Since 2009, as part of its Alumni Awards celebration, the UMBC Alumni Association names one “Rising Star” recipient each year who exemplifies early career and professional achievement. Prior to our October 2021 award ceremony, we’re spending some time with awardees from the past decade to see where they are now—and how they’ve grown in their fields while maintaining ties to UMBC. In this installment, UMBC Rising Stars Alicia Wilson ’04, political science, Nicole DeBlase ’06, financial economics, and Lauren Mazzoli Zavala ’15, computer science and mathematics, M.S. ’17, computer science, discuss their leadership roles in economic development, finance, and engineering and their concerted efforts to make these career paths more available to women and other underrepresented communities.

“If a woman sets the table, everyone wants to pull up a seat,” says Alicia Wilson ’04, political science. “It’s important for women to set the table—to be in positions of leadership—so they can build a strong team.”

Indeed, the following Rising Star Alumni Award recipients have not just set the table, they’ve helped build it.

UMBC Magazine sat down virtually with three powerhouse women to discuss how their time as UMBC students and scholars impacted their professional trajectories, and how they’re paving the way for the next generation of leaders.

Training up leaders

Economic development, finance, and engineering aren’t career paths traditionally associated with women (yes, even in 2021), however with concerted efforts to recruit, train, and retain young, female graduates—especially those coming out of smaller or lesser-known schools—the tides have been turning. UMBC’s constellation of programs that lift up underrepresented populations in tech or community development have well-situated Retrievers who want to make an impact on the world as well as closer to home. 

It’s no accident that a determining factor in who receives the Rising Star Award is someone who demonstrates ongoing involvement and support of UMBC, its students, and alumni.

Wilson, DeBlase, and Zavala are just three of the many success stories coming out of Hilltop Circle and their professional expertise, personal commitment to being viewed as leaders, and overall drive are more than evident, even over a Zoom call.

Opening doors

While their professional successes are evident, the personal successes of these Rising Stars are, in part, intertwined. Seeing firsthand the importance of strong leadership and being a part of a student body where academics are celebrated (“At UMBC, it’s cool to be smart,” says Wilson with a laugh), all three women have made it a point to open doors for other students who may not have taken the traditional route to careers in economics or engineering.

“I feel like I had to work a little harder to make it happen for myself on Wall Street,” says Nicole DeBlase ’06, financial economics, a managing director and lead analyst for Deutsche Bank, focusing specifically on U.S. multi-industry and electrical equipment. “Coming from a non-Ivy League school, I had to exercise my muscles to get my foot in the door. Because of that, I make it a point to help recruit people from state schools, knowing that talent and skill can come from anywhere. I feel like I’ve had a bit of an impact in that way.”

DeBlase visiting Oshkosh, a company she covers that makes defense vehicles, among other things. Photo courtesy of DeBlase.

The act of paying it forward is not a new concept for UMBC alumni, and each of these Retrievers emphasizes that “community” isn’t just a word splashed across the university’s homepage, but rather a way of life for students and alumni, and something university President Freeman Hrabowski actively nurtures.

“I had never eaten lunch with a university president before Dr. Hrabowski,” remembers Wilson, who was a Sondheim Public Affairs scholar and is now the vice president of economic development at the Johns Hopkins University and Health Systems. “I thought to myself how this must be a special place, because that’s far beyond what I would imagine someone in that position caring about—what some 17-year-old kid from the city thinks.”

In 2018, Wilson was the keynote speaker at the Steve and Marjorie Harvey Foundation’s Girls Who Rule the World summit. Photo courtesy of Wilson.

Wilson’s Baltimore roots are serving her well. In her current role, she leads the development and implementation of Hopkins’ institution-wide strategies and initiatives both within the United States and abroad through investments in real estate, economic and neighborhood development, healthcare, and education.

A school that invests in its students to ensure their personal successes is something worth celebrating, says Wilson, 2009 Rising Star recipient—and it’s perhaps what UMBC most prides itself on.

Lauren Mazzoli Zavala agrees.

Zavala, right, with her mentee Priyanka Ranade ’18, M.S. ’19, information systems, at Northrop Grumman. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

“The time I spent in UMBC’s Cyber Scholars Program prepped me for the reality that teamwork and collaboration are essential in this industry,” says Zavala,’15, computer science and mathematics, M.A. ’17, computer science. “You can never go into a room with an ego because you can always expect to learn from other people around you. That’s something I quickly picked up as a UMBC scholar and it’s been critical to how I approach my work at Northrop.”

Zavala, who received the Rising Star award in 2017, is now a software engineering manager at Northrop Grumman where she and her team oversee cyber missions as they relate to American troops in different parts of the world.

Showing up

Zavala, far left, at Northrop’s Cyber Security Raspberry Pi Competition hosted by Northrop Grumman for UMBC Students. Photo courtesy of Zavala.

The Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) is a primary example of the investment made in UMBC’s students’ future, in this case, the future of women in technological careers. Established in July 1998 to catapult women’s full participation in all aspects of information technology, CWIT expanded its scope in 2006 to include engineering majors as well. Zavala knows firsthand the importance a scholarship program like CWIT has on an entire student body.

“The Cyber Scholars Program was invaluable to me as a junior,” she adds. “Its partnership with CWIT, as well as Northrop Grumman and other leading companies in cybersecurity, provided students with the network and resources needed to build important connections.”

In a space typically dominated by white men, Zavala remembers joining a group of women to participate in a cyber competition. Though they didn’t end up winning, the lasting memory of being present and bringing some much-needed diversity to the space stayed with her.

“The worst we can do is fail,” she says, emphasizing the importance of showing up and trying. “In my career today, I’m constantly learning from other people, and that includes interns. We’ll lean on them for their creative solutions to very real deadlines and challenges we have to meet at Northrop every day.”

Talented trailblazing

Modeling good leadership results in good leadership, and ultimately, it’s what drives DeBlase, Zavala, and Wilson within their respective jobs—excellence recognizing excellence.

DeBlase on her first CNBC appearance. Photo courtesy of DeBlase.

“I run a team of four associates, and we have a 50/50 ratio of women versus men,” says DeBlase, who is heavily involved with Deutsche Bank’s recruitment process and is keen on creating opportunities for individuals who have taken a less traditional approach to reaching Wall Street. “Looking for the most talented person to fill a seat is critical, which is why it’s important to seek out those women applicants.”

Programs like Women on Wall Street—perhaps not coincidentally run by Deutsche Bank—allows DeBlase, the 2015 Rising Star awardee, to be up front and center in the recruiting process, ensuring that equal opportunity is given across the board. 

In her previous position, recruitment of talented women started early. “When I was at Morgan Stanley, there was a whole initiative around recruiting women,” DeBlase adds. We’d start at the sophomore level and actually do campus outreach.”

Despite the personal successes each woman has experienced in the workforce, there is still larger work to be done, particularly in light of the numerous challenges women have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There needs to be an evolution with work-life balance and work flexibility to allow women to feel like a career on Wall Street is more sustainable,” says DeBlase. “It’s still challenging for women who enter more senior roles. In a way, COVID has helped my workplace realize that there are opportunities for employees to work from home and strike a healthier work-life balance.”

