Terp Winter 2008

TERP

CONNECTING

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COMMUNITY

VOL. 5, NO. 2 WINTER 2008

The

4.

Science

of Love

human pheromone odors

1.

nerve zero

In Search of Nerve Zero 20 2.

true love

3.

commitment

THE JOY OF NUTRITION 8 I MENTAL EXERCISES 13 I COSTUMES TAKE CENTER STAGE 17

TERP PUBLISHER

Brodie Remington Vice President, University Relations ADVISORY BOARD

J. Paul Carey ’82 M.B.A. CEO, Enumerate Terry Flannery ’83, ’87 M.Ed., ’95 Ph.D. Assistant Vice President, University Marketing and Communications John Girouard ’81 President and CEO, Capital Asset Management Group Anil Gupta Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Strategy and Organization, Robert H. Smith School of Business Danita D. Nias ’81 Assistant Vice President, Alumni Relations and Development Vicki Rymer ’61, ’66 M.B.A., ’83 Ph.D. Teaching Professor, Robert H. Smith School of Business Keith Scroggins ’79 Bureau Head of General Services, City of Baltimore, Dept. of Public Works Lee Thornton Professor and Eaton Chair, Philip Merrill College of Journalism MAGAZINE STAFF

Beth A. Morgen Executive Editor Kimberly Marselas ’00 Managing Editor John T. Consoli ’86 Creative Director Jeanette J. Nelson Art Director Joshua Harless Catherine Nichols ’99 Brian Payne Contributing Designers Monette A. Bailey ’89 Mandie Boardman ’02 Denise C. Jones Rebecca M. Ruark Tom Ventsias Writers Dianne Burch Karin Jegalian Pamela Stone ’95 M.A. Ellen Ternes ’68 Neil Tickner Contributing Writers Shilpika Das Rena Hoffman ’08 Patricia Look ’08 Anne McDonough Cassandra Wilson ’08 Magazine Interns E-mail terpmag@umd.edu Terp magazine is published by the Division of University Relations. Letters to the editor are welcomed. Send correspondence to Kimberly Marselas, Managing Editor, Terp magazine, 2101 Turner Building, College Park, MD 20742-1521. Or, send an e-mail to terpmag@umd.edu The University of Maryland, College Park, is an equal opportunity institution with respect to both education and employment. University policies, programs and activities are in conformance with pertinent federal and state laws and regulations on non-discrimination regarding race, color, religion, age, national origin, political affiliation, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

Dear Alumni and Friends, AS I WRITE this message, the spring semester is just weeks away. How can the new season match the energy of the fall semester—when the Bioscience Research Building opened its doors, the university community welcomed the new School of Public Health and the Helsinki Commission chose Maryland as the site for its first-ever field hearing? To answer that question, simply turn to the calendar section in the magazine’s center.

There you will find that the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center has attracted yet another renowned theatre company to its stage, while an affordable housing exhibit has come home to the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. March Madness returns to the Comcast Center for the first and second rounds of the Women’s Basketball NCAA Tournament as the Alumni Association prepares to hit the road for Terp networking events from coast to coast.

And who is that in the kitchen baking up another record-breaking Maryland Day? None other than Dan and Patsy Mote who inspired the university’s annual open house, now in its 10th year and scheduled for Saturday, April 26—rain or shine!

Just as exciting as upcoming university events is the cutting-edge research occurring at the state’s flagship campus. In “Food Fright” on page 24, learn how Maryland researchers are discovering ways to identify and detect food-borne pathogens. The School of Public Health’s Bradley Hatfield is using brain imaging to study how exercise may benefit the human brain. See page 13 for his findings.

Would-be winery owners in Maryland are turning to Joe Fiola, viticulture and small fruit specialist, for his knowledge. Find out why on page 15.

And improving the accuracy and speed

of drug development is the purpose behind a partnership between the A. James Clark School of Engineering and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. Read more on page 14.

From activities embracing the arts, athletics and alumni programs to research addressing the safety and health of society, Maryland is where it is all happening.

How can you be part of the excitement? Attend a university activity. See the calendar for options and schedules. Join the Alumni Association. Check out our revitalized Life Membership program on page 11. Participate in the Great Expectations campaign. Every gift counts and contributes to the programs, faculty and students driving the university to excellence. Learn how young alumni gifts are making a difference on page 31.

There is no doubting Maryland’s energy. In fact, our alma mater is a force to be reckoned with.

Fear the Turtle.

Danita D. Nias ’81 Assistant Vice President, Alumni Relations and Development

2 BIG PICTURE Geographer named MacArthur Genius; comic relief for water problem; torture hearing features Maryland experts; strategic planning begins; and more 6 THE SOURCE Mind and body wellness 7 ASK ANNE Live mascots; logo lingo; and Walter Johnson pitching 8 CLASS ACT Giving America a nutritional fix; peddling soup; 2008 Alumni Gala award winners; new lifetime member wall; and more 12 M-FILE Keeping archives alive; exercise for longevity; speeding up drug development; Maryland specialist turns fruit into wine; and more 16 PLAY-BY-PLAY Club sports rank 17 SPOTLIGHT Alumna creates rich costumes for Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center 18 MARYLAND LIVE Celebrate the 10th anniversary of Maryland Day; Low Life puppets; learn about affordable housing; catch national sports action; and more 36 INTERPRETATIONS Planning for Maryland’s future

departments

features 20 24 FOOD FRIGHT

Changes in how Americans get their food, the threat of terrorism and the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria make food safety a top priority for scientists.

BY ELLEN WALKER TERNES ’68

THE SCIENCE OF LOVE

Researchers examine what influences courtship and commitment, tackling the brain, great literature, the power of counseling and even commercial holidays.

BY KIMBERLY MARSELAS ’00

28

CREATIVE FORCE FIELDS

As students create new outlets for poetry, dance and other performance arts, the university works to connect the humanities with more technical fields.

BY DIANNE BURCH

31

IN THE LOOP

Young alumni give back to support next generation; Persian studies program expands with new support; College of Education names first endowed professorships; introducing volunteer Marilyn Berman Pollans M.A.’ 73, Ph.D. ’79; and more.

COVER ILLUSTRATION BY CATHERINE NICHOLS

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bigpicture Environmental Geographer Shows True Genius

SHE CAN FIND her way through the Brazilian Amazon. She develops technology to measure deforestation. Most importantly, Ruth DeFries (above) analyzes the effects of global carbon emissions and climate change. Now, as the winner of a prestigious MacArthur

award, she can call herself a genius.

DeFries, who holds a joint appointment in the Department of Geography and the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, was one of 24 recipients to be awarded a no-stringsattached “genius grant” by the MacArthur Foundation in 2007. She was selected for her creativity, originality and potential to make important contributions in the future.

"The MacArthur Foundation supports highly creative individuals and institutions with the ability and the promise to make a difference in shaping and improving our future,” said MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton.

As an environmental geographer, DeFries uses remotely sensed satellite imagery to explore the relationship between the Earth’s vegetative cover,

human modifications of the landscape and the biochemical processes that regulate Earth’s habitability.

Through her research, DeFries compiled datasets that have significantly changed the scale and focus of ecosystem research and contributed to understanding how human activities are altering habitat needed to conserve biodiversity.

At the regional level, she has played a key role in exploring the impact of human-induced changes in land cover, initially focusing on central Africa and moving on to map areas in Southeast Asia and the Amazon.

DeFries joined the Maryland faculty in 1991 and is Comic Relief for the seventh Maryland faculty Serious Water Problem member or alumnus to win a MacArthur fellowship. —SD Stop in at The Diner or South Campus Dining Hall for a meal-onthe-go and you won’t find bottled water to take with you. Cathy, the neurotic, diet-obsessed brunette who’s starred on the comic pages since 1976, explains why.

Cathy showed up in the cafeterias last semester, after Dining Services Associate Director Joe Mullineaux saw her bemoaning the 22 billion plastic water bottles that end up in landfills and incinerators annually. Mullineaux had already removed bottled water from the university’s two most popular dining rooms because he viewed them as an environmentally unfriendly status item.

Artist Cathy Guisewite’s strip echoed his concerns, so Mullineaux contacted the publishers. They agreed to allow the university to post copies (left) near water stations.

The initiative is the latest at the university to focus on recycling, reusing and reducing waste. (See the Fall 2007 issue of Terp.) —KM

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DEFRIES COURTESY OF THE MACARTHUR FOUNDATION; WATER BOTTLE PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; CARTOON USED WITH PERMISSION OF CATHY GUISEWITE AND UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Maryland Experts Lead Torture Hearing

YOURwords In the Fall 2007 issue, University Libraries Archivist Anne Turkos relayed the story of a prank involving the liberation of a 700-pound cow from the university farm, moving it into Centreville Hall. Below is a firsthand account of that night. … I WAS ONE OF THE THREE STUDENTS

During a hearing at the Stamp Student Union (above), professors Thomas Hilde (top right) and Christian Davenport (bottom right, center with Rep. Alcee Hastings, left, and President Dan Mote, right), testified on the effect of torture.

THIS WINTER, THE DEBATE over the legality and effectiveness of torture moved to the University of Maryland, site of the first-ever field hearing by the Helsinki Commission—a U.S. government agency that monitors human rights.

Commission co-chair Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fl.), the chair, took testimony in December from expert witnesses, half of them Maryland faculty.

“Torture remains widespread,” testified researcher Christian Davenport, professor of government and politics and author of State Repression and the Domestic Democratic Peace. “Roughly 80 percent of the countries in the world tortured at least one person in the government's control in any given year over the period from 1981–1999.”

While less likely to engage in torture, Western democracies were not immune. “When at least one group commits at least one act of violence, countries with institutions that support liberal democracy are effectively just as likely to use torture. … The peace brought by democracy is not bulletproof,” Davenport added.

Maryland research professor Thomas Hilde, editor of the book On Torture, rejected the so-called “ticking time bomb” argument—the hypothetical case of a terrorist who planted a nuclear dirty bomb and must be tortured to reveal its location before it explodes.

Calling torture “notoriously unreliable,” Hilde says it is rarely a single event. The need for coroboration inevitably leads to more torture. “In the end, it is we who have become the moral equivalent of the time bomb,” Hilde testified.

The commission also heard from human rights advocates and international anti-terrorism experts. You can watch video from the hearing and read a transcript at http://tinyurl.com/youamm. —NT

HELSINKI PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; COW IMAGE COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

that brought the calf down and got her back to the dairy barns. (No, we didn’t put her there.) I was awakened to get an animal back into its stall.

Not an uncommon occurrence for students who lived in “the shack” and worked on the Department of Animal Science farm back then. The fact that it was in Centreville Hall, the women-only dormitory, got us up there in lightning speed. No man, under the penalty of death or worse, was allowed past the lobby then. Girls in nightgowns, wow. We took the elevator up and noticed that the terrified calf had relieved itself all over the eighth floor and made a thorough mess. It was a bit of a job to get it haltered and led down the elevator and back to the dairy barn.

