The grand opening of the Molecular Characterization & Analysis Complex (MCAC) will be celebrated with an Open House on Wednesday, March 7, beginning at 3:00 p.m. MCAC is located in Room 008 of the Meyerhoff Chemistry Building. The event will feature posters of the MCAC equipment and various demonstrations. A schedule of events will be posted soon.

Assessment Planning, second in the Active Assessment Luncheon Workshop Series, will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 15, from 11:50 a.m. to 12:50 p.m., in UC 116 - the Dean's Office. Participants are asked to RSVP to jtrado@umbc.edu by Feb. 10, 2012.
The series, which is being hosted by CNMS and the UMBC Faculty Development Center, was launched January 17, 2012, and will continue with workshop luncheons on March 30, and May 9. The workshops are targeting all persons using or who plan to use active learning instruction in their classrooms, especially instructors and graduate students using the CASTLE. A flier on the series is available to download in PDF format.

Please save the date for UMBC's Life Science Symposium, A Look Ahead XV: Futures in Biomedical Research, from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. on April 18, 2012 in the UMBC Ballroom. The event will feature talks by Nobel Laureate Dr. Martin Chalfie of Columbia University and UMBC Professor of Biological Sciences, Dr. Charles Bieberich. For more detail information, visit: www.umbc.edu/lookahead/.

Growing Opportunities, the inaugural CNMS Associate Professors' Retreat, was held on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at UMBC's South Campus on Rolling Road. Twenty associate faculty members in all stages of their careers attended the event.

Dr. William LaCourse is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the Carl Weber Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching Award. This is the fourth year for the award, which honors a faculty member with exceptional dedication to teaching as demonstrated by enthusiasm, up-to-date teaching materials, effective mentoring, community service related to teaching, approachability, rigorous learning requirements, coherent teaching philosophy and inspirational teaching style. Any faculty member who has been teaching in the CNMS for the past five years is eligible. The award includes a $1,000 prize and the winner will give a brief talk about his/her teaching philosophy at the CNMS Student Recognition Day on Friday, May 4, 2012. The deadline for nominations is February 20, 2012.

The 14th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences was hosted at UMBC on Saturday, October 22nd. Sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), one of the National Institutes of Health, the juried event featured posters by undergraduate researchers that were focused on varying aspects of Chemistry, Biology, and Biochemistry. Awards were made for first and second place rankings. More than 350 students and their mentors from UMBC and institutions along the east coast attended the day-long event.

Dr. Philip Farabaugh was appointed Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at UMBC and Dr. Dale Whalen was appointed Interim Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry effective August 2011.

Dr. William R. LaCourse has been appointed Interim Dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS) effective August 1, 2011. Dr. LaCourse, the former chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, will serve as the chief academic officer of the CNMS, directing the management and business functions of the college, and working with the chairs, faculty, and staff of its departments to promote their undergraduate, graduate and research programs. Dr. Philip J. Rous, former CNMS Dean, was appointed Interim Provost effective July 1, 2011.

The Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has committed $300,000 to support UMBC's CASTLE (CNMS Active Science Teaching and Learning Environment), which is providing the venue for new methods of teaching introductory classes to boost student success and retention. The generous SAIC gift was acknowledged at a gala breakfast reception on May 6th when a colorful photographic mural was unveiled in the 93-student classroom. The CASTLE was recently announced by the UMBC Alumni Association as a CNMS top giving priority.

CNMS faculty. staff, and invited guests gathered to honor the College's outstanding graduate and undergraduate students at the Sixth Annual CNMS Student Recognition Day on Friday afternoon, May 6, 2011. James Sandoz, the recipient of the 2011 Carl Weber Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching Award, was recognized at the May 6 ceremony. For more details, visit: http://umbc.edu/cnms/WeberAward

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