Get connected and build your network to succeed!

The AOK Library & Gallery and the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) invite new faculty to a lunchtime session highlighting resources and services designed to support your research and teaching. Topics will include:

• Using ORCID to streamline your Faculty Success annual report
• Support for Open Access at UMBC
• Storage Options for Research Data
• Access campus research computing & data services (cluster, storage, cloud, hosting)
• Generative AI Support
• Library Special Collections
• Library Reference
• The New Media Studio
• Learning Analytics at UMBC

REGISTER HERE: Lunch and Learn for New Faculty · Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery · myUMBC

SEE ATTACHED FLYER FOR DETAILS 

This is a hybrid event: attend in person at the Library Gallery (with lunch provided) or participate online. The session builds on information covered during new faculty orientation. 

Contact for questions or help: Michelle Flinchbaugh, flinchba@umbc.edu

The Summer Undergraduate Research Festival (SURF) 2026 abstracts are due on Wednesday, July 22, 2026.  Please direct your student researchers to the SURF website at surf.umbc.edu for information on submitting their abstracts.  All students applying for oral Lightning Round talks must be available to attend two mandatory practices.

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) for Early Stage Investigators (ESI)

Mark your calendars!

Click here: to join webinar @ scheduled time

Event Overview:

Description:

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) will host an informational webinar to provide a program overview and respond to questions from prospective applicants to PAR-27-032 "Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) for Early Stage Investigators (ESI).

Participation in the informational webinar, although encouraged, is optional and is not required for the submission of an application. Advanced registration is not required. Please send program-specific questions not related to the webinar to the contacts listed under the "Inquiries" section of the NOFO. Participants requiring sign language interpretation and/or other reasonable accommodations should submit a request to NIGMS-ESIMIRA@nigms.nih.gov at least 5 days prior to the event.

Contact:

For event questions and special requests contact: NIGMS-ESIMIRA@nigms.nih.govFor technical issues contact: NIGMS-ESIMIRA@nigms.nih.govFor accessibility request: NIGMS-ESIMIRA@nigms.nih.gov

OSP In Person Training Series

How to Read a Funding Announcment

Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 7, 2026 · 1 - 2 PM Hybrid · Engineering : 102

The Office of Sponsored Programs Training Team is continuing our in person training series! We would like to invite you to join us for an in person training session focused on a specific topic of interest. This invitation is for you if you are a faculty, staff, or otherwise active participant in sponsored research at UMBC and would like to learn more from your OSP Team about specific research administration topics such as Subawards, documentation needed for routing, and more!

Please join us in person on July 7th, 1:00 pm -2:00 pm.

Present Topic: How to Read a Funding Announcement

Presenters: Taylor Shortt and Allison Martins Machado

Where: ENG 102 Note: **Update: No Heat Advisory as of 7/2 for Tuesday 7/7**

NEW Hybrid allowability! Webex log in found here: https://umbc.webex.com/umbc/j.php?MTID=m04235acf42d72154a5738a79a701c13c

*Click here OSP In Person Training Series · Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) · myUMBC for orginal posting and to sign up.*

Description: The present topic will go over how to read a funding announcement and some practices for PIs and Administrative Support to keep in mind when submitting a proposal.

At the end of each session there will be time for some Q&A. Please feel free to comment with questions ahead of time to be answered during the current or future sessions. If you have questions that pertain to a specific grant, please reach out to your Grants Manager individually.

Please note there are only 30 slots available at present, if we find there is a greater interest later sessions will find a larger meeting space.

Thank you!

OSP training Team

Date: Wednesday, July 1, 2026 

Time: 3:00PM ET - 4:00PM ET

Location: Virtual

Cost: Free

Click here to register

Event Overview:

Description:

Join this virtual open house to learn about the Individual Career Development (K Award) opportunities supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The event will open with a short presentation on active funding opportunities followed by breakout sessions where you can ask questions about specific activity codes or how to prepare a K award.