We talked about our adventure for weeks after. —Vic Metta

No Slam Dunk Here The Fall 2007 issue of Terp (On the Ball, page 20) included an archival photo of Jim O’Brien ’75, who played basketball for Maryland from 19701973. He is not the same Jim O’Brien who coaches the NBA’s Indiana Pacers. Although we wish we could take credit for Coach O’Brien’s college career, he was a starter for Saint Joseph’s. He served as an assistant coach for Maryland before earning his M.B.A. here in 1981. Terp magazine regrets the error.

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bigpicture

GROWTH spurt

T

oday’s students expect housing that matches their academic pursuits, and the university is responding with an innovative mix of new residence halls, amenities that enhance their overall experience and academically based programs that blend living and learning.

Grassy Oasis Replaces Cement Green lawns, new trees and shrubs, pavilions and grills have replaced cement walkways in the Washington Quad, a 2.3-acre square surrounded by Baltimore, Prince George’s, Harford, Frederick, Washington and Howard halls. The revamped quad is coming to life this spring after more than six months of work. The goal of the $3 million project, partly funded through gifts and savings on other projects, is to create a new gathering spot for students who call the buildings around the quad home. The park-like setting includes a volleyball court, benches and outdoor wireless access.

More Room for Undergrads The university will soon add at least 400 new beds for undergraduates, with crews breaking ground this year.

Plans call for one or two buildings, depending on what architects in a public-private partnership can design for two tight locations. The first is north of Mowatt Lane Garage, while the second is close to South Campus Commons, near Susquehanna Hall. Budgeted at $34 million, the halls will open in August 2009 or January 2010 and join 2,500 beds added over the last six years. They’ll bring the total number of on-campus housing spaces to 11,950 and accommodate 48 percent of undergraduates.

New residential buildings will match the character of existing brick facilities (such as South Campus Commons, left).

Students Living for the Environment Last fall, the university launched EcoHouse, its newest living and learning program. Upper-level students room together in the New Leonardtown apartments near Fraternity Row, where they experiment with sustainable living. Students planted an organic garden with recycled railroad ties as a frame, and the Department of Residential Facilities installed meters to monitor each unit’s electricity use and help residents reduce their impact. EcoHouse director Wendy Whittemore says participants’ apartments may be a testing ground for environmentally friendly carpets, paints or furnishings.

“Can these green materials stand up to regular student use?” Whittemore asks. “If so, they may be used on other parts of campus.”

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RENDERING COURTESY OF DEPARTMENT OF RESIDENT LIFE; SOUTH COMMONS PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

Developing a New Strategic Plan Last fall, Nariman Farvardin, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, was tasked with leading the effort to develop a 10-year strategic plan for the University of Maryland—charting a very ambitious path for the university over the next decade. The provost recently sat down to discuss this process with TERP’s Tom Ventsias.

Q: Provost Farvardin, you are chairing a steering committee that, to quote President Mote, “ … will develop a strategic plan that is one of boldness, adventure and high selfexpectation.” What requires the university to set its benchmarks so high?

A: There are essentially two drivers: aspirations and obligations. We’ve already been working very hard to become one of the foremost institutions of higher education in the nation, so our faculty, staff, students and alumni have aspirations of greatness, and we need to respond.

There is also an obligation to our region, our state and our nation to build a world-class university that addresses the needs of these communities. So when these two drivers come together, we really have no choice but to set our benchmarks very high.

Q: The strategic plan will direct the university to take on new initiatives with great impact. Can you expand upon this?

A: In a bold strategic plan, you propose initiatives that will propel the university forward into the ranks of the very best universities. These are initiatives that will dramatically improve the quality of education offered to our students; initiatives that better prepare our students to become productive global citizens; initiatives that make our university a center of gravity for intellectual, cultural, scientific, technological and artistic activities—not only regionally, but nationally. And initiatives that make our university one of the strongest in defining the frontiers of knowledge. So in every aspect of the university, we are going to identify initiatives that will move the university to the next level.

Q: Key areas identified will include upgrading

A: One component that truly defines excellence is a university’s faculty. So I can’t envision a bold strategic plan that doesn’t place a tremendous amount of emphasis on recruiting and retaining some of the best faculty anywhere. And all great universities have a very significant mandate to provide excellence in education, so how can we not emphasize excellence in teaching?

Q: Where do you expect this strategic plan to take the university by 2018?

A: I think it will decidedly take this university to the next tier—a tier where we, as a university, can say we’re distinctly different from where we are today. We want to be better recognized as a leader on issues that are important to higher education: research on climate change; on homeland security, which includes expertise in language, culture and cognition; on environmental issues; on energy; and on food safety. If the university is recognized as a power in all of these areas, as well as a leader in education, then I think we will have achieved our goals.

Q: What type of input are you seeking from Maryland alumni?

A: It would be invaluable to hear from alumni from some years back who are now in various stages of their professional careers. We would like to hear how we might improve upon the education they received here. Also, I would like our alumni and friends who care very deeply about this institution to tell us what it is we can do to achieve our high aspirations. I would like alumni to engage more with their university, and join us in making this university one of the very best.

Readers can go to www.sp07.umd.edu for the latest information or to offer feedback.

the national competitiveness of our faculty and demanding the excellence of teaching across the university. Why is this so important?

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN G. PAYNE

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the Source SEEK OUT SOURCES OF MIND AND BODY WELLNESS FOR THE MARYLAND FAMILY AT EVERY STAGE. FROM RELATIONSHIP REPAIR, TO HEALTHY SNACKING, TO KEEPING PHYSICALLY FIT, HELP IS AS CLOSE AS CAMPUS.

The Center for Healthy Families Health tip: Improve your interpersonal relationships.

The marriage and family therapy clinic offers help for families at every stage—from pre-marital counseling to parent education.

The highly ranked clinical program provides therapy for 500 families from surrounding communities annually; clients make up a diverse population of residents of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Costs for a 45-minute session are based on a sliding scale.

Where to find: Services are supervised by senior clinical faculty in the Department of Family Science.

Campus Recreation Services

“Eat Smart, Be Fit, Maryland” Web site

Health tip: Keep moving.

Health tip: Shop smart; eat and live healthy.

With an alumni association membership and a paid membership to CRS, adult members take advantage of non-credit instructional programs that make exercise fun: dance and aerobic classes include hiphop, belly dance and aqua aerobics. Young families bond in parent-and-tot classes such as learn-to-swim, yoga mommy-nme and tumble tots. Older children learn to handle a racket in tennis for kids. Spring session is in full swing.

Where to find: Membership provides entry to facilities at Eppley Recreation Center, Ritchie Coliseum and the Health and Human Performance Building.

H OT L I N E THE CENTER FOR HEALTHY FAMILIES

Member services: 301.405.PLAY www.crs.umd.edu/programs/noncredit/nci_intr.html TERP WINTER

2008

Where to find: This one-stop shop for healthy food and activity ideas is located online.

E-mail: fmsc@umd.edu Phone: 301.405.3672 www.sph.umd.edu/fmsc/chf/service_center.html CAMPUS RECREATION SERVICES

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Created for a School of Public Health project, this site helps users make smart food choices and encourages physical activity, with the aim of preventing disease. A national award winner for Internet education technology, the site is available for all users: Receive a personalized enewsletter; ask a question of the “coaches,” actually professors in the School of Public Health; learn how to involve kids in meal preparation at the site’s “Cooking Class;” link to sales flyers from local food stores for grocery deals; record your exercise in the activity log.

Gymkana Gymnastics Classes Health tip: Flip for a kids’ program that promotes exercise and a positive message.

An outreach program of the School of Public Health, Gymkana Saturday classes and summer camp extend the philosophy of the Maryland Gymkana Troupe by providing an opportunity for boys and girls of all ages to learn gymnastics in a non-competitive environment that stresses healthy, drug-free living. Paid sessions are packed with gymnastics in a state-of-the-art gym; students learn to soar above the influence of drugs.

Where to find: The gymnastics gym is located in the Health and Human Performance Building.

“EAT SMART, BE FIT, MARYLAND”

www.eatsmart.umd.edu GYMKANA GYMNASTICS CLASSES

Director and head coach, Scott Welsh swelsh2@umd.edu, 301.405.2566 www.gymkana.org

ask Anne Questions for Anne Turkos, university archivist for University Libraries, may be sent to terpmag@umd.edu.

Q. I’m working on a story about

cots.

live animal mas-

I need to confirm whether your school has had a

live animal mascot or has one now.

—Marissa DeCuir, USA Today

A. Live terrapins were taken to football games many years ago, perhaps in the 1940s or 1950s. More recently there were live terrapins at the 2001 Orange Bowl as a tailgate party feature. However I don’t believe we ever had a live mascot in the same sense as the University of Georgia does with Uga the bulldog or the Naval Academy does with Bill the Goat. I have never seen any documentation that trumpets a particular live diamondback terrapin as Testudo, although I can tell you that we have the taxidermied terrapin that served as the model for the original statue of our mascot here in the University Archives.

Q. What does LIEBIG mean on the old MAC (Maryland Agricultural College) logo?

—Edwin Remsberg ’89

Q. I am writing to request the year and, if available, the date that the baseball immortal Walter Johnson threw the first pitch to inaugurate the University of Maryland baseball season. I have a photograph of this event in which my father, Dr. L.B. Broughton, stands behind Mr. Johnson. My father at the time was the chairman of the university’s Athletic Board.

—Levin B. Broughton A. The date was March 26, 1936. That day, the Terps went on

to defeat Ohio State 5-2 in a game that featured timely hitting from future Yankee Charlie “King Kong” Keller. This is quite an intriguing event in Terrapin athletic history, particularly since baseball is the first sport in which the university competed at the intercollegiate level.

A. I suspect the inclusion of this word on the MAC logo was a way to pay homage to one of the leading advocates of scientific agriculture in the 19th century, German chemist Justus von Liebig. He was known as the “father of the fertilizer industry,” and he developed the theory of mineral plant nutrition. The association of Liebig’s name with an agricultural college therefore seems appropriate.

“LIEBIG” appears on the left side of the logo, opposite a drawing of a plow, from about 1890 until February 1917. It was erased from the college’s seal during World War I when antiGerman sentiment swept the United States. Looking at MAC publications from this time period, it is clear that the university staff took great pains to remove this word from the seal; it almost appears as if it was painted out in some way. I could not find any evidence that “LIEBIG” appears on the seal again after this time.

IMAGES COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

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alumniprofile

classact Food for Thought “I’m a health freak,” admits Joy Bauer ’86, owner of Joy Bauer Nutrition, Inc., one of the largest nutrition centers in the country.

She’s parlayed her expertise into high-visibility jobs with the TODAY show, the New York City Ballet and Self magazine, yet Bauer fondly remembers her start as a kinesiological sciences major.

