Photos Courtesy of the UMBC Alumni E-triever.

Faculty Jerseys "Retired"

At half-time during the UMBC vs. Santa Clara basketball game, UMBC "retired" the jerseys of three faculty members. Larry Lasher from the Honors College, William Rothstein from sociology/anthropology and Walt Sherwin from ancient studies were all teaching at UMBC when the doors opened in 1966 and continue to do so today. They were presented with UMBC basketball jerseys, each displaying the number 66 (the first year of UMBC's existence) and thanked for all they have done for the University and for their support of UMBC athletics. Also pictured are Gary Rupert (far left) from the Office of Institutional Advancement and Charles Brown (center), Director of Athletics.

On-campus Alumni Volunteers

The On-Campus Alumni Chapter volunteers served champagne and sparkling cider to our newest alumni after graduation at the Presidents' Toast on December 19. Volunteers were (from left) Fran Cramblitt '82 (counselor, Student Support Services); Lori Smith-Watson '85 (assistant director, admissions); Dave Servary '71 (associate director of administration, College of Engineering); Michelle Wolff '89 (interim director, Shriver Center); Gail Holm '96 (instructor, English Language Center); Ray Stolle '94 & '00 (assistant registrar); Yvette Mozie-Ross '88 (director of admissions); Stephanie (Jakubik) Day '96 (associate director, alumni relations). Not pictured: Beverly Conner '87 (technician, Library); Diane Crump-Fogle '87 (associate director, Career Development and Placement); Jim Donlan (director, Physical Plant) '85.

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From exhibitions and theatre productions to music and dance performances, the spring arts season has something for everyone. Watch Insights for interviews and features throughout the spring semester.

It must be virtual sleep for the faculty, staff and students who work on a neverending list of projects at UMBC's Imaging Research Center (IRC). Their dedication has paid off -- between recreating the past and steering the future of art and technology, the IRC not only receives recognition but continues to be considered an important resource in Baltimore and beyond.

Baltimore's Favorite Sisters Continue to Make History

In addition to being viewed by thousands of people since its debut, the IRC's virtual tour of the Baltimore apartments owned by the legendary Cone sisters is featured in a BBC documentary. Michael Palen -- best known as one of the original members of Monty Python and an avid art collector -- hosts this travelogue on Etta and Claribel Cone, who collected post-Impressionist and modern art and hung it in every nook and cranny of their modest Bolton Hill home. The show premiered in the UK this fall and hopefully will be televised in the U.S. soon.

The Cone virtual tour, part of a landmark collaboration between the IRC and the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) -- where both the tour and the world-famous Cone Collection reside -- includes five interactive modules and photorealistic lighting. A hit with both museum goers and the arts community, its significance was sealed when it was curated into the art gallery at SIGGRAPH 2002, an annual international conference on contemporary computer graphics attended by over 20,000 people. "SIGGRAPH is a great combination of scientists, artists and members of the entertainment industry," explains Dan Bailey, IRC director. "It is very prestigious to be invited to exhibit in the conference's art gallery."

All of the recent accolades are well deserved for the team of over 30 UMBC graduate and undergraduate students, led by Bailey and Alan Price, former IRC associate director and now a visual arts faculty member, who painstakingly brought the Cone apartment back to life. And thanks to the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation -- which funds the IRC's RWD Post-Graduate Fellowship and IRC projects coordinator -- four of the IRC interns who helped to create the virtual tour were given the opportunity to attend SIGGRAPH 2002. (The University had a major presence at the conference, held this year in San Antonio, Texas. It was also attended by other UMBC computer science and visual arts professors, as well as students and alumni.)

Famous for 15,000 Minutes

The success of the Cone Virtual Tour recently spawned another collaboration, this time with the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, D.C. In November, the IRC finished a project which involved 15,000 minutes of rendering in order to recreate The Public Gardens (1894) -- a series of large panels considered the grandest and most complex projects of French Impressionist Éduoard Vuillard -- as it originally hung in a private salon.