For event questions and special requests contact: NINDSKAwards@ninds.nih.gov 

The Office of Sponsored Programs Training Team would like to invite you to join us for a casual yet informative, virtual coffee chat. Bring your coffee and your questions to join us in this short information session. This invitation is for you if you are a faculty, staff, or otherwise active participant in sponsored research at UMBC and would like to learn more from your OSP Team on various topics including: Subawards, Modular vs detailed budgets, and more!

In an effort to create an even more open path to communication and education, and real-time answers, OSP’s virtual coffee chat series will continue Wednesday, May 27th, 11:30 am -12:00 pm.

Present Topic: New Subawards and Modifications to Existing Subawards

Presenters: Jamie Cole and Chelsea Raff

Description: The present topic will go over the Docusign forms to create a new subaward and to modify an existing subaward.

At the end of this session there will be time for some Q&A. Please feel free to comment with questions ahead of time to be answered during the current or future sessions. If you have questions that pertain to a specific grant, please reach out to your Grants Manager individually.

https://umbc.webex.com/umbc/j.php?MTID=m1ec6d27091197ebc4d84fe14fa1bcdd4 

Thank you!

OSP training Team

Want to make an impact while growing as a leader? Become a Peer Leader for the STEM LLC! Peer Leaders help build community, support incoming students, and create meaningful connections within the LLC experience. It’s a great opportunity to strengthen your leadership, communication, and mentorship skills while gaining valuable experience for future careers and graduate opportunities. Plus, you’ll play an important role in helping fellow STEM students feel connected, supported, and successful at UMBC!

Apply to become a peer leader here!

Focus now includes administrative efficiency & effectiveness

John Fritz·May 12, 2026 at 4:54 PM

Once again, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT), in partnership with the Office of the Provost, invites UMBC faculty and staff to submit analytics proposals for the 2026-27 academic year. Also, this year, a new focus will include proposals that aim to improve administrative efficiency and effectiveness. Regardless, the goal is the same – to use current or past data to inform future interventions or “actionable intelligence” that can solve a current problem or create a new opportunity to achieve a desired outcome.

Grant Overview
Award: $2,000 professional development award, renewable annually, transferred to your department’s PeopleSoft chart string.

Focus Areas

• Student Success and Retention: Projects exploring relationships between activities or learning in one course and outcomes in other courses, particularly critical progression points, low-success courses, or foundational skills.
• Faculty Development and Support: Proposals that leverage institutional data (via REX and Tableau) to inform instructional practices, contributing insights to the LA Community of Practice.

• Administrative Efficiency and Effectiveness: Projects focused on improving administrative efficiency & effectiveness, especially return on investment (ROI) to do so.

Eligibility

• All UMBC faculty (including adjunct faculty, lecturers, and tenure-track faculty) and staff members.

Expectations for Grant Recipients

• Engage actively with the UMBC Analytics Community of Practice (CoP).
• Produce and present a final report or scholarly product (conference presentation, external grant proposal, or publication).

• Consider leveraging results to apply for a Hrabowski Innovation Fund award.

Application Components:
Proposals must include:

1. Brief Abstract: Suitable for publication on UMBC’s website (maximum 200 words).
2. Project Proposal: Clearly outlining objectives, methodology, expected outcomes, and relevance (maximum 3 pages).
3. FERPA training completion certificate (more info)
4. Signed acknowledgement of support: Department Chair or Leader (through DocuSign)

Timeline

• Proposal Deadline: Friday, June 5, 2026
• Notification of Awards: Early July 2026
• Grant Period: July 2026 – June 2027

Support and Resources

• REX Data Warehouse (available to all faculty & staff who’ve completed FERPA training)
• Tableau training and support provided by DoIT
• Access to online, self-paced “Analytics @ UMBC” Blackboard training site.
• Access to prior workshops and resources to inform proposal development.

