The Baltimore Sun has honored Mike Summers as the “Best Academic” in the region for 2017. Summers, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Robert E. Meyerhoff Chair for Excellence in Research and Mentoring, is internationally known for his HIV research. By increasing understanding of the virus’ structure, members of Summers’ lab hope to discover novel ways of inhibiting its activity. Summers was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences on April 29, after being elected last year. Membership in the NAS is one of the highest honors a scientist can receive.

“For the Academy to recognize someone who tries to do quality research, but does it in an environment that is inclusive and involves undergraduates makes it so much more special to me,” said Summers.

Summers is deeply committed to supporting students from all backgrounds. One of Summers’ mentees, Heather Frank ‘17, biochemistry and molecular biology, is featured as an exemplar of the UMBC Class of 2017. “The amazing mentorship I have received at UMBC has brought me the courage and confidence I needed to apply to competitive graduate programs and pursue my Ph.D.,” Frank says. “The environment here provided me all the opportunities so I could become my best self.” Frank will pursue a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Harvard.

“Being at UMBC opened my eyes not only to existing disparities in science research and education, but also to possibilities for effecting change,” Summers reflects. “The satisfaction that goes with helping our students achieve their dreams, and showing colleagues elsewhere new ways that they can approach and support their own students, is a reward without measure.”

Best of Baltimore 2017 Best Academic: Michael Summers, UMBC

Image: Mike Summers (center) with UMBC students. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

You do not have to be enrolled in classes to enroll in the Monthly Payment Plan!

Just estimate your costs and if need  be you can make changes once you know your exact costs.

The Digital Marketing Associate is responsible for managing and implementing all web content and email initiatives to support the BSO’s goals of driving earned revenue online and deepening patron engagement. This position, reporting to the Marketing & PR Manager, will serve as the primary lead for maintenance of the BSO’s website (BSOmusic.org). Successful candidates must have 1-3 years prior experience in a digital marketing or e-commerce role.

QUALIFICATIONS AND CAPABILITIES

Hello, my name is Dylan Rogers Elliott, and I am entering my fourth and final year as an undergraduate at UMBC. It is all bitter sweet, because UMBC really has become a home to me and I have loved my time here. Over the last three years, I have been able to challenge myself academically, get involved in a multitude of ways around campus, and even study abroad. Last fall, I had the privilege of living and studying in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the United Kingdom. Studying abroad is a unique requirement for the Humanities Scholars Program and attending Newcastle University was a fantastic experience. However, I am definitely excited to see what my senior year is going to bring. In addition to pursuing my Bachelor of the Arts in History and minor certificate in Legal Policy, while at UMBC I have striven to be an active and involved community member, giving back to my UMBC family. This year will be no different as I am taking on a number of responsibilities, the biggest three being the presidency of UMBC’s mock trial team, working as a Career Peer Advisor in the Career Center, and serving as the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Editor of UMBC’s undergraduate research journal, the UMBC Review.

As a four-year member of the Mock Trial team, I am thrilled to be able to serve the team I love as president. The past three years have been filled with success for UMBC Mock Trial, we advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the first time ever during my sophomore year and repeated that feat last season, and I am looking forward to continuing to build on that foundation. Likewise, this will be my third year as a Career Peer Advisor and I am looking forward to continuing to help fellow students prepare for internships, jobs, and graduate school. The editorship is a new, single year position, but I am already enjoying working with students by reviewing and editing their submissions to the Review. In addition to those involvements, I will be returning as the Senate-Chair for the Humanities Scholars Program Senate, serving as a team leader for the Honors College’s freshman course, Honors Forum, and serving as the Assistant-Director for Student Advocacy in SGA’s Department of Institutional Affairs and Student Advocacy.

When I am not busy with all of that, I am looking forward to everything else in between. Whether it is getting in some last intramural soccer games with my teammates on “Skiddlydoos F.C.”, celebrating UMBC’s 50th anniversary, or working through the harrowing process of applying to law school, I am excited for my fourth year at UMBC.

Kafui Dzirasa ’01, chemical engineering, is only 38, but is already emerging as a national leader in brain science. His research – which posits that some of the most common mental illnesses might be explained by unexpected connections between electrical patterns in different parts of the brain – could lead to more targeted and effective ways to treat conditions from schizophrenia to autism to depression.

The former Meyerhoff Scholar has also drawn national attention. Last October, as part of a White House panel on research, he found himself explaining to the leader of the free world what it means to think about the brain as an engineered electrical system.

Dzirasa started out at UMBC as a chemistry major but switched to chemical engineering so he could continue using math and computer science, subjects he enjoyed in high school. As graduation approached, he found himself gravitating toward health-related fields, so he stayed on for a fifth year to take pre-med courses and serve as student body president. “I realized it would be useful to learn as much about the body as I could,” he says.