The nine panels that make up The Public Gardens were dispersed at auction in 1929, and eight of them will be exhibited at the NGA this spring. The museum staff began planning a film documentary about Vuillard and the exhibition, and called on the IRC to create a virtual version of the salon. "They are very happy with the outcome," says Bailey.

The Next Generation

In addition to serving an international clientele, the IRC educates and trains the next generation of artists through internships, post-graduate study, graduate research assistants and the IRC Fellows, a new scholarship program for juniors and seniors.

Sponsored by UMBC, the Department of Visual Arts and the IRC, the IRC Fellows program includes specially designed seminar courses and mentoring. Visiting artists and researchers will be brought to campus each year to work with Fellows. In their final semester, IRC fellows receive support for a capstone project that provides a real-world experience and allows students to complete a major artistic work and present it through an exhibition or conference, or focus on the preparation of a professional portfolio and work in tandem with a corporation or institution. It gives the Fellows a chance to represent themselves and UMBC to the wider regional or national community.

Each semester, students in the program participate in a seminar style project that focuses on emerging technologies, media criticism and related themes. These courses serve as electives within the student's degree requirements. Often, the courses will be developed exclusively for the Fellows.

Taught by Price, this semester's project is Ten Bulls, a virtual forest which cyclically regenerates itself. With each new cycle, the visitor finds himself inside a cabin, invited to play the role of an isolated farmer who has lost one of his or her livestock. The farmer sets out into the forest to find the bull in an interpretation of the ancient Buddhist parable "Ten Bulls," illustrated by Zen master Kakuan (1100-12-CE) and popularized in America by Buddhist scholar D.T. Suzuki (1870-1966). On the journey the farmer experiences transcendence through conflict and resolution in leading the bull home again.

IRC Fellows are excited about the Ten Bulls installation. Leigh Rose, a junior imaging and digital arts major and music minor, says, "This has been a fun and rewarding project. The Fellows program allows us to expand our course research to new areas that would otherwise not be available to us as undergraduate art students."

Katie Hirsch, a junior computer science/imaging and digital arts major (and varsity pole vaulter) adds, "This has been the first semester I've been able to bridge the gap between my two majors, and Ten Bulls has been the most fun, educational and rewarding of all my classes in this respect. It has been great to have the opportunity to work with such an outstanding group of people in the IRC. The Fellows program has had a great impact on my life."

Getting the Boot

The IRC has also added another member to its team -- Visiting Research Scholar Lee Boot, a video artist and respected member of the Baltimore and international arts communities. Boot, who divides his time between the IRC (his position is funded by the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation) and his own media company, InfoCulture, has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at The Contemporary museum in Baltimore, the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and the Johannesburg Biennial in South Africa. He has influenced countless young artists, having taught secondary school in Baltimore for more than fifteen years.

Boot is committed to addressing broad cultural issues in his work. "The goal of my research is to give society a meaningful way to understand the most important information being discovered in the halls and labs of academia," he explains. "There is no doubt that information alone, not just the resultant drugs and gadgets, is the most important tool people require to benefit from the enormous public funds spent on research in this country."

In 1999, Boot received a major grant from the National Institutes of Health to create Making Euphoria, a short film that presents, to the layperson, pivotal neuroscience that can help them build engaging lives. He is currently creating additional animation for the film, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Past, Present and Future

Other recent IRC projects include Price's Sun Dagger Interactive with Chicago's Adler Planetarium and Science Museum; an animation for the Central Maryland United Way Campaign; and an ongoing interactive visualization of the UMBC campus.

New IRC projects with organizations in Baltimore and beyond are in the works. Stay tuned.

Photo Captions (top to bottom)
The IRC in action
Dan Bailey and Michael Palen
IRC staff at work on Cone virtual tour
Image from The Public Gardens virtual tour
Image from Ten Bulls
Katie Hirsch and Leigh Rose interact with Ten Bulls on a 6' x 8' immersive display
Lee Boot in Making Euphoria

Psychology professor and department chair Carlo DiClemente began studying addiction among smokers while completing his dissertation at the University of Rhode Island. Now, more than twenty years later, his research has revolutionized the ways in which health professionals treat alcoholism and drug abuse. DiClemente recently received one of five Innovators Combating Substance Abuse awards from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help support his ongoing research.