In a perfect world, a trailblazer won’t be categorized by their gender, but rather by their innovation, talent, and dedication to creating a more inclusive society. Until then, however, it’s programs like CWIT, the Sondheim Program, and Women on Wall Street that will drive change that is both tangible and significant, as seen through the work of these three Rising Stars

With women like Zavala, Wilson, and DeBlase at the helm, change might come sooner than anticipated.

 — Nikoletta Gjoni ’09

Read more about other Retrievers rising together and stay tuned for more information about UMBC’s 32nd annual Alumni Awards in October.

Every day UMBC faculty are hard at work testing antivirals in the lab, untangling the impacts of healthcare policy, and processing satellite data on Earth’s atmosphere. They are developing best practices for K-12 teaching, remediating water contaminants, and exploring how actors express intimacy on stage. But how can journalists, students, or the general public learn who these faculty are and what they study? And how can faculty connect with each other for innovative research collaborations?

Anyone seeking UMBC experts can now find them through a new online tool that makes searches fast and easy. 

“UMBC has some of the nation’s leading experts in fields ranging from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to health equity and public history. But it can be challenging for potential research partners to identify exactly the right contact for a given project,” says Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research. “We are excited that this online tool will give current and future partners new ways to learn about and collaborate with talented researchers and scholars across our UMBC community.”

How it works

On the Faculty Expert Search site, users can enter a name or a research topic to identify UMBC experts, and then connect with those who most closely match their needs. Possible uses include fellow faculty seeking research collaborators, prospective graduate students looking for faculty in their areas of interest, journalists looking for experts on topics in the news, and community groups interested in project partners.

In response to search terms, the tool displays micro-profiles. These include faculty names, titles, departments, and brief bios, plus photos if available. Clicking on “view profile” will reveal contact information. It will also display additional information the faculty member chooses to add to their profile, such as research interests, teaching expertise, classes taught, and publications.

Faculty can update their profiles at any time, so the site is continuously growing. Currently, the database features tenured and tenure-track faculty and lecturers, and some research faculty, and there is interest in making it more inclusive over time.

Visibility and connections

“A comprehensive, searchable database of faculty experts highlights the diversity and vibrancy of scholarly activities in our institution,” says Preminda Jacob, associate dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. Jacob, who is also an associate professor of visual arts, was a leading force behind the development of the Faculty Expert Search tool. 

“Within our campus, this site will further interdisciplinary research by connecting scholars with common interests,” Jacob says. “External to UMBC, it has the potential to strengthen our research community’s international networks and community partnerships. It encourages the public to connect with faculty experts who could serve as speakers, collaborators, contributors to publications, and mentors.”

Users can access the Faculty Expert Search tool through UMBC’s homepage, under Research.

Faculty seeking to update a profile can use this step-by-step guide. Community members looking for contacts not included in this tool can continue to use the main UMBC.edu search function. Journalists interested in interviewing UMBC experts can also contact news@umbc.edu.

Featured image: Mercedes Burns, Maggie Holland, and Chris Swan (l-r) are part of the NSF-funded Interdisciplinary Consortium for Applied Research in Ecology and Evolution (ICARE). Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

What if I told you a story? Would you listen? Over the last year and a half, as the world has faced major social justice and environmental issues, many people have questioned their roles in our shared past, present, and future. But, by talking and listening to stories different from our own, we can find a greater understanding of our diverse lives and some answers to challenging issues. 

Now in its third year, UMBC’s Interdisciplinary CoLab: Summer Internship has given nine students from a variety of majors an opportunity to have hands-on experience in this type of humanities-based narrative research. Students were divided equally into three public-facing research projects focusing on civil rights, urban forests, and radical literature. Each team created a digital, audio, or print product that fit a specific need of a community or campus partner in real-time. The research was designed to introduce or strengthen students’ ability to collaborate and their story-gathering/telling skills such as archival research, oral histories, and technical writing. 

The UMBC Interdisciplinary CoLab program is a partnership between The Provost’s Interdisciplinary Activities Advisory Committee, the Dresher Center for the Humanities, and the Office of Summer, Winter, & Special Programs. 

BLM & Civil Rights oral histories

Nancy Kusmaul, associate professor of social work, was excited to hear her students discuss the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement during the protests about George Floyd’s murder. But something was missing. Students were aware of BLM and the Civil Rights movement but they didn’t seem to see a connection between them. “I knew I had found an opportunity for students to listen to the past to build a link to the present,” shares Kusmaul, who led a CoLab project on these topics. “Because the CoLab experience focuses on our local communities, what better place to start than Baltimore City.”

Deysi Chitic-Amaya ’23, media and communication studies, was drawn to the project because of the focus on the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements in Baltimore. “We can understand the roots of these global movements by learning how they have changed and influenced the lives and work of people in Baltimore’s communities and neighborhoods,” says Chitic-Amaya, who, with other students, spent the summer conducting virtual oral history interviews with community activists.

There were a few roadblocks. Many of the Civil Rights activists had passed away or were not available, but Kusmaul connected with Baltimore County historian Louis S. Diggs, Baltimore radio host Marc Steiner, and members of the grass-roots, member-led Baltimore organization, Organizing Black. 

The student researchers learned interview skills using humanities-based research methods. These skills showed them how to listen across differences and how to approach sensitive topics and difficult questions. “I’ve learned how to interview individuals who are different from me whether it be race, gender, age, etc.,” shares Chitic-Amaya. 

After the virtual interviews were completed the students transcribed them and deciphered the experiences between the two movements. The oral histories will be added to the Albin O. Kuhn Library Digital Collections with an explanatory essay and a podcast. 

“I hope to come away with greater skills in humanities research methods,” says Chitic-Amaya of her time in the CoLab. “I want to be able to approach future projects with a more open-minded perspective that may help to produce something new and innovative.”  

Urban forest data stories

Baltimore stories are not only about collecting oral histories. They also include the stories of the green spaces—and the data surrounding them—in and around Baltimore and how those stories shape the way people live and recreate in the city. It can be overwhelming to know where and how to begin or how to improve existing conservation efforts, but for citizen conservationists, wherever they might be, help is on its way.

Led by UMBC’s Jennifer Maher, associate professor of English, the CoLab participants worked in collaboration with the Baltimore non-profit organization Baltimore Green Space to develop a digital and print urban forest health research protocol manual. The manual will be used as a tool to train citizen and professional conservationists.

The team jumped right into creating a technical narrative with information about urban forests that was previously gathered by Baltimore Green Space through a collaborative project between Matt Baker, professor of geography and environmental system, the USDA Forest Service, and Johns Hopkins University. Community land stewards, alumni, and current students involved in the Summer Forest Patch Project, a collaborative project between UMBC and Howard County Community College, were also part of the collaboration.

“Technical writing is an occupation that the Bureau of Labor and Statistics identifies as growing faster than average,” explains Maher. “Students were not only helping to foster community-based science and civic engagement in Baltimore and beyond but also gaining marketable skills and professional experience.”

UMBC’s student conservationists learned how to weave data to present a factual and engaging narrative that will train both those already engaged in urban forest health and budding conservationists how to better collect data and share the information with the general public and policymakers. The technical narrative presents the information in a persuasive manner that could encourage more participation in urban health anywhere.  

