UMBC honors faculty fellows
Recognizing decades of exemplary scholarship and service
On November 1, the UMBC community celebrated faculty who have earned exemplary recognition as fellows by their professional associations and societies. Designation as a fellow is one of the top honors an academic can earn, recognizing a career of accomplishment, often decades in the making. Nearly 50 UMBC faculty members—about 14 percent of the university’s tenure-track faculty—have received this high distinction in their fields, and the number is growing quickly across all three UMBC colleges.
At a special event to honor their achievements, organized by the Office of the Vice President for Research, President Freeman Hrabowski told the faculty fellows, “All of you here today represent the best in your disciplines and we wanted to celebrate what you have done, to make the point that our institution has a wide range of scholars from literature and history, to the sciences and social sciences, to the arts.”
Hrabowski specifically mentioned Michael Summers, Robert E. Meyerhoff Chair for Excellence in Research and Mentoring and University Distinguished Professor of chemistry and biochemistry, who recently became the first UMBC faculty member elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Jessica Berman, professor of English and director of the Dresher Center for the Humanities, received praise for her editorial work on the Modernist Latitudes book series (Columbia University Press) and service to the board of the American Comparative Literature Association. Robert Provine, professor of psychology, internationally known for his expertise on human behavior, met with hearty applause for his 40+ years of service to UMBC.
Hrabowski highlighted Bimal Sinha, professor of mathematics and statistics since 1985 and founding member of the statistics program at UMBC, and department colleagues Thomas Mathew and Nagaraj Neerchal for their extensive international collaborations, including applied statistics work to address economic challenges in Africa.
Hrabowski also honored Tulay Adali, University Distinguished Professor of computer science and electrical engineering, for research completed in her lab at the intersection of signal processing and medical imaging, and Warren DeVries, professor of mechanical engineering, for his long-term commitment to mentoring students and younger faculty as they launch their careers.
“The recognition that you’ve received from your international peers is one of the most tangible measures of your success as a scholar and a researcher,” shared Provost Philip Rous, “and through that recognition you bring great honor and visibility to our community and our university.” Rous stressed UMBC’s emphasis on excellence in research with impact, and thanked the faculty fellows for their contributions to that trajectory.
Provost Rous also recognized that each honoree’s efforts go far beyond scholarship. “Every one of you who’s here is an outstanding professor, teacher, and dedicated mentor for our students,” Rous shared, “and it’s that combination as well as your incredible achievements in research that makes UMBC such a great place to be.”
The complete list of faculty fellows is available
here. It can be sorted by name, department, or professional society.
Meet Flora,
She is an Ancient Studies major and an URA Scholar. She is also a Designer for UMBC’s Student Events Board, a student assistant at AOK’s Special Collections and is the secretary for the Ancient Studies Club. Her future goals will to become a museum curator, preferably specializing in an ancient roman field.
Flora's research will examine Roman coins from the second and third centuries CE and their use as a means of communication for Rome’s emperors. She will investigate how the physical characteristics of the coins – the amount of silver, the weight, the level of wear and use – all contribute to the emperors’ strategies of communication throughout the period. She will also examine the imagery of coins based on category (tradition, military problems, dynastic emphasis, personal preferences, disasters, and civic prosperity), one can begin to identify trends and their correspondence to contemporary events.
Read more about her research here…
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Meet Flora, She is an Ancient Studies major and an URA Scholar. She is also a Designer for UMBC’s Student Events Board, a student assistant at AOK’s Special Collections and is the secretary for...
http://ur.umbc.edu/home/our-researchers/research-profiles-16-17/flora-kirk/
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Mon, 05 Dec 2016 14:05:08 -0500
UMBC faculty celebrate opportunities to expand collaboration
“The complex problems we face do not organize themselves neatly into the categories we’re used to,” says Carole McCann, professor and chair of gender and women’s studies. “We need to think beyond those boundaries.”
McCann leads the new Provost’s Interdisciplinary Activities Advisory Committee, which just hosted UMBC’s first social hour to bring together faculty from different fields, but with overlapping research and creative interests, to plant the seeds for future collaborations.
Provost Philip Rous shares that this event, and the committee behind it, respond to his conversations with faculty who identified “a real need for additional support in the area of interdisciplinary work.” Having opportunities to get away from the “disciplinary lens” and removing barriers to doing interdisciplinary work, he notes, is what will set UMBC apart as a community focused on solving complex, real-world problems.