“I loved my time at Maryland,” says Bauer, who taught aerobics at White Flint Mall and an exercise class for senior citizens at a local Jewish community center when she wasn’t studying.

After completing her master’s of science in nutrition at New York University, Bauer served as director of nutrition and fitness for the “Heart-Smart Kids Program” at Mount Sinai Medical Center, working with inner-city children suffering serious health problems. The family dynamic involved in improving kids’ health fueled her passion.

Today, Bauer’s center serves the gamut of populations and health issues—from newborns to senior citizens, Olympic figure skaters to soccer moms, diabetics to post-liver transplant patients. This was Bauer’s dream: to build a nutrition center that can help anyone with any health concern that can be managed through food.

The New York Times No. 1 bestseller, Joy Bauer’s Food Cures, reflects her holistic vision. Bauer collected the most common reasons people are referred to her center. Each issue-specific, researchpacked chapter gives the reader a plan of action, from immediate concerns to nutritional maintenance to a meal plan with recipes.

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Thrilled with her alma mater’s dedication to health—the new School of Public Health—Bauer’s mission is likewise to improve the well-being of Americans in a love-hate relationship with food.

“I’m a study junkie,” she admits. At the crack of dawn, Bauer pours over medical journals. “Because I like to understand the why. It makes it easier for me to take complicated nutritional information and translate it into a message that people can use— otherwise it means nothing.”

Whether answering questions from TODAY viewers or Self readers, or writing to Internet surfers as Yahoo’s nutrition and weight loss expert, Bauer’s tagline is consistent and heartfelt: Life is hard, food should be easy!SM A wife and mother of three, Bauer must make mealtime easy. Her family lives according to her 90/10 philosophy: 90 percent nutritious, 10 percent fun. “Food is your high octane fuel, but it should be enjoyable.” The “health freak” allows even herself some wiggle room. “I could never give up chocolate, ice cream or wine,” Bauer says. —RR

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOY BAUER NUTRITION

alumniprofile

The Making of the Soup Peddler STRAIGHT OUT OF A SCENE from Good Will Hunting, David Ansel ’96, the software developer,

travel 2008 Poland July 6–14 Explore a wealth of history undiscovered by the touring masses.

Sightsee around picturesque Krakow. Delight in one of Europe’s most beautiful nature reserves, Ojców National Park. Tour Auschwitz, a poignant monument to Holocaust victims.

The Amazon Family Voyage July 18–27 Discover the Amazon rainforest on a 10-day adventure aboard a traditionally crafted riverboat. See jungle life firsthand including nighttime excursions to spot rare nocturnal wildlife.

Ireland: Dublin in an Irish Castle August 18–26 Spend seven nights in the enchanting Clontarf Castle. Explore cosmopolitan Dublin and savor a pint in a local pub. Witness the beautiful Irish countryside en route to Belfast for a tour of the Stormont Castle.

For more details on these and other tours featured in the Travel 2008 program, visit www.alumni.umd.edu or call 301.405.7870/ 800.336.8627.

went to see about a girl and instead ended up as David Ansel, the soup maker. After following a girlfriend to Austin, Texas, Ansel decided to create a new life for himself in his newfound city— sans the girlfriend and the software job. Starting with $90 on his credit card, a big pot, a ladle and his bike, the Soup Peddler was born.

“I had become somewhat of a closet food gourmand and several strands in my life commingled to make me want to share food with people—soup just seemed to be an extendable theme, and is certainly rife with warm fuzzies,” explains Ansel.

Ansel reached out to his now-fellow Austinites for his first batch of orders. He sent an e-mail to friends and neighbors telling them to leave $10 on their porches and he would deliver them homemade soup—on his bike.

Part of Ansel’s success has come from his widely diverse and always changing menu of soups. His inspiration for recipes comes from all over the map. He has traveled around the world to the Middle East, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Mexico and across North America. Recipes include Shorbat Rumman from Iraq and Brazilian Feijoada, and from his home state, traditional Maryland crab soup.

As his customer base of “soupies” has grown, so has his business.

The Soup Peddler has expanded to four wheels and a staff of 10.

And instead of those few friends and neighbors he started off with on a whim, he now delivers to more than 500 families a week.

When asked about being known as the now legendary Soup Peddler, Ansel explains, “I love being a recognized guy, just being In addition to being featured in Food appreciated for having a good, creative business, hearing, ‘There goes and Wine Magazine and on The Food the Soup Peddler and he’s a nice guy.’ ” And as shown by the success Network, Ansel was the subject of a of his business, he also makes a delicious batch of soup. —MLB 29-minute documentary, The Soup Peddler, created by Austin Director Lisa Kaselak in 2004 and re-released last year.

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TRAVEL IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION; SOUP PEDDLER PHOTO AND ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF DAVID ANSEL

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classact alumniprofile

Rolling Out the Red Carpet for Gala 2008 THE NINTH ANNUAL Alumni Association

Awards Gala will be held on April 12 at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center. The black-tie event will recognize 20 distinguished individuals across several disciplines for their outstanding contributions to their professions, to society and to the university. The Maryland Alumni Association is pleased to announce and to congratulate this year’s awardees.

Alumni Association Awards PRESIDENT’S DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS AWARD Lt. Gen. Julius Becton Jr. (ret.) ’67 Former Commissioner, American Battle Monuments Commission INTERNATIONAL ALUMNUS AWARD Liuqing Huang Ph.D. ’83 President, Actiz Software and CTO, Primeton Technologies OUTSTANDING YOUNG ALUMNUS AWARD Christina Maria Lagdameo ’98 Social Welfare Advocate

College/School Distinguished Alumni Awards AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES Bruce Berlage ’56 Managing Partner, Beck & Berlage Real Estate ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND PRESERVATION Alex Klatskin ’88 Partner, Forsgate Industrial Partners ARTS AND HUMANITIES Yuriko Yamaguchi ’79 Artist BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Lt. Gen. James Clapper Jr. (ret.) ’63 Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence ROBERT H. SMITH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Richard Schaeffer ’74 Chairman, New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. CHEMICAL AND LIFE SCIENCES Joseph Rodricks ’63, Ph.D. ’68 Principal, Environ Holdings, Inc.

TYSER GOTTWALS AWARD Pedro Wasmer ’62 Retired President, Somerset Capital Group, Ltd.

COMPUTER, MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES Jordan Goodman ’73, M.S. ’75, Ph.D. ’78 Professor & Former Chair, Department of Physics, University of Maryland

HUMANITARIAN AWARD Avis Robinson ’74 President & CEO, Washington Metro Scholars

EDUCATION Christine Courtois ’73, Ph.D. ’79 Principal, Christine Courtois, Ph.D. and Associates

HONORARY MEMBERSHIP The Hon. Timothy Maloney Partner, Joseph Greenwald & Laake, P.A.

A. JAMES CLARK SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING Michael Torok ’86, Ph.D. ’89 Chief Engineer, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation

Nominations Needed for Milestone Year!

The alumni association is now accepting nominations for the 2009 awards program. Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of the alumni association’s gala—an event bringing the Maryland community together to recognize the university’s shining stars.

For a complete list of awards and to nominate a fellow Terp online, go to www.alumni.umd.edu/ programs/annualawards.

SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH Kevin Clair ’82 President, Health Solutions INFORMATION STUDIES Jane Kinney Meyers ’78 President, Lubuto Library Project, Inc. PHILIP MERRILL COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM Connie Chung ’69 Broadcast Journalist PUBLIC POLICY Lisa Calise Signori ’92 Director of Administration & Finance, City of Boston

Robert Parker ’70 (seated, center), publisher of The Wine Advocate, was the 2006 recipient of the President’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.

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Broadcast journalist Connie Chung ’69 will be among this year’s honorees at the Ninth Annual Alumni Association Awards Gala.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES Steven Leonard ’78 President & CEO, American Truck & Bus

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

BYalumni Over 50’s Singles Night is the hilarious story of B.J. Franklin, an over-50 widow who must find her newly widowed sister Iris a husband before she drives BJ insane. Ellyn Bache’s ’67 tale of these two sisters learning to embrace their freedom is delightfully clever and inspirational.

Maryland Loyalty on Display

YOU MAKE LIFELONG commitments

to your spouse, your children, maybe even to your mortgage, but what about to your alma mater?

That’s exactly what some loyal Terps have done by joining the Maryland Alumni Association’s Life Member Program.

The successful program, relaunched in 2006, now features another great benefit—the Eric S. & Frann G. Francis Lifetime Member Wall. Your Maryland loyalty will be on display for all to see on the grounds of the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center across from the Dessie M. & James R. Moxley, Jr. Gardens and adjacent to the south gate of Chevy Chase Bank Field at Byrd Stadium. The wall, honoring all Life Members with their names permanently listed, will be installed in 2008.

“As we have learned from our many enthusiastic alumni, devotion to the university is a lifetime dedication and we want to help those alumni show their perennial pas-

sion by permanently marking their loyalty for all to see,” explains Sonia Huntley, director of membership and marketing.

Membership must be paid in full to appear on the Lifetime Member Wall. Join today for one payment of $850 (single), $950 (joint). Or reserve your place on the wall by making five yearly installments of $210 (single), $240 (joint). In addition to receiving name recognition on the Lifetime Member Wall, you receive a Life Member Card, neverending access to member benefits, a perpetual connection to the Maryland family and the enduring thanks of your alumni association.

Your dues will also support alumni programming, the Riggs Alumni Center and the Alumni Association Scholarship Program.

Show your Terrapin pride today by joining the Life Membership Program. For more information, contact the alumni association at 301.405.4678 or visit www.alumni.umd.edu. —MLB

LIFETIME MEMBER WALL PHOTO COURTESY OF ALUMNI RELATIONS; ALUMNI BOOKS PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

Eric ’71 and Frann Francis are joined by their daughters for the unveiling of the Lifetime Member Wall. Joining them: University President Dan Mote (second from right), Assistant Vice President of Alumni Relations and Development Danita D. Nias ’81 (left) and Alumni Association Board of Governors President-elect Steve Rotter ’82 (right).

Conscious Motherhood: One Woman’s Journey by Katherine Dickson Ph.D. ’90, is a personal account of how having a child changed one woman’s life during the late 1960s. This semiautobiography traces the journey toward increasing psychological and emotional wholeness and the role of motherhood in this process.

Eleanor Roosevelt’s influence on the American consciousness and her effectiveness in catalyzing social change can be seen in Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: Letters to Eleanor Roosevelt Through Depression and War. This collection of remarkable letters edited by Cathy D. Knepper Ph.D. ’93 offers a uniquely intimate view of our nation’s most challenging era as well as a personal look at one of our nation’s most significant first ladies.

