Nature in the Dark, which features work by Tim Nohe, Visual Arts, CIRCA, and originally screened in Melbourne at Federation Square in 2012, will appear in new venues soon: at the Gertrude Street Projection Festival in Melbourne, Australia (18-27 July 2014), and at the Visual Arts Centre in Bendigo, Australia (14 August – 5 October 2014). Nohe’s piece, At The Wall of the Anthropocene, is an animation set to an original film score created in collaboration with Tim Bubb, IMDA.

Nature in the Dark is a collaborative program produced by the Centre for Creative Arts, La Trobe University and the Victoria National Parks Association.

CIRCA is currently collaborating with the Centre for Creative Arts, Marnie Benny of the MICA Curatorial Practices Program, Australian/German curator Jan Hendrik Brüggemeier, UMBC visual and performing artists and multiple partners in the Inner Harbor to produce a second edition of the program focused on marine life. This program will debut in Spring 2015.

The traveling tour of For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights, curated by Maurice Berger, CADVC, has been extended by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), due to it’s popularity and success as an “NEH on the Road” exhibition. 

With six venues for the larger version of the exhibition and additional venues for “NEH on the Road,” the exhibition tour will exceed 40 venues in well over 25 states. Symmes Gardner, executive director of the CADVC says, “With nearly 800,000 visitors for the big show, we now anticipate at least 1 million visitors by the time the smaller exhibition closes in 2019.”

For All the World to See was presented at UMBC in 2012.

Garden of Earthly Delights, an animation by Kelley Bell, visual arts, will be presented in the 2014 Northern Spark Arts Festival in Minneapolis. The piece, which uses characters from the Hieronymus Bosch triptych of the same name, will be projected onto architecture of Minneapolis. In the animation, “the characters from Bosch’s famous painting depicting creation, an earthly paradise, and hell are revealed by a meandering spotlight that captures these creatures in midflight, slowly tracking them across the landscape—and then they vanish. They are ephemeral, like the sudden revelation of an unnoticed detail in a cityscape that comes to define the city.”

Northern Spark is a one night arts festival presented by Northern Lights.mn, a nonprofit arts organization with the mission to transform our sense of what’s possible in public space. Northern Spark will take place June 14, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Zhibo Zhang, an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department, and his collaborators received a three-year grant of $710K from NASA’s Sciences of Terra and Aqua program to study the Marine Boundary Layer (MBL) clouds.

The MBL clouds cover about 20% of Earth’s surface. They play a pivotal in Earth’s radiative energy budget. Prof. Zhang’s research will help us understand the horizontal and microphysical structure of MBL clouds and provides guidance for the development of future NASA satellite missions.

As PI, Zhang will lead a group of researchers from UMBC, NASA GISS, and the Univ. of Illinois.

Zhang was also recently selected to receive the NASA New (Early Career) Investigator Program (NIP) awards in Earth Science. The NIP is a highly competitive and prestigious award established by NASA in 1996 to encourage integrated environments for research and education for scientists and engineers at the early stage of their professional careers. This year more than 130 scientists nationwide applied for this program and only 21 were selected.

The NIP will fund Zhang and his graduate student for three years to investigate the climatic effects of above-cloud aerosols (e.g. soot and dust) using data from NASA satellites. When elevated above clouds, aerosols can generate strong warming effect on the climate due to enhanced absorption. Dr. Zhang’s research is aimed to understand the size of this effect and its potential implications to global warming.

Professor Vikram Vakharia, Professor of Marine Biotechnology at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) in Baltimore, received a $100,000 grant from the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII). Vakhria will use the funds to develop a vaccine against viral infections in fish populations. Such viruses can be devastating to fish populations world-wide. A vaccine could have tremendous implications for hatcheries and rearing ponds that provide high-protein fish to tens millions of people.

Many viral diseases in fish have been reported worldwide. Of particular concern is infections caused by nervous necrosis virus (NNV). This virus is of concern because it impacts both warm- and cold-water fish in marine environments. The virus has resulted in severe economic losses in many Asian and European countries, Australia and North America. It is estimated that 5% of loss in the finfish aquaculture industry is due to disease and translates into over $1 billion global annual loses. The disease is associated with high mortality (up to 100 %) particularly in larvae and juvenile fish species. Therefore, technologies are needed to immunize large populations of fish with vaccines that are efficient and economical.

“The health of fish is critical to the aquaculture industry and the countless number of people who consume fish in every corner of the world,” said Vakharia, a global leader in viral diseases of aquaculture. “Nervous necrosis virus (NNV) infects more than 40 fish species and currently, there are no commercial vaccines available to prevent this disease,” Vakharia added.

The goal of Vakharia’s research is to develop and evaluate the efficacy of a recombinant NNV vaccine.

“Dr. Vakharia’s research is critically important from both an environmental and economic perspective,” noted Russell Hill, Director of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET). “The development of a new vaccine will support the aquaculture industry and help provide food for millions of people. We greatly appreciate TEDCO’s support and foresight in addressing this important work through the Maryland Innovation Initiative.”

MARYLAND INNOVATION INITIATIVE (MII)
The Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) was created as a partnership between the State of Maryland and five Maryland academic research institutions (Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, University of Maryland College Park, University of Maryland Baltimore and University of Maryland Baltimore County). The program is designed to promote commercialization of research conducted among the partnership universities and to leverage each institution’s unique strengths.

TEDCO
The Maryland State Legislature created TEDCO in 1998 to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technology from Maryland’s research universities and federal labs into the marketplace and to assist in the creation and growth of technology-based businesses in all regions of the State. TEDCO is an independent organization that strives to be Maryland’s lead source for entrepreneurial business assistance and seed funding for the development of startup companies in Maryland’s innovation economy.

INSTITUTE OF MARINE AND ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY
Located in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology is a strategic alliance involving scientists at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the University of Maryland Baltimore and the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Scientists are engaged in cutting-edge research in microbiology, molecular genetic analysis and biotechnology, using marine resources to develop new drug therapies, alternative energy and other innovations to improve public health and economic opportunities. IMET also contributes to sustainable marine aquaculture and fisheries in the Chesapeake Bay and other marine ecosystems.

Dr. Holland is leading a group of fifteen UMBC students down to Costa Rica for a GES summer field course focusing on conservation and sustainable development in two biological (conservation) corridor regions.  The course will begin on June 1st and continue for two weeks.  The students will be conducting participatory mapping exercises and interviews with community organizations to better understand the challenges they face and priorities they have when implementing sustainable development initiatives.  We’ll also take part in an environmental service project within each region.  You can virtually travel along with us and read day-to-day reflections via this blog:

http://mbholland.wordpress.com/

Here in the Office of Institutional Advancement, we are always working hard to support the university and connect our donors with causes they care most about. We would like to introduce our donors — to whom we are so grateful — to the people who help make those things happen. Today, we’ll be hearing from Susan Lynch, a Development Officer.

Name: Susie Lynch
Job Title: Development Officer
Focus Area: Development
Years at UMBC: 1.5

Q: Where are you from originally?

A: New York City

Q: What do you love most about UMBC?

A: The people

Q: What’s your favorite thing about your job?

A: Meeting interesting, entrepreneurial people

Q: Why do you think it’s important to support UMBC?

A: Because it makes a difference. The impact of people’s philanthropy can be seen all over campus, from the students who attend on scholarship to the named buildings.

Q: What is your favorite food?

A: Pizza

Q: What is your favorite movie?

A: Breakfast at Tiffany’s