"I was first drawn to studying smoking because it was a behavior that was easy to evaluate and where it was always possible to find people actively trying to change their behavior," says DiClemente, "What I found was that many different treatments produced change equally well and that people who stopped smoking without any outside medical intervention could be as successful as those who had."

From these observations, DiClemente, with colleague James Prochaska of the University of Rhode Island, went on to develop a model for the process of change among addicts. This model, the Transtheoretical Model of Change, identifies stages of change and other factors that predict treatment outcomes. Previously, treatment for substance abuse was thought to benefit only people who were motivated to enter treatment on their own. The Transtheoretical Model, however, addresses where the individual is in the process of change, allowing a more effective treatment developed for the individual rather than a "one size fits all" approach.

DiClemente has applied the Transtheoretical Model in studies on alcoholism and will be using his $300,000 award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to fund a study that measures the applicability of the model for cocaine users by comparing patients' stages and process with their levels of success in substance abuse treatment. The funding will also allow DiClemente to gather a small group of substance abuse researchers and treatment providers who use the Transtheoretical Model to discuss the most effective ways to apply the Transtheoretical Model in substance abuse treatment.

Since 1984, when DiClemente and James Prochaska published their first book on the Transtheoretical Model, the model has been incorporated in the treatment of a number of health and addictive behaviors in the United States and abroad. "I've been in touch with colleagues as far away as Germany and New Zealand who are using aspects of the Transtheoretical Model to assist patients with a wide variety of health problems such as asthma and diabetes, as well as substance abuse."

The continuing importance of his work keeps DiClemente excited about his research. "I've seen the ravages of alcohol and drug problems. To see the impact this model and my research has made gives meaning to my work. It's been wonderful to be part of a process of helping people understand how to get from addiction to recovery."

From a crab-loving city comes research on a shifty-eyed species of crab that only a scientist could love.

UMBC marine biologist and vision scientist Tom Cronin was part of a team of researchers studying the amazing eyes of Bythograea thermydron, a rarely seen species of crab that thrives in the extreme heat and darkness of thermal vents two-and-a-half kilometers beneath the Pacific Ocean. The crab's unusual and little-understood visual system makes it quite a scientific catch, since its vision changes three times during its life cycle as it adapts to environmental changes. The team's work was published in the November 7 issue of Nature.

Cronin is a marine vision specialist who has dived around the globe while conducting research as a faculty member at UMBC. For two years, Cronin's colleagues at the University of Delaware searched the dark depths of the Pacific near the Galapagos Islands before making a lucky grab with the claws of the deep-sea submersible ALVIN that yielded an adult Bythograea thermydron with a cluster of eggs attached to its shell.

"It's a radical change in vision and an exciting discovery because these crabs are so hard to come by and the larvae are even tougher to find," says Cronin.

The research team successfully hatched the eggs in a darkened lab to track the visual metamorphosis and was amazed at what they saw. The larval stage, which develops in the blue light of the ocean's middle depths, has a compound eye like an insect. As they mature, they head for deeper, darker waters, and their eyes adapt to see fainter light like that of bioluminescence. By the adult stage, the crabs reach the thermal vents where their retinas seem to be capable of visualizing heat from water percolating from the vents.

This is the third Nature appearance for Cronin, who was also recently awarded a Graduate Education Award for Excellence in Teaching and Dedicated Service from the University of Maryland Graduate Student Organization. Earlier this fall, Cronin was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science for his work on the ecology of animal vision.

UMBC chemistry professor Ramachandra "Ram" Hosmane was named the Maryland Chemist of the Year by the Maryland division of the American Chemical Society in a ceremony on Dec. 11 in Towson.

Hosmane, a faculty member at UMBC for 20 years, was honored for his career contributions to biomedical research, including the development of anti-cancer and anti-viral drugs as well as for creation of a powdered, artificial blood mix for use in emergency transfusions.