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11

m-file Bringing National Archives Online

NEWSdesk UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND FACULTY ARE THE SOURCE NEWS MEDIA TURN TO FOR EXPERTISE—FROM POLITICS AND PUBLIC POLICY TO SOCIETY AND CULTURE TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. “This is going to be the paradigm of the future. The amount of information out there is growing at an exponential pace, and this way of doing computing is the only realistic way of keeping up with that.”

SELECTION AS ONE OF SIX SCHOOLS IN GOOGLE’S

“… Both the security and scientific communities agree that losing our leading edge in science and technology is one of the greatest threats to national security. Unnecessary or ill-conceived restrictions could jeopardize the scientific and technical progress that our nation depends upon.”

MEGA-COMPUTING “CLOUD” PROJECT, WASHINGTON

JACQUES GANSLER, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR

POST, OCT. 9

PUBLIC POLICY AND PRIVATE ENTERPRISE (AND FOR-

JIMMY LIN, INFORMATION STUDIES, ON MARYLAND’S

MER U.S. UNDERSECRETARY OF DEFENSE), ON CLASSI-

“Remember Jimmy Carter’s sweaters from the 1970s energy crisis? With Seventh Avenue proclaiming that ‘green is the new black,’ we can expect a surge in fashion innovations in response to climate change.”

JO PAOLETTI, AMERICAN STUDIES, ON ENERGY CONSERVATION'S INFLUENCE ON STYLE, “THE SHOWBUZZ,” CBS NEWS, NOV. 13

FYING RESEARCH PROJECTS, NEW YORK TIMES, OCT. 19

“You can question the way a print was taken or question the chain of custody. But questioning the science is hard to do, because we have never, ever found two people with the same fingerprint.”

THOMAS P. MAURIELLO, CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, ON A JUDGE BARRING FINGERPRINT EVIDENCE IN A MURDER TRIAL, BALTIMORE SUN, OCT. 26

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PRACTICALLY EVERY MODERN institution turns

out kilobytes upon kilobytes of electronic data that need to be preserved, sometimes for a few years, sometimes for decades. To complicate matters, software is always changing, often making old files obsolete and inaccessible. The problem affects everyone from families who would like their grandchildren to see their digital photos to the National Archives, responsible for preserving the nation’s historic records forever.

“Traditional archives have known how to control light, temperature and humidity to preserve physical artifacts. There is no such knowledge for electronic data,” says Joseph JaJa, professor of electrical and computer engineering and a member of the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies.

“Unfortunately, electronic materials are much more fragile than paper, paintings and books.”

Since 2000, JaJa has been working with the National Archives to develop methods for preserving and providing access to federal electronic records. In collaboration with the San Diego Supercomputing Center, the National Archives and Stanford University, JaJa’s research team has developed tools to assimilate data into archives and to monitor the information to ensure the authenticity of files and to manage format obsolescence. JaJa used his background in parallel and distributed computing to create a grid structure that prevents against data loss in the event of security breaches or operational errors.

JaJa is also considering better ways of storing electronic data produced at the university itself. When preserving something like digital art, archivists strive not only to preserve the content of images but also their look and feel.

Archivists also want to safeguard scientific data. Some information, for example about the atmosphere and the planet, will only become more valuable with time. —KJ

FINGERPRINT ILLUSTRATION BY RENA HOFFMAN

Exercise for Mental Longevity KINESIOLOGY PROFESSOR BRADLEY Hatfield uses advanced brain imaging to study the benefits of exercise on the aging brain. Early results show that moderate physical activity may help maintain memory function longer—maybe even for years—in people who are genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s disease.

Memory-related structures are among the brain regions affected in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s. To see how well they’re functioning, Hatfield hooks seemingly healthy participants up to as many as 200 sensors and tracks the electrical and magnetic activity in their brains. Here, he explains the process and his findings.

PICTURE THE CONNECTION › How it works: Physical activity results in the release of neurotrophins, factors that promote growth and repair of neural tissue in these regions. Computer-generated neuroimaging, including EEGs, MEGs and 3-D MRIs, provide a window to the brain that allows researchers to see if an individual’s brain activity patterns are positively affected by exercise. › What he found: Physically active individuals who carry the gene that makes them more susceptible to Alzheimer’s (APOE e4) have brain activity during memory challenges that are similar to non-carriers who are at lower genetic risk of Alzheimer’s. This implies a protective effect of exercise on the brain. On the other hand, carriers of the gene who are sedentary show reduced brain activity in specific areas, which implies some degree of neurodegeneration.

GET RESULTS › A little goes a long way. It’s not well established at this time, but it seems that a moderate degree of physical activity, such as brisk walking three or more times per week, for 20 minutes or more per session, is sufficient. › Go for cardio. Cardiovascular conditioning seems best to positively impact the brain, but weight training (resistance exercise) may be good for the brain, too, especially in the elderly. It stimulates growth hormone, which can nourish brain tissue.

START NOW › Over 50 and sedentary? Get moving. Preliminary results suggest that it is not too late. In fact, middle age may provide a window of opportunity during which you could capitalize on the beneficial effects of exercise on the brain and delay decline—thus maintaining a higher quality of mental life. › Benefits for all. Exercise will enhance brain tissue density and results in a “cognitive reserve.” This can help you cope with and compensate for any age-related or disease-related decline, delaying the onset of symptoms. This should apply to all forms of dementia—not just Alzheimer’s. —KM

BRAIN SCAN PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

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13

m-file Improving the Accuracy and Speed of Drug Development A MULTIDISCIPLINARY research team

combining faculty from the A. James Clark School of Engineering with scientists from the nearby University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute is looking to revolutionize the way companies develop and test new pharmaceutical drugs. The researchers plan to build small devices that can test new drugs using living, human proteins and cells rather than laboratory animals, significantly improving the accuracy and speed of drug development.

“The present testing system, involving mice and other animals, really doesn’t reflect the human body,” says principal investigator William Bentley, who is the Robert E. Fischell Distinguished Professor and chair of the Fischell Department of Bioengineering. “This leads to inaccurate results that require additional rounds of testing, dragging out the process for years.”

It currently takes about 10 years and $1 billion worth of research for a new pharmaceutical drug to be conceived, tested and approved for market.

The testing device being developed is about the size of an iPod, with team members knowledgeable in nanotechnology

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and micro fabrication techniques working to make the tool even smaller. The device lets scientists place both the drug to be tested and specific human biological components together, allowing for multiple, simultaneous measurements of how proteins or cells respond to the drug, which in turn can determine whether the drug is successful.

The researchers are working with a management board made up of representatives from leading pharmaceutical companies like sanofi pasteur, MedImmune and Bristol-Meyers Squibb. “They will help guide us so that we are addressing current industry needs,” Bentley says.

Funding for the research comes from a $2 million National Science Foundation grant that is part of the NSF’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation program. These grants specifically fund projects involving groups of researchers from at least three different fields, and who have a visionary plan to change the way people perform research.

The goal of the innovation program, according to the NSF, is to encourage researchers to transform the way engineering addresses critical societal problems. —TV

Seed Grant Program Promotes Multidisciplinary Research THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND and the medical and pharmacy schools at the University of Maryland, Baltimore recently unveiled a competitive seed grant program that stimulates collaborative research between the two institutions. The program was designed to foster cross-disciplinary teams from both universities, who would then collaborate on new avenues of research that might not be explored by any one group alone.

“We want to capitalize on the research interests of the two institutions in order to become more competitive for certain types of federal funding,” says Ken Gertz, associate vice president for research development at the University of Maryland.

“There are many extramural research programs—especially from the National Institutes of Health—that specifically target teams of engineers, chemical and life scientists, and clinicians working together to address specific health issues.”

The initial cohort of eight winning projects (from more than 30 entries) includes research that looks at polymer coatings to enhance the biocompatibility of artificial lungs, the development of a safe vaccine for the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus and an examination of the human brain’s response to changes in activity after injury or the loss of peripheral sensory inputs. —TV

Growing Maryland’s Fruitful Wine Industry

JOE FIOLA, VITICULTURE and small fruit specialist at the Western Maryland

Joe Fiola, Maryland Cooperative Extension specialist in viticulture and small fruits, has helped move the wine industry into 15 Maryland counties.

PHOTOS BY EDWIN REMSBERG

Research and Education Center, has a strange introduction to his beginners’ grape growing workshops.

“My object here is to scare most of you away from doing this,” he tells would-be vintners who flock to his presentations. If you don’t want to be a farmer, don’t get into grape production, explains the viticulturist with almost 20 years of experience. Growing grapes is intensive small fruit farming; amateur growers need to understand there’s nothing romantic about mid-winter pruning or mid-summer vine training.

With Fiola’s help, the 28 licensed wineries in Maryland—up from 11 in 2002—like well-trained vines, might just make it. Fiola’s viticulture and enology program concentrates on variety and clonal testing he conducts on the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ four vineyards. Fiola’s goal is to develop variety recommendations—like those from southern Italy, France and Spain, and even Eastern Europe—best suited to a vineyard locale. Wine production in the state increases an average of 15 to 20 percent each year, and Maryland wines—numbering more than 225 different varieties—consistently win gold medals at national and international wine competitions.

Fiola’s own wines have moved him into the top 20 all-time award winners in the American Wine Society’s national wine amateur competition.

Fiola’s Linae, a vine existing nowhere else in the world, garnered the vintner a Best in Show in 2003. Boordy Vineyards, located in Baltimore County, has since requested an acre of the vine from Fiola who hopes to patent it.

On the horizon for the burgeoning Maryland wine industry?

“Farmers need to take advantage of the interest in wine and work with apples, which are much less expensive to grow than grapes,” Fiola says.

The northern tier counties are well suited to grow this hardy fruit. This is not your grocery store cider turned hard. Apple wines can have a bouquet similar to a dry chardonnay, Fiola says. He also creates Madeira-style wines and products similar to ice wine and ice-port wine from apples.

“Since I do so many fermentations each year, sometimes one gets away without getting the proper attention and oxidizes or turns to vinegar,” he says.

But the wine industry, stoked by Fiola’s research efforts at Maryland, promises to remain sweet. —RR

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15

play-by-play SCOREcard

Anyone Up for a Round of Wushu?

Major club team accomplishments include: TerpWushu was named the university’s best sports club for 2006— including hosting the East Coast Intercollegiate Tournament and competing in the 10th Annual Intercollegiate Tournament.

Most know that Head Football Coach Ralph Friedgen ’70, M.A. ’72 played football during his college career, but add one more accolade to his athletic resume´—Club Rugby player.

Friedgen played back in the early days of the team.

WHEN YOU THINK of sports at Maryland, maybe

basketball, football and lacrosse come to mind.

But what about aikido, kendo and wushu? These are among the 40 sports available through the University of Maryland Sport Club Program.

