The Mac App Store is the safest place for users to get software for their Mac, but we also want to protect users when they download applications from other places. Developer ID is a new way to help prevent users from installing malware on their Mac. Along with Gatekeeper, a new feature in OS X Mountain Lion, signing applications with your Developer ID certificate provides users with the confidence that your application is not known malware and has not been tampered with. Get started with Developer ID today and prepare your applications for Gatekeeper. Learn more.

The Mac App Store is the safest place for users to get software for their Mac, but we also want to protect users when they download applications from other places. Developer ID is a new way to help prevent users from installing malware on their Mac. Along with Gatekeeper, a new feature in OS X Mountain Lion, signing applications with your Developer ID certificate provides users with the confidence that your application is not known malware and has not been tampered with. Get started with Developer ID today and prepare your applications for Gatekeeper. Learn more.

We’d love to listen and value your opinions!

Please click on the link below to read the current issue.

Baxter International Inc., headquartered in Deerfield, IL, develops, manufactures and markets products that save and sustain the lives of people with hemophilia, immune disorders, cancer, infectious diseases, kidney disease, trauma, and other chronic and acute medical conditions.  As a global, diversified healthcare company, Baxter applies a unique combination of expertise in medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to create products that advance patient care worldwide.

Come join a market leader in the development of innovative and quality medical devices with over $915 million in R &D spending.  Launch your career at Baxter and join us to shape the future.

 Position Descriptions:

Interns in Baxter’s Medical Products R&D function participate in research to support new product development, manufacturing process development, and marketed products.   Interns will be assigned research projects and become part of a research team.   Assignments may include working in a research laboratory utilizing analytical instrumentation, working in pilot plant manufacturing setting to develop new processes, and/or working with databases.   Laboratory work may include sample preparation, pH measurements, HPLC, Microscopy, LC-MS, and/or NMR.  Other techniques may be utilized as the research project requires.

Applicant is expected to contribute routine scientific knowledge or expertise to research and development activities for achievement of project goals.   Applicant must be detail oriented and capable of following standard operation procedures when applicable and following Good Documentation Practices (GDP).
 
The experience and mentoring will complement the student’s studies to prepare them for a successful research career.   Science interns who excel in the Internship Program will be considered for the full-time science positions.

Qualifications:

• Actively pursuing a Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD in science or engineering (Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmacy, Biology, Chemical/Biochemical/Environmental/Mechanical Engineering)
• Strong academic performance – Minimum GPA 3.0
• Proven track record of delivery of commitments
• Demonstrates excellent skills in organization, team dynamics, effective communication and prioritization of tasks
• “Passion” for Science with a desire for a career in commercial research and development
• May 2012 graduates may apply if they will be attending graduate school in Fall 2012
• US Citizen or Permanent Resident
  

Benefits:

Pay is competitive, and is based on the Intern/Co-op's discipline and academic year. Other benefits include paid holidays and subsidized housing and transportation for participants with a permanent address located more than 50 miles from Baxter. In addition, participants have the opportunity to network both professionally and socially through organized developmental and social activities.

To apply:

Visit position 9249803 in UMBCworks.

Deadline: March 16, 2012

See what you missed the first time… after you closed your eyes.

Don’t forget The Big Screen Throwback Thursday Theater Bus Trip to see Jaws is this Thursday evening! $3 tickets are on sale at the CIC, and we’ll be shuttling people to and from the theater from campus!

PS: Why is this event name so long? I just keep making it up as I go along.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CimFrnWexx0&w=560&h=315]

Glass may be fragile. But the process of making it is not for the delicate of hand or heart. Tony Baney, a second-generation glass blower who works in UMBC’s glass shop, manages to keep his cool even while working with his hands ungloved amid Pyrex as hot as 1,500 degrees Celsius. On the floor near his feet, a cardboard box of broken shards bears the sign: “Tony FIX ME please!” A nearby radio blares “Beast of Burden” by the Rolling Stones.

Read more at umbc.edu/magazine.

There are so many ways to leave a legacy.

By all accounts, over her many years at UMBC, Dr. Alice Robinson, a founding professor in theatre, left legacies in the broadened hearts and minds of countless students here. After her passing, her legacy lives on through a scholarship fund aimed at the very students she taught.

(Click on the photo at right to enlarge the full piece in UMBC Magazine.)

We are inspired by the gifts Dr. Robinson gave to UMBC.

What will your legacy be?

At AASHE 2011 last October, Julie Newman (Sustainability Director, Yale University) and Shana Weber (Sustainability Manager, Princeton University) hosted a workshop on “Framing a research agenda for campus sustainability”. For those not able to attend, an attendee did capture a partial transcription of the session here.

The importance of thinking further about the topics raised in that workshop came up recently as I was reading a study from Jasleen Kaur, a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory who is also a doctoral student at Indiana University’s School of Informatics. Her research paper, “Evolution and structure of sustainability science” examines the rapidly growing body of research in sustainability science. Her research has shown that the number of authors writing about sustainability has doubled every 8.3 years between 1974 and 2010.

This is quite remarkable and I admit, had me recalling a recent comic about the word “sustainable” becoming "unsustainable".

Returning to Kaur’s research, she also unearthed the academic disciplines most contributing to the research in sustainability science and found that 34 percent of published research is from the social sciences, followed by biology with 23 percent and engineering with 22 percent. The below chart provides a further breakdown of represented academic areas (image courtesy of Indiana University):

A press release from IU regarding the research is available here.
The full paper is available for download here.

Returning for a just a moment to the comic strip referenced above, are two fascinating Google Ngram graphs for the word sustainable. Here is the word “sustainable” since 1800
and since 1960. (For background on how Google’s Ngram viewer works go here.)
As a colleague pointed out, the "since 1800 chart" is strikingly similar to the global warming hockey stick chart that is one of the most assiduously referenced Wikipedia entries of all time. The comic strip hits close to home.

What can we deduce from all of this growth? Some of the conclusions are quite obvious – major scientific and societal challenges facing humans are being rigorously studied. However, like Newman and Weber at AASHE 2011, I’m not convinced there is a unified practice of sustainability research underway (related: has this growth in research resulted in significant societal sustainability performance?).Far too often, the disciplines contributing to this research remain siloed into existing departments and are not adequately engaged in interdisciplinary research.

At the same time, I'm not convinced that the higher ed (HE) sustainability movement needs its own sector-specific sustainability research agenda – many of the challenges institutions face and are overcoming go beyond the confines of the campus and influence (or should) the broader community. Separating the HE sustainability movement from the broader societal sustainability movement is a silo we need to avoid.

Thoughts or observations? Share comments below.

All images courtesy of Indiana University