From cooking and cleaning to fixing your car, understanding chemistry can enlighten all aspects of life. That’s just one reason why Dean William R. LaCourse still loves sharing the joy of his favorite subject in front of a classroom.
“Many people in the antiviral field had been pushing for many years, warning people that this kind of viral pandemic could happen,” says Katherine Seley-Radtke. Thankfully, her decades of work put her in a strong position to contribute to a new surge of antiviral research.
At UMBC’s 2022 Presidential Faculty and Staff Awards (PFASA), Tamra Mendelson said she loves “getting to the core of a concept” in her research and teaching. As awardee after awardee addressed the audience, both in person and online, it became clear that all shared the same “core concept” of UMBC: community.
A protein produced by viral DNA is orchestrating the critical “SOS response” in a large group of bacterial species, according to a new study in Nucleic Acids Research. “It’s the SOS response because if the bacteria or virus doesn’t get it right, they die,” Ivan Erill says.
“Be willing to be an independent thinker and be willing to be wrong,” says graduate student Amanda Belunis as ways to succeed in analytical chemistry.
Persistent. Innovative. Determined. These are the words UMBC’s commencement speakers returned to again and again to describe the Class of 2021. And despite a year of challenges—missing family and friends, technological frustrations, life lived through the computer screen—one of the resounding themes of this year’s Commencement ceremonies was gratitude.
On the back of every UMBC black and gold ID card is a guide to essential emergency resources, including numbers for health, counseling, sexual assault, and suicide prevention helplines. The new card design was the result of student advocacy through UMBC’s Retriever Courage initiative, seeking to better prevent and respond to sexual assault and violence. And the person who suggested that change is Autumn Cook, graduating this week, a tireless advocate for fellow UMBC students.
This fall, the student-organized TEDxUMBC gave ten speakers the opportunity to share their stories, experiences, and expertise with the world. Surprisingly, the theme, “Unmasking Uncertainty,” was actually conceived far before COVID-19 surged globally.
Kizzmekia Corbett’s team was the first to demonstrate a vaccine that successfully stopped viral replication in both the lungs and nose.
“We are so proud of UMBC’s Goldwater Scholars,” says April Householder. “Their research—in neuroscience, genetics, and machine learning bias—is timely and important.”
After three months of studies, the vaccine her team developed is about to enter a phase I clinical trial, a crucial hurdle on the way to FDA approval.
With two Fulbright awards under his belt, chemistry professor Ram Mohan, Ph.D. ’92, is sharing his passion for green chemistry with the world.
