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College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences



WHat's New

The annual life science symposium at UMBC, A Look Ahead XI - Futures in Biomedical Research, was held Wednesday, November 14, 2007. A poster session featuring the research of UMBC undergraduate and graduate students opened the gala event. The guest speakers were Dr. James F. Young, MedImmune's President of Research and Development, and Dr. E. Albert Reece, Dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who gave the Janice Antoine Lumpkin Memorial Lecture. The well-attended event was made possible by the generous donations of corporate sponsors and provided a unique opportunity for faculty, students and alumi to connect with members of the region's bioscience community.

The 2007 Wyeth-UMBC Life Science Symposium was held at UMBC on Friday, August 24, 2007. Faculty and graduate students from the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Chemical and Biochemical Engineering will gather to celebrate the arrival of new graduate students and recognize the excellent work of our current students.

Joseph R. Blasic, Jr., a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences, was recently selected to receive the second two year Wyeth Fellowship at UMBC. Blasic, who is studying melanopsin in the laboratory of Dr. Phyllis Robinson, will receive an annual stipend and mentoring support from an industry scientist at Wyeth Research. Blasic is studying the deactivation of the G protein coupled receptor melanopsin, that is responsible for the the dection of light for non-image forming functions like regulation of circadian rhythms and pupil constriction. He earned a Master's Degree in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University in 2004 and B.S. Degrees from the University of Sciences in Philadelphia in Biochemistry and Microbiology in 2001.

Kudos to the 28 teachers who completed the summer workshop portions of the two Teacher Quality Programs at UMBC on July 3, 2007. These MHEC-supported programs will continue with a Scientific Communication Afternoon Seminar on October 16, 2007 and the Gala Shara Our Success Seminar and Poster Session on April 19, 2008. For program details, visit: Teacher Quality in Biology (TQB) Program and Teacher Quality in Chemistry (TQC) Program at UMBC.

The Second Annual CNMS Student Recognition Day on Friday, May 11, 2007 honored top students from the four CNMS Departments for their accomplishments, For details about the 2007 event, please visit: http://www.umbc.edu/CNMS/CNMS07SRDSchedule.html. For information about the inaugural CNMS Student Recognition Day event that was held May 5, 2006, please visit this link for a list of the 2006 award recipients and event details

The Eleventh Annual UMBC Summer Undergraduate Research Fest will be held Wednesday, August 6, 2008 in the A.O. Kuhn Library Gallery, which is a change in location from prior years. Faculty, staff and guests will again be invited to enjoy the very professional presentations of student summer projects at the event, which will be hosted for the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. Presenters will include both independent researchers and participants in undergraduate research programs based at UMBC including the EMBARC-REU,Summer Program in Computational Biology-REU, MARC U*STAR, HHMI, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), Summer Internships in Physics, and the Summer Biomedical Training (FASEB) Programs.

Congratulations to Dr. Katherine Seley-Radtke, an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who has spent the past year with the U.S. Department of State as a Jefferson Science Fellow. The prestigious Jefferson Science Fellows (JSF) Program was initiated in 2004 by Dr. George Atkinson, the Science and Technology Advisor to the Secretary of State. The program is coordinated by the National Academies and is a partnership between the State Department, the Carnegie Corporation, the MacArthur Foundation and the home institution of the Fellow. Each year the Academies appoint a select number of university researchers to share their scientific expertise with governmental foreign policy makers. Upon returning to their home institution following the year at State, the Fellows remain available for special assignments for a period of five years. Dr. Seley-Radtke, who came to UMBC from Georgia Tech in 2003, is an organic chemist whose research focus involves drug discovery and development. Her research team works on the design and synthesis of nucleoside/nucleotide and heterocyclic enzyme inhibitors, with a chemotherapeutic emphasis in the areas of anticancer, antiviral, and antiparasitic targets. Dr. Seley-Radtke's prior policy-related experience includes five years with the U.S./Russian Collaborative

Did you know that the Maryland Higher Education Commission awarded teacher professional development proposals under its ITQ Programs to two CNMS departments for implementation in 2008 and 2009? The Teacher Quality in Biology (TQB) Program at UMBC (Dr. Lasse Lindahl, PI) will continue for its fifth and sixth year and a Teacher Quality in Chemistry (TQC) Program (Dr. Ralph Pollack, PI) will continue in its second and third year. Both proposals target Maryland high school teachers and benefit from the support of Baltimore County Public Schools, the UMBC Department of Education, and numerous CNMS x

Two CNMS faculty members were honored at the Presidential Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony at UMBC on April 12, 2006 in the UC Ballroom.
Joel Liebman, Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, was recognized as Presidential Research Professor, 2006-2009, and Phillip G. Sokolove, Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, was recognized as the Presidential Teaching Professor, 2006-2009. Dr. Sokolove will make brief remarks at Convocation 2006 on Tuesday, August 29th from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the Retriever Activities Center.

Astrophysicist, Volker Beckmann, and fellow international team members at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have been searching the X-ray sky to conduct a census of hidden black holes. The scientists used nearly two years of data from the INTEGRAL (the European Space Agency's International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) satellite for the census and a report on their work will soon be published in The Astrophysical Journal with Dr. Beckmann as the lead author. Dr. Beckmann is a Research Assistant Professor at the Joint Center of Astrophysics (JCA) at UMBC and works at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. (Visit this link for a detailed UMBC News and Events article.)x.x

The Dean's Office of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences has been located in the University Center (UC 116) since the week ending March 31, 2006. The CNMS contact information continues to be: (410) 455-5827 - Telephone and (410) 455-5831
- FAX.