A Formula for Success

He’s a celebrated novelist whose second novel, The Age of Shiva (W.W. Norton & Company), will be released in February. But he’s also a mathematics professor who specializes in partial differential equations and is dedicated to fostering interest in mathematics among K-12 students and the general public.

Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Manil Suri – who will read from his new novel at UMBC on February 5 – compares his passions for both fiction writing and mathematics to a game of chess. “You need to track each piece along several future moves to see which option is the best,” he explained. “In mathematics, the chess pieces are variables or unknowns, and you’re trying to find a rule that describes how they can behave, while in fiction, the pieces are characters, and you’re trying to figure out which path they should take to yield the most dramatic outcome.”

Suri’s debut novel, The Death of Vishnu (W.W.Norton & Company, 2001), was published to critical acclaim, garnering rave reviews from The New York Times Book Review, the Boston Sunday Globe and Minneapolis Star-Tribune, among others. Suri was named a Time magazine “Person to Watch,” and the book received multiple awards, including the 2002 Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, the 2001 Ralph Heyne Corrine Buchpreis (Germany), the 2002 McKittrick Prize (UK) and a Pen-Bingham Fellowship for 2002-04. In 2004, Suri was one of 184 distinguished scientists, scholars and artists selected from a field more than 3,200 applicants to be named a Guggenheim Fellow.

The Death of Vishnu was also a finalist for the Pen-Faulkner award, Kiriyama prize, Pen-Hemingway award, L.A. Times Art Seidenbaum Award, Torgi Literary Award (Canada) and W.H. Smith First Novel award (U.K.). In addition, it was long-listed for the Booker Prize (2001) and the IMPAC Prize (2003) and was a New York Times Notable Book for 2001. 

Last year, Suri was awarded a University System of Maryland (USM) Elkins Professorship. First established in 1978, the Elkins professorships support professors “who demonstrate exemplary ability to inspire students and whose professional work and scholarly endeavors make a positive impact beyond the USM.”

“Mathematical writing (involving proofs, for instance) is hard enough to understand when the readers are mathematicians – the non-expert has almost no chance,” said Suri. “Making the beauty, elegance and job of mathematics accessible to non-mathematicians is therefore a very challenging endeavor – one that I have tried to pursue through outreach activities, like my presentation on infinity.”

Most recently, Suri has worked with middle and high school students in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area, and brought UMBC students from his First-Year Seminar class in Computation as an Experimental Tool  to help teach computer-aided mathematics sessions to Baltimore high school students.

“In our complex society, we need more people to have the reasoning skills that come with mathematical and scientific study,” Suri added. “Get ‘em while they’re young!”

Suri will read from and sign copies of The Age of Shiva at UMBC’s Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery on Tuesday, February 5 at 7 p.m. RSVP at eventrsvp@umbc.edu.

(1/22/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Alumni Honored for Their Achievements

The UMBC Alumni Association will present awards to six distinguished alumni who are leaders in their fields at the 2008 Outstanding Alumni Awards Ceremony and Annapolis Reception on February 6.  For more information about the honorees and the event, please visit http://retrievernet.umbc.edu/annapolis.

Engineering and Information Technology
Stephanie Reel ’85, Information Systems, is vice provost for information technology and chief information officer for the Johns Hopkins University, and vice president for information services for the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Reel’s work to develop electronic patient records management was honored by Computerworld magazine and the Smithsonian Institution.

Humanities
Kevin M. Maxwell ’02 Ph.D., Language, Literacy & Culture, is the superintendent of schools for Anne Arundel County Public Schools. An educator for over 20 years, Maxwell previously served as a chief educational administrator, community superintendent, principal and teacher in Maryland public schools. Under his leadership as principal, Walter Johnson High School in Montgomery County was named one of the 100 best high schools in the U.S.  Maxwell was recently named Public School Superintendent of the Year by the Fullwood Foundation.

Natural and Mathematical 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. 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.

Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Honorable Marcella A. Holland ’80, Political Science, is circuit administrative judge of the Baltimore City Circuit Court. Among her many honors, she has been named one of Maryland’s “Top 100 Women” and has an extensive record of community service and civic leadership.  

Visual and Performing Arts
Kara Lee Corthron ’99, Theatre, received the 2007 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights for “Wild Black-Eyed Susans,” which was performed during UMBC’s Homecoming in 2007. She is also a three-time recipient of the Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du Nouy Foundation Award.

Distinguished Service Award
Eric Conn ’85, Computer Science, is the president and co-founder of Gloto Corporation, creators of Cellblock.com, which allows users to instantly publish photos and videos from cell phones to an online photo album. Cellblock was used at UMBC’s 40th Anniversary, and, as guests watched from several locations, real-time photos from events were instantly posted on a large screen – a new twist that took the concept of a traditional photo album and turned it into a social event.