Dzirasa then headed to Duke University to earn his M.D./Ph.D. in bioengineering, with the goal of designing neuroprosthetics—devices that interface with and augment the brain’s abilities and functions. But a stint in Duke’s schizophrenia ward realigned Dzirasa’s plans, awakening him to the huge need for better mental health treatments. “It was not until I got to the clinic that I realized mental illness was a real thing,” he says. “It was tremendous wake-up call.” Instead of giving healthy people additional capabilities, he realized he could help sick people live fuller lives by creating neuroprosthetics for mental illness.

While scientists believe that psychiatric symptoms should map onto underlying physical conditions in the brain, identifying those conditions has been challenging. Scientists still have a limited understanding of the neural basis of most illnesses or why treatments such as antidepressant drugs and electroshock therapy are effective.

Dzirasa, now an assistant professor in Duke’s biomedical engineering and neurobiology departments, hopes to change that by studying the brain’s electrical signals. Though we hear a lot about brain chemicals, the brain is also electrical: Like the information-processing transistors in your computer or phone, each of the roughly 100 billion neurons in your brain transmits information using electrical impulses. Dzirasa takes advantage of this by inducing various conditions—stress, bipolar disorder, even drug addiction—in mice and using tiny implanted electrodes to measure how electrical activity changes.

He uses mathematical and computational tools to find connections between recorded electrical patterns in different brain areas. In the prestigious journal Neuron, he recently reported an instance in which communication between two regions in a mouse’s brain was influenced by activity in a third, seemingly unrelated, one. When he exposed the mice to stress, the communication broke down. “It’s almost like parents sitting in the front seat of a car and kids sitting in the back,” he says. “When the parents are controlling the kids’ communication, everything is fine. But if you tell the kids to stop talking and they don’t, then you’ve got problems. We found that the parent lost the ability to control the kids’ communication.”

Dzirasa’s ultimate goal is to make a “pacemaker” for the human brain. Like the heart implant that restores a regular heartbeat, his dream device would correct faulty electrical signals that underlie debilitating conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. “If mental disorders are problems with electricity, we should be able to treat them using electricity,” he says. “I could see a future in which people sleep in a hat” wired with electrodes to stimulate healthy brain function.

A recent discovery may be a step in that direction: Dzirasa and colleagues have figured out a way to not just read but write electrical information from one part of the brain to another. He has a paper coming out and a patent pending on the technique. But challenges remain. For obvious reasons, he cannot stick wires into a living human the way he can in a mouse, and there are significant differences between how mouse and human brains work that need to be accounted for. Translating his findings from mice to humans is “the next step,” he says.

Dzirasa credits UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholarship program with shaping his career ambitions. And he is now giving back to the program that helped him, returning to campus once or twice a month to mentor scholars in “everything from career advice to life advice, decision-making advice—all the things that go along with helping college students figure out their place in the world.”

It’s yet another set of connections through which Dzirasa is making the world a better, more caring place.

— Gabriel Popkin

Image: Les Todd, Duke Photography

Read more about brain research at UMBC in “Staking Our Claim.”

As part of DoIT's ongoing commitment to security, the Unix Infrastructure group will be conducting its quarterly system patching  for RT on Monday, June 5, 2017 between 7:00am - 8:00am. 

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Joe Kirby ,  Assistant Vice President, Business Systems

Division of Information Technology (DoIT) 

Administration 627

Office - 410-455-3020 

Email - kirby@umbc.edu

Applications have been reviewed for the JCET Graduate Student Fellowship for 2017-18.  Five applications were received. Based upon the recommendations of the selection committee, Mr. Anin Puthukkudy has been chosen to be the JCET Graduate Fellow for the 2017-18 academic year. Mr. Puthukkudy is working with JCET Faculty member Dr. Vanderlei Martins in the Physics Department.

Mr. Puthukkudy’s project is entitled “Microphysical Properties of Volcanic Ash.”  On behalf of JCET, I would like to extend congratulations to Mr. Puthukkudy on joining the group of JCET Graduate Fellows.

With the Quicken Loans Scholarship Essay Contest, we’re giving away $2,500 in cash to put toward tuition costs.

You can enter by writing a blog post for the Quicken Loans Zing Blog, which specializes in home, money and lifestyle topics. Write a 700- to 1,500-word article on the topic below and submit it to ZingScholarships@quickenloans.com. Please include the following:

• Full Name
• Phone Number
• Date of Birth
• College/University
• Address of College/University

Blog Topic:

How to Budget as a College Student: Budgeting can be a challenge at any time in life, but it can be especially difficult for college students. Discuss pro tips, interview financial experts, give budgeting advice – the sky’s the limit! The purpose of this blog is to educate your readers in a conversational and practical way. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out some of our personal finance blog posts on the Zing Blog.

Contest Entry Period: May 2, 2017 at 10:00 am – November 30, 2017 at 11:59 pm ET

Contest Renews Per Semester: Next Scholarship Essay Contest begins December 1, 2017!