Four faculty led informal discussions to start the conversation at this week’s event. Nicole King, associate professor and chair of American studies, discussed her work in Baltimore City, including collaborations with colleagues and students in sociology, visual arts, and media and communication studies. One project centers on a community garden in Curtis Bay, in partnership with a local school. Another focuses on interviews with Baltimore residents about their experiences with the city’s deindustrialization—interviews that students have developed into radio segments airing on WEAA.
For King, interdisciplinary research means “asking big questions, solving big problems, with whatever tools you need,” moving beyond artificial limits imposed by academic disciplines.
Amy Hurst, associate professor of information systems, conducts research in human-centered computing, particularly assistive technologies. She sees her field as an amalgam of design, behavioral science, and technology.
For interdisciplinary projects to be successful, Hurst says, “We need to be fluid in the languages of the different fields.” She, like King, emphasized the need to think beyond a single answer to a narrow question or a single technology to solve a narrow problem. She shares that when working with students, collaborators, or end-users, “Rather than giving them a hammer, I like to give them the toolbox.”
Tulay Adali, University Distinguished Professor of computer science and electrical engineering, says interdisciplinary research increases the impact of her work by applying it in new contexts. Rather than continuing to make small improvements to systems that have been in development for decades, applying her research to brand new fields can lead to positive change in leaps and bounds.
“It enriches what you’re doing,” Adali says. “You have to have patience, to invest your energy, but the rewards are huge.”
Tim Nohe, professor of visual arts, discussed his work at the interface of the arts and ecology. Nohe uses a variety of art forms to explore how different cultures steward the natural environment. A 10-year project of his, based in Australia, recently culminated with the exhibition Sounding Botany Bay at the Albin O. Kuhn Library. He’s also interested in urban landscapes and empowering Baltimore citizens to put pressure on local government to tackle environmental justice issues. That’s made considerably easier by today’s smartphones, because, Nohe says, “You have the tools of agency right in your pocket.”
“In the arts, which have always connected with a public or audience, we are aware of our responsibility to make our work reach people and move them intellectually and emotionally,” Nohe explains. “There’s knowledge to be discovered when disciplines come together, finding new points of entry into a problem or by finding ‘ah-ha’ moments through attentive and respectful dialogue across disciplines.”
McCann and committee member Rachel Carter, Ph.D. candidate in language, literacy, and culture, intend to extend the social hour into a series. Follow the committee’s
myUMBC group to learn about upcoming events.
A delegation of UMBC faculty and staff traveled to Portugal’s University of Porto (U. Porto) October 3 – 7, 2016, to sign a cooperation agreement expanding and formalizing an ongoing partnership between the two universities. The group, led by Antonio Moreira, vice provost for academic affairs, also included Marc Zupan, associate professor of mechanical engineering; Lee Blaney, assistant professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering; and Brian Souders, interim director of international education services.
UMBC’s collaboration with the University of Porto stems from a longstanding informal relationship between Moreira and Sebastião Feyo de Azevedo, rector of the University of Porto and former dean of the U. Porto College of Engineering. U. Porto’s Faculty of Engineering and UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology signed an initial agreement in 2009. Since then, more than 50 U. Porto students have come to UMBC to conduct research for their integrated master’s theses. Around 20 percent of these visiting U. Porto students have gone on to enroll in UMBC doctoral programs.
The new agreement opens up even more opportunities for student and faculty exchanges between the two institutions. In particular, U. Porto and UMBC students and faculty will now be eligible to study at each other’s institution with support from the European Union’s ERASMUS+ initiative, a program that enables exchanges between European and North American universities. UMBC is one of very few North American universities partnered with U. Porto through this program, and ERASMUS+ may prove especially beneficial as the UMBC-U. Porto partnership expands beyond its engineering-focused core.
“I am proud to be part of this strong partnership between the University of Porto and UMBC,” shares Zupan. He spent 2012 – 2013 at U. Porto as a Fulbright Scholar to develop a course focused on global engineering. That course has been incorporated into the UMBC undergraduate curriculum, and it provides students from UMBC and U. Porto an opportunity to tackle engineering challenges across geographic and linguistic barriers through online collaboration tools.
“We look forward to growing the cooperation between our two universities over the coming years with this new agreement,” said Moreira after the signing ceremony. Feyo de Azevedo added, “This university-wide agreement will broaden the cooperation between our institutions to include more opportunities for exchange of students, faculty, and staff, and for stronger research collaborations.”
Image: Antonio Moreira (left) shakes hands with Sebastião Feyo de Azevedo after signing the agreement.
