What: Library Basics
When: 12 Noon on Tuesday, September 6
Where: Library Room 259

This workshop aims to provide students with the basic knowledge of a university library's resources and services for helping them succeed at UMBC.

Please contact Shu Qian (qian@umbc.edu) to register.

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Philip Farabaugh as Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, effective August 23, 2011.

A Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Dr. Farabaugh will build on his many experiences with leadership roles at UMBC. He has served as the Graduate Program Director of the MS Program in Applied Molecular Biology and the PhD Program in Molecular and Cell Biology, as well as the Undergraduate Program Director of the BS Program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He has chaired the University Faculty Review Committee and the University Direct Research Initiative Fund (DRIF) Grant Review Committee and served on a variety of other University committees and councils. Within the Department of Biological Sciences he has served as chair of the Graduate Committee, the Writing Intensive (WI) Program Committee, the Seminar Committee, the Web Page and Marketing Committee, and several faculty search committees.

Continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1981, Dr. Farabaugh has earned over $5 million in Federal funding. He has authored 62 peer-reviewed publications and a book. In his laboratory he has mentored 10 PhD and three M.S. candidates, six postdoctoral fellows, and 31 undergraduate students. He has presented at 48 national and international conferences and presented seminars at 54 institutions across the United States and several European countries.

Dr. Farabaugh came to UMBC in 1989 from the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, Connecticut. He completed postdoctoral work in Molecular Genetics in 1981 while working with Dr. Gerald Fink at Cornell University after receiving his PhD in Biochemistry in 1978 from Harvard University while working with Walter Gilbert, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980. He earned a BA in Biology, magna cum laude, in 1972 from the University of California San Diego. On behalf of our faculty, students, and staff I would like to thank Dr. Farabaugh for his willingness to serve our community with his skills and experience.

We also express our most sincere gratitude to Dr. Lasse Lindahl, who has served as Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences for the past 17 years. Dr. Lindahl came to UMBC from the University of Rochester in Fall 1994 and, during his tenure as chair, he has worked to improve the department in many ways. He has overseen the hiring of 19 faculty members and the establishment of several new educational programs. He led the comprehensive effort to renovate the Biological Sciences Building by successfully applying to the National Science Foundation for $1.5 million in seed money for the $12.5 million project, which was completed in 2000. Dr. Lindahl, who has maintained an active research lab in ribosome biogenesis, has promoted student research in the life sciences at the undergraduate and graduate levels by applying for and receiving training grants from a variety of federal sources. He will continue to serve as the Program Director of the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) Program at UMBC, which has been continuously funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) since 1997. Also, he will continue to serve as the Principal Investigator of the $1.5 NIGMS-funded Interdisciplinary Quantitative Biology (IQB) Curriculum Project. Dr. Lindahl is responsible for planting the seed for the concept of the interdisciplinary life sciences building, now in the planning stages. The department’s research and education programs have expanded and are much stronger as a result of his leadership.

FEATURED EVENTS

• NEW!Campus Jobs Fair – 8/30

• NEW!Senior Success Seminar – 9/10 (Register by 9/5)

• NEW! On-Campus Jobs

HOT JOBS IN UMBCWORKS

• NEW!Featured Full-Time Jobs

• NEW!Part-time Jobs

• NEW! On-Campus Jobs

HOT INTERNSHIPS & SERVICE-LEARNING IN UMBCWorks

• NEW!International Programs Intern Needed ASAP

• NEW! Paid Spring 2012 Internships with NASA

ON-CAMPUS RECRUITMENT

• NEW!Upcoming Employer Information Sessions

• NEW!Upcoming On-Campus Interview Deadlines

• NEW!Corporate Visibility Days – Fall 2011

 SHRIVER & CAREER CENTER EVENTS

• NEW!Campus Jobs Fair – 8/30

• NEW!Senior Success Seminar – 9/10 (Register by 9/5)

• NEW! Visit the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC) – 9/16

• NEW! Career Fair 2011 – 10/5

• NEW! Interested in the future of Genomics? – 10/19

• NEW! 7^th Annual National LGBTQA College Student Career Conference – 9/23-9/25

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS

• NEW! LSAT Prep Class

• NEW! GRE Prep Class

• NEW! Add your Internship, Co-op, or Research to your Transcript

• NEW! Gain Experience in your Major

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued guidance through Dear Colleague Letters to elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education along with a Frequently Asked Questions document on the legal obligation to provide students with disabilities an equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits of technology. This guidance is a critical step in the Department's ongoing efforts to ensure that students with disabilities receive equal access to the educational benefits and services provided by their schools, colleges and universities. All students, including those with disabilities, must have the tools needed to obtain a world-class education that prepares them for success in college and careers.

Read more: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/department-education-issues-guidance-rights-students-disabilities-when-education 

The hype cycle concept has been used by IT consulting company Gartner since 1995 to highlight the common pattern of “overenthusiasm, disillusionment and eventual realism that accompanies each new technology and innovation.” While Gartner’s hype cycles represent one company’s opinions, the underlying concept seems right and it is always interesting to see where they place the current crop of computing related technologies.

Here is their 2011 hype cycle for emerging technologies

“Themes from this year’s Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle include ongoing interest and activity in social media, cloud computing and mobile,” Ms. Fenn said. “On the social media side, social analytics, activity streams and a new entry for group buying are close to the peak, showing that the era of sky-high valuations for Web 2.0 startups is not yet over. Private cloud computing has taken over from more-general cloud computing at the top of the peak, while cloud/Web platforms have fallen toward the Trough of Disillusionment since 2010. Mobile technologies continue to be part of most of our clients’ short- and long-range plans and are present on this Hype Cycle in the form of media tablets, NFC payments, quick response (QR)/color codes, mobile application stores and location-aware applications.

Transformational technologies that will hit the mainstream in less than five years include highly visible areas, such as media tablets and cloud computing, as well as some that are more IT-specific, such as in-memory database management systems, big data, and extreme information processing and management. In the long term, beyond the five-year horizon, 3D printing, context-enriched services, the “Internet of Things” (called the “real-world Web” in earlier Gartner research), Internet TV and natural language question answering will be major technology forces. Looking more than 10 years out, 3D bioprinting, human augmentation, mobile robots and quantum computing will also drive transformational change in the potential of IT.”

You can get a copy of the Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Summary Report by giving your contact information, but the full report on this or any of the other 26 topical hype cycle reports will cost you money.