(1/18/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

UMBC Peaceworker Alumni Remain Engaged in Baltimore Communities

While nearly 85 percent of UMBC’s Shriver Peaceworker Fellows originally come from outside the Baltimore region, 60 percent have settled and remain engaged in service careers in local communities.

“With 100 percent of Peaceworker alumni continuing in public service careers and more than half staying in our region to engage in community service careers, the Shriver Peaceworker Program is proving to be a ‘creative-class’ infusion for the City,” said Program Director Joby Taylor. The program—which focuses on finding ways for returning Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) to serve their states and communities when their missions abroad are completed—now has 100 alumni.

The Peaceworker program at UMBC’s Shriver Center was founded in 1994 by Sargent Shriver, who will be honored in an upcoming PBS documentary to be aired nationally on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 21. The film, American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver, celebrates a man who is little known among today’s generation, but has had an indelible impact on our society.

Few people have had a greater impact on public service in America than Shriver, who founded and directed the Peace Corps under President John F. Kennedy. Both men  envisioned a powerful impact of RPCVs on American society, and as a native Marylander, Shriver realized this vision concretely in the establishment of the Peaceworker program at UMBC, with an urban problem-solving focus on the Baltimore region. 

“Shriver’s genius in the Peace Corps and Peaceworker programs was his ability to marshal a sense of ‘practical idealism,’ which is optimism about making a difference matched with realism about the hard work this involves,” said Taylor.

Peaceworker alumni working in the Baltimore region include:

Erin Hood ‘07
Graduate Degree: UMBC Master’s Degree in Public Policy focused on Human Services, with a Certificate in Nonprofit Management. 
Peace Corps Volunteer: Jamaica.
Peaceworker Fellowship: UMBC Coordinator for Service and Volunteerism to foster student’s sense of social responsibility through community service. 
Where she is now: Director of Development, Community Mediation Program,  Baltimore City

Brian Greenan ‘05
Graduate Degree: UMBC Master’s Degree in Intercultural Communications focused on Spanish language study and Latin American history and politics 
Peace Corps Volunteer: Niger
Peaceworker Fellowship: Centro de la Communidad, serving Baltimore’s growing Latino community.  As a mayoral fellow  and then with the Downtown Partnership, he  provided direct outreach to homeless persons in the downtown area for which he was given a commendation by the Baltimore City Council.
Where he is now: Organizer with Neighborhood Housing Services

Sarah Morris-Compton ‘07
Graduate degree: UMBC Master’s Degree in Public Policy focused on Human Services Policy
Peace Corps Volunteer: Turkmenistan and Kenya.
Peaceworker Fellowship: Coordinator of a service-learning project that linked college Web design classes to non-profit organizations at the University of Baltimore’s School of Information Arts and Technologies 
Where she is now: Program Associate for the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore working on large-scale state child welfare and juvenile justice system reform.

(1/14/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Honoring Excellence

UMBC’s science, technology and engineering community ended 2007 on a prestigious note as five faculty members were named as fellows or board members of international societies for excellence in their fields.

The honors are just the latest in distinguished careers for the professors, but carry special meaning because they indicate the respect of peers.

Julia Ross, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, and Tulay Adali, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, were both elected fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. It’s not the first time the two have been honored by the same organization, as both Ross and Adali received National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awards in 1997.

“It means a lot to be considered a peer in a group that represents the academy of biological and medical engineers,” Ross said. “I’m honored that others value the quality and impact of our research.”

Ross studies how drug-resistant forms of staph and other infections adhere and spread inside the body. In 2007, she received the American Society for Engineering Education’s Sharon Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education.

Adali is currently working on several projects funded by the NSF, National Institutes of Health and other agencies to develop new signal processing techniques to better understand how the brain functions. “Recognition is always rewarding, especially when it is least expected and when in such great company,” she said. “I’ve been fortunate to work with a bright group of graduate students on a fascinating array of projects, in a forward-looking academic environment fostered by UMBC.”

Shlomo Carmi, professor of mechanical engineering and former dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology, was recently elected to serve on the Board of Governors of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME). Carmi, who was named an ASME Life Fellow in 1992, has been a tireless advocate for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education over his exemplary career.

“Having a positive impact on society has always been my desire, so getting elected to the ASME Board of Governors provides me with a golden opportunity to serve the engineering profession and put UMBC on an important global stage,” said Carmi.

Ray Hoff, professor of physics and director of the collaborative NASA-UMBC research centers JCET and GEST, was recently named a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. Hoff’s expertise on air pollution, climate and the atmosphere has been reflected in a prestigious track record of collaborations with and honors from NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency, Environment Canada, the European Economic Community and other earth science organizations. 