Hosmane is the third UMBC chemist to be named Chemist of the Year since the Society began giving the award in 1962. "This award is well-deserved recognition for the outstanding contributions that Ram Hosmane has made to synthetic and medicinal chemistry." said Ralph Pollack, UMBC chemistry department chair and professor.

"I was surprised and shocked to win this honor," says Hosmane. "I thought had little chance of winning it considering the fact that the nominations come from all over Maryland, including academia, industry and government."

Hosmane's recent breakthroughs include development of bulkier and leaner forms of the natural building blocks of genetic material, nucleosides and nucleotides. The compounds have shown potential to fight against cancers including prostate, breast, lung, leukemia, colon, skin, kidney, brain and ovarian. The compounds also show promise against a dozen different viral infection including hepatitis B and C, West Nile and herpes.

Hosmane's artificial blood invention may one day serve as a universal substitute for whole blood during emergency transfusions. The artificial blood requires no typing or cross-matching, is free of bacteria or viruses, and is storable as a dry powder for indefinite periods of time. It can be carried to the scene of accident and administered as a buffered salt solution in water without having to transport the patient to the nearest hospital.

Since joining the UMBC faculty in 1982, Hosmane has contributed well over a hundred original research articles in peer-reviewed, international scholarly journals and he is also the author of a half-dozen patents and disclosures. He has been continuously funded since 1984 by both federal agencies and industrial partnerships. In addition to his research endeavors, Hosmane has trained in his labs more than 75 scientists from all over the world, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scientists as well as visiting professors.

Two years ago, Hosmane won the "Outstanding Educator of the Year" award from the Maryland Association for Higher Education (MAHE). He was the UMBC Presidential Research Professor during 1998-2001, and has been the Provost's Exceptional Sponsored Research Fellow ever since that program was initiated at UMBC.

Club sports at UMBC are growing up quickly. Over the last decade over two dozen clubs have been born on campus, providing UMBC students with the exciting option of learning a new sport or testing themselves against other collegiate competitors. Although the UMBC Ice Hockey Club does have some favorable history through the 1980's and 1990's, they have started the 2002-2003 season in remarkable fashion.

Coming off a disappointing season last year with only two wins, everyone involved with the team knew that it would take a lot of work to become a serious power in the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey Association (MACHA) league. The coaches stepped up their recruitment efforts and brought five new starters to the team. The recruits came from some of the top junior hockey, travel and high school teams on the East Coast, ranging from Buffalo to Staten Island to Pittsburgh. Their enthusiasm and determination has made the difference Head Coach Chris Wood hoped it would; his Retrievers are currently ranked 10th nationally in the Northeast region with an impressive 15-4-1 record.

Among this year's freshmen players is Gaetan Castiglione (Folcroft, PA) who leads the American College Hockey Association (ACHA) in scoring with 55 points. "We have a strong young squad with a lot of enthusiasm and determination to play and win," says Castiglione.

Senior captains Rich Bula, Eric Sullivan and Justin Marksamer have also brought strength and wisdom to the young team, another key component to its success this season. The captains have taken a very active role in bringing the team together in a variety of ways on and off the ice, such as team dinners, as well as teaching by example through their superior efforts during games.

"The biggest difference between this year and last year is that there is more of a team atmosphere; everyone plays more for a shot at nationals [held at USC this year] than for personal stats," one of the players remarked. This team attitude is evident simply by the amount of players that can be seen on any given day on campus sporting the new team jackets and constantly publicizing the fact that, "Yes, UMBC does have a hockey team."

Despite their hard earned success, the team still has a lot of grueling work in front of them if they want to achieve their ultimate goal. "Our biggest hope for this year is for the league to recognize the changes we have made since last year and give us a chance to prove what we can do at Nationals (the ACHA division II tournament)," explains Castiglione.