Where varsity sports leave off, the Sport Club Program picks up. The purpose of the program, which began operating under Campus Recreation Services in 1985, is to provide opportunities for students with a common sport interest to compete in organized activities. In addition, the program helps develop leadership skills in its members. Each club is self-managed, taking care of its own competition scheduling, recruiting and fund raising.

The Sport Club Program has something available to everyone from ballroom dancing and rugby to crew and ultimate Frisbee. With 2,500 students choosing among 40 different clubs, they can turn a large campus into a small community.

Those aren’t the only benefits. Katie Marzocca, assistant director of sport clubs, says, “I believe students in these clubs develop lifelong friendships and remember their club experiences as an integral element of their overall experience at the University of Maryland.”

David Griffin ’77 participated in fencing while 16

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a student, “I found a sense of camaraderie that I had never experienced before—many of my college teammates are still good friends, even after the passage of 30 years.”

During her time on campus, Pamela Gouws gained lifelong friends while playing as one of the founding members of the women’s club rugby team. She also maintained her connection to the team—she is now the coach. “When my past teammates come to watch my girls play I beam with pride as an alumna of this great team,” Gouws says.

For sport clubs, success isn’t only about winning—it’s about ensuring that each club member has the best experience possible—whether learning a new sport, engaging in a shared interest, acquiring a new skill or developing a lasting friendship. —MLB

While volleyball and tennis need no further explanation, some of the more unusual sport clubs offered by the program do. Wushu encompasses all of Chinese martial arts and the TerpWushus participate in combining aspects of sport, performance art and martial art. Kendo is the Japanese art of fencing and the club is offered to participants of any skill level.

The University of Maryland Field Hockey Club won the 2006 National Field Hockey League Championship against James Madison University with a final score of 1-0.

The Boxing Club hosted the first boxing event, Rumble in Ritchie, on campus in over 50 years at Ritchie Coliseum last February. In attendance was Athletic Hall of Fame member Garry Garber ’55. Garber was the 1954 NCAA National Champion.

ILLUSTRATION BY JEANETTE J. NELSON; FIELD HOCKEY CLUB PHOTO COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

spotlight Artist’s Passion Takes Center Stage EVERY NIGHT for two straight months in

1987, Susan Chiang ’73, commandeered her family dining room, threw a pot of coffee on the stove, and toiled alone through the painstaking process of designing and building 95 original classical ballet costumes.

Each day she also worked, attended graduate classes, did homework and cared for her small children.

Before the show opened, Chiang, now a university lecturer and foreman of the costume shop at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, almost lost it.

“I just kept asking myself, ‘What am I doing?’ ” she recalls.

All was revealed on the opening night of Cinderella. As Chiang stood backstage and watched her work dance before a live audience, she recognized her own happy ending. That moment “really made me understand why I’m doing it,” she says.

Seeds for Chiang’s future were planted early. She grew up in a small town in Massachusetts and did what all little girls were supposed to do at the time—learned to cook, sew and dance like a ballerina. After earning a bachelor’s degree in French literature, Chiang longed for a connection to the arts, so adding to her already hectic schedule, she taught herself to make patterns and build costumes.

Her “pumpkin” of a dining room turned into a fully equipped shop at the center, overrun with headless mannequins, sewing machines and steam irons that are fed water through I.V.-style containers suspended from the ceiling. For Chiang, it is the organized chaos she craves— and she is lonely no more.

“The beauty of working in here is that I have help,” Chiang says. She credits her professional happiness to a team of skilled students and faculty who work together constructing costumes for theater, music and opera performances.

Her freelance costuming experience inspired her to pursue a master of fine arts degree, which she completed in 1992.

Six years later, Chiang joined the university as a makeup lecturer after she received a call from the thenchair of the Department of Theatre, Roger Meersman, who knew of her work in the local arts community.

Chiang says the university’s commitment to the arts has come a long way from her days as a dance student in “The Gulch,” an uninspired cluster of army surplus buildings

Artist Sue Chiang (left) designs costumes like these from The Green Bird (bottom inset and right) and Night from Day (inset).

that once housed the department. She says Maryland’s value for the arts was made clear when construction for the Clarice Smith Center started in the late ’90s.

“Their focus and their mission dovetails so well with what I value as an artist, and that’s important to me,” says Chiang. “It’s such a gift to be able to do what I love.” —CW Chiang’s work will take center stage in The Ash Girl, running Feb. 28-March 8 at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

CHIANG PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; COSTUME IMAGES COURTESY OF CLARICE SMITH PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

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Blind Summit Theatre: Low Life Based on the works of Charles Bukowski, Low Life is funny, smart, crazed and yet terribly sane. Director Mark Down and designer and puppet maker Nick Barnes produce puppetry that is astounding in craft, beauty and detail. Their puppets inhabit a knee-high world of deadbeats, losers and poets while living sideby-side with humans.

MARCH 12–14 | TICKETS $30 Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center

and admission are free.

throughout campus and parking

food and more. Events are held

formances, TERP athletics, workshops, great

on Hornbake Mall. Also returning: live per-

bakery feats and serving up 50,000 cupcakes

open house event, we’re topping our past

memorate the 10th anniversary of this

research over the last decade. To com-

Maryland’s academic programs and

Explore our world—and the impact of

APRIL 26 | 10 A.M.–4 P.M. Maryland Day 2008

Spring means new life and great opportunities to celebrate all that is new at the University of Maryland. Join us to welcome home a traveling exhibit, witness a fresh spin on the works of a famous poet, or experience a new take on what’s becoming a university classic: Maryland Day.

Enjoy refreshments, connect with fellow alumni and meet special guests at gatherings on the east or west coast. Visit the alumni association Web site for updates and more details.

• new york city, june 12, 6:30 p.m. at midtown loft on fifth ave.

• los angeles, may 15, 6:30 p.m. at hillcrest country club

• baltimore, april 30, 6:30 p.m. at the sports legends museum

Hosted by the Maryland Alumni Association

SAVE THE DATE: TERP Pride from Coast to Coast

BLIND SUMMIT THEATRE PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE CLARICE SMITH PERFORMING ARTS CENTER; MARYLAND DAY PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; ILLUSTRATION BY JEANETTE J. NELSON; BASKETBALL PLAYERS COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

Women’s Basketball, NCAA Tournament Maryland’s Comcast Center hosts exciting Division I action in the first and second rounds. Tickets are $18 to $38; call 800.IM.A.TERP.

MARCH 23 & 25

ACC Wrestling Championship Six teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference, including Maryland, battle for the title at Comcast Center.

Tickets are $5 to $10; call 800.462.8371.

Great Sports Action MARCH 8

on affordable housing.

an annual lecture and symposium focusing

Americans. The Gallery show coincides with

opportunities for the least wealthy

well-designed developments can offer new

from across the nation demonstrating that

is coming home. It features 18 projects

Architecture, Planning, and Preservation,

Isabelle Gournay at the School of

university professors Ralph Bennett and

This traveling exhibition, curated by

American Asset”

“Affordable Housing: Designing an

APRIL 2–MAY 14 Kibel Gallery

301.314.7070 (Ticket Office) umterps.cstv.com

TERP ATHLETICS

301.314.3375 www.union.umd.edu

STAMP STUDENT UNION

301.405.8000 arch.umd.edu/resources/ facilities/kibel_gallery.cfm

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND PRESERVATION

www.marylandday.umd.edu

MARYLAND DAY 2008

301.405.ARTS (Ticket Office) claricesmithcenter.umd.edu

CLARICE SMITH PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

301.405.4678 or 800.336.8627 alumni.umd.edu

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

H OT L I N E

Loove

the science of

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Story by Kimberly Marselas illustrations by catherine nichols

If you re thinking a new scent may catch the attention of that special someone this Valentine s Day, University of Maryland neuroscientist R. Douglas Fields has a few words of caution. As someone who s spent a considerable chunk of his research life advancing the science of love or at least lust he can say with authority that smell alone won t seal the deal when it comes to human attraction.

There’s still much to learn about pheromones, those silent chemical messages exchanged by members of the opposite sex, and how they interact with the socalled cranial nerve zero Fields studies.

For starters, many scientists and medical professionals don’t even know nerve zero exists. It’s not pictured in most anatomy texts, and there is no ethical way to test whether the nerve, at the very top of the brain, controls sexual impulses in healthy humans. Fields’ theory, based on his work in whales and previous studies on other animals, is that nerve zero directs non-smelling olfactory signals directly to the part of the brain involved in sexual reproduction.

But even with the help of nerve zero, pheromones won’t win over your intended just because the label on a bottle tells you so.There’s no scientific evidence that colognes containing copulin or androstenone (code for rhesus monkey pheromone or boar saliva) or any other animal pheromones are akin to Cupid’s arrow.

“There are more aspects to it,” says Fields, an adjunct professor and chief of the Nervous System and Plasticity

Section at the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. “[Lust] is not going to be triggered by just one stimulus. Humans are much more complicated than that.”

Fields is among the many Maryland researchers who put relationships under a microscope—sometimes literally—to figure out why people fall in love, the best ways to sustain healthy relationships and how cultural expectations influence love connections.When dissecting whale brains, literary classics or spending patterns, researchers who dabble in love find that media and the public devour their work.

Nerve zero, a relative unknown a few years ago, now even has its own Wikipedia page.

“The appeal of the story is that it is about a very compelling subject,” says Fields. “But it is also a fascinating science adventure/mystery story.”

COURTSHIP Even if falling in love has it roots in the brain, it’s not always the smartest thing to do. Literature is packed with examples of

torrid, passion-fueled romances, as well as characters tortured by longing. In books, as in life, love often fades to boredom, disdain and even hate.

“Shakespeare lets us in on that from the very beginning,” says English professor Michael Olmert ’62, ’80 Ph.D., an Emmy-award winning writer who teaches the greats from Beowulf to the Bard. “He describes love in very violent terms, writes of love exploding.”

In “Romeo and Juliet,” Romeo deplores the “heavy lightness” and “cold fire” that grip him—a series of oxymorons that capture love’s two-sided tendencies.

While Olmert mines literature for cultural significance, he also uses it to teach students what to demand in their love lives. At a time when many are focused on physical appearance and instant attraction, he points out Shakespeare’s celebration of an ordinary woman.

“He spends 12 lines outlining how she’s not Cindy Crawford, and then two lines saying why this love is the best,” says Olmert, referencing Sonnet 130.

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21

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Besides, true passion is wanting encyclopedic knowledge of your lover.

“If your boyfriend doesn’t know what your middle name is, you need a new boyfriend,” Olmert tells his students. Same rule applies for eye color.

Even the ancients captured the arc of all-consuming romantic love. In Greek mythology, Aphrodite experiences violent, powerful love but then dies before it can mellow and mature.

“That’s the tragedy of Aphrodite,” Olmert says. “Although she has this very youthful love, it can’t continue.”

COMMITMENT So how do couples make the transition into the glorious “autumnal” love celebrated by 17th century English poet John Donne?