Tevyur Mosley ’22, M30, biological sciences, had a big reveal: “I was introduced to the idea that citizens can engage in community-based research that they can then share with their local officials to influence policy.” 

Radical literature multimedia exhibition

Unlike the other CoLabs, the students in the Radical Literature in the First Half of the 20th Century group did not interview people. Instead, they learned to uncover stories hidden in the archives of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery Special Collections department, studying magazines, pamphlets, and essays that narrate the politics and ideas of the socialist movement.

This was a treasure hunt of sorts. Students sifted through and searched scanned documents for key narratives in order to ultimately design an online exhibition that includes a historical timeline, digital stories, research essays, and a video telling the story of the collection. Kate Drabinski, lecturer of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies, who led the group, said that while completing the program virtually had its challenges, seeing the students learn to collaborate from afar was really rewarding.

“As much as we’ve all been working online over the past year, doing this kind of intensive, daily collaboration was a different beast altogether,” she said. “This posed specific challenges, but also opportunities to learn how to work as a team remotely…and how to work with archival documents to do research, and get others excited about using the collection.”

To provide researchers with different perspectives on the socialist movement, “the collection features works of famous authors such as Friedrich Engels and Angela Davis, as well as many niche pieces from small, politically affiliated publishers and both local and national political organizations,” the students explain in their online exhibit. Now curious minds around the world can also discover the breadth and depth of the archive in a more visual and accessible way.

Learning on the job

The summer CoLab internships are not only an opportunity for students across colleges to develop the social and technical skills of working in interdisciplinary teams, but also to explore different fields. CoLab organizers Carole McCann, special assistant to the provost for interdisciplinary activities, and Donald Snyder, lecturer in media and communication studies, designed the program to have a lasting impact on students’ careers. Through public humanities and social science research methods, students are responsible for projects from conception to completion, strengthening their professional communication and project management skills. 

“The CoLab experience is about students gaining professional research experience while learning how to appreciate their own skills and that of others,” says McCann. “They learn to meet the expectations of clients and community partners, to tell effective stories for the general public. And doing all of that in real-time.”

To learn more about the CoLab program, visit https://iaac.umbc.edu/co-lab/.

Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC Magazine.

Ana María Schwartz Caballero, associate professor of modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, is retiring from UMBC after more than 25 years of service. “This was a very difficult decision but it was the right time for me to retire,” says Schwartz Caballero. “UMBC has been my home for many years.”

Schwartz Caballero joined UMBC in 1984 as a lecturer for Spanish language classes in the modern languages and linguistics department. She became an assistant professor in 1996, received tenure as associate professor in 2002, and chaired the department from 2006 – 2012. Schwartz Caballero was one of the first faculty members to teach Spanish to heritage Spanish speakers. 

The many programs, initiatives, associations, and committees she has led and participated in have helped establish a network of support and guidance for the success of UMBC’s Hispanic/Latinx community. And her legacy will continue to have an impact as faculty and students she has mentored carry on her work.

In a recent farewell event honoring Schwartz Caballero, President Freeman Hrabowski thanked her for being the voice for so many in the Latinx/Hispanic community on campus, in Baltimore City, and the State of Maryland. “Ana María has changed the culture of UMBC,” shares Hrabowski. “She has brought such rich diversity, and she has broadened our thinking about the world.”

Schwartz Caballero’s headshot by Marlayna Demond ’11.

Language learning research

Schwartz Caballero began her career at UMBC as a graduate assistant in the education department while completing her Ph.D. in second language education at the University of Maryland College Park. Soon after graduation, she became a Spanish and second language pedagogy instructor in what is now UMBC’s modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication (MLLI) department. 

Her research focused on heritage Spanish speakers, language teaching, learning strategies, and curriculum development. In 2002, Schwartz Caballero’s co-authored textbook, Noticias: An Advanced Intermediate Content-Based Course, presented educators with a new approach to teaching Spanish. Instead of a grammar-centered, isolated approach, Schwartz Caballero found students learned Spanish best by reading current Spanish-language media articles from Spanish-language speaking countries. This way students learn grammar structure in context while at the same time learning about the culture and current events. 

Schwartz Caballero has developed local, state, and national level professional development courses and instructional materials for Spanish language teachers. She has also provided research-based strategies for the integration and application of the National Standards for Foreign Language Learning. 

Understanding heritage speakers

In addition to her research on teaching Spanish as a foreign language, Schwartz Caballero’s work has helped develop best practices to support the learning needs of heritage Spanish speakers learning Spanish and other subjects. As a Spanish language heritage speaker herself from Cuba, Schwartz Caballero has a personal understanding of the complex needs heritage speakers face in the classroom. 

Schwartz Caballero with Ana Oskoz, the current chair of MLLI, on UMBC’s Immigrant Recognition Day in 2017. Photo courtesy of Schwartz Caballero.

She knows Hispanic/Latinx students who come to the U.S. as refugees, like she did when she left Cuba as a teenager, and those who immigrate or are born in the U.S. must grapple with their own diverse social-cultural identities in a country that often homogenizes their languages, race, cultures, and experiences. Her work has helped prepare student teachers and in-service educators with the skills necessary to support the learning needs of heritage Spanish speakers in a variety of contexts. 

Schwartz Caballero also teaches educators how to be advocates. “Being an advocate for students,” she says, “can be the difference between a student graduating or dropping out. It is as important as their academic success.” She notes that teachers need to learn about the challenges Latinx/Hispanic students face beyond the classroom. Schwartz Caballero advocates educators to be understanding of a number of Latinx/Hispanic students who are often balancing work, family responsibilities, and financial hardships that hamper their success and can delay graduation.

Schwartz Caballero has been the faculty advisor to UMBC’s undergraduate Latino/Hispanic Union since 1997 and a founding member of the Latinx/Hispanic Admissions Advisory Group which develops best practices in recruitment and admissions.

Working with doctoral students

In addition to her work with undergraduate students, Schwartz Caballero also worked with many graduate and doctoral students, helping them navigate the field and prepare for the next steps of their careers. For many doctoral students, she was also a compassionate ear, a cheerleader, and like family in the most challenging of times—she helped them find solutions to move forward. Adriana Medina, M.A. ’99, intercultural communication, Ph.D. ’04, language, literacy, and culture, one of many doctoral students Schwartz Caballero has advised, credits Schwartz Caballero for her own success in the classroom. “Ana María has been such a fantastic role model as an educator,” shares Medina. “She is empathetic, compassionate, generous, and also tough at times while also encouraging you. Now, I have been able to be that for my students.”

“Ana María knew who I was, she knew my name, and my department. She made me feel so welcome…we are her legacy.”

María Célleri, assistant professor in gender, women’s, and sexuality studies

Luis Carcamo, M.A. ’95, intercultural communication, remembers how Schwartz Caballero “showed me the ropes of how teaching is done.” Now, in his 25th year of teaching, Carcamo has taken what he learned at UMBC to the southernmost tip of Latin America. “My city is the last city in South America. Ana María’s teachings reached not only the rest of the U.S. but also the rest of our America,” shares Carcamo.