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This story was first published on news.umbc.edu and was written by Sarah Hansen. A delegation of UMBC faculty and staff traveled to Portugal’s University of Porto (U. Porto) October 3 – 7,...
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Mon, 05 Dec 2016 13:54:44 -0500
Eric Dyer talks animation innovation at TEDxCharlottesville
Many years ago Eric Dyer, associate professor of visual arts, worked professionally as an animator by day, and at night created his own experimental films. He explained in his recent
TEDxCharlottesville talk that spending very long days in front of a screen left him wanting and needing to find a way to limit his screen time and once again use his hands in the creation of his work.
He considered the possibilities of the zoetrope, a device widely popular in the late 19th century for creating the illusion of motion before the arrival of filmed animations. Various configurations of the zoetrope all made static sequences of drawings around a spinning inner cylinder appear to be in motion when viewed through slits. He took this idea with him to Copenhagen, Denmark for a year on a Fulbright Fellowship and upon his return began a course of work that has underpinned his research of the last decade.
Dyer printed sequences of stills from his Copenhagen videos on long strips of inkjet paper and for his own take on the zoetrope he replaced the slits with a video camera. He went on to make cylindrical paper sculptures the size of bicycle wheels from these strips, he estimates 25 in all, recording the animated sequence each created for his 2006 film
Copenhagen Cycles. This new approach to animation “helped me get my life back,” Dyer said. “Instead of 12-15 hours a day with my face plastered to a screen I was having little adventures.”
“But video flattens sculpture so I tried to imagine a way that animated sculpture could be experienced as such, and as a completely immersive animated sculpture,” said Dyer.
He came up with the concept of a zoetrope tunnel—the zoetrope turned inside out with the viewer inside the cylinder with a handheld strobe walking through the sculpture. Dyer estimates the full-scale realization of the elaborate structure he envisions creating will take years, but in the meantime he has built a half-scale prototype that he uses for animation tests.
Dyer lies inside the prototype, attaching 3D printed “sequences” with Velcro to the inside of the tunnel. The construction of the device has lead people to comment that it reminds them of an MRI machine. The medical connection spoke to Dyer because “at the age of 14 I was diagnosed with a degenerative retinal condition that is slowly taking my vision away and I’d never responded to that in my work.”
This recognition inspired the creation of his next sculpture,
Implant. Dyer describes it as his “science fiction fantasy cure” for his incurable disorder: “a super-magnified medical device that fits around the optic nerve.” With a handheld strobe, viewers explore the animating sculpture and discover thousands of cell-size robots hard at work “weaving in and out of the optic nerve.” Indeed what they are looking at are the tiny static 3D printed and painted elements Dyer has arranged precisely to create the illusion he describes.
Dyer shared that “now vision loss has helped to take me away from things that disconnect me from the world. Instead of being sealed off in an automobile, I ride my bike, take buses and trains, and walk a lot. And instead of visually intensive processes in the studio I am also getting outdoors a lot more and using more of my senses.” At the same time, he has been steadfast in exploring experimental processes to create innovative work and the support necessary to do so, receiving a Creative Capital Grant and Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship along the way.
Two recent examples of his innovative work are Mud Caves and Octopi. Mud Caves is a multi-layered print piece with an animation hidden within the artwork-a zoetrope laid out flat, revealed only by video. Octopi, commissioned by the
Aurora Picture Show and recently installed in Houston, is a 17-foot diameter static installation that pops to animated life on the screen when visitors turn a tiny crank. It’s a new kind of zoetrope (dubbed the “real-time zoetrope”) that Dyer developed through work at UMBC’s
Imaging Research Center.
A survey of Dyer’s work,
”The Material Instant” is currently exhibited at the Spagnuolo Gallery at Georgetown University and runs through December 11. Included in the exhibition are working zoetropes, maquettes, and videos. An artist talk (5 – 6 p.m.) and reception (6 – 8 p.m.) are scheduled for Thursday, November 17.
New research published in Science provides unprecedented detail about the structure of the Orientale basin, a huge crater on the Moon. The latest findings offer “an important clue in trying to unravel the formation history of the solar system,” says Sander Goossens, associate research scientist at UMBC’s
Center for Space Science and Technology (CSST) and a lead analyst of satellite data for the project.
Two
Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft measured the gravitational pull above the crater on a mission in 2012, flying within two kilometers of the surface in some locations. “We were able to use data from GRAIL to make an extremely high resolution map of the gravity field of a feature on the Moon,” says Goossens. “That hasn’t been done before, anywhere in the solar system.”
