Pictured left to right: Sarah Cassel (Cobweb), Sarah Painter (Moth) and Jillian Byrnes (Peablossom) from the Maryland Stage Company production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. “Bringing New Insights to the Stage”  The Maryland Stage Company (MSC) has gained renown—not just in the United States, but also in Europe—for its unique and elegant blend of theatrical stagecraft and research. Founded in 1987 by its artistic director and professor of theatre, Xerxes Mehta, the Maryland Stage Company is the professional resident theatre company at UMBC. It has been called “the UMBC miracle” by TheaterWeek magazine, and in 2000, during one… Continue Reading Bringing New Insights to the Stage
“Learning Success” As the Internet, distance education and eLearning change todayÂ’s workplace, professionals who decide to incorporate new skills or change careers find UMBCÂ’s M.A. in Instructional Systems Development helps them meet their goals. Todd Brace, a current student in the program and a training manager for Provident Bank, has added new techniques to his many years of experience in training and human performance development. Brace actively got into the field of workforce development and training by creating, delivering and ultimately managing a variety of federally funded job training programs throughout Maryland through the community college system. From hot dog… Continue Reading Learning Success
“From UMBC to Oxford University”Nieshia Williams, a Meyerhoff scholar graduating with a B.A. in chemistry, is headed to Oxford University (UK) for graduate studies as a National Institutes of Health Oxford-Cambridge scholar. A native of Ft. Washington, MD, Williams is one of only a handful of U.S. undergraduates chosen to participate in this prestigious Ph.D. program. She will have an opportunity to work at both the NIH and Oxford and will be co-mentored by a research investigator at NIH and a faculty member at University of Oxford who work together on a collaborative project in which Williams will carry out her… Continue Reading From UMBC to Oxford
/a> “UMBC Valedictorian Ian Stucky” Ian Stucky, a 19-year-old UMBC Humanities Scholar, began his studies at UMBC at age 16 and is graduating this year with a B.A. in Modern Languages and Linguistics (German and Spanish) and an M.A. in Intercultural Communication. The 19-year-old is one of the first recipients of the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship. Worth approximately $50,000 per year, the scholarship is considered the most generous award of its kind in the U.S. One of only fifty recipients chosen from an applicant pool of nearly 700 students, Stucky will attend the William and Mary School of Law next… Continue Reading UMBC 2002 Valedictorian Ian Stucky
“AIRS Takes to the Sky”At 2:55 a.m. Pacific time on May 4, the world’s understanding of the mystery of global climate change and the art of improved weather prediction took a great leap forward, thanks in part to the ingenuity of a team of researchers led by UMBC Professor of Physics Larrabee Strow.As AQUA, NASA’s latest Earth observing satellite, successfully launched from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, it carried the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), a “Cadillac” of satellite instrumentation developed in part by Strow’s seven-person research group, the Atmospheric Spectroscopy Laboratory.AIRS’ job is to take the most accurate measurements to… Continue Reading AIRS Takes to the Sky
“Making Meaning Move”In UMBC’s dance department, students engage in research by developing their own choreographic work—with the studio as their laboratory—both on campus and at dance festivals across the country.Dance major Jenafer Herling is one of approximately 50 undergraduates who will present research at the Sixth Annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day on April 17 (Graduate Research Day is April 19). She will discuss the creation of Picking Up the Pieces, which she choreographed after participating in the Bates Dance Festival last summer. At the festival, she had the opportunity to work with noted choreographers Liz Lerman and Nancy… Continue Reading Making Meaning Move
“Answers in the Sky and the Classroom”Michele McCourt, atmospheric physics Ph.D. student, looks to the sky to understand the physics of carbon monoxide produced on earth. McCourt is a GEST (Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology) fellow in atmospheric physics at UMBC.For her dissertation, McCourt studies the effects of biomass burning in southern Africa on the earthÂ’s troposphere. “Fires burning to clear fields for cropland in the southern hemisphere produce roughly as much troposphere carbon monoxide as cars and industrial parks do in the northern hemisphere,” she says. McCourt analyzes data collected from the international Southern Africa Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI… Continue Reading Answers in the Sky and the Classroom
“Learning from Post-World War II Germany”UMBC faculty are recognized for creating new perspectives in history and often help shape the present and future by serving as advisors to governmental and organizational programs.Rebecca Boehling, associate professor and graduate director in the Department of History, is researching denazification in post-World War II Germany under Allied occupation. Denazification was an important part of the Allies’ program to transform Germany from an authoritarian state into a democratic nation that would again cooperate in international life. Boehling proposes that because there was not a structural change-oriented, consistent approach to denazification during the U.S. occupation period,… Continue Reading Learning from Post World War II Germany
“A Fresh Start for High-Risk Children”Christine Reiner Hess, a Ph.D. student in UMBCÂ’s applied developmental psychology graduate program, helps high-risk children get a fresh start at life.Hess has always had a strong interest in child psychology. When she read about the child intervention work that Douglas Teti, professor of psychology at UMBC, was conducting, she knew she wanted to work in applied developmental psychology.At the time, Teti was studying how mothers adjusted after giving birth to infants hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit due to prematurity and low birth weight. “I was fortunate to be able to join the… Continue Reading A Fresh Start for High-Risk Children
“UMBC’s First Division I Champion”UMBC Retrievers know how to win both on and off the field.Senior Cleopatra Borel won the women’s shot put in the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships, held at the University of Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Track Center on March 9. Borel’s next-to-last throw, a personal best of 17.50 meters (57’5″), outdistanced Kansas State’s Austra Skujyte (55’9″) and Iowa State’s Lisa Griebel (54’10.25″) to capture UMBC’s first Division I national title.“Last year was my first time competing in the national championships, and I was nervous. But the competition is a lot of fun, something I always… Continue Reading UMBC’s First Division I Champion
became director of the Center for Women & Information Technology. McCann is known for her scholarly contributions to the history of American reproductive politics in the 20th century, and her book Birth Control Politics in the United States, 1916-1945 (Cornell University Press, 1994), was the first to place the birth control debate in the wider political context of the period. McCann is working on a follow-up, Birth Control, Eugenics and the Foundations of Demography, under contract with the University of Pennsylvania Press, which examines gender and race in international population politics after 1945. This year, Routledge will publish McCannÂ’s Feminist… Continue Reading 20 Years of Women’s Studies at UMBC
“An Eye on Air Quality”  As a environmental economist focusing on transportation issues, Virginia McConnell knows a lot about cars and trucks – more specifically, the impact of policies to reduce air pollution through vehicle emissions regulations, inspection and maintenance programs, fuel regulations, emission taxes and land use changes. She became interested in the intersection of urban and environmental problems as a graduate student, and has taught and pursued research in these areas ever since. Her recent work is on differential fuel taxes for introducing cleaner fuels, and land use policy changes and their impact on air quality. She enjoys working… Continue Reading An Eye on Air Quality