In 2007, UMBC’s Chapter of Black and Latino Alumni awarded Schwartz Caballero with the Legends of Excellence Award: 40 Years of Inspiring African American and Latino Students.

Supporting faculty

Schwartz Caballero has worked tirelessly alongside Hispanic/Latinx faculty and UMBC leadership to recruit and retain Latinx/Hispanic faculty and support UMBC’s diversity initiatives. She was co-chair, with Philip Rous, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, of UMBC’s Executive Committee on the Recruitment and Retention of Underrepresented Minority Faculty, and has been the president of the Hispanic-Latino Faculty Association for 10 years. 

Through the Executive Committee, founded in 2011, UMBC has hosted 20 fellows from diverse backgrounds, including five who identify as Latinx. Two of these fellows are now UMBC faculty members, Fernando Tormos-Aponte, assistant professor of public policy, and Erika Fountain, assistant professor of psychology.

Schwartz Caballero at a 2019 Humanities Forum with (l-r) Thania Muñoz, María Martha Manni, Mayra Santos-Febres, Tania Lizarazo, and María Célleri. Photo courtesy of Schwartz Caballero.

As the lead organizer for the Hispanic Heritage Month speaker, part of the Dresher Center for the Humanities Forum, Schwartz Caballero has helped bring Latinx/Hispanic scholars to UMBC annually for more than a decade.  

“Ana María has raised the issue of diversity and inclusion in relation to Hispanic/Latinx folks in meetings, public forums, and anywhere she could,” says Jessica Berman, director of the Dresher Center for the Humanities. “She worked tirelessly to bring issues facing Hispanic/Latinx people forward, especially through many years of arranging speakers for Hispanic Heritage Month.” Berman notes how Schwartz Caballero’s dedication to fundraise for and organize the speakers elevated the event and led to its inclusion as a permanent part of the fall Humanities Forum. 

These efforts have drawn Hispanic/Latinx faculty to UMBC who are leading research across all of UMBC’s academic divisions, including economics, engineering, MLLI, psychology, and more.

Many of the Latinx/Hispanic faculty recall Schwartz Caballero as the first person they met when they came for an interview. She would often pick up faculty at the airport and guide them through their visit. Once they joined UMBC, Schwartz Caballero became a valuable resource, advocate, and supporter. María Célleri, assistant professor in gender, women’s, and sexuality studies, remembers her first week on campus in 2019 during Commencement week. “I didn’t know what was going on but Ana María knew who I was, she knew my name, and my department. She made me feel so welcome,” recalls Célleri. “I love her genuine commitment. We are her legacy.”

“Ana María’s teachings reached not only the rest of the U.S. but also the rest of our America.”

Luis Carcamo, M.A. ’95

Faculty also acknowledge her strong voice on their behalf and her example as a leader in her department, across campus, and beyond. “As a woman, it was very inspiring to hear Ana María, the voice of a strong woman in academia,” shares Renée Lambert-Brétière, associate professor of linguistics and French. “I thank her and I aspire to be like her and be a strong voice.” 

In 2020, Schwartz Caballero received the UMBC Marilyn E. Demorest Award for Faculty Advancement.

Building on a legacy

Faculty have also valued her honest feedback and direction through different phases of their career by encouraging them to pursue leadership positions in their field, on campus, and in the community. Within the last year alone, María Cristina Sanchez, professor of the practice in mechanical engineering, has become the inaugural director of the Engineering & Computing Education Program, and Felipe Filomeno, associate professor of political science and global studies, has become the inaugural associate director of the Center for Social Science Research. Tormos-Aponte has recently received over $400,000 from the William T. Grant Foundation to conduct research on the policy impact of the Black Lives Matter Movement on youth.

Sanchez has been collaborating with Schwartz Caballero in UMBC’s Hispanic/Latinx Faculty Association and in several committees preparing to further the work along with her colleagues. “A lot of us are in the place that we are because of Ana María,” shares Sanchez. “We will try to continue what she started.”

Service to the community

Schwartz Caballero has also worked closely with the Latinx/Hispanic community beyond campus. For 20 years she has been the UMBC representative in the Maryland State Department of Education for world languages. She is the commissioner of the Baltimore City Mayor’s Hispanic Commission. In 2016, her oral story was part of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum “Gateways” bilingual exhibition about the Latinx experience in the U.S. 

Her dedication to the Hispanic/Latinx community has received national recognition. In 2014, she was awarded the Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award from the National Football League and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. The award included a $2,000 donation to UMBC’s Esperanza Fund, a scholarship for UMBC undergraduate and graduate students of Latinx or Hispanic ancestry and/or students committed to the advancement of minorities especially of Latinx or Hispanic descent.

UMBC’s broader outlook

Schwartz Caballero is excited for the future of UMBC and the growth of its Latinx/Hispanic community. She played a large part in creating the pathways that are helping Latinx/Hispanic students and faculty learn and contribute to the campus and regional community. “There are more Latinx/Hispanic faculty, staff, and students than when I started. But there is still so much to do,” says Schwartz Caballero. “I know many will continue the work and will also create new opportunities for UMBC to embrace and uplift the Latinx/Hispanic faculty, staff, and students.” 

“Ana María has been, and continues to be, the North Star as we develop and evolve our plans to recruit Hispanic and Latinx students to UMBC,” says Dale Bittinger, assistant vice provost of undergraduate admissions, orientation, and school partnerships, and chair of the Hispanic/Latinx Admissions Advisory Group. “She is an invaluable resource and advocate whose teaching extends beyond the classroom. Her work and commitment to students is another example of why UMBC is such a special place.”

*****
Header image courtesy of Schwartz Caballero, her with students at graduation in 2014.

Noah Sienkiewicz is working alongside NASA and UMBC colleagues to design and build HARP2, an instrument that will launch on NASA’s PACE mission in 2024. Nathan Myers is partnering with top scientists across the country at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico on innovative quantum computing research. And both physics Ph.D. students have just received highly competitive grants that will help them take their work even further. 

Myers received an Office of Science Graduate Student Research award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which will fund an 11-month experience at Los Alamos. Sienkiewicz received a Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) Fellowship, which will fund his Ph.D. thesis work at UMBC for up to the next three years.

Fresh ideas

Myers is looking forward to infusing fresh ideas from Los Alamos scientists into his research on non-linear quantum systems. His work fits into the field of quantum thermodynamics, which is critical to the future of computing. The non-linear quantum systems he explores have the potential to be much faster than the already super-fast linear quantum systems that researchers have modeled and begun to fabricate.

Myers had already planned to pursue this area of research, but “now we’ll have the resources and the collaboration with all the researchers at Los Alamos, which is one of the foremost quantum computing research centers in the U.S.,” he says. “So it’s pretty exciting.”

Nathan Myers (left) and Sebastian Deffner at Myers’s master’s graduation. Photo courtesy Nathan Myers.

Begin with the end in mind

Sebastian Deffner, assistant professor of physics and Myers’s mentor, has gone the extra mile to make sure he is in a strong position for the future. In addition to supporting his students’ research, Deffner also helps his mentees develop “related skills, in terms of how to write and apply for these funding opportunities, awards, and grants, and just how to build your network and get in contact with people,” Myers says.