The entire UMBC ice hockey organization shares this dream and is working to make it a reality. The team owes special thanks to advisor Gary Wohlsteter, Sport Club President Mike D'Archangelo and UMBC Athletic Director Charles Brown for their gracious support. The team also thanks their large fan base for their loyalty, and encourages all Retriever students, faculty and fans to come out to their home games, which are held at the Laurel Ice Gardens just fifteen minutes from campus.

For a complete schedule, roster or to purchase team merchandise, visit the UMBC Ice Hockey Web site at http://sta.umbc.edu/orgs/ihockey/.

- Josh Bautz

Josh Bautz currently plays forward on UMBC's ice hockey team.

Appa Anjanappa's New Patent
Appa Anjanappa, professor of mechanical engineering, has a new patent entitled "Cutting Tools for Drilling Concrete, Aggregate, Masonry or the Like Materials," patent number US 6,345,940 B2. This invention is a novel, percussive drill bit for the drilling of circular holes in concrete. The bit tip geometry allows the bit to perform better than existing drill bits. This is the third patent that has issued as a result of Prof. Anjanappa's drill bit technology. If you would like more information about patents, trademarks, or copyrights, please call the Office of Technology Development at ext. 51414.

UMBC Student-Athletes Set New Records for Excellence
UMBC's student-athletes followed up the department's best-ever spring semester with the best-ever fall semester in the classroom. UMBC's intercollegiate teams combined for a grade-point average of 2.90, the best single semester in the program's history. The four-time defending champion women's tennis team led the way with a 3.40 grade-point average, followed closely by volleyball (3.17) and women's cross country (3.15). In all, a record eight teams posted GPA's of 3.00 or higher.

Record numbers of Retriever student-athletes surpassed other departmental marks. A record thirty student-athletes had perfect 4.0 semesters and 98 earned grade-point averages of 3.50 or higher. UMBC also set a fall semester record as 202 of 401 (50.4%) student-athletes posted GPA's of 3.00 or higher.

"It is extremely rewarding to see how well our student-athletes performed in the classroom," says Director of Athletics Charles Brown. "I believe we have our priorities in order and our results demonstrate once again that a UMBC student-athlete is well-rounded with outstanding performances on the playing fields and in the classrooms."

Kim Leisey Appointed Regional Coordinator for MACUHO
Kim Leisey, director of residential education, Residential Life, has been appointed as the Maryland and Delaware regional coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic Association of College and University Housing Officers (MACUHO).

New Patent for Dwayne D. Arola
A patent by Assistant Professor of Engineering's Dwayne D. Arola entitled, "Method and Apparatus for Abrasive Fluid Jet Peening Surface Treatment," patent number US 6,502,442 B2, issued on January 7, 2003. Arola'sinvention is a method and device for preparing a textured surface onmetals that allows for better fixation of prosthetic orthopedicimplants. The entire patent can be viewed on the United States Patentand Trademark Office's web site at www.uspto.gov. If you would like moreinformation on patents, trademarks, or copyrights, please call theOffice of Technology Development at ext. 51414.

New Patent for Govind Rao
Govind Rao has a new patent entitled, "Phase-modulation Fluorometer and Method for Measuring Nanosecond Lifetimes Using a Lock-In Amplifier," patent number US 6,426,505 B1. This invention is a device and method for determining photoluminescent lifetimes by measuring the phase angle and modulation factor. The entire patent can be viewed on the United States Patent and Trademark Office's Web site at www.uspto.gov. If you would like more information about patents, trademarks, or copyrights, please call the Office of Technology Development at ext. 51414.

Robert Carpenter is a Panelist in Forum on Maryland's Economy
Robert Carpenter, assistant professor of economics, will be a panelist for a discussion of "Maryland's Economy: Where is it today, and where can it be tomorrow," sponsored by the Maryland Public Policy Institute. Other panelists include James Brady, former secretary, Department of Business and Economic Development; Anirban Basu of the Regional Economic Studies Institute; and Richard Clinch of the Maryland Business Research Partnership. The event will be held on January 21 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Miller State Office Building (Presidents Conference Room East 2) in Annapolis. For more information call (240) 686-3510 or e-mail info@mdpolicy.org.