“I’m pleased and honored to have received a society fellowship at the same time as my colleagues,” said Hoff. “UMBC has clearly reached a point where awards and honors are becoming a larger part of the life of the campus. The story of UMBC as a prestigious place to do cutting-edge research is becoming more obvious to our peers and I hope that recognition spreads statewide.”

Govind Rao, professor of chemical engineering and director of the Center for Advanced Sensor Technology, was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Rao develops new technologies for biotechnology manufacturing. He has licensed several of his patents to Fluorometrix, a company he co-founded. His many other career honors include the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation and the 2001 Gaden Award from John Wiley for the most influential paper published in biotechnology and bioengineering.

“This level of recognition indicates that UMBC is finally coming of age,” said Rao. “We are a young institution and it simply takes time to mature and be recognized. It also shows the importance of picking a niche and excelling in it. We are too small to compete in every field, but in the ones that we do, we are stellar.”

(1/7/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

National Society of Black Engineers Chapter Excels in Academic Competition

While UMBC is known for its accomplished chess team, another campus group is gaining acclaim for blending the life of the mind with the spirit of competition.

For the second consecutive year, UMBC’s chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) represented the university remarkably well in a series of academic competitions against peers from across the country.

Teams of UMBC students (all of them scholars from the Meyerhoff, MARC U*STAR or other prestigious programs) swept the competition at the NSBE’s Fall Regional Conference, defeating teams from the University of Maryland, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Pittsburgh and others. UMBC teams placed first and second in the Academic Technical Bowl (ATB) and also won the Undergraduate Students in Technical Research (USTR) event.

The ATB is a “Jeopardy!” style quiz bowl that tests knowledge of engineering, science, math, African-American history and other topics. The USTR is an individual undergraduate research competition and –among 12 finalists from around the region – Meyerhoff Scholar Ozell Sanders won first place, earning a $200 prize. Both the ATB first place team and Sanders will move on to compete at the NSBE National Conference in Orlando, Florida, against other regional winners from across the U.S.

“I’m really proud of our NSBE chapter winning both ATB and USTR again this year,” said Brandon Johnson, a senior mechanical engineering major, economics minor and president of UMBC’s NSBE chapter. “I think this is a testament to the strength of the UMBC chapter and, of course, to the quality education we receive here.”

According to Johnson, the son of UMBC physics professor and CASPR director Anthony Johnson, the NSBE contests require focus and preparation from team members. “We go over strategies and usually practice against each other with questions that might be asked in the real competition,” Johnson said.  “We also assign certain topics to each team member depending on there major and what classes they’ve taken. We try and split the teams up so there are a variety of different technical majors on each team.”

Despite the Meyerhoff Program’s reputation for camaraderie and peer support, according to Johnson, they still enjoy competing against each other. “A friendly rivalry ensues, and we definitely play to win,” Johnson said. “The closeness of the Meyerhoff program allows us to be very supportive of each regardless of the outcome. When it comes to competing against other schools, I feel that our pride in our NSBE chapter and the academic excellence that the Meyerhoff program has instilled in us combines for a strong competitive spirit.”

“UMBC’s NSBE chapter continues to help shine a bright light on the campus, the strong academic reputation that we enjoy and the overwhelming support the organization receives from the administration and engineering and science faculty,” said LaMont Toliver, director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program and advisor to the chapter. “In my humble opinion, because of its deep and historical commitment to academic excellence, community service and a diverse membership, NSBE continues to be one of the most impressive and premier student organizations at UMBC and throughout the country.” 

The first place ATB team includes Meyerhoff Scholars Marie Baronette, Malcolm Taylor, Imhotep Jackson, and Johnson. The second place team consists of Meyerhoff Scholars Mike LoCastro, Natee Johnson, Berook Alemayehu and Dianne Weeks.

(1/15/08)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Photo Caption: Devin Hagerty on the flight deck of the U.S.S. Tarawa.

He’s more accustomed to students in flip-flops instead of combat boots, but Associate Professor of Political Science Devin Hagerty was proud to sail with the U.S. Navy and Marines as he educated officers en route to South Asia.

For a week in November 2007, Hagerty was one of three “embedded Ph.D.s” through a U.S. Navy program that looks to include lessons from academic experts as part of military mission training.

Hagerty sailed from San Diego, California to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii with an Expeditionary Strike Group led by the amphibious assault ship U.S.S. Tarawa, as it headed to the Indian Ocean. Originally slated to conduct joint exercises with regional militaries, the Group was chosen to lead humanitarian relief efforts in Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr struck the region on Nov. 15, killing over 3,200 people.

