NBC's Today Show highlighted UMBC's chess team for winning the Pan-American Chess Tournament for the fourth time in five years--finishing ahead of teams such as Berkeley, Chicago and Stanford.

NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center recently partnered with UMBC to launch the Goddard Earth Sciences & Technology (GEST) Center, a five-year, $75-million research collaboration that focuses on air pollution, depletion of the ozone and coastline erosion. The collaboration is the largest in UMBC's history.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Career Development Grants to chemistry faculty Bradley Arnold, Lisa Kelly and Paul Smith. They are also eligible for the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the White House's highest honor for new scientists and engineers.

CNN Financial News senior correspondent Allan Chernoff discussed the future of investing in Internet companies at the UMBC Visionaries in Information Technology breakfast forum on April 3.

The first-ever e-Lincoln prize for Civil War research went to the "Valley of the Shadow: The Eve of War" project that was managed by Anne Rubin, UMBC assistant professor of history. The project, which combines CD-ROM, text and online media, was hailed as "a model for digital history" by e-Lincoln judges.

PBS's Scientific American Frontiers series featured UMBC psychology professor Robert Provine, the world's leading expert on the physiology, psychology and sociology behind such involuntary human behaviors as laughter and yawning. Hosted by Alan Alda, the one-hour episode was filmed on location in Provine's lab at UMBC.

Amitai Etzioni, founder of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, spoke on the topic of "Privacy: A Communitarian Perspective" on campus March 28. This event was sponsored by the Social Sciences Forum.

The Sundance Film Festival has accepted Sliding Off the Edge of the World, a film by Mark Street, assistant professor of visual arts, for next year's festival.

Renee Stout, painter, sculptor and mutimedia artist, spoke at the Daphne D. Harrison Lecture at the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery April 18. The event was sponsored by the Humanities Forum.

Homer Hickam, Jr., NASA aerospace engineer and best-selling author of Rocket Boys (released as the film October Sky), spoke to the UMBC community in the University Center Ballroom April 25. The lecture was followed by a book signing.