Chanan Delivuk is a longtime city resident, a community gardener and artist who uses new media to explore dialogue and everyday stories in her art practice. American Studies Associate Professor Nicole King writes on Delivuk's ties to Curtis Bay and connections that she is forging with new generations of kids coming up in Baltimore at the Filbert Street Gardens.

Dr. Strow's project entitled "AIRS Forward Model Improvements" has been awarded more than $180,000 by NASA.

To: The UMBC Community
From: President Freeman Hrabowski and Provost Philip Rous

For the fifth consecutive year, The Chronicle of Higher Education has named UMBC one of the best academic workplaces in the nation. UMBC is among just 92 colleges included in the Chronicle’s full list of “Great Colleges to Work For” and is the only four-year public university on the “honor roll” recognized as exceptional in almost every category.

Each year, the Chronicle asks faculty and staff across the country to rate their workplaces on a host of factors. The assessment also includes an analysis of demographic data, benefits, and workplace policies at each participating college. The Chronicle’s 2014 results are based on responses from over 43,500 people at nearly 300 public and private institutions nationwide, including UMBC.

This year, UMBC received high ratings in 11 recognition categories:

• Collaborative Governance
• Compensation and Benefits
• Confidence in Senior Leadership
• Diversity
• Job Satisfaction
• Professional/ Career-Development Programs
• Respect and Appreciation
• Supervisor or Department-Chair Relationship
• Teaching Environment
• Tenure Clarity and Process
• Work/Life Balance

This recognition affirms what we all know: UMBC is a community that truly cares about people. Each day, our faculty, staff, and students demonstrate that excellence and inclusiveness go hand in hand.

Thank you for all you do for the UMBC community.

Congratulations to these UMBC alums whose accomplishments have been recognized both inside and outside of UMBC. Take a moment to read what they have been up to!

Matthew Loftus ‘07, chemistry, grew up in Bel Air, Maryland, with ample resources, attended UMBC, and is now a family physician. But now, after joining the New Song Community Church, a branch of the Presbyterian denomination he attended as a child, Loftus and his family have relocated to Sandtown, Maryland as an evangelist to connect with residents and provide mental health services.

Loftus, like many other relocators, was much better off than many of his neighbors. He is now training Sandtown residents to lead small group discussion on issues like stress and grief, so that they too can lead their community. While there may be some lingering resentment between his family and the new neighbors, he told  Al Jazeera America he thinks the general feeling is “Well, Matthew and [his wife] Maggie, they’re a little weird, but they’re nice people, and we’re nice people, and this is a cheap place to own a house.” Read the full article.

The mantis shrimp, a small, marine crustacean that lives in the ocean’s reefs, has one of the most complex visual systems known to science. In an interview with the Science World Report, Michael Bok ‘07, M.S. molecular biology and ’13, Ph.D. biological science, talks about the newest findings on the shrimps’ eyes.

The optics on the shrimps’ eyes create a type of UV color vision, an effect “akin to putting red-tinted glasses over your eyes that block other wavelengths of light,” Bok said, but this effect is being done at a cellular level. Science Codex also spoke with Bok regarding this discovery. Bok explained, “Their eyes may sense and respond to complex visual inputs without the need to think very hard about it.”

Rachel Severance ‘07, political science, currently holds a job as an associate in the Litigation Department of Niles, Barton & Wilmer, LLP and was recently appointed to serve on the Board of the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center in Baltimore.

On June 25, 2014, Severance was honored as one of the 28 people awarded “20 in their Twenties,” who are considered the most influential young leaders in Maryland by The Daily Record. Read her bio.

Jason Penn ‘03, biological science, has been a Maryland delegate to the American Association for Justice and has clerked for the Honorable Clayton Greene. Now Penn represents victims of medical malpractice at a national firm, Janet, Jenner & Suggs, LLC. Recently, the National Trial Lawyers extended an invitation to Penn as a member of the “Top 40 Under 40,” a professional organization of outstanding young lawyers in a state or region. Read more about Penn’s accomplishments.