Outstanding Alumnus
Natural & Mathematical Sciences

Outstanding Alumnus
Natural & Mathematical Sciences

Dr. Kimani A. Stancil ’94, physics and mathematics
Howard University, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Specialty Area – Soft Condensed Matter Physics

Outstanding Alumnus
Natural & Mathematical Sciences
Ronita L. Marple ’05, Ph.D., Chemistry
Senior Scientist, The Procter & Gamble Company

Dr. Ronita Lee Marple received her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from UMBC in 2005 and is a Senior Scientist in the Global Analytical Capability Organization for Procter and Gamble in Cincinnati, OH. Dr. Marple currently leads global technical teams to deliver new consumer products and has traveled to multiple European and Asian countries to establish technical connections and build new analytical capabilities. Dr. Marple is affiliated with the American Chemical Society and serves on steering committees for two P&G Affinity Groups for female scientists. She continues to contribute to UMBC through the Professional Network Mentoring Program and the Annual Fund. In her free time, Ronita and her husband Jeff enjoy running marathons and going to movies and are avid ‘foodies’ in the Cincinnati area.

Outstanding Alumnus
Natural & Mathematical Sciences
Michael I. Nishimura ’80 BA ’84 MS ’89, PhD Biological Sciences

Michael I. Nishimura ’80 BA ’84 MS ’89, PhD Biological Sciences, has devoted his career to developing novel immunologic approaches for cancer therapy and is recognized for his talents as a scientific mentor. Building upon his strong genetics and immunology training acquired at UMBC, he pioneered the use of retroviral vectors encoding T cell receptor (TCR) genes to engineer an individual’s own lymphocytes to be able recognize and control the patients cancer cells or virus-infected cells. The first clinical trial using TCR gene modified T cells was conducted in Denmark using one of Dr. Nishimura’s TCR’s targeting the melanoma protein MART-1. Dr Nishimura serves as the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina and has assembled a strong clinical and scientific team committed to bringing this and other novel cellular therapies to the clinic.

Outstanding Alumnus
Natural & Mathematical Sciences
Dr. Crystal Watkins ’95, Biological Sciences

Dr. Crystal Watkins ’95, Biological Sciences, studied at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She received the David E. Rogers Award for the highest standards of professionalism, medical ethics and community leadership. Dr. Watkins’ graduate research was featured in the Wall Street Journal and led to a U.S. patent for a treatment of diabetic disorders. She has also traveled to Ghana and worked with the Princess of Ada and Ministry of Health to implement HIV/AIDS health education and prevention programs.

Outstanding Alumnus
Natural & Mathematical Sciences
Reid C. Thompson ’85, Biological 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 in Nashville, Tenn. Thompson received his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he completed his internship and residency, followed by a fellowship in cerebrovascular surgery at Stanford. A diplomat of the American Board of Neurological Surgery, he also is the author or more than 30 published research papers and abstracts. 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.

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

Joseph McCloskey, M.S. ’81, Ph.D. ’83, applied mathematics, is a senior cryptologic mathematician for the National Security Agency, where he has worked since 1968. As technical director of the agency’s Mathematics Research Group for the past 11 years, he is responsible for coordinating and supervising the professional training of newly hired mathematicians and statisticians. Throughout his career, Dr. 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. He is the author of more than 80 professional papers, and he has taught one course each semester at UMBC for 20 years.

In addition to a successful career as an entrepreneur, government policy maker and administrator at Princeton University, in November Jones was appointed Deputy Associate Director for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. She also has served as an active member of the UMBC Research Park Corporation’s board of directors for the past eleven years.

Jeff Leips

Jeff Leips, who joined the faculty in 2001, is making groundbreaking contributions to interdisciplinary undergraduate education in the life sciences. He was recognized for this effort with a National Academies Education Fellow award in 2004 and UMBC’s Carl Weber Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching in 2010.

Leips implemented major changes in undergraduate biological sciences education at UMBC, focused on improving students’ quantitative reasoning skills, especially applied to biological problems. With funding from the NIH and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Leips worked with faculty and students to develop over 20 active learning modules and assessment tools for introductory biological sciences courses. In each module, students work in groups to solve significant biological problems requiring quantitative approaches. Assessment of these modules by an outside firm indicates that undergraduates taking these courses exhibit a significant improvement in their quantitative skills in biological contexts.

He is co-director of an NSF-funded project to establish Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in Biological and Mathematical Sciences at UMBC (UBM@UMBC). This program provides a two-year research experience for pairs of students (from mathematics/statistics and biological sciences) working with a pair of faculty (one each from mathematics/statistics and biological sciences).

Leips also worked with faculty in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics to incorporate more biological applications into existing mathematics courses, and establish two new minors, one in Biomathematics (overseen by the Department of Mathematics and Statistics) and one in Quantitative Biology (overseen by the Department of Biological Sciences). This major overhaul to improve students’ quantitative skills through changes in the classroom, new research opportunities, new courses, and new minors should all have a significant and far reaching positive influence not only on UMBC’s students, but on the faculty and institution itself.

Leips received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Florida State University.

Justine Marie Johnson
Associate Director, Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows Program

Johnson devised and manages the summer bridge program for incoming Graduate Fellows, and also directs the Summer Biomedical Training Program, which supports research experiences for undergraduates who are interested in pursuing doctoral degrees in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. When funding for outreach efforts was cut, Johnson was instrumental in raising extramural funding to continue the program.

As an administrator of the Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows Program, Johnson took the lead on writing the last two successfully funded competitive renewals, with the most recent submission receiving a priority score of 13 (a score of 10 is considered perfect) and receiving $3.3 million in January 2013.

In addition to being highly regarded by her peers and the faculty at UMBC, Johnson gained a national reputation for her leadership skills and activities. She now serves as a regular member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Study Section that evaluates proposed diversity activities in National Human Genetics Research Institute centers, and she serves on the diversity advisory boards of several academic institutions.