In fact, “When I was first starting research,” Myers says, “one of the first conversations we had was, ‘So, when you graduate, what are some of the places where you might be interested in working? And who can we talk to, to start that process as early as possible?”

Los Alamos was on Myers’s list. Deffner connected Myers with Yigit Subasi, a Los Alamos scientist, and their conversation revealed significant overlap between their research interests. They were coming at the same questions from different angles. So, they collaborated on the proposal for the DOE funding to blend their ideas and work on a breakthrough together.

“Winning this award will give Nathan a unique opportunity to interact with and learn from world-leading experts at a top-tier research location,” Deffner says. “The potential impact on his scientific career can hardly be overestimated, and I hope that this will set a new benchmark for the excellence of our graduate education at UMBC.”

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is perched at 7,355 feet, atop the Pajarito Plateau in the Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico. Photo courtesy LANL.

The full arc

Sienkiewicz started his UMBC career in a research rotation with Zhibo Zhang, associate professor of physics. He then rotated to work with Vanderlei Martins, professor of physics and director of UMBC’s Earth and Space Institute, who is now his Ph.D. advisor. Zhang gave Sienkiewicz an introduction to computational techniques. And with Martins, he learned how to apply those techniques to data that address the most fundamental physics describing an instrument or phenomenon.

Those two experiences informed Sienkiewicz’s path forward. Now he wants to be involved in “the full arc” of atmospheric research projects— “to make sure the whole process is interconnected and well-informed,” starting with design, and progressing through testing and data processing.

These days, Sienkiewicz is working on both HARP2 and the original HARP, which he helped develop before it launched successfully in fall 2019. In the morning, he analyzes incoming HARP data. Then, in the afternoon, he uses what he observed to inform decisions about HARP2. Both instruments have the potential to inform how climate models account for clouds and tiny particles in the air called aerosols, such as dust, smoke, and other airborne chemicals.   

Bands of cirrus clouds above Australia. Clouds are one of the hardest factors for climate models to account for. Data collected by HARP and HARP2 should help. Photo: NASA.

“My goals are to straddle that line between someone who runs code all day and someone who goes into the lab and does the testing,” Sienkiewicz says. It’s a rarer path among atmospheric physicists, but one that offers exciting opportunities. In particular, Sienkiewicz’s comprehensive perspective will be beneficial in the planning process for NASA’s next decade, he believes.

A childhood dream

Both HARP and HARP2 are examples of polarimeters, which will be a major focus of NASA experiments over the next 10 years. Sienkiewicz hopes to stay involved in their development after he graduates, in 2023 or 2024, by transitioning to a role at NASA proper just in time for the PACE mission launch that will carry HARP2 into space.

Through UMBC’s strong connections with the space agency, “I’ve gotten to be more exposed to actual NASA work, and sit in meetings with NASA officials,” Sienkiewicz says. “So, as far as the childhood dream of ‘I want to work for NASA,’ I feel like it’s been a great stepping stone to doing that and having direct interaction with those people and building a network.”

Just after the HARP launch in 2019, Sienkiewicz (far left) and other UMBC students listen to Vanderlei Martins (right) as he offers an impromptu lesson in atmospheric physics. Photo by Sarah Hansen, M.S. ’15.

Support at every level

With Sienkiewicz focused on space and climate science and Myers on quantum computing, their physics research could hardly be farther apart. But they actually have a lot in common.

Sienkiewicz and Myers began their graduate studies at UMBC at the same time. “We sat shoulder to shoulder in the first-year grad student office in 2017,” Sienkiewicz says. “Especially in that first year, our whole cohort really stuck together and helped each other a lot.”

They became friends and housemates. Even as their research trajectories diverged, living in the same house during a pandemic exposed them to each other’s work in new ways. “I’ve probably learned more about quantum thermodynamics in the last year than I ever have, because I hear him in the other room going on and on about anyons,” Sienkiewicz says with a smile.

Their personal camaraderie speaks to a larger graduate student support network in physics at UMBC. For both Myers and Sienkiewicz, the application process for their awards was a group effort, with multiple rounds of feedback from faculty, peers, and staff at UMBC’s Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET).

In addition to the DOE award, Myers is also funded by the private sector arm of NASA, Paraton, and benefits from a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Deffner. Sienkiewicz received a Graduate Assistant in Areas of National Need award from the U.S. Department of Education in his first year, and, later, a JCET fellowship. 

“Getting the funding opportunities through UMBC and making those connections has been instrumental to my progress,” Sienkiewicz says. “Our department really supports students by keeping them funded and showing them opportunities. They help set us up for success.”

Banner image: Two scientists work on the HARP polarimeter in a clean room at UMBC. Sienkiewicz helped fabricate the HARP satellite, including time in the clean room, and now is working on HARP2. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC

Standing in the nearly empty expanse of Freedom Plaza, a block away from the White House and with the Capitol dome behind her, Ghazal Rahmanpanah ’08 is struck by the contrast of the demonstration space during the pandemic compared to vigils and demonstrations she’s organized and participated in there previously.

Rahmanpanah recounts some of the causes she’s rallied around in that space—No War With Iran, the National Iranian American Council, Move On, We Won’t Wait, and Mothers of the Movement at Freedom Plaza—advocating for peaceful and progressive policies. “I used to work right up the street,” says Rahmanpanah, “and the running joke was that the only times I ever took a lunch was to come here and participate in some sort of activation.”

It was her political science major at UMBC that helped Rahmanpanah realize she didn’t want to be a constitutional lawyer like she originally thought. Through her classes and conversations with professors she discovered her passion for “questioning laws and driving people to make sure those laws worked for everyone,” she says.

Rahmanpanah is now director of special projects for The League, a social impact collective. “The idea is that politics happens every day,” says Rahmanpanah. “Everyone lives political lives without realizing it, but while it might take a lot for you to bring someone to politics, it doesn’t take much to bring them to culture. And there is an intersection where social justice issues and politics and culture meet. So what we try to do is to bring people to live more civically minded lives through narrative change.”

The right to live with dignity

This drive for equality started early for Rahmanpanah. “My involvement with civic engagement probably began when I was born,” she says. “I was born in Tehran, in Iran. We came here to the States when I was about five years old because of the war. There was the Iran-Iraq war right after the Iranian Revolution. So it just wasn’t a sustainable environment, according to my parents, for us to stay in.”

The awareness of injustice was “seeping into my psyche at a really young age,” Rahmanpanah explains. “And so I just became really fascinated with human rights—the idea that human security is for all. There are certain things that every individual deserves the right to live with. And one of those is the right to live with dignity. And that’s why I feel really strongly about what I do about changing narratives, changing how we talk to people about people, how we bring people into community.”

Rahmanpanah’s work at The League gives her the platform to make change. As a society, she says, “we really like to push people to calls to action, but we don’t take the time to really see what type of narrative would resonate in their lives. And so that’s the work we do at The League. It’s a lot of culture change work.” Projects she’s worked on include a PBS documentary called And She Could Be Next, which follows women of color who are getting involved in different types of political campaigns. “It highlights that for most working moms or for women in particular,” says Rahmanpanah, “there’s so much space to get involved in campaigning whereas maybe they didn’t feel like there was in the past.” 

