A senior delegation of Maryland's MedStar Health Research Institute visited UMBC to discuss opportunities for research collaborations. Led by MedStar HRI President Neil Weissman, the delegation also included Katie Carlin, Director of Research Development, Nawar Shara, Director of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and Angela Thomas, Executive Director of Health Services Research Administration. About 30 faculty members representing the breadth of UMBC’s relevant research across the campus participated in a vigorous exchange of ideas. Hosted by the Office of the Vice President for Research, this was the first major official interaction between MedStar and UMBC. 

 “At first glance, the Russian-Georgian war of August 2008 seemed little more than the stuff of adventure-book fantasy: a reawakened empire going to battle against an old viceroyalty over a mountainous principality of negligible strategic value to either side. But it has had momentous consequences.”