Goossens explains, “The surface topography of the moon has already been measured very precisely by the ongoing
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, so we have those data in hand.” Those data combined with the new gravitational map allow researchers to better understand what’s going on below the surface. For example, gravitational data reveal high mass concentrations beneath some topographical depressions, which indicates geological processes deep within the Moon. The new data also suggest that the original crater diameter was between 320 and 460 kilometers, and that during impact about 3.4 million cubic kilometers of material was displaced.
Analysis of the data suggests that the moon has been “battered by impacts,” and it’s likely that Earth and other planets experienced the same thing as the solar system took shape, says Goossens. What scientists learn about processes on the Moon that resulted from these frequent impacts may apply to similar moons and planets such as Mars, Mercury, and Earth. “A lot of the planets have a similar make-up, so you can extrapolate,” he says.
Even today, Goossens points out, “Impact cratering is perhaps the most significant geologic process going on throughout the solar system.” Exploring it on Earth is challenging, as surface material is constantly being recycled by plate tectonics, but Goossens would like to see a GRAIL-type mission to Mars, to better understand the relationship between gravity and topography that exists there.
The research team expected GRAIL to map the gravitational field of the Orientale basin to a resolution of about 30 square kilometers. But when GRAIL delivered, “The data were so good,” Goossens says, “that it was easy to double and then double again the resolution.” With such a high volume of data pouring in from GRAIL, “We had to move our processing from our own local computer cluster to a super computer at Goddard [Space Flight Center].”
With their traditional processing program, the team would map the entire Moon at once, but the unprecedented volume of data delivered by the GRAIL instruments meant computations on a moon-sized scale would take an extremely long time to complete, even on a super computer. Goossens responded by developing a new local modeling method that uses data specifically from the Orientale basin area. It allows the team to take advantage of the high resolution data GRAIL provides and complete the processing in a reasonable amount of time.
The hard work the team put in to quickly devise the new modeling method was worth it. Science featured their research, including a stunning full-color visualization of the Moon, on its cover. As it turns out, Goossens says, the challenge of finding the most effective way to process a massive amount of data “is a good problem to have.”
Image: Visualization of the Orientale basin on the Moon from the cover of Science; Ernest Wright, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
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This story was first published on news.umbc.edu and was written by Sarah Hansen. New research published in Science provides unprecedented detail about the structure of the Orientale basin, a...
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Mon, 05 Dec 2016 13:43:00 -0500
UMBC’s Huemmrich measures effects of climate change
Uses NASA satellite to look at impact on evergreen forests
The role of forests in climate change is currently an open question, and it’s one that Fred Huemmrich, research scientist at UMBC’s
Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) and adjunct faculty in geography and environmental systems, is working to answer. Huemmrich is part of a team that provided proof-of-concept for a new technique to measure photosynthesis in evergreens, using data collected by NASA’s
MODIS instruments flying on the
Aqua and
Terra Earth-observing satellites. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently published the results of that work.
At the core of Huemmrich’s research are two conflicting points. Plants remove carbon from the atmosphere during photosynthesis. As the climate warms, longer growing seasons will allow more time for trees to photosynthesize, increasing total carbon uptake and slowing climate change. However, a warmer climate could bring more drought, which stresses trees, reducing photosynthesis and exacerbating climate change.
The biosphere quickly absorbs about 50 percent of the “extra” carbon humans add to the atmosphere. Plants are responsible for the vast majority of that uptake, so it’s important to understand the roles different ecosystems play by measuring their photosynthetic activity. But until now, it’s been impossible to measure how evergreens contribute to carbon uptake on a large scale.
Scientists have been measuring overall leaf cover to estimate photosynthesis in deciduous forests for more than 30 years, but that doesn’t work for evergreens. In terms of scale, existing measurement techniques can detect photosynthesis in small geographic areas, but they are geographically limited and expensive, relying on towers placed within forests.
The MODIS instrument can measure the reflectance of evergreen needles, which changes depending on which pigments are present. In the summer, chlorophyll dominates, making the needles green and creating a particular reflectance profile. But in the fall, pigments like carotenoids (oranges), xanthophylls (yellows), and anthocyanins (reds) outnumber chlorophyll as plants photosynthesize less, revealing trees’ fall colors and creating a different reflectance profile. Huemmrich and colleagues coined the Chlorophyll/Carotenoid Index (CCI), a calculation that measures the ratio of pigments in leaves.
“Plants are constantly making adjustments to a changing environment,” explains Huemmrich. “If we can detect how a plant’s reflectance is shifting, we can determine how it’s responding to those environmental changes.”