Hagerty commuted from ship to ship by helicopter or inflatable speedboat to deliver briefings on Bangladesh, the Maldives, Asian-Pacific culture, and U.S. strategic interests in the region. His deployment was part of the Regional Security Education Program, run by the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, California.

During his week aboard, he picked up naval lingo like “cranials” (ear plugs and goggles for braving flight deck and helicopter winds and noise), “floaties” (life preservers), and “mobys” (cellphone-size, salt-water-detecting beacons to alert the bridge in case of a person overboard). Hagerty bonded so well with his hosts that by week’s end the Marines offered to give him a regulation flattop haircut and take him to the Indian Ocean with them.

“It was a blast, but more importantly, I felt like my efforts had some immediate relevance as our sailors and Marines helped victims of the cyclone,” said Hagerty.

Flag Football Heads to National Championship

In a year of athletic achievements on the varsity level, it is only fitting that success on the intramural level would follow. On the heels of a quarterfinal appearance in the NCAA tournament by the men’s lacrosse team and the first-ever NCAA March Madness appearance by the women’s basketball team, one of UMBC’s co-ed flag football teams is advancing to the NIRSA National Championship in Dallas, Texas.

Winning the UMBC Championship the last two years, the Warrior Machine participated in the NIRSA Mid-Atlantic Regional flag football tournament this fall. Being defending champions was not a prerequisite for the Mid-Atlantic tournament, however, UMBC wanted to send its strongest team for the school’s third appearance. The Warrior Machine picked up a couple of players from other UMBC teams to round out their roster at 15, assuming the name UMBC Warriors.

After two days of play, the Warriors outlasted 14 other coed teams, defeating local rival the University of Maryland College Park, on their home field, for the right to compete in the National Championship in January. Historically, the team that wins the Mid-Atlantic Regional makes an impressive showing in the National Championship. “During the third day of the tournament we had to play three games; it became a battle of condition and will. The games were significantly longer and more physically taxing putting a stronger emphasis on preparation and warm-ups,” said Joe Palmer, team captain and quarterback.

With a team comprised exclusively of juniors and seniors, it is not always easy to find time outside of academics for flag football. But the team members have played alongside one another most of their time at UMBC. “Each of us wants to be a part of this and not finding a way to make time for the team is potentially letting down 14 other people,” senior Alex Pyles said.

Though members of the team are actively involved in many other campus organizations ranging from the Golden Key Honor Society to the SGA to The Retriever Weekly, the members are focusing their efforts on fundraising for their trip to Dallas. They are currently selling tickets to win massages and plan to do their third 50/50 raffle at the December 22 men’s basketball game against Hampton.

Eager to take the field on a national stage, Pyles said, “we will proudly take the field at the University of Texas, Dallas in black and gold, four letters visible on our chest: UMBC. We are proudly taking the name of the university that we have called home with us.”

For more information on the team, e-mail Joe Palmer at jpalm1@umbc.edu.

(12/11/07)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

UMBC Faculty Violinist Airi Yoshioka Honored for Music Education and Outreach

Assistant Professor of Music Airi Yoshioka was recently honored with the McGraw-Hill Companies’ Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach. The $10,000 award recognizes outstanding musicianship and includes a program of her live performances on prominent New York City classical music radio station WQXR.

A violinist and graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, Yoshioka plans to use her award to start a Web site for music teachers and music education majors with resources for exploring teaching skills and personal development as a musician.

She has created two programs at UMBC that provide music majors teaching experience in local elementary schools. Teaching Artist Fellows collaborate with classroom teachers to give each child an opportunity to make connections with music from his or her own perspective. Instrumental Fellows learn to teach their respective instruments in a group setting. (The Teaching Artist Fellowship was originally known as the Burchard Fellowship, in honor of Robert Burchard, professor emeritus of biological sciences, who established the award.)

Yoshioka has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia and Canada as a recitalist, soloist and chamber musician. She was an original member and concertmaster of The New Juilliard Ensemble, is a founder of the Damocles Trio and a member of various new music ensembles, including Ruckus, UMBC’s resident new music ensemble. Yoshioka taught music at New York City public schools through the Morse Fellowship program, Lincoln Center Institute and the New York Philharmonic, and brings her aesthetic education work to Japan this fall.

UMBC Teaching Artist and Instrumental Fellows often pursue careers in education. For example, Charlene Woo ’05 received a master’s degree in education from the Johns Hopkins University and is currently teaching in a first grade classroom where every student takes music lessons. Robert Zuzin ’06 has built a reputable guitar studio while sustaining an extensive performing career.

(11/27/07)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