UMBC Honors Outstanding Alumni

Published: Mar 1, 2010

UMBC Honors Outstanding Alumni

The UMBC Alumni Association will present Outstanding Alumnus/a and Distinguished Service Awards to six exceptional alumni at the 2007 UMBC Alumni of the Year Awards Ceremony and UMBC Annapolis Reception on Feb. 7 at the Loews Hotel in Annapolis. The honorees have demonstrated unwavering service to the University and achieved distinguished professional and personal accomplishments. The award recipients are:

2007 Outstanding Alumnus in Engineering and Information Technology
Robert S. Marshall ’88, Mechanical Engineering

As president and CEO of AWS Convergence Technologies, better known as “WeatherBug,” Marshall pioneered the networking of weather instrumentation and cameras using the Internet, making it the largest exclusive weather network in the world. “WeatherBug” delivers real-time, local weather to broadcast television stations, schools, businesses, local, state and federal government agencies, including the National Weather Service.

2007 Outstanding Alumna in Humanities
Patricia A. Smith ’74, Ancient Studies

A distinguished attorney, Smith has served as an advocate and advisor for the State of Maryland and its citizens. Smith has acted as People’s Counsel for the State of Maryland, a special solicitor and chief counsel to the Baltimore Police Department for the City of Baltimore and as an administrative law judge in the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings. Smith also held the positions of assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland and assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Maryland.

2007 Outstanding Alumnus in Natural and Mathematical Sciences
Joseph P. McCloskey ’81 M.S., ’83 Ph.D., Applied Mathematics

For nearly 40 years, McCloskey has been employed with the National Security Agency where he works as a senior cryptologic mathematician. McCloskey has received numerous citations, including the prestigious Presidential Rank Award in 2006 and the President’s Award from the Crypto-Mathematics Institute, the agency’s oldest learned society, in 2001. An author of more than 80 professional papers, he has taught one course each semester at UMBC for 20 years.

2007 Outstanding Alumnus in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Eric A. Carlton ’91, Africana Studies

At age 29, Carlton made history when he became the youngest high school principal in the nation. Since then, he has directed his passion for education in launching the Banner Schools, a private company that partners with public school districts to provide a successful educational environment for at-risk youth. With three schools – one in Chicago, Miami and another to open in Detroit, the company assists nearly 500 middle-and-high school students from troubled environments. A former UMBC SGA vice president and president, member of the men’s soccer team and tutor for the Shriver Center’s Choice Program, Carlton has received numerous accolades for his services as an educator.

2007 Outstanding Alumna in Visual and Performing Arts
Sheila López ’92, Visual and Performing Arts -Theatre

After earning her M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama, López founded Antecesores, a non-profit organization in Buffalo, NY, that advances, nurtures and celebrates Latino cultures through theatre. Antecesores (translated as “ancestors”) focuses in particular on programs for children, to allow them to explore and discover their cultural heritage.

2007 Distinguished Service Award
Eli Eisenberg ’86, Interdisciplinary Studies

Eisenberg is connected to UMBC through both service and philanthropy, as a member of the board of UMBC’s Alex. Brown Entrepreneurship Center, the “Exceptional by Example” Alumni Campaign Committee and the 2016 Alumni Strategic Planning Committee. In addition, he has endowed a scholarship in the name of his parents that supports two students per year. Eisenberg is founder and principal of VPC, Inc., a company providing multimedia production services, event management and studio and technology systems design. Guests at UMBC’s Commencement ceremonies and the 40th Anniversary celebration have seen VPC’s technical expertise at work.

To register for the UMBC Annapolis Reception and obtain more information, visit http://retrievernet.umbc.edu/annapolis or contact UMBC’s Office of Alumni Relations at alum@umbc.edu or 410-455-ALUM.

(1/22/07)

© 2006-07 University of Maryland, Baltimore County • 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 • 410-455-1000 •

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