Another project brings young people into the voting conversation to let them see how their lives are impacted by elections. Rahmanpanah calls the concept “a full set society.” “Every four years, the major campaigns come out and ask, ‘Hey, did you vote? Did you do this?’ Usually it happens in the 11th hour and it fails to make people feel like they’re in community. It fails to tell young people how these issues impact them day to day and not just during election periods, because every year is an election period.”

Change is good

Rahmanpanah with her fiancé Sherwin Rahimi, who she met on her second day on campus.

The word community is often a well-used buzzword, but Rahmanpanah says she discovered a tangible community at UMBC. “When you come to UMBC, you get a sense of being in a big environment, some place where there’s a variety of voices and ideals and everything. And that’s something so rare—that you could be in a big space, but connect with so many various people.”

Additionally, Rahmanpanah realized that coming in contact with different people on campus was changing her—and that was a good thing. “My politics and my ideologies changed because of the people I interacted with, Dining Hall staff sharing with me about their lives in Baltimore, because of the professors I spoke with on campus and in classes and events,” says Rahmanpanah. “It challenged how I thought about things and continued to force me to learn and unlearn things. And I hope that we can do that within movement spaces so that we’re not so insular so what we’re trying to say reaches more people.”

“I think people live progressive values without realizing it,” Rahmanpanah continues. “And so sometimes it’s just something that’s lost in translation. As someone who’s had to translate and interpret for family her whole life, I can tell you, that just happens sometimes. But we have to meet people where they are and we have to figure out how to speak to them. And that takes a lot of grace and patience. And that’s what I’m hoping to do with my work.”

It’s personal

While UMBC has helped shape Rahmanpanah’s professional and political trajectories, it’s actually her personal life, she says, that was most impacted when she became a Retriever. On her second day on campus, she met her now fiancé Sherwin Rahimi. At their upcoming wedding this September, she’ll rely on two of her best friends for make-up and photography, Sam Navarro ’08, psychology and Jessica DeThomas ’09, history. “It feels so great that such a special day is rooted in our origin story,” says Rahmanpanah.

*****
Header image by Corey Jennings ’10, all other photos courtesy of Rahmanpanah.

Two research teams led by UMBC engineering faculty are transforming COVID-19 testing technologies. Rather than making users choose either the fastest or most affordable COVID-19 test, or the most accurate test, they seek to offer tests that are rapid, accessible, and highly accurate, all in one. 

One of these new innovations focuses on testing individuals for the virus causing COVID-19. The other focuses on collecting air samples in large spaces at risk for enabling COVID-19 transmission. Both teams behind this public impact research hope their innovations will help limit the spread of the disease as many U.S. and international jurisdictions rescind COVID-19 restrictions.

Bringing tech innovation to the public

A group of researchers led by Dipanjan Pan, professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, developed two diagnostic tests that can rapidly, accurately, and affordably detect SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19) in individual patients. 

Dipanjan Pan. Photo courtesy of Pan.

The nano-amplified colorimetric test does not require RNA extraction, which many other tests rely on, making it much more accessible. Pan’s other testing technology works on the principle of electrochemical detection that can be used even at home by applying a simple hand-held device for the read-out. Both of these technologies were recently licensed by RNA Disease Diagnostics, Inc.

“I’m delighted to know that my lab has received FDA registration and certification as a development site for the electrochemical AntiSENSE COVID-19 Test. A leading global molecular diagnostic company, RNA Disease Diagnostics, Inc. has received a worldwide exclusive license from UMBC and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) to commercialize the test,” explains Pan. He notes that the results of this work have been published in several high-impact journals, including May 2020 and October 2020 articles in ACS Nano andan April 2021 article in Nature Protocol. 

Pan’s multidisciplinary team includes Maha Alafeef, a graduate research assistant at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM); Parikshit Moitra, a UMSOM faculty member; and Ketan Dighe, a faculty research assistant at UMBC. 

“This commercialization is a significant achievement and testament to my team’s hard work and dedication,” Pan adds. “While the high impact publications confirm the quality of our science, the licensing agreement and FDA certification attests the translational value of this technology.” 

Rapid diagnosis with gold nanoparticles

In fall 2020, Pan and his collaborators received two grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to improve testing to detect SARS-CoV-2, supporting the development of this technology. From there, the research progressed rapidly.

A chief benefit of Pan’s plasmonic technology is that the test results can be detected qualitatively by the naked eye at the point of care, without special technologies. This is made possible due to highly specific antisense oligonucleotides, which are synthetic DNA fragments that bind to RNA molecules from the virus, and aggregate gold nanoparticles. 

“For our electrochemical test the ultimate goal is to develop a tiny handheld device for determining the presence of the viral RNA in the nasal swab or saliva samples. Our early prototype involves a disposable test strip that the meter uses to calculate the viral load and then displays the level,” Pan explains.

Pan has a dual appointment at UMBC and UMB, where he serves as professor of diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine and pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. At UMBC, Pan is also affiliated with the department of computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE). 

Detecting COVID-19 using readily available tools

A second group of interdisciplinary researchers created a simple way to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 is present in the air. This group is led by Govind Rao, professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering (CBEE) and director of the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology (CAST). The journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering published their findings last month. 

Govind Rao. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

The researchers found that they could collect samples of SARS-CoV-2 by using a simple portable dehumidifier. They successfully tested their collection process in several locations within a hospital, where people reported experiencing flu-like symptoms.

This unique way of identifying SARS-CoV-2 allows hospitals to use readily-available dehumidifiers to detect the virus, rather than buy new scientific equipment to capture air samples for analysis. 

“This technology could find widespread use, as it is analogous to a smoke detector,” says Rao. “Once fully developed, it could potentially be deployed everywhere and empower people by giving them a direct readout of viruses and other biological threats in the air around them.” 

Rao worked alongside Pan, Douglas Frey, Xudong Ge, and Dighe, all CBEE and CAST faculty. Also working on the research are Michael Tolosa, staff member in CAST; Aaron Thole, a graduate student in CBEE; Priyanka Ray, a postdoctoral researcher in CBEE; and Benjamin Punshon Smith, a graduate student in computer science and electrical engineering. Moitra is also contributing to this work. The UMBC team collaborated with Jim Chang, director of the University of Maryland Medical Center’s department of safety and environmental health, who arranged for deployment of the dehumidifiers at various locations in the hospital.

The research team also is developing a rapid and sensitive test for detecting pathogen signatures in minutes, to pair with the dehumidifier.

Banner image: UMBC’s Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

UMBC and Georgia State University have received a $3 million five-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for research supporting the diagnosis of mood disorders. Tulay Adali, professor of computer science and electrical engineering (CSEE) and distinguished university professor, will lead UMBC’s portion of the research, which will receive about $870,000 in support.

Tulay Adali. Photo courtesy of Tulay Adali.

Mental illnesses and mood disorders are complicated and can be challenging to identify, says Adali. Diagnoses are often made based on symptoms that a person experiences, rather than using quantifiable measures, and descriptions of symptoms can be quite variable and subjectively observed and evaluated. 