That’s a question for couples therapists, whose offices are laboratories where they continue to find ways to help bring damaged relationships back from the brink. After 24 years in the business, Norm Epstein often begins with a simple technique: he asks couples to reminisce about how they met and what first attracted them to each other.

“A lot of people gradually let things slide and don’t see it happening,” says Epstein, director of the Marriage and Family Therapy program at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. “You have to pay close attention to what’s changed.You can’t take love for granted.”

A therapist can help couples in crisis identify and change troubling patterns.

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d mak es civ il

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the fatal loin

For those thinking of marriage, research proves that increasingly popular premarriage counseling leads to increased marital satisfaction and fewer divorces.

“It’s a good idea for couples to take a look at their areas of strength, their compatibility, but also their vulnerabilities,” Epstein says.“Sometimes a couple doesn’t really have issues until they get to a later point in life. Some of the things can be anticipated if they’re thought out and discussed beforehand.”

Religious officials or independent therapists may ask couples to complete inventories describing their communication styles and personal preferences on a range of issues: how they argue, how often they want sex and how they’ll divide household tasks like taking out the garbage.

Once those problems arise in marriage, they can fester and feed into larger issues.Therapists work with couples to find the root causes, and two evolving approaches offer promising results.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy —the subject of a large research study Epstein is running on those who’ve suffered psychological or physical abuse—contrasts a couple’s communication and routine behaviors with each partner’s beliefs about how relationships ought to work. Does one person expect to spend all the time with their partner? Does the other need more time alone? Does one feel the relationship is collapsing while the other is blissfully happy? In therapy, the partners can safely talk about their

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different expectations and how those may be influencing their reality.

Emotionally focused therapy focuses on the need for intimate, close attachment. Epstein helps couples examine how they may be letting each other down: do they withdraw when rejected or do they continue to press for more attention?

“We can offer constructive ways to get closer,” Epstein says. “These techniques have been shown to reduce stress and increase positive outcomes.”

COMMERCIALISM Love and stress can seem synonymous at times, no more so than when shopping for the ideal gift by February 14. Market researchers have perfected the science for understanding holiday shopping patterns, and the Robert H. Smith School of Business’ Jie Zhang knows her stuff.

An expert on pricing and promotions, she knows what retailers will do to seduce you into spending big bucks to prove you love someone.

Her personal opinion?

“I think the holiday has been pushed to the extent that it’s not about love anymore,” she says. “It’s about buying the biggest gift—it’s about bragging rights.”

Her professional observations?

Retailers gravitate toward two major marketing strategies when Cupid’s involved. Some go for the traditional, touchy-feely ads á la Hallmark. Others opt for the guilt trip, like the TV and radio spot running prominently in D.C.

ILLUSTRATION BY PATTI LOOK

in which a group of women gush about the size of their friend’s ring.

Either way, the advertising is working. About two-thirds of Americans celebrated Valentine’s Day in 2007, spending an estimated $16.9 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. And while the focus used to be on just a gift, now there’s an increasing tendency to fork over cash for chocolates and an expensive night on the town.

“It’s a social norm,” Zhang says.

“Retailers in this country have done a good job of instilling in people a kind of guilt. It’s like a crime if you don’t at least bring something home.”

But Epstein points out that people have different ideas about what constitutes a romantic gesture. Some settle for nothing less than a dozen longstemmed roses and gems, while others prefer their partner leave a love note in their briefcase or take on extra responsibilities at home.

“Romance,” he says, “is so much an interpretive thing.”

Just don’t expect anyone to interpret that doe-in-heat spray as the smell of true love. TERP

the smell of love in the wild Scent is a powerful communication tool in the animal word. Here, how a few species put pheromones to work for them: Male Lemurs Urine from dominant male lemurs suppresses sexual activity in subordinate males by depressing their testosterone levels.

Prairie Voles Dominant females’ pheromones suppress reproduction by subordinate females.

Parasitic Wasps They prey on aphids by detecting the sex pheromones of female aphids.

Bola Spiders Release a female moth sex pheromone to lure male moths as prey.

Honey Bees Individuals release alarm pheromones when they sting, which attract other bees to attack.

Garter Snakes Males release female sex pheromones to trick other males into expending sexual energy fruitlessly.

Sources: R. Douglas Fields; Scientific American Mind; Pheromones and Animal Behavior, by Tristram D. Wyatt.

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FOOD FRIGHT University researchers take on food safety

by ellen walker ternes

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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JOSHUA HARLESS

I

t’s dinner time. Do you know where your food has been? If you’re eating shrimp tonight, there’s a 90 percent chance it was pulled from another country’s waters and processed in a place where food safety might not have the priority it does in the United States.

Prepping a salad? Then it’s pretty certain some of it came from a field that birds fly over, maybe manure fertilizes, and, oh, there could be livestock living in the neighborhood. That means all kinds of bacteria were thriving in the vicinity too, some possibly making it through cleaning and all the way to your table.

Chopped spinach, straight from the freezer? Oops, many bacteria just hibernate in the cold, so if any of the nasty kind of E. coli contaminated machinery that processed your spinach, it could be just waiting to spring back life when it thaws on your counter.

Even in the United States, which has one of the world’s safest food supplies, says Jianghong Meng, professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science and acting director of the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition (jifsan), the Centers for Disease Control estimates that there are 76 million cases of food-borne illness annually. Five thousand cases result in death.

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KEY MOMENTS IN FOOD SAFETY

300 BC Romans ban mixing spoiled grain with good grain.

1723 Lead pipes prohibited for distilling.

1785 Massachusetts threatens “fine, imprisonment or standing in the pillory” for “evilly disposed persons” who knowingly sell “corrupted provisions.”

changes in how americans get their food, the threat of terrorism and the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria have experts concerned that identifying contaminated food before it does harm is becoming more difficult.

Where Americans once raised most of the food they ate, the volume of food imports is exploding.The United States imports 80 percent of its seafood and 40 percent of its produce, yet government officials inspect only a little more than one percent of food that enters the country from abroad. Food law enforcement is divided among many federal agencies, none with enough money or clout to beef up food safety oversight to meet today’s needs.

The possibility of terrorists intentionally contaminating food is a 21st century reality, not just for illness it could cause, says Meng, but for the interruption to the food supply and panic that could result.

Then there are the super bacteria that have evolved from overuse of antibiotics over the last 50 years. Because many food-borne organisms have become resistant to antibiotics, the drugs might not be able to help you if you get sick from bacteria-contaminated food.

“We have to find ways to detect microorganisms, toxic chemicals or radiological contamination quickly and in real time.”

1902 Wiley’s “Poison Squad,” employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, consume chemical preservatives, including formaldehyde, and keep notes on health effects. Most found to be bad for you.

these factors make the research and expertise of University

of Maryland food safety researchers crucial. In the lab and in the field, our scientists are learning more about how food becomes contaminated, looking for new ways to prevent food-borne pathogens from making us sick, and teaching safe practices to people in other countries that produce food for the United States.

Mickey Parish, professor and chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, says, “We need to find the contamination before it causes illness, not work backward after the fact, which is what we often do now.We have to find ways to detect microorganisms, toxic chemicals or radiological contamination quickly and in real time.

“Right now testing a food product may take 24–48 hours or more.The gold standard that everyone is shooting for,” says Parish, “is to be able to find the organism in a one-cup sample, get a result almost immediately and do it inexpensively.”

finding the bad actors in food , however, is not a simple process.

Foods are extremely complex structures of nutrients, water and organisms.The key, says Parish, is to apply new technology and advances in bioscience to the age-old quest to eat safely.

Meng’s research group is developing a number of methods to detect food-borne viruses and bacteria. One technique uses genetically engineered immune cells that glow fluorescent green when

—mickey parish

The University of Maryland partners with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition (jifsan). jifsan is based in Symons Hall and headed by acting director Professor Jianghong Meng (pictured left). In addition to supporting food safety research collaborations, jifsan is helping the United States reduce risk of contamination of imported foods. In its gaps programs—Good Agricultural (and Aquaculture) Practices—jifsan sends experts, including a number of University of Maryland faculty like Martin Lo and Christopher Walsh, to other countries to train government officials and food producers in food safety. jifsan has provided training in 14 countries, many in Central and South America, and, most recently, in China and Korea. “The strategy is to have producers in foreign countries follow U.S. food safety standards for products exported to the United States,” says Meng.—ET

1906 Congress passes the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.

1938 Congress passes The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, replacing the 1906 act. It remains the basis for federal food regulation.

2004 Then-Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson says he worries “every single night” about a possible terror attack on the food supply. “For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do.”

they recognize specific targets, such as E. coli o157:h7, the bacteria responsible for killing people in the 2006 spinach contamination and recent ground beef outbreaks. It is a technique, Meng says, that also could detect a terrorist contamination.

The research team of food science professor Martin Lo is studying how bacteria communicate with each other to accumulate and form a community that produces shields against washing and cleaning. “If we understand more about how they work,” Lo says, “we can come closer to interfering with their operation.”

Another detection method that holds promise is nanotechnology. Researchers in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science will work with the university’s NanoCenter to explore how, for example, nanoscale bacteria detectors could be put inside food containers to send alerts when they sense contaminated food. antibiotics were the miracle drugs of the 20th century. They cured people of life-threatening bacterial diseases and lethal infections. Meat producers gave them to livestock to keep disease away and promote growth efficiency. But overuse of the magic bullet has become a classic case of too much of a good thing.

Amy Chapin Sapkota ’97, assistant professor in the School of Public Health says, “the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates 24.6 million pounds of antibiotics are given to healthy livestock annually in the United States.That compares to approximately three million pounds prescribed to treat humans.”

So, while the antibiotics were successfully doing their jobs, bacteria were busy surviving by genetically altering to resist the drugs.To complicate matters, says Meng, one of the world’s leading researchers on antibiotic resistance in food, “We have found that if bacteria are exposed to one antibiotic or chemical, it may develop resistance to others at the same time.We have a situation that is creating multi-drug resistant bacteria.”

In one of his studies, Meng tested bacteria on meat from grocery stores. “We found that many of the bacteria on the meat— Salmonella, E. coli, and Campylobacter—had developed resistance to antibiotics used to treat infections in people.” Meng’s work contributed to a Food and Drug Administration decision to ban use of a sister drug of the antibiotic Cipro in poultry.

Sapkota also studies antibiotic resistant bacteria, but she goes directly to the source of antibiotic resistance in the food chain—the farm itself. She studies how humans are exposed to pathogens that get into the water, air and soil around large livestock operations. One of her studies was the first to find that antibiotic-resistant bacteria from large-scale swine facilities travel through the air. “Environmental pathways of human exposure may be as important as food-borne pathways,” Sapkota says.“Resistant bacteria from farms could contaminate the environment and spread to humans in many different ways.”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY EDWIN REMSBERG

Amy Chapin Sapkota finds that resistant bacteria from farms, including large livestock operations (below), could contaminate the environment and spread to humans in many di≈erent ways.

the impact of the university of maryland’s food safety

research and expertise will grow as research continues and new efforts are launched. For example, the Center for Food Systems Security and Safety, endowed by a $1.2 million gift from Robert Facchina ’77, president and CEO of Johanna Foods, has recently begun its work to find ways to secure food production supply systems to insure public safety from intentional and unintentional food contamination.