UMBC Faculty Participate in Upcoming Joint Mathematics Meetings
UMBC faculty will be playing important roles at the upcoming annual Joint Mathematics Meetings (www.ams.org/amsmtgs/2074_intro.html) of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and Mathematical Association of America (MAA), held at the Baltimore Convention Center, January 15-18.

Thomas Seidman (mathematics and statistics) is on the Local Organizing Committee for the meetings. Gail Kaplan (education) will present a paper, "Improving Elementary Level Mathematics Teaching: A World of Opportunity." Samuel Lomonaco (engineering/computer science) is co-organizer of Quantum Computation and Information: Mathematical Challenges, AMS Special Sessions. He will also present a paper, "Continuous Quantum Hidden Subgroup Algorithms" and is co-author of a paper, "Quantum Entanglement and Topological Entanglement."

CASPR in the Baltimore Sun
On January 21, the Baltimore Sun featured a story on "Frontiers of Photonics Research," a conference sponsored by UMBC's new Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research.
www.sunspot.net/business/bal-bz.umbc21jan21.story

Alumna Adrienne Jones in the Baltimore Sun
A feature on alumna Adrienne Jones, Maryland's first black House speaker pro tem, appeared in the Baltimore Sun on January 20.
www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.jones20jan20.story

Alumna Jen Sachs in the Baltimore Sun
Alumna Jen Sachs talks about her experience screening her film at the Sundance Film Festival in the January 23 Baltimore Sun.www.sunspot.net/features/lifestyle/bal-to.sundance23jan23,0,7396699.story?coll=bal%2Dartslife%2Dtoday

Freeman Hrabowski in the Baltimore Sun and on WYPR and MPT
President Freeman Hrabowski, who grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., discusses his memories of being arrested for civil rights demonstrations as a boy and his thoughts on the future of King's dream.
www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.hrabowski15jan15.story

On January 16, Hrabowski discussed the intricate world of race, social class, the SAT and the college admissions process on WYPR's Marc Steiner Show. On January 20, he is scheduled to appear on MPT's "Direct Connection" at 7:30 p.m.

Tom Schaller in the Washington Post
"Ehrlich's Big Gamble," an oped by Tom Schaller, assistant professor of political science, appeared in the Washington Post on January 13.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47822-2003Jan12.html

Tom Schaller in the Baltimore Sun
Tom Schaller's oped on the new Ehrlich administration, "New boss' report card," appeared in the Baltimore Sun on January 5.
www.sunspot.net/news/opinion/perspective/bal-pe.ehrlich05jan05,0,4300385.story?coll=bal%2Dperspective%2Dheadlines

Alumna Adrienne Jones in the Baltimore Sun
Adrienne Jones '76 is featured in a December 9 Baltimore Sun story on the opening of the Maryland General Assembly Session. Jones is Maryland's new speaker pro tem, the No. 2 spot in House leadership. She has served in the House since 1997.
www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-te.md.assembly09jan09,0,7092994.story?coll=bal%2Dhome%2Dheadlines

Louis Cantori on CSPAN 1/11
UMBC political science professor and Middle East expert Louis Cantoriwill be a featured guest on CSPAN, the nation's public affairs network,this Saturday (Jan. 11) from 9 to 10 a.m. Cantori will discuss the leaders of Egypt -- past, present and future. Visit www.cspan.org for more info and to call or e-mail your questions to Prof. Cantori.

Carlo DiClemente in Baltimore Sun
Carlo DiClemente, chair, Department of Psychology, discusses his Transtheoretical Model for behaviorial change in a Baltimore Sun story on New Year's resolutions.
www.sunspot.net/news/nationworld/bal-te.journal01jan01,0,3613943.column

UMBC Chess Champs in the News
Read coverage of UMBC's chess champs win at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championship in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post and Miami Herald. UMBC's team was also featured in USA Today (not available online).
www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.chess02jan02.story
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52264-2002Dec29.html
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56801-2002Dec30.html
www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/4826205.htm