VOICE (September 2009)

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IN THIS ISSUE President’s Message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Swine Flu Vaccine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Talks on Environmental Law.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 World Stem Cell Summit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 The Girls From Ames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

News for the Campus Community — September 2009

Campus Celebrates Its New ‘Town Square’

From left: Donna Harrington, Myron Levine, Connie Mitchell, and Alessio Fasano

Founders Week to Include Major Award Presentations Four Faculty, Staff Members to be Honored for Their Work in Research, Entrepreneurship, Public Service, and Teaching CHRIS ZANG

The arrival of autumn at the University of Maryland, Baltimore means Founders Week is almost here. University President David J. Ramsay, DM, DPhil, and his wife, Anne, host Founders Week each October to celebrate the history of the University and to honor the achievements of its faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends. The winners of the four Founders Week awards this year are Alessio Fasano, MD, Research Lecturer of the Year; Myron Levine, MD, DTPH, Entrepreneur of the Year; Connie Mitchell, Public Servant of the Year; and Donna Harrington, PhD, Teacher of the Year. Fasano, a professor at the School of Medicine, is director of its Center for Celiac Research and its Mucosal Biology Research Center. His research focuses on the control of barrier function in the gastrointestinal tract by a key regulatory protein known as zonulin, which was discovered by Fasano and his collaborators almost a decade ago. The discovery linked zonulin to

the pathogenesis of several autoimmune diseases including celiac disease, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease. To date, research at the two centers has resulted in more than 160 patents and the foundation of Alba Therapeutics Corp., a biopharmaceutical spinoff of the University of Maryland with $40 million in capital. Fasano, who was awarded the first Founders Week Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2006, will deliver the Research Lecture at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, in Davidge Hall. Levine—who in 1996 was the first Founders Week Research Lecturer of the Year—founded the School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) in 1974. A professor at the medical school, Levine and co-workers at the CVD have created multiple innovative vaccines and progressed them to clinical trials, including vaccines to prevent cholera, typhoid fever, Shigella dysentery, and diarrhea due to enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. Levine is also the principal investigator for a historic project, funded by a $29.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that is measuring the

burden of severe diarrheal illness in infants and young children in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. He also heads the Middle Atlantic Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases. Levine will deliver the Entrepreneur of the Year presentation Oct. 1 at 4 p.m. at the University of Maryland BioPark, Building Two. Mitchell, program administrative specialist at the School of Pharmacy’s Maryland Poison Center, has been a community activist for more than 25 years. After a personal tragedy in 2003, she recommitted herself to addressing violence among Baltimore youths. Mitchell became involved with groups such as State’s Attorney’s Survivors of Violence Everywhere and Families Against Mandatory Minimum Sentences, and she created a foundation that provides $500 to $1,000 scholarships to several Baltimore-area high school seniors each year. Harrington, a professor at the School of Social Work who has taught there since 1995, draws rave reviews from her students for making complex material understandable and relevant in her statistics and research practicum courses. She assists dozens of students with See FOUNDERS WEEK on page 3

Making an Impact

U N I V E R S I T Y OF M A R Y L A N D , B A L T I M O R E

founders week

2009

With the recent start of University Recreation & Fitness programming in its new state-of-the-art facility at the Southern Management Corporation Campus Center (SMC), the SMC Campus Center is now operating in full gear. The five-story building at 621 W. Lombard St. opened its doors on a limited basis several weeks earlier, on Aug. 3. A ribboncutting is slated for Sept. 16 (see Calendar, page 8). Along with the upgraded fitness facility that includes a recreational swimming pool, a sauna, and equipment for resistance training, cardiovascular workouts, stretching, and spinning, the light-filled SMC Campus Center includes a variety of dining, meeting, and conference options. The structure bears the name Southern Management Corporation Campus Center thanks to the efforts of David Hillman— Southern Management chief executive officer—and his wife, Suzanne. Their $5 million transformational gift is the largest donation ever from a trustee in the history of the University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation, Inc. (UMBF) Board of Trustees. “With the SMC Campus

Center’s wealth of recreational, educational, and programmatic opportunities, the UMB community for the first time will have one central location to come together to share knowledge and ideas in an interdisciplinary commingling that is both enricing and enjoyable,” says UMB President David J. Ramsay, DM, DPhil. Janet Owens, chair of the UMBF Board of Trustees, agrees. “The SMC Campus Center is a perfect symbol of the collaborative nature of UMB and will enhance the lives of each student here,” she says, “by providing an environment that will be the conduit for reflective minds to share ideas and network.” According to Malinda B. Orlin, PhD, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the Graduate School, “We expect the SMC Campus Center to become the campus ‘town square,’ a place to foster exchange and collaboration among its visitors as well as to encourage leadership development, learning, and wellness.” Evan Cordes, president of the University Student Government Association, also is enthusiastic. “The new SMC Campus Center will finally give students a unique schoolwide gathering place,” he says.” For more information on the SMC Campus Center, visit www. umaryland.edu/smccampuscenter.

LAURA KOZAK

ROBERT BURKE

Ribbon-cutting for Southern Management Corporation Campus Center Is Sept. 16

Southern Management Corporation Campus Center

Events

Thursday, Oct. 1 Monday, Oct. 19 Tuesday, Oct. 20 Wednesday, Oct. 21 Thursday, Oct. 22

Entrepreneur of the Year Presentation and Reception Gala Research Lecture and Reception Student Cookout Staff Luncheon


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VOICE (September 2009) by University of Maryland, Baltimore - Issuu