Click here for original post. Please submit proposals here. For proposal guidance, questions, or further information, please contact:

Robert Carpenter
Associate Provost for Analytics & Deputy CIO
bobc@umbc.edu

John Fritz
Associate Vice President, Instructional Technology
fritz@umbc.edu

Tom Penniston
Coordinator of Learning Analytics
penniston@umbc.edu

Two exceptional CNMS faculty members from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have received 2025 – 2026 University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents Faculty Awards. These prestigious awards recognize distinguished performance that consistently exceeds ordinary expectations.

Tara Carpenter, teaching professor, has been awarded the Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. This honor highlights faculty who demonstrate outstanding pedagogy, promote measurable gains in student learning, and innovate to support broad student success.

(Tara Carpenter, courtesy of Carpenter)

Carpenter teaches UMBC’s largest introductory chemistry courses, reaching more than 1,000 students per year—mostly first-year students and non-majors—in sections exceeding 250 students. Beyond delivering rigorous content, she focuses on teaching students how to learn, helping them build a growth mindset—the idea that abilities can be developed, rather than being innate—and succeed in college and beyond.

Over time, Carpenter’s efforts have significantly lowered drop-fail-withdraw (DFW) rates in General Chemistry I and II and strengthened students’ preparation for later courses such as Organic Chemistry. Carpenter consistently receives glowing student evaluations, and her work has influenced department- and campus-wide practices for over 15 years. She regularly shares her methods and results with national audiences of teaching professionals through scholarly publications and conference presentations.

“This award is deeply meaningful to me, because it reflects years of work focused on implementing evidence-based teaching practices at scale,” Carpenter says. “I firmly believe that every student can succeed in chemistry, which is why I integrate principles from the learning sciences into my teaching. Seeing students adopt a growth mindset and master concepts they once thought were out of reach is, and always will be, my driving passion.”

Professor Michael F. Summers has received the Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring. This award recognizes sustained excellence in mentoring that fosters student development, retention, and post-baccalaureate success, with a strong emphasis on inclusive excellence.

(Michael Summers, courtesy of Summers)

A longtime leader in UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholars and G-RISE programs, Summers helped build nationally recognized models for increasing underrepresented minority (URM) success in STEM. Under his direction, Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows achieved a 90 percent retention rate—far above national averages of 55 – 64 percent for all Ph.D. students in STEM—and has produced 229 URM Ph.D. graduates since 2001.

In his own laboratory, 313 undergraduates and 74 graduate students/postdocs have received mentorship, either from Summers directly or from more advanced students he coached, creating a rich and resilient community of mentorship in his group. Many alumni from Summers’ laboratory have become faculty at institutions such as Harvard and Oxford, leaders in industry, and champions of the Meyerhoff philosophy elsewhere. His approach creates a strong sense of belonging, enabling students—often the first in their families to attend college—to conduct and publish high-impact research in top journals and reach their career goals.

“Mentoring is at the center of all we do in our lab,” Summers shares. “I often wake up in the morning excited and motivated by our latest lab experiments, but I go to bed at night thinking about the students—their own dreams, where they are now and where they are going. And my former mentees are so inspiring! It is my work with students that has brought me the greatest sense of satisfaction.”

Please join CNMS in congratulating Tara Carpenter and Michael Summers on these well-deserved honors. Their dedication to student success and inclusive excellence reflects the very best of UMBC.

🚨 NSF CAREER Webinar Alert — Don’t Miss This! 🚨

Are you planning to submit a National Science Foundation CAREER proposal this year? This is your chance to hear directly from program officers.

📅 Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2026 and/or  May 19, 2026

🕑 Time: 2:00 – 3:30 PM (EDT)
💻 Format: Virtual (Zoom)

Click here Free Registration:  Webinar Registration - Zoom

Join the NSF CAREER Program Informational Webinar to get:

✔️ Key insights into the CAREER solicitation
✔️ Guidance on crafting a competitive proposal
✔️ Clarification on requirements and expectations
✔️ Live Q&A with NSF program directors

The NSF CAREER Program is NSF’s premier award for early-career faculty, supporting those who integrate research and education while building long-term leadership in their field.

                                     Sponsored by NSF and promoted by  UMBC CNMS & COEIT