June 2008 Featured News

Note from Dean Allewell

This newsletter celebrates the end of the spring semester.  The College has had an excellent year, beginning with the opening of the Bioscience Research Building, and concluding with one of our students, Peter DeMuth winning the 2008 University medal.  We have recruited five new faculty members—Kwaku Dayie, an NMR spectroscopist, and Yu-Huang Wang, a nanoscientist, in Chemistry and Biochemistry; Daniel Gruner, an ecologist, and Cerruti Hooks, an agroecologist, in Entomology; Carlos Machado, an evolutionary genomicist, in Biology; and have other offers still out.  We have made substantial progress in developing our research infrastructure, with new Cluster Computing, Imaging, NMR, and Proteomics facilities.  We exceeded our capital campaign target for the year by 180%, bringing in more than $5M.  We have made substantial progress in re-organizing our graduate programs in the biological sciences, and expect to complete the job early this fall.  We completed our first space audit—no mean feat!  We established the Circle of Discovery to honor members of the CLFS community who have made major scientific contributions, and produced our first edition of a new College magazine, The Scope.  All in all, a very good year!

This newsletter celebrates the accomplishments of many members of the College.  We take pride in the accomplishments of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni.  I hope that you enjoy reading about their accomplishments, and that your summer is filled with joyous, rewarding activities.

Sudanese Post-Doctoral Researcher Receives Fellowship from Scholar Rescue Fund to Work in the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics

Hana Abdalla, a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Volker Briken’s laboratory, recently received a $11,032 fellowship from the Institute of International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund. Abdalla, who is originally from Sudan, suffered arrests, persecution, and torture for her political activism in her home country. The opportunity to study at UM is enabling her to further her career, and continue her activism to help persecuted colleagues in Sudan. “I feel like I got a chance to live my life the way I want now,” she says.
Read more about Abdalla's story and the Scholar Rescue Fund >>

College Launches The Scope, a Magazine for Alumni and Friends

A new magazine for friends and alumni of the College of Chemical and Life Sciences, The Scope, showcases the impact and momentum of the College and the diversity of its people and programs. It will be published bi-annually, in the spring and fall, and mailed to more than 18,000 alumni, faculty, and staff of the College and the University community. The Spring/Summer 2008 issue will be in mailboxes soon.
To suggest story ideas for the fall issue or to request copies, please email the editor, Kelly Blake >>

 

Faculty & Staff Excellence Awards Highlight Best of College

The College of Chemical & Life Sciences held its annual Faculty and Staff Excellence Awards Ceremony on May 14, 2008.
Find out who was honored for recent achievements >>

 

New Flow Cytometry Core Facility Opens

The Maryland Pathogen Research Institute is pleased to announce the opening of the new Flow Cytometry Core Facility in the Bioscience Research Building (room 2002). Kenneth Class, the facility's new Director, was a Research Scientist at the Wadsworth Center in Albany, NY from 2002-2008 and has more than twenty years of flow cytometry experience. Kenneth will be maintaining and operating the FACSAria cell sorter in the new Bioscience Research Building and working closely with researchers on campus to effectively use flow cytometry in their research. More information about the facility is available on www.mpri.umd.edu/flow.html.