or unknowns, and you’re trying to find a rule that describes how they can behave, while in fiction, the pieces are characters, and you’re trying to figure out which path they should take to yield the most dramatic outcome.”

Suri’s debut novel, The Death of Vishnu (W.W.Norton & Company, 2001), was published to critical acclaim, garnering rave reviews from The New York Times Book Review, the Boston Sunday Globe and Minneapolis Star-Tribune, among others. Suri was named a Time magazine “Person to Watch,” and the book received multiple awards, including the 2002 Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, the 2001 Ralph Heyne Corrine Buchpreis (Germany), the 2002 McKittrick Prize (UK) and a Pen-Bingham Fellowship for 2002-04. In 2004, Suri was one of 184 distinguished scientists, scholars and artists selected from a field more than 3,200 applicants to be named a Guggenheim Fellow.

The Death of Vishnu was also a finalist for the Pen-Faulkner award, Kiriyama prize, Pen-Hemingway award, L.A. Times Art Seidenbaum Award, Torgi Literary Award (Canada) and W.H. Smith First Novel award (U.K.). In addition, it was long-listed for the Booker Prize (2001) and the IMPAC Prize (2003) and was a New York Times Notable Book for 2001. 

Last year, Suri was awarded a University System of Maryland (USM) Elkins Professorship. First established in 1978, the Elkins professorships support professors “who demonstrate exemplary ability to inspire students and whose professional work and scholarly endeavors make a positive impact beyond the USM.”

“Mathematical writing (involving proofs, for instance) is hard enough to understand when the readers are mathematicians – the non-expert has almost no chance,” said Suri. “Making the beauty, elegance and job of mathematics accessible to non-mathematicians is therefore a very challenging endeavor – one that I have tried to pursue through outreach activities, like my presentation on infinity.”

Most recently, Suri has worked with middle and high school students in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area, and brought UMBC students from his First-Year Seminar class in Computation as an Experimental Tool  to help teach computer-aided mathematics sessions to Baltimore high school students.

“In our complex society, we need more people to have the reasoning skills that come with mathematical and scientific study,” Suri added. “Get ‘em while they’re young!”

Suri will read from and sign copies of The Age of Shiva at UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery on Tuesday, February 5 at 7 p.m. RSVP at eventrsvp@umbc.edu.

(1/22/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

Alumni Honored for Their Achievements

The UMBC Alumni Association will present awards to six distinguished alumni who are leaders in their fields at the 2008 Outstanding Alumni Awards Ceremony and Annapolis Reception on February 6.  For more information about the honorees and the event, please visit http://retrievernet.umbc.edu/annapolis.

Engineering and Information Technology
Stephanie Reel ’85, Information Systems, is vice provost for information technology and chief information officer for the Johns Hopkins University, and vice president for information services for the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Reel’s work to develop electronic patient records management was honored by Computerworld magazine and the Smithsonian Institution.

Humanities
Kevin M. Maxwell ’02 Ph.D., Language, Literacy & Culture, is the superintendent of schools for Anne Arundel County Public Schools. An educator for over 20 years, Maxwell previously served as a chief educational administrator, community superintendent, principal and teacher in Maryland public schools. Under his leadership as principal, Walter Johnson High School in Montgomery County was named one of the 100 best high schools in the U.S.  Maxwell was recently named Public School Superintendent of the Year by the Fullwood Foundation.

Natural and Mathematical Sciences
Reid C. Thompson ’85, Biological Sciences, is vice chairman of neurological surgery, director of the Vanderbilt Brain Tumor Center and associate professor of neurological surgery at Vanderbilt University. Thompson’s expertise is in the surgical treatment of patients with complex brain and spinal cord tumors, particularly those involving the most critical parts of the brain such as the brain stem and skull base.

Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Honorable Marcella A. Holland ’80, Political Science, is circuit administrative judge of the Baltimore City Circuit Court. Among her many honors, she has been named one of Maryland’s “Top 100 Women” and has an extensive record of community service and civic leadership.  

Visual and Performing Arts
Kara Lee Corthron ’99, Theatre, received the 2007 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights for “Wild Black-Eyed Susans,” which was performed during UMBC’s Homecoming in 2007. She is also a three-time recipient of the Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du Nouy Foundation Award.

Distinguished Service Award
Eric Conn ’85, Computer Science, is the president and co-founder of Gloto Corporation, creators of Cellblock.com, which allows users to instantly publish photos and videos from cell phones to an online photo album. Cellblock was used at UMBC’s 40th Anniversary, and, as guests watched from several locations, real-time photos from events were instantly posted on a large screen – a new twist that took the concept of a traditional photo album and turned it into a social event.

(1/18/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •