1 John 4:9-11 (NLT) - “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love-not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.”

Often times, a young child may ask a parent - “how much do you love me?”  And a parent’s usual response would be to show the child how much they love the child by stretching out his or her arms. It may be a cute and endearing interaction between a parent and a child, but it does reflect how our hearts are needing and are longing to know real love and we have a Heavenly Father who has shown that to us - to the fullest extent.

And, how much did God show us? In this NLT translation, the phrases “how much” and “that much” are used to describe God’s love toward us. God showed us “agapé” - unconditional (”not that we loved God”) and sacrificial (”sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins”) love. While we were so undeserving and still lost in our sin, he showed us loving mercy and made a way for us through the sacrifice of his only Son so that we can be saved.

This is love. This is real love. This is gospel love. And, may we simply be undone by this reality.

Let’s spend time in worship and in thankfulness for our Father in Heaven who graciously and lovingly saved us and showed us this “much” love.  May we be transformed by the power of his love.

“Power of Your Love” sung by Darlene Zschech, written by Geoff Bullock (Hillsong)
https://youtu.be/mz7ymFyiDEw

-EK

Lee Blaney, assistant professor of chemical, biochemical and environmental engineering, has received a prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance his research on contaminants of emerging concern and their effects on the environment. The grant, totaling $500,000 over five years, will support Blaney’s research on pharmaceuticals, hormones, and personal care products in the local Gwynns Falls watershed.

“We congratulate Dr. Blaney on his NSF CAREER Award, a recognition of his commitment to impacting and engaging the UMBC and greater Baltimore communities through his research and teaching,” said Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research.

Contaminants of emerging concern include pharmaceuticals and personal care products, such as antibiotics, hormones, sunscreens, and fragrances. Sewer leaks can introduce these everyday chemicals to urban streams, contaminating the environment. Recently, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave wastewater systems in the U.S. a grade of “D.” Blaney explains that it is crucial for these systems to be upgraded to maintain water quality and protect the environment.

Blaney will work alongside the Baltimore Department of Public Works and other stakeholders in the Gwynns Falls watershed to complete his research and put his findings into action. He explains, “This project has a strong potential for broader impacts. It will provide a wealth of information on the occurrence and effects of contaminants of emerging concern in our local environment that can be extrapolated to other urban systems around the world.”

Blaney will use screening tools that identify the presence of wastewater in urban streams to locate sewer leaks that may be adversely affecting streamwater quality and that require repair. In waterways affected by wastewater, contaminants of emerging concern have already been detected in the tissue of both vertebrates and invertebrates, highlighting potential concerns to human and ecological health through antibiotic resistance, endocrine disruption, and other toxicity mechanisms.

This CAREER award also recognizes Blaney’s commitment to increasing the number of women and underrepresented minority students in environmental engineering research through collaboration with UMBC’s Center for Women in Technology, Meyerhoff Scholars Program, STEM BUILD Program, and programs supporting community college alumni completing their undergraduate degrees at UMBC. In addition, Blaney will develop and launch a citizen science program in Baltimore City to increase opportunities for community members to connect with their environment, collect important environmental data, and increase their scientific literacy.

“I cherish the role of teacher-scholar, and I am honored to receive the CAREER Award,” Blaney says. “This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication that I bring to work everyday. The CAREER Award reinforces my approach and will allow me to continue to integrate my research and teaching programs in new and exciting ways.”

UMBC faculty have received 34 NSF CAREER awards since 1995 across a number of fields, including engineering, physics, information systems, and computer science.

Header image: Lee Blaney. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

This article was originally published here and written by Sarah Hansen.

Dean Bill LaCourse, of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS), has been working for 20 years to build up a set of core analysis and imaging facilities at UMBC, open to the full UMBC community, local startups, and other institutions in need of these research tools. The campus celebrated the realization of his vision on February 24 with the Core Crawl, a special event where dozens of guests toured four core facilities, guided by their managers.

The Keith R. Porter Imaging Facility (KPIF), Nano-Imaging Facility, Research Graphics, and Molecular Characterization and Analysis Complex (MCAC) each offer unique tools to support scientific research, from mass spectrometry to scientific animations. The facilities’ most recent addition is a state-of-the-art transmission electron microscope recently donated by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus.

Tools like these “are all about the most fundamental aspect of science—observation,” says LaCourse, and they “leverage and extend our capabilities so we can look at everything from the atom to the ends of the universe.”

The four UMBC facilities are unique among similar facilities at other universities because their directors do much more than analyze experimental samples for researchers. “The leaders of these facilities really are your allies as you are trying to gain new knowledge,” says Karl Steiner, vice president for research at UMBC. “They bring their expertise to your problem and work with you to get somewhere you may not have known you could go.” He adds, “It’s not the newest and latest instrument that makes a facility successful—it’s the people who run it and work with you.”

Marios Levi ’19, mechanical engineering, demonstrates a 3D printer at the Keith Porter Imaging Facility to Julia Wolf, biological sciences.

One of those people is Tagide deCarvalho, manager of the KPIF, who stressed the teaching and learning aspects of the facilities. “I’m really interested in helping people at all levels,” she shared, “from sample prep, to instrument training, to experimental design.”

Joshua Wilhide, manager of the MCAC, emphasized that the goals of the facilities extend beyond generating results researchers can publish. “We are a university—at the end of the day we have to look at how we’re teaching the next generation,” he shared, “be it graduate student or undergrad, we’re going to train you on any of the instruments so you not only understand what the analytical techniques are, you can actually run them.” Developing those skill sets early in their scientific careers can open up new and exciting opportunities for students who work in the labs.

As university-based facilities, the labs are also able to provide low rates for instrument time, which is particularly useful for local start-ups. Before making a major investment in expensive equipment, new companies can get advice from dedicated staff and determine what instrumentation they might need down the road.

Dean LaCourse is particularly excited that the four expanded core facilities will reach a broad range of users, within and beyond CNMS. “Now we have facilities that are customer-focused, client-focused. We’re here to service and facilitate the research enterprise in the most effective and efficient way possible,” said LaCourse. “It’s access for everybody.”

Banner image: Joshua Wilhide describes the instruments available at the MCAC; photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

This article was originally published here and written by Max Cole.

Michael Lane, an assistant professor of ancient studies, has been awarded $40,000 in grants from the Institute of Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP).

Lane and his co-investigator, Eleni Kountouri, Director of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, will use the grants to conduct field work around the Kopaic Basin in central Greece.

INSTAP awarded Lane and Kountouri $20,000 for the 2017 season and pledged another $20,000 for the 2018 season. In addition to an international group of specialists, Lane will bring nine UMBC undergraduates and a UMBC alumnus to assist him in his fieldwork in summer 2017.

“This news is fantastic. I hope to supplement INSTAP’s grant with grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society in the year ahead,” says Lane. “The pledge of money for 2018 assures that I will be able to complete the bridge to a more extensive landscape archaeology project to be realized from 2019 onward and involving more students in a field school.”

Professor Lane specializes in archaeological survey and excavation, anthropological theory in archaeology, Bronze Age economies in the Eastern Mediterranean, and Mycenaean Greek and the Linear B script in which it was written. He teaches a variety of archaeology courses and Ancient Greek.

For the last several years, Lane has helped lead the Ancient studies study trip during spring break, which in recent years has visited Greece, Turkey, and Italy. The program will visit Spain next month.

To learn more about Professor Lane’s research, visit the Ancient Studies department website.

Image: Michael Lane conducts field work. Photo courtesy Michael Lane. 

On behalf of Great Minds in STEM, Genevieve Montoya (Academic Affairs Specialist) would like to invite SWE members from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County to participate as STEM Civic Service Leaders, “College Captains,” at the upcoming Viva Technology Student Day Program on Friday, April 7, 2017.

Viva Technology is Great Minds in STEM’s National K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education awareness program. The program is designed to enlighten teachers, parents and K-12 students about the many ways engineers and scientists impact our daily lives. With the help of college students from surrounding universities, we are able to provide “near peer” role-models for the students who participate in the program. Through a series of hands-on STEM activities, we help participating students understand the correlation between their math and sciences studies and the many exciting careers in STEM. This is a great opportunity for university students to work with K-12 students and inspire them to consider higher learning and careers in STEM. We provide each College Captain with a $100 stipend for a full-day program; which will be distributed individually or collectively for a student organization fundraiser.

The program will be hosted at:

Woodlawn Middle School

3033 St. Lukes Lane

Baltimore, MD 21207

Friday, April 7, 2017

From 6:45am – 3:45pm

Interested students may register through the following link: http://www.cvent.com/d/25q94h

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Genevieve Montoya at gmontoya@greatmindsinstem.org.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

This article was first published here and was written by Catherine Borg.

Lisa Moren, professor of visual arts, has received a production fund award from the from Johns Hopkins University’s Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund in Film and Media for the collaborative project NONUMENT 01::The McKeldin Fountain. The award includes $70,000 of funding to develop an augmented reality app.

“The Nonument app is a virtual memorial to the demolished McKeldin Fountain” says Moren. “The spirit of Nonument is to validate public spaces that are important to real people, making stimulating places full of rich textures.”

NONUMENT01 Baltimore 10 min.

As the project website explains:

Viewers will hold up a smartphone or tablet like a protest sign in order to see the lost fountain, hear the waterfalls and nearly forgotten stories from the past 35 years. Sound scores and first-hand stories will remember Occupy Baltimore, the Black Lives Matter movement and protests in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray in the hands of Baltimore Police, the National Guard on the site, the activists group Women in Black, controversial comedians, a marriage proposal, artists using soap bubbles, mermaid performances and many other personal, poetic and political stories imbued with frailty in this tenuous free speech zone.

Videos and animations further illustrate the history of the site in the app.

NONUMENT01 App, Wip

NONUMENT 01 is part of a larger NONUMENT research project conceived by the Museum of Transitory Art (MoTA) in Lubljana, Slovenia. It addresses the perception of public space and its role in urban everyday life. NONUMENT was developed within the ARTECITYA network co-financed by Creative Europe, devoted to artistic and technological innovations with the aim of improving the quality of life in cities.

The NONUMENT 01::The McKeldin Fountain website further explains that NONUMENT is “an international initiative that seeks to honor hidden urban spaces that carry symbolic value for ordinary people.” Rather than using bronze or stone, the project “installs new and emerging media forms in order to capture the transitory nature of everyday experiences.”

NONUMENT01::The McKeldin Fountain is the first implementation of the project in collaboration with Baltimore artists Lisa Moren and Jaimes Mayhew ’10 M.F.A., intermedia and digital arts, and Martin Bricelj Baraga and Neja Tomšič (artist-in residence in UMBC’s department of visual arts in fall 2014). The NONUMENT01::The McKeldin Fountain website, project videos, 3D model, and animations were produced with support from the Imaging Research Center at UMBC, the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund, LABStudios, and CEC ArtsLink.

The McKeldin Fountain, plaza area, and walkways were built in 1982 and designed to serve as public space at the corners of Pratt and Light Streets, adjacent to the Baltimore Inner Harbor. The redevelopment of the Inner Harbor was the culmination of a period of transformation for the area from an industrial space to a tourist and residential district, envisioned in the 1960s by Mayor Theodore McKeldin.

The plaza was often a public gathering spot for tourists, residents, and workers. It was designated a free speech zone and was a gathering point in the city for demonstrations and protests. The decision by former Mayor of Baltimore Stephanie Rawlings Blake and the Downtown Partnership to demolish the fountain without concrete future plans was controversial among city residents. The City of Baltimore’s plans for the site remain unknown.

Moren was named among the first cohort of Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund Bold Voice, New Paradigms Incubator Fellows in October 2016 to develop the Nonument app concept. Johns Hopkins founded the fund in March 2016 through a $1 million grant from the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation. Zaentz was an Oscar-winning producer who died in 2014. The incubator supports Baltimore artists by networking them with others to develop and realize their ideas in Baltimore. The deadline for applications for the third incubator program, which begins in late April, is March 31.

Image and video: Courtesy of the NONUMENT 01::The McKeldin Fountain artists.

See coverage in the Baltimore Sun: Baltimore artists to receive funding for film, media projects from Johns Hopkins fund 

Johns Hopkins University will be hosting its annual Health Professions School Recruitment Fair on Monday, April 24, 2017, 11:00am – 2:00pm in Levering Hall on the Homewood campus.  The Office of Pre-Professional Programs and Advising along with the Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medical Program are very excited to be hosting this event and we currently have over 70 health professions schools from around the country registered to attend and promote their health professions programs.

We would like to extend an invitation to students at your institution to attend this free event.  It is going to be a wonderful opportunity for students to learn more about various health professions schools and to make valuable connections with these programs.

Here is the link for students to pre-register: https://goo.gl/forms/7zVzTVHhPMbos8aB2

I hope to see your students in April!  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Shannon Jensen, M.A.

Assistant Director

Office of Pre-Professional Programs & Advising

Johns Hopkins University