While Huemmrich analyzes the MODIS data to calculate CCI, his collaborator John Gamon, professor at the University of Nebraska, measures seasonal changes in leaf pigments by directly testing leaves as a basis for comparison. The team also compares results from their satellite-based analyses to data from existing research towers in forests. “The idea is that we can use these towers to train and test our models,” explains Huemmrich.
The results were clear: The new technique accurately reflected the photosynthetic activity of three forests of primarily evergreens in North Carolina, Maine, and Washington state, while the traditional measurement of green leaf canopy was much less accurate. This is great news for climate researchers worldwide, who will now be able to more easily measure evergreen photosynthesis on a global scale using MODIS data that is consistently pouring in.
With the proof-of-concept in hand, Huemmrich and Gamon have been awarded a new NASA
Arctic – Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) grant to extend this satellite approach. The new project will measure the carbon dioxide taken up through photosynthesis in Alaska and western Canada using MODIS data. A second ABoVE grant will fund them to use airplanes flying above the same areas with more advanced remote sensing instruments.
“I’m excited about the airplane study, because it fills the gap between ground measurements and MODIS,” says Huemmrich.
As the climate continues to change, Huemmrich notes that it will be critical to understand mitigating factors, like photosynthesis, and use that knowledge to focus protections on those ecosystems that help slow warming. Coniferous forests cover about 17 percent of Earth’s land surface, and Huemmrich’s work to develop affordable, large-scale photosynthesis measuring techniques could have a major global impact.
Image: Cloud cover over the Eastern U.S. as recorded by MODIS on the TERRA satellite.
]]>
This story was first published on news.umbc.edu and was written by Sarah Hansen. The role of forests in climate change is currently an open question, and it’s one that Fred Huemmrich,...
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Office of the Vice President for Research
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Mon, 05 Dec 2016 13:37:23 -0500
Online communication researcher Stacy Branham offers tips to more deeply connect with family and friends over the holidays
“We need more empathetic communication—the slow, deep (inter)personal discourse that can nurture identity and build and strengthen relationships,” says Branham.
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“We need more empathetic communication—the slow, deep (inter)personal discourse that can nurture identity and build and strengthen relationships,” says Branham.
https://news.umbc.edu/online-communication-researcher-stacy-branham-offers-tips-to-more-deeply-connect-with-family-and-friends-over-the-holidays/
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Mon, 05 Dec 2016 13:34:24 -0500
UMBC recognized for research, leadership in health policy
Two prominent national organizations have recognized UMBC faculty in recent weeks for their significant contributions to the fields of public health and gerontology. The awards are a reflection of the distinguished teaching, research, service, and leadership of two UMBC social sciences faculty in their areas of study and across disciplines.
Nancy Miller, professor of public policy, received the Philip G. Weiler Award for Leadership in Aging and Public Health from the American Public Health Association (APHA).
The award is presented to an outstanding person or organization who has made significant contributions to the field through policy, research, education, or service and has contributed to the Aging and Public Health Section through leadership activities or funding and policy initiatives.
“The Aging and Public Health Section of the American Public Health Association has provided exceptional opportunities for me, as well as my students, to develop as professionals in the field of aging,” says Miller. “I am extremely appreciative of the recognition provided by the section members in their selection of me to receive the Philip G. Weiler Award for Leadership in Aging and Public Health.”
Professor Miller has research interests in chronic disease, disability, and long-term care, with a particular focus on access to care. She has conducted extensive interdisciplinary health policy research through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and as a faculty member in the health policy track in the School of Public Policy at UMBC. She is a recipient of the University System of Maryland Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring.
Kevin Eckert, professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Health Administration and Policy, was recently selected to receive a 2017 Administrative Leadership Honor from the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE).
The honor recognizes high-level college and university administrators who have made exceptional efforts and decisions in support of gerontology or geriatrics education. Eckert’s areas of study include cultural anthropology, anthropology of aging, long-term care, research design/qualitative methodologies, and senior’s housing and aging services. He is co-author of
Inside Assisted Living: The Search for Home (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009) and is co-PI on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to study “The Subjective Experience of Diabetes among Urban Older Adults.”
“I’m honored to receive this award and thank UMBC for the support it has provided to advance gerontology in higher education over the years,” says Eckert.
Read more about the American Public Health Association and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.
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This story was first published on news.umbc.edu and was written by Max Cole. Two prominent national organizations have recognized UMBC faculty in recent weeks for their significant...
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Office of the Vice President for Research
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Mon, 05 Dec 2016 13:27:32 -0500