The research team hopes to improve doctors’ ability to diagnose mood disorders through more quantitative, consistent measures. They will develop dynamic approaches to understanding how the continuously changing state of the brain is affected by mental illness. And their recommendations will include data from a range of sources, to more accurately reflect the complexity of mental illness.

Neuroimaging collaboration

Adali will work with her former graduate student Vince Calhoun, Ph.D. ‘02, electrical engineering. Calhoun is currently the director of the Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReENDS) at Georgia State University. Adali and Calhoun have worked together on multiple research grants in the past. 

In this project, the UMBC group led by Adali will focus on diagnostic methods, particularly the use of medical imaging data, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Adali and her team will develop multivariate data-driven models to help capture changes over time and space. They will apply these models to large datasets to evaluate their performance as diagnostic tools. The researchers will assess the reproducibility and replicability of the methods that are developed.

“I am especially excited about our proposal to identify homogeneous subgroups of subjects in a completely data-driven manner from neuroimaging data,” says Adali. “We hope this will enable us to better define subtypes of mental disorders, and will help inform effective and personalized forms of therapy.” 

Banner image: The Information, Technology, and Engineering building at UMBC. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

New findings published this week in Physical Review Letters suggest that carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen cosmic rays travel through the galaxy toward Earth in a similar way, but, surprisingly, that iron arrives at Earth differently. Learning more about how cosmic rays move through the galaxy helps address a fundamental, lingering question in astrophysics: How is matter generated and distributed across the universe? 

“So what does this finding mean?” asks John Krizmanic, a senior scientist with UMBC’s Center for Space Science and Technology (CSST). “These are indicators of something interesting happening. And what that something interesting is we’re going to have to see.” 

Cosmic rays are atomic nuclei—atoms stripped of their electrons—that are constantly whizzing through space at nearly the speed of light. They enter Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high energies. Information about these cosmic rays can give scientists clues about where they came from in the galaxy and what kind of event generated them. 

An instrument on the International Space Station (ISS) called the Calorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) has been collecting data about cosmic rays since 2015. The data include details such as how many and what kinds of atoms are arriving, and how much energy they’re arriving with. The American, Italian, and Japanese teams that manage CALET, including UMBC’s Krizmanic and postdoc Nick Cannady, collaborated on the new research.

Iron on the move

Cosmic rays arrive at Earth from elsewhere in the galaxy at a huge range of energies—anywhere from 1 billion volts to 100 billion billion volts. The CALET instrument is one of extremely few in space that is able to deliver fine detail about the cosmic rays it detects. A graph called a cosmic ray spectrum shows how many cosmic rays are arriving at the detector at each energy level. The spectra for carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen cosmic rays are very similar, but the key finding from the new paper is that the spectrum for iron is significantly different.

This image combines data from four space telescopes to reconstruct all that remains of the oldest documented example of a supernova, which was witnessed in 185 A.D. by Chinese astronomers. Supernovae are understood to be important sources of cosmic rays arriving at Earth. Image credit: NASA

There are several possibilities to explain the differences between iron and the three lighter elements. The cosmic rays could accelerate or travel through the galaxy differently, although scientists generally believe they understand the latter, Krizmanic says.

“Something that needs to be emphasized is that the way the elements get from the sources to us is different, but it may be that the sources are different as well,” adds Michael Cherry, physics professor emeritus at Louisiana State University (LSU) and a co-author on the new paper. Scientists generally believe that cosmic rays originate from exploding stars (supernovae), but neutron stars or very massive stars could be other potential sources.

Next-level precision

An instrument like CALET is important for answering questions about how cosmic rays accelerate and travel, and where they come from. Instruments on the ground or balloons flown high in Earth’s atmosphere were the main source of cosmic ray data in the past. But by the time cosmic rays reach those instruments, they have already interacted with Earth’s atmosphere and broken down into secondary particles. With Earth-based instruments, it is nearly impossible to identify precisely how many primary cosmic rays and which elements are arriving, plus their energies. But CALET, being on the ISS above the atmosphere, can measure the particles directly and distinguish individual elements precisely. 

The Pierre Auger Observatory is a ground-based cosmic ray detector in Argentina. Photo: Pierre Auger Observatory, shared under CC BY-SA 2.0

Iron is a particularly useful element to analyze, explains Cannady, a postdoc with CSST and a former Ph.D. student with Cherry at LSU. On their way to Earth, cosmic rays can break down into secondary particles, and it can be hard to distinguish between original particles ejected from a source (like a supernova) and secondary particles. That complicates deductions about where the particles originally came from.

“As things interact on their way to us, then you’ll get essentially conversions from one element to another,” Cannady says. “Iron is unique, in that being one of the heaviest things that can be synthesized in regular stellar evolution, we’re pretty certain that it is pretty much all primary cosmic rays. It’s the only pure primary cosmic ray, where with others you’ll have some secondary components feeding into that as well.”

“Made of stardust”

Measuring cosmic rays gives scientists a unique view into high-energy processes happening far, far away. The cosmic rays arriving at CALET represent “the stuff we’re made of. We are made of stardust,” Cherry says. “And energetic sources, things like supernovas, eject that material from their interiors, out into the galaxy, where it’s distributed, forms new planets, solar systems, and… us.”

All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff.

Carl Sagan, “The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective,” 1973

“The study of cosmic rays is the study of how the universe generates and distributes matter, and how that affects the evolution of the galaxy,” Krizmanic adds. “So really it’s studying the astrophysics of this engine we call the Milky Way that’s throwing all these elements around.”

A global effort

The Japanese space agency launched CALET and today leads the mission in collaboration with the U.S. and Italian teams. In the U.S., the CALET team includes researchers from LSU; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; UMBC; University of Maryland, College Park; University of Denver; and Washington University.The new paper is the fifth from this highly successful international collaboration published in PRL, one of the most prestigious physics journals.

CALET was optimized to detect cosmic ray electrons, because their spectrum can contain information about their sources. That’s especially true for sources that are relatively close to Earth in galactic terms: within less than one-thirtieth the distance across the Milky Way. But CALET also detects the atomic nuclei of cosmic rays very precisely. Now those nuclei are offering important insights about the sources of cosmic rays and how they got to Earth. 

“We didn’t expect that the nuclei – the carbon, oxygen, protons, iron – would really start showing some of these detailed differences that are clearly pointing at things we don’t know,” Cherry says.

The latest finding creates more questions than it answers, emphasizing that there is still more to learn about how matter is generated and moves around the galaxy. “That’s a fundamental question: How do you make matter?” Krizmanic says. But, he adds, “That’s the whole point of why we went in this business, to try to understand more about how the universe works.”

Banner image: A Japanese transfer vehicle (labeled HTV-5) is docked at the International Space Station. The CALET experiment is being extracted by the station’s robotic arm (labeled with “Canada”). Credit: NASA

Tyson King-Meadows, professor of political science and associate provost for strategic initiatives in the Office of the Provost, has played a vital role in UMBC’s culture and academic policy work since 2003, when he joined the campus as an assistant professor of political science. He credits these experiences for preparing him to serve next as dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston) this fall.