Faculty research on quick detection of food-borne pathogens may pay off sooner rather than later, says Meng. “Several advanced technologies are able to identify and detect food-borne pathogens in real time, within minutes. Although it may take some years for such technologies to be applied directly to food, it’s a reachable goal.”

In the meantime, each one of these highly educated experts, who work with contaminating organisms all the time, says the most important thing they do to avoid illness from food contamination is what our parents and home economics teachers have told us for generations:Wash your hands, often and well. TERP

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creative force fields by dianne burch

t’s Tuesday evening and students gather in the basement lounge of Dorchester Hall awaiting a performance by a provocative guest poet or considering taking to the stage themselves. There’s a buzz of chatter, the click of knitting needles among one row of attendees; others scoop up snack food set out on a folding table. Terpoets’ “open mic” series is the latest creative enterprise undertaken by the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House, now in its sixth year as a living and learning community. The 45 undergraduates who call Dorchester Hall home share an interest in creative writing, but fully a third are pursuing majors in fields outside of English or journalism—psychology, history, linguistics, government and politics, physics among them.

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“When you collaborate with other groups that bring passions with them, the result is a tinderbox of creativity.”

Weekly Terpoets sessions attract a diverse crowd and connect students from a variety of disciplines.

Although only a small nucleus of students live in the Writers’ House, their creative channels carry across the university and into the surrounding community.“The students who live here serve as the engine of literary production for the entire campus,” says Director Johnna Schmidt, who delights in how the students take leadership and ownership of all initiatives.

Programming emphasizes creative writing in cross-cultural, interdisciplinary dimensions, which fits well with the university’s desire to become a leader in cross-cultural studies and understanding.

When Henry Aristides Mills transferred from Montgomery College in fall 2006, he couldn’t find a venue for student-led poetry. First Look Fair offered an opportunity to advertise the new venture he had in mind—Terpoets. Now, the Tuesday sessions regularly draw 60 to100 people and more than 270 people turn to the group’s Facebook presence.

At the heart of Terpoets is community building—bringing together those who have a desire

to write no matter their field of study.

“They come because it is a nonthreatening, nonjudgmental setting where people feel free to express their ideas,” says Writers’ House resident Jenna Brager ’10. Since rules limit mic time to five minutes for performing two pieces maximum, any stage jitters promise to be short-lived.

Schmidt finds that a wide range of literary figures and styles—everything from form-driven classical literature to experimental cutups and hip-hop artists—influences today’s student writers. “It is so exhilarating to give [someone] permission to be an artist,” says senior Andrew Ortuzar, creative director of Stylus, the annual Writers’ House journal of literature and art, which has expanded considerably in scope and production quality.

This past fall Terpoets and the Pride Alliance presented the first Queer Poetry Series, co-sponsored by the Writers’ House and the Asian American Student Union. And Writers’ House residents continue their quest for new alliances. Says Savannah Renehan ’08, “When you collaborate with other groups that bring passions with them, the result is a tinderbox of creativity.”

PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; TERPOETS PHOTO BY JAMES B. HALE

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Dance professor Meriam Rosen (whose dancers perform at left) and several famous artists-in-residence are using arts as a catalyst to explore social mores and a range of academic subjects.

World Wise Ways Collaboration can spark creativity among fellow artists as well as inspire students, scientists and researchers to think beyond their disciplines.

Recently, Department of Dance students performed a WPA federal theater project from 1937 depicting the difficult life of Southern cotton pickers as well as the landmark Scottsboro Trials.

Artist-in-Residence Dianne McIntyre auditioned performers last spring and as summer vacation was drawing to a close, 16 undergraduates spent 10 days straight, studying under her direction from early morning to well into the evening.

Dance Professor Meriam Rosen expected the students to learn far more than the precise, controlled movements required in the 30minute piece. She had each student research aspects of the time period to gain a better understanding of how these issues are applicable today in our diverse society.

“Many departments in arts and humanities have a very strong intellectual interest in issues of diversity, whether it is diversity seen historically or seen in and across contemporary cultures,” says Elizabeth Loizeaux, associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities. Frequently, however, issues of global culture and globalization tend to be couched in economic terms. “We realized that the knowledge that enables people to go out into the world—a lot of it comes from our college and from our disciplines.”

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So was born the faculty-generated idea for “World Wise:The Arts and Humanities in the 21st Century,” a series of themed public roundtables to explore the links between humanities and other disciplines. Last April’s first forum,“Arts as Creative Catalyst,” was tied to the college’s new artist-in-residence program. In November, “Fables and Formulas” offered a conversation among a physicist, a biochemist, an English professor and an artist who combines biology

and art, with Artist-In-Residence Liz Lerman, choreographer and MacArthur fellow, serving as moderator.

Among the near-capacity audience in the Dance Theatre were many students.

Roundtable participant Jordan Goodman ’73, M.S. ’75, Ph. D. ’78, professor of physics, hopes the students observed that it doesn’t matter if you are in arts or science—creativity and synthesis are critical components of what we do and what we expect them to do.“Even though we come at the world from different perspectives,” says Goodman, “both groups strive to develop a representation of the world around us.”

In late February, a third public forum will focus on rethinking citizenship in a global century.

Melding Word, Page and Stage As the semester draws to a close this May, students from Northwestern High School in Hyattsville will head to campus for this year’s publication of Postcards from my Country. Featuring the work of students in the English as a second language program, it was coupled with an on-stage reading at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

Teacher Rebecca Roberts had been working on her own with the students because she saw self-expression as a means to break down barriers among students who come from as many as 20 different countries. Upon learning of her effort last year, Schmidt offered the support of mentors from the Writers’ House.The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s Office of Community Engagement and the Hyattsville Community Development Corporation collaborated, as well.With a dozen mentors now involved, Schmidt believes they will likely reach 50 students this year.

Roberts recalls matching a mentor with a student from Africa who had spent his childhood homeless and parentless in the streets of his country— catching and eating raw fish to survive. “I could see the mentor was shaken by the experience and I wondered if I had done the right thing for both,” she says. “It turned out to be a very clarifying experience for the mentor and my student.” TERP

DANCE PHOTO BY RICHARD A. LIPSKI; STYLUS AND PAINT PALETTE PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

in

theloop Young Alumni Contribute Early WHEN AARON CAHN’s great uncle died and left him a significant inheritance, he easily decided to give $10,000 of it to the CIVICUS living and learning program. Like a growing number of young alumni, he felt compelled to support a program that had strongly influenced him.

“If you improve education, you’re improving all aspects of the future by influencing a future policymaker or principal,” says Cahn ’06, who teaches in the Philadelphia public schools while also working on his master’s degree.

A former government and politics major, Cahn’s participation in the service-oriented CIVICUS program was an extension of his commitment to volunteerism, having completed more than 1,200 hours of community service in high school.

“People need to experience community service, experience social action and have a feeling of satisfaction,” he says.

The genesis of Cahn’s dedication to community service began with his mother Sandy Levine, a school principal, who taught and nurtured pregnant middle schoolers, created a vegetable garden at her synagogue to feed the homeless and instituted required community service for all students at her school. She laid the foundation for Cahn’s focus on community work and responsibility.

It is this same sense of wanting to help others that drives Brad M.B.A. ’95, M.S. ’99 and Margo M.B.A., M.S. ’00 Cohen’s philanthropic work. The two former business majors are among recent Maryland graduates making Maryland a funding priority.

After years of personal giving, they created the Cohen Foundation in 2006 to fund noncommercial medical research.The Cohens understand the impact of serious illness. Margo’s father died of a heart attack seven years ago.

Brad’s mother is a breast cancer survivor, and his sister has diabetes.

The Cohen Foundation (www.thecohenfoundation.org) donates 100 percent of funds

Alumni Brad and Margo Cohen (top left) and Aaron Cahn (top right in regalia) are supporting university initiatives including the CIVICUS living and learning program (above).

raised to research, while the Cohens personally cover all administrative expenses. In 2007, the foundation raised more than $16,000 for medical research focused on diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

The couple chose to contribute to Maryland’s Center for Biomolecular Structure and Organization, and looked to their Maryland connections for support. “We liked the sensibility of Dr. George Lorimer [center director],” says Margo, adding that he helped them decide on the best use of their money. “Whether the research discovers a cure, better treatment or prevention, we’re raising money to help save people’s lives.”

The Cohens and Aaron Cahn have found that spark of passionate giving. “I now have the ability to give back to something that can do great things for others,” says Cahn. —DCJ

ALUMNI PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE COHEN AND CAHN FAMILIES; DISCUSSION GROUP PHOTO COURTSEY OF CIVICUS

Young alumni can give in many ways. Keep in mind: • No gift is too small: $50 provides copies of the First Year Book to an entire English class; $250 can send a student to a conference; $400 covers wireless service for a campus building for an entire year.

• The Maryland Fund for Excellence combines your gift with those of other young alumni to make a major impact. If total gifts from Graduates of the Last Decade meet the annual goal of $250,000, they match the interest generated by a $5 million endowment.

• Your gift through the Maryland Fund for Excellence may have double the impact with no additional expense to you. Leverage your gift from your employer’s matching gift program. To see if your company participates, visit www.matching gifts.com/umd/.

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in theloop Persian Studies Gift Expands Dialogue and Cultural Richness

by Denise C. Jones

The Roshan gift supports the following: Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Language and Linguistics Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies Roshan Institute Undergraduate Scholarship for Excellence in Persian Studies Roshan Institute Endowment for Persian Programs

INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED 12th century Persian

poet Rumi captured the essence of dialogue when he said, “Since in order to speak, one must first listen; learn to speak by listening.”

Dialogue that promotes engagement through cultural interchange is at the heart of the Roshan Institute Center for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland, where students of wide-ranging backgrounds explore the beauty and complexity of Persian culture. It is the nation’s first full-fledged academic center focused on Persian-speaking cultures in Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia and throughout the Persian-speaking diaspora.

With a generous $3 million naming gift from the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, the center, established in 2004, is poised to significantly expand its faculty, programs, research and scholarships, adding a new dimension to Maryland’s growing strength in Middle Eastern studies.

Elahe Mir-Djalali Omidyar, president and CEO of the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, says she is “helping pioneer this new academic concentration because cultural 32

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understanding and appreciation are essential to effective communication, [and it is] essential to the development of non-antagonistic and more productive relationships.”

Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, founding director of the Roshan Institute Center for Persian Studies, estimates that the number of students interested in Persian language has increased by nearly 50 percent over the past few years. “This awakening reflects more than the coming of age of second-generation Persian-Americans seeking to explore their family’s cultural heritage,” says KarimiHakkak. “About half of our students have had little or no previous connection with the subject. Some are lured by the headlines and want to develop skills in a critical language. But others feel the timeless resonance of Persian culture, and that’s our focus.”

Maryland is fast becoming a leader in scholarship on the artistic and political dimensions of Middle Eastern cultures.

The recently established Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies and the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies complement the Roshan Institute Center

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

for Persian Studies, placing greater emphasis on the cultural, historical and social dynamics of Israeli life.

Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, adds to an evolving body of scholarship that elevates cross-cultural understandings of the issues impacting the region, through the findings of his multiyear surveys of Arab public opinion.

Persian studies at Maryland gained even greater visibility last fall. In September, in conjunction with the United Nations celebration of the 800th birthday of Rumi, the university hosted an international conference on the writer and scholar. It provided opportunities to explore the richness and dynamism of his work and broader aspects of Persian culture.

Although the Middle East region has a longstanding history of political conflict, expanded interest in the

cultures of the region is facilitating constructive voices and visions to promote peace and greater cultural knowledge, a mission that university students are enthusiastically promoting.

Art history and French major Neda Khalili enrolled in Persian studies, “for self-enrichment and a closer connection to my own culture.” Khalili, a first-generation Iranian American, is among nearly a dozen students in the Persian language cluster who live in the Language House, a residence hall where students primarily speak the languages they are studying.

“Not only do they give non-Persian students the opportunity to learn about an area that is often misunderstood and misrepresented,” says history major Adam Fried, “but the program also provides Persian students with a sort of a home away from home.” TERP

Education Alumnus Establishes the College’s First Two Endowments MARYLAND’S COLLEGE OF EDUCATION is known

for developing strategies that effectively address low literacy and student achievement in American schools.

So retired schoolteacher and College of Education alumnus Jean Mullan ’68 (left) decided it would be an ideal location to launch two endowments. Her generous $1 million in gifts support professorships in literacy and teacher development.

“My investment in the college and its faculty is anchored in my belief that education truly transforms lives and opens many doors for kids,” says Mullan, chair of the College of Education cabinet supporting Great Expectations, the Campaign for Maryland.

One of the highest honors a faculty member can receive, an endowed professorship is bestowed on an eminent scholar who substantially advances the discipline.

Professor John T. Guthrie (right), director

of the Maryland Literacy Research Center, is the recipient of Mullan’s first $500,000 endowment. He explores innovative literacy-building research that targets elementary school children.

Guthrie’s research focuses on the primary obstacle to academic achievement for students. “Literacy is the most important attribute any student can acquire,” Guthrie says. Statistics show that 3,000 students drop out of high school each day.

“Most of these students can’t cope with school because they can’t read well enough to meet the demands that they’re facing.”

He is integrating science and reading instruction among students in Prince George’s, Montgomery and Frederick counties in Maryland. Whether students are interested in astronomy, history or gardening, to advance one’s identity requires reading and

GUTHRIE PORTRAIT BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; MULLEN PHOTO COURTESY OF JEAN MULLAN; VALLI PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDA VALLI

writing, he explains.

Mullan’s second $500,000 endowment established the Jeffrey and David Mullan Professorship in Teacher Education-Professional Development, named to honor Mullan’s two sons. Associate Professor Linda R. Valli (below) was named to the post. Her research focuses on strengthening teachers’ preparation to work in challenging school environments, addressing the ethical, relational, gender and cultural aspects of teaching and learning.

“I intend to use this gift to strengthen the quality of learning opportunities we provide teachers and teacher candidates, to support those who are preparing to be teacher educators and to encourage research on our efforts,” says Valli. —DCJ

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in theloop

An International Night Out President Dan Mote was literally elevated to new heights at an annual event recognizing members of the Maryland Society, those who give $100,000 or more annually to the university. Guests entered Cole Field House (1) to the sound of African drumming (4) and found a rotating 16foot globe awaiting them. The blue orb

served as a backdrop while Mote highlighted the university’s global impact—standing at a podium (2) 30 feet in the air. International student organizations, including Anokha, an Indian a capela group (3), and TerpWushu (5) provided the entertainment. Testudo donned a sombrero (6) and salsa danced to end the highenergy celebration.

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Trailblazer Marilyn Berman Pollans M.A. ’73, Ph.D. ’79 After receiving her undergraduate degree in 1956, Marilyn Berman Pollans devoted her attention to her marriage and three children. By the 1970s, when she began graduate studies and started work at the University of Maryland’s engineering school, she found women and minorities were significantly underrepresented in the field.To rectify that problem, Pollans helped launch the Women in Engineering program and the Center for Minorities in Science and Engineering. She and her husband Albert have continued to champion those causes and to celebrate their love of music by contributing nearly $500,000 to scholarships and fellowships in the A. James Clark School of Engineering and the School of Music during the Great Expectations campaign. Pollans is also a trustee of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation.

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Born: New York City Recently Read: The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin Favorite Films: “Hello Dolly!” and “Guys and Dolls” (almost

all of the classic musicals) Hobbies: Reading and cooking Personal Credo: This, too, shall pass.

Passionate About: Women’s issues and the arts Meaningful Maryland Moment: When I was named Woman of

the Year in 1991, I was so excited I was nearly speechless, which is very unusual for me. I was really thrilled to receive the award. —DCJ

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For more on Great Expectations, The Campaign for Maryland, go to www.greatexpectations.umd.edu

specialGIFTS More than $500,000 has been committed to the Nariman Farvardin Professorship, an endowment established by alumni and friends of the Clark School in recognition of Provost Farvardin’s many years of service to the school. Major contributors to date include Engineering Board of Visitors Chair Tom Scholl; Jeong H. Kim ’91; Aris Mardirossian ’74, ’75; and A. James Clark ’50.

University of Maryland College Park Foundation Trustee Robert A. Yellowlees ’60 has committed $500,000 to establish a public sculpture program that will enhance the aesthetics of the university and extend its educational mission into public spaces to be experienced and shared by the campus community and the community at large.

Longtime arts benefactors Robert and Arlene Kogod made a five-year pledge of $500,000 to support programming at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The Kogods’ continued generosity provides funding for visiting artists from around the world. These artists not only perform but also engage students, faculty and the community through master classes, workshops, pre-performance discussions, post-show talks and programs in local schools.

University of Maryland College Park Foundation Trustee Dr. Erik B. Young ’74 (right) made a new gift of $250,000 in support of six colleges and the president. With this gift, he is building the Willis Young Faculty Fellowship in aerospace engineering (named after his father), the Erik B. Young, M.D. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Enhancement Endowment, and the Ancient Stabiae program, as well as providing unrestricted support to the College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences; the College of Chemical and Life Sciences; the School of Music; and the School of Public Health.

$350 MILLION to provide Students

the opportunity to reach for the stars. $225 MILLION to ensure our

The School of Public Health also received a $2 million gift from Alice Horowitz Ph.D.’92, shown left with Dean Robert S. Gold and President Dan Mote. Horowitz is a former member of the National Institutes of Health Committee on Health Literacy and a retired senior scientist at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. She established the Herschel S. Horowitz Endowed Chair in Health Literacy and the Herschel S. Horowitz Center for Health Literacy, both named in memory of her late husband, an internationally recognized dental epidemiologist.

progress toward $1 BILLION

Faculty are competitive with the best. $175 MILLION to create an

Environment of excellence. $250 MILLION to support

Innovation to change the world around us.

$1 B I L L I O N TOTAL CAMPAIGN GOAL

$466 MILLION = $50 million

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, MIKE MORGAN AND JOHN T. CONSOLI

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Interpretations Planning Our Future

IT HAS BEEN SAID that the best way to

predict the future is to create it. Predicting the University of Maryland’s future—as a world-class university—requires a focused, 10-year plan of action.

Last fall, I asked Nariman Farvardin, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, to chair a campus-wide, comprehensive strategic planning process (see page 5). The strategic planning steering committee includes the university’s vice presidents, several deans, members of the University Senate and chair of the Board of Regents, members of the Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni.

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2008

This dedicated team has worked tirelessly from the outset incorporating input from our entire Maryland family into its thinking. The committee will complete its work this spring so the plan can be implemented in the fall.

The university has advanced substantially over the past decade, gaining recognition for research achievements and program innovations. Despite the accolades reflected in high worldwide university rankings, challenges persist, especially around the financial resources needed to support students and programs. Because we are determined to build a great, world-class university, we must take on much of the resource responsibilities ourselves.

Our new strategic plan will be bold, courageous and ambitious. We understand that this plan is for us to implement, not someone else. We must do it without reliance on resources that we cannot provide or raise. We have already taken steps in that direction. Our Great Expectations campaign is on track to reach the $500 million mark this spring, halfway toward our 2011 goal of $1 billion. Our externally sponsored research funding surged to an all-time high, exceeding $400 million last year, and it continues to grow.

I have asked that the new strategic plan challenge us to take on initiatives with high impact on society. The national economy, public health, environmental sustainability and national security are examples of such national topics. A world-class university pio-

neers the basic research that underpins innovation in all fields, so we will continue to build key areas such as public health; security; food safety; Earth sciences; climate change; and language, culture and cognition.

The strategic plan will revisit our CORE Liberal Arts and Sciences Studies Program, the part of the undergraduate curriculum mandatory for every student.

We will ensure that our students are wellprepared to be contributing citizens when they leave the university. The plan will also include commitments to teaching, faculty, environmental stewardship, student access and affordability and community diversity.

It will create initiatives serving long-term university goals such as expanding international opportunities, creating a top-class graduate program and improving the greater College Park environment.

For any bold plan to succeed, action and leadership are essential. We will identify leadership at every level of the university, and alumni leadership will be critical to our success. I encourage you to follow the planning process on the Web and make your voice heard: www.sp07.umd.edu.

The creativity, commitment and determination of all our Maryland family will ensure that the university achieves world-class status over the next decade.

The strategic plan will light our way, but most importantly this plan will proclaim who we are.

—Dan Mote, President

Our new strategic plan will be bold, courageous and ambitious.

} PHOTO BY JEREMY GREEN

It’s the 10th Annual Maryland Day and we’re celebrating in a big way!

Join the University of Maryland for our 10th annual Maryland Day on Saturday, April 26, 2008. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of our biggest open house, we will serve 50,000 free cupcakes on Hornbake Plaza.

Events all across campus will focus on the university’s impact in education, community outreach and service to the state. Maryland Day returns with more than 400 fun and educational events for all ages including live performances, sporting events, workshops, petting zoos, great food and much more.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Rain or ShineÊUÊAdmission and Parking are Free

www.marylandday.umd.edu

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