“At UMBC, I have learned that a university can only move forward when it moves beyond talking about a problem and shifts into creating and implementing solutions,” shares King-Meadows. “I developed a keen eye for big solutions to big problems.”

King-Meadows is an accomplished scholar, notes President Freeman Hrabowski, as well as an inspiring teacher with a strong voice for the arts, humanities, and social sciences. “What makes him particularly effective in his work is his dedication to serving as a champion for both students and colleagues,” shares Hrabowski. “All of us at UMBC are very proud of him as he begins this new role at UMass Boston.”

Kimberly Moffitt, interim dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS), has worked with King-Meadows for 15 years. She says his example to all is to keep envisioning possibilities in the face of adversity. “I am simply ecstatic that UMass Boston recognizes him as a talented, visionary leader who will enhance their campus as he has ours,” she shares.

National recognition

King-Meadows has achieved local, regional, state, national, and international recognition for his work. In 2019-2020, he was awarded the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship, serving in the Provost’s Office at Case Western Reserve University. He assisted Provost Ben Vinson III on efforts related to strategic planning, community engagement, and faculty development. 

“Tyson has drawn upon his ACE experience to significantly impact our work at UMBC,” shares Philip Rous, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “In addition to working with deans and shared governance to align general education with the priorities of UMBC’s strategic plan, Tyson has strengthened our partnerships with academic learned societies in ways that significantly expanded our efforts to recruit and retain diverse faculty, staff, and students.”

King-Meadows served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in 2012-13, working for the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. Earlier in his career, he was also a recipient of the National Academy of Sciences’ Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and was a fellow of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African American Research at Harvard University. And in 2003-04 he was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in the Department of Political Science at the University of Ghana, where he taught American politics and researched aspects of African politics and democratization.

Diversity and inclusion leadership

In his current UMBC role as special assistant to the provost for faculty development and engagement, King-Meadows has researched and developed best practices for faculty development programs. He has also laid the groundwork with campus and external partners to develop new programs aimed at recruiting prospective underrepresented minority faculty and students. 

As a co-chair of the Provost’s Executive Committee for the Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement of Underrepresented Minority Faculty, King-Meadows has played a vital role in the design and implementation of the Postdoctoral Fellowship for Faculty Diversity and the Emerging Scholars Program. Launched in 2011, the postdoctoral program has brought in 18 fellows across a broad range of disciplines. Seventeen have already transitioned to higher academic positions, including 11 at UMBC.

“Talented minority faculty are not unicorns,” King-Meadows said to Amy Scott, senior correspondent for Marketplace, in a segment on confronting bias in faculty hiring. “It just depends on where you’re looking,” he told Scott. He went on to explain the importance of senior faculty of all backgrounds demonstrating commitment to faculty diversity, saying, “We understand here at UMBC that the burden of inclusiveness should not rest on minority faculty.”

Political science research

King-Meadows’s contributions to the field of political science are many. His research has broadened understanding of the complex issues that influence the political involvement and representation of Black communities. 

King-Meadows explores this topic through the lens of the economic disparities and sociopolitical stratification present in the United States during the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. His first single-authored book was When the Letter Betrays the Spirit: Voting Rights Enforcement and African American Participation from Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama(Rowman & Littlefield, 2011). It examines the design and implementation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the impact of its four renewals on Black voter registration and election turnout.

“Tyson is a tremendous scholar who exhibits a rare command of both the institutional side of the American politics subfield as well as the behavioral side of American politics,” says Thomas Schaller, professor of political science. He and King-Meadows co-authored Devolution and Black State Legislators: Challenges and Choices in the Twenty-first Century(State University of New York Press, 2006). Schaller says, “I’m proud to have co-authored a book with him about the growing power of Black state legislators in the United States.”

Launching student careers

Over the last 17 years, King-Meadows has enriched students’ research experiences and helped them explore various career pathways. He shares that he is grateful for the opportunity to work with students at the beginning of their academic journeys and then see them take that knowledge through to successful careers. 

Arthur Johnson, professor of political science and provost emeritus, hired King-Meadows and recalls the young faculty member’s rigorous classes and the valuable research experiences he provided his students. He remembers, “It was common for Tyson to be in his office with students well into evening hours advising them, helping them understand the material presented in class, and planning research.”

King-Meadows also values opportunities to collaborate with alumni as they move on in their careers. He is currently working on two articles with a former senior research assistant, Rhoanne Esteban ‘11, political science. Esteban is a doctoral student at UC Santa Barbara and a data analytics engineer at Travelers Insurance. 

He is also co-authoring a book chapter on Baltimore with McNair Scholar mentee Marcus Board ‘07, political science. After graduating from UMBC, Board earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and is now an assistant professor of African American studies at Georgetown University.

“I’ve never considered it a mentor/mentee relationship as much as a unique pairing with great strengths,” says Board. “Between the two of us, we hold great imagination, kindness, focus, and a commitment to racial justice. I’m thankful for Dr. King-Meadows’s support over the years.”

Teaching social justice

Social upheavals in Baltimore and across the nation have put King-Meadows in the spotlight as a scholar of Black political representation and as a former president of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. Media and institutions have frequently called upon him to share policy background and reflections related to urgent demands for police reform and anti-racism work. 

After Baltimore’s 2015 Uprising in response to the death of Freddie Gray, King-Meadows participated in a campus teach-in offered by UMBC faculty. At the teach-in, he discussed his research paper, “Harbingers of unrest in Baltimore.” The Washington Post included the paper in “Here’s how to teach Black Lives Matter,” a curated syllabus of research articles on the Black Lives Matter movement. 

In June 2020, in the midst of global protest asking for justice for the murder of George Floyd and the increased support for the Black Lives Matter movement, King-Meadows once again joined UMBC faculty and leadership in a town hall, “The Many Faces of Structural Racism: A Campus Conversation.” He explained the history of disenfranchisement in the Black community.

“Whether centered on social justice issues related to the Baltimore Uprising or the racial reckoning after George Floyd’s death,” shares Moffitt, “Dr. King-Meadows has consistently encouraged us to do more and do better while continuing to center issues of inclusive excellence and equity.” 

King-Meadows also worked with UMBC’s Shriver Center to develop an afterschool civic engagement program for elementary school students. “Our Civic Voices” taught students at Baltimore City’s Federal Hill Preparatory School how to write letters to their representatives on the City Council and in Congress to express their concerns about problems in their community. King-Meadows notes, “The students now know they can be an active part in the democratic process without actually casting a vote—that was powerful.”

Lessons from UMBC

One of King-Meadows’s most salient memories while at UMBC was Baltimore’s 2011 earthquake, which happened while campus leaders were busy working at their annual retreat. Everyone left the building—but not for long.

After the building was deemed safe, everyone stayed to continue with their work of planning for the year ahead. His takeaway was that as long as people are safe, “we are going to continue to be in the trenches, to fulfill our social justice purpose, our economic mobility purpose, in service of the faculty, staff, and students,” says King-Meadows. “I will carry this lesson with me as I head to the University of Massachusetts Boston.”

Banner image: Tyson King Meadows. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.